To the accompaniment of muffled war drums and blaring horns, Luo Shenhuang led over a hundred thousand Divine Phoenix Army elites into battle against the Northern Barbarian Army once more!
Although the Death Row Camp had not taken the field, Ding Hao could imagine that both sides must have fought until the sky darkened and blood flowed into rivers!
Sure enough, after half a day of slaughter, the Northern Barbarians sounded the gong to withdraw. Ding Hao followed the Death Row Camp onto the battlefield and began collecting corpses!
As far as the eye could see, nearly ten thousand corpses had been left on the battlefield—one-third from the Divine Phoenix Army and two-thirds from the Northern Barbarian Army!
And that was only because the Divine Phoenix Army was the imperial army of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Had it been any other force, the casualties would certainly have been even higher!
"Alas!"
"The battlefield is cruel. No matter which side a soldier belongs to, once he dies on the battlefield, he has no value left. No one will spare him another thought!"
"Except—for me!!"
Ding Hao sighed at the battlefield's cruelty, then eagerly began frantically collecting the densely packed light orbs from the corpses!
Ding! Congratulations, Host, you picked up 5 points of vitality! Ding! Congratulations, Host, you picked up 8 points of vitality! Ding! Congratulations, Host, you picked up 10 points of vitality! Ding! Congratulations, Host, you picked up 3 points of spirit! Ding! Congratulations, Host, you picked up 5 points of comprehension! ...
As the notification chimes rang in his ears, his various attributes piled up wildly.
By the time he had swept the battlefield clean, he had accumulated over a thousand vitality points alone.
The only pity was this.
As his realm grew higher and higher, the vitality required also increased. To advance to the ninth rank, he needed at least eight thousand vitality points.
Even after gaining more than a thousand vitality points, he was still short by over six thousand!
"Take it slowly!"
"This war still has plenty of fighting left in it!"
In the end, Ding Hao returned to the Death Row Camp, his mindset completely at ease.
In his view,
this war concerned both the throne of Great Zhou's Empress and the survival of the northern barbarian tribes!
If the Divine Phoenix Army lost, Xia Weiyang, the Empress of Great Zhou, would certainly find her throne unstable!
If the Northern Barbarian Army perished, the northern barbarian tribes would surely be flattened by Great Zhou!
Neither side would yield. They would fight until one side was defeated and destroyed!
Sure enough.
The next day.
Luo Shenhuang beat the drums and sounded the horns again, leading her army into battle against the Northern Barbarians!
The two sides fought for another half-day, leaving more than ten thousand corpses behind on the battlefield once again.
As the slightly victorious side, the Divine Phoenix Army still entered first to clear the battlefield.
As for that,
Ding Hao was naturally delighted. After all, if the Northern Barbarian Army cleared the battlefield first, he would not be able to collect the corpses of all those barbarian soldiers.
Very soon,
after the second battlefield sweep, another thousand-odd vitality points came in!
After that, Luo Shenhuang fought several more battles against the Northern Barbarians in succession, while Ding Hao followed the Death Row Camp to clear the battlefield several times!
All told, he accumulated over eight thousand vitality points. As for spirit and comprehension, he accumulated two to three hundred points of each!
That night, in the Death Row Camp.
Having just returned from clearing the battlefield, Ding Hao could no longer wait to fuse all the attributes he had accumulated before and after!
As all his accumulated attributes fused, surging, vast vitality immediately rampaged through his body, sending his cultivation soaring with a boom!
In addition, his spirit and comprehension both rose by a considerable amount!
At last.
When Ding Hao opened his character panel, he was overjoyed beyond measure!
Host: Ding Hao Realm: Ninth-rank Martial Artist Vitality: 12350 Spirit: 260 Comprehension: 500 Luck: 0 (currently unavailable) Talent Bloodlines: Innate Strength, Light as a Swallow, Unyielding Resilience, Primordial Barbarian Bloodline (three strands)! Cultivation Methods and Martial Arts: Heavenly Tyrant Body Art (first level), One Qi Cultivation Method (major mastery), Three Talents Saber Technique (minor mastery), Tyrant Blade Slash (perfect mastery), Stepping Wind (perfect mastery), Golden Bell Shield (perfect mastery)... Items Owned: Mysterious Iron Saber, Golden Silk Soft Armor, Mysterious Treasure Map (one corner) ...
