Douluo's Soul Power increases by two levels every year

Chapter 544 Dai Mubai's Predicament

The Kingdom of Mengdao.

This was originally an insignificant little kingdom on the edge of the Douluo Continent. The strongest person in the kingdom was only barely able to break through to the Soul Douluo level. It was poor in resources, weak in national power, had congested transportation, and backward in trade. On the continent, it was the kind of little nobody who wouldn't make a sound for eight hundred years.

Perhaps the only thing worth praising about this kingdom is its oppressive government and exorbitant taxes!

The king of the Mengdao Kingdom was also a sensible man. He was too weak, and it had nothing to do with conquering the continent. Cultivation was too tiring, so he might as well be a comfortable and incompetent ruler.

Parasites have their own way of living. As king, even if the Kingdom of Mengdao was weak, it was still a kingdom. It was absolutely no problem to provide him with good food and drink for his entire life. But greed has no limits. The more incompetent he was, the more he wanted. Beautiful women, fine wine, rare treasures—he would plunder things from within the country and buy things from abroad. This was the lifestyle of King Mengdao.

Unfortunately, the nobles under this king thought the same thing!

What's even more outrageous is that the ancestors of these royal families and nobles thought the same way!

Over time, this once mighty kingdom became a place where the people suffered and resentment arose because of a small group of greedy parasites!

Even now, the Kingdom of Mengdao is one of the kingdoms with the lowest standard of living for its common people on the continent!

The only one that can rival the Kingdom of Mengdao in this regard is probably the neighboring Kingdom of Zijing.

That would have been fine in the first place, since most capable Soul Masters actually have a similar mentality to Qian Daoliu, regarding ordinary people as ants and refusing to help those in distress. Apart from that, the remaining Soul Masters either mind their own business and don't care about anything that doesn't concern them, or they don't have enough power to shake a kingdom, which is why the Mengdao Kingdom has been lingering on for so long.

But an event ten months ago transformed this utterly useless kingdom into the center of a continental storm!

At least in the eyes of the vast majority of people on the mainland, the eye of the storm is now in the Kingdom of Mengdao!

Nine months ago, the eye of the storm was someone else entirely—the Bauhinia Kingdom, which was also in the same predicament. Now, the Mengdao Kingdom has snatched it from the Bauhinia Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Mengdao doesn't want it at all!

But it's too late to go now. The Kingdom of Zijing is gone, and next up is the Kingdom of Mengdao!

And all of this started because of that Star Luo Crown Prince!

One year and seven months ago, the Crown Prince of Xingluo suddenly declared war on the Zijing Kingdom, and with an absolutely overwhelming force, he completely crushed the Zijing Kingdom in less than seven months. This is understandable, as the Xingluo Empire is famous throughout the continent for its war prowess, and its army is even stronger than that of the Tiandou Empire, which is also an empire. How much more so for a small kingdom that has been weak for a long time and whose military pay has been embezzled!

In fact, it's quite amazing that the Bauhinia Kingdom was able to hold out for seven months!

This is because Crown Prince Xingluo tried his best to minimize the impact on the common people of Zijing, which is why it dragged on for so long. If he really went all out, he could probably sweep across the Zijing Kingdom from south to north in less than a month!

After that, the Star Luo Empire spent another three months incorporating the Zijing Kingdom into its territory. Numerous decrees were issued, and the territory was secured with swift and decisive action. Even the Tian Dou Empire, which had been condemning and protesting, was powerless to do anything but watch helplessly as the Star Luo Empire ran rampant.

Until that time, everyone in the Kingdom of Mengdao, from the king to the common people, felt that this matter was none of their business and simply went about their own lives.

This is only natural. The Zijing Kingdom is right next to the Xingluo Empire, with only one mountain range in between. It is likely that the Xingluo Empire has been coveting the land of the Zijing Kingdom for a long time. So, their sudden attack on the Zijing Kingdom is unexpected, but also reasonable.

But the Kingdom of Mengdao was different.

As a result, the Mengdao Kingdom is far on the edge of the continent, and there are two small kingdoms and a sizable Soul Hunting Forest between it and the Xingluo Empire. If the Xingluo Empire really wanted to expand its territory, why would it abandon the nearby one and seek the distant one?

Secondly, even the people of the Mengdao Kingdom themselves know that their kingdom has nothing!

It's better to cultivate a few geniuses within our own country than to go through the trouble of conquering the Kingdom of Mengdao!

It's not worth the risk; no normal person would do that.

However, the Kingdom of Mengdao clearly underestimated the Star Luo Empire's thirst for war!

At Dai Mubai's command, not only the borderlands of the continent, but even the Heaven Dou Empire, the Star Luo Iron Cavalry would charge forward without hesitation!

As for why they wanted to fight—there was no reason. The Star Luo people wanted to fight, wanted military merits, and wanted to be promoted. Dai Mubai couldn't stop them. Moreover, Dai Mubai felt that the Mengdao Kingdom and the Zijing Kingdom were birds of a feather, so the matter was settled naturally!

