Chapter 270

Li Chen letting Li Yu roll off to his fief was already the final chance he was giving him; he couldn't be bothered to pursue the previous matters, so he said nothing more.

Behind him, tens of thousands of sword cultivators were lined up in neat formation, their sword Qi soaring into the sky as if to tear the firmament asunder.

The disciples of the Five Great Sword Sects were each dressed in their respective sect attire, holding long swords with solemn expressions.

Further back were the hundreds of thousands of troops of the May Tian Ce Dynasty.

Iron armor like a forest, long spears like a sea, banners fluttering, and war drums shaking the heavens.

The massive army marched out of Qingqiu City in a grand, sweeping tide, like a giant dragon awakening from its slumber, slowly unfurling its body.

With every step they took, the earth trembled.

But as luck would have it, they encountered an ambush by the Sea Clan near the mountain forests halfway there.

This ambush force had been prepared to strike at the Third Prince, Li Yu; normally speaking, according to the combat power of the ambush force, dealing with the army led by the Third Prince would certainly not have been a problem, as the Sea Clan had planned it all out.

But who could have known that Li Yu wouldn't come, and that it would be Li Chen who arrived instead.

Surrounding them were not only the soldiers of the May Tian Ce Dynasty but also the sword cultivators of the major sects.

This left the ambush force completely bewildered; they could not understand why the combat power of this unit was so exaggerated.

The Sea Clan general leading the charge was stunned the moment he broke out; wasn't it agreed there were no Sage Realms? Not only were there some on the opposite side, but there were three of them—who the hell gave such messed-up intelligence?

The mountain forest area was filled with earth-shaking shouts of battle, and for a time, blood flowed like a river.

Li Chen didn't do anything at all, because in the eyes of the soldiers, these Sea Clan members were merit, and in the eyes of the cultivators, they were whetstones and cultivation resources.

Coupled with the fact that there were two Sage Realms by his side, Li Chen couldn't even be bothered to make a move.

The main force passed through this area and began to split into several routes.

Li Chen led the main force to personally support Chaoyin City.

By the time he arrived, the vicinity was already a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

With a wave of Li Chen's hand, the reinforcements charged straight over.

During this period, Li Chen's appearance in the eastern coastal region served the duty of "supervising the battle."

Whether the Sea Clan's offensive had grown stronger, Li Chen didn't know, but one thing he was clear about: the number of people on his side was increasing.

Because after the news of the Sea Clan's attack spread—heaven knows who spread it or how—the major sects and cultivation clans of the May Tian Ce Dynasty's east flocked over in groups.

A situation emerged where, as the fighting continued, the number of cultivators in the eastern coastal region grew ever larger.

From the initial forty thousand, it reached one hundred and twenty thousand after a few days, and now there were over two hundred thousand.

More were arriving in succession, and even sects from the central May Tian Ce Dynasty had run over.

This bunch of fellows was fierce by nature and would risk their lives for cultivation resources.

The Sea Clan members were treasures from head to toe; their flesh and blood were potent tonics, and their weapons and armor were rare materials seldom seen on land.

Li Chen didn't manage them at all, letting them do as they pleased, fighting however they wanted.

This left the May Tian Ce Dynasty's soldiers feeling speechless: "You guys are snatching all the kills like this, we have no merit!"

In Chaoyin City, a city by the sea, Li Chen even heard cultivators recruiting teammates while passing through certain places.

"Hundred-man assault squad forming, led by three Observing Heaven Realm big shots; looking for sword cultivators with fast movement techniques, night raid on the Sea Clan camp at three o'clock tonight."

"Need five more with good swimming skills, no cultivation limit, exploring the deep sea together."

"Group up with me for battlefield treasure hunting, twenty years of experience, teaming up with me is a guaranteed profit."

"Heavy-duty high-spec team, continuously farming the Sea Clan, bring your own elixirs, don't come if you can't last eight hours."

"I am an alchemist, buying electric eel sacs, also wanting to sell Lightning Spirit Pills, limited quantity, first come first served!"

"Are there any self-strengthening teams for Opening Meridian Realm? Just started cultivating a month ago, don't understand anything, begging for a big shot to carry."

"Opening Meridian Realm dares to come? You're truly awesome."

