Chapter 170: The Seventh Stronghold

At present, a swamp of ferocious beasts, their flying forms illuminated by lightning, approached rapidly. The Numinous Treasures outside the stronghold retaliated swiftly before the beasts could draw near. With a terrifying roar, the sharp spears and cannons let loose a blast of light, slaughtering the creatures without mercy.

The flying lightning beasts stood no chance of escape. Their deaths were instant. The cries that they released before their deaths could shake one to their core.

However, to the countless soldiers in the stronghold bustling around with their affairs, this was but the daily course of affairs—nothing that they were not accustomed to.

There lay one of the primary strongholds guarding the Federation, also known as the Seventh Imperial Gate!

Seven primary strongholds spread across the entire Federation. Within each area that fell under the protection and command of a primary stronghold were hundreds of smaller, minor strongholds.

The military stationed all year round in the strongholds exterminated all beasts that ventured near and defended against minor Beast Tides that occurred from time to time.

At every primary stronghold, a general stood watch and held the fort. The general was responsible for and directed the mission of hundreds of minor strongholds within the primary stronghold’s sphere of influence—the mission of defending against the beasts.

At this precise moment, within the Seventh Imperial Gate, General Zhou, who first made his appearance at the Combat Pavilion Tournament alongside Zhou Lu, stood on a tower. He had his hands behind his back, his gaze set upon the wild jungles in the distance. He stood like this for a long time, and a tinge of concern colored his eyes.

“The Federation predicted that the upcoming Beast Tide will take place on a small scale… so why can’t I rid myself of the nagging sense of worry that has been plaguing me for the past few days?” General Zhou frowned and muttered to himself. Then, he barked out an order.

“Contact the four Dao Colleges. The numbers joining our party this year are to be increased!”

General Zhou’s orders were sent without delay to the four Dao Colleges. Similar requests from other strongholds arrived at the same time.

While the colleges went about their preparations, Wang Baole ended his examination of the mosquitoes in a great mood. He was humming a tune softly while strolling back to his cave abode. It was when he saw his cave abode in the distance that it happened.

Suddenly, a rope flew out of nowhere and flung itself—not at Wang Baole—at the huge tree beside him. As soon as it wrapped itself around the tree trunk, it tightened into a strangle.

“Who’s there!” Wang Baole’s eyes brightened in a flash. His body surged a step forward in an instant, and with a swift wave of his hand, nine mosquitoes appeared. A glove appeared around his right hand; faint strands of mist wove themselves around his left hand. He stared warily in the direction that the rope had come from.

He stared for a very long while and could stop doubts from surfacing. There did not seem to be anything out of place. Stunned, he turned and looked at the rope that had the tree in a chokehold. It was a common item that often turned up among Dharmic Artifacts on Upper Academy Island. Recognition escaped Wang Baole at first. After repeated looks, his eyes suddenly widened.

“Could it be that?”

Wang Baole stepped forward for a closer examination. He could feel his own seal within the rope, and his eyes narrowed.

“It really is…” There was a look of disbelief on Wang Baole’s face. This was the rope that he had refined with Armament Sand a few months ago, the one that had flown into the sky and disappeared without a trace as soon as he had flung it out!

Wang Baole had almost forgotten it. Who could have expected that it would make its way back a few months later?

There’s something seriously wrong with this rope… Wang Baole sighed and retrieved the rope. He intended to take a closer look at it when he was back, to see if there was any possibility for modification.

If there was not, this rope would just be trash. For something that, after being thrown at the enemy, would rise into the sky and disappear, only to reappear a few months later—anything that it could do then would be too little, too late.

Not to mention where the rope had actually gone those few months… it was something that defied Wang Baole’s imagination.

As he immersed himself in thought, Wang Baole placed the rope in his storage bag and returned to his cave abode. He immediately marched over to the smelting furnace. After hours of study, he finally stepped out. He let loose a deep sigh of exasperation. The rope was an unsolvable puzzle.

Under his close examination, he had found that the inscriptions carved within the rope had been completely transformed. The inscriptions clustered together like the messy, overlapping lines of a cypher, thwarting his attempt at analyzing them.

There was nothing to do but store the rope and come back to it again when he was more well-versed in Dharmic Armaments.

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Let’s not care about the rope now. Now that I’ve achieved the basic requirements of becoming an Armament Soldier, the next step is… to familiarize myself with the refinement of third-grade Numinous Treasures as well as to prepare the Numinous Treasure for the advancement assessment!

After thinking for a bit, Wang Baole sat down and opened up the Dharmic Armament guidebook. He went down the list, his eyes finally pausing on a third-grade Numinous Treasure named Dragon’s Tooth.

Among third-grade Numinous Treasures, the Dragon’s Tooth was considered a top-tier treasure. It was a challenge to refine; not only were the inscriptions complicated, the materials required to craft it were extremely rare. Besides metals and precious stones, a large quantity of teeth had to be harvested from monsters.

