Chapter 249: Moon Collapse
The large army advanced toward the Purple Domain. Along the way, with Xuan Chong’s Eye of Insight appraising them one by one, those beauties turned into paper figures; as for the submission on the power crown, it was merely false numbers reported by the treacherous sycophants.
As for vain flattery, Xuan Chong found it nauseating to hear; because he couldn’t figure out what he could give the flatterers, he extremely resisted it.
This was just like in his previous life when traveling and coming to an unfamiliar small shop.
When the shop owner received him overly enthusiastically, with his mouth full of: “Handsome guy, take a look!” “Boss, this thing suits your taste at first glance!” and such words.
Xuan Chong: “Do people really like this kind of flattery? My achievements all rely on effort and the system’s help. Unless? The system praises me a couple times.”
The history teacher remained silent.
Whenever Xuan Chong entered the Moon Ring and pierced through a layer of illusion, a large number of enemies appeared; these enemies were all victims originally immersed in the beauty of the illusion.
Of course, when the victims’ dream shattered, they wouldn’t think they had been tricked, but instead blame the one who pierced the dream. These hedonistic believers who didn’t know from which planets they came, charged at him desperately with swords and staffs.
Just like after stocks plummet, most retail stock traders won’t think they were deceived by the stock manipulators, but blame the one investigating the actual situation of the industries behind the stocks.
In front of the Six Ring Palace, guns and cannons rang out continuously.
Jia Ying watched as Xuan Chong repeatedly mobilized and threw flag orders; whenever he wanted to ask something, the next communications officer came seeking instructions. He had no chance to intervene.
The massive corps moved like an arm directing fingers; after the artillery bombarded, the cavalry immediately charged; bullets formed a large net, blocking the mad demons’ frontal surprise attack.
…Analysis…
Before the battle reached the final ring, the entire army temporarily rested.
Some captives rescued from the Six Ring Palace were being interrogated. These captives clearly were not Da Yao people; they came from other planetary worlds. As for where exactly these lost souls came from?
After the battle, from the patterns still visible on the rust on their bodies, Xuan Chong determined that the civilization style of these lost souls should be ocean civilization—yes, the anchor marks so obvious on the armor.
In the field command tent, Xuan Chong was performing surgery; or rather, dissection. After cutting open the captive’s body, he found it full of tentacles inside, with only the outer shape being human skin.
These captives claimed that before “attending the banquet,” they were legion commanders or some princes and nobles; the emblems on their armor were the most complex, and the process of embedding into the twisted flesh was the most terrifying. It was already beyond remedy.
Xuan Chong couldn’t help but think: What did he look like after falling into despair? When faith was betrayed, the justice he believed in was picked up by those damaging his interests as a banner to suppress him. Oh, he was pretty much like that.
Xuan Chong looked up; beside him, Jia Ying was standing waiting.
…The appearance of depravity…
The large army entered the final piece of Purple Domain; the entire army saw a silkworm pupa flower monster. The pupa broke, and under everyone’s gaze, a terrifying butterfly appeared before the crowd.
Why terrifying? Because this butterfly’s wings were extremely gorgeous, while its abdomen had a woman’s head—Li Shi.
“What a beautiful day~” Li Shi gazed at this massive army formation, waved her hand, and on the ground, numerous purple demons no fewer than a corps crazily crawled up.
The human head at the butterfly’s abdomen position looked at Xian Daoren, Xuan Chong, and Jia Ying respectively with eyes of resentment, hatred, and affection.
Li Shi chanted in a complex and enjoying tone: “The one I love, the one I hate, the one who loves me, now all come to witness the birth of the new me~”
However, just as she began to make the numerous demonic evil corps rise, Xuan Chong suddenly raised his hand, and an electromagnetic cannon blasted; her human head shattered on the spot.
Jia Ying’s face twisted immediately, and he let out a heated roar from his mouth: “No!”
What he got in return was Xuan Chong’s cold threat: “Watch him for me, otherwise, I will carry out the act of deposing and establishing.” This sentence was not for Jia Ying, but for the royal guards who wanted to blindly follow Tong Zheng Emperor and rush over.
Xuan Chong forcibly gave these people the chance to choose “loyalty.” But obviously, under Xuan Chong’s extremely murderous threat, these guards who had killed their way here with Jia Ying all held him back now. Clearly, for such a already demonized Empress Dowager Li, it wasn’t worth tearing faces with Emperor Yao and the current most authoritative vassal lord.
Xuan Chong issued the flag order and shouted loudly: “Kill!”