Hearing these things, Li Chen only wanted to say: Good heavens, these people are simply treating the Sea Clan like a dungeon to farm.

Not only were there cultivators teaming up to farm monsters, but even alchemists and artifact refiners had come; it was simply bustling.

There were also cultivators who had started selling guides on what kind of Sea Clan members to face, how to kill them, and what their weaknesses were.

Cheap antidotes, special poisons for the Sea Clan, and so on—truly, everything one could ask for was there.

The reason this situation appeared was that the cultivators didn't treat the Sea Clan as people at all.

When fighting against the armies of other countries, many cultivators might not necessarily come, nor would they necessarily be this enthusiastic.

The Sea Clan was different; every single cultivator wanted to kill them, explode resources, explode equipment, and could also improve their own cultivation through battle—why wouldn't they be happy to do so?

As long as his subordinates could handle it, Li Chen basically wouldn't make a move; whether it was the Northern Expedition or the Western Conquest, it was only when there were problems his subordinates couldn't solve that Li Chen would go personally.

This was also why Li Chen didn't want to come over at the very beginning.

The cultivators in the eastern May Tian Ce Dynasty were both numerous and strong, and the monarchs of past generations had never reduced the garrison in this region.

Coupled with the fact that the Third Prince, Li Yu, had been very diligent in training troops for the sake of rebellion, Li Chen had picked it all up.

Yet his appearance was also the main reason for the Sea Clan's failure to occupy the continent this time.

If he hadn't come, the Sea Clan would have dealt a heavy blow to the eastern May Tian Ce Dynasty's cultivators at the Sword Discussion Assembly, which would have led the cultivators to feel that the Sea Clan was very powerful, making them less daring to come and fight.

They would have also attacked the main force of the Fourth Group Army that came out of the city to support, causing the Fourth Group Army to be unable to support other regions in time.

With losses in these two aspects, the Sea Clan might have been able to occupy some important locations along the May Tian Ce Dynasty's coast in a short time, using them as a springboard to continuously attack the continent.

Looking at the situation before him, Li Chen was deep in thought.

Otherwise, why not directly treat the Sea Clan as a place for the human race to farm levels?

Li Chen's plan was plane ascension, and achieving this was very difficult.

After plane ascension, ancient races would appear, and the human race needed to improve its overall strength.

First, they needed a massive amount of resources; the May Tian Ce Dynasty had a large population and countless cultivators, but the resources weren't enough to go around. It was just like the entrance to the wild low-level mystical realms Li Chen had visited before, where there were always a bunch of people farming.

Moreover, every time a mystical realm opened, each person only had one chance, and many cultivators felt it wasn't enough.

According to Li Chen's way of thinking, for the human race to rise, they must treat other races as resources to be farmed.

Wasn't the Sea Clan a ready-made cultivation resource?

Li Chen didn't have the mindset of a victim; as the ruler of the May Tian Ce Dynasty, if one always thought about how not to get beaten or hurt, one would never become strong.

The best way not to get beaten is to develop strength, beat everyone else, and fight on the opponent's land, so that the people of one's own country don't suffer the hardships of war.

Not to mention that in the future, they would still have to open the dungeons of the myriad races of the heavens.

Many people in the human race love peace, and there is nothing wrong with that, but there are also many who are fierce and combative, stopping at nothing for the sake of cultivation.

Most of these people are sect cultivators, and sect cultivators are basically fearless of death.

The biggest contradiction within the human race is the insufficient distribution of resources.

They often fight because of resources like the birth of spiritual treasures or the appearance of spiritual mines.

!

This was the problem Li Chen discovered when investigating the sects.

The higher the level of the cultivator, the more fiercely they fight.

High-level resources are scarce, so they need to be contested.

Seeing the two hundred thousand cultivators farming the Sea Clan before him, Li Chen had already made preliminary plans in his heart.

He wanted to plan out a route for human cultivators to farm levels.

Just like the online games Li Chen played in his previous life, there would be strategy maps—from what level to what level, which place is suitable for farming monsters, and what kind of materials and props this place will drop.

As long as these are planned well, and then the rail trains are built, these cultivators can farm levels everywhere.

After farming the dungeons of the human continent, the cultivators' levels will also increase, and then the dungeons of the myriad races will be opened.

