Infinite Professions

Chapter 364 - 191: Assault on the Mountain

The matter of military preparation was in full swing, and three months passed in the blink of an eye.

Previously, the three forts attacked the village at harvest time, and after returning to the prefecture to claim credit, two months were spent.

Combined with the current three months of crafting equipment and practicing military drills, when all arms were ready, it was already the end of the year, the cold of late winter in the twelfth lunar month.

The cold wind was biting, but Little Huang Village was fervently busy.

On the threshing ground, in front of the Land God Temple, a cohort of strongmen stood in formation, each with a yellow turban tied on their heads, clad in leather armor, holding swords and spears, with bows and arrows slung on their backs, exuding a robust aura.

There has always been a system in military affairs: five make a squad, five squads make a platoon, four platoons make a company, five companies a battalion, and five battalions an army.

This cohort consisted of one hundred men.

Although Little Huang Village had a population of seven hundred, with half being strong young men, only a hundred received the Yellow Turban, numbering one cohort.

Song Wu, as the Qinghe County Captain and strongman leader, drilled these hundred men as infantry archers, and after three months, their archery skills were adept.

Armor and crossbows, extremely lethal, have always been under court control; ordinary people are not allowed to possess them, or it would be a capital crime.

But Song Wu, being the Qinghe County Captain, had the authority to recruit archers and militia, making this cohort of strongmen justifiable.

Well... not exactly justifiable.

Although a County Captain has military authority and can recruit archers, the limit is fifty men. This cohort of over a hundred strongmen was already overstepping.

However, it didn’t matter, as embezzling salaries and raising private troops have long been tradition. These hundred Yellow Turban Warriors are soldiers in wartime and civilians in peacetime; as long as they’re not caught in the act, no one can fault them.

In fact, all local strongmen act this way, especially the county-respected families, each with thousands of servants, acting as household workers in peacetime and private troops in chaos, capable of vying for the throne or annexing land to sustain their family.

"Head out!"

On the high platform, watching the solemnly trained cohort of strongmen, Song Wu said no more and directly ordered the march with a wave of his hand.

Song Wen and the villagers behind them watched them depart, while the Land God Temple behind was filled with incense, having held a grand ritual.

Within the streams of incense smoke, golden light seemed to flicker as a divine army set out, heading into the mountains.

Turning to the temple, Shen Hex sat high in the hall, with green Qi lingering atop him, and golden light emanating from his whole body.

A black gold seal appeared within the green Qi, majestic and unmoving like a mountain, yet exerting a mighty divine power, pushing the Land Realm to expand outward.

The strength of the Divine Dao lies in authority. Although Shen Hex was the Little Yellow Mountain God, he had title without power; the Magic Realm covered the area of Little Huang Village only, not expanding to encompass Little Yellow Mountain within its jurisdiction.

Without expansion of the Magic Realm, governance was incomplete, having title but no authority, greatly diminishing the power of the deities; Moving Mountains and Suppressing Peaks, the two great Mountain God Divine Arts, would also weaken and even lose efficacy due to lack of support from Little Yellow Mountain.

Hence, for this Mountain God position to live up to its name, Shen Hex must cleanse Little Yellow Mountain and bring the hundred-mile stretch of mountains under his rule to command its authority.

Now was the first step in cleansing, expanding the Magic Realm into it, smashing the Ghostly Demon Realm constructed by evil ghosts and demons.

This required a significant amount of divine power!

Fortunately, Shen Hex was not short of divine power. Over the months, Little Huang Village had offered much incense, coupled with the merit gained from exterminating the three forts of evil ghosts, and the divine power accompanying the Ninth-Grade Mountain God Seal, making the expansion into Little Yellow Mountain more than sufficient.

With divine power exerted, the Magic Realm expanded into the mountains, points of golden light flickered in the void, while strands of white Qi surged forth like tides, converging into his Golden Body, aiding the expansion of the Magic Realm and enhancing the ethereal presence above.

These strands of white Qi were the villagers’ incense.

The inhabitants of Little Huang Village, being simple folk, manifested their incense wish power as white Qi, though inferior to the Emperor’s Dragon Qi or Noble Purple Qi, its advantage lay in its quantity, gathered from villagers’ worship, flowing like rivers into the sea, becoming a grand stream.

Outside the white Qi, strands of red Qi lingered, representing the military Qi formed from months of equipment crafting and military training.

In this world, the conviction of people is powerful, with many matters forming authority, including military affairs. The gathered Soldier Suppressing Faith naturally formed a force of Qi Fortune, equal to King’s Way Dragon Qi, Confucian Righteous Qi, legal codes, and the like, all possessed certain authority and extraordinary power.

Now that Song Wu had trained this cohort of strongmen into an army, the villagers’ faith from Little Huang Village was gathered, forming a military Qi that clings to them, capable of slaying ghosts and deities, a significant manifestation of Human Dao power.

Currently, this military Qi merged with Shen Hex’s divine power, endowing the heavy and solemn Land Realm with a sharp edge, aggressively expanding into Little Yellow Mountain, crashing into the Senluo Ghost Realms.

Simultaneously, outside Little Huang Village, within a hundred li, even in the county seat.

Beams of golden light glimmered, manifesting divine beings who performed Qi Observation Skills, gazing towards Little Huang Village.

Seeing the aggressively expanding Magic Realm, encircled in white and red Qi, along with the radiant divine Dao golden light, the deities were all astonished.

"Such a spectacle..."

"Little Huang Village Land God?"

"No, it’s the Little Yellow Mountain God!"

"Only a few months since consecration, yet cannot wait any longer?"

"Little Yellow Mountain riddled with bandits, evil ghosts thriving, demons rampaging occasionally, can a Ninth-Grade Little God dare to rashly wield arms?"

"A Ninth-Grade Little God, can such a spectacle be that of an ordinary Ninth-Grade Little God?"