Chapter 406

These evil gods are really cowardly……

Mu Yi couldn't quite understand; after all, they were all divine spirits, beaten to their doorstep, yet they could still endure.

After Mu Border City was taken by the Tang army, Li Jing, while pacifying the local populace and guarding against internal unrest, also sent people to exterminate the demons and monsters hiding in the city, and at the same time awaited reinforcements from the rear.

Two days later, a massive force, moving at a speed of ten thousand li per day, arrived at the territory of Mu Border City, and Mu Yi immediately noticed this troop.

Among the troop were Daoist priests, monks, and even some heterodox mages with mixed auras; to the senses, they all possessed genuine Transcendent abilities.

Strangely, however, the troop carried a statue whose face could not be made out.

Because they are all cultivators, these Transcendent beings can maintain a speed of ten thousand li per day.

After a moment's thought, Mu Yi descended before this troop.

Li Jing had entrusted him to sweep the city for any missed demons and monsters; although this troop appeared to be Tang personnel, it still needed to be vetted.

"I have seen the Heavenly Sovereign!"

The instant they saw Mu Yi, everyone lowered their heads and paid respects.

Mu Yi was somewhat surprised; these people all knew him, yet he had no impression of them whatsoever.

"Rise and speak!"

Mu Yi furrowed his brows; frankly, even now he was not accustomed to being worshipped.

"By order of the Military Star Sovereign, we have come specially to present a reward to the Heavenly Sovereign!"

"Present me a reward?"

Mu Yi felt doubtful; looking back at Mu Border City behind him, they had just taken a city and already were handing out benefits?

Although puzzled, since they came bearing gifts, Mu Yi did not press too hard and notified Li Jing to arrange lodging for them.

With these Transcendent beings present, some tasks would proceed more easily.

Frankly, Mu Yi truly did not have that much time to search every inch of Mu Border City.

After all, this city is a den of demons; heaven knows how many evil spirits lurk within, and relying on divine sense alone cannot scan it entirely.

"Report to Heavenly Sovereign, this statue was specially sent by the Military Star Sovereign for your acceptance!"

Mu Yi nodded, flicked his finger to send out a fragment of spirit, merging it into the statue; the statue, whose face was previously indistinct, instantly became as lifelike as Mu Yi himself.

"Hiss!" Mu Yi drew a sharp breath; the amount of incense within the statue startled him greatly.

"Heavenly Sovereign need not be surprised; your great achievement is why the Military Star Sovereign and the Literary Star Sovereign, after consultation, jointly allocated incense to offer you!"

"There is also a message left for you by the Military Star Sovereign; please take a look!"

As he spoke, the leader produced a scroll depicting precisely the scene inside the Military Star's temple.

Mu Yi extended his divine sense into the scroll.

Once again he found himself within the resplendent and magnificent temple of the Military Star Sovereign.

"Heavenly Sovereign, you have rendered great merit; I, on behalf of the Tang people, thank you here!"

"Star Sovereign, you're too kind; but what exactly is this great merit?"

Mu Yi frankly expressed some confusion; merely taking Mu Border City seemed hardly worthy of such a vast amount of incense.

"Hehe, assisting me in slaying an evil god is naturally a great feat!" the Military Star Sovereign laughed heartily.

"These evil gods hide their heads and show their tails, daring not to confront me directly; this time you managed to lure them into revealing a flaw, I seized the chance to slay an evil god— regrettably, the other evil spirits and monsters escaped."

The Military Star felt some regret; these evil gods were becoming a heartache for him, for some of them have been opposing the Tang armies since the era of the Northern Turks.

After the Turks were defeated they fled to Goguryeo; after Goguryeo fell they went to the Western Regions; in short, they kept retreating while continually opposing the Tang.

Even though their strength was feeble, they persisted like a diseased toad, constantly nauseating the Tang.

Bound by his duties, the Military Star could not pursue these evil gods and monsters; this had long been his regret, but now slaying one and severely wounding several was truly gratifying.

"Now I understand!"

Mu Yi suddenly realized; how could a mundane worldly battle victory merit such abundant incense support from both the Literary and Military Stars?

It was nearly enough for him to become a god directly through incense.

"Henceforth, Heavenly Sovereign will likely have to bear more burden; these evil gods dare not confront me and the Literary Star directly, but they may well target you!"

