Chapter 248: Demon Slaying
After formally stepping into the Evil Moon, Xuan Chong led the corps onto the land full of crystals.
Zhao Xian Zhong, leading the way for Xuan Chong, charged ahead first. His leather boots stepped on a crystal block resembling some animal’s skull, and the crystal block immediately shattered.
The War Kui behind rolled over the land with their tracks; Guiche flapped its wings and circled in the sky. It is worth mentioning that the time on the ground and in the air was inconsistent. Walking for an hour on the ground, Guiche only circled for three minutes in the sky.
Everyone in the army pressed on with heads down. In this domain, normal sense of direction completely failed, and even time failed.
Many soldiers did not know how long they had walked or how far they had gone. But after seeing Xuan Chong’s battle flag, they knew to obey the military order.
Xuan Chong squatted down and picked up a handful of soil from the ground. At the same time, he dispatched the Mu Luan team to gather the sand and dust swirling in the air.
Gongshu Wang, accompanying the army, discovered that whether soil or sand, the content of magnetized iron powder in them was extremely high. Thus, the planet’s magnetic field failed here, and the compass had no effect.
The starlight in the starry sky was also constantly twisting. The starlight used as markers sometimes moved to the east for a while, then immediately jumped to the west. —According to Xuan Chong’s understanding: There seemed to be a huge gravitational lens in the starry sky, causing the starlight to flicker and the trajectory to jump.
As for time, the rising and falling of the sun, moon, and stars were also chaotic. So normal life arriving at the Evil Moon would not be able to distinguish spring, summer, autumn, winter, morning, and evening, and during the march, they would not be able to distinguish how far they had walked due to sudden excitement and fatigue.
Xuan Chong’s corps, guided by the Chaos Green Lotus, followed the green lotus veins. The soldiers marching could still rest on time and steadily head toward the center of the Evil Moon.
The fog soon dissipated, and Xuan Chong’s army arrived in front of a crystal maze.
Since Xuan Chong had fought his way up through breaking mountains and razing temples, a grand welcome was about to begin.
…Evil Moon red side…
At the same time, the corps led by Zhao Cheng arrived on a land full of red lava rivers. His troops were left with only eight hundred people. They held their rifles, facing the monsters around them.
These monsters scattered in the wilderness did not immediately collectively surround and attack Zhao Cheng’s corps, but instead paired off and slashed at each other, as if engaged in an eternal competition. Zhao Cheng’s group were just new entrants who had stumbled into it.
Zhao Cheng looked up at the sky, and at this moment he discovered a presence brighter than the moon hanging high above his head. If it were modern people, they would know that this presence was actually the Xi Ren Star. Zhao Cheng’s group had already fought their way into the sky.
…Evil Moon purple side…
On the other side, Jia Ying led the fully firearm-equipped royal guards, gazing up at the palace full of floral fragrance and butterflies behind the six layers of palace walls.
As for the green area, the Chaos Green Lotus was purifying it. It was not that the green escaped the campaign, but that the land of the Lord of Rot had already been cleared by Xuan Chong during the Zhenzhou change.
The three military forces from the Xi Ren Realm had all taken positions in the Evil Moon; undoubtedly, the corps brought by Xuan Chong was the strongest. Over five thousand in total, with infantry cavalry artillery, flying vehicles, and land vehicles all present.
It is worth mentioning that dozens of years ago, the four forces of the Evil Moon already knew that during the “Final War,” four people would fight their way in.
And among them, a certain blue existence discovered that the one he was dealing with was extremely hard to corrupt; thus, he orchestrated a change, swapping his own target with the green one’s target. The result was that the green was resolved ahead of time.
But the one he swapped out? Still locked on and fought over. As for the original target that should have been influenced by the green? At this time in Bo Prefecture, no need to come.
…The Wayless must be conquered…
In front of the blue mirror wall, Xuan Chong looked at these palace walls of the maze whose height was immeasurable, and frowned.
