Chapter 702

Tie Muzhen straightened up the elite soldiers under his command, and also mobilized all the Great Yuan worshippers still remaining in Youzhou City, heading toward Beizhen.

The main city of Youzhou was quite far from Beizhen, but since the matter was of great importance, Tie Muzhen forcefully ordered the army to march in haste.

After spending nearly two days, the great army finally entered within Beizhen.

Looking at the Yuan army camp at the foot of Lanruo Temple's mountain, Tie Muzhen could not help but let out a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, this place was still in Great Yuan's hands.

Then why did General Zhebie request reinforcements so urgently, yet give no reason?

Seeing Tie Muzhen arrive, Yuan soldiers naturally led him into the great tent at the center of the camp.

He saw that General Zhebie's complexion was ugly at this moment, sitting in the great tent together with Long Xiang Seng, both covered in dust.

"Eh? Why do the two of you look like this? What exactly happened?"

Tie Muzhen asked directly and straightforwardly.

"Sigh! Tie Muzhen, we've been tricked……"

General Zhebie opened his mouth with exactly this one sentence.

"What do you mean?"

Tie Muzhen asked in confusion.

Only then did Long Xiang Seng slowly begin to speak.

It turned out that this Lanruo Temple was indeed the place where the Yin Moon Dynasty was sealed.

After General Zhebie and Long Xiang Seng arrived, they spoke with Yue Lingshan, who was sealed upon the great tree deep within Lanruo Temple.

From his mouth, they indeed obtained a sliver of information about the Yin Moon Dynasty.

Most crucially, it was unknown what method he had used.

Long Xiang Seng unexpectedly made contact with a person of the Yin Moon Dynasty who was sealed within the Yin Moon Cave Heaven.

The one who appeared on that side was a powerhouse who called himself Jing Wuyuan; although he had not ascended to the Heavenly Dao Golden List, his aura was very imposing.

He told Long Xiang Seng the method to unseal this Yin Moon Cave Heaven.

Long Xiang Seng was wild with joy, immediately promising that he was willing to unseal it, only asking that after the Yin Moon Dynasty was unsealed, they would cooperate with Great Yuan.

Unexpectedly, this Jing Wuyuan not only agreed in one breath, but more crucially made an agreement with Long Xiang Seng.

Setting a one-month deadline: if Great Yuan could not unseal it, then after it was unsealed in the future, the Yin Moon Dynasty would surely become Great Yuan's enemy.

But if the unsealing succeeded, the Yin Moon Dynasty, from Jing Wuyuan downward, would all obey Great Yuan's commands and do one hundred things for Great Yuan.

Such a good deal, Long Xiang Seng naturally agreed.

But after he severed contact with Jing Wuyuan, he discovered that the Yin Moon Dynasty could not be unsealed.

Only because this Lanruo Temple had a top powerhouse stationed here.

Even a powerhouse like Long Xiang Seng, facing the aura this person emitted, actually felt terror in his heart.

He knew well that the gap between himself and this person was enormous.

To test whether this person would step in to interfere, after discussing with General Zhebie, he had a Great Yuan worshipper make a move.

That Great Yuan worshipper followed Jing Wuyuan's method, preparing to slay Yue Lingshan.

But the moment he struck, a sword technique descended from the heavens.

It directly slew that Great Yuan worshipter on the spot.

Only then did that top powerhouse slowly say that whoever dared to kill Yue Lingshan must first get past his treasured sword.

Long Xiang Seng reckoned that even joining forces with General Zhebie, they were no match for this person.

Therefore he could only temporarily withdraw, urgently sending a request for reinforcements to Tie Muzhen.

"Then does that mean adding me, combining the strength of the three of us, would be enough?"

Hearing that this was the situation, Tie Muzhen's heart skipped a beat, knowing his conjecture had come true.

The plan of Great Tang was indeed to use Youzhou, or more precisely, this Lanruo Temple, to pin down this main force of the Great Yuan army of his.

But if even General Zhebie and Long Xiang Seng joining forces was not enough, adding him, Tie Muzhen, would be enough?

"No……"

General Zhebie smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"Then why did you call me here……"

Tie Muzhen could not help feeling a bit of anger; he had after all fallen into Great Tang's trap.

