Chapter 460: The Battle Draws Near

Chapter 460: The Battle Draws Near"Xuechi calls Fenghe a mad scientist, but Fenghe proclaims himself to be an artist and biologist."

Zhang Lie listened quietly to Sun Mengmeng's recounting of the nine sons as he committed their racial characteristics to memory.

"The sura king's fourth son is Moyan, apparently an oculophile. He calls himself blind, but he has the special ability to make whatever he sees vanish from sight. The price to pay for that was the destruction of both his eyes. The reason he collects whatever eyes he can find is to use this special ability of his."

Li Feng muttered, "The ability to make anything he sees vanish? How are we supposed to fight him?"

Zhang Lie commented, "This should be some dark-attuned technique or another."

That was the basis behind his [Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade], after all.

"The fifth son is Xueju, and we're all familiar with him by now. He obtained a special technique from the monarch of stars which lets him collect souls."

Zhang Lie added, "It's a very special technique—he kills people while they're at the peak of some emotion or another. That outpouring of emotion transforms their spiritual matter, and he collects those mutated souls and stores them as a battery or backup reserve of power."

Harvesting souls when they were experiencing intense emotion had the greatest efficiency; otherwise, only a small amount of spiritual power could be extracted under ordinary circumstances.

These were words that the monarch of stars had imparted to Shouta. When Zhang Lie fought against Xueju, the red spider lilies that had dotted the battlefield had been manifestations of those souls.

Sun Mengmeng continued, "The sixth son is Niutou, a mixed-blood cross between a sura and a minotaur. He calls himself a farmer; the monarch of stars gave him nothing extraordinary, only a title, land, and the strength to keep his position. According to Xuechi's notes, he grows stronger as he becomes more and more excited. The seventh son is Xuechi, but nothing is written about him."

Zhang Lie suddenly said, "Xuechi's known as the bloodsucker, and he refers to himself as a noble. He can ignite his blood to grant himself additional strength."

No one was surprised to hear that Zhang Lie had this information; he had always been rather mysterious, and he had fought with Xuechi himself, after all.

"The eighth son is Suiyue, a gerontophile. From the monarch of stars, he obtained a special technique—[Passing of Time]. Apparently, quite a few sura had tried to cultivate the technique, but the only successful example was Suiyue.

"Those who successfully cultivated the technique had it manifest in a different form each time. Suiyue's manifestation allows him to reverse time—if he's badly wounded, he can use this technique to return to a time during which he wasn't injured."

"Doesn't that make him invincible?"

Zhang Lie frowned. "It's true that time-manipulation techniques are exceedingly rare, but they always have a steep cost. I'm sure there's some drawback that prevents him from activating it quickly in succession.

"Ever since Suiyue mastered [Passing of Time], the rate at which time affects his body has been lowered. Others might grow a year older with a year's passing, but he would only grow a year older after a decade.

Only by being in close proximity to ancient artifacts or ancient lifeforms will Suiyue's passing of time return to normal."

Hong Xi asked, "Isn't it a good thing for time to pass more slowly?"

"Not in conjunction with the side effects of him reversing time. Every time he uses that technique, his body might go back one to three years into the past—and he'd lose all his cultivation during those years!"

Hong Xi's eyes widened. "He's sacrificing his cultivation to restore his body!"

Zhang Lie continued, "It's more an artifact of him not mastering the technique completely. The monarch of stars has stated that, once he fully controls the technique, he'll be able to keep his mind intact during such a reversal, allowing him to retain his experience from years in the future instead."

He had gleaned this information from Shouta's mind—if Suiyue were to continue progressing as is, he would be able to become a true regressor, one who would grow more and more potent with time.

Sun Mengmeng concluded, "The monarch of stars' ninth and final godson is Gaoyuan."

Everyone frowned upon hearing this name.

"He proclaims himself to be a gourmet. From the monarch of stars, he learned a technique that even the monarch of stars had yet to perfect, and he even improved upon it. It stores vitality and energy between his legs, and he can transform that energy into lifeforce during a battle to recuperate quickly."

