Chapter 410

Sir!

Beside Zhang Xibai, the many generals and soldiers cried out in alarm, every one of them tense with fright, their souls almost flying out of their bodies.

Zhang Xibai was killed in a single blow.

The one who killed him was none other than the 'Pei Feng' he was trying to save!

Everyone stared dumbfounded as the faint medicinal fragrance emanated from Pei Feng, whose aura surged rapidly, leaving them speechless for a long while.

While they were dazed, the Silver Dragon King, Heavenly Centipede King, and Silver‑tongued King were not; they seized the chance to strike deadly blows, and in just a few moves, over ten generals who had been fighting them but stood there stupidly were swallowed whole.

Well, only the Silver Dragon King and the Heavenly Centipede King eat people; their ferocious nature makes them devour foes directly.

The Silver‑tongued King, however, looked with disdain at the Silver Dragon King and Heavenly Centipede King, then gracefully flicked his wings; five‑colored splendid light filled the void, completely enveloping a space of over a hundred zhang in radius, after which the void shattered, and the several stunned generals, along with their armor, were crushed to pieces.

"You, you, you're not the Army Commander Pei Feng!" Bo, the Governor of Daze Prefecture under Zhang Xibai, screamed hysterically.

Pei Feng could never possibly kill Zhang Xibai 'in public'; perhaps she could strike from behind, making him vanish silently, but she would never act openly, leaving evidence and a handle.

"I am certainly not Pei Feng!" the 'Pei Feng' gave a cold smile, glanced at the three Silver Dragon Kings who were slaughtering at will, her body flickered, and she suddenly turned into a black dragon a thousand zhang long, opening her mouth to spew a bone‑chilling stream of black water.

The dozens of generals before him shouted in unison, each raising various defensive treasures; seven‑colored smoke and mist enveloped them, then the black water poured down violently.

With a hiss, the dozens of immortal‑tier defensive treasures shattered instantly, just like the artifacts Zhang Xibai had been carrying.

This black water was extraordinarily heavy; a drop the size of a needle tip weighed as much as a mountain, and it concealed heavenly mysteries that ordinary people could not comprehend—bitterly cold, piercing to the bone, immensely strong, and with a mysterious 'annihilating all things' dao resonance spreading faintly.

Dozens of treasures were destroyed in a single strike; the generals could only let out a hurried cry before they, along with their armor, were swept away by the black water without a trace.

The massive black dragon's body flickered, instantly shrinking to a length of over ten zhang; he turned his head and roared at the stunned Silver Dragon King: 'Big brother, seize this chance to slaughter all those Jin pigs and dogs!'

The Silver Dragon King stared blankly at the black dragon.

This was an exact copy of him—appearance, form, even the placement of each scale, the shape of each dragon scale, and the patterns on the scales were identical.

Even on one of the Silver Dragon King's horns, where he had once crossed swords with a powerful figure from the Divine Might Army and his horn was split by a sword, leaving a fine crack, the black dragon's horn bore the very same fine crack.

If it weren't for the Silver Dragon King's silvery‑white body, while this black dragon was pitch‑black, he would have thought he was looking at another himself.

"You…" the Silver Dragon King's cultivation was profound and his battle prowess formidable, but when it came to brains, his mind was not very sharp.

Thus, the Silver Dragon King stared in astonishment at the black dragon that, aside from its color, was identical to himself.

The Heavenly Centipede King's body jerked.

The Silver‑tongued King's pupils contracted sharply; he opened his mouth and emitted a piercing whistle: 'Old White Worm, we've been duped… this is a Heavenly Pit, a pit dug specially to kill people!'

With a furious long howl, the Silver‑tongued King's body flickered, and vast five‑colored divine light burst forth from around him; the void suddenly froze, then shattered and broke apart, scattering countless fragments like a shattered exploding mirror far away.

In the next instant, the Silver‑tongued King was already on a mountain peak a hundred li away.

He shouted hoarsely: 'Not only is it a Heavenly Pit, it's a series of linked pits… this blame is being piled onto us!'

The Heavenly Centipede King said nothing and turned to leave.

The Silver‑tongued King's true form is a five‑colored parrot, versed in music, and having awakened a spatial talent, he possesses the ability to teleport. The Heavenly Centipede King's escape technique is far inferior to the Silver‑tongued King's, but his fleeing speed is still quite fast.

A streak of black‑and‑red escape light whooshed out, stretching over a thousand zhang; the Heavenly Centipede King's body trembled, and he had already fled more than ten li away.

Even though he was fast, the black dragon's flight speed was even greater.

A strand of black light instantly caught up to the Heavenly Centipede King; a sheet of black-and-red water-fire storm howled forth from the giant dragon's mouth, the innate water and fire power violently clashed, and a dim bolt of lightning flashed and vanished.

With a booming 'Boom', the Heavenly Centipede King's massive body was blown to pieces.

A water-jar-sized inner elixir, entwined in black-and-red poisonous mist, trembled as it shot out from the Heavenly Centipede King's broken body, turning into a flowing light about to flee.

A blurry gourd silhouette flickered through midair; besides this black giant dragon, no one had seen that gourd phantom appear before.

A terrifying suction surged from the gourd's mouth; the Heavenly Centipede King's inner elixir let out a despairing wail, then with a 'whoosh' vanished without a trace.

"Big brother, I helped you take down the Heavenly Centipede King… From now on, my Great Marsh water tribe will not only be supreme in the water, but also the overlord of the land." The black giant dragon threw its head back and howled wildly, spraying saliva at the Silver Dragon King.

The Silver Dragon King blinked furiously, then suddenly widened his eyes, glaring at the black giant dragon and snarling, "I don't know you—who's your big brother?"

Before his words even finished, dozens of immortal soldiers had already crashed down wildly onto the Silver Dragon King.

The Silver-Tongue King fled in a flash, turning and running; these commanders under Lord Zhang Xibai simply had no time to intercept.

The Heavenly Centipede King had just fled, yet that black dragon killed him instantly with an unfathomable method.

Thus, after that brief moment of dazed distraction, the somewhat simple-minded Silver Dragon King became the commanders' prime target. Dozens of immortal soldiers came down heavily; the Silver Dragon King let out an anguished howl, large patches of his scale armor peeled off, and scorching dragon blood spurted from his body like a downpour pouring onto the ground.

"You dare strike my big brother!" the black dragon roared, his body flickering, and in an instant he stood before a unit of commanders clad in heavy armor.

In the distance, the great army under Lord Zhang Xibai was forming ranks and locked in fierce battle with the allied forces of the water tribe and flying beasts.

Because the Silver-Tongue King had fled, the flying beast army's formation loosened slightly; countless large and small vicious birds darted furtive glances here and there, poised to bolt at any moment.

Only the water tribe army under the Silver Dragon King, seeing their king drenched in blood, began to howl—those not-so-smart water folk, the big-headed fish, thick-shelled turtles, long-legged crabs, burrowing loaches and the like, all at once letting out 'howls' and, hoarse with exertion, launched a fierce assault on Lord Zhang Xibai's great army.

Thus, those hundreds of thousands of troops could not spare a glance this way.

Thus, before the black dragon stood only those several hundred commanders together with over ten thousand elite troops.

The black dragon grinned, flung open his mouth, and inside hovered a constantly shifting black-and-red gourd the size of a fist. A soft growl rumbled in his throat, and the gourd's mouth instantly spewed forth a sheet of bewildering divine light.

Over ten thousand elite troops whose cultivation lay mostly in the Chonglou Realm, together with several hundred commanders of the Embryo Storage Realm—such a force that could be called overwhelming—was swept up by the divine light, and with a 'whoosh' vanished without a trace.

Moments later, a low thunder rumbled from within the gourd, and the last trace of these people in the world was completely erased.

The black dragon threw back his head and let out a long howl: "Big brother, I've already helped you behead the leader of the Great Jin swine and dogs; these petty chicken‑thieves, you deal with them… Brother, I've repaid the favor I owed you."

The black dragon's body flickered, and with a 'whoosh' he turned into an extremely thin strand of black light that fled a vast distance.

Far off, one could hear the black dragon shouting from there: "From now on, even if you're my own blood‑brother, don't bother me again! Enjoy your carefree ease in the Great Marsh, while I go wander the world in pursuit of the Dao."

The Silver Dragon drifted blankly in midair, staring stupidly at the direction the black dragon had fled.

"Silver‑Tongue wasn't wrong—this is a heavenly pit… and damn it, it's one pit after another, a linked series of traps!"

At the instant the black dragon, transformed into Pei Feng, slew Lord Zhang Xibai, in the western reaches of Great Marsh Prefecture, deep in the barren mountains that would take at least two months to march to at the speed of galley‑flying boats, a military camp hundreds of miles long and wide brutally crushed dozens of mountain ranges beneath it.

Within the vast camp, killing qi surged skyward, condensing into solid substance that shot straight into the heavens, taking the forms of vicious birds, ferocious beasts, divine beasts and divine birds that wheeled and danced in the air.

In broad daylight, huge stars actually appeared in the high sky.

These stars, varied in hue and many‑pointed, continuously poured down strands of stellar essence, nourishing the camp with a mighty vigor and myriad phenomena. The soldiers marching through the camp each had a stern aura, their every move like that of a tiger and dragon, brimming with an oppressive sense of power.

In this camp, all regular soldiers have a cultivation level of at least eighteen layers of heaven in the Chonglou Realm.

Only among the logistics auxiliaries and even the temporarily conscripted laborers can one see the presence of the Sensing Mystery Realm.

Moreover, Embryo Storage Realm experts are everywhere in this camp; at a glance, many Embryo Storage Realm cultivators happen to wear only the commandant's uniform, and many are actually fifth- or sixth-rank commandants, their strength clearly mismatched with their military rank.

One can only say that the power hierarchy in this army camp is too high, so much so that even an Embryo Storage Realm expert struggles to obtain a general's position.

