Chapter 552: King of the Western Extremity, Spear King of the Northern Border

"Willing to use the body of an imperial bloodline to seek the Buddha's Nirvana Dao!"

Qin Zihong's resolute voice echoed through the empty great hall.

The "Buddha's Nirvana Dao" refers to cultivating the *Ten Seals of the Buddha* to the supreme realm.

Qin Zihong's words were not merely about shaving his head to become a monk, but about joining the Pudu Temple to become a core disciple!

The green lamp before the Buddha statue flickered, its gentle light reflecting upon the bowing Qin Zihong.

Jing Lian looked at the imperial prince before him with some surprise.

He had assumed the prince was merely a puppet-like figure, never expecting such a sudden move.

"Born into the imperial family and able to participate in the struggle for the throne, he is indeed no ordinary person."

Jing Lian thought to himself.

He turned around, facing the Buddha statue as well:

"Amitabha. Your Highness's worldly ties are not yet severed; it will be difficult to enter the gate of emptiness."

Qin Zihong maintained his bowing posture: "It is said that one can become a Buddha the moment one puts down the butcher's knife. Now, I am willing to put down everything; I only ask that your temple accept me as a disciple!"

Jing Lian actually had much more he could say, but he sensed Qin Zihong's determination and stopped wasting his breath:

"This matter is not something this old monk can decide. The Abbot is currently in seclusion. If Your Highness is sincere, please wait a few days for the Abbot to make the decision."

Qin Zihong had long expected the other party to say this, and without hesitation, he said:

"In that case, I shall kneel here until the Abbot emerges from seclusion!"

Jing Lian sighed: "Why must Your Highness be so aggressive?"

Qin Zihong: "If not like this, how can I show my sincere heart toward the Buddha?"

Jing Lian fell silent, standing in place, a strand of true Qi already transmitted through the air.

Although Jing Heng was in seclusion, it was not a death-seclusion; after all, he had to guard against the imperial court attacking at any time.

If there were any major events, Jing Lian could contact him at any time.

A moment later, a voice echoed in the great hall:

"Qin Zihong, are you truly willing to enter my Buddha gate?"

This voice was not loud, yet it gave one a sense of vastness, as if the Buddha Dharma were boundless.

Qin Zihong's body, prostrate on the ground, stiffened, and he immediately said loudly:

"This disciple is willing!"

"Amitabha."

With this Buddha name, the green lamp before the Buddha statue suddenly shone with great brilliance!

The 49th year of Hongguang, December 21st.

The Buddhist holy land, Pudu Temple, suddenly announced a piece of news to the outside world:

"Prince Qin Zihong of the Great Lan Dynasty, moved by the Buddha Dharma, has voluntarily joined Pudu Temple to become a disciple of the Buddha gate!"

Not long after the news spread, Qin Zihong, who had already become a disciple of the Buddha gate, issued a manifesto:

"I am Qin Zihong, son of the late Emperor, respectfully informing all the people of the world with blood and tears:

Alas! The great enterprise has collapsed, and the mountains and rivers are stained with blood. Although I am a wayward descendant of the imperial family, how can I bear to watch the ancestral temples gather dust?

Since the current Emperor ascended the throne, first two great desert nations breached the southern border, invading our lands and slaughtering the people!

Then the grassland royal court openly declared war, with a million archers at the eastern border!

Furthermore, northern barbarians have raised an army of a million, once again violating our borders!

With such occurrences, the nation is in turmoil, and the mountains and rivers are not at peace.

It is evident that the Emperor lacks virtue and is unworthy of bearing the weight of the Nine Tripods!

The great Lan palace is full of jackals in official caps, and before the golden throne are all monsters in official robes. This is not my private grievance, but the shared pain of the world!

I look upon the three realms as a burning house, grieving for the suffering of the six paths; only the Buddha Dharma can save the common people.

I am willing to use my imperial bloodline and my body as a Buddhist to establish a Buddha Kingdom in the land of the Western Extremity on January 1st of next year!

Let the Five Precepts replace the Five Punishments, and replace conquest with compassion.

I humbly pray that all Buddhas cast their light and Bodhisattvas protect us, so that the Asuras may cease war and the world may find peace.

If there are those who remain obsessed and aid the tyrant, the Vajra Pestle will show no mercy; if one can turn back toward goodness, the Eight Merits Water will wash away their sins.

I respectfully inform you with tears of blood, may heaven and earth bear witness!"

Although the imperial court ordered the sealing of all temples within the country and the arrest of all Buddhist practitioners, the Buddhist faith has deep roots spanning a thousand years and cannot be wiped out in a single day.

