Gao Wu: A centenarian old man, many children and good fortune! Chapter 122

After successfully “deterring” the Wang family and accepting the twin sisters with great potential as “compensation,” Xiao Yan once again retreated into a secluded state, continuing to play the role of “recovering from severe injuries and needing quiet recuperation.”

For nearly ten months after this, the Fourth New Nanjing City seemingly entered a rare period of stable development. Urban reconstruction accelerated, commercial activities revived, and people’s lives gradually returned to order. However, beneath this calm, various undercurrents still surged.

For Xiao Yan, this period was crucial for him to consolidate his new realm and accumulate a deeper foundation. Although he politely declined all unnecessary visits and activities, he did not completely isolate himself from the world.

His most important “cultivation” method came from the continuous bloodline feedback provided by his increasingly growing “progeny army” at home.

The eighteen children born earlier had all grown strong. His eldest daughter, Xiao Xiuyun, was almost five years old and had grown increasingly intelligent. Her imitation of the moves from the Emperor-Grade Tai Chi Art was already quite impressive. She could even ask Xiao Yan some childlike yet profound questions about “airflow” and “balance,” each time bringing subtle inspiration to Xiao Yan. Slightly younger children like Xiao Xiufeng and Xiao Chenlong also showed faint signs of talent in their respective areas of interest. Every time they mimicked punching, every clumsy swing of a wooden sword, every run and jump on the grass, the process of exploring their own strength and coordination transformed into the purest, most fundamental, yet diverse “insights,” continuously feeding back to Xiao Yan.

Although these feedbacks did not bring an explosive increase in power like during pregnancy and childbirth, they acted like the most precise carving tools and lubricants, helping Xiao Yan stabilize his newly entered Battle King realm bit by bit. He could clearly feel that his control over the vast Battle King power within him was becoming more refined and harmonious each day; his understanding of the true meaning of Tai Chi from the Emperor-Grade Tai Chi Art and the destructive power of lightning from the Ninefold Thunder Waves was also deepening with the accumulation of these subtle insights, even beginning to touch upon deeper levels of法则韵味; the newly born spiritual core was also becoming more condensed and stable under this continuous nourishment, and its connection with his physical body and Battle King power grew increasingly close.

It could be said that these eighteen children became the most important cornerstone for him to stabilize the initial stage of the Battle King realm, enhance his control over power, and deepen his understanding of laws.

At the same time, the city’s defense system was greatly strengthened after undergoing the baptism of two major wars. Especially the Lin family, after being deeply bound to Xiao Yan, received more resources and authority from the military. Their city defense army’s efficiency and vigilance greatly improved.

In these nearly ten months, the dormant Blood Ghost Sect did not completely give up. They repeatedly tried to use their old tricks, sending small elite forces to infiltrate the city, attempting to establish secret altars and conduct small-scale infiltration and sacrificial activities, hoping to reopen a breach.

However, these initial conspiracies were almost quickly thwarted in their infancy. The city defense army cast an invisible net, with greatly increased patrol density and intelligence gathering capabilities. Multiple miniature altars hidden in sewers, abandoned factories, and even residential areas were discovered and destroyed as soon as they were established. Several batches of Blood Ghost Sect members attempting to infiltrate were intercepted, captured, or even killed on the spot at the borders or city entrances.

Although everyone knew that the cancerous Blood Ghost Sect had not been completely eradicated and was certainly planning larger conspiracies in the dark, at least on the surface, the Fourth New Nanjing City appeared safer than ever before, giving the populace a chance to breathe and recover.

Time quietly arrived at the end of the tenth month in this atmosphere of outward relaxation and inner tension, a mix of calm and undercurrents.

Within the manor, a strong, expectant atmosphere once again enveloped everything.

Ten months of gestation were complete.

Xiao Yan’s ten wives—Li Xiuying, Chen Yuyao, Lin Xueqing, Wang Ruolan, Su Wan’er, Zhang Jingyao, Liu Feiyan, Lin Yue, Chen Siyu, and Ye Zihan—who had successfully conceived after his “sprint guidance” on the eve of the beast tide, were now, like ripe fruits, almost simultaneously entering their final labor period!

A new round of “harvest” was about to begin!

And this time, Xiao Yan’s heart was filled with unprecedented anticipation!

The feedback of law auras from the two “excellent” potential offspring (children of Lin Yue and Chen Siyu) had already allowed him to touch the threshold of the Battle King realm. So, this time, what would be the potential of the children they conceived and gave birth to again? Could it bring a further opportunity, enough to help him completely master the power of the Battle King?

And what about the gifted twin sisters of initial seventh-grade potential sent by the Wang family? After this period of “conditioning” and preliminary “guidance,” if they could also successfully conceive, what astonishing feedback would their offspring bring?

Xiao Yan felt that the crucial step to truly mastering the power of the Battle King, and even advancing to a higher level, might just be within this new round of “life miracles” right before his eyes!

