Chapter 302: Wandering Travels

Accompanying the impotent fury of Eternal Heaven, the entire city was struck down by Mu Yi.

"My lord, please step this way..."

As Mu Yi was tidying up the defeated troops, Li Tianhai approached him and brought him to the city center.

The army was clearing the Mongol soldiers from the city, and gathering those Mongol civilians together.

At the city center, Li Tianhai and his companions discovered an altar, but lacking the ability to handle it, they specially came to find Mu Yi.

A massive altar stood in the city center.

A black flag was planted on the altar; the altar's surroundings exuded a thick bloody aura, yet no trace of blood could be seen, only deep blackness.

Upon approaching the altar, Mu Yi felt a cold, resentful yin wind blow past his face; he felt nothing, but the soldiers around him, whose bodies burned with vengeful fire, couldn't help but shiver.

This abnormal phenomenon immediately drew Mu Yi's gaze to the fluttering flag at the altar's center; seeing the black background with red characters embroidered with the Mongol script, his eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

"Trash!"

Mu Yi squeezed out two words from between his teeth, his voice icy cold.

These beasts actually used human skin as material for the flag, human bones as its flagpole, and the black background with red characters are traces of accumulated blood.

What truly enraged Mu Yi was what he saw inside the flag through his Thousand-mile Eye: within the flag were bound souls, old or young.

Hollow eyes shed bloody tears; the void-like mouth emitted unconscious howls.

Just from the appearance of these souls, one could see what torment they endured before death.

These torments were merely to give the flag a more sinister aura; judging by its aura, the flag had not been fully tempered by evil arts, leaving it incomplete, so the souls within remained.

The yin wind blowing toward them was actually the unconscious howls of those souls.

"What the hell are these beasts doing!"

Such evil arts made Mu Yi furious; as a human whose bones and blood carried the same lineage, his heart felt as if scorched by flames…

Boom!

The entire altar was split in two by Mu Yi's single blade.

The standing flag was grasped tightly in Mu Yi's hand.

At the moment Mu Yi personally grasped it, he realized how superficial what he had seen with his Thousand-mile Eye was.

Those souls were tormented in life, and even now they find no peace.

Malignant power constantly surged within the flag; each unconscious howl of the already fragmented souls was a painful lament.

Suppressing his anger, Mu Yi ignited blazing flames on his hand that devoured the entire flag.

The Hell Path fully unfolded; at the instant the flag shattered, countless fragmented souls scattered in all directions, the resentment they carried making even Mu Yi, a yin deity, feel a chill.

Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands…

Tens of thousands of fragmented souls spread outward in all directions, purified by the flames of the Hell Path.

Mu Yi silently chanted various scriptures for liberating the dead, aiming to dispel the souls' resentment so they could reincarnate more easily.

At the moment the flag shattered, Mu Yi seemed to have crossed thousands of mountains and rivers, seeing a tyrant enthroned high above.

Corpses piled beneath him, and his throne was covered with layers of white bones.

From various places in the Central Plains, bloody threads continually converged upon the tyrant's person.

And one of those threads was just pinched out by Mu Yi himself.

The tyrant said nothing, merely staring coldly at Mu Yi, as if looking at a corpse.

Mu Yi likewise returned an icy gaze; before entering this world, he had many thoughts, but now he has only one.

That is to kill these beasts, to slay the blood god who plays with souls and devours flesh and blood—all of them deserve death.

Any words can only depict one or two tenths of the horror.

Unless one is physically present here, it is impossible to feel the viciousness suffered by this land and its living beings.

Only after witnessing it with his own eyes and experiencing it personally did Mu Yi understand why the Heavenly Court and the Underworld harbor such hatred—and even bury it in the divine seats—for the blood god.

Because it is the unanimous will of all deities, the existence called Heavenly Statutes that all deities jointly elected.

Mu Yi felt the resentful, fragmented souls emanating from the Hell Path, and his anger burned wildly within.

Blood debts must be repaid with blood.

"Kill every captured prisoner, leave none alive!"

Mu Yi's icy voice made Li Tianhai shudder; he could sense that Mu Yi now was like a volcano about to erupt.

