Chapter 508

Anyang City is very bustling.

The bustle has nothing to do with East Garden.

The vast East Garden continuously receives boatloads of resources from Jade Prefecture, while the nine long-abandoned military cities are gradually being restored, and the camps built by the Five Elements Spirits in East Garden are also strengthening.

Moreover, Mr. Li secretly sent military supplies and equipment, enabling the newly formed East Garden Forbidden Army to quickly enhance its combat strength.

Aside from the original hundreds of thousands of Black Phoenix Army, millions of elite troops selected from the private armies of the 425 noble households, as well as those belonging to the Five Elements Spirits, Lao Tie raised a recruitment banner in Jade Prefecture and enlisted a batch of loyal and reliable commoners' sons.

Wu Tie received ten martial arts manuals from Mr. Li and, according to each individual's innate aptitude, passed them on to these commoners' sons.

These commoners' sons currently have low cultivation, so they can only serve as servants; as their cultivation deepens, they will become a strong reinforcement for the East Garden Forbidden Army.

A strong army must have its own water source and continuously replenish fresh strength to truly become formidable.

Just like the Divine Martial Army previously belonging to Huo Xiong, the vast Divine Martial Army establishes training halls even in remote small towns like Huachong City, has its own administrative office to manage military households, and conscripts new soldiers, showing the importance of manpower.

Now Jade Prefecture is Wu Tie's foundation, and the manpower for the East Garden Forbidden Army naturally comes from Jade Prefecture.

The families of these commoners' sons have also been separated from Jade Prefecture's civilian household registers and newly formed into Jade Prefecture's military household registers; from now on, these military households are the most important source of manpower for the East Garden Forbidden Army.

Not only Jade Prefecture, but also Pei Feng's Feather Mountain Commandery in Binding Prefecture, Lao Tie's Wei Mountain Commandery in Binding Prefecture, and the territories of Huang Lang and others have adopted the same practice as Jade Prefecture, organizing new military households that are directly attached to the East Garden Forbidden Army.

Wu Tie received ten martial arts manuals from Mr. Li and, according to each individual's innate aptitude, passed them on to these commoners' sons.

Huang Lang, Lao Tie, Pei Feng and others handle affairs steadily and reliably, so Wu Tie doesn't need to worry about them.

In the East Garden meditation chamber, Wu Tie's cultivation realm advances rapidly, with Great Dao Light Dragons resembling living beings coiling around him, varying in color, length, and thickness, silently spiraling and dancing, causing the void to wriggle, forming a massive spacetime vortex and a huge black hole around him.

Cultivation is about resources.

Wu Tie has never been this wealthy before.

Ninety percent of Jade Prefecture's resources are now in this meditation chamber.

The assets of the 425 noble households involved in the rebellion, plus those of other confiscated officials, titled nobles, and wealthy merchants, as well as the state-owned enterprises of the Jade Prefecture government, constitute an astronomical figure.

Jade Prefecture governs 108 commanderies, each with dozens of major cities, hundreds of medium-sized cities, and nearly ten thousand small cities.

Its population numbers in the hundreds of millions, with countless mines and herb mountains, producing countless elixirs and divine weapons each year.

With the strength of Jade Prefecture alone, it can support over a thousand noble houses, hundreds of millions of private troops, tens of thousands of Fetal Storage Realm cultivators, and provide them with unparalleled cultivation conditions.

Although Wu Tie's cultivation of the Primordial Scripture is enormously costly, the resources of a single Jade Prefecture are sufficient to meet his cultivation needs.

Especially the 120 Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons extorted from Princess Jing Sheng!

Now Wu Tie possesses not only those 120 Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons, but also from the secret vaults of Jade Prefecture's noble houses he has obtained over 300 innate items, more than 1,300 acquired spirit objects, and the Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons forged by great masters extracting their own Great Dao principles number over ten thousand.

This is the vast wealth of Jade Prefecture, accumulated grain by grain by the majority of its noble houses through generations of hard work.

