Hu Xiaotian still remembered his last duel with Yang Daoyuan, when Yang had used Martial Formation Unity against him. Had it not been for that astonishing clash, Hu Xiaotian would never have known how deeply the man concealed his abilities. Even now, he remembered the tremendous power of Martial Formation Unity. If Zhuge Guanqi were here, breaking the formation would not be difficult, but with his own abilities alone, he feared he could not dismantle it. This time, however, he was not here to pit one army against another. He was here to carry out an assassination.
Yang Daoyuan's field headquarters occupied the Red Valley County government offices. Security around them was tight, and the roads leading there had been temporarily closed. His army had arrived in Red Valley five days earlier, yet he still had not launched an attack. Instead, he repeatedly redeployed troops and commanders, sealing off every road leading to Black Cool Mountain.
There was one thing Hu Xiaotian could not understand. Red Valley County did not directly border Heavenly Wolf Mountain. If they intended to attack Heavenly Wolf Mountain, marching out from Azure Cloud County would have been the most direct approach, yet most of Yang Daoyuan's forces remained concentrated in Red Valley County. On the surface, Yang Daoyuan seemed to intend to start with Black Cool Mountain, capture it first, then move on Heavenly Wolf Mountain. Clever as Hu Xiaotian was, deploying troops and arranging formations were not his strengths. He simply could not fathom Yang Daoyuan's true intentions.
He and Xia Changming sat inside the Five Flavors Restaurant in the town center, looking toward the distant county government offices. With Western Sichuan troops everywhere inside and outside town, the local residents rarely ventured out, hoping to avoid trouble. Even the Five Flavors Restaurant, usually