Chapter 649

The cold wind howled, and heavy snow swirled.

In the snow, countless soldiers, countless laborers, countless dwarves and little people, as well as burly giants, and even countless ox-men, werewolves and other subterranean races, steaming with hot breath, were busy at work.

Before, the allied forces of Great Wei and Great Wu broke through the Three Kingdoms battlefield, and many military cities that originally belonged to the Qingqiu Divine Kingdom were completely destroyed.

Wu Tie flung money around, conscripting huge numbers of laborers and slaves to rush repairs of the city walls.

In this, there must be some flavor of using power for private gain.

After all, the conscripted slaves…… most of them were sent these days by the Great Wu Divine Kingdom as compensation to Wu Tie; Wu Tie, in the name of commander of the expeditionary army, spent military funds to conscript these slaves for labor, and in the end, a large amount of military funds ended up in Wu Tie's pocket.

Wu Tie just did it so blatantly.

But whether it was the grand eunuch supervising the army or other military commanders from the commander-in-chief's faction, from Xiang Zhan to Li Moyou and others, each person had opinions.

Indeed, what Wu Tie did was truly earth-shattering, and damn frightening.

Right before the frontline military city currently controlled by the Qingqiu Divine Kingdom, a straight column of blazing light surged into the void. Visible dao patterns and dao rhythms swirled and danced in the void, forming magnificent images of dragons, phoenixes, cranes, and the like.

That is the omen left behind after Xiahou Xuan's death.

The immense divine power within Xiahou Xuan's body is being transformed back into primordial cosmic energy to nourish heaven and earth. The dao patterns and rhythms inscribed with his insights on his body are also returning to the realm between heaven and earth. If no one interferes, this pillar of light will at least persist for half a month before completely dissipating.

Because Xiahou Xuan fell nearby, the primordial cosmic energy in the mountains, rivers, and hills around this military city has increased manyfold; the land, already extremely fertile, has become even more vibrant and miraculously spiritual, and even the medicinal herbs in the forests have jumped from being a few hundred years old to the level of thousand-year spiritual herbs.

A deity, and one who has lived for tens of thousands of years, not weak among deities, a deity born of the Xiahou imperial clan.

Without any negotiation, without any wrangling, without any bargaining, and even without any reason…… he simply, like Wu Tie having a hysterical fit in the middle of the night, charged straight from Bailong River, penetrated deep into the Three Kingdoms battlefield, and then struck him down with a single blow!

Goodness, he even dared to slay a deity born of the Xiahou imperial clan.

So reckless, so heedless of consequences, so utterly mad…… and yet this earned him a commendation order from Linghu Qingqing?

Now don't say Wu Tie is merely reasonably using power for private gain; even if he openly embezzles military funds, as long as his actions aren't excessive and he can still maintain stability on the Three Kingdoms battlefield, no one dares to nitpick at him.

Moreover, Wu Tie's military report of having captured Xiahou Xuan and Wu Lei has already been sent to Qingqiu City.

The commanders of the Xiang clan have, thanks to this achievement, washed away the guilt of their previous consecutive defeats, escaping with their lives. Nowadays, Xiang Feiyu, Xiang Feixie and a few other old-timers of the Xiang clan follow Wu Tie around all day, acting like loyal dogs.

His methods are fierce, his heart ruthless to the extreme, yet he somehow gained the sovereign's trust and also won over the military-aristocracy allies……

What kind of person is this? You say an ordinary person could have any leverage over him?

Even Gongyang Sanlü urgently dispatched a large number of formation masters to rush to the Three Kingdoms battlefield; tens of thousands of formation masters worked in shifts, day and night, frantically building defenses for the newly constructed military cities.

The Great Wu side remained very calm.

Although Wu Kuanglan said that Wu Ba was already preparing to personally lead the expedition.

But Wu Ba ultimately hasn't arrived yet, and Wu Lei's deal hasn't been completed, so both sides' fronts remain extremely tense.

Wu Tie's army, under his command, continues to employ the previous shameless tactics, harassing the Great Wei forces on the Three Kingdoms battlefield day and night. In just ten days, the Great Wei troops in the battlefield have been harassed to the point of unbearable suffering, and already more than ten military cities have been retaken by Wu Tie's counteroffensive.

Furthermore, on battlefields where remnants of the Qingqiu Divine Kingdom's military-aristocracy forces were stubbornly holding out, seven or eight places had their sieges lifted, allowing them to join forces smoothly with Wu Tie.

Because of Wu Tie's wild and bizarre tactics, these days the officers and soldiers of Great Wei in the Three Kingdoms battlefield have been suffering greatly.

On a four-spirit warship, Wu Tie sat in the deckhouse, seriously attending to military affairs.

