Chapter 368: Severing Heaven and Earth Communication: War of Mortals (Part 2)

As soon as he entered Wind Wucheng, Zhao Xing felt his bones go numb, his heartbeat accelerated sharply, and his whole body couldn't help but expand.

The Pure Yuan soil in his Dantian grew larger, spiritual energy filled his body, and his bones turned golden.

The Three God Fate Palace reappeared, and the long-lost sense of power lingered in his heart.

"Big Brother." Zhao Chuanzong's eyes lit up; before entering the city, he was a head taller than his Big Brother, but the moment he entered, his Big Brother was a head taller than him.

What made him even more excited was that the aura emanating from his Big Brother was like a prehistoric giant beast waking up.

"As expected of Big Brother; Wind Wucheng is only a Seventh Rank city, but Big Brother's momentum is like recovering to a high rank." In Zhao Chuanzong's heart, Big Brother was the myth of the family; he had worshipped him since childhood, and it was the same now.

"Hm?"

In the main hall of the Wind Wucheng Lord's Mansion, Xia Jing, who was looking down at the map, suddenly raised his head, a trace of doubt flashing in his eyes.

"Where did this expert aura come from? Is it Long Xiao? No, this aura is familiar, but it's not Long Xiao's." Xia Jing immediately called for the guards.

"Zhao Zheng, go see what's going on at the East City Gate; forget it... I'll go personally."

Xia Jing quickly put on his armor and ran toward the East City Gate with his personal guards.

Wind Wucheng was not big; the longitudinal distance between the inner and outer cities was only six thousand meters, and the main road was very wide, with eight lanes.

Xia Jing came on horseback; the horse's mane was fiery red, as if burning with flames.

When he rushed to the main road of the East City, he immediately saw Zhao Chuanzong's light cavalry returning, and saw Zhao Xing beside him at a glance.

"Fuck?!" Xia Jing was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed; he couldn't care about consuming Yuan Qi and immediately took off from his fiery horse.

"Swish~"

A figure flew through the air and landed in front of Zhao Xing. Xia Jing reached out, his hands trembling slightly. "Brother Zhao, is, is it you?"

"It's me," Zhao Xing smiled slightly: "Brother Xia, long time no see."

"Hahahaha." Xia Jing rushed over and gripped Zhao Xing's arms tightly. "It's really you, hahaha, I knew you couldn't die easily."

"If the Witch Moon God wants to kill me, he's still too green; he needs to cultivate for another few hundred million years," Zhao Xing also laughed; seeing Xia Jing here, he was also very happy in his heart.

"Big Brother?!" At this time, another familiar voice came; Zhao Zheng drove a light chariot, and before the chariot stopped steadily, he jumped off.

"Big Brother, is it really you? Big Brother..." Zhao Zheng's voice choked, and his hands holding Zhao Xing trembled.

"You are a lieutenant general now, stand steady." Zhao Xing supported Zhao Zheng's hands, stabilizing his figure.

Today's Zhao Zheng had matured a lot; he had grown a beard, his facial features were firm, and there was a sense of majesty between his brows, completely unlike the little brat from back then.

"Yes." Feeling the temperature from the palm, Zhao Zheng nodded fiercely, quickly wiped away his tears, and stood straight.

"Brother Zhao, how did you find this place?" Xia Jing asked curiously.

"It's a long story," Zhao Xing said with some emotion: "I also chose a direction and walked blindly, then happened to see Long Xiao's flag, and then Chuanzong; at first I couldn't believe it, and thought I was hallucinating."

"Big Brother, Fourth Brother is now a cavalry hundred general, with two columns of cavalry under his command," Zhao Zheng pulled Chuanzong over: "Back then Big Brother sent Fourth Brother to the God Accommodation Army; I didn't expect it to be Fourth Brother who found Big Brother."

Xia Jing smiled: "It won't just be a hundred general for long," Xia Jing patted Zhao Chuanzong on the shoulder, "From today on, you will be a five-hundred general first."

"Yes." Zhao Chuanzong straightened his body.

"Brother Xia, why are you all here?" Zhao Xing asked.

"It's a long story, come, let's go to the City Lord's Mansion first."

