Chapter 1333: Battle Arrangements
Chapter 1332: Battle Arrangements
The Situ clan.
The banquet was still ongoing, only the atmosphere had become somewhat subtle. Enemies of all kinds—by every definition of the word—were now sitting together, eating and drinking at the same table.
Only Mo Hua seemed completely unbothered.
In this strange atmosphere, everyone ate for a while, and unexpectedly, they gradually began to adapt to the awkwardness.
At this moment, Feng Zichen seemed to recall something. He suddenly slapped his forehead and said:
“Right, Bai Zisheng is here!”
Everyone instinctively looked at him.
Mo Hua also wore a puzzled expression.
Feng Zichen immediately said to Mo Hua, “The matter of the Great Wilderness demoness needs to be clarified with Bai Zisheng.”
Mo Hua didn’t understand. “Clarify what?”
Feng Zichen said, “That Great Wilderness demoness is no ordinary person. It’s said that she’s the number one beauty of the Great Wilderness Royal Court, a Shamanic ‘Divine Maiden’ who serves the gods and oversees the secrets of the Great Wilderness Dragon Pool… She definitely knows the situation of the Dragon Pool…”
“From my guess, that Bai Zisheng… is definitely involved with that Great Wilderness demoness for this very reason.”
“That Bai Zisheng couldn’t possibly be so simple-minded as to lose his head over lust. More likely, he used his good looks to seduce the Great Wilderness demoness in order to achieve his own goals.”
“If that’s the case, then the Great Wilderness demoness must have told Bai Zisheng some of the Dragon Pool’s secrets.”
The others nodded one after another upon hearing this.
Feng Zichen said to Mo Hua, “Mo Hua, go ask Bai Zisheng whether that Great Wilderness demoness ever revealed anything to him, and whether the Dragon Pool hides other secrets…”
Mo Hua was speechless. “Bai Zisheng is sitting right next to you. What do you want me to ask for?”
Feng Zichen sneakily glanced at Bai Zisheng.
Bai Zisheng cast him a calm, indifferent look.
Feng Zichen shuddered in fright, quickly turned his head away, and said to Mo Hua, “You ask. I’m not familiar with Bai Zisheng.”
Mo Hua said, “I’m not familiar with him either…”
Feng Zichen insisted, “Even so, you ask. You’re different, you can suppress him.”
With no other choice, Mo Hua looked at Bai Zisheng, put on a serious face, and said:
“Bai Zisheng, confess honestly—what exactly is your relationship with that Great Wilderness demoness?”
“Did you use your male charms to seduce that Great Wilderness demoness?”
“Did that Great Wilderness demoness reveal any secrets of the Dragon Pool to you?”
Bai Zisheng gave Mo Hua a look full of disdain.
Mo Hua turned to Feng Zichen and sighed. “He doesn’t even give me face. There’s nothing I can do.”
Feng Zichen said, “Then how about you beat him up and put him to the torture?”
Mo Hua shook his head. “No. If you want to beat him, you do it yourself.”
Feng Zichen glanced at Bai Zisheng, felt out his level of strength, and silently shook his head.
How would he dare…
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then asked Feng Zichen again, “Are you sure that Great Wilderness demoness knows about the Dragon Pool?”
Feng Zichen nodded. “Naturally. Otherwise, everyone wouldn’t have been so eager to besiege Bai Zisheng in the first place.”
“That demoness, Bai Zisheng, the Dragon Pool, core refinement—these things are all connected.”
Hearing this, Mo Hua suddenly realized something.
“Wait… so you all knew about the Dragon Pool and the demoness from the very beginning? Before Bai Zisheng was even captured, you already knew all of this?”
Feng Zichen nodded. “Of course.”
Mo Hua looked at Xiao Ruohan, Shi Tiangang, and the others. “You all knew too.”
Everyone nodded.
Mo Hua was unhappy now. He frowned and said, “Then why was it that when I went with you to capture Bai Zisheng, not a single one of you mentioned any of this to me?”
