Chapter 1 Fox Dragon

The Lei Zu Peak Demon Imprisonment Palace was opened, and Fox Dragon entered. Seeing the various prisoners of sin suppressed there, he immediately snorted coldly:

"You followed the Lu Prince in rebellion and ended up in this state. Do you have any regrets?"

Regret might not exist, but most of them, to survive, would certainly claim to be remorseful.

The sin cultivators wailed, hoping to escape these tormenting times. But Fox Dragon revealed his identity, stating that he was from the Northern Suppressing Guard of the Imperial Court. These sin cultivators immediately changed their expressions and loudly denounced him, declaring that they would rather starve to death in the Demon Imprisonment Palace than bow their heads to the Imperial Court!

Nonsense, if they bowed their heads, they'd be dead! Having committed such a serious crime, did they think they could come out alive after entering the Northern Suppressing Guard?

At least they could eke out a few more years in the Demon Imprisonment Palace!

The sin cultivators expressed that they felt no regret at all now, and he shouldn't come to arrest them; it would be best to let them stay in the Demon Imprisonment Palace for a few more years!

"You wish! I won't take you away today, but I'll leave your lives here for now! I'll report to the Emperor and decide how to deal with you!"

Fox Dragon didn't have any documents regarding their disposal, so of course, he couldn't punish them. Taking them back to the Forbidden City was also out of the question. After all, the Forbidden City had flown into the sky. According to Zhang Tianshi's words, such foreign criminals should be thrown out if possible; a good place couldn't be left with hidden dangers. What if one day these people recovered their strength and self-destructed? That would directly turn hundreds or thousands of people into a bloody mess.

Of course, there were deeper reasons...

"When I came, I encountered some people..."

Fox Dragon gave Ji Xiang a brief explanation. When he came to Mount Wudang, he saw some great cultivators from other sects, looking dejected and dispirited, gathering and flying towards the northeast. After stopping them, he learned that something had happened on Mount Wudang.

If these sin cultivators were killed directly, the Imperial Court would have no reason to ask those sects' cultivators to help in the war. It would be better to keep them imprisoned on Mount Wudang for the time being, and the Imperial Court could make promises to them, letting them earn meritorious service by fighting bravely to redeem themselves.

This could, to some extent, prevent those great cultivators from slacking off in the war.

Although the sin cultivators themselves had committed great mistakes, if they weren't killed by their own sect but were executed by the Imperial Court or Mount Wudang, their sect would lose face, especially Chongyang Palace and Laoshan. The former, as the head of the Quanzhen Dao of the world, would likely cause its already few followers to disperse again if such a terrible incident occurred. Therefore, this time, going to the Korean battlefield not only meant conscripting Ji Xiang, but also sending cultivators from various sects to support.

Immortals against immortals, mortals against mortals; this was fair.

As for the situation in Shuntian Prefecture, the Northern Suppressing Guard's offices had also been moved. Within the imperial city... no, to be precise, within Shuntian, the prisoners in the prisons had basically been taken out and reassigned according to the severity of their crimes.

Thus, Shen Weijing, the old man who had been imprisoned in the heavenly prison, was also released and re-entrusted with important tasks.

Moreover, old man Shen wanted to volunteer to continue to exert his remaining energy on the Korean battlefield, but Emperor Wanli flatly rejected him. This made old man Shen very sad. After finally getting out of prison, he couldn't see his good brother. The combination of "Wolong and Fengchu" (Crouching Dragon and Fledgling Phoenix) couldn't be restored. As Wolong, he couldn't strategize and win from a thousand miles away; it was truly a regrettable thing.

He said that he didn't know whether his good brother, the "Fengchu" and "great wise man," Konishi Yukinaga of the Japanese army, would survive after this war.

As for the haunted Dongyue Temple, a place that no one wanted, it was given to a Western missionary to build a Christian church. Many people said that the place was unclean, but the Western bearded man said that he liked unclean places!

Unclean places had cheap land!

"Roughly, the situation in Shuntian is like this. The next person to come here should be Shen Weijing. He cried and shouted that he wanted the Real Person to take him as a disciple. I think we can let him be the supervisor of this Demon Imprisonment Palace..."

"Also, Real Person, please be sure to go to the rendezvous point within five or six days..."

The so-called rendezvous point was the troop deployment location for the Ming Dynasty's third reinforcement. Japan had increased its naval forces, and of course, the Ming Dynasty also had to increase its naval forces. If Ji Xiang wasn't leaving now but was going to wait a few days, there would be a batch of naval forces departing from a certain ferry on the Yangtze River, and he could just take a boat up there.

Going abroad wasn't such an easy thing. Flying consumed a lot of magic power. What if he encountered a battle as soon as he arrived, and his condition was bad due to excessive consumption, affecting his performance? That wouldn't be right. Going abroad would be affected by the national prestige of other countries...

