Bringing the farm to another world

Chapter 16370 Intelligence
People say that war is a continuation of politics, and that's true. In the same war, politics is everywhere. Take the issue of command, for example. It's politics. If Shi Yong and Xu Zhengqing contacted each other directly without going through General Li, then they were essentially excluding General Li from the command system. This wasn't just targeting General Li; it showed disrespect to the military and the royal family, and even disrespected the royal family. This was something the royal family absolutely could not allow.

If they incur the displeasure of the royal family, the royal family may try to sabotage them. Don't forget, General Li is still the commander-in-chief at the front. If General Li really sabotages them, neither sects nor aristocratic families will have an easy time. At the very least, their losses will increase, which is something neither sects nor aristocratic families want to see. Therefore, in times of war, both sects and aristocratic families must give face to the royal family and must obey General Li's command.

Both Shi Yong and Xu Zhengqing understood this principle, so they had to report the battle situation there to General Li first, and then General Li would forward it to the other side. It can be said that General Li was the real commander of this operation.

After receiving news that Xu Zhengqing and his group had begun their retreat, Shi Yong immediately ordered, "Send a signal to everyone to retreat back into the large magical artifact immediately. We are retreating."

Following his command, the disciples immediately relayed the order, and several large energy clusters flew directly into the sky. These energy clusters exploded in the sky, transforming into beautiful energy flowers. As the energy flowers bloomed, everyone who had been acting with Shi Yong immediately began to gather at the large magical artifact. At this time, some Five Elements Dividing Light Realms also appeared in the distance.

Soon, everyone returned to the large magical artifact, which then flew away into the distance. This time, they also used divine light, which greatly increased their speed. Shi Yong had been observing the Five Elements Dividing Light Realms, and he discovered that they were not using divine light to chase him. This made his eyes light up. He immediately realized that the Five Elements Dividing Light Realms could not use divine light, which was definitely good news for them.

On their return journey, they took a different route, avoiding most cities and the territories of major sects. Coupled with their extremely high speed, no one came to intercept them. They successfully crossed Thousand Lotus Mountain and returned to Poplar City.

On the other side, Xu Zhengqing and his group also crossed the Tongtian River, but their situation was not good. They lost a total of ten large magical artifacts, and many of the rogue cultivators who were traveling with them also suffered losses.

However, no matter what, they retreated back to their territory. But this was not the end. Although they retreated to their territory, the battle was not over. The Blood Slaughter Sect's army actually caught up with them. Upon seeing this situation, Xu Zhengqing immediately ordered: "Everyone outside the large magical artifacts, go directly into the underground bases of Tongtian City and the other cities. Large magical artifacts, use divine light to speed up your departure."

Following his command, everyone outside the large magical artifacts began to enter the underground bases of various cities and strongholds, while the large magical artifacts all emitted divine light and quickly departed.

The Blood Slaughter Sect's army couldn't catch up with those large magical artifacts, nor could they enter the underground bases in those cities. So, after destroying all the above-ground buildings in Tongtian City and several strongholds, they retreated.

After they left, Xu Zhengqing took the large magical artifact and returned to Tongtian City. They used the teleportation arrays of Tongtian City and several other cities to return to the Jade Beard Sect.

As soon as they returned, they immediately had the large magical artifacts transport the contents of the artifacts to the interior of the divine kingdom for safekeeping. The others were also settled in peace. After all the people were settled, Xu Zhengqing went to General Li's place.

When he arrived at General Li's place, he found that General Li and the others were already waiting for him. As soon as they saw him, General Li immediately smiled and said, "Elder Xu is back. Please have a seat." Xu Zhengqing responded and then sat down.

After he sat down, General Li said with a smile, "Our operation this time was very successful. Although there were some losses, compared with the results we achieved, those losses are completely acceptable."

Everyone nodded, their faces beaming with smiles. General Li began, "Let's talk about our losses first. We lost ten large magical artifacts and about a million people, but most of them were rogue cultivators. Although the losses are significant, they are perfectly acceptable compared to our achievements." He paused for a moment, then continued, "Now let's talk about our results. This time, we captured over twelve million ordinary people from Wujiang City and Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, and killed over three million enemy rogue cultivators. Most importantly, we also gathered two crucial pieces of intelligence about their shape-shifting shields. First, the strength of those shields is determined by the number of people in them. A shield composed of ten thousand people cannot threaten our large magical artifacts, but a shield composed of one hundred thousand people can directly break through them. Second, those shields cannot be attacked with divine light. This information was gathered by Elder Xu Zhengqing and Elder Shi Yong. Let's give them a round of applause to thank them for collecting such useful intelligence while on the offensive."

