Chapter 206: Ask for an Auspicious Omen (5K)

Beneath City No. 98, the earth veins trembled in chaotic disorder, now coalescing into a single phrase that stood out starkly.

The information conveyed by the earth vein tremors was quickly captured by Zhao Xing.

He opened his eyes and looked upward.

"Old Chen is summoning the Earth God," Zhao Xing chuckled lightly.

Stomp the ground once, and he comes up; isn't that just like summoning the Earth God to ask questions?

Actually, deep in the interior of Great Zhou, there really are shrines to the Earth God and Mountain Gods. It's just that this method is impolite, generally reserved for high officials.

If a low official dares to use it, they will be beaten.

"Stop shouting, they're here," Zhao Xing said, seeing the golden ripples emanating from above, and immediately manipulated the earth veins to reply.

He then cleaned up everything in the cave, burned it all, and cast the Divine Speed Protection technique to ascend.

"What's so urgent? I've only slept a few hours."

Chen Shijie said, "The scouts dispatched by Wen Shaoyang's unit have returned one by one. Once the intelligence is gathered, Commandant Liao intends to convene everyone to discuss how to proceed."

Zhao Xing asked as he walked, "Where did Wen Shaoyang's scout units go?"

Chen Shijie replied, "To the northeast, they reached as far as 'Qu City' in Xixian Commandery; to the southeast, as far as the Jihun Fortress."

"Fortress?" Zhao Xing's eyes narrowed. He had been to that place in the illusionary realm, and Wen Shaoyang's unit had been trapped there. "Did the scout units encounter any problems?"

"No, why do you ask?" Chen Shijie noticed Zhao Xing's unusual demeanor and immediately asked.

"Nothing, just asking," Zhao Xing said. "Isn't there a contingent of elite troops from the Holy Spirit Wang Ting guarding Jihun Pass?"

"Yes," Chen Shijie nodded. "That's why Wen Shaoyang's men didn't get too close. The yin energy there is too heavy, and the yin ghosts run rampant, making it very difficult to infiltrate and gather intelligence."

"However, from what Commandant Liao implies, he wants to attack Jihun Pass first," Chen Shijie said.

"What do you think?" Zhao Xing asked.

"I have no ancestors worth worrying about," Chen Shijie said calmly. "So I think attacking any unit is fine."

Zhao Xing nodded slightly. He knew Chen Shijie was an orphan; his parents had died very early. He had uncles and aunts among his relatives, but they were evil kin, and ties had been severed long ago.

Zhao Xing asked mainly because all Great Zhou soldiers harbored a natural hatred for the Holy Spirit Wang Ting!

Among the Four Great Wang Tings, the Holy Spirit Wang Ting specializes in commanding ghosts.

They frequently tear open weak points in the Yin Realm, releasing vast numbers of yin ghosts to become the ghost soldiers and ghost generals of the Holy Spirit Wang Ting.

The Yin Realm is quite peculiar: entering it from Great Zhou territory and entering it from Southern Man might lead to the exact same location.

This sometimes causes the Holy Spirit Wang Ting to capture the wandering souls of the dead from Great Zhou.

This severely undermines Great Zhou's ritual and music system and its system of yin deities.

From a simple emotional standpoint, the Holy Spirit Wang Ting's operations amount to 'commanding your ancestors'.

How the hell can that be tolerated?

Of course, it makes them hated!

"Among the Four Great Wang Tings, the Jin Yu Wang Ting has the most tribes. Their insect shamans, blood shamans, sorcerers, strongmen, and various professions are relatively complete, and their equipment is not too different from Great Zhou's."

"The Purple Long Wang Ting specializes in taming beasts. The strange beasts they raise are very fierce. Because the Southern Man region frequently experiences large-scale mutations, it is practically a natural arena for fierce beasts; there's no need to raise them specially, just capture and tame them."

