ACSP: Chapter 194: Frontline Fortress, Rebuild Jinghai!
"Isn't it quite normal for a Shadow Clone to inherit the abilities and skills of the original body?" Jiang Chen shrugged, speaking as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. His tone remained perfectly calm, as though he were describing a completely insignificant detail.
However, upon hearing his casual reply, Lei Li and the others couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath, completely stunned.
It was true that, according to the laws of chakra, a Shadow Clone naturally inherits the skill set of its creator. But Jiang Chen had just manifested thousands of copies all at once. If every single clone possessed that same absolute, flawless sensing ability, his search network covered the entire metropolis simultaneously. The sheer scale of it was simply too outrageous to comprehend.
"No, please! I know I was wrong! Spare me, I'll never dare to do it again!"
"Lord Jiang Chen, please give me another chance! I swear by my life I will never help those Dongdao Contractors ever again!"
"We were just confused for a split second; we didn't truly want to assist that group of Dongdao invaders!"
"Yes, exactly! Lord Jiang Chen, you are a great and magnanimous leader, please show mercy just this once!"
As the clones began to move, the members of the 'Eastern Coalition Army' who were hiding within the immediate plaza were the first to be ruthlessly dragged out of the crowd. Even now, these traitors failed to realize the true weight of their sins. They simply fell to their knees, weeping and begging bitterly, desperately hoping that Jiang Chen would grant them amnesty.
Naturally, Jiang Chen had absolutely no intention of leaving them alive.
Jinghai City was his homeland. Now that the vibrant metropolis had been reduced to a smoking wasteland of ruins, these turncoats had played a massive role in its destruction by guiding the enemy. How could he possibly let them off lightly? Furthermore, City Lord Li Hongfei, a mentor who had always treated him with deep kindness and respect, had sacrificed his life in this very siege. This loss alone made it utterly impossible for him to forgive a single traitor.
"The very moment you chose to align yourselves with those Dongdao Contractors, you should have already anticipated this exact end..." Jiang Chen looked down at the pleading members of the 'Eastern Coalition Army' expressionlessly. His eyes were as cold as deep-winter frost, entirely devoid of human emotion.
He lifted his chin slightly, his hands hanging loosely at his sides. Then, refusing to waste another breath on dead men, he raised his right hand and formed a single, decisive seal.
"—Lightning Release: Chidori Current!"
In an instant, the air fractured.
Countless jagged currents of lightning erupted violently from Jiang Chen's body, transforming into a swarm of blazing silver snakes that hissed and surged toward the cornered members of the 'Eastern Coalition Army.'
The panicked traitors instinctively tried to turn and flee for their lives. However, the most terrifying attributes of high-tier Lightning Release skills were their absolute speed and overwhelming explosive power. Most of them had not even managed to pivot their bodies before the roaring electric serpents tore through the air, piercing straight through their chests.
In a single, blinding flash of light, the 'Eastern Coalition Army' members who had been hiding in the plaza collapsed simultaneously into pools of blood, the life completely leaving their bodies. Crimson gore spread rapidly across the pavement, forming a grim, stark contrast with the gray, shattered ruins around them.
As the final body fell to the earth, the entire plaza instantly plunged into a suffocating, dead silence.
The surviving civilians and elite vanguard members looked at one another, their faces pale and filled with expressions of absolute disbelief. Lei Li and Cai Kun, in particular, stood frozen with their eyes wide open, completely stunned.
They had just spent so much time racking their brains, desperately trying to engineer a viable strategy to root out these treacherous turncoats. They never could have anticipated that Jiang Chen would resolve the entire crisis with just a slight, effortless wave of his hand. If they had not witnessed this reality with their own eyes, they would not have believed it was true, even in their dreams.
While the prime body was swiftly executing the traitors in the plaza, the exact same grim spectacle was unfolding simultaneously across all other sectors of Jinghai City.
With the relentless intervention of Jiang Chen's massive legion of Shadow Clones, every single member of the 'Eastern Coalition Army' who had gone into hiding was dragged out into the light, one after another. Whether those individuals had blended perfectly into groups of innocent survivors or crawled into the most secluded, deeply buried bunkers underground, none of them could escape the absolute, infallible tracking of Jiang Chen's malice perception.
However, just as the final remnants of the 'Eastern Coalition Army' had been thoroughly uncovered and brought to their knees...
been found.
As the collective data from his thousands of Shadow Clones flooded back into his consciousness, Jiang Chen's expression gradually darkened, a heavy gloom settling over his features.
He was utterly sickened to discover that the number of traitors who had willingly chosen to capitulate to the East Island invaders was not a mere handful—it numbered in the tens of thousands. One must keep in mind the stark reality of their geography: Jinghai was merely a small, county-level municipality. Its entire baseline population hovered around one or two hundred thousand at the absolute best of times. This meant that nearly a staggering quarter of the entire citizenry had actively chosen the path of a turncoat.
