radiothebook Chapter 246 6 Qi and Blood
Chapter 246 6 Qi and Blood
When the spaceship landed at Nanjiang Base City, Song Chen glanced down from the porthole.
The entire tarmac was packed with people; all the garrison commanders of Nanjiang Province were there, dressed in formal attire.
Lu Zhengbei stood at the very front, with a huge red banner hanging above his head, bearing the words: "Warmly welcome Honorary Councilor Song Chen's triumphant return."
Below the banner, the military band had already lined up, and the conductor was holding his baton, waiting for the spacecraft door to open.
Further out, a dense crowd filled every passageway surrounding the tarmac.
Some people held up electronic screens that scrolled the words "Heroes of Nanjiang," while others carried children on their shoulders, with the children waving small paper Xia flags.
Song Chen looked at it for three seconds.
"Han Duo, don't open the door yet."
Han Duo's hand was already on the hatch release switch, but he stopped upon hearing this: "Councilor Song?"
Song Chen opened her phone and dialed Lu Zhengbei's channel directly.
Lu Zhengbei was waiting for the hatch to open when he suddenly received a call from Song Chen. He paused for a moment before answering: "Councilor Song? You've arrived? Why isn't the hatch open?"
"Commander Lu, cancel the welcoming ceremony."
Song Chen's voice was very calm.
Lu Zhengbei opened his mouth, glanced at the row of garrison commanders behind him, then at the military band standing ready beside him, and lowered his voice:
"They've withdrawn? Councilor Song, all the garrison commanders from the major base cities have arrived, along with three representatives of teachers and students from martial arts universities, and Shen Qingshan from Anning City has also flown over."
"If you tell me to leave now, how am I supposed to explain this to them?"
"Just tell them I don't need it."
"Councilor Song..."
"Commander Lu, this great battle has only just begun. Let's not start popping champagne halfway through."
"Alright."
Lu Zhengbei took a deep breath, turned around and waved to the garrison commanders behind him, his voice so loud that it could be heard on the other end of the phone.
"Everyone, everyone, disperse. Councilor Song said the ceremony is canceled. Everyone, go do what you were doing."
The conductor's baton froze in mid-air, looking completely bewildered.
The three martial arts university faculty and student representatives looked at each other in bewilderment.
The crowd began to slowly disperse.
The huge banner was frantically being rolled up by two staff members, but it got stuck halfway through and swayed back and forth in the air.
Song Chen then allowed Han Duo to open the hatch.
As he descended the gangway, Lu Zhengbei approached him with a wry smile on his face: "You just said you were canceling, and the ceremony I prepared for three hours has all gone down the drain."
Song Chen turned to look at him and said, "Once we've completely defeated the alien beasts, I won't object to any ceremony you want to prepare."
Having said that, he continued walking forward, saying as he went, "Arrange a secluded training room for me."
Lu Zhengbei glanced at him: "Aren't you going to rest for a couple of days?"
"unnecessary."
"Okay." Lu Zhengbei didn't say anything more.
He had gradually figured out the young man's temperament. Every word Song Chen said was genuine; when he said he didn't need it, he really didn't need it.
The seclusion room is located on the third basement floor of the Nanjiang Base City Defense Command Center. It is specially designed for high-level martial artists, with walls filled with a one-meter-thick spiritual energy isolation alloy. The spiritual energy concentration inside is three times that of the outside world.
Song Chen sat down cross-legged, but did not start cultivating immediately. Instead, he first brought up the system shop.
Kill count: 33 million.
In the battle of Nanjiang, they fought their way from Cangwu Mountain to the border, slaying forty-seven fifth-tier beast kings, including the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon, along with tens of thousands of low-tier beasts, accumulating a huge amount of kill points.
Without hesitation, he exchanged all his pills for the Heavenly Mandate Blood Pill and the Spirit Pill.
Fifty Heavenly Fate Qi and Blood Pills were redeemed from the system shop and piled up in front of me into a small, dark red mountain.
