It doesn't matter what the lord is.

The Wanze Territory did not like these outsiders. Although they were not hostile to each other, some exclusion was inevitable. In particular, a certain Wanze general ordered the Yunhai army to rush to the front line, and the two sides immediately had a fierce quarrel. The matter was brought to the meeting hall, and Bai Feng and Xihua also had a tit-for-tat quarrel.

Li De didn't bother to care about these things. As long as the core personnel of each territory were still there, such things were inevitable. However, Li De did not completely ignore it. He handed over the food of the new army in training to Yun Hai to be responsible for it. In this way, both sides would have some "weaknesses" under the control of the other party, and both would restrain themselves.

There are only three things that Lide really focuses on at the moment:

The first is the training of new troops, the second is the matter of traditional temples, and the third is Western Qin and Southern Chu.

These three things symbolize force, faith, and unknown threats. The new army is currently progressing well. Lid had verified one thing as early as the period of [Breaking the Sky], that is, the training method of letting each family train their own soldiers and then letting the soldiers compete with each other through martial arts performances is feasible. In the case that it is impossible for the generals of each family to reach a complete consensus, this is the best solution to mobilize the enthusiasm of the army.

He left the affairs of the traditional temple to Shi Yuan.

Lide also wrote down his specific plan in the letter to Shi Yuan. First, the new power center will issue an imperial decree to provide disaster relief, tax exemption, and exemption from corvée, so that people's lives can gradually recover. The traditional temple will definitely take advantage of this and declare that all this is God's will. It is because of the believers' piety that God responded to them, and thus swagger to take all the credit for Lide's work.

Then they will definitely continue to guide the people, asking them "Do you still want to continue to live a good life?" If the people answer that they do, the priests of the church will say, "Okay, then everyone pay money and pray. The gods have given you the wealth that has brought you good luck, but you cannot use it directly because your sins have not been paid off. You have to pay back some of the money, so that you can enjoy the blessings given to you by the gods for generations to come."

Otherwise, it will bring misfortune.

Lid asked Shiyuan to lead the Abyss Church to launch a "surprise attack" at this stage. Some people were responsible for spreading the word that Lid was actually an atheist, and he had said several times, "I don't know whether God will take back the blessings of the people, I only know that I can take back everything I have given them at any time." Another group of people spread the word that Lid actually believed in Kungu, so the traditional temple was actually useless, and he should believe in the Abyss Church.

At this time, the traditional temple had only one solution, which was to force Lide to leave. Therefore, in addition to training new troops, Lide also continuously increased the number of Yunyang's own troops and the troops of [Potian] to deal with the complex situations that might arise in the future. Yunyang was Lide's base, because the Abyss Church was introduced very early, which divided the people's beliefs, resulting in most people not being very dependent on the traditional temple.

The last one is a more direct threat: the things inside the black fog of Xiqin and Nanchu.

Although the black fog could not be dispelled for the time being, Lid did not despise it at all. He had heard about the plan of the Abyss Church in the land of the Dragon Clan, and he knew very well that the blood souls there would definitely create a monster. Although Xiao Hei and Merlin were there, from what Shi Yuan said, her mother was the boss behind the Abyss Church, the woman who controlled everything.

The Lord of Xiqin was manipulated by her, and Xiaohei, Xiaobai and Shiyuan, the three top talents, were all her children. Lide would not look down on her. Although he believed that Merlin could adapt to circumstances, Mr. Tingchao was also in Nanchu now, and Lide was still a little worried that Merlin would not be able to take advantage of him.

Reed had another concern.

With Merlin's ability to deceive the heavens, if the situation was unfavorable, he should at least be able to withdraw by himself. As long as Merlin came out, he would definitely tell Lid the details. But now Lid has not received any news, which means that Merlin either encountered some difficulties or... is dead.

Lid was more willing to believe the former, but no matter which one it was, all he could do was to prepare as best he could. Now he could mobilize dozens of times more resources than before, but the price was that he was also thrown into the open. The Abyss Church had plenty of time and energy to study him, but he knew nothing about what was happening in Xi Qin and Nan Chu.

This feeling was not good, so after thinking for a while, Lide privately summoned Jiang Lianqing and asked her to secretly recruit and train the [Potian] army. This army will be armed according to the highest standard that Lide can currently achieve. First of all, all soldiers must have a cultivation level of more than five levels, and secondly, the weapons and equipment on their bodies must at least reach the level of [Qingjia]. Not only that, Lide clearly told Jiang Lianqing that this army may need to fight against unknown creatures in the future, so they need to do terror training, and those with poor psychological quality must be eliminated.

