Dark clouds filled the sky, hiding the stars and moon. Threads of lightning occasionally flashed within them.
The night wind had grown damper and colder.
Sitting in his room, Zhou Wuji knew rain was coming, and heavy rain at that.
As usual, after finishing his practice, he activated the Big Dipper Star Eye to make a routine survey of his surroundings.
Golden Sands Fort was already on the edge of Yue Ridge. Having a large army ahead did not mean this place was safe.
According to Cui Yuanfeng, that Devil Cultivator of the Yin Yang Dao, their chief officiant had joined forces with the barbarians.
Losing Cui Yuanfeng would not affect the Yin Yang Dao's collusion with the barbarians.
The Yin Yang Dao's Devil Cultivators might have little cultivation worth mentioning, but they knew the terrain, the imperial armies, and every part of Chunan.
Having even one Devil Cultivator devising strategies could greatly increase the barbarians' fighting strength.
If Cui Yuanfeng could lead barbarians into Golden Sands Fort, other Devil Cultivators could too.
Zhou Wuji had warned Xie Lingyun, but he still surveyed everything within two hundred li every night.
In fact, a small military stockade stood every twenty li along this supply route, each garrisoned by a hundred-man company.
These stockades protected the supply route, received and managed passing convoys, relayed information, and so on, keeping the entire route running normally.
Although Xie Lingyun thought little of the acting commander-in-chief Wang Zhenyuan, the man at least organized his troops methodically. That showed he either understood military command or had advisers who did.
A large force of barbarians would struggle to avoid every stockade along the way on their approach to Golden Sands Fort.
When Zhou Wuji activated the Big Dipper Star Eye, he examined the stockades one by one