Chapter 396: Crooked Melons, Rotten Dates

Wu Tie was like an old vulture, crouching on the watchtower all night.

The heavy rain also poured all night.

As dawn approached, a thick-as-a-water-jar python sneaked over from the southern jungle, peering and craning its head toward the interior of Great Marsh City for a long time.

On the wooden palisade of Great Marsh City, some defensive prohibitions were triggered by the python, and dense arcs of electricity crackled along the murky standing water toward the python.

The stout python's scales rose all over its body, it crackled with electric sparks, trembling, resolutely, it inched toward the city's palisade. Under the dense attacks of the prohibitions, it struggled to raise half its body, attempting to break into Great Marsh City.

Two Black Phoenix Army soldiers in crude leather armor ran over the palisade, glanced at the rock formation Wu Tie had made, then at the camp on it, pursed their lips, drew their longbows, and were about to strike at the python.

Wu Tie turned his head and waved a hand.

With a hiss, a blade arc of blazing white metal power shot forth, cleaving the python's huge head in one strike. The python's body thrashed violently, wildly beating against the palisade outside.

The two Black Phoenix Army soldiers stared, looking at Wu Tie, then at the continually twitching python corpse.

"Take it!" Wu Tie waved at the two Black Phoenix Army soldiers.

The two glanced at each other, lightly tapped their right fists to their chests in salute to Wu Tie, then leapt over the palisade, hoisted the still-wriggling python's body, grabbed its huge, gaping head, and jogged back to their own camp.

Yesterday, Wu Tie swept his soul power over the whole of Great Marsh City, paying particular attention to the Black Phoenix Army's garrison there.

Just over a thousand soldiers, their equipment was poor, the supplies in the storeroom were not fine either, especially their food reserves, which were scarce and mostly consisted of various tubers gathered from the forest, such as sweet potatoes.

This is a very "poor" private army.

In fact, when they returned from the mountains to Great Marsh City yesterday, Wu Tie could already see their straitened circumstances.

A huge transport train, though it appeared to carry a great deal of cargo, actually, if Wu Tie had that flagship tower ship on his head, one ship could hold dozens of times that convoy's cargo.

As for the Black Phoenix Army, they had only two miniature tower ships, each twenty-some zhang long, accompanying them for protection.

The Black Phoenix Army's life is not easy, so Wu Tie generously handed this python over to the two Black Phoenix Army soldiers to deal with.

The python's blood flooded the ground, the bloodwater slowly spread through the murky standing water, and a faint, pungent bloody smell drifted far away on the cool breeze.

Beyond the cleared flatland of Great Marsh City, at the edge of the forest, several beasts with extraordinarily keen smell probed and peered from the woods, gazing toward the city.

But these beasts were far smarter than that dull-witted python; they looked around for a while, then silently retreated back into the forest.

The eastern sky grew slightly bright, the rain clouds above finally dispersed, the black clouds vanished, and heavy gray clouds hung low overhead.

As soon as the heavy rain ceased, the temperature in the air began to rise rapidly.

Soon, a light mist appeared on the surface of standing water inside and outside the city, a wisp of murky, rotting vapor drifting up, as if a slab of fatty meat were wrapping everyone.

Wu Tie furrowed his brow; this vapor is not clean, ordinary people lingering in it long will surely develop plague or some other miscellaneous ailments.

At least high Foundation Establishment cultivation, plus taking some medicinal decoctions, is needed to resist this vapor's erosion.

No wonder, in Great Marsh City old people and children are rarely seen; mostly it's young and strong folk, women making up only about thirty percent, for the environment here is too harsh, those with slightly weaker bodies or lower cultivation hardly survive.

In the Great Jin, aside from military households, the cultivation methods spread among civilians are extremely crude and not widely disseminated; many of the criminals exiled to Great Marsh Prefecture, or their families, either have no cultivation or extremely weak foundations, and in such a godforsaken place, how long they can live is anyone's guess.

Li Er Haozi, having survived seven years here, boasts that he is the longest-lived resident of Great Marsh City.

"This godforsaken place." Wu Tie looked toward the Black Phoenix Army; it seemed they had no mind to govern Great Marsh City… they merely set up a tax official named Qian San here to collect money.

However, the Black Phoenix Army's approach is not wrong; legally speaking, Great Marsh City has little relation to them.

On the eastern hilltop, a point of red light shot up, the thick clouds in the sky gradually thinned, the temperature grew ever hotter, vapor rose, and in the fields outside the city, vast white mist even blocked the view of those cornstalks as tall as a person.

Inside the city, there were also drifting patches of vapor.

