Ning Yuan thought about it and temporarily let go of his inexplicable worries.

Even if someone enters the secret realm, it may only be one person. And if there is only one person, unless he knows this secret realm very well, it is basically impossible to catch up with Ning Yuan's progress. Even if the comer has great powers, the trap passage in front of him can pass through extremely quickly, and the ice and fire passage will consume at least seven days.

"At least seven days to go." Ning Yuan thought of this, and the sense of urgency in his heart eased slightly.

Without wasting time, Ning Yuan constantly sensed the breath of the mountain spirit between heaven and earth while pranayama, capturing the spiritual light of the mountain soul.

Any mood move is a process of merging ideas. And if you want to melt the meaning, you have to perceive, capture, understand, and integrate this meaning. Whether it is the meaning of weapons such as gun intent and sword intent, or the meaning of mountains and rivers such as mountains and lakes, or the meaning of elements such as earth, fire, water and wind, this is the case. The so-called fusion is the process of understanding the way of heaven and earth.

The "Great Mountain" is an opportunity and opportunity for Ning Yuan to get a glimpse of the way of heaven and earth, and it can also be said to be an opportunity for him to understand what cultivation is.

Although the sentient beings of the end of the Dharma era knew about cultivation and knew that the so-called cultivation was the process of gaining powerful and extraordinary powers, if they really wanted to understand what cultivation was, they really looked down on the level of ordinary sentient beings.

As for cultivation, Ning Yuan, like most ordinary beings, knew it but didn't know why, and he didn't even necessarily "know it."

There are generally three versions of practice.

One is to say that "cultivation is the cultivation of the mind". The key is the word "heart". But what this "heart" is that no one can explain.

The second is that "cultivation is cultivation of truth". The key is the word "true". But this "truth" is also clear that no one explains.

The third is "cultivation is cultivation". The key is the word "Tao". However, no one can clearly explain what the "Tao" is and what the "Tao" is.

For Ning Yuan, these three statements seem to be very reasonable, although the emphasis is different, but the meaning of what they want to express seems to be the same.

Therefore, he initially understood that cultivation is the integration of "cultivating the mind", "cultivating the truth", and "cultivating the path". And this "heart", this "truth", this "Tao" is what he needs to comprehend.

There is a subtle "mountain road" in the "great mountain", which he has understood since the time he realized what the "great mountain" is. And in the continuous practice and performance, Ning Yuan also has a slight understanding of the "way of the mountain", and what he has to do now is to deepen this understanding.

According to the unknown Qimen method passed down by his father and the derivation of "Yanyan", the best way to comprehend "Dao" is to start from "Yi". And the best way to comprehend "meaning" is to "melt meaning". Capture the "meaning" between heaven and earth and integrate it into your own soul. With "the soul melts the will of heaven".

This method had been naturally mastered by Ning Yuan from the time he first perceived the Yuan Qi through visualization. When he practiced the Three-Edged Spear Technique, he guided the process of Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi Rotation to his body by practicing marksmanship movements, breathing, and visualizing the Qi Diagram of the Three-Edged Spear Technique. And the vitality that is absorbed into the sea of qi is the vitality required by the three-edged spear technique.

Although this process is Ning Yuan's active action, in fact, most of the process is passive. In fact, the so-called practice almost only serves a guiding role.

Melt is different. "Melting meaning" requires Ning Yuan to take the initiative to visualize, to perceive the "meaning" flowing between heaven and earth, to analyze, to understand which are the "meanings" he needs, and then shake through his own will and spirit, to capture the "meaning" he needs, and to integrate "them" into his own will and spirit, to comprehend their "heart", their "truth", and their "Tao".

This is not destined to happen overnight.

After adjusting his state to perfection, Ning Yuan got up and started another challenge.

Challenge, rest, challenge, and so on.

I have to say that there is some truth in the saying that "it is better to be beaten for three days than to practice for a year."

Actual combat is indeed the best way for some people to cultivate and grow.

Three days later, in the afternoon, Ning Yuan finally used the "big mountain" to break through the gatekeeper's defense for the first time after skillfully luring away the gatekeeper's spear.

Although it only caused a small piece of damage to the enamel layer on the gatekeeper's chest, it was also a great encouragement to Ning Yuan.

