Chapter 378: Eradicate Wang Qing, Subdue Tianhu, Assault Liangshan

Li Zhu, the Gold Sword Master, brandished a golden long sword that flashed like a bolt of lightning, killing the surrounding mortal army and preventing them from advancing.

But Wang Qing's residence had already been surrounded by the massive army.

Wang Qing was a further burden; as Li Zhu darted and weaved, his survivable space grew ever smaller.

"Deaf! Blind! Lame!"

Mu Yi grabbed the judge's brush and wrote three large characters on the Book of Life and Death.

Three streaks of black light instantly stripped Li Zhu of his senses, and the once all‑slicing Li Zhu fell into a dire predicament.

"Fire!"

Dozens of longbows from all directions aimed at Li Zhu.

Even if the water‑splashed sword swing at his spot could not be entered, he would still be struck by arrows; without Cloud Energy, he would merely need to release Inner Qi, and those arrows could not harm him a hair.

Yet the Cloud Energy of the entire city intertwined with that of Mu Yi's army, suppressing the sky above the city; Li Zhu's god‑like techniques could not be employed, leaving him forced to endure attacks from the soldiers.

When Li Zhu finally broke free from the negative state, Wang Qing's figure was completely gone.

Li Zhu's heart sank, and disregarding the arrows lodged in him, he rushed toward the camp to break out.

"Don't go!"

Ao Mo roared, paying the price of a sword cut from Li Zhu, thrusting forward, forcing the Li Zhu who had intended to break out to fall back into the encirclement.

"Damned bastard!" Li Zhu's expression wavered; he knew that if he didn't leave now, he would never get out.

The power to break realms was completely suppressed by Cloud Energy; only by escaping its domain could he regain his full strength.

But Ao Mo, leading his troops, feared death not at all; they'd rather be slain by him than let him leave.

It was fine if unscathed, but wounded he might not be able to escape the city.

"Wang Qing has already been condemned; why don't you surrender quickly!"

Mu Yi lifted Wang Qing's head and shouted at Li Zhu.

Wang Qing had long lost his courage; after being forced apart from Li Zhu, he was utterly defeated, and Mu Yi's simultaneous sword and blade slew Wang Qing within a few rounds.

The whole process was countless times easier than the previous clearing of the rebels.

"Alas! The sin of non‑war!"

Li Zhu stared at Wang Qing's lifeless head, realized the tide had turned, discarded his long sword, and helplessly chose to surrender.

Without Wang Qing's great destiny suppression, any foundation built now would be a mirage, perhaps vanishing outright someday.

Moreover, without Wang Qing's destiny shield, his chance of breaking out of the city was near zero; rather than stubborn resistance, surrendering might preserve a sliver of life.

"Grant a seat to Mr. Li!" Mu Yi, after taking over the whole city, sat in the cleared Wang Qing residence to receive Li Zhu.

【8】 "Commander Mu, go ahead and command!"

"Commander Mu, go ahead and give orders!"

At this moment Li Zhu was bound by the Book of Life and Death; his fate lay entirely in Mu Yi's hands. Though his freedom was gone, his life was spared. Li Zhu, unsure what to say, could only bow his head and pledge allegiance to Mu Yi.

"I want to command all of Wang Qing's troops; what can you do to help me?" Mu Yi said bluntly, time waiting for no one.

He asked Lily to keep watch around Qingzhou for any movement at Liangshan.

Just as he secured Wang Qing, Lily reported that a celestial anomaly had erupted within Qingzhou, with apparent combat lasting several hours, and finally a streak of light fled toward the Qingzhou direction.

After the phenomenon dissipated, Lily's familiar went to Qingzhou and found Liangshan still as steady as Mount Tai, as if nothing had occurred.

Mu Yi knew it was the third‑generation disciple from the Jade Void Palace who acted, but it seemed they had not won.

This was normal; judging from Wang Qing's forces, the half‑god breaking realms at Liangshan now likely numbered in the double digits, with a hundred‑thousand army nearby, still on the main stage of Water Margin Liangshan. Even if that third‑generation disciple were stronger than the Taiwei Daoist, defeat was inevitable.

Li Zhu, understanding the situation, was exceedingly eager, his life in Mu Yi's grip; wielding the authority Wang Qing had once granted him to command the army, he helped Mu Yi fully absorb Wang Qing's power.

He not only persuaded Wang Qing's senior generals to surrender for Mu Yi, but also recruited most of Wang Qing's troops under his command.

