Three Calamities Union
At the very moment Jinhyuk confronted the Blue Ice Wolf, with his Heavenly Wolf Troop of three hundred clashing against hordes of demonic beasts in a savage hunt.
Kuuuung—!
A chilling vibration, like an earthquake, rippled along the serpentine nine-thousand-li span of the Great Wall's massive battlements.
It was no mere physical tremor shaking the earth of Ghost Cry Gorge.
It was an ominous warning drumming against the fading fortunes of the Yan Empire—a prelude to colossal ruin.
Among the northern Great Wall, jointly managed by the Yan, Zhao, and Qin states, the Yan Empire's section stretched an imposing nine thousand li.
This colossal stone dragon appeared impregnable at first glance.
Yet in truth, it was a hollowed-out dead tree, gutted by the central court's indifference and the Ministry of War's corruption.
Kiiiiiik—!
The massive iron gates of the central army's headquarters, the Grand Command Post, screamed open.
Gongsun Mok, Vice General of the Left Army, returned from his ninety-day northern patrol, caked in dust, galloping at the forefront.
"Clear the way! Vice General Gongsun Mok has returned! Open the path!"
Hihihng—!
With harsh whinnies, five thousand elite cavalry thundered forward, their heavy hoofbeats filling the road.
At the gate's entrance, central army guard captains in ornate breastplates awaited with arrogant glares.
"Hey, Vice General Gongsun. Rolling around outside for ninety days has left you a mess, eh? The stench of sweat and blood reaches even here. Tsk tsk."
Sima Jia, a dispatched Imperial Guard officer, pinched his nose and sneered.
The internal factions of the Great Wall Army—Imperial Guards, central army veterans, local magnates—clashed openly even at this gate.
"Step aside before I rip that snout off your face. My blade still drips with Wuhuan blood. I bear urgent news for Supreme General. If you value your neck, clear the way now!"
"W-what? You, a lowly provincial upstart, dare—!"
Seogeok—!
Gongsun Mok lashed his horsewhip, striking the marble floor at Sima's feet. Shards exploded outward.
Gongsun Mok endured as a soldier and warrior sustained by pride in serving under Yan's greatest general, Ak Wi.
He shoved past the flustered guards and strode straight to the grand assembly hall.
Kwang—!
The heavy doors of the assembly hall swung open.
An overwhelming silence and oppressive aura crushed down on Gongsun Mok.
At the head seat, atop a chair draped in massive tiger pelt, sat a man in resplendent platinum armor bestowed by the previous emperor, poring over bamboo slips.
Supreme General Ak Wi, the Great Tiger.
A legendary commander and veteran whose robust frame belied his one hundred fifty years, forged in the prime vigor of a sixtieth-year warrior through bone-shifting transcendence.
He was the empire's guardian deity, having finally stepped into the Profound Realm after a hundred days of secluded cultivation.
"Vice General of the Left Army, Gongsun Mok! Reporting as ordered to Supreme General!"
Cheolkkeok!
Gongsun Mok dropped to one knee, clasping his fists in salute. Ak Wi slowly raised his head.
"Hmph... one hundred seven days, then. Well done, Vice General Gongsun."
Ak Wi's low voice reverberated through the entire hall.
He had served three generations of emperors as intimate friend, father figure, even grandfather—a pillar of the empire.
Each emperor's gifts of elixirs, tonics, rare herbs, and letters of trust he repaid with silent loyalty, like the devoted Prime Minister of Hamjin Camp.
"How fares the northern air? I hear the northern barbarians grew bold while I secluded myself."
"Yes, Supreme General. We slaughtered over three thousand two hundred demonic beasts in Shrinking Wind Valley and claimed four hundred Wuhuan raider heads. Yet during this sweep, we witnessed strange sights. Demonic hordes and nomadic tribes crossing the Great Wall into the Central Plains were markedly more numerous than in past years. And many bore not the guise of warriors. They fled southward in panic, like refugees terror-stricken from something deep in the northern wilds."
"Refugees... Those ferocious Wuhuan fleeing in fear?"
Officers and captains in the hall murmured at Gongsun Mok's report.
"Nonsense! Them fleeing? Did Vice General Gongsun hallucinate to inflate his merits?"
"Indeed! Slaying a mere four hundred refugees and boasting like it's some grand feat?"
Sneers swelled.
Kwaaang—!
The assembly hall's rear doors shattered with a scream.
"Outta my way! All of you, move! You idiots! Before I smash your skulls with this bottle!"
A disheveled man burst in, half-empty liquor bottle in one hand.
Guo Zong, the eccentric strategist from the Guo clan.
He had eased the Great Wall Army's chronic food shortages by introducing farmland reclamation, the army's true quartermaster and tactician.
"Guo Zong! How dare you barge in reeking of booze!"
"Shut it! With your necks on borrowed time, what use are manners! Hik!"
Guo Zong shoved guards aside, rushed to Ak Wi's table, and dumped ancient scrolls and bamboo slips in a heap.
"Supreme General! Skip the congratulations on your Profound Realm ascent! That's not the issue! Look! These star charts and records!"
