Chapter 1737: Li Yuanjing

The key to destroying the Commander’s Office lay in Cangyun Fortress, or more precisely, in the Commander himself.

This Commander had not been sitting idly by and allowing the Taiping Religion to grow. He had repeatedly sent troops to suppress it. Had this merely been an ordinary peasant uprising, he really might have succeeded.

Unfortunately for him, Zhou Mengyao and Qi Xuansu simply refused to play by the rules. Time and again, they forcibly turned the situation around, causing the Commander’s suppression efforts to fall short at the final hurdle.

The Commander’s name was Li Yuanjing. He was said to be a member of the Qi Dynasty’s royal family and was the central figure upon whom the entire Commander’s Office revolved. Even before this realm had been swallowed by the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon, he had already been the chief official governing this place. However, he seemed unable to leave the Commander’s Office. Thus, he had never shown himself and had yet to confront Zhou Mengyao or Qi Xuansu directly.

This was another very strange point. This Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon had come into existence long before this island did, which was precisely why Qi Xuansu and Zhou Mengyao had concluded that the island must have been swallowed by the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon later on. If so, then before the island was devoured, there should already have been another world within the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon. That world was the key to the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon’s formation and constituted its true core.

After much consideration, Zhou Mengyao and Qi Xuansu concluded that this core world was most likely the world fragment originating from the Netherworld.

In other words, the two of them had not actually ventured deep into the core region of the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon’s body. Instead, they were currently somewhere relatively close to its periphery.

It was much like the distribution of prefectures on a map. Some prefectures lay along the frontier, while others belonged to the midlands.

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the yin realm was the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon’s true body, while this world fragment that had only been swallowed by the Heavenly Demon during the Qi Dynasty was merely one of its incarnations.

The true body was composed of a small world, and so was the incarnation.

There was still a connection between the two. The crucial node was located within the Commander’s Office, which was also the source of the yin energy.

Li Yuanjing had been stationed there year-round.

Qi Xuansu guessed that Li Yuanjing was probably a Heavenly Being.

In the outside world, a Heavenly Being naturally amounted to little. Within the Great Xuan Imperial Court, someone at that level probably would not even qualify to serve as a Garrison Chief Military Officer, much less a Commander-in-Chief. At best, he could serve as a Deputy Chief Military Officer.

But this place suppressed all cultivation. Even a Pseudo-Immortal who came here would be beaten back to his original state. Under such circumstances, a Heavenly Being was practically a god, capable of summoning wind and rain and seemingly able to do anything.

That was why Qi Xuansu had waited until Zhou Mengyao advanced to the Heavenly Being stage by condensing divine power before finally deciding to make his move.

He now had over 10,000 people, including an army of 2,000 professional soldiers as well as the accompanying laborers and auxiliary troops. Together, they marched toward Cangyun Fortress in a mighty procession.

From among these 2,000 professional soldiers, Qi Xuansu had even scrimped and saved enough resources to assemble 100 cavalrymen. Most of their warhorses had been captured in battles against the Commander’s troops, as well as their armor and weapons.

Qi Xuansu had originally wanted to establish an armory, but conditions simply did not permit it. In the end, he could only organize a small firearms unit, and even that unit was not equipped with handguns. Firearms demanded a very high level of craftsmanship. If the seals were not airtight enough, or if the walls of the gun barrels failed to meet the necessary standards, the weapons could explode in the wielder’s hands, blowing themselves up before they ever managed to shoot the enemy. Thus, the firearms unit was equipped entirely with fire arrows, a weapon that had first risen to prominence during the Jin Dynasty.

Still, Qi Xuansu finally managed to reconstruct the Mandarin Duck Formation. Although it was undoubtedly a far cry from the orthodox version, it was better than nothing, and it was more than sufficient to deal with these rebel soldiers.

What followed unfolded exactly as Qi Xuansu and Zhou Mengyao had planned. Their army swept forward effortlessly, like a force crushing rotten wood. The rebel soldiers along the way collapsed before them, while many counties surrendered at the mere news of their approach.

The Commander’s seemingly stable rule had long since become riddled with cracks after centuries of oppression.

The morale of the Yellow Turban Army soared ever higher, and their faith in their two leaders grew ever more steadfast.

Qi Xuansu could even clearly sense that every county they captured brought him a substantial influx of incense power.

In any case, Qi Xuansu had firmly established his position as the leader in military affairs. Whenever they won a battle, the followers of the Taiping Religion attributed the victory to the General of Heaven rather than the Great Teacher. Thus, his string of victories on the battlefield allowed Qi Xuansu to rapidly accumulate incense power. Only soldiers who had endured battle after battle truly understood what the battlefield meant. They would place their faith only in their commander who led them from one victory to the next.

Meanwhile, Zhou Mengyao drew her support from ordinary civilians outside the army, along with the elderly, the weak, women, and children, who made up the overwhelming majority. They could likewise generate incense power, and since they felt little connection to the General of Heaven, they were more inclined to worship the Great Teacher. These people constituted Zhou Mengyao’s primary source of faith.

These were also the respective bases of support for Qi Xuansu and Zhou Mengyao. As a result, two major factions gradually emerged within the Taiping Religion, with Qi Xuansu representing the military faction.

Qi Xuansu had now reached the ninth level of the Guizhen stage and was only a single step away from becoming a Heavenly Being. Zhou Mengyao alone might not be able to guarantee victory over Commander Li Yuanjing, but with Qi Xuansu joining forces, it was an entirely different matter.

