Chapter 1

"At this pace, how long until we reach Shangjing?"

"Three more days."

Inside Shangjing, the Ten Families and the National Preceptor were anxious. Incense burned before the ancestral shrine. Equally anxious was the Ever Victorious King, leading his army from the direction of Yanzhou. Thirty thousand iron cavalry, lightly equipped, marched day and night.

But along the way, strange things happened one after another, and the Ever Victorious King became increasingly uneasy. He roared, "Three days?"

"When we crossed the river earlier, they said it would only be a three-day journey. Now I've left behind the baggage train and am leading only elite troops on a light cavalry march, and after more than a day of hard riding, you're telling me it still takes three days?"

"There's no helping it. When has this journey been peaceful?"

The military advisor beside him, hearing this, immediately began to wail, "We've been targeted from the very beginning…"

Along the way, no boats when they needed them, no rations when they needed them, and countless strange things had happened.

At first, just as they settled down for the night, fox cries and ghostly wails would erupt all around, stirring up panic among the soldiers in the tents, preventing them from sleeping. Then, small squad leaders would frequently report that several men were missing when they took roll call the next morning.

No one knew if they had deserted under cover of night, or if they had simply vanished.

Fortunately, there were many capable men in the Ever Victorious King's army. Hearing the fox cries and ghostly wails, some took it upon themselves to stand guard at night, and after a patrol, they would bring back a few dead foxes.

Hearing that there were things in the camp that would eat people, they dug up a patch of desolate graves beside the army formation. The missing soldiers were found buried in the tombs, their throats torn to shreds, their eyes wide open in death.

The Ever Victorious King was furious. He performed rituals to suppress the evil, distributed strong liquor to the soldiers, and personally gave speeches to boost morale. These kinds of monsters became much less frequent.

It seemed that the demons and monsters coming to harass them were only being manipulated by someone else; they didn't even dare to directly confront this large, well-organized army.

They only dared to come out and cause trouble when the soldiers were exhausted from long marches and their minds were muddled.

But no one expected that as soon as one fire was extinguished, another would start. The military advisor who had answered, hearing the Ever Victorious King's angry roar, indignantly took out the army's map and shouted, "Your Majesty, we've definitely been plotted against!"

"Looking at this map, and based on what the scouts reported earlier, we should only need to cross two rivers at most along this route to reach Shangjing."

"But now, just on this one day of hard riding, we've already seen three rivers!"

"The scout just returned to report that there's another river ahead, with wide waves and rushing currents, no bridges or boats, and dark shadows swimming back and forth within. We don't yet know what they are…"

"At this rate, forget three days, we might not reach Shangjing in three months!"

"…"

Before he could finish speaking, thunder suddenly boomed overhead, and in an instant, a torrential downpour began.

Under the rolling lightning, the soldiers were startled and relied entirely on their strength to rein in their horses, barely managing to keep them under control.

But the Ever Victorious King looked at the soldiers, their rain gear left behind on the baggage wagons, now enduring the heavy rain with only their cloth robes and leather armor. His face darkened, and he glared at the sky, knowing something was amiss, his expression already one of anger.

"Moving mountains and diverting rivers, a thousand *li* of muddy ground, impressive…"

His army was full of vigorous *qi* and blood, and as long as they paid a little attention, they could easily defend against the surrounding demons, ghosts, and evil spirits. But now it was clear that those who wanted to stop his army were people with real abilities.

Leaving aside the ability to quietly place a river in the path of a marching army, just this downpour alone was enough to give him a headache.

With the rain falling and the ground muddy, the soldiers had to hurry on their way. If they ran too fast, even the finest horses could lose their footing, slowing them down. Furthermore, soaked in the rain, the soldiers' own *qi* and blood would gradually weaken.

And with their *qi* and blood weakened, they could be vulnerable to the encroachment of some *yin* or demonic creature, causing who knew what kind of trouble.

"Donkey Bro…"

Just as he was thinking this, he saw a man in the style of a brocade-robed young master riding over from behind in the rain.

The Ever Victorious King turned around and said, "Pi Bro, can you see the origins of these demonic arts?"

The brocade-robed young man wiped the rain from his face and said, "This isn't small-time stuff. I'm afraid a capable person is hiding in the shadows, deliberately delaying our journey!"

The Ever Victorious King was none other than the Menghzou squad leader, Mèn Dǎo Lǘ (Stunned Donkey). The one riding over was the Menghzou Transcendent, codenamed Wǔ Jiā Pí (Five Spice Bark). Before the first Transcendent gathering, they were wary of each other, secretly training their troops.

But after the gathering, they realized they were both Transcendent, and suddenly relaxed, openly and boldly raising their troops. On the surface, they became enemies, constantly fighting, attracting the attention of various forces.

As a result, as they fought, they eliminated the fence-sitters and troublemakers. Then the two of them "hit it off," and Wǔ Jiā Pí, the wealthy young master, didn't know how, but he suddenly admired the Ever Victorious King and honestly joined as the second-in-command.

