124: Chapter 124 Conquering Ten Cities in Succession, Extracting the Source

By the time the Immortal Martial Legion marched out of the canyon, the ten cities on the periphery of the Asura fragment had already received news that their commanders and priests had fallen in battle.

The fleeing Asura remnants brought back a more complete battle report: twenty thousand heavy-armored troops had trampled the canyon, and even the combined efforts of three Martial Ancestor commanders could not tear open the army Formation.

The garrisons of each city had originally intended to rely on their walls to continue the resistance, but when they saw the defeated soldiers covered in blade wounds and burn marks, with broken blood-bone armor piling up at the camp gates, the defenders' morale soon began to waver.

These Asura cities were separated by hundreds of miles, each guarding its own Ore veins and blood pools. They usually fought over resources and had never established a unified command system.

While the commanders and priests were alive, they could command the cities through their Bloodline and authority. Now that the high-level leaders were dead, the main generals of each city prioritized guarding their warehouses and Ore veins, unwilling to hand over their forces to anyone else.

Wang Mu did not give them a chance to re-form an alliance. On the day the legion marched out of the canyon, the locations, troop strengths, mining areas, and supply routes of all ten cities were recorded into the Formation map.

The twenty thousand frontline troops were divided into three routes. Wang Shan led eight thousand soldiers along the central route, while the left and right routes each had six thousand, and the Artillery Battalion was split into three fire teams.

Each legion detachment was equipped with shield bearers, a Sword Qi Battalion, a Formation Maintenance Team, a Medical Cultivator Camp, and an engineering battalion, making them capable of independently completing sieges when encountering ordinary cities.

Wang Mu took command at a temporary Formation tower outside the canyon, maintaining contact with the three routes via communication Formation Plates, while moving the Divine Kingdom passage to a core position in the rear.

The first Asura city was built at a bend in the blood river; its walls were piled with blood essence Ore, and it was surrounded by a moat filled with rotten blood.

The city's main general moved blood food and weapons onto the ramparts and forcibly conscripted the young and able-bodied within the city, scraping together tens of thousands of temporary defenders, preparing to stall the central legion with human lives.

Upon arriving outside the city, Wang Shan did not call for surrender, nor did he let the shield bearers risk crossing the river. He first sent a geological survey team to lock onto the defensive Formation eye, then brought up eighty heavy cannons.

The first round of artillery fire landed upstream; earth and stone crushed the waterway, and diversion trenches dug by the engineering battalion channeled the rotten blood into a deep pit.

The second round of artillery fire focused on the eastern wall. Although blood essence Ore could absorb spiritual energy, it could not withstand the continuous erosion of the blood-breaking Formation patterns.

Cracks ran through the wall, inside and out. The Sword Qi Battalion channeled their spiritual energy into dozens of blades, severing the Formation pillars through the gaps torn open by the artillery fire.

With the defensive Formation screen losing its support on the east side, Wang Shan led the shield bearers across the dry riverbed, and the heavy shields stacked into a three-layer siege Formation before the city gate.

The Asura defenders threw blood cores and rolling stones from the ramparts. A second-tier defensive Formation map caught the first wave of impact, while the Martial Masters in the rear raised battering rams and struck the gate repeatedly.

The city gate held until the seventh strike, when the gate hinges and Formation patterns snapped simultaneously. The blade-wielding soldiers crossed the shield Formation and cut into the city along three streets.

The Asura defenders continued to resist after losing the walls, but unfortunately, the temporarily conscripted youths could not form a blood-edge army Formation and were quickly separated into different blocks.

Wang Shan forbade the battalions from pursuing into residential areas. Those who voluntarily surrendered were rounded up for supervision, while the Asura who continued to resist with weapons were forced into containment zones by the shield Formations. The blood pools, armories, Formation towers, and the City Lord's mansion were controlled one after another.

From the first cannon fire to the entire city being secured, the first city only held out for three hours, and the Immortal Martial Legion maintained zero casualties.

The Formation Hall entered the depths beneath the City Lord's mansion and found a small blood essence Ore vein, with thousands of crates of high-grade Ore that hadn't been transferred yet piled in the tunnels.

The Hundred Arts Hall official accompanying the army inspected the quality and confirmed on the spot that these blood essence Ores could be used to recast the crimson flame saber and strengthen the Qi-blood conduction Formation inside the black armor.

Wang Shan stood before the warehouse door and raised his hand to have the engineering battalion seal the crates and load them onto carts; the heaviness on his face after the battle finally lifted slightly.

"The three days we suffered in the canyon will be paid back starting with these Ores. Leave one piece for the crimson flame saber, and send the rest to Wang Mu to tally up."

When the central legion captured the first city, the left route army also arrived at the second city. The main general there abandoned the outer city and retreated into the mines with his elite troops.

