That night, Yue Wuwei and his family stayed on Mount New Moon for dinner. After dinner, the two girls went to the magic paradise to play.
Dahei, Little Hei, and Tiny Tot also went with them. Yue Xiaonao had a good time.
“In the King’s Domain, we lost the second battle, too.”
Yue Wuwei reported the situation of the war.
“From the look of it, we can only hold on to one-tenth of the Mountain Nan Domain.”
On the third day.
“There were a few small-scale battles and we lost again. They defeated us purely by numbers.”
On the fourth day.
“Defeated…”
On the fifth day.
“We still haven’t won once.”
In this way, a week passed in a flash.
The situation on Lord Nan Shan’s side stabilized.
But his force continued to suffer losses.
The many defeats had already fatigued them, but they were still hanging in there.
“If this continues, the army will be completely frittered away sooner or later. The center of the war has already shifted to Lord Zhen Hai and Lord Bei Huai. Now, they can send only a few subordinates to take our army down.”
Yue Wuwei passed on the last piece of news.
“Lord Nan Shan, Lord Dong Gu, Lord Liu, Si Nan, my grandfather, Deep Flame…”
Zhang Han sighed softly and said, “There are so many people here. But how come none of them is a general with tactics?”
“How can there be so many great generals?” Yue Wuwei shook his head and said, “But there must be some with great talent and bold vision among the hundreds of thousands of fighters. Unfortunately, they don’t dare to take responsibility, nor are they qualified to command the others. Cultivators like us are scheming, but many of us lack tactics. What now? Are you going to take things into your own hand and show me your means of turning defeat into victory?”
“Me?”
Zhang Han thought for a moment and shook his head. “It’s not appropriate. I just want them to fight alone. As soon as I come to the battlefield, the rules of the game are violated. Moreover, if I appear there, they’ll all believe they can win.”
“Then… eh? You seem to have visitors.” Yue Wuwei’s expression froze.
Zhang Han was stunned for a second. His soul sense soon covered the whole Mount New Moon. Instantly, he pulled a wry face.
A Rolls-Royce Phantom was approaching. It parked in front of the castle.
Liu Qingfeng and Liu Jiaran got out of the car, followed by Wu Ming.
They headed straight to Zhang Han.
“Zhang Han, I want to go to the King’s Domain.”
Liu Qingfeng cut to the chase. “My son-in-law said that they can’t hold on any longer. He knows that I’m good at the art of war, so I want to give it a try. Besides, it’s not long before I go to the Sea Dragon Domain. This can be a good transition phase for me to get to know cultivators’ battles. What do you say?”
“With your strength…” Yue Wuwei said bluntly, “you can’t even fend off the rogue energy generated by the battle.”
“I’m the think tank who stays at the rear. This is a war for real. It excites me. I want to be a part of it,” Liu Qingfeng said in an uninhibited manner.
“Boss, let my dad go. He is so anxious that he even read the History of the Three Kingdoms again last night,” Liu Jiaran muttered under her breath.
“You can have a try. I didn’t intend to say no anyway,” Zhang Han said with amusement. “If you want to go, just go. Your help is timely. They’re a mess over there.”
“I’m relieved to hear you say that.” Liu Qingfeng laughed out loud and said, “In fact, I’m also worried that we will still lose even with my help. It’s my first time taking part in this kind of event. I feel that every cell in my body is thrilled. If we lose…”
“Just put your mind at ease and go.”
Yue Wuwei waved his hand and said, “Wu Ming, escort him there and tell Lord Nan Shan and the others straightforwardly that he will be the chief commander. The current situation is kind of bad. Whether they win or lose no longer matters. Just experience the war and learn from it.”
“Yes.”
Wu Ming nodded.
“Dad, you must be careful. Ah Hu will protect you closely.” Liu Jiaran felt somewhat concerned again.
“Hahaha, everyone has their own destiny. Don’t worry, mine is a tough one.” Liu Qingfeng roared with laughter.
