Chapter 518: Mu Lan: Husband!

Du Tiechuan, a Soul Transformation cultivator, specialized in military strategy and was one of the Grand Generals of the Nandou Kingdom.

He possessed a heavenly talent—Iron Wall.

This heavenly talent allowed a cultivator to greatly enhance their own defense in a short period, standing as immovable as an iron city wall. Consequently, while using this heavenly talent, the cultivator could not move and had to remain rooted in place.

Because of such a significant drawback, the Iron Wall heavenly talent had always been rated as low-grade.

A low-grade heavenly talent seemed unworthy of a figure like Du Tiechuan.

However, what is powerful has never been the heavenly talent, magic treasure, or cultivation art; what is truly powerful has always been the cultivator themselves.

Any heavenly talent is merely an opportunity.

How one grasps this opportunity and excavates the intrinsic value within it has always varied from person to person.

In terms of results, Du Tiechuan firmly grasped this opportunity and excavated a massive treasure from it!

He developed his heavenly talent, causing it to advance into a divine ability.

Even after advancing, the Iron Wall divine ability remained mediocre compared to other divine abilities, with few usage scenarios and low practical value.

But in Du Tiechuan's hands, he combined the Iron Wall divine ability with his primary cultivation art to create a series of military strategies.

Among them, Iron Torrent Leveling the Plains was the most powerful and famous!

Once this art was unleashed, it could empower soldiers, causing the entire army's weight and defense to surge, their strength and offensive power to become a unified whole, and their speed to constantly increase, becoming faster and faster. Ultimately, it utilized the formidable momentum to exchange for unparalleled attack power.

Its momentum was as vast as a tornado, shattering mountains and opening seas, sweeping across the heavens and earth, unstoppable.

The army was like a steel torrent, crushing everything, invincible, flattening all obstacles, and expanding territory!

Any obstacle standing before the army would be crushed and ground into slag. Even powerful individual cultivators would have to face tens of thousands of steel beasts, finding it difficult to resist.

This was Du Tiechuan's trump card, his ace in the hole; used correctly, it could determine the outcome of a war.

After the vanguard was trapped and the situation became unclear, Du Tiechuan dispatched four armies deep into the Thousand Peaks Forest, secretly sending powerful cultivators to escort them.

After probing the enemy's strength and reality, he spent a massive fortune to quickly construct the Dragon Chant Nine Pillars Review Platform.

Each army was inspected in turn, allowing Du Tiechuan to train these troops while selecting the excellent ones suitable for executing the Iron Torrent Leveling the Plains military strategy.

After the first round of the review, many generals guessed Du Tiechuan's intentions.

The Grand General issued a clear military order that day, explaining the plan for the next nine days: five rounds of reviews. The army that ultimately held out until the fifth round would serve as the main force to execute the Iron Torrent Leveling the Plains military strategy and launch a full-scale attack on the Thousand Peaks Forest.

For a time, the entire army was in an uproar, all discussing this military strategy.

Past battle records had thoroughly proven the power of this strategy.

It could be said that this was Du Tiechuan's unique skill!

"We must join! Every time the Iron Torrent Leveling the Plains military strategy has been used, it has been a great victory, without a single exception."

"Being able to personally participate and experience the famous Iron Torrent Leveling the Plains military strategy is a peerless opportunity for my military cultivation."

"We must join! Once the war begins, the main force will be empowered by the Iron Torrent Leveling the Plains military strategy, making them unshakable. The remaining border troops will be focused-fired by the enemy and reduced to cannon fodder."

The soldiers were not stupid; after discussing it, they understood the situation.

The dozen or so armies in Mulun Town would all be selected or eliminated in this test.

The armies selected would receive the military strategy empowerment, not only ensuring their safety but also guaranteeing military merit.

The armies eliminated would generally follow the main force, and their situation would be very dangerous. The enemy was not stupid and would naturally avoid the strong to strike the weak, specifically targeting the vulnerable links.

Especially the Thousand Peaks Forest side; although they were a local alliance, they were not supported by the national strength of a kingdom and lacked veteran iron troops tempered by war.

The Thousand Peaks Forest coalition was not adept at frontal offensive confrontations; facing the main army empowered by the Iron Torrent Leveling the Plains military strategy, they would have to be fools to strike a stone with an egg.

Therefore, their reaction was almost certain—to strike with all their might at the other armies.

Only by quickly eliminating that segment could they regain some advantage and then seek an opportunity to engage in a decisive battle with the main force of the Nandou Kingdom after the Iron Torrent Leveling the Plains military strategy ended!

"We must fight with all our might to squeeze into the main force."

"We must not be eliminated. Once the war starts, the situation will be very unfavorable for us."

