Gu Clan

"It looked like I'd hit a bug. For a cultivation method that couldn't even be started, I could first use the Clear Light to deduce it. Once I completed the innovation, I'd naturally reach the entry level."

He couldn't help thinking of the movement technique he had yet to master.

Perhaps...

He shook his head.

Gu Jinlai quickly abandoned the idea.

For one thing, the Eight Extremes Roaming Dragon Body no longer suited his current combat style. For another, with only one strand of Clear Light left, he couldn't afford to waste it.

He glanced at the remaining Clear Light, then at the Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method and the Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method.

After a brief moment of thought, the last strand of Clear Light landed on the orb of the Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method.

For a time, Gu Jinlai felt as though he had spent ten years immersed in this body-refinement method.

How to rapidly refine Demonic Beast blood, how to strip away the demonic nature within it, how to use the power of bloodline to strengthen every part of his body—all of it was laid out with crystal clarity, familiar as an old road.

Demonic Beasts, mid-rank Demonic Beasts, High-ranking Demonic Beasts, great Demonic Beasts, mid-rank great Demonic Beasts, High-ranking great Demonic Beasts...

He understood every detail of how the body should be tempered at each stage.

Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method: Entry → Minor Mastery.

"Unfortunately, like the Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method, this kind of cultivation method only gives me a deeper understanding of these techniques, making cultivation more efficient and their operation smoother. It can't conjure the corresponding spiritual sense or physique out of thin air."

Gu Jinlai closed his eyes and carefully savored the insights.

To increase his combat power, he still had to work on swordsmanship, secret arts, and movement techniques.

As a border city of Chi Province, Red Wind City had a situation as intricate and tangled as Changjun City's.

However, compared with Changjun City's population of more than three million, Red Wind City had only a little over four hundred thousand. Including its eight subordinate counties and towns, the total was only around 1.3 million.

The city was made up of a Spirit Refining city lord belonging to the Purgatory Sect, the Three Great Families, and six local sects.

The Gu Clan was one of the Three Great Families.

Two Core Forming cultivators.

Nine Gang Condensing cultivators.

Twenty-eight Qi Refining cultivators.

Of the two Core Forming cultivators, one was the clan head, Gu Changfeng, Gu Jinlai's elder brother, who was already seventy-four years old.

The other was his eldest son, Gu Haoran, who was forty-nine.

At that moment, the Gu Clan Town training grounds less than thirty li from the city were packed with people, with flags fluttering in the wind.

There were a full three thousand people here.

Although nearly two thousand of those three thousand had been recruited recently and had not trained for long, the system of veteran soldiers training new recruits made the three thousand still look mighty and imposing.

With the matter being of such importance, Gu Changfeng had handed the clan's trivial affairs to Gu Haoran and personally brought people to Gu Clan Town to train the soldiers, not daring to be careless in the slightest.

At that moment, in a room beside the training grounds, Gu Changfeng was counting money and provisions.

Beside him were his second son, Gu Daoyuan, and his sixth daughter's husband, Zhan Shaoheng.

"The three hundred elite soldiers, eighty warriors, and forty centurions of the Long Wind Army have been incorporated into the three thousand. We're using veterans to train new recruits so that these three thousand can gain combat capability as quickly as possible. We'll also select the best one thousand from among them to raise as elites."

Zhan Shaoheng spoke.

"Do we still have enough silver?"

"After selling all the treasures Second Uncle sent, we obtained 1.44 million taels... Recruiting personnel, purchasing armor and weapons, warhorses, grain, and fodder consumed most of it. We have 480,000 taels left, which is enough to support a year's expenses without difficulty."

Gu Daoyuan paused slightly as he spoke. "But after deducting all expenses, our Gu Clan has less than 200,000 taels left each year. If we're to maintain this three-thousand-man army while training one thousand of them as elites, next year... I'm afraid we'll have a shortfall of 300,000 taels."

Three hundred thousand taels.

That number...

"It's fine. When the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally go straight through. As long as we grit our teeth and endure this period, once the one thousand elites and two thousand soldiers have finished training, how could we worry about finding new sources of income?"

Gu Changfeng spoke in a steady tone.

"I have a friend serving as a protector in the Purgatory Sect. Recently, rumors have been spreading through the Purgatory Sect that are quite unfavorable to Second Uncle... And now we're making such a major move here..."

Gu Daoyuan hesitated.

Before he could finish, Gu Changfeng interrupted him. "It's precisely because my second brother's situation is unfavorable that we have to prop things up for him here."

