Chapter 217: Meeting Catfish-flood-dragon Again
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
Meng Village…
The once isolated little village was now crowded with endless streams of people. It seemed like a big city was gradually taking it shape. A large teleportation formation, about one mile in diameter, was erected on an emptied field outside Meng Village, where once used to be a dense forest. Several thousand pieces of energy stones of various sizes and jade slabs were seen hovering midair around the formation. A bright glow of different colors kept flashing and blinking every now and then. With every flash and blink, a group of over ten thousand men would walk out from the teleportation formation. After that, directed by a group of black-robed officials, these men would quickly line up in their respective parade and walk in different directions.
All of these men had different looks and outfits. Some of them were soldiers from Blood Swallow Army clad in blood-red armor, while some were soldiers from Black Swallow Army. They were wearing a fully-sealed black armor and riding on a black cow-headed beast, enshrouded in very strong killing intent. However, a majority of the people came out from the formation were craftsmen and construction workers, whose hands were carrying various tools and faces beaming with energy.
A group of thirty Earth Immortals and one hundred and twenty Human Immortals were in charge of controlling the teleportation formation. Their leader was a member of Great Yan's Imperial Clan, a peak-stage Nascent Soul Earth Immortal, the ninth son of Yan Qijun, Yan Xi. At the moment, he was holding a positioning starplate in his hand, a tool that was used to control the formation. Every now and then, he would yell and shout at his subordinates, directing them in moving and adjusting the position of different jade slabs, so that the formation could communicate with some teleportation formations located several tens of thousands of miles away, or million upon millions of miles away.
From Ji City, many major cities in Great Yan Dynasty territory, and the capital cities of all the vassal kingdoms, many soldiers, craftsmen, and construction workers had traveled to Meng Village through the teleportation formation. In just three days, over one million people had arrived and gathered around Meng Village. Although the teleportation formation had used a large amount of Spatial Breaching Spirit Gold as its core, by transporting over one million of men from different places, it had used tremendous resources out of Great Yan Dynasty’s national treasury. During the process, energy stones that they had stored for many thousand years were being used up.
Wu Qi was standing on top of an archery tower, which had just been built recently in Meng Xiaobai's home, overlooking the teleportation formation working at its full capacity. He could not help himself but be shocked by the true national strength of Great Yan Dynasty. It was the third day since he arrived at Meng Village. Lu Chengfeng was staying in Little Meng City, supervising over the construction of the city's defensive system, while he brought a group of men and came to Meng Village, in charge of the construction works for the line of defense in the outposts.
As he was the chief officer in charge, Wu Qi actually did not have to do anything here. All the tasks, either major or minor, were all shared by those middle to lower tier officials from Ji City. Everything was carried out in perfect order.
At the same time, Wu Qi was getting acquainted with the latent influence that Yu Academy had in Great Yan Dynasty. Currently, there were a total of fifty thousand middle to lower tier officials in Meng Village working on all sorts of tasks, and forty thousand of them were from Yu Academy, the disciples, and apprentices of Yu Wende. For the reason that Yu Wende was severely wounded by an assassin from Great Qin, these people worked as if they had been given some stimulants. They worked day and night, almost without eating or sleeping, like they had been possessed. They kept yelling and kicking on the butts of those soldiers, craftsmen and construction workers, making the forests in the surrounding area of Meng Village bustle with activity.
In just three days, using Meng Village as the center point, a foundation of a large city that measured twenty miles in both width and length had taken its shape. At the same time, deep into Meng Mountains, the construction work of a total of two hundred and seventy outposts began using nine different distances as the line of defense. At the distance of fifty thousand miles from Meng Village, then thirty thousand miles, ten thousand miles, five thousand miles, three thousand miles, one thousand miles, five hundred miles, three hundred miles, and lastly, one hundred miles, these outposts were constructed.
Under the powerful executing and administrating ability of these civilian officials, the construction works of Meng Fortress and the 270 outposts had commenced almost at the same time, while each shared a nearly identical speed in their progress. Meticulously managed by them, the construction materials required at the construction sites, craftsmen, construction workers, and Master of Formations needed, all of these were precisely arranged. They worked like the best Swiss watch, precise and accurate, without making any mistake.
Yesterday, Wu Qi did an examination on the level of work done by these officials, and he was greatly surprised by the result. When the passion of these officials was aroused after they swore to teach Great Qin Dynasty an unforgettable lesson ad devoted all their heart and soul in carrying out their tasks, the level of precision in their work was simply stunning.
The distribution of goods, materials, and personnel in all 270 outposts were all calculated to a precise level of the smallest unit. There was no delay or wastage in the entire execution of their planning, not even a piece of brick, a nail, or a pinch of rice. On top of that, these freaking officials even took the experience, skill level and the difference in physical strength of every single craftsman and worker into consideration. So basically, the manpower and material resources in all the outposts had reached a very precise balance.