Whether it was the Dragon Pool or core refinement, no one told him anything.
If it weren’t for rescuing Little Senior Brother, who let something slip, he would still be completely in the dark even now.
He wouldn’t have known that there was a Dragon Pool inside the Royal Court, that core refinement could be done in it, or that refinement could lead to forming a stable Golden Core.
They had all crossed swords together. Even if their positions differed, there was still some camaraderie. Yet such an important matter—none of them told him. That was seriously against the unspoken rules of the jianghu.
Mo Hua was very unhappy.
The group of Heavenly Prodigies was caught off guard, exchanging looks with one another.
Feng Zichen frowned and said, “What are you talking about? You’re Mo Hua—how could you not know something like this?”
“If you didn’t know, why were you butting in at all?”
“If you didn’t know, why were you capturing Bai Zisheng?”
“And you’re still pretending here with us?”
The others nodded as well, fully agreeing.
Mo Hua was stunned for a moment.
So the reason none of them said anything was because they assumed he already knew everything.
More than that, Feng Zichen had even suspected that Mo Hua knew more than they did, and simply didn’t know what kind of scheme he was cooking up, which was why he had kept silent all along.
Mo Hua couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
Sometimes, being too strong and knowing too much really wasn’t a good thing…
Mo Hua glanced at Bai Zisheng again.
He knew very well that Little Senior Brother didn’t actually have anything going on with that Great Wilderness demoness.
What a pity…
Otherwise, he might already have learned some of the Dragon Pool’s secrets in advance and made targeted preparations.
The Dragon Pool was a top secret of the Great Wilderness.
As of now, all the major clans knew was only the rough function of the Dragon Pool.
As for where exactly the Dragon Pool was located within the Royal Court, why it can “temper one’s grade,” what its origins are, and what special significance it holds for the Great Wilderness Royal Court…
All of these secrets were completely unknown.
Mo Hua frowned slightly.
Feng Zichen sneakily glanced at Bai Zisheng again, then scooted his butt several zhang away. Only then did he say to Mo Hua:
“How about we use harsher methods and torture Bai Zisheng a bit more? If we all act together, he won’t be able to resist. As long as we use torture, I refuse to believe he won’t cough up some clues about that demoness…”
Ao Zheng and the others nodded slightly. “Right now, information about the Dragon Pool is far too limited. If we want to figure things out, we can only question Bai Zisheng.”
“Use torture. Interrogate him…”
Mo Hua was somewhat speechless.
Why did these people always like to torture his Little Senior Brother…
Mo Hua shook his head and repeated the same words as before:
“If you want to interrogate him, do it yourselves. But let me be clear first—don’t damage the Great Void Sect’s Great Void Five-Elements Cosmos Lock. If the treasure breaks, that’d be a small matter…”
After all, it wasn’t really some supreme treasure to begin with.
Mo Hua added silently in his heart, then said with a solemn expression,
“But if Bai Zisheng breaks free and activates that Mysterious Yellow Dragon-Blood state, and starts killing you all, I won’t be able to help.”
“I can suppress him once, I can suppress him twice, but if there’s a third time, that’s far from guaranteed…”
Hearing this, everyone looked at each other.
In the end, their fear of Bai Zisheng overcame their desire.
Feng Zichen said, “Then forget it. You keep suppressing him, whatever you do, don’t let him escape…”
Mo Hua nodded. “Rest assured. With the Great Void Five-Elements Cosmos Lock in place, a mere Bai Zisheng can’t escape my grasp.”
Bai Zisheng cast Mo Hua a cold glance.
Mo Hua raised his brows and smiled smugly.
Bai Zisheng shook his head inwardly and went back to gnawing on his roasted leg.
Mo Hua took a cup of wine and thought for a moment.
Judging from the current situation, only by first breaking through the Royal Court would it be possible to enter the Dragon Pool, and then further form the Golden Core and temper one’s grade.
It was just that…
Mo Hua then asked Feng Zichen and the others,
“By the way, what’s the Dao Court’s current battle plan like? In the short term, can the Royal Court be breached?”