Liu Qingfeng and Wu Ming slowly rose into the air. Of course, it was due to Zhang Han’s control of the Heaven-earth Formation. Liu Qingfeng was now a Qi Strength Master. But his strength was not strong, so he needed Wu Ming to accompany him all the way there.
After they left, Liu Jiaran said goodbye and went back to her villa.
Only then did Yue Wuwei remark, “I’ve observed Liu Qingfeng for some days. He is a person of rare and outstanding caliber. He is a talented and bold businessman with sharp eyes. Maybe with his help, those in the King’s Domain can make a difference.”
“They only have 200,000 people. But the other two parties have 600,000 and 1,000,000 respectively.”
Zhang Han smiled slightly and said, “If they win the final victory with 200,000 people, the means they’ve used in the war would be impressive even in the Sea Dragon Star Area.”
“That’s right. The Sea Dragon Star Area is still too small. What is worth mentioning shall be the Heavenly Dragon Star Province.” Yue Wuwei suddenly said in confusion, “I’ve noticed that you seem to know a lot about the Cultivation World. It’s really weird. You’re even more… mysterious than I thought.”
“Well, I think I’m just averagely mysterious,” Zhang Han shook his head and said, “at least not as mysterious as your master.”
“That’s true,” Yue Wuwei said with a smile. “In the past few days, Xiaonao has begun to focus on study. She plans to get good grades so that she can ask me for a reward. Mengmeng has done well in every exam. What do you usually reward her with?”
“All kinds of things.”
“For example?” Yue Wuwei asked.
“I can’t tell you in words. You have to experience it for yourself.”
Yue Wuwei was rather speechless.
He then left in a flash.
This conversation had come to a dead end after all.
With the arrival of Yue Xiaonao, Class Eight of the first grade became more lively, especially in PE.
One day, they were learning how to play basketball.
Yue Xiaonao had never played basketball before, so she wasn’t familiar with the rules. She snatched the ball from a group of male classmates and raced toward the basket of her own team. Then, she jumped outside the three-point line and practically flew to the basket.
With a bang, she dunked the ball through the basket.
Then it became embarrassing because she shot the ball in the basket of her own team.
But the PE teacher was really staggered. “A first-grade girl in junior high just leaped from the three-point line and flew a few meters before dunking the basketball?
“Good heavens, how unbelievable that was!
“Wouldn’t she be kick-ass if she became a basketball player?”
However, the next second, except for Mengmeng and Yue Xiaonao, everyone in the basketball court was thrown into a trance and completely forgot what just happened.
Yue Wuwei later gave Yue Xiaonao a talking-to, warning her not to use her powers at school.
As a result, Yue Xiaonao played basketball in the ordinary way. After playing for a while, she didn’t find it much fun so she sat on a chair on the edge of the basketball court and chatted with Mengmeng and the others.
The next day, Yue Xiaonao finally heard that Mengmeng was running a Cloud Shadow Club. Although she no longer organized many activities in the club now, she had a lot of female followers. That was quite enviable. Yue Xiaonao pestered Mengmeng into making her the vice president of the club. She then called a meeting and experience the pleasure of being a female leader.
She was this close to leading the club members to the senior high department to fight for territory.
Fortunately, Mengmeng was there, otherwise, no one could stop her.
In this way, Yue Xiaonao began to get used to her junior high school life.
In the King’s Domain.
Lord Nan Shan, Lord Dong Gu, and the others all looked rather doleful.
“Swoosh, swoosh!”
“Huh?” Ah Hu was taken aback. “My father-in-law is coming.”
He hurried to greet them.
“Wu Ming, you’re here.”
Lord Nan Shan and Lord Dong Gu glanced at Liu Qingfeng. Liu Qingfeng was only at the Qi Strength Level. He was like an ant in front of them. However, it was Wu Ming who brought him here, so they more or less held him in higher esteem.