Only when the human race as a whole becomes strong can Li Chen stably be the Lord of the Myriad Races.

Unknowingly, the May Tian Ce Dynasty had been at war with the Sea Clan for over half a month.

If it were any other country, they would have already fought to the last drop of blood, resisting the Sea Clan's invasion to the death.

But here in the May Tian Ce Dynasty, there were more and more cultivators, and they were no longer satisfied with fighting the Sea Clan on land; one by one, they had already gone into the sea to "pioneer."

The reason this grand event could be caused was that the human race's "Water-Avoiding Technique" had been improved by Li Chen, and every cultivator of the May Tian Ce Dynasty could come to Chaoyin City to receive a copy.

The previous "Water-Avoiding Technique" required one to cast spells while diving into the deep sea, which was very troublesome when encountering battle.

After Li Chen's improvement, once the "Water-Avoiding Technique" was activated, there was no need to worry about it, and one could freely fight in the deep sea.

The May Tian Ce Dynasty had been at war with the Sea Clan for a month, and according to incomplete statistics, the number of cultivators who had come to the eastern coastal region had reached four hundred and thirty thousand.

The May Tian Ce Dynasty's Fourth Group Army had no battles at all; they had been responsible for maintaining order by the sea and handling disputes caused by cultivators "snatching monsters."

Not to mention the cultivators from the central May Tian Ce Dynasty, Li Chen even saw cultivators from the Purple Firmament Heaven Palace in the western May Tian Ce Dynasty teaming up to come over.

The leader was Li Chen's old acquaintance, the Master of the Jade Void Immortal Mansion, True Person Qingxu.

Many inland cultivators had never seen the sea, and this time they really treated it as a vacation.

What surprised Li Chen a bit was that He Lan Xuan from the north had also led his troops here; this fellow lived near the snowy mountains and was participating in a naval battle for the first time, looking very excited.

However, this fellow got seasick as soon as he boarded the ship, vomiting repeatedly, becoming a laughingstock to the other Sage Realms.

When other countries encounter a Sea Clan invasion, it is equivalent to a disaster descending, with the danger of national extinction.

Here in the May Tian Ce Dynasty, it is simply a nationwide dungeon, and the cultivators even feel that the Sea Clan is not enough to go around.

Merchants, smelling business opportunities, started doing business here, and various seafood products were continuously transported to the interior, quickly forming an industrial chain.

Coupled with the fact that the rail trains were also about to open to traffic, it is estimated that the coming time will be even more prosperous.

At this time, the Sea Clan army still didn't know that they were being farmed by others as monsters.

By the time they reacted, even if they didn't want to fight, this bunch of May Tian Ce Dynasty cultivators wouldn't let them off.

This is also why Li Chen had always felt that once the dungeons of the myriad races were opened, the ones to suffer would definitely be the myriad races.

Many people feel that the human race's aptitude is the worst among the myriad races, but Li Chen doesn't think so.

The human race has no powerful bloodline? No powerful physique? No powerful heavenly treasures?

Don't other races have them? We can go get them ourselves and refine them.

The Dragon race is very strong, all-around in every aspect.

But in the eyes of the human race, that is a walking opportunity.

For those cultivators and ordinary people who don't like to fight, Li Chen plans to let them max out the technology tree.

Encouraging the development of various technologies—just like during this period, the alchemist Xia Qing in the imperial palace had already been researching the "fully automatic alchemy furnace."

Once this kind of alchemy furnace is successful, it can mass-produce low-quality elixirs, solving the problem of insufficient alchemists.

For the fierce and combative cultivators, the myriad races are your stage!

Whenever you cause trouble, just come back; I've got you covered.

During the time he came to the eastern coast, Li Chen hadn't made a move at all; he was purely here to show his face, stabilize the morale of the army, and incidentally accept the worship of the cultivators.

Don't know why, but everyone felt that since the Emperor of the May Tian Ce Dynasty was here, there was simply no danger here.

Especially those troops secretly protecting Li Chen, they were just that idle.

They also felt that anyone who had nothing better to do and dared to come and attack this person was simply courting death.

Just as the situation had almost stabilized and Li Chen intended to return to the imperial capital to plan, True Person Qingxu sent a team-up application.

This team of Sage Realms invited Li Chen to go into the sea together!

(End of chapter)