After Qin Zihong's manifesto was issued, apart from the Western Extremity Province, people in the other twenty-two provinces were secretly distributing leaflets or spreading the news through rumors.

Soon, the whole world knew that a new nation was about to appear within the Great Lan Dynasty!

On January 1st of next year, Qin Zihong would be at Pudu Temple, personally crowned by the living Buddha of the age, to become—

The King of the Western Extremity!

In an instant, the world was shaken, and the court and the public were in an uproar.

When Li Fei saw the manifesto written by Qin Zihong, he had just caught up with the Northern Expedition Army.

He first escorted Li Lei and the others to Lanling City, handing over the captured Ruan Chen to the Military Intelligence Bureau for interrogation.

Afterward, he took the two imperial retainers, Zhou Xuanwo and Bai Meng, to pursue the Northern Expedition Army that had already set out.

Li Fei could imagine what a huge sensation Qin Zihong's manifesto would cause!

The Third Prince's cooperation with the Buddhists was like seeking skin from a tiger, but at least it was still a struggle between imperial power and religious power.

It preserved the hope of suppressing the Buddhists in the future.

Now that the First Prince, Qin Zihong, had joined the Buddhists and established a nation as a disciple of Pudu Temple, this completely placed imperial power under religious power!

Initially, the Third Prince utilized his imperial bloodline and made extensive preparations beforehand, plus being in the central hub of Lanling City, which allowed the Buddhists to take advantage and directly invade the national destiny with Buddhist luck.

Now the imperial court was on guard, Qin Zihong was far away at Pudu Mountain, and the Buddhist luck had been damaged, making it impossible to repeat the scene from back then.

But this move by Qin Zihong could still cause a very bad influence on the Great Lan Dynasty!

Li Fei had previously told the Emperor to wait three years and not be in a hurry to take revenge on the Buddhists.

But now that the Buddhists were supporting Qin Zihong in establishing a Buddha Kingdom, this was simply unbearable!

The imperial court had to make a powerful counterattack; otherwise, the hearts of the people would be unstable, and Qin Ziheng's throne would not be secure either!

Yet, the Great Lan Dynasty was currently an enemy to the whole world, fighting on three borders simultaneously.

To have to open another front in its own heartland at this time was too much pressure!

Qin Zihong and the Buddhists had indeed chosen a good time.

Because the late Emperor died for the country, and they were in mourning for him, the new Emperor's enthronement ceremony had not yet been held.

Qin Ziheng was waiting to hold the enthronement ceremony on January 1st of next year, the first day of the Yuanxing era.

As it turned out, Qin Zihong and the Buddhists also chose this day to establish the Buddha Kingdom.

Li Fei could imagine how furious the Emperor would be upon learning of this!

The face of the Great Lan Dynasty was simply being trampled underfoot!

He sighed and summoned Xuan Chen, Zhou Xuanwo, Bai Meng, and the Commander of the Imperial Guard, Han Mu.

These four were the highest-ranking individuals in this Northern Expedition Army, besides himself, the Great General of the Northern Expedition.

"Everyone."

Li Fei's gaze swept across the four people present in turn:

"I have a plan."

Deafening gunfire hissed in the jungle.

Rotting leaves were crushed by large feet wrapped in animal skins, and a bronze-colored figure tore through the curtain of rain like a vicious wolf, charging toward the soldiers holding guns.

This soldier was also an experienced warrior; he calmly raised the Tiger-style rifle in his hand, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

Click!

The bullet jammed.

"Damn it!"

The soldier hurriedly reached for the revolver at his waist, while the Northern Barbarian warrior charging toward him was less than ten meters away.

The rock python tattoo on the Northern Barbarian warrior's forehead glowed with blood, and the poisoned blade slashed across the soldier's hand holding the gun first.

With a scream, a palm holding the revolver flew up, and then the blade pierced into the soldier's heart!

At the same time, another border soldier's battle knife also pierced into the chest of a Northern Barbarian warrior.

But this Northern Barbarian warrior, wearing a white-tooth necklace, actually gripped the blade with one hand, his strong muscles twitching crazily at the wound, clamping the battle knife tightly, while his other hand wielded a large knife to slash at his opponent!

Bang!

At the critical moment, the roar of a rifle came from more than ten meters away; a border soldier raised his gun and finished the shot, the 6.5mm lead bullet accurately hitting the Northern Barbarian warrior's temple.

As the Northern Barbarian warrior fell, the sound of bowstrings trembling echoed in the rotting air, and several arrows tore through the rain curtain, pinning the soldier who was pulling the bolt into a twitching hedgehog.

