Chapter 612: Xiang Family

Not long ago.

Wu Tie stood below Demon Hunting City, smiling as he looked at a group of elite officers on the city wall.

On the city wall, a fourth-rank commandant from the Ximen Clan of Yuzhou, named Ximen Le, was sizing up the weapon rack nearby with a few close fellow officers, calculating what weapon to use to hurl at Wu Tie.

Near First Demon-Suppressing City, a spatial gate suddenly opened; the huge spatial gate unfolded like flower petals, and a sizable fleet rushed out from within.

When entering or exiting a spatial gate, ordinary people are extremely cautious, unless they are warships on combat missions; other vessels instinctively slow down.

So often, vessels emerge like stingrays giving birth—slow and leisurely, using a slip-and-squeeze motion, from the spatial gate.

But this fleet was incredibly overbearing, gunning its engines like a mad bull, charging out of the spatial gate without hesitation, then roaring with a dull tearing-of-air sound straight toward First Demon-Suppressing City.

Before the defenders of First Demon-Suppressing City could react, a huge talisman shot from the flagship nearly a thousand zhang long, exploding above the fleet. A blood-red magic power banner unfurled with a 'glah-glah-glah' sound in the void, its center emblazoned with flying dragons and dancing phoenixes, even inlaid with a gleaming golden 'Xiang' character.

A low voice echoed from afar: 'Demon-Suppressing City, send someone alive who can breathe to greet my general.'

On the wall of First Demon-Suppressing City, Zhao Bao's face suddenly changed: 'Xiang family people? That warlike lot, brains addled… What are they doing here for no reason? They usually look down on the Demon-Suppressing Hall and the Demon-Clearing Hall!'

In the former Great Jin Divine Kingdom, now the Green Hill Divine Kingdom, among the top military houses, the Xiang Family is exceptionally distinctive.

They are extremely warlike, extremely proud, even to the point of being arrogantly frenzied.

Other military houses focus on preserving family strength and hiding their foundations, but they do not. Xiang family members never deign to conceal their methods or foundations; even their Grand Elder often appears on the battlefield.

Moreover, they look down on the battlefields against subterranean demons handled by the Demon-Suppressing Hall and the Demon-Clearing Hall.

They often say, subterranean demons are a bunch of poorly clad, underfed pitiful worms; only eunuchs lacking balls would go fully armed to bully these poor souls.

They even scorn joining the Divine Might Army or engaging in territorial expansion and warfare in the surrounding barbaric lands.

Ninety-nine percent of the Xiang family gather on the Three Kingdoms Battlefield, where they command large armies dedicated to fighting the elite main forces of the Great Wei Divine Kingdom and the Great Wu Divine Kingdom. Moreover, they often provoke battles on their own—like a bunch of madmen, they occasionally erupt, suddenly inflicting massive losses on all three kingdoms.

Despite being so warlike, paradoxically the more frenzied their fighting, the lower the Xiang family's death rate compared to other top military houses.

This directly results in each Xiang family member having several times more life-and-death combat experience than other military houses; at equal cultivation, Xiang family members are far stronger than those of other top houses.

The Xiang family's cultivation art is the near-ancient forbidden technique 'Overlord Cauldron-Lifting Art', an absolute top-tier body cultivation method, and also a terrifying bloodline technique—unless one is a direct male descendant of the Xiang family, anyone who cultivates it will have their bloodline burn and die.

As for the Xiang family's youths, if they cultivate the Overlord Cauldron-Lifting Art, their training speed is extremely fast; they become immensely strong, impervious to blades and spears, forge a body of steel and iron, and gain a terrifying innate divine ability: the more severely they are injured, as long as they don't die then, their strength can surge greatly upon healing.

Such post-injury strength surges are virtually limitless!

This also causes the Xiang family's martial madmen to have terrifyingly strong physical strength, which further fuels their frenzied thirst for battle.

Throughout history, the armies commanded by Xiang family leaders have suffered death tolls several times higher than those led by other military house commanders; their forces often fall into enemy encirclements, often ending with only Xiang family members breaking out with a handful of guards, or at best the Xiang family members alone escaping.

On the Three Kingdoms Battlefield, the soldiers of the Divine Martial Army fear most the sudden arrival from above of an officer surnamed Xiang becoming their direct superior.

