Chapter 545

Blue Ling City, Grand Marshal's Mansion.

Above the drill ground.

Li Fei, clad in golden armor, threw a punch toward Wen Ren Zheng before him; the air was instantly sucked dry, and the vacuum zone pulled the blue bricks on the ground upward, causing them to explode!

Wen Ren Zheng wore a black martial arts uniform, without the battle armor condensed from a martial arts domain on his body.

He raised his hand to block the fist peak striking directly at his face, and lashed out with his left leg from bottom to top.

Li Fei threw a leg out almost simultaneously, intercepting the opponent's leg.

Bang!

A thunderous explosion sounded above the drill ground, and the circular sonic boom spread in all directions, grinding the flying stone fragments into powder.

Cracks appeared on the battle armor at Li Fei's right leg, and his entire body was kicked off the ground, flying backward.

He immediately cast 【No Distance】 to disappear, taking advantage of the momentum to discharge the impact force on his body.

But just as he emerged from the spatial interlayer, Wen Ren Zheng's fist was already coming straight at him!

Li Fei crossed his arms to frame this punch, his battle armor emitted a dull sound, and the ground beneath his feet suddenly collapsed downward.

Layer upon layer of mountain and river phantoms shattered under Wen Ren Zheng's fist!

Li Fei disappeared from his original spot again, instantly appearing behind Wen Ren Zheng, and smashed an elbow into the opponent's back.

Wen Ren Zheng let Li Fei smash into him; it was as if stars lit up in the acupuncture points on his back, resisting all the incoming force.

He twisted his waist, turned around, and raised his left knee to strike at Li Fei's ribs.

Bang—

Li Fei was knocked flying again.

This Military God's fighting style was simple and direct, not complex at all.

First, it was powerful and heavy, so heavy that even if Li Fei used 【Blood Rage】 with all his might, and then increased it tenfold with the 【Dragon Elephant】 divine ability, he still couldn't compare!

Second, it was fast as lightning, so fast that Li Fei couldn't continuously use 【No Distance】 to dodge within a gap of less than 0.1 seconds!

Li Fei slid backward, suddenly twisted his waist and turned, pushing his palms out in front of him.

The sun and moon wheels, the array of a thousand mountains, and the pouring heavenly river condensed into a brilliant line, as if the heavens and earth were held by Li Fei between his palms—

【Not Knowing the Height of the Heavens】!

The next instant, an iron fist with a metallic luster roared over, blasting open this line of heaven and earth.

Like a heavy cavalry charge, striking directly at the enemy leader, unstoppable!

Boom—

The entire drill ground had been reinforced by divine abilities and protected by arrays, but at this moment, the ground was still constantly shattering and collapsing.

Broken stones collapsed into the sky, gray clouds fell slowly.

Li Fei was repelled again, dodged with 【No Distance】 again, and was then caught up to by Wen Ren Zheng.

Two figures collided again and again in the sky full of dust.

Both of their Qi and blood were as scorching as the great sun, and every collision exploded like a thunderclap!

It was not until the entire drill ground was completely destroyed into a ruin, turning into a giant pit sunken downward, that the two stopped fighting.

The battle armor on Li Fei's body was like porcelain about to shatter, covered in cracks.

While Wen Ren Zheng was in his black martial arts uniform, not even stained by dust.

"Not bad."

Wen Ren Zheng nodded approvingly at Li Fei, "You are already stronger than those two Western Continent princes who died under my fists back then."

Previously, Ning Ning Qingman had personally commented on Li Fei's strength, believing that he was already comparable to a Western Continent prince.

Now Wen Ren Zheng gave an even further evaluation.

This Martial Saint who had personally beaten two princes to death naturally gave an evaluation that was even more convincing.

This meant that Li Fei was no longer just possibly ranked in the top thirty in the world, but had firmly entered the top thirty in the world!

"Many thanks for the guidance, Marshal."

Li Fei cupped his hands and bowed to Wen Ren Zheng.

His fighting style was very similar to this Military God's, so the guidance during this period of time had indeed benefited him greatly.