Ji Xiang thought of the Southern Forbidden City incident. The national fortune on his body was somewhat tied to the Ming Dynasty. If the Ming Dynasty's national prestige was defeated on the battlefield, it would definitely affect him.

"Naval reinforcements, crossing the sea, wouldn't that take a long time?"

"Not long! With the help of the Water and Sea Gods! The Cloud God dispels the fog, the Wind God pushes the waves, and the Sea God raises the waves. A thirty-day journey will only take five days to arrive! Within five days, Real Person can recuperate and prepare for the great battle!"

The Ming court had dispatched some divine generals. These were local gods like the Zhenjiang King. Some were folk gods who had been conferred titles, and some had accepted positions in the Heavenly Departments. They were powerful. After the death of Prince Lu, some divine generals had changed their tune and hadn't shown any unusual movements. This time, the Imperial Court issued dispatch orders to these divine generals in a very short time. They didn't dare to disobey and expressed their willingness to assist with all their strength.

"There is one more thing! If Real Person encounters those aspiring demons again, not necessarily those who are extremely loyal to the country, but at least those who aren't bloodthirsty in terms of morality, you can recommend them! The Emperor has issued an imperial decree and summoned a large number of Confucian scholars..."

"To draft a Conferred God Decree!"

Seeing Ji Xiang's confusion, Fox Dragon gave a brief explanation.

The decree hadn't been drafted yet, so the details couldn't be explained clearly, but overall, Emperor Wanli, Zhang Tianshi, and others, in order to compensate for the weakness of the Forbidden City's strength, had decided to carry out a large-scale Conferred God ceremony!

Of course, it was impossible to confer Heavenly Gods, but rather a large number of folk gods. However, these folk gods all had orthodox imperial sacrifices, and temples would be built everywhere to enshrine them. What they had to do was to become divine generals of the Imperial Court. At the same time, the Conferred God ceremony wouldn't give the gods great power like before.

The appearance of a strange folk god like Lingxiao Maiden, who stole the Fire God's position and burned the Forbidden City, couldn't be allowed to happen again. Therefore, one point to be established in the Conferred God process was that there would be no "Emperor's Sacrifice" step!

Lacking this step would lower the position of the folk gods, and at the same time, because the Confucians were involved, the targeting of divine power would also be suppressed. It wouldn't be possible to use incense everywhere like in the past, but rather to add restrictions and rules.

And for the divine generals, there was also a preferential treatment! That was that the Emperor couldn't arbitrarily revoke the position of the divine general, and they would only be punished for committing the Ten Heinous Crimes!

Of course, the Ten Heinous Crimes were redefined under Emperor Wanli's insistence! This was the first time since the Sui Dynasty!

But even with so many rules, this Conferred God Decree was still a very tempting choice for the demons! Having the power of incense could save them decades of hard work. The power of the worship of the people was strong. What's more, being bound to the dynasty's national fortune, guarding one side, the future was limitless, and perhaps they could use this as a springboard to accept the position of the Heavenly Gods, truly turning a pheasant into a phoenix, rising to the sky in one step!

"Farewell!"

Fox Dragon handed the imperial decree to Ji Xiang. It didn't matter whether he announced it or not. At the level of immortals, there was no need to go through this set of procedures.

The sin cultivators were overjoyed. The Imperial Court's envoy had left, and they could live. No matter how many days they could live, at least they didn't have to die now.

"Everyone! Our matter is not over yet."

After the Wudang cultivators sent Fox Dragon away, Ji Xiang, in the name of the Daoist Records Office Master, summoned the cultivators and asked everyone, except for Dongyun Ancestor, to only cultivate the *Jiujing Pin Da Ling Shi Jing* (Ultimate Great Spiritual Consciousness Sutra) within these five days! And he selectively told them about the things he and Zhang Sanfeng had investigated at the Taiping Town ruins.

Learning that the strange human-faced mist could turn people's three souls into corrosive water and use the body to re-birth consciousness, a more terrifying method than seizing the body, immediately caused the faces of the Wudang cultivators to lose color.

As for Dongyun Ancestor, Ji Xiang was going to impart the Five Teeth Heavenly Book, to open the mountain gate and select disciples, to prepare for the future integration of the visible and invisible mountains and rivers, and to maintain the Daoist tradition.

As for taking the Second Revolution Immortal Pill, it might need to be postponed!

.......

Xiangyang City. A young lady from a wealthy family suddenly fell into a coma and couldn't wake up. And since yesterday, many people in the city had developed similar conditions.

An old doctor in his fifties, carrying a medical kit, walked between the beams and pillars, ran through the market, and after entering this large courtyard, was greeted by the family servant and rushed to the side of the comatose young lady.