"Calm yourself, Strategist Guo. What have you seen to cause such uproar?"
At Ak Wi's steady voice, Guo Zong swallowed hard and pointed to constellations.
"The fifty-year beast wave cycle! The hundred-year tribal muster! And the three-hundred-year grand cycle that freezes the Central Plains' north for a decade! All these mad cycles converge next year—exactly one year from now! Three Calamities Union! Why else would those cowards Vice General saw flee? A colossal wave surges from behind!"
"Three Calamities Union...?"
"Yes! It's the gates of hell cracking open! The earth quakes, stars scream! That tremor we just felt? An bizarre energy burst beyond the outer walls! Heaven abandons the empire—the land wails in response!"
The hall froze like permafrost.
No one was ignorant of the Yan Empire's horrors three hundred years prior, when calamities overlapped.
Corpses had piled into mountains atop the walls; half the empire's lands drowned in ice and blood.
"If Strategist Guo speaks true... the Great Wall faces an unprecedented trial."
Ak Wi rose slowly.
Udeuk—!
The heavy table edge he gripped splintered under iron-fingered strength. He clenched the hilt of his waist-sheathed Zhenbei Sword.
"Vice General Gongsun! All army Sima, hearken!"
"Yes, Supreme General!"
"From this hour, the entire army enters full war footing! Any who turn blades inward in faction squabbles or embezzle supplies to stuff their bellies—I shall behead personally! I will write the emperor myself; bow not to Ministry of War bureaucrats!"
Ak Wi's lion's roar shook the hall.
His Profound Realm aura was a vast shield guarding the entire Great Wall.
"Dispatch couriers at once! Notify the Zhao and Qin Great Wall headquarters! We may vie for hegemony in the Central Plains, but if the northern barrier falls, all three states perish! Proclaim the Three Calamities Union omens and urge joint response!"
"Understood—!"
Gongsun Mok and all in the hall replied firmly, turning to act.
Guo Zong gulped from his bottle, chuckling bitterly, but terror gleamed undisguised in his eyes.
"Hik... It truly begins now. The longest winter in three hundred years... Who will survive?"
The most vicious, protracted winter in three centuries cast its shadow over the nine-thousand-li Great Wall.
Shrinking winds, laden with blood and ice, already heralded ill omens, sweeping over the rotting ramparts neglected by the Ministry of War.
The Great Wall's beacons burned unquenched; one hundred ten thousand soldiers buzzed unaware that next year heralded hell's dawn.
Beyond the Grand Command Post's office window, the North Pole Star already bled ominous crimson, foretelling the empire's doom as Guo Zong forewarned.
Ak Wi gripped his sword hilt, steeling his resolve.
Even if heaven-sent calamities engulfed the land, he would shield his one hundred ten thousand soldier-children and the Yan Empire to the last.
At the end of the calamity Guo Zong foresaw, whether that bizarre flame kindled by some nameless hand would be the Great Wall's hope—or hammer of doom—only time would tell.
Bureureu—
Wind whimpered through battlements like sobs from a haunted house.
From the central headquarters stables, the swiftest thousand-li steeds were led up and northward, toward the Great Wall and Central Plains.
The wall's crest was already a grand horse path over ten paces wide. Express cavalry vaulted into saddles to bear urgent missives.
Hihihng—!
"Open the gates! Supreme General's emergency dispatch! Gallop nonstop to Zhao border!"
"Three couriers to Qin headquarters! No halt till hooves burst!"
"Relay to allies en route—secure fresh mounts!"
Hwiik—! Peok!
Couriers spurred flanks viciously, clutching stamped bamboo slips in bosoms, reins and whips in hands.
Lightning-like, courier horses bolted atop the nine-thousand-li battlements.
Preferring the smooth upper path to treacherous low roads, their momentum flowed like blood along the stone dragon's spine.
Dadadak—
Hoofbeats tore the night's hush, echoing east and west along the brick-paved horse path. Ak Wi silently watched the couriers vanish into distance.
Cheolkkeok, cheolkkeok.
Armor clashes rang heavier than usual.
Great Wall officers, chilled by Ak Wi's killing intent, dispersed to commands without deep breaths.
Faction rivalries, petty profit scraps—all foam before the tidal wave of catastrophe.
The true battle of the northern Supreme General, Great Tiger Ak Wi, was only beginning.
And at its heart awaited one man's awakening—like a glitch none yet knew.
Shiiiik—
Shrinking wind scraped the wall like a blade.
To Guo Zong's ears rang the clear mesh of three-century gears turning. Hell already lapped at their feet.
Hwiik—! Kuaaaang!
Meanwhile, afar in Ghost Cry Gorge, another unidentified roar shook the earth at the Outpost where slave soldiers garrisoned.
Was it labor pains birthing a new era—or dirge of the end?
Ak Wi, driven by vague instinct, gazed toward the distant Left Army, peering into northern darkness.
"Prepare. Catastrophe approaches."
His curt words roared like a lion, shredding the long night over the central army's Great Wall for the last time.