Chapter 592: The Doom Sealed for General General Heishi

Somewhere in a hidden underground location on the Black Snow Great Grassland.

Jiang Ding appeared once more, gently closed his eyes, and began receiving the experiences his clone had gone through over these years.

"General General Heishi has already completely lost control of over ninety percent of the Black Snow Great Grassland's territory."

"Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun once went out and slaughtered a round, but it had no effect whatsoever — he was unable to restore his original ruling position. Hei Hei Chengwu and the dozen-plus direct-lineage Jin Dan cultivators don't dare leave Master Tushan Xiancheng at all; they're extremely afraid of death."

"I wasn't there at the time."

Jiang Ding felt a touch of regret and continued receiving the memories.

"One of the important reasons General General Heishi lost control is that the collateral-lineage Jin Dan cultivators like Hei Hei Louxi, along with at least tens of thousands of collateral-lineage Foundation Establishment cultivators, and millions of collateral-lineage Qi Refining cultivators, completely abandoned their loyalty to General General Heishi — some changed their surnames, some threw in with others, and all refused to continue paying the blood tax to the direct lineage, or any taxes at all."

"Looks like the collateral branches of General General Heishi really were heartbroken."

"Add to that the already-existing massive loose-cultivator forces, and over ninety percent of the entire Black Snow Great Grassland has broken free of Master Tushan Xiancheng's control — no cultivator sends any taxes anymore."

"The direct-lineage members of General General Heishi who originally lived in these regions — whether Jin Dan, Foundation Establishment, Qi Refining, or ordinary mortals — were all subjected to retaliatory slaughter by the collateral branches and loose cultivators. The dead and wounded numbered in the hundreds of millions, white bones piled high, corpses strewn across the wilderness."

Jiang Ding sucked in a sharp breath.

The collateral-lineage Jin Dan cultivators of General General Heishi weren't unprepared either — they likewise delivered a vicious blow to Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun and the Tie family, who had assumed everything was firmly within their grasp.

Such catastrophic losses, this root-cutting extermination-style slaughter, caused the direct lineage of General General Heishi to instantly lose the bulk of its foundation.

No matter how powerful Jin Dan and Nascent Soul cultivators are, they still need reserve talent — they need to select and nurture future powerhouses from among mortals and low-level cultivators.

An extermination of this scale will inevitably create a massive generational gap in General General Heishi.

Even in a perfectly stable environment, mortals would need at least a hundred years to recover their numbers; Qi Refining cultivators the same; Foundation Establishment cultivators generally need two hundred years before any breakthrough is possible; Jin Dan cultivators need at least five hundred years before there's any chance of breaking through to Nascent Soul.

In the Cultivation World, the highest tier decides everything.

In other words, if those dozen-plus Jin Dan cultivators like Hei Hei Chengwu prove useless, General General Heishi will face at least a five-hundred-year talent gap!

Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun became famous extremely early — how much lifespan does he have left?

"Ha,"

"Hahaha…"

Jiang Ding suddenly burst into laughter.

"Old bastard Master Dinghai, you destroyed my Master Tushan Xiancheng, you made me live in wretched poverty all these years — heavenly justice, this is heavenly justice!"

Among the current direct lineage of General General Heishi, is there any chance the most talented, Hei Hei Chengwu, could achieve Nascent Soul?

No.

Because he's about to die.

Twenty-five years ago, back in Master Tushan Xiancheng, it was already destined — the concealment ability of the quasi-Great Yin Sword Intent requires at least a Nascent Soul cultivator close to a Dao Child to detect at a glance; everyone else falls far too short.

In any other era, General General Heishi lacking a Nascent Soul wouldn't necessarily mean annihilation.

The twenty-eight families of the Zhengmo Alliance have an internal mutual-aid mechanism. Whenever any one family's current generation produces no Nascent Soul, the other families will all lend a hand or two, helping them through the difficulty — at most they'd give up a large amount of profit. Helping others is helping oneself.

They all descend from the same ancestor; the extermination of a clan simply won't happen. If any family dared overstep, the Tie family and a host of other families would swarm them in an instant, exacting a terrible price, and they'd gain nothing.

But now, the Northern Plains are not the Northern Plains of old.

Over a dozen Northern Plains families have already been slaughtered to extinction by the Dari Sect. The Zhengmo Alliance's front lines are still massing troops against the Dari Sword Sect and the Dari Sect, and many Nascent Soul cultivators must remain at their posts.

