Witch Wind

Chapter 206: Jieshi Headquarters (Part )

At the southern foot of the Dusk Mountains, beside a smooth river, on the tallest bell tower of the Cathedral of Our Lady in the town, a gray-robed priest gritted his teeth, pushed the gavel hard, and struck the heavy bronze bell.

To the north of this small town called 'Marilyn' is a long valley, which is one of the most commonly used passages into the Dusk Mountains.

The Idoli soldiers in blue and white uniforms, carrying long rifles with bright flowers inserted in the muzzles, walked slowly and gracefully, knocking on the doors of the houses one by one. They politely greeted the townspeople who opened the door with "Good Day" and then showed them the official documents issued by the Ministry of War.

"It was a terrible war. The evil Saint Ross Empire annexed its own allies and launched a shameless attack on us."

"Of course, they can't cross the Dusk Mountains and attack the kingdom's homeland."

"But we have so many allies to the east and north of the Dusk Mountains... They are facing threats from the Saint Ross people, so we must send out troops."

"According to the military order of the Ministry of War, your family has three males over 18 years old and under 40 years old? Then, one of them must be drafted into the army. There is no other way. Madam, you must serve!"

"Well, of course, there can be exceptions."

"If you are willing to pay a special war tax of twenty gold coins, then the men in your family can stay at home comfortably, listening to the roar of our artillery and the screams of the people of Saint Ross across the Dusk Mountains."

"Those fearless mountain dwellers in the mountains are willing to risk their lives for a few silver coins, aren't they?"

Yidoli's soldiers smiled brightly, and their mood was as bright and beautiful as the clear sky.

According to the military order of the Ministry of War, they collected special war taxes. For each head of war tax, they could get a kickback of two gold coins! Praise those sensible and knowledgeable gentlemen in the Ministry of War. They really have a good way to generate income. All the Yidoli Kingdom Army will remember their kindness.

In particular, several major officers leading the team thought that they could comfortably stay in this town to collect war taxes, while some unlucky guys were sent into the mountains to deal with those fierce and treacherous mountain people.

Oh wow.

"May the Merciful Virgin Mary bless them. I hope they won't encounter hail or snowstorms. That would be unpleasant." A lieutenant colonel took a sip of coffee brought by a girl and drank it with satisfaction. His blue-gray eyes cast a deep glance at the girl, causing her young face to blush.

'call'!
Right next to this lieutenant colonel, a turbid earthy smell suddenly emerged.

He Xi, who had been running from the mountain using the earth escape technique, shook his head and suddenly jumped out of the ground. The flushed girl suddenly widened her eyes, her little face turned pale with fear, she rolled her eyes, and fainted.

The lieutenant colonel turned around suddenly, subconsciously drew his sword, and slashed at He Xi fiercely.

"You scoundrel, how dare you be rude to such a lovely girl!" The lieutenant colonel cursed angrily. He didn't even see how He Xi appeared. He thought that He Xi had done some obscene thing to the lovely girl in front of him!

He Xi let the silver-plated sword inlaid with many gems hit his forehead.

With a crisp sound, the sword broke in half, sparks flew out, and the sword was shattered.

The lieutenant colonel's eyes suddenly widened, his face turned horrible, and he took big steps back.

A dozen soldiers nearby suddenly took off the rifles that were lazily hanging on their shoulders and aimed at He Xi in panic. Some soldiers were so nervous that they subconsciously pulled the trigger.

But there were no bullets in their gun chambers, only the wild flowers stuck in the muzzles were shaking brilliantly.

He Xi curled his lips and sneered with disdain.

He took out a thick stack of Royal Army documents and threw them at the lieutenant colonel's feet. "You sent these people to the mountains, right? Now I'm officially informing you that because of their offense and disrespect, they have been kidnapped by us."

"There are 24 majors in total. Each of them leads 150 men into the mountains. That means there are 3,600 soldiers of the Kingdom Army, including 24 captains, 48 ​​lieutenants, and 96 second lieutenants..."

"One thousand gold coins for each major."

"Five hundred gold coins per captain."

"Three hundred gold coins per lieutenant."

"Two hundred gold coins per lieutenant."

"Fifty gold coins for each common soldier. You can calculate how many gold coins that is in total. You only have seven days to prepare the money. We will come to collect the ransom. Otherwise, you will never see them again."

He Xi nodded to the stunned lieutenant colonel. His body swayed and the ground beneath his feet moved like quicksand. In front of so many people, his body sank down with a "swoosh".

"Mercy, Holy Mother!" The lieutenant colonel shouted to the soldiers around him in bewilderment, "Did you see it? Did you see it? He actually jumped into the lake like a fish. He went underground? How did he do it?"

