Chapter 423

Outside Daze City, in the not-yet-completed military camp, inside the commander's great tent, Sima You and the other royal clan commanders, after opening all kinds of prohibitions, raved like madmen, cursing heaven and earth inside the tent, and smashed everything breakable inside the tent to pieces.

They shouted and cursed through the first half of the night; when the second half came, dozens of royal clan commanders had large amounts of alcohol brought in, and also secretly summoned the maidservants they had furtively brought.

A group got dead drunk, and inside the tent they engaged in a wild brawl with the maidservants who had washed off their makeup, taken off their female attire, and dressed in soldier's garb, fighting until dawn.

The exhausted party, only in the afternoon did Sima Hu step forward, alone enter Daze City, hand over a silk pouch to Wu Tie, and without even taking a sip of tea, left the city with a blackened face.

"Swapping birdguns for cannons—unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable!"

Wu Tie stood laughing in the center of the council hall, facing a large full-length bronze mirror, watching his own body radiate seven-colored divine light in the mirror.

True to their noble birth, and being a group of pampered aristocrats even among the favored clans of the Great Jin, these fellows are extremely fat, extremely fat……They indeed pieced together a set of Ninefold Refined Immortal Arms for Wu Tie.

Just like the Interlocking Mountain Pattern Armor Wu Tie now wears, this is a complete set of fully enclosed heavy armor, originally Sima You's prized possession kept at the bottom of his chest, a coming-of-age gift from his maternal clan, the Linghu, when he came of age.

Sima You treasured this armor as dearly as his life, rarely even wearing it; while in Anyang City, he constantly hung it in his own living room as a most precious display piece to show off.

If it weren't for this time opening the secret passage, which carries enormous risk, Sima You would never bear to take this armor out of Anyang City.

But now it's fine—this set's quality subtly surpasses the Ninefold Refined Immortal Arms; not only is its defense astonishing, but its design is magnificently splendid, and this Interlocking Mountain Pattern Armor has become Wu Tie's.

Countless tiny mountain-shaped armor plates, nine layers inside and out, tightly woven together; each plate the size of a mung bean contains an extremely high-grade defensive grand formation, and the tens of thousands of plates' formations are interlinked as one, their defensive power comparable to the city-defense grand formation of a heavy fortress.

Such secretly forged armor, unless attacked by a frenzied onslaught of immortal treasures of the same grade, is nearly impossible for human strength to destroy.

Heaven only knows what Sima You felt when he gave away this Interlocking Mountain Pattern Armor.

But what does this have to do with Wu Tie?

After all, we are enemies; if the enemy is sad and tearful, Wu Tie will be delighted.

Besides this extraordinarily precious set of Interlocking Mountain Pattern Armor, this group of pampered royal clan commanders also pieced together a complete set of Ninefold Refined Immortal Arms–grade long and short weapons and esoteric treasures for Wu Tie, twelve pieces of Ninefold Refined Immortal Arms in total, bringing the total number of Wu Tie's Ninefold Refined Immortal Arms–grade killing secret treasures to thirteen.

Just think, when Wu Tie first sneaked into the Great Jin, the Hua clan, a prominent family of Pinghu County in Jiushan Prefecture of Zhongheng State, had as their clan's supreme treasure nothing more than a single Ninefold Refined Immortal Arms, the "Myriad Arms Bell"—that shows how precious Ninefold Refined Immortal Arms truly are.

Wu Tie's this extortion really struck Sima You and the others to the heart!

Especially unexpected to Wu Tie was that Sima You and the others actually allowed him to make a lion's big mouth demand, sending over a Heavenly Dao Divine Weapon.

This is a fist-sized Sage Treasure Pearl, heard to have been refined by a certain ancestor of the Sima clan who, tens of thousands of years ago, extracted his own comprehension of the Heaven-Earth Great Dao, consuming countless rare divine materials.

This Sage Treasure Pearl has been nourished and refined by generations of owners, has also absorbed the essence of heaven and earth's primordial energy over tens of thousands of years, and its owners have further expended vast amounts of stellar energy essence for it to devour, its power already having reached the pinnacle of post-heavenly spirit treasures.

This item excels at one thing: to fix.

It can fix earth, water, fire, wind; it can fix typhoons and tsunamis; it can fix volcanic eruptions and earthquakes; it can fix heavenly thunder surges; it can fix flying knives and swords; it can fix divine abilities and secret arts.

No matter how strong one's cultivation, when this Sage Treasure Pearl descends upon them and its treasure light swirls, even all thoughts within their soul will be fixed for a period; during that time the person becomes like a walking corpse, utterly at the mercy of slaughter, its power truly extraordinary, ordinary treasures hardly able to resist it.

I don't know which unlucky child's elder over-indulgently gave this pearl to that unlucky kid as a protective charm.

Wu Tie doesn't care who the original owner of this treasure was; anyway, since this Sage Treasure Pearl is now in his hands, it's his treasure.

