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

Chapter 338 Sending off old friends, the seal of the three armies

A forest of desolate tombs and steles.

Xu Qing gazed at the tomb, which had been eroded by wind and sand for hundreds of years and was now dilapidated beyond recognition, and sighed softly.

As the fortunes of the Great Yong Dynasty waned, the once bustling forest of steles, where the shouts of soldiers could still be heard, became a desolate and overgrown graveyard.

Xu Qing had spent a considerable amount of time in the cemetery. Following the traces in his memory, he walked all the way to the depths of the graveyard.

On a mound of earth, a skeleton marshal with a tattered cloak and rusty armor is looking sideways at the spot where his banner once stood.

Xu Qing followed the other person's gaze and saw a flagpole that had been broken due to decay on the highest tomb.

The flag bearing the character "雍" has disappeared without a trace.

At this moment, the Eight Banners Marshal looked like a defeated general, sitting alone on the grave.

Below the grave was Xu Qing, followed by a procession of paper figures representing the deceased.

One hundred and twenty-eight people carried the imperial staff, eighty people carried the kings and marshals, and sixty-four people carried the marshals of a country.

The long line of paper figures behind Xu Qing made up exactly sixty-four.

"Marshal, the time has come."

The Eight Banners Marshal, who had been staring blankly at the banner, finally turned his gaze to the grave. The young man looked exactly the same as when they first met more than a decade ago, and the smile on his face remained unchanged.

The living are solemn, while the withered bones laugh.

Though mountains and rivers may change, this person remains constant.

The Eight Banners Marshal suddenly realized that the pale-faced youth had only intended to attend his funeral from beginning to end, and that smile was merely a professional one for welcoming and seeing off guests.

"Did the Great Yong Dynasty perish because of your own hand?"

A hoarse voice rang out, as if he had been staying in the Yinhe River for too long; the Eight Banners Marshal's voice was also filled with the dust and sand.

Xu Qing nodded and then shook his head.

"The Great Yong Dynasty perished because of its own actions. Throughout history, how many dynasties have risen and fallen, yet were they all caused by a single person?"

Xu Qing laughed and said, "I'm just giving it a quick death in advance to prevent it from continuing to poison the world."

"The Marshal is not a man of this time. He cannot see the suffering of ordinary people, nor can he see the conflict between me and Dayong. If we look at it in the long run, perhaps the premature end of these one or two decades will be a very good thing for future generations."

The almost extinguished life force in the Eight Banners Marshal's heart was suddenly stirred up by Xu Qing's words.

Is destroying the Great Yong Dynasty a good thing for future generations?
How ironic this was for him, the founding marshal who conquered the Great Yong Dynasty!
Xu Qing seemed to sense that the Eight Banners Marshal was angered. He clicked his tongue and reminded him again: "The Marshal is not a man of today, and the Great Yong is not the Great Yong of the past. Throughout history, there have been countless brilliant talents, but who can escape the fate of national subjugation?"

"Even the civil and military officials who helped the founding emperor unify the world couldn't stop the era from ending?"

"Marshal, you should take it easy. I heard that Shang Shaoyang from Qianzhou led the Huainan troops and together with the Gu family's Four Elephant Army, they defeated the Nancuo barbarians, drove them six hundred li south, and recovered the lost territory of three counties. This can be considered a complete success."

The Eight Banners Marshal's initial surge of anger quickly subsided. He gave Xu Qing a deep look, then drew his long spear and said:
"The rights and wrongs, merits and demerits will be judged by future generations. Since I have become a general of the Great Yong Dynasty, I must serve the Great Yong Dynasty."

"If you wish to collect my corpse, you must first raze my grave and break the spear in my hand!"

Seeing the old marshal's life force flickering like a candle in the wind, Xu Qing finally drew his sword.

"This sword was given to me by General Zuo. It was with this sword that I took the life of the tyrant. Does the Marshal also wish to die by this sword?"

"."

Upon hearing Zuo Zixiong's name, the Eight Banners Marshal paused suddenly and asked, "General Zuo, did you come to the emperor's aid? Did you kill him as well?"