Both relied on power to suppress others, and Wen Ren Zheng had let Li Fei learn a lot.

Li Fei's power was indeed very strong; because of the Flying Sword Body, his power was also sufficiently concentrated, almost able to be perfectly unleashed.

But in terms of combining reality and illusion, switching between offense and defense, offensive rhythm, and so on, he still appeared somewhat 'immature'.

This kind of 'immaturity' was not reflected in his moves, but in his experience.

The Great Dao is simple; every strike of Wen Ren Zheng pointed directly to the core, always able to cause the greatest damage to Li Fei's 【Mixed Origin Sword Realm】!

This kind of combat technique was the most critical link in battles at the Grandmaster level.

Li Fei had, after all, only broken through his realm not long ago; although he had continuously defeated many Grandmasters before, he had won without any suspense, and the opponents found it difficult to even shake his 【Mixed Origin Sword Realm】, naturally unable to provide Li Fei with too much experience.

Now, after being repeatedly 'hammered' by Wen Ren Zheng, Li Fei finally made up for this link.

"The Northern Barbarians have also sent troops; does the Grand Marshal have a countermeasure?"

After the sparring ended, Li Fei began to inquire about military and state affairs.

The news that the nine tribes of the Northern Barbarians had joined forces, with Boerhu as the commander, and a million-strong army marching south, had just been sent back to Blue Ling City today.

First, two great desert nations sent troops, and then the Grassland Royal Court declared war.

Now the Northern Barbarians had also come to join the fun.

Bad news came one after another, and the entire capital was in a state of panic.

In the imperial court, the civil and military officials were also full of fear.

Wen Ren Zheng looked at Li Fei: "What are your thoughts?"

Li Fei said sternly: "Just fight!"

"Hahahahaha—"

Wen Ren Zheng laughed loudly, his voice shaking the heavens and clouds:

"Well said!"

He nodded with gratification: "If the imperial court were all of your character, even if the whole world were our enemy, what would my Great Lan Dynasty have to fear?"

There was a bit of sarcasm and a bit of anger in his tone.

Li Fei knew why this was.

When the two great desert nations marched into the southern border, there were still mostly voices in the imperial court supporting the dispatch of troops.

But when the Grassland Royal Court suddenly declared war on the Great Lan Dynasty, some ministers began to feel fear.

In the imperial court, some people began to propose 'peace talks', and were even willing to cede territory and marry off princesses!

Now that the Northern Barbarian million-strong army was attacking, among the lords of the imperial court, there would only be more people shrinking back.

"At tomorrow's Great Morning Assembly, I will ask His Majesty for orders to lead troops on an expedition!"

Li Fei said decisively.

Wen Ren Zheng nodded, his expression somewhat lonely.

If he could, how could he not want to lead troops on an expedition and sweep across all directions?

But in the current situation, neither the civil and military officials nor the Emperor would allow him to leave Blue Ling City.

With the current national destiny of the Great Lan Dynasty, if any accident occurred in Blue Ling City, this central hub, it would truly be not far from the fall of the nation!

Wen Ren Zheng was now the last reliance of the Great Lan Dynasty; not only could he not be moved lightly, but he didn't even dare to let himself suffer too heavy an injury.

Otherwise, how could he have let go of the opportunity to kill Qin Qin Mingli back then?

This destined that he could not be as unrestrained as Li Fei.

After leaving the Grand Marshal's Mansion, Li Fei headed to the Imperial City, going directly to the office of the Central Cabinet.

He walked into the pavilion prepared for him by the Supervision Pavilion, ordered his subordinates to inquire about news, and sat in his seat, closing his eyes to rest and summarizing his gains during this period.

From the time the Ten Thousand Blood Pearl was upgraded to level 50 and the first blood crystal was condensed until now, only less than two months had passed.

In these less than two months, Li Fei had upgraded the Ten Thousand Blood Pearl to level 63!

During this period, he went to the Grand Marshal's Mansion every few days to accept Wen Ren Zheng's hammering, so Wen Ren Zheng had made the greatest contribution to the upgrade of the Ten Thousand Blood Pearl.