In the standing water, many worms became extremely active; Wu Tie narrowed his eyes and looked around, even seeing some worm larvae in the water rapidly hatching in the heat, soon turning into adult insects that buzzed and took off in swarms into the sky.

Inside Great Marsh City, a few heads of livestock walked by, shaking their heads and swaying their tails, when a massive swarm of mosquitoes descended, piercing their hides with sharp mouthparts and greedily gulping down their first ever hot blood.

Wu Tie let out a cold snort, and a faint heaviness rippled through the air above Great Marsh City.

Countless mosquitoes instantly turned to powder, falling as minuscule fragments.

But after only the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, countless worms emerged from the standing water, and from the distant forest, vast swarms of insects buzzed over; Wu Tie's recent snort did nothing to improve the city's ecological environment at all.

"This, godforsaken place." Wu Tie vigorously patted his own head.

In the netherworld, there aren't so many worries; the insects down there don't have such savage wildness.

From within the city came the sound of muddy footsteps; Li Er Haozi's voice called from afar: "Brothers, follow the general, eat well, drink spicy, look at these gold coins—hey, they glitter, they're all fun things."

"Being a soldier, eating rations… serving as a prefectural troop, eating full meals… my Li Er Haozi's eyes can judge people; this general is unlike those deadbeats before—he has great ability, follow him and you won't lose out."

Li Er Haozi tossed and turned all night, finally managing to gather people.

Wu Tie also didn't use supernatural powers, but rose eagerly to his feet, letting the tower ship floating above his head fly up a hundred or so zhang into the sky, squinting toward Li Er Haozi and company.

Hmm, I don't know how many this kid rounded up after a night of hustling… heroes!

The next instant, Wu Tie's face went completely stiff.

Li Er Haozi, wrapped in a coarse hemp sash around his waist, strode ahead boldly and energetically, his bare feet pounding the standing water, each step splashing great gobs of mud.

Behind him, a mighty throng of seven or eight hundred "heroes" followed.

Tall ones tall, short ones short, fat ones fat, thin ones thin, each with buckteeth, cheeks full of flesh, moreover many had triangular eyes, high cheekbones, sunken noses, short philtrums, jutting chins… every one looked short-lived and ill-fated.

When these fellows walked, just like Li Er Haozi, not one of them resembled a human being.

Swinging their hips, swinging their arms, as if a great pillar were clamped between their legs, they forced their legs apart, swayed their waists, and drove their upper bodies forward with a fling.

Their feet barely lifted more than an inch, both feet dragging mud and water as they "scuffed" forward through the mire; the standing water, which had slightly settled and turned somewhat clear, was churned by them into a stretch of muddy puddles.

When these fellows walked, every part of their bodies twitched, swayed, and wobbled.

Especially their heads, with each step they swayed left and right two or three, three or four times; their wandering, glancing eyes swept everywhere, like a pack of weasels passing a chicken coop, constantly eyeing the hens' rumps.

This group gave Wu Tie the feeling……

He instinctively touched the hilt of his sidearm; he really wanted to cut them down with a single sword stroke.

In the netherworld, under such harsh survival conditions, basically no such splendid "heroes and champions" would appear; everyone is busy surviving, fighting for living space and resources, and such a worthless layabout wouldn't last three days down there.

Only the Great Jin, a vast, wealthy realm with largely peaceful internal conditions, could breed such treasures known as "city foxes and shrine rats," or alternatively "ruffians," and more pleasantly called "marketplace heroes."

Wu Tie, having lived so many years, has never seen such a splendid existence in the netherworld.

Even in the memories of Huo Xiong, such riffraff hardly ever appears.

After all, "Huo Xiong" grew up in a military household from childhood, entered the Martial Arts Training Hall after gaining a bit of sense, then joined the Divine Martial Army stationed at the Three Kingdoms battlefield; he rarely interacted with common folk. Moreover, the customs of Flower Insect City are fierce and simple, so such a remarkable person couldn't be raised there.

Li Er Haozu stood tall and proud, bringing this group of remarkable, extravagant figures to the foot of the camp.

He wiped the smile from his face, bowed humbly toward Wu Tie standing atop the watchtower: "General, sir, I've recruited all the good fellows from Great Marsh City for you. Hey, everyone else is terrified of death; no one dares to join the provincial army... a bunch of clueless fools."

Li Er Haozu turned, pointed at the group behind him, and announced loudly: "These brothers are different—each one is a daring good fellow who's taken a few lives, values righteousness, is loyal to his brothers, and will never embarrass you, General!"

Wu Tie stood on the watchtower for a long time without uttering a sound.

He looked down from his high position, and suddenly a vast soul power surged forth, sweeping quickly over these fellows.

