Chongming Xianzong

Chapter 118 The Prelude to the War
Master Kang hadn't seen such a big scene for a long time.

This time, the provincial court issued an edict to recruit a large number of monks from various counties. According to Kang Dabao's estimation, there were at least 600 people, not including the elite team directly under the commander's command.

I heard that they were the imperial guards that the Earl of Nan'an brought with him from the counties surrounding the imperial capital before he took office. Each of them was in the late stage of Qi training, with clean backgrounds, superior family backgrounds, extraordinary skills, and sharp magic weapons.

There is nothing wrong with these imperial guards, except that they are too clean and lack the bloody smell of frequent killings.

Sima Fei and a fake Sima named Gun stood on the platform and gave some words to boost morale. They were also the only two foundation-building cultivators on the Zhouting side in this battle.

This also shows the provincial court's control over the foundation-building forces in Yunjiao Province, which the provincial court actually still lacks.

Therefore, in the eyes of the provincial government, the foundation-building sects such as Wuxiang Sect, which are relatively weak in strength but have a great reputation, have become the best targets for establishing authority.

Cutting meat with a blunt knife, gradually nibbling away, making friends far away and attacking nearby, using the opponent's strength to defeat the opponent. In recent years, the few visitors from the imperial capital in the provincial court have almost mastered these methods to perfection.

Those Yunjiaozhou sects that were in Cao's camp but had their hearts with Han, as long as their strength had not reached the level that made the provincial court wary, were often dealt with by them under certain pretexts.

"Victory!" After finishing his speech, Fei Sima raised his brass halberd and swung it.

"Victory!" Gunjia Sima shouted at the top of his voice with his direct subordinates.

"Wansheng." The militia teams from the thirteen counties came to support the team reluctantly, sparsely led by their respective leaders.

"Not bad." Seeing this, Sima Fei nodded, very satisfied. The hard work of the past two years has not been in vain. At least the morale of these militiamen has been visibly improved.

"Let's go!" With Fei Sima's order, five huge monsters circling in the air landed on the open space next to the military formation.

"Black Falcon." It was also the first time that Kang Dabao saw this huge spiritual bird, which was recorded in the classics of the Chongming Sect.

According to what the first head master Zhang Zushi wrote, this giant bird with scaly eyes, sharp claws and beak was very useful in quelling barbaric rebellions in the past.

Not only is it a pack animal that can carry hundreds of people and fly quickly, it also has considerable combat power. Even among cultivators in the late stage of Qi training, there are few who can rival it. It is a very precious spiritual bird.

During the Pingrong War, there were three-digit numbers of these flying beasts of burden in Pingrong County alone, but they are now very rare in Yunjiao Province. Only some large sects and clans raise a few, but the number is very small.

Kang Dabao led the team to sit on the back of the black falcon, feeling pretty good. The gray feathers on its back were light and dense, yet soft and tough, and felt like thick banana leaves.

"I don't know if I can get a black falcon to raise in the future when I am in Chongming Sect."

Following the Pingrong County militia was the Tanggu County contingent. They had slightly fewer people, only about thirty.

This is not the reason why the cultivation world in Tanggu County is more decadent than that in Pingrong County, but because there are many local foundation-building forces in Tanggu County, making it easier for the state court to exploit them than in Pingrong County.

It is said that the clan of Yunjiaozhou Governor Huo Bing is also in Tanggu County. However, only thirty people came to Tanggu County in response to the conscription of Sima Fei from the provincial court. This is quite intriguing.

There was an acquaintance in the Tanggu County team, Kuai Wu, the head of the Kuai family who led the way last time.

It seems that the supporters of the Kuai family in Tanggu County are not very reliable. There are only thirty people in the army in Tanggu County, and even the head of the family could not escape.

However, the sacred place Dantong Cliff obtained from Huodao Village was very suitable for him.

In the past two years, Kuai Wu's cultivation has improved a lot. He broke through to the sixth level of Qi training a little faster than Master Kang.

It was not convenient to talk privately in the formation, so Kuai Wu led his fire man to the other side and sat down. He nodded slightly to Kang Dabao as a greeting, and also sat down in his own formation to regulate his breathing.

The last team to come up was the one from Jin County, which consisted of only ten people. The leader was an old man with a red face and a long beard, who looked quite attractive.

Although his cultivation level was just at the fourth level of Qi training, he was already one of the people with the highest cultivation level in the Jin County team.

"No wonder a wolf pack of five first-class purple flame wolves was able to turn Jin County upside down. The monks in Jin County have had a hard time."

From then on, Pingrong County, Tanggu County, Jin County and more than twenty independent cultivators recruited directly from the provincial government formed a force of one hundred people.

The leader of the team, General Zhou Ting, was not selected from the chief officers in charge of the teams from these counties. Fei Sima picked one from the elite of his team.

The man who came was tall and strong. He said his surname was Xu and didn't say anything else. He had the cultivation level of the ninth level of Qi training and had a look that said, "Don't approach me."

Seeing him like this, Kang Dabao simply greeted the military supervisor briefly, had a brief conversation with the leaders of the other two counties, and then sat back in the team to take a nap.

The driver in a yellow brocade robe activated a windproof magic array, and a hemispherical transparent spiritual shield rose up. This magic array could protect some monks with low cultivation from the harm of strong winds.

This is very important to Kang Dabao and his group of motley crowd, and is also a permanent formation on the backs of many large spiritual birds.

Two hours later, as the huge body of the Black Falcon landed steadily, General Xu stood up first, jumped to the ground, and waved to greet them.

The team gathered at the foot of a low hill. It took a lot of effort for the team of several hundred people to form a battle array.