Ning Yuan, who had finished resting again, stepped into the range of the gatekeeper's attack with his gun, stepped forward at the moment when the gatekeeper's spear attacked, and the spear slammed into the body of the gatekeeper's spear and drilled into the earthen wrist of the spear.

The gatekeeper collected the gun at the same time when he put away the gun for defense, his expression was solemn, a faint momentum floated, the spear in his hand suddenly seemed to be a lot heavier, and the air ripples like smoke rings swayed, stepping forward, and the spear in Ning Yuan's hand slowly rolled out.

"Big mountain."

This shot is Ning Yuan's pinnacle shot so far, and it is also a shot that contains all his comprehension of the "Great Mountain Potential" move so far.

As deduced by "Yan Yan", a shot that stirred up air ripples slowly passed under the intercepted spear, and the spear that slanted upwards shattered the enamel layer at the junction of the gatekeeper's head and body, and steadily pierced into the exposed core.

The spear that the gatekeeper hit Ning Yuan's body stopped, and the majestic expression on his face, which was different from that of the other puppets, disappeared, and his body functions completely stopped. At this time, the tip of the gatekeeper's spear was only half a foot away from Ning Yuan's neck. The wind pressure brought by the super strength made Ning Yuan's neck stir up layers of sunken outlines, and the feeling of being out of breath made Ning Yuan's face pale.

"Whew! ~" Ning Yuan took a step back from the gun, let out a long breath, raised his hand and touched his neck and gasped a few times.

When Ning Yuan's breath calmed down, he suppressed the heartbeat that was nervously "banging" in his chest, and his face was already covered with cold sweat.

I didn't feel it when I fought, but after I reacted, I realized that I was on the verge of death again.

After a while, Ning Yuanyou suddenly chuckled, and his face rose with confidence and excitement.

After a little rest, Ning Yuan came to the standing gatekeeper and tried to remove the spear in his hand. I broke it, but found that the spear did not move.

Ning Yuan frowned and checked the storage wrench, which was already full of all kinds of weapons, including Scar's iron bow that was systematically displayed as "Tieling", Scar's dagger called "Narrow Cut", and the eighteen weapons that ordinary puppets in the labyrinth were relatively sophisticated.

"Forget it, lest you have to throw away some when you don't have enough space." Ning Yuan muttered to himself.

He then stopped paying attention to the gatekeeper's spear and looked at a shell plate on the gatekeeper's chest that could faintly see the gap. Removing the fine scar, the dagger was inserted into the gap and carefully pried outward.

"I didn't pay attention to the border, I don't know if there is something hidden?" Ning Yuan thought while prying.

"Puppet Making Basics (Earth Puppets)": A basic book that records the method of making earth puppets, compiled by Qin Qiao, the chief puppeteer of the "Qin" Alliance. Qin Qiao: The first female puppet master in the history of the Longshan Domain, known as the "Puppet Female Monarch".

Ning Yuan looked at the jade album in his hand, his eyes lit up. These golems may not be powerful for offense, but they are good for defense.

After packing up the spoils, Ning Yuan bypassed the somewhat huge body of the earthen puppet gatekeeper and stepped into the one-way Dunjia gate at the exit of the labyrinth.

After passing through the Dunjia Gate, Ning Yuan entered a stone house with only Zhang Xu Fangyuan.

In the middle of the stone house is a sand table surrounded by an enchantment, and on the ground in front of the sand table is a round stone saucer, that is, a stone futon. The stone plate was engraved with inexplicable runes, faintly emitting a faint glow.

Ning Yuan frowned, his expression was both surprised and seemed to have been expected.

There is finally a great deviation between the memory of the boundary line and reality.

Ning Yuan's realm memory does not have the existence of this stone house, and what he reaches through the labyrinth in his memory should be a stone forest containing coercion. It is a place where people can completely collapse and can also greatly grow their spiritual will.

However, Ning Yuan had long known that the difference in the boundary line would sooner or later have such a huge deviation. This is determined by the realm itself, and it is also determined by the choices of sentient beings themselves.

Therefore, although Huang Sheng can have the advantage of foreknowledge in certain things, he will never be worshiped as a "prophet" by sentient beings. Because the memory of the realm of Huangsheng has always only had reference value, not much value for uncertain prophets.

