**Chapter 76: An Army of Wolves and Tigers**
Qin Mu unfolded the "sweat towel" and examined the texture of the silk ribbon. "I always thought you smelled very pleasant and familiar," he said. "Turns out we were using the same kind of fabric."
Ling Yuxiu's face flushed scarlet the moment she saw the cloth. She snatched it from his hands, equal parts mortified and furious. "That is mine! How did it end up with you? And you've been using it as a sweat towel! I'm not speaking to you!"
The young woman stormed over to the dragon-head of the pillar and crouched there, her chin resting in both palms, gazing into the distance.
Qin Mu blinked in confusion. "That is your sweat towel?"
"It is not a sweat towel!" Ling Yuxiu fumed. "It belongs to me, it is mine... I'm ignoring you!"
"If it is not a sweat towel, what is it?" The youth scratched his head, puzzled. "Grandpa Cripple gave it to me. He said it was for wiping sweat. The material seemed good, so I kept it. If it is yours, I can return it. There is no need to get angry about it."
Ling Yuxiu hurled the garment downward. "I don't want it back even if you do give it!"
A thread of yuan qi snared the garment before it could fall. Qin Mu grinned. "If you throw it down, someone else will pick it up and use it to wipe their sweat. You might as well let me have it. I sweat a lot when I train."
Ling Yuxiu stamped her foot. "Give it back!"
The youth looked even more baffled. "You don't want it, but you want it back. Make up your mind. I might as well keep it for wiping sweat..."
She snatched it away, thought for a moment, then produced a handkerchief and thrust it into his hands. "That is a lady's undergarment. Doesn't it embarrass a grown man to use it? Here, take this scented handkerchief instead. It is woven from Heavenly Fragrance silk, and I embroidered the design myself. You may use it to wipe your sweat."
Qin Mu accepted the handkerchief and examined the design -- a lopsided pig's head stitched in crooked thread. He laughed. "What an ugly pig."
Ling Yuxiu grew both exasperated and anxious, reaching to snatch it back. "If you don't want it, return it!"
Qin Mu tucked it away quickly and sat down beside her. "You took my sweat towel and replaced it with something smaller. By my count, I got the worse end of that deal."
The sun had climbed high. The early spring sunlight carried a sweet warmth. The youth felt thoroughly content as he lay on his back, watching white clouds drift lazily overhead.
Ling Yuxiu blinked her eyes. "Do you think that chubby Seventh Young Master is handsome?"
Qin Mu considered. "His appearance is passable. But he has far too much of a feminine air about him -- more like a woman than a man."
Ling Yuxiu stifled a laugh, twirling a strand of hair between her fingers. "Then do you think I'm pretty?"
Qin Mu looked at her with complete seriousness. "Your face is a little round, but you are not ugly at all."
Ling Yuxiu looked quite satisfied with this answer. Curiosity overriding her composure, she asked, "You killed Fu Yundi's son. Why did you come back to the city instead of fleeing?"
"I had business to attend to."
Qin Mu closed his eyes, his tone indifferent. "The army of Yankang is about to arrive. I came back to resist their invasion."
Something stirred in Ling Yuxiu's heart. Her expression turned grave, and she spoke slowly. "Do you know that you are throwing eggs against a rock? Besides, what is wrong with being ruled by Yankang? The people of Yankang live in peace and prosperity. Every sect and school obeys the court's governance. Everything is orderly, and there are no wars -- only minor disputes. How could this place possibly compare? The Great Ruins is a place of utter chaos. The people cannot feed themselves. From the moment I set foot here, I saw countless families selling their own children and daughters. Their plight is pitiful. The Yankang army is a righteous force. You should give up resistance and welcome the King's army willingly."
Qin Mu opened his eyes, his gaze unfathomably deep. "The people of the Great Ruins do not wish to live here either. But I have heard that they are called the Abandoned People of the Gods. If they leave the Great Ruins, the border garrisons of Yankang will capture them. Some are executed outright. Others are sold as slaves to mine in the depths of the earth, and they die within a few years."
He sat up, interlacing his fingers over his knees, his expression calm. "They too would like to live better lives. But if they go to Yankang, they die even faster. Staying in the Great Ruins at least lets them cling to life. If the Yankang army conquers the Great Ruins, what will become of us -- the Abandoned People of the Gods? Will they slaughter us, or enslave us?"
"Sister Yuxiu, the Emperor and the State Preceptor of Yankang do not care about the people here. They want the land itself -- the God-Abandoned Territory. The Abandoned People live within this forsaken land. Every night, the darkness descends. Every time they hunt, they face all manner of dangers. Yet they can still survive. They can still keep their sons and daughters alive. But if Yankang rules this place, even that last refuge will be taken from them."