The top of the maze walls connected to the sky. The saying “do not enter a forest lightly” applied; this maze made Xuan Chong feel too dangerous.
However, just as Xuan Chong was pondering, the maze began to flow. Those mirror walls surged over like a tsunami, quickly encircling the entire Xuan Chong corps. Unnoticed, his corps had already been enveloped by the maze, and after enveloping, it left Xuan Chong an open space with a diameter of several thousand meters. But soon, the maze began to contract this open space. Walls started pressing in.
Among them, several mirror surfaces cut vertically, attempting to directly infiltrate and divide his army; these mirror surfaces did not press straight on, but slashed over at acute angles, just like swords.
Xuan Chong: “The whole army, form formation!”
With the mobilization, the army began to gather killing intent. And the War Kui were deployed on all four sides, rigidly crashing into the acute angles of the oncoming mirror walls. Although the War Kui were small, they were like rebar protruding from the ground, teaching a lesson to those who dared to kick them.
“Crack” — after the thousands-of-meters-high mirror surfaces collided with the War Kui, they all shattered.
That behind-the-scenes existence, after seeing that dividing with walls didn’t work, began the next step.
Countless mirror surfaces around displayed images, from which all sorts of corrupted lives surged out.
Among these corrupted creatures, there were pointed ears, and also blue all-over multi-eyed monsters. They wore mocking expressions and surrounded the military formation.
The army formed a shield wall. Xuan Chong stared at these targets jumping out of the mirror surfaces and frowned, because he didn’t know how many targets there were, so he didn’t attack rashly.
Just as Xuan Chong was scrutinizing the small monsters bouncing out of the mirror surfaces like a tidal wave, he suddenly felt as if something was hidden in the mirror surface! A blurry, possibly several hundred meters tall colossal figure was squatting inside it. It noticed Xuan Chong’s gaze and grinned. This scene was just like in some previous life “deep sea phobia” works, where a great shark below the water surface opens its big mouth.
The Vermilion Bird power on his body directly erupted with hostility, indicating that this was the enemy.
After confirming the direction of this shadow, Xuan Chong threw out the flag and launched the attack.
The ground formation advanced, cannonballs burst out from the Heavy Mu Luan one by one, and flames exploded among the demons in the mirrors.
Straight ahead, the total number of demons and monsters was about three thousand. In the army corps, the elite firearm users selected by Xuan Chong were equipped with the latest rifled muskets, firing from four hundred paces away. Almost every bullet could eliminate an enemy. The blue-skinned pointed ears charging at the forefront suffered extremely heavy casualties.
That blue shadow felt Xuan Chong’s gaze and tried to dodge. Its massive body retreated a few steps like a person.
Just as the existence of this massive shadow in the mirror surface was about to fade and hide, Xuan Chong issued the order, and Nine Phoenix led Guiche to charge straight at it.
After passing over a group of mirror demons riding flying discs, Nine Phoenix’s flames sprayed onto the mirror surface, melting it and revealing the true body of the blue shadow inside.
The monster’s true body revealed one thigh that was thirty zhang high, squatting there like a building. This immediately made the combat corps feel fear. But as Peacock was summoned by Xuan Chong and teleported over to spread its tail and unfold its light, the corps knew that this thing would be dealt with by their side’s great power.
The giant monster, at the instant it revealed its true body, was clearly a bit panicked; when moving from behind the scenes to the front stage, it became panicked. —Just like some online trolls who suddenly get doxxed and face reality offline. The ever-changing sophistry was gone, leaving only clumsy shyness.
The various troops under Xuan Chong began to fight according to the battle orders. Non-commissioned officers conveyed orders one by one, advancing the corps forward.
“Charge them!” “That thing is nothing to fear!” The battle-hardened elite soldiers trained by Xuan Chong began to run. Each combat group used spears to stab dead the blocking monsters, while infantry on both sides charged with bayonets.