A few brave soldiers trotted over, curiously raised their bayonets, and fiercely stabbed the street where He Xi had crawled underground. The natural cobblestones on the street splashed a few sparks, and deep marks were left by the bayonets, but it was obvious that there was no secret passage under the street.

"Merciful Virgin Mary!" The lieutenant colonel and a group of soldiers knelt down at the same time in the church in the center of the town and worshiped devoutly. Facing this supernatural power that they had never seen before, what else could they do except praying for the protection of the Virgin Mary?

Seven days later.

On the grassy slope where the Wuyuetang Ancestral Hall is located, sturdy flagpoles stand, with huge totem flags made of animal skins hanging on them, swaying heavily in the mountain breeze. Piles of dried cow dung are burned into bonfires, with wisps of green smoke rising straight into the sky, and the air is filled with pungent smells.

Jars of fine wine were piled up beside the campfire for anyone to take. Fat roasted whole lambs and cows were sizzling on the campfire, with crystal clear fat dripping into the fire. Handfuls of spice powder, which was more valuable than gold in the Western Continent, were sprayed lavishly on the barbecue. The air was filled with the odor of burning cow dung, mixed with a strong aroma that made people feel intoxicated.

Seven days was enough time for the messengers of the Five Mountains Hall to take an airship to the ancestral temples of the mountain tribes in the Dusk Mountains and deliver Xing Tianli's edict to them. The so-called edict was actually very simple. It was just a piece of tortoise shell with a five-thunder talisman carved on it by Xing Tianli himself.

The messenger came before the elders of each major tribe, activated his tortoise shell, and a huge amount of thunder roared down, which was enough to dispel 99% of the doubts of the elders of each tribe.

When those messengers showed off their witch bloodlines that had just been activated by Xing Tianli to their old acquaintances, or old rivals, in those tribes, the last bit of doubt in the hearts of the elders and tribesmen of each tribe disappeared in an instant!
In the East, Shenzhou, the magical and legendary homeland, the 'Great Witch Chief' has come in person.

They did not despise these mixed-race descendants with impure blood in the Dusk Mountains... The great witch chief named Xing Tianli treated all the mixed-race descendants of the witch people in the mountains equally.

He even spent his own essence and blood to stimulate the bloodlines of many of He Duo and He Xi's clansmen, allowing them to inherit the power from their ancestors.

As a result, each tribe rushed to send out the most respected elders, brought their most elite tribesmen, dressed in the most luxurious clothes, brought the most precious gifts, and boarded the airship to come to this grassy slope.

For several consecutive days, representatives from various departments continued to arrive.

The tribesmen of He Duo and He Xi lit a bonfire, and prepared the fine wine, cattle and sheep brought by Xing Tianli. Representatives of each tribe raised the totem flags of their respective tribes, and according to the oldest etiquette of the mountainous area, they sang, danced, cheered and drank.

Finally, on the seventh day, in the early morning of the seventh day, representative teams from all the witch tribes arrived in the Dusk Mountains.

In the eastern sky, the first ray of morning light slowly appeared in the horizon. The blue-green sunlight quickly evaporated the clouds and dispersed the wet mist on the grass slope. At this time, Xing Tianli let out a long roar and flew straight into the sky.

He stood more than a mile above the grass slope, making sure everyone could see him clearly.

He shouted in a low voice: "I am Xing Tianli, from the Eastern Kingdom of Shenzhou. I came here to subdue you... Are you willing to serve me? Are you willing to fight for me?"

"I want loyalty, absolute loyalty. Those who don't want to join me today, feel free to leave. For the sake of your ancestral blood, we will not interfere with each other in the future. Anyone who joins me today, I will share wealth and glory with you. However, if someone breaks the alliance and betrays me in the future..."

Xing Tianli shouted loudly.

The earth-based divine light flickered on his hands, and deep yellow witch light rose. He displayed the magical power of "shouting the underworld and driving away the mountains". On the opposite side of the grass slope, across a valley a thousand feet deep, a mountain about a mile high was cut in half. The conical mountaintops within a radius of two or three miles were driven by the magical power and rose into the air.

Xing Tianli lifted the mountain with one hand and floated it above the grass slope. Countless mountain people were shocked and dazzled by the sight. The Wu people had an instinctive awe for the strong, and a respect and obedience for the strongest that came from their blood.

The elders and elites of each tribe knelt on the ground, worshipping with fear and awe. According to the most ancient etiquette, they took out their swords, cut their palms with force, wrote witch symbols on their cheeks with blood, and swore the most vicious oath of allegiance.