At the center of the great army camp, in a perfectly square hall cast of black iron, he is tall and sturdy, with a handsome visage, save for a large hooked nose that mars his handsomeness, giving him a somewhat sinister look; especially with his innate portent, bearing a hint of hawk-eyed wolfish gaze, Sima Lang sits behind the desk, furrowing his brow as he processes piles of documents.

Although he has countless aides under him, Sima Lang is accustomed to personally handling all important documents; occasionally, even those that are not very important, he will from time to time summon them to personally review.

He firmly believes that power belongs to oneself only when it is tightly grasped in one's hand.

Any power, if even a little is allowed to slip to others, carries the possibility of being lost.

"Issue a Command Arrow to query the entirety of Maple Prefecture: why is the grain shipment this time short by eighteen thousand stone of yellow coral rice? Ask the Prefect of Maple Prefecture, first feel your own head, think it through, then answer this question."

Sima Lang suddenly found a loophole in a logistics document; he immediately shouted loudly.

All the civil and military officials in the hall immediately sprang into action; the staff officer in charge of guarding Sima Lang's Command Arrow, seal, token, etc., carefully took out a blood-red Command Arrow, and together with a few campaign chief clerks and marshals compared the numbers on the Command Arrow, quickly drafted a document registering the use of the Command Arrow, and handed over the document and the Command Arrow to a commander in the hall.

That commander received the Command Arrow and document, quickly performed a fist‑and‑palm salute to Sima Lang, then turned and ran off at full speed.

Sima Lang dislikes people who dawdle; to work for him, you must appear busy, tense, urgent, as if your buttocks are on fire—only then will he be pleased.

So that commander dashed out of the hall in a flash, shouted a few times to summon a squad of soldiers, boarded a tower ship, and shot off toward the northeast in a flash.

Sima Lang nodded in satisfaction; that commander's actions matched his expectations.

He likes people who act swiftly and decisively, and especially likes those who carry out his orders with fiery vigor.

This shows that people hold him in great respect and awe.

He likes this respect, this awe.

He smiled, his eyes darting to the corners, swiftly scanning the many civil and military officials in the hall; Sima Lang nodded, then returned to the mountain of documents.

Suddenly, behind Sima Lang, on a tiered metal rack filled with blood‑red jade tablets, on the third tier from the top, a blood‑red jade tablet suddenly split open.

With a "pop", the jade tablet turned into a fine sand in an instant.

Sima Lang's movements abruptly stiffened; he slowly turned his head to look at the huge metal rack.

"Zhang Xibai… his soul and spirit scattered, not even a remnant left?" Sima Lang widened his eyes; his black pupils shrank to tiny dots while his whites ballooned, making his gaze look sinister and vicious, imbued with an inexplicable evil aura.

"Zhang Xibai wore the protector's treasure robe and sixfold tempered immortal weapon I bestowed upon him… who could have destroyed him so cleanly, scattering his soul and spirit?" Sima Lang slowly rose to his feet, coldly laughing: "Moreover, he had hundreds of thousands of troops at his side!"

No sooner had his words fallen than, on the metal rack, the middle layers' countless blood‑red jade tablets exploded simultaneously.

The hall fell utterly silent, not a sound to be heard.

All of Sima Lang's civil and military subordinates held their breath, heads bowed, daring not to glance at him.

They recognized that the persons represented by these jade tablets were all the Divine Might Army officers who had accompanied Zhang Xibai on official business to Great Marsh Prefecture, all of them Sima Lang's trusted core commanders.

In an instant, hundreds of Embryo Storage Realm commanders were lost—even though Sima Lang's forces are immensely strong, this loss is hard to accept.

"What happened in Great Marsh Prefecture?" Sima Lang muttered to himself, extending his right hand as his fingers flicked rapidly.

This is Sima Lang's innate divine ability… he is born with a faculty whereby a sudden urge or a thought can, in the dim foreknowledge of fate, anticipate that certain events will occur; as he ages and his cultivation deepens, his finger‑counting divination becomes ever more proficient.

The Grand Minister of Left of the Great Jin, Linghu Qingqing, once praised, saying that Sima Lang's divination art is absolutely among the top ten of the Great Jin's current high‑ranking officials.

His fingers twitched dozens of times in rapid succession; Sima Lang stopped, a blank look on his face.

He actually could find no trace of Zhang Xibai's killing; all karma lines were clean and clear, as if Zhang Xibai and those commanders had simply reached the limit of their lifespans and died naturally.

He simply could not find any clue that they had been executed.

In the void, in the dark, all trajectories of fate, all karma lines, are utterly clean.

"Send a few capable ones to inquire quietly, without alerting the people of Great Marsh Prefecture, and investigate carefully to see how Zhang Xibai and his companions died."

Sima Lang's gaze carried a hint of bewilderment: "Interesting, very interesting—being able to erase karma… which mighty one pulled this off? Pei Feng, you have climbed onto a high branch… but you are mine, you are mine!"