Taoist Myth: I am the last true immortal in the world

Chapter 494: The Middle Stage of Human Immortality

In the first year of Yingshun, Prince Lu Li Congke set out from Fengxiang and launched a rebellion.

After Li Congke rebelled, he had people draft a manifesto and distributed it to various places, requesting the various military governors to jointly send troops to attack the capital and kill Zhu Hongzhao, Feng Yun and others in the name of clearing the emperor's side and eliminating treacherous ministers.

Li Conghou ordered Wang Sitong to lead troops to attack.

Wang Sitong assembled troops from various places to besiege Fengxiang City.

Fengxiang City is not an important town. The city is low and the river is narrow and shallow, making it impossible to defend.

Wang Sitong's army had a great advantage over Li Congke's.

Under the massive attack of the imperial army, the small towns to the east and west of Fengxiang were lost one after another, and Li Congke's subordinates also suffered heavy casualties. If the battle continued, the city would be difficult to defend.

Li Congke stood on the top of the city wall, feeling extremely anxious and hating that his military force was relatively weak, which would lead to his head and body being separated.

In a hurry, Li Congke quickly took off his clothes, revealing the scars on his body, and then stood on the city wall, crying and saying: "I have followed the late emperor since I was a child, through life and death, and have been through hundreds of battles and wounds, which is why we have today's country. You all followed me and saw all these things. Now, the court favors treacherous officials and is suspicious of my own flesh and blood. What crime have I committed to deserve this punishment!"

At the critical moment of life and death, Li Congke cried bitterly, moved the soldiers with emotion and reason, which made many soldiers attacking the city feel sympathetic and turn to support him. He persuaded his former subordinates, including the commander of the Yulin Army Yang Siquan, the commander-in-chief Yin Hui and other siege generals to surrender, and took the opportunity to defeat all the troops sent by Li Conghou in one fell swoop. He then led his troops eastward and headed straight for the capital Luoyang.

Along the way, all the counties and prefectures surrendered.

The troops and horses sent by the imperial court to fight also successively joined Li Congke's army.

Within ten days, the troops reached Shanzhou and approached Luoyang.

Li Conghou was panicked when he heard the news that the troops from various regions were defeated in Fengxiang. He said to Zhu Hongzhao, Feng Yun and others in the court: "When the late emperor passed away, I had no intention of competing for the throne. I was supported by you gentlemen. I succeeded to the throne at a young age and entrusted the government to you gentlemen. I always approved your plans for the country. This time when we launched an army to attack Fengxiang, you all boasted that suppressing the rebellion was not a big deal. Now that things have come to this, do you have any way to reverse the disaster? If not, I will go west to meet Prince Lu and give up the throne to him. If you still cannot escape the blame, I will be willing to die."

Zhu Hongzhao and Feng Yun were terrified and looked at each other in silence.

Li Conghou sent an envoy to summon Shi Jingtang to the court, hoping that he would lead his army to resist the eastward advance of the Fengxiang army.

The commander-in-chief of the imperial guards, Kang Yicheng, planned to surrender to Li Congke and requested to lead the imperial guards in the capital to go to war.

However, Zhu Hongshi, commander of the cavalry, advocated using the imperial guards to defend Luoyang.

The two argued endlessly, each claiming that the other was trying to take advantage of the opportunity to rebel.

Li Conghou was unable to distinguish right from wrong and eventually beheaded Zhu Hongshi.

He emptied his treasury to reward the imperial guards lavishly, and promised more generous rewards after the rebellion was quelled.

The soldiers of the imperial guards, however, were not grateful for the emperor's kindness. Instead, they became even more arrogant and acted recklessly during the march, threatening to go to Fengxiang to receive another reward.

Soon after, Li Conghou ordered the execution of Li Chongji and Li Huiming.

It was Li Conghou's actions that completely angered Li Congke.

After Li Congke captured Shanzhou, he sent a letter to comfort the officials in the capital, saying that he would only kill the clans of Zhu Hongzhao and Feng Yun when he entered the capital this time, and asked them not to worry.

At this time, the imperial guards had just reached Xin'an when they gathered in groups of hundreds and rushed to Shanzhou.

When Kang Yicheng arrived at Qianhao in Shanzhou, there were only a few dozen people left under his command, so he surrendered to Li Congke.