This is also the reason why Ning Yuan called Huangsheng's fate "gambling".

Although there was no memory of this place in the boundary line memory, Ning Yuan could easily guess what he needed to do with the simple settings in the house.

When the United Government of the Stars announced that it was going to launch the Regeneration Plan, Ning Yuan spent a long time replenishing some of the cultivation knowledge that had survived from the ancient and ancient times.

Thanks to the not-so-ordinary family background of the Ning family, Ning Yuan has read a lot of records about runes left in the Xianxia era and the immortal god era.

The runes on the stone plate in front of him happened to be recognized by Ning Yuan.

"Soul Channel", "Soul Guide" and "Soul Possession".

Undoubtedly, the function of the stone disc is to strip the user's consciousness from the body and throw it into the "sand table" in front of him and attach it to a certain being, and complete a certain trial as this being.

Ning Yuan thought for a while, looked at the stone house again, and didn't find any means to leave the stone house.

"Looks like we'll have to go in for a while." Ning Yuan said to himself with a calm expression.

Compared to the caution and caution, nervousness and uneasiness of entering the secret realm at the beginning, Ning Yuan was obviously a little different after passing through the earth puppet labyrinth.

The most obvious thing is that Ning Yuan has become confident. It's not the arrogance and laxity after taking the White Skull Grass in Longsen, nor the joy and arrogance after pitting Scar and others, but real self-confidence. Confidence in grasping one's own strength, confidence in passing trials.

Not blindness, but calmness of mind.

Ning Yuan put the somewhat inconvenient three-edged cold iron spear into the storage wrench. After a little breathing, he sat cross-legged on the stone saucer.

After Ning Yuan sat on the stone saucer, the stone dish under him lit up with a light shield to wrap Ning Yuan, and then Ning Yuan felt that his consciousness began to leave his body.

Ning Yuan lowered his head and "looked" at his body sitting cross-legged with a calm face, and then he was wrapped in a force and threw himself towards the "sand table" enchantment in front of him.

When Ning Yuan came back to his senses, his consciousness was no longer in the stone house, but in a chaotic camp. He raised his hand to look at it, touched his face and body, picked up a glass of undrunk water on the low table next to him and took a photo, and found that he had turned into a seven-foot strong man in armor. The armor was covered in scratches, and there were even undried blood dripping down the edges of the armor. A bloodstained broadsword stuck into the ground beside him.

Just as Ning Yuan was pondering the identity of the strong man he had joined, a bloody sergeant who looked like a herald rushed into the camp tent, bowed his head and knelt three steps in front of him, and reported loudly: "Report! My lord, the enemy army chasing behind him has been engaged in battle with our front battalion, and there are enemy troops on both sides, there are many enemy troops, our soldiers are already tired, demoralized, and have retreated step by step under the outnumbered, Vice General Zhao deduced that the battalion soldiers will collapse in a quarter of an hour at most, and please make a quick decision. ”

The big man possessed by Ning Yuan raised his eyebrows, and just wanted to ask, a memory that did not belong to him poured into his consciousness.

In the process of closing his eyes and digesting this memory, Ning Yuan finally had a little understanding of his own situation and this trial.

However, after learning about his own situation, Ning Yuan's heart became heavy in vain.

Opening his eyes, Ning Yuan pondered for a while, then opened his mouth and asked:

"Has the Guards Battalion been assembled?"

The herald looked up and reported: "The assembly has been completed outside the tent. ”

"Behind you is home." Ning Yuan, who looked like a big man, took a deep breath and sighed hoarse and bitterly in his voice.

According to the indoctrination intelligence, this was a city-state war that took place in the year 7264 of the city-state calendar, that is, more than 3,000 years ago. The two warring city-states were the small city-state "Xiuyuan City" and the medium-sized city-state "Tiezhi City".

The great Han possessed by Ning Yuan was the city lord of the small city-state "Xiuyuan City", and Fan Xiu, a sword cultivator who had just entered the rank of the earth-level school.

According to memory, in this war, "Tiezhi City" was the attacker who took the initiative to start the war, while "Xiuyuan City" was the defender who had no choice but to face it.