And so, a month after the fall of the Bauhinia Kingdom, the Star Luo Empire's army arrived, much to the surprise of everyone in the Dream Kingdom!

With the precedent set by the Kingdom of Bauhinia, one can only imagine what will happen to the Kingdom of Mengdao!

In truth, even Dai Mubai, as the commander-in-chief, was rather speechless—he didn't quite know how to evaluate the Mengdao Kingdom.

To say this kingdom is clever is nonsense. Dai Mubai spent a month establishing relations between the Star Luo Empire and the Mengdao Kingdom before his army could pass through. The Mengdao Kingdom was completely unaware of such a large-scale operation until Dai Mubai led his army to attack, at which point they realized they were in deep trouble. It's quite absurd.

However, it wouldn't be entirely accurate to say that the Kingdom of Montau was foolish.

At least they knew how to assess the situation. When they saw the Star Luo Iron Cavalry, the garrison ran faster than the civilians. In order to survive, they didn't care about anything. They abandoned all their equipment and weapons. Some rode horses, while others ran wildly. They scattered and fled in disarray, to the point that Dai Mubai didn't even know where to start chasing them!

The Mengdao Kingdom's garrison was the first to escape unscathed from the Star Luo Iron Cavalry!

This is quite a bizarre story that makes people both laugh and cry!

Getting back to the main point, the Star Luo Iron Cavalry is now infamous and their fighting spirit is soaring. Their commander, Dai Mubai, is also riding high, and his reputation as the successor of the God of War has spread throughout the entire continent. Meanwhile, the high-ranking officials of the Mengdao Kingdom are nothing but a bunch of good-for-nothings who are good at internal strife but incompetent at external conflicts. The outcome of the clash between the two sides is self-evident!

Dai Mubai didn't even encounter much resistance before easily conquering large swathes of land in the Mengdao Kingdom!

The reason it took nine months, besides the fact that traffic was indeed congested and roads were difficult to travel in the Mengdao Kingdom, was still the same reason—Dai Mubai had to make sacrifices in order to reduce the impact of the war on civilians, and it was impossible for everything pointed at by his sword to be ruins.

This also allowed Dai Mubai to win the favor of the common people of the Mengdao Kingdom. As a result, when the Star Luo Iron Cavalry passed by, there was not only no resistance, but the common people lined the streets to welcome them. This can be considered a very interesting story in the history of continental warfare!

In truth, the Star Luo Iron Cavalry themselves were even more confused...

The Star Luo Iron Cavalry is known for its fierce reputation; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they could stop a baby from crying. Yet, their popularity is unprecedented, like a young woman riding in a bridal sedan chair!

The situation seemed to be going very well, but Dai Mubai, the commander-in-chief of Xingluo, was not happy at all.

Those who are in the same boat know their own situation. For example, Dai Mubai is just the Crown Prince of Xingluo and the commander-in-chief of Xingluo. The current situation is naturally a great thing for him. But he is not only the Crown Prince of Xingluo, but also the successor of the Heavenly Fiend God and Han Feng's good brother. He had already promised Han Feng that he would help Han Feng implement his plan. But why is he starting wars again and again?

Heaven have mercy, Dai Mubai only wanted to complete the Divine Test at first!

But Dai Mubai never imagined that things would unfold like this.

Just as the master predicted, once a war breaks out in a military superpower like the Star Luo Empire, stopping it won't be so easy!

Dai Mubai led the Star Luo Iron Cavalry to conquer the Mengdao Kingdom, and the Star Luo army began to yearn for the next war, which led to the war against the Mengdao Kingdom. Now the war against the Mengdao Kingdom is nearing its end, and Dai Mubai's subordinates have begun to plan the next war!

There's no way around it; the Star Luo Empire determines titles based on military merit. If others get to eat meat, naturally others will be envious. Even if they can't eat meat, they'll at least get some soup!

Moreover, during the war, Dai Mubai imposed many restrictions on his subordinates, forbidding them from doing this or that. It's impossible for his subordinates not to have some complaints, so he could only silence them with military achievements to satisfy them.

The Star Luo Emperor also played a role in this, and at this point, it was no longer something Dai Mubai could stop at will!

It can be said that, apart from Dai Mubai, no one else in the entire Star Luo Empire wanted to stop the iron cavalry from conquering other countries!

Even though Dai Mubai enjoys unparalleled prestige in the Star Luo Empire, he cannot completely reverse the entire empire's fighting spirit with the will of one person!

At this point, it would be useless for Dai Mubai to withdraw.

Even if Dai Mubai leaves the Star Luo army that is conquering foreign lands, it's just a matter of changing the commander-in-chief. Dai Mubai heard the words "the emperor personally leads the expedition" from the Star Luo emperor himself!

However, if Dai Mubai is not the commander-in-chief, the other commanders of the Star Luo Empire will not care about the lives of civilians!

Just like the Star Luo Emperor, he had been dissatisfied with Dai Mubai's dawdling attitude for a long time. If it were the Star Luo Emperor, he would have conquered five or six kingdoms in just over a year!

For a moment, Dai Mubai found himself in a dilemma.

(End of this chapter)