Chapter 90: Dispatching Troops (Begging for First Subscriptions!)

The Grey Mist churned and surged, stirring up boundless ripples.

Chen Mo stood within the Grey Mist, Inner Qi bolstered in his ears, carefully probing the situation outside.

It was very quiet inside the Grey Mist, as if nothing existed at all.

The deer calls he could hear before did not appear now.

Aside from the churning mist, the entire Mirage Sea was as silent as death.

Back when he was at Xiaqi Valley, Chen Mo had asked his foster father many things about the Mirage Sea.

The Mirage Sea indeed had the concept of regions, and many different regions were not connected to one another.

They were like one small puddle after another, scattered across the entire world like stars in the sky.

The more people gathered in a place, the stronger the Mirage Sea became; some were small puddles, while others were vast oceans.

But regardless of size, at least they were not connected for now, yet they were rising every single day.

If nothing unexpected happens, one day the Mirage Sea will cover the entire world.

Of course, according to what his foster father said, this timeframe is very long, requiring at least several hundred years.

The Mirage Sea he was currently in was just a small puddle; no matter how he walked, it was impossible to leave this region.

As for the Mirage Beasts he had killed before, strictly speaking, they did not die, or rather, they never possessed life to begin with; being killed just meant they dissipated.

After some time, other Mirage Beasts would evolve within this region, though it was hard to say if they would still be those deer.

Because the evolution of Mirage Spirits is completely random, the Mirage Beasts that evolve each time are highly likely to be different.

Chen Mo carefully searched along this region; the size of the Mirage Sea directly determined the upper limit of the Mirage Beasts' strength.

There were only a mere fifty or so people in the barracks, so this Mirage Sea definitely qualified as the smallest scale and should not contain any other powerful Mirage Beasts, which was why he dared to explore boldly.

After roughly circling around, he truly discovered one deer that had slipped through the net, killed it offhand, and harvested another piece of Living Meat.

Aside from this last remaining strange deer, there were no other Mirage Beasts in this Mirage Sea.

Chen Mo struck the Copper Gong he carried with him; since there were no other monsters to hunt, he would hurry and leave.

He did not want to stay here too long and become tainted by the Mirage Sea Breath, as that would cause the Mirage Sea to consider him a part of itself.

At any time, even in broad daylight, one could be pulled into it, but as long as one is not tainted too much, it is still considered safe.

According to his foster father's instructions, the number of times one enters and exits the Grey Mist within a month should preferably not exceed three, and the total time should not exceed six hours.

Furthermore, one cannot enter consecutively; there must be a certain interval in between.

Chen Mo had also waited a few days after returning from his foster father's place before entering the Mirage Sea again.

This was his second time entering the Mirage Sea this month; he would have to wait a while longer if he wanted to enter again.

Chen Mo did not plan to enter other Mirage Seas for the time being; besides this barracks, the closest Mirage Sea to him was only at Zhu Niu Ji.

And Zhu Niu Ji had a population of over three thousand; that Mirage Sea was likely countless times larger than the one before him.

It must be home to a large number of Mirage Beasts, and the strongest among them would certainly far exceed that deer king.

Before possessing sufficient strength, he should not go exploring at will.

While there would certainly be many weaker Mirage Beasts there, there would inevitably be even more powerful and strange ones.

Rather than taking risks now, it was better to wait for another period of time.

Once the Mirage Sea Breath on his body dissipated, he would kill the newly evolved Mirage Beasts in the barracks' Mirage Sea, obtain enough Qi and Blood power, and undergo a new Mortal Transformation.

Only then would he consider entering it for a simple exploration to see if he could hunt more Mirage Beasts.

Of course, Chen Mo had another idea, which was to find a way to secure an official position that allowed him to travel between various barracks.

One barracks was one small Mirage Sea; if he could travel back and forth between various barracks, he could hunt Mirage Beasts at every location.

Then, every time he arrived at a new small barracks, he could kill a batch of Mirage Beasts.

Most importantly, this method was safe; no matter how strong the Mirage Beasts in small barracks were, they wouldn't be that strong.

Even if some Mirage Beasts had strange methods, with his current strength, even if he couldn't easily kill them, ensuring his own safety was absolutely no problem.

Chen Mo pondered this matter inwardly, planning to see if there were such positions after finishing the encirclement of the Dutian Dao and earning merit, and to have his foster father help him maneuver it.

Through this method, he could steadily and safely obtain a batch of Mirage Spirits every month.

This matter seemed easy to him, but that was only for him.

Even in a small Mirage Sea of fifty people, the deer king that appeared had quite extraordinary strength.