As for Wang Qing's die‑hard loyalists, Li Zhu captured them outright with a Hongmen banquet ploy.

Wang Qing's forces were already under Li Zhu's management; sorting them now was trivially easy.

In less than three days, Mu Yi replaced Wang Qing as the lord of the Huai‑West forces.

Mu Yi sat cross‑legged in Wang Qing's residence, contemplating the true meaning of the Six Paths cycle of reincarnation.

"Is this what the convergence of destiny feels like?"

Mu Yi opened his eyes, full of emotion; he had to admit that the destiny of this realm had a special effect, benefiting him greatly. In just a few days, his grasp of the cycle had advanced a notch.

Mu Yi also understood where Wang Qing's strength originated; in this state of destiny convergence, enlightenment and linking with heaven and earth were as easy as breathing, his cultivation rising even while lying down.

"Perhaps now that Liangshan's matter is settled, I could train here for a few years?"

Mu Yi glanced at the rotating aura rising in his hand, casually dispersed it, and walked toward the outside.

His initial intuition was correct; Decapitation Tactic was the most efficient method.

After slaying Wang Qing, Wang Qing's destiny naturally gathered entirely onto his own divine self.

With Li Zhu's cooperation and Wang Qing's destiny, the generals and officers formerly under Wang Qing were almost ready to bow their heads in surrender.

After cleaning out a batch, roughly eighty thousand troops remained.

Mu Yi had no time for the usual courtesy to the worthy; he directly used the Book of Life and Death to gather all these surrendered generals, and even the most reluctant could only serve Mu Yi.

Besides the rebels Mu Yi eliminated, Wang Qing's forces still included generals such as Du Xue, Yuan Lang, Teng Qin, Chen Yun, etc.; among them, Du Xue, who served as commander, was powerful enough to battle Lu Junyi for one hundred and fifty rounds without a clear victor.

Wang Qing also had many odd talents, such as Xi Sheng, adept at formations, and Kou Wei, skilled with demonic fire; however, to Mu Yi they were of little use—Xi Sheng's array was merely a child's trick compared to his.

Mu Yi's military formation skill had now reached a point of complete freedom, far beyond what these death‑forming arrays could match.

Even the Taiyi Mixed‑Heaven Formation of the Liao Kingdom was trivial before Mu Yi; having been torn apart by numerous war deities before, Mu Yi had broken countless such so‑called grand formations.

No matter how exquisite the formation, its effectiveness ultimately depends on the user.

For Mu Yi, regarding this world's military system, he was a dimensional‑reduction strike; the biggest issue here was not exotic mechanisms but the simplest numbers.

As long as the numbers match, the evil spirits of Liangshan can be wiped out with a flip of the hand.

Honestly, the arrangements of the Heavenly Court and the Underworld are quite reasonable; Mu Yi's mechanistic quirk paired with the Jade Void Palace's numerical oddity makes Liangshan unable to stir any real wave.

Unfortunately, things turned contrary to expectations, and the situation became a scene no one wanted to witness.

Neither side wants to bow down, so each will display their divine abilities to see who can deal with the trouble of Liangshan.

Mu Yi sent Li Zhu to gather logistical supplies, while he himself cultivated daily with the aid of auspicious Qi and trained his troops.

He can set up battle formations at will, but the basic formations must be mastered by the army; otherwise, even his most advanced techniques are useless if his troops cannot cooperate.

Mu Yi stripped the eighty‑thousand troops of their talents, then retrained them with a new set of abilities based on the Soldier Master Divine Skill, linking the army through willpower, creating an Elite Talent that might be called Soldier Disaster.

The effect is simple: it lets the soldiers fully master their weapons, and the weapons can unleash stronger effects in their hands.

In short, this Soldier Disaster Elite Talent is a weakened version of the Soldier Master Divine Skill, a combination of weapon mastery and weapon enhancement.

It's not the best choice, but it is the fastest, and Mu Yi was able to forge it within three days, allowing the soldiers to quickly master the Elite Talent.

Qualitative talents require time to accumulate, and will‑based talents show results too slowly at first; Mu Yi chose this skill‑type talent out of helplessness.

At least the results are immediate; once Cloud Energy intertwines, the gap in raw strength narrows, and the technique can come into play.

After about a week, Mu Yi sealed the army and supplies with a barrier and flew straight toward the direction of Tianhu of Hebei.

