Chapter 275: Black-Gold Heavy Iron

Their mobility and individual combat strength were far from what ordinary mortals could compare to. They easily destroyed the rations of the two armies and broke into the formation to kill their commander.

The two armies formed by the refugees immediately fell into chaos. They could neither advance nor retreat.

This was because the location that Jiang Li had chosen was extremely awkward. Be it advancing or retreating, it would take about ten days of marching time.

Before they could reach the place, they would have starved to death on the way.

Therefore, the chaotic soldiers could only stand guard in confusion.

Of course, among the tens of thousands of people, there would more or less be a few leaders.

This group of people quickly began to attempt to establish prestige and authority. After a small success, they began to attempt to reform the team.

They first went to the surrounding small villages to loot and plunder, then they robbed the border army.

However, how could Jiang Li let them do as they wished?

As long as there was such a sign, he would order people to rush in and kill the instigator.

Again and again, the soldiers' wills were continuously broken.

They also used arrows to shoot from time to time, spreading their fear in this unorganized army.

One day, two days, three days, five days, seven days.

Seven days later, under the ravaging of hunger and fear, the two troops collapsed their originally weak wills one after another, kneeling on the ground and crying for mercy.

It was not until they knelt for an entire day and were on the verge of death that Jiang Li ordered people to start the fire and make rice, allowing them to surrender.

As soon as they smelled the fragrance of food, these soldiers who were already starving to death no longer had any possibility of rejecting it and all chose to surrender.

Of course, there were also people who tried to cause trouble after eating their fill. Then, hundreds of wooden stakes were erected around the camp one after another.

These troublemakers who were hung on wooden stakes became the best examples to establish military rules.

Coupled with the appearance of a group of new Treant Overseers and Lord Village Chief's immortal methods, the hundred thousand soldiers from both sides were simply too obedient.

Of course, Jiang Li did not treat them badly.

He treated everyone equally. They ate and drank as they pleased, raising the weight that they had lost recently.

Then, he used the same trick again.

This group of original refugees brought a large amount of food back to the two main cities.

He did not do anything else but cook rice and roast meat every day. He was still at the center of the storm but did not stop for a moment.

One had to know that the food of the city defense army had already been reduced to a bowl of porridge every two days.

When they smelled this food, their tongues cramped up and they saw stars.

It was even more so for the refugees and citizens who had been out of food for a long time.

Wave after wave of refugees clamored to leave the city. In order to prevent a riot from happening and because Jiang Li's army was far enough away, the officials in the city agreed to open the city gate.

Their goal was to maintain stability, but with this opening, the people who went out immediately ate, and the people who stayed in the city were even more restless.

First, it was the refugees, then the citizens. Finally, under the cover of the night, a large number of soldiers escaped from the city every day.

After all, hunger could really drive people crazy.

In this era, with food and soldiers in his hands, he could really do whatever he wanted.

Jiang Li turned this calamity into nutrients to strengthen himself without causing any bloodshed.

In the illusion world, the long drought and famine lasted for a year and three months.

The two human cities that were originally leading the army calamity had unknowingly been destroyed by hunger.

Between them, a city blessed by the "miracle" rose from the ground.

Here, not only did no one starve to death, many residents even became obese. Their lives were simply too comfortable.

To Jiang Li's surprise, he actually found some hidden treasures in the illusion.

After destroying those two cities, he actually discovered a few Qi Refinement cultivators who were originally worshiped by the City Lord's Mansion and a few copies of books with ancient texts.

Jiang Li still held quite a bit of curiosity and respect towards the cultivators of this era.

After all, they were the pioneers who slowly developed the cultivation world from nothing.

The hardships were indeed not something that Jiang Li, who was born in this era, could understand.

After a long drought, a heavy rain revived everything.

When Zi Yao brought the remaining 20 villagers out of the forest, she subconsciously patted the mechanism in her hand.

She must have come to the wrong place. How could there be such a prosperous city in front of her?

Her original village had already disappeared without a trace. The original location of the encampment had long been covered by Jiang Li's city.

During this period of time, there were more and more wild beasts wandering in the forest.