The corps opened fire without hesitation; bullets mowed them down like grass, knocking down these demons in gorgeous clothing one by one, just like the violent revolution sweeping a court banquet.
Xuan Chong raised the large horn and shouted in the army: “There is no beauty, nothing worthy of sympathy. Think of the farmers in the homeland, think of the women reeling silk; the people’s strength and wealth piled up here—doesn’t that deserve hatred!”
Then Xuan Chong “click” chambered a bullet, but the gun barrel intentionally or unintentionally aimed at Xian Daoren. This Xian Daoren wanted to approach Jia Ying and retreat behind Emperor Yao, but his movement stopped on the spot.
Ten minutes later, under the large army’s crush, everything in this court banquet was crushed; as for Empress Dowager Li.
Xuan Chong couldn’t be bothered to glance at this thing, just like he wouldn’t stare at excrement but only press the button to start the flush toilet.
…System issues task: Complete the dialogue to resolve the karma…
Under everyone’s gaze, Jia Ying was blocked outside; Xuan Chong walked over to the two-zhang-high butterfly corpse and said routinely: “Be decent yourself, or shall I make you decent?”
The hating female voice cursed angrily: “Why, back then, didn’t you come to seize me? Why?!!!”
Xuan Chong looked up at the sky: “I’m just curious, why when giving birth to a child, did you drill into the royal palace?”
Xuan Chong saw a blue line exposed, glanced along it at Xian Daoren, and understood.
Empress Dowager Li said to Xian Daoren: “I have completed all your tasks; why didn’t you take me out of the palace! You promised me, to be a pair of immortal lovers!”
The people around were numb, including Jia Ying’s court guards; everyone seemed to have heard something unbelievable. Their hearts silently wondered: “What exactly is this relationship?”
The butterfly received no response, started laughing maniacally, then said to Jia Ying: “Child, actually you—”
“Pah,” a glob of phlegm spat onto this remaining butterfly, hot flames ignited the entire butterfly like gasoline, and in the big fire, the Li butterfly demon turned to ash in an instant.
Xuan Chong walked in front of Jia Ying, and amid his hateful and complex gaze, raised his hand and pressed it on his forehead. At this moment, Xuan Chong activated the absolute Vermilion Bird state; vermilion light covered three zhang, burning away the blue lines originally drawn by Xian Daoren.
Then purple thorns hidden on Jia Ying manifested, but as soon as they emerged, they turned to ash and fell to the ground. One by one insect eggs tried to break out from his body, but all were burned away.
Jia Ying himself didn’t even know he was poisoned, and the court guards around had no hostility toward Xuan Chong. They waited quietly on the side.
As the Vermilion Bird Power continued to pour in, his past began to rewind; all memories regressed to his childhood, and just as he was born crying, Jia Ying thought it was over, but it wasn’t; the scene of his mother pregnant with him in Prince Zhou’s Mansion appeared, followed by his mother negotiating with Jia Cha Yang, while he was always just an observer!
Jia Ying suddenly realized: He wasn’t rewinding memories; this was the observational perspective of the Vermilion Bird Power.
Then he finally confirmed that he was not Emperor Ling’s son, but a switched child.
Soon he saw the role of Xian Daoren, who taught his mother the cuckoo nest replacement magic. —So where exactly did he come from?
Finally he saw the karma: in a dream, he lay in a huge footprint, and after Li Shi fell down, he entered it.
After Li Shi’s huge footprint emerged, he looked up; the giant who left the footprint resembled Wu Yuanchang—young at the time, similar to his own face, but with far more arrogant spirit in his eyes. Clearly, he had just stomped on the “broken butterfly” that dared provoke him.
The Vermilion Bird Bloodline transmitted the entire story to Jia Ying. —That is, when Li Shi initially wanted to harm Wu Fei as Wu Yuanchang went north, she was counterattacked by divine descendant power in the dream, creating him.
When Xuan Chong removed his hand from Jia Ying’s head, Jia Ying was dazed and confused.
Meanwhile, Xuan Chong had the expression of having completed a task. The system’s new task “Narrate the karma to remove Emperor Yao’s shackles” was completed, rewarding five academic credits.
…System: Protect Da Yao for three generations task completed.…
Xuan Chong: “How was my performance in this class?”
System: “History exploration degree is only sixty percent.”
Xuan Chong: “What? Tell me what I’m still lacking.”
System: “Fine, consume one academic credit.”
Xuan Chong redeemed one academic credit almost without thinking.
