The journey to the Ice River Valley was not merely a march; it was a descent into the throat of winter.
As the Ju Tribe army moved further from our central territory, the world underwent a violent geological shift. The flat, endless snowy plains—which usually stretched to the horizon like a white sheet pulled taut—began to buckle and tear. The ground rose into jagged ridges of black basalt, sharp as broken teeth, and plunged into deep, blue ravines formed by ancient glacial movements.
The wind here changed, too. On the plains, the wind was a pusher, a constant force that leaned against you. Here, amidst the canyons, it was a cutter. It screamed through the narrow rock chimneys with a high-pitched shriek, carrying razor-sharp ice crystals that scoured the landscape. It stripped the bark from the stunted iron-wood trees and threatened to flay the skin of any man foolish enough to leave his face exposed.
I sat atop my Steel-Back Wolf hundred beast King, wrapped in the heavy warmth of the Thousand Beast King Cloak. The wolf's fur was like needle-wire, cold and hard, but beneath it, muscles rolled with the power of a Hundred Beast King.
The cold was intense, a physical weight that pressed against the chest. However, inside my aperture, the Rank 2 Red Steel Essence—dense, heavy, and metallic—cycled rhythmically. It flowed through my meridians like molten iron, acting as an internal furnace that kept my limbs limber and my mind sharp.
To my left, Yue Yin rode a Night Wolf.
In the dim, slate-grey light of the overcast sky, she was a visual anomaly. Her Rank 4 Breath Concealment Gu was active the same goes for her rank 4 invisibility gu, bending the light and sound around her. She didn't look like a solid person; she looked like a smudge on a painting, flickering in and out of focus. If I didn't have the Unlucky eyes gu i could never have discovered her , I might have lost track of her entirely in the swirling snow.
"The terrain favors the defender heavily," she noted, her voice low but carrying clearly to me through the wind. She scanned the high ridges that loomed over us like vultures. "Narrow chokepoints. High ground for archers and ranged gu masters. The wind direction forces any projectile from our side to lose momentum, while theirs will be accelerated. If the Hei Tribe has fortified the main pass with Ice Path defensive walls or traps, a frontal assault is suicide."
"That is why my father brought ten thousand mortals," I replied grimly, my eyes fixed on the serpentine column of the main army marching ahead of us.
In the Gu World, the gap between a Gu Master and a mortal was the gap between a god and an insect. Yet, insects had their uses.
"Look at them," I gestured with my chin.
The ten thousand mortal soldiers were trudging through the knee-deep snow. They wore mismatched leather armor and carried spears made of bone and iron. Their faces were blue with cold; their eyebrows were frosted over. They didn't have Warm Earth Gu or Internal Heat Gu to protect them. They huddled together for warmth, marching in a dense, shivering mass.
"In the calculus of war," I said, my voice devoid of emotion, "they are fuel. The Hei Tribe's defensive Gu masters require primeval essence to activate their gu. Every ice spike they fire at a mortal is primival essence wasted. My father intends to clog their gears with flesh until their essence runs dry. Then, and only then, will the Ju Tribe Gu Masters strike."
It was cruel. It was efficient. It was the way of the Northern Plains.
I looked at the head of the column.
My father, Ju Xiong, rode a massive Mutant Horned wolf. He was resplendent. His Rank 3 Golden Lion Armor gu glowed with a soft, warm luminescence, acting as a beacon in the grey storm. He wasn't just a commander; he was a symbol.
He raised his hand, and the column halted. He turned his mount to face the freezing masses.
"Sons and Daughters of Ju!"
His voice boomed, amplified by a Rank 2 Lion Roar Gu. The sound wave was physical; it shook the loose snow from the cliff faces and vibrated in the marrow of every soldier's bones. It drowned out the screaming wind.
"Look ahead!" Ju Xiong pointed his massive saber toward the misty entrance of the valley. "The Hei Tribe seeks to hoard the earth's warmth and gift for themselves! They want to sit in the hot springs while your children freeze in the yurts! They want drink wine while we chew on ice!"
