Chapter 009: Departure

After the emperor left, Grandmaster Taiyin returned to the National Preceptor's mansion and summoned his disciple.

"Have you found the thief I asked you to find?"

The young Daoist knelt on the ground, his eyes darting nervously, trembling with fear as he said, "Reporting to Master, that thief is extremely cunning. Although I have sent many people to search, we have yet to find any trace of him."

Grandmaster Taiyin's face turned extremely grim. With a wave of his hand, a surge of powerful magical energy burst forth, sending the young Daoist flying. He roared, "Worthless! You are truly worthless! If not for our past bond, I would slap you to death right now."

The young Daoist fell from the wall, his face pale, and quickly kowtowed, begging for mercy.

"Master, spare me! Master, spare me!"

Grandmaster Taiyin's expression softened slightly. He shook his head and said, "Forget it. Put aside your current tasks for now and follow me out of the capital to Jiannan Circuit."

"Jiannan Circuit?" The young Daoist was not entirely ignorant. Hearing this name, he immediately understood. "Master intends to meet that mysterious army?"

As far as he knew, Jiannan Circuit had become the stronghold of that mysterious army.

Moreover, they were expanding at an astonishing pace.

The entire realm was thrown into turmoil by that mysterious army.

Grandmaster Taiyin said, "This is the emperor's order. Just go and prepare."

The young Daoist dared not say anything more and quickly nodded. "Yes, Master."

With that, he slowly backed out.

A day later, Grandmaster Taiyin set out for Jiannan Circuit with an army of over a thousand men.

At the same time, not only from the capital but also from other feudal domains, envoys were dispatched to Jiannan Circuit. Among these people, some sought genuine alliances, some wished to pledge allegiance, some aimed to use others to achieve their goals, and others harbored ill intentions.

Wang Bo knew nothing about the origins of these people.

Of course, even if he did, he wouldn't care.

After all, in this era, a million mechanical soldiers were enough to secure victory. Unless immortals descended to earth, no one could stand against his million-strong army.

Even those cultivators couldn't.

Though their abilities were formidable, trying to single-handedly oppose a million mechanical soldiers was nothing but a pipe dream.

Sometimes, quantity really does overwhelm quality.

Moreover, Wang Bo had far more than a million soldiers. In recent days, the arsenal in his time villa had not stopped production; mechanical soldiers were still being churned out endlessly.

Now, Wang Bo had not just a million troops; even producing another two million was no big deal.

Fortunately, Wang Bo wasn't insane enough to deploy all those troops. After all, a million soldiers were already enough to sweep across the realm; there was no need to bring out another two million.

If he truly attracted the attention of the immortals in heaven, Wang Bo would be in trouble.

For now, Wang Bo had no intention of facing the immortals.

Of course, wearing the Divine Garment and wielding Gungnir, Wang Bo feared no immortal. Even if the Three Pure Ones and the Four Sovereigns of this world made a move, Wang Bo, even if he couldn't win, could retreat with ease.

But what then?

What if he stirred up a hornet's nest and got a wanted notice from the Heavenly Court? After all, he was just one man; two fists can't fight four hands.

Facing an entire Heavenly Court, an entire pantheon, even Wang Bo would have to back down.

So Wang Bo had better keep a low profile for now. A million troops sounded terrifying, but that was only to ordinary people. Immortals probably wouldn't take a million troops seriously.

After all, in ancient history, there had been wars involving millions, though they were rare.

When the Qin state unified the realm, it mobilized about 1.2 million troops, with 500,000 casualties. Bai Qi, in the Battle of Changping, buried 400,000 soldiers alive.

Wang Bo had looked into the history of this xianxia world. Although there were records of Qi Refiners participating in that war, there was no record of immortals taking action.

This showed that most immortals did not interfere in mortal wars.

Thus, while a million mechanical soldiers was exaggerated, it probably wouldn't provoke immortal intervention.

Besides, Wang Bo hadn't done anything evil. His sweeping advance was merely to save the world and help the people.

Of course, if Wang Bo brought out several million mechanical soldiers, it might indeed attract the attention of immortals. After all, while ancient wars involved millions, there had never been wars involving several million.

Such wars would only occur in the interstellar age. By then, even battles involving tens of millions wouldn't be too rare.

For example, in the Star Wars universe, the Galactic Empire's Death Star could destroy a planet with a single shot, killing at least hundreds of millions of lives.

A few million was just a small-scale war, nothing significant.

But in ancient times with backward productivity, wars involving several million likely wouldn't occur.

That's why Wang Bo kept the number of mechanical soldiers at the million level. Besides fearing the immortals, a more important reason was that he believed a million mechanical soldiers were enough to sweep across the realm.

And in fact, Wang Bo wasn't wrong.

As the twenty armies campaigned east and west, Wang Bo's territory grew larger every day. Almost every day, new cities fell into his hands.

If it were anyone else, they would probably be flustered, managing such a vast territory was no easy task.

But fortunately, Wang Bo was a superhuman. His brain processed information faster than an ordinary computer. With the assistance of Miss Friday by his side, Wang Bo could even remotely command distant battles from his headquarters.

Thus, Wang Bo was not flustered at all; instead, he managed the vast territory with ease.

His methods were basically the same as before.

Upon entering a new city, he first executed those who were unforgivably evil and lawless, then promoted some officials to assist in managing the city.

Afterward, he distributed sufficient food and left a batch of mechanical soldiers to maintain order in the town.

In this way, basically no one could resist Wang Bo's rule.

And within Wang Bo's territory, they lacked the means to collude with other towns to oppose him. Thus, every town was isolated, managing itself.

No chaos would occur.

Of course, this management method was only suitable for the present. Wang Bo wouldn't unconditionally govern everyone.

He would gradually establish textile mills, blacksmith shops, tea houses, banks, and so on, encouraging people to engage in commerce and farming, gradually restoring their former way of life.

In addition, he would bring out the convicts to build roads and bridges, restoring transportation.

Perhaps within half a year, the territories under Wang Bo's command would regain the splendor of the Tang Dynasty's golden age.