Heavy rain, jungle, chaotic battle.

More than fifty Northern border soldiers were fighting with over a hundred Northern Barbarian warriors!

This was behind the Northern border defense line, in a jungle near a town in Beichuan Province.

With the Northern Barbarian army invading, the Prince of Cheng, Qin Shixian, as the Provincial Military Commander of the Northern Border, abandoned the three occupied Northern Barbarian territories and contracted his forces to defend.

These three territories had no tall city walls or arrays to rely on, and in a situation where they were at an absolute disadvantage in numbers, Qin Shixian's choice was very decisive.

But even so, facing the million-strong Northern Barbarian army, with the ten thousand Northern border soldiers, it was impossible to defend five major cities and twenty-one military towns, and to make the six-hundred-mile Northern border defense line as solid as gold.

Actually, with the national strength of the Great Lan Dynasty, it was not that they couldn't afford more border soldiers.

It was just that, first, after the Mingxin Reform, the border soldiers' weapons were upgraded, so a large number of border soldiers were cut.

Second, the imperial court tilted most of its resources toward the Imperial Guard.

Compared to raising a million-strong army, it was obviously more cost-effective to raise a ten-thousand-level Imperial Guard.

If the Qingshuang Army were still on the Northern border, Qin Shixian wouldn't even need to choose to defend; even facing a million-strong army, he could divide his forces and take the initiative to attack everywhere!

But without the Qingshuang Army, the Northern border soldiers could only hold the cities and choose to defend to the death.

Under these circumstances, the Northern border defense line naturally had "loopholes" everywhere; many military towns had already been breached, and the Northern Barbarian army, in the form of scattered soldiers, had passed through the Northern border defense line from various places and entered the rear!

Regarding this, Qin Shixian's response was to also send out multiple elite teams to "hunt" the scattered Northern Barbarian soldiers within Beichuan Province.

With an absolute advantage in weapons and equipment, at least in local battlefields, the Northern border soldiers could completely defeat the enemy with fewer numbers and achieve many beautiful battle records.

At this moment, the dozens of Northern border soldiers in this jungle were a "hunter squad."

It's just that on the battlefield, the identities of hunter and prey are constantly changing.

A complex terrain, plus a sudden heavy rain, caused the weapon advantage of this hunter squad to plummet.

The Tiger-style rifles and Falcon Type III revolvers produced by the Great Lan Dynasty had a significantly increased failure rate in the heavy rain!

And the Northern Barbarian warriors, even if they were just ordinary people, had physiques far exceeding ordinary people.

Once the weapon advantage was gone, the hunter squad was in great danger.

"Prepare for hand-to-hand combat!"

Lan Yu wiped the rain from his face and roared loudly.

He was the captain of this hunter squad and also a martial artist in the Body-Breaking Realm.

The hunter squads selected from the border soldiers were all elites; although not everyone was a martial artist, the leader had to be at least a Qi-Refining martial master in the middle stage of Qi-Transformation.

Lan Yu, with his mere Body-Breaking Realm cultivation, could naturally become the leader of a hunter squad because of his unique qualities.

He had two Tiger-style rifles crossed on his back and also carried a large knife.

He held a Bertening pistol in each hand.

This gun was produced by the Deni Kingdom in the Western Continent five years ago, and its accuracy, stability, rate of fire, and magazine capacity far exceeded the revolvers commonly used in the army.

In this rainy weather, the rifles and revolvers used by the soldiers of the hunter squad all had more or less problems.

However, the two Bertening pistols in Lan Yu's hands would not have problems.

He ordered everyone to prepare for hand-to-hand combat, but he himself had no intention of abandoning his guns.

He ran in the heavy rain while simultaneously raising both guns to fire.

Gunshots rang out continuously, and almost every bullet could kill an enemy!

The dense jungle, the torrential rain, the dim light—none of these caused the slightest obstacle for Lan Yu.

His eyes emitted a faint ghostly light, his gaze calm and sharp, like a falcon catching prey in the dark night.

Thirty paces away, when a tall Northern Barbarian warrior raised his axe to cut a soldier in half at the waist, a 4.4mm caliber bullet accurately drilled into the bone gap of his neck.

Amidst the crisp sound of the cervical spine bursting, Lan Yu's left gun barrel lifted slightly, and the second bullet passed through the gap in the branches, blasting a blood mist from the throat of an archer behind...

Not a single shot missed, every shot was fatal!

Both sides in the battle had martial artists at the level of Qi-Refining martial masters, but in terms of killing efficiency, no one could compare to Lan Yu.