Once it erupts, it will be with the force of thunderous might, unstoppable.

Originally Mu Yi had some doubts about why these Mongol civilians were left behind, but now the mystery has been completely solved.

The Mongol soldiers whose souls were eroded could not carry out such vicious torment; these so‑called Mongol civilians are the hungry ghosts flanking the ferocious tiger.

Vile torment afflicted the souls sacrificed and bound, using every wicked means to drive these poor souls to madness.

They are more hateful enemies than those Mongol soldiers, who are at most controlled puppets, whereas these civilians are truly wicked individuals.

Mongol Yuan

Great Capital

Inside the luxuriously decorated, magnificent palace.

Upon the seat symbolizing supreme imperial power, a tyrant who had been dozing with eyes half‑closed opened his eyes.

Mu Yi saw him, and he also saw Mu Yi.

"That immortal god of Jiuzhou has already begun sabotaging our rites; why not send someone to kill him?"

As the words fell, the empty palace filled with countless blood mists; the mist roiled, and several bizarre figures appeared within it.

"It's just a fifth‑rank minor deity—are you afraid?" said a monster with six eyes, a tiger's head and a spider's body.

"Your brain is addled; this world has been completely sealed off by our rites—do you really think a fifth‑rank minor deity could enter this realm?"

The tyrant's aura surged, and the monster that had just spoken seemed to be crushed under a pressure of 10,000 jin; its whole body was flattened in an instant, oozing a foul‑smelling liquid.

But only a moment later, the guards and palace maids outside the corresponding palace, as if drained, dissipated and immediately turned into part of the blood mist.

The blood mist roiled, and the tiger-headed, spider-bodied monster reappeared within it, but this time it was far wiser than before.

"Those Jiuzhou celestial god emperors are using us, this fifth-rank minor god, as a whetstone, and they don't fear breaking it!"

The tiger-headed one did not blame the tyrant's heavy hand, but angrily cursed the Jiuzhou celestial god emperors.

Upon mentioning the Jiuzhou celestial god emperors, the blood mist, including the tyrant, began to roil.

Besides the tyrant being slightly better and still having a human form, the so-called deities are all sorts of strange monsters.

"Damn Jiuzhou celestials! This pack of vicious hounds!"

"If they hadn't invaded our world, destroyed our divine kingdom, split us into the most basic essence, cut our reincarnation into countless fragments, forcing us to survive only by devouring each other to be reborn, how could we have become like monsters?"

"Reincarnation over and over, each time the same plot—I've had enough. Even if I am utterly scattered, this time I will complete the blood sacrifice ritual and bite a piece of flesh from those damned celestials."

The enraged monsters churned incessantly; nearly all were once gods who ruled a divine realm, some even chief gods.

But there's nothing to be done—an arm can't twist a thigh.

The sovereigns of the Heavenly Court are monsters among monsters; even those chief gods cannot withstand their divine might.

If this world had not undergone multiple reincarnations and begun to assimilate into Jiuzhou, their current rituals would have long been destroyed by Jiuzhou in a humanitarian manner.

However, even with so many limitations.

Those powerful celestials, to preserve the integrity of this world, could not descend personally, yet they still sent down a celestial being.

They did not know how strong Mu Yi was, but seeing him annihilate a Mongol Yuan army that had taken a city, they realized he might be an extremely troublesome opponent.

Thus, the few deities who had reached a cooperation agreement were each unwilling to be the one to step forward and deal with Mu Yi.

After all, the limit of what they could exert in this world is actually not much stronger than that of a city-defending general.

After all, their level cap is locked; even if they wanted to defy heaven, they are powerless.

"Never mind all that—what should we do now?" a sharp voice interrupted everyone's complaints, raising a sharp question.

"The blood sacrifice ritual still needs time to be fully completed; during this period, that guy cannot possibly stay put!"

"Find a way to kill him or drive him off; besides eliminating this thing, the remnants of the Hundred Schools should also be wiped out. If they weren't obstructing us, we would have finished the blood sacrifice ritual long ago—why worry like this?"

"Send an army—just a mere fewer than forty thousand—to drown him with a hundred thousand!"