Xiuyuan City is a small city-state with a population of just over 150,000 and an army of about 25,000. However, among these 25,000 people, about 10,000 are full-time city defenders, and the other 7,000 or so are logistics and security forces including baggage, patrol, and security, and only 8,000 people can really be used for foreign operations. Moreover, two-thirds of the non-commissioned officers of all units are new recruits who have just been regularized.

Tiezhi City is a medium-sized city-state with a population of 800,000 and an army of 200,000 on the surface. Among them, there are 50,000 city defense troops, 10,000 security forces, 20,000 logistics establishments, and 120,000 soldiers for foreign operations.

Comparing the data of the two sides, there is no doubt that "Xiuyuan City" is at an absolute disadvantage. Theoretically speaking, such a military comparison, "Xiuyuan City" is bound to lose.

However, war is not something you can stop fighting if you know you are going to lose. Especially when someone invades you and wants to kill your people and relatives.

But to fight, it also depends on how to fight.

Although "Xiuyuan City" has just been upgraded to a small city-state, it has only been a year or two. However, thanks to the influence of the large-scale and small-scale "beast tides" that break out twice a year on the Neno continent from time to time, the "Xiuyuan City" is still built with strong walls.

If you concentrate on defense, there is still a slim chance of surviving. Moreover, as a member of the "Qin" Alliance, "Xiuyuan City" had already sent a message to the alliance city-state for help after receiving the information. Therefore, as long as it can survive the opponent's attack for half a month, "Xiuyuan City" has a certain chance to wait to support and repel the attack of "Tiezhi City", and it is even possible to counterattack with the help of allies.

However, just when the Han Fan Xiu and the staff of the "Xiuyuan City" planned to use the city defense of the "Xiuyuan City" to fight a defensive battle with the first batch of 50,000 attacking troops of the "Tiezhi City", the latest information made everyone's hearts tense and their scalps tingle.

According to intelligence, several special units appeared in the first attacking units of the "Iron Child". And it was these special forces that made the strategy of "repairing far city" to defend the city almost aborted as soon as it was implemented.

Five siege beasts, a brigade of mountain destroyers, a curved wood spirit unit, and a battalion of large spear refining troops.

The siege beast, whose scientific name is "Lakaroff Behemoth", is the largest of the spirit beasts that humans can tame. An adult "Lakaroff Behemoth" can grow up to 50 zhang, with a length of 120 zhang and a body width of nearly 20 zhang, which is a veritable behemoth.

The Mountain Destroyer is a special force with the trait "Mountain Destroyer". Units with traits are elite. The effect of the "Mountain Destroying" trait doubles the damage of the city defense, and there is a chance to deal a crushing blow to the city defense when using heavy weapons, especially heavy blunt weapons such as a single battering ram.

The first two troops can be said to have made the city defense of "Xiuyuan City" useless, and made Fan Xiu and the high-level desperate, then the latter two troops completely made Fan Xiu and others look like ashes.

The Wood Spirit Force is a force composed entirely of the Wood Spirit Clan, or an army composed entirely of the Wood Warlock Profession. Both the Wood Spirit and the Wood Warlock have an ability that is both enviable and fearful. That's "plant manipulation".

The "plant communication" and "plant alienation" of the Wood Spirit Clan belong to the class of racial talents, and they belong to the talent of inevitable awakening in the Wood Spirit Clan.

The "Plant Birth" of a Wood Warlock is a basic class ability that can be mastered by basically every practitioner who is employed as a Wood Warlock.

The Wood Spirit's "Plant Manipulation" ability allows most siege infantry to ignore the presence of the wall, as the controlled plant is a natural "ladder" for the siege infantry. Moreover, this "ladder" can climb the city wall and grow, and depending on the plant seeds used, it can have some special abilities, such as fire prevention, oil absorption, and even the ability to actively defend and attack.

Finally, there is the large spear-refining unit. The large refining spear is called the "gas refining ballista". It is a two-player air-refining gun. The Refining Gun is powered by Source Stones, which are activated by runes engraved on small turbines to fire suitable ammo. It is a powerful weapon that even mortals can skillfully use. The range of a large refining spear is usually between five and twenty-five miles. Of course, over-the-horizon attacks need to be coordinated by appropriate reconnaissance methods. However, any air-refining gun is most powerful at close range.

