Secular world: My destiny has no taboos

Chapter 571-581: Exchange Treasure Vault

The combined offensive of the evil spirit army and the evil army failed.

The news quickly spread throughout the country with different people, and those who heard it found it unbelievable, yet it seemed perfectly natural.

After all, compared to the behavior of the Evil Spirit Lord and the Goddess Zigu, the reputation of the Lord of the Northern Underworld is obviously much better.

The Northern Underworld Army vanquished the starving ghosts, rescuing Luozhou from the hell of the starving ghosts, and also slew the evil spirit army, thus eliminating a great scourge for the people of the world.

If it weren't for the Northern Underworld Army blocking their way, the Evil Spirit True Lord and the Goddess Zigu's primary target would have been other prefectures, with Xuanzhou being a prime example.

Now that the Evil Spirit Lord and the Purple Maiden Goddess are dead and escaped respectively, the Evil Spirit Army has been almost completely wiped out. Although the Evil Army has retained some fighting strength, it has also suffered heavy losses.

Given their current situation, it is clearly impossible for them to launch another attack on other states in the short term.

Bingzhou.

Prince Liang, Yang Li, sat down in front of Yang Tai with a gloomy expression.

He had long lost his former charm and looked somewhat dejected, but the resentment in his eyes was the opposite of his current appearance.

He abandoned his wife and children and fled from Liangzhou to the territory of King Yang Tai of Bing. Now he has nothing, and even his wife and children hate and resent him.

He blamed all of this on Lin Beixuan.

During this period, he tossed and turned every night, unable to sleep, his mind filled with thoughts of how he could kill the Lord of the Northern Underworld and destroy the Northern Underworld Army.

However, just yesterday, he received news that the Northern Underworld Army had broken through the combined forces of the Evil Spirit Army and the Demon Army.

This undoubtedly plunged Yang Li into despair once again.

Even the Evil Spirit True Lord and the Purple Maiden Goddess couldn't do anything to Lin Beixuan, so what could a powerless and destitute prince like him possibly do?

"Third Brother, have a cup of tea."

Just then, Yang Tai, who was sitting opposite Yang Li, pushed the tea he had just brewed in front of Yang Li.

Seeing this, Yang Li silently took the teacup, took a sip, forced a smile, and said with a hint of flattery, "Eighth Brother's tea skills are getting better and better."

"Third Brother is joking."

Yang Tai curled his lips into a smile, his gaze falling on Yang Li with a hint of disdain.

"I'm sure Third Brother already knows about the news from Liangzhou. What are your plans next?"

Yang Li shook his head.

He truly didn't know what to do now.

Now, besides being a prince, he has nothing else.

This time, when he fled to Yang Tai's territory in Bingzhou, he was met with disdain and ridicule from the other party at every turn, which made Yang Li feel very uncomfortable.

Seeing the confusion in Yang Li's eyes, Yang Tai couldn't help but chuckle softly, feeling a little smug.

My third brother used to be so full of vigor and ambition. He even dared to openly challenge the young emperor in the court, using the pretext of "purging the court of corrupt officials" to establish his own independent regime.

In just a short time, he lost everything except his life.

"Since Third Brother has no plans, how about you accompany me, Eighth Brother, to the imperial court to request an audience with His Majesty?"

"Court?"

Yang Li's pupils contracted, and he frowned as he looked at Yang Tai: "You're not planning to start your own business?"

Yang Tai laughed nonchalantly: "With the level of warfare in Bingzhou, we can't even match the Liangzhou army you had before. What qualifications do I have to fight against the Beiming army, which can withstand two opposing forces at the same time?"

"So you plan to return to the imperial court and have it send troops to protect you?"

Yang Li's tone was somewhat harsh as he stared at Yang Guang and said, "Yang Guang will not agree. We have committed the heinous crime of treason, which cannot be forgiven."

Yang Tai didn't care at all: "Of course I know that, but Yang Guang is our nephew after all. In the end, we are all family. If we sit down and talk it over, there will always be some room for maneuver."

"Besides..."

Yang Tai paused here, looked at Yang Li with a smile, and said in a low voice, "I'm not going back empty-handed."

"Not empty-handed?"

Yang Li was taken aback upon hearing this, then realized what was happening and pointed at Yang Tai angrily, saying, "You plan to use me to atone for your crimes!"

Yang Tai said slowly, "Third Brother, you have nothing left now, except for this status you still have some value."

