Chapter 187

The sight of eight thousand fully armored elite soldiers forming a battle array and launching a coordinated charge was truly magnificent, producing a shock that beggars description. Yet Mountain Lord Mo was the only saint born in the centuries since the passing of Mencius, and she held the advantage of time, place, and unity. Relying on two helpers and the mountain-guarding grand array she had operated for over a century, the outcome remained uncertain. Even so, it was foreseeable that the two champions of Buddhism and Daoism would certainly not last until then, and she herself, even in victory, would ultimately die of exhaustion. Furthermore, the Emperor still held cards he had yet to play. This war, directed entirely at just three individuals, lasted nearly three days. That surviving eminent monk of the Buddhist Chan sect, bearing a vajra physique cultivated from childhood and nearing perfection, could have stood completely still and let peers hack at him for three shifts of the day without necessarily suffering injury. Yet he was simply and cleanly stripped of both arms by well-coordinated soldiers wielding ordinary weapons.