I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 285 The King of Tianjin, with a Just Cause

A close neighbor is worse than a distant relative, and Xu Qing's care for his old neighbor can be described as meticulous.

Sure enough, not long after the coffin shop established its underworld opera troupe, he personally put on the opera costume and came to the Ghost King's Tomb to perform a wonderful opera for his old neighbor.

The Linjiang County Gazetteer also mentions this event.

On a certain day in the month of Jia Shen in the year of Gengyin, more than a hundred people arrived at the river port by boat. Suddenly, two evil Taoists emerged from the waves. One of the Taoists released black mist from his sleeve and ensnared the group of people.

The group felt a chilling wind, and when they opened their eyes, they found themselves in the underworld. There was no sun or moon in the sky, and the ground was littered with withered bones. Only then did they realize that they had been sold into the underworld by a demon.

During this time, a skeleton ghost general, claiming to be a ghost altar general under the command of the Ghost King Duo'e, shouted to the crowd: "This is the King's blood offering!"

They then drove the crowd into the mausoleum passageway.

The passageway was as deep and dark as a snake's throat. As the group walked along, they suddenly heard the sound of war drums!

Everyone looked over and saw a general with four flags on his back, his face painted black and white. He was tall and imposing, with a sword at his waist. He leaped out and shouted, "I am the King of Tianjin! How dare you evil spirits act so violently?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a sword light flashed like lightning, and the ghost soldiers who touched it all turned into black smoke.

Upon seeing this, the leading ghost general lunged forward in anger. The King of Tianjin raised his flag and rolled it up. As the four flags spun, they stirred up sand and dust that obscured people's vision.

The crowd could not see, but could hear the mournful howls of ghosts.

The wind died down in an instant, and all that could be heard was a powerful voice: "Do not be afraid, I am the King of Tianjin, and I can protect you and ensure your safe return."

One of the bolder individuals asked, "Where is this place?"

The king replied, "It is not the human realm, but rather the underworld."

Finally, Wang said, "You were sent here by the evil Taoists of the Celestial Master's Mansion. The Celestial Master's Mansion is very powerful. After you leave, do not mention it, otherwise you may incur the revenge of the evil people."

Everyone was shocked to hear this. The Celestial Master's Mansion was a supporter of the royal family, but they never expected that it would do something so contrary to the laws of nature.

After speaking, the king remained silent, and the crowd still could not see him.

There was a rustling sound, like paper rubbing. When all the strange sounds disappeared, everyone opened their eyes and found that they were outside the county government office!
At that time, the night watchman walked through the alley with his clapper, and people asked him the time.

The watchman replied, "It is the fifth watch."

The group looked at each other in silence, still seemingly lost in a dream.

Inside the Yinhe Ancient Road, Xu Qing retrieved the Chuling Paper Doll, while the Ghost King's Tomb, not far away, was in complete chaos.

The Ghost Altar General and his skeleton ghost soldiers who walked out of the tombstone and made a deal with the evil Taoist priest of the Celestial Master's Mansion have already 'vanished into the underworld'.

These ghost generals and underworld soldiers all had skeletal corpses as their foundation, and in Xu Qing's eyes they were no different from corpses. Even if the ghost general had considerable skill, he was no match for him.

Xu Qing's eyes flickered as he looked at the Corpse-Nourishing Pill and the Yin Ghost Jade he had obtained through the ritual.

The Corpse-Nourishing Pill can nourish and refine the corpse body, while the Yin Ghost Jade can accelerate the cultivation of the Undying Bone. If there were only a dozen or twenty of these things, it would be fine, but the Ghost King's Tomb has more than ten or twenty thousand ghost generals and ghost soldiers.

Xu Qing has now obtained nearly a hundred pieces of Yin Ghost Jade from just the patrolling ghost soldiers under the command of General Ghost Altar.

Xu Qing didn't even dare to imagine how far he could go if his old neighbor fully supported his cultivation.

Is it to completely condense the Undying Bone, reaching the state of bone merging with the five elements, or to go a step further and become a Flying Zombie?

Xu Qing suppressed the agitation in his heart, and Sai Yuxian's voice and smile appeared in his mind, instantly making his heart as clear as ice again.