"I'm keeping you here because I'm terrified. I'm afraid that Lord Beiming will come after me. What will I do then? The whole of Bingzhou will be implicated because of you."

"So you want to send me to Yang Guang in exchange for a chance to return to the imperial court!" Yang Li's eyes widened in anger, and he appeared extremely agitated.

He raised his fist to punch Yang Tai, but was immobilized by a ribbon tied around his arm by a maid behind Yang Tai.

Yang Li then realized that the veiled maids behind Yang Tai were actually experts at the Divine Realm.

"Third Brother, you should understand that the world is in chaos and everyone is only thinking of themselves. You are still useful now, so I will naturally squeeze out the last bit of value from you."

"Don't worry, I will persuade His Majesty to make you suffer less."

With that, Yang Tai waved his hand and walked out of the pavilion, leaving Yang Li bound inside, roaring angrily.

After a major battle in Liangzhou, various forces were in turmoil, and countless changes occurred.

Whether they were commoners or figures in the imperial court, they all began to make their own arrangements.

In contrast to the surge of external forces guarding against the Northern Darkness Army, the Northern Darkness Army itself began a series of post-war rewards.

The Northern Darkness Army uses a merit-based system, so everything is based on military merit. The number of enemies each person kills on the battlefield is meticulously recorded by specialized personnel.

The department responsible for counting was headed by Hu Miao.

After the merits of the soldiers have been effectively allocated and tallied, each soldier will receive his own special merit plaque, with his name on the front and the number of merits he has earned on the back.

In this great battle, 150,000 enemy soldiers were annihilated, including over a hundred Fuyi giants.

Although half of them were stopped and annihilated by the Earth Guardian God, the Earth Guardian God still distributed all the merits of these Fuyi Giants to the soldiers of the Northern Underworld Army.

This battle made almost everyone in the Northern Underworld Army wealthy.

The new recruits and former Liangwang soldiers had long coveted the items listed in the merit list. Previously, lacking merit, they could only watch helplessly as veterans of the Beiming Army used their remaining merit to exchange for life-saving items before battle. But now, they had merit themselves and could enter the merit warehouse to exchange for the things they dreamed of.

Here you'll find gold and silver treasures, profound magical techniques that lead directly to the Great Dao, and miraculous elixirs to save your life. You can even commission master craftsmen to create weapons and armor tailored to your specifications, provided you have enough merit points.

This was something the new recruits and those who had once served under the Liang King could never have imagined.

Here, they fully experienced what it means to earn more for more work, and that merit is the embodiment of your own value.

There will be no military pay here, and there will be no grand speeches before the expedition. Only the two mortal gods guarding the Northern Underworld Army's merit warehouse will say a few words in a casual manner.

Recently, the warehouse has received some extraordinary new supplies, including the Breathing Soil that improves the land so it can ripen year-round, and the Vermilion Fruit that helps one's children awaken their spiritual potential first...

Just a few simple words were enough to excite the soldiers of the Northern Underworld Army.

Zhong Kui walked through the Northern Underworld army camp, looking around at the incredibly excited soldiers.

Under normal circumstances, the merit exchange warehouse of the Beiming Army will only be opened once a month, allowing soldiers to consume merits.

Besides that, there are two other time periods: before the war and after the war.

It was right after the war, and the merit vault was open. Everyone was eager to exchange their merits for all sorts of things.

Lin Beixuan brought Zhong Kui to the Beiming Army camp, arranged for two white immortals to treat and bandage Zhong Kui, and then left on business.

So Zhong Kui and Li Ping'an, having nothing else to do, strolled around the military camp.

Li Ping'an remained hidden inside Zhong Kui's body, not showing himself.

Because the military aura in the Beiming army was too strong, even he could not stay in the military camp for long and could only barely avoid being affected by it by relying on Zhong Kui's body.

Zhong Kui looked at the soldiers who were jumping for joy, his eyes filled with anticipation.

Before Lin Beixuan left, he told him that although he was a ghost messenger, he was also a living person. He had worked with the ghost soldiers to block the evil army and made many contributions. Therefore, his merits in the underworld could also be used in the Northern Underworld Army.

Of course, this was a special exception granted by Lin Beixuan, and only Zhong Kui could receive such treatment.

On his way to the merit exchange warehouse, Zhong Kui saw many people go empty-handed but return with large and small bags on their backs.

After the war, the camp granted the soldiers a few days' leave so they could go home to visit their families. They even provided the perfect means of transportation: the flying boats brought by the Fuyi people.