“Liu Qingfeng, you’re here, too?” Zhang Guangyou was dazed.
When the two arrived at the main peak, Wu Ming said, “Our Elder Yue and Zhang Hanyang had a discussion. Seeing that you’ve been defeated successively, they sent a think tank to guide you in the following battles.”
“What?” Lord Nan Shan frowned slightly. “Are you sure?”
“You wanna me to I take you out to ask Zhang Hanyang in person?” Wu Ming asked.
Lord Nan Shan fell silent.
He found it funny that Zhang Hanyang sent a Qi Strength Master to command them.
“Lord Nan Shan, don’t underestimate him.” Ah Hu said discontentedly, “He is my father-in-law, a very powerful figure in the business field. He is proficient in the art of war and has pored over all kinds of history books. With him here, we may be able to make some changes.”
“That’s right.”
Zhang Guangyou said with a smile, “Liu Qingfeng is really something. He has a brilliant brain. I noticed that years ago. Lord Nan Shan, Lord Dong Gu, since Elder Yue and Han have sent him here, let him have a try.”
“Of course.” Lord Nan Shan nodded. “I’m also curious about the means of the man them dispatched here. In this case, you will guide the army, and the four of us will assist.”
“Sure.”
The matter was quickly settled.
“I’d like to know the specifics of the current situation.”
Without exchange courtesies, Liu Qingfeng nodded to all the people present and went to stand by the leader’s table.
Lord Dong Gu waved his hand and the map of the entire King’s Domain appeared.
“The large northern region is Lord Bei Huai’s territory. The not-so-large one, which looked like a semi-circle, is Lord Zhen Hai’s territory. The dot in the center is the Black White Palace. The bigger dot is our only territory in the Mountain Nan Domain,” explained Lord Dong Gu.
At the same time, everyone was observing Liu Qingfeng’s expression.
At the very least, when they saw this map, they showed a little awkwardness on their faces.
But to their surprise, Liu Qingfeng didn’t even turn a hair.
Instead, he nodded and said, “It’s okay. With the scale of our army, having a small territory is actually a good thing. Having a large territory doesn’t always bring in advantages.”
“Why is that?” Zhang Mu asked, “Lord Dong Gu, please show us the specific areas with formations.”
As he spoke, the map in the void changed slightly. Many red dots appeared in the large area beyond the Mountain Nan Domain.
As the map altered, Zhang Mu said, “While we are hiding here, we’ve sent out thousands of scouts. They found that these places all have formations or even larger-scale Heaven-earth Formations. There are many formations, so we dare not to act rashly. Originally, we wanted to seize a few spots. But the disparity in numbers does not allow us to do so.”
“…”
Liu Qingfeng suddenly frowned, his eyes sweeping the entire map of King’s Domain. For a moment, he was lost in thought.
“Thus, we set up layers of formations near Mountain Nan. This is the last land we have, which covers an area with a radius of 10 miles.” Zhang Guangyou informed, “We are waiting for an opportunity to deal some fatal blows to the opposite troops.”
“No.” Liu Qingfeng shook his head and said, “That’s not the best idea. The enemies also know our situation. They will be on guard. Even if we won a few battles, we would suffer a lot. But we’re the very party that can’t afford to lose more fighters.”
“Do you have any idea?” Lord Nan Shan asked.
“Can you mark the key spots in Lord Bei Huai’s and Lord Zhen Hai’s territories?” Liu Qingfeng requested.
“These places are the main cities in the various regions under their control.” With a stir of Lord Dong Gu’s mind, many small blue circles materialized on the map, followed by even more white circles. “These are secondary locations. And the bars are relatively important strategic places. They’ve basically occupied all of those critical spots. Currently, Lord Bei Huai and Lord Zhen Hai are continuously conquering more critical spots.”
“Critical spots.” Liu Qingfeng was silent again. He stared at the map and frowned.
One minute, two minutes, and three minutes passed…
Five minutes later, Liu Qingfeng took a deep breath.
