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Chapter Seven Hundred and Fifty Eight – Cutting One's Flesh, and Inspiration
Zuo Mo carefully inspected the corpses on the ground.
"They aren't bad." Wei Sheng's words rang an alarm for Zuo Mo. Those that could be called not bad by Wei Sheng Shixiong were definitely not weak.
"It is Heart Leaf Dhyana Sect," a guard carefully reported. Daren rarely had a dark expression like this.
"Heart Leaf Dhyana Sect?" Zuo Mo's eyes flashed with a cold light.
"Yes! These people are not wearing shen equipment but they cultivate heart leaf shen power. Daren, take a look." Finishing, the subordinate forced open the hand of a corpse. There was the mark of a tree branch with a leaf on the palm.
"Daren, this is the mark of heart leaf shen power. They have reached the level of one branch one leaf."
"One branch one leaf?" Zuo Mo asked.
"When heart leaf shen power reaches a new level, their mark will grow and add another leaf," the person said respectfully.
"You know a lot." Zuo Mo asked in surprise, "What's your name?"
"This subordinate is Jin De Wei," the guard was slightly embarrassed. "This one's duty is to inspect the merchant caravans that travel through here, and I have heard some things in the process."
"Oh, then speak, what other information is there on Heart Leaf Dhyana Sect?" Zuo Mo stood and asked interestedly.
Jin De Wei had a hesitant expression.
Zuo Mo smiled and said, "It's just chatter, and I'm just listening."
Jin De Wei finally spoke, "This subordinate coincidentally heard the manager of a merchant caravan mention that Heart Leaf Dhyana Sect secretly consorts with Tian Huan. This subordinate felt they were slightly suspicious and paid attention to them secretly. I heard this from their members."
"Why did you find them suspicious?" Zuo Mo seemed to be more interested in Jin De Wei.
"This subordinate found that they were going around and asking questions, especially about shen equipment and shen power. They also asked about the general location of Golden Crow Island. The range of items they brought was wide, they bought a few of everything but not many of any particular item, they did not seem like business people," Jin De Wei explained.
The admiration in Zuo Mo's eyes grew. This person did not have an attention-catching appearance, but he was perceptive and he was a careful person. This was a talent.
He then asked, "What do you think of this matter?"
Jin De Wei knew that Daren was testing him and immediately focused. After a moment of thought, he said gravely, "They are very familiar with the jinzhi and probably have come before to study them. There were not many people in this attack, just twenty, they did not have any reinforcements. It seems more like a probing mission."
After he said this, Jin De Wei's expression turned ashen. He was frightened by his own conclusion.
Zuo Mo's expression turned dark.
———
"There are about ninety eight transportation formations to the outside world, in twenty or so jie, these outer border jie have been labeled." There was a jie map in front of Gongsun Cha. Almost all of out the outermost jie were labeled in red.
Because Mo Cloud Sea's connection to the outside was almost completely reliant on the transportation formations. Ninety eight transportation formations, twenty two of the outermost jie, on average, each jie had more than four transportation formations connected to the outside.
"Of these ninety eight transportation formations that go to different jie, forty two of them are to xiuzhe jie that are not connected to Tian Huan and Kun Lun. These forty two jie are mostly from the Nine Great Dhyana Sects and some smaller powers. These factions are easy to infiltrate and the transportation formations have become a fatal weakness for us right now."
Gongsun Cha raised his head to look around. "The most secure method right now is to relocate the transportation formations. The best option is to gather the transportation formations, and designate specific business jie where we will station troops to guarantee their safety. However, there are also problems with this plan. The expenses in setting up new transportation formations will be huge, and this way, the cost of many of products will increase as well as reduce our offensive abilities."
Zuo Mo had a grimace. Gongsun Cha's method was possible, but just as he had said, the investment would be enormous.
Transportation formations that could move large volumes for long distances were expensive. Even with Zuo Mo's wealth, he had only accumulated these ninety eight transportation formations after seven years of development. If he had to rebuild so many transportation formations, the amount of money he had to spend was a great sum.
This was a relatively safe plan but it was too expensive.
"The price is too great!" Zuo Mo shook his head. "We do not have the capital."
Everyone nodded. This plan cost too much. In their view, even if they took over all these jie, they didn't need to spend so many jingshi.
Gongsun Cha also knew that this plan was not realistic and continued, "We do not need to guess what will happen next. Kun Lun and Tian Huan will use our weakness by infiltrating the other powers and harass our transportation formations, even destroying them to destroy our connections to the outside world."
Inhales sounded in the conference room. Those with the slightest bit of knowledge understood how great a blow it would be to Mo Cloud Sea if the situation came to that step!
"The problem is that even though we know what they will do next, we do not have many solutions."
Lil' Miss' expression was black. He had originally thought that they built Mo Cloud Sea to be impenetrable and hadn't expected that they had left such a fatal weakness.