For a long time, Mo Hua had been focused on the construction of the Desolate Wilderness. He didn’t have a deep understanding of the Dao Court’s military arrangements or the front-line situation.
Master Zhuge didn’t tell him either.
Huangfu and Shangguan both had official responsibilities, so they could only speak in broad terms; as for specific battle plans, they kept their mouths tightly shut.
As a result, some things he could only ask people like Feng Zichen.
This battle involved the interests of all sides and was closely tied to every major clan. These Qianxue prodigies had all been participating throughout, surely some of them knew more about the actual situation.
“Hard to say…” Feng Zichen said while chewing on a piece of meat, speaking indistinctly. “At the shortest, half a year. At the longest, a year. If circumstances are special, it could even drag on for several more years.”
Ao Zheng shook his head. “How could it possibly drag on that long?”
Feng Zichen replied, “That’s because you don’t understand. Breaking through the Royal Court isn’t that simple…”
Ao Zheng shot him a glance. “And you do?”
“Of course,” Feng Zichen said. “My Feng clan, and some seniors from the Carefree Sect, specialize in movement techniques. In cultivation wars, those with fast movement techniques usually take on scouting or message-delivery roles. So the information our Feng clan gets is far more extensive than that of ordinary people…”
At this point, Feng Zichen paused, suddenly realizing, why was he saying so much for no reason?
The tongue is the easiest way to invite trouble. Saying less is better, and saying nothing is best of all.
Ao Zheng frowned. “Go on.”
Everyone was looking at him.
Feng Zichen hesitated.
Seeing this, Mo Hua said, “The Feng clan’s movement techniques really are impressive. No wonder you can gather so much information… But it’s just one Royal Court, does it really take that long to attack?”
Hearing Mo Hua praise the Feng clan’s movement techniques, Feng Zichen felt a subconscious surge of joy.
If anyone else praised him, he wouldn’t care.
But Mo Hua was different. This guy was annoying, but his ability and insight were unquestionable. If Mo Hua praised something, that meant he truly understood it.
Even so, it was clear that even Mo Hua wasn’t well-informed about this matter.
Feng Zichen couldn’t help but say, “I told you, you don’t understand. The Royal Court really isn’t that easy to take…”
“First of all, the ‘Royal Court’ doesn’t just refer to the court itself, but to the entire massive Fourth-Grade mountain realm in which the Great Wilderness Royal Court is located.”
“The entire Royal Court mountain realm is easy to defend and hard to attack.”
“And the real problem is that the Royal Demesne surrounding the Royal Court is all Second-Grade territory.”
“Second-Grade directly bordering Fourth-Grade, this is an extremely bizarre terrain. Over in the Nine Provinces, it almost never exists.”
Shi Tiangang frowned and asked, “What’s the problem with that?”
Feng Zichen said, “Don’t you get it? In the Nine Provinces, territorial grades usually increase step by step. Second-Grade, Third-Grade, Fourth-Grade, Fifth-Grade—connected in sequence. Territories don’t skip grades.”
“But here at the Royal Court, there’s no Third-Grade at all. It jumps straight to Fourth-Grade, which violates normal geomantic principles.”
“Some ancestors who are proficient in geomancy(feng shui) have even inferred that the terrain of the Great Wilderness was artificially altered, that someone directly removed the Third-Grade territory from between the Second-Grade and Fourth-Grade realms, creating the Great Wilderness as it is today…”
Everyone froze.
Mo Hua was also taken aback.
“Removed the Third-Grade territory…?”
“Is that real? Is that even something a person could do?” someone exclaimed. “You’re not joking, are you…”
Feng Zichen said, “I already said it’s an inference—an inference. Something like this can’t be proven; it can only be deduced from general cultivation laws.”
“Then what?” Mo Hua asked.
“Then…” Feng Zichen thought for a moment. “That creates a kind of misalignment in the Heavenly Dao’s laws.”