Everyone clapped their hands vigorously, which made Shi Yong and Xu Zhengqing feel a little embarrassed. The two clasped their hands in a fist salute to everyone. They understood that the information that the strength of the shield was determined by the number of people in it was provided by Xu Zhengqing. Although Xu Zhengqing had also discovered that the enemy's shield could not use divine light, he discovered it later than Shi Yong. Therefore, when he passed this information to General Li, Shi Yong had already reported it to General Li. So this information can only be considered as Shi Yong's report, not Xu Zhengqing's report.

General Li clapped his hands for a while, then stretched out his hand and pressed it down. Everyone then withdrew their hands and looked at General Li. General Li then spoke up again: "Elder Shi, Elder Xu, do you have any other intelligence? If so, please tell us directly."

Xu Zhengqing thought for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "There really is some intelligence. When we first made contact with them, I left a team in Wujiang City. As soon as we saw any of them coming out of Wujiang City, we would engage them directly, keeping them occupied and preventing them from forming a battle formation. I wanted to see if they could still create that kind of transforming shield if we didn't let them form a battle formation. As it turns out, they need to gather about a thousand people to form a shield. Moreover, I also discovered that after a thousand people gather together, they will take out individual threads. These threads will connect the people together, and once they are connected, they form a shield. That shield can then transform and launch an attack on us."

Upon hearing Xu Zhengqing's words, General Li immediately nodded and said, "Good, this intelligence is extremely important. The shield formed by their thousand men is definitely not strong enough. I just don't know if there is a quantifiable standard for it."

Xu Zhengqing said, "There is no precise quantitative standard, but one thing is certain: if a thousand ordinary Throne-level cultivators are connected together with silk threads to form a protective shield, they would dare to directly attack a Kingdom-level expert. However, if our Kingdom-level expert attacks their shield, they would not be able to break through it in one go."

Upon hearing Xu Zhengqing's words, General Li's expression changed. He then asked, "So, a thousand kingdom-level experts can deal with our kingdom-level experts using that shield? How strong would the shield composed of ten thousand people be?"

Xu Zhengqing said, "There is no very quantifiable standard for this, but a shield composed of 10,000 people cannot break through our large magical artifact. If they attack our large magical artifact with all their might, it will cause the shield to shatter, and the people inside the shield will also be injured."

General Li nodded, and Xu Zhengqing continued, "Although a shield composed of 10,000 people cannot break through our large magical artifact, they are enough to entangle with it and hold it back."

Xu Zhengqing's words made everyone's expressions look rather unpleasant, but no one said anything. The fact that a protective shield composed of 10,000 people could hold back their large magical artifacts was not good news for them.

At this moment, Shi Yong also spoke up: "I also have some intelligence here. When we attacked those herb gardens, the people in those herb gardens resisted desperately. After we killed those people and destroyed the herb gardens, we found some of the cultivation techniques they practiced. Those techniques all had markings with the three characters 'Blood Slaughter Sect' written on them. So I suspect that the enemy we are facing now may be called the Blood Slaughter Sect, or even if it is not called the Blood Slaughter Sect, it must be related to the Blood Slaughter Sect."

Upon hearing this, General Li frowned and said, "Blood Slaughter Sect? Never heard of it. Have you heard of this sect?" As General Li spoke, his eyes turned to Xu Zhengqing and the others, who were members of the Sect Alliance.

Xu Zhengqing frowned and thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No, I've never heard of this sect before. Judging from the name, it seems to be a demonic sect, but there are only a few famous demonic sects, and there has never been one called the Blood Slaughter Sect."

The other members of the Zongrang Alliance all shook their heads in confusion; they had never heard of this name before. General Li nodded after hearing their words and then said, "Alright, let's report this matter and have the higher-ups investigate it thoroughly to see if they can find anything." Everyone nodded. This was the only option now. It was best to let the higher-ups investigate; they believed that if they couldn't find anything, they wouldn't either. After all, they didn't have time to investigate this matter themselves. Therefore, the best course of action was to report it and let the higher-ups investigate while they continued with their own affairs.