Chapter 1698

Zhu Zhu Xiuer transformed, performing extreme operations, releasing twelve Blood Tooth Guards and three groups of small spiders to look after the great array, freeing up more manpower for refining pills. By sunrise the next day, the Emperor's Flowing Pulp paused, and everyone was exhausted.

But time was tight and the task was heavy, and alchemy could not stop for a moment!

He He Lingchuan divided everyone into two groups, one group refining pills and one group resting, switching every three hours.

As soon as it got dark, the Emperor's Flowing Pulp descended again, impatient.

This time it went even further, reaching the level of a major torrential rain.

As long as a person stood outdoors, they would be soaked from head to toe, from outside to inside, in less than ten seconds.

To be soaked by the Emperor's Flowing Pulp—what an extravagant joy!

For the past hundred years, who would have dared to imagine it?

From this night on, there were basically no demon invasions. Spiritual rain was pouring all over the world; there was no need to snatch it anywhere! Another day passed.

Another day passed.

It was still the joy of washing one's face with spiritual pulp.

Fortunately, on this night, another two hundred Black Armor soldiers arrived. He He Lingchuan had more people available, and the pressure of collecting and refining spiritual pulp was greatly reduced.

However, the alchemy furnaces could not rest.

After all, they were not immortal treasures like the Qiong Stone Alchemy Tripod, and long-term, high-intensity fierce fire alchemy would also break them.

From the fourth day on, alchemy furnaces were successively burned out or exploded.

Replace one as soon as it breaks; the inventory was sufficient.

These few nights, the whole world seemed to have quieted down.

Between heaven and earth, it was filled with the fresh scent of spiritual rain.

By the seventh day, the flow of the Emperor's Flowing Pulp gradually turned smaller.

On the night of the ninth day, before dawn, the last drop fell, and it ended!

From beginning to end, this round of the Emperor's Flowing Pulp lasted for a full nine nights!

The duration and the abundance of the flow were the only ones seen in over one hundred and fifty years.

When the tenth sunrise was seen, seventy or eighty furnaces had already been scrapped, and everyone had become rabbit-eyed, with dark blue circles under their eyes.

After the last furnace of pills was refined, He He Lingchuan himself couldn't hold on anymore and ordered everyone to take a three-day vacation to replenish their vitality.

Everyone was in pain but happy, all saying that although the Emperor's Flowing Pulp was good, if they did this a few more times, their lives would be given away.

But this fatigue recovered much faster than imagined.

As strong as He He Lingchuan, having abused himself like this before, it would have taken at least a dozen hours to recover, as this was a double torture of spirit and body.

However, this time it was at most five hours.

Other Black Armor soldiers were also full of energy in less than ten hours.

The reason for this was that the environment they were in had greatly improved, and between breaths, everyone could feel spiritual energy lingering on the tip of their noses.

Breathing spiritual energy during the day, breathing spiritual energy at night; breathing spiritual energy while eating, breathing spiritual energy while practicing; breathing spiritual energy while gambling, and while squatting in the latrine... uh, what a novel and extravagant experience!

Nine full nights of the Emperor's Flowing Pulp explosion directly pulled the spiritual energy of the human world up several levels.

In the past, spiritual rain descended and soaked the land, and it would take a long time before it evaporated; but this time it was not needed. This saturated irrigation filled the air, soil, and water with rich spiritual energy.

Even dull mortals could personally feel their existence.

And this was just a good beginning. As time passed, more spiritual energy would be released from the mountains, rivers, and earth veins, and the concentration of spiritual energy in heaven and earth would greatly increase then.

Such an environment would allow spiritual energy to gradually soak into the roots and meridians of living beings, making their bodies stronger and their lives longer.

Simply put, the starting point is higher and the development is better.

And for practitioners, this is the world worth longing for, because their upper limit has been raised.

The fall of just one true god, several minor gods, and subordinate gods brought such a harvest to the human world. He He Lingchuan was full of infinite longing for ancient times.

In that era, how abundant was the spiritual energy to support immortals and immortal beasts in displaying earth-shattering supernatural powers, and to nourish divine objects like the Black Dragon.

He He Lingchuan also knew very clearly that the trend of rising and falling had been set; this good life would continue, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth would continue to recover.

Starting from this Emperor's Flowing Pulp explosion, the whole world would be very different.

Unless—

Unless the spiritual energy of the human world is quickly plundered again and transported to the God Realm.

One hundred and fifty years ago, the human world also had such a spiritual energy recovery, and also had such an opportunity, but failed to grasp it well.

The God Realm and the human world, the Heavenly Demons and the human world, have actually been engaged in a grand, intense, yet silent competition.

Competing for spiritual energy, competing for resources for survival.

And the core that determines the success or failure of the competition is becoming more and more obvious.

During the Emperor's Flowing Pulp period, the human world seemed to pause; after it ended, the world returned to noise.

In the half month since He He Lingchuan left the Yao Nation, news from the south had actually been coming one after another.

Duo City was very close to the Yao border, which made it easy for him to receive first-hand intelligence.

On the night of the Yao Palace coup, Bai Tan took Tianshui City; and in the past ten days or so, he continued to make persistent efforts, taking three counties and seven townships in the surrounding area, faster than He He Lingchuan had expected.

This battle record was mainly achieved within two days after the coup, because then came the Emperor's Flowing Pulp explosion, and the army was difficult to fight.

It can be seen that Bai Tan had probably rehearsed the military and political affairs after planning to seize power countless times to be so swift and decisive.