"The Flame Light Wang Ting is the hardest to fight. It is vast with a sparse population, and they have natural strange beasts like the Babok Worm cooperating with them. Fighting them is like playing whack-a-mole."

"The Holy Spirit Wang Ting is the most disgusting. After one battle, their combat power hardly diminishes because their main fighting force consists of ghosts, which can be replenished endlessly. You might even fight a second battle and find former comrades who died in the first one rising up to become your opponents."

Zhao Xing said, "Now, moving west along the eastern front will encounter support troops sent by different Wang Tings, because the Jin Yu Wang Ting intends to defend the territory of the Fire Demon Clan... mainly to guard the precious land of the Qinggang Mining District."

"Personally, I also do not want to attack Jihun Pass, because we do not have enough priests."

Neither Liao Rulong's unit nor Wen Shaoyang's unit had many priests in their ranks.

Most of the main generals are martial artists, with martial artists making up the majority of their subordinates, while priests are assigned in small numbers. This is the current state of the army.

The priest profession is quite difficult to cultivate, even harder than that of the Farm Administrators. During the time at the Ten Yang Cave Heaven, there were over ten thousand Farm Administrator reservists in training.

But priests? There were only a little over two thousand.

When we were at Gucheng, there were a little over five hundred Farm Administrator clerks, while priest clerks numbered only forty or fifty.

Divine professions are like that; you cannot simply cultivate them on a large scale just because you can train them.

Is there any army capable of fighting the Holy Spirit Wang Ting?

Of course there is. Among the Five Cave Heavens, the Phantom Nether Cave Heaven is the exclusive garrison of the Phantom Nether Army. This Cave Heaven houses only that one army, and its main general, the Marquis of Phantom Nether, is a fourth-rank Ghost Deity Priest.

The vast majority of the Phantom Nether Army's members are combat-type priests.

When Zhao Xing arrived at the Council Hall and voiced his thoughts, Xia Jing immediately chimed in:

"It is no longer a question of whether we want to or not, but that we must fight."

"The defensive line at Jihun Pass has been stretched much longer than before. The loss of Huolong Pass enraged the Jin Yu Wang Ting, causing them to station the army sent by the Holy Spirit Wang Ting to support them on the eastern front for defense."

"It is now the thirteenth day of the tenth month. The Holy Spirit Wang Ting's army has firmly established its foothold, and the defensive line is much tighter than before."

Zhao Xing shook his head internally. Originally, after the three armies rested at Huolong Pass, they would have marched out immediately, and the defenses along Jihun Pass would not have been so strong.

But the incident with Qian Shougang caused delays of about ten days, giving the Jin Yu Wang Ting the opportunity to move troops and deploy generals.

However, this is the uncertainty of the battlefield; no one can predict everything. How can everything go exactly as one wishes?

Of course, ultimately, it is because our side has too few people. After taking Huolong Pass, we needed to rest and expand the army.

"Can we cooperate with the Phantom Nether Army?" Wen Shaoyang offered his opinion. "If we had the Phantom Nether Army, our chances of breaking through the Jihun Pass defensive line would be greater."

Liao Rulong hesitated. "The Phantom Nether Army is a strong force ranked over two hundredth. Moreover, their main force is on the northern front together with the Zhaoyuan Army, the Danxia Army, and the Yuanhua Army. They are unlikely to abandon their alliance with these strong forces to come join us."

Xia Jing smiled. "The main force is impossible, but transferring twenty or thirty thousand men might be feasible."

"Oh?" Liao Rulong asked, puzzled. "What do you mean by that?"

Xia Jing pointed at Zhao Xing. "Didn't Zhao Xing previously behead Qian Shougang near Xixian Commandery?"

"What does that have to do with me?" Zhao Xing wondered.

"Our standoff with the Black Dragon Army terrified the main general of Xixian Pass," Xia Jing said. "Qi Yuan of the Zhaoyuan Army's 'Qiyuan Army', Yi Yue of the Yuanhua Army, Nan Gongye of the Phantom Nether Army, and Pang Zheng of the Zhaoyuan Army—these four originally planned to attack Xixian Pass."