It even became a story in Menghzou about a wise talent meeting an enlightened king.

Now that the Ever Victorious King had swallowed Yanzhou, his power had greatly increased. This time, their mission to enter the capital was to lead the army to Shangjing as agreed, but unexpectedly, they encountered so many troubles along the way.

The Ever Victorious King cursed angrily, "They're all a bunch of shady Jianghu sorcerers, none of them dare to face my army head-on. They just hide in the shadows and use evil magic to delay my journey."

"I think the Ten Families, after all, came from the Jianghu. Now that they've become noble masters, their methods seem despicable."

"…"

"Stop cursing. It's our fault for spending all our effort on these troops in recent years."

Wǔ Jiā Pí said, "We agreed to bring the troops to Shangjing within three days, and even didn't hesitate to use the Siming Secret Medicine to strengthen the horses' *qi* and blood, speeding up the journey. But the Ten Families' methods are hard to guard against, so there's no helping it."

"Elite soldiers and valiant generals are living talismans to those in the know. They can not only enhance our prestige, but also have surging *qi* and blood that can break the opponent's spells and strengthen our side's momentum."

"Now, not only has the Great Luo Dharma Sect appeared in Shangjing, but many capable people from the Ten Families have gathered there, and there is also the city's defense army. If our army cannot be delivered to the front of Shangjing City in time, then our people will suffer a great loss when they fight them there!"

The Ever Victorious King said anxiously, "Then hurry to the spirit temple… hurry and set up an altar to ask if there's anyone we know who can come and help us."

"Break their evil spells!"

"…"

The two were not weak, but this was a fight over thousands of *li*, and they were helpless because they didn't specialize in it.

At the same time, among the Transcendent, countless people had long been impatient to travel with the Ever Victorious King's army, and instead used secret methods to travel from various places. Some were carried in sedan chairs, some walked the *yin* path, and some rode divine steeds that traveled a thousand *li* a day.

However, although the Transcendent's actions were secretive, this time it was probably because the army had been mobilized, and Shangjing City was prepared, and endless changes arose in various places.

Some were following the official road, and had disguised their identities as traveling merchants, but the good road suddenly led to a mountain valley, winding around and around, unable to find an exit. Only at the bottom of the valley did they discover that countless people had died there.

Someone had guarded against people coming, and all those who had traveled on this official road in the past few days had been lured into this place and trapped to death.

Some were being carried in sedan chairs by little ghosts, and were traveling quickly when they heard someone laughing loudly ahead:

"Friends, please stop."

"Traveling so hurriedly, why not rest for a moment and drink a pot of tea?"

"…"

Looking up, they saw that before the City God Temple in front, incense burners had gathered, coldly blocking the way.

One or two would be fine, but when more people encountered this kind of thing, they realized how great the Ten Families' abilities were now. They had just secretly issued a command, and the large and small hall officials in various places were busy running errands.

With Shangjing as the center, they cast a large net in all directions. In the vaguest sense, the closer one got to Shangjing City, the finer and more difficult to traverse the net became.

Of course, many Transcendent had now crossed the bridge, and even those who hadn't were not weak, so few were stumped by this kind of thing, but in any case, the journey was blocked, and only a few with special skills had arrived in Shangjing early.

But even those who reached Shangjing before others had a slight frown and narrowed their eyes.

Those who traveled so quickly and appeared so mysteriously mostly came by way of the *yin* path. They originally intended to go directly to Shangjing City, but in the *yin* realm, they found that they seemed to be lost and could not find the location of Shangjing City.

So they had to choose to appear near Shangjing City, and then come on foot, and first saw the rows and rows of troops guarding the city.

"Heh, a few small cats, wearing armor and carrying swords, pretending to be tigers, trying to block my way?"

Immediately someone sneered and shouted, "Brothers, I'm going into the city first, you guys catch up quickly!"

As he spoke, a paper talisman lightly burned, black smoke wrapped around his body, and suddenly he disappeared into the night, a cold wind blowing as he headed straight for Shangjing City.

"Ouch!"

But a few breaths later, they heard some commotion in the black mass of troops, and a figure ran back holding his head.

Far enough away, he burst into cursing, "Those bastards are powerful!"

"Not only are there too many people, making it easy to break the spell, but there are also experts hidden inside…"

"…"

Before the cursing stopped, they suddenly heard a burst of gongs and drums. They saw various ceremonial banners rising from the black mass of Shangjing City's reserve army. They vaguely saw rows of people dressed as Jianghu figures appearing from the army.

Some were riding in sedan chairs, some were walking, and some were sitting on horses. All were dressed decently, with extraordinary bearing, and smiled as they looked into the depths of the night:

"I have long heard that twenty years ago, the demons were powerful and overturned the world. We have long yearned for that, but we regret that we have never had the opportunity to see it."

"We know that you all want to enter the city. Hiding your heads and showing your tails is useless. Why not come out and try your skills?"