Chapter 425: Head-Sending Alliance, Assemble!

In this world, there are no eternal lies, only lies whose shelf life is prolonged as much as possible.

Therefore, for Ji Ming, as long as he can successfully deceive and draw out the manpower of these petty forces in the south, unite them, and kill them all, completely cutting off their last chance of resistance, he has already fulfilled all his goals, without hoping for anything else.

However, the situation turned out even better than he imagined; at least from the way the fanatics behind Yin Ni snapped to attention at lightning speed, they still did not doubt the authenticity of his status as the God's Chosen.

……

Ji Ming: sweating soybeans. jpg

So I have to ask, what exactly does this Shadow Church do to make a living?

I've been swaggering and deceiving under the banner of his family's God's Chosen for over two months, so how come I still haven't noticed any problems?

But if he really thinks that, then it would truly be an injustice to Wendige and Yin Ni, this pair of honest people.

One is someone whose force he just tore half apart, now still holed up deep in the grasslands recruiting troops, just hoping to draw a bit more blood to keep up with the Wolf King's Majesty's winter offensive, an empty-nest elder.

Another simply got dumped outside by the boss with orders to "act as he sees fit"; his main goal is to lie low in enemy territory and sabotage, and whenever possible he buries himself as deep as he can as an underground operative.

To ensure the plan goes smoothly, the two of them basically couldn't hold more than a few conversations all year, and coincidentally, the last one happened exactly a month ago.

At that time, Ji Ming had already been lecturing for a week at the Holy Light Theocracy, exactly when his prestige was rising and his fame was spreading.

When the Archbishop Yin Ni, who was dragging his subordinates around hiding east and west, heard about this, he was dumbfounded, thinking, "Where did the God find such a ruthless person?"

This is truly impressive—carrying out infiltration in one fell swoop, sneaking into someone else's lair is bad enough, but he dares to act openly? His mental fortitude is too strong!

And precisely for this reason, as a fellow intelligence operative, Yin Ni knows full well that the deeper the infiltration, the greater the danger.

Especially spies like him who don't follow the usual path, boldly adopting 【high-profile actions】 as a disguise.

Even a slight mistake could lead to total defeat, and because he's hidden too deep, he might not even be able to walk away when the time comes.

So even as cautious and suspicious as he is, he wouldn't dare jeopardize the God's Chosen and God's affairs, and in the call he didn't dare bring up any topic related to the God's Chosen.

He only dared to hint indirectly, bringing it up casually when reporting personnel-related information.

——Recently the situation in the Radiant South has been somewhat chaotic; the new batch of personnel the council sent here—do they have any issues in terms of quality?

If the person answering the phone were Ji Ming, he would surely be able to tell that Yin Ni was subtly expressing his doubts about himself, trying to gain a bit of confidence from his direct superior.

But poor Lao Yang Tou, swamped with countless affairs and nearly having his head worked off, has no mind to play guessing games with him.

He even thought the other side was hinting at him, so he hurriedly sent over the new batch of fanatics that should have been in place last month.

But given the current situation…… even the landlord's family has no spare grain left; even if they tore apart his old bones, they couldn't scrape together a few people.

All he could do was stall, repeatedly saying there were no problems.

【Really no problem?】

【Really no problem!】

Seeing the leader already a little angry, Yin Ni didn't dare to keep asking; since he said there's no problem, then there's no problem.

In short, after all this back-and-forth, Archbishop Yin Ni not only didn't suspect Ji Ming's identity, but his trust in him actually increased quite a bit.

They all planned to devote themselves wholeheartedly to following the God's Chosen, not seeking any promotion or raise, only hoping to return to the capital soon instead of constantly being sent on high-intensity trips abroad……

Ji Ming slightly restrained his expectant gaze, and Yin Ni began reporting the troops he had brought this time.

"God's Chosen, I've brought a total of three hundred fanatics and two hundred necromancers to participate in the operation; please review them."

Ji Ming was originally quite pleased, but after hearing the numbers clearly, he still hesitated before nodding.

Because he suddenly recalled that when he promised the nobles, he said that for each day they arrived early, his side would dispatch an extra thousand people, but now, even at most, they only have five hundred.

