Imperial Cultivation

Chu Zhiyuan's figure darted between the reefs, and he quickly went ashore, entering a small town.

Within the range of his divine sense, the small town was only about three miles in radius. In this town of several thousand people, fish were being dried everywhere.

The stench was pervasive.

Smoke from cooking fires rose from every household, floating into the air, filling the twilight air with the scent of burning wood and the essence of life. The most bustling street in the town was lined with various stalls.

Fish stalls, meat stalls, vegetable stalls, fruit stalls, as well as shops selling clothes and rouge, and two general stores.

Children ran wildly in the streets, and people had already begun to gather in teahouses and restaurants for meals.

Chu Zhiyuan had changed into coarse cloth clothing in advance, smeared his face with disguise cream, turning it brown, so that he wouldn't stand out in the town.

He came to a teahouse in the town, sat in a corner, and hung a wooden sign on his waist.

The color of this wooden sign blended perfectly with his linen clothes, making it unnoticeable unless someone stared intently at his waist.

After sitting for a while, a small note appeared in his palm, personally delivered by the shopkeeper.

Chu Zhiyuan finished his tea, got up, and left.

Guided by the note, he arrived outside a small courtyard, knocked on the door, three short and two long, knocking twice.

The courtyard door opened, and a stout middle-aged man was waiting inside, cupping his fist in greeting, without speaking.

Chu Zhiyuan entered the courtyard. It was a very simple courtyard, obviously uninhabited, only occasionally cleaned.

Chu Zhiyuan entered the house.

There was no fire in the house, and it was damp and cold.

The middle-aged man cupped his fist and said, "I am Pang Si, brother is...?"

"What a coincidence, I am Qing Si," Chu Zhiyuan said with a smile, "I'm here seeking help."

"Speak your business, and I will certainly do my best."

"I have seen the defense map of the Western Frontier. I want to find out my current location and where the garrisons are located around here."

"There is a garrison three miles away, with a dockyard. As for here, this is Rongxing Town on Wangxi Road. The nearby garrison is Rongxing Fort, with about a thousand troops, two large ships, and ten small ships."

"Has a large amount of supplies come recently?"

"There have been some, but not that many."

"Has there been an increase in troops? Or recruitment of soldiers?"

"No, there hasn't been."

"No signs of sending troops?"

"The Da Guang Dynasty is to the south. If troops are sent, it should be towards Wangnan Road, not Wangxi Road."

Chu Zhiyuan nodded.

It seemed that everyone's mindset was the same, that sending troops meant going south, towards the Da Guang Dynasty.

Even this secret agent of the Surveillance Division hadn't considered that the Da Lie Dynasty would send troops to the Da Jing Dynasty to the west.

This was the Da Lie's deliberate attempt to create a smokescreen, making everyone believe they were going to send troops to the Da Guang Dynasty.

The Da Lie Dynasty even kept it a secret from their own people, deceiving everyone, including the Da Jing Dynasty.

This move had to be said to be extremely clever.

"If they set out from the south and turned west halfway, where would they usually turn?" Chu Zhiyuan asked, "And resupply."

"There is a large island to the southwest, Nanyun Island. Stopping there would allow them to turn directly west, and Nanyun Island is wealthy, making resupply very convenient."

"Nanyun Island..." Chu Zhiyuan nodded, "It's not easy to enter Nanyun Island, is it?"

"Nanyun Island is heavily guarded, and you need a travel permit to enter."

"Can you get a travel permit?"

"... I'll give it a try." Pang Si frowned and thought for a moment, then slowly said, "I'll know by tomorrow morning."

"Thank you," Chu Zhiyuan nodded.

He could tell that Pang Si was confident, but he was deliberately delaying it.

To show the difficulty of the matter.

"Also..."

Chu Zhiyuan and Pang Si talked until their mouths were dry, unknowingly drinking two cups of tea, clarifying the surrounding situation.