This was also one of the effects of the spiritual qi recovery. A small number of wild beasts began to awaken their intelligence, absorbing the spiritual qi of heaven and earth to evolve towards demon beasts.

This portion of the wild beasts controlled the mountain ranges with absolute advantage. Although their main bodies were not necessarily strong, the beast tide they controlled was enough to pose a considerable threat to human cities.

During this period of time, a beast tide was also moving towards this direction.

Zi Yao and the others were the first to encounter a beast tide and suffered heavy losses.

She had to use three spell techniques in a row to barely bring these villagers out of the forest. Now, they had nowhere to go.

"Young Master, someone is outside seeking an audience."

At this moment, Jiang Li was studying a few new manuals.

In this era, cultivators faced great difficulty, and they had to study and learn everything themselves.

However, that was not without benefits.

In this era, there were too few cultivators in the cultivation world, so there was basically no competition.

No one competed with them for ancient ruins or top-notch inheritances. They could explore as they pleased. In a sense, they were both rich and poor.

These few copies were said to have been the content of a certain monument. As they had not studied the ancient text clearly, they could not understand it.

Jiang Li had learned a little in the past, so with his current level of ancient literature, he could roughly determine that this was some sort of contract.

However, he could not identify the details.

He also tried to search for the monument at the source, but according to them, after the monument appeared, it disappeared not long after.

Moreover, the location was outside the range of the illusion realm. It was simply misty and could not be explored. He could only give up and memorize these words instead.

Only when Qin Shuman called him did he wake up from his bitter cultivation.

After leaving the city, he realized that it was Ink Sect's Zi Yao. She was actually still alive.

"Miss Zi Yao, long time no see. Are you alright?"

After all, it was an illusion realm. Zi Yao looked no different from before. However, the exhaustion on her face could not be concealed.

"Alliance Leader Jiang Li, although it's presumptuous, I want to know how you did it to this extent?"

Zi Yao looked at the magnificent city in front of her. She still could not believe it.

Even in reality, with her Core Formation realm cultivation, it was very difficult for her to easily develop a village into a city.

Not to mention that their strength was severely limited here.

In such a short period of time, Jiang Li's city had clearly surpassed the standards of the test. As long as he could endure the beast tide, he would be able to directly complete the test.

"Actually, it's nothing much. I was just lucky."

Jiang Li still used the same excuse as a normal transmigrator, but this kind of excuse clearly could not satisfy the other party.

After some thought, he decided to give the other party a reasonable reason.

He called out more than 300 cultivators reincarnated from ghost soldiers. This was another batch born during this period of time.

"They were my original villagers. I was just lucky."

The aura of the 300 ghost soldiers erupted simultaneously. Weren't they all at the Qi Refinement realm?

Zi Yao's face turned green on the spot. This Ink Sect's Eldest Miss's self-restraint had been mostly worn down in this illusion.

Now that she was stimulated by Jiang Li, she almost cursed.

The two villages were very dilapidated, and the situation was basically the same. However, the villagers inside could not be exactly the same. There was still some random element involved.

But why was the difference so great? Who was actually the person from Ink Sect?

Jiang Li felt that attributing it to luck was better than telling her he was cheating.

Zi Yao's first reaction was that she did not expect Jiang Li to have the possibility of cheating.

As an outsider who had just arrived, he did not know the principles of the test at all. The possibility of cheating was too low.

However, even if he cheated and was not kicked out by the illusion, it was still considered his ability.

After all, she was also cheating in a way.

She could not even beat him in cheating, so it was really a helpless situation.

She looked at the huge city in front of her and the 20 terrified villagers behind her.

Zi Yao knew that she no longer had any hope of winning.

However, the honor of Ink Sect did not allow her to retreat in the most sacred trial of the Ink Child.

"Alliance Leader Jiang, I actually have a presumptuous request."

"Can you let my people temporarily rest in your city?"

Although her experience in the illusion was not as profound as in reality, it still changed her a lot. If it was in the past, she would definitely find it very difficult to request this.

"There's nothing wrong with that. But… are you sure?"

Jiang Li asked in a meaningful tone. Zi Yao seemed to not know the severity of the matter.