No one knows how many generations have passed or how many tens of thousands of years of hardship; given Jade Prefecture's prosperity, the wealth amassed by hundreds of noble houses is unimaginably vast.

Jade Prefecture is also the wealthiest prefecture in the entire Great Jin Divine Kingdom.

Mountains of treasures submerged Wu Tie, including various Great Dao treasure pills, supreme immortal pills, innate and acquired treasures, immortal weapons refined above ninefold, superior-grade immortal weapons, and heaven-earth strange objects that naturally contain the aura of the Great Dao without having been tempered.

Even exceedingly precious divine medicines that the noble houses of Jade Prefecture dare not refine or even reveal have been completely seized by Lao Tie and delivered to Wu Tie.

Every bone in Wu Tie's body glows and heats up, emitting terrifying heat like the sun, while also acting like a frenzied black hole that wildly shatters and devours everything around him.

Threads of fine rune light flow from Wu Tie's bones, continually penetrating every part of his body.

Wu Tie also gradually sensed faint signals from his bones—the fragment of bone he obtained in that underground secret realm, which the bull hero Niu Yingxiong died protecting, is a Chaos Bone!

Legend says that when the sage Pangu created heaven and earth, the remnant bone left by the chaotic beast that followed him is what remains.

More importantly, on that Chaos Bone there is a trace of extremely faint essence blood that flowed from Pangu's body upon his demise.

Each time Wu Tie extracts the essence from those divine weapons, his bones continually grow and mutate, transforming his entire skeleton into Chaos Bone while nurturing the minuscule amount of Pangu's essence blood.

In his heart, the Five Elements Essence Blood from the five ancient Wu Tribe deities seeps into Wu Tie's bones, imparting terrifying pressure while forging his bones ever stronger.

One by one, the Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons are shattered and then sucked into Wu Tie's body with a howl.

Likewise, each Acquired Spirit Treasure is shattered and frenziedly devoured by Wu Tie's body.

Each Innate Spirit Treasure is also shattered; they violently jump and tremble, fiercely resisting Wu Tie's violence, but under his overwhelming devouring and the suppression of the Yin-Yang Two-Qi Vessel, they too scream and turn into flowing light that enters Wu Tie's whole body.

Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons are forged by great masters who extract their own comprehension of the Great Dao, consuming countless rare materials.

Acquired Spirit Treasures are born in later cave heavens and blessed lands where heaven-earth spirit veins fortuitously converge, each containing at least three to five different Great Dao principles, making their power surpass that of Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons.

Innate Spirit Treasures, however, are formed when this heaven and earth first take shape, arising from a single strand of innate creative opportunity.

Each Innate Spirit Treasure generally contains only one Great Dao principle, but that principle is always complete, perfected, perfect, and flawless in primordial unity.

Wu Tie's Life Pool trembles and surges, the mana within raising towering waves.

The projection of the Creation Jade Disc at the bottom of the Life Pool has nearly solidified, with dragon-shaped Great Dao patterns winding and twisting like living things within it.

In this heaven and earth, the Great Dao totals three thousand gates, branching into eighty-four thousand heterodox paths.

Eighty-seven thousand Great Dao principles transformed into eighty-seven thousand light dragons of varying sizes, which in an instant coalesced, shattering the mountain-like piles of rare and exotic treasures around Wu Tie into a blinding sun-like light that he swallowed in one gulp.

Ten thousand dragons roar in unison.

The text of the Primordial Scripture flows slowly through Wu Tie's heart.

The Five Elements Essence Blood in his heart has been exhausted, Wu Tie's Nine Revolutions Mysterious Skill spins like a frenzy at high speed; despite no realm advancement, his physical strength has increased more than tenfold, and all other attributes have surged tenfold or more.

Everything has reached an extreme.

Wu Tie can no longer suppress his boiling Life Pool and the surging divine soul radiating boundless light.

