Volume 1, Chapter 141 – Arrangements

“This… General, could you give this poor Daoist a chance to explain?” The Daoist on the ground slowly struggled to his feet, giving an awkward laugh.

Bai Weiyang’s expression was very calm, without the slightest trace of anger. After looking the Daoist over twice, he asked softly, “From the Daoist sects? Do you have a lineage?”

“This poor Daoist is Chisongzi, of the lineage of Patriarch Xuanyang. My master passed away many years ago and left no other fellow disciples.” Chisongzi straightened his somewhat disheveled robes and bowed slightly.

“Explain.”

Bai Weiyang neither agreed nor disagreed, just uttered a single word.

Chisongzi froze, lightly coughed twice, and his expression turned solemn. “General, this poor Daoist is somewhat versed in the sixty-four hexagrams of yin and yang. Just now, to divine the outcome of the Demon-Suppressing Army’s fiend-suppressing expedition, this poor Daoist cast a hexagram…”

“If you dare utter words that shake the troops’ morale or spread demonic nonsense to confuse the crowd, this general will behead you.”

Before Chisongzi could finish speaking, Bai Weiyang’s voice sounded directly in his mind.

Looking at Bai Weiyang’s emotionless eyes, Chisongzi forced a smile. His throat felt dry and he could not get out a single word for a moment.

“What did the hexagram show?” Ren Kaiyang asked with arms folded, a cold smile on his face.

All around, everyone focused their attention to listen. Chisongzi’s reputation in mystic arts was enormous. Although many scoffed on the surface, in their hearts they still had a few points of belief.

“The hexagram shows that, this, this expedition, the Demon-Suppressing Army’s martial fortune is flourishing. The demon race is certain to collapse and flee for a thousand li under the Demon-Suppressing Army’s dragon-like might and tiger-like gaze…”

As soon as Chisongzi finished speaking, quite a few murmurs rose around them.

Sweeping his gaze over them from the corner of his eye, Chisongzi felt a bit more at ease. Then he shifted his tone, speaking in an upright, earnest manner:

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“Upon receiving this hexagram, this poor Daoist was overjoyed. However, after carefully calculating further, I discovered that within this warship, there is an inauspicious object that will hinder the Demon-Suppressing Army’s martial fortune. Therefore…”

“That inauspicious object is that set of battle armor, is it? What a slick tongue…”

Ren Kaiyang glared, snorted coldly, and was just about to step forward to teach this lying Daoist a lesson when Bai Weiyang raised a hand to stop him.

Ren Kaiyang did not overstep by asking Bai Weiyang what he meant, only silently withdrew.

“Daoist Chisong, your Daoist arts are profound. You managed to calculate in one go that this set of battle armor carries baleful qi. Since that is the case, I must trouble you to perform a Daoist ritual to suppress that baleful qi, so it does not impact the martial fortune of my Demon-Suppressing Army.”

Bai Weiyang slowly walked up to Chisongzi. As if dusting off his clothes for him, he patted the Daoist robe a few times.

Chisongzi’s expression did not change, but a hint of horror flashed in his eyes. With those few light, inconspicuous pats, Bai Weiyang instantly locked a hundred and eight acupoints all over his body and sealed off all of his Heavenly Astral true qi that could split mountains and crack the earth.

“General…” Chisongzi forced out a strained smile.

“Kaiyang, take Daoist Chisong to rest for now.” Bai Weiyang ignored him and waved a hand.

“Yes.”

Ren Kaiyang accepted the order and led Chisongzi away.

Watching this scene that looked almost like a farce, the surrounding people all reacted differently, and the murmurs gradually died away.

Bai Weiyang swept his gaze around once, then raised his hand. A thin booklet appeared out of nowhere in his palm.

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Flipping it open, Bai Weiyang spoke slowly. “People of Rakshasa Manor, step forward.”

A group of a little over thirty people in black robes took one step forward, separating themselves from the crowd.

“From this moment, all members of Rakshasa Manor are to be incorporated under the command of Demon-Suppressing Army ten-thousand-man commander Ren Kaiyang. Any objections?”

“We have no objections.”

The leader of Rakshasa Manor was a middle-aged man of about forty. Hearing Bai Weiyang’s question, he cupped his hands and replied respectfully.