"Two different treatments—one is almost heaven, the other is hell."

With this realization, many generals began to operate on the very night Du Tiechuan officially issued the military order.

But all public relations efforts ended in failure!

Du Tiechuan had long been prepared; he was the only one who could make the selection results, and no one else could participate.

Some well-connected soldiers went to visit Du Tiechuan directly, but even the Princess of Mechanism was coldly rejected by Du Tiechuan!

"I govern the army strictly; you all must abide by military discipline."

"If I take the lead in violating it, how can I command the entire army?"

Du Tiechuan spoke righteously.

This attitude, once spread, caused his reputation to grow rapidly.

Two days later, the entire army conducted its second review.

This time, Ning Zhuo felt much less pressure, no longer as uncomfortable as before. However, the reactions of others were generally poor, and many soldiers in the Three Generals Camp fainted on the spot halfway through.

According to the layout of the review platform, the pressure borne by soldiers of different cultivation levels during the inspection was different.

Ning Zhuo was a Qi Condensation stage cultivator, so he bore the inspection of the Qi Condensation level.

If it were testing his combat power, realm, or magic power, he would pass easily. The problem was that the focus of the inspection was his self-defense and the strength of his physical body.

This made him feel quite uncomfortable during his first experience.

"But it's much better this time!"

"Many Qi Condensation cultivators also fainted."

"The reason for changing this situation is that I borrowed the Fetal Breath Spirit Boat."

Ning Zhuo liked this cultivation shortcut that Sun Lingtong had accidentally developed more and more, and he was becoming addicted to it.

After this round, only a little over sixty percent of the soldiers in the Three Generals Camp passed, and nearly forty percent were eliminated.

"Our army was established not long ago, and the soldiers we absorbed are of mixed quality. It is quite reasonable for so many to be eliminated," Ning Zhuo comforted the three generals.

Generals Guan Hong stroked his beard and said with some envy, "The Red Flower Camp performed very well; almost no personnel were eliminated."

Ning Zhuo shook his head, "Following this trend, they will also have a large number of eliminated personnel appearing."

Sure enough, in the third round of the review, the Red Flower Camp also had a large number of eliminations, and more than half of the people in the Three Generals Camp did not complete the course, which was quite embarrassing.

Even the Barbarian Demon Camp was in a much better situation than them.

This army had experienced total annihilation, was rebuilt not long ago, and was sent out as a pawn to probe the Thousand Peaks Forest's military strength, suffering no small losses in the process.

However, the physical fitness of the barbarian tribes and demon cultivators possessed innate advantages over human cultivators.

The performance of the Three Generals Camp could almost be considered the bottom.

This caused the three generals to lose face and also feel a strong sense of crisis.

"What method can be used to increase physical strength as quickly as possible?"

"There have been three consecutive rounds of reviews, and there are only two rounds left."

"The key is that the difficulty of each round of review increases too much. If this trend continues, I'm afraid none of the dozen or so armies in Mulun Town will be qualified."

"In the past, did Du Tiechuan have such high requirements?"

The anxiety and questions of the three generals were also the content of the soldiers' discussions.

People who knew the inside story existed.

From the mouth of Du Tiechuan's deputy general, a secret forbidden art spread—Iron Skin Flesh Armor Art!

This magic art was extremely painful to cast, requiring the cultivator to peel off their own skin and fur, leaving the muscles completely exposed, and then wear armor.

Under this magic art, the armor and flesh would adhere and merge, becoming a whole.

The armor would then replace the previous skin.

In this way, the cultivator's defense would skyrocket, their physical quality would leap, and they would have a flying progress.

And such eager-for-quick-success growth naturally had quite a few drawbacks.

For example, if maintained for a long time, it would erode the cultivator. This degree of erosion would become more and more serious; at first, it would only target the physical body, and later it would also affect the cultivator's temperament.

It was a demonic art, after all; the vast majority of demonic arts, when cultivated to the depths, would distort a cultivator's normal mind.

However, these drawbacks only had results after a relatively long time.

As far as the present is concerned, the war is imminent. If one had this means to ensure they could join the list empowered by the Iron Torrent Leveling the Plains military strategy, then the survival rate on the battlefield would be very high.

Surviving on the battlefield would also mean no lack of military merit, and one might even rise rapidly in the ranks.

Calculating it this way, any fool would know how to choose.

The vast majority of soldiers chose to give it a try!

For a time, the demand for full-body heavy armor throughout the army soared and quickly climbed to a very exaggerated level.

Many generals found the quartermaster for the first time.