Besides this, the 【Refined Gold Fire Quenching】 of the Ghost Slaying Blade made his body suffer damage every second, thereby letting the Ten Thousand Blood Pearl absorb energy.

Previously, he could at most spare two to three hours a day to specifically absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to attack himself, thereby absorbing energy.

Now he was absorbing energy 24 hours a day without interruption; this efficiency had increased more than tenfold!

This was the reason for the rapid upgrade of the Ten Thousand Blood Pearl.

After reaching level 60, as Li Fei expected, a second blood crystal was condensed.

The blood soul skill corresponding to this blood crystal was 【Blood Sha】, which happened to be the second blood soul skill Li Fei unlocked.

From then on, 【Blood Sha】 would no longer need to consume blood souls.

Besides the improvement of the Ten Thousand Blood Pearl, Li Fei also incorporated the sixth-grade fire-attribute implant 【Fierce Mountain Armor】.

He already had ideas for the implant to be connected after the 【Fierce Mountain Armor】.

Next, he only needed to wait for the 【Fierce Mountain Armor】 to reach the Qi Transformation stage before he could incorporate the second type of implant.

Li Fei estimated that he only needed to incorporate four to five types of implants to upgrade the Flying Sword Body from the Earth level to the Heaven level, thereby balancing magic and martial arts, and allowing his realm to further improve.

"Marquis."

More than an hour later, the subordinate Li Fei sent to inquire about news returned:

"This subordinate inquired in many ways; the lords of the Central Cabinet were quite shocked after learning the news of the Northern Barbarian million-strong army. Currently, the Supervision Pavilion, the Inspection Pavilion..."

The subordinate reported the news he had inquired about one by one.

As Li Fei expected, there were more ministers who wanted peace talks!

"This subordinate also inquired that some pavilion elders in the Judicial Pavilion believe that they can confer official titles and make promises to those top experts in the Jianghu, promising to reward these experts with the desert, grassland, and other places in the future, in exchange for their help."

Li Fei couldn't help but smile upon hearing this.

Having such thoughts showed that these ministers in the imperial court didn't understand top experts at all.

No one who could become a top expert step by step did so for wealth and glory.

Either they were single-mindedly seeking the Dao, or they had ambitions to achieve great things.

Wen Wen Xuexian, the Pavilion Master of the Red Dust Pavilion, needed to sever all karma for the Dao she sought; how could she put down her own Great Dao for some official position or fief and intervene in these matters?

That Sect Master of the Feathering Sect was still in closed-door cultivation to seek a breakthrough, and it was even more impossible for him to rashly come out of seclusion for these matters and fight to the death.

As for Tai Yu of the Great Luo Sect, he probably wished that the imperial court and the Buddhist sect would fight until both sides were injured, and it would be best if they all died.

And that number one person in the world, everyone knew what Dao the other party was seeking—above the peak!

When Lin Lin Tianyi broke through to the peak, he used power to prove the Dao and didn't disdain borrowing momentum at all.

I seek my own Dao!

The change of dynasties, the rise and fall of the world, whether it was a peaceful and prosperous age or the flames of war, this number one person in the world probably didn't care.

As for the remaining top experts, the three evil demons might be moved by interests.

But not to mention that once the imperial court used the three evil demons, its reputation would be ruined immediately.

Just speaking of the three evil demons, compared to helping the imperial court deal with others, wasn't the Central Plains more prosperous? More 'delicious'?

Just like the Buddhist sect would plot against the Great Lan Dynasty, but wouldn't consider occupying the two great desert nations or the Grassland Royal Court first at all.

If you can take gold directly, why go pick up the straw on the side?

And for the three evil demons, the less order there was, the freer people like them would be.

It would be better if the world were in chaos!

Counting them one by one, the only top expert who might possibly help was that warm-hearted Sword Immortal.

But the grievances between the Ning family and the imperial court were there; if she weren't disheartened, Ning Ning Qingman wouldn't have chosen to be a loose cultivator.