Chu Zhiyuan then said goodbye to Pang Si, wandered around the town, and went to the Rongxing Fort garrison three miles away.

He released his extrasensory perception, examining the Rongxing Fort garrison.

He quickly understood their reality, and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

These thousand-odd Da Lie soldiers were lax and undisciplined, and their martial arts cultivation was ordinary.

During their evening practice, many were slacking off.

He knew from the Surveillance Division's intelligence that the Da Lie Dynasty's military system was different from the Da Jing Dynasty's. The most crucial difference was that meritorious service was not as important.

Compared to the Da Jing Dynasty, the Da Lie Dynasty's soldiers had a narrower path to advancement.

And it wasn't easy to move up, and it wasn't easy to earn merit, which led to these thousand-odd soldiers having no ambition, all of them being veteran scoundrels.

Overall, the Da Lie soldiers were not strong in combat, and they had no formations.

Thinking about it, naval battles didn't require formations either. They relied on shooting arrows from ships, then boarding and fighting.

The further south he went, the more elite the Da Lie soldiers became, each one valiant, and their individual combat power was stronger.

But even these elites were still somewhat inferior to the Da Jing soldiers he had seen.

Chu Zhiyuan felt that he had been overthinking things.

Even if these elites were to break into Da Jing, into the Eastern Frontier, as long as the Da Jing Western Frontier army was mobilized, a charge would be enough to send them scurrying with their tails between their legs.

Hearing is false, seeing is believing.

After seeing the Da Lie army with his own eyes, seventy or eighty percent of his worries were gone.

The next morning, he returned to Rongxing Town, obtained the travel permit, and headed south.

He didn't take a Da Lie ship, but relied on his own small boat, pushing the speed to the limit, and arrived at Nanyun Island in one breath.

Entering Nanyun Island, he boldly stayed at a restaurant with his travel permit, experiencing the customs and culture of Nanyun Island. And the garrison on the island.

The garrison on Nanyun Island was even more elite.

He observed their usual training, observed their troop movements.

He discovered that warships were constantly transporting soldiers over.

Small groups of soldiers joined, bringing the garrison on Nanyun Island to over ten thousand.

It was clear that these soldiers came from all over, gathered on Nanyun Island, all of them elites selected from the army.

These elites were still a far cry from the Phoenix Camp. Chu Zhiyuan was certain.

The next day, he left Nanyun Island and continued south, reaching the Northern Frontier of Da Guang.

Entering the Da Guang Dynasty from the north, and then contacting the Surveillance Division's secret agents, he went around in a circle, seeing the Northern Frontier of the Da Guang Dynasty clearly.

Two days later, he returned to the Eastern Frontier coast of the Da Jing Dynasty, found two Heavenly Dragon Divine Horses, and returned to Yujing.

f .. The Phoenix Camp began to move.

Divided into ten large teams, spaced about ten miles apart, with eighteen small teams in each large team, marching in dispersed formation.

On the road, Chu Zhiyuan continued to train their military formations.

The Heavenly Dragon Divine Horse allowed him to come and go like lightning, training one large team and then the next.

He could take turns guiding them all once a day.

The crowd used their lightness skills to march, lightly loaded. Bai Ningyu had already moved ahead to coordinate the supply of provisions. After ten days, when they arrived at the Eastern Frontier, they had already practiced the Phoenix Seeking Phoenix Formation to five or six tenths of its potential.

Chu Zhiyuan felt that this was already enough.

In a certain military camp in the Eastern Frontier, all the soldiers of the Phoenix Camp changed into the armor and weapons of the Da Lie Dynasty.

Their expressions were solemn, sensing the gravity of the coming battle. Chu Zhiyuan looked down at these Phoenix Camp soldiers, quite satisfied. These soldiers all had combat experience, and even if they hadn't taken lives,

they had all seen blood.

Such soldiers, when they went to the battlefield, wouldn't have soft hands and feet, and wouldn't fail to exert even half of their strength.