Each one emitted a dense, almost tangible, spiritual energy fluctuation, followed by a spirit pill.
Song Chen grabbed a Heavenly Fate Qi and Blood Pill and stuffed it into his mouth.
The pill melted instantly upon entering the mouth, and a torrent of scorching spiritual energy surged from the throat straight to the dantian, then spread along the meridians to the limbs and bones.
His muscles began to tremble slightly, his bones made a series of soft cracking sounds, and his blood and qi levels rose steadily.
Then came the second one, the third one...
Dark red elixir energy emanated from every pore of his body, forming a thin layer of red mist around him.
After swallowing the Heavenly Fate Qi and Blood Pill, he immediately began swallowing the Spirit Pill.
Time passed second by second.
Outside the secluded room, Lu Zhengbei had sent two guards to stand watch at the entrance.
When the guards changed shifts at midnight, they vaguely heard a series of cracking sounds coming from the secluded meditation room. It was the sound of the pill residue crumbling after being completely refined.
The two exchanged a glance but dared not utter a sound.
The next morning, the door to the seclusion room opened.
When Song Chen walked out, there were still lingering traces of his aura and blood fluctuations.
Last night, his blood energy reached 60,000 and his mental energy reached 40,000.
The aura emanating from him was heavy and sharp. The two guards in the corridor simultaneously felt an invisible pressure bearing down on them, their breath caught in their throats, and they subconsciously took two steps back.
One of the guards, steeling himself, spoke up: "Councilor Song, Garrison Commander Lu said he asked me to inform him after you leave the pass."
"No need, I'll go myself."
Song Chen walked down the corridor and pushed open the door to the command center.
Lu Zhengbei was eating breakfast behind his desk when he saw Song Chen come in. He stopped holding the fried dough stick in mid-air and his eyes widened slightly.
He put down the fried dough stick and looked him up and down: "Councilor Song, you seem different from yesterday?"
Song Chen replied calmly, "A slight breakthrough."
Lu Zhengbei's lips twitched. He had been stuck at the fifth level for over twenty years, but this young man in front of him broke through after just one night of seclusion, speaking in a tone similar to "I went for a run this morning."
"Your cultivation speed..." Lu Zhengbei shook his head, deciding not to dwell on the topic anymore.
"It's just in time to leave the pass. The parliament sent the latest national war report this morning. Take a look."
As he spoke, he pushed a data panel over.
Song Chen took it and glanced at it. The screen was densely packed with the progress of the crackdown in each province across the country.
The Qin Town forces in the Northwest Theater have advanced to the southern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains, having breached one Level 1 lair and seventeen Level 2 lairs, and killed thirty-one Level 5 Beast Kings and one Level 6 Beast Emperor.
The Southeast Theater Command, needing to guard against marine monsters, did not launch a full-scale extermination operation, but it has already repelled seven probing attacks by the marine monsters.
Qi Shanhe was hunting outside the northern border when he encountered a sixth-tier beast king on the Mongolian Plateau yesterday evening. After killing it, he brought its crystal core back and has now set off for Siberia.
The mopping-up operations in the Southern Theater Command, Southwest Theater Command, and Central Plains Theater Command have been fully launched. The national conscription work is nearing its end, and the first batch of three million newly conscripted ordinary soldiers have been incorporated into local troops to begin basic training.
Before long, the main force will leave the city to launch a large-scale encirclement and extermination operation, clearing the wilderness areas occupied by low-level alien beasts.
Song Chen put the data panel back on the table and asked, "Are the training periods for those ordinary soldiers who were conscripted sufficient?"
Lu Zhengbei immediately replied, "Don't worry, ordinary soldiers aren't responsible for fighting high-ranking enemies."
"Their mission is to wipe out the scattered soldiers below the third rank, those small fry you're too lazy to kill."
"In the past, these small fry occupied the wilderness, and ordinary people dared not leave the city. Now, the main force can push over them and crush them with sheer numbers, which is much more efficient than a single person sweeping them away."