Divine Brilliance

“You told me to teach her the Art of War because you wanted her to lead an army. I don’t think this brat has such a talent!”

 Zong Shou’s heart leapt a little. The current Ruolan indeed did not show any potential to be an unparalleled general.

 Apart from one’s natural ability, one’s skills were decided by the environment and by experience.

 It was tough to say whether or not Shi Ruolan would become stronger under Hanfang’s tutelage, or in that dog-eat-dog world of the past.

 When one person gains something, another will definitely lose something else.

 Zong Shou broke out into a laugh. If, a few years back, he had had a selfish reason for finding her, then at this moment he really treated her as his sister.

 If she doesn’t succeed, then he would forget his plan.

 “Why does Senior Brother say that? No matter how unskilled she, is she will be better than normal people!” Zong Shou contested.

 Hanfang frowned, not knowing what he should say. How would the an unparalleled talent be just a little above average in strength? A moment later he forced out a sentence, “She doesn’t follow rules!”

 Zong Shou was totally lost. Doesn’t follow rules? What kind of reason was that? What rules doesn’t she follow? She doesn’t listen to instructions?

 “I told her about the Art of War, when I spoke about how ‘If one rushes two hundred miles to fight, one’s general might die. If one hundred miles, they would only be fighting with half their strength,’ she asked me about what it meant with, ‘When an army travels quickly they travel like a wind, when they travel slow they are spread out like a dense forest.’ Was it definite that when one travelled two hundred miles to fight, that they would lose their general?”

 He seemed to have opened up the floodgates as he continued speaking furiously, “I taught her chess. That one infantry section can only travel one hundred and forty miles a day, but she wanted to travel one hundred and sixty. When I asked her the reason, she said that she would abandon the armour and heavy items, which was why she was able to travel one hundred and sixty miles. All in all…”

 He stammered, like he was thinking of how to phrase his next words. In the end, he said, “Anyways, she will not bother with you when you want to reason with her. When you use underhanded means to play, then she will reason with you. That brat is treating the Art of War like a joke.”

 Zong Shou was stunned as he looked back at Shi Ruolan. This brat looked back at the two of them innocently. Like she was saying that she really didn’t do it on purpose.

 Zong Shou actually laughed out loud in the next moment, filled with joy. He touched her head, this brat really didn’t disappoint him!

 Hanfang was totally confused by that sudden laugh, not knowing what that fellow was happy about.

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 He said that he wanted Zong Shou to directly take her away, but when they separated Hanfang was really unwilling.

 Helplessly, Zong Shou could only stay for ten days within the Common People Vast Habitat to let the master and student spend more time together. He could also deal with some matters regarding Tanqiu. He wanted to let his senior and junior brothers and sisters have the chance to gain respect for him, and improve the relationship.

 Hanfang had a really complicated expression as they were about to leave. He shoved a huge bundle over to Shi Ruolan.

 … Pills, Magical Artifacts, mind stones, talismans. Some of the items within even tempted Zong Shou.

 As for that Heaven and Earth Bag, it was seven times bigger than the one he was using!

 After saying their goodbyes, he used the Teleportation Jade to return back to Gantian Mountain.

 By now, Zhao Yanran had already returned with the wood and the Royal Demon God Shuttle two days prior.

 Maybe due to her reputation, although the shuttle carried treasures, they were totally safe and nothing unexpected happened.

 After Renbo heard about this he was happy for close to half a day.

 All these ancient wood shards were enough to reduce the amount needed to modify the space ships by fifty percent.

 Now, Zong Shou wasn’t in much of a mood to think about this matter. He learnt that dozens of days ago, Zong Gang had already ordered four hundred thousand specially selected infantry to be sent over by the navy to Rainbow City Li Port, to head over to Huizhou. Zong Shou hurriedly summoned Zhang Huai to ask him a few questions, before once again turning the shuttle towards Lianyun Island.

 Without the giant pieces of wood adding weight, the speed of the shuttle increased once more. In a just a day, Zong Shou arrived in the sky above the islands once more.

 There wasn’t much difference from ten days ago. Only that the stench had became a little thicker.

 How many people did this Weihai behead over these ten days?

 He lowered the flying shuttle as he headed towards the few islands that Weihai had designated for him.

 As expected, there were thousands of cloud ships docked there.

 Apart from various ships carrying resources and army ships carrying soldiers, there were five hundred Three Tooth Warships and close to a hundred Five Tooth Warships.

 There were even dozens of Seven Tooth and Nine Tooth ones.

 They were all spread out in an orderly manner. Numerous Six Arm and even Seven Arm Crossbows pointed outwards. The soldier’s demeanour was firm, sending off a threatening aura.

 There were already people on the island to organize the camp.

 The moment Zong Shou landed the Royal Demon God Shuttle on the deck of one of the Nine Tooth Giant Ship, Zong Gang and the others who came to welcome him had dark expressions. Their faces were extremely ugly and their eyes were filled with rage.