On the Three Kingdoms Battlefield, the character 'Xiang' even became a taboo; ordinary soldiers outright avoid uttering it.

On the Three Kingdoms Battlefield, if an officer or enlisted man bears the surname Xiang, regardless of whether he comes from the Xiang military house, he will surely be shunned by all his comrades; if such a Xiang-named soldier encounters danger on the battlefield, his fellows basically will not come to his aid.

A Xiang family fleet charged over like a frenzied herd of cattle, shouting from afar: 'Where are the people of Demon-Suppressing City? All dead? Send someone who can breathe—we're bringing you money.'

Zhao Bao stood on the wall, stroking his chin, grinning dryly: 'Sending me money? Heh heh, who doesn't know that among all military houses, yours Xiang is the poorest? Tsk, a bunch of martial madmen who only cultivate and slaughter… your fief reduced to desolation…'

'Sending me money? How much surplus can your Xiang family have each year?'

'Sending me money? Can your Xiang family be as rich as Prince An?'

Zhao Bao shook his head, pursed his lips: 'Find someone thick-skinned and unafraid of a beating to deal with them, see what the Xiang family's martial madmen want… Heh, they've always looked down on our Demon-Suppressing Hall and Demon-Clearing Hall; their arrival bodes no good.'

'General me is timid… these past two days, Prince An's lackeys have beaten me twice; I've had enough, damn it!'

'General me, I don't want to be beaten again by the Xiang family.'

'Prince An's men still have some restraint, beating me to the point of agony… but the Xiang family would strike to kill.'

Shaking his head, Zhao Bao turned and hurried down the wall.

Several Army Commanders, Army Staff Officers, Army Chief Clerks and other aides stood on the wall, looking at each other; finally an Army Registrar gave a dry laugh, leading dozens of Vice Generals in full heavy armor as they slowly flew up.

'Which Xiang family general… heh heh, we've been busy with military affairs and couldn't come to greet the general in time, haha, please understand, please understand!'

Just as the Army Registrar took to the sky, the Xiang family fleet came charging wildly; Wu Tie's dozens of warships lined up in a single file, led by three Four Spirit Warships, blocking straight ahead of the Xiang fleet's course.

'Make way, Prince An's Manor is conducting business here—do you dare to ram?'

A Ximen Clan summoned commander stood on the prow of a Four Spirit Warship, pointing at the howling Xiang warships and shouting a rebuke.

The Xiang family's thousand-zhang flagship showed no sign of slowing, charging straight on; a cold voice came from the flagship: 'Prince An? That Prince An? Oh, I recall… ha, the guy who killed the First Army?'

'Damn it… I was thinking that once I master the Cauldron-Lifting Art, I'd personally challenge the First Army and smash his skull… you bastard, Huo Xiong, you stole my chance to become renowned worldwide… General me, accelerate—ram them!'

Ram them?

On the Four Spirit Warships, the Prince An Manor's officers stared agape as the thousand-zhang flagship ahead accelerated rapidly.

But even though it's a thousand-zhang flagship, how could this Great Jin-style warship possibly match a Four Spirit Warship? Never mind rank—just the Four Spirit Warship's size is several times that of this flagship!

'Ram? Who fears whom? Form up!' the Prince An Manor's officers on the Four Spirit Warships shouted in unison.

The three Four Spirit Warships simultaneously unfurled five-colored glows; the energy fluctuations between them merged into one, and the three huge warships quickly formed a small combat stronghold.

The hundred-zhang-thick five-colored glow rapidly condensed; the once slightly wispy glow swiftly solidified into a crystal-like barrier.

And yet the Xiang family's thousand-zhang flagship actually did just that—rammed straight in.

The three Four Spirit Warships hovered in midair as the thousand-zhang-long flagship spewed fire, creating rings of white gas explosions in the air, and it rammed forward recklessly.

With a tremendous boom, the three Four Spirit Warships remained unmoving, hovering in midair.

On the ground, countless people watched wide-eyed as the thousand-zhang flagship twisted, deformed, snapped, and shattered, huge pillars of fire jetting from it, accompanied by thick smoke and white gas blasts shooting from the hull.

Streams of light shot up from the shattered thousand-zhang flagship, quickly and timely escaping the disintegrating vessel.

That cold voice laughed 'gah-gah': 'Four Spirit Warships are Four Spirit Warships; these junk toys the military built really can't be rammed. Hey, good treasure, good treasure—too bad they fell into the hands of the Treacherous King.'