……but after thinking it over, this bunch of slackers have at least been loafing for half a month; with that reduction, sending five hundred from our side, they probably have no face to question us.

Ji Ming pondered as he walked before the troops; seeing their own God's Chosen, whose appearance truly looks like having seen a ghost (literally), actually so imposing, the Shadow followers naturally also cast admiring glances.

He almost wished he could one day take their place…… ah, no, it should be 'a true man should be like this!'

"Tsk……"

So Ji Ming always feels uncomfortable being stared at all over, and besides, he's not a kindergarten kid—how could he possibly count them off one by one?

He just gave a slight glance with his eyes, then nodded again.

"Hmm, not bad! Archbishop, you truly live up to being a senior; even in this peril, you've still managed to preserve so much of our manpower!"

Frankly, upon hearing that, Yin Ni almost wanted to cry, almost saying something.

"You'd better not say that, Grandpa—I've only got this few troops left; if I weren't genuinely afraid of danger, I'd have already drained my personal guard for you."

But since our partners are still watching, we'd better not complain; let's just say some nice-sounding things.

So he merely put on an air of nonchalance and spoke casually.

"Thanks to the God's Chosen's help, our losses in this turmoil aren't too great."

Ji Ming:???

What have I helped you with? I'd rather you all died.

On his face: "Oh! Good, then I can relax!"

Although Ji Ming could still keep himself from cursing silently in his heart, Yin Ni couldn't hold back that feeling of heartache and added another sentence.

"Now I'm handing them over to you personally, and I still hope your plan succeeds, so we can…… strive…… to bring more of them back!"

Seeing that, despite being an Archbishop, he still loves his soldiers like children, and his words and demeanor are utterly sincere, the deeply moved God's Chosen immediately performed a salute.

"Archbishop, just hand them over to me and you can rest assured—I guarantee I'll arrange everything clearly and plainly!"

Yin Ni seemed to want to say something more, but in the end he just nodded slightly and then vanished as a shadow.

Also thanks to this old guy having other things to do, otherwise if Ji Ming didn't find an excuse to send him away, it would really be bad to throw this bunch of idiot believers into the fire pit……

No!

Bringing them over was meant to fully absorb them into the Soul Spirit Council and befriend those Shadow followers who had already submitted.

On my side I provide food, drink, and upgrades, and when there are difficulties there are several big shots who fly in to help—our treatment is truly much better than that of the Shadow Church, right?

So how could this be called a fire pit?

This is clearly the God's Chosen acting with compassion, leading the hardworking folks together toward a good life, right?

And honestly, Ji Ming originally thought that after arranging things for so long, he could at least muster a force of twenty thousand.

But even if we add the members of the Shadow Church, looking at these few rotten tomatoes and bad potatoes in front of us, I won't even comment on their quality; just in terms of numbers, barely reaching ten thousand is already enough to be a problem.

It seems the players have indeed scraped the ground ruthlessly; these vermin, boars and wild boars are so resentful, and the troops they can gather are only this little.

Thus the only good news is probably that they've suffered a lot along the way and now are brimming with resentment, desperate to vent.

Even if they're just disorganized, undisciplined thugs, at least their morale can be barely considered usable.

…just hope that when they spot the player, they'll bravely charge, instead of screaming and fleeing in panic (hands clasped).

But as the saying goes, like Han Xin counting troops, the more the merrier; even useless cannon fodder, as long as they can be taken along steadily, the better.

So they waited here another two days, picking up bits and pieces, ending up with a force of roughly two thousand.

Actually, since going to the Barbarian Plains would just be a suicide mission, taking a day or two, there's no rush, so Ji Ming still wanted to wait a bit longer.

But.

"Perhaps later we'll get some slower… friends, arriving late, but in my view the total won't even reach four figures."

"And anyone who can be late this many days is probably no good soldier; even if we bring them, they'll just be a drag!"

Those words were spoken by Knight Commander Bogo of Count Yan Shan's house, and after speaking he nearly snapped the chair's armrest off.

In fact, as the most experienced in military strategy within the allied forces, he was also the most serious participant in this expedition.