The quartermaster smiled and told everyone: The military equipment allocated by the Royal Capital had already been issued. However, there was indeed a batch of heavy armor as a reserve to guarantee the battle damage and replacement of heavy armored soldiers.

The generals' eyes lit up, and they offered bribes one after another, expressing a strong desire to purchase.

The quartermaster then quoted an astonishingly high price.

This scared away quite a few people on the spot, and some straight-talking generals even threw their hands up, cursing the quartermaster for being too black-hearted!

The quartermaster was not scared off; he always insisted on this price and even said, "Generals, the quantity of heavy armor is limited. First come, first served. The fewer the quantity later, the higher the selling price we will propose."

A simple sentence immediately opened up the situation.

Some wealthy generals took the lead in purchasing, forcing other generals to follow suit. Soon, arguments broke out among the generals, resulting in intense bidding.

"What? Is there a quota for each army?" Some generals wanted to buy the whole lot, but were stopped by the quartermaster.

The quartermaster was calm, "Generals, don't make things difficult for me."

"There are only so many full-body heavy armors; it's impossible to sell them to just one person or one army."

"Otherwise, it would be hard for me to report to my superiors."

The quartermaster spread his hands, expressing his helplessness, and finally added, "Of course, you can also choose not to buy."

The generals looked at each other.

Soon, some people pinched their noses, their faces full of bitterness, "Buy, buy, buy!"

The quantity of heavy armor was limited, and the quota for each army was also limited, often failing to cover the scale of the army's total number of people.

Just like that, the heavy armor was still snatched up by many.

Because things are valued for their scarcity, the price of the remaining heavy armor climbed steadily and soon reached a level that made people shrink back.

Ning Zhuo was cultivating in the Fetal Breath Spirit Boat and was already late when he learned of this news.

Liu Er was pacing anxiously, grabbed his arm, and hurried to see the quartermaster.

After learning the price, Ning Zhuo stared; what was the difference between this and robbery?

Liu Er's face was even paler.

"I'll buy it." Ning Zhuo thought for a moment and made a decision on the spot.

He gritted his teeth and took out a small half of his assets, buying four hundred sets of full-body heavy armor on the spot.

As for light armor, there was also some for sale. But experienced deputy generals had already stated clearly that one must have heavy armor to fully exert the power of the forbidden art and have hope of passing the inspection.

Slightly inferior half-body heavy armor did not have this possibility, let alone light armor.

The quartermaster was shocked by this and stared at Ning Zhuo.

The news of Ning Zhuo spending a thousand gold pieces spread, causing a wave of heated discussion.

Liu Er was moved, and the previous resentment had vanished, "The military advisor has paid too much; Er will keep it in mind, keep it in mind!"

Ning Zhuo, "It's just a pity that it's still impossible to equip the entire army."

The two returned to the Three Generals Camp and were just about to enter the camp when Mu Lan descended from the sky.

She stared at Ning Zhuo, "Husband, I heard you just bought four hundred sets of heavy armor?"

Liu Er's face changed suddenly.

The word "husband" did indeed stimulate him.

He immediately looked at Ning Zhuo, his expression nervous, wanting to speak but stopping.

He felt a surge of resentment again, but the emotion that outweighed the disgust was fear!

At this moment, Liu Er was extremely worried that Ning Zhuo would go back on his word.

Ning Zhuo touched his nose and said with a bitter smile, "General Mu Lan, don't be like this. If you want to buy full-body heavy armor, I can also subsidize some."

Mu Lan was not satisfied, "Even if I use up my quota, the number of heavy armors bought won't be enough to cover the entire army. So, husband, I still want a portion of the heavy armor in your hands."

"This..." Ning Zhuo was suddenly in a difficult position.

Mu Lan shook her head, her attitude firm, "My Red Flower Camp's Red Flower Battle Array requires elite soldiers and strong generals to be concluded and operated. Lacking a portion of people has a huge impact on my army."

"Liu Er."

"Your Three Generals Camp has fewer people; you can just recruit more."

Mu Lan had also been worrying about this problem for some time recently.

She had actually come into contact with information about the forbidden art earlier than Ning Zhuo, but she was troubled by the lack of funds to purchase it.

The financial resources Ning Zhuo displayed this time truly shocked her. She had never expected that this big-headed boy would be so rich!

If she had known this earlier, what was there to be anxious about?

For the sake of her own Red Flower Camp, Mu Lan also went all out, directly calling Ning Zhuo "husband." This caused excitement and restlessness among the soldiers in the camp; they frequently used their eyes to size up Mu Lan and Ning Zhuo and also communicated closely through divine sense.

On one side was the firm Mu Lan, and on the other was the expectant Liu Er.

Ning Zhuo was suddenly plunged into a difficult dilemma.