Xia Jing led Zhao Xing toward the City Lord's Mansion; Zhao Xing noticed that the horse Xia Jing was riding was a Seventh Rank Fiery Horse, and in front of Zhao Zheng's war chariot was an Eighth Rank Purple-Horned Horse.

When Zhao Xing glanced at the city gate, he found that these horses would immediately turn into ordinary horse forms once they left the city, but as soon as they entered the city gate, they would immediately recover their divine appearance.

Arriving at the City Lord's Mansion, Zhao Xing saw another acquaintance training on the drill ground; it was Liao Rulong.

"Old Liao is here too; that's right, he is the God Accommodation Marquis. Zhao Zheng is here, so he should be here too."

However, Liao Rulong was training very seriously at this time; Zhao Xing walked past him from the corridor fifty meters behind him, and he didn't notice.

Xia Jing led Zhao Xing into the main hall, ordered someone to change Zhao Xing into a set of clean clothes, and served some meat, letting Zhao Xing eat to his heart's content.

"You still understand me," Zhao Xing tore off a large piece of trotter meat, "I haven't eaten meat for a long time."

His luck was too good; walking all the way here, he hadn't even encountered a ferocious beast, so he could only eat vegetarian food, and his mouth had become bland.

"Eh? Why is there fish? Wait, what exactly did you go through to become a naval general?" Zhao Xing noticed the general's flag behind Xia Jing, which was actually a naval symbol.

"Don't mention it," Xia Jing said melancholically, "It was all forced. In the sixteenth year of Yuanding, when the dog-day Witch Moon God employed 'Severing Heaven and Earth Communication', we had just finished the Qingyan Battlefield. At that time, we were returning on warships, but the warships suddenly lost balance and fell."

"Due to the effect of 'Severing Heaven and Earth Communication' spreading incrementally, we were at the Seventh Rank realm at that time."

"We weren't flying high, and below was a large lake; the ship belonged to the Marquis of Zhenhai, and we made an emergency landing when we fell, so we didn't suffer any serious injuries."

"However, a quarter of an hour after falling, we were completely ordinary people."

"The sea ships also began to sink."

"We worked together to push down a few sea ship flying boats and relied on human power to row to the shore," Xia Jing recounted.

"Because we were on the edge of the forbidden zone, we got out of this range not long after."

"But not everyone had our luck."

"The Witch Moon God launched it too suddenly, and many of our armies were killed in the fall at that time!"

"Either they were crushed to death by the collapse inside the warship in an instant, or they fell to their deaths..."

"Afterward, I counted the armies that walked out of the forbidden zone, and the most complete formation was actually the Zhenhai Army."

"There was no other way, so finally I had to take the Zhenhai Army as the main force to carry out post-war reconstruction. It just so happened that our war zone had many rivers at that time, so I became a naval joint-camp general."

Zhao Xing stopped eating; he could fully imagine that kind of scene.

A massive warship weighing over a hundred thousand tons falling from the sky was a nightmare scene.

Even if it was parked on the ground, it wasn't safe.

The structure of the warship changed at that moment, inevitably collapsing, and those who couldn't escape in time would be crushed to death alive.

Warships, flying boats, tower ships, and war chariots are common tools for large armies to move.

'Severing Heaven and Earth Communication' launched suddenly was definitely a large-scale air disaster.

It was the same if they weren't on the ship and were flying themselves.

Suddenly losing the ability to fly and weakening into ordinary people, even falling from ten meters, the possibility of falling to death was very high.

"The Witch Moon God is truly ruthless," Zhao Xing stuck the meat-cutting knife into the table, "He must have launched it suddenly to kill me, meaning he didn't notify the Southern Barbarians, and they didn't have time to make any preparations."

"Correct," Xia Jing nodded: "The Southern Barbarians also suffered many deaths; that large-scale air disaster caused countless deaths of experts, and the highest-ranking death record was a Rule Realm expert from the Holy Spirit Royal Court named something like 'Telis'."

"I heard he was checking the status of weapon refining in an underground lava cave at the time, and as a result, when 'Severing Heaven and Earth Communication' came, he was crushed to death by the collapsing volcano."

