The elder from the Gongsun Family was named Gongsun Huaizhi; he was over eighty years old. His martial arts were honed through the years, culminating in a cultivation of the Fourth Layer Heaven. Should a fight ensue, someone like Ye Buyi, a spirited and brave young man of Third Layer Heaven, could knock the old man to the ground.
However, when it came to the Mechanical Techniques of the Gongshu line, he was considered the strongest of his time.
Although Gongsun Wuyue was the family head of the Gongsun Family, he was far inferior to him in the realm of mechanical arts. At this moment, the Great Elder, as if a spring had been installed under his buttocks, suddenly shot up, eyes wide and tongue-tied, staring at the prisoner behind Li Guanyi, unable to utter a word for a while.
Then, grabbing Li Guanyi’s arm, he exclaimed, "How did you, a single person and not even a grandmaster, manage this?"
Li Guanyi was polite and gentle in response, saying, "The Military School has a saying, ’To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.’ I can’t subdue others without a fight, but I can strike where they are weak. With a bit of luck and the help of my friends, I managed to take down these people."
Gongsun Huaizhi squatted down, looking at the bound Qi Junsong, and said:
"My, my, a War General of the Five-layered Heaven, fully armored, and you single-handedly took down these thousand men, impressive, very impressive!"
Gongsun Huaizhi sighed with admiration, "Your vision is indeed better than ours, my lord, the head of the family. I’m convinced now. All right, I’ll send thirty of our best craftsmen to Jiangnan in secret."
"You mentioned a Hidden Weapon Storage earlier, we’ll take responsibility for that as well, so please accompany this one to inspect it."
He was truly convinced, looking at the tied-up people, he couldn’t help but click his tongue:
"My, my, a thousand men."
"Amazing, truly amazing!"
The silver-haired man who had followed them back didn’t look pleased.
"Without the Formation and Mystical Skills of Shaking Light, how could this plan have succeeded so easily?"
"Hmph, merely a youth barely past the age of 15, just a young boy."
He saw the young Taoist offer a snack to Shaking Light.
The silver-haired girl skillfully opened her mouth and bit it.
The silver-haired man’s heart gave a painful throb.
"Impudent boy, get your hands off her!"
He reached out with his left hand but held his wrist with his right:
"One mustn’t stoop to the level of the younger generation... If I were to act thus, wouldn’t I be despised by others?"
Gongsun Wuyue smiled and nodded, then immediately gave the order. Naturally, the trusted disciples of the Gongsun Family escorted the thousand men away. The Gongsun Family was situated between the Central Plains and Jiangnan and, as a family in the Martial World, had fortress-like structures that were just about able to contain these thousand men.
Another group of disciples was sent out, riding fast horses to the recently contested battlefield.
Several disciples followed, manipulating an object structured like wood, stone, and bronze, agile as the wind, able to easily navigate the narrow path Li Guanyi had just traversed. Any complex terrain was made simple before this mechanical marvel.
Only thirty disciples were dispatched.
They collected all the weapons tossed down by the army of a thousand, and then effortlessly transported them back. The battlefield was more than fifty li away, a hundred li round trip, yet they returned within an hour.
Upon their return, these Gongsun Family disciples seemed relaxed, not at all like they had been hauling heavy objects over a hundred li, chatting and laughing as usual. Li Guanyi was amazed and went to inspect the machinery, only to see it shaped like an ox, with a hollow middle for storing things.
Martial Artists stimulated it with Inner Qi, which in turn activated the internal gears, allowing it to rapidly climb.
On flat ground, it was no match for a flying horse, but on difficult terrain, it was more effective than a warhorse.
Gongsun Feixue said, "This has been passed down from our ancestors, the ’Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse.’
"The Wooden Ox can climb mountains, and the Flowing Horse can cross water. It only requires one person to transport objects weighing a thousand jin, traveling over three hundred li a day without tiring. It has little use, used only by our own family."
"What do you mean, little use? This thing is extremely useful!"
"Miss Gongsun Feixue, how much for this?"
Gongsun Feixue was skeptical and replied, "This mechanical technique is not cheap, costing three hundred taels of silver. You can add mechanisms on top; the ox’s mouth can spit fire, and it has a certain defensive capability."
Gongsun Feixue smiled naturally and said,
"If you want it, I can give you a discount."
He really wanted to equip the Qilin Army’s logistical forces, like Mr. Lei and Shi Dalin, with this gadget. If possible, he even hoped to reduce its capabilities in certain aspects for civilian use.
But the price of three hundred taels shattered the young man’s dream.
Gongsun Feixue couldn’t help laughing, "I was just kidding. You helped us lift the siege, so naturally, you should be rewarded. It’s just that this object isn’t of much use, and we don’t have many in the Gongsun Family; it may take some time."
Li Guanyi was overjoyed, "That is not an issue at all."
Gongsun Wuyue then took Li Guanyi to see the secret storage of the Gongsun Family, which seemed to be a place only the elders and master craftsmen were qualified to enter. Once Li Guanyi set foot there, Shaking Light showed a rare sign of amazement.
The location was inside a mountain belly; in front stood a massive boulder, incredibly hard, beyond Li Guanyi’s strength to push aside. When the day tilted just past sunset, a wild wind rose, and Gongsun Wuyue gently touched the boulder.
The immensely thick and heavy boulder began to quake to one side.
A passageway appeared.
"This is the Wind Queen Gate, which can only be opened at a specific time each day when a strong wind blows. Using the mechanisms and the power of the wind, it’s possible to open this gate. At other times, it’s absolutely inaccessible, even for a Grandmaster-Level Martial Artist talented in martial arts who could break through the rock...
"If the mountain were shattered, the hidden treasure inside would also be buried by the rocks. As the Mechanical Techniques are extremely intricate and elaborate, not to mention big rocks rolling down, even a small stone could cause the mechanisms to fail."