The other party was willing to help save the people of Tan City before, more to resolve the knot in her heart from back then.

So Li Fei was also not sure that Ning Ning Qingman would definitely help.

"Perhaps if I change my sword a few more times, I can move her?"

This bizarre thought flashed through his mind, and Li Fei smiled self-deprecatingly.

After inquiring about the news, he got up and left, returning to his Marquis Mansion.

Continue cultivation.

Early the next morning, the Great Morning Assembly was held.

In the main hall, the hundred officials gathered.

"The nine tribes of the Northern Barbarians have raised a million troops and are now about to invade our northern border!"

"Now our Great Lan Dynasty has wars on all three borders; you are all the pillars of our Great Lan Dynasty, do you have any good strategies?"

Above the imperial steps, Qin Qin Ziheng asked.

"Your Majesty!"

A pavilion elder of the Central Cabinet immediately stepped out and said loudly:

"Now our Great Lan Dynasty has internal troubles and external aggression, and there are the seven Western Continent nations looking across the sea, eyeing us covetously; it is really not suitable to start a war again!"

On the dragon chair, Qin Qin Ziheng was expressionless:

"Then what does the minister think should be done?"

This pavilion elder bowed and said:

"The old minister thinks that we can have peace talks!"

"Absurd!"

As soon as his voice fell, a minister stood out and said furiously:

"How can there be a war in this world that is settled without fighting? Calling it peace talks is actually wagging your tail and begging for pity! How can a person like you have the face to wear this official uniform?!"

The pavilion elder who was scolded stood up straight and also retorted furiously:

"Do you think I want peace talks for my own selfish interests? In the current situation, blindly being tough will only waste national power! Only by enduring humiliation and bearing the burden can there be a day of turning things around!"

The mutual scolding of the two immediately drew out more ministers, who joined in one after another.

In the imperial court, the pro-war faction and the peace-talk faction were clearly divided.

Out of the ten ministers who stood out, seven advocated peace talks!

Among them, some people sincerely wanted the best for the country, truly felt that they were for the country and the people, and felt that this battle should not be fought.

The Great Lan Dynasty now needed to recuperate too much!

"Grand Marshal."

After the ministers finished arguing for a round, Qin Qin Ziheng spoke:

"Do you think we should fight or have peace talks?"

Wen Ren Zheng stood up, his voice like a great bell:

"Of course we must fight!"

"Oh?"

Qin Qin Ziheng looked at him, "Does the Grand Marshal have a strategy for certain victory?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty."

Wen Ren Zheng stood straight, like a mountain standing tall:

"The two great desert nations have been weak for many years, and they have less than 300,000 troops capable of fighting; once the Green Frost Army arrives, they will surely be able to defeat the enemy!"

"The Grassland Royal Court has just experienced internal chaos; it looks aggressive, but in fact, the hearts of the people are unstable. Our Eastern Border has the White Flame Army stationed there; even if they have a million archers, it will be difficult for them to cross the line!"

"Although the Northern Barbarian army is large in number, it lacks foundation; we only need to send experts to lead the army, behead the generals and seize the flags, and the danger to the northern border can be resolved!"

In a few words, he clarified the situation on the three borders.

The two great desert nations in the southern border had the least threat, and the Great Lan Dynasty sending the Green Frost Army there had the greatest certainty of winning.

The Grassland Royal Court had the strongest strength, but Wen Ren Zheng believed that with the White Flame Army sitting in the eastern border, it could at least be defended, and there would be no problems in the short term.

As for the Northern Barbarians, without the Green Frost Army, relying only on the 100,000 border troops of the northern border to block a million-strong army was indeed too difficult, so it needed the imperial court to send people to support.

"Therefore, we only need to stabilize the defense lines of the eastern and northern borders, and wait for the Green Frost Army to quell the war in the southern border before supporting, and then all three borders will be peaceful!"

Wen Ren Zheng finally said.

His strategy was not without loopholes.

