Chapter 773: Chapter 309: Gamblers at the End of the Road, Li Family’s Swan Song
As daylight arrived, the biting cold light spread over the earth, and a solid chill immediately swept through the entire land. The more than one hundred thousand people in the garrison all quickly hid in their houses, starting fires to keep warm.
Hou Jing was right; with the arrival of daylight, the garrison would settle down.
Because those below the Cold Resistance Level couldn’t withstand the severe cold of the daytime.
No matter how many die-hard supporters of the Li Family within the garrison wanted to stir up trouble, at least they couldn’t do anything during the day.
With Xia Hong’s order, Hou Jing dared not rest casually. He divided the entire garrison into nine areas, taking charge of the area near the main building himself, while the other eight areas were handed over to eight other Cold Resistance Level individuals, each leading a thousand Earth-digging Realm individuals.
Of course, during the day, even those in the Earth-digging Realm could only hide in houses, and just the nine Cold Resistance Level individuals led by Hou Jing would occasionally come out to patrol.
In the settlement where over a hundred thousand people lived, there were over ten thousand buildings, so the area that Hou Jing and his people could patrol was extremely limited. Therefore, they merely roamed the main roads or the peripheries of the houses. As long as there were no obvious signs of unrest, they would not interfere.
While the entire garrison fell into silence, a fierce argument was taking place in a basement over two hundred meters away from the North District prison.
“Xia Hong is so severely injured that he doesn’t even allow anyone near the main building. What’s there to hesitate about? Aside from him, only Peng Bo and Yuwen Dao have decent strength in Great Xia. The other Cold Resistance Level individuals are not much of a threat. With the Cloud Dragon Army and the Earth-digging Realm army unable to act during the day, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I don’t understand what you are afraid of?”
Li Xuanping tried to keep his voice down, but the excitement and agitation in his tone were clearly heard by everyone in the basement.
Even so, most of the people still looked hesitant.
Of course, there were also a few who showed obvious resistance.
One of them was Meng Ying, who directly sneered:
“Didn’t you see the strength Xia Hong showed? Bai Lu… Li Xuantiang, those six people, each stronger than our leader, couldn’t succeed even with their efforts. Going would be suicidal.”
At this moment, Jiang Ping also couldn’t help but nod: “Exactly, even if he’s severely injured, we don’t know how much of his strength he can still use!”
Sun Yan followed closely: “Song Kang, Cheng Guang, and Yue Qian have all been captured. We only have forty-seven people left, with six still severely wounded, so it’s just forty-one of us.
Considering Xia Hong’s recently demonstrated strength and the protection of over twenty Cold Resistance Level individuals, even if he can only exert thirty to forty percent of his power, we have no chance.”
Their rebuttals made anger flare up in Li Xuanping.
Beside him, Li Xuanqiu was shaking with rage, directly reprimanding: “Xia Hong is so severely injured, how could he still exert thirty to forty percent of his power?! I think you people are just cowardly, eager to deliver our Long Mountain into their hands.”
Hearing Li Xuanping’s rebuke, Meng Ying and the others instantly went stiff, with Sun Yan unable to resist a cold laugh: “And who were the two fools, eager to rush back to Long Mountain, causing the complete annihilation of the Longyou Army? Now you’re accusing us of cowardice.”
Upon hearing this, Li Xuanping and his sibling’s faces flushed red, stammering without retorting.
They already knew that the Wushuang Tunnel’s exit was ignited by people from Great Xia, attracting a Beast Tide that led to the Longyou Army’s annihilation.
According to Meng Ying, only four people from Great Xia ambushed them. They initially had seven guarding the tunnel entrance. If those two hadn’t ignored orders and returned to Long Mountain prematurely, causing a manpower shortage and falling into the enemy’s trap, the Beast Tide might have been avoidable, and the Longyou Army wouldn’t have been wiped out.
Having made such a huge mistake, neither had the face to say anything further at this moment.
“Xuanping, Xuanqiu, can you confirm that Second Uncle, Xuan Cheng, Xuan Ying, and Yuan Long aren’t held in the prison?”
The standoff lasted a long time until it was Li Xuandu who broke the silence.
Upon hearing this question, Li Xuanling also turned to look at Li Xuanping and his sibling.
Li Xuanping hurriedly nodded: “We can confirm that the earlier disturbances were stirred up by me and Xuanqiu. We sneaked into the prison during the chaos and checked. Apart from over seven thousand Earth-digging Realm individuals and some Li Family descendants, our father and the four others, plus the direct relatives of those present, weren’t there. I asked those inside the prison, and they said these people should be detained in the main building by Great Xia.”
Hearing this, Li Xuandu’s face darkened significantly.
Li Xuanling closed his eyes, a look of despair flashing across his face.
It was clear that Xia Hong, being such a smart person, would firmly hold onto these bargaining chips.
“Two paths!”
Seeing Li Xuanling keeping silent, Li Xuandu, at last, couldn’t hold back and spoke. After saying these three words, he continued:
“The first path is to surrender to Great Xia to save our own and our family’s lives!”
Upon hearing the word “surrender,” the outsider Cold Resistance Level individuals, including Meng Ying, clearly showed signs of being tempted, but they didn’t express their thoughts and instead looked towards Li Xuanling.
The Li Family members were more direct. Li Xuanping, with a look of defiance, immediately asked, “What about the second path?”
“Gamble!”
Li Xuandu took a deep breath and continued: “Gamble that Xia Hong’s injury is severe, that we really can assassinate him. Hou Jing, Yu Bin, and Dong Zhong have not been with Great Xia for long. The current order in the garrison is maintained by ten thousand Earth-digging Realm individuals under them. If we can successfully assassinate, persuading these three to switch sides shouldn’t be difficult. By then, Great Xia will only have those dozen or so Cold Resistance Levels and more than six hundred Cloud Dragon Army left. Taking them down would not be too challenging.”