…

Just as Xiao Yan was immersed in the anticipation of a new round of “harvest,” and the entire manor was filled with a mix of warmth and tension, a cold, evil shadow filled with boundless resentment and murderous intent, like the most cunning viper, silently infiltrated this seemingly calm steel city.

Blood River!

The Blood Ghost Sect’s Vice Cult Master who had almost dragged the Fourth New Nanjing City into the abyss during the last great war, and was only barely repelled by Battle King Lieyang at the cost of damaging his origin!

He did not flee severely wounded as rumored, or rather, he was indeed severely wounded, but relying on the Blood Ghost Sect’s eerie and powerful secret arts, and possibly at some painful cost, his injuries not only fully recovered within just over a year, but his strength even made a further breakthrough! He faintly touched the threshold of the peak of Battle King Stage Two!

After recovering his strength, Blood River’s first target for reckoning was not the severely wounded Battle Kings, but the newly risen strongman who had emerged unexpectedly in the last war, repeatedly disrupted his plans, and even killed several of his capable subordinates—Xiao Yan!

Through the Blood Ghost Sect’s intelligence network lurking within the city (though most had been destroyed, there were always some who slipped through), Blood River learned of Xiao Yan’s various “deeds” after the war. Especially concerning his soaring strength, his high position, and… his eye-catching “polygamous” life!

When Blood River learned that this Xiao Yan, hailed as a “city hero,” was actually an old soldier who only broke through to the extraordinary realm at the age of one hundred, and whose strength had skyrocketed in just a few years while also successively marrying more than a dozen young and beautiful wives, even accepting talented women sent by various major forces and housing them near his manor for day and night “guidance”…

An absurd and tyrannical rage instantly filled Blood River’s heart!

“Bastard!!! This Xiao Yan!!!” In a dark, foul-smelling sewer hideout, Blood River listened to his subordinate’s report, his blood qi surging with anger, and a suffocating evil pressure emanating from his body. “This old man has roamed the evil path for hundreds of years, manipulating flesh and blood, controlling souls, considering my methods to be peerless! Yet, I never thought that within this Alliance, there would be a fellow even more evil! Even more shameless than this old man!!”

His eyes flickered with cruel and jealous light: “A hundred-year-old veteran? Ninth-grade in three years? And married more than a dozen young and beautiful cauldrons?! Hmph! Such conduct clearly indicates he cultivates a depraved cultivation method even more vicious than my Blood Ghost Sect’s! Treating those women as tools to enhance his strength! This is simply… despicable and shameless! Hypocritical!”

The more Blood River thought about it, the angrier he got, and the more he felt that this Xiao Yan was simply the “disgrace of the evil path”! A hypocrite who relied on plundering women to increase his strength, yet was praised as a hero?! This was simply an insult to legitimate evil path powerhouses like him!

More importantly, the previous plan had failed largely due to Xiao Yan’s unexpected interference! If he hadn’t continuously destroyed the core altars, killed Elder Blood Bat, and delayed time, the blood-flesh curtain would have already completely enveloped the entire city, and the Fourth New Nanjing City would have already become Blood River’s possession!

New grudges piled on old ones, pushing Blood River’s murderous intent towards Xiao Yan to an unprecedented peak!

He decided that before the Blood Ghost Sect’s higher-ups brewed a larger-scale operation, he would personally act to eliminate this “eyesore” fellow!

He wanted this hypocritical “hero” to taste true despair!

“Hehehehe… more than a dozen young and beautiful wives, you say?” Blood River let out a chilling, sinister laugh, his crimson tongue licking his lips, his eyes filled with a cruel plan. “This time, this old man will make you, the hypocrite, pay the price! I will first chop off your limbs! Cripple your cultivation! Then make you watch with your own eyes! Your delicate beauties, one by one, in front of you… Bang!!!”

He made a gesture of crushing something in the air, a highly pathological and cruel smile appearing on his face: “Let them turn into the most dazzling fireworks of flesh and blood! Let you die in endless pain and despair! This, this is what you deserve, you hypocrite who is more evil than the evil path itself! Hahaha!!!”

With a heart full of rage, jealousy, and an incomparably cruel revenge plan, Blood River quietly left the dark hideout.

He didn’t alert anyone, not even the few remaining lurking cultists under his command. He wanted to act personally, with the force of thunder, to deliver the most fatal blow to that Xiao Yan!

Relying on his stealth abilities far surpassing ordinary Battle Kings and his familiarity with the city’s dark corners, coupled with the fact that the city’s defensive forces were mostly focused on guarding against external threats and internal investigations at this moment, Blood River, like a true ghost, avoided all surveillance and patrols, silently, little by little, approaching the heavily guarded manor located in the city’s core area, which also exuded an alluring scent of “prey”…

He did not know that he was about to face not a “poorly conditioned” peak Ninth-grade, but a true Battle King who had just consolidated his realm, whose strength was unfathomable, and who… had long been prepared for enemies of his caliber!