Chapter 249: Refining the Military Officials

The Great General for Examining, Attaching, Binding, and Subduing Demons returned to the Xiaodifu, and from the Huangquan Shanggong, summoned the Fengdu Water Official. This Fengdu Water Official is in charge of all matters concerning the deaths of underwater creatures, and the master of this Fengdu Water Official is "Fish Gill," who ranks among the ten great Yin Marshals of the Xiaodifu.

Ranked alongside him are Heibai Wuchang, Niutou Mian, Riyou, Yeyou, Baowei, Niaozui, Huangfeng, and Dadu Guiwang.

Under the command of Yin Marshal Fish Gill are all the aquatic tribes of the Huangquan; those responsible for soul-hooking are all manner of aquatic oddities and demon clans, who, upon reaching the end of their lifespans, must be hooked into the Yinming.

Their true spirits are cast into reincarnation, while the rest are utilized further.

The Great General for Examining, Attaching, Binding, and Subduing Demons inquired about the water of the Huangquan from this Fengdu Water Official.

That Water Official took out a bowl and, acting stingy, poured out a small bottle: "Is this enough for the General?"

"What is this little bit good for? The water of the Huangquan is infinite; why are you being so stingy?"

"This Huangquan water is one of the Nine Great True Waters of the world. Taking it directly from the Huangquan results in cold evil, and the seven emotions and six desires of all living beings are hidden within it; it is 'mixed water.' My water, however, is Huangquan Purified Water, used to brew Mengpo Soup and Forget-Love Water. This item is a supreme treasure of the soul path. Besides me, the Fengdu Water Official, who has the ability and means to produce this kind of Huangquan water? If I put it on the market, I sell it drop by drop to those cultivators of the Form Realm."

The Great General for Examining, Attaching, Binding, and Subduing Demons said: "I don't care how you make your money, but this Huangquan water is of great use to me. Give me more, and I will repay you in the future."

The Water Official had no choice but to pour out a bit more, changing from a small bottle to a Gourd. This Gourd was not large, about the size of a palm, and even when full, it held only about a liter.

Yet it made the Water Official feel pained, and he said straight out: "The Great General must have found good fortune. I won't say anything else, but if you encounter any evil flood dragons or the like in the mortal world, bring me back a dragon soul. I want to refine a Huangquan Subduing Dragon Map to assist in my cultivation."

"Then you have asked the right person. I have recently established a connection with a Lingbao Heavenly Master in the mortal world; he possesses the Daoist lineage of the Heavenly Master Xu who once beheaded a flood dragon."

The Fengdu Water Official looked thoughtful: "So that is how it is."

The Great General for Examining, Attaching, Binding, and Subduing Demons obtained this Gourd of Huangquan water and arrived before the altar of Xu Jia in the mortal world, offering the Gourd: "Heavenly Master, I have not failed the mission; I have brought out the Huangquan water."

Xu Jia saw such a large Gourd, and even the fact that this Gourd could hold Huangquan water was extraordinary; it was a Gourd grown on the banks of the Huangquan River, a natural Dharma treasure.

This Gourd is called the Nine-Nine Nether Gourd, said to have sprouted from the seeds of a Spirit Root brought down from the Heavenly Realm by Fengdu Dadi. Xu Jia had already heard of this treasure when he served at the Dongkong Qingling Palace; it required thirty years of savings from working in the underworld to redeem one. This treasure can collect souls, store items, and even house Spirit Generals! Xu Jia had not expected that he only wanted some Huangquan water, and this Great General had brought him an entire Gourd. By rights, to refine Spirit Generals, one only needs a few drops of Huangquan water mixed into purified water to turn it into water mist to cultivate the Spirit Generals.

This Gourd, a full liter, could actually be used by Xu Jia to do other things.

For example, to cultivate the Nine-Turn Hundred-Winding Intestine Deity among the Internal Scene Body Deity Appearances, thereby constructing the reincarnation and Yinming system within the small world.

It is just that having only this Huangquan water is not enough; one also needs Taiyin Qi, Lesser Yin Array Qi, and Jueyin Qi—the three Yin Qis of the human body—to coordinate with the six types of Yin Qi between heaven and earth. These six types of Yin Qi are all stored within the Fengdu Liutian.

It is just that it would be unreasonable to trouble this Great General further. It would be better to go find Huang Zhenren of the underworld.

Only by using the Nine Yin Qi to blend with the Nine Nethers can one cultivate the Lower Prime Eight Vistas among the Three Primes and Eight Vistas, to correspond to the reincarnation and Yinming realm within the human body's small world.

Furthermore, Huangquan water can cleanse the Primordial Spirit, refine away distracting thoughts, and possesses the intent of the Supreme Purity, making it suitable for assisting in the cultivation of the Sitting-in-Oblivion method. In the future, when cultivating the Yang Spirit, it will have inconceivable effects.

Of course, Huangquan water has other uses; for example, to refine the famous Forget-Love Pill, one needs Huangquan water and daylily flowers as raw materials, adding winter cicada sloughs and summer honeysuckle to complete the refinement.

Xu Jia thanked this Fengdu Great General again, left behind a secret name, and offered it at the altar together.

The Great General for Examining, Attaching, Binding, and Subduing Demons knew that Xu Jia was already preparing to build a temple and govern the Dharma Realm in the mortal world, so he did not say much more, simply returning to his residence to inform the other three Great Generals of this matter.

These four Great Generals do not receive much incense fire in the world; in fact, they are only famous within the Fengdu Beidi Fama and hold low status. In the Desire Realm, they still have some ability to perform Overturning Altars and Smashing Caves and to drive away evil and possess bodies, but once they reach the Form Realm, they are completely reduced to mere underlings.

The four Fengdu Ghost Generals gathered and discussed, saying: "Helping a person become an Immortal brings great Merit. This Lingbao Heavenly Master, I see, has destiny. Moreover, we also know his roots and origins."

"He originally had the achievements of a God Immortal and was a figure who ascended to the Shangjie. Due to a momentary lapse in judgment, he fell to our Dongkong Qingling Palace. He must have gone through the connections of Huang Zhenren. Huang Zhenren is a figure at the level of an Earth Immortal Ancestor, but besides the face of Huang Zhenren, he has actually received a mandate from the Wuyue Mansion to oversee demon affairs in the Jiangnan West Circuit. It is clear that he has already marked this place as his field of Merit."

"If we can invest and bet on him, when he ascends to the Shangjie in the future and achieves merit, we can also take the opportunity to climb higher."

All four Great Generals felt this was good. They planned to visit Xu Jia together with the Great General for Examining, Attaching, Binding, and Subduing Demons next time, and at that time, they would also receive a Register, so that in the future, when disciples receive their Registers, they would also worship them to lead the Spirit Generals and Military Officials... This is precisely the method of the Three-Day Covenant.

The Dharma Registers of disciples of various sects are all like this: their own official rank, what kind of Spirit Generals they can summon, what kind of Military Officials they have, what weapons the Military Officials carry, what armor they wear, what mounts they have, and what specific duties they have, will all be written down one by one.

Regardless of these people, Xu Jia took out eight drops of Huangquan water and poured them into a water vat. He then gathered the essence of Taiyin, exercised the Dharma incantations, and attached these Yue people Military Officials onto small paper figures, one by one, stepping them into this water, just like dropping dumplings into a pot.

These Military Officials had too strong a personal will and belonged to the category of ghost demons. Xu Jia specifically washed away their ghost demon Evil Qi and cleared their seven emotions and six desires.

For the Northern Emperor Black Demon Huangquan Nether Dragon Military Officials, besides the Huangquan, one also needs a Nether Dragon.

The Nether Dragon is easy to explain; it is this black dragon that the Yue people are dancing with. However, Xu Jia further summoned the Nether Qi of heaven and subdued the Dragon Vein of the earth, which also combines into a Nether Dragon. How to understand this? It means dotting the acupoint on a Dragon Vein and burying the dead, thereby nourishing the corpse, and the residual Qi of the remains will bless the descendants; this can serve as a Nether Dragon.

That is to say, this troop of Military Officials needs to find a deep mountain ancient cave, a place with a Dragon Vein, to set up an altar and refine it as a station for the Military Officials.

This was originally a harsh condition, but the Xin River Water Mansion perfectly met this requirement. The Water Mansion is the core of the Xin River water vein; it is just that Earth Veins are hard to change, water veins also change, mountain dragons can be dotted, but water dragons are hard to fathom.

Furthermore, this Water Mansion was refined by Ao Jin. Ao Jin is a carp; in other words, a "Submerged Dragon," so he counts as a dragon. Moreover, this water passes through Dexing and Yushan, and Dexing is suppressed by a copper dragon, so it is not lacking in Dragon Qi; it is a place where the mountain and water dragons combine.

Yet it was seen that after these Yue people Military Officials were refined, the black Qi on their bodies completely vanished, their ghost bodies became clear, but an inexplicable power emerged, causing black scales to grow on their bodies, transforming into armor plates, just like a black dragon coiling around their bodies as armor.

The original thoughts of these Military Officials had been washed away; what remained were only the thoughts of battle and military formation, completely for Xu Jia's use.

"Gather!"

Suddenly, the eight hundred Military Officials each transformed into scales, bones, and tendons, entering the Talisman dragon boat that Xu Jia had prepared in advance.

The next moment, the dragon boat came alive, a Nether Dragon swam in the water, and at the same time, its whole body exhaled the breath of the Huangquan and Yinming.

Xu Jia had only improved this method after seeing the Yellow Heaven Sect's Yellow Heaven Warriors combine into mechs; he did not expect that he could really use the dragon boat to combine and transform into a true Nether Dragon.

Xu Jia then increased the intensity of his refinement, and one Wish Power Copper Coin after another appeared, beginning to burn themselves. Using the method of "Borrowing the False to Cultivate the True," he made these Military Officials begin to become "reasonable."

The dragon boat itself also began to transform into a "Military Official container," which is the so-called special Bingma Jar.

Xu Jia is currently not lacking in Incense Wish Money, but he is quite short of small copper coins, gold coins, and silver coins.

Eight hundred Incense Wish Copper Coins were consumed, and this dragon boat Bingma Jar was refined.

For a time, the wind rose and the clouds surged. The next instant, many insects flew toward the Dharma Altar; these insects were all things like wasps and dragonflies.

But they were all swallowed by the Nether Dragon and became food for the Military Officials.

Wasps and dragonflies are both predators, and they are also what this kind of altar Military Official likes to eat.

Refining Military Officials also requires raising them; raising and refining are one. Ghost Gods eat Qi and also eat spirituality. Especially this kind of Military Official, they demand a lot of Blood Food. Many evil altar Military Officials, if they cannot be subdued, require constant sacrifice of Blood Food.

These kinds of wasps and dragonflies, although counted as Blood Food, take more of the meaning of ferocity.

Xu Jia certainly would not sacrifice Blood Food to these Military Officials.

But soaking fierce things like wasps and poisonous scorpions in wine is a superior feeding material for raising Military Officials than Blood Food.

This troop of Northern Emperor Black Demon Nether Dragon Military Officials ate some wasps and dragonflies, and each of their fierce natures erupted, wanting to turn against and devour Xu Jia.

"Buzz!"

Xu Jia let out a Thunder Sound from his throat, instantly restraining them. Like a swarm of bees returning to the hive, they also returned to the dragon boat. The activated dragon boat landed on the Dharma Altar and no longer revealed any wonders.

The rain falling from the sky also came to an end at this time.

Xun Taizi curiously poked at the dragon boat, and the Military Officials inside made threatening sounds.

Xu Jia paid no attention and simply began to refine the second troop of Military Officials.

This second troop numbered a full five thousand and consisted of soldiers from the previous dynasty, the Dragon-Tiger Naval Force.

Xu Jia had collected this troop along with their ships, so refining them required refining the men and the ships together.

However, their ghost ships could only travel on water, or at least possessed the concept of water, but Xu Jia's thinking had now been opened up; how could these ships be such inconvenient objects? He could not build an aircraft carrier, and as for flying saucers or starships, Xu Jia only had a concept for them; if he burned them as paper offerings for them, this group of ancient ghosts probably wouldn't know how to operate them either.

Thus, Xu Jia intended to refine them into a "mirror," for the water's surface is like a mirror, and the mirror's surface is like water, corresponding above to the moon of Great Yin and below to the water of all things.

Moreover, a mirror can contain the infinite and possesses its own world within; combined with the spatial attributes of the ghost ships' mist, they could naturally appear and disappear like spirits, integrating sea, land, and air, so there would be no need to be restricted to ships, water, or mist.

(End of this chapter)