Chapter 183: Preparations Before the Plan and Bad News

Zhao Xing said, "Didn't I just say? Our Agricultural Office's planting capacity was overflowing, so we just took a look at other things. It was purely a coincidence."

Not even a ghost would believe that.

You prepared so thoroughly that you were practically ready to shove a gun into the Fire Demon tribe's nostrils, and then you say you didn't do it on purpose... Who would believe that!

You clearly had designs on the Fire Demon tribe long ago!

Zhao Xing took a tactical sip of water.

Believe it or not, I believe it myself.

Listening to the conversation between Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie, Liao Rulong also caught on to the implication.

The Fire Demon tribe—they could be fought, and they could be fought in a relatively easy way.

"You're going too?" Chen Shijie said. "There's no need for that. I'll take people to sneak in and steal it."

Everyone was too enthusiastic, and he was having trouble handling it.

Life went on, no different from usual.

"I haven't been doing missions lately, but have been studying the Self-Nature School spells and the Yin-Yang Self-Nature Scripture, which caused me to drop out of the top five hundred when the rankings were settled on August 1st."

Perhaps there was still some reservation; it felt like there was still more to be done.

On August 22nd, the Shenwei Army's Wen Shaoyang unit and Liao Rulong's unit began sending vanguard troops to search eastward from the Wolf God tribe.

He revealed the location of the Earth Fire Lotus and made Chen Shijie the planner and the person in charge of the operation.

"He really is popular," Long Xiao curled his lip. "Even that old Seventh-Rank, Song Fang, can't bear to part with him."

"You don't see what Zhao Xing has brought them," Chen Shijie smiled. "In the two-plus months he's been in City 92, everyone's battle merits have doubled."

"Battle merits exceeded 250,000, and he also rushed into the top one thousand."

Wang Ji explained, "The Thousand-Machine Transformation mask adjusts according to the user's facial features, perfectly fitting the facial meridians and blood-Qi circulation."

At the same time, Chen Shijie's action plan against Fire Dragon Pass was also being continuously refined.

"For now, we still have to rely on external objects for disguise."

The prerequisite is to obtain the Fifth-Rank Earth Fire Lotus under the Flame Mountain Range; it doesn't have to be mature—seeds or seedlings will do.

…………

Chen Shijie looked at the list, not knowing what to say: "And you still say you didn't have designs on the Fire Demon tribe?"

Of course, increasing battle merits by 50,000 in 8 days was still a very fast speed.

"Amazing," Long Xiao touched his cheeks, then the horns on his head, playing with it happily. "By the way, isn't it called 'Thousand-Change'? Can it only transform into Fire Demon tribesmen?"

Parting ways with Chen Shijie, Zhao Xing returned to his room.

"Eh?" Long Xiao looked Zhao Xing over. "Wang Ji, how come the version he transformed into looks more handsome?"

In this way, even if Old Chen died, he could still transform into a Yin Spirit body, which was like buying insurance.

Of course, Zhao Xing wouldn't tell Chen Shijie these thoughts; even Pu Zhong only assumed Zhao Xing wanted Chen Shijie to earn merit.

What are battle merits? They are the future—being granted land and titles, bringing honor to one's ancestors.

When others are at the Seventh Rank, if they can comprehend one High-Rank spell, they can be called a genius.

Chen Shijie nodded: "Good."

Liao Rulong's unit expanded to 38,000 people on August 20th.

The Dragon-Head Tower Ship was faster than both Swordfish Flying Boats and Nether-Flame Warships.

I hadn't slept well during the day, struggling with the plot.

"Hm? Why?" Liao Rulong looked at Pu Zhong in confusion.

August 21st.

With Zhao Xing's reminder, Liao Rulong had purchased a lot of Engineer equipment from the Soldier Realm.

Liao Rulong's unit took a batch of machinery and supplies, boarded the Dragon-Head Tower Ship, and set off for Zhiyou City.

In the end, Chen Shijie was the one he trusted and was closest to.

