Martial Peak
chapter-5235

This long-term plan that the leaders of the East-West Army had devised would require a lot of resources.

Besides the fact that all 30,000 Humans needed resources to cultivate, they would also need a massive amount of resources to build the arrays on the Universe Worlds.

Without sufficient resources, those arrays wouldn’t be useful.

There was no doubt that Xiang Shan, as the Army Commander, was an expert in military affairs. This was proven after he was put in charge of the East-West Army; however, Liu Zhi Ping soon realised that he was a spendthrift who didn’t seem to be aware that resources were hard to come by.

In the initial stage of the East-West Army, the Eighth-Order Division Commanders from different Great Passes had brought with them a large amount of resources to provision the campaign.

It could be said that when the East-West Army was being built in Wind and Cloud Pass back then, they had an enormous amount of resources. The higher-ups had made a calculation and concluded that the resources were more than enough for all 30,000 cultivators in the East-West Army to use for 300 years, and there would still be something left over.

300 years was thought to be sufficient for them to retake Great Evolution Pass. As long as Great Evolution Pass was retaken, they wouldn’t have to worry about a lack of resources any longer.

But in fact, resources that were supposed to be enough for 30,000 people to use for 100 years were squandered away by Xiang Shan in just two to three years.

Upon learning that, Liu Zhi Ping was so frustrated that she almost passed out. After giving it a thought, it was obvious where the resources had gone.

A while ago, Xiang Shan told the Artifact Refiners to craft several tens of thousands of puppets to be sent to Great Evolution Pass in order to attract the Black Ink Clan’s attention. Those puppets were all destroyed by the Black Ink Clan.

Now, they had to arrange tens of thousands, if not a hundred thousand arrays on each of the 13 Universe Worlds that were thrown at the Royal City.

All of those projects required a lot of resources.

Regardless of how many resources they brought with them, it wouldn’t last long given Xiang Shan’s wanton spending.

Xiang Shan was the epitome of a man who had no qualms about killing or spending money like water.

This man, who had been dormant for 3,000 years and eventually returned to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, had both qualities.

Liu Zhi Ping was no match for Xiang Shan when it came to her aptitude in warfare; therefore, since the East-West Army departed from Wind and Cloud Pass, Xiang Shan had been the one who made all the decisions. Liu Zhi Ping only assisted him from the side by analysing the pros and cons of each plan.

But this Army Commander of the Western Army was a woman at the end of the day, so she was naturally an expert in doing accounts and keeping a house in order, which was shown in how delicious the steamed stuffed buns that she made in the Marketplace back in Yin-Yang Pass were.

Therefore, she directly decided to take control of the East-West Army’s finances.

Now, all 30,000 soldiers in the East-West Army faced a conundrum.

At the rate they were using them, the resources they had could only last them 10 years.

None of them could have expected that the first problem they faced in their mission to retake Great Evolution Pass would be about resources; after all, the resources sent to them from various Great Passes were supposedly enough to last them 300 years. They had speculated on what sorts of problems they might face except for the lack of resources.

Without resources, they wouldn’t be able to cultivate, and the damaged Warships couldn’t be repaired, not to mention that their plan to attack the Royal City with Universe Worlds would have to be stopped.

Therefore, the first thing Liu Zhi Ping did after she took control of resource management was to order the soldiers to begin mining the nearby Universe Worlds.

It seemed that the Black Ink Clan was determined to defend the Royal City, so they wouldn’t initiate an attack; therefore, those in the East-West Army would have enough time and energy to do such a thing.

It wasn’t hard for the Humans to extract resources.

They just had to look for suitable Universe Worlds in the void and use the Void Yin-Yang Mirrors to move those Universe Worlds back to somewhere near the forward base. That way, they could extract resources easily without spreading their manpower over too wide an area.

There were 30,000 soldiers in the East-West Army. Even if they took turns, they could mobilise about 10,000 people at any given time. Hence, resource extraction would be very efficient. It would only take them 10 days to half a month to mine out a Universe World.

The teams responsible for searching for suitable Universe Worlds to mine could also look out for Universe Worlds that could be kept and turned into weapons to attack the Royal City with. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

Therefore, when Yang Kai looked out of his Small Universe, he soon saw shattered Universe Worlds in the void after they were fully mined as well as the people busy mining new Universe Worlds.

10 years had passed since he arrived at this village at the bottom of the mountain.

Of course, that was the amount of time that had gone by in his Small Universe. In fact, only two and a half years had passed in the outside world.

To a successful cultivator, 10 years was a very short time, but to an ordinary mortal, 10 years was an appreciable amount of their lifetime.

The World Energy in Yang Kai’s Small Universe was ample, with rich vitality and a peaceful environment. Even ordinary mortals could live up to 100 years without too many problems. Some mortals lived up to 150 years old.

However, to the hunter and his wife, they had reached the middle stage of their lives.

The arrival of Xiao Xiao let them enjoy the happiness of raising a child as they didn’t have one of their own. They had thus given all their love and attention to this Daughter of theirs.