The crowd stirred. Anger, hot and desperate, began to thaw their frozen limbs.
"They mock us saying the Ice River belongs to them because their ancestors once upon a time pissed on it!" Ju Xiong roared, his charisma flaring like a bonfire. "But the Northern Plains belongs to the strong! The Warm Springs await us! Warmth for our elders! Warmth for our children! Victory for the Ju!"
"VICTORY!"
Ten thousand voices screamed back. They banged their spears against their shields. The sound was primal, a collective rejection of the cold death that stalked them. They cheered for the man sending them to die, because he offered them the only thing warmer than the snow: Hope.
I watched them cheer. I watched the steam rise from their shouting mouths, a collective exhalation of life force.
They are marching into a meat grinder, I thought, my face impassive. And they are thanking the butcher.
I felt a hum in my aperture.
It was time to see the truth beneath the skin of reality.
"Rank 2 Unlucky Gambling Eye Gu, Activate."
I poured my Red Steel essence into my right eye. The pupil dilated, the black-and-white spiral spinning rapidly.
The world snapped.
The grey snow, the black rocks, the blue ice—it all faded away. The physical world became a translucent sketch, overlaid with the vibrant, terrifying colors of Luck.
I looked at the army.
A massive, suffocating Black Cloud blanketed the entire column of ten thousand mortals. It was dense, like oil smoke, swirling with no hope of victory or survival for them in sight.
Diagnosis: Catastrophe.
This wasn't just a difficult battle. This was a massacre. These Black Clouds signified mass death and greate misfortunefor them . These men and women were already dead; they just hadn't stopped breathing yet.
Then, I shifted my gaze to the front. To my father.
Ju Xiong's aura was not visible meaninghis luck was of a higher grade, mixed with the Red luck collected from rays coming from the ten thousand mortal meaning their sacrifice increases the luck of him increasing our chance at victory. He was a Rank 4 peak stage expert, the ruler of a upper mid-sized tribe. His personal luck was formidable, suppressing the bad luck of those around him.and collecting fortune through strength unknowingly.
But then I saw it.
Cutting through his invisible aura was a sharp, jagged Grey Line.
It wasn't a crack in his luck. It was an attachment.
The Grey Line hooked into the back of his neck and stretched upward. I followed it with my eye. It went up, past the banners, past the cliffs, piercing through the heavy cloud layer, disappearing into the infinite grey sky above.
It pulsed rhythmically. Thump. Thump. Like a heartbeat that wasn't his own.
A chill ran down my spine, colder than the Northern wind.
It seemed like A Puppet String.
Others thought My father was the King of the Ju Tribe. He thought he chose this war. But he was just a piece on a chessboard so vast he couldn't even see the edges.
Heaven's Will. Or perhaps, the machinations of the Gu Immortals of the our or hei tribe as i had gussed before, viewing this war as a way to cull the weak and redistribute the resources of the Northern Plains.
My eye began to sting. The Grey String seemed to hurt my gaze. It vibrated, sending a feedback loop of warning pain into my skull. Although the luck transference creating the connection to whoever it was of mortal grey level it meant all gu masters bellow immortal were mortal.
Danger.
I deactivated the eye immediately, severing the flow of essence. The world rushed back in—the grey snow, the cheering soldiers, the biting wind.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Looking too long at the workings of Fate was a surefire way to attract the attention of the entity holding the scissors that damned fate gu . I was an Otherworldly Demon; to Heaven's Will, I was a virus. If it noticed me too early, before I had the strength to resist, it would orchestrate a calamity to erase me.
Even if it was a gu immortal on the other side of the connection that too was dangerous a mortal never could understand the methods of Immortals.
"The Board is set," I whispered to myself, gripping the reins of my Wolf King.
"My father plays the King. The Hei Tribe plays the Enemy. The mortals play the Pawns."
I looked at Yue Yin.
"But we..." I murmured. "We must play the Thief."