Reed still remembers the scene he saw when he and Xiao Hei robbed the execution ground.

The "civilians" of Xiqin who were watching all turned their heads and looked at him with their empty eyes. Even Lid felt a little scared. In the normal people's cognition, scary things often only appear when you are alone, and the crowd should be a safe place. But at that time, the crowd itself became the biggest terror, which was indeed a scene that could easily drive people crazy.

Reed thought about it and was still a little worried, so he went to see Skadi in person and asked her to help prepare something secretly.

After everything was done, Lid went to see Qianji, the chief of the White Guard. The two met in the huge underground world of the capital, where the great national defense formation of Yongtian Kingdom was stored.

"I must remind you of one thing." Qianji said to Lid:

"What you are about to see is not only the Eternal Heaven, but also a secret that has been guarded by the entire human race for generations. You cannot tell anyone about it, and you cannot tamper with or change it at will. You will be surprised when you see it, but you have to be quiet. Don't... wake it up."

Reed looked at the heavy stone door and nodded silently.

39. The Secret of the National Defense Formation

Qianji worked quickly on the authentication mechanism next to the stone gate for two minutes. According to Lid's observation, it was a mechanism similar to the Luban lock, but far more complicated than the ordinary Luban lock.

It is more like a star network constructed by combining the Luban lock with the movement of stars. Qianji needs to constantly move the stars in it, and finally combine the entire three-dimensional star structure into the corresponding constellation. Although Lid can't solve it, he basically memorized it after reading it once. Then, under the guidance of Qianji, he entered the underground world where the national defense formation was placed.

Carefully passing through the corridor full of dangers, the view suddenly became wider, and the space, which was about the size of two football fields and as high as a ten-story building, revealed its true appearance. When Reed entered it, it was like entering a grand garden. Everything around him was very new and even incredible to him.

Strictly speaking, this is the core of the national defense formation, which is equivalent to both the cockpit and the engine. Countless complex small formations form the boundary of the core. In the core, energy exists in a golden semi-solid state, flowing like a river. The golden river sometimes converges into a surging river, and sometimes it is as thin as a hair and entangled on the stalagmite. The scene in the entire core is like the Milky Way in the sky splitting into dozens of tributaries, and also like the spider webs in the Pansi Cave, full of a magical beauty.

And in the center of the formation, there was a person sitting.

To be precise, Reed didn't know whether that could be called a human being.

It was impossible to tell his gender from his body. His long golden hair covered the ground around him. His fair skin was almost transparent, and his blood vessels could be clearly seen. His face seemed to be beyond description of beauty or ugliness, but rather had a special kind of divinity; just like most people would not consider whether the Guanyin Bodhisattva met the public aesthetic standards when seeing the Guanyin statue. This appearance seemed to have been separated from the worldly standards.

So when Reed saw him, he had no other thoughts, only a simple sentence in his mind: "I seem to have seen him somewhere."

But when Lid looked closely, the outline of the man's face seemed unfamiliar again. Lid stared at him for a while before asking Qianji: "Who is he?"

Qianji replied:

"One of the builders of the National Defense Array, I don't know his name, but he is generally referred to as the 'Sage'. People have been studying him since the previous dynasty, and the conclusion they came to is that he is actually the core of the National Defense Array. When he was building the National Defense Array, he used himself as the core, which enabled him to achieve many wonderful structures that are difficult to accomplish in reality."

Lid looked at the man who was called the sage and asked:

"Using yourself as the center of the formation? There is such a thing, why?"

Qianji's voice was flat. The boy with all white hair looked very mature:

"Ordinary mechanisms are inanimate objects. Inanimate objects can always be cracked. But over the long years, the alien races have never cracked the national defense formation, and have no choice but to allow humans to enjoy long-term peace here. The reason is here. The core of the national defense formation is not inanimate, so the national defense formation can continue to evolve and repair."

Qianji looked at the sage and said to Lid:

"As for why he chose to do this, who knows? Maybe he wants to protect humanity, maybe he got obsessed with studying the formation, or maybe he wants to use the power of the national defense formation to achieve immortality. In short, you can go anywhere else, but try not to have too much contact with that person... After all, we don't understand his principles at all, and we can't fix it if it breaks."

After Qianji finished speaking, he stood guard at the door while Lid walked into the center of the formation.

Golden energy flowed around Reed, and when he listened closely, he could hear a very noisy sound.

Lid was sure that the voice was made by a human, but after listening carefully for a while, he did not understand a single word. The voice was like a TV signal, buzzing, with too much information compressed together, just like compressing a sculpture from three dimensions to a two-dimensional plane, and the original content was almost indistinguishable.

