Chapter 547: Am I afraid?

Since he had successfully trapped the You Wu, Little Wei Yuan took the win and did not continue to pursue.

In this battle, Little Wei Yuan's heavy armored legion, led by the Long Xiang Army, directly shattered the morale of the Shaman army.

However, the Qingming Army's prestige seemed formidable, but in reality, it was somewhat hollow. Fewer than a few hundred soldiers in the Long Xiang Army had been re-equipped with heavy armor containing Nether Crystal, and they were all placed on the outermost perimeter, with one person spaced between each of them.

Yet the Great Shamans only noticed the warriors whose bodies shone with a faint blue light, ignoring the warriors silently enduring beside them.

Of the ten heavy armored legions, there were actually only two true pure heavy armored legions; the armor worn by the other legions looked similar in style, but in reality, they were medium armor weighing less than thirty jin. It was just that Little Wei Yuan had the craftsmen re-polish and oil them, making them look like brand-new heavy armor.

Sure enough, the Shaman tribe was intimidated by Little Wei Yuan, thinking that every legion was as ferocious as the Long Xiang Army at the very front, and their morale collapsed.

In fact, Little Wei Yuan also used a technique: the missiles and artillery fire were more intense than the previous few times, and the Shaman field troops had been hit by several missiles before they even charged up. Thus, they were already in a wretched state when they charged over, and naturally, they were vulnerable once battle was joined.

Although he had used deception repeatedly, the Long Xiang Legion, which had been partially re-equipped with Nether Crystal heavy armor, thoroughly demonstrated the terrifying combat power of a heavy armored legion.

Fearless of the Great Shamans' shamanic strikes, they could focus on fighting, and so the ten thousand Long Xiang soldiers stood firm against the siege of nearly ten times their number of enemies, slaughtering over thirty thousand Shaman tribesmen while losing only one thousand of their own.

If there were no other interfering factors, Little Wei Yuan was confident he could frontally rout this Shaman army of over one hundred thousand in another hour. This was the key that prompted the Shaman tribe to withdraw their troops.

Taking stock of the battle results, Qingming lost over thirty thousand dead in this battle, most of whom were fortress garrison troops; the heavy armored warriors lost only nine thousand in total. The Shaman army lost one hundred and fifty thousand dead, and the casualty ratio reached one to five for the first time.

After the battle, Little Wei Yuan summoned the cultivators of the Grand Tai Tai Chu Gong again to discuss the next combat plan based on the data from this battle.

Yu Zhizhuo said first: "Based on my observations of this battle, the armor containing Nether Crystal reduced the power of Shaman curses by eighty percent. Added to the reinforcement of military Qi, even without the 'All Living Beings in an Instant' technique, if they were all commoners with first-rank Body Forging, a Great Shaman would only be able to kill one thousand people even after exhausting their magic power. And that is in the most ideal state."

"In reality, this unit only needs to be equipped with ten Dao Foundation stage captains, and a Great Shaman would have to take a detour. These Dao Foundation cultivators don't even need talent; human-rank is enough."

"How much Nether Crystal is needed for such armor?" Bao Yun asked.

Yu Zhizhuo said: "One liang of Nether Crystal is enough for one hundred sets of armor. The only problem is the lack of refining craftsmen. To refine such heavy armor, one must be a Dao Foundation cultivator, and a single craftsman needs at least five days to refine one set of armor."

Little Wei Yuan immediately said: "I will allocate another five hundred Dao Foundation cultivators to you to act as craftsmen, specifically to forge Nether Crystal heavy armor."

Sun Yu frowned and said: "I also need manpower; there is a severe shortage of physicians right now. If there were more disciples, not to mention the long term, we could have saved two or three thousand more wounded soldiers in this battle alone."

Xu Henshui also said: "Is having physicians enough? Don't we need elixirs? Junior Martial Nephew Wei, you must give me a few more assistants; my requirements aren't high, Fire-attribute Heaven Foundation will do."

Sun Yu snorted and said: "Requirements aren't high? If you want assistants, go cultivate them yourself! There are plenty of human-rank Dao Foundation cultivators; do you want them?"

Xu Henshui was somewhat angry and was just about to retort when Zhang Sheng spoke: "Qingming is different from the Grand Tai Tai Chu Gong; it really does need more human-rank Dao Foundation cultivators. If you have time, you had best research a self-use Dao Foundation, similar to the Innate Life-Nurturing Water. Then you won't be short of assistants."