"It is said that he had obtained 【Heaven and Earth Protection】 at the time, and had the Fifth Rank realm when it was launched, but he was too unlucky; the place he was staying was a dangerous place itself."

Zhao Xing nodded; 'Severing Heaven and Earth Communication' being released is a move that kills a thousand enemies and loses eight hundred of one's own.

Due to the existence of the double-agent Purple Bone Heavenly Venerable, if the Witch Moon God had notified the people below before Purple Bone defected, then Purple Bone would definitely have received this news.

If the Witch Moon God had launched it after the Purple Bone Heavenly Venerable defection incident, then Zhao Xing would have been rescued by someone at that time.

Therefore, in order to successfully kill Zhao Xing, the Witch Moon God could only choose to launch it while the Purple Bone Heavenly Venerable defection incident was in progress.

"Such a big trap, just to kill me; he really thinks highly of me," Zhao Xing snorted.

"Maybe in the Witch Moon God's view, as long as you die, even if we win the Great War of Attacking Barbarians, we have lost," Xia Jing said.

Zhao Xing nodded; if he died, the early spiritual energy revival would become an extravagant hope.

Originally, early spiritual energy revival was a relatively extreme operation, and if he died, it would be even more precarious.

The Great Zhou won the Great War of Attacking Barbarians, but in the end, it couldn't ascend and would be trapped in the Xuanhuang World.

As long as they waited for the Wu Di to die of old age, then without the Southern Barbarians doing anything, the Great Zhou would collapse rapidly within the next thousand years.

War itself is regardless of cost, and the Great Zhou is also consuming national strength. If the war of the whole nation did not gain the benefits of 'spiritual energy revival' + 'ascension', then it would fall apart because of the war

As long as we wait for the Wu Di to reach the end of his lifespan, then without the Southern Barbarians needing to do anything, the interior of the Great Zhou will rapidly collapse over the following millennium.

War itself is regardless of cost, and the Great Zhou is also consuming its national strength. If the total war does not yield the benefits of "Spiritual Energy Revival" + "Ascension," then it will fall apart due to the war itself.

Though a state may be large, it will perish if it is fond of war. Once the Wu Di dies and the hope of ascension is shattered, no one will be able to suppress those Super-Ranked vassal kings (the Qi of the Super-Rank cannot be reclaimed just by saying so).

Experts like the Northern Star Prince Qin Feng have all had their mentalities inflate. With the Emperor dead and the hope of ascension gone, countless experts more ambitious than Qin Feng will emerge to devour the Great Zhou's Qi.

The Great Zhou of the previous life was just like this; once the Wu Di died, the Great Zhou was basically left with a weak ruler and strong subjects.

Of course, the Wu Di of this life will have more ample time than in the previous life; for example, he could kill all the Super-Ranked vassal kings before he dies, leaving only First-Rank vassal kings, but doing so would also cause the Great Zhou to decline.

Therefore, the Wu Di has no way out either.

"When I die, the spiritual energy stored in my body will degrade in a very short time, transforming from a spiritual energy state into primordial Qi, diffusing throughout the entire Xuanhuang World."

"Even if the Great Zhou has a reverse-primordial device, it will be too late to collect it. If it cannot ascend, the Great Zhou will automatically perish." Zhao Xing seemed to see through the Witch Moon God's calculations. "The Witch Moon God considers himself the guardian of the Xuanhuang World; no matter how many Southern Barbarians die, after a millennium, once the Central Plains dynasty collapses, it will be enough to recover its vitality, and people will be born again."

"As long as the matter and spiritual energy of the Xuanhuang World are not taken away, no matter how many people die, they will just rot in the Xuanhuang World, so the Witch Moon God does not care about casualties."

"This is a god, a cold and ruthless god."

The poor fear the fierce, and the fierce fear those who don't value their lives. Clearly, in this war, the Witch Moon God is the one who doesn't value his life.

"Xia Jing, tell me about the situation in the Wucheng and the 'Heaven and Earth Protection'." Zhao Xing restrained his emotions and began to understand the situation after eating and drinking his fill.

"Witch Cities are divided into Ninth to Fifth Ranks. As you can see, within the heaven and earth of a Wucheng, everyone's strength can be restored to the corresponding rank," Xia Jing introduced.