He sent someone to contact Fang La to gauge the Buddhist Sect's stance, and the reply was clear: the Buddhist Sect will only preach Buddhism within its territory, and they will not act on any other matters until the Mandate of Heaven returns to normal.

Mu Yi was satisfied with that response; as long as the Buddhist Sect does not cause trouble, he does not expect them to send aid.

The method is the same as dealing with Wang Qing: a direct decapitation operation.

Attacking Wang Qing's outer perimeter first was to amass forces; now with eighty‑thousand troops plus his own ten‑thousand mortal Dao army, Mu Yi rushed through the night toward Tianhu's stronghold in Weisheng City.

Tianhu, like Wang Qing, had no defense against Mu Yi, who could carry an army on the move; after Mu Yi slipped into the city and unleashed his forces, he seized the Cloud Energy Array and marched toward the killing general where Tianhu stood.

Tianhu of Hebei was originally a hunter from Qinyuan County, Weisheng Prefecture; strong and skilled in martial arts, he could fight better than Wang Qing.

Nevertheless, despite his formidable strength and bloody struggle, Tianhu could not escape his fate of being beheaded.

In a head‑on clash, Mu Yi would still need effort to win, but the Reincarnation Barrier grants him the ability to deploy his army at fixed points regardless of distance; Tianhu and his men had never seen such a method and had no defense.

"What a divine technique!"

Li Zhu sighed heavily, and watching Tianhu fall, she roughly understood why they had failed before; such a method is truly divine to them.

Had the Cloud Energy Array inside the city not been activated for safety, the group of barrier‑breaking elites would not have been so powerless; no one expected a protective shield to become a cage imprisoning them.

Using the same tactic as recapturing Wang Qing, Mu Yi seized a large number of Tianhu's officers and forced them to sign Life‑Death Contracts, thereby adding another seventy‑thousand troops.

This time, Mu Yi rested longer and trained an Elite Talent for his one‑hundred‑fifty‑thousand troops.

Before these troops could refine the talent, Mu Yi's move seemed self‑destructive, but he didn't care; he couldn't take the troops away, so their future development mattered little, while current combat power was more important.

The one‑hundred‑fifty‑thousand troops each possess the Soldier Disaster and Ice Disaster Elite Talents at a moderate level; Mu Yi doesn't require them to refine, only to use the two talents in battle.

After nearly a month, Mu Yi finally unified the army's orders, barely achieving command prohibition, and thus gained the capital to fight Liangshan.

The third‑generation disciple of Yuxu Palace hadn't given up during this period; Mu Yi heard rumors of an immortal descending upon the Song Court to aid the Court's reorganization.

Mu Yi guessed that the other side probably wanted to borrow the Song Court's auspicious Qi.

According to Lily's observation, the third‑generation disciple went to Liangshan three times, each time returning in a crushing defeat.

The last time, Lily observed the battle up close.

The third‑generation disciple wielded profound Daoist arts, with celestial phenomena accompanying every move, yet no matter how he attacked, Liangshan could rely on a mysterious formation and hard‑borrowed Cloud Energy, even using Cloud Energy to counterattack.

The fierce fighting lasted several hours, and in the end they had to escape using a Light Dashing technique.

Honestly, Lily couldn't think of how to bring down Liangshan.

Seeing Mu Yi confident, Lily did her utmost to cooperate with him.

After Mu Yi was ready, Lily, following his instructions and working with Chu Yi, set up a massive special formation surrounding Lake Liangshan.

The formation's effect is simple: using Blood Soul Stones and Earth Vein Power, it releases the legendary spell they once used against the Legend Squad in the arena, the Dawn of the Ice Snow Goddess.

The purpose of the spell is not to kill enemies but to alter the environment.

The reason Mu Yi trained the Ice Disaster talent lies here; Lake Liangshan's terrain is too troublesome, so this is the only way to forcibly erase its landscape.

With Earth Vein Power and a massive amount of Blood Soul Stones supporting it, the icy environment can persist for a long time.

This is also Mu Yi's key to victory and the surprise he prepared for Liangshan.

"Should I cast another Comet Technique for you before I leave?"

"Among those evil spirits there are also sorcerers; the Comet Technique's disturbance is too great to hide from them!" Mu Yi shook his head.

"After activating the formation, just leave directly; the ensuing disturbance will be huge and may affect you!"

Lily nodded; she knew Mu Yi wouldn't speak recklessly.

In this battle that could be called a god‑slaying war, she truly could not yet endure it.