Traveling the Heavens in Thunderbolt

Chapter 53 The Final Battle is Approaching
Ning Daoqi and You Niaojuan would not sit still and wait for death. They ignored their injuries and used the information they got from Cihang Jingzhai to use the strategy of combining Taoism and Demon, and combining Yin and Yang for the first time.

Li Gong saw this and knew that this move was one of the trump cards that the two used to surround and kill him, and said: "It seems that you have learned the move from Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, but unfortunately the power of this move is not even 30% of the combined power of the two of them, and my body is already flawless."

Then he launched a powerful move, breaking the Yin and Yang move head-on. Ning Daoqi was hit by the huge palm energy and exploded to death.

And You Niaojuan seemed to be spared by Li Gong's intention, so he just flew backwards, with his martial bones broken, and he was lucky to survive.

"Master, please spare my life! You Niaojuan knows he was wrong, please give me a chance. I know the identity of the murderer who killed Tianshidao." Because You Niaojuan's martial bones were broken, he could only crawl and beg for his life, and he wanted to give out the mastermind behind the scenes.

"Ha, it's too late. I have already given you a chance. As for the person behind you, I have my own way to find out. What's more, you have disgraced the reputation of the Dao Heart Planting Demon Method. You can't keep him. Ha!" He actually sucked You Niaojuan out of thin air, and then placed his hand on his head.

"Search the soul and fill the brain." He actually read all the memories in You Niaojuan's mind, from the time when he was a disciple of the "Evil Emperor" Xiang Yutian since he was a child, to Xiang Yutian's fake death, to being named one of the eight troublemakers of the Demon Sect, to being subdued by himself, to obtaining the subsequent chapters of the Dao Heart Planting Demon Method from the man in black, and receiving his skills, which enabled his own skills to break through to the tenth level.

Everything turned out just as Li Gong had expected. There was indeed a hidden person who had practiced the Dao Heart Planting Demon Technique to an extremely high level and had achieved the state of unity between man and nature.

And looking at You Niaojuan's memory, the man in black who taught him this skill, although he borrowed Xiang Yutian's identity and concealed it with an old voice, was definitely not his master.

Although this person had his face covered, he exuded a fresh aura that could not be concealed. He was definitely not old, and his behavior and manners were all those of a noble family. His age was definitely not more than thirty years old.

All of the above information completely matches the person Li Gong had imagined.

As for his intention of teaching You Niaojuan the Dao Heart Planting Demon Technique, it was only because he was afraid that if the Tianshi Dao incident continued to ferment, it would be traced back to him, causing him to be exposed, so he did not hesitate to consume his own skills to make him a scapegoat.

Pretending to be Xiang Yutian was just to cover up his tracks, but his miscalculation was that he underestimated You Niaojuan. Although You Niaojuan had not received the in-depth teachings from the Evil Emperor, he had followed the Evil Emperor since he was young and was the person who knew him best.

At the beginning, he could still scare people with the aura of the Dao Heart Planting Demon Method, but after a while, he was discovered by You Niaojuan. However, he kept it secret and wanted to use it as a bargaining chip for future use.

Ha, since you want to take advantage of the situation while the mantis stalks the cicada and wait for the oriole behind, then I will do as you wish and fight with Ling Donglai to lure out you, the oriole.

But what you didn’t expect is that when you were killing the mantis, there was still a hunter behind it, wanting to kill you.

After thinking about it, he returned to the Demon Cult’s base to prepare for the decisive battle.
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I am the dividing line -
In the battle of Lingnan, Song clan leaders Song Que and Ning Daoqi were killed in battle, and the opposition lurking within the Demon Sect was also destroyed.

It was a disastrous defeat for the Buddhist sect, with heavy losses. Not only did they lose two great martial arts masters, but they also lost people they could use, such as You Niaojuan, who were dissatisfied with Li Gong's integration of the Demon Sect.

Although there may still be some remnants within the Demon Cult, they can no longer hinder Li Gong from integrating the Demon Sect into the Demon Cult.

What's even more surprising is that Li Gong is also a kendo master like Ling Donglai.

After this battle, the high-end combat power available to Buddhism can be said to have been completely lost. Only the combat power of Cihang Jingzhai was completely preserved, supported by Fan Qinghui. However, as long as Li Gong was not dead, he would not be able to provide effective support to Li Shimin in the subsequent struggles.