"In the beginning, the Wucheng was almost impregnable; a group of mortals simply could not break through the Wucheng."

Zhao Xing nodded. Just taking the lowest-level Ninth-Rank Wucheng as an example, everyone inside is at the Ninth-Rank Qi Gathering Realm.

Furthermore, they can build formations and use Ninth-Rank divine weapons. Attacking such a city is simply hellish difficulty.

Not to mention those higher up; for a Fifth-Rank Wucheng, the city-protecting barrier alone is impregnable.

Of course, people inside the Wucheng can only defend the city. If arrows fly out of the Wucheng, they also become ordinary arrows, unless this person themselves has obtained 【Heaven and Earth Protection】.

"Then how long did it take the Great Zhou to take down the first city?" Zhao Xing asked.

"The first day," Xia Jing said.

"Huh?" Zhao Xing was stunned. "The first day?"

"Yes, on the first day, the Great Zhou obtained one Fifth-Rank city, three Sixth-Rank cities, and four Seventh-Rank cities," Xia Jing said. "Eighty percent of these cities were contributed by sect members led by the Profound Heaven Divine Sect, such as the Green Wood Sect and the Hundred Flowers Sect."

"Among them, the strongest Fifth-Rank city, named Mist City, was contributed by a defector called the Mist Walker."

"Of course, I didn't know this news at first, and it wasn't until half a year later that I received accurate information that the owners of these cities had long since defected to my Great Zhou."

"Mist Walker?" Zhao Xing realized. "So it was him."

Unlike the undercover agent Purple Bone Heavenly Venerate, the Profound Heaven Divine Sect led by the Mist Walker had done nothing from the beginning until the Great Pacification War.

Purple Bone left behind many secret doors and did many things in secret, but the Divine Sect led by the Mist Walker stayed honestly in the Southern Barbarian lands and did not do a single thing to harm the Southern Barbarians.

Once the Severed Heaven and Earth Connection was cast, the Mist Walker, who had endured for many years, launched the most ruthless strike, directly opening the city to surrender and quickly killing the nearby cities, opening up a path to the Great Zhou.

"Hahahaha, the Mist Walker has performed a great service this time." Zhao Xing slapped his thigh.

"No," Xia Jing shook his head. "Not only was he not rewarded, but he was also imprisoned."

"Huh?" Zhao Xing was stunned again. "What happened?"

"The Mist Walker was very angry when he heard that your life or death was uncertain. He believed that the Great Zhou did not protect you, the Divine Sect Master, well. After he entered the palace to have an audience and received this news, he took off his official hat on the spot and cursed His Majesty," Xia Jing said. "I won't repeat exactly what he cursed, but in short, it was very dirty language that cannot be put into official documents."

Zhao Xing: "..."

Thinking about it carefully, it really seems like something the Mist Walker would do.

In the eyes of sect people, the Emperor is nothing. They have no awe of imperial power.

Zhao Xing, as the Sect Master, is their faith! He is a saint-like existence!

The Mist Walker pointed at Ji Che's nose and cursed. Even if Ji Che could endure it, the ministers could not, so they could only put him under house arrest first to let him calm down.

"Then what about the Dragon Clan?" Zhao Xing asked hurriedly. "The Dragon Clan wouldn't also..."

"The Dragon Clan is actually quite stable," Xia Jing recalled. "Yin Xiu pacified the experts of the Dragon Clan at the first opportunity. He said he could feel that you were not dead. Considering that there might be some blood connection between the Dragon Clan, Yin Xiu's words also stabilized the others."

Zhao Xing breathed a sigh of relief. As expected, Yin Xiu is a dragon with great wisdom!

"The Mist Walker's rebellion gave the Great Zhou a very good start," Xia Jing said, "but wanting to advance is still filled with difficulties."

"Excluding the cities brought by the defectors."

"In the first half year, the Great Zhou did not capture a single Ninth-Rank Wucheng."

"The area of the Severed Heaven and Earth Connection is still too large. In most war zones, we can only use the stupidest methods to fight," Xia Jing said in a deep voice. "That is to use people as bait to lure the enemy out to kill us."