At this time, a paper crane suddenly appeared in Zuo Mo's hand. After Zuo Mo unfolded it and read through, he said coolly, "Three transportation formations were attacked at once, and one was destroyed."
The conference room was deathly silent. Everyone had black expressions.
Zuo Mo knew that Mo Cloud Sea was in a dangerous situation. At this time, he had to make a decision.
"Other than the crucial transportation formations, close all others," Zuo Mo said deeply. Angry flames burned in his eyes.
His heart dripped blood. The closure of each transportation formation meant the loss of large amounts of jingshi.
Mo Cloud Sea's economy was about to receive a great blow. For Little Mo Ge whose wealth was his life, this was like cutting his flesh.
Breaking someone's path to riches was akin to killing one's parents.
Zuo Mo's face twisted in pain. He was completely infuriated by the enemy's actions.
"If we have to suffer losses, then everyone will suffer with us. How can we be the only to lose?" Zuo Mo gritted out. "Our transportation formation jinzhi have problems, their transportation formation jinzhi will also have similar problems. They can infiltrate and destroy, we can do the same."
When had Mo Cloud Sea ever been defeated like this? Hearing Zuo Mo's words, flames of anger rose in the eyes of the people who had been feeling frustrated.
Zuo Mo was unusually angry. His eyes flashed with burning light like a wolf in the darkness. "They will regret starting this."
"Yes!" Lil' Miss' black expression returned to normal and a smile like that of the neighbor's boy came back. "This kind of small scale infiltration is actually more advantageous for us. We have a smaller territory and is easier to defend. They are larger and there are openings everywhere. It will be difficult to prevent infiltration. Also, we do not need to limit ourselves to transportation formations. Attack any storage depots, any resource jie, if we get to their rear, we can cause pandemonium."
Lil' Miss' words immediately opened a door. All kinds of inspiration rose.
"Yes, we can assassinate important people."
"It is more profitable to assassinate those people who are not in high positions but are very important. For example, the masters in charge of managing production. Their guards will not be strong, the danger is low, and the benefit is high."
"Disrupt the peace … …"
"Ambush transportation boats … …"
"There's a place that you all forget, the place that teaches battle generals. If we get that, ha, that place is rich! Maybe we can end a future genius battle general, that would be profitable!"
"We need to plan for escape … …"
"We need to divide and conquer … …"
The conference room that had just been deathly silent was now in heated discussion.
As he listened, even Zuo Mo, the start of all this, felt a cold wave up his back. How could these people be so devious … …
———
Bie Han looked at the paper crane that came from the rear and then crushed it before throwing it to the side. "Have the jinzhi been built?"
"The construction has finished," Ma Fan responded. He was filled with puzzlement. Daren had acted the opposite of his usual strategy and built large amounts of jinzhi here as though he was building a great defense line.
"Report on the progress of the battalions." Bie Han's voice was icy.
Ma Fan shook and then hurried to report. "The Tangzi Battalion have already taken Eastern Spring Jie, finished reorganizing, and are waiting for next orders. A Zha Ge Battalion need three more days to reach their destination. However, they have already been detected by the scouts from the Mo Marshal Alliance. The Grey Camp have arrived at the ambush spot without attracting any attention."
"Is there any movement from the reinforcements at Bright Mountain Jie?"
"There are two mo marshal battalions, one of them is seven days away, the other further away, and will most likely arrive in twenty days," Ma Fan reported.
Ma Fan had fought alongside Lil' Miss since a long time ago, and always admired Lil' Miss' powerful calculation. This time, when he followed Bie Han, he found to his shock that Bie Han was also precise and accurate in this field.
"Tangzi Battalion will keep resting, A Zha Ge Battalion will follow the original plan." Bie Han's orders were clean and brisk.
"Yes!" Ma Fan hurriedly answered.
"You are stationed here. Your mission is to stop the enemy battalion from making any sudden attacks," Bie Han said.
"Yes!" Ma Fan crisply acknowledged. Then he carefully asked, "Daren, you … …"
"I will attack the reinforcements." Bie Han treasured words like gold.
Ma Fan's face turned white. "Bright Mountain Jie has two mo marshal battalions … …"
"Just guard the defense line." Bie Han was expressionless.
Ma Fan finally understood why Daren had built this defense line that seemed completely unnecessary. However, even with the defensive line, when Ma Fan thought of the two mo marshal battalions they were facing, he still felt a great pressure.
Even though Ma Fan's battalion was one of the best in defense from Mo Cloud Sea, he had never fought against a mo marshal battalion before. Any battalion led by a mo marshal was astoundingly powerful.
However, Bie Han clearly did not intend to explain more to him. He led Sin Battalion to disappear in the darkness.
Editor's note: And so, the terrorist organization known as ….. was born.
Translator Ramblings: Zuo Mo needs to start his own spy network among the xiuzhe.