"Yes."

"You must remember this: when one branch of the Gu Clan prospers, all prosper; when one suffers, all suffer. The reason our Gu Clan has been able to develop so rapidly over the years and become one of the three clans of Red Wind City is entirely thanks to your Second Uncle's achievements as an elder of the Purgatory Sect. Now that our Gu Clan is rising, we must likewise repay your Second Uncle, ensuring that Lin Xiao won't dare act without restraint against him."

Gu Changfeng's tone was emphatic.

"I'll remember."

Gu Daoyuan nodded.

At that moment, a Gu Clan disciple entered with two people.

When he saw who had arrived, Gu Changfeng was startled. "Nian Buwang, and Nanxing too? Why have you come?"

He immediately gestured with an open hand. "Please, sit."

"Clan Head Gu."

Su Nanxing bowed and said nothing more.

"Clan Head..."

Nian Buwang stepped forward and glanced around.

Understanding, Gu Changfeng waved his hand. Gu Daoyuan and Zhan Shaoheng closed the doors and windows, then stood guard outside the room.

Nian Buwang untied the bundle on his back and presented a box one chi square. "This is something the Old Ancestor asked me to deliver. He solemnly instructed me to personally place it in your hands, Clan Head, and have you personally decide how to handle it."

Gu Changfeng opened the box. After seeing the several secret manuals inside and flipping through them only briefly, his expression changed.

"These cultivation methods..."

He instinctively wanted to ask where the cultivation methods had come from, but immediately realized that too many people must not learn of this matter. He said at once, "I understand Second Brother's intentions."

"In addition, from now on, the Old Ancestor will send over one million taels of silver each year. His meaning is that with this one million taels of annual income, the Gu Clan can afford to support three thousand elite soldiers."

"One million taels of silver!? Second Brother... How did he manage that?"

Gu Changfeng's eyes widened.

The Gu Clan had only 200,000 taels left over in an entire year.

An annual income of one million!?

How astonishing was that?

"The Old Ancestor switched to cultivating as a Celestial Master and mastered a new type of artifact-forging method. He can forge three sets of armor a month. The battle armor he produces weighs no more than eighty jin, yet its defensive power is comparable to that of high-grade precious armor."

Nian Buwang continued, "Whether the clan should establish three thousand elite soldiers or withdraw part of the funds to focus on cultivating Qi Refining clansmen, allowing them to bear precious armor, wield divine weapons, and form battle arrays to kill enemies—that is for you, Clan Head, to decide!"

"High-grade precious armor!?"

Gu Changfeng was dumbfounded.

Was high-grade precious armor really so easy to forge?

Three sets a month!?

Even if he rested for two months a year, that would still be thirty sets!

If thirty True Qi or Gang Condensing experts wore such precious armor, then joined a thousand elite soldiers to form a battle array and surround an enemy, forget Core Forming cultivators—even one or two Spirit Refining cultivators could be trapped and killed.

Spirit Refining cultivators' ability to fight a thousand referred to ordinary soldiers.

Against elites, they could only fight while retreating and stretch out the battle line, avoiding being surrounded.

In a melee involving hundreds or thousands of people, there was not much room to dodge and maneuver. Attacks came from all directions, forcing Spirit Refining cultivators to maintain True Qi protection at all times. If they could not break through the defense formed by dozens of Qi Refining and Gang Condensing cultivators wearing high-grade precious armor, their True Qi would soon be exhausted, and they would die of exhaustion.

"Three sets of high-grade precious armor a month... Second Brother must be exhausting himself to the limit to forge them."

After a long while, Gu Changfeng finally took a deep breath. "His current situation must be extremely perilous. After his cultivation realm fell, he had no choice but to use this method to make our Gu Clan rise as quickly as possible, lest the Gu Clan suffer persecution from the Purgatory Sect because of him..."

After speaking, he looked at Su Nanxing. "A Celestial Master refines Qi into spirit. He must be extremely weak right now, correct?"

Su Nanxing thought of Gu Jinlai's appearance as he carried two thousand jin and strode as swiftly as flying, each saber strike breaking the sound barrier...

He didn't know how to answer.

"You don't need to say anything. I understand. I understand everything. I'll complete the elite training as quickly as possible."

Gu Changfeng made a solemn promise. "Within a year at the latest, I will complete the army's training and bring him home. By then, Lin Xiao and the Purgatory Sect will no longer dare harm even a single hair on his head."

(The one-year deadline has arrived!)