Chapter 300

Thin streams of flowing light, sharp whistling, swept past his sides, like showers of meteors speeding through.

Wu Jin let out a low, hoarse roar, straining to break free, but a tremendous force held his body captive; no matter how he struggled, he could not move an inch.

He felt himself like a swollen muscle forced into an extremely narrow tube, then stretched, stretched, stretched to the limit, finally becoming a thin, straight strand of flesh that swiftly flowed through a tube of unknown length.

In his peripheral vision he could see Taotie Jiu and Wu Xue.

Their bodies also turned into thin streams of flowing light, mouths open, shrieking sharply, gliding swiftly through the void just like Wu Jin.

The world spun, his head swam; after an unknown time, a sudden "thud" echoed, and Wu Jin's head slammed into the ground.

The hulking Wu Jin, remarkably agile, rolled with the momentum a few times, easily shedding the huge impact, then he chopped his axe into the ground, used the rebound to leap up, and swiftly raised his left-handed Toumu wooden shield, carefully holding it before his chest to block the soul-nourishing bowl there.

Two more dull thuds sounded, and Taotie Jiu and Wu Xue also toppled headfirst to the ground.

These two fellows clearly lacked Wu Jin's stamina; they fell dazed and disoriented, unable to get up for a long while.

After several breaths, Taotie Jiu, whose bodily strength was somewhat greater than Wu Xue's, painfully climbed to his feet, staggered over to Wu Xue, and kicked his head hard.

A whip-lash whistled in from afar, striking Taotie Jiu's back like a vicious snake.

Taotie Jiu let out a miserable howl, the whip hurling him one or two hundred meters away; he lay on the ground, his whole body twitching and spasming, tiny sparks of electricity continually flashing from his skin.

"Here, in the Three Sovereigns Battalion of the Demon‑Subjugating Army of the Fuxi Divine State, all who enter this battalion are its soldiers, all comrades. Among comrades, mutual attack is strictly forbidden; anyone who dares to violate this will be dealt with according to military law."

"Considering you are newcomers unaware of military discipline, I will give you just one lash as a light punishment."

"If you dare to break military rules again, it won't be settled by a single lash."

A burly man clad in black armor, his aura heavy and solemn, his face like iron, strode over holding a long whip; each step sent tremors through the earth, making the hard, thick ground quiver like water.

Wu Jin gave the burly man a wary glance.

Then he looked around.

This was a stretch of dark‑red gravel plain, roughly a hundred li square, with three sides bounded by towering cliffs and one side a sheer slope cut into giant steps that ascended layer upon layer, leading who knows where.

On the plain stood row upon row of massive stone barracks.

Between the barracks lay open spaces often a hundred zhang square, where many men and women whose bodies radiated killing intent stood near and far, their cold, stern gazes fixed on Wu Jin and his two companions.

Wu Jin could see at least three or five hundred men and women in his field of view, their auras very… familiar.

Wu Jin instinctively turned his gaze to the two youths nearest him, who looked like twin brothers; both were tall, brawny, their bodies bulging with knotted muscle.

Upon seeing Wu Jin look at them, the two youths grinned simultaneously; yellow energy rose from their bodies, each producing a golden‑light seal and a golden‑light longsword from within that aura.

Wu Jin's face twitched violently.

The youths' auras were exactly the same as the Human Sovereign inheritance Wu Jin had received in the Nuwa clan's ancestral land; especially the dim, semi‑material golden‑light seal matched the pattern of Wu Jin's own Human Sovereign ribbon as if cast from the same mold.

"You too… are Human Sovereigns?" Wu Jin stared at the two youths in astonishment.

The two youths gave a bitter smile and said nothing.

The burly man in heavy armor, holding a thunder‑light whip that had lashed Taotie Jiu into convulsions, turned to Wu Jin and smirked: "So why is this called the Three Sovereigns Battalion? It means every soldier here is a fortunate one who has received the inheritance of the Heavenly Sovereign, Earthly Sovereign, and Human Sovereign."

He coiled the whip around his arm, slapped his palm hard, and said: "But who told you that receiving the primordial three sovereigns' seed scattered across the world guarantees you'll become a sovereign? Ha, ha, ha—first you must survive the Demon‑Subjugating Army's campaigns."

Wu Jin drew a deep breath, glared at the big man, and shouted: "Why should I become a soldier of the Three Sovereigns Battalion?"

The big man lunged two steps toward Wu Jin, eyes wide, locking onto him: "Because the elders of the Fuxi Divine State have chosen you."

