Ming Dynasty: He was ordered to give lectures in prison, but Lao Zhu eavesdropped and made people nu

Chapter 728 Record of the Pacification of Wu

“It is so.”

The emperor sneered and used the key to cut his palm. Blood dripped onto the bronze key, and the withered hairs suddenly seemed to come alive, their ends pointing southeast—towards Quanzhou!
Suddenly, the sound of orderly footsteps echoed outside the palace. The real Imperial Guards had finally cleared the palace, and Geng Bingwen rushed over with Mu Ying, who was covered in blood. The young marquis was not carrying a severed head, but an iron box covered in talismans, from which black liquid was constantly seeping.

"Your Majesty!" Mu Ying knelt down, the iron box slamming heavily onto the ground with a hollow echo, as if it contained an entire lake. "This item was discovered in the Lin family cellar in Quanzhou. The box is inscribed with..."

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand to stop him from continuing. With a flick of his Chixiao sword, the box lid opened—inside curled up a monster covered in blue spots, vaguely resembling a human, with a bronze plaque bearing the characters "Bingchen" around its neck. Most horrifyingly, the half-piece of jade pendant clutched tightly in the monster's hand could be perfectly pieced together with the one Empress Ma held in her dying moments!
"The head of the Lin family?" Geng Bingwen gasped.

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head: "This is Chen Youliang's flag officer, responsible for guarding the Dragon Boat Treasury back then." He lifted the monster's chin with the tip of his sword, revealing a flame-shaped brand, "The mark Xiuying branded in the eighth year of Hongwu."

Mu Ying suddenly coughed violently, coughing up blue ice shards. Zhu Yuanzhang ripped open his battle robe, revealing a tiny blue dot the size of a pinhole on his chest, the surrounding skin already showing a spiderweb pattern—exactly the same curse on the emperor himself!
"What a vicious scheme!" The emperor suddenly burst into laughter, the sound shaking the beams and pillars, causing dust to fall. "Using my general to bring back the curse, you think you can wipe out Mu Ying in one fell swoop?" He slammed the Crimson Sky Sword into the iron box, the blade piercing through the monster's heart and pulling out a still-beating blue heart.

The moment the heart was removed from the body, the blue markings on Mu Ying's body suddenly began to fade. But Zhu Yuanzhang's face grew even more grim—the surface of the heart was covered with tiny holes, and inside each hole wriggled hair-like white worms, the very "Thousand Thread Gu," the most skilled Gu technique of Zhang Shicheng's Gu masters!
"Summon Xu Da." The emperor's voice suddenly became extremely weary. "Have him bring the *Pingwu Lu* (Record of the Pacification of Wu) to the palace."

Geng Bingwen's face turned deathly pale. The *Pingwu Lu* records all the sorcery and methods used by Zhang Shicheng's generals to counteract the siege of Pingjiang in the 27th year of the Zhizheng era. However, Xu Da had already done so as early as the 18th year of the Hongwu era.
"Your Majesty, please reconsider!" The old general kowtowed heavily. "The tomb of the Duke of Wei has a protective barrier personally set by the founding emperor."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, and the Crimson Cloud Sword suddenly flew out of the palace on its own. When everyone chased after it, they saw the sword light like a rainbow heading straight towards Zhongshan Mountain. Even more horrifying, Empress Ma's corpse had somehow appeared on the palace roof, her robes fluttering as if she were still alive, except that her eyes had turned completely blue!
"Xiuying, don't be anxious," the Emperor said softly, tilting his head back. "I will get justice for you." With that, he suddenly snatched the sword from Mu Ying's waist and severed his own left arm!

The severed arm transformed into a crimson centipede upon hitting the ground, shooting towards the palace roof like an arrow. Empress Ma (or rather, the entity possessing her body) let out a shrill, inhuman scream, as countless blue silk threads flew from her sleeves and entangled the centipede. In the struggle between the two, the entire Fengxian Hall began to collapse.

Amidst the smoke and dust, Zhu Yuanzhang picked up the blue heart and took a bite. The icy flesh crunched in his mouth, and a thick layer of white frost formed in his throat as he swallowed. But the emperor paid no heed, instead tossing the remaining heart into the air: "Chen Youliang! Taste my blood curse!"

Her heart suddenly burst open, and blue blood rained down. Each drop ignited in mid-air, the flames reflecting countless fragments of memories—in the winter of the eighth year of the Hongwu reign, Empress Ma sailed alone to the site of the sunken ship on Poyang Lake; she used herself as bait to lure out the vengeful spirit of Chen Youliang; that unknown battle lasted for seven days and seven nights, and in the end, the Empress sealed the vengeful spirit within her own body.
"So that's how it is." Mu Ying suddenly knelt down and wept bitterly, "Your Majesty has long..."