The bayonet formation charged in the manner of “odd rows advance, even rows shoot,” “even rows charge, odd rows shoot”; after the mirror demons were swept by bullets and bayonets, in front of the military formation, the blue demons scattered like a tide.
And that thirty-zhang huge demon and monster? It was writhing. Yes, writhing. Its head in the mirror could move flexibly, but after the mirror surface shattered and its real body was exposed, it became extremely clumsy, like a herbivorous giant dragon from the late Cretaceous, every step laborious.
The Qing Bao Dao Venerable behind the mirror surface was like the concept god of “Tom and Jerry” in “Cat and Mouse,” but now after the mirror surface shattered, it was like Hawking who had collapsed.
…Undefined?…
As the army got closer to this blue giant demon, the giant demon’s body became increasingly clear, its skin like that of a bird’s leg, with small blue eyes jumping on the skin. These small eyes varied in size, some as big as glass marbles, others as big as stone benches.
But under the assault of the army’s killing intent, these blue small eyes either trembled like flies vibrating their wings or spun like spinning tops.
And as the killing intent invaded, these blue small eyes became increasingly frenzied, their eye sockets unable to withstand such “changes,” and with a pop, rows of eyes all exploded.
This thirty-zhang giant demon also felt pain.
Xuan Chong somehow knew that this was Qing Bao Dao Venerable’s true body! (Actually, it was a projection incarnation in this Xi Ren Realm)
If Qing Bao Dao Venerable was in the mirror surface, he could change and move quickly at will, like those overpowered existences in cartoons.
Sure enough, that half-body left in the mirror surface had limbs stretching and shortening, and the Buddha-like head changed the number of eyes with every turn.
But as the mirror surface shattered, its main body was exposed to reality (under Xuan Chong’s penetrating gaze), immediately becoming bloated, losing the ability to change, and subject to physical laws, making this massive body extremely slow and unable to move.
Nine Phoenix and the two Guiche tore off larger parts of the mirror surface like mischievous children ripping wallpaper, exposing more of Qing Bao Dao Venerable’s body.
After the army cut down numerous mirror demons blocking the way, they finally closed in to five hundred steps.
A heavy Mu Luan flew to right in front of the giant demon, aimed at the giant demon’s chest, and shot out Divine Fire Flying Crow. This high-energy bomb, powered by nitroglycerin, flew toward the giant demon.
With a boom, a mushroom cloud appeared; in the midst of the two armies, under the gaze of numerous demons and humans, a flash appeared on the giant demon’s body dragged out of the mirror surface.
Immediately after, large cracks synchronously appeared on the surrounding mirror surfaces that reached the sky.
This endless mirror labyrinth was one with this giant demon.
In other words, without finding Qing Bao Dao Venerable’s main body, one could never escape this changing labyrinth in a lifetime. No matter how many mirror demons were killed, the mirror surfaces would surely replicate more.
Only by finding Qing Bao Dao Venerable’s mirror surface position, destroying the mirror surface to expose it to reality, could the entire mirror palace be destroyed.
This was very rare, after all, Qing Bao Dao Venerable could just hide somewhere in the mirror surface to operate, but alas—Xuan Chong had activated perspective vision, and the system behind him immediately locked onto Qing Bao Dao Venerable’s mirror surface position through information density.
At this time, the will of the Xi Ren Realm stood behind Xuan Chong this military strategist, and this will taunted Qing Bao Dao Venerable: “I hear you like changes? Change again, super transform transform transform?”
…Myriad Changes’ scheme encounters cheating…
The second Divine Fire Flying Crow struck the giant demon’s body, white fragments appeared on the giant demon’s body, crumbling down. And in the entire mirror palace, new cracks appeared.
The mirror labyrinth that had become the environment also synchronously showed “crack flashes,” the cracks evidently not only spreading on the mirror surfaces but also appearing on all individuals in the mirrors. After all, they relied on mirror surface projections to appear in the real world.