The system was somewhat silent (helpless toward the brat’s curiosity): “History rises in spirals; this class’s sacrifice, divination, and Yao correspond to A.D. 2000 to 2500, First Red Dynasty, Second Red Dynasty, Third Red Dynasty. You groped the edges but didn’t answer.”
Then the text size shrank, clearly not passing review.
…Before exiting, gather the teaching aids.…
The purple palace collapsed with a crash, and after the collapse, the surrounding environment changed completely; everyone entered a red lava river battlefield.
In the battlefield, killing shouts appeared in the distance; mad disease demons surged from all directions like tides toward a fortress military formation. Xuan Chong recognized that formation’s flag; as early as Gu Shou Pass, he had confronted such a flag.
Xuan Chong gazed at the military formation where Zhao Cheng was and slowly said: “Big bro, ah, fate brings us together again.”
Zhao Cheng also spotted Xuan Chong’s large army in the distance, stunned for a moment, then shouted in the army: “Hold on, friendly forces are coming to aid us.”
“Friendly forces?” Zhao Cheng’s troops were extremely surprised. “Where did friendly forces come from?”
But they heard rumbling war drums, followed by “hey ha, hey ha” voices from the horizon growing nearer. After the voices arrived, many generals under Zhao Cheng showed complex expressions!
They knew that when mad disease appeared in the Heluo Region, Zhao Cheng had sent a request for aid to Zhen State.
However, they hadn’t taken it seriously. Because a year ago, the two armies were still facing off to contend for under heaven. When they were exterminating mad soldiers and mistakenly entered the Evil Moon, they had forgotten the aid request.
Yet they didn’t expect that after mistakenly entering this alien realm, Wu Fei really brought a fully equipped and manned troop.
Although the Zhao Army non-commissioned officers felt complex emotions, they still felt a surge of hope and loudly ordered: “Everyone hold firm, reinforcements are here!”
The Zhao Army, carrying great hope, began maintaining the formation line; the originally shaky shield formation stabilized.
After the time of one incense stick, outside the military formation, Chong Army cavalry lines had advanced like a wall; and three Guiche also arrived in the relevant airspace, found the right angles, and from the side and diagonal sprayed breath to wipe out the piled-up mad army.
The two armies quickly came together, separated by only fifty meters.
In the Chong Army, Wu Ling’s loud voice called: “Is Duke Zhao present?”
Zhao Cheng: “Yes, is your lord present?”
Wu Ling: “My lord sent me to convey his greetings to Duke Zhao; he will arrive soon.”
…Final stop…
When Xuan Chong had the large army approach Zhao Cheng, he himself dragged Xian Daoren and stayed behind.
At this moment, Xuan Chong had sensed that the area projected by the lotus seed for him was nearby. Xuan Chong asked Xian Daoren: “You’re a water person, right?”
Xian Daoren also knew this was the moment for the final showdown; he took a deep breath and said: “When exactly did you start suspecting?”
Xuan Chong: “Hmm, suspicion arose when entering the secret realm, so I deduced a bit—my uncle’s past interactions with you. My family’s boundary for overstepping in Da Yao was sending troops to put down the rebellion in Water and Zhu Prefecture. And you played a key role in it.”
Xian Daoren chuckled happily: “Since you’ve guessed this far, you must know the reason I became a Daoist priest. (At this point, Xian Daoren suspected Xuan Chong was also a transmigrator.)”
Xuan Chong paused for a moment: “Not very clear.”
Xian Daoren sneered for a second, then Xuan Chong continued: “But since you asked this way, is it related to the republican rebellion in Water back then? Quite a few upsetting things happened there, but what concerns you is pretty much this one. (Though Xuan Chong didn’t know Xian Daoren’s exact situation, the system had now marked Xian Daoren.)”
Xian Daoren murmured: “You’re not exactly smart, but! You always see through to the essence.” Then his voice gradually amplified: “So, are you going to critique me from the world’s perspective?! (This was a transmigrator questioning another transmigrator.)”
Xuan Chong nodded honestly: “Yes, I do need to critique a bit. The world made you do evil, but that doesn’t mean ‘you doing evil in the world’ is right.”
Xian Daoren: “Don’t advise others to be good if you haven’t suffered their hardships.”
Xuan Chong nodded: “Yeah, I won’t fully pursue goodness, because doing evil has reasons for doing evil—for example, me, not everything I do is good; I’m also doing some evil things. —But I admit it’s evil; evil is evil, can’t hallucinate ‘evil deeds’ as good deeds.”