Zhou Mengyao was also consolidating her cultivation at the Heavenly Being stage. Her method was quite simple. Whenever they arrived at a county, she overturned the Commander’s laws and decrees, abolished oppressive policies, executed the perpetrators of abuses, appeased the people’s anger, and established a relatively fair social order. Naturally, this won her popular support within an extremely short period of time, which in turn brought her more incense power.

News of victory continued to arrive from the front. With the situation looking overwhelmingly favorable, the Taiping Religion spread with even more fervor.

The facts proved that the two leaders had made the right decision.

The high-ranking members of the Taiping Religion who had been arrested now met their ultimate fate.

On an unremarkable night, the third-ranking figure of the Taiping Religion, who had remained behind, had every last one of them executed. Physical elimination was always the most permanent way of settling a problem once and for all.

This order came from Zhou Mengyao.

Although she was largely indifferent to the entire affair, since they had already gone this far, they might as well see it through properly. At a time like this, they could not afford any unrest in the rear. If they were defeated, these people would inevitably cause trouble, so it was better to deal with them sooner rather than later.

Six days later, Qi Xuansu and Zhou Mengyao led their army to the outskirts of Cangyun Fortress.

Cangyun Fortress possessed extremely formidable defenses as well as all kinds of defensive equipment. On top of that, 1,000 troops were stationed within the city. Even though the Yellow Turban Army’s force of over 2,000 had suffered almost no losses along the way, it would still be extremely difficult for them to take the city by force.

At this time, a vast black cloud hung high above Cangyun Fortress, blotting out the sky and sun. It was clearly formed from condensed yin energy. Its underlying principle was somewhat similar to the Heluo God’s Yin Moon. But it lacked a deity and therefore had failed to form a divine kingdom.

Commander Li Yuanjing, who had remained within the Commander’s Office all this time, naturally sensed the arrival of Qi Xuansu and Zhou Mengyao.

Everything that had happened today, as well as everything that was about to happen, was actually within Li Yuanjing’s expectations. After the second suppression campaign failed, he had already foreseen that this day would come.

Unfortunately, he could not leave Cangyun Fortress. He could only watch helplessly as the Taiping Religion grew stronger with each passing day, while those two outsiders became increasingly powerful until they were gradually capable of confronting him head-on.

It was not that he did not wish to leave Cangyun Fortress. Rather, the power of the yin energy had bound him to the fortress. The yin energy had been his greatest source of strength throughout his centuries of rule over this land and the foundation of his authority to patrol the realm on behalf of Heaven. Yet at the same time, it had become his shackles, preventing him from taking even half a step beyond Cangyun Fortress.

Li Yuanjing could not quite understand why His Majesty had chosen to do this.

In truth, the Daoist Order had already provided an answer. This phenomenon was known as passive fusion. Li Yuanjing had absorbed so much yin energy that he had already entered a state of fusion with the yin realm on the other side.

In the words of the Westerners, when one gazed into the abyss, the abyss also gazed back. Li Yuanjing was being swallowed by the abyss beneath his feet, and one day, he would become a part of that abyss.

For now, Li Yuanjing had only entered the preliminary stages of passive fusion, which was why he could still remain within Cangyun Fortress. After another few centuries, he would probably be dragged under into the yin realm.

However, Li Yuanjing had made preparations. For the past several centuries, he had not indulged in pleasure and had repeatedly squeezed the people under his rule dry all for the sake of this great undertaking.

At that moment, a tremendous tremor interrupted Li Yuanjing’s thoughts.

Li Yuanjing climbed the watchtower and gazed out beyond the city walls.

A figure had already risen into the air, using divine power to turn part of the city wall into soft mud. The gate tower collapsed along with it.

Although the city walls here were sturdy, the talismans once used to reinforce them had long since lost their effectiveness. After all, even Pseudo-Immortals lost their cultivation in this land, let alone a few ordinary talismans. As a result, the walls had lost their ability to resist spells, allowing certain techniques that would normally have been ineffective to finally prove useful.

By turning stone into mud, Zhou Mengyao effortlessly solved the problem of breaching the city.

The Yellow Turban Army loudly cheered the names of the Yellow Heaven and the Great Teacher as they charged through the breach in the city wall.

Zhou Mengyao did not descend to the ground. Now that she had regained her Heavenly Being cultivation, she could afford to expend her power a little more freely. She streaked through the air, heading straight for the Commander’s Office.

Along the way, numerous guards of the Commander’s Office shot arrows at her, but they could not harm her in the slightest.

Qi Xuansu was still unable to fly, so he could only advance along the ground, leading the Yellow Turban Army straight toward the Commander’s Office.

Standing atop the watchtower, Li Yuanjing naturally witnessed this scene. His military official’s robes began fluttering despite the absence of wind, snapping loudly around him. Then, he leaped into the air and flew out to meet Zhou Mengyao.

A battle at the Heavenly Being level amounted to little.

Whether in the past or the present, Li Yuanjing had never attained immortality. He had not even witnessed the profound mysteries of the Immortal stage as Qi Xuansu had.

However, Zhou Mengyao was different. She was an Immortal in her own right. Although her cultivation had been weakened, she still possessed the experience and insights of an Immortal.

As such, there was simply no reason for Zhou Mengyao to lose this battle.

At the same time, Qi Xuansu continued cutting down the guards and retainers personally loyal to Li Yuanjing, advancing directly toward the core that was the source of the yin energy.