Start with a red name

Because the "Black Wind Army" acted first, within a hundred or two hundred miles of the northernmost part of Xuanqing Sea, almost all ships capable of long-distance travel, except for small sampans that could only navigate short distances, were looted.

The Xuanyou Iron Cavalry that appeared just in time, like a sharp blade hanging overhead, could only remain suspended there; it was impossible for them to actually fall.

The only feasible way is to abandon the main force, discard their armor and horses, and send a group of the most elite warriors in small sampans to approach and carry out the assassination.

However, in the Iron Cavalry Army, cultivation level and strength are linked to status.

Asking a commander-in-chief to abandon his main force and become a highly risky assassin is simply impossible within the strictly disciplined Iron Cavalry.

Therefore, while Song Mingzhu and others may appear to be in a tense situation, that is only an appearance.

Moreover, this time Geng Xuan not only sent them more vehicles and ships, but also Yang Qian and his brand-new strategy.

The Black Wind Army's sweeping operation across Xuanqinghai will enter a new phase, shifting from "normal mode" to "simple mode".

……

On the vehicles and ships heading south at high speed.

After circling in the air for a while, the eight Xuanqing Sea Sand Eagles landed on the deck and on the railing.

After a period of intense physical exertion, they need a good rest before they can fight the sky again.

There were also six Xuanqinghai sand eagles, which Geng Xuan left with Song Mingzhu and the others to serve as their eyes in the sky.

At the same time, you must be prepared to gouge out the other person's eyes at any time.

Surrounded by a flock of large birds, Geng Xuan looked at the water ahead and wondered if he should return to Huangwei Island first.

At this moment, a woman with a breathtakingly alluring waistline came to Geng Xuan's side.

Unlike the plain and even somewhat ugly Guo Nan, and unlike the beautiful but wild-as-a-female-leopard Bai Ma, Yu Qiuhe is the most feminine woman among the current middle and upper management of the "Black Wind Army".

After receiving a blessing of good fortune, her cultivation level broke through the shackles of the mid-stage of Marrow Refinement and advanced to the late-stage of Marrow Refinement.

Moreover, its foundation is solid, and there has been little loosening.

Because of his exceptional work ability, he is decisive and efficient in his work, and is currently the second-in-command of the shipyard.

The top leader, Ruan Ruizhe, was left behind to temporarily associate with Song Mingzhu and others, while Geng Xuan handed over the command of the southbound fleet to her.

After arranging everything on each ship, she gracefully approached Geng Xuan and respectfully bowed, saying, "Commander."

Although it wasn't intentional, her natural endowments were undeniable, and with her sudden bow and the sudden revelation of her waist and hip curves, it was truly breathtaking.

Geng Xuan couldn't help but glance at it a couple more times before asking, "'Water Gate Army,' you know about it, right?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Qiuhe paused for a moment, then quickly replied, "I know."

"This is the destination we're heading south for."

Yu Qiuhe was startled, but quickly composed herself and listened attentively.

"Considering that there are quite a few iron cavalry gathered there now, I also plan to send some Xuanyou iron cavalry there. Without affecting the efficiency of the operation, how many do you think would be appropriate?"

A single Xuanyou horse is equivalent to the weight of twenty or thirty people. With heavy armor, transporting one iron cavalry is equivalent to transporting more than thirty people.

Both tower ships and vehicle-driven ships have a "human-powered mode".

If the operation involves thirty-odd people, each person can be a "power source".

However, if the equipment being transported is the Xuanyou Iron Cavalry, there can only be one "power source".

Geng Xuan's original intention was, of course, to have as many Xuanyou Iron Cavalry as possible accompanying the fleet.

However, considering the efficiency of navigation, some trade-offs must be made, and the number of Xuanyou Iron Cavalry must be controlled below a certain limit.

After understanding Geng Xuan's intention, Yu Qiuhe did not respond immediately, but instead frowned and pondered.

After a while, seeing that Geng Xuan was still waiting for her answer, she quickly said:
"Commander, could you give me a little more time? I'll get back to you when I return to Huangwei Island?"

"……Can."

