Qing Chen stood with his hands behind his back, but his gaze was not on the tottering Mountain-Guarding Grand Formation. Instead, it moved between the formations of the Demon Lotus Army and the Cloud Province Dao Soldiers as he continually weighed the strengths of these two forces.
The Demon Lotus Army excelled in ferocity and willingness to fight, with clearly defined rewards and punishments, supported by War Treasure Ships, large quantities of excellent equipment, and numerous Fortune Talismans. In explosive power and assaulting fortified positions, it absolutely ranked among the best even in the Northwestern Circuit. After all, it also had a genius commander like Xin Bairen.
The Cloud Province Dao Soldiers were probably not as formidable as genuine Border Army troops, but they were still fairly good. They were, after all, combat-ready troops of the Northwestern Circuit, only somewhat inferior to the Demon Lotus Dao Soldiers.
Their military formations advanced and withdrew with discipline. The deputy generals and commandants' grasp of using terrain to blockade and divide the enemy had clearly been honed through years of bloody fighting on the borders.
"If I had another two million Dao Soldiers like these, if I could truly win their allegiance, and equip them with large numbers of War Treasure Ships and Fortune Crystals, I would dare fight even a Spirit Transformation Venerable!" Qing Chen's expression was impassive.
Those people had been right earlier. He had come today to establish his authority.
But they thought establishing his authority meant merely forcing Faneng Temple to bow its head, making the Cloud Province Prefectural Government yield, then using his title as Circuit-Surveying Governor to give the northwestern powers a round of warnings.
That was far too petty.
That sort of display could only make people wary for a while, not engrave the lesson into