Wu Jin shook his head: "I don't want to be chosen by them; I have my own affairs, I have no time to fight and kill for you."

The big man also shook his head, grinning: "That's not up to you!"

Wu Jin raised his right‑hand great axe: "But I don't want to stay here, I don't want to fight and die for you for no reason—I…"

The big man standing before Wu Jin vanished suddenly, reappearing out of thin air behind him.

Wu Jin's reaction was already at its limit; he swung his left wooden shield in a wide rearward block, but the big man's speed exceeded his by more than tenfold. The man, wielding his electric‑light whip, lashed hard into Wu Jin's right‑side ribs.

Thunderlight cracked, thumb‑thick bolts of lightning bounced and refracted across Wu Jin's body, emitting dull explosions.

Wu Jin's body convulsed violently, every muscle spasming, his five viscera and six bowels feeling as if stabbed by knives; he let out a low roar and drove his right elbow backward with all his might, slamming it into the big man's chest.

The big man gave a heh‑heh laugh, released his whip, lifted his right hand, and pressed his fingers hard onto Wu Jin's elbow.

Wu Jin let out a miserable cry.

His five fingers involuntarily loosened, and his right elbow emitted a sharp cracking sound.

He felt as if his elbow had struck an iron nail; the big man's fingers were unharmed, while Wu Jin's elbow shattered into dozens of fragments.

The big man laughed "ka‑ka", seized Wu Jin's right shoulder with his left hand, then drove his knee hard into Wu Jin's lower back, crushing his spinal bones to pieces.

Wu Jin cried out in pain, his body collapsing like a small mountain.

The big man stepped on Wu Jin's head, grinding his sole hard; half of Wu Jin's face sank into the red gravel.

"You, the little winged bird, and this pale‑face… you three, remember me." He pointed his thumb at his own nose and roared: "I am the commander of the Three Sovereigns Battalion of the Demon‑Subjugating Army of the Fuxi Divine State, Chulongxiong…"

"Remember that."

"In the Three Sovereigns Battalion, no matter your background, origin, what dog‑shit luck you've had, or what mighty ancient inheritance you've obtained, I am heaven, I am earth, I am your very ancestors!"

"I say you eat, you eat."

"I say you drink, you drink."

"I say you train, you train."

"I say you fight, you fight."

"I say you charge, you charge."

"I say you die, you die!"

"Anyone who disobeys, I can kill him at any moment; I am Chulongxiong, and everyone who knows me knows my temper is terrible."

"Of course, if one day you can slap me down with a single palm, heh heh, you too could become commander of the Three Sovereigns Battalion… or there may be an even better position, a throne you won't want to leave, waiting for you."

While Chulongxiong sprayed saliva as he lectured Wu Jin, Wu Xue struggled to his feet nearby.

His face ashen, he gazed at the spittle‑spewing Chulongxiong and finally stammered: "Chulong commander, I am of the Golden Crow clan… Wu Xue."

Chulongxiong gave Wu Xue a sidelong glance: "A chick of the Golden Crow clan? What's up? What do you want to say? Do you want to tell me how mighty your Golden Crow clan is, so I should look up to you or treat you differently?"

The thunder-and-lightning whip that Zhu Longjuan had just thrown on the ground shot up violently, winding like a poisonous snake, and lashed heavily onto Wu Xiao's body.

Wu Xiao let out a miserable howl, was flung hundreds of meters by that whip, his whole body spraying electric sparks, his body twitching as he collapsed to the ground, convulsing all over, unable to get up again.

"Don't bring up that nonsense. I've said it before—your background, your family lineage, are useless here."

"The Three Emperors Camp is the elite of the elite within the Fuxi Divine Kingdom's Demon-subjugating Army; only those fortunate ones who have received the Primordial Three Emperors' inheritance may join. Such fortunate ones are few, so once you enter the Three Emperors Camp, you must either accumulate enough merit, or beat me down, or become a corpse..."

"Besides these three ways, nothing else works."

"Once you enter the Three Emperors Camp, your lives, your flesh, your souls are mine!" Zhu Longjuan laughed loudly: "Either you leave the Three Emperors Camp after earning enough merit to rise in rank, or you beat me down and take over command of the Three Emperors Camp, or you die and leave."

"These words are not only for you three greenhorn brats, but also for you lot of bastards."

Zhu Longjuan sneered: "In the near future there will be a great battle; I must remind you to keep the Three Emperors Camp's military regulations in mind, and not do anything that will make you regret it for the rest of your lives… oh, no—if you violate the military regulations, you won't even have a chance to regret."