Zhao Xing nodded. Having a Wucheng is just having a supply station. To move freely in the wild and advance, one must transfer the authority of 【Heaven and Earth Protection】. Only then can the number of our own cultivators in the restricted area become more and more numerous.

Even if the Mist Walker rebelled, those people of his were actually irrelevant to the overall situation; it can only be said that it boosted morale. Ninety-nine percent of the people on the battlefield were still ordinary people.

Xia Jing sighed: "A Qi Gathering Realm cultivator, logically speaking, ten well-trained soldiers could kill one, but in actual combat, we need to lure the enemy into a trap, which often requires paying a greater price."

"Because Southern Barbarian soldiers who possess 【Heaven and Earth Protection】 will not transfer to our people immediately after being killed, but will prioritize transferring to those who already possess 【Heaven and Earth Protection】."

"Within a certain range, if there are no 'cultivators', it will transfer randomly."

"It could be someone from the Great Zhou camp, or it could be born among the enemy troops."

"Hiss~" Zhao Xing couldn't help but gasp.

Imagine, the Great Zhou's military formation spent huge effort to kill an enemy Ninth-Rank, but this power did not transfer to our own camp, but instead merged with another Ninth-Rank enemy, and the enemy became an Eighth-Rank...

If it's a battle of military formations, the Southern Barbarians are becoming stronger the more they are killed!

What a desperate thing this is?

The evolved Witch Moon God is too perverted.

In the previous life, there was no such thing as fusion! After killing the enemy and obtaining the token on the enemy, one could recover their strength.

But in this life, the Witch Moon God came up with this "power transfer" trick, and the difficulty has risen straight up.

"If it weren't for the Sect Realm holding us back, the evolved Severed Heaven and Earth Connection would truly be impossible to break," Zhao Xing thought silently. The Sect Alliance of the Sleeping Realm also possesses authority within the Severed Heaven and Earth Connection. This authority is not something the Witch Moon God can deprive them of.

Because the Severed Heaven and Earth Connection was not cast by the Witch Moon God himself; he only guided it. Perhaps he could make some changes in this life, but he could not deprive the Sect Realm of its share of authority.

That is why the Witch Moon God also sent people to the Sleeping Realm to negotiate cooperation, rather than issuing an order.

The Sect Realm once ruled the Central Plains Divine Continent and also dominated the Southern Barbarian lands, bringing about the revival of spells and martial arts. This is the foundation of the sects and also their capital for cooperating with the Witch Moon God.

"Although attacking cities has great difficulty, in the wild, we still have opportunities," Xia Jing said. "After all, even if it evolves to the Seventh Rank, it is not invincible."

"In the wild, even if it is the Seventh Rank, without supplies, it is very difficult to fight continuously."

"If they want to run away, that depends on their profession. Except for the escape techniques of mages that we find difficult to block, martial artists basically cannot escape the volleys of ballistae, catapults, and heavy arrows. That's why in the early stages, we basically killed martial artists, ritualists, and musicians."

"When all the enemies are dead, then we will obtain the qualification of 'cultivator'."

"And as long as there are cultivators among our people, the chance of transfer becomes equal."

"Or like encountering an opportunity when they are alone."

"For example, small groups of messengers or scouts; the Southern Barbarians have such an advantage, they can't just rely on walking."

Please... you.... collect_()

Zhao Xing nodded. No wonder the squad leader under Zhao Chuanzong was so excited when he saw him.

It turns out he treated him as a big fish.

Once they killed him, and there was no one else around, a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator would be born within their team.

"At first, this situation was uncontrollable, but after there were more people, it became controllable," Xia Jing suddenly remembered something. "Brother Zhao, you seem to still be in the Qi Gathering Realm, right?"

"Yes," Zhao Xing nodded. In the wild, he hadn't even reached the Qi Gathering Realm yet, but his situation was special and could not be measured simply.

"Perfect," Xia Jing smiled. "I still have two Eighth-Ranks and twenty Ninth-Ranks locked up here, which can help you further restore your strength. Let's go."

"Good." Zhao Xing also wanted to see what the restoration of strength in this life was all about.

He followed Xia Jing to a dungeon.

Twenty Ninth-Rank Southern Barbarian soldiers and two Eighth-Ranks were locked in the dungeon.

