“Good kid, now breathe another air blade.”
Jiang He told Eldest Brother while pointed at his own chest, “Release it here as hard as you can.”
After all, attempting to determine the specific strength of the air blade that Eldest Brother breathed by merely watching was not enough—Jiang He felt that he should test it himself.
Hetui!
Eldest Brother opened his mouth and spat out an air blade.
Swish!
The air in the farm shrieked resounding as the blade tore through it, and in the next instant…
Clang!
A ring of clashing metals echoed, and Jiang He felt a dull ache on his chest as the air blade collided upon it, causing a gust that blew on his hair for seconds.
He looked down to find that the jersey he put on was torn apart on the chest area. There was now a red, inflamed blade mark on his elegant, chiseled chest muscles that should not be described excessively.
“Not bad, not bad. The power of the blade reaches the passing mark since it’s able to leave a red mark on my chest.”
Jiang He nodded, appearing very satisfied about the power of the air blade, remarking, “This air blade is stronger than the one you breathed before, and almost reaches the level of a divine-conversion pinnacle martial artist’s single blow. It would hurt me if it was another thirty times… no, forty or fifty times stronger.”
‘Hurt me’ meant slicing apart Jiang He’s skin and muscles with a single blade. On the other hand, reaching his tendons and bones would require Void-tier blows.
“That being said…”
Jiang He then slapped Eldest Brother on the head, barking, “I only told you to breathe an air blade—why would you add a sound effect?”
That ‘hetui’ sounded so much like spitting.
Rubbing his head, Eldest Brother answered unhappily with reddened eyes. “Didn’t you tell me to release it as hard as I can? I feel like I can’t use my full strength if I didn’t do that.”
Jiang He did a double take, and could not help chuckling just then…
What, breathing those air blades at maximum output needed those sound effects?
Indeed, Jiang He could not help being amused when he imagined the sight of the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers standing together, breathing air blades but with that weird sound effect…
[Ding!]
[+5,000 Farm Points.]
[Ding!]
[+5,000 Farm Points.]
[Ding…]
Jiang He soon plucked out all the remaining bottle gourds and gave one each to the other six Bottle Gourd Brothers. After eating the bottle gourds, all of them acted like Eldest Brother, ascending up to rank-nine after a flash of green light.
Hetui!
Hetui!
The six Bottle Gourd Brothers all breathed air blades to varying effects. While Eldest Brother’s air blade was the largest, Second Brother’s air blade was very agile while the air blade Third Brother breathed was glinting in golden radiance, which was a little symbolic of his ‘body of steel’ attribute.
Meanwhile, Fourth Brother’s air blade was interweaved with thunder and fire, Fifth Brother’s was basically water blade and Sixth Brother’s was formless, and could only be detected with spirit. As for Seventh Brother… who was the youngest and did not usually have much of a presence, his air blade was very small, and could hardly be seen if not observed carefully amongst the other air blades.
“Interesting.”
“The Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers actually fused their own abilities and attributes into the air blades.”
Jiang He nonchalantly exchanged hundreds of nitrogen fertilizer and composite fertilizer and passed it to the seven brothers.
“Eat these fertilizers and reach divine-tier soon. The air blades might become even stronger then.”
Jiang He now had over 2.3 million Farm Points, and he did not even blink spending over a hundred thousand to raise the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers.
In turn, the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers happily ran off with the hundreds of fertilizers.
After seeing off the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers, Jiang He turned towards the spot where he planted the Unnamed Sword Array to find that the jasper-colored tree having grown over two meters tall. Its trunk, branches and leaves were all the same hue, and had a flickering luster under the moonlight that made it quite a sight.
And on the tip of the jasper tree branches, seven jade scrolls dangles.
Jiang He walked up and plucked one.
[Ding!]
[+10,000 Farm Points.]
He studied the jade scroll closely,
[Sword Array of Seven Stars and Eight Trigrams. Lowest requirement: seven inferior soul weapons (flying swords) to lay out the Seven Stars and Eight Trigrams array…]
After that was the details and instructions about setting up the seven flying swords for that particular array.
“Seven… inferior flying swords?”
Damn it!
Jiang He was rather speechless—what a blunder that was!
All he thought about was creating a Sword Array… he did not expect that setting it up requires multiple mystic flying swords. All he had was the Scarlet Flame Sword, a premium soul weapon.
Where was he supposed to collect the seven flying swords which the Sword Array required?