In the spacious hall, hundreds of military adjutants, military secretaries, military staff officers, and recording clerks were busy; at every moment countless military reports streamed in from all directions, all needing to pass through their screening, and only then would some critically important intelligence require Wu Tie's personal handling.

A jade talisman affixed with nine scarlet feathers and marked as an emergency of a hundred thousand urgency was delivered before Wu Tie.

"Marshal, this is intelligence sent from Qingfeng City." A military staff officer respectfully placed the jade talisman on the case before Wu Tie, and he said in a low voice: "Qingfeng City is the central main city of Great Wei in the Three Kingdoms battlefield; normally, when a major figure takes up residence, the field headquarters is set there."

"Huh? Is a big shot coming to Qingfeng City?" Wu Tie seized the talisman, pointed his finger, and a light curtain burst forth from it.

One could see in the light curtain that vast numbers of Great Wei spellcasters were casting spells, busily working inside Qingfeng City.

They moved mountains and overturned seas to level the foundations, turned mud into stone to solidify the base, then swiftly installed prefabricated formation disks onto the foundations; various palaces and pavilions cast from precious materials sprayed out from clouds of mist, landing precisely on the foundations and merging seamlessly with the formation disks.

In just a short half-day, twelve self-contained palace complexes were already completed.

The twelve palace complexes are not large in area, each containing only twenty or thirty palace halls, yet every hall is exquisitely beautiful; between them are planted all kinds of exotic flowers and rare herbs, and spellcasters have used their arts to make these blossoms bloom brilliantly even in the deep winter and heavy snow.

Afterward, a large group of lovely maidens took up residence; these palace halls were newly built, originally spotless, yet they remained meticulous, carefully sweeping every hall and orderly placing all the extremely luxurious furnishings and utensils.

Wu Tie furrowed his brow: "Well… does this mean twelve important figures are to take up residence in Qingfeng City?"

The military staff officer said solemnly: "According to the specifications, these ought to be… divine patriarchs… the customs of Great Wei differ from those of the court and Great Wu. The furnishings in these palace halls are all modeled after the articles used by the Great Wei divine emperor; in Great Wei, only divine-realm patriarchs are entitled to use such imperial goods."

"Twelve deities?" Wu Tie's eyes twitched violently: "Heh, this is aimed at me. This is, who are they striking back against?"

The military staff officer lowered his head and said nothing.

Could they avoid retaliation?

You publicly slew a deity of the Xiahou imperial clan!

If he had fallen in a one-on-one duel on the battlefield, that would be forgivable. But you used underhanded means, clubbed him unconscious, captured him alive, then completely ignored the unspoken rules among the Three Kingdoms and, like slaughtering a chicken in public, butchered Xiahou Xuan.

Could they avoid retaliation?

The face of the Great Wei Divine Kingdom has been slapped by you into the mud.

Wu Tie muttered a few curses, shook his head: "Hurry, send this news back to Qingqiu City and ask His Majesty for reinforcements. Tell His Majesty that if reinforcements don't come, I will take my army and flee. Twelve deities, heh, they really think highly of me!"

After a pause, Wu Tie said coldly: "Recall the spy who brought back this message and reward him handsomely. It's not easy to gather such intelligence from the enemy's lair; I can say he saved my life, no exaggeration. Reward him well and let him rest more afterward."

The omen left behind after Xiahou Xuan's beheading continues, but the true essence within his body that holds great value for certain beings has already been transferred into the dark, boundless void.

It is still that seven-colored crystal condensed into a celestial body; in the vast crystal hall, hundreds of sturdy-breathing, glittering-eyed strange beings have gathered here.

Before them floats a fist-sized, perfect multifaceted crystal.

The crystal is bluish-white, with faintly visible dragon and phoenix phantoms swirling and turning inside, and one can even faintly hear dragon chants and phoenix cries.

Beside this crystal is a white crystal-carved bowl, one chi in diameter and three cun high, containing exactly a bowlful of viscous purplish-gold blood plasma.

What is astonishing is that this tiny bowl of blood plasma, upon close inspection, resembles an endless, bottomless ocean, with faintly visible two thumb-thick golden double-helix streams intertwining and winding through it.

The crystal is Xiahou Xuan's soul crystal.

The blood plasma is Xiahou Xuan's bloodline essence.

"To whom does this divine-grade soul crystal belong?"

"To whom does this precious chaos-grade bloodline belong?"

After a long time, a long time, a thunderous rumbling influence arose; the source was a towering, muscular man whose upper body was humanoid, lower body a mass of black clouds, his whole body constantly spewing fine bolts of electricity.