Chen Mo estimated that in terms of raw strength alone, that deer king was probably not much different from his foster father, not to mention it also had some evil methods.

To want to travel between various small Mirage Seas and hunt Mirage Beasts at will, one's strength would at least have to be on par with his foster father's.

And in the entire Xingyuan Prefecture with its population of over a million, those with strength similar to his foster father could be counted on two hands.

A considerable portion of them held high positions and had no great need for Mirage Spirits, so there was no need for them to take risks themselves.

Chen Mo estimated that throughout the entire Xingyuan Prefecture, there were probably only a mere two or three people who had the ability and willingness to run back and forth to hunt Mirage Beasts.

These people acted alone, and could only act alone.

One cannot travel in company within the Mirage Sea; even if another Martial Artist entered the same Mirage Sea at the same time and place as Chen Mo,

they still would not meet; they might even encounter the same Mirage Sea, but they would absolutely never see each other.

It was as if at that very moment, the Mirage Sea evolved two regions and sent the two people into them separately, wishing to break them apart.

Therefore, exploring the Mirage Sea could only ever rely on one's own strength; one could not travel in company.

As the mist before him gradually dispersed, Chen Mo returned to the barracks.

Walking back to his quarters and removing his armor and weapons, he let out a long breath of stale air before lying on the bed to rest.

Ever since he confirmed that being in a deep sleep, as well as being in places where a Copper Gong was frequently struck, would not easily cause one to fall into the Mirage Sea,

Chen Mo was much more relaxed when resting than in the past.

At least he didn't have to keep his armor, spear, and Copper Gong on the bed like before, tied to himself with cloth strips to ensure that even if he were pulled into the Mirage Sea in his sleep, these things would still be there.

Now he finally didn't have to do that, though he still habitually carried his Short Blade and Copper Gong to prevent any accidents.

Lying on the bed, he fell into a peaceful sleep; the next morning, Chen Mo rode his horse to patrol the entire area around Zhu Niu Ji.

Before the sun rose, he finished his patrol and hurried back home.

Smoke curled from the kitchen, and Zhao Yu, having already calculated the time of Chen Mo's return, was just bringing out a pot of hot porridge.

"Go wash your hands quickly, the meal is all ready," she said with a smile as she caught sight of Chen Mo.

Breakfast was very simple, consisting of nothing more than sixty or seventy steaming meat buns with thin skins and large fillings, each the size of an adult's fist.

These buns were not made by Zhao Yu herself, but bought from outside, mainly because the morning was too rushed to prepare them by hand.

Since it was summer, it was impossible to prepare the filling the night before and wrap them in the morning as one would in winter.

However, the freshly boiled millet and pumpkin porridge, along with a dish of pickled chili peppers and pickled garlic, were all made by her own hands.

"Here you go," she said, bringing Chen Mo a coarse porcelain bowl containing a dipping sauce made of chili oil and vinegar.

She did not like vinegar herself, but seeing that Chen Mo loved it, she had remembered it and prepared a portion for him every time they ate buns.

Chen Mo ate over sixty buns in one go and drank five bowls of millet porridge with sugar, only then letting out a sigh of satisfaction as he sat at the table to rest.

After resting for a while, he walked back to his room, cut the Living Meat he had just obtained into pieces, and ate it.

The Transformation Pearl, originally transparent and colorless within his dantian, had now accumulated nearly fifty percent of its Qi and Blood power.

What originally would have required at least three years for the next Mortal Transformation now seemed as though it would only take a few more months of effort.

After swallowing the Living Meat, he found a cool spot in the courtyard to begin his cultivation.

Although the Transformation Pearl could enhance his strength, Chen Mo had not slacked off in his daily cultivation either.

According to his estimation, his current physical strength had increased by another two or three hundred jin compared to when he had just undergone his Mortal Transformation.

This was already a quite impressive speed; if his foundation had not been strong enough, he would never have been able to improve so quickly.

A peaceful life continued for nearly a month, during which the Mirage Beasts in the military camp evolved again, only to be quickly slaughtered by Chen Mo to obtain Mirage Spirits and replenish his own Qi and Blood.

The Qi and Blood accumulated within the Transformation Pearl also rose from less than fifty percent to over eighty percent.

Three or four days later, his foster father sent someone to deliver a letter, urging him to quickly arrange the affairs of Zhu Niu Ji and return to the Personal Soldier camp as soon as possible.

Upon receiving the letter, Chen Mo understood that since the autumn harvest had passed and the Imperial Court no longer had any concerns, they were going to officially dispatch troops to encircle and suppress the Dutian Dao Sect.

(End of chapter)