“When Second-Grade jumps straight to Fourth-Grade, that Second-Grade mountain realm becomes a natural barrier. Even Golden Core cultivators don’t dare launch all-out attacks, let alone those at Feathered Ascension.”
“As long as the powerful barbarian wilderness demon cavalry holds the Second-Grade realm, the Royal Court can rest easy.”
“That’s why, over so many years, even though the Great Wilderness Royal Court has had repeated conflicts with the Dao Court, it has never truly been breached. The terrain is too strange, far too exhausting to deal with…”
“To breach a Fourth-Grade Royal Court, Feathered Ascension cultivators must be deployed.”
“And for Feathered Ascension to reach the Royal Court, they must pass through the Second-Grade Royal Capital Region of Lesser Black Tortoise Mountain.”
“The Great Wilderness Royal Court has a long history and possesses some eerie, unfathomable inheritances. If they set up sinister ambushes in the Royal Demesne—causal curse killings and the like—even Feathered Ascension could fall if they’re not careful…”
“And a Feathered Ascension is a True-Person. Even in a Dao Province, that’s an extremely high realm. For ordinary clans, losing a single Feathered Ascension would be catastrophic. Not to mention that a Feathered Ascension could very well become a Profound-Hollow-Void in the future…”
“To attack the Royal Court, one Feathered Ascension isn’t enough. But if you send too many, the risks only increase.”
“So the Royal Court really isn’t easy to attack…”
“But now, even if we don’t want to attack, we have to, right? After all, they’ve already rebelled…” Mo Hua said.
Feng Zichen nodded. “That’s why the Dao Soldier Bureau’s plan is to dispatch a large number of Foundation Establishment Dao Soldiers and first completely pacify the Royal Capital Regions.”
“After it’s pacified, they’ll mobilize massive manpower and resources to use formations to carve out a passage, isolating certain karmic curse-killings.”
“Then, using large numbers of Dao soldiers to ‘escort’ the Feathered Ascension True-Persons through that passage, they’ll reach the Fourth-Grade Royal Court territory.”
“Once the Feathered Ascension True-Persons arrive at the Royal Court territory, they’ll have no more restraints and can fully unleash True-Person Dao arts, slaughtering the barbarian soldiers of the Great Wilderness, forcing the Great Wilderness’s Feathered Ascensions to respond.”
“The Feathered Ascensions on both sides will decide victory first.”
“On the Dao Court’s side, they’ll either kill the Great Wilderness’s Feathered Ascensions or severely cripple them and place them under complete suppression.”
“Only after the Feathered Ascensions are restrained can the remaining Golden Core and Foundation Establishment Dao soldiers advance on a large scale, drive straight in, storm the Royal Court, annihilate the Great Wilderness’s Dao lineage, slaughter all remaining forces, wipe out the Royal clan, and either capture alive or execute on the spot the imperial descendants of the Great Wilderness…”
“Only then—when blood has run dry and bloodlines are severed—will this Great Wilderness rebellion truly come to an end.”
Mo Hua frowned deeply. “Put that way… this will be a total war of extermination?”
Feng Zichen nodded solemnly. “They’ve risen in armed rebellion and slaughtered each other to this extent. The Dao Court’s losses have already been severe. They’ll definitely vent their fury, uproot everything, and display the Dao Court’s might to deter all directions.”
“If those Royal and Imperial clans of the Great Wilderness had surrendered earlier, it might have been fine. But once they resist to the bitter end… I’m afraid it really will mean the annihilation of clan and lineage…”
“This is war, bloody and cruel. Human lives are worth no more than grass. There’s no joke about it.”
A layer of gloom settled over Mo Hua’s heart as his brows knit tightly.
The atmosphere in the hall also turned heavy and solemn.
Feng Zichen softened his tone a little. “Of course, this is just the plan. Strategically, it should be like this, but how things actually unfold will depend on the real situation…”
Mo Hua nodded, yet an inexplicable unease arose in his heart.
Because he knew better than anyone that things could never be this simple. there were simply too many master strategists playing this game.
And among them was that… most terrifying martial-uncle of his.