Xing Tianli let out a long roar, and the five elements divine light flashed on his right hand. His magic power condensed into a huge five-colored palm with a radius of several miles. He easily shattered the mountain with a single slap.

Countless pieces of rubble, the largest of which was no bigger than a human head, were stirred up and blasted away for more than ten miles by his palm.

The rubble fell down the cliff one after another, and the sound of crashing lasted for a long time. Countless mountain people's faces turned red, and an inexplicable passion surged in their blood. They roared like wild beasts.

Back then, when Xing Tianli first met He Duo and He Xi, he spent a lot of effort to activate their blood. At that time, how much was Xing Tianli's own cultivation? His mastery of witchcraft was far from being as proficient and profound as it is now.

But today, when Xing Tianli saw tens of thousands of elite soldiers from various tribes bowing in worship on the grass slope, he just let out a long roar, and gently waved his hands. A thumb-sized amount of blood spurted out from each of his ten fingertips. Under the subtle control of his soul power, the ten points of blood shattered into tens of thousands of extremely fine blood particles, which flashed slightly and fell on the brows of these mountain people.

Xing Tianli's physical strength is so strong now that once the life essence and magic power contained in a drop of his blood explodes, thirty to fifty thousand ordinary mortals will be killed.

Even though he cut the ten drops of essence blood into tens of thousands of parts and distributed them equally to tens of thousands of mountain people, these mountain people still trembled all over, and their eyebrows suddenly felt hot, as if they were burned by a red-hot iron, burning the skin and flesh between their eyebrows hot and shiny.

As Xing Tianli chanted his incantations, strands of blazing heat seeped into the bodies of these mountain dwellers.

In just a few breaths, a mountain villager suddenly jumped up.

Their bodies suddenly swelled, and around them there were raging flames, rising cold air, howling winds, faint lightning, even mist, spreading poisonous gas, faint golden light, and creeping and rolling quicksand...

The blood of these mountain people is mixed. They are the mixed blood of ancient witches and indigenous people in the Western Land. For countless years, their major tribes have intermarried with each other, or they have kidnapped indigenous women and had constant intercourse and reproduction. Many of them have the blood of more than a dozen different witch clans mixed in their bodies.

Xing Tianli's witch curse only stimulates the most powerful witch blood in their bodies.

For a moment, all kinds of strange phenomena were seen on the bodies of these mountain people. Some of them were clearly from the same tribe, but they had dozens of strange phenomena. This showed how mixed their bloodlines were.

Xing Tianli let out a roar.

He waved his hands around, and there were continuous loud rumbling sounds. Hundreds of mountains that were several miles high collapsed, and small hills quickly moved towards him. Nine bronze tripods appeared beside Xing Tianli, and the tripods spewed out bronze witch light, directly swallowing up the mountains rich in various metal deposits.

The Dusk Mountains contain a large number of metal veins. The hills selected by Xing Tianli are all places with extremely rich ore reserves and extremely high purity. If the rocks from these hills are taken to a steel mill for careful refining, two or three kilograms of metal can be extracted from ten kilograms of rock!

Before, Xing Tianli would never waste his magic power to refine these rocks. Wouldn't it be easier for him to smelt with ready-made gold, silver, copper and iron?
However, with his cultivation reaching this stage, the power of the nine small tripods soared, and he could easily squeeze oil out of even ordinary stones, trace them back to their source, and transform them into wisps of pure primordial Qi.

The total mass of hundreds of mountains that are over a mile high is more than 100 billion tons.

The shadows of nine giant cauldrons, each more than three hundred feet high, slowly rotated. Images of the sun, moon, stars, mythical beasts and birds emerged and shook on the cauldrons. The fundamental method of "A Stick of Incense in the Furnace of Heaven and Earth" was interpreted to the extreme. As the mountain was continuously melted, streams of primordial Qi like great rivers turned into waterfalls, and gushed out from the cauldron's mouths with a roar according to Xing Tianli's will.

Pure primordial Qi was injected into the heads of these mountain dwellers whose bloodlines were activated. As the primordial Qi continued to be injected, high temperatures surged throughout the bodies of these mountain dwellers whose bloodlines were activated, and they couldn't help but scream wildly.

The most dominant witch blood in their bodies was constantly purified and strengthened, while the other mixed bloods were all transformed into nutrients and were madly devoured by this witch blood.

The mountain people were originally brave and strong, but their physical strength was only that of ordinary people. Among them, the strongest young man had only 300 to 500 kilograms of strength in one arm.

