Chapter 172: Defiling The Palace Chambers
In Lelang City, the entire city was in a great dream, and the black prison crafted by Wu Hanluan finally appeared. The originally narrow streets slowly opened like a person’s mouth, widening the space. Stone floor tiles, black tiles, and the wheel ruts worn by constant carriage traffic all manifested.
However, this building was an inverted structure. The entire prison originally sloped downward, with a total of seven layers underground, but now inverted, it became a tower. The first underground layer became the first above-ground layer, and the seventh underground layer became the seventh above-ground layer.
In the view of most of the Conquest Corps, this was a seven-story tall building; however, in Xuan Chong’s space marker reference frame, these seven layers of the building were not as they appeared on the surface to everyone present.
Its actual floor size was visually reduced, just like those official military propaganda photos from his previous life, which could photograph the runway of a seventy-to-eighty-thousand-ton ship as if it were a fishing boat deck.
And in Xuan Chong’s true space coordinate markers, the first layer was a hundred meters, the second layer was over a thousand meters, and by the seventh layer, it had actually reached the Evil Moon. Now, the top of the tower visible from the ground was a green line connecting to the Evil Moon.
Besides this tower now, Wu Fei saw another red line on the Evil Moon swaying at the tip of this black tower.
This line scattered countless thread ends, and the terminals of the thread ends were masses of building debris. The shape of these building debris looked like the former “arena,” meaning that if Prince Lelang’s gladiatorial enterprise from back then continued to develop, it would also cause corrosion throughout the prefecture.
Since others could not see these red lines and scattered green lines, the building debris encircled the prison like random fragments.
Now this tall tower linked to the green rotting moon; and in the past, Lelang City was the origin of the “mad fighting disease,” so the old debris was the passage to the former red blood moon.
Xuan Chong watched as this building opened, and at the entrance to the underground prison cell that originally held prisoners, a pitch-black hole continuously emitted foul odors.
Xuan Chong glanced at this hole; it looked downward, but the actual up-and-down passage was like a mirage, with the truth being an upward climb.
The soldiers lined up behind Xuan Chong gazed at the rotting door covered in mushrooms unfolding, pitch-black inside, hearing the pitter-patter of pustules being squeezed, and involuntarily felt nauseous.
Xuan Chong inexplicably thought of the scene in the biochemical crisis movie where the gate to the underground base in Raccoon City was opened.
However, now blocking the hole were not the sparse few soldiers from the movie, but four hundred soldiers in strict formation covered in killing intent, holding large contradiction shields, bows drawn with ballistae ready, of course along with three ballistae with taut bowstrings loaded. Each soldier had a plague-clearing pill in their mouth and wore face-covering black armor.
At the hole, a group of hunched people gathered on a horse with a one-meter-large pustule like dogs, sucking the pus like nursing milk. These little people, seeing the gate open, chattered gigglingly, “More good friends have come,” “We are happy little elves,” and then surged forward.
Xuan Chong looked at these things and on a whim took out the Restoration Gem to try it, to see if it would work, but the system prompted: “These are all corpses, cannot use Restoration Gem.”
More precisely, these were individuals corrupted from the greedy ruffians in the city.
“First team, light torches, captain take the measuring rope, advance fifty steps.” Xuan Chong issued the first command, and the team began to move upon receiving the order.
These soldiers, though somewhat awkward about returning to Wu Fei’s command before picking up their weapons, subconsciously felt the need for a commander when facing such inhuman things.
And the people in the first team, hearing Wu Fei’s methodical commands, felt their originally anxious hearts calm down.
The surging rotten “little elves” died rapidly under stabbing, but upon death produced no corpses, instead turning into green dust and dissipating. Under spear stabs, how many such rotten little elves died in the end?
Since there were no corpses, no one could count, but Wu Fei knew very clearly in his heart (system-assisted marking), it should be one hundred fifty-seven.