As events unfolded naturally, the Life Pool collapsed inward, Wu Tie's divine soul shrank into a tiny black dot, frantically devouring the boundless Life Pool. The light dragons coiled around him let out low roars, winding nine times around him before piercing his brow and plunging into the Life Pool, thereafter wriggling as they were consumed by the black dot formed from his divine soul.

The Black Heaven Cauldron and the Yin-Yang Two-Qi Vessel both appeared.

The Black Heaven Cauldron transformed into a massive black cauldron tens of thousands of feet across, firmly protecting Wu Tie's secluded meditation chamber.

The Yin-Yang Two-Qi Vessel then spewed forth black and white spiritual light, isolating Wu Tie's overly grand and complex aura, allowing only the innate Yin-Yang Five Elements qi to leak out.

Black and white light, together with five-colored divine light, shot up into the sky, weaving across the heavens above East Garden into vast expanses of spiritual light.

"Fetal Storage Realm?" Pei Feng, who was managing military affairs, jerked his head up in shock: "The Lord of Jade Prefecture has condensed a divine fetus; the East Garden Forbidden Army, the entire army, prepare for battle. Anyone who dares to approach East Garden even a single step shall be killed without mercy!"

A colossal heaven-earth primordial energy vortex formed in the high sky, then a pillar of primordial energy torrent with a diameter of ten thousand feet roared down from the vortex's base, straight into the meditation chamber and surged into Wu Tie's body.

Of the thirty-six Four Spirit warships, eighteen are stationed in the Eastern Garden.

Eighteen Four Spirit Warships rose into the sky and quickly arrived beside Wu Tie's secluded chamber.

Hundreds of thousands of Black Phoenix troops, together with countless Five Elements Spirits stationed on the Four Spirit Warships, sealed off Wu Tie's secluded chamber so tightly that not even water could leak.

Having just been partially repaired these days, the defensive arrays densely spread throughout the Eastern Garden all activated, layer upon layer of dazzling light curtains enveloping mountain after mountain, lake after lake, palace after palace.

On the ground, the Eastern Garden's imperial guards swiftly took control of all strategic passes, working with these grand formations to seal the Eastern Garden so tightly that not even wind could get through.

Outside the Eastern Garden, several figures in tight attire materialized from the air, staring blankly at the enormous elemental energy vortex in the sky that kept growing larger, their bodies trembling slightly.

"Quickly go report to Master Li… such momentum… the entire Eastern Garden, these days only Lord Yuzhou is in seclusion. With such an aura, Lord Yuzhou's cultivation of the Nine Turns Mystic Art, condensing a divine fetus via the primordial forbidden technique, is truly… heaven-shaking and earth-moving."

Several people instantly turned into flowing wind, vanishing in a puff of smoke as they fled toward Anyang City.

In Anyang City, the few garrison commanders guarding the eastern gate narrowed their eyes, gazing at the distant splendid seven-colored spirit clouds above the Eastern Garden.

"I heard the Eastern Garden's commandant is that lucky Huo Xiong? Hehe, the Nine Turns Mystic Art—who knows how powerful it is."

"The primordial forbidden techniques are definitely strong. However, cultivating those forbidden techniques also incurs great cost."

"Cost? He is the lord of Yuzhou—these days, how many wealthy clans have been ransacked in Yuzhou? Would he care about that bit of cost?"

"What good luck, what good luck…"

Several commanders did not hide their envy and jealousy at all. They came from the top-tier military clans of the Great Jin, moreover being the main branch heirs of their families, having received meticulous family training since childhood; though young, their prospects in the military are not small.

"But compared to Huo Xiong… tsk tsk, comparing people makes people angry to death!"

"However, being able to slay the Great Wu Dark Heavenly King and seize the Dark Heaven Cauldron—this merit, one cannot blame them for being ennobled as a first-rank duke… that truly is something earned with their lives… not to mention on the Three Kingdoms battlefield, you yourselves think you could obtain the reward of the Nine Turns Mystic Art from the Blood Banner contest?"