On the battlefield, Wang Xi and these squad leaders quickly felt that something good had happened. A flying saucer demon in front of them shattered with a light touch and a crack, as if it already bore wounds—after the mirror surface was destroyed, all demons’ maximum health began to drop.
Xuan Chong further confirmed that the integrity of the giant demon’s body was tied to the integrity of the mirror surfaces.
And the integrity of the mirror surfaces was tied to the maximum health of these projected demons. If the mirror surfaces were destroyed to the extreme, it would be like the army’s troops activating “whosyourdaddy”.
Xuan Chong activated mecha mode, pale white mechanical modules flowing over his entire body. Chi You Soldiers deployed, electric light flickering in front of the cannon barrel.
As the mirror surface on the giant demon’s head flashed once more amid shaking, Xuan Chong aimed his cannon at the giant demon. However, seeing this Buddha-like head looking at him, Xuan Chong couldn’t help but exclaim “Eh,” but while exclaiming “Eh,” he still pulled the trigger.
A beam of blue light burst from the electromagnetic cannon, piercing the giant demon’s head! This giant demon’s head finally showed Xuan Chong the face of San Gu. It indeed caused some ripples in Xuan Chong’s mind, but his movements showed no hesitation.
On the mirror surfaces, cracks began to spread without limit, and all “intelligence-type” demons shattered like bubbles.
…Switching to the purple area…
Jia Ying led the royal guards troop charging into this palace interior. He had already passed the first two stages.
He had encountered scenes of mountains of treasures and fine wine and delicacies respectively. These scenes had defenders: monsters constantly spewing gold coins, and gluttonous butchers gorging themselves. Jia Ying passed easily, but his troops suffered losses.
Greed for gold coins turned them into a pile of gold coins; tasting the delicacies once led to addiction, uncontrollably stuffing themselves until immobile, then slaughtered by the butchers into delicacies.
But in the third stage, batches of androgynous monsters like skinned humans ambushed them. The over six hundred troops Jia Ying brought formed combat formations to fire volleys in turn, while these ambushers melted into the purple mist. (Jia Ying didn’t notice that his troop numbers were developing toward a certain figure.)
The purple palace monsters flanked from the side. And during flanking, their body surface color matched the surroundings, hard for normal people to detect.
However, Jia Ying still locked onto these flankers firmly through differences in air flow.
The final volley of musket fire came after the enemies closed to sixty-six steps, collapsing them collectively, Jia Ying led from the front, preparing with the armored soldiers for close combat; then the firearms troops shifted from line to column to consolidate, then moved to the flank and redeployed. They executed the stealthy attackers sneaking closer at three hundred steps with lined-up shooting.
Jia Ying, at the front line, perceived danger, that half Heaven’s Mandate constantly reminding him where to go.
After the battle, Jia Ying inspected these eerie enemies. From some mildly mutated human canine teeth and thumb joints, he made discoveries. The accompanying Sitian Cheng: These don’t seem to be from our realm.
Connecting to the Immortal Sect’s “tales of various realms,” everyone confirmed these were likely people from another planet.
Capturing a mutated monster, Jia Ying tried hard to listen to her language, but these Latin-like words were incomprehensible. He thus asked the nearby arriving Daoist priest: “Daoist Priest, what is this?”
Xian Daoren was stunned, blue light surging over his entire body. At this moment, Xian Daoren felt that “Qing Bao Dao Venerable’s” incarnation in this realm had fallen, and the Dao Venerable’s remains were gathering toward him.
Xian Daoren had originally planned to drive Jia Ying into the labyrinth to witness his mother’s ultimate pupation; little did he know, in this time, his home base had been raided.
Xian Daoren felt that the Upper Clarity Palace where the Dao Venerable was had vanished. The Dao Venerable was finally instilling wisdom into him.
Xian Daoren’s third eye opened, witnessing streams of blue power entering his body, but as the blue power entered, a golden light flashed on him.
Immediately, in the golden summons, a space gate appeared, and Xian Daoren clearly saw on the other side of the space gate, Xuan Chong’s military formation marching toward here.
