Chapter 262 - 261: The Battle Begins, Searching Thousands of Miles

The mobilization of nearly a million people was swiftly completed.

Seeing that all the soldiers had entered the passage, Li Jing turned to Ji Youyu.

"Commissioner Ji, we should depart now."

"Hmm."

Ji Youyu responded, and together they entered the passage.

Crossing the spatial passage, as soon as her vision was clear, Ji Youyu was immediately attracted to the severed limbs and broken bodies littering the area near the southern camp.

Seeing the earth dyed red with blood and littered with chunks of corpses, Ji Youyu could not help but glance at Li Jing a couple of times.

Li Jing had the record of annihilating the Giant Beast Corps, and he agreed promptly when Orville made a request. It wasn’t surprising that he was capable of doing it again.

Previously, Ji Youyu didn’t think too much about it.

She assumed that Li Jing had simply dived deep into the study of forbidden skills after acquiring them, and found a shortcut.

It wasn’t until she saw the actual "crime scene" that she realized things weren’t that simple.

As for Li Jing, the Holy Land didn’t pay much attention to him.

His closeness to Chen Jing was not enough to draw the Holy Land’s attention.

After all, Chen Jing himself was just a bit special.

The reason the Holy Land paid some attention to Li Jing was because he took the Immortal King Command to the capital to learn forbidden skills.

Even so, the Holy Land’s attention to Li Jing was minimal, and only some understanding was made.

If it weren’t for Ji Youyu and others being appointed to come to the Big Secret Realm this time, people from the Holy Land might not have come into contact with him at all.

After all, Li Jing had no background.

His connection with Chen Jing was based on his prior contact with Chen Yuran.

The Holy Land had long mastered this information.

Because of this, when Ji Youyu and others arrived at the Secret Realm and learned that he had annihilated a Giant Beast Corps single-handedly with the forbidden skill, they still didn’t pay much attention to it.

The power of forbidden skills far exceeded that of ordinary magic skills.

Mastering a forbidden skill can easily kill across realms.

What’s difficult is being able to complete the construction of the spell formula of the forbidden skill while ensuring your own safety when facing powerful enemies.

Li Jing’s ability to do so was indeed noteworthy.

But there are elites and geniuses everywhere.

In Longyu Country, there have always been numerous talents.

Institutions like the Holy Land and the Taoist School, which are hidden powers, merely sit on special inheritances and the accumulation of hundreds and thousands of years, providing a better environment.

An emerging genius from the outside world is not worth noting.

The sect has plenty of genius monsters and many capable and different scholars.

Even someone as talented as Li Jing, is not that rare in the sect.

It wasn’t until Qi Chen found that he could not see through Li Jing that Ji Youyu really started to pay attention to Li Jing.

Now, witnessing the destruction left by Li Jing, she had to pay more attention to him.

Others might not know, but Ji Youyu did.

The forbidden skill that Li Jing mastered was the World Thunder Punishment.

The Giant Beast and bird people corpses he brought back after his early exploration were mangled and distorted, but relatively intact overall.

This made it easy to tell that someone combined the Five Thunder Righteous Method when invoking the World Thunder Punishment, changing the destructive lightning attack into the pure shock of the Fighting Thunder.

Only the Fighting Thunder of the Five Thunder would leave behind deformed corpses after killing the objects.

Using any other, most of the time even the corpse would not be left behind.

The scene in front of her, Ji Youyu could tell with just one look, had nothing to do with the World Thunder Punishment.

Under the impact of the Fighting Thunder,

If the body is not strong enough, it will be smashed into a pulp and be consumed by the wind, leaving no trace.

And those with strong bodies, only have two outcomes.

Either they are not killed, or all their muscles and bones are broken...

The shattered corpses on the ground are not in good condition, but the fragments are relatively intact.

Obviously, these shattered corpses were not formed under the impact of the Fighting Thunder, but due to explosions.

