Chapter 472: Punching the Army, Kicking the Evil God

What? Zhang Fang was defeated?

Did several hundred thousand troops all collapse overnight?

Even if it were several hundred thousand pigs, you couldn't round them all up in one night, right?

The news of Zhang Fang's defeat reached his ally Sima Ying's ears; he couldn't believe it—those were several hundred thousand men, and they just vanished.

At first he didn't believe it, thinking it was a trick by the Luoyang side, and he beheaded several fleeing soldiers in succession.

But as they captured more and more fleeing soldiers,

Sima Ying also had to believe that his ally Zhang Fang had been utterly defeated by the Luoyang side.

"What should we do next?" Sima Ying asked his civil and military officials beside him.

Zhang Fang's crushing defeat greatly affected the entire battle situation.

At least, he had lost confidence in attacking the city.

On one hand, his forces began to run short,

On the other hand, the problem became more serious: he began to doubt whether he could win.

The Luoyang side defeated Zhang Fang in a single night.

Zhang Fang was indeed a capable man; otherwise he wouldn't have won successive battles, but the problem is that such a strong person just vanished.

Could it be that immortals are helping the Luoyang side?

Yet he just left like that, and he truly wasn't willing to accept it; after all the trouble he went through to raise such a huge force, are they really just going to turn back?

His subordinates were already restless; if he just left in such a half-hearted way, who would still obey his orders?

How could he still develop?

But just thinking about how the opposing cavalry crushed Zhang Fang at lightning speed, with their valiant and fierce combat power, made him tremble at the thought.

His subordinates also had no good ideas; they could only suggest that Sima Ying first set up camp and then wait for the situation to become clear.

After all, they still don't know how Zhang Fang was defeated.

On Sima Ying's side, a gloom hung over everything; from the commander-in-chief Sima Ying down, the generals secretly trembled with fear, while Luoyang's royal army sank into an ocean of joy.

"General Mu has returned."

"Quickly go out to welcome him."

"After all these years, I've never seen anyone as brave as General Mu."

"General Mu is a real man."

Amid the clamor, Mu Yi followed the Luoyang Forbidden Army along the main street into the city, then cut across the city.

Along the way, nobles and officials continually gathered, and even a few soldiers came forward, all wanting to catch a glimpse of Mu Yi's bearing.

They had all heard the news that Mu Yi, leading his men, had defeated the man-eating demon king Zhang Fang in a single night.

Sima Yi naturally intended to magnify this victory, and even personally arranged for people to spread the news.

Some commoners opened their doors and bowed in thanks, grateful that Mu Yi had defeated the enemy and spared them from hardship.

"Bandits pass like a comb, soldiers pass like a sieve" is no empty boast, especially when in a hostile position, burning, killing, looting and plundering are all the more terrifying.

"General Mu!"

Sima Yi personally came to meet Mu Yi, his face beaming with a brilliant smile.

"This is the head of the rebel chief Zhang Fang; Grand Commander, please inspect it!"

Mu Yi casually clasped his fists in salute and handed Zhang Fang's head to the attendant guard standing nearby.

Sima Yi took a look, then had someone take it away.

With so many captives lying outside the city, whether Zhang Fang was dead or alive no longer mattered; but seeing his head, his smile became even more brilliant.

I thought it was a great victory, but it turned out to be a complete victory.

"General Mu, come with me back to my residence!" Sima Yi laughed as he invited Mu Yi to his mansion.

"With an Immortal present, it is truly a blessing for the people of Luoyang!"

Mu Yi waved his hand; he had no time to flatter Sima Yi here, and directly got to the point with his request.

"Allocate some troops and supplies; I want to use these captives as cannon fodder, and at the same time hand over military authority to me."

"That young emperor, can you handle him yourself?"

"Once I've pacified the world, you can take the throne directly; when I return, I'll be able to report to your High Ancestor."

Mu Yi said this half-truth, half-lie; Sima Yi's becoming emperor or not, he really didn't care, after all he was going to uproot the Jin dynasty's roots—what did these matter?

However, his current goal was to give the Jin dynasty continued life; he simply handed politics and logistics over to Sima Yi, and focused solely on military affairs.

"Thank you, Immortal!" Sima Yi was so excited he could hardly contain himself.

This was no longer a hint; it was practically telling him outright that the High Ancestor had sent someone to help him pacify the world and support his ascension.

What a heavenly mandate, what a care.

"Please wait a moment, Immortal; I'll go down to make arrangements, and at the same time build a temple for you."

"No, I came here on a secret mission; I must not be loudly publicized. Take credit for the achievements yourself, and do not reveal my specific identity."