"A hundred thousand might not be enough……"

"Call those fellows as well, wanting to become mountain and water gods like the monks of Ling Mountain who defected to the Heavenly Court? They're dreaming—tell them the power of that fifth-rank god and see if they can endure."

"We just want the celestials dead, but those bastards want to eat celestial flesh and drink celestial blood—they'll surely start fighting."

Undercurrents surged within the Mongol Yuan Empire.

Under the Mongol Yuan ruler's command, a hundred-thousand-strong army poured out, rushing to slaughter in Mu Yi's direction.

Unlike ordinary Mongol soldiers, this hundred-thousand-strong army constantly resides in the capital, receiving the lingering blessings of the Eternal Heaven blood sacrifice; nearly every Mongol soldier has transcended the mundane and reached the Transcendent realm.

On Mu Yi's side, after relocating part of the populace into the city, he built four temples at the four corners of the city walls, garrisoned by his incense-forged golden body, to protect the surviving Jiuzhou civilians to the greatest extent.

Even if something happens, Mu Yi can appear in the city instantly via the incense connection—no courier needed.

After settling the populace, Mu Yi led his army back onto the road of conquest.

The blood sacrifice ritual is a grand undertaking, having almost covered the entire Jiuzhou land.

Although Mu Yi captured a major city, there are still many such cities within the Mongol Yuan Empire's territory.

Upon reaching each new place, Mu Yi strictly follows the strategy of encircling cities from the countryside, continually gathering the surviving avengers.

Then, upon reaching a certain scale, he inevitably destroys the altar ritual, purifying the souls so they may reincarnate into other worlds.

Even if Mu Yi rushes nonstop to the next point, the situation cannot be salvaged; heaven and earth grow ever weaker, like an elderly person on their deathbed, clinging to life under the protection of various instruments as life continually drains away.

"Report, my lord, large numbers of pursuers have been spotted thirty li to the southeast, advancing toward us!" a messenger reported, clasping his fists toward Mu Yi.

"Again they've caught up? Truly a sticky plaster." Mu Yi's face showed a mocking smile.

These days, he has been playing those pursuers for fools, using Earth Vein Power to appear and disappear unpredictably, nearly making them run in circles.

All they can do is eat dust behind his heels.

In fact, Mu Yi is not without fighting strength; the hundred-thousand army is a mighty force, but he is not without fighting strength.

Nevertheless, Mu Yi still chose a strategic relocation—not a stubborn retreat, but a genuine strategic shift.

While evading the hundred-thousand pursuers, he frantically wrought destruction, simultaneously recruiting more able-bodied youths and gathering more strength.

Originally, the intent was to continue replicating the countryside-encircles-city strategy, grasping the scattered Earth Vein authority in hand to enhance power.

But this fine idea was directly ruined when some mountain and water gods joined in.

Their sole task was to contend with Mu Yi and Chu Yi for control of the Earth Vein and Water Vein.

Hardly had they set foot when those mountain and water gods immediately reclaimed the authority.

These mountain and water gods surely could not contend with Mu Yi and Chu Yi, who have incense backing, yet they also waged guerrilla warfare, rallying people's power to fiercely contest specific points, wresting authority from the hands of Chu Yi and Mu Yi.

Such near-sabotage conduct prevented Mu Yi from merging his controlled territories into a whole, from consolidating them, so the effect he could exert was naturally greatly reduced.

But the problem is, accompanying the Mongol Yuan's brutal slaughter, the population in each region plummeted in a straight line.

This caused Mu Yi to be unable to quickly gather incense, shape a second incense-forged golden body to garrison the controlled area, and he fell into a mire of repeatedly tugging with the hundred-thousand army.

Fortunately, the initially conquered regions have trended toward stability.

With the incense-forged golden body in full vigor and the garrison troops stationed, the disturbance units dispatched by the Mongol Yuan could not affect the populace relocated into the city.

Under these circumstances, Mu Yi's incense flourished immensely; the surviving populace began to resume life, offering worship to Mu Yi almost every morning, noon, and night, finally allowing him to accumulate sufficient incense power without weakening his incense-forged golden body.

Even Mu Yi, who had been fleeing pursuit, broke from his norm, intending to properly deal with those damned fellows behind him.