"They feigned defeat several times before, hoping to draw out the main general of the Western Xuan Pass. This scheme had been underway for over a month and was beginning to show promise, but it was ruined by the unexpected incident involving Qian Shougang."

After hearing Xia Jing's words, Zhao Xing was left speechless.

Fortune hides where misfortune lies; misfortune leans where fortune rests.

Killing Qian Shougang wasted time, making the Jihun Pass defense line harder to break, but now there is a possibility of cooperating with the Phantom Nether Army. It is truly unclear whether this is good luck or bad.

"Will they agree to cooperate?" Liao Rulong hesitated.

It was not that he lacked self-confidence; the Phantom Nether Army was indeed ranked much higher than the Divine Might Army, even higher than the Tiger Crocodile Army.

During the last grand military review of the Soldier Realm, the Divine Might Army ranked in the five hundreds, while the Phantom Nether Army ranked in the two hundreds.

They occupy an entire cave heaven as their base; in both numbers and strength, they far surpass the Divine Might Army.

"Let's try," Xia Jing said. "If it doesn't work, we'll fight on our own. If everyone agrees, I will send a letter to ask."

"Agreed," Wen Shaoyang stated.

"Agreed," Liao Rulong nodded as well.

"Agreed," Zhao Xing had nothing to oppose. With plenty of meat and few wolves, cooperation with several strong armies was not a bad thing.

Xia Jing and Liao Rulong invited Nan Gongye of the Phantom Nether Army to bring his troops to the Fire Dragon Pass war zone.

Upon receiving the invitation, Nan Gongye was immediately tempted.

They had already intended to borrow passage through Fire Dragon Pass but found it difficult to bring it up.

However, even so, discussing cooperation was not smooth sailing.

This was because the Phantom Nether Army led by Nan Gongye had been fighting in joint operations with the Yuanhua Army's Yi Yue and the Zhaoyuan Army's Qi Qi Yuanjun for a long time.

But on the side of the Divine Might Army, they had only invited his detachment.

How to put it? If only he, Nan Gongye, went over, he would inevitably be relegated to a supporting role. Even though his unit was a strong army, its numbers were fewer than the combined forces of the Divine Might Army, the Black Armor Army, and the Sea-Subduing Army.

Thus, Nan Gongye demanded that his allies, the two units from the Zhaoyuan Army and the Yuanhua Army, be included as well.

But in that case, their numbers would be little different from the combined three armies of the Divine Might, Black Armor, and Sea-Subduing forces, and in terms of strength, they would actually surpass the combined three armies.

Liao Rulong, Xia Jing, Wen Shaoyang, and others were not pleased.

Although it was called cooperation, bringing in outsiders would inevitably affect the fighting once the battle began.

Therefore, such cooperation was truly difficult to arrange if the relationship was merely average in peacetime.

Zhao Xing did not care about these matters; he did not participate in the communication at all. Time was precious; by next March, he would likely have to return to the Ten Yang Cave Heaven.

He needed to practice the secret techniques he had learned from the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion as soon as possible.

As for military merit, he could gather that later; it would be the same.

"Commandant Jiang, do me a favor."

"Young brother Zhao, don't be so distant; just call me Big Brother Jiang," Jiang Ming said with a smile. "What favor? Speak."

"The Sea-Subduing Army is on the Canglan River; usually, you must catch quite a few river turtles, Wang Ba, and other strange beasts, right?" Zhao Xing asked.

"Yes, of course!" Jiang Ming spread his hands. "And they are quite large!"

"Are they delicious?" Zhao Xing asked.

"It depends on how you cook them," Jiang Ming said. "The meat of turtles is generally tough. We in the Sea-Subduing Army usually don't eat the meat; we only use it to make soup."

"What? Do you, young brother, want to try something new?"