Zhu Longjuan laughed brightly, raised his right hand, and snapped his fingers sharply.

A middle-aged man in a yellow robe, his visage ethereal and gaunt, strode over, stood beside Wu Jin, pulled from his sleeve a gourd wrapped in radiant rosy clouds, pulled out the stopper, and aimed the gourd's mouth at Wu Jin.

Strands of water mist, carrying a rich herbal fragrance, sprayed out and quickly enveloped Wu Jin's body.

Wu Jin's shattered spine and elbows healed in just two breaths; moreover, the old scars all over his body from these years faded considerably, and his dark complexion became somewhat fair and delicate.

Zhu Longjuan withdrew the big toe he had been stepping on Wu Jin's head with, then burst into a 'ga-ga' laugh at Wu Jin: "Oh, little guy, your skin has turned a bit whiter, you're actually somewhat handsome. Well, though, handsomeness is useless on the battlefield; to survive you must rely on your fists."

Wu Jin panted, slowly pushing himself up from the ground.

He lowered his gaze, looking at Zhu Longjuan, who was much shorter than him but whose strength exceeded his by an unknown number of levels, and pointed sharply at Wu Xiao: "He has Queen Mother Herb on him; if you give me the Queen Mother Herb, what about serving the Fuxi Divine Kingdom for you?"

Zhu Longjuan blinked his eyes.

He looked at Wu Xiao, grabbed with his right hand, and Wu Xiao flew violently into his grasp.

Zhu Longjuan violently ripped Wu Xiao's storage artifact from his body, forcibly opened it, and drew out a stalk shaped like a reed, displaying seven-colored hues, its entire body speckled with spiritual light like countless stars swirling around—a divine herb.

"Queen Mother Herb?" Zhu Longjuan glanced askance at the Soul-nurturing Bowl on Wu Jin's chest: "You want to use Queen Mother Herb to resurrect your kin?"

Wu Jin nervously stared at the Queen Mother Herb.

This Queen Mother Herb was jointly discovered by them in the Kunlun Ruins, but Wu Xiao seized it outright by relying on his speed advantage. He said in a low voice: "Yes, this Queen Mother Herb—I want to revive my father and two younger brothers."

Zhu Longjuan gave a cold snort, and with one hand crushed that stalk of Queen Mother Herb.

Wu Jin stared blankly at the seven-colored specks spraying from Zhu Longjuan's hand, then let out a long, extremely anguished howl from his chest, seized his axe, and swung it at Zhu Longjuan's neck.

Zhu Longjuan lunged forward to Wu Jin's face, struck his right arm with a left elbow, and shattered Wu Jin's arm outright.

A heavy punch slammed into Wu Jin's lower abdomen; he let out a miserable cry, involuntarily bent over, then heavily knelt on the ground. The blow nearly broke his intestines, the pain almost making him faint.

"You idiot, ignorant brat… this is the Queen Mother Herb from those ruined medicinal fields in the Kunlun Ruins, right?" Zhu Longjuan sneered: "With the medicinal potency of these junk items, resurrecting the dead? You're wishing too much."

"Reversing life and death, inverting yin and yang—where is that so easy? If a single broken Queen Mother Herb could do that… after all these years, after all my sworn brothers who died in battle… heh heh, given the relationship between the Xi and Nuwa clans, is there any Queen Mother Herb left in the Kunlun Ruins for you?"

Zhu Longjuan gazed deeply at Wu Jin: "Resurrecting the dead—don't even think about it before you attain a sage's cultivation… even if you were a sage, you couldn't so easily revive a person; the constraints are too many, too great, impossible…"

"But I have a method that can give your father and two younger brothers bodies, and let them accompany you in battle, giving you more chances to survive on the battlefield—are you willing?"

Zhu Longjuan crossed his arms before his chest and said coldly: "If it were anyone else, I wouldn't even want to give him this opportunity—the bodies of three primordial demon gods don't come cheap… but since I find you pleasing to the eye, more so than that little bird of the Golden Crow clan and that pretty face, I bother to deal with you, you stupid thing."

Wu Jin stared blankly, lifted his head, gritted his teeth, and asked Zhu Longjuan: "Is what you said true?"

Zhu Longjuan laughed: "Those three primordial demon god bodies must be exchanged for military merit… I've counted you as having prepaid the merit, so don't die too early, or I'll suffer a loss."