Chapter 181: The Imperial Court’s Army Worth Triple Its Number
Chapter 181: The Imperial Court’s Army Worth Triple Its Number
Tang Jing sat upon the imperial carriage. An army of one hundred thousand soldiers slowly advanced, her eyes filled with seriousness.
“Who could have thought that a mere scholar without any martial arts could possess such abilities.”
She originally assumed this would be simple, but things turned out differently.
“‘Secret Gu Martial Arts’—Calamity Poison Body. Since when did such martial arts appear in the Jianghu? Regardless, Chen Xiyi might be talented, but he’s only a scholar who’s never practiced martial arts. He doesn’t even hold an official title.”
She held deep disdain for Chen Xiyi. She knew he had no martial skills. Even if he had started practicing now, his strength couldn’t amount to much. At most, he’d be a first or second layer Body Forging Warrior. The Imperial Court, despite its wealth, couldn’t support that many Martial Artists. Most Body Forging Warriors practiced on their own through trial and error anyway.
This wasn’t thirty thousand years later, where every other person on the street might be an Innate Warrior.
“Your Majesty, thick fog approaches from ahead, seemingly appearing without reason,” reported a eunuch entering her space.
“Fog? How thick is it?” Tang Jing frowned. Fog at this crucial juncture felt ill-timed.
“We lose sight of shadows beyond ten feet. If we insist on pushing forward, disaster may follow.”
Scouts had already investigated this. Knowing the details clearly, the eunuch relayed the information truthfully.
“So dense? Very well. Order the army to make camp here. We’ll proceed after the fog lifts,” Tang Jing ordered. She wouldn’t foolishly force such a massive army onward.
Commanding a thousand soldiers might be manageable, but controlling one hundred thousand proved challenging.
Or if the fog were thinner, it wouldn’t pose such a hindrance.
“As you command, Your Majesty,” said the eunuch, promptly departing to issue orders.
An unexpected unease settled over Tang Jing’s heart. They approached Miaojiang. Though it involved mere weather, something felt fundamentally wrong.
The fog arrived with astonishing speed. Long before camp was properly set, the thick mist already began enveloping the troops.
In less than fifteen minutes, the fog consumed the entire one-hundred-thousand-strong army.
Staring at the heavy fog, Tang Jing found herself helpless.
Youguang could have easily cleared the fog away. She possessed no such power, her strength far beneath his.
These Temporal Immortals gained power only from minuscule trickles of Wandering Light’s own strength—tiny portions allowing their abilities to grow. He would never grant them significant shares.
“Who goes there? Show yourself!”
Tang Jing’s sudden roar tore through the quiet. Her sword flew from its sheath at her waist. Sword Qi erupted, wrapped with Sword Intent, instantly shredding her tent wall apart.
Abruptly, a monstrous figure emerged—its body clad in countless insect limbs. From its mouth spewed toxic, emerald-green poison. When the Sword Qi and Sword Intent met this poison field, both vaporized instantly.
Reacting immediately, Tang Jing charged forward, sword leading. She thrust the blade directly at the creature’s throat.
This Tang Jing wasn’t the current Tiger Might Emperor. She was a Temporal Immortal from thirty thousand years into the future. Her Tiger Fist had faded into forgotten history. Only Sword skill remained—a Skill Approaching the Dao, which itself was a derivation of Wandering Light’s teachings.
Yet despite that, it held formidable terror. Combining her skill with her power, she drove her sword effortlessly through the monster’s throat. But her expression changed instantly the next moment.
Entirely unfazed by the injury, the creature slid down her blade instead. Nightmarish insect limbs lashed violently towards Tang Jing’s vital parts.
Naturally, Tang Jing counter-attacked fiercely.
An intense, desperate struggle ensued.
Even as a Longevity Martial Artist of immense power, Tang Jing faced something unnaturally resilient—like an unkillable mad dog lunging savagely without pause.
“A Gu Martial Artist?”
Seeing the insectile horror, Tang Jing instantly connected it to the intelligence Feng Qing once presented on Gu Martial Arts.
She simply hadn’t expected things to manifest like this.
“Who exactly is Chen Xiyi? Why have I never heard of him? Is he one of those time-travelers sent backward into history? Did this future change their past?”
Chaos stormed in Tang Jing’s mind. How could an insect-limbed abomination fight on par with her, a Temporal Immortal who walked the Sequence? It defied reason.
Even after she sliced its limbs away, they regenerated almost instantly.
“This isn’t human. It’s insects!”
Her sword slashed across the monster’s face, peeling away not flesh and bone, but a bizarre Gu Insect filling the entire skull cavity.
The creature’s eyes weren’t eyes; they were mere markings upon the Gu Insect occupying the head.
Her horizontal sword slash tore through robes and fake skin. This Human Skin couldn’t withstand the assault, crumbling away to reveal the grotesque reality beneath: countless, fused-together Gu Insects maintaining a humanoid form by sheer adhesion, their crawling and writhing bodies profoundly shocking Tang Jing.
“Hsssss~”
“Haaaah~”
Exposed to light by their destroyed Human Skin covering, these Gu Insects erupted into shrill, grating screeches, seemingly driven insane by exposure.
Clang!
Her sword clanged harshly against the Gu Insects’ forms. Metal striking metal—it was a sensation Tang Jing hadn’t experienced in years. She might as well have hacked at solid metal blocks. Yet her power alone now could slice solid steel clean through! Insects’ shells should shatter instantly! This proved terrifying resilience.
Still, piercing its throat earlier and severing limbs indicated not all parts were equally armored.
The battle raged furiously. Tang Jing remained successfully held down.