There were many ideas in his mind, but some were flawed. He had sifted through them one by one and was considered the most suitable one for them.
Evidently, by this moment, he had already made his decision.
“What do you think?” Zhang Guangyou said.
“Now is not the time for us to have a large-scale war.”
Suddenly, Liu Qingfeng exuded the ethereal air of a hard-bitten fighter.
As if a general giving directions, he said word by word, “The first thing we should do is prevent further losses.
“We have to win with clever stratagems. The key is… the Heaven-earth Formation. Look, here, here, and here. The three spots form a line. We should set up the formation layer by layer from this line and give up all the land in the east, the north, and the south. We need to occupy these three points in the west. There’s a troop of Lord Zhen Hai’s here. We’ll directly send out 200,000 people to occupy it.
“Second, we should send more scouts to the south of Lord Bei Huai’s main city to set up murderous formations. It may take a long time. We need to cover the entire mountain range with murderous formations. Then, we’ll send 5,000 elite soldiers there. They must go quietly. Among them, 2,000 soldiers will feign to attack the main city. Lord Bei Huai is the most powerful lord. He will send about 30,000 to 50,000 people to deal with them. When they arrive at the area filled with murderous formations, the 5,000 elite soldiers will work together to attack them. Coupled with the murderous formations, we’ll definitely defeat the opposite army.
“When it comes to the third phase, we’ll send one-fifth of these 5,000 soldiers to the place 65 miles away in the west, two-fifth to the Fu City 10 miles away in the south, and the rest to the Dark Flow River in the east. The strategy is the same as before, only that the formations are not necessarily real. We can mix the fake ones with the real ones to confuse enemies. That will create quite a disturbance in their bases.
“If we manage that, we shall then send 100,000 soldiers to seize the Dongruo City north to the Mountain Nan Domain.
“After that, we withdraw immediately. At the same time, we send out 10,000 people to harass the Lumiao City, which is 6.5 miles to the west. The opposite side will send a troop to attack. When they see Dongruo City is unoccupied, they will definitely dispatch part of their troop to seize it. Then we can send 40, 000 people over to take over the Lumiao City. We must wipe out all the enemies there and flatten that place.
“At the fourth phase… never mind, let’s just focus on the first three for now. Whether we can succeed now depends on your subordinates’ ability to execute the plan.”
After he finished speaking, many people were dumbstruck.
Lord Nan Shan asked, “Why would we do this? You suggest that we don’t guard our own territory and go far away to wage battles. But if our people can’t make it back, our losses will be heavier.”
“The King’s Domain is so large. As long as our people escape in small groups from different routes, we won’t suffer severe losses.”
Liu Qingfeng smiled calmly and said, “They don’t have that much energy to carry out an inch-by-inch search. Our advantage is our flexibility. They hope that we can start a large-scale war. However, we will only have a guerrilla war. We must throw them into confusion. That’s the first step.
“The second step is to sow discord. When people act with one mind, they can work wonders. And vice versa. We’d better make suspicions cloud their minds. But this step may not be very successful. But it’s better than doing nothing.
“There are more steps we can take after that. The current war in the King’s Domain is like a game of chess. We shall decide our next move according to the circumstances. I have some primitive ideas now. The execution of the plans will depend on you.”
“Okay.”
Zhang Mu nodded and said, “I’ll lead a troop of 5000 fighters, including First Elder and the others, to the northern hinterland to set up murderous formations.”
“These tasks have to be carried out at the same time. As for the specific arrangements, we need to discuss before making decisions,” Zhang Guangyou said.
“Sure, you guys can discuss it,” Lord Dong Gu said in a deep voice. “I don’t like to work on these issues. Just put me in charge of the task to the Dongruo City. I’m an expert at flattening cities.”
“…”
Lord Nan Shan’s side was immediately in motion.