Having received Geng Xuan's permission, Yu Qiuhe breathed a sigh of relief and quickly took her leave.

After giving some instructions to Zhang Kai, Guo Nan, and several other senior executives, Geng Xuan jumped into the water and returned to Huangwei Island first.

It was already evening when they parted ways with Song Mingzhu and the others.

Night had already fallen.

Twenty vehicles and boats, guided by sailors familiar with the waters of the Xuanqing Sea, sped southward.

Geng Xuan, who took the lead, brought the "Water Movement Technique" to its fullest potential.

Halfway through the journey, a sudden feeling of inspiration arose in my heart, and the speed that had already been pushed to its limit suddenly increased, making my figure even more "inhuman".

Like a shadowy figure in the water, he rapidly approached "Huangwei Island".

The "Water Movement Technique" advances from master to grandmaster, becoming not only faster but also more fluid and effortless to execute.

Even greater changes are occurring at the physical level.

As his "horse judging skills" improved and his technique gradually approached the Dao, his body developed an instinctive adaptation to "wind resistance."

It can effectively mitigate the effects of wind resistance through the natural rhythm of the body surface.

At this moment, after advancing to the Grandmaster level in "Water Movement Technique," he gradually developed an instinctive adaptation to the greatest obstacle to "Water Movement"—water resistance.

This change subtly interacts with "disguise," a cornerstone of the "Water Element" faction.

The "Disguise Technique," which had long been honed to perfection, touched upon an even deeper realm under this subtle influence.

Geng Xuan had a feeling that, within certain limits, his body could change more freely according to his will, truly like "water".

Because of the further increase in the speed of "water travel", Geng Xuan returned to "Huangwei Island" at the beginning of Hai Shi, which is around nine o'clock.

Everything on the island is as usual.

Geng Xuan only greeted Xiang Jinxiu, who was handling general affairs, before going to the central military tent that had been specially reserved for him.

Soon, Geng Xuan, having stood up in the "Heaven and Earth Stake," entered a state of complete absorption in the external world.

The fatigue accumulated in body and mind from the continuous back-and-forth travel was quickly washed away in this wondrous realm, and both body and mind entered a state of clarity.

……

Around 4 a.m. on the 11th, twenty southbound vehicles and ships finally arrived at Huangwei Island.

Having finally found a chance to rest properly, Geng Xuan also withdrew from the "Heaven and Earth Stance" state.

Watching the "Black Wind Army" soldiers board the ship in an orderly fashion.

This time, when they went south, they left only a hundred men on the island to guard more than 20,000 Xuanyou horses, a large amount of supplies, and 4,500 laborers.

The rest of the people, plus the troops who went south with the twenty vehicles and ships, totaling more than 21,000, were all going south.

Of these, fewer than three thousand were at the Skin Refining and Flesh Refining stages; the rest were all elite experts at the Blood Refining stage or above.

In addition, at Yu Qiuhe's suggestion, Liu Mu and several others consulted and made a plan.

Taking into account both offensive power and operational efficiency, it was ultimately decided that the number of Xuan You Iron Cavalry to be deployed this time would be controlled at around two thousand.

For this reason, not only will the twenty vehicles and ships continue south, but all ten of the remaining 5,000-ton warships will also be deployed.

Just as Geng Xuan was watching the "Black Wind Army" soldiers board the ship in an orderly manner, Xiang Jinxiu came to his side and whispered, "Commander."

"Is something wrong?"

Geng Xuan was puzzled, but at Xiang Jinxiu's prompting, he took a few steps to the side.

Xiang Jinxiu pointed to the side, and Geng Xuan looked in that direction and saw more than two hundred people standing there.

Whether it's their overall posture and demeanor or the spirit emanating from each individual, it's clear that these people are distinctly different from the "Black Wind Army" soldiers who are boarding the ship.

They became more reserved and timid, and their formation appeared scattered.

However, when Geng Xuan looked over, these people still tried their best to straighten their chests.

However, some people avoided his gaze, looking away and not daring to meet his eyes.

Geng Xuan immediately recognized these people as one of the four thousand five hundred laborers.