Xu Henshui snorted and said ungraciously: "My Creation Temple cannot produce a Dao Foundation like Innate Life-Nurturing Water."

"Hmm?" Zhang Sheng's gaze was sharp, fixed on Xu Henshui.

Xu Henshui stared back unceremoniously, but after a moment, he still felt somewhat guilty and turned to look outside the hall. Little Wei Yuan also had a headache; manpower was needed everywhere right now. Old Daoist Chuhe's medicinal garden needed disciples, the spiritual fields and farmland needed people, and building cities, roads, doing business, and dealing with horse bandits—people were needed everywhere. Although Qingming now had over five thousand Dao Foundation cultivators, it was still far from enough.

In the successive great battles with the Shaman tribe, Qingming had already lost over five hundred Dao Foundation cultivators; if it weren't for the eight hundred Dao Foundation cultivators supplemented by the two training classes, Qingming's personnel would be even more stretched thin now.

But after weighing the options, Little Wei Yuan gritted his teeth and said to Yu Zhizhuo: "I will give you another three hundred Dao Foundation cultivators, specifically to forge weapons!"

Yu Zhizhuo suddenly received eight hundred Dao Foundation cultivators; this was Little Wei Yuan pouring in all the new Dao Foundation cultivators from the past two months. Everyone suddenly realized clearly that Little Wei Yuan was going all out to increase military equipment—he was preparing for a counterattack.

After the meeting concluded, Yu Zhizhuo retrieved the calculation results from the Human World Fireworks and spent another half day summarizing them, finally completing the improved version of the Dao technique targeting Nether Iron.

The improved Dao technique template was extremely complex, not inferior to Little Wei Yuan's Golden Light Water Blade Art. Yu Zhizhuo named it the Molten Gold Dao Book. He would submit it to the Merit Hall as soon as Little Wei Yuan tested its effectiveness in the Nether Cold Realm.

The Molten Gold Dao Book specifically targeted all Nether-attribute, Water-system, and Cold-system metals, capable of significantly lowering the melting point of these metals. Originally, the melting point of Nether Iron was twice as high as that of steel, and only a Great Power like Yu Jing could emit such strong True Fire to melt Nether Iron.

Now, after using the Dao Book, the melting point of Nether Iron was only thirty percent higher than that of steel. If one possessed some Fire-system divine abilities, such as Solar True Fire, then even a Dharma Form cultivator could melt Nether Iron.

Having obtained the Dao Book, Little Wei Yuan entered the Nether Cold Realm once again.

Just as Little Wei Yuan left, Xu Henshui, who had been preparing to return to the Creation Elixir Room, suddenly stopped his movement and slowly turned his head, seeing Zhang Sheng standing behind him.

Zhang Sheng stood with his hands behind his back and said indifferently: "Your attitude today was quite arrogant. Is it because you see me re-cultivating that you feel you can rise again?"

(No errors in the original text!)

Xu Henshui laughed and said: "You and Ji Liuli—one is re-cultivating, the other has a problem with their Dao heart and cannot come out of seclusion, while I have taken a step forward! What, you can't stand it? It doesn't matter; anyway, Little Wei Yuan is your disciple, you can let him come and fight me."

Zhang Sheng said: "I was just waiting for him to leave this realm before coming to find you, so as to avoid him interfering."

Xu Henshui was startled and said: "What do you mean?"

"I mean, let's find a quiet place with no one around, and I will see just how powerful your Orchid Heaven Immortal really is."

Xu Henshui couldn't believe his ears and said: "You have only just built your Dao Foundation in this re-cultivation; you haven't even finished consolidating it, have you? And you want to fight me like this?"

"Fighting across ranks will just help me temper my Dao Foundation. What, are you afraid?"

"Hahaha, would I be afraid?"

A moment later, the two stood still on an uninhabited mountain peak in the southeast of the realm. Now it was Xu Henshui's turn to stand with his hands behind his back, not in a hurry to manifest his Dharma Form, and he said in an old-fashioned tone: "Junior, show me your Dao Foundation and let me see."

Zhang Sheng reached out and grabbed into the void, and a Great Brightness Demon-Subduing Sword appeared in his hand.

Xu Henshui was dumbfounded: "This, this immortal sword..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 548 =====