Starting with the titmouse, seventy-two transformations

Chapter 330: Closing the Deal, Settling Accounts, Song Yingtian's Secret Order
Early morning hours.

The shouts of battle that had been echoing through Wohu Village all night finally ceased.

Last night at the hour of Chou (1-3 AM), Wohu Village launched a sudden attack, sending out its elite troops to launch a surprise attack under the cover of darkness. They caught the Chilin Guards, who were arrayed in the village and preparing to set fire to the mountain, completely off guard.

The absence of the Spider Incarnation, Qian Zhong, Zhao Tingjian, and the Cai brothers made it difficult for the various departments to coordinate, leading to each department acting independently and ultimately resulting in a disastrous defeat.

The eight thousand Crimson Scale Guards were slaughtered, losing their armor and fleeing in disarray, leaving behind thousands of corpses and a large amount of food, armor, clothing, tents, carts, horses, and other supplies.

Upon returning to the camp, the spider-like avatar first ordered his guards to detain Qian Zhong's followers and imprison them to await their fate.

He then wrote a battle report and a private letter to Cai overnight, briefly describing the situation of the battle.

The reason for this was that the supervising officer, Qian Zhong, was domineering, arrogant, and overstepped his bounds. He used the emperor's decree to force the troops to march, underestimated the enemy, and advanced recklessly, falling into the ambush of the Lian bandits.

Since the dead can't speak, he should take the blame.

Finally, it's time to place people in positions of authority.

Those who received the death warrant last night, besides the three commanders Zhao Tingjian and the Cai brothers, also included a group of centurions and generals, who were the backbone of the grassroots.

It is inconspicuous, but extremely important.

After these people died, many positions became vacant, which were then used by the spider-like incarnations to house "their own people".

Many of them were parachuted down from his personal guard battalion.

With this series of moves, his control over the Crimson Scale Guards improved significantly.

The final count showed that the battle resulted in the loss of 5,000 elite soldiers and countless supplies, a truly devastating defeat.

However, this is a great thing for the spider-like avatar.

After this battle, the loyalists of the Cai clan in the Crimson Scale Guard suffered heavy casualties.

After a few more rounds, we should be able to clean them up and completely seize this private army from the Cai family of Hedong.

After finishing his miscellaneous tasks, he convened his generals in the command tent and briefed them on the battle situation.

The Red Scale Guard was originally the private army of the Cai family of Hedong. In addition, Qian Zhong had caused all sorts of trouble in the past few days, making him hated by gods and ghosts. His death news caused a burst of laughter.

Seeing the gloating generals, the spider-like incarnation's lips curled up slightly, and he promoted several more people to fill the vacancies left by Zhao Tingjian and others.

For a moment, shouts of "General is wise!" rose from the tent, creating a harmonious atmosphere.

Seeing this, the spider-like avatar took the opportunity to reveal the next steps: to hold back for the time being and regroup.

A commander-in-chief spoke up:
"My lord, the imperial court previously ordered us to wipe out Crouching Tiger Stronghold and then go to Black Wind Mountain to provide support..."

"When a general is in the field, he may disobey the emperor's orders. Moreover, because of the supervising officer Qian Zhong, my Red Scale Guard has suffered heavy losses. If we cannot rest and recuperate, how can the defeated troops serve the country?"

The spider-like avatar glanced around, chuckled softly, and pressed down on the table:

"Moreover, the Crouching Tiger Stronghold has already gained momentum, threatening various prefectures such as Shanyang and Funing, especially the safety of the grain route into Black Wind Mountain. Our Crimson Scale Guard should guard this place and guard against the Lotus Bandits' disturbances. How can we leave?"

These words sound grand and dignified, but in reality, they all boil down to four words: "nurturing enemies to maintain one's own prestige."

He had already mentioned this matter in a secret letter to Cai, and with Cai's support, he was pushing it through the court.
-
at the same time.

The finishing touches on Wohu Village have also been completed.

Most people were confused, only knowing that they had won a great victory, defeated the imperial army attacking the mountains, and seized countless supplies.

