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"Elder Brother, will they attack the West Sea?"

On the map, the Shen family members looked at Chen Qing’s analysis with confusion, but it was Old Qi who asked first, "How did you arrive at this conclusion?"

Elder Shen had been lying dormant in his physical body for many years, and his sudden appearance in the West Sea had triggered the zombie-like incident.

Nearly all members of the Shen family agreed that the monster parasitizing Elder Shen must have been lurking around Jiangnan with the Array, ready to attack Shen family members at any moment.

Yet, they had not expected Chen Qing to claim the adversary was in West Sea City.

"Because the benefits are the greatest!" Chen Qing said calmly as he analyzed, "According to intelligence, the entity known as the Ancient Cultivator Serpent that has taken over Elder Shen is the leader of the Nine Worms, the original form your ancestors had obtained from the Cultivator Serpent technique; it is the strongest, with the largest number of offspring.

After activating the Nine Heavens Mirror Valley, it awakened all of its cultivated offspring, slaughtering over seventy nations in the West Sea.

At least half of the eight million zombies were occupied by it, making it the strongest in both individual strength and the power it commands! "

"At a time like this, of course it would seize the strategic advantage and occupy the West Sea cities, which have the highest population!"

"A large population?" Old Four asked, dumbfounded, "Is the population of the West Sea greater than that of Jiangnan?"

Jiangnan, as the land of fish and rice, is far superior to the West Sea in both yield and environment and naturally would not have a population smaller than the West Sea.

"When I mention population, I am referring to the high-wu force population!

" Chen Qing sighed, "The physical strength of ordinary civilians is extremely low, making it difficult for the higher-level offspring to parasitize them.

Compared to common folk, the best hosts for parasitism are naturally the bloodline soldiers, followed by the elite troops with relatively strong vitality! "

In an instant, the members of the Shen family understood the adversary’s intention.

Although Jiangnan had a large population, due to the Shen family’s presence and unique geographical location, the stationed Imperial forces were exceedingly sparse.

Aside from the thirty thousand Black Dragon elites in Nanming Prefecture, the stationed troops in the remaining provinces did not exceed five thousand.

The West Sea was different. Not only did they have to face numerous sea bandits but also deter numerous nations of the West Sea, compelling them to trade primarily with Great Jin, naturally requiring a significant military presence.

The northern battlefields were controlled by the Siao Family, while the lucrative regions of the Eastern Sea and West Sea were under the power of military generals under the Duke of Qin.

The stationed army in the West Sea, including miscellaneous soldiers, was over a million, and the bloodline soldiers, starting with the lowest level of private troops, numbered at least a hundred thousand, far surpassing Jiangnan!

"What are these high-level offspring Lord Chen mentioned?" Seventh Master Shen asked curiously.

"High-level offspring," Chen Qing explained, "are the descendents that these Nine Ancient Worms cultivated through the splitting of their own essence blood during the ten thousand years of their seal.

In fact, you should have already seen the principle behind the zombies: they are corpses parasitized by worms, and the higher the level of the worm that obtains the body, the more formidable it becomes.

Over those many years, the quantity of offspring cultivated by these Ancient Worms is probably counted in the billions.

But while breeding worm offspring is easy, finding suitable human bodies for them is not as simple. "

"I see..." The Shen family members, being scholars and Magicians by upbringing, immediately grasped the key point.

The Ancient Worms build their armies with their offspring as their kin; the more human bodies they acquire, the stronger their forces. And the higher the quality of the human bodies, the faster they can establish a powerful army!

"Actually, the West Sea should be the main battlefield for the several Ancient Worms’ struggle for power," Chen Qing said with a smile.

"But the Ancient Worm hidden within the Shen family has remained in Jiangnan and couldn’t allow its offspring to join the battle of the West Sea.

Elder Shen is different; since it dared to activate the Array, it must have made adequate preparations.

Indeed, the struggle over there has already concluded; the third and fourth Ancient Worms have been devoured by Elder Shen, and their forces were merged.

Now that Elder Shen has occupied the West Sea cities, I fear its zombie troops have exceeded ten million! "

"If it manages to take down Great Jin’s hundred thousand elites stationed in the West Sea, plus the high-ranking Military Generals there, haha, even if Great Jin sends an army of a million, they may not be a match for your Elder Brother!"

The Shen family members were horrified: over a billion offspring?

If this war continued, wouldn’t the entire Central Plains eventually become populated with those zombie-like creatures that were neither human nor ghost?

"Isn’t that an exaggeration?" Elder Shen Four couldn’t help but exclaim, "Great Jin has just begun its reign, and this generation’s martial achievements are the most prosperous in a thousand years; it can’t be so easily defeated, right?"

"It will not be easily defeated, but it is the most dangerous," Chen Qing sighed.

"To be honest, this era dominated by Warriors is the most suitable for those worms to thrive, for what they need most are the strongly vital Warrior containers. Parasitizing Magicians, low-level worms would take years to control the body’s Techniques, but Warriors are different.

Their bodies are tempered and refined, ready to use once obtained, and they can start to strengthen themselves directly from the body without needing time to accumulate. "

"I remember the Governor-General of the West Sea is the eldest son of the Duke of Qin, right? And there are numerous direct descendants from top-tier families gilding their reputations in the West Sea. These bodies, in the eyes of those monsters, are the top delicacies," Chen Qing remarked.

"I’ve met the Duke of Qin’s eldest son..