It was no wonder that Jinghai City had been completely overrun and brought to its knees in such a tragically short window of time. If these tens of thousands of citizens hadn't chosen betrayal from the very beginning, and had instead stood shoulder-to-shoulder to repel the invasion alongside City Lord Li Hongfei and the local garrison, perhaps Jinghai City would never have been reduced to a smoking graveyard. At the very least, a vast majority of the population could have dug in their heels and held the line until his vanguard arrived.
Furthermore, Jinghai City occupied a vital geopolitical position along the coastal frontier where the primary East Island shipping routes made landfall. It was effectively the first fortress barrier protecting the mainland from the Dongdao Contractors. If the Great Xia Empire were to engage in a full-scale, absolute war with East Island in the future, the strategic importance of this coastal bastion would be self-evident.
Jiang Chen understood this tactical reality perfectly.
Therefore, the moment the execution of the treacherous 'Eastern Coalition Army' concluded, he immediately instructed Lei Li and the other commanders to mobilize the remaining forces and gather every single survivor scattered across the city into the central district.
However, when the final census report was compiled, the tally made him frown instantly.
There were barely 4,000 survivors left alive in the ruins of Jinghai City. For a municipality that had originally boasted hundreds of thousands of living souls, to be left with such a pathetic remnant was a catastrophic loss that could only be described as a demographic massacre.
To make matters worse, the composition of the survivors was deeply discouraging. The vast majority of them were ordinary Job Changers completely devoid of any contract characters. They were mostly the elderly, the physically weak, traumatized women, and helpless children. Relying solely on this fragile remnant to clear the rubble and rebuild the foundational infrastructure of Jinghai City was simply a mathematical and physical impossibility.
Yang Ke noticed the deep distress weighing heavily on Jiang Chen's shoulders and stepped forward to offer a tactical alternative:
"Boss, if your goal is to breathe life back into Jinghai City, you could potentially authorize a mass population transfer from Kang City. After all, this coastal zone controls several highly lucrative Secret Realm entrances. Once word gets out about the unlocked resources, I am certain the factions and independent cultivators in Kang City will be clawing at each other to relocate."
Cai Kun's eyes illuminated with instant excitement upon hearing the suggestion. He rubbed his palms together greedily, a wide grin splitting his face as he chimed in:
"This is incredibly easy to orchestrate! I can easily book a massive, multi-day stadium concert series right here in the center of the ruins. That alone will guaranteed draw hundreds of thousands of people across the borders. Who knows? Once they get a taste of the coastal vibe and enjoy the show, a huge chunk of them might just decide to pack up and settle down permanently!"
He Gen couldn't help but shoot him a deeply skeptical, sideways glance, muttering bluntly, "Forget about your brainless, screaming fans. If that chaotic crowd descends on a warzone, they'll only end up causing a massive public security nightmare..."
Cai Kun was immediately offended by the dismissive remark. He whipped his head around, glaring at He Gen with intense dissatisfaction as he snapped back:
"Stop spouting such absolute nonsense! My loyal fanbase has stood by my side through thick and thin for two and a half years now. I understand their true nature better than anyone else alive. At the very least, whatever their flaws may be, they possess unyielding loyalty—they would never stab their own country in the back like those pathetic wretches of the 'Eastern Coalition Army'!"
Listening to the back-and-forth debate, Lei Li fell into deep thought for a moment before offering his own seasoned perspective to the table:
"In all honesty, I believe Brother Cai Kun's proposal might actually be highly feasible. Our Heavenly Court Guild has only recently stabilized its core framework, and we haven't even initiated a widespread, open-door recruitment campaign yet. If our objective is to inject a massive wave of population from Kang City into Jinghai City within a critically short timeframe, leveraging his massive fan network is indeed a highly efficient shortcut."
Lei Li paused, a calculated gleam entering his eyes as he looked at the pop icon. "Moreover, the intelligence reports indicate that there are quite a few powerful merchant clans and influential family estates hidden among Brother Cai Kun's high-tier followers. If Brother Cai Kun is willing to swallow a bit of his professional pride, leverage his personal charm, and formally invite those wealthy syndicates to invest and settle in Jinghai City, I believe the financial and physical reconstruction of this fortress would be vastly accelerated."
Initially, Cai Kun was absolutely beaming as he listened to the veteran's analysis, his ego soaring because he believed Lei Li had finally recognized his strategic value to the guild. However, the absolute moment the true implication of the final sentence registered in his brain, the triumphant smile on his face vanished into thin air.
"Well, aren't you a piece of work, Lei Li!" Cai Kun practically shrieked, his face twisting in mock betrayal. "Here I am, treating you like a genuine brother in arms, and you're standing there openly plotting to turn me into a high-society corporate pimp?!"
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