This sentence broke Xian Daoren’s defense a bit. “You say you’re also doing evil, but have you been sanctioned!!!”
Xuan Chong: “Doing evil means considering being sanctioned. When evil happens, make amends; striving to make amends is also a way to accept sanction. (Xuan Chong implemented slavery, followed by a series of measures to remove slave status and provide upward channels for slaves—that was what Xuan Chong acknowledged he should do.) Can’t think that because you won, no need to make amends, and escape sanction! Now facing you might be the sanction I accept?”
At this point, Xian Daoren had collapsed and began demonizing.
Xuan Chong watched Xian Daoren gradually breaking limits; various energies swirled around him, eyes and nose still there, but teeth sharp, face twisted; he couldn’t help asking curiously: “System, is he a student who failed the exam?”
System: “This school has no academic record of him.”
…Meeting with soldiers as friends…
On the other side, though Xuan Chong left the formation, the Chong Army still steadily rendezvoused with the Zhao Army at the predetermined location.
At that predetermined location, the Chong Army unyieldingly occupied the main formation position, setting up cannons at a hill’s high ground, firearm troops seizing positions on three higher fifty-meter hills, while armored soldiers clustered into triangular battle groups below the hills.
Zhao Cheng was called into the military formation by Wu Ling for military command suggestions.
Regarding this, the officers around Zhao Cheng advised him not to go. After all, the commander was trapped in the enemy’s military camp, at risk of mishap at any time.
But Zhao Cheng casually followed the Chong Army into the formation; he also wanted to witness the world’s strongest soldiers trained by Xuan Chong.
When he entered the high ground, numerous “Evil Moon monsters” refreshed around the entire formation. Clearly, in this red domain, the target was Zhao Cheng; the stronger the killing intent of the formation where Zhao Cheng was, the richer the “hospitality” sent by the red Evil Moon.
And two thousand paces away, Xuan Chong was also in Chi You Soldier state, confronting Xian Daoren.
Beside the command system, Jia Ying followed his guard team on the other side of the position; now he had snapped out of it, staring in Xuan Chong’s direction.
Ever since failing to save his mother, he had been distraught, not knowing whom to hate or what to uphold, after all, he wasn’t Da Yao royalty.
But now, seeing Xuan Chong confronting the suddenly mutated Xian Daoren, his emotions shifted targets.
“Xian Daoren” this demon had always lurked beside his team; seeming to guide him, but now exposed his intentions in desperation. While Xuan Chong, who never gave him a good face, now? Removed all the bad people around him.
Amid confusion, Jia Ying thought of the relationship between Emperor Shu and Emperor Ling; from childhood he understood, seeing that Emperor Shu back then didn’t want to depose Emperor Ling, just remove those around Emperor Ling.
However, Emperor Ling didn’t understand then, and only after power was usurped by Su Wang and others did he feel Emperor Shu was right.
At this moment, he felt himself and the Zhen State Lord were just like Prince Zhou and Emperor Shu back then.
Beside him, Zhao Cheng immediately judged based on the situation, while Wu Ling swiftly issued military command orders.
Red, green, purple, blue teleportation gates opened around; corrupted people, monsters, giants, huge birds all appeared.
Chong Army artillery began bombarding. Seas of fire from cannonballs causing Divine Fire Flying Crows shocked Zhao Cheng and the Zhao Army generals.
Was the power of Zhen State’s latest generation armament this formidable? Had Chong Army’s weaponry developed to this extent?
Ranks of firearms fired, while bayonet lines prepared to receive the charge.
…Transmigrators…
In the distance, Xian Daoren confronting Xuan Chong had become a 3.5-meter-tall winged monster; but his mind retained prior experience, very familiar with Wu Family Army combat system, seeing Xuan Chong’s corps densifying, preparing to charge.
He conjured a large blue fireball in his hand, trying to compress energy into a vortex projectile and blast it over.
However, as he conjured the fireball, Xuan Chong raised the electromagnetic cannon. (Had predicted this, so pulled him out of the army formation to prevent central explosion.)
With blue light flashing, the electromagnetic cannon blue light sped forth. Xian Daoren’s fireball had to convert to a blue shield to block this strike.
Energy shield and electromagnetic cannon collided, exploding brilliant firelight.
After three consecutive times, Xian Daoren mocked loudly: “Your Chi You Soldier mecha only has three energy shots, while I—”
Before he finished, he saw Xuan Chong’s side draw countless optical grain-composed wave lines from the space gate, injecting into the Chi You Soldier (mecha) back energy intake, expression stunned.