"This dungeon is actually already outside the coverage of the Wind Wucheng, so the two of them now only show the Ninth-Rank and Eighth-Rank realms."

"If they were in the city, these would all be restored to the Seventh Rank."

"What is their actual cultivation level?" Zhao Xing looked at these prisoners. They were not noisy, and even though they were imprisoned, they had the temperament of experts, and their eyes revealed resilience.

"They are all Third-Rank," Xia Jing said. "I have interrogated them; these people were all leaders of tribes."

"As expected, even if high-rankers are reduced to low-rankers, their momentum is completely different. This cannot be faked," Zhao Xing nodded.

Now there are three cultivation situations: the first is the original cultivation, which is the cultivation realm before being affected by the Severed Heaven and Earth Connection.

The second is the cultivation in the Wucheng. Even those without the Heaven and Earth Protection mark will be restored to the cultivation corresponding to the quality of the Wucheng. If a Third-Rank enters a Fifth-Rank Wucheng, they will also be restored to the Fifth-Rank realm.

The third is in the wild. If they have not obtained 【Heaven and Earth Protection】, then even if a Dao-Establishing Realm expert comes in, they are just a mortal.

"Are you Zhao Xing?" Suddenly, a giant with dark purple skin, muscular body, and a stature as sturdy as a small mountain approached with a staggering gait.

His shoulder blades and abdomen were pierced. To be safe, these prisoners also had needles inserted into them to seal their acupoints.

His blood and Qi were severely insufficient, looking like a withered purple potato monster.

"You know me?" Zhao Xing looked at this Eighth-Rank with interest.

"I didn't expect you to still be alive," the purple potato man stared at Zhao Xing. "However, you are going to die soon."

"How so?" Zhao Xing asked.

"Hahahaha." The purple potato man suddenly burst into laughter. "I didn't expect to see a big fish enter the net before I die. It's worth it to have him accompany me, King Tagu, in death!"

"Hahahaha, it's worth it!" The other prisoners in the dungeon also burst into laughter.

"Playing god and ghost, men, make them shut up!" Xia Jing immediately asked a Thunder-type warlock guarding the dungeon to come over.

"Zzzzz~" The spell dungeon was immediately activated, and thunder swam within the dungeon, continuously electrocuting these prisoners.

Originally, these people were powerful, but they couldn't stand the mid-level spells, and one by one they were electrocuted until they foamed at the mouth and fell to the ground twitching.

"You, you will definitely die."

"The, the great Nine Nether God is watching you, these, dirty, destroyers!" The purple potato man roared in a low voice. "... God will kill you all!"

The hundred-man commander of the warlock battalion guarding the dungeon immediately felt embarrassed. The boss told them to shut up, yet this person could still speak?

"Zzzzz!" Thunder light flared, and he immediately increased the intensity.

"Stop, let him speak." Zhao Xing frowned. He squatted down and stared at this tribal leader: "You just mentioned the Nine Nether God. Are you from the Nine Nether Army?"

The man who was about to be electrocuted to death just a moment ago closed his mouth at this time.

"What was his original identity? I mean his position in the Wind Wucheng." Zhao Xing looked at Xia Jing.

"A commander of wandering souls," Xia Jing said. "His superior was killed, and the power was transferred to Old Chen. Long Xiao and Old Chen are not in the city; they are hunting down the remnants."

Zhao Xing pondered: "What about his personal belongings? Are they here?"

"Yes," the hundred-man warlock in the dungeon replied.

"Bring everyone's here for me to see, be quick!" Zhao Xing said in a deep voice.

"Yes."

The hundred-man warlock immediately ran out.

"Brother Zhao, what's wrong?" Xia Jing saw Zhao Xing so solemn and couldn't help but ask. "What did you discover?"

"I'm not sure yet," Zhao Xing said. "Perhaps I'm just suspicious."

The atmosphere in the dungeon suddenly fell silent.

Soon, the hundred-man warlock came over with a large pile of things, and the personal belongings of everyone, including King Tagu, were placed in front of Zhao Xing.

"My lord, they are all here."

Zhao Xing immediately rummaged through these sundries, and soon he found a pitch-black disc.

King Tagu saw this scene, and his eyes twitched slightly.

