Chapter 206: Continuing South
In Da Yao, people now increasingly miss the good old days of Emperor Shu’s reign.
Back then, “Great Chaos Under Heaven” was just a sign of trouble, but now after Yao Capital was plundered by rogue soldiers, it has boiled over completely.
In the Human Realm, the regular armies of various vassal lords are facing off against each other, while the defeated armies scattered in the mountains mysteriously disappear.
In Niu Jianshan, a group of defeated soldiers from Yu Prefecture is struggling to flee. They hold notched blades, have lost most of their armor, leaving only some helmets and breastplates; but they carry extra packages on their backs, containing some dry rations and money. And behind them, a village is burning.
Just as they catch their breath, clouds suddenly appear in the sky, and sinister laughter echoes from all around.
They hold their blades back-to-back on alert, and the eerie events continue one after another. Clearly still afternoon, the sky is like night, the laughter shifting left and right finally hovering in the sky, clouds parted by an unknown power, revealing moonlight.
They look up, and in some eyes is reflected green moonlight, in others purple, and some red, blue.
Thus, some become bloated and swollen, foul-smelling pustules erupting on their bodies; while the sharp-faced ones have their fingernails turn into bird claws, their bodies covered in vibrant feathers; the red ones full of muscle, while the purple ones find the underwear just robbed from village women now welded to their bodies like branding irons, and the women’s parts they cut off also grown on them.
After mutation, they then hear urging and divine guidance. Thus this group all disappears into the mountains and forests.
A few days later, these “blessed” lucky ones pass through various maze arrays “seeking” to reach Spiritual Mountains and Great Rivers.
Of course not just them, all sorts of demon armies from who-knows-where gather in front of these sects.
Da Yao’s sects face the third calamity, and this time it can’t be blamed on Xuan Chong. They raise their heads looking at the immortal mountains, excitedly spitting from irregular lips: “Hehe, immortal ladies, oh heh.”
With numerous demons gathering, the Evil Moon also shines over these prominent sects, various demons gather energy, then besiege the spiritual vein mountains and rivers.
Ancient heavenly immortal grand array activates, brilliant light shines on all sides, thunder and flames burst toward the invading demons, while these originally defeated army demons, after the array activates and spiritual energy surges, all obtain “immortal opportunity”, each beginning to draw qi into the body, hands able to release fireballs, bodies manifesting earth shields, but all mutated, some into bulls, some into maggot-like strips. Flesh randomly combines in chaos.
Flying sword immortal sect disciples see these unstoppable demon armies and evil monsters despite talismans and thunder, their Dao Hearts inevitably shaken.
The sect’s spiritual veins are continuously depleting, but the Imperial Court’s armies are fighting each other, producing endless demons.
The sect’s bells ring continuously, calling disciples to firmly hold the line! Because if left alone, as demons enter the mountains, the entire sect’s spiritual energy will be corrupted, mountains and rivers collapse, spiritual vein main peak flies to the sky swallowed by the Evil Moon.
At this moment, the great orthodox sects under heaven must join hands to face this mess.
But a terrible problem is that the Human Realm vassal lords supported by the seven great sects are already at each other’s throats.
…Justice is placed on the desk, but selfish interests are hidden in the heart…
Qinghua Sect, Cixin Sect, Wuyun Sect, Linghua Sect and other immortal family forces send Daoist Sect disciples to convene at Linghua Sect.
Between sect leaders, brilliant lights unfold, beginning discussion. Other disciples do not know the details of the debate in the lights. But ultimately, it’s largely due to supporting different Chosen Ones, leading to no small argument.
Wuyun Sect and Cixin Sect, one by Yao Calculation from heavenly books, the other by stellar derivation technique, arrive at completely different results.
The Yao Calculation result is that the great momentum under heaven will return to dual principles, i.e., Da Yao will have two imperial lines existing simultaneously.
While stellar derivation calculates that Da Yao will split into five to ten pieces, and over the next millennium, their borders frequently change, with usurpations and nation destructions repeatedly occurring.
These two verifications differ on the Chosen One’s situation, but both show one thing: the western “celestial mechanism” seems uncertain.
Cixin Sect Sect Leader looks at fellow daoists of other sects, sighing: “Fellow Daoists, all calculated that this one (Wu Xiao Que) opposes your sects’ auspicious qi, so all fixated, eh?”
Wuyun Sect: “It’s not that we are separated from the west, but the Vermilion Bird phase, we cannot touch it.”
…The sparrow dislikes the immortal mountains as dirty…
Perspective shifts south, now Tong Zheng Calendar year 2, month 6.
