[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-eternal-green-immortal-sovereign":3,"chapter-eternal-green-immortal-sovereign-eternal-green-immortal-sovereign-chapter-175":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Eternal Green Immortal Sovereign",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2270183,4432,"Chapter 175: Dragon Coils Around Body, Shatters Rock and Splits Mountain","eternal-green-immortal-sovereign-chapter-175",175,"\u003Cp>The azure dragon slowly twisted, its eyes formed of xuanqing qi flickering with the divine might of thunder, too fierce to meet directly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boom\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Faintly, one could hear the sound of thunder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dragon’s roar!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It is said the dragon controls clouds and rain, commands the thunder of the nine heavens—a divine beast whose roar echoes like thunder, deep and resonant.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui gazed at the dragon’s head, nearly pressed against his cheek.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He shifted his thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The azure dragon dissolved into wisps of smoke, sinking back into his body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Truly miraculous!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Experts of the Willow Sinew Formation stage can condense qi into form, projecting true qi outward to confront enemies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just like his dragon shape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could project the azure dragon to cling to his fists or weapons, greatly increasing their power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fighting with a flying dragon around him—that was sheer majesty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui would never indulge in such ostentatious displays; a fight was a fight, no need for special effects.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He left Anning Guard early, taking the official road directly from the West Gate, walking steadily into the mountains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not long after.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He found a massive stone, over one zhang tall, wide enough for four or five people to encircle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui stood facing the stone, just a foot away, and uttered a low command:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Rise!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the next instant, the azure dragon reappeared, coiling around his arm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His gaze sharpened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A punch, wreathed in the flying dragon, slammed into the stone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boom!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dust flew everywhere!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The enormous stone, the moment the fist struck, was instantly covered in a dense web of cracks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shatter stone, split mountain!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui gazed at the scattered rubble and nodded in satisfaction:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Which is stronger—my Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms or the original?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With just this palm strike, that hero from his past life wouldn’t have helped even with a speaker.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dragon form’s completion greatly amplifies power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is said the Yinglong, primordial god of creation, possessed boundless strength; the dragon itself is the symbol of power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui was flipping through a book in his room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A muffled thunderous knock echoed at the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He set down his book and walked calmly toward the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t even need to see the person—he knew it had to be Tan Hu; no one else knocked like that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He opened the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“As expected.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother Tan, what’s up?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Hu rubbed his palms, eyes gleaming with excitement: “Big brother Li, we’ve got a big job.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Big job?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui raised an eyebrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mingguang Sect is about to be seized and exterminated!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui glanced sideways at Tan Hu—why was he so excited about someone else’s family being destroyed?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But remembering Tan Hu’s nature—always stirring up trouble—he understood; besides, his old grudge with Mingguang Sect had only been suppressed, not resolved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What exactly happened?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Hu scratched his head: “Commander Ning didn’t say specifics—just told us to pack up and prepare to move out. Mingguang’s branch in Qinghe has already been surrounded by the Wu Company and Jia Company!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching Tan Hu’s bulging eyes sparkle with stars,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui knew it wasn’t just a simple siege.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most likely, the men were being exiled to the frontier, the women sent to the courtesan houses, and perhaps not a single soul remained alive in the compound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Could Mingguang Sect have rebelled?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui muttered to himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He called out Liang He and headed straight for the main gate of Anning Guard camp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moments later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Li Rui arrived, over five hundred men were already gathered, shouting and bustling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That meant half of Anning Guard had been mobilized.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Worse still, Cao Wei was leading them in person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such a display had never been seen since Anning Guard was established.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon after.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui found Ge Hong and Wei Ming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He remembered Tan Hu had said the Wu Company—Ge Hong’s unit—had surrounded Mingguang’s Qinghe branch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Hu only cared about fighting; he knew nothing else, and asking him was pointless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother Ge, Brother Wei, what awful crime did Mingguang Sect commit?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming grinned: “It’s not just awful—it’s treason!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“!!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui was startled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as he thought it, it happened—Mingguang Sect truly had rebelled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ge Hong chimed in: “Exactly. The imperial edict has already reached General Xue. Last night, I followed Commander Ning to Mingguang’s Qinghe branch—we fought all night, blades rolled from overuse, not a single survivor left alive. It was horrific.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Killing so many people was rare in Qinghe, even across the entire Yunzhou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Kingdom’s laws were harsh, but enforcement was lax.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This goes back to the founding emperor’s time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The founding emperor was fierce and hated evil—he personally decreed over seven thousand ironclad laws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just one example:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If a child eats before their parents, they receive ten lashes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Too strict.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If enforced literally, parents wouldn’t need to worry about who ate first—they’d have no children left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was practically unenforceable; even during the founding emperor’s reign, enforcement began to slacken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By later generations, even the Three Judicial Offices ignored the specific clauses of Yu law.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had become entirely a tool for political factionalism.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only when someone angered the wrong person did they realize Yu law still had such provisions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later emperors recognized this problem and repeatedly reduced the laws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Yu revered ancestral systems, insisting ancestral laws must not be abandoned—the founding emperor alone had set seven thousand; no matter how much was cut, the effect was minimal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So generally, offenses were punished leniently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Confiscation of property and extermination of entire families was exceedingly rare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unless it was treason—an exceptionally heinous crime.