Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1427 - 456: Youth and Face-Slapping, the Secret of the Five Luminaries Tribulation Body, Dark Merchant Invitation, and Making the Rankings_5

What is this?

Is the Ice Abyss a tempering for humans, or a suppression; or perhaps, the main characters of the Ice Abyss aren’t humans at all, but rather Cold Beasts and Deceitful Monsters...

Xia Hong shook his head. He was only at the mid-stage of Xianyang cultivation, and this issue was clearly not something for him to worry about at this stage.

"I’ve basically understood the two realms of Xianyang and Tribulation Body; I’ve also gotten a general grasp of the situation in Cai Qiu, and the things I came here to do are almost finished."

Just from Cai Shiqi’s words just now and his severed finger, Xia Hong could pretty much deduce the general situation on the side of the Nine Towns.

"Xuanling directly acted against Cai Shiqi, which means that Great Xia has already clashed head-on with the people from the vassal towns. I initially told her and Xia Chuan that it was not wise to openly antagonize the vassal towns before the Nine Towns formed an alliance, which means the Nine Towns have likely formed an alliance successfully. Seeing Cai Shiqi’s reaction, plans might already be made to take action next year..."

Thinking of this, Xia Hong shook his head, not worried in the least.

With the Bone-Eroding Path blocking the way, Cai Qiu couldn’t possibly send a large army over. Just a few Xianyang-level cultivators going to cause trouble for Great Xia is far from sufficient, let alone the Nine Towns having successfully formed an alliance.

To put it bluntly, even if a Tribulation Body realm expert personally came, it wouldn’t be enough to completely crush the Nine Towns Alliance. Furthermore, given Cai Shiqi’s status, getting someone of that level to stand up for him is virtually impossible.

"Why bother thinking about such things? He won’t even live until next year. Coming to Lin Chu County City now is likely for next month’s Blood Miasma Plain trial. I’ve already received an invitation from Cai Yunlan; I’ll just find some secluded place and kill him."

Xia Hong let out a cold laugh twice, then recalled the Blood Miasma Plain trial, his eyes gleaming.

His most crucial goals coming to the vassal towns are threefold: to figure out his own cultivation issues, to assess the strength of the two vassal towns, and to determine how long until the two vassal towns officially march south.

The first goal has just been achieved; the second, though he’s only seen Cai Qiu, he actually can infer Chen Cang’s strength through Cai Qiu; as for the third goal, he’s only partially figured it out.

Cai Qiu not marching south from Jinshan Town is because the Bone-Eroding Path is blocking the way. Based on his personal experience crossing the Bone-Eroding Path last August, if Cai Qiu had a way to deal with that Black Wind General, he would have already made efforts to resolve it.

Since it’s unresolved, and even each time crossing the territory, he must obediently offer living people to that Black Wind General, it can only mean Cai Qiu has no way to deal with that Black Wind General.

From this, it is deduced that Cai Qiu will not be able to invade the Nine Towns from the Bone-Eroding Path side for a long time.

Thus, like Chen Cang, if Cai Qiu wants to invade the Nine Towns Territory, he can only focus on the area of the Blood Miasma Plain.

"According to information I’ve gathered these past few months, the two vassal towns indeed have a large number of Town Guard troops stationed in the Blood Miasma Plain region now. Cai Qiu has even sent the Silver Scale Army under Landgrave’s command, and Chen Cang is likely not far behind. The two armies, one east and one west, form a pincers, probably cooperating with each other to either clear the area or connect the entire Blood Miasma Plain region, all in preparation for southward expansion. It’s just right to use this trial to go over and take a look at their progress. Once I’m back, I can formulate a response!"

Firm on the thought of returning, Xia Hong immediately began to plan in his mind what he should do for the remaining time in the vassal towns.

Suddenly, he thought of something, reached into the Yellow Mustard Bag and took out a delicately crafted invitation made of pure silver.

The front of the invitation was emblazoned with five gold letters: "Yang City Invitation", with two smaller words "Dark Merchant" printed above them.

"I almost forgot about you!"

Xia Hong patted his head, looked down at the text on the invitation, his face full of both surprise and shock.

This Yang City Invitation had mysteriously appeared in his room last month’s eighth day.

Being a guest here, Xia Hong wouldn’t treat this small courtyard as home. He carried his Yellow Mustard Bag with him wherever he went, and with servants frequently in and out of the room, strange new items appearing unexpectedly wasn’t too unusual.

But last month, upon suddenly seeing this Yang City Invitation, he was shocked, especially after consulting the four siblings of Su Jing and probing the servants who had entered his room that day, confirming that it was indeed a stranger who stealthily delivered it. This left him deeply shaken inside.

The terms Dark Merchant and Yang City, Xia Hong first heard them three years ago, in September of the seventh year of Daxia, right after he just broke through to the Xianyang level and first headed to the territory of Beishuo Town.

He remembered clearly, that time he encountered a Cold Resistance Level elder halfway named Zhu Yang, the Dean of the Beishuo Inspection Office. Seeing that the elder only possessed Lower War Body Talent, yet had a combat prowess of 27-maned, and since Great Xia hadn’t yet developed Dan Medicine to allow those at the peak of Cold Resistance Level to continue enhancing their strength, he directly blocked the elder and questioned him.

Dark Merchant organization, Moao’s Tenth Town, Yang City Invitation...

He learned about these things from Zhu Yang, and his first reaction was that this Dark Merchant was definitely concocted by one or more of the Nine Towns working in unison, inevitably involving a large number of the high-level officials from each town.

But subsequent events left him puzzled.

Initially, this Dark Merchant appeared to have vanished completely from the Nine Towns after the chaos at Dajue Temple. At first, Xia Hong thought they were hiding deeply, so when Great Xia launched trade two years ago in July, he immediately informed Qiu Peng and Lin Kai about the Dark Merchant, urging them to suppress it vigorously, and if they could trace and destroy the organization root and branch, that would be even better.