Before this, they also had many ideas that had not been carried out. Now Liu Qingfeng came, the ideas he proposed were even more preposterous and frightening. Still, they prepared to follow Liu Qingfeng’s instructions and fight a desperate battle.
Time stealthily flew by. A fierce contention had already begun.
Lord Bei Huai and Lord Zhen Hai had been in a tit-for-tat struggle. Too absorbed in their constant fights, they almost forgot Lord Nan Shan. Nor did they care to pay attention to him.
Lord Zhen Hai had 600,000 soldiers. As a cautious man, he calculated his every move and had not suffered a big loss. Lord Bei Huai, however, was bold and unbridled. He had conquered many places, but that also cost him a great number of soldiers.
At present, Lord Bei Huai had about 900,000 people, Lord Zhen Hai had around 550,000, while Lord Nan Shan had 200,000.
War was indeed brutal.
Two days later, in a city near the Black White Palace, Lord Bei Huai, several magnates, and their subordinates were studying the map in front of them.
Suddenly, a subordinate hurried over.
“Your Majesty, bad news! Several thousand people are continuously attacking our main city!”
“Only a few thousand? No need to pay attention to them.” Lord Bei Huai didn’t even bat his eyelid.
With the defensive formations cast around the main city, the city would still be safe even if several thousand people ceaselessly attacked it for 10 days or so.
“They have treasures to break our formations. Also, they are all clad in armor. It’s hard to tell whose force they are. Given the destructive power of the treasures they have, the defense of the main city will be destroyed in about one day,” the subordinate said quickly.
“Eh?”
Frowning, Lord Bei Huai took a light breath and ordered, “Lord Man, take 40,000 people to get rid of them.”
“Yes.”
After the subordinate left, no one seemed nervous or anything. They didn’t take the matter seriously. They even exchange words with smiles on their faces.
“They must be Lord Zhen Hai’s force, don’t you think so?”
“Yeah, I suppose. Lord Nan Shan has already been holed up in his territory. If we continue to wear them down for about another 10 days, they will be annihilated.”
“I bet he doesn’t have the nerve to attack our hinterland. Only Lord Zhen Hai could dare to play dirty tricks. However, now Lord Man has brought 40,000 people to deal with them, no matter what tricks they have, they’ll be crushed all the same.”
“Yes, in the face of absolute strength, conspiracy is of no use.”
They were very confident.
However…
Five hours later.
“Your Majesty!”
A young commander of the scouts ran over quickly and said anxiously, “Of the 40,000 soldiers led by Lord Man, 30,000 of them have died in the battle. Lord Man has been killed. We were ambushed. The Chain Mountain Range in the south of the main city is full of murderous formations. The other party has roughly 5000 in total.”
“What did you say?”
All the people present were shocked.
Even Lord Bei Huai’s face darkened.
“Humph, Lord Zhen Hai, I’m impressed!”
“Lord Xie, take 100,000 men and kill them all! Don’t let a single one get away!” Lord Bei Huai shouted with a furious look.
A day later.
The news came back in succession.
“The Oriental Plane City has also been attacked. There was a Heaven-earth Formation. Lord Xie brought the troop over only to find that it was fake. We’ve been tricked.”
“The Dark Flow River got attacked, too. The Heaven-earth Formation there has been destroyed. Lord Zhen Hai’s troop has set their eyes on that place.”
“The Bucai City has also been invaded.”
“…”
“Your Majesty! Bad news! Twenty thousand people in our Dongruo City have been killed! It’s Lord Nan Shan’s doing! He and his men are in action!”
“Lord Zhen Hai is sending his people to seize the Dongruo City.”
“Lord Zhen Hai’s Lumiao City has been taken. He lost 10,000 fighters.”
“Lord Nan Shan’s territory has changed. Dozens of miles to the west, a place under Lord Zhenhai’s control has been snatched by Lord Nan Shan. More than 30,000 of Lord Zhen Hai’s people have been killed or injured.”
Those pieces of news left everyone present open-mouthed.