After Wu Fei settles Wu Lu in Ling River Four Commanderies for tasks. Xuan Chong decides to continue south.
At this time, a Feather Tribe merchant caravan comes from the sea, upon learning Wu Family Army broke through eight hundred li of Thorn Country, they are astonished, because this land, the southern Feather Tribe kingdoms all avoid.
Kingdom Feathered People initially uncertain, but upon seeing Forest Feather Tribe servants, they believe the northern Xi People and those called “green evil souls” Tree People had a fight, and won.
With these Feather Tribe merchants’ accounts, Xuan Chong learns more specialties within Thorn Region.
Tong Zheng Calendar year 2 summer, beyond the truce agreement, Xuan Chong has built a “model cooperation zone” in Thorn Ridge area.
In the past Forest Feather Tribe always planted trees for Tree Spirits, now though Xuan Chong has Ying Zhao lead tribespeople to continue, but Xuan Chong sets the process for his side’s Feathered People planting trees via stone tablets.
Forest Feather Tribe submitted to him live in the forest, they spread fertilizer to Tree Spirits.
While he sets up several fortresses in Thorn Region, fortress residents will build water conservancy projects, periodically regulate water flow in dry season to irrigate his area’s Tree People.
Harvest a wave of Herb Restoration Liquid in spring, pick a wave of fresh fruit in autumn—as for Ying Zhao’s original “natural faith”, Xuan Chong tacitly allows them to continue believing, but the premise for allowing faith is meeting Xuan Chong’s performance.
Just like in ancient times, Heavenly Emperor allowed various races to enshrine their totem gods, but if any totem god defied Heavenly Emperor’s will, they would be captured by heavenly soldiers.
In the first half of Tong Zheng Calendar year 2, Xuan Chong along the southward route in Thorn Ridge established four fortresses, enfeoffing the Haotian Dragon Descendants he brought from the north onto these fortresses.
Yuwen Li and other Yan Land generals settle here, looking at the endless Sea of Trees, thank Xuan Chong. Of course, the Dragon Descendants more so accept their fate! At least within ten generations, this branch of Dragon Descendants faces severe survival pressure, and each time Ling River region corps wars again with Thorn Land Tree People, they must vanguard for the king.
Wu Fei pats these Dragon Descendants, indicating he won’t use them up and forget.
Thus, on the spot signs some economic agreements with Tree People and grass-wood monster forces seeking “fertile” land.
For example, the agreement with Bamboo People: Nearby fortress residents in spring and autumn seasons supply fixed “soil”. In return, from October to December local residents can bring axes and saws into the mountains and forests; during logging, no bamboo grove spacing may exceed two zhang anywhere, and variant purple bamboo, golden bamboo etc. not in logging agreement, require extra negotiation.
With those “immortal mother” Tree Spirits, the economic agreement is for mountain honey and fresh fruit. Also exchanged with soil.
These agreements with Tree People, Xuan Chong erects inscribed text on relevant mountain tops, setting covenants.
Xuan Chong: “Compared to blindly exploiting, setting harvest quantities for long-term cooperation allows Xi People to stand long-term here. Otherwise, being driven out is sooner or later. (Xuan Chong: No need to mention a certain innate wandering talent maxed ethnic group here)”
After stone tablets erected, earth trembles, raising the tablet location into a small soil mound. Representing Human Realm’s Way of Heaven’s acquiescence.
After establishing trade outpost, erecting stone tablets done, it is now Tong Zheng Calendar year 2, month 7.
…People pass and leave traces, geese pass and leave sounds…
In July, Xuan Chong ended his stay in Thorn Ridge, selected some elite troops to continue southward, heading toward the target seen by the stargazing; there was a spatial vortex beam no less than the one that hung down from the Evil Moon during Wu Hanluan’s “Yellow Springs Chaos” back then. Of course, within this spatial vortex beam, there were also root tendrils that fell after the Chaos Green Lotus sprouted.
As Xuan Chong continued further south, he was accompanied by eight hundred Forest Feather Tribe bow and arrow users, and even five hundred Tree People.
These Tree People were all loaded onto carts for transport.
Meanwhile, the total human troop strength at Xuan Chong’s corps headquarters was two thousand five hundred thirty-eight people. Sitting on the large ship, after arranging for each Tree Person’s root tendrils, Xuan Chong said to Ying Zhao: “Does your Feather Tribe resent me now?”
