Chapter 183: Is His Rate of War Merit Increase Reasonable?

【Shenwei Army Zhao Xing, you have completed the 'Planting Sand Yuan Fruit' mission (20,000 units), gaining 10,000 War Merit points (this mission cannot be submitted again this month).】

【Shenwei Army Zhao Xing, you have completed the 'Planting Golden Glow Pillars' mission (1,000 units), gaining 10,000 War Merit points. (This mission cannot be submitted again this month).】

……

Notifications from the Earth Mirror scrolled rapidly; in the blink of an eye, the statistics showed Zhao Xing had gained 71,000 War Merit.

"Pat, you have sent such a fine gift."

"I'll find a chance to send more Sha tribe members down to keep you company."

Looking at his growing War Merit, Zhao Xing could not help but feel moved.

Pat of the Sha tribe had raided two cities, dragging everything out of the inner treasuries in one go, including the inner treasuries of the Ministry of Agriculture within the cities.

Originally, these were materials for missions undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture in other military towns; now they all benefited Zhao Xing.

Seventy-one thousand War Merit!

To get that by killing a Level 7 Earth Fiend realm perfection expert, you'd have to kill 18 of them!

If killing Earth Fiend realm early-stage experts, you'd have to kill 71!

At this stage, Level 7 is the second tier of combat power; they are either main generals or deputy generals, staying inside defensive fortresses—how could they be killed so easily?

With this move, Zhao Xing had directly become rich.

"Robbery is still the fastest way."

Watching his War Merit shoot up, Zhao Xing smiled happily.

Normally raiding the tribes of the Southern Wasteland now wouldn't yield much War Merit, and killing people wouldn't necessarily be this fast.

It was only Pat and his two brothers, who had first raided two other cities of the Great Zhou and hadn't yet returned to process the spoils, before Zhao Xing cut them down.

"Let's see my ranking."

Once the mission notifications from the Earth Mirror stopped refreshing, Zhao Xing immediately opened the War Merit leaderboard.

【Shenwei Army Zhao Xing: Level 7 Lower】

【War Merit: 86,000】

【Overall Ranking: 65,712】

"Over 60,000th place?"

"Before coming, I was over 5 millionth; this time I directly surpassed over 5 million people."

"Over 60,000th on the overall list, even surpassing some Level 6s, but now the imperial court is constantly reinforcing troops, so competition is fierce," Zhao Xing thought silently.

When the Pingman War Merit leaderboard first started, the number of participants was around seven million.

At that time, Zhao Xing had not yet emerged from seclusion.

Now, one month later, that number has doubled, approaching fifteen million.

Afterward, it kept increasing; at its peak, the total number of people exceeded fifty million!

The effect of the campaign was good, the efficiency of training troops was high, and the Soldier Realm added many more recruits to expand the results.

Although nominally still the Five Great Cavern Heavens, in reality, many people have been filled into the Five Great Cavern Heavens.

It's a winning battle, after all; everyone wants to fight, plus Wang Hou from all sides have requested battle one after another, stuffing their fiefdom's soldiers and generals into it.

This caused the number of people to increase rapidly.

"It won't be long before the number of Level 6 officials increases from 50,000 to over 60,000."

"For Level 7 officials, the number has increased from 200,000 to 1.5 million."

"Level 8 and Level 9 combined exceed 30 million."

"By the end of the eighteenth year of Jingxin, this number will exceed 50 million."

"Level 9 to Level 7 are all low-tier combat power; only Level 6 counts as mid-tier combat power, so Level 6 hasn't increased much. The Soldier Realm intentionally controls the pace; even at the highest peak, it didn't exceed 80,000," Zhao Xing thought silently.

"Let's look at the Level 7 leaderboard."

【Shenwei Army Zhao Xing: Level 7 Lower】

【War Merit: 86,000】

【Level 7 War Merit Leaderboard Ranking: 4,524】

"Already broken into the top 5,000," Zhao Xing thought silently. "The first place on the Level 7 War Merit leaderboard, Qi Yuan Army, has broken through 330,000 War Merit. Truly exaggerated; in less than a day, he added over 60,000 War Merit again."

The strong remain strong; Level 7 officials at the top of the rankings are basically main generals on the front lines, leading strong armies.

Rushing to the front line, fighting winning battles, and earning merit is fast.

"Dropped twelve ranks again." In the blink of an eye, Zhao Xing's ranking had dropped twelve places.

"Now, due to this batch of materials, more than half of my primary mission tasks are completed."

"Next, quickly finish this month's primary mission tasks, fill up the base War Merit, then start preparing to complete 'General Missions' to gain extra War Merit. General Missions are where the gap is widened; they are difficult, but can be farmed infinitely."