Although their condition could not compare with that of the "Black Wind Army" soldiers, when placed alongside other laborers, it was clear that this group was in much better physical and mental condition.

These people all had some level of cultivation, and some had even officially entered the realm of skin refining.

But that's all.

Serving as a laborer in the army was certainly a very dangerous thing.

However, they can also obtain some opportunities that are hard to come by in their hometown, such as channels for cultivation and advancement.

These laborers are like that.

Most of the laborers killed by Geng Xuan using the "one in ten" method were also killed in the same way.

Xiang Jinxiu whispered, "They all want to participate in this operation as well."

Geng Xuan glanced at them and could tell at a glance that only a small number of people actually wanted to participate in this operation.

The vast majority of them were done "voluntarily" without their consent.

Xiang Jinxiu's purpose in doing this is also easy to understand.

These laborers were different from ordinary laborers who had no cultivation.

Their abilities, ambitions, and desires are all more vigorous and intense.

With all the troops withdrawn from the island, leaving only a hundred men to guard it, it's hard to guarantee that no one will act recklessly and cause trouble.

To avoid this situation, taking all these people away is the best option.

For these people, this trip south would only lead to two possible outcomes.

Either die, and it will all be over.

If they survive, according to Geng Xuan's past practices, they can at least receive some blessings and taste some sweetness.

From then on, he became a formal member of the "Black Wind Army," completing a leap in status and embarking on a different path in life.

After thinking it through, Geng Xuan nodded, "Alright, bring them along too."

After all the people and horses had boarded the ships, twenty vehicles and ten multi-story ships left the dock one after another and continued southward.

At this moment, it was still dark, the time before dawn.

Geng Xuan did not stop, but instead went back and forth between vehicles, ships, and buildings.

The 3795 people newly recruited from Song Mingzhu and others, as well as the 278 people selected from the shortest among the laborers, were all incorporated into different units.

Most of these people are not very strong, or even seriously weak.

Each one of them is continuously lowering the average strength of the "Black Wind Army".

If they were forced together, their combat effectiveness would not be very strong; they would just be a motley crew with severely inadequate overall skills.

Under Geng Xuan's perfected "troop deployment technique," they can be deployed among well-established units and their value can be effectively utilized.

Even if their combat effectiveness is questionable, they can still act as a lubricant.

It's sufficient for delivering information and performing basic tasks that seem simple but must be done by someone.

This was also an opportunity for Geng Xuan to have close contact with the most grassroots members of the "Black Wind Army".

As the "Black Wind Army" grows larger and its system becomes more sophisticated, this opportunity is extremely rare, both for him and for these individuals.

Geng Xuan will also take advantage of this opportunity to discover the value of each member as much as possible.

And take this opportunity to place those individuals whom he judges to be more likely to rise to prominence, or whom he is more willing to allow to rise to prominence, into environments more suitable for their rise and success.

It's easy to understand why they are more likely to stand out. This is determined by the characteristics of the target members themselves, whether it's their talents or their will. They are always better than others in some aspect, making it easier for them to go further.

The reason why they are more willing to let someone take the lead is not because the target member himself has the qualities that make him more likely to rise to the top, but because the person just happens to fit their value preferences.

In the simplest terms, among cultivators of the same cultivation level, those with a lower concentration of red names will receive more preferential treatment during reorganization. Conversely, those with a higher concentration of red names will "enjoy" more hostility during reorganization.

For example, those who are kind and law-abiding will receive more preferential treatment from him.

Those with a cunning and chaotic nature will also "enjoy" more malice.

No one but Geng Xuan could have guessed about these arrangements.

The result is that the former has a lower mortality rate and a higher chance of making meritorious contributions, especially major ones.

The latter has a higher mortality rate, and to achieve great merit, one must take greater risks.

If we only focus on a single battle, this difference is also very subtle and can be obscured by other, more obvious factors.

But as the battles progressed, the overall appearance of the "Black Wind Army" would gradually change in the way he wanted it to be.

When Geng Xuan mastered the "Art of Troop Deployment," he had this feeling.

An army is like a special living organism.

The individual units that make up the army are the cells of this living organism.

