Chapter 340: Refining (2)
On one side of the Tianhuo Terrace, there is a bell tower on top of the secondary platform which is nearly three hundred feet high.
In the middle of the bell tower shrouded in smoke and clouds , hangs a huge purple-gold bell.
Two sturdy men wearing heavy golden armor, with only a pair of sparkling eyes exposed, stood quietly beside the giant bell, like puppets. They were silent and not a breath leaked out.
A red-robed eunuch hurriedly came over on a cloud of fire, holding a jade tablet in his hand and loudly reading Huo Yu's order.
The two big men moved immediately.
They pulled the heavy dragon-headed bell hammer beside them and slammed it heavily onto the giant bell.
The huge bell did not make any sound. Neither the burly man or the eunuch who were nearby, nor the guards on and off the bell tower, nor the common people in the palace or even in Hellfire City heard any movement.
However, in the headquarters of the Nine Armies of the Yan Dynasty, in the headquarters of the generals of the nine legions that suppressed the nine directions, the secret sound transmission array was shining with light, and the small golden bell that matched the array made a loud "ding ding" sound at the same time.
Soon, lights and shadows flickered in the bell tower, and strong light spurted out from the golden bell. In the firelight, there were bell shadows the size of a human head. Amid the flickering halos, low bell sounds could be heard.
The eunuch's pupils narrowed.
There were only eight balls of firelight emitting from the golden bell, with the words "Zhen" and "Zheng" written on them respectively.
After careful identification, the eunuch whispered, "Why is there no news from the Zhenbei Army?"
After waiting for another three breaths, the eunuch shook his hand and shot a warning fire in the direction of the Skyfire Tower. Immediately, several clouds of fire rose into the sky from the Skyfire Tower and flew towards this side at a high speed.
Another ten breaths passed, as another warning fire flew out, Huo Yu, together with several important civil and military officials of Yan Dynasty, rushed to the bell tower almost at the same time, looking at the giant bell with frowns.
"Zhenbei Army, something happened."
An old man wearing a robe of blazing sun and with a rather feminine air clenched his hands, gritted his teeth, and glanced at his colleagues present with suspicion, then looked at Huo Yu calmly: "Jiang Yuan is very strict in military discipline, he will definitely not delay military affairs... The emperor has issued an order, he will definitely not ignore it."
The person who spoke was Jiang Yuan's father, Jiang Qian, the current patriarch of the Jiang family of Yan Dynasty, and the head of the four assistants, four counselors and eight important ministers of Yan Dynasty.
"Send someone to investigate."
Huo Yu glanced at Jiang Qian who was trying to remain calm, and gave an order to his trusted old eunuch. He then asked Luo Xuan, the head of the Luo family, who was also one of the Four Assistants and Four Bis and was responsible for controlling external intelligence and monitoring the vassal states of Yan Dynasty and the neighboring dynasties: "Has there been any unusual movement in the north recently?"
The skinny and energetic Luo Xuan frowned, glanced at Jiang Qian, and then bowed to Huo Yu: "Your Majesty, the Zhenbei Army has been stationed in Qingyun Kingdom in recent years... Your Majesty and the gentlemen should know the situation in Qingyun Kingdom. There will be no chaos in Qingyun Kingdom."
"As for the north..." Luo Xuan said in a deep voice, "The Xuan Dynasty in the north is indeed a mortal enemy of our Yan Dynasty for generations, but its emperor went insane nine months ago and died suddenly. The 158 princes in the country are fighting for the throne, and the country is in chaos."
Luo Xuan said confidently: "Xuan Chao, you absolutely do not have the ability to attack Yan Chao at this moment."
Jiang Yan said in a deep voice: "What if there is a prince of the Xuan Dynasty who is eager for success and wants to gain military achievements from our Yan Dynasty in order to ascend the throne ?"
Huo Yu pursed his lips and looked towards the north.
The Yan Dynasty was a vassal state of the Yunluo Ancient Kingdom, while the Xuan Dynasty was a vassal state of another powerful dynasty, the Xuanyan Immortal Dynasty.