Corpse-colored dogs and horses are all poisonous creatures.

With the mortuary staff around, over the years, the bones will eventually heal and circulate properly; it's just a matter of time. As for the skeletons in the Ghost King's Tomb...
He felt very reassured that his old neighbor was looking after him.

Xu Qing didn't know if the disappearance of General Guitan would alarm his old neighbors, so he didn't dare to approach the Ghost King's Tomb anytime soon.

Along the perimeter of the mausoleum, Xu Qing, whip in hand, rode his dappled horse, continuing to search for the trail of the Five Shadows Taoist.

Upon arriving near the Populus euphratica tomb, Xu Qing finally saw Zuo Zixiong and his group again.

At this moment, Zuo Zixiong led more than sixty members of the Shenji Battalion, who were on high alert outside the Populus euphratica tomb.

According to Huang Xiaoliu, Zuo Zixiong led more than 100 members of the Shenji Battalion into the Yin River.

How come half of our men are gone in just a few days?
Xu Qing looked closely and saw that the soldiers in the camp had no military discipline whatsoever, and some had even reached outside the camp, trying to escape.

"The dog emperor sent Zuo Zixiong to Yinhe just to have him bring these soldiers?"

The Yinhe Ancient Road is unlike the mortal world. The Yin wind here is bone-chilling. If an ordinary person were to enter, their Yang fire would be extinguished and they would die within half a day. Even those with profound martial arts skills must travel in groups to avoid being taken advantage of by demons and ghosts.

Although the people in front of Xu Qing now appear to have strong yang energy and have clearly made considerable progress in martial arts, they do not seem to be from the military; they seem more like top-notch martial artists who have been captured.
This is a battle concerning the future of the Great Yong Dynasty. Why did Emperor Jingxing send Zuo Zixiong with these people?
Xu Qing had never been involved in the imperial court or the military, so he was unaware of the status of martial artists above the Inner Cultivation level in the army. He knew that the monthly salary of those martial artists was more than that of a common soldier in the army.
Above them are the military leaders, who all belong to different factions. It would be extremely difficult for Zuo Zixiong to mobilize one or two hundred men.

That being said, if Emperor Jingxing really gave the order, none of these things would be a problem!
However, Emperor Jingxing refused to send elite troops to assist in the battle at Yinhe.

The Dayong army is already struggling to deal with the northern border and the southern border. If they were to divide their forces to Yinhe, Emperor Jingxing feared that the Beixiang army would reach the outskirts of the capital the very next day. Moreover, there are many treacherous officials and rebels nowadays, and there are always highly skilled assassins who can infiltrate the capital to assassinate the emperor.

If the Imperial Guards and Imperial Bodyguards, the very forces protecting the royal family, were transferred to Yinhe, who would protect his safety?

As for the fate of the dynasty, Emperor Jingxing had already made his decision. Now over seventy years old, he didn't have many years left to live, and he had no desire to cause trouble.

As long as the Great Yong dynasty's fate allows it to last until his death, then even if Great Yong perishes, it won't be at his hands. Besides, didn't he capture quite a few martial arts masters and skilled warriors and send them to the Underworld River?
With these people, the Eight Banners Marshals of Yinhe, and the experts from the Celestial Master's Mansion, the fate of the Great Yong Dynasty is not only secure, but may even flourish.
Emperor Jingxing had no one to teach him, yet he grasped the true essence of dream-making on his own, immersing himself in beautiful dreams every day.

Using the paper-making technique, Xu Qing folded several small paper figures and infiltrated the military camp. However, just as one of the palm-sized paper figures approached the center of the camp, it was swallowed whole by a shadow that suddenly appeared.

The Five Shadows Daoist looked at the shadow that had returned to his side, and his eyes narrowed immediately.

Ten miles away, Xu Qing, through the perspective of the other paper figures, saw the Five Shadows Daoist send out three shadows that sped off in different directions outside the military camp.

During this time, two more paper figures were swallowed. Xu Qing raised an eyebrow. The cultivation of the Five Shadows Daoist in front of him was much more profound than that of Ling Yangzi, who had three shadows back then!
Xu Qing remained calm. The Five Shadows Daoist had agreed to the Ghost Altar General's request to go to Tianjin again within seven days to capture living people for food.