"King Tagu, this is the Nine Nether Order, right?" Zhao Xing shook the token in front of King Tagu.

King Tagu sneered and said nothing, just closed his eyes.

"The Underworld King's pattern on both sides, see the order and go to the Nine Nethers."

"King Tagu, this is a death order. Why did the Nine Nether God order you to defend the Wind Wucheng to the death?"

"What conspiracy do you have? Speak!"

Zhao Xing stretched out his hands with spikes and stabbed them into King Tagu's pain acupoints.

"Ka ka~~"

The purple potato monster was really tough; he bit his teeth to pieces and didn't make a sound.

Xia Jing's expression changed. When they interrogated this King Tagu, he wasn't this tough and confessed everything.

But now he was acting so tough? There was only one explanation.

"Damn! He lied to us?!" Xia Jing shouted hurriedly: "Where is Minister Hong? How the hell did you interrogate him! Come over here and interrogate him again for me!"

"It's useless," Zhao Xing shook his head. "These people are all firm-minded. The highest rank you have here is Seventh Rank, and the methods are too simple to interrogate anything out of them."

"Xia Jing, you take people out first. I want to kill to restore my strength," Zhao Xing said. "By the way, ask the military historian for a detailed battle record about your experience in breaking the Wind Wucheng."

"Good." Xia Jing immediately took people and ran out.

After Xia Jing and the others ran away, only twenty-two prisoners and Zhao Xing were left in the dungeon.

"Puchi!"

Zhao Xing stretched out a finger and immediately stabbed another Eighth-Rank to death.

"Weng~"

A touch of golden light transferred from the corpse to Zhao Xing.

King Tagu felt a bit strange.

There were twenty-three people in the dungeon including Zhao Xing. He killed one, and the probability randomly fell on him?

King Tagu did not know that the Qi of Yan Nine had taken effect.

Not to mention a one-in-twenty-two probability, even if the probability were a hundred times smaller, it would still transfer to Zhao Xing after the kill, unless there was another existence with similar Qi to Zhao Xing within the dungeon range.

"The realm has been restored," Zhao Xing moved his body. "I have now been restored to the Eighth-Rank Earthly Sha Realm. The abnormality has been lifted, and both Heaven-Time and Earth-Benefit spells can be used."

Originally, he relied on the Cloud-Touching Vine to support a piece of heaven and earth, but this authority was incomplete, and he couldn't use many of his spells.

But now, after killing an enemy, he truly obtained the authority.

The Cloud-Touching Vine could finally rest inside his body.

"Pu pu pu pu~"

Zhao Xing drove the gale and instantly killed all the enemies except King Tagu.

One Eighth-Rank and twenty Ninth-Ranks; Zhao Xing restored from the early Eighth-Rank to the middle Eighth-Rank.

"It seems that for every major rank-stage I rise, I have to kill about 10 people of the same rank to level up," Zhao Xing thought secretly.

"King Tagu, look into my eyes." Zhao Xing's voice was like magic, and King Tagu couldn't help but look at him.

Soul Detention!

A spell derived from the Soul-Detention Straw Man; Zhao Xing immediately sucked out King Tagu's soul, and then opened his big mouth.

"Ga zhi ga zhi~" Zhao Xing seemed to be chewing, biting King Tagu's soul to pieces.

At the same time, a large number of memory fragments appeared in his mind.

Since they were memory fragments, they were incomplete, and the older the memory, the blurrier it was. If it exceeded a month, it was basically impossible to know.

Zhao Xing closed his eyes and began to search through these memory fragments in large quantities, organizing them into useful information.

Opening his eyes again, Zhao Xing's expression changed.

"Oh no, Xia Jing and the others have entered the encirclement of the Nine Nether God. This is the Nine Nether God's Great Sweep plan."

What is the Nine Nether Great Sweep? It refers to the first large-scale troop mobilization of the Southern Barbarians, a siege operation against the war zone that the Great Zhou entered within the southern range of the Severed Heaven and Earth Connection.

Xia Jing only has a total of thirty thousand people here, and among them, only the hundred-man commanders are cultivators. There is only one cultivator for every hundred people, totaling only about three hundred people.