"Prepare some more mechanisms. This list is something I figured out after reading that book; it might be useful."

"Is it that obvious?" Zhao Xing looked up.

Liao Rulong and the others had no heart for drinking anymore and immediately took Pu Zhong and other commanders to prepare to discuss the attack on Fire Dragon Pass.

"……"

Afterward, two demon horns grew on Long Xiao's head, his cheeks turned crimson, and his eyes became twice as large as before, as if he had undergone eye-widening surgery.

Pu Zhong could see that Zhao Xing still had something left unsaid.

He wanted to push Chen Shijie's battle merits to over a million as quickly as possible!

The Southern Wilderness also needed a victory to stop the momentum of the Great Zhou.

"You don't necessarily have to go," Chen Shijie reiterated. "It's still somewhat dangerous."

Perhaps he wanted to leave the credit to Chen Shijie?

"Why do I feel like you're emphasizing this point because you want to take command?" Chen Shijie looked at Zhao Xing with a half-smile.

The Southern Wilderness had been fighting and retreating for over two months, having been pushed back over ten thousand li by the Great Zhou, and finally couldn't help but want to counterattack.

"……" Chen Shijie always felt that Zhao Xing was a monster.

If Chen Shijie's fate could be changed and he didn't die in the end, then Zhao Xing could make more adjustments to his plans for the future.

"The action team must be led by you," Zhao Xing said. "Don't find a layman to command."

"The Hou-Transformation technique allows one to directly transform into the appearance of a barbarian."

The difference was that quite a few people had arrived at the front-line military city one after another.

Otherwise, constant retreating would eventually turn into a true rout.

"Fine, that's all for now. Call me when it's time to set off," Zhao Xing said.

"No, I'm going," Zhao Xing said. "Fire Dragon Pass is not simple. The Earth Fire Lotus is a treasure the Fire Demon tribe values highly; the road is full of mechanisms and the terrain is complex."

Pu Zhong, the strategist behind Liao Rulong, was savoring the latter half of Zhao Xing's words.

"As of today, August 21st, battle merits have increased by 50,000, reaching 480,000."

The data in the Soldier Realm is as vast as smoke; if Zhao Xing hadn't reminded him, Chen Shijie wouldn't have known where to start looking to understand the Fire Demon tribe.

If he didn't go personally, Old Chen and the others would certainly encounter many setbacks, or at least it wouldn't go as smoothly.

"Whoa~" Long Xiao looked into the bronze mirror. "It's just like the real thing! You can even feel the blood-Qi flowing under the cheeks."

Zhao Xing glanced at him: "Master Wang, teach him how to use it."

"On the 4th of last month, the progress of my [Instant Primordial] reached the Third Turn of the High Rank."

Equipment in place, familiarized for a day.

"He once wrote the 'Records of Southern Barbarian Wonders'; he must have seen the Earth Fire Lotus. I suspect he knows the Fire Demon tribe very well, and there should be archived geographical intelligence on the Fire Demon tribe recorded by him in the Soldier Realm."

Once the two great Royal Courts of the Southern Wilderness moved, the Great Zhou naturally had to pay attention; most of the armies reined in their blades, began reinforcing and resting, preparing for a big one.

But as long as Zhao Xing joined the action team, he would definitely be able to use this useful equipment.

However, everyone was reluctant to see Zhao Xing leave.

Therefore, for the past month, it had all been small-scale skirmishes by hundred-man scout teams.

Yet for Zhao Xing, it was as easy as eating and drinking.

"My ranking has now entered the top five hundred of the Seventh-Rank list again."

How to navigate the underground magma river, how to harvest the Earth Fire Lotus, what the defensive strength was during the Jing Emperor period—only Zhao Xing knew these guides.

Then why did Zhao Xing do this?

There were two reasons: first, taking down Fire Dragon Pass indeed had huge benefits; as long as they could get a share of the Qinggang mining area, he, Long Xiao, Chen Shijie, and even many others could be ennobled as Marquises.

