Chapter 165: The Clouds are Murky and Treacherous

On the same day, Yunzhou City was breached. After the barbarian army slaughtered and looted the city, they headed directly south, where they collided with tens of thousands of Imperial Guards defending the capital.

Inside the Imperial Palace of the capital, within the Grand Temple, Emperor Pingyu was still holding the sacrificial ceremony for the sages.

Inside the Grand Temple, besides the spirit tablets of past emperors, there were three majestic golden statues; these three statues represented the three founding sages of the Great Xia.

On the offering table in front of the dharma images of the three sages were placed various sacrificial offerings, with all five types of livestock and three types of sacrificial animals present, along with relics of the sages and incense burners for the gods.

In front of the offering table, Emperor Pingyu knelt on a prayer mat, holding three gilded, dragon-painted incense sticks, kowtowing and praying continuously toward the three sage statues.

Behind him, hundreds of civil and military officials were doing the same, though the incense in their hands looked much more ordinary.

"Sages above, the barbarians have moved south, the Great Xia is in peril, I beseech you to descend!"

"Sages above, the barbarians have moved south, the Great Xia is in peril, I beseech you to descend!"

"..."

Yet, no matter how sincere their hearts were at this moment, or how respectful their expressions, those three golden statues remained indifferent!

Outside the capital, the flames of war raged and corpses lay everywhere; on the city walls, a great number of soldiers fought for their lives, and warriors bled.

Inside the capital, every household kept their doors tightly shut; those with the ability and means had already hidden in cellars or secret chambers, though those truly capable had long since used various methods to flee the capital and head south.

Only within the Imperial Palace did the sacrifice to the sages continue, praying for a miracle to descend!

At the border between Linzhou and Mingzhou, two great armies stood facing each other from afar, though neither had made a move yet; both sides seemed to be waiting for something.

At this moment, in the military camp on the Linzhou side, Li Yanbing was discussing the current situation with Jiao Yong.

"The capital is finished. If the sages do not intervene, those long-rotten Imperial Guards could never stop those wolf-like, tiger-like barbarian armies!"

"What exactly happened to those three sages? Ever since the sage's imperial edict was issued, not a single whisper has come out!"

"There must be the Incense Temple meddling behind this, and perhaps it even involves other sages!"

"..."

Li Yanbing had already made the worst-case preparations; she had already moved her parents and some members of her clan to Jiangzhou, so she now had no worries behind her.

"May I ask, Commander, is there any news revealed by that Senior Great Sage Equaling Heaven?"

Hearing Li Yanbing say this, Jiao Yong could not help but ask her.

"None. Senior Great Sage Equaling Heaven is not concerned with external affairs, but this time, by giving me such powerful paper soldiers and warriors, he likely anticipated what would happen."

Li Yanbing shook her head, then spoke to them briefly.

"That is true. I still cannot fathom what kind of method could be used to create soldiers comparable to real people and generals comparable to Perfected Humans!"

Jiao Yong still felt somewhat shocked by the new batch of soldiers and warriors Li Yanbing had obtained.

The original heavy-armored paper soldiers were already terrifying in strength, but this current batch of soldiers and warriors felt exaggerated to the point of absurdity.

If not for this, they would likely still be worried about how to deal with the pressure of King Li's army.

Now, King Li's influence had far exceeded the borders of Mingzhou; several surrounding prefectures, and even Liuzhou further away, had all become King Li's territory under the coordination of the Incense Temple.

What was even more terrifying was that these places not only had little resistance to submitting to King Li but instead welcomed him, as if King Li were the true Emperor of Great Xia!

"Report!"

Suddenly, a soldier hurried into the tent and said loudly to them: "Ghost soldiers from Liuzhou are moving north and have now begun to clash with our army guarding the border!"

"Scout again!"

"Yes!"

Hearing this news, Li Yanbing's expression sank slightly, then returned to normal.

"Tian Qiang has a thousand heavy-armored paper soldiers in his hands, including over a hundred heavy-armored paper soldiers comparable to real people; those remnant ghost soldiers alone cannot do anything to him!"

Jiao Yong analyzed with a somewhat grave expression; currently, Tian Qiang was guarding the south of Linzhou, and he was guarding the west.

"I fear the ancestors of the Incense Temple might intervene!"

Li Yanbing's expression was somewhat solemn; she was not worried that ordinary armies could defeat the formidable heavy-armored paper soldiers, but Tian Qiang lacked the power to restrain Perfected Humans.

"I have already given him the God-Inviting Talisman I held; if things change, he should be able to hold on for a while, and by then, I fear we must immediately rush to support him."

Speaking of this issue, Jiao Yong was also somewhat anxious, but there was only one paper general, and there were too many places they needed to defend.

"With the God-Inviting Talisman bestowed by Senior Great Sage Equaling Heaven, ordinary divine catchers can also temporarily obtain power comparable to a Fierce Ghost, and with a thousand heavy-armored paper soldiers, even a Perfected Human expert cannot resolve it so easily!"

Saying this, Jiao Yong felt a bit more confident; at the very least, this time was not like the last time when they were completely helpless against the Ancestral God Portrait.

"Keep a close watch on the movements there. If there is a situation, I will immediately have the paper general go to support!"

"Yes!"

Li Yanbing was helpless about this; after all, she only had one paper general.

——————

"Swish~"

Inside a wooden cabin, Lin Feng was carefully carving a piece of black jade; turning black jade into a talisman was no easy task.

Now, ordinary yellow talismans could be left to the Writing Ghost, but making higher-level jade talismans was not possible.

The texture of the black jade material was hard and fine, requiring a carving knife to carve out the talisman's head, heart, and foot bit by bit.

Using too much force would shatter the black jade directly, and too little force would leave marks too shallow and take too much time.

Therefore, the paper dolls could not help him with this work; he had to carve it slowly himself.

"My carving skills have become increasingly proficient now."

Watching the large amount of debris falling under his carving knife, Lin Feng felt a sense of emotion; from his constant mistakes at the beginning to his ease and comfort now, his progress could be called extremely fast.

Of course, the most critical thing was that some of the corpses he buried provided him with quite a bit of skill regarding carving.

Crafts like wood carving, stone carving, jade carving, and so on—he had little chance to practice before, but now, as time passed, he could be considered to have truly mastered these skills.

"Whew~"

Blowing away the debris and dust from the surface of the black jade talisman, a talisman base that looked full of mysterious and eerie aura was finally completed.

Next, he still needed to fill the carved talisman indentations with the dark gold he had obtained, and then use the eerie power of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven to completely fuse the black jade and dark gold to consider it finally finished.

At that time, he would be able to craft the highest grade Black Jade Dark Gold God-Summoning Talisman!

He gently placed the carved Black Jade Talisman base on the table; there were now nearly five identical Black Jade Talisman bases, while many more were just scraps from failed carvings.

"The success rate is still too low; it's even easier to fail than when I draw talismans!"

Looking at the pile of broken or poorly carved Black Jade Talisman bases in the basket by his feet, Lin Feng only felt a wave of mental exhaustion.

"This won't do, I must think of a way to have the Zhiren or a Ghost help me finish it!"

Looking at these scraps, Lin Feng's laziness flared up again, so he casually pulled out a sheet of white paper and began to draw on it.

"The Zhiren can't control its strength when working, so I simply won't let the Zhiren do it directly, but instead use tools..."

As he began to work, a strange-looking device gradually took shape, appearing somewhat like a drill press.