As a Body-Breaking Realm martial artist, he actually fought with the momentum of a powerhouse in the Dao-Foundation Realm!

His actions soon attracted the attention of the Northern Barbarian powerhouses.

A Northern Barbarian martial artist over two meters tall, covered in blue totems, strode toward Lan Yu.

While sprinting, this Northern Barbarian martial artist was shrouded in a layer of blue Qi.

He was a Qi-Refining martial master who had not erupted his Qi before to reduce consumption, relying only on his powerful physique to kill.

At this moment, erupting his Qi with full force, he was like a fierce tiger in the forest, killing with terrifying momentum!

The opponent's body shuttled back and forth in the forest, leaving behind trails of afterimages, and the rain falling on him was bounced away like arrows.

Lan Yu sensed this killing intent immediately and turned around to fire a shot without even looking.

The first bullet sparked at the center of the Northern Barbarian martial artist's brow and was bounced away by his Qi.

Only 0.5 seconds later, the second bullet followed, hitting the exact same spot!

Ripples appeared on the Northern Barbarian martial artist's protective Qi; he felt a trace of danger and further erupted his Qi, accelerating his movement speed.

The distance of more than thirty meters was covered in the blink of an eye.

Lan Yu's expression was cold, holding guns in both hands by his ribs, while simultaneously exerting force under his feet, his body leaping backward.

The charging Northern Barbarian martial artist exerted force almost at the same time as him, leaping forward like a fierce tiger pouncing to kill!

The fierce wind carrying a thick bloody smell rushed toward his face; Lan Yu stared fixedly at the opponent's blurred figure, enduring the urge not to blink, his wrists turning to adjust the muzzle.

When the Northern Barbarian martial artist's calloused palm was about to grip Lan Yu's throat, the third and fourth bullets, one after the other, rotated and drilled into the impact point chiseled out by the first two bullets—

The third bullet completely broke through the opponent's protective Qi, and the fourth bullet hit the center of the opponent's brow!

The muffled sound of the bullet penetrating the skin mixed with the crisp sound of the skull shattering; the martial artist's final momentum carried Lan Yu into a red cedar tree behind him.

Splashing brains pulled out sticky silver threads between the two; Lan Yu's face flushed red, and he was only a hair's breadth away from having his neck twisted!

From the moment this Northern Barbarian martial artist suddenly erupted to the moment he crossed more than thirty meters to kill Lan Yu, it took only a second or so, which could be described as fast as lightning.

And in this second or so, while the opponent was maintaining high-speed movement and his own body had lost balance, Lan Yu fired four shots in a row, and the impact point of every shot was exactly the same!

You must know, he wasn't fighting an ordinary person, but a Qi-Refining martial master.

Such marksmanship could be described as god-like!

It was precisely by relying on such marksmanship that Lan Yu could become the leader of this hunter squad.

He also had a nickname in the Northern border soldiers—Spear King!

With a crack, the red cedar tree as thick as a bowl that Lan Yu hit broke with a roar.

He spat out a mouthful of blood, feeling as if the spine on his back had also broken.

If it weren't for the physique of a martial artist, this impact alone could have cost him his life.

Lan Yu took less than half a second to change new magazines for his two Bertening pistols.

The two Bertening pistols he used were carefully tuned and modified by a master, enhancing the continuity and accuracy of shooting.

This was the key to his survival in the hands of a Qi-Refining martial master.

Just now, if any one of his bullets had deviated even slightly, he would have been the one to die!

Having walked before the gates of hell, Lan Yu remained calm, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and continued to throw himself into the battle...

More than thirty minutes later, relying on Lan Yu's efficient killing, this battle finally ended with the victory of the hunter squad, and the Northern Barbarians fled after leaving behind more than fifty corpses.

"Treat the wounded, pay attention to finishing off the enemy!"

Lan Yu shouted loudly in the rain with a hoarse voice.

More than an hour later, more than twenty border soldiers with more than a dozen wounded soldiers transferred to under a cliff to avoid the rain.

"We've lost almost half of our men, and our elixirs and ammunition are almost used up. We need to rest and reorganize; we can't keep fighting."

An old soldier with a face full of whiskers approached Lan Yu and said in a hoarse voice.

Lan Yu, who had just finished a victorious battle, looked somewhat gloomy; he looked at the old soldier:

"Old Zhang, have the brothers pool together the remaining elixirs, pick out the ones I can use, and give them all to me."

The old soldier named Old Zhang nodded, having no objections to this.