Mu Yi firmly refused; what a joke—if he got tied up with the Sima family, the karmic consequences would be huge, and he didn't want to be neither here nor there.

He was just a mercenary; he worked for pay.

Sima Yi stared for a moment, not knowing what he had thought of, then silently clasped his hands and withdrew.

"I'll go out for a couple of days to find some friends; you yourself be careful in Luoyang, and watch out for that Sima Yue—he bears you great malice!"

Mu Yi casually mentioned the name of the Eight Princes' Rebellion that he had seen before, giving Sima Yi a hint.

"Understood!" Sima Yi stopped his steps, bowed deeply, not knowing what he was imagining, but Mu Yi could feel the aura of gratitude emanating from him.

Shaking his head, Mu Yi turned into a rainbow light and directly Benzed to Luo River.

"You've come!"

In the Luo River, the Luo River Goddess looked at Mu Yi with a blank expression; her future self had already synchronized the information to her.

"What business does the Luo River Goddess have?"

"Help me exterminate the Sima clan!" The Luo River Goddess is not the later Luo River Goddess; the present Luo River Goddess is in a stage of violent rage.

Her power is dwindling day by day, almost driving this Luo River Goddess mad.

"You know, this is impossible!" Mu Yi gave a wry smile; defying heaven and changing fate is truly difficult, and he cannot currently bear this kind of karmic backlash.

"Hmph, offer the current Sima family's emperor as a sacrifice to me!" The Luo River Goddess also knew she was being unreasonable; after taking a deep breath, she changed her words.

"Once this matter is settled, I, the little deity, will certainly personally vent your anger!"

Mu Yi accompanied with a smile; whether now or later, this goddess will be useful, and anyway helping to vent anger over a trivial matter is not unacceptable.

Even the Sima clan's captured feudal lords can be brought here to be sacrificed, to help vent the Luo River Goddess's anger.

"This is the information you need; my power has suffered too great a loss, I cannot extend it too far, but basically it's all under control." The Luo River Goddess reached out and transmitted a bit of spiritual light to Mu Yi.

"Thank you, Luo River Goddess! I, the little deity, still have matters to attend; I will come to see you again later!"

Having obtained what he wanted, Mu Yi turned around and prepared to leave.

"Here!" The Luo River Goddess didn't care either, casually tossing an arrow to Mu Yi.

"If you can't bring it back, then use this to kill it!"

Mu Yi took the arrow, drew a sharp breath in cold air, then hesitantly clasped his hands in a salute, and then turned and left.

Only after leaving the Luo River did Mu Yi look at the arrow, and a complex expression appeared on his face.

Others might not know what this thing is used for, but could he not know?

Something of the same type as his karmic tribulation might well be the arrow Hou Yi used to shoot down the golden crows back then.

Being killed by this thing basically means soul and spirit scatter, with no chance of being rescued at all.

A genuine lethal weapon for killing people.

Using this to kill the Sima clan's people, the Luo River Goddess's hatred for the Sima clan is probably so great that even exhausting all the lakes and seas couldn't wash it away.

Goddesses are not to be provoked; a goddess with a powerful background who has gone mad is even more frightening.

But…

Mu Yi tossed the arrow in his hand; this thing is indeed a good thing, and it turned out to be a bargain for him.

He extended his hand to condense a precious bow, lightly placed the arrow on it, then aimed at a spot, and Mu Yi drew the bow fully and released.

The arrow flew across the sky like a meteor, yet fell like a meteoric stone in a certain direction.

"A mere foreign realm god, since you're already dead, just lie down honestly for me!"

Mu Yi's vision penetrated endless space and landed on a mountain peak.

What the Luo River Goddess gave him were the coordinates of the foreign realm god on the Central Plains land.

Although the Luo River Goddess's authority has greatly declined, after all she is still not completely diminished as the Luo River Goddess, obtaining this information is not difficult.

Mu Yi clearly knows that his mission this trip, which is to delay the progress of the Five Barbarians' turmoil,

Then, besides unifying the world and launching a northern expedition against the Five Barbarians, killing those foreign realm gods located within the Central Plains region is also a very important task.

These foreign realm gods spread heretical knowledge everywhere, creating chaotic tyrants like Zhang Fang, all to hasten the collapse of the Jin dynasty and usher in the era of the Five Barbarians' turmoil earlier.

The overall trend cannot be changed, but minor trends can be.

Advancing or delaying by a few years are merely errors within a certain margin of variable; this is also some small actions that Jiuzhou has been doing over these years.

And someone like Guan Yu is still experiencing this for the first time.

And Mu Yi's first chosen target is precisely the foreign realm god who transmitted the heretical arts to Zhang Fang.

After synthesizing information from Zhang Fang's memories and the Luo River Goddess's intelligence, Mu Yi easily located the other party's position.