He always managed to catch the Five Shadows Taoist when he was alone.

As for these seven days, consider it a period of vigil. Xu Qing remained calm and composed. Apart from finding a tomb near the military camp to cultivate his incorruptible bones, he also took the time to go out and collect a few corpses.

These corpses were all conscripts who had run away from the military camp. Some of them died at the hands of their comrades, while others were devoured by evil spirits and demons, leaving only a bare white skeleton.

After Xu Qing performed the ritual to help the dead pass on, he discovered that in addition to martial arts masters arrested by the imperial court, most of these people were bandits and assassins imprisoned in the Exorcism Bureau or the Imperial Prison.

Should assassins fight for the Great Yong Dynasty?

Xu Qing's impression of Emperor Jingxing was refreshed once again. This dog emperor must have eaten a lot of mushrooms, he can come up with all sorts of ideas.

While Xu Qing was waiting for the Five Shadows Daoist, a minor incident also occurred at the home of his old neighbor, the Ghost King Duo'e.

Deep within the Ghost King's Tomb, the Ghost King Duo'e, wearing a crown and an ochre-yellow dragon robe, sat regally on his throne.

At this moment, a cold wind whistled through the tomb, and the candles flickered, illuminating the ghost king's eyes, which seemed to glow like ice and fire, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.

Inside the hall, a ghost general was presenting a memorial:

"Your Majesty, before the Ghost Altar General's incident, a Taoist priest from the secular Celestial Master's Mansion came to pay his respects. He brought a hundred sacrificial offerings of living people's blood and flesh, which he presented to Your Majesty, saying that he wanted to form an alliance. I observed that his Taoist practices were strange and bizarre, and his breathing of yang energy was extremely evil. I fear that he used the pretext of offering tribute to secretly carry out a poisonous act, capturing the Ghost Altar General to refine into a magical treasure, causing his ghostly body to disintegrate and even his soul to be unable to be summoned."

Upon hearing this, the Demon King Duo'e opened and closed his jaw, his eyes blazing with ghostly fire, and said, "I have always kept to myself and that Eight Banners Marshal. Even when he passed by the royal tomb, I treated him with courtesy! The Red-Clothed Sect once set up a shrine to me in the mortal world to gather incense offerings, wanting me to intervene in the conflict between the Eight Banners Marshal and the Yin Shi Dharma King, but I avoided getting involved to avoid suspicion."

"I did not punish them for their past crimes of disturbing the imperial tombs, but instead allowed them to pay tribute. Yet they harbored wolfish ambitions and dared to invade the royal tombs, capture my generals and ministers, and destroy their souls. Did they think that my royal tombs were easy to bully?"

After he finished speaking, a thick, tangible black flame of yin energy suddenly erupted from the body of the Ghost King Duo'e. All the generals and ministers in the tomb knelt on the ground, not daring to utter a word.

The Ghost King turned to look at the kneeling Ghost Master and commanded, "Master, listen to my decree! I order you to immediately go to the Palace of the Yin Shi Dharma King. Since the Celestial Master's Mansion dares to invade my royal tomb, I will never let them live under the same sky. You shall use my imperial seal as proof to tell the Dharma King that if he is willing, I will help him resist the Eight Banners Marshal and eliminate this major threat."

Gui Fuzi reluctantly agreed upon hearing this. He understood that the Ghost King was using the Celestial Master's Mansion as a pretext to attack the Eight Banners Marshals, simply to have a legitimate reason for his attack. After all, the incense offered by the Red-Clothed Sect had a great effect on the Ghost King's injuries.
On this day, the relatively calm Yinhe Ancient Road suddenly began to tremble, followed by the thunderous gallop of skeletal warhorses. Xu Qing looked in the direction of the sound and saw dust swirling in the distance. The Eight Banners Marshal led three thousand cavalrymen from afar and soon arrived in front of the military camp.

Purple flames flickered in the empty eyes of the Eight Banners Marshal. He scanned the area and when he saw that there were only forty-odd people among the reinforcements, who were standing and sitting haphazardly, the flames in his eyes paused for a moment.

"Are these people also soldiers?"