Before martial artists become martial arts masters, they cannot directly absorb the world's vitality from the outside world, and replenishing energy can only rely on eating and taking elixirs.

Eating is too inefficient, and elixirs that replenish energy for implants are necessary supplies on the battlefield.

Lan Yu and the others had entered Beichuan Province for five days, fighting continuously for five days, fighting more than a dozen battles, large and small, and the elixirs they carried were almost exhausted.

Although there were still martial masters in the Qi-Transformation stage in the team, everyone knew that giving the elixirs to Lan Yu so he could continue to display his extraordinary abilities was the choice with the greatest return.

Lan Yu had two extraordinary abilities: one could enhance dynamic vision and nerve reaction speed, and one could sense danger.

Precisely because he had such extraordinary abilities, he chose to practice marksmanship hard, eventually becoming the Spear King of the Northern border soldiers.

"These are all the elixirs you can use."

Old Zhang soon returned and handed Lan Yu three bottles of elixirs.

"Damn it, these are not durable enough."

Lan Yu cursed while opening a bottle of elixirs and pouring them into his mouth:

"You say, once this war starts, how many elixirs does the entire Northern border consume in a day?"

Old Zhang shook his head: "God knows. Fighting a war is just burning money! Fortunately, the Northern Barbarians are much poorer than us. Even if they have more people, they definitely won't be able to outlast us in the end."

Although half of their brothers were casualties, Old Zhang's brow was still full of confidence in victory!

"Right, the Northern Barbarians have poor mountains and evil waters, what money do they have."

Lan Yu also nodded in agreement.

Fighting a war, at the top level, is a competition of powerhouses on both sides.

Lan Yu and the others didn't understand this too well.

But the Northern Barbarians raised a million-strong army this time, but they were completely scattered, attacking on multiple lines.

It's like a million ants scattered in a city; even if a top powerhouse can stomp a large area of ants to death with one foot, can they stomp all a million ants in the city to death? (Note 1)

But if you don't go to block these ants, the foundation of your own city will be slowly corroded by these ants, resulting in heavy losses.

You can only rely on ants to deal with ants.

This requires the combat effectiveness of grassroots soldiers.

And logistics is undoubtedly the top priority.

The hunter squad where Lan Yu and the others were located rarely had Dao-Foundation Realm powerhouses sitting in command.

It wasn't that the Northern border soldiers couldn't produce so many Dao-Foundation Realm powerhouses, but that Dao-Foundation Realm martial artists required more elixirs, had higher requirements for logistical supplies, and were more suitable for tough battles or city defense battles, not suitable for long-term guerrilla warfare.

If you fight and fight, and the implant runs out of energy, and a dignified Dao-Foundation Realm powerhouse is surrounded and killed by a group of ordinary soldiers, that would be too much of a loss!

By the same token, further up, although martial arts masters can absorb the world's vitality, if they fight for a long time, even if they have supernatural powers specifically for recovery, they still can't hold on and need high-quality elixirs to replenish energy.

So in this large-scale guerrilla warfare, neither the Northern Barbarians nor the Great Lan Dynasty invested powerhouses at the middle and high levels.

Sharpshooters like Lan Yu, on the contrary, could play a big role in this kind of guerrilla warfare.

"I heard that the Western Continent delegation brought new types of weapons that can allow rifles to fire continuously like machine guns, and they are light in weight, high in accuracy, and fast in rate of fire."

Lan Yu suddenly chatted about this, full of envy:

"Damn it, if someone got me one of these guns, I could even kill Dao-Foundation Realm powerhouses!"

Old Zhang on the side didn't feel that Lan Yu was bragging, but nodded instead:

"Indeed, if we could each have one such weapon, how could so many people have died in today's battle?"

Lan Yu suddenly thought of something: "Old Zhang, do you think those countries in the Western Continent would sell their weapons to the Northern Barbarians, sell them to the grassland, sell them to the two great desert nations?"

Old Zhang was stunned, and his face changed immediately:

"Should, not, right?"

"Damn it!"

Lan Yu couldn't help but curse.

He knew that if this guess were true, then he and his brothers might all die in this war!

This Northern border Spear King leaned against the wet rock wall, looked up at the sky, and was lost in thought.

The heavy rain was still falling, and billions of raindrops were smashing onto the earth with unstoppable force.

And the war would not stop because of the death of a group of ants.

Note 1: Actually, before writing this book, I often saw some readers complaining that in a world where great power belongs to oneself, ordinary soldiers are not needed at all.

Besides the "snowball tactic," I think this book also writes about another use for ordinary soldiers, which is scattered soldier warfare~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 553 =====