Chapter 574

The Great Jin, thrown into utter chaos.

Sima Fa, as always, was very conscientious, very tenacious, very diligent, very devoted, working day and night doing everything a competent foolish ruler should do.

However, under the persuasion of some close royal princes, Sima Fa finally gave his own people a bit of face; he continued to practice the art of 'tattooing', but the materials he used for his practice had changed from those fair-skinned youths to a bunch of white, fat, big pigs.

No one could say what Sima Fa was thinking when he made such a decision.

Anyway, in the inner court of the imperial palace nowadays, the screams of respectable youths were replaced by the miserable howls of one big white pig after another. Sima Fa wielded a specially made set of embroidery tools, ruthlessly attacking one big fat pig after another that had been shaved bare and had smooth, delicate skin, turning them into a riot of colors, spotted and mottled.

Linghu Qingqing and Gongyang Sanlü shut their doors and refused to see anyone, giving the excuse of 'serious illness and recuperation'!

But all the people of the Divine State of Great Jin know that the two 'loyal and devoted' senior ministers are 'heartbroken'!

They exhausted their minds for the fortune of the Divine State of Great Jin, shed their hearts and blood for its people, and truly toiled hard all their lives for the happiness and well-being of the common folk.

Yet they had to contend with a foolish ruler like Sima Fa and a treacherous minister like the Duke of Yuzhou, which threw court affairs into utter chaos and caused military affairs to collapse... As the Divine State of Great Jin was clearly engaged in a full-scale war with the Divine State of Great Wu, the nation's situation was tumultuous—how could these two veteran ministers not feel indignant, sorrowful, and anxious?

Heartbroken, truly heartbroken.

When Sima Fa mobilized the treacherous officials of the Imperial City's Military Command to suppress rebellion, even bestowing the Divine Emperor's Seal upon them, eyewitnesses said that Linghu Qingqing and Gongyang Sanlü were filled with worry and indignation, vomiting blood on the spot and collapsing unconscious.

This was truly, genuinely heartbroken.

The foolish ruler, the treacherous minister—they have truly driven these two loyal ministers of the state to the brink of death.

Rumors spread far and wide: it was said that the two ministers, grieving excessively, felt the future of Great Jin was bleak, feeling unworthy of the heavy trust placed upon them by the common people, Linghu Qingqing and Gongyang Sanlü both harbored the intention of leading all their clansmen to flee into the barbaric wilderness, thereafter living in seclusion, unwilling to witness the miserable state of Great Jin buffeted by wind and rain, where the people could not make a living.

Thus, kind-hearted people from Anyang City, and even from the surrounding prefectures, came after great effort, gathering outside the mansions of Linghu Qingqing and Gongyang Sanlü, burning incense and making petitions, imploring the two ministers, out of compassion for the innocent common folk, not to abandon the people but to continue to strive and pour their hearts and blood for the Divine State of Great Jin.

For a time, blue smoke curled around the exteriors of the Linghu and Gongyang mansions, the pleas rising like rolling waves; the two lavish mansions were smoked through until they resembled the pits where cured meat is smoked.

While the two ministers were 'nursing their illness', the civil and military affairs of Anyang City became lax.

The Ministry of War, as well as the various bureaus controlled by civil officials, were like rusty gears—operation was difficult, dull and stiff; matters that could originally be settled by simply affixing a seal could not be resolved without a delay of half a month, basically impossible.

Thus, the situation on the southwestern front became somewhat delicate.

The deployment of reinforcements grew ever slower.

The transport of grain and fodder grew ever slower.

The replenishment of armaments grew ever slower.

Even during transport, the transport fleet suffered a number of accidents that should not have occurred—the most serious being when a huge transport ship, while carrying more than ten super-large-caliber main guns, actually rammed head‑on into a spatial gate that had not yet fully opened.

The transport ship exploded in a great blast; the spatial gate was struck by the explosion's shockwave and directly torn apart by spacetime turbulence.

The chain reaction completely destroyed more than ten spatial gates fore and aft; before those ten‑odd gates could be repaired, transporting supplies from the heartland of Great Jin to the southwestern front by ordinary warship would require an extra six or seven months at least.

The main force of Great Jin on the southwestern front immediately found itself somewhat strained.

But because the two ministers were in seclusion, all affairs became sluggish and stalled; the various documents and letters that fluttered back from the southwestern front like snowflakes piled up mostly on the War Ministry's desk, and without a month or two, basically no one would attend to them.

Around Anyang City, on the land where the Divine State of Great Jin rose, hundreds of prefectures fell into complete chaos.

Except for Wu Tie's fief of Yuzhou, several other first‑rank ducal fiefs also saw the troops of hundreds of prefectures rise in rebellion together, with hundreds of thousands of rebels forming guerrilla bands of various sizes that attacked cities and seized strongholds everywhere, looting and destroying at will.

Countless subjects of Great Jin were driven from the ancestral lands where their families had lived for generations, wailing to heaven and earth as the rebel forces chased them hither and thither.

Some joined the rebel forces, while others fled toward Anyang.

Moreover, large bands of refugees began marching toward the surrounding prefectures, spreading shocking news in all directions.

For example, among the rebels, someone actually raised a banner and hastily proclaimed himself king.

Furthermore, some people dragged the masses along, bewildering the troops, claiming to be the 'reincarnation of the myriad gods', saying they would patrol heaven on behalf of the gods and usher in a brand‑new divine state.

Moreover, it was not just one or two people but a whole scale: high‑ranking officers of the prefectural armies shouted the slogan 'I am the reincarnation of the founding Divine Emperor of the Divine State of Great Jin', leading the rebel forces straight to the imperial mausoleum of Great Jin, intending to dig up the tomb of the founding Divine Emperor and seize the legendary treasures buried with him that carry strong symbolic meaning.

The mausoleum's guard had long been abandoned; a mere few thousand stationed troops were shattered in a single blow by the rebels.

A huge mass of rebels, like a swarm of ants, frenziedly swarmed onto the mausoleum and began frantically digging into the tombs of the successive Divine Emperors of Great Jin.

Had it not been for the Divine State of Great Jin's Imperial Worship Academy taking action—several dozen worshipers of absolute strength, heedless of consequences, dealt a merciless blow, slaughtering nearly a million rebels who had offended imperial dignity in one battle—otherwise, Sima Wuyou, Sima Xian, and Sima Fa, three generations of grandfather, father, and son, would surely have had their ancestral graves dug up.

Amidst such wind‑rain tossed turmoil, Wu Tie held the Divine Emperor's Command in his left hand and, in his right, the Divine Emperor's Seal that Sima Fa had granted him for full authority, seated aboard a Four‑Spirit warship; thirty‑six Four‑Spirit warships led the way, with tens of thousands of warships and transport ships following closely, while the Four Courts and Twelve Guards' imperial troops marched out of Anyang City in mighty array.

After leaving the city by ten thousand li, behind the massive fleet openly followed thousands of tiny, extremely swift scout vessels.

In the high skies, moreover, there were scouts versed in evasion techniques, protected by secret treasures, leaving no trace in flight and possessing superb life‑preserving ability, who tailed the fleet.

Wu Tie allowed these people to follow behind him; he held the Divine Emperor's Seal, sensing a faint fluctuation within, and commanded the massive fleet to speed through the high skies.

After five hundred thousand li from the city, Wu Tie suddenly gave an order, and the massive fleet came to an abrupt halt.

The Four‑Spirit warships spewed four‑colored spiritual light, while heavenly fire feathers screamed forth in all directions; in an instant they smashed thousands of scout vessels to pieces, burning them into wisps of thin smoke.

Old Tie let out a long whistle, his body flickered, and a pair of black metal wings burst from his back; wielding a pitch‑black halberd and clad in a set of lustrous black armor, he turned into a flash of light, darting back and forth in the void thousands of times in rapid succession.