Rather than leading a large army to go over and hack him to death, it is more appropriate to test the power of the treasure he newly obtained.

Under a sky intertwined with violent and fiery light, an arrow transformed into a falling meteoric stone, which was suddenly torn apart into a sheet of blazing fire by air friction!

Burning!

Exploding!

Like fireworks suddenly blooming in the dark cosmos, it provided endless light and heat to this region.

The terrifying power was confined to a small area, precisely striking the target Mu Yi wanted to hit.

A kind of indescribable terrifying hiss was echoing.

The mournful cry exuded intense pain, but its language could not be understood by people.

That terrifying hiss once crossed a great distance, transmitting to Mu Yi's ears.

However, Mu Yi's expression remained unchanged; he coldly scanned the surroundings, scaring away all those furtive gazes lurking in the dark.

They feared that Mu Yi might reward them with a terrifying meteor the next second.

No gaze dared to be directed toward Mu Yi.

It was as if this place were merely a sheet of cold, dead silence.

Cannot hear! Cannot see! Pretending as if nothing had happened at all.

Those making small movements hurriedly feigned death, afraid to provoke this upper-realm immortal deity of unknown origin.

Even if they had many more ideas, at this moment they could only tuck their tails and behave like humans.

Amid the intertwining fire and light, Mu Yi extended his hand to recall the arrow.

The power of this arrow was even more terrifying than he had imagined.

A foreign realm god of decent strength was directly pierced through by this brutal strike!

Annihilation!

Shattering!

Without any pity or sympathy, the arrow pierced through that foreign realm god who had imparted the heretical arts to Zhang Fang.

At that moment, the indescribable Frenzy power, in an incomparably brutal and wild form, violently tore apart that foreign deity.

The shattering of flesh and bone is the lament of trembling matter!

The wail of soul and consciousness is the anguish of a terrified soul!

With just a single strike, that foreign deity was already utterly annihilated.

Unlike the foreign deities behind the Five Barbarians' turmoil, the one Mu Yi slew should be called an indigenous deity — one that retains its self but has surrendered to Jiuzhou.

That is why they are allowed to survive in the Central Plains and become a local Mountain God and Water God; this is actually a form of assimilation, even more efficient than reincarnation.

However, the only problem is that some of them harbor ill intentions.

In places where the Heavenly Court presses down, they perhaps dare not act, but when approaching the dark juncture of the Five Barbarians' turmoil, they also secretly make small moves.

Furthermore, for those who have not yet made small moves, delivering an advance warning strike is also something Mu Yi needs to do.

After confirming that the opponent had been completely destroyed, Mu Yi once again transformed into a long rainbow and flew toward Luoyang.

For him, in this world, the armies capable of forming Cloud Energy are harder to deal with than these godly and ghostly fellows.

After all, the former could truly threaten him.

And the latter is merely a bunch of sneaky trash.

Sima Yi's efficiency is not bad; under the encouragement of becoming emperor, he almost brought his abilities to the utmost.

Mainly, the exhilarating, sweeping victory eased the tension in the Jin court and steadied Sima Yi's position, allowing him to directly win over Luoyang's military forces with sheer strength.

After all, these palace troops truly know how to fight; no one understands better than them how formidable Zhang Fang is, yet in a single day they were crushed like rotten tiles and brittle pottery.

If it were them, they probably wouldn't fare any better.

Grand Commander Sima Yi being so strong, many naturally turned toward him.

After all, the present emperor accomplishes nothing, merely a child, giving them no reason to be loyal—a mere puppet on strings, meaningless.

Under Sima Yi's suggestion, the emperor convened a small, private meeting; generally this is the procedure of the emperor conferring with his confidants.

But it is obvious that most of the participants were Sima Yi's people.

Emperor Sima Zhong, his mind wandering elsewhere, wore an expression of having no will to live; since it's not his turn to decide, why bother putting on airs?

Moreover, he hardly grasps state affairs, as if his mind is not up to the task.

By the way, this incident didn't even require him to personally lead the campaign; it seems that Grand Commander Sima Yi is considerably stronger than his predecessors.

"Your Majesty..." Sima Yi coughed and reminded.

He is only twenty-seven this year, the age of lofty ambitions and high spirits.

If he had been a bit depressed lately, after meeting Mu Yi and Sima Yi, his morale rose, and he felt that replacing the emperor to become emperor himself was entirely feasible.

He is a person with strong execution ability and can humbly listen to opinions; among the many incompetents of the Sima family, he counts as quite capable.

Sima Yi also valued him for this reason.

The only pity is that he dislikes bringing guards to meetings; although someone has reminded him, he still doesn't listen.