Ling Yuxiu froze. She had never considered this before. She had always believed Yankang was righteous, never thinking about what the people here would face under its rule.
She could not help but speak. "Don't you realize? If you resist the Yankang army, there is only death. You cannot possibly survive!"
Qin Mu broke into a brilliant smile, brimming with confidence. He looked toward the east. "No. The Emperor and the State Preceptor of Yankang will hit a hard stone here. They will strike a wall and be sent packing! They have no idea what awaits them on this mysterious land! The unbeaten legend of Yankang ends here!"
Ling Yuxiu rose to her feet, her voice tight with frustration. "You are hopelessly stubborn! You will die in this city -- why must you throw your life away?"
Qin Mu stood and met her gaze directly. "The Abandoned People who reach Yankang die anyway. If Yankang invades and turns this into its territory, we will die for certain. If submission means death, but resistance offers even a sliver of a chance -- why should the Abandoned People not fight back?"
Ling Yuxiu looked away, her thoughts in turmoil. She descended from the dragon-head and stood on the platform, glancing back at him. She clenched her teeth. "I am from Yankang. The purpose of my coming here was to claim the Great Ruins and turn it into Yankang territory."
Qin Mu nodded.
"I cannot betray Yankang," Ling Yuxiu said. "Anyone who stands against the State of Yankang will be my enemy!"
Qin Mu nodded again. "I am an Abandoned People. I cannot betray the Great Ruins either."
Ling Yuxiu turned and walked toward the stairs at the edge of the stone platform. Her figure vanished, but her voice drifted back through the stone pillar. "If I encounter you on the battlefield, I will not show mercy!"
Qin Mu looked into the distance. Dust clouds were rising there, like a fog blanketing hundreds of li and creeping toward the city. His voice was low. "Neither will I."
In the mist, thousands of colossal beasts led the way. They were as massive as mountains, their long tusks jutting from powerful jaws. Their bodies were sheathed in bone armor, heavy burdens strapped to their backs, yet they moved swiftly. As they walked, the clatter of their bone plates rang out like crashing waves.
Behind the beasts stretched an endless army, an atmosphere of grim killing intent hanging over it. Banners snapped in the wind. In the center of the ranks, war chariot after war chariot rumbled past. Above, towered boats filled the sky.
The towered boats were packed with soldiers. Within the core of each vessel, a dozen Herbalists worked feverishly to refine elixir pills. Attendants continuously fed the finished spirit pills into the great furnace at the heart of the ship.
The moment the pills were cast in, they transformed into violent torrents of spiritual power, surging from the furnace into the twin wind-buffeting beast sculptures at the stern. The sculptures spewed forth raging gales of wind, and the towered boats rose into the air, advancing forward.
This was only the vanguard of the Yankang army, arriving from the border. Behind it, an even more formidable force was gathering at the border fortress.
There, the banner of the State Preceptor fluttered in the wind.
Qin Mu watched the approaching Yankang army, and his heart sank. Every single soldier in that army was a warrior -- a warrior forged in the crucible of battle. An army of wolves and tigers -- that was precisely what stood before him.
Facing such a force, even Xianglong City, which had seemed an impregnable bastion, now appeared as small as a pebble, ready to be crushed at any moment.
"The State of Yankang..." Qin Mu murmured, suppressing the tremor in his chest.
The Village Chief had once said that Yankang was a sect masquerading as a nation. In Qin Mu's view, a nation was undeniably more powerful than any sect -- possessing greater cohesion, greater capacity for mobilization, far greater explosive force!
When a sect transformed into a nation with a rigorous organizational structure, a complete system of officials, and academies dedicated to raising the next generation -- how formidable would that nation become?
Becoming a nation was the ultimate direction of a sect's development!
In the City Lord's Manor, Grandma Si -- wearing the skin of Fu Yundi -- stood with her hands clasped behind her back. Behind her, the Eight Aspect Celestial Deity manifested in full, projecting the bold, domineering aura of Fu Yundi, Lord of Xianglong City. She thought to herself: The State Preceptor of Yankang... at last you have come.
At the entrance of the gambling house, the Blind One leaned on his staff, listening intently as the sound of marching drew ever closer.
At the marketplace, the Butcher -- missing his lower half -- sat sharpening his pig-slaughter knife with a rhythmic *shing-shing*. In a nearby street, at a bookshop courtyard, the Deaf -- his iron ears catching nothing -- swept a brush the length of a zhang across his canvas, painting with frenzied madness. With a sudden upward jerk of the brush, the completed painting -- a thundercloud formation spanning several zhang -- shot into the sky.
The painting soared upward and gradually dissolved into nothingness. In an instant, the sky darkened as thunderclouds gathered. Lightning cracked and boomed, splitting the heavens, bolts lashing down toward the earth in furious torrents.