"Old Divine Doctor, please see what's wrong with my daughter?"

The male head of the wealthy family looked anxious. The old doctor diagnosed for a while and told him that this was a strange condition that had appeared recently. In the past two days, many similar cases of unexplained coma had appeared in Xiangyang. It looked like a plague, with infectious qualities, but the patient's body didn't show any signs of illness.

"The person's complexion visibly fades. When I came just now, I looked at a comatose person I diagnosed a couple of days ago. His face was pale, and his breath was weak, obviously a sign of his soul dissipating. In medicine, the soul is stored in the liver, using blood as the medium, and liver blood as nourishment."

"Little blood energy, little blood energy belongs to the heart, the heart qi is weak, and the person is afraid, and sleeps when the eyes are closed."

"Prolonged sleep is a sign of a problem with the liver, mental dispersal, and the soul acting recklessly..."

Upon hearing this, the master was delighted: "So there is a way to solve it?"

"No, the strange thing is that I prescribed some drugs to nourish the liver and calm the spirit, but after the person took it, he still didn't wake up, and his condition didn't improve... Although the medicinal effect doesn't work in a day or two, it should take at least five days to see the effect, but I re-examined and found that the medicinal power was like a stone sinking into the sea, without any echo."

The meaning was that it was of no use at all, and this was no longer a matter that could be resolved by waiting.

"This old one can only try his best..."

While he was talking, on the other side, the door was suddenly broken open. The family servants of the wealthy family were all terrified, and those servants who came in rushed in, found the old doctor, cupped their hands, and said:

"Prince Xiangyang is seriously ill and cannot wake up. Please, old divine doctor, come and save him!"

The old doctor quickly inquired about the situation of Prince Xiangyang's residence. The old Prince Xiangyang had died two years ago, and now his son was managing the palace. He was in his mid-twenties and hadn't inherited the title of prince yet, but he was very healthy because the old doctor's father had treated this prince's son before. His yang qi was abundant, and his lifespan was long. Ordinary diseases couldn't cause trouble.

"This... even the royal palace hasn't been spared. Has the young prince met anyone in the past two days?"

"There are so many people he has met. How can we know for sure!"

The servants of the royal palace were about to take the old doctor away, and the wealthy family shouted, saying that the illness here hadn't ended, so how could he go to treat others? But what they got in return was naturally obstruction and fists. Seeing this scene, the old doctor was helpless.

Power is higher than money, and money is higher than ordinary people. It has always been like this since ancient times.

"Why don't you go and ask the high-ranking masters in the various Taoist temples and temples, and see if they have any way to deal with this?"

The old doctor suggested: "This time's illness, I'm afraid, cannot be cured with medicine. I'm afraid it is related to the spells of demons. The power of mortals may not be able to resolve it."

"It's useless. Those masters in the Taoist temples and temples also have similar situations in their own homes. Some disciples fall to the ground and can't wake up with just a gust of wind, and are said to have lost a part of their souls. They are treating themselves and can't take care of us."

"So we can only come to you! You are the son of the Divine Doctor, and you have traveled all over the country with the Divine Doctor, seen countless plagues and treatment methods, and even have the art of dispelling curses. If anyone in the world can solve this strange disease, it must be you."

The old doctor was silent after hearing this, and then shook his head: "Unfortunately, this old man's medical skills are not good. If my father were still alive, he would definitely have a way to deal with it."

"We can only do our best..."

The old doctor sighed, feeling very powerless. As the servants walked, a gust of wind suddenly blew on the street, blinding their eyes. Before long, seven or eight monsters emerged from the ground, looking strange. The servants were shocked and surrounded the old doctor in the middle, but the old doctor was not afraid and said to the monsters:

"Mortals get the disease of coma, and cultivators cannot escape. Now even monsters are coming to ask for help?"

The monsters chattered, and one of the raccoon demons jumped out: "Are you Li Jianyuan, the son of Li Shizhen?"

"I am."

The old doctor admitted, and the raccoon demon immediately said: "Some of our brothers here also have the coma disease. We heard that your medical skills are superb, so we came to ask you, but listening to your previous words, it seems that this strange disease in Xiangyang is probably not curable with medicine! We are here to remind you that there is a place that can help the people here."

"Last month, two people had the same coma disease and were taken by three corpse gods to Mount Wudang in the north. They passed by here, and we saw them."

"Not even ten days later, we heard that two big shots from Mount Wudang went to the mountains south of Xiangyang and inquired about some things from the demon brothers there, seemingly looking for the source of this strange disease. Those demon brothers also told us that if there was anything abnormal here, we should immediately report it to Wudang. We don't know the details of this strange disease, so we are preparing to take you to Mount Wudang, where you may gain something."

The old doctor immediately perked up: "There is such a thing! Then we should not delay. Please, demon kings, take me with you."