Chapter 1031: The Great Li King (II)

The gods bestowed power unto the kings. Therefore, in Great Li, the divine priest enjoyed a higher status than the Great Li king. It was just that this generation of king was too strong and had even found favor in the heavens. As strong as the priest was, he knew that he might not be able to stand against this liege. Hence, this generation’s king held much more authority than previous kings.

The divine priest was confused, but didn’t say anything. He waited for a while, seeing the return of the many generals and commanders that’d been previously expelled from the tent. Everyone was rather confused.

Why had the king summoned them back?

“The earlier performance was just an act!” the king announced calmly. “Those ancient powerhouses are from New Martial. New Martial’s lingering reputation is so strong that it has given rise to different voices within the army. Some of the tribal leaders interact too much with these people! This king’s might is no longer sufficient to subdue them.

“They did not think otherwise when this king expelled you from the tent. They probably thought that we should indeed not offer disrespect to the ancient powerhouses!”

The group’s hearts shook.

“Great Li has ruled well for two hundred years, how can ancient powerhouses shake our authority?” continued the Great Li king. “Li Hao says that we are dogs for the ancient ones. That is his underestimation of this king!

“It is only that there are too many of the ancient heavyweights around and New Martial’s reputation weighs too heavily. Whether it is this king or Li Hao, we will have to face them after we resolve our conflict!

“They have shown themselves and wish for us to mobilize our troops.” A sardonic smile crossed the king’s face. “It will be great trouble for us if we do not, but deploying our army only fulfills some of their selfish motives!

“Wanting us to engage them with our full force will result in high casualties. They do not care about that!”

The Great Li king saw the situation clearly. Off to the side, the divine priest opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again.

“The divine priest does not need to say anything,” the king remarked faintly. “You may be thinking of joint partnership, that having their help at this moment is better for us, correct?”

The main priest inclined his head. He knew that the ancient powerhouses did not have pure thoughts, but their aid brought a great deal of benefits to Great Li.

“The divine priest sees only the present and does not see the future. Those guys instigated the four nations into marching on Skystar and kept urging this king to throw all of our troops into the field today. They do not care about our life or death.

“This king more or less understands what they have in mind.” The man lifted his head at the sky. “The heavenly consciousness has been born and the heavens see clearly! The reincarnation of life perfects the heavenly dao. When large sums of elites and supernaturals die in battle, they return to the world. That further competes the reincarnation of heaven and earth and stabilizes the heavenly will. That in turn solidifies the world. This may be what they wish for!”

The main priest’s heart quailed. This generation’s king... was a bit difficult for him to read.

“Then my king means...”

“The divine priest will still coordinate with the ancient powerhouses to ambush Li Hao. However, you need only bring half of the royal guards and temple priests with you!”

The main priest looked at the king in response to this; the latter regarded the generals standing below them. “Go back and deploy the elites in your companies. This king also has an earth driller! Be careful and take only half of your elites. The divine temple will cover the disturbance. This king will personally lead these elites to block the way back and kill all of the ancients!”

“My king, this...” The priest’s eyes widened.

“Divine priest, this king knows that you have some methods... Do not use them yet. Pretend to lose tonight—the ambush can only fail, not succeed! However, do not incur too many losses in the process. Once the ambush fails and the ancients retreat, you will bring up the rear for them and obstruct Li Hao’s people.

“This king will personally kill them to collect their core origin!” the king explained calmly. “Li Hao and his people train the new martial dao, they don’t have much use for core origin. Hence, proactively killing ancient powerhouses is not high on their priority list. However, Great Li inherited the martial dao of Initial Martial. As such, we have great use for core origin!

“All heavyweights who emerge from the ruins will be hunted down and their core origin used to strengthen the royal guards! You will impede the ancients and force them to send out more reinforcements. This king is going to settle in for the long haul with Li Hao and exhaust ancient battle strength.

“Li Hao uses my hand to train his troops, I will use his to lure out more ancients to kill. He trains soldiers, this king trains powerhouses!”

“But my king, once news of this leaks...” cautioned the divine priest.

“Then this news will not leak!” the king emphasized calmly. “How will it spread if the ancients are fully exterminated? Will they think that modern humans would dare scheme against them? Li Hao is an anomaly, how can there be another?

“This king has always treated them with utmost courtesy and respect, hoping to seize Skystar with their help. How could we possibly attack them and harm our own?

“Perhaps Li Hao killed their replicas, or those from other ancient cities. There might be other factors at play as well. The only reason that is completely impossible is this king killing them!