After the initial victory, everyone’s morale soared; with the demons completely exterminated, the rot in the black prison hall was swept clean, leaving only the dilapidated building untouched for a long time.
This was the first layer, yet the soldiers behind shouted: “General, the steps behind have disappeared.”
All soldiers turned their heads to look; the gate they entered through had now become a wall. Xuan Chong knew clearly it was not that the gate behind was blocked. Rather, the first layer of the black prison tower had disappeared, and everyone had been silently lifted higher. Now Xuan Chong’s army was not trapped underground but suspended in the high sky.
Xuan Chong rebuked these soldiers: “Panic for what? This battle was no advance without retreat from the start.”
The soldiers quieted down one after another. As rebels, there was a trust crisis between them and Xuan Chong. But now in a desperate situation, Xuan Chong had always stood in the midst of the team; under this contrast to the “trust crisis,” they felt a touching sense of being “relied upon,” and thus stood by this Military Master’s side.
The conquest continued. The soldiers pushed open the second gate; now it was no longer the half-human-high hunched little monsters from the first layer, but one-by-one pus-covered, one-man-high fatsoes, with bloated bellies that burst juice upon a poke. Soldiers splashed with the pus immediately showed grimacing pain, as blisters covered their bodies.
When a soldier in the front row wanted to cowardly flee, he was slain by Xuan Chong with a single slash.
After having Wu Baichuan fill the front position, Xuan Chong loudly declared: “No one can retreat; those who do not advance with the main team die!”
Under military law orders, the entire army formed a heavy armor phalanx and began thrusting with spears.
Even if many were splashed with pus on their faces, immediately feeling numbness and itchiness, they endured all discomfort and continued the slaughter. At this moment, they had entrusted their lives to Xuan Chong; even if their bellies were slashed open exposing intestines, they kept slashing.
Killing intent burned ever more fiercely, the rotten monsters’ laughter gradually faded, and in the empty underground battlefield, only spear thrusts and command whistles remained.
The battle was extremely difficult, but in the end, all enemies were eliminated.
And when all enemies turned to ash, all soldiers found the pustules on their bodies immediately scabbed and fell off; the soldiers with severed limbs were still groaning, reminding everyone that what just happened was not a dream.
As Xuan Chong walked to these injured soldiers, one with a slashed belly crawled forward, propping himself up on his knees to report, stating he had not disgraced his mission!
Xuan Chong pondered for a moment, sensing something vaguely, and thus slit his finger, dripping a drop of blood; these near-dead soldiers immediately writhed in the firelight, and soon their bodies recovered.
Wu Baichuan had his leg broken in the battle, but ignited by the fire of regeneration, in less than the time for a cup of tea, he was lively as a dragon and tiger again, gratefully saying: “I am willing to die for the General.”
Xuan Chong did not respond to these men’s pledges of loyalty, but like cold cast iron issued the command: “Push open the third gate.”
In the arena once crafted by Prince Lelang, what was absorbed was slaughter and fear; whereas in this rotting land, what was absorbed was despair and care! — Xuan Chong sensed that these two emotions emanating from this place would strengthen the rotting power here, so he kept a stern face, as if devoid of any feeling.
However, when the third gate opened, a swarm of mosquitoes flew at their faces,
Xuan Chong raised his hand, and a stream of firelight sprayed out; under the terrifying scorching power, all these oncoming mosquitoes were barbecued to death, and the intense flames poured into the third gate, turning the joyful laughter inside into groans.
The human soldiers, originally startled by the mosquitoes and prepared to endure, saw their Military Master’s terrifying magic counterattack and their morale soared instantly; amid shouts, they directly advanced into the third layer. And the things in the third layer were clumps of large toads; the mosquitoes just now had been belched out by this group of large toads.
A few minutes later, under the halberd soldiers’ eager siege, the toads were poked full of holes, shrinking like deflating balls, ultimately turning to ash.