But now, if he did not find a way to unseal the Yin Moon Dynasty, in one month's time there would be one more such terrifying hostile force.

At that time, within the Imperial Court, the memorials impeaching him would probably be enough to drown Tie Muzhen.

509: Choose the Yin Moon Dynasty or Xuanxinzheng Sect?

"Did you not try, relying on the great army to swarm forward all at once?"

Tie Muzhen could not help finding it strange; the two had come here not only bringing quite a few worshipper experts, but also bringing some elite troops of the Central Route Army.

These elites were in no way inferior to the Kesig Guards.

As long as General Zhebie, Long Xiang Seng, and a group of worshippers joined forces, barely delaying that powerhouse for a moment.

Then having the elite Yuan troops strike and slay that Yue Lingshan, wouldn't all the problems be solved?

"No……"

The two exchanged another bitter smile, then it was still General Zhebie who said,

"That powerhouse should be named Yan Chixia, a person of Xuanxinzheng Sect.

And if we send out many troops to launch a strong attack, then people of Xuanxinzheng Sect would appear to block us.

Now of the Four Generals of Xuanxin, aside from the Azure Dragon who has yet to appear, the other three have all already shown themselves.

And the disciples of Xuanxinzheng Sect, each and every one of them is also no weakling.

Moreover, they could employ mysterious Daoist techniques, and not one of them was weak in combat.

Though our army is elite and brave, their numbers are several times ours.

But unless we are prepared to wage a full-scale war against the Xuanxinzheng Sect, how could we forcibly kill Grandmother Lingshan..."

So it turned out this Lanno Temple was indeed not guarded by Yan Chixia alone.

Of the four great masters on the Xuanxinzheng Sect's ranking, aside from the Azure Dragon, the other three generals were all present.

In this case, unsealing the Dark Moon Grotto-Heaven would mean going to war with the Xuanxinzheng Sect.

But if they did not unseal it, that would mean making an enemy of the Dark Moon Dynasty.

Youzhou fell in a single strike, the Tang Army collapsed at the first contact, and the two northwestern prefectures of Erzhou withdrew without a fight.

Everything, everything, was truly a trap the Great Tang had set for the Great Yuan.

No matter how Mu Huali chose now, it was virtually set in stone that he would offend an extremely formidable and enormous power.

This was also why General Zhebie did not lay it out clearly in the battle report, but instead had Mu Huali come here.

"What a vicious scheme!"

Mu Huali cursed inwardly, then could only sigh and ask,

"Master Long Xiang, what do you think—between the Xuanxinzheng Sect and the Dark Moon Dynasty, how should we choose?"

Since now there were only two options, they might as well choose directly.

"If we choose the Xuanxinzheng Sect, we withdraw from Lanno Temple, even from Youzhou. This massive mobilization of troops would be a complete waste of effort, to say nothing of it.

Merely because we give up unsealing the Dark Moon Grotto-Heaven, the Xuanxinzheng Sect may not necessarily be friendly to our Great Yuan either.

But if we choose the Dark Moon Dynasty, then we must go to war with the Xuanxinzheng Sect, and even so we would be playing right into the Great Tang's hands."

This analysis was given by Mu Huali.

General Zhebie and the other were also clever people, and naturally had long since spotted the problem within.

Monk Long Xiang had agonized for several days, and had also worked through some of it, saying,

"The Dark Moon Dynasty is primarily demonic in nature, and is a better fit for the Great Yuan."

In fact, the Great Yuan's most important sect power was neither the Demon Master Palace nor the Wuzun Sect.

It was the Ming Wang Temple, led by reincarnation-burden cultivators such as the Living Buddha of Lotus Life, Monk Long Xiang, Monk Naomo, and Monk Huanxi.

Ming Wang Temple followed the Mi Sect lineage, belonging to the Fomen faction.

And between the Fomen and the demonic path, one could still attempt to convert and subdue them, drawing them into one's own service.

But between the Fomen and the Daoists, they were almost utterly incompatible, like fire and water.

The Xuanxinzheng Sect was precisely a Daoist faction.

Therefore, all along, even though the Great Yuan wished to recruit the Xuanxinzheng Sect, Ming Wang Temple had always secretly obstructed it.