South of the Canglan River, the Huajiao Army war zone.

City Number 162.

Zhuang Ziqing was planting 'Spirit Wing Bamboo' in the city; this is one of the main materials for crafting 'Silver Wing Battle Armor', which allows martial artists to possess the ability to fly.

A Level 4 Spirit Wing Bamboo can bring Zhuang Ziqing 100 War Merit points; he is currently planting a bamboo forest, but those reaching Level 4 are few, occupying only a small half.

Zhuang Ziqing had previously followed the Huajiao Army's Wei Hong unit in two encirclement battles, but was later sent here to serve as the Agricultural Inspector.

The Huajiao Army is a strong army; Zhuang Ziqing's talent is good, but he still cannot compare to those veteran Level 7 Ministry of Agriculture officials. Seeing he couldn't earn any great merit, he voluntarily applied to return to the city to farm.

"Li Feng, Feng Qiu," Zhuang Ziqing called his two deputy officials. "Rest for a while; there's no need to push so hard. You've both been busy for twenty-four hours without sleeping."

Li Feng and Feng Qiu are both from the Huajiao Army and are currently serving as Zhuang Ziqing's deputy officials, while Shi Yong is fighting on the front lines with the Huajiao Army.

"I can still go on," Feng Qiu said indifferently.

Li Feng didn't stop either, still casting spells.

They too had followed from the front, fought two battles, and were then sent back.

Unlike Zhuang Ziqing, Li Feng and Feng Qiu were persuaded to return.

Because on the front lines, they had not played much of a role.

The strong army was full of talent; the two of them, newly trained Sima Nong, were considered geniuses in the Ten Yang Cave Heaven reserve, but on the battlefield, compared to those veteran Seventh-Rank cultivators, their competitiveness had weakened.

The Tiger and Crocodile Army had given them a chance; Feng Qiu and Li Feng failed to seize it. Thus, after being sent back, they both worked with renewed vigor.

"You can hold on," Zhuang Ziqing said helplessly, "but I don't want to be so tired. If none of you rest, how can I rest alone?"

"I have a way." Feng Qiu took out the Earth Mirror and stuffed it into Zhuang Ziqing's arms.

"What is this?" Zhuang Ziqing took the Earth Mirror in confusion and looked; the Earth Mirror displayed a query page, showing Zhao Xing's ranking and war merits.

"What? Zhao Xing's war merits are eighty-six thousand?!!" Zhuang Ziqing's eyes widened. "Didn't he just break through the seclusion three days ago?"

"No matter how fast one travels, it takes a day or two to reach the destination. How long has it been? He's already surged into the top five thousand of the Seventh-Rank list?!"

Feng Qiu and Li Feng fell silent, because they also couldn't figure out why Zhao Xing could be so fast.

Feng Qiu and Li Feng shared one common point: they had both been beaten by Zhao Xing.

Naturally, they paid close attention to Zhao Xing's movements.

If you don't look, you don't know; once you look, you are shocked.

Eighty-six thousand war merits! Over four thousand places!

Feng Qiu was still at seventy-something thousand, and Li Feng was even at one hundred thousand; only Zhuang Ziqing and Shi Yong had broken into the top ten thousand.

Yet this Zhao Xing had just broken through the seclusion, and he entered the top five thousand!

Feng Qiu now slapped the Earth Mirror into Zhuang Ziqing's hand; the meaning was clear: Are you still tired?

How can you sleep?

Now do you understand why we are working so desperately?

Zhuang Ziqing indeed became alert: "Damn it, in the Ten Yang Cave Heaven he was already so... in his own words, 'involution'; on the battlefield, is he still so involutionary?!"

Zhuang Ziqing threw the Earth Mirror back at Feng Qiu and said with murderous intent: "Work! All of you, work for me! I'm not sleeping!"

Tiger and Crocodile Army war zone, front lines.

A marching hall was hidden in the mountainous area.

Shi Yong, who had just finished a battle, dragged his exhausted body back to the tent.

He had just wanted to rest when he noticed his Earth Mirror trembling slightly.

There was a short message on it.

It was sent by Zhuang Ziqing.

【Look at Zhao Xing's ranking, read it quickly!】

"Let me look at Zhao Xing's ranking?" Shi Yong was somewhat puzzled. "Zhao Xing has only just broken through the seclusion; what is there to see?"

But since Zhuang Ziqing said so, Shi Yong also opened the list to check.

After looking, Shi Yong fell silent.

He wanted to send a message to Zhuang Ziqing but didn't know what to say for a long time; finally, he could only silently put away the Earth Mirror, give up the idea of resting, and start running to the marching hall to cultivate.