A purple crystal the size of a thumb was embedded in the muscular man's brow; within the crystal, lightning continually flashed, occasionally emitting a low, rumbling thunder.

You Ruo's true form was also in the hall; his eyes shot out cold light as he stared fixedly at the crystal and a bowl of blood plasma. After a long time, he murmured, 'It can be called perfect, and so rich and mellow… the divine soul energy contained in this soul crystal can rival the combined souls of hundreds of millions of lowly, low‑cultivation humans.'

'This is a complete superiority in quality; quantity can never offset this huge gap in quality.'

'Moreover, this chaos‑level bloodline is exceedingly rare… even if we gathered the essence blood of billions of ordinary soldiers, it would be extremely difficult to refine a bloodline of such high quality and richness.'

You Ruo said in a deep voice: 'Everyone should remember, this is the first human deity's soul crystal we collected after being stationed here, and the first chaos‑level bloodline drawn from his body.'

You Ruo murmured, 'Killing a human who has cultivated into a deity yields such a great harvest—it's truly mouth‑watering… Moreover, when the Linghu clan's ancestral land, Fox Hill, was breached earlier, they sacrificed two deities…'

A giant composed entirely of seven‑colored crystals spoke coldly: 'It's a pity we didn't anticipate the fall of those two deities; we didn't have time to prepare… After they died in battle, their souls and bloodlines were shattered by secret arts, and we failed to gather any remnants of those two deities.'

You Ruo sighed: 'As for those deities forced to ascend and sent back to their homeland, I won't speak of them… they are the most precious resources, and no one would dare kill them… but, but those human deities remaining on Mu Dalu…'

You Ruo's eyes flickered as he looked at the hundreds of beings beside him: 'This crystal, this bloodline, are utterly insufficient for us to distribute.'

A humanoid formed from countless fine threads of black light‑shadow spoke softly: 'If only we could have more deities die in battle… rather than those… pitiful, lowly humans…'

You Ruo pursed his lips and smiled: 'I'm beginning to like Prince An, Huo Xiong… I really am beginning to like him…'

The many beings in the hall laughed together, gradually erupting into uproarious laughter.

'So we need not voice what's in our hearts; we just need to let things take their natural course. Of course, we can add fuel to this Three Kingdoms unification war.' You Ruo smiled: 'This is truly an unexpected gain.'

You Ruo raised his right hand: 'Then, do you all agree with our innermost, most direct and primal impulse?'

In the hall, the beings glanced at one another for a moment, then all raised their right hands.

In Qingqiu City's imperial palace, seated before Linghu Qingqing, the slightly dazed essence‑blood avatar of You Ruo twitched faintly, showed a subtle smile, and nodded toward Linghu Qingqing.

Right after Wu Tie sent a distress signal to Qingqiu City, a fleet that had rushed at full speed from the nearest prefecture arrived within just six hours, delivering a batch of battle‑formation supplies such as deployment disks to Wu Tie's army.

Countless auxiliary soldiers toiled, hauling the heavy, massive deployment disks and such out of the ship's hold; no one noticed that among the fleet, several dozen men in ordinary soldier uniforms, with restrained yet deep auras, silently mingled with the busy troops.

Not long after, Wu Tie saw the reinforcements sent by Qingqiu City in his own central command tent.

The reinforcements were few, numbering only thirty‑eight in total.

All thirty‑eight were mighty beings at the deity realm.

Of them, eight belonged to the main house of the Linghu clan; the other thirty came respectively from the top aristocratic military clans of the Qingqiu Divine Kingdom, representing the interests of thirty such top clans.

The leader, Linghu Buhuo, was a venerable Linghu elder far older than Xiang Feiyu and Xiang Feixie; he had entered the deity realm a hundred thousand years ago and is now the Linghu clan's eldest and most senior elder.

With white hair and an aura of ancient antiquity like an unearthed relic, Linghu Buhuo sat before Wu Tie and said in a low voice: 'His Majesty has decreed that slaying one enemy deity will be rewarded with the fief of three prefectures.'

'Gentlemen, this is the finest opportunity to achieve merit and establish a great undertaking; you must not let it slip away.'

Linghu Buhuo slightly lifted his head, stared fixedly at Wu Tie, his tone carrying a chilling, murderous intent: 'Prince An's merits have already been recorded by His Majesty; the three‑prefecture fief awaits his triumphant return, when he may go to the Hall of Rites and choose it himself.'

Grinning, Linghu Buhuo said softly: 'Please, gentlemen, strive!'

Wu Tie drew a deep breath, his heart pounding violently.

Very good, very good.

As expected, he unleashed the beasts lurking in his heart, shifting the war toward the direction Wu Tie desired.