Instead of bleeding from Zhu Yuanzhang's severed arm, golden flesh sprouted. He picked up a piece of rubble and cut open his right wrist, drawing intricate formations on the ground with his golden blood. As the final stroke was completed, a deafening explosion resounded from the direction of Zhongshan—the Crimson Sky Sword had forcefully breached Xu Da's tomb!
"Geng Bingwen," the emperor's voice suddenly became youthful and powerful, "Do you remember how we dealt with Zhang Shicheng's fire dragon ships in the twenty-third year of the Zhizheng era?" The old general shuddered. That year, they used the bodies of eight hundred elite soldiers as a medium to spread the plague into the enemy camp.
"Prepare three hundred warhorses." Zhu Yuanzhang's pupils gradually turned gold. "They must be pure white, and each horse's tail should be tied with hair from Chen Han's prisoners of war."

At this moment, the Crimson Sky Sword finally flew back, its tip carrying a charred booklet. The Emperor had just taken the "Record of the Pacification of Wu" when the pages automatically turned to a chapter titled "To Curse the Thousand-Thread Gu, a True Dragon Must Sever Its Arm." But even more striking were the annotations beside it—the delicate handwriting clearly belonged to Empress Ma: "If Chongba sees this, quickly burn the planks of the Bingchen boat at Poyang."

Mu Ying suddenly pointed southeast and screamed. The sky in the direction of Quanzhou had turned blood red, and the outline of a huge warship could be vaguely seen in the clouds. Even more terrifying, the corpses of all the fallen soldiers were crawling in that direction, as if summoned by some kind of call!

"Finally, the true form has been revealed." Zhu Yuanzhang tore off the last page of "The Record of the Pacification of Wu" and swallowed it. His whole body was immediately filled with golden light. He broke the Crimson Sky Sword and slashed at the severed arm. The golden light condensed into a new arm, but it was covered with dragon scale patterns.

"Geng Bingwen will remain to guard the palace. Mu Ying will accompany me on the expedition." The Emperor's voice boomed like thunder. "Issue an order to all garrisons: anyone who sees Lan Tong, kill without mercy!"

At midnight, three hundred white horses surged forth from Xuanwu Gate. Each horse dragged a corpse covered in talismans, its tails swaying in the wind like living creatures. Zhu Yuanzhang, clad in golden armor and a red robe, led the procession. His Chixiao sword, reforged, had become longer and wider, with seven stars protruding from its spine—the very shape of the Big Dipper.

As they passed Yanziji, the river suddenly boiled. Countless skeletal arms burst from the water, each hand gripping Chen Han's standard weapon. Zhu Yuanzhang neither dodged nor yielded; his sword sliced ​​across his left wrist, and the instant golden blood dripped into the river, the entire river burst into golden-red flames!

"Xiuying, look," the Emperor whispered to the air, "this is the wrath of our Great Ming."

Amidst the flames, a ghost ship as large as a mountain gradually materialized. The figurehead was a magnified version of Chen Youliang's face, while hanging from the mast was none other than the corpse of Empress Ma! Half a plank of the ship was pierced through her heart, and golden blood dripped down the plank onto the deck, each drop burning a smoking hole.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly leaped into the air on his horse, his Crimson Sky Sword transforming into a hundred-foot-long golden light that slashed towards the ghost ship. Just as the sword light was about to strike, Empress Ma's corpse suddenly opened her eyes—they were no longer filled with an eerie blue, but with pure golden-red flames!
"Chongba, I've been waiting for you for a long time." Her voice, mingling with the thunder and lightning, resounded throughout the heavens and earth. "The accounts of the Bingchen year should be settled."

The sword light and the phoenix fire struck the ghost ship simultaneously. Amidst the earth-shattering explosion, Zhu Yuanzhang saw his wife's final smile upon him, a smile exactly the same as when they first met in Chuzhou.
As dawn broke again, only three hundred white horses remained, quietly drinking water on the river. When Mu Ying found the unconscious emperor on the beach, he discovered that in his tightly clenched palm lay half a charred ship plank—the characters "Bingchen" on it were completely covered by golden blood.

Meanwhile, in Quanzhou Port, hundreds of miles away, the surviving fishermen were spreading the word about the miracle of the previous night: a golden-armored deity riding a fire phoenix had arrived and burned all the rebellious pirates to ashes. Even more miraculously, all the people who had been possessed by evil spirits were healed overnight, except for a red, flame-shaped mark on their chests.
(End of this chapter)