 Zong Shou’s brow furrowed. After looking around, he roughly knew what had happened.

 The giant crossbows arranged on the arrow platforms had all been all taken away.

 It would have been okay if it was just that. However, the mind stones placed for the spiritual formations around were also gone.

 One needed a long time to draw and set up these formations.

 Zong Shou squinted as he looked towards the main island dozens of miles away.

 There were ten people looking over. The Huizhou City Lords’ faces fluctuated between green and white as they looked at the fleets of warships.

 They looked like they were stunned by the Gantian Mountain army’s strength, and were regretting their actions.

 Weihai had Great Shang as a shield, so naturally he didn’t need to worry about Gantian Mountain. However, if Zong Shou wanted to take their lives, it was as easy as a flick of the finger!

 Weihai was smiling as he cupped his fists in apology.

 Kong Xuan scoffed coldly.

 Zong Shou was delighted, and bowed back, and then he ignored them. He turned his head to hear Zong Gang say coldly,

 “It is okay if they take the crossbows. After all, they belong to Great Shang. Those Spiritual Crossbows are expensive and it is acceptable if they don’t want to share. We can not worry about them only giving us one hundred thousand’s worth of resources and grain. However, what’s the meaning of destroying all the spiritual formations?”

 Lingxuan, who stood at the side, added, “That Weihai is so despicable. He has such nefarious intentions. Does he think that other people don’t know about him?”

 Zong Yuan and Ren Tianxing kept silent, but their expressions were really serious.

 Hu Zhongyuan bowed, buzzing, “Ruler please give the order to call back the troops! What does this Huizhou Island have to do with us?”

 The moment those words were said, everyone was silent, no one agreeing.

 They all frowned.

 Zong Shou’s eyes shone before he laughed out loud.

 If this had been said a few days ago, it would actually be a good idea.

 However, since the Night Demons could attack from here at any moment, he couldn’t help but think about other things…

 Those spiritual crossbows for the arrow platform could be removed from the navy.

 However, the Nine Arm Spiritual Crossbows which were the strongest were tough to move.

 Moreover, it was unknown whether or not they could fix these spiritual formations before the Night Demons arrived.

 Even if they completed them, it would be tough to make them perfect. If he was that Prince Jia Mingluo, he would definitely choose to attack this spot and not other places with stronger defences.

 It was too kind to say that Weihai had nefarious intentions.

 If this was dozens of days ago, no matter how shrewd he was, he would have been annoyed when he found this out. However, now, he just laughed it off.

 “We can’t!”

 Ren Tianxing stepped out, braving the killer eyes of Hu Zhongyuan and the others. “Half a day ago, Zong Yuan and I worked together to scout. Outside the world there are millions of Night Demons, and all of them are elites able to compete against the Xue Family Race Soldiers. If we can’t work together with Great Shang, Gantian Mountain won’t be able to handle it alone and will definitely suffer heavy losses. Even if we want to retreat, we must have a safety net.”

 The people around were all experienced. When they heard that, they all nodded in agreement.

 Only Hu Zhongyuan’s face turned red from rage.

 Zong Shou smiled and understood what Ren Tianxing meant. If Weihai stopped caring after they left and also withdrew his troops, what would happen?

 Not only would Gantian Mountain have to deal with the Night Demons, the Cloud World Sects and countries would also blame them.

 As for a plan, naturally they had to make the hundreds of thousands of elites of Great Shang remain. Once the war started, those people would not be able to leave even if they wanted to.

 He would have shaken his head in defeat before he learnt of the Great Death Restriction Formation. With how smart Weihai was, he wouldn’t take the brunt of damage for others. But now, knowing about the Great Death Restriction, Zong Shou was confident.

 This person definitely wasn’t planning something small since he was using ten million lives as sacrifice. He wouldn’t retreat so easily.

 He already had a plan and didn’t need to bother with anything else.

 “Since we can’t retreat, then let’s stay!”

 Hu Zhongyuan’s eyes bugged out in rage, before he suppressed his feelings.

 Zong Gang gritted his teeth. He wanted to say something, but stopped himself in the end.

 His personality was actually more explosive than Hu Zhongyuan’s, but since he had been promoted to Right Pillar General, he had started to pay attention to the big picture and become much calmer.

 If this was in the past, he would have fought the Great Shang troops.

 Taking a deep breath, he bowed. “I will organize the Spirit Masters to set up the formation! I also brought sixty grade-9 Energy-Destroying Crossbows to be used here…”

 Zong Shou shook his head, his expression filled with deep meaning. “There’s no need to do so much. Since there’s one ready, then let’s just use that one. Why do you want to set up a new one?”

 The people around him were startled when they heard this, and didn’t know what he meant.

 He then took out a wooden box and passed it to Kong Yao.

 “Do you remember what you said ten days ago?”