Both the Golden Feather Royal Court and the Holy Spirit Royal Court had transferred many troops to the Fire Demon tribe's territory.

On the list, some were useless, some were useful; truth and falsehood were mixed together.

The farewell lasted for a full hour.

Because Liao Rulong's unit decided to rest, the battle merits given for his primary tasks dropped to the lowest level.

Chen Shijie didn't know where Zhao Xing got his confidence.

It was just that there wasn't a single hair on the top of the head, just layers of folds, as if the brain were exposed.

"The head divine weapon of the Thousand-Machine Transformation set."

"I can now achieve the integration of three techniques; if I can achieve the integration of five, I can comprehend the Self-Nature Straw Man technique."

"Commandant, let Chen Shijie stay behind. Call for them when the main army moves out," Pu Zhong suddenly whispered to Liao Rulong as they were about to leave City 92.

After getting up, I deleted all four thousand words I had written and rewrote them; I'm only posting it now.

"Unfortunately, I haven't reached the required level for any of the above."

Perhaps he could complete the leap of over a dozen levels across the four titles of Nan, Zi, Bo, and Hou all at once.

But seeing Zhao Xing's insistence, he still nodded: "Fine, I will have a word with Liao Rulong and have him transferred to the front line."

"If you could tell it was fake, the mechanism masters and spell-weavers who made the Thousand-Machine Transformation set... everyone on that production line would have to go to jail," Wang Ji said proudly. "Usually, only a Fifth-Rank can discover its flaws."

Because in the southern theater, many armies at this time had their eyes on the "Fire Demon tribe territory" piece of fat.

Attacking Fire Dragon Pass from the inside—the difficulty level dropped significantly.

Hum~

When Long Xiao put it on, the mask immediately covered his entire head, extending all the way to his neck.

Zhao Xing breathed a sigh of relief after boarding the Dragon-Head Tower Ship.

"With me added, you will be a bit smoother."

Because this was the biggest battle merit acquisition point in the early stage.

"The two military agricultural officials might still have some specific discussions on planting," Pu Zhong said.

"Zhao Xing adjusted the direction of each office's tasks, and everyone benefited. For such a superior, it's not strange to kneel and see him off."

Then taking down Fire Dragon Pass, Old Chen's credit would inevitably account for a large proportion.

"On August 13th, I started doing missions again."

"The Invisible Straw Man in the Straw Man technique is also a High-Rank spell, and it's also a necessary spell for lurking."

"The way you said 'also' makes me want to hit someone," Chen Shijie's mouth twitched. "Fine, then you can come along."

Being told this by Zhao Xing.

Once he left, the position of chief officer fell back to Wang Ji.

"Not many, just nine types."

"The Agricultural Office is the source of the industry; the efficiency of the Agricultural Office increases, and the battle merit tasks of the other offices increase accordingly."

"Old Chen," Zhao Xing called Chen Shijie into a separate room in the outer city. "This time, when we go to Fire Dragon Pass to steal the Earth Fire Lotus, I'm going with you."

Long Xiao was speechless; he rummaged through the box and found something like a mask: "How do you use this thing?"

The last reason was that Zhao Xing wanted to try to change Chen Shijie's fate.

At this moment, he was inspecting the quality of these treasures.

"Sneaking into the enemy's interior—the Straw Man technique and the Hou-Transformation technique are both useful spells."

According to the list Zhao Xing gave, they had bought quite a lot; this would cost a lot of money, but Liao Rulong still bought them without hesitation. He trusted Chen Shijie, and Chen Shijie trusted Zhao Xing.

But Long Xiao found it hard to listen to: "That's enough! You're showing off endlessly."

Zhao Xing had such a clear grasp of these things; he probably had already planned how to steal the Earth Fire Lotus.

And at this moment, Liao Rulong was also standing on the landing plaza in Zhiyou City to welcome them.

With high official rank and high battle merits, it's actually harder to die.

Preparing for a major battle.

Long Xiao nodded and went to the side to familiarize himself with the operation.