A powerful firearm capable of firing twenty-five miles away can be imagined to have the effect of attacking the human body at close range.

If it was just a siege beast and a mountain destroyer, although Fan Xiu and the others were desperate, they were not without a way. The siege beast has a gentle temperament and can only play a role under the control of the driver, as long as the driver is killed, the siege beast will leave the bloody battlefield on its own. Although the mountain destroyer is powerful, it belongs to the infantry after all, and the number is only one brigade, that is, a hundred, as long as the range is used to snipe one by one before the opponent rushes into the city wall. After all, a class like this is usually easy to recognize.

What really made everyone's hearts feel like ashes were the wood spirit troops with the song as the unit and the large spear refining force with the battalion as the unit.

In the army system of the city-state on the continent of Neno, the number of troops is divided into seven titles: corps, squad, team, qu, battalion, division, and army.

Five people in one army, ten people in one squad, twenty people in a squadron, fifty people in a squadron, one hundred people in a brigade, three hundred people in a song, eight hundred people in a battalion, four battalions and two songs for a division, that is, 3,800 people. The 10th Division, 2 battalions and 4 brigades are one army, that is, the first army is exactly 40,000 places.

That is to say, there are 300 people in the Wood Spirit Force, and there are 800 people in the large spear refining force, because the large gun refining force needs two people to operate, so the actual number is double the number of 1,600 people.

The Wood Spirit Force, if it was either composed of Wood Spirit Clansmen who had condensed the "Qi Species", it was completely composed of cultivators who were at least mid-level soldiers. Because only mid-level cultivators who have condensed the sea of qi will have the opportunity to take up the warlock profession. The Warlock class is the only regular class among cultivators that can obtain attribute abilities at the human level, except for certain awakened talents.

To be honest, an ordinary medium-sized city-state had one or two of these four arms, and Fan Xiu wouldn't be surprised. However, four wood spirit troops appeared at once, and the wood spirit troops composed entirely of cultivators and the large spear refining troops that required huge resources to pile up, appeared in the formation of the Quhe battalion, and Fan Xiu absolutely did not believe it.

In other words, this war is not just a unilateral act of war by the "Iron Childish City", but also a bigger hand behind the scenes.

Its target is not just his small "Xiuyuan City", but most likely the entire "Qin" alliance.

This was Ning Yuan's guess after digesting the memory about the comparison of the strength of the two sides and the meaning of the enemy's troops. And he believes that eight or nine is not far from ten.

The current war is only the first step.

Thinking like this, Ning Yuan continued to digest the next memory information.

But just when everyone in the upper echelons of "Xiuyuan City" was racking their brains in order to break the deadlock, a new piece of investigation information sent back by our detectives on a fast horse made Fan Xiu and the others suddenly see a glimmer of hope like dawn in the dead realm.

Intelligence shows that perhaps because of the extreme confidence in their own combat power, or because of the difference in strength between the two sides, the other party does not take "Xiuyuan City" in their eyes at all.

In short, I don't know what the other party thinks, the siege beast troops are in front of all the troops because of their body size and stride spacing, and the mountain destroyers are sitting directly on the siege beasts because they are small in number and short-legged infantry.

The Wood Spirit Troop and the Large Spear Refining Unit were in the middle of the line, surrounded by a large group of infantry regiments and protected in the center.

The cavalry units followed closely on either side of the behemoths of the siege to lead the way. The infantry units were behind the cavalry.

There's nothing wrong with that. The real problem was that the cavalry units were so far apart from the infantry units in the rear that they could be said to be completely disjointed. However, even so, the cavalry units had no intention of waiting for the infantry to follow.

The whole intelligence expressed that the enemy army would arrive in two waves, one of which was a cavalry force of 5,000 men, including the War Behemoth and the Mountain Destroyer. One wave is 45,000 including the Wood Spirit Troops, the Large Gun Refining Unit, all the long-range marksman troops, the logistics support troops and most of the infantry units. Intelligence estimates that the interval between the arrival of the two waves of enemy forces is at least five days.

At least five days apart, this allowed Fan Xiu and the others to see an opportunity, an opportunity to take advantage of the time difference to completely destroy the opponent's cavalry troops and those two siege troops.