But this time, the Nine Nether God mobilized a total of four hundred thousand people for this great sweep, and almost all of them were cultivators!

"Damn, damn, damn, damn!"

As soon as Zhao Xing thought that the strongest dungeon in the Severed Heaven and Earth Connection was about to descend, his scalp went numb, and he immediately rushed out of the dungeon.

"Xia Jing!"

"Zhao Xing!"

Xia Jing ran over with a gloomy expression.

Seeing that both sides had something to say, Zhao Xing calmed down instead: "You speak first."

"Old Chen and Long Xiao just came back and reported bad news. Large-scale armies of ten thousand appeared on the east, west, and north sides of the Wind Wucheng. It is said that the closest one appeared at Pangge Peak, three hundred and fifty miles away," Xia Jing said in a deep voice. "We have to break out."

"Where did the intelligence come from?" Zhao Xing asked.

"It was transmitted back by Wang Ji," Long Xiao and Chen Shijie walked in. Seeing Zhao Xing, they didn't have time to reminisce. "The mechanical masters of the Ju School can communicate remotely through the Boundless Ju. He reported this news."

With a swish, Zhao Xing activated the miniature sand table. Clouds, mountain peaks, rivers, and many red dots symbolizing enemy troops quickly spread across three sides of the Wind Wucheng.

The four of them felt their breath hitch. Red dots meant cultivators; at least several thousand cultivators were forming an encirclement around them!

Even if ninety percent of these several thousand cultivators were just Qi Gathering, they were still cultivators!

"How could there be so many..." Long Xiao muttered to himself.

"The map shows fewer than there actually are. There are at least fifty thousand people actually encircling us."

"What? Impossible, right?" Xia Jing was stunned. "Fifty thousand people, all cultivators? Are you kidding me?"

"This time it is a great sweep personally commanded by the Nine Nether God."

"A total of over four hundred thousand people, all of them cultivators! They are going to carry out a large-scale cleanup of the entire southern war zone," Zhao Xing sighed.

"You ate the Wind Wucheng, so you became one of the targets. You have a Prince of the Martial Hero, a top-tier sword immortal, and a Junior Agricultural Minister, and these thirty thousand people are all well-trained elites of the Great Zhou. You are already qualified to be on the Nine Nether God's dinner table."

"Four hundred thousand?! All cultivators?!" Long Xiao, Chen Shijie, and Xia Jing were completely dumbfounded. This number could simply scare people to death.

"There is no time for you to be shocked," Zhao Xing said quickly. "We must take people to break out now. There is not much time left for us."

"Break out where?" Long Xiao asked subconsciously. "Break out to the north and rendezvous with Dong Ze's main army?"

"It's impossible to go north. Since it's a great sweep, it's impossible for our small number of people to break through successfully," Xia Jing said. "The great sweep only left the south side open. It will be very difficult for us to break out in any of the east, west, or north directions."

"We can only go south," Chen Shijie nodded. "Are we going south to find Li Hao's Martial Yao Army? Which route should we take?"

Zhao Xing said nothing. His brain was spinning wildly, and the official battle reports in front of him rustled as he quickly screened and integrated the military and terrain conditions in his mind.

After a while, Zhao Xing nodded: "Yes, we can only go south."

"There are three directions to the south. Should we take the Nanping Road due south, the Wuying Ridge to the southwest, or the Tianshui River to the southeast?" Xia Jing asked.

"Brother Xia, you are a naval general with many ships. Of course, we will take the Tianshui River, which is the closest," Zhao Xing said.

Xia Jing was also in a panic and forgot that there were no three choices here, only one.

"We must act quickly. Xia Jing, you must order the whole army to cross the Tianshui River immediately," Zhao Xing said.

"Discard as much baggage as you can. Throw away all heavy weapons. Keep only horses, ships, and mountain vehicles. Don't even keep the chariots."

"If we discard so much baggage, what will we do if we encounter the enemy?" Long Xiao asked.

"Don't panic, the enemy will send it to us," Zhao Xing said. "As long as the green hills remain, there's no need to worry about firewood."

"We have to compete with the enemy's army in speed and flexibility, so we must travel light... There is no time to explain, hurry up and order the crossing of the river!"

(End of chapter)