Chapter 603: Black Hand

After a night of turmoil, the day passed without incident.

Even those like Ling Hu Jian, who had vomited blood from being whipped by Wu Tie's Divine Whip, had no inclination to stir up trouble these days.

They have noted this debt against Wu Tie; when to settle it depends on their mood and the chance to strike.

The whole day was quiet, having witnessed last night's star‑light frenzy; everyone busied themselves in silence, seeking better spots to draw in the starlight, forming alliances and seizing various blessed caverns.

Especially the over a hundred prefectures surrounding Qingqiu City; many great clans either brought various secret treasures into Qingqiu City, or fled far from it to prefectures not covered by the black clouds spewed from the Divine Whip.

In short, the daytime passed peacefully.

At night, the Nine Provinces aristocrats who had signed the Conscription Edict—Lan Changqing, Ximen You and others—stood dazedly in their own territories, blankly staring up at the thick black clouds in the sky.

All day, the entire sky was shrouded in black clouds; no light reached the ground, and even in broad daylight one had to light lanterns and torches, otherwise one could not see five feet ahead—no exaggeration.

Above the vault of heaven, it was likewise a vast expanse of black.

But just as the previous night, when the western sun reluctantly sank, the black canopy shattered with a roar, the heavens and earth trembled slightly, and a flood of starlight and moonlight poured down like a tide, accompanied by a deep, thunderous roar.

In the sleeves of Lan Changqing, Ximen You and others, the Conscription Edicts they had signed rose into the air, turning into golden shafts that shot straight up into the sky.

These golden lights from the Conscription Edicts acted like beacons, piercing straight into the black clouds; the black clouds, a hundred miles thick and extremely dense, rapidly swirled around each shaft of light.

With a 'rumbling' sound, the black clouds high above slowly dispersed, revealing circular holes of varying diameters.

Accompanied by a dull roar, the dense starlight whistled down from the high heavens in straight beams, neither too little nor too much, landing with perfect precision on the core territories of the great clans such as Lan Changqing and Ximen You.

"Oh no!" Lan Changqing, Ximen You and others cried out in unison, then saw that the younger, weaker members of their clans, struck by the dense starlight, each let out a muffled groan and bled from all seven orifices.

"This Prince An… really… does things unreliably!" Lan Changqing and the others laughed through tears, unsure whether to thank Wu Tie or to curse his eighteen generations of ancestors.

Nothing like this had ever happened before.

Who would have thought that someone could be gravely injured by the star‑force essence pouring down from the heavens!

Looking down from high above, one could see that the starlight falling into Lan Changqing's Lan Clan territory was only a beam a dozen li thick, yet this beam was formed from all the starlight and moonlight compressed and refined across the surrounding tens of thousands of li of void.

Although the star‑force essence was already intensely concentrated, Wu Tie, using the supreme might of his Divine Whip out of nowhere, forcibly compressed and condensed it several hundred times before hurling it into the domains of the aristocratic clans that had signed the Conscription Edict and pledged allegiance to him.

Lan Changqing and the others had originally intended merely to take a sip from the Three Thousand Weak Waters—just a ladleful would have been enough to delight them.

Wu Tie's grand gesture was like pouring an entire river when all they wanted was a ladle of water, dumping a mighty torrent upon them; though it was an unexpected boon, it nearly caused a catastrophe from sheer excess.

"Hold on, hold on… this is our clan's… heaven‑sent… supreme opportunity granted by Prince An." Lan Changqing abandoned his decorum, Ximen You forgot his restraint, and the heads and elders of all the great clans that had signed the Conscription Edict, along with experienced elders, all shouted at the top of their lungs in hysteria.

Star‑force essence is absolutely a good thing.

With enough star‑force essence, even a stubborn stone could nod, and a lump of mud could have a chance to achieve cultivation.

For humanity, the foremost of all beings, star‑force essence has endless wonderful uses; with sufficient star‑force essence, even an idiot, if force‑fed enough of it, could be turned into an expert.

The Lan Clan's ancestors, working together, had the Eighteen‑layer Glazed Treasure Tower, forged at great cost, slowly rise into the sky.

A beam of starlight and moonlight, a dozen li thick, washed straight against the Glazed Treasure Tower; the tower shuddered violently, its incipient artifact spirit emitting joyful soul‑waves that all Lan Clan members could feel.

Threads of extremely fine flowing light lit up inside the Glazed Treasure Tower, extending point by point from the tip toward the base.

These are the innate Great Dao patterns, the profound mysteries hidden within stellar essence; the Glazed Treasure Tower, madly absorbing the incoming star‑force essence, draws upon the Dao's laws to make up its deficiencies, simultaneously transforming the acquired into the innate, striving to achieve a tremendous metamorphosis.

