268: Chapter 268 The ninth level of foundation building

While Luo Ningshuang sent people to assassinate Zhao Jianfei, Chen Hu was not idle either.

Activating Near and Far, he took a single step and arrived at Tianhe Commandery.

"Greetings, Commander!"

When Chen Hu arrived at the commandery government office, the Puppet officials who were still working stood up to salute him.

"Report the current situation of the commandery city to me," Chen Hu said indifferently.

"Yes!"

An official immediately stepped forward and reported the general situation of Tianhe Commandery to him.

Just like Linjiang Prefecture before, Tianhe Commandery had also been subjected to a poll tax.

Moreover, it was even harsher than the levy in Linjiang Prefecture; in addition to two taels of silver per person, they also had to pay 10 catties of grain.

Therefore, most of the commoners in the city were now so poor they could only afford one meal of thin porridge.

As for the tax silver and grain collected by the government, most were transported away by the Governors Office, while the remainder was divided among officials of various Ranks.

"Have these officials been investigated and their assets confiscated?" Chen Hu asked.

The Puppet official said: "Not yet, we were just about to report this to the Commander."

"In that case, take people to confiscate their assets immediately!" Chen Hu ordered, then waved his hand to summon 2,000 Rank 4 soldiers.

He let these Puppet officials lead men to raid the homes of those corrupt officials.

After seeing these Puppet officials take action, Chen Hu went to Fulong Prefecture.

The situation here was similar to Tianhe Commandery.

Chen Hu also gave the Puppet officials two thousand Rank 4 soldiers to let them raid the homes of the corrupt officials.

Then, he headed to the other two commanderies again.

He also left behind two thousand Rank 4 soldiers, and once the rosters were organized, they would take the troops to raid those corrupt officials.

Finally, Chen Hu arrived at Chaoyang Commandery.

The army of over three thousand led by General Zhao Zilong and the army of over three thousand led by Huang Zhong had already converged in Chaoyang Commandery.

And they had joined forces to capture Chaoyang Commandery.

Chen Hu immediately purchased 100 Puppet officials from the System Mall and deployed them in Chaoyang Commandery.

Then, General Zhao Zilong and Huang Zhong came to pay their respects to Chen Hu together.

Huang Zhong said: "Commander, all five commandery cities have been captured by us. Should we take advantage of our current momentum to capture those county cities as well?"

"There is no need to ask me about this; you two handle it as you see fit!" Chen Hu said with a smile, trusting Huang Zhong and General Zhao Zilong one hundred percent.

Subsequently, the two put their heads together to discuss how to attack those county cities.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Hu purchased several hundred more Puppet officials and handed them to Huang Zhong and General Zhao Zilong.

He let them accompany the army.

This way, once they captured the county cities, these Puppet officials could take over seamlessly without him needing to make another trip.

After returning to the City Lords Mansion in Zhenlong City, Chen Hu pondered how to win the hearts of the people in the five commandery cities and the multiple county cities.

Currently, the people in these places could barely afford to eat after the government's tax levies.

The best method was to distribute food to the commoners.

As long as these commoners could be fed, they would almost certainly pledge their loyalty.

On the other side, the two Blood Refining Realm experts sent by Luo Ningshuang sped along the way and soon arrived at a temporary military camp.

It had to be said that Zhao Jianfei's ability to govern the army was very strong.

Inside the camp, there were multiple patrol squads crossing paths to prevent spies from infiltrating.

However, these patrol squads were not qualified to detect the two Blood Refining Realm experts.

Therefore, the two Blood Refining Puppets quickly found Zhao Jianfei's tent.

Although Governor-General Zhao Tianqing trusted Zhao Jianfei relatively well, for his safety, Governor-General Zhao Tianqing still sent two Late Stage Marrow Refining experts to serve as his guards.

"Swish! Swish!"

Two faint blade lights flashed by and vanished.

In an instant, everyone inside and outside the command tent, including the two Late Stage Marrow Refining experts, were dead.

Zhao Jianfei, who was studying a map, suddenly looked up and discovered two muscular men in black inside the tent.