By this time, the members of Team Zenith and the three clan leaders had obtained a far better understanding of the nine godsons of the monarch of stars than before.

Suddenly, Yu Huantian rushed into the meeting room. "Governor, something's very wrong! My clan and I went scouting in the directions you indicated, and there are six sura troops heading our way."

Zhang Lie frowned. "Six, not seven?"

"There were originally seven, but two of the troops merged together. Some of my scouts were in the air at the time, and we saw some sort of internal dispute that led one troop to take over the other."

"An internal dispute?"

Zhang Lie frowned. He didn't know whether to be worried or relieved—this was beyond his predictions, and any uncertainty was worrisome.

"My scouts were afraid of detection and weren't able to understand the situation more fully."

"Tell me everything you know, quickly!"

Yu Huantian reported, "From the west, fifty thousand troops moving at a sedate price, pillaging and raping everything along the way. They've killed all the females and imprisoned the males."

Sun Xiaowu murmured, "Doesn't that sound like something Xueju would do?"

"But he's dead." Fang Yi shook his head.

Zhang Lie asked, "Which king do you suspect this is, then?"

Sun Xiaowu shrugged. "Who can say? The nine sura kings all seem particularly perverted, and I could see any of them doing something like this."

Zhang Lie asked, "Were there any special insignias that their troops displayed? An emblem of sorts?"

"Two testicles."

"In that case, it could very well be Gaoyuan," Zhang Lie concluded. "Keep going!"

"From the northwest, a hundred thousand troops, at least half of which are old sura, so old they can hardly walk. They're moving more slowly than a turtle."

"In that case, that must be Suiyue!" Zhang Lie replied confidently.

According to Shouta, Suiyue had once proclaimed that sura were like wine: the longer they lived, the more they matured, and the more intoxicating they became. The sura fighters in his kingdom were given the option to retire when they reached old age, but many chose to stay on as a result of his words.

This also meant that Suiyue's forces were the weakest among all nine sura kingdoms.

"From the north, eighty thousand forces including both sura and minotaurs."

"Niutou, of course!" Everyone guessed the origin of these forces immediately.

"From the northeast, an ordinary group of a hundred and twenty thousand sura, whose insignia is a black eye."

"Perhaps Moyan."

Yu Huantian's eyes then showed rare revulsion and fear. "From the east, a group of patchwork monsters, who hail from no alien race we know. They were particularly frightening and strong—my clan was almost discovered without even getting close."

"Fenghe's army!"

Yu Huantian continued, "From the southeast, forces so numerous we couldn't count them—over a million at the very least."

Everyone sucked in a breath.

Yu Huantian asked worriedly, "Can Renhuang really defend against sura forces numbering a million strong?" Sᴇaʀᴄh the NøᴠᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Zhang Lie shook his head. "I don't intend on defending against them. We'll attack head-on."

Yu Huantian gaped. "But they have a million sura!"

"It might be a million now, but if we let them gather, there'll be two million sura at our city walls. We're still a small city, and we can't defend against such numerous foes. Our only choice is to strike fast and bring the fight to them, rather than to let them come to us," Zhang Lie declared.

Upon sensing Zhang Lie's confidence, Yu Huantian calmed down, and the others were willing to believe that Zhang Lie knew what was best. If Zhang Lie wasn't panicking, then they didn't have to worry either.

"Keep reporting everything you observed—there might be a crucial detail in there that we can make use of."

Yu Huantian nodded. "The million-sura force was very strange—the troops moved like zombies, and they looked very disorganized. They attacked any lifeform they encountered, and the dead lifeforms would end up joining their ranks."

This had to be Shicang's army of the dead!

Yu Huantian continued, "From the south was originally a group of fifty thousand sura, but something suddenly happened to this group that caused them to merge with the southeastern forces. By the time they did so, those forces behaved much like zombies as well."

Zhang Lie pondered Yu Huantian's intel carefully. He didn't understand what Shicang was thinking, nor why he had absorbed his brother's forces into his own, but they didn't have much time left.

The sura forces were quickly approaching, and Renhuang would have to respond...

1. 睾 (pronounced 'gao') is 'testicle'.