Qing Bao Dao Venerable wanted to find a possessor, little knowing the Xi Ren Realm wouldn’t tolerate such trickery.
…System: As a teaching aid, already on record…
On Xuan Chong’s side, after the army corps successfully bombed and shattered Qing Bao Dao Venerable, they saw the surrounding mirror labyrinth constantly shattering and collapsing, mirror demons turning to powder as a breeze passed. When the mirror palace suddenly vanished, the army found itself in a purple area!
And on the side of the army formation, soldiers discovered a small firearms formation, evidently also having intruded into the Evil Moon.
Just as the Zhen State cavalry surrounded them, preparing to control this troop, Xuan Chong issued the order to maintain vigilance.
After Xuan Chong controlled the combat mech to fly over, he looked at Xian Daoren in Jia Ying’s formation: “Immortal Elder, I didn’t expect to encounter you here too.” — At this time, Xuan Chong’s Eye of Insight had already seen the blue light and shadow that had been previously severed reappearing on Xian Daoren’s body, vaguely realizing that this guy was not a good thing.
However, Xuan Chong glanced at the lost ones encountered nearby, who also had firearms and cannons, and found that their weaponry system was similar to the secondary troops in his own military camp.
Xuan Chong vaguely sensed something.
The faceplate on Xuan Chong’s face automatically opened, and he looked toward Jia Ying! Upon the first glance, Xuan Chong sensed that he was the same as Wu Lu. This was the mutual sensing brought by Vermilion Bird energy.
Of course, there was still some difference. The fire on Wu Lu had wood attribute (Bi Fang). Whereas this guy was entangled with some indescribable purple power.
Xuan Chong looked at Jia Ying, and Jia Ying was also looking at Xuan Chong.
Likewise, he vaguely sensed that this State Lord of Zhen State possessed power of the same origin as his own.
For a moment, an indescribable emotion surged into his heart. However, just as his emotions were stirring, the purple thorny power on his body also acted up. But under Xuan Chong’s insightful gaze, this power did not act on its own.
Xuan Chong: “Who are you?”
The guard beside Jia Ying wanted to announce his name, but was stopped by Jia Ying.
Jia Ying slowly said: “I am a person from Heluo, here to rescue my mother.”
Xuan Chong nodded: “Come along with us then; the danger level here is very high.”
Then Xuan Chong went to Xian Daoren’s side, and patted Xian Daoren with the hand wearing power armor.
Xuan Chong turned his head and asked Xian Daoren nearby: “The next wave should be the power of the Purple Evil Moon, right? Any suggestions?”
Xian Daoren was silent for a moment, then said: “Duke Zhen, you know everything.”
Xuan Chong looked at Xian Daoren, still extremely calm, without any emotional fluctuations.
And this precisely made Xian Daoren’s expression stiffen.
Xian Daoren’s original plan was — Xian Daoren: “Hmm, what was the original plan again?”
However, now he was certain that Xuan Chong had clearly seen through everything! In this secret realm, the most dangerous things were not the various monsters or the various rules, but one’s own emotions.
Fear would attract red, confusion would draw blue, disappointment would accept green, and indulgence would lure purple.
If an army gradually lost control of their emotions while marching, they would emit and expand intangible information, and then various monsters would come.
Of course, in this place in the Xi Ren Realm, if there was a leader with extremely strong resistance to divine blessings, their killing intent would wash away the corruption in the army like the sea crashing against rocks.
Xian Daoren looked at Xuan Chong forcibly pulling him, wanting to stop it but unable to move, only opening his mouth to ask: “You, which Dao Venerable chose you? Hmm, who is your divine chosen?”
Xuan Chong heard a new term and was slightly curious, but then said: “I am an atheist.”
He then added: “However, I acknowledge that there are wondrous existences in this world that I do not understand.”
After hearing the term atheist, Xian Daoren’s pupils slightly contracted, and he then fell silent.