Wu Tie played with the fist-sized, heavy, bright, icy-cold Sage Treasure Pearl, its faint radiance shining through, making his palm look like translucent glazed glass, and he laughed at Pei Feng: "Looks like they've calculated that I'm doomed, so they're even willing to bring out this treasure."

Shaking his head, Wu Tie sighed: "They really are confident—after opening the secret passage, they still think they can take these treasures back?"

Pei Feng's face was very solemn.

If Sima You and the others really are willing to bring out a Heavenly Dao Divine Instrument, then the only explanation is that they absolutely will not allow Wu Tie to survive after opening the secret passage.

Those Ninefold Refined Immortal Arms might actually have been genuinely given to Wu Tie.

But a Heavenly Dao Divine Weapon—such a treasure—what prodigal would dare to give it away?

The forging method of Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons is no secret among the upper echelons of the Great Jin Divine State—it must be done by a monster of astonishing cultivation who extracts from himself a fully comprehended Great Dao, fuses it with myriad rare divine materials, slowly offers it in sacrifice, then spends a long time nurturing it, and continues to expend countless top-tier resources before it can be completed.

Not to mention how many resources a single Heavenly Dao Divine Weapon consumes.

Simply put—when an ancestor's comprehended Great Dao law is incorporated, a Heavenly Dao Divine Weapon can be regarded as a part of that ancestor's body; if the weapon is fully controlled by an outsider, it's as if that ancestor's bodily part has been snatched away.

For that ancestor's cultivation, strength, and future training potential, this is a lethal, irreparable injury.

What prodigal would dare to take an arm or leg of his own ancestor and give it away?

Such a thing could never happen.

Therefore, Sima You and the others are dead set on killing Wu Tie when the time comes; otherwise they would absolutely not dare, and not a single person would dare to send this Sage Treasure Pearl.

"I'm doomed, heh!" Wu Tie opened his mouth and swallowed this Sage Treasure Pearl into his belly.

He muttered: "Commander Pei Feng, this matter is interesting……Are you interested in joining forces with me to reap a tremendous, earth-shaking merit here? This merit, we can exclusively take it—at most counting Li Qian's share as well……As for the others, they can simply die gloriously for the country."

Pei Feng looked seriously at Wu Tie: "Can the adult behind you withstand it?"

Wu Tie seriously nodded: "Of course……Otherwise, do you think I'm stupid? To provoke so many royal clans at once?"

The master of Mr. Li actually managed to uncover even Zhao Xiu's "Slay the Hero" plan; then his hidden strength absolutely surpasses Zhao Xiu. In that case, what does Wu Tie have to fear?

He only fears that his status in the Great Jin Divine State is not high enough, his power not great enough, and his sphere of influence not broad enough.

"So, Sima You and the others will have their time to cry." Wu Tie laughed until his eyes narrowed into slits, then he bellowed: "Huang Lang, quickly issue the order—all citizens of Daze Prefecture, mobilize, harvest all crops outside the city, then immediately plant another round of crops."

"It's all money, it's all money……The esteemed lords of the Imperial Secretariat have promised to purchase our grain at twice the market price—twice!"

Wu Tie lightly patted his own palm: "Soft-hearted, soft-hearted, they even sent out the Sage Treasure Pearl……Tsk tsk, if I ask them for ten times the grain price, they'd probably part with it too? Hey hey, no rush, no rush, there will always be a chance to raise the price, there will always be."

Wu Tie accepted the tearfully sent immortal arms and divine implements from Sima You and the others, but did not immediately muster his troops and set out.

He leisurely oversaw the grain harvest work in Daze Prefecture, taking over half a month, after which he finally finished harvesting all the grain from the fields outside the city, stored all the grain properly, and then led the citizens of Daze Prefecture to plant another round of crops in the fields.

After these matters were completed, more than a month had passed since Wu Tie received those treasures.

During that month-plus, Sima You and the others continually urged Wu Tie, but he kept putting them off with various excuses and reasons.

When that round of crops had also finished planting, and when Sima You and the others had become restless and irritable, early one morning before dawn, a huge boom sounded—the celestial military camp positioned in the middle of the fields outside the city rose into the air and turned into a golden light that fell back into Wu Tie's hands.

Daze Prefecture's hundreds of big and small barges, together with the dozens of huge civilian transport barges that Wu Tie had requisitioned over the past month-plus, large and small flying vessels lined up in neat rows, departed Daze Prefecture in a mighty throng, flying toward the camp of Sima You and the others.

Wu Tie stood at the prow of the central flagship, wearing Sima You's armor, wielding Sima Xin's sword, with Sima Hu's bow slung at his waist, and on his back a meteor hammer belonging to some royal clan commander, looking left and right with imposing bearing.

The military camp was still seven or eight li away; Wu Tie gathered his inner breath and roared: "Sima You, we're setting off! What are you still doing? Delaying the Imperial Secretariat's divine calculations—can you bear the guilt?"

If Wu Tie stayed silent it would be fine, but once he spoke, fine golden light flickered on his teeth and a rich, fresh fragrance sprayed from his mouth.