"Who are you?"

"Swish!"

Blade light flashed, and Zhao Jianfei's head fell to the ground.

The two figures disappeared into thin air, and then, fires broke out in multiple places in the camp.

"Fire!"

"Hurry and put it out!"

...

For a time, the military camp was in chaos.

Moreover, putting out a fire was not as fast as setting one.

In a short while, the fire engulfed the entire military camp.

Many soldiers were swallowed by the flames, while some soldiers managed to escape.

Over an hour later, the entire military camp was burned to the ground.

Of the ten thousand soldiers, only about six thousand remained, while their commander, Zhao Jianfei, did not manage to escape.

For a time, the ten battalion commanders looked at each other in dismay.

"What should we do?"

"Hurry, send people to find the Young Master. We must see him alive or find his corpse!" one battalion commander reacted.

Thus, they sent soldiers to search the burnt-down camp.

They did find him, but it was a charred corpse with the head separated from the body.

Through a saber, they determined that this corpse was indeed the Young Master Zhao Jianfei.

"Report what happened here to the Governor-General!" one battalion commander said with a mournful face.

"Let's flee!"

Another battalion commander said: "The Young Master is dead, and we are still alive. The Governor-General will not let us off. We might as well sneak back to Lingzhou City overnight and take our families to escape. Otherwise, once the Governor-General learns the news, all of us will probably...!"

"Where can we flee to?"

Another battalion commander smiled bitterly: "The Governor-General is the heaven of Lingzhou. We cannot guarantee that the news won't leak. Once it leaks, the Governor-General will definitely send people to hunt us down!"

"Go to Linjiang Prefecture and join the Fierce Tiger Army!" one battalion commander said in a deep voice.

"Join the Fierce Tiger Army?" The other battalion commanders looked at this battalion commander in unison.

"As far as I know, the Fierce Tiger Army commander Chen Hu is the illegitimate son of the Mingjian Villa master. It is very likely that the Fierce Tiger Army has the support of Mingjian Villa!" this battalion commander said again.

Mingjian Villa was also one of the ten great forces in Lingzhou.

With the protection of Mingjian Villa, they might be able to find a glimmer of survival.

Thus, the ten battalion commanders discussed it and decided that three battalion commanders would go to Linjiang Prefecture to make contact with Chen Hu first and express their intention to defect.

The other seven battalion commanders would secretly take the troops back to Lingzhou City to pick up their families.

If they were hunted down by Governor-General Zhao Tianqing's men, they could have the Fierce Tiger Army come to meet them.

Time flashed by, and it was early morning again.

After coming out of Nangong Hongyan's room, Chen Hu went to the study.

With a thought, the System panel appeared.

The number of underlings had increased slightly, reaching over 7.1 million.

Therefore, Underling Points increased by 7.1 million, reaching 14.6 million.

"System, consume two million Underling Points to raise my cultivation to the Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer!"

The upgrade began.

Almost in the span of a breath, Chen Hu's cultivation reached the Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer.

Then, he consumed another 9 million Underling Points to directly raise his cultivation to the Foundation Establishment Ninth Layer.

Underling Points shrank drastically, with only over 3.6 million remaining.

With twelve layers of Qi Refining and only nine layers of Foundation Establishment, as long as he had the corresponding Cultivation Technique, he could break through to the Golden Core Realm.

He pulled up the System Mall and searched for "Tai Xuan Golden Core Technique".

He clicked purchase.

Underling Points were deducted by another 1 million, leaving over 2.6 million.

"System, how many Underling Points are needed to break through to the Golden Core Realm?" Chen Hu asked again.

The System gave the answer.

Golden Cores also have Ranks, ranging from the First Turn to the Ninth Turn.

The First Turn Golden Core is the weakest, and the Nine-Turn Golden Core is the strongest.

Suddenly, the price of the Breakthrough was different.

Breaking through to a First Turn Golden Core only requires 10 million Underling Points.

But to break through to a Nine-Turn Golden Core, it requires 100 million Underling Points.