Chengshan Fortress

For the past few days, Zheng Zetian had followed five hundred Armored Soldiers on patrol through the mountains, and they had reached Chengshan Fortress, now the front line of the Ten-thousand-mountains.

As Song Dayou's disciple—and thanks to Zheng Zetian's damnable charm with the ladies—he had already gotten on like a house on fire with the Armored Soldiers and rogue cultivators. He'd become fast friends with them, and had learned the general situation along the western front.

Chengshan Fortress was still five hundred li from the Lion Demon's lair on Floating Jade Mountain. But the mountain had level terrain on all four sides, solid ground, and three flat hilltops. It needed little work to become a perfect place to set up a camp, build a stronghold, and lay down formations.

What was more, geomancers had found abundant gold deposits in the local ley lines. Gold dust could even be sifted from the streams. That let Ink Bamboo Mountain mine gold and pay its troops on site, which was why the Sixth Division of Mount Yu and the cultivators fighting the demons were willing to stay here long-term and hold back the invading monsters.

In a sense, Ink Bamboo Mountain's campaign to tear down mountains and destroy temples had also reached its limit.

Chengshan was thousands of li from Tianyu Mountain. The route was crawling with demons, there were no waterways or railways, and all military supplies had to be airlifted by Mechanical Puppet airships. On top of that, the cultivators needed resources to sustain them through a long-term deployment in these godforsaken mountains. The logistical strain was immense.

And Floating Jade Mountain, on the other side, wasn't defended by just the Lion Demon clan of Nine Bends Cave. In fact, the Lion Demon King had rallied all the Demon Kings and