The Lan Clan's few Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons also flew into the air, hovering near the Glazed Treasure Tower, devouring star‑force essence to enhance themselves as much as possible.

Some Lan Clan elders whose potential had been exhausted and who had no path forward rose into the air, basking joyfully in the dense star‑force essence; they were already advanced in age, their vital blood nearly depleted, and their essence‑blood aura withered to the extreme.

Unless they possessed the legendary heavenly‑earth divine elixir, these Lan Clan elders would naturally reach the end of their lifespans within a few years.

But star‑force essence is precisely the legendary heavenly‑earth divine object.

Star‑force essence merging into the body nourishes it bit by bit, replenishes vitality bit by bit, reforges the flesh bit by bit—from skin to muscle, from meridians to blood vessels, from organs to bone marrow—and even transforms the already dim‑glowing, flickering soul‑fire divine fetus.

In just a little over an hour, dozens of Lan Clan elders who were already feeble and on the verge of dying of old age each became vigorous, shedding dead old skin from their bodies, visibly returning to youth.

The Lan Clan's prime‑aged experts also flew into the air to bathe freely in the starlight essence.

With the Glazed Treasure Tower above blocking the howling, immensely powerful star‑force torrent, the Lan Clan's people merely absorbed the drifting star‑force essence that came down, making things much easier for them.

Including many infants still in swaddling, they too, in their mothers' arms, eagerly drank in the starlight and moonlight; strands of strange light continually penetrated their bodies, washing the marrow and rebaptizing their talents.

Just this one night's starlight sufficed to raise, on average, the cultivation aptitude of all Lan Clan's underage children by several major grades.

A commotion arose outside the Lan Clan's garden.

There were minor clans neighboring the Lan Clan who had rejected Wu Tie's Conscription Edict, yet dared not truly offend him to the death, nor dare to actually lead their people out of the Nine Provinces to gather star‑force essence elsewhere.

Seeing a straight pillar of starlight roar down and strike squarely the Lan Clan's ancestral home, several neighboring minor clans crept over, intending to consult Lan Changqing about sharing some of the benefit.

It was obvious even to a blind man that this beam, so dense it was almost like a crystal column verging on substance, was more than the tiny Lan Clan could consume; what would happen if they gave a bit to them?

But before they could approach the Lan Clan's garden, a twang rang out in the void; a dozen or so small warships under Wu Tie's command appeared out of nowhere, a gang of wood‑spirits drew their bows and fired wildly, striking dozens of those who had wandered near the Lan Clan from the minor clans, leaving them covered in blood like hedgehogs bristling with arrows as they turned and fled.

"Heh… you refuse to submit, yet come to take advantage of my Lan Clan? Heh… really…"

Lan Changqing roared at the top of his voice: "Hey, bring out those big and little maids who like to keep cats and dogs—take all your pets outside… today, even if my Lan Clan's chickens and dogs ascend to heaven, I will certainly not let an outsider get a bargain!"

"Also, take out the bonsai, potted plants, and the medicinal herbs in the storehouse… with such dense starlight, even if a pot of scenery undergoes a mutation, those weeds will turn into lingzhi immortal herb, which is wholly beneficial to my Lan Clan."

"Quick, quick, quick—everyone get moving, get moving, no chit‑chat, no dawdling!"

After shouting for a while, Lan Changqing suddenly stood blankly in mid‑air, shook his hands, and let out a long sigh: "I have disgraced propriety and ruined the family tradition—how will I ever face the ancestors of the Lan Clan again?"

He abruptly turned and pointed toward Anyi City: "Treacherous King… you have really brought ruin upon us as well!"

Black clouds shrouded over a hundred prefectures, but within Wu Tie's Peaceful State fief, more than three hundred pillars of light—thickest twenty‑odd li, thinnest three to five li—shot down.

Vast as the Nine Provinces are, only these three hundred‑odd households ultimately submitted to Wu Tie.

However, for Wu Tie as he stands now, the territory he lawfully possesses is only the Nine Provinces. Those three hundred‑odd households of not‑weak aristocratic clans, pooled together, could easily provide him with over a hundred thousand experienced civil officials, and moreover muster a large number of commanders versed in leading private armies.

With both civil and military ready, maintaining the present modest situation is sufficient.

As for the future… if Wu Tie's domain can continue to expand, naturally 'clever people' will flock to him like moths to a flame.

"Even if Wu Tie's reputation is foul… heh, Wu Tie does not believe that everyone on the land of the Qingqiu Divine State is a paragon of virtue, their integrity rivaling sages… that's simply impossible!"

Time passed just a little bit.

The Qingqiu Divine State was calm and undisturbed, even so quiet as to make one's scalp tingle, with a sense that something lurked beneath this tranquil atmosphere.