The 'Treacherous King' made the Prince An Manor's personnel present grit their teeth in anger.

Warship after warship swiftly gathered here, and another fifteen Four Spirit Warships cruising nearby also hurried over.

Hordes of Five Element Spirit masters swooped down from high altitude, forming ranks; millions of Wood Spirit Warriors drew their short bows, locking onto the Xiang family vessels rapidly approaching from behind.

'Hahaha, what's all the fuss about? I, the general, merely wanted to test how strong the legendary Four Spirit Warships really are.' A burly youth, about 1.5 to 1.6 zhang tall, solid and heavy-built, with a domineering, thick aura, hovering in the void like a volcano ready to erupt, giving off immense danger, laughed loudly.

"Hehehe, slow down, don't scare the little brats of Prince An's mansion."

The stalwart youth's eyes gleamed with sharp light as he gazed at the Five Elements Spirits gathering from all directions, and he exclaimed: "I've long heard that Prince An had dog-shit luck, subduing a fierce and miraculous tribe in the southwestern forest... Hey, how many favors did Prince An give you? I, the general, will give you double—what do you think? Join me, the general, and you'll reap the benefits."

Nearly a thousand Elders of the Five Elements Spirits appeared almost instantaneously before the stalwart youth; one Fire Spirit Elder turned into a fireball like a small sun, releasing terrifying light and heat that illuminated a vast expanse of sky: "Human, you dare defile my tribe's piety toward the Holy Ancestor... you shall die."

The stalwart youth widened his eyes and burst out laughing: "Interesting, interesting, you guys, are you angry? That is, can we have a good fight? Hmm, no, what are you doing?"

With a single movement, the stalwart youth fell like a meteor from high altitude straight down, landing heavily beside a large pot steaming with hot air.

A group of short-statured dwarves gathered around the pot, holding specially made small iron bowls, eagerly watching the few Invincible Army auxiliaries beside the pot, waiting for them to ladle out a bowl of steaming, fragrant, oil-rich meat broth with big chunks of fatty meat and plenty of spices.

These days, the dwarves felt as if they were dreaming.

There was no wanton beating, no wanton insult or trampling; although the finely clad soldiers were still stiff and cold toward them, their attitude was a hundred, even a thousand times better than that of the soldiers of Demon Suppressing City.

Especially, they now had clothes to wear, meat soup to eat, and roasted meat to eat.

Heavens above!

The dwarves' tribe, in the underground world, occupies the lowest rank of slaves; many powerful peoples, such as the dragonfolk and pythonfolk, usually drive them to serve as slaves, and in times of famine they become emergency rations.

Before this, they had never eaten meat.

Even if they caught a small mole, they had to offer it to their master; it was absolutely forbidden to keep it for themselves.

The taste of meat…

So this must be a dream, right?

However, all the dwarves who were dreaming kept repeating the two words "Prince An" in their hearts. "Prince An," is that the legendary holy savior of all races?

Only a legendary holy being would give these lowly, base dwarves meat to eat, meat soup to drink, and big white flour meat buns to eat.

The stalwart youth plunged down, kicked the pot flying, and the boiling water that splashed out immediately scalded the dozen or so dwarves gathered around the pot, leaving them bruised and bloody; they writhed on the ground in agony, screaming shrilly.

"Are your brains rotted? You give these slaves meat to eat and meat soup to drink?"

The stalwart youth went berserk with a punch that sent an auxiliary soldier crashing to the ground; before the auxiliaries could even see his move, his heavy blow shattered who knows how many bones in their bodies, slamming them to the ground where they could only cough up blood.

"Are you all crazy? You people of Prince An's Manor, giving meat to these damned demon slaves?" The stalwart youth raised both hands high, roaring like he'd seen a ghost: "Who's the leader here? Get lost, this general…… You, you, you—your brains are rotted!"

"Or are you saying Prince An's Manor is filthy rich, just showing off in front of me, the general?"

The stalwart youth's eyes bloodshot, he turned with incredible brutality and kicked an auxiliary soldier into the air on the spot.

With a booming 'bang,' the auxiliary soldier shot up several dozen feet, then his body violently exploded.

"Damn, you lot are trash… Even a stableboy in my household is a hundred times stronger than you lot!"