Hmm, there are over twenty Chonglou Realm cultivators, five or six hundred Sensing Mystery Realm, and the rest are at the peak of Foundation Establishment.

Their level actually exceeded Wu Tie's expectations—no wonder, in this broken place, without this much cultivation they wouldn't survive a few days.

As soon as Wu Tie's soul fluctuation erupted, the "good brothers" all felt as if a great mountain weighed on their hearts; they shouted in unison, each thud-thud-thudding down onto the ground, sweat pouring like rain, feeling Wu Tie like a god or demon standing atop the clouds looking down on them, not daring to lift their heads to meet his gaze.

At the west gate, Qian San, who was leading a transport team preparing to leave the city, suddenly turned his head in shock and looked over toward Wu Tie.

Wu Tie's soul fluctuation was so overbearing and so pure that even Qian San, at the Fetal Storage Realm, felt immense pressure.

"This guy... clearly is a Life Pool Realm cultivator, but his soul aura... what cultivation method is he practicing?" Qian San's body trembled slightly; he became ever more certain that Wu Tie had powerful backing, a powerful patron.

Otherwise, an ordinary Life Pool Realm cultivator without a top-tier technique couldn't possibly exert such pressure on Qian San.

Wu Tie coldly eyed Li Er Haozu and his group, speaking in a cold voice: "You bring this bunch of junk back for me?"

Li Er Haozu trembled slightly, raised his head, and gave a wry smile: "Sir, sir, it's really the people of Great Marsh City—they've long been scared witless... several provincial governors and provincial army commanders died... originally there was a provincial army of several hundred, all proper soldiers, and they all died cleanly."

"No one dares, no one wishes to join the provincial army anymore."

Li Er Haozu said quietly: "They'd rather loaf around, waiting to die, helping the Black Phoenix Army transport goods for a few sweet potatoes to get by, than risk their lives."

"Only these brothers—they all want to eat well and drink heartily, to live happily... the Black Phoenix Army looks down on these brothers; I, a lowly person, brought gold coins over, which is why the brothers came to seek refuge with you, General."

Wu Tie licked the corner of his mouth, looked up at the sky, and remained silent for a long time.

Lao Tie's voice echoed faintly in his mind: "What can be done? Faced with this pile of goods... starving as you are, even if it's a pile of stinking dog feces, you have to eat it!"

Wu Tie grimaced, feeling nauseated by Lao Tie's words.

He angrily drew a breath, then waved his hand forcefully: "Fine, I won't ask what you lot were up to before, nor care about your character or virtue, nor what you've done here or who you've harmed..."

"If you dare to come seek refuge with me, I'll let you eat your fill, drink your heart's content, eat well and drink heartily, so you can all get a beautiful wife!"

Gritting his teeth, feeling his teeth ache, Wu Tie snapped: "Strip off all that junk you're wearing, come on, enter the camp—everyone bathe, change clothes, shave your heads, get cleaned up properly."

A group of men kneeling in the muddy water stared blankly; Li Er Haozu was the first to react.

He cheered, tore off the ragged cloth wrapped around his waist, and ran naked up the stone steps toward the camp.

The other men also suddenly realized, shouting in unison, each tearing off the animal hides, cloth, and tattered clothing they wore, each naked and howling "ah-ah", eyes reddened, they charged toward the camp on the rocks.

A third-grade immortal soldier–level active camp, with all kinds of facilities complete.

Hundreds of men helped each other scrub their hair clean, using boiling water to scour off a layer of skin, each becoming spotless; then Wu Tie tossed out hundreds of sets of soldier uniforms and standard-issue sabers, spears, etc., and once these fellows donned the uniforms and armed themselves, they actually began to look somewhat like proper soldiers.

The military's allocated supplies were enough for 100,000 people for a year; Wu Tie was not stingy, he tossed out barrel after barrel of fine wine, block after block of frozen pork, lamb, beef, etc., cleaned and prepared, while a group of men cheered, lit a bonfire, and skewered large chunks of the frozen meat over the fire.

Soon, the aroma of wine and meat drifted from Wu Tie's camp, carried by the morning wind for over ten li, almost spreading throughout Great Marsh City.

Wu Tie hovered in midair, with metal boxes floating beside him, he shouted loudly, his voice carrying throughout Great Marsh City.

"Follow me, eat meat, drink wine, have gold!"

"Come, first a hundred gold each as settlement fee... come, take a look at this glittering treasure."

Wu Tie waved his hand, and handfuls of gold coins poured down.

Inside the camp, cheers thundered; countless "good fellows'" eyes rolled wildly, each shouting hoarsely, "Willing to die for the army lord!"