The Moyun Mountains stretched like a naturally formed wall between the Heaven Dou Empire and the Dou Ling Empire, their steep terrain easy to defend and difficult to attack.
The three fortresses of Lingyue, Pumo, and Huanxing guarded the crucial mountain passes through this natural barrier that could accommodate a large army. They were the only routes connecting eastern Heaven Dou with Western Dou Ling, the irreplaceable western gateways of the Dou Ling Empire.
Losing these three fortresses would throw the Dou Ling Empire's western barrier wide open. The Heaven Dou Empire's iron cavalry could charge straight through the flat river valleys into the Dou Ling Empire's wealthiest heartlands, threatening Lingdou City.
These three fortresses did not stand in isolation. Instead, they supported one another, built at distances that allowed perfect overlapping fields of fire and mutual reinforcement, forming a vast, stable triangular defensive system.
Attacking any one of them meant facing the fury of all three fortresses at once.
This iron triangle defensive posture was the Dou Ling Empire's greatest reliance against Heaven Dou, and the very essence of its defensive system.
At that moment, a suffocating air of murderous tension hung between these three impregnable strongholds.
Six hundred Dou Ling Soul Saints, dressed in the lightest clothing, lay like silent reefs, scattered among the carefully constructed shelters and prepared Soul Guidance positions between the fortresses according to the instructions of fifty Soul Douluos.
With Titled Douluos forbidden from acting at will, these people were already the greatest force the Dou Ling Empire could muster.
The Dou Ling Imperial Family directly controlled only around a thousand Soul Saints, and they still had to leave four hundred behind to guard against Star Luo on the southern border.
The three hundred Soul Saints from the Star Luo Empire were likewise scattered