The Five Shadows Daoist stepped forward with a smile and said, "These are all elite soldiers sent by my Great Yong. The weakest among them are at the Inner Refinement Realm. However, the Yin River is extremely dangerous. Of the more than 500 generals we brought, only these 40 or so remain."

The Five Shadows Taoist didn't even blush when he said there were five hundred generals instead of a hundred strong men.

Zuo Zixiong, on the other hand, was already blushing and felt extremely embarrassed.

"Marshal, it is my dereliction of duty that I failed to maintain proper military discipline and appearance!"

Upon hearing this, the Eight Banners Marshal looked at Zuo Zixiong. As a founding marshal, he immediately recognized the qualities of the officer before him.

"You're quite good, but you shouldn't have come here."

Zuo Zixiong did not understand the meaning of the Eight Banners Marshal. He turned his head to the side, clasped his hands above his head, and said in a muffled voice, "This humble general is a general of the Great Yong. No matter where I am, as long as I am fighting for the Great Yong, that is my home!"

The Eight Banners Marshal's gaze was deep and thoughtful, containing both admiration and a great deal of regret.

Generals like Zuo Zixiong should be sent to fight in the human world, not here to fight against the skeletons in the tombs.

The Eight Banners Marshals, who earned the prestigious title of Founding Marshal, were certainly not just crude and uncouth warriors with only military prowess.

He could tell from Wuying Daoren and Zuo Zixiong alone that the current Dayong court was in trouble.

"Lord Xu was right after all."

When the Eight Banners Marshal recalled Xu Qing's account of the external situation, his heart was filled not only with melancholy but also with a burning fighting spirit!

As Zuo Zixiong said, no matter where they are, whether they are human or ghost, as long as they still have strength, they can give their last drop of blood and their last bit of ashes for Dayong!

The barbarians of Nancuo were no match for the Yong army when they were alive, so how could they possibly defeat them after they died?
The Five Shadows Taoist calculated the time and said, "Marshal, you may set up camp here. I still need to negotiate with the Ghost King Duo'e, so I will take my leave first. Once the rear is secure, I will assist the Marshal in defeating the enemy."

Zuo Zixiong frowned, opened his mouth as if to say something, but he did not stop the other party until he watched him leave.

In the distance, Xu Qingtian activated his Yin Eyes and followed the Five Shadow Daoists from the moment they left the military camp.

Inside the military camp, the Eight Banners Marshal, whose aura was stronger than ever before, suddenly turned his head to look outside the camp.

He turned to Zuo Zixiong and asked, "Lord Xu has also come to Yinhe?"

"Master Xu?"

Seeing the puzzled look on Zuo Zixiong's face, the Eight Banners Marshal immediately realized and said, "He is a man of great talent and insight. He is a civil official, so it seems that General Zuo is not with him."

"However, this place has become quite dangerous lately, and it may not be safe for Lord Xu to come here at this time."

I hope he's alright.

At the mouth of the Baisha River, a whirlpool appeared out of thin air, and in the center of the whirlpool, two Taoist priests with identical appearances leaped out of the water.

Not far from the whirlpool, a three-story passenger ship was sailing towards it.

However, just as the Five Shadows Taoist was about to plunder the passengers on the ship, a black-and-white painted general, dressed in military attire and wielding a mountain-splitting axe, suddenly jumped out from the whirlpool in the middle of the river mouth!
After the general rushed out of the whirlpool, he turned around and freed his right hand, drawing the sword from his waist and slashing a streak of blue light into the center of the whirlpool.

With the vortex array's core broken, the big-faced man sheathed his sword, then raised his left hand, brushed his waist-length beard aside, and stared wide-eyed at the demonic Taoist in front of him!
The Five Shadows Daoist's gaze fell on Xu Qing. Although he was surprised, he showed no fear.

"You were the one who used unorthodox techniques to spy on me on the ancient Yin River Road, weren't you?"

The Five Shadows Daoist smiled, gently stroked his short mustache, and continued, "This humble Daoist is Lingfeng. May I ask your name, friend?"

Xu Qing kept his eyes straight ahead, letting the passenger ship behind him sail away.

Upon hearing Lingfeng Daoist's question, he replied in a thunderous voice:

"A certain tycoon from Tianjin has come to arrest you!"

(End of this chapter)