Chapter 2329: The Mist Before Our Eyes

Nie Xiaolou analyzed: "Elemental power is related to popular sentiment; this was the old pattern."

The people of Chiyan live well, so they naturally support the Chiyan royal court even more.

"Baoshu State has been putting great effort into rectifying officialdom and smoothing communication between upper and lower levels for ten years already; it is said they have punished not a few corrupt officials."

The Demon Emperor nodded: "Mou State has already implemented two rounds of new policies; Cangyan need not even be mentioned—its officials are walking on thin ice."

"The officials and commoners of Cangyan all say that on the Flashing Gold Plains there is a vast heavenly net, wide-meshed but letting nothing through, so corruption cannot escape the Dragon God's divine eye."

The Demon Emperor chuckled: "Divine eye? Most likely aided by some supernatural ability. By the way, what about those few armies Hong Chenglüe and Wang Mengdong trained for me?"

"Hong Chenglüe's entire army is already under the name of Sang State. Following your orders, Sang State appointed Hong Chenglüe as governor of the Eastern Three Commanderies."

The Demon Emperor specially chose Sang State, such a small country, not only to let Hong Chenglüe lead his troops in, but also to make him a local official.

"Wang Mengdong, on the other hand, was appointed North Wing General of Yu State, nominally commanding Yu State's 150,000 troops; he even led them in battle last year, but those 150,000 are ours."

He then spoke of the situation of three other foreign armies, which have contradictions and friction locally, but overall the problems are controllable.

"Yet the combat strength and elemental power they display are vastly different from those of the native soldiers of Sang, Yu, and a few other states." Nie Xiaolou said in a low voice, "This is just like how Pailong City was to Xiluo State back then. The Emperor's discerning eye—originally, such an iron-blooded, loyal and fierce army was forged this way."

One hundred and fifty-sixy years ago, Pailong City also long existed as territory of Xiluo State, but the elemental power of Pailong City's military and civilians was far beyond what Xiluo State could hope to match. This was somewhat inexplicable in the elemental power theory of that time.

Fortunately, the change in heavenly and earthly elemental power allowed the Demon Emperor to test the idea repeatedly emphasized by Qingyang in his last will: let Hong Chenglüe emulate Zhong Shengguang of that time, self-govern the city and commandery, self-command the army, even learn the policy outline and training methods of Pailong City.

After Hong Chenglüe achieved staged success in the experiment, the Demon Emperor immediately increased investment, using this method to secretly train more armies.

Of course, Hong Chenglüe and Wang Mengdong and others could not possibly achieve an exact one-to-one replication. Yet even so, their armies' elemental power far exceeds what a small state ought to have.

"Pailong City's outstanding elemental power is not only due to Zhong Shengguang's connection with the Great Fanghu. I knew this long ago; Qingyang's method, I had also thought of it long before." The Demon Emperor said coldly, "But it was useless—even if we grasped the essence of Pailong City's formidable elemental power, Beijia could not learn it at all."

"Knowing" and "mastering" are clearly two different things.

Seeing does not mean one can learn.

The Demon Emperor's frankness left Nie Xiaolou speechless.

He understood the implication behind the Emperor's words.

Nowadays, the Northern Demon State has prominent, insoluble major contradictions, tangled internal and external relations, and confused interests of multiple parties, making it fundamentally impossible to govern like Pailong City, let alone manage the military as Pailong City did.

It has accumulated deep-rooted problems and cannot return to its original purity.

Even if Pailong City's model were excellent, Beijia could not learn from it, nor could the many countries in the world.

Their ailments lie at the root.

"So why are you now letting Hong Chenglüe and them drill troops as an experiment?"

"I cannot change Beijia's overall situation, but I can still concentrate strength to forge a fierce army and still obtain great elemental power!"

In the future, even if Beijia's nationwide elemental power falls short of expectations due to various problems, the Demon Emperor's experiment has already proven that local factors can still improve elemental power!

Not planning for the whole, one can still plan for a region.

The Demon Emperor turned his head, his huge dragon eyes staring straight east.

The continuous, undulating Mount Xushan and the majestic Heavenly Palace lie hidden behind these layers of mist!

"Hong Chenglüe and others' experiment has already succeeded; following this method we can still produce several more strong armies." The Demon Emperor grunted heavily, "Such elemental power will only be useful in the future!"

Speaking to this point, he let out a low sigh:

"The news of the Heavenly God's complete descent—Mou State and Cangyan probably know it. Among these three great states of the present age, my Beijia is the strongest, and we have received the most immortals and demons during the Jingzhe period; Mou State comes second, Cangyan takes last place."

Nie Xiaolou respectfully replied: "Yes."

Beijia's top-tier strength is growing fastest—this is undeniable. As an old major power, it has the greatest appeal to immortals and demons.

"But in the face of the Heavenly God's large-scale descent plan, it is reversed: Cangyan's preparations are the most thorough, Mou State next, Beijia takes last place!"

Since its founding, Cangyan has openly raised the banner of resistance against the Heavenly Demons; these ten years have not been wasted, but have steadfastly raced all the way toward that direction.

In the present age, no state is more resolute than it—not even Mou State.

Under so many years of official propaganda, the Flashing Gold people have come to believe that if the Heavenly Demons descend fully, humanity will suffer great calamity, today's good days will utterly vanish, hence the atmosphere of nationwide war preparation is the strongest.

Ling Mountain and Mou State are also sharpening weapons and feeding horses, but their approach differs from Cangyan's, still relying mainly on great powers, and mobilizing the common folk far less than Cangyan does.

Nie Xiaolou said: "Cangyan's calculations are clear—they want to rely mainly on elemental power, but this is too labor-intensive, and the outcome is uncertain, making it overly risky."

If relying on top-tier strength to resist the Heavenly Demons, then merely securing the limited great powers would suffice, and one could benefit the people through civil advantages.

If one wishes to resist the Heavenly Demons with popular sentiment and strength, then how many hearts must be won—hundreds of millions?

The difficulty levels of these two approaches are not on the same level at all.

Mou State's decision is to take the easy over the hard, more realistic.

At this moment, the thick clouds outside the hall dispersed, revealing a corner of Lingxu City; the Demon Emperor then gazed down at the city and said: "Mou State's actions are to make up for deficiency by reducing excess—this is the ancient way; Cangyan does exactly the opposite. I heard that Jiuyou and the Mou Emperor once made a bet, each to use their own method. What do you think?"

The meeting of Jiuyou Dadi and the Mou Emperor at Jucheng, much of which was not kept secret, also included this grand wager between the two emperors.

Nie Xiaolou pondered for a long time, then spoke softly:

"I am not optimistic about Cangyan. Jiuyou acts with limited means to pursue indeterminate numbers; the chance of success is too small."

"Then you favor Ling Mountain and Mou State?" The Demon Emperor countered him, "Over the past three thousand years, if Ling Mountain's methods could have succeeded, why would you and I be standing here today?"

Ling Mountain's model has already been in use for three thousand years—what results has it yielded?

Beijia emerged out of nowhere, the gods of Lingxu have prevailed widely, while Ling Mountain has steadily declined.

Even against the unprecedented great revival of heavenly and earthly spiritual energy, even if Ling Mountain and Mou State have received the allegiance of many immortal sects, they still lack confidence in defeating Beijia; otherwise they would have already acted.

If even Beijia cannot be toppled, can the gods of Lingxu behind Beijia possibly win?