One told ten, ten told a hundred.

Soon, Zhao Xing's abnormally surging war merit count attracted the attention of Xia Jing, Cao Shuang, Jiang Tianming, Feng Qi, and others.

"He just arrived at the battlefield and surged into the top four thousand?" Xia Jing looked at this ranking, doubting his eyes were wrong. "I am only at three thousand something, yet I have already fought for more than half a month."

"Brother Xia, why are you looking at me?" Guan Junyang said helplessly. "How can I understand such a thing? Maybe it's luck?"

"Luck?" Xia Jing laughed. "You haven't stayed in Yun City; you don't understand Zhao Xing."

"Give others the same luck facing a Seventh-Rank alien race squad, fully loaded with spoils, and they might not even be able to kill them."

"Or rather, they might not even discover them."

"Eighty-six thousand war merits; that must be seventy or eighty Seventh-Rank cultivators. With such a squad configuration, they must have boarded a warship with extremely high concealment." Guan Junyang shook his head. "I would find it hard to discover; if I were in the Divine Might Army, without you as my partner, facing such a squad, I would have to run."

Xia Jing said no more; saying any more would be discouraging Guan Junyang.

But in his heart, he still missed partnering with Zhao Xing in Yun City.

Why didn't the Black Armor Army recruit him back then?

Trading ten Guan Junyangs for one Zhao Xing, I would be willing too... Xia Jing thought silently, but on his lips he smiled and patted Guan Junyang's shoulder:

"Hahaha, what are you saying, Brother Guan? You are not just anyone; you are certainly capable! Your potential is boundless; even if ten Zhao Xings came, they might not compare to you."

In the Soldier Realm, King Tianyan and Ling De Wang were sitting in meditation inside the Hundred Soldier Tower.

"Voom~"

Suddenly, the figure of Luo Hou Wang appeared on the top floor.

When he appeared, the surrounding air seemed to become icy, and the expression on Luo Hou Wang's face was like a thousand-year-old block of ice.

"Hmm? Luo Hou, what's wrong?" Ling De Wang looked at Luo Hou Wang in confusion. "Why is your killing intent so heavy? Who provoked you?"

"Hmph, who else could it be?" Luo Hou Wang said coldly. "It's none other than our beloved Liang Wang."

"Luo Hou, did Liang Wang seek you out?" King Tianyan asked. "Did he want to use your connections to get people inserted?"

"Yes." Luo Hou Wang nodded. "He wanted to insert two hundred Sixth-Rank martial generals into the armies of the Five Great Cave Heavens."

"He told me it was five hundred." King Tianyan laughed. "It seems he thought you, Luo Hou, were hard to deal with, so he even reported a smaller number."

"He told me it was one thousand." Ling De Wang gave a bitter smile; he was the Commandery Prince among the three, and among the Wang Jue, his status was one rank lower than Luo Hou and King Tianyan.

"Then did you give in?" King Tianyan asked.

"No." Ling De Wang shook his head. "After much persuasion, I managed to talk the people back."

"What more good words were there to say?" Luo Hou Wang waved his hand and sat down: "If you don't agree, you don't agree; the rules of the Soldier Realm are here; what more is there to say?"

Clearly, Luo Hou and Liang Wang had had an unpleasant altercation; the tone when mentioning Liang Wang was very stiff.

"Enough, let's not talk about him." King Tianyan smiled. "Let's talk about something happy, like the last wager."

King Tianyan and Luo Hou Wang once made a wager based on the performances of Xia Jing and Zhao Xing, staking a Tier-Seven Divine Weapon as the prize.

King Tianyan bet that the two would be ennobled as Marquises in the first batch, and specifically as Second-Rank Marquises, while Luo Hou Wang bet they would not.

"Zhao Xing has emerged from seclusion," King Tianyan said with a smile, "and within a single day, he has already earned over eighty thousand battle merits. On the Tier-Seven rankings, he has now entered the top five thousand."

"..." Luo Hou Wang was left speechless.

The joy of the matter was personal, applicable only to himself.

However, Luo Hou was not angered; his relationship with King Tianyan was very close, and this interruption had already faded the unpleasantness they had just experienced at Liang Wang's place.

"Zhao Xing stayed in seclusion for so long, yet earned over eighty thousand battle merits in a single day?" Luo Hou Wang asked. "How is that possible? A Tier-Seven Military Agricultural Officer could not possibly complete his monthly duties that quickly."

"According to the battle report, this young man and Long Xiao of the Divine Might Army, while en route to the military town, discovered a group of Sha tribesmen preparing to ambush a supply city of the Zhenhai Army."