When faced with this situation, Wu Qi could only stand in a trance and keep looking blankly at the endless streams of men bustling out from the teleportation formation. At the same time, he was slowly absorbing the natural energies in the surrounding, taking the opportunity to strengthen his cultivation base and replenish his energies and soul that had just suffered a great loss a few days ago. Now, he had a very direct understanding of the potential threat brought by Yu Academy. Although there were only forty thousand disciples of Yu Academy here, every single one of them was working with incredible precision and efficiency. Then, how many lower grade officials in Great Yan Dynasty were graduated from Yu Academy? If all of them jumped out and caused troubles at the same time, perhaps Great Yan Dynasty would have to face a real threat.
These apprentices and disciples of Yu Academy reminded Wu Qi about the disciples of Confucianism back on Earth.
Both of them were schools of thought that had the ability to manipulate and control the national affairs of an entire dynasty. However, contrary to the disciples of Confucianism who kept fighting amongst themselves, the disciples of Yu Academy had only one common spiritual leader. They worked closely together without any gap in between, and that made them an even more frightening political power.
If Great Yan Dynasty was not a dynasty established and controlled by cultivators, if Yan Dan and his brothers did not possess the power that was enough to wipe out the entire Yu Clan in a blink of an eye, perhaps Yu Academy would have had long taken the complete control over the imperial court of Great Yan Dynasty. Nevertheless, because of these apprentices and disciples, Yu Wende was able to enjoy an aloof status in Great Yan Dynasty. He could even discuss Princess Zhang Le's marriage with Yan Dan, and provide him a list of candidates preferred by him!
Wu Qi took a deep breath, causing the surrounding natural energies within few miles to rock and roll violently. "A respectable and morally lofty clan? Hah!" Suddenly, he grinned hideously and gloomily.
He looked around. With the enthusiastic working attitude of those civilian officials, the foundation of Meng Fortress had taken its embryonic form. It measured twenty miles in both width and length, and was enclosed in a wall fifteen feet thick and fifteen feet tall. The defensive spells and formations on the wall were deployed and constructed according to the standards of Ji City, which was a defensive system of strategic level sufficient enough to withstand the attack from Nascent Divinity realm cultivators.
At the heart of Meng Fortress, which was also the heart of the current Meng Village, a deep hole that measured one thousand feet in both width and length was dug out. At this place once stood the grand meeting hall of Meng Village, yet it was to be replaced by a platform that stood about one mile high. Together with a total of eighty similarly designed platforms in the vicinity, they formed the strongest offensive force of Meng Fortress. A group of disciples from Mo Sect, who were sent here by Mo Di, was leading a group of imperial craftsmen from Ji City and working laboriously near the large hole.
A total of eighty-one 'Star Crushing Ballistae' would be placed on top of these tall platforms. They were weapons that ran purely on the underground energies, able to absorb the flame from earth's core and unleash an attack that equaled a full force attack of a peak-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. Once all eighty-one of them shot at the same time, the combined power was equivalent to a full force attack of an early-stage Nascent Divinity cultivator, a frightening power that could kill Earth Immortals of Nascent Soul realm instantly.
"The machines made by Mo Sect are indeed unparalleled under the heaven. I really didn't expect that once that old man, Mo Di, stepped into the path of cultivating the Dao, he could actually become so... psycho!" Whenever Wu Qi thought of the incredibly powerful Star Crushing Ballistae, his heart would become startled and his gallbladder would tremble. A fearsome weapon like this merely ranked the ninth on the list of top ten most powerful lethal weapons made by Mo Sect. What else could Wu Qi say about the frightening Mo Sect?
Suddenly, he saw many sword beams flying in his direction. With his sharp vision, he saw Lu Chengfeng in the leading sword beam.
Very soon, all the sword beams arrived and descended to the ground. Lu Chengfeng came to Wu Qi and stood beside him, throwing his glance over at the bustling construction sites and the endless streams of people rushing all about. He shook his head and said, "Those disciples from Yu Academy are very capable. There is nothing much that I need to do in Meng City too. I just have to hand the planning maps to them, and they will settle the rest of the tasks for me. Even the tasks of supervising and urge the vassal kingdoms for the assembling of troops, strategic materials, craftsmen and various matters of minor and major had all been properly arranged. Suddenly I realized, I've become an unoccupied person."