This was the seventh day of the starlight's universal shining; after tonight, the gods' grace would be considered completely ended.

After seven consecutive nights of starlight shining down, the overall strength of the Green Hill Divine Kingdom was greatly increased. Not mentioning the strengthening of those heavenly divine weapons by the royal Linghu clan and the noble families, just speaking of the Green Hill Divine Kingdom's newly formed Green Hill Army, Celestial Fox Guard, and other legions, the soldiers' strength generally increased by a large amount.

Soldiers in the Chonglou Realm, on average raised their cultivation by ten layers of heaven, generally reaching the high or even peak level of the Chonglou Realm.

Among the military commanders, a large number of commanders broke through from the Life Pool Realm to the Womb Storage Realm, and the original Womb Storage Realm commanders saw their strength at least more than double.

Among the mid- and low-ranking officers, basically all achieved high-level cultivation of the Life Pool Realm, and mid-level officers who were half a step into the Womb Storage Realm were everywhere.

Although in the internal strife of replacing the Great Jin Divine Kingdom with the Green Hill Divine Kingdom, the regular army of the Green Hill Divine Kingdom suffered heavy losses, the newly formed legions lacked coordination, and their battle arrays were not practiced proficiently.

However, the average cultivation of the soldiers in the newly formed legions increased by a large amount, and the overall combat power of the Green Hill Divine Kingdom's newly formed Green Hill Army and Celestial Fox Guard was even more than double that of the four main battle legions of the Great Jin Divine Kingdom era.

Under Linghu Qingqing, the commanders of the Green Hill Divine Kingdom suddenly became ambitious, gaining the confidence to launch a head-on heavy blow against the Great Wu Divine Kingdom, even to repel their anti-Jin forces, and to counterattack along the secret paths they had opened back into the heartland of the Great Wu Divine Kingdom.

Even several top martial clans, such as the Zhao Clan, the Sun Clan, the Wu Clan, and the Wu Clan, secretly suggested to Linghu Qingqing whether, in addition to dealing a heavy blow to the Great Wu Divine Kingdom, they could also give the Great Wei Divine Kingdom a lesson on the three-kingdom battlefield.

Otherwise, the Great Wei Divine Kingdom constantly shuffles troops and generals on the three-kingdom battlefield, continually increasing its forces, which is really vexing and irritating.

Linghu Qingqing hesitated.

Dealing a heavy blow to the Great Wu Divine Kingdom is certain.

But simultaneously taking the initiative to attack the Great Wei Divine Kingdom requires careful consideration.

At dusk, there was still more than half a day before it would turn completely dark; the final night of the starlight shining down was about to fall.

Yin Yu'er sat in a tiny, unremarkable carriage, lifted the carriage curtain, and smiled while watching the pedestrians coming and going on the street. An old man with a pale face and no beard drove the carriage, carefully guiding it toward the Imperial City.

Far and near, countless experts of the Celestial Fox Guard secretly protected her, fearing any mishap befalling Yin Yu'er.

That is Yin Yu'er, the woman whom Linghu Qingqing fell in love with as if bewitched.

As an Imperial Noble Consort of the Green Hill Divine Kingdom, Yin Yu'er could freely enter and leave the Imperial City, and casually shop and play in the markets.

Not to mention the Green Hill Divine Kingdom, even if you combined the former Great Jin Divine Kingdom, the Great Wei, and the Great Wu, no concubine in any harem had ever enjoyed such privileges.

Thus, one can see Yin Yu'er's position in Linghu Qingqing's heart.

The more this is so, the more the Elders of the Linghu family responsible for the Celestial Fox Guard dare not be negligent; they fully understand that if anything happens to Yin Yu'er, they will be in trouble, and many will lose their heads.

The more they fear trouble, the more trouble will come.

Yin Yu'er usually goes out from the palace to play, exiting through the Imperial City's Northwest Gate, passing through the West Market, South Ward, and East Market of Green Hill City, wandering around, and finally returning to the palace through the Imperial City's Southeast Gate.

When the Imperial City's Southeast Gate towered majestically just a li ahead, the old eunuch driving the carriage let out a slight sigh of relief—when a building beside the road exploded with a boom, a light cannon from a warship slammed heavily into the building's rubble, and then with a 'Boom', the fully charged light cannon spewed out a pitch-black beam of light, thick as a li, which swallowed Yin Yu'er's carriage and struck straight at the Imperial City's Southeast Gate a li away.

With a tremendous roar, the light beam burst, the whole Imperial City trembled slightly, and thereafter the piercing alarm bell rang through the heavens.

Linghu Qingqing's furious roar shot up to the heavens: 'Who? Who?? Who??'