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mingguang Sect was lucky—it chose the hardest path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>About a stick of incense later, the final Ding Company arrived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cao Wei raised his voice: “March out!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The army bypassed the city entirely, exiting the camp from the opposite side and immediately joining the official road.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Lin never showed his face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Normally, one of the Assistant Regional Commander or the Regional Commander must remain behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>=9+Book_Bar\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Assistant Regional Commander also leads troops, but his main duty is overseeing internal guard battalion affairs; external campaigns against rebels are, in principle, the Regional Commander’s responsibility.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, three of the five Garrison Commanders came.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two were Cao Wei’s men; Jiang Lin’s faction had only Ning Zhongtian, while Lu Jun remained at camp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhongtian would follow Cao Wei’s orders, but he also had to uphold Jiang Lin’s supervisory duties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Following Cao Wei’s command, Ning Zhongtian and Feng Yu each led their Night Scouts on fast horses, riding ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Investigate the situation of Mingguang Sect in advance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every rider of the Benhu Cavalry had a horse and marched at full speed for one day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That night, they arrived at Mingguang Sect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The horses had been tied up in a ravine two li away, guarded by four soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhongtian personally led Li Rui, Tan Hu, and other Benhu Cavalry soldiers in hiding among the woods outside the Mingguang Sect, gathering intelligence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mingguang Sect, as the largest sect in Anning Prefecture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had carved out an entire city in a valley a hundred li outside Anning City.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scale was not small.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The city covered a hundred mu, housing over a thousand core elder disciples of Mingguang Sect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bushes rustled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Hu’s large head slithered out from behind the bushes, gazing at Mingguang Sect standing tall amid the forest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Chief Ning, what kind of person did Mingguang Sect piss off?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhongtian raised an eyebrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hadn’t expected such a burly brute as Tan Hu to sense the undercurrents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Truly, proximity to vermilion stains red, proximity to ink stains black—you’ve improved!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Sending Li Lao to the Benhu Cavalry really paid off.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He chuckled, praising Tan Hu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then his smile turned cold as he stared at Mingguang Sect in the distance: “Rebellion?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Even if Mingguang Sect had a hundred lives, they wouldn’t dare rebel.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The nephew of the Minister of Rites is Mingguang Sect’s vice sect master; the new Director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau has arrived; Minister Liu of the Ministry of Rites has been sent to the Three Judicial Departments.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Hu scratched his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of this was vague and disconnected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The nephew of the Minister of Rites, the new Director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, the Three Judicial Departments—what even were these things? It was all foggy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui’s eyes narrowed slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No wonder.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those punished with such severe charges were almost always caught in factional struggles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In recent years, as the State Tutor’s power grew, the Xuan Faction gradually gained the upper hand over the Lin Faction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whatever Grand Secretary Zhang, known as the “child prodigy,” proposed, the Xuan Faction opposed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Emperor must have noticed the imbalance and didn’t want one side to dominate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s why the new Director was appointed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The new Director, unsurprisingly, became one of the Lin Faction’s leaders; retaliation was inevitable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Ministry of Rites was one of the Xuan Faction’s strongholds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With Minister Liu of the Ministry of Rites under the watch of the Three Judicial Departments, it was obvious the Lin Faction was behind the scenes stoking the fire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What was the Three Judicial Departments?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Any official who entered there—even a third-rank minister—had undoubtedly been caught with ironclad evidence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once Minister Liu of the Ministry of Rites fell, all his allies would be purged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhongtian continued: “I heard this was the Emperor’s order. These are matters above us—we just do our duty.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Rui nodded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Overthinking served no purpose but to trouble oneself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked toward Mingguang Sect’s walls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suppressing rebellion was top secret; Qinghe County had been sealed off, and all of Mingguang Sect’s Qinghe branch members were dead—no one could spread word.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From Mingguang Sect’s peaceful appearance, it was clear they remained unaware of the disaster looming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhongtian chuckled softly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He waved to Li Rui and the others beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s go. Our job here is done.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Hu grunted: “Chief Ning, aren’t we going to smash them?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had long despised Mingguang Sect and came here with the goal of tearing it apart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhongtian rolled his eyes:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We’re just here to fill numbers. Do you really want to hand your head to Cao Wei?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Hu grunted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He obediently followed Ning Zhongtian into the depths of the forest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside Mingguang Sect’s city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A massive estate covering ten mu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Master, word has come from the capital—my uncle has been sent to the Three Judicial Departments. He’s in grave danger.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Qian, Mingguang Sect’s vice sect master, spoke grimly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His uncle was none other than Minister Liu of the Ministry of Rites.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sect Master Lü Qiu’s face turned as dark as storm clouds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I know.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mingguang Sect’s patron was this very Minister Liu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sent to the Three Judicial Departments.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What was the Three Judicial Departments?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Court of Judicial Review—two of the three were dominated by the Lin Faction. For a major Xuan Faction figure like Minister Liu to escape alive from there? Impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Qian tried to reassure Lü Qiu: “Don’t worry. The State Tutor and Duke Dingyuan won’t stand idle. Master, rest assured—we’ll come through unscathed!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lü Qiu’s eyes flickered, then he took a deep breath:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fine.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1880,"2026-06-19T22:01:09.077Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","cdb28485f5a8d22ae5e90622a31bb9e1429a56f42d3eb80a3cfc061ebc19b77c","eternal-green-immortal-sovereign-chapter-176","eternal-green-immortal-sovereign-chapter-174",866,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Feternal-green-immortal-sovereign-cover.jpg"]