Mu Yi realized this involved not only public duty but also private sentiment; the Literary and Military Stars hoped he would act as bait to draw out those evil gods, while also worrying for his safety, hence their generous support.

With this batch of incense, he indeed possessed the ability to match wits with those evil gods.

"I'll handle it; please rest assured, Star Sovereign!"

Mu Yi and the Military Star exchanged a glance and a smile; their thoughts were mutually transparent.

"There is one more matter!" the Military Star suddenly said solemnly.

"The authority over the earth veins and water veins— you may use them freely, but you must absolutely not take them away from this realm; do you understand, Heavenly Sovereign?"

"Although this realm is the incense ground of me and the Literary Star, the earth and water veins still belong to the Heavenly Court; using or damaging them is within one's duty, but to take them beyond this realm is to violate heavenly law; Heavenly Sovereign, do not bring harm upon yourself!"

"I understand!"

Mu Yi nodded, accepting the Military Star's kind reminder; he had indeed planned to take a portion of the earth and water veins to the main world to nourish its growth, but the reminder cleared his mind.

This lower realm is the property of the Heavenly Court; as a member of the Court, he has the right to use and even directly damage it, but not the right to take it away.

This amounts to the Military Star drawing a clear line for him; crossing it may not incur harsh punishment, but being expelled from this world and blacklisted would be hard to avoid.

Having received the benefit, Mu Yi devoted even more attention to the city's affairs.

"Any trace of evil god aura?"

Just as Mu Yi was routinely patrolling the entire city, he suddenly sensed a flicker of that aura.

Mu Yi slightly widened his eyes; his eyes suddenly burst forth with intense light!

The Thousand-Mile Eye Divine Ability exerted to its fullest, turning all obstacles into nothing.

His gaze stared straight toward the source of the anomaly.

"And in the next moment, he saw the scene of that anomaly:"

A commoner dressed in a cloth robe was praying on the ground, while a kind of divine light kept shining on him!

A bloody formation was drawn on the ground.

Jiuzhou does not interfere with ordinary people's faith, nor does it force them to worship any deity; as long as these deities pose no harm to the populace, they are generally left alone.

But some deities clearly violate heavenly law, and naturally must be held accountable by the Heavenly Court.

After all, for individual beings, an evil deity of faith brings too many harmful side effects.

Believers are also easily disturbed by deities.

Many believers will become mindless fanatics and then do things that normal people cannot accept.

With little effort, Mu Yi directly locked onto that evil deity's follower with the aid of the Thousand-mile Eye.

Then, in the next moment, Mu Yi directly moved via the earth's veins to appear before the other…

"Who are you!"

The evil deity's follower stared in terror at Mu Yi, who had suddenly appeared before him, knowing that this had nothing to do with the god he believed in.

Followers of a deity can relatively easily sense the aura on other believers.

Obviously, the aura on Mu Yi differs from the information related to the deity he believes in—or rather, it is completely different.

After all, he believes in an evil god whose divine portfolio is cruelty and sacrifice.

The relationship between deity and believer is actually a resonance of the essence of belief or choice.

And faith is the believer's acknowledgment of concepts related to the deity.

Pure personal worship naturally can also provide faith, but it basically only reaches the level of a fanatic and is extraordinarily difficult.

And as a higher-level deity that directly touches the essence of concepts, it will gradually transform or guide believers along the relevant path.

This is also why we must eradicate evil deities; leaving them unchecked easily breeds a batch of terrorists who will stop at nothing for faith.

He gazed at the soul of the follower whose name was still unknown, and the evil deity wove a terrifying shape in the air that mortals could hardly perceive.

It stared at Mu Yi, and a kind of cold aura began to appear in the air:

"I know you, a deity of the Great Tang; how about making a deal with me?"

Its voice carried an indescribable evil, like a blade just drawn from a corpse, with a sticky, nauseating smell of blood!

"A deal?" Mu Yi seemed to have heard a joke and laughed.

"Yes, a deal!" The evil deity heard the mockery in Mu Yi's laughter, but it felt no anger.

"Go on!"

Mu Yi was somewhat suspicious; when did the evil deity's temper become so good that it could endure being mocked to its face despite its vicious aura?

Besides, any evil deity with a bit of backbone is already dead; it's no surprise that the surviving evil deities are as patient as turtles trained in ninjutsu.