The Giant Beast Corps was shattered by the explosion.

Several bodies on the scene were clearly torn apart by some sharp object, cut into strips, with smooth wounds.

This could not have been caused by Fighting Thunder, let alone any other type of thunder.

Moreover, at the scene, there wasn’t even a single complete corpse.

If it was the Fighting Thunder version of the World Thunder Punishment, at least the Six Realm and Five Realm would leave a complete corpse, not the gruesome sight as seen now.

Therefore, it was not difficult to conclude that Li Jing did not use World Thunder Punishment.

He annihilated the Giant Beast Corps with his bare strength.

And in the process, he only took less than five minutes to do so...

Ji Youyu could hardly imagine.

Just how formidable one’s personal strength must be to annihilate such a Giant Beast Corps in less than five minutes.

According to the information provided by the God Kingdom, there were at least five Sixth Realms among the Giant Beast Corps.

Apart from the others, just these five Sixth Realms alone were enough to plunge any Sixth Realm into a tough fight and even on the verge of annihilation.

When Ji Youyu learned that Qi Chen could not see through Li Jing, she had doubted whether someone had stepped into the Seventh Realm, but the former denied it, thinking that his cultivation was special.

Now, she couldn’t help but doubt once again.

A twenty-one-year-old in the Seventh Realm...

This kind of talent couldn’t even be compared to the prodigies of the Hidden World Sect.

Li Jing hovered beside Ji Youyu, not noticing her unusual expression.

At this moment, he couldn’t afford to be playing tricks with a person from a sect he wouldn’t have too much interaction with.

The million-strong army participating in the operation was densely arranged in formations and hovered in mid-air at the exit of the spatial passage.

When he entered the spatial passage, all a million pairs of eyes were focused on him, filled with respect.

This feeling of being the center of attention added immense pressure.

Li Jing has never liked receiving too much attention.

In the past, every time he made a mass killing, he would always find a chance to run away, with only a few people knowing that he did it.

But now, it was a different story. There were nearly a hundred people at his "crime scene".

Yes, he was mentally prepared for it.

But being stared at by a million people, all standing tall in the sky, he really found it hard to handle it.

Especially those buff men from the God Kingdom camp, their heated gazes full of philosophical aura, were making his scalp tingle...

Under the collective gaze of the million-strong crowd, Li Jing looked around.

Orville, who had entered the spatial passage a little earlier, saw that he came with Ji Youyu and was slightly surprised, and flew over to him using Sky Control.

"Counselor Lee, all personnel have arrived, should we start the operation?"

From the very beginning of their acquaintance, Orville was very friendly to Li Jing.

Now his tone was more respectful.

Orville is a straight-forward man without as many tricks as Ji Youyu, nor does he have her special background.

He knew from the start that Li Jing had the ability to wipe out the Giant Beast Corps using a Forbidden Skill, so he was not surprised when he witnessed the "crime" scene.

But how does the saying go?

Hearing is not as good as seeing.

Just hearing about it gives you no clear concept.

Only when you witness it can you understand.

Having seen the scene with his own eyes, Orville realized.

Li Jing’s strength was beyond imagination!

At this moment, facing Li Jing, Orville was somewhat puzzled.

Why would someone as capable as Li Jing are only an action counselor in the Fifth Realm?

In the God Kingdom, a person of his ability would at least be a bureau chief.

Orville had encountered the Giant Beast Corps of the Snake People and had personal contact with them.

He himself was in the Late Six Realm.

However, when facing such a corps, all he could do was to detour.

He was also proficient in the Forbidden Skill.

In the God Kingdom, the requirements to learn Forbidden Skills were basically the same as in the Longyu Country.

The difference is, the God Kingdom, which prefers action to words, often has battles, hence, many opportunities to perform outstanding feats and hence a lot of people who have learned Forbidden Skill.

But for the same task, Orville admitted he could not achieve it.

