Terrain Advantage

The troops marched forward.

Riding the mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex, Gu Jinlai was like a banner, walking in the procession.

Any soldier who glances back at the mechanical tyrannosaurus's ferocious and terrifying face, and its massive body several stories high, will feel a sense of security from the bottom of their heart.

With even higher morale, we are even more determined to fight.

At this moment, Lu Zhanfeng approached Gu Jinlai and transmitted a message through divine sense. "Elder, it's not that the other elders are unwilling to come and reinforce us, but the Yellow Spring Sect is eyeing us covetously and is holding back our strength. Our Purgatory Sect is truly powerless. Before we learned of the Lu Zhanxian, who planned to lead all the elders to come and provide assistance."

"I see."

A calm response Gu Jinlai.

It's better to rely on yourself than on others.

This principle doesn't need to be taught by anyone.

Although he became the Supreme Elder of the Purgatory Sect, he did not bring any substantial benefits to the Purgatory Sect. Given the threat from the Yellow Springs Sect, he was not surprised that the Purgatory Sect made this choice.

The most important point...

He himself had no desire to get too involved with the Purgatory Sect.

"It's good that the Supreme Elder understands. The truth is... the Yellow Springs Sect has been eyeing our Purgatory Sect for a long time. Although they haven't completely united with Dragon Sparrow Manor to form an alliance, they don't want to see our Purgatory Sect grow stronger. Once we really take Dragon Sparrow Manor and control three states, the Yellow Springs Sect will have no power to resist. That's why they have no choice but to take a risky move, even if it means a full-scale war with our Purgatory Sect."

Lu Zhanfeng explained.

Gu Jinlai nodded.

The army marched forward.

A large number of Meteor Guard members were dispatched to send back intelligence.

Nian Buwang also dispatched a large number of scouts to be on guard and prevent any attack along the way.

With an army of 80,000 marching, there were simply too many problems to deal with. Even though the army in this world had strict requirements, Nian Buwang and the others were not generals from a military background, so there were still some unsatisfactory aspects.

However, the true purpose of these soldiers was actually to pursue the enemy in victory, capture cities, and maintain order.

The real force responsible for the assault was the 1,300 Demon God Guards and the artillery.

Despite their small number, their superior equipment made them more capable in actual combat than an army of 80,000.

The army maintained a speed of 100 li per day and quickly crossed the border between Star Province and Jiangzhou. Several days later, they arrived at the first city on the border of Jiangzhou, Quexian City.

Since Longque Manor did not intend to fight Gu Jinlai the death in Quexian City, there were almost no soldiers in Quexian City. The city's residents and wealthy families also packed up their wealth and food and evacuated to the capital, Longxiao City. What remained were the old, weak, sick and disabled.

With no food in the city, and these elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people unable to support themselves, their presence in Quexian City was not only a burden but also a liability to the Gu Jinlai.

Therefore, Gu Jinlai had to stay in Quexian City for a day, and send a group of people to stay in Quexian City and maintain the city's order.

The army continued its march.

After five days of trekking, they finally entered the territory of Longxiao City, the capital of Jiangzhou.

They encountered a lot of harassment along the way, but it did not have any real impact on them.

Furthermore, Gu Jinlai occupied three cities along the way, and encountered almost no resistance in these three cities.

Despite the fact that Longque Manor had withdrawn all its elite troops, Gu Jinlai closer observation, it was discovered that the residents of these three cities shared a common characteristic—apathy.

Similar to when Gu Jinlai in Lingxiao City, they were as numb as the citizens of Lingxiao City.

After he learned a little about it, Gu Jinlai soon had a detailed report on the livelihood of the people in Jiangzhou.

"The system is similar to that of the Purgatory Sect, with Primordial Spirit True Lord Monarchs, Supreme Elders, Spirit Transformation Elders, and Spirit Refining Elders, under whom are Core Forming Protectors, Gang Condensing Supervisors, and Qi Refining Attendants. In addition to this system, each city is equivalent to the fiefdom of each elder. The sect only provides guidance on how the fiefdom is governed without directly interfering, but the output of the fiefdom goes partly to the elder and partly to the sect..."

From Gu Jinlai at the descriptions in the documents in their hands.

Elders were equivalent to the lords of each city.

The city of Quexian, which he occupied first, was actually the fiefdom of Ye Dongliu, the elder who had ambushed him earlier.

Besides the elder statesman, who is the highest ruler, there are generally three types of institutions below him: the government office, the military council, and the martial arts association. The government office is responsible for handling trivial matters in the city, the military council trains troops to guard the local area, and the martial arts association is for local martial arts schools.

Only masters of the Dragon Sparrow Manor at the level of a protector can open a martial arts school, and only disciples of such schools can join the military.

Without joining a martial arts school, one cannot become a disciple or soldier; there are virtually no human rights to speak of.

Once you reach the Body Tempering Realm and become formal disciple of the martial arts school, you will immediately become a superior person. As long as you have a suitable reason, even if you kill one or two civilians, you will only have to pay some money.

What this world has no shortage of is false accusations.

Therefore, these formal disciple of martial arts schools would use their martial arts skills and privileged status to exploit and oppress the surrounding people to the extreme.

The local government and martial arts associations not only failed to stop it, but instead turned a blind eye to this phenomenon, using it to encourage the martial spirit of ordinary people.

