Page 569

"Didn’t succeed?"

In the Ghost Temple of Azland, Sparrow Bee returned and was gasping for air, his eyes bloodshot.

Holding his breath, he had made two attempts, and then traveled back two thousand miles; it was quite a stretch...

Seeing how exaggerated the other looked, King Chu Jiang sighed, "I told you not to overexert yourself, but you wouldn’t believe me..."

"That kid is smarter than I thought..." Sparrow Bee said with an ugly expression, "and that woman you mentioned, she is smarter too!"

"What did you expect?" King Chu Jiang shook his head and smiled, "That woman is not simple; she was the last to arrive back then, but now she can act as the second phase leader within the forces. During the last cycle, if it weren’t for King Xiang’s problems, the scale of her victory would have been unpredictable, and even conquering the Central Plains was not impossible. .."

"I knew that guy was troublesome, but is he that formidable?" Sparrow Bee frowned.

"Heh, it’s not just formidable; back then, among us four Ghost Kings, who wasn’t suppressed by her?

Even though she miscalculated later and King Xiang rebelled, she still prepared many fallback plans.

She not only preserved enough territory for her own force, successfully allowed the Guild to descend, but also left the seed for the next rise of the Central Plains. "

"Now, the third cycle has begun, and she still takes the lead, having chosen the right person early on!"

"That mortal Emperor?" Sparrow Bee sneered, "Interesting... Is she that accurate in judging people?"

"It’s precisely because she’s too accurate that Shenwu suffered a devastating defeat last time. This time... Shenwu has put down both of his eyes."

"Heavenly Eye?" Sparrow Bee’s eyes lit up; that was a great item. If he could...

"If you lay a finger on that thing, Shenwu will fight you to the death!" King Chu Jiang gave him a look.

"Heh... Am I afraid of their gang of dwarves?"

"If you get that thing, I fear even the people above me won’t be able to tolerate you."

"Tsk..." Sparrow Bee said coldly, "I really don’t see what’s so good about joining the Guild. Isn’t it nicer to be free with me?"

"And be sealed with you afterwards?"

"That was an accident; it won’t happen again..."

"You say that every time."

"Shut up!"

King Chu Jiang smiled helplessly. This brother of his was a handful, it was indeed fortunate that his bloodline was strong enough to render all guilds helpless against him.

"So tell me, how did you fail at Chen Qing’s hands?"

The other was physically incomplete, holding a splinter of himself at Chen Qing’s place, which retained some memories that could be adverse for himself and the Guild in future encounters.

"He was waiting for me..." Mentioning Chen Qing, Sparrow Bee grew somber, "That guy’s fishy.

When Tiannan Pass fell, I intended to blend into the chaos within the army and take him out, but as I was about to do so, my innate ability immediately gave me an alarm.

I am certain that if I had proceeded, I would have died there! "

"Die there?" King Chu Jiang frowned. The other had the talent of a Red-Buttocked Horse Monkey, capable of foreseeing crises, the best there is in avoiding death; his judgments were almost never wrong.

But it baffled him. He could understand Chen Qing avoiding his ambush, but causing Sparrow Bee to die there?

What kind of method did the other possess?

--------------------------------------

"What a pity..."

After the fall of Tiannan Pass, Chen Qing stood atop the gate, silently looking down, expressing his regret.

Tian Heng, standing beside him with a curious face, heard this. The toughest stronghold in the Southeast had fallen, and now the entire Southeast was in their pocket, with Jiangnan’s power greatly increased. His lord was actually feeling regretful? What was he regretting?

Ao Zhen stood silently behind Chen Qing, speaking softly, "The person you mentioned, did he flee?"

"He fled..." Chen Qing touched the mirror on his chest. The Mirror Demon had one advantage: any creature it had reflected even once, even a layman unable to see the way, it remembered, and would be alerted to its presence anytime it reappeared.

Just now, the Mirror Demon had given him a signal that the individual was nearby, but by this time, the presence had long since vanished.

Now, with nature’s spiritual energy being scarce, someone at that individual’s level couldn’t sustain even breathing in a place like the Southeast, much less killing someone; one would have to hold his breath from a place abundant in spiritual energy to make it here.

Chen Qing had his suspicions, with King Chu Jiang in Azland, this fellow might be connected to King Chu Jiang...

After holding his breath for so long, as long as he could trap him for a while and then apply Bai Feng’s poisonous gas, this troublesome guy could be taken care of, but unfortunately... the guy didn’t make a move.

Thinking about it, it must have been the divine skills of the Red-Buttocked Horse Monkey inside him that came into play.