When their own households don't have any spare strength, who would bother with a remote backwater like General General Heishi?

In other words, General General Heishi's doom is already sealed.

They don't even need to lift a finger — just wait another three to five hundred years, and they'll perish from internal strife and external threats!

"What a pity, I'm only a sixteen-year-old boy, in the prime of youth — I can't wait that long."

Jiang Ding felt a touch of regret.

He continued reading on.

"Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun merged with the collateral branches of General General Heishi. Through the introduction of her brother Hei Hei Loucheng, she formally took command of the Blood Cloud Eighteen Riders. Bringing along all the remaining Jin Dan cultivators of the collateral branches, along with tens of thousands of collateral-lineage Foundation Establishment cultivators, and even more Qi Refining cultivators… the Blood Cloud Eighteen Riders' strength skyrocketed."

"These collateral-lineage cultivators of General General Heishi had all practiced formation arrays since childhood, and the Xiandao Sect education they received was the same — far surpassing cultivators of the same level from the loose cultivator ranks."

"With the massive influx of collateral-lineage cultivators, the Blood Cloud Eighteen Riders… no, they should be called the Blood King Army now — under the augmentation of formation arrays, they have initially developed the strength to contend with a Nascent Soul cultivator."

"They're preparing to mount the altar, offer sacrifices to Heaven, gather the Northern Plains' dragon qi, and raise their banner in revolt."

Jiang Ding rose to his feet, a touch of killing intent blossoming.

"The altar ceremony will surely be a grand, drawn-out affair — Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun will show up. This is an excellent opportunity."

Of course, he had no intention of helping Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun and her people.

Because he needed to silence them.

Everyone who had seen him fight should ideally be silenced — especially those who'd witnessed the methods of the immortal gate. That was a matter of endless blood feud.

For the sake of their own lives, he'd best not help them, lest he bring them harm.

Merging his body with the Taiqing Flying Sword, Jiang Ding needed no teleportation array — his sword-light pierced through space, and he vanished.

Concealing his form, he activated the "Magnetic Void Flash," which he had continuously deduced and comprehended through his Yan Fa Spirit Puppets over the years and had now reached Great Completion, and shot off at extreme speed toward the distance.

Several months later,

he arrived at a mortal city he hadn't seen in a long time.

Jiang Ding's divine sense swept over the ground below, and a faint smile appeared.

"Good, this is the place."

A royal city towering dozens of zhang high, built entirely from a kind of obsidian, a single seamless whole — seemingly constructed by some great General General Heishi cultivator of a past generation, who had wielded heaven-reaching magic power to build it for his mortal descendants.

This was the center of General General Heishi's mortals — the General General Heishi Khan's Court.

The supreme holy land in the hearts of the countless billions of mortals across the entire Black Snow Great Grassland.

Legend had it that here it was spring all year round, herds of cattle and sheep abounded, fine wine and milk flowed like rivers — a paradise beyond compare, one that only the direct descendants of the Eternal Heaven could enter.

Now, the paradise had become a hell.

Rivers of blood flowed, white bones filled the fields. The once-lofty noble breeds of the grassland lay by the roadside like pigs and dogs, their bones tossed aside carelessly, wantonly trampled by the passing blood-armored soldiers.

Jiang Ding's gaze swept across the surroundings.

Here, hundreds of thousands of people had gathered.

There were mortals, Qi Refining cultivators, Foundation Establishment cultivators, and a great number of Jin Dan cultivators—over three hundred of them. Many had been seen before within the Luoxu Sect, and now each had been entrusted with heavy responsibilities, commanding a major army.

Banners like clouds, blood qi forming a sea, the army's killing aura soaring to the heavens!

Order reigned everywhere, commands were strict and clear. Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Jin Dan cultivators each held formation flags, distributed to the four directions. Streaks of formation patterns spread forth, shaking heaven and earth.

At the very center, surrounded by soldiers, Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun wore a python robe, burning incense in sacrifice.

"Ancestor Master Shuoyang, descendant of later generations Hei Dong Xue Liuyun, today I pray to the Long Life Heaven… raising troops to settle the realm, pacify the four directions, enter and take the Wangting Wangting Fudi, inherit the ancestor's last will—only hoping the ancestor's blood shall endure forever…"

(End of chapter)