“Do I plant it?”
“But when it comes to seeds… mystic flying swords needs a fragment or the sword mold for seeds…”
Even as he thought about it, Jiang He reached out to pluck the next jade scroll.
[Ding!]
[+10,000 Farm Ponts.]
It was the jade scroll of the First Fold in the Unnamed Sword Array—the Sword Array of Ice and Fire Duality. As he looked closer, he found that setting it up was much simpler than the Sword Array of Seven Stars and Eight Trigrams. Other aspects notwithstanding, this one only needed only two flying swords.
“Still, this one has requirements on the attribute of the flying swords. One flying sword must carry the fire attribute, while the other must carry the water attribute… that said, my Scarlet Flame Sword does have the fire attribute, so all I need to do is get my hands on a water-type flying sword to cast the Sword Array of Ice and Fire Duality.”
After that, Jiang He started plucking each of the remaining jade scrolls and carefully studied them.
The Sword Array of Yin-Yang and Three Realms needed three flying swords, whereas the Sword Array of Four Harmonies and Universality needed five.
On the other hand, the Sword Array of Five Elements and Six Pulses required six flying swords—one would take the role of ‘main sword’ while the other five flying swords must each carry one of the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Energy of the five elements would erupt when the Sword Array was charged, and the sixth ‘main sword’ would integrate that energy to slay one’s opponent.
“And then there is the Sword Array of Ten Realms and Infinity, which requires ten inferior-grade flying swords, which meant at least ten soul weapons… Although the lowest requirement for flying sword is inferior-grade, I certainly have to obtain stronger items that are at least in the level as the Scarlet Flame Sword.”
Jiang He mused to himself for quite a while, before whipping out his phone and dialed Wang Hou’s number.
Nonetheless, the response was that Wang Hou was ‘not within coverage area’. After trying several times but not getting through, Jiang He had to compromise and call Zhou Yu instead.
“Do you have something to ask, Mister Jiang?”
Zhou Yu answered his call at once, chuckling. “Should I visit your house and let’s talk face-to-face?”
“You haven’t gone back yet?”
Jiang He suddenly remembered that Zhou Yu had come to Lingzhou City to deliver his Orirocks and Sword-Will Barrenwort. But was he not usually busy with public duty? Why would he still hang around in Lingzhou City?
Moreover, how inappropriate would it be to ask Zhou Yu to come to his own house when he was the one asking for Zhou Yu’s help?
Hence, Jiang He chuckled. “How could I bother you? How about this—I happen to have some stuff to do at Lingzhou City, so let’s meet at Duan Tianhe’s office.”
“You’re being courteous, Mister Jiang. I ought to visit you anyway.”
Zhou Yu was utterly reverent, and could not help rising to his feet even from the other end of the call.
Meanwhile, Jiang He had returned to his room, put up new clothes and washed up a little before climbing into his sports car, start the ignition and issued a voice command…
Vroom.
The engine of the sports car purred as it sped in the direction of Lingzhou City.
Lying back on his seat, Jiang He whipped out a bottle of rank-nine Origin Fluid to wet his throat and could not help chuckling. “I’m getting used to flying around lately and rarely drive. It feels a little nostalgic sleeping in the car now.”
Well, humans have to learn cherish both painful and joyful moments of the past.
Indeed, Jiang He could not help remembering the days when he used the sports car as his bedroom, which had been a truly grilling period. Moreover, he had to drive the entire 1000km plus distance from Lingzhou City to Jiangnan…
Road conditions were utterly poor and so bumpy that he could not sleep soundly in the car.
Nonetheless, Jiang He soon arrived outside Lingzhou City, and was surprised by the sight of complete high-voltage fences around the outskirts.
They stood over twenty meters tall and surrounds all of Lingzhou City, and there was only a single steel fence gate to the east of the city. Soldiers took shifts to guard it 24/7, and there were also many sturdy military strongholds and various heavy artillery behind the electric fences.
There were also many newly built factories to handle the citizens’ daily necessities, as well as providing everyone with a job.
Moreover, farmlands surrounded those factories, some of which were there in the first place while others were sowed after nearby buildings were dismantled… after all, it was too dangerous to farm in the wildlands at the moment, and there would be Ferals roaming from time to time. It was only by keeping the farm near cities that the military and Martial Arts Department (MAD) personnel could quickly come to the rescue if there were any incidents.