Li Conghou hurriedly ordered the eunuchs to summon Zhu Hongzhao into the palace to discuss countermeasures.

Zhu Hongzhao thought that the emperor wanted to hold him accountable, so he jumped into a well and committed suicide.

An Congjin, the inspector of the capital, had long intended to surrender to Li Congke, so he took the opportunity to attack and kill Feng Yun and exterminate his clan.

Then he sent someone to deliver the heads of Zhu Hongzhao and Feng Yun to Li Congke's army.

Seeing that Luoyang could no longer be defended, Li Conghou decided to abandon Luoyang, flee to Weizhou, and then plan a revival.

He ordered Meng Hanqiong to go to Weizhou first to arrange various matters.

He also ordered his trusted confidant Murong Qian to lead his troops to guard the Xuanwu Gate.

But as soon as Meng Hanqiong left the city gate, he rode alone to Shanzhou and surrendered to Li Congke.

That night, Li Conghou fled Luoyang from Xuanwu Gate and fled to Weizhou with fifty guards.

Murong Qian originally said that he would lead his troops to accompany him, but when Li Conghou left the city, he closed the city gate and sent someone to contact Li Congke.

When Prime Minister Feng Dao went to court the next day, he learned that Li Conghou had already fled.

Soon, Empress Dowager Cao ordered the various officials in the inner palace to go to Qianhao to welcome Li Congke to Beijing.

On April 3, Li Congke led his troops into Luoyang City.

Prime Minister Feng Dao led all the civil and military officials to persuade Li Congke to ascend the throne, but Li Congke pretended to refuse.

The next day, the empress dowager issued an edict to depose Li Conghou as Prince of E and appointed Li Congke as regent.

On the sixth day, Li Congke was made emperor. He then ascended the throne and became the last emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty, and changed the reign title to Qingtai.

On his way to Weizhou, Li Conghou met Shi Jingtang, who was leading his army into the court, a few miles east of Weizhou City.

He informed Shi Jingtang of the recent events and asked him for strategies for restoration.

Shi Jingtang used the excuse of discussing matters with Wang Hongzhi, the governor of Weizhou, and placed Li Conghou in the post house.

Wang Hongzhi believed that Li Conghou had no hope of making a comeback.

Shi Jingtang ordered the commander of the Ya Nei, Liu Zhiyuan, to lead his troops into the post station and kill all of Li Conghou's followers and guards, and then led his troops to Luoyang.

Li Conghou was left alone in the post house and was later placed under house arrest in the provincial government office by Wang Hongzhi.

After Li Congke ascended the throne, he did not keep his promise to Chen Yun.

He ordered the palace guard Wang Luan to go to Weizhou and kill Li Conghou.

At this point, the Later Tang Dynasty was already in a state of disarray and could collapse at any time.

……

Khitan, in Laojun Temple.

Chen Yun witnessed all the war in the south over the past two or three months.

He sneered in the direction of Luoyang and thought to himself, "Li Congke did not keep his promise to me, he deserves the destruction of his country and the death of his people." If Li Congke had listened to Chen Yun and not killed Li Conghou, or even been more stable and did not ascend the throne to become emperor, like Cao Cao did, holding the emperor hostage to control the princes, perhaps the Later Tang Dynasty could have existed for some more time, or even grown stronger in Li Congke's hands.

It’s a pity that this guy did not keep his promise and killed Li Conghou.

Chen Yun thought to himself, if you dare to do it on the first day, won’t others follow suit and do it on the fifteenth?

It can be said that Li Congke became the deposed emperor of Later Tang entirely because of his own fault.

Chen Yun was too lazy to bother with a treacherous person like Li Congke. Anyway, he had achieved his goal.

All that was left was for Shi Jingtang to borrow troops from the Khitan and then launch a rebellion, and the historical process would be almost complete.

At that time, I can come out and officially assist Zhao Kuangyin in planning to compete for the world.

Besides, Chen Yun didn't have the energy to care about Li Congke at the moment.

After several months of refining the medicinal power of the Qi Refining Soup, he was about to break through to the middle stage of the Human Immortal Realm.

……

April 9th, just before noon.

In the quiet room, Chen Yun sat cross-legged on the cushion, quietly waiting for the medicinal power in his body to rise.