Ying Zhao crossed her arms over her chest and stated: “My lord, your radiance has blessed the entire Sea of Trees. Moreover, you are leading me—well, us—marching toward the direction where the Demon Moon projects onto the earth. This war will be sung about by our tribe in poetry, and we will follow you to the death.”
Xuan Chong nodded at this, giving assurances to these foreign race soldiers following him that after the war ended, he would surely grant them glory. (They wouldn’t understand ranks, but glory was very clear.)
After the battle at Wang Feng Mountain, Xuan Chong’s troops obtained the right to pass through Thorn Ridge, the rear military supply line was unobstructed, and he gained a new method for troop replenishment.
However, the suspected point where the Evil Moon next poured onto the earth was still over four hundred kilometers away. (This tentacle hanging from the sky drifted unpredictably, swaying hundreds of kilometers with a casual flick, currently like an emperor’s chopsticks hesitating to pick dishes at an imperial banquet.)
However, from the map provided by the Chi You Ship, Xuan Chong learned that further south was the ocean; this nation spanning a vast distance was a Rome-type nation encircling the ocean.
Ang Ri, riding the Tai Yue Luan, was appointed by Xuan Chong as the new vanguard, assigned three hundred troops to clear the path ahead.
Xuan Chong was very focused at this time on Ang Ri’s former faith “Moon Empress”: And in the Southern Region Feather People’s polytheistic system, there existed a figure called Moon Empress. The Tai Yue Luan was the envoy of the Moon Empress.
Regarding this faith “Moon Empress,” Xuan Chong searched through all of Da Yao’s catalog of gods but found nothing, then looked up information on the Tai Yue Luan in the Records of Wonders.
He barely found that in the Sacrificial Dynasty (before Da Yao was Cheng Dynasty, Cheng Dynasty called itself Bu Dynasty, and before that was Sacrificial Dynasty), during ancient times when the Great Sun Blazing Yang was swallowed by the moon, an auspicious qi resided atop a high mountain, birthing a sage who dispatched a single-footed luan bird to patrol the earth and gather three-legged crows stationed in various places.
The reliable origin of the Tai Yue Luan was this single-footed luan bird.
What Xuan Chong could associate in the fantasy domain was: Bi Fang and the three-legged Golden Crow. But in sci-fi, it might be a helicopter hovering with ropes lowered, and fighter jets using “front three-point” landing gear.
He had already seen that Chi You Soldiers were interstellar warships; there might be other powerful races in space good at crafting magical artifacts, producing some technological creations that became myths.
As for the current rumors among the Feather Tribe, in ancient times they grew double wings on their backs only after receiving the Moon Empress’s light. —Xuan Chong: “What the hell is this targeted genetic mutation again?”
The Feather Tribe thing was extremely strange; they were not fully human—after burning with Vermilion Bird Fire, their wings wouldn’t disappear but would instead grow larger.
Their wings adept at flight appeared suddenly, like loaded parts, with no intermediate transitional form. This indicated that if the Feather People evolved naturally, in the immature evolutionary stage of their wings, those wings would be disadvantageous for ground running and offer little aid for gliding escapes.
Even the Feather People’s flight ability required civilization-era textile technology to emerge; otherwise, with that bone structure, they couldn’t hold airflow, and to balance their legs, they needed added artificial tailfins.
Xuan Chong vaguely guessed whether the Feather Tribe had been modified, as the Southern Border’s hundred races were also granted “various unique traits” by ancient sages in legends.
Suddenly, Xuan Chong recalled a sci-fi novel he had seen in his previous life. According to the novel’s setting: Gene warriors in the first generation were good cannon fodder when inserted—handsome human exteriors paired with distinct animal features, like lithe agile leopard women with leopard tails and claws; tall eagle people who could flap two pairs of wings. But in the second and third generations, features degraded, and the original human base genes became malformed hybrids. In cyberpunk cities, these hybrids became the ugly lowly people at the bottom.
What was the name of that novel? Xuan Chong rubbed his head, then had a flash of inspiration and asked the System.
System: “During class time, novels are not allowed.”
Xuan Chong, like a student called out, drooped his head dejectedly and said: “Oh.”
System: “But your point is correct; genetic modification was originally for coping with short-term wars, reaping temporary benefits but causing harm for ten thousand years.”
…Continuing southward…
After a month of marching, at the end of August in the second year of the Tong Zheng Calendar, Xuan Chong completed road opening from the inland shrubbery area and searched out signs of city-states. At this time, his accompanying frontline team numbered less than one thousand people. The rest were maintaining stations along the route from Thorn Ridge to the Feather Tribe kingdom.