Xu Qing chuckled: "I promised the Marshal that I would send General Zuo out of the Yin River alive, so how could I kill him after sending him out of the Yin River?"

“General Zuo is not currently in Dayong. Perhaps I will send him back when the world is at peace.” The Eight Banners Marshal was taken aback, then said in horror, “How is this any different from killing him?”

After pondering for a moment, Xu Qing suddenly laughed and said, "It's alright. At worst, I'll send him back later. If a hundred years isn't enough, then a thousand. Maybe there won't be an emperor in the future. As long as there's no emperor, General Zuo might be able to find his true self."

"After all, these dynasties were just an ancient country."

No emperor? How is that possible? How can the world function without an emperor?

The Eight Banners Marshal could not understand.

"Spreading heresies and misleading the masses! How can a ruler and his subjects act against reason? It's all my fault for believing in this demon and failing to eliminate you, this root of trouble, more than a decade ago when the Great Yong Dynasty was still in power. Today, when we meet again, we are enemies!"

"If you don't draw your sword now, when will you?"

The Eight Banners Marshal's life force was growing weaker and weaker, to the point that even Xu Qing's figure was becoming somewhat blurry.

"Marshal should have rested long ago."

Xu Qing sighed softly; how could he not see through the Eight Banners Marshal's intentions?
This old general probably wanted to die on the battlefield rather than pass away alone in this desolate wilderness.

Xu Qing drew his sword and, with his still-youthful physique, easily passed through the Eight Banners Marshal and arrived behind him.

The Eight Banners Marshal didn't feel the sword pierce his body. He turned around and saw the young man holding the sword hilt against his lower back, saying:
"Accepted."

The young man twirled his sword, sheathed it, and simultaneously extended a palm, placing it on the man's body.

The next moment, the Eight Banners Marshal felt an unprecedented sense of ease. He saw his father carving wooden swords and playing with him when he was a child, his mother taking him to the lantern festival, the first time he met the late emperor, and the friendship among his many colleagues in the military camp.

Later on, he married, had children, and fought in various wars.
As the revolving lantern display ended, the head of the Eight Banners Marshal also fell to the ground.

Xu Qing looked at Du Renjing and received a reward.

A wisp of the Emperor's fortune from the underworld, and three military seals, all ranked in the lower rank of the Heavenly category.

The three seals of the Zhenjun Army are divided into three colors: blue, yellow, and red. Each seal is engraved with the three characters for Heaven, Earth, and Man.

The Azure Seal can gather evil spirits into clouds, lift up the three armies, increase their marching speed, and cause divine soldiers to descend from the sky.

The Earth Yellow Seal strengthens the defenses and can draw upon the power of the earth's veins to protect and construct a defensive array, making it difficult for external forces to invade.

The red mark on a person can heal wounded soldiers, clear away water and fire, and purify impurities and remove misfortune.

Xu Qing held three military seals, which floated in his palm.

In the past, even if he had more than ten thousand generals, he could not make them ride the clouds and march, let alone be called divine soldiers and heavenly generals.

Now that he has this commander's seal, he is essentially given the ability to command the ghost soldiers and heavenly generals.

However, Xu Qing also discovered something that made him, the master of the seal, very embarrassed.

That is, even though he was an unyielding zombie, he still had not learned the art of flying and soaring through the clouds.

Zombies are a type of creature that cultivates their physical bodies. Their bones weigh over a thousand or even ten thousand pounds, and they cannot learn ordinary methods of leaping. Only by evolving into flying zombies can they awaken the ability to fly and escape into the earth.

Xu Qing put away the garrison seal and pretended nothing had happened.

The ancient Yinhe River channel remains, its sands and winds still blowing.

On the desolate tomb, the young man stood beside the skeletal giant, gazing at the distant forest of monuments.

After a moment of silence, the young man collected the remains of the Eight Banners marshal, and paper figures carried the coffin. The funeral procession from the underworld proceeded in a grand procession toward the bone temple.

(End of this chapter)