It was just that this Grand Marshal was the only pillar of the imperial court now, and the ministers didn't dare to speak out to refute for a while.

Qin Qin Ziheng looked at him: "Then who does the Marshal think should be sent to lead troops to support the northern border?"

As soon as the voice fell, a golden robe stood out from the front row.

"This minister is willing to lead troops on an expedition to support the northern border!"

The person who stepped out was Li Fei.

His Barbarian-Slaying Army was in the northern border, and Li Sister Tianyu was still leading troops for him in the northern border.

So both publicly and privately, he should choose to go to the northern border to support.

Seeing Li Fei stand out, many ministers who intended to speak fell silent again.

After this Marquis of Jing'an swept across the Jianghu and defeated the Grandmasters one after another, his reputation went up another level.

Later, joining forces with the Sword Immortal to defeat the two great evil demons pushed his reputation to a peak!

Now the hundred officials of the imperial court had basically determined one thing—

Li Fei was the second strongest person in the Great Lan Dynasty after Wen Ren Zheng!

He was also the sharpest sword of the Great Lan Dynasty besides Wen Ren Zheng and the Imperial Camp Army!

His standing out to express his willingness to support the northern border at least gave some people confidence.

But, it was not enough.

"Your Majesty, this minister is willing to go with the Marquis of Jing'an to support the northern border!"

Another figure stood out.

This person was not wearing an official uniform, but instead wearing a Daoist robe, appearing somewhat out of place in the imperial court.

But no one dared to underestimate this person.

Even the importance attached to him was higher than that of Li Fei!

This person was the newly promoted Deputy Pavilion Master of the Supervision Pavilion, True Person Xuan Chen of the Upper Clear Sect.

Xuan Chen stood out, representing not only himself, but also the Upper Clear Sect behind him.

His willingness to support the northern border meant that at a critical moment, that True Monarch Xuan Xin might take action!

With a top expert plus Li Fei, it seemed that the Northern Barbarian million-strong army was not invincible.

"Good!"

Qin Qin Ziheng was overjoyed, "With two pillars of the country sharing my worries and killing enemies for the country, why worry about the war going poorly?"

His majestic gaze swept over everyone present: "My mind is made up!"

The ministers bowed one after another.

"Order Marquis of Jing'an Li Fei and Xuan Chen of the Supervision Pavilion to lead 100,000 Imperial Guards north!"

The voice of the Son of Heaven rolled out from the Zheng Lan Hall.

After the Great Morning Assembly ended, the ministers walked out of the main hall in twos and threes.

Everyone was whispering and discussing.

Everyone noticed that today in the main hall, the Son of Heaven asked about military and state affairs, and actually made a decision directly without asking for the opinion of that Chief Secretary.

And Ye Ye Zean also remained silent from beginning to end, without expressing his stance.

Combined with the attitude of the Central Cabinet, many people realized one point—

I am afraid that this Chief Secretary does not approve of fighting.

With so many peace-talk factions in the imperial court today, and the Chief Secretary not expressing support for the war, even if the Son of Heaven, the Grand Marshal, and the Marquis of Jing'an reached a consensus, would the subsequent war really go smoothly?

And the strategy proposed by Wen Ren Zheng was actually very idealized.

The Green Frost Army fought continuously; would there be no attrition?

That Great Man of the Grassland Royal Court was unfathomable; he suppressed the royal power as soon as he launched, suddenly declared war; could the White Flame Army really block it?

Would the Buddhist sect stay in the temple obediently all the time and not send people to cause trouble?

Most importantly, would the seven Western Continent nations watch the Great Lan Dynasty fight quietly and not cause trouble?

With all these things, if the Great Lan Dynasty insisted on fighting, as long as one place went wrong, it might immediately trigger a total collapse!

This was why many ministers would rather have peace talks than start a war.

And their thoughts represented the will of the entire elite class of the Great Lan Dynasty.

With hearts not united, how could the war go smoothly?

This battle had not yet started, and it was already covered in a layer of haze.

The wind and rain were coming, and the building was about to fall!

(End of chapter)