In the blink of an eye, it was time for the army to depart. Almost all the royal guards deployed by the central government were disciples of the capital region. There were hundreds of thousands of commoners who came to send them off. The Divine Might Sect and the Divine Secret Sect were filled with soldiers. Both sides of the road were filled with commoners who were sending them off. The entire southern side of the Divine Capital was a sea of black, filled with people.
The houses were filled with people. Some of the women were looking for their lovers, husbands, and sons, but when they couldn't find the familiar faces among the rows of shining silver armors and red tassels, they could only desperately throw flowers and dried food into the army. Unfortunately, none of the soldiers dared to bend down to pick up the flowers and dried food they threw out.
They only dared to use the corners of their eyes to see if there were any familiar faces among the sea of people on both sides. However, how could they see them at a time like this?
At this time, the soldiers could only embark on an unknown journey with regret and the desire to make a name for themselves. However, how many of them would make a name for themselves? How many of them would survive?
No one knew.
Compared to the jubilant departure and send-off, Li Chengfeng and the other cultivators' departure was much more low-key. Naturally, they would not walk to the capital region like the soldiers, then take a boat all the way south.
They used a teleportation array to arrive at the battlefield as soon as possible to provide support to the southeastern battlefield.
At this time, the teleportation area had already been heavily guarded. The huge teleportation area was already off-limits to outsiders a day ago. The area was surrounded by patrolling guards from the government and the Divine Sect.
After urgent adjustments and changes to the coordinates of the teleportation area, it was all set to teleport to Ning An Prefecture's Guangyuan City. This was the core city of the southeastern warzone, where Long Tenghai's base camp was located.
Li Chengfeng and the rest were very lucky. Perhaps it was to facilitate coordination between the various sects, Li Chengfeng, Zhao Xiaobao, Han Tianxing and the rest were not separated, but still gathered together.
Li Chengfeng was worried about Yuehan's whereabouts but at this moment, the Emperor's Order and the Sect Master's Order were pressing down on him. Even someone as rebellious as Li Chengfeng did not dare to act up. He could only hand over the important task of finding Yuehan and Little Zhu to Zhao Feiyue, Liu Sumei and the rest. He could only bring Xiaobao, Han Tianxing and the rest to Guang Yuan City through the portal.
Zhao Feiyue, Liu Sumei, and the others looked at the top of the tower. Another beam of green light shot up into the sky. The two of them looked at each other. Zhao Feiyue's eyes were filled with worry, but Liu Sumei's didn't seem worried at all. Instead, there was a strange look in her eyes, like anticipation, and excitement.
But no one noticed Liu Sumei's strange gaze. She patted Zhao Feiyue's shoulder and said softly, "Don't worry, he will come back safely."
Zhao Feiyue nodded subconsciously, but she soon felt that something was off. Why did Liu Sumei sound so sure?
This thought only flashed through her mind, and she did not pursue it any further.
…
"Drunk on the battlefield, Lord Grim, how many have returned from a battle?"
This was not Li Chengfeng's first time using the portal for long-distance teleportation. When the green light around him gradually dissipated, his vision returned to normal. Everything looked the same as in the Divine Capital. However, when he walked out of the teleportation area, passed through the teleportation tower, and exited the teleportation area, the strangely shaped buildings and noisy military camps around him told him that he was no longer in the Divine Capital. He had arrived in the southeastern region of Daqi, thousands of miles away.
What surprised Li Chengfeng was that the teleportation area they were in was actually underground!
After walking out of the teleportation tower, Li Chengfeng followed the long underground tunnel to a spacious underground platform. This was a huge ring-shaped underground base, surrounded by corridors that extended deep into the walls. Every fifty metres, there would be a tunnel entrance, from which cultivators continuously walked out.
These cultivators were the same as Li Chengfeng. They all came to this underground platform the size of ten football fields, then took the mechanism ladder at the end of the tunnel, and let the mechanism pull them to the surface.
There was no light here, and the surrounding walls were filled with everlasting lamps lit with kerosene. With the different levels of light, Li Chengfeng could see that above them were layers upon layers of ring-shaped corridors. The corridors were filled with machine cannons and fully armed soldiers.
Before they even entered the camp, Li Chengfeng could already feel that the murderous aura around him had far surpassed that of the Divine Capital!
As the last cultivator was filled up with the mechanism ladder, the guard next to the mechanism shouted, "Loading complete!"
Then, he waved the torch in his hand, followed by torches tens of metres above them. From afar, it looked like a small bright spot.
With a rumble, the mechanism ladder slowly rose, and Li Chengfeng and the rest were brought up by the ladder.
Li Chengfeng, Xiaobao, Han Tianxing and the rest had experienced Spiritual Master Yun's underground world and the mechanism array, so they were not too surprised. However, to the other young cultivators, it was as if they had arrived in another world.
Daqi and the Puppet Kingdom had been at war for many years, so their cultures were highly intertwined. Daqi's culture of cultivation and education could be seen everywhere in the Puppet Kingdom. Similarly, the Puppet Kingdom's strange techniques and mechanical puppets were also common in Daqi.
Many cultivation sects had invested a lot of manpower and material resources into this research, but many of these young cultivators did not have the time and opportunity to see all this. Most of their energy was still invested in improving their magic power, spells, and the strength of their magic treasures.
That was why these young cultivators clung to the rusty cages and looked around curiously. Beneath their feet was a bottomless, pitch-black pit. There was always a buzzing sound coming from below, and every now and then, a red tide would surge. They could not help but wonder what kind of majestic and terrifying mechanism lair it was.
Han Tianxing looked at the shouting cultivators around him and could not help showing a sliver of smugness and disdain. But before he could express his emotions, there was a rumble above his head and the round door opened. Blinding sunlight surged in like a tidal wave, causing everyone to instinctively shield their eyes.
When they recovered, they had already left the underground world and entered a huge ring-shaped castle.
This castle was ten times larger than the underground castle from before. It was surrounded by walls that towered like mountains. They were so tall that they inspired awe.
This huge ring-shaped castle was divided into ten levels, and each level had a connecting passageway. From the bottom to the top, it looked like a well-arranged and intricately interwoven spider web. Some of the passageways were blocking the way of these mechanical ladders, and were currently changing directions with a 'ka ka' sound.
They were so huge that each passageway was comparable to the most magnificent bridge Han Tianxing and the others had ever seen, able to accommodate six horses riding side by side.
In the middle of this dense spiderweb was an incomparably huge steel pillar. Sparks flickered within the pillar from time to time. The bottom three of the ten layers were used to continuously transport flammable black stones and black oil to it.
Even from a hundred metres away, Li Chengfeng and the rest could still feel the terrifying heat coming from the giant steel pillar!
As the ladder continued to rise, Li Chengfeng could clearly see countless naked workers shovelling coal onto the conveyor belt. They stood in two rows along the conveyor belt, shovelling cart after cart of coal and oil onto the conveyor belt.
Under the scorching heat and sunlight, their bronze skin gleamed like oiled leather. From afar, they looked like bronze men repeating the same actions. If it wasn't for their orderly shouts, Li Chengfeng would have thought they were robots that did not know fatigue.