The six thousand Immortal Martial soldiers did not enter the narrow mine tunnels to pursue. The Artillery Battalion collapsed three exits, and the Formation Hall sealed the underground passages with a subterranean detection Formation.

The Asura elites trapped in the mine held out for two days, but with their stored blood food running low, they had no choice but to attempt a forced breakout from the last remaining exit.

The shield bearers had already secured the exit. A long-spear Formation advanced three times in succession, forcing the Asura troops rushing out of the mine back into the mountain pass.

No large-scale street fighting broke out in the second city; the Ore veins, warehouses, and blood pools fell into the hands of the left route army intact, and those who surrendered were moved out of the mining area for centralized supervision.

The third city faced by the right route army had already evacuated its defenders, with hundreds of blood cores buried within the city, waiting for the legion to enter the streets before triggering the detonation Formation.

The Formation Maintenance Team detected abnormal underground blood Qi outside the city gate, so the entire legion stopped outside the defensive Formation, and not a single person entered the city without authorization.

Fifty Purple Mansion Cultivators rose into the air, using their Divine Sense to inspect each street, ultimately locking onto the detonation Formation hub beneath the City Lord's mansion.

The Artillery Battalion concentrated fire from across the walls to destroy the Formation hub first; only then did the engineering battalion enter the city to dismantle the blood cores buried in various locations section by section.

The third city did not have much Ore left, but the thousand-mile herb field outside the city was well-preserved, planted with large swathes of red blood vines that tempered Qi and blood.

The Spirit Planting Department agriculturalists accompanying the army entered the herb field, collected the mature vine seeds, and sealed the small blood veins supplying the herb field underground to prevent the medicinal power from continuing to dissipate.

After winning the first three battles, the three legion routes continued to advance at the scheduled pace. Every time a city was captured, Wang Mu required them to leave behind Formation nodes and logistical warehouses.

The Asura Survivors were familiar with the terrain and could use the underground blood caverns to intercept supply convoys at any time. If they only focused on moving forward, the Ore, Medicinal Pills, and artillery shells in the rear would all be cut off on the road.

On the fifth day, the central route army breached the fourth city, the left route army captured the fifth city, and the right route army also eradicated the sixth city—a stone fortress occupying a mountain pass.

The defenders of the sixth city triggered the collapse of half a mountain range, blocking the road leading to the rear. The engineering battalion spent an entire day clearing it before opening a route passable for the heavy cannons.

On the eighth day, the three legion routes regrouped on the periphery of the fragment. The four cities ahead had given up on joining forces, each closing their gates and guarding their warehouses while waiting for the attack.

Wang Mu redistributed the troops according to the distance between the cities, first concentrating the Artillery Battalion to attack the seventh city, and then transforming it into a new supply center.

The seventh city's walls were thirty zhang high, and underground, they were connected to three blood pools, allowing the defenders to continuously repair the damaged defensive Formation screen with blood Qi.

Two hundred heavy cannons bombarded it for four hours; every time the Formation screen cracked, the blood pools would pour their stored power into the walls, forcibly patching the gaps.

Wang Mu ordered the Artillery Battalion to stop and called in the Formation Hall to deploy an anti-spirit Formation outside the city, severing the blood Qi veins between the blood pools and the defensive Formation.

The Asura inside the city realized the Formation screen had lost its replenishment and immediately dispatched three thousand elites to ambush the Formation Hall from a secret gate, but upon leaving the city, they ran straight into the peak-state team led by Wang Shan.

The Immovable Wisdom King Army Formation blocked their retreat, and the Sword Qi Battalion pressed in from both flanks. The three thousand Asura elites held out for less than half an hour before all falling before the Formation.

The anti-spirit Formation operated for one hour, and the three blood pools could no longer send out power, causing the defensive Formation screen to dim.

The heavy cannons opened fire again, and the southeast sections of the wall collapsed one after another. The Immortal Martial Legion entered the city along the gaps and controlled all the Formation towers that same day.

On the tenth day, the main general of the eighth city fled to the hinterlands with his personal guards. The tens of thousands of defenders in the city lost their command and guarded their streets individually, only to be disarmed section by section by the army Formations shortly after.

On the twelfth day, the ninth city was caught in a pincer attack by the left and right legion routes. Artillery fire first destroyed the north gate, and then the shield bearers launched a fierce attack from the south gate, cutting the defenders into several segments.

On the fifteenth day, Wang Shan led the central route army to the tenth city. The Asura inside had drained the blood pools, attempting to destroy the city along with the underground Ore veins.

The Formation Hall sealed the earth veins, and Wang Mu took over the nodes via communication Formation Plates, severing the connection between the blood pools and the Ore vein Formation patterns.

Before the main general of the tenth city could activate the Formation hub, three thousand streaks of Sword Qi crossed the walls, covering the City Lord's mansion and destroying the main Formation and the command area simultaneously.