After listening for a while, Lid felt a little dizzy and his mind began to feel groggy. He simply tore the hem of his clothes into a ball and plugged it directly into his ears to make the world quieter. Then he avoided the person sitting in the middle and turned to study the magic circle around him.

Once he began his research, Reed immediately realized a problem.

Even in the underwater temple and in the territory of the Pillar of Eternity, Clenus, Bend had never seen such a complex and exquisite array.

This is completely beyond human comprehension.

In other words, if the magic array created by Clenus was like a complicated program, which Reed could still barely figure out, there were many things involved in the National Defense Array that Reed couldn't even understand the principles of.

Even some of the operating rules of the array were completely contrary to what Lid had learned before, and the entire array did not show any modularity at all, and the various parts had no relationship with each other. Lid looked around and found that he had almost no idea where to start, but he did not give up, nor did he immediately ask Qianji, but remained silent and pondered on his own.

There was one thing that Lide could understand, that is, the sage sitting in the middle was indeed the core of the formation. Because a large amount of energy flowed to him and then flowed out of him. After understanding this, Lide simply ignored Qianji's warning and stood about five meters away from the sage, observing this person.

The sage seemed to be asleep.

Lid exhaled and took another step forward, thinking of going up to touch it. As a result, the moment Lid raised his foot, his eyes went dark, and his whole body was cut by a blade, with countless small wounds, and blood instantly spilled all over the ground. Lid hurriedly stepped back and looked back at Qianji. Qianji seemed to be in deep thought just now. After noticing the energy change, he looked over here, and his pupils shrank suddenly:

"Get out of there! Didn't I tell you not to touch it?"

Lid smiled and said:

"I wanted to see what would happen. It's okay. The sage didn't seem to have any intention of killing me." Reed shook the blood off his hands and looked at the sage again.

The figure of unknown man or woman was still sitting there, covered with a layer of light golden mist. Lid was now at the tenth level, and had many special abilities, but he was injured before he could react. This shows how powerful the defense mechanism here is. Lid waved his hand and said to Qianji who came over:

"Since this person won't let me get close, then I won't get close either. It's okay, I'll walk around outside for a few more rounds to see if I can figure out anything. You wait for me outside, and if I don't come out tonight, you can ask me to go back for dinner."

Qianji said expressionlessly:

"Don't touch it again. This place is different from other places. No one can protect you if something happens."

Lid nodded. He no longer approached the location of the sage, but stood at the edge, carefully observing from the most inconspicuous place. This formation was worthy of being able to protect humans for such a long time, and Lid also needed to spend effort to explore it. However, it was still better now than when he was in the underwater temple. At that time, time was not on his side, but now Lid had enough time to think slowly.

Thinking about how to decipher the most powerful formation that Li De had ever seen in his life.

40. The formation that encompasses the world

When Qianji came to see Lid in the evening, Lid was looking at a magic circle in the corner of the border with his red eyes.

He looked like he hadn't blinked for a long time. The bloodshot on the whites of his eyes was tangled into a ball, and his dry eyeballs were bulging, which looked quite scary. It was not until Qianji called his name several times that Lid slowly turned his head. As soon as he closed his eyes, he shuddered in pain, tears filled his eyes, and he felt better.

Qianji asked without any expression:

"Do you understand?"

Lid rubbed his eyes and said:

"It's too difficult. Is this something that people can understand?" Qianji smiled bitterly and said:

"I have warned you. Many people have spent their entire lives on this magic circle and gained nothing. Why do you think that you can understand something by just looking at it for a day?"

Lid blinked twice and said:

"Because I think I'm quite talented in this area, but I didn't expect that this thing can't be solved by talent. I can only say that I didn't cooperate well with the creator of the magic circle, and the solution he used is not my area of ​​expertise... How about this, how about you tell me roughly?"

Qianji said:

"It's hard to explain it in a few words, so I can pick out some key points to tell you. The national defense formation is extremely mysterious, and we can only understand it, but we can't rewrite it." Lid nodded and said:

"That's right. It's okay, go ahead and tell me."

Qianji walked to several key locations and gave Lide a brief introduction to the structure of the national defense formation. Lide sometimes looked thoughtful, and sometimes seemed to be suddenly enlightened. After Qianji talked for a while, Lide suddenly said:

"Speaking of which, I have another question." Qianji turned around and asked:

"What?"

Lid pointed to the sage sitting on the ground, surrounded by energy flow, and said to Qianji:

"I remember that when the dragons invaded, the capital moved to the south. How did you take this thing away? I was almost skinned alive just by approaching it. If you want to move it, you can't risk human lives."