Fortunately, in this life, the Li family has the support of Cheng Qian. Hedong, where their family started, has not been lost, and Guanzhong was pacified earlier than in the original novel. Under Cheng Qian's management, these two places developed agriculture, commerce and industry, providing continuous assistance to Li Shimin's conquests in the Luoyang area.

The Bashu region was first destroyed by the Duzun Fortress, and then gradually eroded by the infiltration plan led by Cheng Qian. Later, the death of Song Que also caused the Song clan to shrink its power in Shuzhong and completely give up its control over Shuzhong to suppress the rebellion of the Yi people in Lingnan. This also led to the complete control of this land of abundance by the Li clan.

In addition, Cheng Qian had previously opened up the Western Regions, recovered the Hexi Corridor, and accepted refugees to expand the border to the Hetao area. After the death of Wu Zun Bi Xuan and Iron Eagle Qu Ao, he repeatedly invaded the Turkic territory, weakening the Turkic war potential while achieving the purpose of training troops.

At this point, although the Li family had no support from Buddhism, they had become a powerful force that could sweep across the world and crush all the princes.

Moreover, Li Gong's massive crackdown on Buddhism and its affiliated forces led to the great decline of Buddhism, which forced Li Yuan and Cheng Qian to directly adopt a policy of suppression against Buddhism that should have been implemented during the reign of Li Shimin.

He used the person Li Yuan met when he was a local governor in the Sui Dynasty and appointed him as the Grand Historian.

Starting with Fu Yi's request to destroy Buddhism, he adopted the Confucian ideas of loyalty and filial piety and the Taoist ideas of purity and inaction to achieve the goal of consolidating his regime. At the same time, he began to standardize the relevant rules and regulations of Buddhism so that it would no longer be able to interfere with the state power.

And at the suggestion of Li Yuanji, he began to build private schools in the areas under his rule and promoted the classical theories of various schools of thought, obviously introducing the support of the demonic forces.

This also meant that although Wang Shichong in Luoyang had the help of Kou Zhong's young army, he defeated Li Mi and Yu Wenzhi one after another. Kou Zhong even killed Yu Wenzhi with his own hands, putting an end to this feud.

However, he was still no match for Li Shimin, who had received sufficient support. Although he was assisted by Dou Jiande from Hebei, he was still defeated. Due to the surrender of the Yuwen clan and the Dugu clan in the city, Luoyang was lost, Wang Shichong was destroyed, and Dou Jiande was captured.

Li Yuanji, who came to support, killed the captured Dou Jiande and others, and thus formed a feud with Kou Zhong.

Afterwards, Kou Zhong fled south with the young marshal's army. Fortunately, he was assisted by Song Shidao, the new leader of the Song clan, and Du Fuwei of Jianghuai, which enabled him to stabilize his position and create a stalemate between the north and the south.

Buddhism had lost all its masters, and the Buddhist soldiers were either forced to return to secular life or recruited by Li Gong, which was not a big help at all.

Therefore, even if Li Gong was defeated and died in the great battle between Taoism and Demon with Ling Donglai, the Buddhist sect would be unable to fight against the Demon sect which had been integrated by Li Gong and had a complete system and doctrine and preserved its strength because its foundation was cut off.

Fan Qinghui knew clearly that Buddhism had a chance to turn things around, but it was very slim. Only after Li Gong was defeated and died in the battle with Ling Donglai, Li Shimin could ascend the throne, and if Li Shimin could be guaranteed not to destroy the policies promulgated by his father and brother after ascending the throne, Buddhism could turn things around.

But according to Shi Feixuan's description of Li Shimin's character, he was by no means an easy person to deal with. Even if the power of Buddhism was intact and helped him ascend the throne, he would probably suppress Buddhism like his father and brother did.

After learning the contents of Di Ni's letter, Fan Qinghui's ideas also changed.

Since Cihang Jingzhai was indeed from the Demon Sect, if the situation was irreversible, they would surrender to Li Gong with the Evil Emperor's Order and Dini's letter, and officially become part of the Demon Sect, which had now been renamed the Holy Religion.

As for the decline of Buddhism, what does that have to do with my Cihang Jingzhai? The inheritance of the sect is the most important thing.

As the date of the martial arts duel between the two approaches, people's hearts in Buddhism are in turmoil, and the trend of decline is irreversible, which further strengthens Fan Qinghui's determination.

(End of this chapter)