Wu twitched his lips helplessly, nodded and said, "You're right, Yu Academy is indeed a very fearsome threat. The image of several tens of thousands of scholars kneeling in front of the imperial palace and presenting their petition is still very clear in my mind. Tsk, if I were His Majesty, I would have long wielded my blade and, kacha!" Wu Qi raised his right palm up ferociously and thrust it down lightly. A wrath would raise from the bottom of his heart whenever Wu Qi thought about Yu Wende and his daughter. How could they try to scheme against him secretly? Weren't they just looking for trouble?
Lu Chengfeng's body trembled when he too recalled the scene he saw back in Ji City, where several tens of thousands of apprentices and disciples from Yu Academy were kneeling and presenting their petition.
Both men stood looking at each other, and were about to say something when suddenly, in the sky not far to the east, they saw a patch of dark cloud that came rushing towards their direction, rolling and rocking violently. It was being vigorously pursued by several dozen clumps of demonic clouds emanating an intense evil aura. Every now and then, wild and villainous laughs could be heard coming from within those demonic clouds.
Vaguely, a shrill, ear-piercing voice rang out amidst the wild laughs, "Little girl, I like you! Now, follow me back, and you will be well fed daily with fresh meat of young human boys and girls. Isn't that better than being alone yourself? Hehe, little girl, why are you so beautiful?"
Following the voice, a cluster of several dozens of gloomily blue yin thunderbolts streaked out whistling, hitting right onto the fleeing dark cloud. Deep, muffled roars of thunder echoed throughout the sky. A large patch of the dark cloud was dispersed by the thunderbolts, revealing the body of a large, fat catfish, that measured over three thousand feet from its head to tail.
Wu Qi's brows immediately knitted into a tight frown. "Aye, that is one old friend of mine! But, someone actually said she is beautiful? What kind of weird taste is that?"
The fat catfish had a body over three thousand feet long, with two horns on its head and a few glittering dragon whiskers dangling down from its jaw. Four dragon claws were poking out from its abdomen, and vaguely, there were dragon scales hiding underneath its slippery and smooth skin. Who else could it be except for the catfish-flood-dragon in the Lake of Four Waters? However, from Wu Qi's aesthetic view, this catfish-flood-dragon could never be associated with the word of 'beautiful'. One could describe her as ‘grand’, ‘magnificent’, ‘full of power’ and ‘formidable’, yet it would be totally wrong for describing her with the word 'beautiful'.
Suddenly, the demon cloud behind her shrunk and vanished, revealing a huge black fish who looked extraordinarily ugly.
He had a body that measured about five thousand feet long, and three huge fish heads that looked very ugly. The large mouths of his were fully filled with razor-sharp fangs, and from his slippery dark fish skin, sticky mucus kept flowing and dripping down. Although the black fish was still pretty far away from Wu Qi, he could already smell a very pungent fishy odor. The black fish had a horn on his head too, but only one, and there was dragon claw sticking out from his abdomen too, only one as well. However, he had a long fin growing out from his back, about several hundred feet long and looking as sharp as a blade. He was enshrouded in a dense layer of water vapor while portraying a very arrogant air.
Together with shrill and unpleasant laughs, the black fish opened all three mouths of his and sprayed out a huge amount of mucus, at the same time, sticking out three really long tongues. The tongues moved about in midair for a while, then a cluster of several hundred huge, gloomily blue yin thunderbolts emerged and thrust whistling out from the tips.
Fleeing in desperation, the catfish-flood-dragon was hit by the cluster of yin thunderbolts. They ripped her skin and made her bleed everywhere, and the intense pain made her let loose a torrent of curses. As her demonic cloud was totally destroyed, her large and fat body could no longer hover in the sky. As a result, she began plunging towards the construction site in Meng Village.
Without hesitation, Wu Qi leaped onto a sword beam and shot into the sky, while letting out a stern cry, "You foul demons! How audacious are you to trespass the land of Great Yan! Haven’t you ever heard the fearsome reputation of our emperor, His Majesty Yan Dan?"
He let catfish-flood-dragon flew past him, but stopped before the black fish and the several dozens of demons that he brought together with him.
The black fish opened its large mouth and yelled out, "What is this f*cking Great Yan? I've never heard of it! And what about the f*cking Yan Dan? Never heard of him before either! Is he really that famous? Then, I'm his f*cking ancestor! Little boy, you're just a Human Immortal of Gold Core realm, how brave of you to challenge me? Come over here and let me eat you, then I'll forgive your rudeness!"
The black fish was uttering verbal garbage, yet Wu Qi was laughing happily. So, you said you were Yan Dan's f*cking ancestor? That was the most excellent thing you could have said today!
In the next moment, the atmosphere surrounding Meng Village suddenly changed, as a group of several dozens Earth Immortals from Imperial Clan of Great Yan and several hundred Human Immortals were seen leaping up onto their clouds and flying swords, their eyes ablaze with a flame of anger while shooting into the sky.