Qianji replied:

"The builder of the National Defense Array thought about the possibility of foreign invasion in advance, so he provided a plan to move the center of the National Defense Array. In special circumstances, we can shut down the defense mechanism of that person and move him and other important structures of the National Defense Array to a new place. However, the builder chose this place because it is the best location for the formation to radiate Yongtian Kingdom. Once it is moved elsewhere, the effect will be discounted."

Lid looked at the energy flow in the air and said with emotion:

"It's really a work of art."

Qianji sighed with him, and soon Lide got tired of it and asked Qianji to take him out of the underground world. When leaving, Qianji led the way with a candle, and Lide walked behind him.

Looking at Qianji's thin back, Lid's expression suddenly turned cold. Qianji turned around and looked at Lid, asking:

"Are you going to come and see the National Defense Formation in the next few days? If necessary, I can tell you how to interpret the astrological signs at the door."

When he turned around, Lid had put on his usual smile again. Hearing Qianji's question, Lid smiled and replied:

"No, that's not necessary. I just want to try to see if I can unlock the secrets of the national defense formation, or learn some destructive magic that can be applied to the army. At present, since the hope is slim, it is not worth my time and energy to continue investing here."

Qianji sighed:

"The National Defense Formation can even suppress the power of the three clans above. Its structure is far beyond our reach. As for deconstructing some of its contents and turning them into magic that can be used in the army, although it is possible, it is extremely difficult to implement. Tonight, I will ask the White Guards to send you a copy of my research results on the National Defense Formation. If you are interested, you can study it carefully."

Lid nodded and said:

"Thank you very much. Will you come here every day to study the national defense formation?" Qianji thought for a moment and replied:

"I don't come here every day. The White Guard has some things that need my attention. Aren't you planning to keep the White Guard and continue to select talents? Then the White Guard will continue to operate, and I can't stay here every day to do research."

Lid walked with him through the dark corridor and said with a smile:

"I still believe that with people like you who dedicate their lives to studying the Great National Defense Array, sooner or later we will be able to decipher the secrets of the Great National Defense Array. By mastering the technology involved, humans may not have to be confined to a small space, but can go higher and farther. We can step on the sky and walk on the seabed as if it were flat ground. One day we can do it."

Qianji smiled, which was rare for him, and said, "I believe it too."

After Li De and Qian Ji parted ways, he returned to the meeting hall and happened to see Fang Shisan who was talking to Yu Qingzhao about border defense. When he saw Li De, Yu Qingzhao still had no reaction, but just nodded calmly, which could be regarded as a greeting.

Lid also smiled at her, then walked quietly behind Fang Shisan and suddenly put his hand on her shoulder. Fang Shisan was startled, but quickly turned around and asked with his eyes closed:

"Lidd?"

Lid smiled and asked, "How do you know it's me?"

Fang Shisan put his hands on his legs and said with a faint smile:

"When most people approach the Lingwu Lord, they either kneel down or greet him loudly. Only you can come over quietly like this, right? I don't know if this "right" is addressed to Li De or Yu Qingzhao.

Yu Qingzhao glanced at Fang Shisan, but he didn't get angry. He just said coldly, "Let's go."

After saying that, she strode away as if she didn't want to stay with Lid. Lid helped Fang Shisan push the wheelchair and asked as he walked:

"What were you talking about just now?"

Fang Shisan replied:

"After the world was unified, I discussed with the Lord of Lingwu and wanted to make a very large formation. In the past, the city defense formation was basically limited to fifteen cities, and the protection of the territory could only protect one territory. Because the world has been divided for too long, there is a gap in the hearts of the people, so the territories are often separated.

I want to set up a new formation, one that can encompass the whole world."

Lid asked:

"Just like the national defense formation?" Fang Shisan said with a smile:

"It's far from being that powerful. The formations I can set up are essentially an extended version of the city defense formation. They are based on the people's sense of identity with the territory and give different levels of protection to the army. But the national defense formation is very powerful. It suppresses all living beings other than humans indiscriminately and helps humans resist foreign invasions. My ability is far from that level, and I'm afraid no one can set up another national defense formation."

Lid puffed out his chest in an exaggerated manner and said:

"That's not necessarily true. A smart person like me can understand some of the principles behind the National Defense Formation after just a glance."

Fang Shisan didn't know if Li De was joking, but she believed him very much, so she looked up in surprise and asked with her eyes closed, "Really? That's amazing..."

Lid nodded with a smile and changed the subject: