Chapter 367

At the same time, Zhang Jian solidified his primordial spirit and divine sense, sweeping across the void, illuminating the Northern Chu Imperial Palace. He sensed that the demonic cultivators within the Northern Chu Imperial Palace had vanished without a trace.

It seems they fled in panic!

Zhang Jian thought to himself, these old and crafty primordial spirit true persons are indeed quite cunning.

But he was not surprised.

After all, someone still couldn't escape!

He brought down his giant palm, deep within his palm five crimson dragon light-shadows flowed, faintly enveloping the magnificent Northern Chu national fortune golden light that had just surged upward.

Inside the palace, Emperor Chu Huanxuan abruptly raised his head, only to see behind his back a magnificent golden dragon soaring into the sky, but in an instant, that feeble national fortune golden dragon was torn to pieces beneath countless crimson dragon claws.

Zhang Jian raised his hand and seized.

Boom—!

The entire firmament seemed to be collapsing and tearing apart beneath the crimson giant palm.

An apocalyptic scene spread across heaven and earth.

Beneath the giant palm, vast regions of the Northern Chu Imperial Palace collapsed.

This was utterly mismatched in scale; Zhang Jian, reaching out, tore through layer after layer of void, and moments later, a figure clad in red and yellow dragon robes was seized in his hand.

Huanxuan's robes were stained with blood, and he had already fainted.

The national fortune dragon soul was torn apart, and he suffered grave injury at once.

Zhang Jian seized Huanxuan, and at this moment his calm voice flowed throughout Guangyuan City.

"I am the Emperor of the Great Xia, Zhang Jian, and now the false emperor of Northern Chu, Huanxuan, has been captured alive by me. O you treacherous ministers of Northern Chu, if you recognize the Mandate of Heaven, then do not foolishly dream of resisting the Great Xia heavenly army; follow the Great Xia and prosper, oppose the Great Xia and perish; those who surrender the city shall have their lives spared, their wealth and honor preserved; the stubborn shall have their clans exterminated—choose wisely!"

As the words fell, Zhang Jian raised his hand and struck the center of Guangyuan City, a purple-gold light descending from heaven, cleaving the central streets of Guangyuan City and carving a fissure stretching hundreds of li, directly piercing the city's immensely thick walls.

This sight left millions of citizens of Guangyuan City stunned and trembling.

The entire city fell silent.

Zhang Jian gazed upon this scene, silently nodding to himself.

With this move, the fall of Northern Chu was already settled.

The essential difference between Great Xia and Northern Chu is too vast.

If it were the same Sacred King Great Dao cultivator, he would have to be more cautious.

But Emperor Chu Huanxuan clearly is not.

Zhang Jian then descended before the expeditionary army's camp, which had not yet set foot on the lands of Shuangyuan Commandery.

Zhang Jian casually handed Emperor Chu Huanxuan over to the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary army, An Ruiming, and then drifted away.

"Your Majesty's Dao profundity is truly unfathomable!"

Inside the campaign tent, An Ruiming and the others still wore expressions of shock, mixed with excitement and joy.

"Capture the bandits by capturing their leader; now that the Chu emperor Huanxuan has been seized alive by the Great Xia Emperor, this Northern Campaign great undertaking can be said to have already achieved half its goal."

An Ruiming raised his hand, gesturing to the nearby guards to take charge of Huanxuan, his gaze falling upon several sighing primordial spirit true persons.

"Esteemed true persons, since it is thus, we value divine speed in our troops; taking advantage of Northern Chu's leaderless dragons, we shall strike straight at the Yellow Dragon!"

The Yellow Crane Daoist nodded.

"Quite right!"

Beside him, Feng Ling's expression remained unchanged, her countenance calm; to her, all this seemed merely natural.

An Ruiming's eyes furtively glanced at this peerlessly beautiful and radiant goddess, merely looking once before involuntarily withdrawing his gaze.

He had already been informed of this true person's background, and there were rumors that this beautiful goddess had a close relationship with the Great Xia Emperor; if he looked too long, he might incur the Great Xia Emperor's displeasure—better to be cautious!

……

Within Haojing City

After shattering the remaining dragon veins and dragon souls of Northern Chu, Zhang Jian did not act again.

The Northern Campaign war was also an opportunity for the expeditionary army to temper new soldiers and commanders; personally overseeing everything would make these commanders dependent, depriving them of growth opportunities.

As the Northern Campaign army advanced smoothly, meanwhile, the Envoy of Jiangnan Circuit, Song Yingzhen, continuously transmitted intelligence back to Haojing City.

The powerful clans of Jiangnan Circuit's commanderies concealed farmlands, able-bodied men, and evaded national taxes, the land situation shocking to behold.

Zhang Jian was not at all surprised by this; the Zhang family had risen precisely this way.

Originally, the Qian Dynasty had been like this—continually transfused and bled, its vital energy never recovering, always in a sickly 'sub-health' state, until several heavenly disasters gradually dragged it down.

He naturally could not let Great Xia follow in its footsteps, nor allow private land consolidation to continue.

Taking advantage of the smooth progress of the Northern Campaign royal army, Zhang Jian directed Song Yingzhen to vigorously investigate this matter, and simultaneously issued an edict ordering the powerful clans and gentry of Jiangnan Circuit's commanderies to proactively report to their respective commandery guard offices.

If they reported voluntarily, making up the tax dues could be dealt with leniently, past offenses overlooked.

But if they continued to conceal and not report, and were found out, without exception their land would be confiscated, their homes ransacked, and their clans exterminated.

Furthermore, to prevent anyone from exploiting the situation to cause trouble, rebel, or plot treason, Zhang Jian also ordered the Marquis of Dingyuan, Song Shang, to lead one hundred thousand troops of the Southern Commandery to garrison Jiangnan Circuit's Jixian Commandery, to support Song Yingzhen.

During the land investigation, Zhang Jian also did not forget to direct Song Yingzhen to return a portion of the confiscated land to those landless poor commoners.

This measure immediately gained the support of countless commoners.

Many landless commoners rejoiced and were encouraged by this.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, amidst this wind of rumor, numerous powerful clans and gentry felt personally threatened, some with uneasy hearts.

In the shadows, currents surged.

Many powerful clans and gentry, unwilling to be the meat on the court's chopping block while they were the fish, began secretly networking.

……

Within Haojing City, Zhang Jian sat in the inner hall reviewing memorials, simultaneously examining the list of the first batch of cabinet ministers of the first year of Shengde.

He also noticed that Song Yingzhen, during this period, had been sending memorials through secret channels, increasing in number.

According to his secret reports, the local powerful clans of Jiangnan Circuit's commanderies had again begun contacting local heterodox demons and heretics, preparing to stir up trouble.

Zhang Jian merely glanced at it and set it down, his expression calm and indifferent, paying no heed to the movements of these aristocratic clans.

Instead, he decided to restrain himself, waiting for them to fully reveal themselves before eliminating them all at once.

These aristocratic clans and the current Great Xia court are not even on the same level of existence.

He and Emperor Jingwu are clearly different—he wields transcendent power and fully controls Great Xia's highest military structure, so he has no fear of these aristocratic clans joining forces or conspiring.

If anyone thinks his kindness is weakness, they are gravely mistaken.

Zhang Jian then released Zhang Lu as well.

During this period, Zhang Lu had been reorganizing the Black-Clad Guard; the newly rebuilt Black-Clad Guard was no longer limited to a few martial artists but now involved people from all walks of life.

Releasing them would allow effective surveillance of officials.

At the same time, Zhang Jian's expression shifted slightly, and in an instant, a fierce sword intent burst forth from within him.

The sword intent was intense and profound, as if it contained the power of mountains and rivers, the state, the sun, moon, stars, and the cosmos.

This was his innate treasure, the Dragon Chant Sword Scripture, which, nourished by the fortune of Great Xia, had finally transformed and ascended to the level of a golden-body spiritual treasure.

"I can try to forge a third innate spiritual treasure!"

Feeling this change, Zhang Jian's lips curled into a faint smile, and he then gathered back this fierce sword light.

The secret method of casting the tripod had already been obtained, and with Great Xia's fortune growing day by day, he could also choose to cast the Nine Tripods to stabilize the state and simultaneously steady Great Xia's dragon veins.

And these Nine Tripods could serve as his third innate spiritual treasure.

However, Zhang Jian did not do so; he had other considerations for the third innate spiritual treasure.

The Nine Tripods could instead serve as a state-fortune spiritual treasure cultivated in tandem with Great Xia's fortune, which could also be considered a variant of an innate spiritual treasure.

Only, the object of this cultivation pairing was not him, but Great Xia's fortune.

In the future, the Nine Tripods would also continuously transform and ascend due to the rise of Great Xia's fortune.