Zhao Xing smiled: "Yes, I have never eaten that kind of spiritual turtle. I wonder if Big Brother Jiang could get some for me?"

Jiang Ming clapped his hands and said, "That is easy to arrange. Do you want other river delicacies or seafood? If you want them, I will get them for you. There are quite a few delicious things in the sea..."

After Zhao Xing spoke to Jiang Ming, the other party immediately agreed.

Even for a spiritual turtle that has entered the ranked realm, it was no difficult matter for the Sea-Subduing Army.

To curry favor with Zhao Xing, Jiang Ming specially dispatched the fastest ship, going directly to the Canglan River to drag a boatload of turtle-like strange beasts over for Zhao Xing, totaling one or two thousand heads.

Zhao Xing boarded the ship and took a look. Good heavens.

Very few were of the ninth rank; most were eighth-rank turtle-like strange beasts, and there were even seventh-rank spiritual turtles!

"Is this enough?" Jiang Ming asked. "If not, just say so; I will have the brothers on the river catch some more."

"Enough, enough," Zhao Xing nodded hurriedly. He only wanted to use the spiritual turtles to practice spells; he did not actually like to eat them.

"Alright, then if you need anything, just call this ship. I will leave it here for you," Jiang Ming said very generously.

"Thank you."

After Jiang Ming left, Zhao Xing cast the Wind Method, pulled an eighth-rank river turtle out of the cabin, and secured it on the guillotine on the deck.

"Pfft~"

The guillotine fell, instantly severing the turtle's head.

"Go!"

Zhao Xing struck the turtle shell with Jin Guang, and immediately, the turtle flesh and bones below quickly withered.

All the blood within concentrated onto the turtle shell and was absorbed by it.

This was the 'Refining the Divination' technique from the Turtle Coin Divination Method.

Extracting the blood and marrow of the spiritual turtle, using it all to nurture the turtle shell.

Once the object for divination is refined, it can serve as the foundation for fortune-telling.

"Blood Refining is the simplest and most brutal method of refinement, but the divination carrier produced by this method generally does not last long."

"A higher level is Soul Refining, extracting the spiritual turtle's blood, marrow, and soul."

"There is also Spirit Refining, which does not require killing the spiritual turtle."

"However, this is just practice for now; I cannot handle anything too complex."

Following the instructions in the Turtle Divination Method, Zhao Xing infused the blood and marrow into the turtle shell.

Soon, the shell of this eighth-rank spiritual turtle emitted a dark red glow.

"Now that the divination vessel is complete, I can use multiple methods to divine."

"First, a simple fortune-telling for good or bad luck: carve characters onto the turtle shell." Zhao Xing carved "Great Fortune," "Medium Fortune," and "Small Fortune" on one side of the turtle plate.

On the other side, he carved "Great Misfortune," "Medium Misfortune," and "Small Misfortune."

"Afterwards, burn the turtle shell with fire; whichever side has more cracks represents one's personal fortune, and the length of the cracks represents the duration of this divination."

Zhao Xing pointed a finger, and the Heavenly Fire Technique activated.

A wisp of flame immediately wrapped around the turtle plate, roasting it.

After roasting for a quarter of an hour.

A faint sound came from the turtle plate.

"Crack, crack, crack~"

When the cracks stopped forming, Zhao Xing stopped the roasting and looked closely.

"The 'Small Fortune' side has the most cracks; the cracks spread across four shield plates and are one inch deep, meaning the duration is four days."

"The 'Medium Fortune' side has one crack, less than an inch deep, spreading across one shield plate; 'Medium Fortune' is born within four double-hours."

"Although there are many cracks on the 'Small Misfortune' side, there is not a single major crack; 'Medium Misfortune' and 'Great Misfortune' have no cracks."

"This means my fortune recently faces no great peril; the cracks are long because I am on the battlefield, so a long duration is normal."

Zhao Xing interpreted the hexagram.