As the witch blood continued to be purified, and as the Xingtian carp continued to smelt the mountain peaks, providing them with an endless supply of Taichu Qi, the bodies of these mountain dwellers continued to strengthen—one arm weighed 500 kilograms… one arm weighed 1,000 kilograms… one arm weighed 5,000 kilograms…

Lines of blood and smoke shot up from the heads of these mountain people. Soon, their physical strength broke through the static strength of one arm, reaching 10,000 jin... and then 100,000 jin...

When the strength of a single arm reached 100,000 jin, 99% of the mountain people present vomited blood.

Their qualifications, their blood concentration, their natural potential, can no longer enable them to make such a crazy breakthrough... They must calm down, control their current physical strength, and become familiar with the operation of the witch blood before they can continue to practice, refine and purify the witch blood.

Xing Tianli stopped indoctrinating these mountain people.

Streams of primordial Qi, like waterfalls, roared and fell into the bodies of a very small number of lucky people with good qualifications.

"That's enough, that's enough." Xing Tianli nodded happily. "Even in this era of hot weapons, with a physical strength of 100,000 kilograms in one arm, ordinary small-caliber high-speed cannons can't penetrate your bodies... Such a mighty army is invincible!"

Seven days ago, He Xi used the earth escape technique to deliver a message to the town of Marilyn.

An elite Yidoli National Defense Force set up a very tight defense position around the town, with more than 20,000 elite soldiers ready to fight. A dozen miles south of the defense position, the Yidoli people also built a large artillery position, with dozens of large-caliber field artillery ready.

It was early in the morning and the sun had just come out.

To the north of the town of Marilyn, the commander of this elite army, Major General Yidoli, who holds the title of earl, was wearing a neat military uniform, shiny military boots, and snow-white gloves. He stood quietly at the entrance of the town in a very standard military posture, surrounded by a dozen guards.

After waiting for a while, the Major General Artuso looked down at the sheepskin purse at his feet and suddenly snorted, "What's the name of that damn lieutenant colonel? Didn't he agree on a specific time with those shameless kidnappers?"

"As a soldier, he actually made such a mistake. It is simply unforgivable. If he knew about this mistake on the battlefield, how many colleagues would have been killed?"

"What?" Artuso looked at the adjutant standing behind him who had just muttered, "His brother-in-law is Count Mathieu of the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance? Ah, Count Mathieu is an old friend of mine... This little bastard, why didn't he tell me that his sister married..."

"Well, the thing is, I'm also an old acquaintance of Mathieu's wife. I even know that she has a charming little pink birthmark on her chest... Ah, his sister is Mathieu's lover? That's right... Well, young people occasionally make mistakes, and the merciful Virgin Mary will definitely forgive him!"

"Who hasn't made mistakes?" Artuso kicked the huge money bag with his foot, and there was a crisp metallic collision sound. It was obviously full of gold coins. "Mathieu, that bastard, put his people into my army without even saying hello to me..."

Artuso raised his head and looked blankly at the clouds slowly drifting across the sky. He muttered in a low voice, "But this little bastard is simply ridiculous. How could a person get into the ground? Myths and legends are just myths and legends. We have to believe in science, science."

"Look at those priests in that church. I bet a gold coin that they can't get into the ground even if you stick a cannon on their heads."

"Hahaha, of course, I have a devout faith in the Virgin Mary."

"Well, this topic is a bit sensitive. Let's talk about these gold coins..." Artuso looked at the huge money bag at his feet very seriously: "For the safety of those good guys, we brought these gold coins... But, are we going to hand these gold coins over to those shameful kidnappers?"

"Hand over the money with one hand and the people with the other. Then, kill those damn kidnappers. Bring back our people and get our money back!" Artuso smiled and said, "The Ministry of Finance said that in a state of war, anything can happen. They can tolerate 50% of our losses... Of course, 30% of it will be given to them, so we still have 20% profit!"

A gust of wind blew toward us.

The wind came without warning and was extremely strong. With a "crash", a thick sheepskin map appeared out of thin air in the wind and hit Artuso's face heavily, causing him to bleed from the nose.

In the wind and sand, He Duo, He Xi, and several mountain tribe elders who had activated the "Feng Hou" bloodline appeared at the same time.

He Duo walked forward slowly and said in a deep voice: "We are here. Have you brought the money?"

"Oh, by the way, you should take that map and show it to your king. The area circled on the map will become the headquarters and villa of the Jieshi Duke's Mansion. From now on, your people are not allowed to set foot in it!"

Artuso angrily tore off the fishy-smelling sheepskin from his face.

He covered his bleeding nose in anger and looked at He Duo in disbelief: "What did you say? What mansion? What headquarters? What villa? What are you talking about?"

(End of this chapter)