The Xuanyan Immortal Dynasty and the Yunluo Ancient Kingdom usually have quite a few conflicts. The Yan Dynasty and the Xuan Dynasty, as powerful vassals on the edge of the two major immortal dynasties, are also influenced by the two major immortal dynasties. They fight from time to time for various unnecessary, reasonable and unreasonable excuses. Even emperors of both dynasties have died on the battlefield.
Therefore, Yanchao and Xuanchao are mortal enemies.
The Zhenbei Army is stationed in the north. If something happens to the Zhenbei Army, the first thing that comes to mind is whether the Hyun Dynasty is attacking?
But even if Hyunjo called...
Just as Luo Xuan said, the internal chaos of the Xuan Dynasty is now in a mess... Hehe, the emperor did not abdicate peacefully, but died of infatuation. Tsk tsk, as a colleague in the "profession" of "emperor", Huo Yu expressed a little regret and strong gloating for his colleague's experience!
As the emperor of such a powerful dynasty, how could he become possessed?
Huo Yu didn’t know what to say!
Anyway, Xuan Dynasty is now unable to attack Yan Dynasty.
Even if someone in Xuan Dynasty wanted to take a military risk and win merit by attacking Yan Dynasty, the Zhenbei Army had millions of elite soldiers, even if they were millions of pigs. With the military force deployed by Xuan Dynasty in front of the Zhenbei Army, it would be absolutely impossible to swallow up the Zhenbei Army silently.
The old eunuch hurriedly took his people away.
Outside the imperial city, in the Nine Army Headquarters of Yan Dynasty, there is a void teleportation array that leads directly to the headquarters of the nine legions. It is enough to allow people to instantly cross a million miles and reach the general's mansion of the nine legions.
But after a cup of tea, the old eunuch ran back with a pale face.
"Your Majesty, gentlemen, the formation of the Zhenbei Army may have been destroyed... I ordered people to activate the corresponding void teleportation formation three times in a row, but there was no response. I cannot rush to Zhesun Mansion through the formation."
The faces of Huo Yu and several important ministers suddenly turned gloomy.
Something indeed happened to the Zhenbei Army.
"Mobilize the troops to respond. At the same time, rush to Zhesun Mansion as quickly as possible to gather information and set up a void teleportation array... To the north of Hellfire City, all the cities must mobilize their troops... If anyone dares to lose their troops or the city, I will take their heads!"
Huo Yu immediately gave orders.
The huge Yanchao moved quickly.
Government officials at all levels quickly took action and, in accordance with Huo Yu's orders, selected registered young and strong men from the public, organized them into a new army on the spot, and began distributing weapons and conducting military exercises.
In the alchemy institution specially established by Yan Dynasty, hundreds of thousands of alchemists at all levels began to refine the "Liehuo Peiyuan Pill".
This is a low-level elixir with fire attribute. Although it is low-level, it is extremely effective.
As the name suggests, this pill has only one function - even if a commoner has never practiced cultivation, as long as they take nine Fiery Essence Reinforcing Pills in succession, they can be forced to ascend to the extreme of the Essence Reinforcing Realm, or even to the Half-Step Furnace Realm.
This is a commonly used elixir to quickly train cannon fodder by drawing young and strong people from the people at the critical moment of war. All major dynasties have similar secret recipes, but they differ in effectiveness and properties.
However, once the Fiery Nourishing Essence Pill is taken, one's cultivation will be limited to the current realm for life. Unless a powerful being with the Condensation Fruit level or above performs an initiation and marrow cleansing for one, or there is a rare and precious elixir to cleanse the body, otherwise the future of cultivation will be ruined!
In particular, within just a few days, they can obtain such a powerful cultivation. Even if these young and strong people who take the medicine do not die in the battlefield in the future, their natural lifespan will definitely not exceed 30 years!
The territory of Yan Dynasty covers millions of miles and has a population of trillions. In just two days, government offices at all levels organized tens of billions of young and strong men and incorporated them into the reserve teams of the nine legions of the Nine Military Offices.
