Chapter 376: Southern Expedition: Wang Qing

"Mom, when can we eat?"

The childish voice hadn't finished speaking before someone forcibly covered its mouth and pressed it down, leaving only a muffled hum.

The woman pressed her hand against her child's chubby red cheek, looking out through the small hole, full of fear.

The half-human, half-ghost monster wandered outside, and the young children didn't yet grasp how terrible the situation they were facing was.

The monster seemed to have heard the noise and walked over here.

"Oh heavens! Please have mercy!"

The woman desperately prayed in her heart, but no miracle occurred.

The half-human, half-ghost monster smelled the scent of a living person in the air.

"Hahaha, they were actually hiding here!"

The half-human, half-ghost monster flung open the cellar's cover.

Seeing the woman and children huddled together in the cellar, a ferocious smile appeared on its face.

"I didn't expect there to be such a tender-skinned doll! It's a windfall for me!"

The monster reached out and snatched the child from the woman's arms, the woman pleading with a face full of fear.

"No, don't! Please let him go!"

"Let him go?" the monster's smile grew even more ferocious.

"Don't rush, you're next, you'll reunite in my belly!"

Just as the monster was about to bring the child to its mouth, its vision blurred and the child vanished from its hand.

"What..."

Before its thought finished, it felt its body lose strength, even a dizzying spin, and saw a familiar headless figure.

"Death is not worth regretting!" a cold voice sounded; it wanted to turn its head to look, but couldn't move at all.

"Am I dead?"

As the monster's thought arose, it felt its body falling endlessly, until it saw a gloomy, terrifying gate.

The hundreds of ferocious spirit reliefs carved on the two gates suddenly became lively.

Each evil spirit statue extended its arms, its sharp claws scraping against the stone gate, producing a piercing sound.

As exertion rippled through its limbs, ripples gradually formed on the stone gate.

One by one, the ferocious evil spirits struggled, pulling their bodies out of the stone gate, and swarmed toward the monster.

In its wails, the monster was torn into countless fragments, losing all consciousness.

After the monster was torn apart, these ferocious evil spirits returned to the gate, once again becoming statues, yet appearing even more spirited.

These fragments of the Ghost Gate Pass, combined with the Reincarnation Barrier, became a brand-new Ghost Gate Pass, gaining a certain degree of growth.

The Ghost Gate Pass absorbed some evil ghosts from the Hungry Ghost Realm.

These evil ghosts will devour the evil souls that Mu Yi casts into the barrier; the stronger they become, the more solid the Ghost Gate Pass grows.

As long as the Ghost Gate Pass remains intact, these evil ghosts united with it will be immortal.

Day and night, they guard the Ghost Gate Pass, devouring those evil souls that resist, despite being utterly wicked.

Outside the barrier, Mu Yi, with a grim expression, handed the child to the woman; amid her grateful thanks, he swept his blade and slaughtered all the half-human, half-ghost creatures.

These half-human, half-ghost things were trash he could easily slay for him, but for ordinary people they were almost a natural disaster.

The entire Azure Province now had no living people left.

Not only villages, but even those towns had basically all fallen; the surviving populace was extremely scarce.

Even though Mu Yi flew nonstop over the land of Azure Province, he managed to save only over ten thousand people; besides that, all he could see were corpses and ruins.

Bringing the woman and child into the Human Realm, Mu Yi fell into extreme conflicting emotions.

He clearly knew that although these commoners were killed, their true spirits could still enter reincarnation; from a god's perspective, they had not completely died.

As a person, Mu Yi felt only endless anger.

Not only did he feel anger toward these monsters, but also anger toward himself, after all, all of this was inseparably linked to him.

The split between his human and divine identities left Mu Yi unsure how to face what lay before him.

Mu Yi stood in place, his expression wavering, not knowing how to face these commoners.

An old man with white hair and a gaunt figure, speaking in a heavy local accent, cautiously approached and inquired:

"Esteemed Heavenly Sir, may I ask your name?"

"We will henceforth offer sacrifices to your statue, bowing day and night, to thank you for your life-saving grace!"

Mu Yi looked at the old man before him, not knowing what to say.

"If I say that all of this happened because of me!"

"This old man doesn't understand heavenly sir's affairs; he only knows that you saved us from those monsters' hands and took revenge for us!"

The old man trembled as he lifted his head to look at Mu Yi, his eyes filled only with sincerity.

Regarding revenge, Mu Yi nodded, his eyes no longer filled with doubt.

