The bombs were originally stored up the mountain, so they were convenient to retrieve.
Recently, the Mo Family brothers had been working hard, and even though they had produced thousands of bombs, these things were too precious in their eyes for the soldiers to use them as casually as they would use repeating crossbows when practicing.
Nevertheless, Mo Jiuye decided to take out fifty bombs for everyone to learn with.
Bombs were even simpler to use. One only needed to take aim at the target, then light the fuse and throw it.
The soldiers could understand this with one look.
Their time training up the mountain was brief, and six days flashed by in the blink of an eye.
Mo Jiuye also explained the specific circumstances clearly to the soldiers, needing them to lie in ambush at the locations outside Yun City he had chosen in advance.
That night, Mo Jiuye made the arrangements himself, leaving one hundred soldiers led by Third Older Brother behind to conceal themselves all around the Mo Family residence in case of unexpected trouble.
Mo Jiuye and his other brothers took everyone else and rushed to lie in ambush outside the suburbs of Yun City.
The ambush locations were chosen together by the Mo Family brothers. This was the only passageway from the Capital City to Yun City.
On both sides of the passage were continuous, undulating mountains, extremely well-suited for concealing troops. Not only so, but the view overlooking the passage was also very good.
The Mo Family brothers split up to several locations, leading troops to hide themselves in the dark places, estimating that it would take at most three days before the Empress's people arrived here.
When Mo Jiuye came out, he deliberately brought a mini telescope from his wife's space.
Aside from that, he also brought Little White along by his side.
He discovered that Little White really could understand his words. At this time, Little White would definitely be able to render outstanding service.
After lying in ambush, Mo Jiuye called Little White over.
"Little White, fly towards the Capital City, just wandering within a hundred li. If you run into any suspicious people, hurry back here fast to notify me."
"Coo coo..." Little White flapped its wings a few times to demonstrate it understood his command, then it flapped high up into the sky, flying towards the direction of the Capital City.
They lay in ambush for three days without discovering any suspicious people, nor did Little White bring back any news.
Second Brother grew somewhat restless. He called his brothers over and spoke heavily, "Now the time based on our conjectures has already passed by a full day. Waiting like this will get us nowhere."
"What do you think we should do?" Eldest Brother asked.
"I'm planning to scout towards the Capital City a bit," Second Brother replied, looking towards Mo Jiuye as he spoke.
"Ninth little brother, I don't mean to call you out, but are you placing too much trust in a single bird? It might be spiritual, enough to deliver letters, but entrusting it with such a big task of scouting information, do you really feel at ease?
What if Little White doesn't understand all this and just flew out to play for a few days? With us lying in ambush here, unable to obtain advance notice of the enemy's arrival, if those people suddenly pop up and catch us unprepared, wouldn't that be a tremendous loss?"
Although Second Brother was usually more hotheaded, at this moment all the brothers felt his words made sense.
Entrusting the scouting of information to a single bird was not looking too reliable however one thought about it.
At this moment, Mo Jiuye also lacked confidence in his heart. Little White was quite spirited in his understanding, but after it had left for three days without the slightest bit of news, could it have run into some danger along the way, to the point it was simply unable to send any messages back?
He had never doubted Little White before, only worried that something might happen to it.
"In that case, I'll personally go scout it out."
"You mustn't. We still need Ninth Younger Brother here to oversee the bigger picture. Of us brothers, my qinggong is the best, so scouting information should be left to me," Mo Chuhan puffed out his chest and stood out.
Mo Jiuye also didn't have any intention to force him. Of the nine brothers, Eighth Brother indeed had the best qinggong, and was most suited for scouting information.
"Since this is the case, let me trouble Eighth Brother to run a trip. Similarly, you only have to check out the circumstances within a hundred li to be sufficient. Whether or not you obtain any intelligence, you must rush back here by nightfall."
"Alright, I'll set off immediately."
Mo Chuhan had just turned around when Mo Jiuye became aware of a familiar sound.
Raising his head to look into the sky, it was precisely Little White.
Only now, Little White's flying speed was much slower than before, as if it had lost all strength.
As Mo Jiuye was wondering with puzzlement, Little White lost its balance in midair, and its tiny body began plummeting downwards from the sky.
Mo Jiuye instantly circulated his qi and leapt upwards, and right before Little White hit the ground, he steadily caught it.
"Ninth Younger Brother, Little White is injured?" At this moment, Mo Chuhan didn't leave either, as the brothers all crowded over to examine the situation.
Mo Jiuye cupped Little White in both hands. He could feel wet stickiness against his palm.
Right now, Little White appeared extremely feeble, but it still made the effort to let out weak chirps, vigorously facing towards the direction of the Capital City with its head.
As Little White's master, Mo Jiuye could of course understand what it was struggling to express.
Little White was telling him it had already discovered something amiss over there.
In other words, suspicious people had appeared.
"Little White has already discovered our target. And it's extremely obedient. I told it to search within a hundred li, so it certainly wouldn't have flown beyond that range.
Therefore I can confirm, those people must be within less than a hundred li from us."
While explaining to his brothers the intelligence Little White brought back, Mo Jiuye also flipped its body over to check its condition.
Sure enough, Little White had a wound on its belly where it touched his palm. Fresh blood had already dyed its snowy white feathers red.
To prevent any casualties, Ke Zhiran had prepared ample medicine for them.
Mo Jiuye lightly squeezed Little White's body. Little White didn't demonstrate any reactions of pain.
He could already confirm Little White only had that one injury on its abdomen.
Moreover, judging from the look of the wound, it seemed to be a scratch. He deduced Little White must have swerved off course in panic to dodge danger, and its body slid against some hard object somewhere.
Due to excessive blood loss from the injury, this led to its current feeble state.
Although the bond between him and Little White was already profoundly deep, he still lacked the means to communicate with Little White like one could with a human. He simply had no way to inquire about the exact details of how it sustained its injury.
He took out a cotton ball soaked in iodine and disinfected Little White's wound, then sprinkled on some anti-inflammatory powder before wrapping up the injury with bandages.
Right now, Little White had not lost consciousness. Mo Jiuye also fed it some water and food before solemnly speaking to Mo Chuhan,
"Eighth Brother, since Little White has already brought back accurate news, we should also get a clearer grasp of the specific circumstances. So you still have to take a trip out."
As he spoke, Mo Jiuye glanced at the skies.
"It's nearly the end of the noon hour right now. If I'm guessing correctly, the road will have many travelers around this time, so a group as conspicuous as them would surely conceal themselves somewhere to wait until nightfall before taking action.
So when you go scout this time, passing yourself off as an ordinary traveler would do. That way it'll be less prone to rousing suspicion."
Having said this much, Mo Jiuye turned around to rifle through the pack he took medicine for Little White from earlier, and took out a fake beard that he stuck on Mo Chuhan's face.
Then mimicking how Ke Zhiran disguised him last time, he thickened Eighth Brother's eyebrows.
Dressed up like this, even his own family might fail to recognize him without looking closely.