Even if the Giant Beast Corps were sitting around like idiots waiting for him to complete the Forbidden Skill, the Forbidden Skill he had would not be able to get the job done.

Putting these irrelevant things aside.

Li Jing responded to Orville’s words with a nod, saying,

"Time is tight, we should start immediately."

"Good, Counselor Li, just give the orders for the operation."

Orville responded with a grin.

"With the scene of the annihilation of the Giant Beast Corps before us, your reputation, Counselor Lee, has skyrocketed. I won’t get in the way here - you can take full command of the operation."

Upon hearing this,Li Jing was speechless.

Being the one in control was always his role.

Now Orville was snatching his job...

The promised assist command, this guy just wanted to shake it off clean right from the start.

With a wry smile, Li Jing activated the communicators on each of his ears.

"All members, listen up, the operation begins!"

"God Kingdom’s main forces from one to forty will march south. The personnel will disperse in small teams to commence a carpet-style search in the southern region for the gathering areas of the Snake People and the Giant Beasts. Any discoveries should be reported to me immediately."

"Fifteen teams from Longyu will spread out to the south behind the God Kingdom’s main force for a detailed exploration, mainly to collect usable resources. Exploration teams with fewer members must remember to act carefully and maintain an effective communication distance. If anything unusual is found, immediately contact Commander Lee from the Heavenly King Group."

"Teams not from God Kingdom and Longyu will stay behind and set up a defense line at the exit of the passage for later retreat. The teams left behind are tasked with the cleanup of the Giant Beast corpses at the exit of the passage. After that, each team will disperse in small groups to send scouts to the east, west, and north to investigate and confirm the surrounding geographical conditions. If the habitats of the Snake People and the Giant Beasts or valuable resources are found, a liaison officer should be dispatched immediately to communicate with the personnel of the Longyu team that had explored southward to relay the information."

With four commands issued, the teams immediately began to act according to the instructions.

The forty main force teams of God Kingdom dispersed in small groups of about ten people, using the Sky Control to conduct a carpet-style search in the southern region.

The teams from Longyu also moved towards the southern region behind them, starting their exploration at a slower Sky Control speed and altitude, trying to discover resources.

The remaining forces belonging to and participating in the Northern Major League divided a portion of their people to clean up the wreckage left by the Giant Beast Corps’ destruction scene. The rest of the people began building defenses on the spot as instructed.

Nearly a million troops moved in unison, like a gigantic war machine with countless gears starting to operate, each part, each gear doing its duty diligently, each beginning to fulfill its own responsibilities.

The departure of the teams from God Kingdom and Longyu drained more than half a million people from the portal exit in one go.

That still left over four hundred thousand people, which was still a huge force.

Seeing that each team had started to act on their own, Li Jing nodded to Orville and Ji Youyu, who were waiting nearby.

"You two, let’s follow the God Kingdom team."

Just as the two were about to respond, Li Jing magically pulled out a beautifully carved little girl doll and tossed it to the south.

"Go find Yuran."

This girl, of course, was Linglong.

Since Li Jing had planned to come into the spatial passage once beforehand, he decided not to leave Linglong directly with Chen Yuran for safety reasons.

Now, Chen Yuran has gone south with the Heavenly King Group. It was time to let Linglong meet up with her.

Linglong, being thrown out, was quite unhappy. She glanced back before transforming into a Golden Light and heading off into the distance.

Seeing this scene, Ji Youyu was slightly taken aback.

All her spirit weapons told her that Linglong was a spirit weapon.

And was a seventh-level spirit weapon at that.

So...

Where was her physical body?

Spirit weapons could manifest in a physical form, but they couldn’t leave their physical bodies.

The Linglong that Li Jing threw out bore nothing on her. Could it be that her physical body was the clothes on her body?

Like Ji Youyu, Orville had similar questions but didn’t think much of it.

It didn’t matter to him what the physical body of someone else’s spirit weapon was, why should he care?

