He really did it.
Nanyang City, Shen Shiyi, who had personally gone to the surrounding Jiyun County to observe the situation, stared blankly at everything.
When they were collecting food, he, along with Laoshi and Shiyi, led a team through Jiyun County. At that time, it was truly a scene of carnage. Those who had never experienced war vomited violently. Everywhere, in the dark corners of the houses, there were bits and pieces of flesh, and every now and then, seven or eight living corpses would emerge.
This resulted in them gathering food at an extremely slow pace, and later they could only barely obtain enough food by relying on the support of Seventh Brother.
Who would have thought that in just over ten days, Jiyun County would have regained such popularity?
Although it certainly can't compare to the past, compared to the desolation during the day and the howling of ghosts at night, Jiyun County has now basically cleared out all the living corpses. Nearly four or five thousand people have been rescued from the surrounding villages and towns. Looking at the young and strong villagers who are busy rebuilding, although the area is still desolate and dilapidated, it has already shown a great deal of vitality!
It's only been a little over ten days!
The key point is that Chen Qing's military strength expanded at an unbelievable speed. Because of the affluent life in Nanyang City, even with the temptation of generous military pay, Miao Miao number of people who initially responded to Chen Qing was very small. On the day of departure, Chen Qing seemed to have only managed to gather two thousand new soldiers.
In just over ten days, not only have the two thousand new recruits become strong warriors capable of standing alone and defending the county town, but new young men have also been joining in droves, and the number of people in the two county towns has almost doubled for Chen Qing!
And these are only the two counties closest to Nanyang City.
It's important to understand that the closer a county is to Nanyang, the more severely it was hit, and the fewer people survived. Conversely, the further away from the river and the city center a county is, the more survivors it will have. Nanyang governs dozens of counties with a population of nearly 100 million. Even if only one-tenth survives, how many soldiers could Chen Qing possibly raise under his current model?
" Seventh Brother, is there no restriction on him?"
"There should be," Shen Laoqi said with a smile, "We just don't know where the restrictions are."
" Seventh Brother, which side should we stand on?" Shen Shiyi asked curiously.
He was clearly asking about Chen Qing and the imperial court!
Chen Qing's act of privately hiring mercenaries has a clear purpose: he wants to establish a separatist regime in Jiangnan!
If he wants to establish a separatist regime in Jiangnan, then the Shen Family, the local power in Jiangnan, must make a statement: whether they will resist Chen Qing and the court's joint suppression of this rebel, or join Chen Qing in facing the pressure from the court and truly establish a separatist regime in Jiangnan!
"That depends on what Chen Qing can offer the Shen Family," Shen Laoqi said quietly.
Chen Qing's potential is indeed extremely strong. This Battle God Mode, which can transfer power, is simply an unreasonable weapon. If there are no side effects or drawbacks, and given enough time, Chen Qing will definitely have the strength to confront the imperial court head-on.
But what he lacks is time!
Although the Great Jin Dynasty has only been established for twenty years, its foundation is quite solid. Families with bloodlines supporting this new dynasty account for 80% of the total population in the world, and 90% of the families of sorcerers serve in the court. Such a scale is extremely rare in the entire history of humankind. The Central Plains dynasty, which ruled the Central Plains for a thousand years, probably did not have such a level of support.
Not to mention, back then, those aristocratic families acquired terrifying power under the King of Qin.
The imperial court now has an even number of experts approaching the level of the Shen Family patriarch. If they were to go all out, Chen Qing's current power would be no different from that of an ant.
Collaborating with Chen Qing carries considerable risk.
However, risks and rewards often go hand in hand. The Shen Family has never been the type to settle for less. If Chen Qing can offer enough sincerity and guarantees, the Shen Family might be willing to stand by Chen Qing's side.
Of course, at the very least, Chen Qing must demonstrate some ability to resist the imperial court.
Seventh Master Shen said quietly, "For now, we'll just pretend we don't know. Whether we cooperate or not depends on how far this Young Lord Chen can go in this limited time!"
"Limited time?" The Laoshiyi was taken aback. " Seventh Brother, what do you mean by that?"
"I'm not an expert in formations, but I can tell," said Shen Laoqi, looking at the thick fog on the river, "That this formation probably won't last much longer!"
--
"The magic array won't last long?"
Shen Lao'er frowned at Chen Qing: "What do you mean? Didn't you say that this magic array is an ancient one, maybe hundreds of thousands of years old?"
"You know it's been hundreds of thousands of years, right?" Chen Qing rolled her eyes at the other person. "It's quite impressive that it's lasted this long, okay? You should know from how much trouble your Laoda was able to cause in the West Sea, and how your Shen Family ancestor was able to secretly cooperate with the Ancient Insect inside for so long, that the magic array should have been riddled with holes long ago. Otherwise, why do you think that monster was imprisoned for hundreds of thousands of years, yet only your family ancestor was able to contact it?"
