Chapter 448: Chapter 448. The Team for Infiltration
The next morning, Huang San was inside the commander tent erected beside their field command base. An Guan and Lao Zen were there with him.
"How goes the unraveling effort?" Huang San asked.
"By tonight, we should open a hole big enough for five people to enter," An Guan answered.
"Only five?" Huang San asked. Disappointnt was clear in his tone.
"The words of power engraved on the walls are too complex to be completely unraveled using such a pause-and-resu thod. We can only do the unraveling at night under the cover of darkness, and we can’t have too many experts performing the task. Otherwise, it will increase the risk of the guards on the wall discovering our attempt."
"Why only five?" Huang San asked. "Even if the hole we open is small, we can slowly send people one by one."
Lao Zen shook his head. He said, "The enchantnt protecting the wall has a self-repair chanism. With the level of unraveling we perform, we can only disable the alarm and barrier for a tiny portion of the wall. The self-repair chanism is still intact. Once we open the hole, we only have a few seconds before the hole repairs itself. After that, our engravers and formation sages must redo the unraveling to reopen the hole."
"If we have enough ti, we can have the first five people hide inside the city. We then perform another unraveling and sneak in another five people next week," An Guan said.
"But we don’t have ti," Huang San said. "You heard the discussion yesterday. Everyone is getting restless. We have only one week."
An Guan took a deep breath and said, "In that case, we send in five of our best. We will storm the main gate with these five and force the gate to open. The army can then enter the city without damaging the protective barrier."
"The winch to open the gate is protected by another enchantnt," Lao Zen inford. "If you use force, you will not only require so ti but risk damaging the winch. If it is damaged, the gate can’t be opened."
"Not to ntion, using force to break the enchantnt will be very loud," Huang San added. "You will alert everyone once you start. With only four people, how can you defend the person trying to break through the winch’s enchantnt?"
"I know it is risky, but if we want to defeat the rebels inside without destroying the barrier and triggering the firestorm, we need that gate open," An Guan pointed out. "And if we want to do it within one week, I can’t think of any other option."
When An Guan saw Huang San and Lao Zen contemplating his proposal, he added, "I’m willing to lead this small team to open the gate. Give
the order, Your Highness. I will complete the task or die trying."
"I prefer you don’t die," Huang San uttered. He let out a heavy sigh. The victory of this siege was important for the kingdom’s reputation. He could not afford to lose. However, he was also unwilling to lose his capable followers. Even if An Guan was a top combatant with the cultivation of the Interdiate Spirit Stage, sending him with such a small team into the enemy’s den was too risky.
He silently cursed the rebels for having made their move first. Why didn’t they just hide like they used to do until his force was ready to strike? First, Qishurg City. Now, Faxiang City. If the country lost another city to the rebels, it might cause a domino effect that collapsed the Echos Kingdom.
With that thought, he understood that he must take the risk. If things went wrong, he would have no choice but to follow Jiang Bo’s suggestion and storm the city with force. That would be bad for the country in the long run, but it was better than showing weakness to the rebels."
He was about to order An Guan to proceed with his proposed plan when a soldier ca into the tent with a report, "Your Highness, Colonel Amon has arrived and asked for an audience."
"Amon? Hurry and send him in," Huang San uttered.
He didn’t know why, but hearing the news made him feel like a huge load had gone off his chest.
Not long after, Amon walked into the tent.
"How goes your mission?" Huang San asked.
"Success," Amon answered. "Ji Zhi is working on the materials I brought back. We are still on schedule to make our big push before the Ancient Ascension Trial."
"That is a relief. Good job, colonel," Huang San praised.
"Thank you, Your Highness. May I know the current situation with this siege?"
The three inside the tent filled Amon in on the situation. Amon listened to them in silence. Huang San also inford Amon about An Guan’s plan to infiltrate the city and assault the main gate so it could be opened for their force to enter.
After hearing them, Amon told them, "I will replace An Guan to infiltrate the city."
"If you want to be one of the five people who enter, I can arrange that," An Guan responded.
"No, you should stay. I will go in with three of my people and one expert-level engraver or formation sage with the expertise to unravel the winch’s enchantnt," Amon said.
An Guan was speechless hearing that. When he snapped out of it, he said, "Comrade Amon, do not get blinded by overconfidence. To successfully break the enchantnt protecting the winch and opening the gate, you will need protection. You will be sward from all over when you do that. You can’t pull that off if you bring anyone below the Martial Realm. My initial plan had , Lao Zen, Ha Gild, Jiang Bo, and our expert-level engraver infiltrate the city."
"I’m not being overconfident," Amon said. "Unfortunately, your plan has many weaknesses. There is even a chance that you get killed. For the kingdom to lose four Spirit Stage cultivators will be a tragedy. I have another plan inside the city which might improve our chance of opening the gate, but I might need a few days inside the city before going for the gate."
"What exactly is your plan?" Lao Zen asked.
"I can’t say for sure for now. I need to get into the city and assess the situation before I proceed," Amon replied.
"Amon, we can’t just hand over the chance to infiltrate the city if you don’t give us a viable plan," An Guan stated. "The ti fra for us to send another team is one week from now. That passes the deadline His Highness gave the rebels yesterday. That is also under the condition your presence inside the city is not discovered. Otherwise, they will know there is a breach. They will beco more vigilant in watching the walls, making it harder for us to tamper with the walls’ enchantnt."
"I need you to trust . What I can assure you is that my plan has a much better success chance than yours."
"Amon, that is not..."
"Tutor An Guan, I want to go with Amon’s proposal," Huang San cut An Guan’s argunt.
"Your Highness, but..."
Huang San lifted his hand to signal An Guan to stop. He said, "Amon might not lay out the full details of his plan to us, but if anyone can make this infiltration a success, it is him."
Lao Zen placed a hand on An Guan’s shoulder. "You rember his track records in the Royal Academy, don’t you? He has a one hundred percent completion rate on all the missions he took. He is the kind of person who makes things happen."
An Guan took a deep breath before saying, "All right. I guess I still view him as a student."
He then said to Amon firmly, "However, don’t take more risks than needed. If anything goes wrong, send us a signal and hide. We will assault the wall and charge into the city."
Huang San nodded. "Please bear in mind your infiltration will be our last effort to deal with this uprising with minimum civilian casualties. If you fail, we will have no choice but to mobilize the entire army to destroy the walls and storm the city."
"I understand," Amon replied. Though the lives of innocent civilians inside Fuxiang City ant nothing to him, he understood such a brute force assault would give the kingdom a terrible reputation. If the firestorm threat was real, that would be even worse. Such an incident could bolster the rebels and make their attempt to eradicate the rebels later much harder. So, in a way, he was doing this for their benefit.
"Get your team ready by tonight," An Guan told Amon. "We should be able to open the hole in the wall before midnight."
"Do you already know who to bring to your team?" Lao Zen asked.
"I do. I have ordered a soldier to call them. They should be gathering outside by now," Amon answered.
They exited the tent and saw three people standing in line outside. They were Xin Wuming, Yang Li, and Wu Di.
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