The fact that Li Jing left his spirit weapon behind to find someone else did draw his attention a bit.

In an environment without a network, each family’s communicators could only keep in touch with each other at a short distance.

Both Longyu and God Kingdom’s teams were advancing southward, but the difference in objectives meant that they would soon distance from each other and eventually lose contact.

Having Li Jing’s spirit weapon left behind was indeed convenient for communication.

The question was, what would he use for communication if something happened and he left his spirit weapon behind?

Was he expected to use a Forbidden Skill at the drop of a hat?

While pondering, Li Jing took out a spirit weapon the size of a door panel and casually pulled Ji Youyu, who was still wondering what the physical body of Linglong was, onto it.

"Commander Orville, Commissioner Ji and I will go in the southwest direction. I request you to go in the southeast direction."

"Understood."

Orville responded.

There were nine Six Realm practitioners from the God Kingdom, including him, this time.

Three of them stayed outside to guard the relics. In total, there were six Six Realm practitioners that came inside the spatial passage.

The other five, each leading three vanguard teams.

Being one of the top combat forces, he had to take care of his own team.

The main battle team of the God Kingdom participating in this operation was powerful, but the realm of the members was not different from the exploration teams of the other forces. The main members were all in the Three and Four Realms, and their true strength could only be shown when they fought in groups.

At present, the team members had dispersed under Li Jing’s guidance to conduct searches. If anything happened, it would take time for them to regroup.

They had to rely on top-tier fighters to vie for that time.

Apparently, Li Jing’s team didn’t need his attention. There was no need to stay together. It would be more suitable to divide and move separately so that it could respond immediately when necessary.

...

Li Jing, with Ji Youyu, and Orville set off in different directions, and it wasn’t long before they caught up with the God Kingdom team that was exploring southward along the way.

The God Kingdom team’s task was to find and attack the gathering places of the Snake People and the Giant Beasts. Discovering resources was not their job, so their search speed was very fast.

But this speed was nothing to Li Jing.

The overall Main Combat Teams were dominated by those in the Three and Four Realms, and they could only be so fast.

Since he had to be in charge of the overall situation, Li Jing didn’t rush ahead but followed the back of the fastest scouting team, gradually catching up.

After all, many hands make light work.

The forty main combat teams of God Kingdom, a total of more than four hundred thousand people dispersed into teams of tens, offering a large search range with little chance of missing information.

In just less than ten minutes, many useful messages were relayed by the teams.

Some discovered resource points, and others found giant beast individuals.

The information about resources was transmitted to Linglong through a mind-link, and she was asked to notify Chen Yuran to make arrangements for collection. Part of the God Kingdom team congregated to eliminate the giant beast individual, with Li Jing patiently waiting for news of a settlement of Snake People and giant beasts somewhere.

The number of giant beast individuals discovered was not small, but he was hesitant to run a trip to reap them, as he deemed it inappropriate.

The God Country Special Affairs Bureau also had a system similar to the Management Bureau Merit Value, where members who came to the Secret Realm were equally after merit.

Running out to slay the giant beasts others had discovered was akin to stealing someone’s job, others would not approve.

The search continued, an hour passed before they realized it.

Both the God Kingdom and Longyu gained significantly.

The team from God Kingdom managed to kill several thousand giant beasts who were isolated.

Among them were strong and weak beasts, even several individuals from the Six Realm fell prey to the Pioneer Corps and the Tactics Team.

These Six Realm individuals were no less powerful than the Six Realm giant ape Li Jing had previously encountered.

Unfortunately, they did not encounter the Heavenly King Group on their own...

Upon the discovery of the Six Realm giant beast, God Kingdom’s Six Realm members promptly engaged it in combat, succeeded by the Fifth Boundary members of the Vanguard Corps and the Tactics Corps rallying up tens of thousands to kill it.