Asking about good or bad luck is relatively simple; asking about his own yields nothing remarkable, for how could Yan San's luck be a mere name?

Zhao Xing slaughtered ten Grade Eight Spiritual Turtles and asked one hundred times, with results mostly similar.

Good fortune outweighed bad.

As Zhao Xing cultivated, the fortune and misfortune displayed on the turtle shell became increasingly precise.

After he practiced for several double-hours, while the result formed, some sensation also arose in his heart.

Zhao Xing looked at the panel.

【Fire-Roasted Turtle Divination · Fortune: Mid-Stage, Seventh Transformation.】

【Effect: Burn turtle cracks to divine fortune and misfortune, knowing day-to-day calamities and blessings.】

The Turtle Coin Hexagram Method is a complete set of spells.

What exists now is merely the simplest inquiry into fortune and misfortune, quite general.

But it is slightly better than the 【Yellow Calendar】 issued by the Great Zhou.

Because the Great Zhou's Yellow Calendars are all "Evil-Averting Calendars"; they cannot ask about good fortune, only avert evil.

Moreover, they are all passively triggered, with no way to use them actively.

"What are you doing?" Long Xiao walked onto the boat carrying a mountain cat, "Ao Tian has been looking for you for a while."

"What does Ao Tian want with me? Didn't we just eat breakfast?" Zhao Xing asked.

Long Xiao was speechless: "Look at what time it is now?"

Zhao Xing gazed inward at his Five Elements Biological Clock, then smiled awkwardly.

"Sorry, I got lost in practicing."

Unintentionally, six double-hours had passed.

No wonder the mountain cat's eyes looked a bit resentful.

"Practicing?" Long Xiao looked at the turtle shell in confusion, "What technique are you practicing with a turtle?"

"Spiritual Turtle Fortune-Telling, have you heard of it?" Zhao Xing said. He wasn't afraid of others knowing.

The Great Ancestor merely struck one blow; he did not kill the profession of fortune-telling. That is to say, whether official or commoner, everyone is allowed to ponder and tinker on their own.

However, the government does not provide cultivation manuals, and with the Great Ancestor's 'Establishing the Dao Grand Vow' in place, the path of advancement is locked; no matter how much you practice, you cannot achieve anything remarkable.

Such techniques are even less strictly regulated than the Soul-Binding Straw Man.

The Soul-Binding Straw Man is forbidden from being practiced within the Great Zhou's borders; it can only be practiced on the battlefield, and even then, it requires reporting.

"Oh? You know this?" Long Xiao immediately became interested, "How well have you practiced?"

"Not bad; I can ask about fortune and misfortune in the short term," Zhao Xing said. "But it's not necessarily accurate. Do you want to try?"

"Sure," Long Xiao said. "Ask for good fortune."

"?"

It felt like he was being insulted.

Muttering to himself, Zhao Xing said to Long Xiao, "Give me a drop of blood."

Long Xiao sliced his fingertip across his palm, and blood seeped out.

Zhao Xing used wind to swirl it, discovering that Long Xiao's drop of blood was quite heavy.

Vital energy like mercury; no wonder he is a Sword Cultivator among martial artists; his physique is simply strong.

"Hiss, hiss~"

Zhao Xing used Long Xiao's blood to smear the turtle plate, drawing the fortune and misfortune on both sides.

Afterwards, he roasted it with Heavenly Fire.

"Crack, crack, crack, crack~"

The cracks sounded, and a crackling noise emerged.

Zhao Xing's expression changed slightly.

Why is the commotion so loud?

Could it be...

"Why the gloomy face?" Long Xiao said, "Don't scare me."

When the flames dispersed.

Zhao Xing squinted, and his composed expression instantly turned into a smile.

He saw cracks densely distributed across the 【Great Auspicious】 area, deep and short.

On the ominous side, the cracks were few, much like when Zhao Xing tested himself.

Good heavens, so it was Great Auspicious after all!

But where did Long Xiao's Great Auspicious come from?