Although she was slightly puzzled, she still brought the villagers into Jiang Li's city.

The bustling market in front of her made her feel as if a lifetime had passed.

Not long after, she suddenly discovered that the scene around her began to blur. A large number of snowflakes that seemed to have a blurry signal appeared.

Before her stunned expression could linger on her face for long, she was flung out of the illusion.

This was because not long after entering the city, the twenty villagers under her had all defected.

Without all the villagers, the test would naturally fail.

When she was ejected from the city core with a dumbfounded expression, she finally understood what Jiang Li meant when he asked, "Are you sure?"

In the illusion, Jiang Li was about to face the final beast tide test.

...

"You failed?"

"Oh? Where's Alliance Leader Jiang? He didn't come out with you?"

"I originally wanted to let him escape first. Forget it, we can't consider so much now. Zi Yao, quickly go and preside over the defense of the Eastern Region."

"There's the least pressure there. If there's a chance, run away with Xiao Yu."

As soon as Zi Yao came out, she saw Granny Zi who was guarding outside. However, Granny Zi's words immediately threw the defeat in the illusion to the back of her mind.

"What! Granny, what's the situation now!?"

It had not been long since he entered the illusion realm and came out in the real world. How did it become like this?

"Our location has been exposed, and the enemy has already arrived. Without the Ink Child Decree, the defense of Thousand Sieve City can't be completely activated. We can only rely on puppets and disciples to manually control the defensive equipment. The situation is very bad…"

After more than 30 hours of the night wolves' attack, the nearby traps were mostly destroyed.

The disciples of the Iron Wolf Sect no longer had any worries. They rode the iron wolf and brought their tools to explore this area. Soon, they locked onto this ordinary-looking mountain.

Then, they brazenly dug a deep hole and buried high-level spiritual qi bombs. The continuous violent explosions made the entire Thousand Sieve City tremble.

All kinds of creaks sounded, and dust rustled down.

All kinds of gears began to loosen, and some even directly fell off.

The Ink Sect disciples began to fight everywhere to maintain the stability of the main array formation.

Fortunately, the city was buried underground. They had specially considered the effects of an earthquake, so the structure of the main framework was not affected.

This explosion lasted for another day.

It was not good for Ink Sect's people to take the initiative to attack. They could only watch as this mountain was broken down bit by bit.

The specially reinforced rock layer could not withstand such torture.

After an unknown period of time, it was finally completely separated.

Below, the dome-like building was revealed.

The buried Thousand Sieve City looked like a huge tortoise shell.

The buildings that could support the mountain above, coupled with the protective light membrane of the array formation, formed Ink Sect's powerful basic defense.

The ten Iron Wolf Sect flying ships lit up with a scorching light before turning into pillars of light that attacked the outer area of the dome of Thousand Sieve City.

When the dust and smoke from the spiritual qi explosion dissipated, the dome was unscathed.

On the surface of the smooth dome, several small holes suddenly appeared. With a series of muffled air-piercing sounds, huge crossbow bolts that were more than a hundred feet long and as thick as thighs shot out.

They turned into a rain of arrows that shot towards the ten flying ships.

The huge crossbow bolt was extremely powerful. It easily broke through the flying ship's barrier and stabbed them like a hornet's nest.

The defense of Ink Sect's Thousand Sieve City was not for show.

Even under the disadvantageous situation, the Iron Wolf Sect suffered a loss in the first round.

However, this small loss could not make the Iron Wolf Sect retreat.

After a few probing attempts, they quickly found the weak spot of the Thousand Sieve City's dome defense.

It was the area right above them.

There were twenty Iron Wolf Sect flying ships that discarded all their excess weight and flew higher and higher outside the shooting range of Thousand Sieve City.

It was not until they exceeded the shooting height of the Thousand Sieve City crossbow that they moved towards the top of the city.

From the twenty flying ships, a piece of solid black-gold heavy iron that was not much smaller than a flying ship was dropped.

This black-gold heavy iron had not been refined, nor was it an artifact. It was only a pure piece of raw metal. This metal was not even considered too precious. Its only trait was that it was heavy, extremely heavy!