"It wasn't that your ancestor was lucky to encounter them; rather, those Ancient Insect could no longer contain them, so they chose your ancestor!"
Shen Lao'er: "."
"Then what is it now?" Shen Lao'er asked, frowning.
"Now? The reason it can still be maintained now is because the Ancient Insect weren't ready yet. But things are different now. The princess's scheme has been successfully set up, and the one in the West Sea should be almost ready as well. With enough containers for their high-level familiars, they will find an opportunity to break the formation directly!"
"Why do we need enough containers before breaking the formation?" Shen Lao'er asked, puzzled.
"Because of fear," Chen Qing laughed. "Even a wrecked ship has three thousand nails. This magic array is the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient array masters. To break it, the nine Ancient Insect can only resort to the extreme method of shedding their skin!"
"Peeling method?"
"Yes, it's similar to a snake shedding its skin," Chen Qing said in a low voice. "It's the Art of Dragon Transformation that your ancestor has been longing for!"
Shen Lao'er's eyelids twitched. "Explain more clearly!"
" The Art of Dragon Transformation is a Samsara art that combines Yin and Yang. It uses the shedding of a snake's skin to gain new life. Each shedding removes a large amount of karma, leaving only the essence of the original body. The decay and old are gone, and the essence and blood are reborn, which is the essence of the Dragon Transformation. This method was originally created by Ancient Insect to break formations. Because formations rely on markings to track Ancient Insect, as long as the Ancient Insect keep shedding their skin, eventually removing the soul markings layer by layer, the formations will be unable to track them and will become useless!"
"I see." Shen Lao'er nodded, then asked, "You just said that the reason they didn't use the Art of Dragon Transformation at first was because they were afraid?"
"Yes," Chen Qing nodded, "This technique will greatly weaken the main body, especially the dozens of consecutive moltings, which will leave the main body in an extremely weak state. At that time, the Ancient Insect will need their followers to protect them."
"Over the years, those guys have been lying in wait, condensing their essence and cultivating one high-level subordinate after another, all for this crucial moment!"
"Once we have enough containers to hold their retinue, the battle will begin!"
Hehehe
A sinister laugh emanated from Shen Laoliu's mouth beside him. His face was expressionless, and he was already in a daze. Inside Shen Laoliu's body, an ancient being finally couldn't help but make a sound.
"I thought you'd keep it to yourself," Chen Qing Shen Laoliu, amused.
"Who exactly are you?" Shen Laoliu stiffly looked up, and Shen Lao'er's expression changed drastically upon seeing this. He thought he had completely controlled the thing inside Laoliu's body, but he didn't expect the other party to still be able to make moves.
" The Art of Dragon Transformation was something our father created himself after he was trapped in the magic array. No one in this world should know about it. How could you possibly know such a thing? Did that Baiyu Yu tell you?"
Chen Qing rolled her eyes slightly. A woman as cunning as Baiyu would never tell her such a crucial point!
Chen Qing had thought about this weakness for a long time.
After all, when the Dragon Palace opened, most players were only in the first stage, and they were no match for the fully evolved Ancient Insect.
Any game that is difficult but offers no real chance of winning is meaningless.
But Chen Qing has a habit: when designing monsters, he likes to design the difficulty first and then the weaknesses, which gives him a sense of satisfaction in overcoming them.
After designing the Ancient Insect, it was discovered that players in the first stage simply couldn't defeat Ancient Insect.
So, as a last resort, Chen Qing had to come up with a fatal flaw: if players wanted to win against the Ancient Insect Ancient Insect, they had to find its location after it broke through the Ancient Insect and was in a state of extreme weakness, defeat all of its minions, and kill it before Ancient Insect recovered!
This flaw was too rigid and not clever, which Chen Qing considered to be his worst design mistake.
"How much longer?" Shen Lao'er asked hastily.
"It shouldn't be long," Chen Qing sighed. "If the Eldest Princess, that is, your fifth brother, can take down the Duke of Qin's forces after swallowing the Golden Dragon Guard, even if it's just half of them, then she will already have the strongest vessel in the world. Especially those few dukes, if they are taken down, their families will probably be close to His Majesty's level, almost foolproof!"
"As for the West Sea, your Laoda will probably start working on breaking the formation after he's absorbed all the West Sea soldiers!"
"From what you're saying, it seems like we're just waiting to die?"
"How can you say that?" Chen Qing shrugged with a smile. "Don't we still have you? You're our trump card here. In crucial moments, we'll have to rely on you!"
Shen Lao'er: "."