Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
“I heard that two months ago your Kongqi Sect opened the mountain to recruit disciples. You took in 100,000 disciples…”
Tianqi would definitely feel suspicious if someone else asked that, thinking they would have some deeper meaning within. As it was Zong Shou, he was really relaxed. He knew that it was just a pure question and even if he was unhappy about it, he wouldn’t do anything. He appeared delighted.
“The Spiritual Wave is about to arrive so how can my Kongqi Sect not prepare for it? Gantian Mountain and my Sect are linked together, but now we are having fewer and fewer Spiritual Blacksmiths, so we need to add in more people. I think Ruler feels the same way too.”
What was important was that Kongqi Sect was strong enough to raise so many disciples.
Huizhou had hundreds of mines and during this year, there were many large-sized mines which appeared in Donglin. The Monster King didn’t monopolize them all, so those who followed him were able to get many benefits.
This was why his Kongqi Sect obtained many mines.
Now they were only fretting about not having enough Spirit Masters and talented people. Out of those 100,000, if 2,000 could enter their Inner Sect, he would be satisfied.
Kongqi Sect’s 10,000-year legacy was getting stronger in his hands.
It was true that there weren’t enough Spiritual Blacksmiths.
Gantian Mountain was demanding for more and more High-Grade weapons and armor.
However, they didn’t have a reduction in demand for those Low-Grade ones.
Since Zong Shou gave out those Government Decrees a few years ago, the number of martial and Spiritual Cultivators had increased by the day.
The Martial Wind was really strong within the country. Every month, there would be hundreds and thousands of Xiantian Masters and even Out of Body Spirit Masters who reported to Gantian Mountain.
This volcano-like explosion of experts craved Spiritual Artifacts, something that the tens of thousands of Kongqi Sect disciples couldn’t sustain.
If there was anything else in the world that he worried about, it would be the few Mohist Sects that appeared within Donglin, as well as those crafting businesses under Zong Shou’s name.
As long as the Sky Fox Race members didn’t have too weak a bloodline, they were basically natural Spirit Masters.
The Fox Race wasn’t the only Spiritual Blacksmiths under him.
When he had taken the throne several years earlier and started to develop them, although there weren’t any Master Level ones, there were a large number of them. There was a total of 30,000, no less than Kongqi Sect.
Since Xue Family was wiped out, their following Fox Races all surrendered to Zong Shou. This number further increased to close to 40,000.
As a ruler, he couldn’t be biased toward one side and had to keep one in check.
This was why Tianqi was worried, although he didn’t dare to say anything.
Those Mohists gave him a headache. They moved over from the Central Continent and their businesses were prospering, which annoyed him.
The only thing he felt slightly happy about was that the Pill Fountain Sect was worried about the same thing.
Zong Shou laughed and didn’t reply.
Not long ago, Kongqi Sect and Pill Fountain Sect joined hands to instigate the Meeting Hall to stop those competing sects. In the end, it failed.
No one was willing to see these two sects monopolize the pill and artifact business.
At this moment, Kongqi recruited these 100,000 disciples not just because he lacked Spiritual Blacksmiths.
Stepping into the air, Zong Shou flew to where those eight Space Ships were. Looking around, his eyes were filled with surprise.
“These Grade-9 Energy-Destroying Crossbows are all equipped?”
There were a total of 400,000 Grade-9 Energy-Destroying Crossbows. He thought that Kongqi Sect would take to the end of the year to complete them.
“This was all because of Zhang Jinglue, the Mind Stone mines in Huizhou are plenty and enough for our needs.”
Speaking about Zhang Jinglue, Tianqi’s tone was filled with praise and pride.
“Three months ago, our Kongqi Sect had seven Spirit Realm Elders who returned from the outer region.”
Zong Shou’s brow rose up and he wasn’t surprised. The Mysterious Cloud Spirit Sect Spiritual House could support two initial Spirit Realm Cultivators.
Now that the Spiritual Wave was coming, not to mention seven, even nine to ten were possible.
As for Zhang Jinglue, he was naturally referring to Zhang Huai.
Zhang Huai was currently the Country Advisor, Meeting Hall Participant, Huizhou Jinglue. Those official names were really random but he had no choice.
A state could have a Governor. However, Gantian Mountain had only six states of land which was why its province only had one Inspector-General. Jinglue was just in a temporary role to manage Huizhou. In just a year or two, when things stabilized, it would be removed.
Nodding, Zong Shou stopped worrying about these few Giant Space Ships. He looked toward the south and walked over.
This camp spread 100 miles and could house two million troops.
When Zong Shou walked through the heavy Spiritual Formations, he saw that not far away there, were two cavalry armies. Each consisted of several thousand men, who were using wooden sabers as weapons as they fought one another in the wilderness.
On one side, it was the Blood Cloud Cavalry, a total of 1,000. They were all using Dragon Horn Winged Horses and wearing Blood Armor.
The other side was wearing silver white and were all Fox Race members.