On the contrary, someone spoke a fair word.

On the city walls, several commanders fell silent, feeling the tremendous elemental energy fluctuations coming from afar, sensing the terrifying might within, unable to speak.

At such a distance, the pressure they felt was even greater than that exerted by the peak Elder of the Fetus Storage realm in their clan; does condensing a divine fetus via the Nine Turns Mystic Art and breaking through the Fetus Storage realm truly create such a huge gap between them?

Suddenly, several streaks of light fell outside Anyang City; not long after, dozens of fast horses came galloping, among them a messenger from the Military Department's Secret Machinery Hall holding a blood-red arrow, shouting all the way as he desperately whipped his mount to hurry over.

"Southwest emergency report, emergency report… Vice Hall Chief Zhao Xiu of the Secret Machinery Hall, advancing alone with an isolated force, was ambushed by the Great Wu; Vice Hall Chief Zhao Xiu's entire force was annihilated, his soul scattered—he has indeed… fallen!"

No one knows who ordered it, but this messenger shouted all the way as he charged into Anyang City, then rode his horse, shouting all the way as he rushed toward the Military Department.

Soon, the news of Zhao Xiu's fall began to spread wildly throughout Anyang City.

Not only did Zhao Xiu fall, but also several Zhao family Elders beside him, such as Zhao Tiegu, who are renowned veteran generals of the Great Jin, plus the Zhao family's hundreds of thousands of elite private troops, and furthermore hundreds of Zhao family military clan heirs carefully cultivated as the next generation's family backbone elite disciples—all of them fell as well.

The heart and vast resources the Zhao family military clan has spent over the past century—about half of it has gone to waste.

Especially… Zhao Xiu was the core figure cultivated by the Zhao family military clan as the next-generation family head and future military leader. The post of Vice Hall Chief of the Military Department's Secret Machinery Hall is also the Zhao family military clan's most core position in the Great Jin military!

Although many disciples of the younger Zhao generation serve in the Divine Martial Army, Divine Might Army, Demon-Suppressing Army, and Demon-Quelling Army, they are merely regional commanders; the true high-level core of the military department is only Zhao Xiu alone!

"Ding, ding, ding."

Above the Zhao family military clan's ancestral manor, a piercing metallic bell sound rang out.

All Zhao family disciples in Anyang, whether branch or main line, grim-faced, hurried straight to the ancestral hall.

Zhao Xiu is dead—how did he die? Why did the Zhao family's private troops suffer total annihilation? Why only the Zhao family's private troops were wiped out? This must be investigated thoroughly, clearly and unambiguously.

Aside from the Linghu clan, the Zhao family is absolutely a top-ten colossus in the Great Jin military and among the Great Jin military clans; they cannot suffer such a dumb loss.

A low, anger-suppressing voice echoed above the Zhao family ancestral manor.

"If Zhao Xiu had acted rashly and rashly advanced… perhaps that's possible. But Zhao Tiegu and the others were by his side; Zhao Xiu, moreover, had been instructed by us since childhood, well-versed in military texts, and furthermore possessed a steady temperament, knew when to advance or retreat, and could accept counsel—an elite disciple!"

"How could he possibly do such a foolish thing?"

"Investigate, investigate, investigate thoroughly!"

"My Zhao family's sons cannot die so obscurely!"

The angry voice still echoed above the Zhao family ancestral manor; from the distant marketplaces, a tsunami-like cry of alarm came.

"The anti-Wu army's vanguard corps suffered a major defeat; Linghu Song was severely wounded; the anti-Wu army was defeated over ten thousand miles; Da Ze City was captured by the Great Wu!"

Inside the Zhao family ancestral manor, suddenly there was utter silence.

Linghu Song severely wounded? The anti-Wu army's vanguard corps suffered a major defeat?

If that is the case, then it seems Zhao Xiu's death is not unacceptable?