Not far behind this man stood a young man in his early twenties, none other than Zhao Jing’an, who had been defeated by Shi Lan at the martial meet.

Seeing this, Shi Lan suddenly understood. So the purpose was to assign these martial artists from all the various powers under the command of the Demon-Suppressing Army.

They should all be mid to high-ranking members of their respective forces, because as Shi Lan swept her gaze around, she did not see a single martial artist below the Innate Realm.

“People of Miaoyin Valley, step forward.” Bai Weiyang spoke again.

Several dozen graceful figures slowly came forward. Gu Rongyue was among them.

“Miaoyin Valley’s specialty, do you have any support-type sound arts?”

Hearing Bai Weiyang’s question, everyone from Miaoyin Valley was a bit surprised. It seemed Bai Weiyang was quite familiar with methods that used true qi to drive sound.

“We do, General.” A beautiful woman in palace dress of about thirty years stepped forward gracefully and bowed.

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“What kind of support is it, and how many martial artists can it affect?”

“It can amplify martial artists’ true qi. If we several dozen all perform it together, we can increase an Innate Realm martial artist’s true qi by thirty percent, an Earth Fiend Realm martial artist’s by twenty percent, and a Heavenly Astral Realm martial artist’s by ten percent. It can affect an area of about five hundred zhang in radius. If there are too many martial artists, we will need spirit crystals as support.”

Bai Weiyang nodded and looked at the palace-robed beauty. “For the time being, you will be placed in the women’s camp of my Demon-Suppressing Army, under the command of ten-thousand-man commander Lü Anqing. Any objections?”

“We have no objections.” The beauty lowered her head in reply.

A woman in battle armor stepped forward to stand before the Miaoyin Valley group.

The woman’s figure was well-proportioned. As she walked, every inch of her bones and sinews gave people a faint sense that terrifying explosive power was hidden within, enough to make one’s heart tremble. Half of her face was covered by a pitch-black mask of unknown material.

On the half of her face revealed outside the mask, her skin was rosy, her nose straight and high, and a pair of soul-stealing peach blossom eyes hooked at people’s hearts. At a glance, it was clear she was a beauty.

It was just a pity that this beauty was more than half dispelled by that slightly eerie black mask.

The martial artists in the square could not help but sigh with some regret in their hearts.

“Come with me.”

Lü Anqing walked to the front of the Miaoyin Valley group, threw down the words coldly, then turned and strode toward the edge of the plaza, looking not easy to get along with.

The people of Miaoyin Valley looked at one another for a moment, then lifted their feet to follow.

“People of Chongxu Pavilion, step forward…”

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Bai Weiyang did not waste time and immediately continued making arrangements.

Chongxu Pavilion was only a seventh-grade power. Its strongest expert was merely at the great perfection of the Earth Fiend Realm, and fewer than a hundred people from it had boarded the ship. Among the many powers present, it was not eye-catching at all.

However, among this inconspicuous group from Chongxu Pavilion, there was one person who drew Shi Lan’s attention. He was a young man of about twenty-five or twenty-six, at the second stage of the Innate Realm, neither high nor low. His talent already surpassed that of ordinary people by quite a bit.

Shi Lan kept feeling that this person’s appearance looked somewhat familiar to her, and that something on his person seemed to have a faint connection with her.

“Hey, look, isn’t that Shi Lan?” A young man tugged lightly at his friend beside him and asked in a low voice.

“Shi Lan?” Following the direction his companion pointed, that man looked over and was instantly stunned. His expression turned rather interesting. “It really is her. I did not expect her to be part of the Demon-Suppressing Army.”

After the martial meet, there were not a few people within tens of thousands of li who knew of Shi Lan. Besides these two, many others quickly recognized Shi Lan, standing quietly to the side.

Now, aside from becoming famous in that martial meet, Shi Lan already had the brilliant battle record of defeating three Earth Fiend Realm martial artists head-on, one against three.

Though many people still regarded that record with skepticism.

Very soon, the majority of people in the plaza had been assigned. Less than a hundred remained, more than half of whom were from Sky Thunder Hall.

Halfway through the assignments, Bai Weiyang suddenly crooked a finger at Shi Lan.