Tens of thousands of people rushed forward, faced head-on by the Six Realm members of the God Kingdom who could fight at close quarters as well as a Great Demon. No matter how resistant the isolated Six Realm giant beasts were, they could only face a sudden disastrous end.

Tactics?

There was simply no need.

Blind bravery was enough.

As for Longyu Country, the harvest was extremely abundant.

With the God Kingdom team paving the way ahead and providing all sorts of information, the teams in the rear had an easier exploration task, without much concern.

As the exploration proceeded, they not only found many resources based on the information provided by the God Kingdom team, but they also discovered a lot of usable resources on their own during the exploration process, and even found many spiritual objects that did not exist in the present world.

Under Yulian and Jiu Li’s leadership, the Heavenly King Group made the most abundant harvest which did not disappoint Li Jing.

The team led by Chen Yuran was also exploring, but she followed Li Jing’s instructions well, focusing mainly on taking care of the rear, with exploration done only as a side task.

Given this situation, both the God Kingdom and Longyu Country were extremely satisfied.

The God Kingdom clamored to destroy the Snake People civilization, craving for the giant beasts’ bodies.

In just a short hour, they had hunted a few thousand isolated giant beasts, a gain quite considerable already.

For them, it didn’t matter whether they could find the gathering place of the Snake People and giant beasts, as long as there were giant beasts to hunt and gain from.

The Longyu side felt likewise.

Li Jing, on the other hand, was rather uncomfortable.

He was looking forward to rising a level when he entered but now, he had no opportunity at all.

Jubilant God Kingdom teams who had just sipped on spiritual liquor would immediately rush in whenever there were nearby discoveries of giant beasts, slay the beast, dismember it and take it away, then proceed to push on.

Ji Youyu, who was following Li Jing, didn’t feel very good either.

Half a day had passed without a sight of a Snake Person...

A clever woman can’t cook without rice.

If she couldn’t find the Snake People, how could she complete her mission?

Standing on the spirit sword of Li Jing, Ji Youyu was filled with worry.

She wanted to give an opinion, but found herself unable to.

Not finding the gathering place of the Snake People and giant beasts can’t be forced.

For both God Kingdom and Longyu, this represents an opportunity to collect more flesh of giant beasts and resources.

Li Jing was also worried.

In just over an hour, the God Kingdom team who was responsible for paving the way has ventured deep into the Spatial Passage to the south.

They couldn’t go much further ahead.

While having gains was a good thing, they needed to control the return time.

Once the Spatial Passage began to close, God Kingdom’s energy nuclear bomb could only hold on for two hours. They had to complete the return journey within two hours, otherwise, they might never return.

...

Time passed by, and in the blink of an eye, another hour had passed.

The God Kingdom’s team has pushed to the limit in the southward direction, a location where people of the Three-realm can return to the Passage at full speed within two hours.

The search could no longer proceed.

Just as no news came in sight, Li Jing raised his hand to open the God Country Special Affairs Bureau’s communication earpiece and gave the order.

"Everyone, attention, stop pushing forward. Pass the instructions to all personnel within effective communication range, all units adjust direction and proceed to the east. Teams cover unexplored areas and then start backtracking towards the Spatial Passage."

Upon giving the instructions, the God Kingdom personnel who received the instructions passed on Li Jing’s directive to other individuals within their effective communication range. The scattered teams in the south began to orderly move in the eastward direction; by covering the unexplored areas in the southeast based on Li Jing’s instructions, they prepared to start backtracking.

Li Jing’s idea was quite simple.

If the scope of the exploration was limited, then make full use of it.

With the exit of the Spatial Passage as the center, radiate in a circular pattern, and explore all directions within the limit of a two-hour return journey for Three Realm personnel.

Just as the entire team covered the unexplored directions and prepared for the return push, a male voice suddenly sounded in Li Jing’s communication earpiece.

"Counselor Lee, a message from the personnel near the unexplored area in the east has been reported, a suspected palace complex where Snake People and giant beasts gather has been found."