Sima Fei said something to Sima Gun with an unhappy look on his face, then waved towards the formation, and several generals came over.

"The Wuxiang Sect's foundation-building master seems to be called Gu something?" The military supervisor was away, and some people who couldn't control their mouths started shouting in the formation. "Gu Ye, I met him in Xuanwei City a few years ago. He has a good relationship with the Niu family. One of his disciples married into the Niu family a few years ago."

"No wonder, the Niu family was used by that guy to establish his authority. I don't know if his apprentice is pretty or not. Hehe, last time I was in the team sent by the Niu family, I saw a lot of pretty girls."

"You only dare to talk nonsense now. If you dare to look at me again a few years ago, the Niu family would have dragged you out and skinned you alive in the street."

"Shut up, everyone." Kang Dabao saw General Xu coming back from the top and yelled into the formation. He didn't want to be caught by this guy and be punished.

"Listen carefully, we will be the vanguard this time." General Xu said with a happy face after returning from Sima Fei.

There was an uproar in the team of over a hundred people. Their team was only ranked below average in strength and they never expected that they would be chosen as vanguards.

Even Kang Dabao couldn't figure it out. Just when he was about to ask, he saw General Xu's face stern and said, "How dare you! You dare to make a noise in the army, are you all going to rebel?"

"This is a great assignment that I begged for you from Sima at the risk of my own life! Humph, you don't know how to appreciate it!" General Xu stomped his feet hard, causing a deep pit to collapse in the compacted road surface, suppressing the momentum of the clamoring monks.

Kang Dabao could see clearly that this shameless General Xu Bai was planning to exchange other people's lives for his future.

"Why is it that in this world, there are so many corrupt officials who don't take other people's lives seriously?"

Since General Xu volunteered, Sima Fei was probably happy about it. Sending weak soldiers to test the enemy first was the same as using strong soldiers to break through the enemy's formation. Both were proper military tactics, and there was no question of which option was better.

This motley crowd composed of soldiers from three counties and a group of scattered cultivators was defeated by the troops of the Five Phases Sect and had little impact on the overall battle situation.

They are just a bunch of cannon fodder, they can't hurt morale.

After hearing the news from General Xu, sweat started to drip down the forehead of Sect Leader Kang.

"Damn it, being the vanguard? That's too dangerous. A hundred people are fighting in a melee. With my limited skills, I might be killed in the blink of an eye."

General Xu had no time to care about the psychological activities of his subordinates. He had finally managed to get the job of vanguard from several competitors and was full of confidence. He didn't care about this group of mud-footed people.

"You are a bunch of ungrateful fools. With a young master from a military family leading you, it would be a piece of cake to pacify this small sect in the countryside. Why are you so panicked?"

The noise of the mob grew louder and louder, making General Xu even more unhappy. However, he still did not comfort the soldiers, but only cursed a few words in his heart.

Among the wandering cultivators, there was a man with a red nose who was unlucky. He shouted a little too loudly and was pulled out by General Xu, who whipped him severely with a few lashes. His skin was torn and flesh was exposed.

General Xu knew the severity of the situation after all, so he used less force when whipping. Otherwise, with just a few more lashes, the red-nosed cultivator would have been killed on the spot.

Taking advantage of the residual power of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, General Xu took the opportunity to talk about the rewards on the battlefield.

The reward offered by the provincial court this time was indeed quite generous, and Sect Leader Kang could see it clearly, but there were always some people in the team who valued spiritual stones more than their lives, and their eyes were shining with excitement. Even the people around them were affected by them and their brains became hot, and they began to have red eyes and breathe heavily.

Combining kindness and severity is one of the most effective ways to lead troops from ancient times to the present. General Xu is not a complete fool. After some operations, he finally aroused some morale in the team. Then he took advantage of the situation and commanded his troops to move to the front, escaped from the main group, and walked out first.

The troops of the scattered cultivators were in the front, the troops of Pingrong County were in the middle, and the troops of Tanggu County and Jin County were the rear army.

General Xu rode a top-grade yellow-haired horse and walked at the end with the recognition flag on his back in a majestic manner.

Kang Dabao followed suit, putting Wu Fire in the front, and Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding in the back, and he himself walked at the end of the team. This made it convenient for him to give orders and also to respond if his ideas were too tough.

Although there is only one foundation-building cultivator alive in the Wuxiang Sect today, its founder is a highly advanced cultivator who is only one step away from achieving the golden elixir state.

At its peak, the Five Phases Sect had no less than 20 people who had established their foundation and practiced true cultivation, and more than a thousand people who practiced Qigong. The founder of the sect claimed that his Taoism was beyond the Five Phases, so he took this as a foundation and recruited many disciples in this southern barbarian land. To this day, the sect has been passed down for more than a thousand years.

To be honest, all the immortal cultivation forces in the entire Wang County, whether close or distant, can be related to it.

The power of the provincial court in Yunjiao Province is far from being determined by a single edict. This time, not only did Sima Fei summon the local soldiers, but the Wuxiang Sect also bribed them with spirit stones or used old friendships to win them over, and as usual, they also gathered a large number of cultivators to come and help.

General Xu led a group of weak soldiers and confidently left the main formation. At the same time, a group of people from the Wuxiang Sect broke away from the team and went straight to meet them.

Both sides deployed their troops in a grand manner and chose a plain area to fight in formation. The atmosphere was so heated that it was about to explode.

At this moment, a petite red-collared falcon was flying through the clouds. It was feeling the warm current brushing against its wings, and its gaze was somewhat hot as it looked towards the crowd below, as if it was waiting for the feast to begin.

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(End of this chapter)