Chapter 298: Bombarding the Evil God

As a medical apprentice, Chen Liuxian was also dragged overseas.

Because Ao Jin's father cast spells in the South Sea to assist them with favorable winds and currents, this fleet, originally planned to reach Luzon in eight to twelve days, only took five days.

The captain had never felt such smooth sailing; the daytime was one thing, but there was even assistance at night.

Upon arriving at the Luzon wharf and harbor, the local indigenous bureaucrats and tribal chiefs developed great hostility toward these immigrants.

On the contrary, the Japanese pirates and the people of the Longevity Sect kept their distance; among the Japanese pirates were Yin-Yang Masters, similar to the Secret Sect, who all bound ghosts and demons to themselves, only they called them "Shikigami"—in fact, this was also from when the Esoteric Buddhism traveled east to preach and reached Japan.

They sensed an extremely dangerous presence from the ship.

As for the Longevity Sect members, to tell the truth, this portion of Longevity Sect members also belonged to the "double-dealers"—in the sect they listened to the sect, but outside the sect they sought personal gain, still for the sake of money.

It was best to use the indigenous people to test the waters.

After all, others came carrying goods, but you came carrying several thousand people; several thousand people could wipe out quite a few tribes.

Luzon actually had a king; they had paid tribute to the Central Plains during the Great Heng Dynasty, but according to the tribute records, the registered population of the Luzon Kingdom at that time was no more than twenty thousand, yet when the king came to the Central Plains to pay tribute, he brought over two thousand people, and later even thought about lingering in the capital without leaving, eventually being sent back by the Sifang Hall (which specialized in receiving foreign envoys).

However, this kingdom later fell into ruin within a few years because the king was only addicted to pleasure and wanted to replicate the Central Plains' cultural system, which caused dissatisfaction among the various tribal chiefs and nobles, leading them to no longer respect him as king.

After the Luzon king fell, the island's indigenous tribes each went their own way; a portion walked very closely with Japan, learning Japanese culture—whatever Daimyo, minor names, retainers, Elders, shrines, and shrine maidens, it was all a mess. It was basically considered colonized by Japan.

Later, when merchants from the Great Ning Dynasty came here to do business, they intimidated them, saying, "Japan is a vassal of our Great Ning, and you are also vassals of our Great Ning; you pay tribute to Japan but do not pay tribute to Great Ning—do you intend to rebel?" Don't look at these merchants as just merchants; those who could go to sea all had arms in hand. A group of merchants from Min, Zhe, and Yue pooled together, organized an armed force of two thousand, fought a battle against the Japanese on the island, and drove them away.

Later, these merchants feigned letting them pay tribute, but it was actually just to dump goods and make money; they didn't let them truly pay tribute to the imperial court. The imperial court didn't know about this matter either.

It wasn't until later that the Longevity Sect rose up to rebel, and that Wanshou Emperor of the Longevity Sect seized Ryukyu and established a Dao Kingdom (Demon Kingdom) in a place near Japan, claiming that these few islands were the overseas immortal mountains that Qin Shi Huang had asked Xu Fu to find.

At this time, the sea became chaotic again; the Longevity Sect coerced Japanese ronin samurai and frequently harassed the various provinces, and these merchants had no way to trade normally.

At first, they also fought battles, but how could merchants compete with the Longevity Sect's Evil Masters and Demon Gods? They soon suffered great losses, to the point that Luzon was almost lost.

By that time, the Longevity Sect had Libationers who ran to this place to preach, using these indigenous people for primitive sacrifices and terror-based preaching to cultivate Demon Gods that could be used for binding.

These tribes originally had various primitive worships and tribal guardian spirits; after being tossed about by the Longevity Sect, they fell into chaos one after another and turned into Outer Path Evil Gods.

Later, in order to make money, the merchants turned around and joined the Longevity Sect; besides paying high offerings, they could at least learn some sect methods, right? Although the Longevity Sect methods were evil, they were fast to master, required no aptitude, and were very efficacious. As for the side effects, they weren't afraid; no matter what, the Longevity Sect wouldn't go against money, and fighting the Great Ning Dynasty also required money. That place where Ryukyu connected to Japan was poor as hell, resources were scarce, and without these merchants, this Demon Kingdom couldn't function normally.