Along the way, Xuan Chong selected some bushes, settling the Tree People there, and also settling the Forest Feather Tribe among them, as villages to receive future merchant caravans.
After looking at the information provided by the guides brought by Ang Ri and drawing the map.
Xuan Chong rode a peacock to personally inspect the city-state on the map. After seeing those cities layered one upon another like piled on earthen mounds, he sighed that it was indeed a maritime civilization.
Note: After a city is destroyed by war, in the process of rebuilding, soil is directly transported from elsewhere, covering the surface before building a new city, and after being destroyed again, more soil is piled and building continues.
This results in a modern monastery having a medieval monastery building beneath it, and under that medieval monastery, another shrine from the Roman era.
Unlike river civilizations where river courses shift and city ruins follow; Mediterranean civilizations build cities relying on ports—as long as the coastline doesn’t move, they keep piling up on the original site, forming city hills.
Xuan Chong had crossed over a thousand kilometers earlier (from Ling River Four Commanderies through Thorn Plains), all savage wilderness along the way, thinking the south had no great powers—but that was farming civilization inertial thinking. Only seeing contiguous arable land reclaimed inland would one think it had a proper state structure. Little did he know maritime trade could also accumulate wealth and build towering cities.
Xuan Chong asked Ying Zhao: “Xing’er, tell me, how are things between you and your southern kin? If I go visiting, which families’ leaders should I seek?”
Zi Xing was the localized name Xuan Chong gave this queen—Xing’er—which was easier to say.
Returning to Xuan Chong’s words, a low-EQ translation would be: “Hey, how long ago did the Forest Feather People and southern Feather Tribe split? How did they split? Are there new contradictions in the south now, producing multiple leaders, creating opportunities for me to sow discord, play both sides?”
The simple Feather Tribe maidservant was naturally still very kind and didn’t think that way.
After all, Xuan Chong’s performance these past months made people of this world think him overly benevolent; in the military camp, he treated provisions impartially, not treating late joiners as slaves. And whether Tree People or Feather Tribe, he seriously assessed their needs repeatedly during the march.
The calcium-rich shellfish food rations needed by Feather People for wing health were guaranteed by Xuan Chong on time and in quantity.
Returning to the present, Zi Xing unskillfully picked up the brush and drew lines on the map along the coastline and on even larger southern islands. Based on her memory, she marked the ten main Feather People kingdoms along the coast.
Xuan Chong obtained intelligence that the Feather Tribe had ground cavalry; in the southeast jungle area, there were huge land-walking birds.
Feather Tribe city-states were by the sea, with many fishermen; Feather Tribe beast tamers used miscellaneous fish to feed and domesticate them. These ground birds had double wings as well as four feet, and with sufficient feed in special cultivation, a few mutants would appear whose double wings would regrow huge, restoring flight ability.
This information greatly interested Xuan Chong; it seemed to be the griffin under Zhao Tu. Xuan Chong had always wanted to find its population’s location, because this mount was too good.
Cavalry attacks still needed to consider ditch terrain, requiring eventual flanking. But airborne monster cavalry could charge straight at artillery positions.
Thus, Xuan Chong took notes on the key points in his notebook, then made a note on ballista modifications.
…Visit…
Xuan Chong targeted the nearest large Feather Tribe city-state and prepared diplomatic gifts, including silk and ceramics, as well as some gemstones panned from the rivers in Thorn Ridge.
Hmm, these gemstones are also rare items in Da Yao, but far less popular than jade wares; however, they are very popular among the Feathered People.
Whether “jade” or “gemstones,” both are spellcasting materials in this world, linked to the blue bar. The reason for the popularity difference is that the technical routes in the two places are different.
Under the same quality, the spiritual power density stored in white jade is about one-fifth of the magic power stored in a perfect gemstone. —The records on the starship do not distinguish between spiritual power and magic power, and refer to this type of energy storage material collectively as natural crystal ore.
However, after thousands of years, the cultivators of Da Yao have developed a complete set of carving techniques, and the large pieces of jade they produce have spiritual power reserves no less than those of a large number of scattered gemstones.
Secondly, the ways the two sides harness “natural forces” are different. The white jade carved by Da Yao’s immortal masters “negates entropy” at the Feng Shui array nodes of famous mountains and rivers. As for gemstones, the Feathered People acquire energy from the sky when flying high in the air.
Xuan Chong, through probe balloons in experiments, confirmed the charge difference between the sky and the ground, which continuously flows through the gemstones to complete the accumulation of negentropy.
Even disregarding silk and porcelain, gemstones are still hard currency. But Xuan Chong was wrong—silk is the real hard currency.