Xuan Chong’s side had linked with the “lotus seed,” so now the energy cell completed frequency connection and directly recharged.
Xuan Chong was also surprised by this; feeling the energy from the lotus seed fill the capacitor, the mechanical structure pushed an electromagnetic cannonball into the chamber, aiming at Xian Daoren once more.
Xian Daoren directly turned to flee, but was controlled by Xuan Chong’s Immortal Binding Lock magic; massive spider silk directly ensnared Xian Daoren.
“Crackle,” Xuan Chong’s electromagnetic cannon leaped electric light; Xian Daoren abruptly sidestepped, then a weird flicker; but after dodging, he discovered the cannon barrel flashing but no projectile fired, just an ordinary “magnetic flash.”
Meanwhile, on Xuan Chong’s side, the projectile was still in the chamber. Since electromagnetic cannon ejection speed was too fast to see. Onlookers could only tell shots fired by barrel flashes. Like cannon era, people judged shots by cannon sounds. Thus Xuan Chong could use barrel magnetic flash to deceive.
Xuan Chong’s feint directly tricked Xian Daoren’s real flicker. Xian Daoren thought Xuan Chong’s electromagnetic cannon had firing intervals needing recharge; but his rapid flicker needed recharge. So just after flickering, he got careless; the second real shell hit without flicker, direct hit.
This rhythm too fast; ordinary people didn’t realize why, just felt Xian Daoren deliberately flickered to a spot and hard-took a shell.
Immediately Xuan Chong flickered up too! And raised a particle shock blade, slashing fiercely at Xian Daoren.
Speaking of which, against a fierce general like Wu Hengyu, Xuan Chong would kite; but against Xian Daoren who innately disliked melee, even with sharp teeth and claws on this body, Xuan Chong boldly charged up!
“Thud,” Xian Daoren was smashed down from the air. After crashing to the ground, Xuan Chong’s mecha stomped over a second later.
The already hideous demonized Xian Daoren said: “You win this time, but I can wait for you on the Evil Moon forever!”
Xuan Chong: “Oh, really.”
In response, Xuan Chong took out the Restoration Gem, took a deep breath, and recited the line. Though Xian Daoren was demonized, upon hearing Xuan Chong’s rambling line, his inhuman face showed stunned “what the hell is this” emotion.
“Heavenly spirit, earthly spirit, Restoration Gem quickly show your power.”
The Restoration Gem flashed light, surging into Xian Daoren!
Xian Daoren: “With this, think you can turn me back? Impossible, hmm—what the hell is this! What is it!”
Xuan Chong also looked surprised at the surroundings, only now realizing the true power of the Restoration Gem.
A golden vortex storm appeared in the sky. Then the entire storm smashed onto the Evil Moon surface like a meteorite; the whole land immediately stirred with wind. Everywhere it passed turned into the moon’s barren surface.
The over ten thousand demon armies surrounding the large army all stopped amid this sudden wind.
Some turned into grass, some into turtles, some into small birds; giant beasts became lions, tigers, eagles, rising with the whirlwind, the other end leading to Xi Ren Realm—these restored things scraped by the whirlwind would ultimately return to Xi Ren Realm.
As for the corps Xuan Chong brought, it was carried away whole with a mountain range by the whirlwind, falling toward Xi Ren Realm.
All soldiers, Zhao Cheng, Jia Ying, Wu Ling and others, after lifting into the air, looked at Xuan Chong outside the killing intent dome, still on the Evil Moon, and shouted one after another.
In their eyes then, Xuan Chong stabbed a sword into Xian Daoren—oh, the great demon’s chest; while Xian Daoren gripped the sword, not letting Xuan Chong leave.
As the mountain carrying everyone grew farther, Zhao Cheng and others saw the full view of the Evil Moon land.
At this point on this planet, great winds arose; gales like a bottle of detergent washed clean all red, green, blue, purple on the Evil Moon surface, revealing stone colors. And in the planet’s north, brilliant light from beyond the sky dotted the north pole; hot impact wave radiated like a lotus flower.
Whether Restoration Gem, Chaos Green Lotus, or Vermilion Bird energy drifting from the starry sky, all could destroy the current Evil Moon; the Evil Moon was served in turn by these major powers.
…Plot ends…
And at this moment, the heavenly secrets unclear to all cultivators under heaven suddenly became clear.
In various places between heaven and earth, some long drought-stricken areas suddenly got sweet rain; some long fog-shrouded places suddenly had sunlight projected down.
The human realm peaceful, the Great Tribulation ended.