Turning into a strand of black light, he darted to and fro in the void at breakneck speed, like a great peng breaking through space—so fast that even those scouts could not conceive of it.

Over a thousand high‑level scouts dispatched by various factions were instantly wiped out by Old Tie, not a single one escaping.

Wu Tie waved his right hand; the Black Heaven Cauldron belched rolling black smoke, shooting up tens of thousands of feet, then great sheets of thick smoke rolled down from the heights; the void writhed, and a dozen or so masters of evasion techniques—so skilled that their bodies seemed almost one with the void—shrieked in agony as the Black Heaven Cauldron forcibly broke their evasion, driving them out.

Old Tie laughed loudly, the black metal wings behind him beating violently, a streak of black light shot forth and struck down those dozen or so extremely powerful pursuers in a single blow.

The Black Heaven Cauldron gave a gentle shake, and a thunderous boom shook the nine heavens.

The void fluctuated, yet no further silhouettes appeared; all the spies that had been tailing the rear of the Imperial City's Military Command army were completely swept away, leaving nothing.

In the next instant, Sima Wuyou, holding the Heirloom Jade Seal that Wu Tie had brought back from the southwest, appeared soundlessly beside Wu Tie without the slightest disturbance. The Heirloom Jade Seal emitted countless fine threads of light from its entire body; countless strands of light crossed the void, each falling upon a great mountain, a great river, a stretch of plain or valley.

At this moment, the Heirloom Jade Seal's aura was utterly different from when Wu Tie had brought it back.

Wu Tie, Pei Feng, even Old Tie, and the eyes of all the officers and soldiers under Wu Tie's command on the Four‑Spirit warships could not help but fall upon this Heirloom Jade Seal.

This Heirloom Jade Seal was like the pivot of heaven and earth, as if it connected the whole cosmos; it completely fused the mountains and rivers visible to the naked eye into one entity, turning into an elaborate, complex grand formation.

A formation born of nature, perfectly natural, without the slightest flaw.

Wu Tie stared at the Heirloom Jade Seal for a long while, then shook his head hard to free himself from its strange pull, saying: 'Your Majesty, this Heirloom Jade Seal seems…'

Sima Wuyou lightly stroked the seal in his hand and said calmly: 'This Heirloom Jade Seal is said to have been forged by the founding ancestor of our Great Jin…… In fact, it is a natural object, named the "Heaven‑Earth Seal", using heaven and earth as the chessboard, mountains and rivers as the pieces, gathering the myriad prefectures into a magnificent grand formation.'

'It can overturn heaven, cover earth, chaos the cosmos, and stabilize the universe.'

Sima Wuyou sighed softly: 'This treasure is indeed the strongest national‑protecting divine artifact of our Great Jin imperial clan; the so‑called Myriad Dragon Palace cannot even be compared to it.'

"Within the borders of our Great Jin Divine State, all things enter the Heaven-Earth Grand Formation and come under my control." Sima Wuyou solemnly looked at Wu Tie: "Such a divine artifact…… yet its demand on cultivation is extremely high, and moreover, such an artifact, if seen by outsiders, would be highly improper. For countless years, the true purpose of this treasure has been passed down orally among the Great Jin Divine Emperors, generation to generation, never leaving any written record."

Wu Tie and Pei Feng both stared blankly.

The true purpose of this Heaven-Earth Seal is known only to the Great Jin Divine Emperors of all ages?

Such a secret, and Sima Wuyou just openly told them like this? This……

But in the next moment, Wu Tie and Pei Feng both understood——this time, Sima Wuyou undoubtedly intends to unleash the supreme power of the Heaven-Earth Seal. If so, the true purpose of the Heaven-Earth Seal can no longer be hidden from others.

There is no point in continuing to conceal it.

Wu Tie and Pei Feng simultaneously clasped their fists toward Sima Wuyou in a salute.

Sima Wuyou smiled faintly, pointed a finger at the Heaven-Earth Seal, and a burst of strong light shot out, completely enveloping the vast fleet of the Royal City Army Command.

Beneath the fleet, countless mountains, plains, rivers, and lakes simultaneously emitted a faint glow.

In the next instant, the massive fleet was wholly displaced, traveling an unknown distance in a flash, arriving directly at the northwestern stronghold of the Great Jin Divine State, a prefecture called "Having Fox."

The prefecture of Having Fox is the ancestral land of the Linghu clan.

Originally, Having Fox was merely a subordinate prefecture of Great Jin, with a territory of over ten thousand li, scarce resources, and sparse population. But since the Linghu clan's ancestral land lies here, as the Linghu clan's status within Great Jin Divine State continually rose, Having Fox prefecture began to encroach upon and swallow neighboring prefectures.

Gradually, by six thousand years ago, the territory of Having Fox prefecture had become comparable to the fief of a powerful royal prince of the Great Jin imperial clan.

And with the Eastern Palace incident six thousand years ago, when Sima Sheng fled AnYang with the Eastern Palace remnants, the Linghu clan's authority surged, even faintly overshadowing the imperial authority, after which the area of Having Fox prefecture began to expand wildly.

Today, Having Fox prefecture, according to the records of the Great Jin Imperial Hall, bears the label of "Upper Prefecture," but in reality its land rivals that of twenty ordinary fiefdoms. Moreover, within Having Fox prefecture, the Linghu clan are the uncrowned kings; even an ordinary household servant of theirs can summon and command the magistrates of any commandery or city, as if they were slaves.

Furthermore, the influence of Having Fox prefecture extends to hundreds of neighboring prefectures; in those prefectures, half of the military leaders are direct descendants of the Linghu clan, and half are scions of families subordinate to the Linghu clan.

To speak frankly, the entire northwestern territory of the Great Jin Divine State is actually under the sole control of the Linghu clan.

Even the new prefectures opened up by the Divine Might Army in the northwest will eventually fall into the hands of the Linghu clan, becoming nourishment for their family's proliferation and growth.

Under Sima Wuyou's urging, the vast fleet of the Royal City Army Command appeared directly in the core region of Having Fox prefecture, beside a towering, cloud-piercing mountain range surrounded by desolate peaks, named "Fox Hill."

"Fox Hill" is the ancestral land of the Linghu clan; the ancestors of the Linghu clan rose from Fox Hill.

No matter how the Linghu clan calls the wind and summons the rain in AnYang, enjoying boundless glory, they always maintain a lineage of the purest blood, the most ancient ancestry, and the most noble status stationed at Fox Hill, never leaving a radius of a thousand li around it.

Within Fox Hill lie the Linghu clan's ancestral temple and family shrine, housing the spirit tablets of their forebears across the ages, and preserving countless secrets of the Linghu clan.

In the Linghu clan, whenever a clansman who held an official rank of third grade or higher in the court fails to survive the divine tribulation and fails to attain godhood, upon the exhaustion of his lifespan and his demise, he will be sent back to Fox Hill to be buried in the ancestral graves.

The significance of Fox Hill to the Linghu clan is that it is the object of faith, the tablet in the heart of every Linghu clansman, sacred and honorable, not to be offended in the slightest.

Sima Wuyou moved Wu Tie's fleet from the central heartland of the Great Jin Divine State directly to the northwestern region.

Pointing ahead at the faintly flickering lights of Fox Hill, Sima Wuyou said calmly: "Linghu Qingqing said, a foolish king and treacherous ministers misrule the state, letting rebel troops run amok and harm the people…… thus, it is only natural that a rebel army should suddenly appear in Having Fox prefecture and slaughter the entirety of Fox Hill."

Sima Wuyou gave a cold smile: "I will help you, seal the void, so no news will leak, no sound will escape…… Duke of Jade State, slaughter Fox Hill, strike mercilessly."

Wu Tie looked at Sima Wuyou in shock.

Linghu Qingqing was aggressive, and Sima Wuyou was clearly no pushover.

Not acting would be one thing, but once they acted, it would be a thunderbolt strike, directly hitting the vital point of the Linghu clan's heart.