He really was a bit curious about what this evil deity wanted to say.

"Let the Great Tang enshrine me as a god! Grant me authority over the Western Regions! I will abide by your so-called heavenly law!"

"Interesting, is your brain damaged?" Mu Yi found it utterly absurd just listening.

"I can tell you the lairs of other evil deities!"

Without any emotional fluctuation, the vicious evil deity suppressed its temper and laid out its chips.

Mu Yi's expression instantly turned solemn; an evil deity's traitor, wanting to sell out other evil deities for his own gain.

Indeed, this is something an evil deity could do.

But there is also the possibility that this is a trap.

"Before we reach a deal, answer me a few questions to show your sincerity, how about that?"

After a moment of silence, the evil deity nodded.

"How many gods do you have?" Mu Yi asked, stroking his chin in a probing manner.

If we could actually find the evil deity's lair, we might really have a chance to wipe out all these scoundrels in one go.

After all, for a long time, the biggest trouble for the Military Arts Star has been that He cannot find these lurking evil deities, while the wielders of the Military Arts Star enjoy an overwhelming advantage in strength.

"Including me, twenty-one!" The evil deity calmly answered Mu Yi's question, and Mu Yi could not tell whether the answer was true or false.

"Have you never considered joining forces to attack the Great Tang?" Mu Yi followed up with another question.

"A god once mentioned it, but He died, and no god would accept having another boss above his head!" The evil deity's reply was also straightforward.

Expecting a group of evil deities who live for themselves to form an alliance and strive for the same goal is indeed unrealistic.

The evil deity is also hesitating and struggling now; it can sense some ominous aura, but the overwhelming temptation has left it somewhat lost.

They have survived to this day by harming others without benefiting themselves; even if hope is slim, he truly wants to betray other evil deities to obtain a place of rest.

It, is fundamentally a chaotic evil god!

As for the future, after clearing all evil deities, He who monopolizes faith will become even stronger; he will wait for the Great Tang to decline, just as He once witnessed the fall of the Great Han.

"I have no more questions!"

"Then the deal…"

Just as the evil deity thought the deal would be reached, Mu Yi drew a weapon from the void.

"Why refuse to trade? It's clearly beneficial to us!"

The evil deity stared fixedly at Mu Yi, or rather, at the weapon in his hand.

"You want to kill me? That's impossible!"

That weapon…

A strong warning came from the evil deity's consciousness; it could smell a hint of death from it!

It is the aura of death from other deities, some even being the death aura of gods a hundred times stronger than him.

"I've thought about it, and killing you seems more reliable!"

Mu Yi laughed; he didn't believe a single punctuation mark of the evil deity's words—who knows if the evil deity is plotting some scheme.

Rather than plotting with a tiger for its skin, it's better to just directly kill this guy who came.

After delaying for so long, we finally found the location of this bastard.

Die!

No extra talk, Mu Yi directly swung his knife down.

The evil god's followers responded and arrived, while Mu Yi's incense avatar had already been tracking the aura Mu Yi captured, rushing all the way toward the evil god's direction.

Ant, you're too arrogant!

The angry roar echoed throughout the universe.

In an instant, the sky grew dark, a violent thunder shook within the leaden clouds!

Boom!!

In an instant the ground tore open, the earth shook violently!

The evil god whose lair Mu Yi found let out an earth-shaking howl!

Today, you will witness the power of a deity!

Its consciousness, filled with ferocity and frenzy, crushed everything around!

Accompanied by the roar, its body grew wildly.

Ten zhang, fifty zhang, a hundred zhang… until two hundred zhang did it barely stop.

Roar!!

The frenzied evil god swung its body, smashing heavily down upon Mu Yi's incense avatar.

Skillfully dodging this heavy, powerful strike, but the ground was not so fortunate; under the heavy force, the cracked earth triggered a violent tremor.

Even Mu Bian City could feel this impact.

Li Jing furrowed his brow, ordered the army to gather and form formations, looked toward the distance, not knowing what had happened.

"Marshal, can you lend me a hand to slay the evil god?" Mu Yi appeared beside Li Jing and said.

"Of course!" Li Jing nodded, understood Mu Yi's meaning, and immediately summoned the troops to follow Mu Yi straight into the wilderness.