Chapter 150: The Covert Struggle Between Song and Liao (Part Four)

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As Liang Zhongshu hesitated, he suddenly recalled the feeling Li Qingmeng had given him earlier. He no longer wished to try!
‘This isn’t about whether I want to or not!’ Liang Zhongshu glanced at the maid from the Lingjiu Palace seated on the chair—a woman in her early thirties whose strength had already reached the mid-Innate stage.
“Messenger, please wait a moment. I will immediately order the troops to prepare and march out of the city.” Since there was an advantage to be gained, he felt it best not to cause himself any more trouble under these circumstances.
“You will go personally, take five hundred guards and seven or eight officials to assist. Our people will handle overall security and defense. The foreigners in the city have been marked with life-and-death talismans. If any Han betray us, our lord will naturally deal with them,” the woman said coldly, her tone utterly unwavering.
Liang Zhongshu shuddered involuntarily. Life-and-death talismans! Just thinking about them made his whole body uncomfortable. Those barbarians marked with them likely lost their combat effectiveness even if they were soldiers before. But this was an excellent method of control; with this trick, managing prisoners in the future would no longer be so troublesome.
With that thought, Liang Zhongshu immediately gave orders, taking his trusted officials and personal guards to follow the woman from Lingjiu Palace out of the city.
Although these civil officials belonged to Liang Zhongshu, they had no idea what he intended to do. However, surrounded by Liang’s personal guards, they dared not speak. As they walked farther, they kept guessing the destination this time.
By the time they reached the city gates, they were drenched in sweat—not from exhaustion, but from fear!
Liang Zhongshu had already betrayed the Song Dynasty and surrendered to the Liao! That was their first thought.
Now they were being dragged into the mess, possibly to help the Liao open the border defenses! That was their second thought.
Should they reveal some secrets they held over certain officials, hoping to gain merit by persuading them to surrender? That was their third thought.
Only when the city gates opened and the Lingjiu Palace people emerged did they walk into the city lord’s mansion and see Li Qingmeng, realizing they had been mistaken.
“This city’s fate has been temporarily severed from the Liao’s. You only need to reconnect it to the Song’s national fortune. They will handle daily affairs, and then you can return,” Li Qingmeng glanced at Liang Zhongshu. Honestly, if the Western Xia’s fortune were not currently beyond her control, she would have directly linked this city to Western Xia’s fortune. She didn’t trust Liang Zhongshu’s subordinates, and her Lingjiu Palace elite disciples had other tasks. Truly relying on those wandering martial artists to fight was untenable.
“How dare you speak to the lord that way! Don’t think you can boast just because you used some tricks to take this city! You wandering martial artists are so unruly and disrespectful!” an official in his forties said indignantly.

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“My lord, I think we should just bring back the Han people from this city. Otherwise, if the Liao send someone to question us, we won’t have a good answer!” a young official said.
“Yes! If the Liao get angry, and those border towns where trade happens suffer massacres, the losses to you, my lord, will be enormous!” another official added.
“What if, what if the Liao army advances on our borders? The blame will fall squarely on you, my lord! We should arrest all these wandering martial artists and prepare compensation to the Liao!” an older official suggested.
“Hmph! A bunch of cowards,” Li Qingmeng sneered, casually shooting several life-and-death talismans into these officials’ bodies. Regardless of their ranks, these officials’ scholarly cultivation was mostly due to their positions; their actual abilities were pitifully weak. Without the protection of the Song’s national fortune here, Li Qingmeng struck easily.
“You… demoness!” Only the eldest official gritted his teeth to curse before they all collapsed to the ground, writhing and wailing.
Liang Zhongshu stood aside, trembling.
After the initial intense wave passed, none of the officials remained standing; all knelt on the ground, too afraid to look up at Li Qingmeng.
“Hmph! You’re here to work. As long as you follow the rules, the life-and-death talisman does not activate, understand?” Li Qingmeng flicked her sleeve, and the officials immediately felt the sensation vanish.
Li Qingmeng looked at Liang Zhongshu. “So, do you want me to help you?”
Liang Zhongshu shuddered. “No, no! I will now connect the national fortune!” He then took out his military token. This was only possible because of the great power minister Cai Jing behind him; otherwise, he could barely bring out even half of the military token!
The token hovered in midair under Liang’s control, forming a phantom. The phantom let out a howl toward the Song side, and a faint thread of fortune extended from the Song’s national fortune to connect with the token. Though faint, it caused the city to once again rise with auspicious clouds.
“Do you see it?” Sun Meng asked, looking at the screen.
“Very clearly. It’s close to what I predicted. It seems this still doesn’t surpass the world’s limits; it’s only a form of formation combining faith power with spiritual energy veins. But having this example will make things much easier,” Xu Xiao said. Previously, when Earth’s civilization went to other planets—even to establish bases on the moon—they first had to occupy territory and build formations before connecting with Earth’s fortune. Now it’s much more convenient.
“By the way, have you tried transferring resources from other planets to Earth? When entering the civilization battlefield, those planets probably won’t be brought along, right?” Sun Meng suddenly asked.

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“We have plans, but once resources on each planet are extracted, they transform into spiritual energy and cannot yet be transferred. However, injecting various attribute spiritual energies has expanded Earth’s area again, since the previous Five-Colored Earth has not yet reached its limit!” Xu Xiao explained.
Sun Meng said, “I almost forgot there’s still something there! I have an idea: to build a truly grand formation to add another layer of protection over the sky dome. Maybe then we can directly crash into the enemy and crush them!”
Xu Xiao replied, “…Do you know how much energy it would take to move the current Earth continent?”
Sun Meng said, “It’s actually possible!”
Xu Xiao thought, ‘You’re just saying that casually!’ “The civilization flagship was built relying on Earth’s continent. Theoretically, as long as the spiritual veins are connected, it could be done. But if we did that, the flagship might become just a showpiece.”
Sun Meng said, “I don’t think that matters! As long as the combatants’ strength and numbers increase, do we wait for enemies to come knocking?” The current Earth civilization’s demand for spiritual energy has surpassed that for the sun. Even if they leave the solar system, they can continue advancing by relying on spiritual energy circulation.
Earth’s continent may not be large now, but over time it will grow into a supercontinent, like the legendary prehistoric continent! When that day comes, no matter how many warships you have, if my continent presses down on you, can you still win? It will pulverize even your home star!
Perhaps because his realm had become the starry sky, Sun Meng found himself increasingly fond of overwhelming force. Though long-range sniper strikes were great, frontally crushing the enemy felt even better!
“In civilization warfare, with your fortune extension technology, that won’t be a problem. But you’d better gather more information on this. By the way, haven’t you found a direction to advance your strength yet?” Xu Xiao looked at the excited Sun Meng and suddenly felt the other was unreliable, despite them having the same level of spiritual evolution!
“Don’t mention it! This world’s consciousness suppresses me tightly. Unless I plan to stay here, enhancing my strength now is easy, but breakthroughs and cultivation paths are impossible. Fortunately, the martial arts I gave the stars’ heroes are still being refined, and this world consciousness can’t stop that. At most three years, I will have mastered all their cultivation paths!” Sun Meng said.
He sensed that after Liang Zhongshu connected this city to the Song’s national fortune, Li Qingmeng’s own strength rose slightly and stabilized. This showed that when the Liangshan heroes gather, their top-tier combat power will definitely break through early third stage. Then the seeds he planted will bear fruit!