From the moment Ji Ming saw him, he maintained a fairly steady rage, almost constantly in a red‑hot state.

So if he were a player, he would have already slammed his helmet on the ground, shouting in hatred.

"Fuck, how did the kingdom become like this!?"

"Stuck with this bunch of vermin, how can we defeat the player!"

But there's no way around it; this is the painful reality, and the reality he must face.

Thus, as a former laborer, although Ji Ming is the root of all these disasters, he still empathizes with Bogo's suffering.

While expressing deep sympathy, he also waved his hand and handed the allied forces' second‑in‑command—essentially the real operative role—to him.

Bogo did not disappoint Ji Ming; leveraging his status as the count's vassal and a Divine Chosen, he swiftly reorganized the tangled allied forces.

So after those two days, although they still looked like an extremely unsightly scatter on the surface, in reality… at least we tried!

And this so‑called allied force, if we must give a clearer definition, is actually—

the union of the Southern Hui Guang Kingdom's all underground churches except the Holy Light, and the overwhelming majority of the kingdom's nobles.

Thus, although the knight commander sent by Count Yan Shan, under the kingdom's feudal system, is qualified to represent these minor nobles.

But as the Divine Chosen of the Shadow Church, Ji Ming—who neither proclaimed nor has much fame—clearly lacks the qualification to represent these small churches.

Therefore, to maintain internal balance of the allied forces, since combat authority has been handed to Knight Commander Bogo, logistical authority was given by Ji Ming to a bishop of a small church.

It's not because this fellow is particularly capable or adept at flattering superiors; mainly because he looks a bit dim‑witted and is easy to manipulate.

Moreover, under the banner of a joint gathering, Ji Ming deliberately gathered several church representatives to showcase their homegrown skills, essentially to see how powerful the deity behind them truly is.

When it was the turn of this clueless bishop, after waving his magic wand to channel power, he actually turned an entire stone‑strewn patch of land into a soft, soggy mud swamp.

Indeed, his master Kami's title is "God of Mud," the evil deity worshipped by a cult that enjoys suffocating people in mud as sacrifice.

Ji Ming thought briefly, stealthily stole a shovel and sent it to the underground city; after Gresen's analysis, it turned out the thing was indeed extraordinary.

In short, this isn't some "Divine Fossil‑to‑Mud Technique"; it's clearly "Immortal Golden Kela Wholesale"!

Besides the extremely high content of humus, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other chaotic nutrients, there's even a faint divine energy fluctuation that can stimulate biological activity.

Consequently, those jungle zealots who have switched to become fire‑power farming kings, after a test planting, found that under the special soil, plant growth and maturation sped up by at least thirty percent.

Moreover, even when mixed with ordinary soil, it still supplements nutrients and accelerates growth and ripening.

And because the nutrient concentration isn't that high, seedling loss rate dropped considerably, saving a lot of protective magic consumption.

So that bunch of idiots lurking in the deep mountain forest aren't mud‑god followers at all; they're plainly a walking fertilizer factory!

And as everyone knows, Ji Ming cherishes talent above all, can't bring himself to kill, would rather have someone starve while chained in a mine for a lifetime.

Therefore he kept this clueless foolish bishop by his side, essentially to give them a way out.

Later he'll find a way to persuade them, along with the mud god behind them, to abandon illusion, see reality, and abandon darkness for light.

Otherwise…

Otherwise 'Ming' would have to go find Him personally!

But unfortunately, as soon as he expressed his intention to promote this little bishop, a huge group of whimpering, worthless church representatives blocked the door.

Although they didn't openly challenge the alliance leader, it was clear they resented this mud‑playing useless snack.

Openly or covertly, the message was the same—

Well, you can certainly place him on our shoulders, but whether we can bear it or walk…

That's hard to say!

There's no choice; faced with ministers slacking off and tendering resignations, Ji Ming had to abandon the idea.

However, after some thought, he cleverly tossed the dangerously provocative problem right back.

"Ah… this…"

Even though everyone is a demon or heretic, no one wants to look down on others.

But they're not fools either; who would voluntarily take on something that guarantees 100% hatred?

(End of Chapter)