." Old Qi began, "He is very strong, slightly more so than Weichi Peng, and he has a very steady style of leading troops. The monster inhabiting Elder Brother won’t easily take him down, and the Duke of Qin will not allow anything to happen to his eldest son.

Once the mechanisms are clear, he will surely send reinforcements. "

"That is our only chance," Chen Qing took a deep breath, "The only force capable of directly confronting Elder Shen’s power is the Imperial Court.

As long as the Imperial Court sends more troops to the West Sea, drawing a large number of zombies there, then we in Jiangnan will have a brief respite. "

"We in Jiangnan..." Old Qi smiled noncommittally, sensing that Young Lord Chen had grand ambitions.

"Even if Elder Brother’s possessor has tens of millions of zombies, as you say, and takes over another force’s turf, it would hardly be an easy match against the Imperial Court!

" Elder Shen Four frowned and said, "The Duke of Qin and his direct troops carved their way out in chaotic times, and he has numerous Super First Rank Warriors among his ranks. Don’t be misled by the thirty thousand troops sent as reinforcement this time; nearly ninety percent of them are bloodline soldiers. "

Chen Qing nodded; he had heard as much from Wang Ye.

In Great Jin, the population far exceeded that of the real world, and resources were abundant.

The service-bearing soldiers, including the irregular troops, amounted to over thirty million, but within the army, these tens of millions of ordinary soldiers were utterly suppressed by the bloodline warriors.

Military status in the army was determined by fist, and this could only point to one thing: the several hundreds of thousands of bloodline warriors, when faced with tens of millions of ordinary soldiers, were still overwhelmingly dominant!

The three hundred thousand elite troops Duke of Qin brought this time were mostly genuine elites. Combined with those ranked military generals leading the teams, in a direct confrontation, even if Elder Shen boasted ten million living dead, he would be no match!

Moreover, Chen Qing even dared to assert that if Elder Shen, facing merely the hundred thousand bloodline descendants stationed in West Sea City, attempted to forcibly take the city, it would probably be a difficult feat—unless he could transform the hundreds of millions of civilians of the seventeen cities and wildlands of West Sea into the living dead in a short time and evolve at least a million third-level living dead within half a year.

Only then might he stand a chance against the Imperial Court’s direct forces!

"And the Imperial Court has reinforced its troops, hasn’t it?" Old Qi also said, "As you just mentioned, the Imperial Court deployed even the Golden Dragon Guard from their reserves. Isn’t such strength sufficient to exterminate the monster residing within Elder Shen?"

"It is!" Chen Qing first nodded in affirmation, but then his voice dropped low, "It’s just a pity... the Imperial Court... is not wholly united, wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Shen Six?"

Elder Shen’s eyes were murky. Controlled, he remained silent, yet he could feel it—in a certain water domain in Jiangnan, his tens of thousands of high-level kin hidden there were beginning to stir!

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"Don’t be afraid, move in groups, follow closely the people in front, and don’t get scattered!"

Three hundred thousand troops moved silently through an area no one would have expected.

There were two paths in Jiangnan, one leading to Nanming Prefecture, where Duke of Qin was located, the other toward the Southwest Mountains—that was the border between the central regions of Jiangnan and Southwest, an area of mountains filled with miasma.

Duke of Qin brought with him bloodline elite troops.

To concentrate the forces, he blockaded extremely precise locations, mostly along the seven coastal provinces, and he paid no attention to the similarly fog-shrouded Southwest borderlands because those vast mountain ranges were basically uninhabited.

As long as the dense fog didn’t spread, there was no consideration of sending troops there.

Thus, when Princess Chang led the Imperial Court’s most elite Golden Dragon Guard in that direction, all the generals were extremely puzzled.

However, Princess Chang’s prestigious military authority was high. Even with their doubts, they all still endured and carried out military orders.

But as they moved further in, the main force continued toward the mountains, and finally, some generals couldn’t hold back any longer.

"Your Highness, why take this direction?

" The speaker... was a member of the Weichi Clan who had actively sought the opportunity to leave the capital, wishing to seize the chance to accumulate some military merits. After all, in a great family, those who didn’t possess titles had to rely on military achievements to stand their ground.

"Indeed..." Several sons of noble families expressed their confusion.

If entering Jiangnan from Yunzhou via the Southwest side, one could barely argue that it was for lateral support and had special strategic coordination with Duke of Qin and so on.

Yet, heading straight for this uninhabited mountain range was indeed puzzling.

"There’s no need to worry, an announcement will be made soon," responded several magicians icily leading the way.

Dozens of generals furrowed their brows. Princess Chang, having married, seemed unable to distinguish what was more important. It was baffling that she allowed magicians of the Fei Family to lead the charge at the front—what qualified them for this?

If it weren’t for Princess Chang’s reputation, who would care about these magicians who looked like skinny chickens?

"Stop!"

Suddenly, a member of the Hong Family at the very front halted: "There’s a problem!"

He was the first to survey the surroundings, his frown deepening. Then he abruptly held his breath: "The fog is poisonous!"

Everyone was taken aback and quickly covered their mouths and noses, trying to activate their bloodlines to resist, but the more they tried to use their bloodlines, the more they felt weak!

"Your Highness!" Several generals looked towards Princess Chang’s position in alarm, but where was there any sign of her? Even those Fei Family magicians, when had they disappeared?

"How could this be..." A dozen noble warriors suddenly felt their hearts skip a beat, a strong sense of unease surging up!

Immediately after, everyone heard it, the rustling from all directions, something in great numbers... was crawling their way!