The shortcoming of insufficient troops when he started the uprising was greatly improved after taking Tianshui City.

The generals and officers of Tianshui City, forced by the situation, surrendered to him one after another. In addition, Bai Tan's original position was the head of the Ministry of Justice, and the city patrol army and various government officials were originally his subordinates.

The rapid expansion of Bai Tan's forces also benefited from the enthusiastic participation of refugees.

Because he led the refugees to fight the wealthy, distribute family property, and dig out grain holes, Bai Tan had a magnificent reputation among the refugees, and his limelight was unmatched for a time. Tianshui City was in chaos, the original power structure was broken, and the refugees who had been looked down upon and treated like pigs and dogs in Tianshui City now regained an upward ladder—

That is to join Bai Tan's army, build merit, and get money to turn over! Do you want to find a way out, do you want to step on those who look down on you? Then join General Bai's army!

Bai Tan's public opinion propaganda was also done well, recruiting nearly five thousand soldiers within three days, seventy percent of whom were refugees.

In fact, according to He He Lingchuan's estimation, the potential of Tianshui City was far more than that. But Bai Tan did not recruit more, obviously leaving room for maneuver.

This is a very wise approach.

Recruiting soldiers is not a simple numbers game; the soldiers recruited need to be paid, trained, and managed. The more there are, the greater the burden.

Bai Tan had just consolidated Tianshui City, and there were too many affairs to straighten out.

And on the northern front of the Yao Nation, the Luodian invaded on a large scale.

After driving away Yuwen Yong, the Left Clan Chief of the Luodian Nation, Qu Ruhai, personally led the army south, hitting the Fuan River estuary in one go.

If you take a boat from the Fuan River estuary to the east and get off at the Zhu County pier, it is only eighty miles away from Tianshui City! And the Fuan River estuary is a very busy water bay. As long as the Luodian people get dozens of large ships, they can transport the vanguard troops over.

Unfortunately, this "as long as" did not hold true.

General Zhongwu, under the name of "diligent king," returned south two steps ahead of the Luodian Nation, taking away all the ships at the Fuan River estuary.

Qu Ruhai rushed to the river and took a look; there were only two or three small boats parked at the pier, which could not transport the large army at all! If they had to cut down trees and build ships temporarily, it would take at least two months.

So Qu Ruhai decisively gave up the waterway and prepared to bypass it by land.

The Luodian also had their own calculations. The Yao Nation had just had civil unrest, and the situation would not be clear for a short time. If they could not take Tianshui City in the first place, they would simply slow down and watch the changes.

Anyway, they would take all the cities and counties along the way into their pockets as they went south.

These territories would all belong to the Luodian in the future.

However, Qu Ruhai's abacus did not last long before General Zhongwu suddenly turned north to intercept the Luodian army.

Qu Ruhai was furious.

Mediated by Qingyang, the two sides had been cooperating in the northern border of the Yao Nation not long ago, calculating Yuwen Yong; as a result, Zhongwu turned around and drew his sword, not giving any face at all.

Of course, Qu Ruhai was not stupid and understood Zhongwu's delicate situation.

With the death of the Yao King, Zhongwu's fake diligent king move became a real diligent king. If he led his troops back to Tianshui City, he would face legal difficulties: if he lost the battle, everything would be for nothing.

However, even if he defeated Bai Tan, Zhongwu could not occupy Tianshui City and rely on himself. That was the capital of the Yao Nation, and he was a Bixia person, a foreigner; it was even more unjustifiable than Bai Tan's power, and it was difficult to get the Yao army under his command to elect him as the Great King.

He had abandoned Yuwen Yong and the war in northern Yao to go south; if he didn't fight Bai Tan to the death, the name of "diligent king" would not stand, and the act of "diligent king" would become fleeing the battle!

What's more, there were other forces in the Yao Nation that were restless. Zhongwu didn't want to be the first to fight Bai Tan, only to have a third party reap the benefits.

He couldn't fight, and he couldn't stay.

Therefore, for him, the simplest way was to turn north to fight the Luodian, at least with an excuse: "resisting foreign insults."

His Yao army didn't have much opinion on this. Originally, fighting wars required the right time, place, and people. The Yao capital had already been taken by Bai Tan, and the Yao Nation had been turned upside down. As a general leading troops, Zhongwu naturally had the right to decide when to keep a low profile and when to avenge the Yao King.

Of course, He He Lingchuan knew very well that Zhongwu and the Luodian had maintained close contact with Qingyang and participated in the Yao Nation coup together. So, was Zhongwu's turning around and avoiding fighting Bai Tan instructed by Qingyang?

Even He He Lingchuan could not judge this. But he knew one thing clearly: Zhongwu used the name of resisting the Luodian to take the opportunity to stay in the Yao Nation, and he must have other plans.

Good generals are opportunists; once a new turning point appears, Zhongwu will not let it go.

This is the performance of an ambitious person.

The Yao King died, the Yao court had a coup, and this country lacked a supreme ruler.

Thus, the minds of some people in the Yao Nation began to become active.

After Tu Han and Shan Zezhong led 1,400 or 1,500 people to escape the Yao Palace and withdraw from Tianshui City, they used the name of punishing rebels to recruit troops along the way, and joined forces with the remnants of Yuwen Yong who withdrew from the northern border, reorganizing into a force.

They had all seen Bai Tan's methods and knew that if they didn't resist to the end, they would only have a dead end.

(End of chapter)