“Divine priest, this king is well aware that there is no meaning in seizing Skystar Dynasty.” The king looked ahead into the distance. “Only in continuously strengthening our powerhouses and adding to their numbers, constantly surpassing ourselves and even defeating New Martial... can there be a way out for Great Li. The purpose of this campaign was never to seize Skystar Dynasty!

“This king is also taking measure of Li Hao’s strength,” laughed the man. “If the young man is too weak, then we will use the ancient cities to eradicate him! If his strength is up to par, then we will borrow his hand to obliterate the ancient powerhouses. Every single one of the royal guards and temple priests will break through to the Apex level of New Martial!”

The main priest couldn’t help the emotion that rocked his heart from this declaration. “Then the ambush tonight...”

“Proceed as this king has said and exert some pressure on Li Hao, as well as the ancient cities. In addition, let those tribes that don’t follow orders form the bulk of the attacking army. It doesn’t matter how many casualties we occur...”

“The king is noble and wise!” roared the generals, fired up again from their orders. They’d never thought of seizing core origin from the ancient powerhouses to strengthen their own people! The ancients were simply too frightening.

“New Martial is in the past, not to mention the ancients now are just vermin who have betrayed New Martial.” The Great Li king remained calm. “What is there to fear? This battle will not affect the greater picture even if we do not conquer Skystar.

“Seizing an additional portion of core origin will put another one of our people at Skystar’s so-called sixth level Mountain and Sea, if not Apex! Remember, powerhouses are the key at the end of war. When it comes to soldiers, one million elites are sufficient. Li Hao wishes for the more elites the better, whereas we want a select gathering of powerhouses!”

The assembly understood!

“My king, are we staying here to put on a show with Li Hao?”

“No, this is not a show.” The Great Li king shook his head with a smile. “His men are also good for our experts to train with. He trains soldiers, we train generals. After tonight’s ambush fails, this king will pit general against general with him!”

A fight of generals!

The people’s hearts shook again.

“Simply extracting core origin from the ancients results in empty strength. We can use his men as our whetstone! This king is happy to help him train his troops since he is training our generals in return!”

Would Li Hao agree to this?

He would. The young man wanted nothing more than for this war to drag on a bit so he could train a group of elites. Meanwhile, Great Li did not lack for elites, but it lacked for the truly powerful.

The king and main priest was powerful, but everyone else... was not so. Although the outside world felt that the royal guards and temple priests were unparalleled, having reached the Arcanus level, would the Great Li king be satisfied with that?

Of course not!

That was too weak!

How was Great Li to conquer Silver Moon and dominate those ancients with that level of strength? They had an opportunity at hand to turn that situation around. The stronger Li Hao was, the happier the Great Li was. Only then would the ancient cities be immensely wary and send out a continuous stream of reinforcements.

“Additionally, we should not send our soldiers to die on purpose!” the king reminded the group when his thoughts traveled here. “There are no benefits to be found in that. Even if those injured are soldiers from the rebellious tribes, you should save who you can! That will demonstrate the heart of Great Li’s army and how there is harmony between comrades!”

“Understood!” The generals were overjoyed.

“Go now.” The king waved his head. “Be careful and select only the elites. Come with this king tonight!”

‘Understood!” The generals readied to leave the tent in a rush of excitement, but their king frowned at them.

“Find your composure, you were just punished by this king. Do you wish for everyone to learn otherwise by leaving in such high spirits? The world says that Great Li soldiers are all brawn and no brains—such is what Li Hao teaches in the central plains. This king rather finds some truth in that today!”

The generals no longer dared to smile and drooped as if a close family member had died. They gingerly picked their way out of the tent.

“Jiang Li, rather than an empty title, this king would like to truly intimidate the four directions and hold sway within our world with this conquest!” The Great Li king addressed the main priest after a long silence. “Li Hao is favored by the heavens, as is this king. This is not the time for the two of us to duel to the death since the heavenly will looks kindly upon both of us. In that case, this king would like to make use of this opportunity to resolve the trouble that is the ancient remnants!”

“My king speaks a great deal of sense.” The main priest inclined his body.

“Therefore, this king does not wish to be the spokesperson of any Initial Martial god.” The king remained looking at the priest. “The same goes for the divine temple!”

The priest’s expression changed slightly.

“Go back and think carefully about this,” the king said calmly. “Faith is good, but when the subject of such faith became a nameless nonentity thousands of years ago, why do people still nurse their faith? What benefits has this entity brought and what has it changed? What has it given us?

“Initial Martial has already lost before, why does it like to cleave to unrealistic notions? Even if Great Li does conquer the world, that is a Great Li achievement, no? Does it have to be assigned to the Initial Martial god as well?”

The main priest’s expression had fully changed; the king looked placidly at him.