Outside, within the swirling mist, Chen Xiyi watched the scene, mildly aggravated.
“All the clouds and mist I gathered across countless locations… and this is the extent of the outer formation? A bit troublesome, honestly.”
The Mist generated directly from Chen Xiyi’s Innate Gang Qi stretched barely three feet around him. But manipulation of the environment lent it greater reach. Initially, he’d aimed for roughly three feet of visibility. Reality exceeded expectations: visibility extended nearly ten feet. Luckily, the conjured clouds managed to completely veil the one-hundred-thousand-strong army.
Shadowy figures drifted unseen through the disorganized camp. Hands reached from within the Mist, yanking soldiers away. Moments later, only perfectly preserved armor and weapons remained where victims once stood. At first, few disappeared—those straying alone or slipping from comrades’ sight. As numbers rose, unease inevitably spread. By the time realization dawned… it was already too late.
A shadowy figure would simply pounce, an alive person vanishing before witnesses’ very eyes. Armor and weapons clattered uselessly to the ground. Fear spread like wildfire.
“Monsters in the fog! They’re eating people! RUN!”
“Get away! Those shadows! Get away from the shadows! They drag people away! Hurry!”
Shouts became a terrified chorus. Limited sight in the fog amplified terror rapidly. Whispers of a full-blown camp panic rippled through the masses. Local chaos bloomed into pandemonium. Shadows within the Mist grew bolder, abandoning stealth for open snatching.
“The Innate Gang Qi truly requires improvement. Without the borrowed clouds linking everything together, success wouldn’t have been guaranteed,” Chen Xiyi murmured. “Qi Refiners are strong, but I’m not yet beyond reliance on the environment.”
Since foundational power couldn’t immediately increase, Chen Xiyi adapted. If Primal Spirit growth felt sluggish, he refined skills. Adapt techniques to achieve maximum results with minimal power expenditure. Otherwise, why keep any skill? For mere aesthetics?
Skills existed for convenience, not as vessels for abstract concepts.
“Digesting these Nourishment Resources will significantly boost my Primordial Spirit.”
Even if Innate Gang Qi’s visible Mist range expanded only a few inches—say, from three to nearly four feet—the underlying power gain translated to roughly twenty percent stronger effect in qi-impoverished zones like their present environment. Measurable, essential progress.
“Ordinary folk compared to Martial Artists… the difference is stark indeed. Absorbing this entire army might yield as much Primordial Spirit growth as devouring a city of three hundred thousand people.”
He once thought one soldier equaled two civilians. Facts proved otherwise: one soldier felt comparable to three civilians.
“If only I could traverse thirty thousand years ahead! Innate Warriors and Grandmaster Martial Artists everywhere… Then one like that would surely be worth at least a hundred people!” he imagined.
Here, amidst this huge army of a hundred thousand? Barely fifty Postnatal Warriors existed, all commanding officers. The rest? Just Body Forging Warriors, naturally differing in strength. Most were mere first-layers, manageable through disciplined conditioning. True prowess became increasingly scarce beyond that.
Chen Xiyi shook his head, curbing his thoughts. “Best abandon such greed. Desiring riches remains… one must nonetheless discern where fortune favors pursuit, and where caution must prevail. Against Wandering Light… victory remains unlikely.”
Greed didn’t blind Chen Xiyi. He knew his limits. Playing the Player meant embracing flexibility—know when the enemy surpassed him. Rather than charging blindly against impossible odds like the proverbial fool, he valued patience: retreat, level up, master skills, find better gear… then return battle-ready. This defined intelligent gaming, not reckless suicide.
From Wandering Light manipulating past events so effortlessly, Chen Xiyi conceded his odds lay critically low.
There was, however, an easier solution.
If Lin Feng usurped Wandering Light… then the enemy vanished, replaced by his friend Wandering Light. Problem? What problem? It was securing an immensely potent future ally… within the far past.
Of course, Lin Feng needed to succeed. He couldn’t become a Longevity Martial Artist via the Sword Art and that corrupted Ascension Ritual. He must personally achieve true mastery via sword enlightenment. Only then could Lin Feng permanently override the hostile Wandering Light existing within future realities. Until Lin Feng achieved that… caution remained paramount.
Within the army camp? The sounds of chaos were fading. Not due to restored order. The soldiers had simply… perished.
Navigating the thinning Mist, Chen Xiyi reached the Emperor’s Tent. Fierce clashes echoed from within—Tang Jing battling the Gu Martial Arts construct created from insect corpses. Initially overwhelmed, Tang Jing suffered confusion amplified by the army’s panicked state. But gradually, concentration returned. As the Gu creation weakened from continuous effort, her experience carved an opening. Securing the upper hand required simply waiting slightly longer.
The Gu Martial Arts construct neared its utter limits. Its phenomenal strength and restorative powers? A shadow of their initial terrifying potential. Tang Jing now predicted its movements effortlessly. Thirty more minutes? She could simply exhaust it to destruction.
But timing betrayed her. Chen Xiyi had harvested his Nourishment Resources completely. The mist was dissipating.
Lifting the tent’s curtain, he entered moments after Tang Jing’s sword cleanly decapitated the lead Gu Insect controlling the construct. Fluids splattered messily.
The Gu corpse collapsed right at Chen Xiyi’s feet, twitching feebly before stopping entirely. Prolonged battle had utterly drained its energy; damage finally overwhelmed its borrowed animation.
“Honored guest journeyed far to arrive,” Chen Xiyi began, smiling pleasantly at an utterly exhausted Tang Jing. “Our first meeting… It seems rude arriving without gifts. Therefore… accept my apologies. Your ten sworn sisters… They’ve been anticipating your arrival… for quite some time.”