Xuan Chong lowered his head to look at his wrist. A few days ago, he had tried using this lotus seed, but felt that this brand could only work when placed on the foreheads of those “plague polluters.” Actually, no physical entity could be extracted. But now the lotus seed on his hand seemed to have taken actual form!
In this battle, not only were the enemies stronger, but Xuan Chong also felt that the “idealistic” power around him had grown stronger.
For example, when he held this lotus seed, within a three-zhang radius of its glow, all injured soldiers’ wounds were sutured by green sprouts. And those biting mosquitoes fell to the ground like sprayed with insecticide, turning to dust.
Xuan Chong opened the system: “System, I feel this is becoming more and more like a virtual game.”
System: “The closer to the true information source of the target, the more complete the information projected by the lotus seed body. Keep it up.”
Xuan Chong: “Next, will I expedition to the Evil Moon? Will the Evil Moon environment make the lotus seed’s projected shadow more real?”
System was terse: “Yes.”
Xuan Chong seized the key point to press: “So is the Evil Moon a virtual network, or another objective physical world?”
The system paused for a good while, clearly evading certain rules: “Your redemption item (lotus seed) is an objective existence in this plane’s universe. The lotus seed mark on your hand now is the ‘information source’; the reason you feel the lotus seed becoming more real is that your information ‘channel’ is improving.”
Xuan Chong was slightly thoughtful, roughly understanding certain keys.
At this time, the fourth gate was before them; Bai Renfeng, who had always been in the team using sword qi, prompted Xuan Chong: “My lord, the targets are growing larger; shall I apply blade technique to the soldiers’ weapons?”
Xuan Chong stopped him.
Because Xuan Chong discovered that every time he pushed open a door, the opponent behind it was actually scanned from data on these people.
…The lotus seed became ever clearer, and the gamma ray irradiation spot on the Evil Moon also grew brighter…
Meanwhile, in the North, Yao Capital.
In the prison cell, Su Wang interrogated a palace maid covered in blood.
Su Wang said: “These rebel letters, they come from the Prince’s Mansion, don’t they!” The palace maid glanced at him, full of fear: “Prime Minister, if you say so, it is so.”
Su Wang: “I want you to say yes!” With that, he pressed the branding iron on her; the palace maid fainted after screaming.
Su Wang stood up and instructed his attendants: “Wake her with water!” He desperately needed to find the mastermind of the rebellion. However, the palace maid took the chance when he was not paying attention to commit suicide.
In this Da Yao dynasty, for powerful eunuchs to sleep soundly, besides catering to the current emperor’s preferences, they also needed to arrange the emperor’s successor. This was the key to how powerful eunuchs held authority in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
When Emperor Ling was still Prince Zhou, Su Wang was just one of the eunuchs, but not the only trustworthy one.
At that time, in Prince Zhou’s Mansion, there were others as the heir’s guardians, such as the teacher of Prince Zhou’s son (the heir), and even advisors sent by other noble families and great clans. Everyone worked together to support Prince Zhou to power.
Now Su Wang monopolized power, having suppressed all enemies and former allies, and began contemplating the possibility of his own downfall.
Although Prince Zhou’s sons all died in the falling palace incident, two children were soon adopted from the clan, namely the current Prince Ding and Prince Yuan.
Su Wang’s former allies now quietly gathered around these two princes, bringing him a great sense of crisis. (Consort Li’s identity was complicated, and her son Ying’er lacked maternal clan power, so he was not considered by other groups in Yao Capital now.)
Especially since Prince Ding and Prince Yuan were already seven years old, at the age of forming preferences, beginning to have likes and dislikes toward the outside world.
Prince Ding and Prince Yuan looked at Su Wang with eyes clearly carrying “you are a corrupt minister”; Su Wang felt utterly chilled inside.
During the day Su Wang was majestic, but at night in his dreams he constantly sensed future changes, filled with anxiety, and after much thought decided: rather than passively await change, better to master the change himself.