Such a troublesome fellow...

Considering that the Southeast’s spiritual energy will be abundant in the future, he really didn’t know how to deal with such maverick players, especially if they targeted him, starting to hunt down those spirits he had painstakingly nurtured, it would probably give him a headache.

Yes... the second weakness of the Divine Path: it is particularly vulnerable to high-end assassin players!

When your domain is large, you have many concerns, but those who are barefoot do not fear those with shoes, especially such top assassins. They operate within your territory, specifically targeting your weaker fighters, which is quite troublesome.

He had to think of a solution, and also... he needed to put together his own team of assassins at some point.

Sighing, Chen Qing shifted his consciousness to the Netherworld.

At that time, the Netherworld was still desperately holding on, but even when the critical battle at the Tiannan Pass came, no heavyweight entities appeared, which completely put Chen Qing’s mind at ease.

It seemed that the forces of the Ghost Domain had not fully awakened yet, all their might bound within the Ghost Temple!

The Ghost Domain forces also had their weaknesses, although they were formidable and could descend rapidly, there were some unique restrictions on their method of arrival.

Before the Evil Spirits of the Path of Yin and Yang could descend to the human world, they had to go through the priests of the Ghost Temple, and after possessing a human body, they would corrupt the host’s spiritual body and occupy the body, a process which was very fast, leading to the Ghost Domain forces expanding their troops extremely quickly.

But the downside was, once an Evil Spirit entered the Ghost Temple, it could not leave the Ghost Temple...

With the Earth Spirits having only recently revived, even though the Evil Spirits didn’t require blood essence stones to revive, they still needed to consume a large number of souls to recover, so the high-level Evil Spirits that were awake were still few.

To quickly establish a foothold in the human world, it was necessary to deploy a large number of Evil Spirits in the Ghost Temple beforehand.

After all, the priests also needed time...

The remaining forces naturally had to protect key territories.

The Ghost Domain forces were not unified and all had extremely important roles.

Being held by major guilds inevitably led to mutual vigilance.

They also had to infuse a large number of Evil Spirits into the Ghost Temple to lay the foundation in the human world, as well as spare enough troops to protect the basics within the Path of Yin and Yang.

Where would they find enough Evil Spirits to attack him?

As long as the land Chen Qing occupied wasn’t their territory, they were not likely to target him.

Chen Qing’s calculations weren’t wrong. Even King Chu Jiang, who had long harbored schemes against him, did not appear in the battle for the Netherworld.

The power of the Ghost King could not have been restored by now. Without sufficient troops, Chen Qing believed he would not dare to take the risk!

"My lord, we have now recaptured Tiannan Pass. Do we need to pursue our victory?" Tian Heng asked for directions.

"No need..." Chen Qing shook his head: "The current situation in Jiangnan does not warrant extending the battle line too long.

With Tiannan Pass, just station certain forces there.

.." He thought for a moment and looked at Tian Heng: "You handle the arrangements.

For now, Jiangnan is also yours to send troops for defense. "

"Yes, my lord!" Tian Heng’s eyes immediately showed his delight.

Chen Qing nodded, the latter having lost quite a few elite troops this time, all of which were his most relied-on direct forces. If he didn’t offer some compensation, he feared there might be discontent.

Tian Heng’s intentions were clear from the beginning—he evidently wanted to promote the reputation of the Western Sea Army in Jiangnan. With excellent soldiers in the Southeast, if he could effectively promote it, the Western Sea Army wouldn’t lack a source of troops in the future.

However, this benefit couldn’t last too long...

"Alright, leave this side to you and Wei Gongcheng..." Chen Qing said: "I need to make a trip back."

"Huh?" Tian Heng was startled. The Southeastern lands had just been recovered, and a lot of work needed to be done, such as the arrangement of the civil officials in each county, administrative planning, and even the most critical point—after the occupation of the Southeast, how would the new Netherworld be allocated?

The Shen Family must be green with envy by now, right?

In such a moment, shouldn’t he take the opportunity to arrange things to calm the people’s hearts instead of rushing back right away? But had something happened in Jiangnan?

"Does my lord have urgent matters to attend to?"

"Hmm... there are some things to deal with. You have full authority over the military defense here, and Wei Gongcheng will be the principal for the distribution of civil officers."

"Yes!" Tian Heng responded, but then couldn’t help but ask, "Then, my lord, how should the new Netherworld... be allocated?"

He already had a sufficiently high status and power, and theoretically, he should not inquire, but the Netherworld’s role was too significant. If possible, he really wanted to secure a position for the Tian Family!