At the same time, in Yan Dynasty's medicine agency, Fiery Nourishing Essence Pills were sent out like water and were quickly distributed to government offices at all levels.
While Yan Dynasty was preparing for war, Luo Xuan used sound transmission arrays and various secret techniques to quickly contact spies in various parts of the north.
But all the spies reported back that everything was normal.
Only the secret agents in Zhesun Mansion and Qingyun Kingdom, like the Zhenbei Army, did not send back any feedback. No matter how much Luo Xuan urged them with his secret technique, the secret agents in Qingyun Kingdom did
Luo Xuan ordered the secret spies around Qingyun Kingdom to enter Qingyun Kingdom to find out the news of Zhesun Mansion.
As a result, whenever these secret spies moved, just like the Zhenbei Army, there was no further news at all.
In just two or three days, Luo Xuan lost two or three hundred elite secret agents deployed in the northern vassal states. Luo Xuan was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat and dared not to transfer people at will. He could only pass the news to Huo Yu, Jiang Yan and others.
The task force, led by an old eunuch who was Huo Yu's confidant, set out from Hellfire City and used the void teleportation array to first arrive at an important military town in the northernmost part of the northern border of Yan Dynasty.
In the military town, the fastest flying warship took off into the sky, spewing flames, and flew rapidly towards the north.
This military town is also the only place in the north of Yan Dynasty, besides the Zhenbei Army, where a void teleportation array is deployed. This military town is more than 300,000 miles away from Zhesun Prefecture.
Yuan Lingtian's spiritual power is at its peak, the void structure is stable, the Dao rhyme laws are powerful, and the speed of the cultivators' flying and moving is much slower than that of the same cultivators in the Jishengtian - it is like a fish of the same physical strength, swimming in dense mercury and swimming in ordinary clear water, the difference in the energy consumed and the speed obtained is huge.
Therefore, even if an ordinary cultivator in the Fiery Realm flies at full speed in Yuanling Heaven for a day and a night, the distance he can fly is no more than ten thousand miles.
These flying warships are powerful, and equipped with various flight formations and forbidden runes. Their maximum speed...
Well, the ancient Yunluo country has issued an order that the maximum speed of the flying warships built by the vassal states cannot exceed 30,000 miles a day!
This is a measure taken by the ancient Yunluo Kingdom to deliberately restrict the transportation efficiency of its vassal states and constrain their war potential to a very small range. Otherwise, if each of the major vassal states can travel a million miles a day, they can mobilize countless troops every day to appear a million miles away and gather huge military forces in a very short time... Just imagine that scene, as the suzerain country, don't you feel a headache and cold sweat on your back?
Therefore, it took the old eunuch and the task force twelve days to get from the northern border military town to Zhesun Prefecture on a flying warship.
The Zhesun Mansion was quiet and peaceful, with the sounds of chickens and dogs coming and going, giving it a sense of paradise.
However, the barracks of the Zhenbei Army stationed in Zhesun Prefecture were empty and desolate, so deserted that they could be haunted even in broad daylight!
In the camp, all the weapons, supplies, and even the mounts were safe and sound.
The old eunuch led people to check various official documents left in the military camp. After comparing them, they found that not even a knife or a sword, not even an arrow or a bag of rice was missing from the camp.
However, millions of elite soldiers of the Zhenbei Army, along with the great general Jiang Yuan, all disappeared into thin air.
"Where are the people? Where are the people? Where are the people?"
The old eunuch was furious: "What the hell, where is this person?"
A small void teleportation array was set up as quickly as possible. Soon, a large number of soldiers and horses poured out from the military town. After they set up various defensive measures, they began to set up a super-large void teleportation array.
Another seven days passed, and the super-large void teleportation array was completed. The elite imperial guards from the imperial capital of Yan Dynasty poured out in a mighty force and blocked the entire Zhesun Mansion in a very short time.
Jiang Yan personally rushed to Zhesun Mansion with a group of family masters. Without any rest, he headed straight for Xiyun City.