Finally, Su Wang decided: since others were unrighteous, he would be unkind! Fostering an imperial descendant? He could do it too.
Previously under the pretext of delivering fruit, Su Wang entered Consort Li’s palace to pay respects, but Consort Li smiled in response without giving any promises.
Ultimately, Su Wang gritted his teeth and decided to be direct: he wanted to form an alliance with Consort Li, help her deal with other consorts, and force the other princes out of the imperial throne competition sequence.
Consort Li looked at him, then said: “How can I trust you?”
Su Wang put on an innocent face: “Empress, I am absolutely loyal.” Then he pinched the ornate “united heart doll,” preparing to offer it.
Consort Li nodded: “Very well, come forward.” A purple butterfly emerged from Consort Li’s hand.
Consort Li: “This is a heart-locking butterfly; this butterfly will enter your heart and lock away your greatest secret. If this secret is ever leaked in any way, you will be doomed eternally. Are you willing?”
Su Wang looked at this gu worm, slightly hesitant, probing: “Empress, this secret, is it about~”
Consort Li smiled mysteriously: “Since it’s a secret, naturally you cannot know even a bit now.”
Su Wang scratched his head and cheeks thinking, ultimately agreed. The butterfly settled into his heart. Soon it became a thorny chain.
After everything was done, Su Wang: “May I ask, Consort, what exactly is this secret?”
On Consort Li’s side, she dripped blood on the wooden puppet Su Wang gave, fulfilling her promise to him; Consort Li with a mysterious smile: “You will know when the time comes. If there’s any leak, you’ll wish you were dead!” — Of course, the more he wanted to reveal it, the less he could, and the purple power grew ever more joyful.
The alliance between Consort Li and Su Wang was achieved. And that very night in Su Wang’s nightmare, he learned a heaven-shaking matter, but just as he wanted to divulge it, his soul ached in pain. Upon waking, he forgot the matter, but the wooden puppet by Su Wang’s bed watched him with its eyes.
Outside the royal palace, the free-spirited Daoist Priest Xian watched smilingly. Like someone on the shore mocking a drunkard he had kicked into the water.
But just as Daoist Priest Xian was appreciating his handiwork, suddenly his expression changed, and he looked up at the Evil Moon in the sky. Like a “smart aleck” waiting for pie from the sky but getting hail instead.
…Division long must unite, union long must divide…
In outer space, the two Evil Moons orbiting Xi Ren Star suddenly began approaching once more.
And this time, the green and red combined Evil Moon charged straight at the blue and purple combined Evil Moon! But the force driving this collision was not the earth vein energy from deep within Xi Ren Realm, but a blue light band from beyond the heavens.
This light band was like a pool cue striking a basketball, poking the green and red Evil Moon. Slowly pushing the “green-red moon” toward the “blue-purple.”
Evidently, the blue-purple Evil Moon now wanted to flee desperately, yet was fixed in place by the power of “Xi Ren Realm.”
Daoist Priest Xian watched wide-eyed as the rot- and violence-filled green-red Evil Moon crashed toward the “wisdom and joy” purple-blue Evil Moon.
Daoist Priest Xian involuntarily stood up, staring intently at this blue light band radiating from beyond the heavens. This existence was completely beyond his expectations!
Daoist Priest Xian anxiously: “Did I forget something? What’s going on! The past! No—the past has been altered.”
He turned to look at Chong Land; it was his plan from a few years ago, to let Chong Land rot and backfire, then be reviled by all under heaven.
In Da Yao’s mountain river yao calculation, the verifications of the “plague source” by all sides were still the evidence he secretly provided to the immortal sects, thereby luring out this play.
“The plan was originally perfect; how did it suddenly spawn a boomerang out of nowhere?”
Daoist Priest Xian first thought of Wu Fei, this guy completely unaffected by “blessings,” who had a strange treasure on him. Then, he suddenly understood something, gnashing his teeth: “Qian Cuo!”