There were twice as many, around 2,000. They all rode Grade-4 Beasts, thousands of Xuan Flame Golden Qilin Beasts, their legs were stepping on flames with a high morale.
They were at a disadvantage fighting the Blood Cloud Cavalry and could barely defend themselves.
Each one of them could exchange for a Blood Cloud Cavalryman to fall off his horse.
Tianqi followed closely behind him. He followed Zong Shou’s gaze and his eyes had a weird expression as he smiled, “Congratulations Ruler, this strong army will be formed in the near future! Our Gantian Mountain will have one more pillar.”
“Pillar?”
Zong Shou’s brow rose up, his eyes were filled with sadness.
He formed this brand new Black Fox Iron Cavalry, using the strength of numerous factions; Blood Cloud Cavalry, Common People’s Mysterious Dragon Warrior, Xiang Family Iron Cavalry, Great Qin Iron Cavalry, a total of four strong Dao Soldiers, using their essence to merge into one.
All their members were Grade-6 Experts who came from the Fox Race.
This outcome wasn’t pleasing.
He spent several months designing the armor. He also spent several months designing the Support Cultivation Method.
However, when they faced the Blood Cloud Cavalry, they could only go one for one, sometimes not even being able to achieve that…
It seemed like their strength was equal, but these Black Fox Iron Cavalry were all Grade-6 Experts and they all had fought several battles.
Close to 30% of the Blood Cloud Cavalry were still Grade-5. They hadn’t even made use of the Blood Cloud Technique…
He really expected too much. As expected, this invincible Dao Soldier could only be perfected through numerous battles.
Tianqi also sensed the disappointment on Zong Shou’s face. He felt a little shocked and didn’t understand why.
In his eyes, although this Black Fox Iron Cavalry couldn’t win against the Blood Cloud Cavalry, they were above average out of all Grade-6 Dao Soldiers!
They were only slightly weaker than the Dao Soldiers of the Five Shrines.
The Blood Cloud Cavalry suffered from more restrictions. Although Gantian Mountain had a Blood Hero God Metal mine, it was extremely hard to refine. Their armor was also tough to craft.
On the contrary, the weapons and armor of the Black Fox Cavalry weren’t restricted by resources. There were numerous materials which could replace them.
As long as Zong Shou was willing, within three to five years, he could expand them to 7,000. Such strength was already really amazing
After the Seven Cloud Mountain battle, all large countries and sects were paying attention to the million troops under Kong Yao.
There were 6,000 Blood Cloud Cavalry, the Big Dipper Sword Soldier and Big Dipper Crossbow Soldiers who increased in number to 50,000. Those numerous Elite troops who broke through from Grade-3 to Grade-4.
However, what they didn’t know was that Gantian Mountain also had a Grade-6 Dao Soldier Army that was being raised in secret.
“It’s best to temporarily stop the Grade-6 armor order from before…”
Tianqi was shocked when he heard this and looked toward Zong Shou.
At this moment, although Kongqi Sect couldn’t keep up with their orders, the ones that gave the most profit came from Gantian Mountain.
Following this, he calmed down. Tianqi definitely didn’t believe that Zong Shou would give up on such strong Grade-6 Dao Soldiers so easily.
Zong Shou clenched his fists, deep in thought. He was thinking about the document in his sleeves.
It was from Kong Yao, who said that the South Wind Yue Dynasty was gathering strength and consolidating the power of the various islands.
It was similar to the Thousand City Alliance from before, just that it was more scattered. However, the effect and position of the Great Yue Dynasty was much stronger than Longxiang City.
Although this island alliance couldn’t threaten Gantian Mountain, once they locked down Donglin, it might affect their ocean trading commerce tax.
This was why Kong Yao asked him for permission to lead the troops to invade the Southeast states of Central Cloud Continent.
On one side it was to calm down the people around and the second was to try to draw Great Yue to attack Huizhou.
Although Zong Shou didn’t reply to this, in his heart, he recognized her plan.
After all, this woman really loved to fight.
No wonder people would say that she was a malefic star descending. Even her father said that she had too great of a violent energy.
After stopping war for a year, she started to target the South Wind Cloud Continent.
Who knows if it was a blessing or a curse to have this woman as a Commander?
He was hesitating about whether or not to hand this Black Fox Iron Cavalry to Kong Yao or to use them in the outer region…
He was spending all his effort considering this before his expression changed slightly as he looked to the east. All his thoughts were tossed aside.
At this moment, Tianqi also looked over with an ashen white face.
“What strong Death Energy…”
It was no weaker than when Zong Shou used the Styx River Death Sword.
Zong Shou’s gaze fluctuated. He roughly knew where that place where the Death Energy exploded out was.
“Nine Yin Death Witch? She finally came out…”
In his heart, he actually felt relief. This ticking time bomb finally exploded. Luckily, it didn’t happen when he chose to break through the Heaven Barrier.
He sighed, pulling out the Royal Demon God Shuttle to break open space. In an instant, he was 1,000 miles away, heading toward the east.
He needed to solve this problem that he had personally caused.