Chapter 2126: War Escalation

He hails from Yuan, and is the current King Shen's son. What does Lingxu City think of this?

"I haven't heard Father mention it," He Yue said after thinking carefully. "Before I left, the Baoxiang Demonic Kingdom had just signed three or four border trade agreements with our country, and things seemed quite amicable."

He Lingchuan nodded slowly.

"Brother, why do you think Lingxu City isn't causing us trouble?"

"Naraku Heaven," He Lingchuan stated directly. "Firstly, my development is already independent of He Chunhua, and he's powerless to interfere. Even if Beijia were to make trouble for Shen, it wouldn't help. Great nations typically don't engage in pointless, emotional disputes. Secondly, Shen was, after all, established by Kshatriya Heaven – to be blunt, don't be offended – the deities of Lingxu are currently embroiled in internal strife, so they likely don't want to provoke Naraku Heaven right now."

He immediately saw He Yue's concern. "Just look at the recent frequency of the Imperial Flow Nectar; things are quite chaotic in the heavens. I don't think Shen needs to worry about Beijia's retaliation in the short term."

He Yue visibly sighed in relief. "That's good. Father and Royal Father said the same thing, but I always felt he was just sharing good news and hiding bad, deliberately trying to comfort us."

He Lingchuan smiled. This silly boy was clearly telling him that he trusted his elder brother more than his father.

However, once He Chunhua's true character was understood, it became difficult for others to trust him. This was his own doing.

He Yue hesitated again.

He Lingchuan personally poured him a cup of tea. "Speak freely."

"Brother, I heard Ya is very strong," He Yue said softly. "Why are you sending troops now?"

He Lingchuan said leisurely, "If I were to send troops to attack a weak nation, could that deter other powers? Could that allow Cang Yan to walk proudly in this land?"

"You have a point." He Yue, ever one to ask questions when he didn't understand, continued, "By the way, Mr. Dong took me to observe the battlefield today. The weapons wielded by the vanguard of the Dragon God Army actually pierced through armies and armor as if meeting no resistance, not even being blocked by the Ya army's elemental energy!"

This was a slight exaggeration; after all, he was complimenting his elder brother. The Ya army wasn't that easily defeated, but he was genuinely curious.

"Those are attribute weapons," He Lingchuan explained. New weapons appearing on an open battlefield wouldn't remain a secret for long, so he wasn't afraid to disclose it. "Compared to ordinary weapons, they have one or two additional custom attributes, such as armor-piercing, sharpness, or explosive power. This is an ancient art. Now that the concentration of ambient spiritual energy is gradually returning to the level of the medieval period, these old formulas can be put to use again."

He took a sip from his cup. "The opponent's elemental energy still plays a role. To give you a rough analogy, if the Black Armored Army's original offensive capability was five points after being mitigated by the opponent's elemental energy, then with attribute weapons, it can increase by another one or two points. Of course, the actual effect depends on the opponent's elemental energy. But victory and defeat on the battlefield are sometimes decided by a hair's breadth; even a single point of enhancement is a good thing. Ha, if the opponent's elemental energy is weak, the effectiveness of attribute weapons is even greater."

He Yue exclaimed, "That's incredible!"

Becoming stronger, even by just one or two points, significantly increases the odds of victory on the battlefield.

He marveled, "What an eye-opener! This is the first time I've seen anything like this on a battlefield."

Just over a year ago, during Shen's founding war, soldiers were still using simple melee weapons. It was certainly not a mistake to come here; he could see all sorts of new and exciting things in his brother's territory.

He Lingchuan chuckled, "Not only you, but Ya is also seeing them for the first time. You picked a good time to visit."

The major battle had been ongoing for two days. In the initial phase, both sides engaged in probing actions and skirmishes, but it wasn't until today, with the main armies fully deployed, that the Black Armored Army unveiled attribute weapons as their trump card. It certainly delivered a small shock to the opponents.

How many years had Ya existed? Its army had never encountered attribute weapons before, and they were immediately thrown into disarray by the Black Armored Army's assault. They suffered from a lack of ancient knowledge.

The generational gap between attribute weapons and ordinary weapons was vast. As far as He Lingchuan knew, even on the front lines of Beijia and Mou, only a small number of troops possessed them; they had not been widely deployed.

The concentration of ambient spiritual energy had only just recovered, and human warfare wouldn't adapt to the new developments so quickly, unless there was external assistance to accelerate it.

However, changes in the grand environment would inevitably bring new forms of warfare, new weapons, and new challenges. Whoever could react first and adapt quickly would seize the initiative; anyone who remained like a frog slowly boiled in warm water would suffer a great loss on the battlefield.

He Yue was very interested. "These attribute weapons can be custom-made?"

"Of course, but they require specific materials and formulas," He Lingchuan replied with a smile. "Fortunately, my Glimmering Gold Plains are far from lacking in these mineral resources."

Were the formulas hard to obtain? Obviously! They were historical relics from the medieval period, and very few nations in the world possessed them. At this time, neither Spirit Mountain nor Mou was on good terms with Cang Yan, making it utterly impossible for them to share the attribute weapon formulas with it.

But this didn't faze He Lingchuan, because he had another, more convenient source: the Coiling Dragon World!

In the Coiling Dragon World, Spirit Mountain had reached an agreement with Coiling Dragon City, not only making the attribute weapon formulas public to Coiling Dragon City but also transporting materials from the Glimmering Gold Plains to it.

Now that He Lingchuan controlled the Glimmering Gold Plains, he had no shortage of these materials, and he swiftly began production as soon as he obtained the formulas!

Attribute weapons were not easy to manufacture. After Songyang Prefecture obtained the formulas, they experimented with seven or eight versions before finally producing samples that were stable in quality, controllable in attributes, and suitable for the current spiritual energy environment. Only then could mass production begin. Due to issues with process stability and craftsmen's proficiency, a few months simply weren't enough for large-scale production. Therefore, only a portion of the Black Armored Army under He Lingchuan's command could be equipped with them.

He was determined to make sure attribute weapons played the most crucial role in the most critical battle, so he had held them back as a trump card until today. The effect was indeed extraordinary.

He Yue immediately asked, "Does Shen have these materials?"

He Lingchuan shook his head. If Coiling Dragon City didn't have them previously, then Shen didn't have them now.

"Then, can our country purchase these materials from the Glimmering Gold Plains in the future?" He Yue, as an envoy, naturally thought of his nation's interests first. "Uh, I mean, after the secret of the attribute weapons can be revealed."

He Lingchuan smiled slightly. "If Kshatriya Heaven possesses the formulas, I wouldn't mind selling the materials to Shen right now. Otherwise, you'll have to wait."

He Yue nodded. "Understood!"

He thought for a moment, then couldn't resist asking, "Brother, are you going to attack Ya with just these attribute weapons?"

Attribute weapons and ordinary weapons were indeed not from the same era. But...

"How much do you know about Ya?"

"Ya?" He Yue recalled the information he had reviewed. "I heard it's a powerful nation in the entire region from Mou to the Glimmering Gold Plains, with military strength second only to Mou."

"That's right, what else?"