However, Lao He, Zhao Lei, and the Zhang brothers vaguely sensed something and felt that this battle had gone too smoothly without any setbacks.

He received the order in the middle of the night, led his troops in a charge, and then the imperial army was utterly defeated and fled without any effective resistance.

They were less the elite of the imperial court and more a motley crew.

But the corpses scattered all over the mountains and fields, the fine armor and various supplies, could not be faked.

In the end, the blame could only be placed on Liu Sheng's flawless strategy and uncanny foresight, which only deepened our respect for him. For Wohu Village, a decisive victory was enough to quell all the unrest within the village and completely stabilize the people's hearts.

Liu Sheng did not participate in the subsequent inventory of the spoils, the rewarding of merits and punishment of demerits, the reconstruction of the front village, and other complicated matters; he left them all to Lao He and the others to handle.

For him, improving his skills is the most important thing compared to these daily chores.

In a world where power belongs to the individual, managing one's influence is more about saving time for cultivation.

Spending too much energy on it is putting the cart before the horse and will not be worth the effort.

In particular, in this increasingly chaotic world, having power in one's hands allows for better acquisition of resources and ensures the stability of the lives of relatives and friends.

“…Cai Baimao still has some good stuff. The Cai family’s ‘True Scripture of Withering and Flourishing’ is also quite good. The Withering and Flourishing True Qi that can be cultivated is one of suffering and one of flourishing, similar to the ‘Yin Yang Millstone Scripture’, but even more domineering.”

Liu Sheng put down the manual in his hand, and with a thought, the circulation route of his internal energy immediately changed.

An aura of withering and decay emanated from him, like the desolation of late autumn and the approach of winter, when all things wither away.

Immediately afterwards, his aura changed again, rising high and full of vitality, as if spring had returned to the earth and everything was renewed.

It was none other than the unique withering and flourishing true energy of the "True Scripture of Withering and Flourishing".

"The Eight-Nine Arcane Arts not only tempers the body, but also imitates all martial arts under heaven, even with greater power, similar to the ultimate version of the Lesser Formless Divine Art..."

He chuckled softly, his gaze shifting, and the aura of decay and prosperity emanating from his body vanished instantly.

In the open space in front of him, there was a mountain of various objects piled up, leaving almost no room to step.

These were all found in the storage bag that the spider-like avatar had thrown away last night, and originally belonged to Cai Baimao.

Previously, due to time constraints at the Crimson Scale Guard camp, Cai Baimao's storage bag was not brought out, but this time it has been made up for.

In addition, the storage bags of Qian Zhong, Fang Xin, Zhao Tingjian, the Cai brothers, and others were also handed over to him.

After a thorough inventory, he found a great many items, including some of the finest, but almost none of them caught his eye.

After all, these people are only at the Dao Entry Realm.

The magical artifacts, talismans, cultivation methods, elixirs, and rare treasures they carried were mostly suitable for entering the Dao realm.

All the spirit stones added up were only twenty.

However, in terms of spiritual energy, the gains were enormous, with nearly 80,000 points collected.

His total spiritual energy value has now exceeded 150,000, but it is still far from enough. After all, the renewal fee for just a few avatars costs 6,000 spiritual energy points every day.

He has instructed Old He and his spider-like avatar to mobilize their respective forces to collect ancient artifacts and use them to benefit themselves.

Now that the spiritual tide has revived and ruins are appearing everywhere, there will inevitably be many ancient artifacts coming out, making them much easier to collect than before.

He doesn't need to worry about any of these things.

On the contrary...

Liu Sheng picked up a bronze mirror from the pile of artifacts belonging to Qian Zhong, infused it with his true energy, and the mirror surface immediately shone brightly.

Looking at the flying tiger transformation at the door, a blood-flame flying tiger immediately appeared in the mirror.

This demon-detecting mirror really can detect demons.

He turned the mirror to face himself, and the image in the mirror was still his true self, without any strange or inappropriate things appearing.

We need to come up with a way to deal with this, otherwise it will be difficult to use the substitution strategy against his incarnations in the future.

In addition, a piece of information he received from Qian Zhong also made him more vigilant.

He picked up a scroll and frowned.

(End of this chapter)