Chapter 51: Traps

The scenery before me was beautiful. But then again, this whole world had a beauty to hide it’s sin. And it often captivated people in it’s illusion and sometimes I let myself fall for that illusion.

"I have to hand it to you, Leader Bai," I called out, turning to look at her with genuine appreciation. "You chose an exceptional piece of terrain for your stronghold. The gorge narrows into a funnel barely fifteen yards wide right before your waterfall entrance, flanked by ninety-degree vertical precipices that mortal infantry cannot scale. It is a natural meat grinder."

Bai Ling walked up beside me, a faint, proud smile touching her lips. "That was our only defense, Senior. Our scouts report that Governor Yan’s primary extermination force consists of roughly eight hundred mortal infantry and conscripted archers, men who haven’t even touched the first layer of the Body Strengthening Realm. Against ordinary mortals, holding this narrow funnel gives us a fighting chance."

Her smile faltered slightly as her tone turned grim. "However, the imperial garrison also fields fifty elite troops in the Body Strengthening Realm, along with four or five Qi Condensation officers. Worse, Governor Yan’s personal retinue includes two formidable consorts in the Foundation Establishment Realm. Against true immortals, natural choke points mean very little."

I let out an easygoing, confident laugh, resting a hand on my hip.

"Then let us make this natural funnel completely unbeatable," I said with a grin.

In my space ring, I actually possessed several high-tier, defensive array discs, formation plates capable of roasting an entire battalion of mortal soldiers in heavenly lightning or shredding them with wind blades. But deploying a high-grade sect array for a petty mortal skirmish was the absolute height of wasteful extravagance, the spirit stones required to fuel them for ten minutes were worth half an imperial dynasty.

Low-tech mechanical violence, on the other hand, was dirt cheap and infinitely satisfying.

"Listen closely, everyone," I commanded, projecting my voice across the rocky gorge. "We aren’t going to waste our time preparing for Qi Condensation cultivators or above. Flying swords and spiritual shields will ignore ordinary arrows, so leave those officers to my disciple and me. Your sole job is to ruthlessly exterminate the mortal foot soldiers and crush their Body Strengthening elites before they can even touch your barricade."

Under my instruction, the forty rebel scouts moved with frightening efficiency. I had them split into three teams.

The first team climbed the rugged cliffside paths, hauling massive boulders and heavy timber trunks to the edges of the upper precipices.

Instead of merely stacking them, I showed them how to bind the rocks together using tension ropes tied to a single anchor pin , turning the cliff walls into a hair-trigger gravitational deadfall capable of burying an entire hundred-man column in thousands of tons of falling limestone.

On the valley floor, the second team dug a series of staggered, five-foot-deep trench pits across the narrowest section of the path.

"Don’t just place dull sharpened stakes at the bottom," I instructed, strolling past the trenches. "Cover the tips in the venom of that Tier 2 Shadow Hawk we brought down earlier. Even a Body Strengthening cultivator with iron-like skin will suffer violent muscle paralysis within three breaths if their boots catch a poisoned tip."

Above the trenches, they laid thin woven reed mats covered in a delicate layer of dust and dried pine needles, rendering the pits completely invisible in the dim moonlight.

Finally, for the Body Strengthening Realm troops who possessed enough agility to leap over pit traps, I designed a multi-layered tripwire array using high-tensile steel cables salvaged from the mine shafts.

Strung at ankle height and chest height between the narrow boulders, the wires were counterweighted to spring-loaded saplings packed with jagged iron caltrops and jagged river stones.

When tripped, the saplings would whip forward with concussive, bone-shattering force, shredding flesh and breaking the knees of even peak Body Strengthening warriors charging at full speed.

Watching the deadly, coordinated web of traps take shape across the mouth of the gorge, Bai Ling and Tie Shan stood completely mesmerized, a cold sweat breaking out across their brows.

In less than ninety minutes, this quiet mountain canyon had been systematically transformed into a terrifying, multi-layered death labyrinth.

I dusted off my white sleeves, looking out into the darkening valley with a broad, thoroughly satisfied grin.

"Alright," I chuckled, turning back toward my veiled disciple, whose obsidian eyes were practically glowing with predatory anticipation. "The table is set. Now, let’s see if Governor Yan’s butcher squad has the appetite to swallow what we cooked for them."

Seeing that the deadly web of traps was set and that she had a genuine opportunity to protect these innocent people, Shen Qingxue let out a breath she felt like she’d been holding for an hour. A radiant, albeit fierce, smile touched her pink lips behind her sheer veil.

"I cannot wait, Master," she murmured, her knuckles tightening once around her sword grip before easing into a relaxed stance.

She turned her gaze toward Bai Ling, her dark obsidian eyes flashing with sharp, lingering suspicion. Clearly, despite the impending siege, her mind hadn’t let go of the earlier deduction.

"Sister Bai, what about the traitor?" Qingxue asked, her voice dropping into a solemn register. "We deduced that someone leaked the coordinates of your underground extraction plan. If that snake is still among your ranks, won’t our defensive positions and these newly laid traps be betrayed to the imperial vanguard before the battle even starts?"

Hearing the question, Bai Ling didn’t panic or look over her shoulder at her men. Instead, she offered a faint, remarkably self-assured smile, shaking her head.

"It is impossible for the leak to have originated from inside this cavern, Sister Shen," Bai Ling explained calmly, crossing her arms over her leather brigandine armor.

"Think about the logistics. If the traitor truly resided within our sanctuary, living alongside our families, Governor Yan wouldn’t have needed to orchestrate an elaborate slave convoy ambush or bait Tie Shan onto an open highway. They could have simply marked our cavern coordinates on an imperial map three months ago and had the army starve us out before we ever realized we were compromised. If the rat were sleeping in our barracks, we wouldn’t have been granted the luxury of even two hours to prepare."