There was even a note in the Dharmic Armament guidebook stating that the more monsters’ teeth used, the greater this Numinous Treasure would turn out. In theory, if one could venture into the unfathomable Sea, slaughter the Sea Dragon—a fearsome beast whose sightings started in the Spirit Inception Era—and harvest its teeth for crafting, the final treasure created would have power rivaling that of a fifth-grade Numinous Treasure!

The same principle applied for the use of any teeth belonging to monsters stronger and more fearsome than the Sea Dragon. With such teeth, the power of this Numinous Treasure would increase exponentially!

This Numinous Treasure looks like a mace. Wang Baole stared at the picture of the Numinous Treasure on the Dharmic Armament Scroll hesitantly. He was ambivalent.

After studying the other Numinous Treasures in the guidebook though, Wang Baole concluded that he could only guarantee a smooth advancement by crafting the Dragon’s Tooth.

Monsters’ teeth are sold in the Dharmic Armament Pavilion, but there aren’t many for sale, and the variety’s limited. Besides, this Dragon’s Tooth will need a core tooth… what should I choose for its core tooth? Wang Baole thought. His mind instantaneously brought up the image of the Diamond Ape grinning fiercely at Wang Baole.

The stupid monkey’s teeth are very white. They look to be in pretty good shape. If I can get my hands on one of its teeth and use it as the core material, this Numinous Treasure of mine should turn out to be pretty strong.

The temptation was strong, but Wang Baole knew that the task was too challenging. Putting aside the question of whether he would even succeed in the first place, even if he did successfully get his hands on one of the teeth, he would not dare to flaunt its use in public. With some regret, he moved on to consider other potential options.

Even though there were few monsters’ teeth available in the Dharmic Armament Pavilion, Wang Baole received many replies from Upper Academy Island disciples after posting his request on the Spirit Intranet. Many of these disciples were from the Combat Pavilion. They had many monsters’ teeth in their possession. After some hunting, Wang Baole finally had his eyes set on the tooth of a Severed Finger Wolf; it would form the core tooth of the Numinous Treasure that he was going to craft.

Severed Finger Wolves traveled and lived in packs. A fully-grown wolf would rival one who was at the second, maybe even third, level of the True Breath realm. In addition to its brutal nature was its gruesome appearance. Tentacle-like cartilage in the shape of human fingers grew all over its body.

For someone seeing a Severed Finger Wolf for the first time, a glance at a distance was enough to make one’s hair stand on end.

Its teeth were razor-sharp and poisonous. Wang Baole spent quite a number of Spirit Stones on the purchase. After a few tests, he was impressed and awed; at the same time, he believed his choice of the tooth as the core tooth for his Numinous Treasure to be quite the sound decision.

Before he could continue his purchase of other monsters’ teeth, a piece of news turned up and spread across the entire Upper Academy Island like wildfire.

“There’s a Beast Tide approaching! Think it won’t be long before we are summoned to fight!”

“These wretched monsters! Not only do they compete with us for Spirit Qi, evolve faster than us, and leave us in the dust, they even intrude upon our lands every year!”

“Who cares? During the Beast Wars, we were the ones who won! We annihilated every one of those monsters in all the Beast Tides that followed!”

“We’ve had casualties every year, but the senior brothers who returned were all richly rewarded with wealth and other benefits!”

The spreading news was a surprise to many new disciples. After all, they had not had full access to such news when they were at the Lower Academy Island. They had some vague semblance of awareness, superficial and limited.

Now, having entered Upper Academy Island, they finally understood the order of the world and the horror that were the monstrous beasts. The news traveled. Wang Baole heard it all. More information surfaced on the Spirit Intranet without pause.

Wang Baole set aside his shopping and instead focused on the upcoming Beast Tide. He browsed through some readings and a number of Spirit Intranet posts, which cemented what he had known previously. The Federation had seven generals. In the Beast Wars, the seven generals had expanded Federation territories, pushed the frontiers ever closer to the primordial lands, and finally established the seven primary strongholds!

Surrounding each primary stronghold were hundreds of minor strongholds that guarded against and exterminated all encroaching monsters. For the strongholds in the entire Federation, the Beast Tide every spring was a season of war.

The four Dao Colleges that enjoyed elevated statuses were also obliged to shoulder a portion of the responsibility. Every year, the respective Upper Academies would send out numerous disciples to join the seven primary strongholds. The disciples would fall under the military’s command. Their assistance in the monster extermination also served as a form of cultivation.

Combat disciples killed; Alchemy disciples healed; Array Formation disciples supported with their array formations; disciples from the other pavilions were tasked with their own responsibilities. As for the Dharmic Armament disciples, they repaired and restored damaged Dharmic Treasures, especially the large-scale composite Numinous Treasures in the stronghold.

Every disciple who headed toward the stronghold faced the threat of death. If they returned, they would be gifted with praise and rewards from the college. There would even be a record made in their academic dossier. When they took up a position in the Federation in the future, this would form a part of their qualifications.

The news on the Beast Tide spread further and wider. It was then that Wang Baole received a missive from the college. He was to join Chen Yutong and head for the seventh primary stronghold.