There was no doubt that Xiao Xiao was intelligent as she could learn anything fast. At school, she would always be praised by the teacher.

She was also a filial child who would always help her Mother do some household chores and follow her Father to go hunting.

The couple had no more regrets in life as they already had such a wonderful Daughter.

However, what concerned them was that Xiao Xiao hadn’t grown one bit due to the illness she had since she was younger.

When the hunter picked her up from the log house on the mountain, she looked like she was only three to four years old; now, 10 years had passed, but Xiao Xiao hadn’t changed one bit. She didn’t look like the other kids her age who were now in their teens.

While the hunter was grateful to the Heavens that they were blessed with a child, he and his Wife also prayed for mercy and hoped that they would be punished in Xiao Xiao’s stead as long as she could grow up to be a healthy person.

However, their prayers were unanswered.

To be precise, it wasn’t the right time yet.

Others had no idea what was wrong with Xiao Xiao’s body, but Yang Kai had somewhat figured it out.

The Old Ancestor’s recovery this time was quite odd. Not only did she seal off her own memory, but she also instinctively stopped Yang Kai from concealing her whereabouts.

It seemed that she had the intention of truly becoming a part of this Bustling World, with a local identity and all.

The couple’s child was her identity.

Yang Kai speculated that the reason she hadn’t changed one bit after 10 years was that it had something to do with her injury. Before she recovered, her body would not change; in other words, when she started growing, that would mean that she was on the mend.

Yang Kai felt that it was such a shame. He had secretly examined the Old Ancestor’s body, but he couldn’t discover any kind of injury. Perhaps the Old Ancestor had concealed her wounds using a Secret Technique.

This couldn’t be rushed. The Old Ancestor must have gone all out to deal with the Royal Lord, so she must be terribly injured. It was expected that it would take her quite some time to recover.

It was a small village with only a dozen or so families living here. They were all kind-hearted hunters, and the neighbours would always help each other out; however, in this Bustling World, it was expected that there were devious people out there.

The anomaly with Xiao Xiao’s body eventually caused trouble for her.

Yang Kai had already detected it, but he decided to ignore it. Since the Old Ancestor had to experience life in this Bustling World to recuperate, it would be beneficial to her if she could go through some of the things ordinary mortals would experience.

There were still a little more than 10 kids in the small classroom. The first batch of children had grown up and stopped studying here. They had returned to their homes to help their families earn a living. These kids were the new batch of students.

Xiao Xiao was still one of the students and her appearance didn’t look different from those of the other kids. Nevertheless, after all these years, she was now just as capable and intelligent as the other teenagers.

Therefore, she was like the teacher’s assistant now. Whenever the teacher became dazed and stared off into space, she would be the one who taught the kids how to read and write.

Every morning, she would come over to help him out for two hours, then she would follow her Father to go hunting.

With the book in her hand, she told the kids to repeat after her. Then, she took a glance at the teacher, who was asleep on a chair with a book covering his face, and sighed in a way as though she was a mature person.

The teacher was too indolent. She revered him when she was a child because he would always give her some delicious food; however, as time passed, she eventually discovered the teacher’s true colours.

The light was shaded at the door all of a sudden, and the kids stopped reading out loud. Xiao Xiao turned her head and saw two people standing at the door.

One of them prompted her to frown as a look of disgust appeared on her face.

This couldn’t be helped, as the person was a hunter who lived in a village that was 30 kilometres away. She and her Father came across this person on the mountain on multiple occasions. The last time they ran into him was several days ago. They were chasing after the same prey at the same time; in the end, Xiao Xiao was agile enough to kill it first with an arrow. However, that person insisted that he was the one who discovered the prey. Left with no choice, Xiao Xiao’s Father had to share half of the prey with him, and the matter was settled.

It wasn’t the first time such a thing happened. The other hunters in the village had also experienced this before.

The hunters wouldn’t have given in if that person were just any other commoner; however, Xiao Xiao heard from her Father that this hunter had a relative who cultivated in Water Moon Pavilion. He held a pretty important position, so the average person wouldn’t dare to offend him.

Therefore, the hunters could only hold their fury down and let this person throw his weight around.

It wasn’t certain what this person was in the school for, and the man beside him looked a little unusual. He was unlike the other hunters who had rough and tan skin from working under the sun all day. Instead, he was somewhat similar to the teacher. They both gave off a strange feeling.

Xiao Xiao couldn’t tell what this feeling was; however, the first time she saw the teacher, she had a feeling that he was different from others.

“It’s her!” The hunter pointed at Xiao Xiao, “Look, Uncle Wen Yuan. This girl must be a Spirit!”

The word ‘Spirit’ made Xiao Xiao feel furious.

In the past, the kids in the village would secretly call her Spirit because she never grew up, but she was unusually strong. Despite the fact that she only looked like she was three or four years old, she could follow the adults to go hunting. Sometimes, she could get even more prey than the adults.

However, after the adults disciplined them, the village kids never dared to call her that again.