King Ling De explained, "The result was that they were followed by Zhao Xing and Long Xiao and caught off guard."

Luo Hou Wang waved his hand, and a ground mirror floated before him, upon which Zhao Xing's record of merit quickly materialized.

The Arrow Fish Flying Boat possessed a recording function similar to that of the Mirage Pearl.

Even outside the borders of the Great Zhou, beyond the monitoring range of the Bingjie Sect, the method for recording battle merits was highly perfected.

"Hmm? A Tier-Five General Ming Yan warship, hidden within the Goufeng layer; he actually managed to detect the residual tail flame left by the General Ming Yan warship?" Luo Hou Wang looked at the ground mirror.

"After emerging from seclusion, his strength has increased by more than just a little compared to his time in Yun City."

"There is also an element of luck involved," King Tianyan said. "If it had been delayed by even a quarter-hour, no matter how powerful he was, he could not have detected the traces of the General Ming Yan warship within the Goufeng layer."

"Luck is also part of strength," Luo Hou Wang said. "There are three types of people in the world. The first are mediocre talents who cannot seize opportunities even when they are right before their eyes; when luck is good, nothing major changes in their lives, and they remain completely unaware of how many opportunities they have missed. When luck is bad, they suffer major setbacks."

"The second type are geniuses who, when an opportunity arrives, seize it immediately and create a magnificent situation."

"This Zhao Xing is the second type."

King Ling De smiled, "Luo Hou, what about the third type of person?"

Luo Hou Wang said, "The third type are peerless geniuses who can actively create opportunities even when none exist."

King Tianyan said, "Luo Hou, looking at the Tier-Seven rankings, who among them could be called a peerless genius?"

Luo Hou Wang shook his head, "Among the Tier-Sevens, there is not a single one. However, Lu Yuanwei of Tier-Six could be considered a peerless genius."

"He accumulated one million battle merits in just twenty days. Judging from his expansion route, the Divine Thunder Army could not possibly have achieved such a result."

"The Jin Yu Wang Ting withdrew very quickly, and there were no enemies in that direction."

"However, Lu Yuanwei led his men across the Extreme Flame Desert, and with a small force, he managed to lure a member of the Jin Yu Wang Ting's Wang Zu named 'Ha Er' into a trap to hunt him down."

"As a result, Ha Er jumped into his encirclement; two hundred thousand were beheaded, and even Ha Er failed to escape."

King Ling De nodded, "Indeed, by beheading Ha Er, he not only established a great merit but also disrupted the Jin Yu Wang Ting's deployments."

"Another three thousand li further lies the mining region that produces 'Qing Gang Crystals'; before they could finish digging through, they were threatened by Lu Yuanwei."

"Now the Jin Yu Wang Ting has moved their armies towards that area, attempting to slow Lu Yuanwei's progress."

"The Western Commandery route originally offered no opportunities to gain merit, yet Lu Yuanwei forced open a situation, and now he does not lack heads to behead."

King Tianyan said, "I said we were discussing Tier-Sevens; why are you talking about Lu Yuanwei? Qi Yuanjun and Pang Zheng of the Zhaishi Cave Heaven, Yi Rong of the Yuanhua Cave Heaven, are they not peerless geniuses? They also have impressive battle records."

Luo Hou shook his head, "They are strong armies and strong troops; they merely seized opportunities. Although they are geniuses, they cannot yet be called peerless geniuses."

"How do they compare to Zhao Xing?" King Ling De joined the discussion.

"In terms of talent and strength, naturally these people are stronger," Luo Hou Wang said. "In terms of army strength, the Zhaoyuan Army and the Yuanhua Army are also stronger than the Divine Might Army."

"Zhao Xing staying in City No. 92 does not offer many opportunities to gain battle merits."

"Unless he is lucky enough to encounter such situations every time, and every time he can seize the opportunity, only then will he have a chance to surpass the geniuses in those strong armies."

King Tianyan also nodded; although he had bet that Zhao Xing would be ennobled as a Marquis in the first batch, he still agreed with Luo Hou Wang's analysis.

"That is not necessarily so," King Ling De suddenly said. "Look, this young man's battle merits have started rising again."

"Just now, the Bingjie ground mirror showed that two hours ago, he submitted a general mission and earned five thousand battle merits."

"Now, two hours have passed, and he has actually submitted another one, earning another five thousand battle merits!"

Luo Hou Wang and King Tianyan looked at the ground mirror in surprise; sure enough, Zhao Xing's battle merits had already risen to ninety-six thousand!

King Ling De was somewhat puzzled, "Wasn't it said that the general missions distributed by the Bingjie Sect to Military Agricultural Officers are generally very difficult? Is this speed... reasonable?"

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