Therefore, for ordinary people, practicing martial arts, becoming formal disciple of a martial arts school, joining the army in the future, or even becoming formal disciple of Dragon Sparrow Manor is the only way out for everyone.

However, practicing martial arts requires immense energy, and many families struggle to support even one Body Tempering Realm martial artist despite exhausting their resources.

Therefore, it is often the case that a large Lineage or several households place all their hopes on one person.

Once a person enters the Body Tempering Realm, in order to repay their Lineage, they will do their utmost to exploit and oppress others.

In order to get rid of this phenomenon, others also had to spend a lot of money to train Body Tempering martial artists.

This creates a cycle.

Everyone is a competitor.

In this competition, those who Body Tempering, Organ Refining their Blood-Changing Martial Artist either become the backbone of the martial arts school or join the army to become elite warriors. The most outstanding ones can stand out and join Dragon Sparrow Manor as peripheral disciples. If they can cultivate True Qi and become True Disciple, they will truly rise to prominence and bring glory to their ancestors.

"Ordinary people who cannot successfully Body Tempering lack even basic human rights; their lives and deaths are entirely at the mercy of martial artists. Furthermore, some top forces in Dragon Sparrow Manor collude to inflate the prices of all resources related to martial arts training, thereby exploiting the people. Ultimately, countless people exhaust their efforts and work diligently to cultivate a single Body Tempering martial artist, eventually becoming numb and apathetic, like walking corpses..."

Gu Jinlai put down the intelligence in his hand. "So, although these cities look lifeless, the number of experts in Dragon Sparrow Manor, especially those at the Core Forming, Spirit Refining, and even Spirit Transformation stages, far surpasses that of Star Province and even forces like the Purgatory Sect."

Similarly, those who have gone through countless hardships to rise from the bottom to the privileged class of Dragon Sparrow Manor will naturally do their utmost to protect their status, rule, and interests.

So...

Only Dragon Sparrow Manor possesses unparalleled cohesion and remains steadfast in its actions.

"The Six Immortal Sects"

He spoke expressionlessly, as if Gu Jinlai.

He had long known that there was no difference between the Six Immortal Sects and the Ten Great Demon Sects; it was simply a matter of the victor becoming king and the loser becoming a bandit.

Now it seems...

That's exactly right.

"Dragon Roar City is just a hundred miles ahead."

Xin Tianqi stepped forward and asked, "Dragon Sparrow Manor is different from other forces. Local martial arts schools assist the government in maintaining order. If there is any unrest, the army will be sent to suppress it. If the army cannot suppress it, then experts from Dragon Sparrow Manor will be asked to step in. Their army follows a pure elite route. Even the weakest soldiers have the cultivation of Body Tempering Realm. And now, centered on Dragon Roar City, such elites have gathered a total of 56,000 people."

Gu Jinlai nodded.

He already knew this.

The total strength of Longque Manor is approximately 80,000.

More than 50,000 people have gathered in Dragon Roar City...

This is equivalent to more than 70% of the troops within the territory of Longque Mountain Manor.

In this battle, Dragon Sparrow Manor indeed intended to mobilize the entire strength of Dragon Sparrow Manor to fight a decisive battle.

"How do you plan to fight?"

Xin Tian abandoned the Dao.

"How do we fight..."

Gu Jinlai's gaze shifted and landed on a small mountain more than sixty miles away from Longxiao City.

This mountain is called Longteng Mountain. It is forty miles long and only thirty miles wide. It belongs to the Yunqi Mountain Range and is named after its proximity to Longxiao City.

This mountain has been a primary battleground Gu Jinlai.

"The first step is to take Longteng Mountain and set up heavy defenses there."

Gu Jinlai, "Dragon Sparrow Manor intends to use the advantageous terrain of the Dragon Profound Formation to await our attack. The defending forces are also concentrated in the core area of Dragon Roar City. After all, the attacking side usually suffers greater losses than the defending side. They only need to wear us down for a period of time, and the balance of power will gradually shift, but..."

He looked up and glanced at Gu Chifeng: "Dragon Soaring Mountain cannot be lost. You will lead the Demon God's personal guards to take action personally."

"Yes."

Gu Chifeng nodded solemnly in agreement.

Seeing this, Xin Tianqi didn't say anything, but simply followed quietly behind Gu Jinlai.

The procession continued onward.

As the area within a hundred miles of Dragon Roar City approached, the number of probes increased significantly, and an elite squad composed of experts from Dragon Sparrow Manor even attempted to ambush the artillery regiment.

Unfortunately, before they could get close, they were shot dead by the demon god's personal guards.

With over a thousand demon god guards, plus Spirit Transformation cultivators like Cheng Wanli, Lu Zhanfeng, Shi Chen, and Sha Wujin protecting both sides, this level of harassment would be completely insignificant to Gu Jinlai and his group unless all the top experts from Dragon Sparrow Manor came out in full force.

The Dragon Sparrow Manor seemed to have realized this as well, and the frequency of their harassment decreased significantly afterward.

Early the next morning.

From Gu Jinlai, he led the demon god's personal guards to officially ascend Dragon Soaring Mountain.

After conducting on-site inspections, they selected a high peak only about fifty miles from Longxiao City to set up an artillery position.

Meanwhile, the surrounding people set up various defenses to deal with the Dragon Sparrow Manor's attempt to seize the mountain.

"You think you can defend yourselves with the advantage of terrain? Wrong! The one with the advantage of terrain is our Lingxiao City."