In short, the situation in Luzon was relatively complex and hard to crack; reclaiming the land had a certain degree of difficulty. Now that Xu Jia had sent ships to immigrate, intending to build a Dao Kingdom here, he needed to make enemies of these Evil Gods, Evil Sects, and the merchants who believed in the Evil Sect, and even the over one hundred thousand indigenous people locally.

An indigenous official said in broken Chinese: "This is the territory of our Snake God Tribe; we do not welcome you here! You have too many people; you are not allowed to land on the island."

"Snake God?" Chen Gongming stood up, and Chang Yuying beneath his feet supported his huge body, swimming along with the wind: "We are also Snake Gods here; it is the same for you to worship this Snake God!"

He laughed heartily, wearing armor on his body. This armor was divided into two layers; the innermost was a chain-mail soft armor, and the outer armor was made of impact-formed steel. The chain-mail soft armor weighed forty-five jin, and the armor weighed sixty-five jin, totaling one hundred and ten jin, but this was not considered too heavy for him.

This burly man, before he practiced, was a strong bear, and people gave him the nickname Chen Pizi. He passed the Martial Scholar exam, had the small success of the Martial Dao First Realm, and had the ordinary strength of seven or eight hundred jin, which could reach over a thousand jin when he exploded with power.

What's more, after he took Xu Jia as his master and obtained the Register method, he practiced the "Inner Thunder" from the Heavenly Gang Thunder Law. The Tiger-Leopard Thunder Sound and the Fishing Toad Thunder Sound were all Life Merit skills that strengthened his power. During these days of teaching the five hundred Daoist children, he also obtained the nourishment of Poyang Flood Dragon meat; he could fight the Mountain Lord Great Tiger on the mountain and wrestle with Human Immortal realm Flood Dragons in the sea.

He was originally from a proper military official background, and now with armor on his body, his temperament and manner were like a Heavenly King Great General descended from heaven, not to mention standing on Chang Yuying's head—such a giant python, looking like a king cobra over ten zhang long, had an even more intense sense of oppression.

Compared to Chen Gongming, these indigenous people were simply like wild monkeys from Emei Mountain, the difference between a skeleton and a Diamond.

In Chen Gongming's hand was a "Heavenly Gang Whip," totaling seven sections, with a steel tube in the middle containing mercury and steel beads.

Whenever it was used, the mercury flowed and the steel beads slid, creating a force of Dark Jin.

He had crafted this thing himself, exhaled essence and Qi into it, and injected his divine intent; it was not a Magic Tool, but a type of combat weapon.

"This General comes by the order of Lingbao Xu Celestial Master to do business with you in this realm."

The snake-shaped tattoo on the indigenous official's body turned scalding hot; the so-called Snake God sensed Chang Yuying's aura and trembled, not daring to respond.

Their tribe's guardian spirit was actually a poisonous snake with two hundred years of Daoist Practice, possessing many snake descendants. The shaman took snake venom, snake gall, and snake blood, combined them with herbs, and added some occult knowledge to concoct ink, which was then tattooed into their bodies, allowing them to obtain the Snake God's power by consuming blood Qi.

But they could not compare to the two big snakes, Chang Yuying and Chang Yu'e; they were king cobras, specializing in eating other poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. Moreover, although the sisters' Daoist Practice had not reached five hundred years, they had obtained the Register method and followed the path of the Teng Snake or Gouchen, and their status was much higher than these wild overseas demons and gods.

The indigenous leader gathered his courage: "What business? Why do you need so many people?"

Chen Gongming said: "Land business; who among you can make the decision to sell land to us?"

Sun Bao hurriedly ran over: "Great General, what is there to buy or sell? Just fire a few shots, and it will all be ours."

"No, no, the Master repeatedly instructed not to start an unprovoked war. We must buy the land first; if he doesn't sell it to us, that is another matter." Hui Zhuo was still on the ship, and he said to Jiang Qi and Shen Bao: "Have you used this cannon before? Do you know how to use it?"

"We have never used it."

"Silly, this is very easy to use. Watch me fire a shot!" Hui Zhuo loaded the gunpowder and inserted a Flowering Shell that could explode.

This cannon was different from the clumsy cannons in his impression; it was actually thinner and longer, and the cannonball was not that thick and large—these could be transported off the ship.

The cannon barrel was engraved with rifling, and after the cannonball was loaded, it did not need a fuse to ignite, because at the bottom of the cannonball there was an ignition device containing Thunder Mercury; as long as this was ignited, the cannonball could be triggered.

How to ignite it? There was a needle here connected to the outside; as long as one mastered the method, one could release an electric spark at the tip—it was basically just a tap.

Hui Zhuo aimed it at the shore, looking with Qi-sight, and saw a place where Black Qi was surging: "Watch closely, I'm blowing this up!"

Then he pressed that button, and the next moment, with a boom, he didn't see anything pop out, only blue fire emerging from the cannon muzzle.

Only when the cannonball flew far away could one see a black dot; when it landed, there was a loud noise, and although the explosion didn't create a mushroom cloud, it devastated the trees and left a large pit several zhang wide on the flat ground.

Xiaopangdun laughed smugly, and looking with Qi-sight, the Black Qi had already dissipated completely.

"Didn't you say not to fire the cannon easily?"

"That was not to fire the cannon at people easily; what I just hit wasn't a person, it should have been an Evil God, or some demon or monster."

The huge explosion sounded like thunder from heaven, and the sound traveled who knows how many miles. The target hit was actually not far from the ship, less than five hundred zhang; five hundred zhang was within the truth range of this kind of cannon, and at about a thousand zhang, it wouldn't hit and would land and explode prematurely.

The indigenous official looked at the place of the explosion, which had already been completely overturned, and only felt his tattoo go cold, never having that hot feeling again: "Snake God Temple! Snake God Temple!"

It would have been fine if he hadn't fired the cannon, but once he did, Chen Gongming became alert, while cursing inwardly: "Who fired the cannon recklessly, ignoring the orders!"

But unexpectedly, other indigenous people, upon seeing this kind of cannon, knelt down one after another, their mouths shouting things like "God of Thunder, calm your anger."

Chen Gongming had thought the other side would be wearing grass skirts, barefoot, holding spears and bows, and fighting his own people to the death.

The tribal official looked at the cannon on the ship with a fearful expression; they hadn't noticed it just now, but now that they saw it, this ship actually had this kind of cannon...

Jiang Qi and Shen Bao brought out the outstanding ones among the five hundred disciples; the armor on their bodies was leather armor, with steel plates protecting only the key parts, and in their hands they held lengthened Three-Eyed Fire Muskets, which could be used as both cold weapons and hot weapons. They were already loaded and pointed straight at the indigenous people; as long as they ignited them, they could fire in rows, and the iron sand inside would shoot them all into sieves.

Although the indigenous people had never seen this kind of weapon, seeing these pitch-black holes made their legs go weak, their hearts panic, and their whole bodies break out in cold sweat.

"What are you doing?" Chen Gongming questioned them: "What we want is safe production, not to come here to fight a war! Master Xu is still waiting for us to bring grain back!"

"We came to help the instructor!"

"You bunch of dog pups, could I really be slaughtered by these native monkeys?"

"Who fired the cannon just now?"

"The Senior Martial Brother fired the cannon; he said he was firing at the evil god, and it seems he hit it."

"That is not a problem; the evil god must be eliminated. They can only have one faith, and that is Lingbao!" Chen Gongming softened his tone.

He then loudly scolded the terrified natives: "Are you going to sell me the land or not? If you won't sell, then authorize us the right to reclaim the wasteland, but the land after reclamation will be ours."

The native official was scared senseless by Chen Gongming, who appeared like a Heavenly King descended to the world, and could not say a single word.

In fact, in their tribe, those with the power to speak were the gods, while the shamans and leaders all served the gods, but the deity had just been blasted to death by that cannon shot from afar.

"Since there is no answer, then it is taken as consent."

Chen Gongming waved his hand: "Pass on my order: disembark! All demons are to explore the environment and search for resources, water sources, and fertile soil—preferably around rivers and Lake—and report back!"

Immediately, some small demons darted out; weasels, foxes, as well as birds like sparrows and magpies, having received the order, all went off to investigate.

"Jiang Qi, Shen Bao, you lead three hundred disciples to fell trees and gather stones, while also standing guard and patrolling; kill any large wild beasts. The remaining two hundred disciples are to hold the ships and don't let them raid our base."

"As for the rest of the laborers, set up camp on the spot; first pitch the tents, then transport the supplies from the ships, and then start fires to cook food and prepare logistics!"

"Sun Bao, you and the other merchants, go and trade with the native leaders you are familiar with; you may act on your own."

(End of this chapter)