Half a month ago, the Ninefold Golden Elixir promised by Mr. Li to Wu Tie finally arrived.

This is a supreme-grade Dao elixir; even with the authority of the master behind Mr. Li, refining it is extremely difficult, which is why it was delayed so long before three completed pills were sent to Wu Tie.

Wu Tie, a few days earlier, picked an auspicious day and swallowed a Nine-turn Golden Elixir.

The Nine-turn Golden Elixir is extremely hard, containing immense power; these past few days Wu Tie has been polishing the elixir with his own qi and blood, gradually absorbing its medicinal potency. The elixir's main body has not been digested in his body, but his teeth have been stained with a layer of gold, and a pure fragrance continually wafts from his whole body.

Because the elixir's medicinal power is immensely vast, Wu Tie's essence and blood have become overly abundant these past few days, his central qi reaching the extreme; when he let out a roar, it sounded like dozens of thunderclaps exploding at once, and a gale immediately howled out, sweeping up in a swoop the outermost hundreds of tents of Sima Yu and company's camp, with over a thousand soldiers screaming "ah ah" as they were blown hundreds of zhang away.

In the camp that could barely hold nearly a million soldiers, utter chaos reigned.

Sima Yu and company were not skilled at commanding troops; even though Sima Xin and Sima Hu had once served in the Divine Martial Army, they merely mingled in the army relying on their imperial clan status, loafing around and picking up undeserved merit.

Wu Tie deliberately delayed for over a month, yet the more than ten thousand elite troops directly under the Pivot Mechanism Hall could still drill daily, and the military discipline was extremely strict, their conduct fully showing the true nature of elite soldiers.

Meanwhile, the dozens of imperial clan commanders—Sima Yu, Sima Xin, Sima Hu, and others—each had brought from their own homes anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of private troops; under the "leading by example" of Sima Yu and company, these hundreds of thousands of private soldiers had long since deserted, completely scattered and shapeless.

When Wu Tie let out a roar, the soldiers still dozing in their tents all stirred, not knowing who had bellowed in confusion; instantly hundreds of thousands of troops exploded the camp, hundreds of thousands of the weakest soldiers—who were still high‑rank in the Ganxuan realm—howled as they ran wildly through the camp, some even coming to blows, and the whole encampment was thrown into utter chaos.

"Wow, the camp's howling!" Wu Tie crossed his arms over his chest, gloating at the sight of the camp in utter pandemonium.

"Who gave them the courage to set up camp in the wild, not even activating the camp's defensive formations?" Pei Feng widened her eyes, looking incredulously at the messy camp: "They really feel safe, not fearing that we'll join forces at night and breach their camp?"

Wu Tie stroked the short beard over an inch long on his chin, pondering: "Perhaps they think this general is honest and trustworthy, the soul of sincerity—since they've bribed me, they assume I'll never move against them."

Shaking his head, Wu Tie sighed: "They trust this general so much… how could I ever strike them darkly afterward? Really, I'm embarrassed."

Pei Feng also shook her head, her voice heavy: "The imperial clan of the Great Jin has really sunk this low? No wonder, Left Minister Linghu—hmph…"

Wu Tie glanced at Pei Feng in a flash—this girl, she seems to know some shameful secrets of the Great Jin's core leadership, huh?

Interesting, interesting; when I have the chance I'll ply her with old liquor and definitely dig out these gossips.

Sima Yu and company spent over two hours, by which time the sun had already risen to mid‑heaven, before they finally managed to restore the chaotic camp to order.

They never imagined that the previously procrastinating Wu Tie would deal them a sudden blow, giving no warning at all, and would directly muster his troops and prepare to set out.

While cursing the eighteen generations of Huo Xiong's ancestors, Sima Yu and company lashed their subordinates with whips, forcing the soldiers to pack all baggage and armaments and haul them back onto those six hundred barges, only then dragging their feet to unite the fleet with Wu Tie's.

By the time Sima Yu and company were ready and both sides prepared to depart, the sky was already growing dark.

The two massive fleets set forth in grand array, following the route marked on that topographic map.

Behind the fleet, the guards Huang Lang and Qian San, among others, stood on the walls of Great Marsh City, seeing the fleet off.

All along the way there was silence; the two fleets tore through the high sky like wind and lightning, and after more than a day of this, Pei Feng suddenly said: "Ahead lies the Wood Essence's territory—be careful."

Before her words faded, countless arrows screamed up from the ground, soaring straight to the high heavens, piercing several thousand zhang into the air; they struck the lead three barges of the Pivot Mechanism Hall, engulfing them in flying sparks, the protective barrier rippling with countless waves, the three‑hundred‑zhang‑long barges swaying left and right in the air—two of them could not withstand the arrow barrage, their hulls nearly tilting ninety degrees.

With a "bang," countless arrows swept wildly, the protective shield of one barge shattering completely, and innumerable arrows "dong dong dong dong" nailed themselves thickly onto the hull's deck.