Since this matter originated from him, he naturally must bear responsibility.

He cannot change what has already happened, nor can he control those who have entered reincarnation.

But he still has things he can do.

Since it's about revenge, those who died now are merely lackeys; the true masterminds remain uneliminated.

"I am the Heavenly Court's Demon-Chasing, Impurity-Sweeping Heavenly Sovereign! I will avenge them and let you return to live here again!"

Mu Yi sealed his divine position and promised the old man:

"Heavenly Sir, be merciful!"

The old man didn't understand what Mu Yi was thinking, but he could grasp that Mu Yi wanted to help them reclaim their homeland and let them live again on their own land.

Mu Yi exchanged some food supplies from the network, brought the rescued civilians back to the main world, and found a spot in Kunlun Mountain to settle them.

Then he loaded all the Blood Soul Stones and Blood Divine Children and headed straight toward Huaixi.

A head‑on fight with Liangshan can never be won.

Especially after Mu Yi figured out the strength of the evil ghosts on the ridge, he gave up any plan for direct confrontation.

Although the current one‑hundred‑and‑eight heroes of Liangshan Marsh are all evil ghosts, they were originally the Liangshan men; before Wu Yong, Zhu Wu, Gong Sun Sheng and the others awakened their ghost nature, they were not much different from the other world's Tian Gang Di Sha.

After their soul origins reincarnated, they subtly influenced their growth, and the Heavenly Court used this method to trap them in calamities, letting them develop along the Tian Gang Di Sha growth track.

Hence the appearance of the one‑hundred‑and‑eight heroes of Liangshan Marsh.

But because their origins differ, they are even more brutal; even before awakening, occasional cannibalism occurred.

Originally, under the inertia of Jiuzhou's history, they would meet calamity, die, return to the Underworld, and be suppressed again.

Now that they have awakened their evil‑ghost nature, they are considerably stronger than before.

Mu Yi extracted a lot of information about the pre‑transformation Liangshan evil ghosts from those hooligans' memories.

The leaders all possessed the ultimate Inner Qi Body‑Exit cultivation (High‑tier Legend), such as the jade Qilin Lu Junyi and the Black Whirlwind Li Kui, whose cultivation was Breakthrough (Half‑god).

Gong Sun Sheng, the Cloud Dragon, was a Taoist; the clever Wu Yong and the divine‑machine strategist Zhu Wu were scholars with spiritual talent, alongside Jiuzhou‑style professions like engineers, beast‑tamers, and divine doctors.

After becoming evil ghosts, they are bound to be even more formidable.

These half‑human half‑ghost hooligans were created by Wu Yong and the originally famed divine doctor An Daoquan.

They used a bizarre technique to transform all the ordinary Liangshan foot soldiers into this half‑human half‑ghost form.

Though after the alteration these hooligans clearly left the human category and even their minds were twisted, regardless of their original personalities, they all became blood‑thirsty and mad.

Yet they felt nothing wrong, as if everything were natural; even when talking about the past, there was no abnormality.

Everything seemed utterly natural.

That is the most troublesome part: it not only makes these monsters inhuman, but also lets them fight just as before.

Lu Junyi and the others can lead troops, but they will use Cloud Energy.

Liangshan has over 120,000 hooligans; before reaching Qingzhou, Mu Yi had slain just over ten thousand, so Liangshan can muster a hundred‑thousand‑strong army.

There is also the Tian Gang Di Sha Grand Formation created by the Nine Heavens Fairy.

Honestly, Mu Yi thinks that even a third‑generation disciple from the Jade Void Palace, though perhaps stronger than Tai Wei, cannot solve the problem.

With poor luck, he might even die here.

The Song Court, which could have been an aid, is now in chaos; the rebellion of the Four Great Bandits already gave the Song signs of instability, and after the emperor was killed, it fractured further.

Mu Yi does not expect the Song Court to send troops to suppress Liangshan; in truth, the Song still has many famous generals, not to mention a hidden boss, Yue Fei, inside.

This perhaps explains why Liangshan only lingers in Qingzhou and dares not expand outward: on one hand they fear inciting widespread anger, on the other the combined forces of King Wang Qing of Huaixi, Tian Hu of Hebei, and Fang La of Jiangnan are not to be underestimated.

The Heavenly Court has diverted the Tian Gang Di Sha stars elsewhere, while the Buddhist Sect's Eight Great Vajras remain under Fang La's command.