The city gates collapsed under heavy artillery fire, and the remaining Asura fled to the west. The Immortal Martial Legion did not pursue deep into the territory, only controlling the cities, mining areas, and major transportation routes.

Within half a month, all ten Asura cities had changed hands. No Asura legion capable of organized resistance could be found on the periphery of the fragment anymore.

Blood essence Ore, red blood vines, high-grade bone materials, Asura heavy blades, and Formation fragments were transported out of the warehouses in each city and sent along three routes to the Divine Kingdom passage.

The engineering battalion packaged the Ore according to uniform specifications, the Spirit Planting Department was responsible for preserving the seeds, and the Casting Workshop melted down the Asura weapons, classifying them by material.

According to the Hundred Arts Hall's valuation, the resources from the ten cities were enough to cover the investment required for this expedition. The blood essence Ore veins outside the cities alone could support two thousand frontline troops in completing one armor reinforcement.

The Hundred Arts Hall also found a fragmented forging Legacy beneath the seventh city, which recorded the Asura race's method of smelting blood bones and Ore.

This Legacy could not be used directly; some of its techniques relied on living blood sacrifice, which violated federal Law and crossed the bottom line set by Wang Pingan.

Wang Mu ordered the Hundred Arts Hall to delete the sacrificial parts, leaving only the temperature control, Ore quenching, and blood-pattern conduction methods, and then to deduce them further in conjunction with the Immortal Martial forging system.

After the resources were successfully warehoused, the Formation Hall accessed Wang Pingan's Divine Kingdom annexation authority and laid down Origin-Pulling Formations in the center of each city.

The Origin-Pulling Formation used the city's earth veins as a Foundation, with nine Formation eyes extending outward, connecting to the Ore veins, herb fields, waterways, and surrounding land.

The first Origin-Pulling Formation was activated; the blood patterns within the city extinguished one by one, and the underground Origin flowed along the Formation patterns into the central Formation hub, where it was purified and transformed into a torrent of Origin.

The torrent of Origin passed through the Divine Kingdom passage and fell onto the edge of the eighty-thousand-square-kilometer Divine Kingdom. The boundary expanded outward, and vast tracts of land began to take shape.

Mountain ranges rose along the direction of the earth veins, and groundwater surged into the low-lying areas, gradually connecting into rivers and lakes.

The Spirit Planting Department was already waiting at the border with seeds and Formation Plates. Every time a new piece of land stabilized, they immediately tested the soil, channeled water, deployed Formations, and sowed seeds.

The second and third Origin-Pulling Formations were activated one after another, and the land Origin accumulated in the ten cities continuously poured into the Divine Kingdom.

The clock towers in every city of the Divine Kingdom rang simultaneously, eight million citizens walked onto the streets, and the mountains, rivers, and fields beyond the border extended into the distance inch by inch.

The Academy recorded the terrain, the Hundred Arts Hall took over the new Ore veins, the agriculturalists led apprentices to dig canals, and the Formation Hall deployed vein-stabilizing Formations at the foot of the new mountains.

Wang Pingan did not swallow all the land on the periphery of the Asura fragment, only extracting the pure Origin from the controlled areas.

The sections contaminated by blood pools were left in place. The Formation Hall first stripped away the blood miasma, then sent the usable Origin into the Divine Kingdom, while the parts that could not be purified were all sealed.

The ten Origin-Pulling Formations operated continuously for several days. The walls lost the support of the earth veins, and the mining areas gradually ceased activity after the Origin was extracted.

The Immortal Martial Legion remained in the seventh city to rest; all armor was sent to the maintenance battalion, the wounded soldiers entered the temporary medical clinics, and the Artillery Battalion dismantled the cannon barrels for inspection one by one.

Wang Shan originally wanted to take advantage of the collapse of the Asura outer defense line to continue the advance, but Wang Mu handed him three military supply lists and told him to check the numbers first.

Three days of bloody battles in the canyon, the ten-city siege, and the continuous expedition meant that Medicinal Pills, artillery shells, Formation Plates, and black armor all needed replenishment; the legion's combat power had already fallen out of its peak state.

Wang Shan finished flipping through the lists, withdrew the order to advance, and turned to go to the barracks, personally overseeing the rotation and rest of each battalion.

Wang Pingan's will swept over the ten cities and then cast toward the core of the fragment covered by incomplete Laws; he did not issue a divine oracle to advance.

The fruits of the outer battle were being converted into land, Ore veins, Legacy, herb fields, and military equipment. Advancing rashly now would only expose the newly established logistical lines to the enemy again.

He ordered the three legion routes to rest in place, the Origin-Pulling Formations to continue extracting Origin, and the Hundred Arts Hall to prioritize digesting the Asura race's forging Legacy.

Things snatched from the battlefield only truly belonged to him once they fell into the Divine Kingdom and were transformed into national strength.