Without fighting, there was naturally no need for so much military supplies, so the battle merits given were low. Although there were advanced tasks, because Zhao Xing didn't follow up immediately, there was no particularly exaggerated increase.

"Hoo~"

That meant he could also trust Zhao Xing's judgment.

Boom~

The Dragon-Head Tower Ship rose from the ground, plunged into the gale layer, and headed toward Zhiyou City.

If they could get it, then the Flame Mountain Range would no longer be a natural chasm.

Turning his head, he saw Zhao Xing walking out with two demon horns on his head.

"Boom~"

The second reason was that Zhao Xing had a detailed military mechanism map of Fire Dragon Pass in his mind.

If he followed along, even if he just gave a slight reminder, he wouldn't need to say much to make the plan go more smoothly.

Long Xiao was silent for a moment, then ran to the side in anger.

This was the first time the Southern Wilderness had mobilized a force of over three million for a confrontation.

He guessed that this matter might only be intended for Chen Shijie.

"What do you mean?"

"One only regrets having too few spells when the time comes to use them."

"I am also capable of High-Rank Evasion techniques, you don't need to worry about me," Zhao Xing smiled.

"How many types of High-Rank spells do you actually know?"

The tower ship landed inside Zhiyou City.

Actually, if it were someone else, he certainly wouldn't go to Fire Dragon Pass to take risks personally.

"Set sail," Chen Shijie ordered.

The Shenwei Army had added a large number of Fire-element sorcerers to his and Wen Shaoyang's units.

"During the reign of Emperor Wen, he was once sent as an envoy to the Southern Barbarian tribes."

"However, the speed of gaining battle merits has obviously slowed down," Zhao Xing looked at the battle merits and rankings in his Earth Realm.

He also equipped the Thousand-Machine Transformation.

Everyone had few battle merits to gain; it wasn't just Zhao Xing.

Zhao Xing was in City 92, continuing to complete his primary tasks and advanced tasks.

"The people in the Agricultural Office have even more than doubled."

Liao Rulong, the main general, had only been with them for a short time, so some things were not convenient to say.

Even if Zhao Xing didn't think so, in Long Xiao's eyes, this kid was just showing off!

Wang Ji immediately defended: "If I knew nine types of High-Rank spells, I would also..."

On August 23rd, Liao Rulong's unit had arrived at Zhiyou City.

Wang Ji handed over the manual: "Touch your earlobe to transform. There are eighteen types of changes in total. Memorize the sequence before using it; make sure you don't transform into the wrong one."

"Go to the Soldier Realm and find the book 'Records of Southern Barbarian Wonders', and find the author of this book," Zhao Xing said. "This person's name is Zhang Chunfang."

"It means Zhao Xing is more handsome than you, and it's the same after putting on the mask."

"After you put it on, your head will transform into the appearance of an alien race."

Zhao Xing looked at the boxes one by one; inside were colorful divine weapons, all ordered and bought by Chen Shijie.

As soon as they met, Liao Rulong told them a piece of bad news.

"Otherwise, your infiltration would turn into a frontal assault."

Who would have thought Zhao Xing knew Fire Dragon Pass like the back of his hand? And was hiding so many thoughts.

I had writer's block yesterday and didn't sleep until four.

"On July 20th, although I didn't focus on doing missions, my battle merits reached 430,000, ranking 431st."

Wang Ji nodded, ran over, took the mask, and pressed it onto Long Xiao's head: "Thousand-Machine Transformation set head divine weapon, Fifth-Rank peak quality."

"I will definitely be able to get command of the action team," Chen Shijie said. "Is there anything else you want to say?"

Zhao Xing received the transfer order and was also preparing to leave City 92.

It might even be possible to help Chen Shijie reach the Sixth Rank, or even the Fifth Rank, faster.

Besides this, Zhao Xing was also preparing himself.

It only took three hours to fly to the sky above Zhiyou City.

If Chen Shijie's fate could not be changed, Zhao Xing would be even more cautious in the future.