These flying boats do not require the divine power of mortal gods to drive them. Instead, they operate through a rune array, placing various unique stones that carry special energy in different positions on the flying boats. The flying boats can maintain flight until the energy of these unique stones is exhausted.

After capturing these flying boats, Wu Huo immediately thought of making use of them, but he never expected that the first use would not be for fighting, but to send the soldiers home.

The Northern Underworld Army's merit warehouse is not a simple warehouse, but a super-large-scale interdimensional array.

As the most important system of the Northern Underworld Army, its corresponding exchange item is naturally the core that the Northern Underworld Army needs to protect.

When the merit-based military system was first introduced, almost everything came from Lin Beixuan's pocket and Sheshan's. Eventually, various items were continuously seized and compiled.

As it has developed to this point, the Merit Warehouse has become a large-scale interdimensional magic array, just like Sheshan, which was personally opened by Lin Beixuan and constructed by more than a dozen mortal gods.

Whenever the magic circle is activated, the soldiers of the Northern Underworld Army can use their respective merit badges to travel to the space where the merit exchange warehouse is located.

As Zhong Kui got closer to the magic array, he saw more and more soldiers from the Northern Underworld Army. Often, a large group of people would form several long queues and enter in turn.

However, due to Zhong Kui's identity and age, his arrival attracted a lot of attention.

"Whose child is this? How did he end up in the military camp?"

"I don't know! I've never seen it before!"

"Wait a minute, look! That thing hanging from his waist is... a license plate!"

"He's also one of our Northern Underworld Army members? How come I've never seen him before?"

A veteran of the Northern Underworld Army looked Zhong Kui up and down, his eyes full of doubt.

“He is so young, he is not old enough to be recruited by the Northern Underworld Army, so he could not possibly be one of our Northern Underworld Army.”

Do you think he might have some connection with the immortals?

These words immediately enlightened everyone, and their gazes towards Zhong Kui changed instantly.

After all, immortals cannot be judged by ordinary standards.

Although they were the main force in this battle, the contributions of the immortals should not be underestimated.

Among them, the four immortals, Hu, Huang, Bai, and Hui, mobilized almost their entire families to fight, and many of their members were injured or killed.

Therefore, the people of the Northern Underworld Army still have great faith in the immortals.

So when Zhong Kui was about to slowly line up behind the main group to enter the formation, someone immediately smiled and led him to the front row, letting Zhong Kui enter first.

"Hey...no need to be so polite..."

Faced with the soldiers' enthusiasm, Zhong Kui felt unusually embarrassed.

After all, strictly speaking, he was not a member of the Northern Underworld Army, but belonged to the Underworld. Logically speaking, his merits could only be exchanged in the Underworld.

"It's alright, young man. I see you have a number plate too, which means we're all good brothers who fought and made contributions on the battlefield. You're young, so we should let you go first."

Zhong Kui looked at the soldiers who were so humble and courteous to him, and felt a surge of pride. He clasped his hands in thanks and said, "Thank you, brothers. If you are ever about to die, just let me know, and I will personally send you on your way."

After saying this, Zhong Kui stepped into the formation, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Everyone in the Beiming Army is a good person. If he leaves in the future, and he works in the underworld, he must make proper arrangements for these people in the Beiming Army, so that they know that even after they die, their brother will not forget them."

The Beiming soldiers who had not yet entered the formation were somewhat bewildered upon hearing Zhong Kui's words.

The burly man who had personally arranged for Zhong Kui to cut in line at the very front faced the stares directed at him, his face turning pale and then flushed.

He coughed twice to cover his embarrassment, saying, "I'm still too young and don't know how to speak properly. I absolutely didn't mean to curse everyone to die. Please forgive me, please forgive me..."

After saying that, he felt a little embarrassed and went to the last row to rejoin the queue.

After Zhong Kui entered the formation, he immediately felt a blur before his eyes, and a thick fog suddenly appeared in front of him. He could only vaguely see a bright light source not far away, as if it was guiding him in that direction.

Zhong Kui took a step forward and found that the closer he got to the firelight, the more the fog in front of him dissipated. By the time he reached the light source, the fog around him had almost completely dissipated.

He was standing on what appeared to be a mountain path, with the light coming in from a gap between the two mountains.

Without hesitation, Zhong Kui walked through the crack into the light, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw a mysterious world.

(End of this chapter)