He can make the value of individual cells, as well as larger tissues composed of many cells, fully realized by adjusting the "cells".

You can also shape the tendencies and form of this "life form" according to your own preferences.

This reorganization was no exception.

After the reorganization was completed, Geng Xuan stayed on the ship he was on.

First, they went to the "Water Gate Army" encampment and the two waterfront post stations where a large number of Xuanyou Iron Cavalry had gathered, and released a plague called "Black Fortune Calamity".

No.

The battle plan, which had been formulated by Liu Mu and other staff officers and understood and affirmed by Tie Lang, Xiang Jinxiu and others, was not interfered with by Geng Xuan after he had a general understanding of it.

Now, as the ship sails on, the well-developed battle plan is being disseminated from captains and lieutenants down to the sergeants, squad leaders, and platoon leaders.

The journey was planned to last three and a half to four hours.

When the fleet arrives at the combat area, every officer of rank above platoon leader will have a full understanding of their respective mission.

There will also be a macro-level overall understanding of the entire operational plan.

……

However, all of this had nothing to do with Zhang Shan.

Just one day ago, Zhang Shan wasn't Zhang Shan; he was Zhang San.

It seems the person in charge of registration thought there were too many people with the same name, so they simply changed his name.

Zhang Shan himself is unaware of this.

However, even if he knew that, Zhang Shan wouldn't care about such a small thing as changing his name.

Unlike most others who were forcibly conscripted into labor, he jumped into this fire pit voluntarily.

Within a year, the Zhang family seemed to be possessed by a demon.

First, Zhang's father was attacked by a sand wolf while herding sheep. He endured the attack for half a month before succumbing to his injuries.

Immediately following this, Zhang's mother suffered a sudden mental breakdown and died of depression two months later.

The pregnant wife suffered a postpartum hemorrhage during childbirth, resulting in the death of both mother and child.

He was once a perfectly happy family, but in less than a year, he was left all alone in the world.

The series of misfortunes had a devastating impact on him personally.

In the end, he couldn't even feel grief anymore; he was numb.

The neighbors, who were originally quite friendly, began to distance themselves from him, as if afraid of getting involved with something.

When the order to conscript laborers was issued in the settlement, everyone else avoided it like the plague, trying every possible way to escape.

Zhang San, who was like a walking corpse, volunteered for a spot.

He wanted to change his way of life.

After becoming laborers, they did not form cliques or seek mutual support.

They accept adversity and work hard without complaint.

No matter how hard or tiring the work was, or how many changes in people's hearts he experienced along the way, as long as it fell to him, he would bury himself in it and do it.

Work when there's work to do, eat when food comes, and sleep when you're tired.

Zhang Shan deliberately lived like an animal.

Blacksmithing, mining, salt boiling, boat treading, latrine cleaning, corpse hauling...

Over three years, I traveled to many places and did a lot of hard, tiring, and dirty work.

The people around me have changed batch after batch.

Some were transferred elsewhere, while others died, their bodies wrapped in tattered mats and hastily buried in the desert.

But Zhang Shan not only survived, but his body also grew stronger and stronger, and even his dead heart gradually came back to life.

After arriving at "Huangwei Island", the formation of cliques and factions became even more serious among the laborers.

Because Zhang Shan was physically strong and didn't know how to choose sides, he had no powerful backers. In addition to working, he also had to act as a human punching bag every day.

Being punched and kicked became his daily routine.

A day isn't complete without getting punched a hundred or eighty times.

One day, Zhang Shan suddenly felt that the heavy and poisonous punches and kicks that had been landing on him had become much lighter.

"Could it be that these people have finally become kind and understanding?"

Zhang Shan was surprised, but he didn't say anything and continued his life like a beast of burden.

As the day of his southward journey drew closer, the punches and kicks raining down on him grew lighter and lighter.

The topics of conversation among people are increasingly about the joyful dreams they have after moving south.

Zhang Shan didn't think about these things; he just focused on eating, working, and getting beaten.

Just when he thought everything would continue as everyone was talking, change suddenly occurred.

A group of killers landed.

No, it should be a demon god leading a group of killing gods ashore.