Luckily, the Revival of Qi also greatly increased crop yield, and the average citizen did not have to suffer from famine.
Parking his sports car outside the electric fence, Jiang He took in all the sights and could not help feeling emotional…
A soldier stepped out from behind the fence then and approached him with a salute, saying, “Identification please, sir.”
Jiang He alighted and offered the soldier a fist-palm salute, returning his greeting as a fellow warrior.
These soldiers had sacrificed much to protect the country in this day and age.
While the media and the citizens complained about Feral Swarms occurring in some place or other and caused casualties, they seemed unaware that many soldiers were losing their lives in the fight against the Ferals almost every day. Their corpses were hardly preserved fully as well, and some were utterly devoured by Ferals.
These soldiers and the many warriors who battled against the Ferals in the wildlands were most deserving of respect.
Now, after checking Jiang He’s ID, the soldier opened the steel gate and let Jiang He in. However, as Jiang He drove to the MAD, he found the entire venue shrouded in somberness—it was already 10pm, but many people were still entering or leaving the front doors of the MAD. Some were even bathed in blood, clearly having gone through a serious conflict recently.
Jiang He held back one of the fighters for information.
Only then did he learn that the massive earthquake which the collapse of the heritage site in Mount Dadong caused had sent every Feral there fleeing. These fighters were therefore here to help the military fortify and cull those Ferals.
Soon, Jiang He arrived at Duan Tianhe’s office.
Zhou Yu, Duan Tianhe, Cheng Dongfeng, Ji Dongxu, and even Chen Jingzhou was present, and all of them were wearing somber looks.
Cheng Dongfeng was the first to approach Jiang He upon seeing him, and he said gravely, “Something has happened, Jiang He…”
“Minister Wang is wounded!”
Jiang He raised his brows before frowning. “What happened? Old Wang is no small-fry—who could have hurt him?”
The others traded glances while Zhou Yu stepped up.
He told everything about the recent unrests amongst Feral Kings across the Hua Nation, the Shaolin Temple’s elite who slayed one of the Feral Kings and drawing a gathering of ten thousand Ferals, as well as Lin Tianzheng’s one-man army massacre.
“The Dragoncroc Emperor had indicated that it wished to negotiate with Minister Wang before this to avoid a war between human and Feral eminences,” he added. “However, the Dragoncroc Emperor was infuriated after that incident, and Minister Wang, who was on the way to talk to the beast, ended up…”
“Injured, because the talks broke down?”
Jiang He frowned. Injuring Wang Hou just because the talks collapsed?
Was the Dragoncroc Emperor that short-fused?
Nonetheless, Zhou Yu shook his head and said, “The Dragoncroc Emperor had yet to show up. Just when Minister Wang arrived at Shennongjia, he was ambushed… according to him, the one who blindsided him was most likely the Saint of the Sky Demon Cult.”
“Oh?”
Jiang He’s gaze twitched.
Zhou Yu forced a smile as he continued. “After you inflicted critical losses to the Sky Demon Cult, that Saint who is usually nowhere to be seen must have become anxious… Moreover, the Dragoncroc Emperor is superior to Minister Wang. How could it not know that a Void-tier elite infiltrated its lair?”
Jiang He’s voice turned to a growl as he said, “Do you mean to say that the Saint and the Dragoncroc Emperor were in league with each other?”
Zhou Yu nodded.
Jiang He’s heart pounded at that!
The Dragoncroc Emperor?
The Saint of the Sky Demon Cult?
“The Sky Demon Cult had always wanted to kill me… as for the Dragoncroc Emperor, after I killed so many Feral Kings, it came to spy on me when I fought the Golden-Winged Roc, and I could vaguely sense a killing intent right then…”
“Perhaps those two were working together to try to kill me?”
Jiang He felt utterly unsettled then!
The Dragoncroc Emperor was stronger than the Golden-Winged Roc and possessed unfathomable power!
As for the Saint of the Sky Demon Cult… according to Yan Dehao, their power was definitely not weak.
“Could I stop them if they combined against me?”
Jiang He thought about it… but it did seem that he could.
Still, it was better to be safe than sorry, since there would always be surprises even if he could hold his own. Why would a person as realist and discreet as himself fool around with his own life?
“No way!
“I, Jiang He, am not the type who sits around and wait for death to come!
“I must fight back!
“I need to kill one of those two in the very least, or… I’m going to lose sleep again!”