He had a hunch that when he had finished refining the medicinal power this time, he would most likely be able to enter the middle stage of the human immortal realm.

By then, I should be able to fully understand the "killing" rules in Tiger Escape.

After sitting quietly for a while, Chen Yun felt a heat emerging in his body. He knew that it was the effect of the medicine.

He put aside all distracting thoughts and immersed himself completely in refining the medicinal power.

Streams of hot air continued to rise and spread, covering the golden elixir with a layer of purple.

The huge amount of medicinal power transformed into Dan Qi was like a river bursting its dam, madly increasing one's own strength.

Chen Yun kept looking inward at the situation inside his body.

I discovered that the originally light purple Dan Qi seemed to be undergoing a qualitative change, and gradually the color became darker.

"It seems that my previous guess was correct. Dan Qi, like Zhen Qi, will undergo qualitative changes as the level of cultivation continues to grow."

He continued to refine the medicinal power of the Qi Refining Decoction.

With every breath he took, he felt the Dan Qi in his body filling up, with a faint purple and golden light lingering around him.

It was different from the previous time when the golden light was slightly stronger and the purple light was slightly weaker.

At this time, the purple air was obviously more numerous than the golden light.

Not just more, there was an implicit feeling that the golden light was about to be completely "swallowed".

In addition, although Chen Yun's body was still shining with a faint purple-gold light when he was refining the medicinal power, it did not leak out and spread out.

Obviously, after several months of refining, he has gradually reached the point where he can absorb it completely.

Chen Yun was neither sad nor happy about this, he just kept refining the medicinal power.

After a period of refining, the Dan Qi in his body gradually became sufficient, as if his entire body was filled with Dan Qi.

When the body is filled with rich Dan Qi.

Suddenly, the Dan Qi in the body began to vibrate uncontrollably.

Chen Yun had encountered this situation before.

I know that the golden elixir is accumulating strength and wants to return to the lower dantian.

Unfortunately, the power of his golden elixir was a little weak before, and it was impossible to return to the lower dantian.

This time he didn't take it seriously at first, thinking it would be the same as before and would just shake a few times before it would be fine.

Unexpectedly, as soon as this thought came into his mind, a gurgling sound came from his body, and then a stream of hot air rushed straight to his dantian.

All of a sudden, Chen Yun felt warmth in his heart, his whole body felt relaxed, and his mind was moved.

The feeling of extreme comfort was like reaching heaven, so tingling that I couldn't help but moan.

At the same time, a powerful force rose from the lower dantian and spread to the limbs and bones.

Immediately, yin and yang were in harmony.

Chen Yun realized that his body seemed to have gradually merged from its original yin and yang sides into a natural whole.

He suddenly opened his eyes, and a purple air filled the air.

Chen Yun was a little bit unbelieving and thought to himself: "Not only has the golden elixir returned to the lower dantian, but the yin and yang body refining has also been completed?"

He never imagined that the realm that he thought would take hundreds of years to reach, he actually reached it in just a few months after taking the Qi Refining Soup!

He cultivated himself to the middle stage of human immortal realm with ease!

The physical body has even completed the second level of Yin-Yang refining in "Pangu's True Body Art"!
Chen Yun finally realized how wrong his previous idea was that it didn't matter whether he had the help of the magic soup or not!
Others need hundreds of years of hard practice.

The spiritual soup can allow you to arrive in just a few months!

Chen Yun couldn't help but sigh inwardly: "It turns out that as long as there is spiritual soup, the speed of cultivation realm growth can be so rapid."

The most important thing is that the medicinal power of the Qi Refining Soup has not been completely consumed!

Chen Yun pondered, if he could completely absorb the medicinal power of the Qi Refining Decoction, would it be possible for him to reach the late stage of Human Immortal?
By then, if I can find a way to get some spiritual roots of heaven and earth to allow myself to break through to the Earthly Immortal Realm, and then gather the medicinal materials needed for the Divine Transformation Soup, wouldn’t I have a chance of reaching the Divine Immortal Realm?

Okay, that's going too far.

Chen Yun put away his excitement and thought to himself, "Now that I have broken through to the middle stage of the human immortal realm, I can try to comprehend the law of 'killing'. I hope I can succeed."

(End of this chapter)