Overnight, Huangwei Island underwent a dramatic change.

He can't see people and things that are too far away, and he doesn't bother to get involved.

All he knew was that those "big shots" who were high above the laborers and who used to beat him like a sandbag every day were, under the watchful eyes of that demon god, slaughtered by hordes of killing gods like dead dogs, and had their heads swiftly and cleanly chopped off.

When it was all over, on their way back to camp, many familiar heads blocked their way.

Many of the laborers who were traveling with him and had also suffered a lot of bullying couldn't help but kick him.

As they went back and forth, those heads rolled around on the ground like balls.

Zhang Shan didn't kick it; several times he even intentionally avoided the head rolling towards him.

Seeing his pathetic state, the laborers who had been passing him the ball looked at him with disdain and ignored him.

Not long after, the killing god surnamed Xiang, along with a group of lesser killing gods, questioned and registered them one by one.

From his name to his birthplace, how he became a laborer, and what he did, everything was thoroughly investigated.

After questioning them thoroughly, someone would reach out and pat or hit them.

Zhang Shan was no exception.

Although his experience was somewhat tragic, neither the person questioning him nor the person registering him were moved.

The change occurred after the questioning ended; a hand suddenly patted him on the shoulder.

He did not resist, but felt that the palm was like a hot iron, and the skin on his shoulders and back instinctively tightened slightly, which relieved some of the "heat" that had seeped into his body.

When he was a human punching bag, he often used this method to deflect those overly vicious punches and kicks.

He thought that was the end of it.

But the person who clapped at him looked at him with astonishment.

Then, that murderous god surnamed Xiang came to him.

He instinctively sensed danger as another palm strike came at him, and his body seemed to want to move, but he couldn't do anything.

He thought he was doomed, but nothing happened.

The man surnamed Xiang clicked his tongue twice and said, "Zhang Shan? Good lad, he's been practicing the Skin Refining Technique for at least two years now. He's been keeping it well hidden!"

Skin refining?

I didn't refine the skin.

Oh, if being beaten up every day counts as skin refining, then we can't say that the God of Slaughter's judgment is wrong.

After this little incident, apart from the fact that his former laborers, who used to despise and bully him, all changed their expressions drastically, nothing else happened.

Until tonight, he had no idea what to do, but that guy surnamed Xiang told him he wanted to participate in that damn operation, and then he was forced onto a ship.

However, let's take action then.

Zhang Shan, who was sitting huddled in a corner of the cabin in a daze, was thinking about what had just happened.

That demon god, a figure whom even the God of Slaughter had to treat with utmost respect, seemed to have looked at him many times as he arranged these two hundred-plus laborers into different teams.

If that were all, Zhang Shan himself would think he was just being presumptuous.

But in the end, when the demon god assigned him to his current team, he specifically said, "Kill the enemy well and try your best to survive."

This was a privilege that other laborers did not receive.

Many people who were with the demon god at the time, including the god of slaughter, cast strange glances at him.

Zhang Shan thus confirmed that the demon god was indeed somewhat special to him.

Just then, Zhang Shan suddenly felt a tug on his shoulder.

Turning his head, he saw a square-faced man with a full beard staring intently at him.

"Soldier... Soldier Commander!" Zhang Shan hesitated for a moment, then quickly stood up and greeted him respectfully.

The square-faced man slapped him hard on the shoulder and said, "What sergeant? Call me Brother Li!"

"Brother Li... Brother Li!"

"Ah, that's right... Tell me, what's your relationship with the General?"

"Wh...what relationship?" Zhang Shan looked confused.

The square-faced man stared at him intently for a while, then deliberately changed the subject and asked instead:
What skills do you currently possess?

ability?

Blacksmithing, mining, shoveling manure, boiling salt... do these count?
Zhang Shan, who had been numb for many years and had voluntarily stopped thinking, was not really stupid.

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "A...are you planning to go?"

Despite being beaten every day, Zhang Shan didn't learn anything else, but he did learn how to protect himself in the worst possible circumstances.

"That's a great deal, absolutely!" the sergeant who had been told to call him "Brother Li" exclaimed hastily. (End of Chapter)