A ninth-rank Martial Artist!
At this realm, he had already reached the ceiling beneath the True Martial Realm!
Placed in an army, he could at least secure a position as a commander of a thousand men, or even serve as a deputy general!
Unfortunately, as long as Ding Hao's status as a death-row prisoner remained, no matter how powerful his cultivation and strength became, he could never receive an exceptional promotion!
In that respect, it was quite similar to his previous life.
Someone with a criminal record could not take the civil service exam or become an official. The only difference was that Ding Hao's crime had been arbitrarily assigned by the Empress!
And apart from his realm attributes, there was another change on the panel that appeared minor yet was immensely significant!
The Primordial Barbarian Bloodline had changed from one strand to three strands!
He had collected these two additional strands from the corpses of two Northern Barbarian generals who had died on the battlefield. It was an unexpected delight!
Since Ding Hao had previously collected the corpses of one or two other Northern Barbarian generals without obtaining any Primordial Barbarian Bloodline, he subtly asked Ding Yishan about it after obtaining them this time.
Only then did he discover their common trait. One of those Northern Barbarian generals was called Man Poshan, and the other Man Pohai. Like the former Man Poqi, they were both blood descendants of the Man Po family, the Northern Barbarian royal family!
"It seems only the Northern Barbarian royal family carries this Primordial Barbarian Bloodline!"
"But the bloodline within these generals is far too thin to be of much use!"
"Only when it drops out and is fused by me can it display remarkable divine might!"
"If I want more Primordial Barbarian Bloodline in the future, I can only collect the corpses of people from the Northern Barbarian Royal Court!"
At once, Ding Hao set this as his primary target in his heart!
After all, the Primordial Barbarian Bloodline granted him an enormous boost. It could even be said to be his greatest trump card so far!
Especially now that it had changed from one strand to three, not only had the Primordial Barbarian Strength it bestowed become stronger, even its side effects had diminished considerably!
Three strands were already like this—what about ten strands? A whole wisp? And if he collected a complete Primordial Barbarian Bloodline, just how powerful would that be!
As for those who possessed the bloodline of the Northern Barbarian Royal Court, they were easy enough to identify!
They all bore the surname Man Po, such as the Commander of Northern Barbarians—Man Potian!
Ding Hao had reason to believe that, as the Commander of Northern Barbarians, the Primordial Barbarian Bloodline within Man Potian's body was definitely far more abundant than that of ordinary generals!
But how to turn Man Potian into a cold corpse, then collect his body himself—that was clearly an enormous and difficult problem!
Just when Ding Hao thought there was no chance at all for such a thing!
Ding Yishan came to find him on his own initiative. The moment they met, however, he was stunned by Ding Hao's realm. "My heavens, when did you become a ninth-rank Martial Artist? This is too outrageous!"
One had to know.
When he had first met Ding Hao half a month ago, Ding Hao had only been a fourth-rank Martial Artist. Yet in less than half a month, he had crossed five ranks in a row!
Even the legendary heavenly beings probably could not achieve that!
Ding Hao shrugged and tried to explain, "Uh, what if I said that I was originally an expert, but I was severely injured before and left half-crippled, and now I'm gradually recovering—would you believe me?"
"I believe you!"
He had thought Ding Yishan would not believe him.
Yet the other man nodded heavily, seeming to believe it without the slightest doubt.
"Good, then!"
Ding Hao let out a soft breath.
After all, he could think of no other explanation. If he said he had a cheat, no one would understand what that meant.
But to keep Ding Yishan from getting to the bottom of things, he hurriedly changed the subject.
"General Ding, it is the middle of the night. What brings you to me?"
Only then did Ding Yishan's expression turn solemn.
At last, he spoke a sentence that nearly made Ding Hao leap into the air!!
Before you continue