Under normal calamity, more than half of Liangshan's people would die in the war against Fang La.

Now that Destiny is ruined, the Buddhist Sect simply begins massive temple construction, strips the Manichaeism façade, and starts propagating Buddhist doctrine, expanding the Bosa Pure Land.

As for Tian Hu and Wang Qing, they are merely local militia who rose because of Destiny, and will also fall because of Destiny.

Mu Yi is heading straight for Wang Qing of Huaixi.

The best way he can think of to defeat Liangshan, and the only way he can achieve it, is to gather a great army and crush Liangshan with it.

Moreover, this must be done quickly; although he does not know whether Liangshan will slaughter Qingzhou, they have not performed a blood‑sacrifice ceremony.

What exactly the gourd shop sells as medicine, Mu Yi cannot think of for a moment.

But seeing Liangshan's pure evil‑ghost nature and vile conduct, he can be sure those guys are definitely up to something.

As for the "gather" Mu Yi mentioned, it is simple: he has no troops, but Wang Qing does; defeat Wang Qing, take all his soldiers, then use them to subdue Tian Hu, merging the two armies into one.

Regarding Fang La, compared with the evil ghosts and bandits, the Buddhist Sect is at least a positive force, so Mu Yi will not provoke them and will focus on dealing with Liangshan.

By then, those Buddhist Sect people will probably rush over, eager to join the fight, and he can decide what to do then.

……

Wang Qing did not understand where this batch of monsters had sprung from; in half a month they had snatched a military prefecture and eight counties from his hands.

Just as he was gathering forces to strike them down in one go, his subordinates reported a startling message.

"Report, enemy troops are approaching outside the city; a young commander is already challenging!"

"How many troops?" Wang Qing asked, a little nervous.

"Over fifteen thousand!" the messenger reported.

"Only that many dare to invade? Follow me and I'll see for myself!" Wang Qing roared in anger.

Though his troops had not yet assembled, hearing that the enemy dared to cause trouble with just fifteen thousand made him furious; it meant the enemy didn't even regard him seriously.

The enemy even abandoned all heavy supplies, gave up the lands they held, and chose to come to Yun'an to meet him.

It was sheer arrogance; even without the three‑ten‑thousand troops inside the city, the difficulty of defending is always less than that of attacking.

When Wang Qing reached the city wall, Mu Yi was challenging below the wall.

"Great King!" Military adviser Li Zhu greeted Wang Qing.

Since the rebellion's staged victories, Wang Qing has called himself the King of Chu, appointed Li Zhu as his adviser, and is usually addressed as Great King.

"Wang Qing, child, step out quickly and meet death; if you surrender now, I may spare your life, but once my army breaks through Yun'an you will have no chance to live!"

Mu Yi raised his spear, pointing it at Wang Qing's nose, loudly taunting.

"Who dares to fight, slay this traitor!" Wang Qing shouted, furious, for it had been long since anyone dared to speak to him that way.

Burning with anger, Wang Qing instantly decided to send someone to kill Ao Mo.

He is not weak; obviously, Mu Yi is also an Inner Qi Body‑Exit officer, and though he looks heroic, he is certainly not a Breakthrough‑level master.

Though his subordinate officers are fewer in quality than Liangshan's and Fang La's, they still possess some Breakthrough power.

"Killing a chicken with a butcher‑butcher knife, I, the junior officer, am willing to fight!"

Wang Qing followed the sound and saw that it was a burly officer; he remembered that this person was previously a mountain stronghold bandit, leading all the mountain stronghold people to surrender to his command.

Although it was merely Inner Qi leaving the body, he also once had a record of defeating an officer of the same rank, which can be considered a fierce general under his command.

"Good, General Yu Rong is willing to go; then I order you to go into battle! If you can behead this villain, I will richly reward you!" Wang Qing waved his hand broadly, directly letting this person go into battle.

However, what Wang Qing did not expect was that Yu Rong had just ridden out of the city to meet Mu Yi in battle, and within moments was cut down from his horse by Mu Yi with a single sword.

"Wang Qing, do you only have these clay chickens and pottery dogs under your command?"

Mu Yi used his sword to lift Yu Rong's corpse, then directly flung it onto the city wall; the corpse exploded into a blood mist in midair.

Wang Qing's dodging reaction was a beat too slow, and he was splattered all over by the blood mist, instantly flying into a rage.

"Who is willing to step forward and slay this villain to wipe away past shame!" Wang Qing shouted angrily.