Dragon Ball, simultaneously traversing countless worlds

In an instant, the earth shook violently, rocks flew everywhere, and hundreds of soldiers were caught in the blast, either dying or being injured.

The bluestone city wall, built with glutinous rice juice, was also bombarded and collapsed.

The spot where Liang Fangping was standing collapsed, and falling bricks crushed him to death.

The defensive weapons piled up on the city walls, along with boiling oil, molten gold, and torches, were all poured onto the ground, scalding and injuring many Song soldiers.

The city wall defenses were thrown into chaos. Amidst the roar of cannons, they were like a swarm of headless flies, disoriented and running around aimlessly in the smoke and dust.

Faced with such a terrifying siege, the defending soldiers collapsed.

"It's heavenly lightning! Lotus Prince is using heavenly lightning on us!"

"The city gates have been blown open, the rebels are about to come in..."

"Run!"

Once a soldier led the retreat, a large group of soldiers immediately followed. Even though the supervising team killed several deserters, they could not stop the rout of thousands of men.

With just one wave of attacks, Luo Yan completely shattered the Song army's confidence.

He transformed into a 50-meter-tall giant and led his Iron Eagle Warriors toward Junzhou City.

After Luo Yan unleashed his Heaven and Earth Transformation Technique, even the supervising team collapsed. All the soldiers in the city dared not run away, dropping their weapons, kneeling on the ground, and begging for their lives.

Lotus Child is a true immortal; his fifty-meter-tall stature is beyond the capabilities of ordinary mortals.

Leaving aside the soldiers, even the common people in the city, seeing a fifty-meter-tall giant through the city walls, felt a sense of fear and dread that only Eren Yeager could truly understand.

Luo Yan laughed loudly and took a step to the edge of the city wall. Just as he was about to step inside the city wall...

A golden light appeared out of thin air atop the city wall, blocking Luo Yan's path like a curtain.

"You audacious sorcerer, how dare you violate the heavenly rules and recklessly attack the imperial court and mortals."

Chapter 201 City God Kou Zhun

The golden curtain shimmered, blocking Luo Yan's path.

However, the magic power on this curtain is very weak. If Luo Yan wanted to, he could easily tear this curtain apart.

He stopped simply to see who was casting the spell.

This was the first Taoist practitioner he had encountered besides Master Yuan, and he was very interested in him.

On the city wall of Junzhou, an old man dressed in the official robes of the Song Dynasty appeared out of nowhere. He had a dignified and upright appearance and a long black beard.

Luo Yan could not sense any life force from this person, so it seemed that this guy was not a living person.

However, he was not a ghost; though he was a spirit, he possessed a pure yang quality.

There was a faint fragrance emanating from him, and faint sounds of praise could be heard surrounding him.

"Who are you, and why are you blocking my way?" Luo Yan asked.

"I am Kou Zhun, the Prime Minister of the Great Song Dynasty!" the old man said sternly.

"Kou Zhun? Wait a minute, didn't Kou Zhun die in Leizhou last year? Right, you're already a ghost... Kou Zhun, why aren't you going to the underworld to reincarnate? What are you trying to do here?"

"I, Kou Zhun, have made contributions to the country and the people while I was alive."

The people of Daming Prefecture built a shrine for me, and the Jade Emperor of Heaven appointed me as the Earth God and City God, ordering me to govern the wind, rain, ghosts, and spirits of Daming Prefecture.

Now that you, this sorcerer, are using your magic to harm the common people, of course I must appear and punish evil, and protect the people.

"City God, I see." Luo Yan nodded, finally understanding why Kou Zhun had appeared.

In this world of celestial books, humans, gods, immortals, demons, and ghosts mingle. There are demons and ghosts in the human world, but why is there no great chaos in the human world? It is because of the constraints of the Heavenly Court's laws.

The Heavenly Court forbids cultivators from interfering with mortal affairs, and establishes local gods and mountain deities in famous mountains and rivers to control demons and monsters and prevent them from harming people.

Therefore, the mortal world is generally peaceful and prosperous, with few evil spirits.

In the Song Dynasty, apart from remote and desolate areas, it was almost impossible to see demons and ghosts, thanks in no small part to the city gods in various places.

The City God is a deity worshipped by the people. Most of them were famous people and generals in their lives. Because of their merits, they became gods after death through their merits and vows.

When Kou Zhun was alive, he served as the prefect of Daming Prefecture, where he governed the area and earned the gratitude of the people.

After his death, the people made idols of him and placed them in temples to receive offerings.

Besides Daming Prefecture, there are temples in Leizhou and his hometown.

The City God's temple stands in the human world, able to report to the Heavenly Court above, communicate with the Underworld below, and even connect with the human court in between, truly having influence over all three realms.

After Kou Zhun became the City God, he was considered a ghost immortal. He could become stronger by relying on the power of incense offerings. Although he had only been a god for a year, the flourishing incense offerings allowed him to accumulate considerable magical power, making it easy for him to deal with a cultivator at the Refining Void and Harmonizing Dao realm.

“Lotus Child, as a cultivator, how can you not know the difference between immortals and mortals? You rely on your Taoist arts to kill mortals, and you are burdened with sins. Today I will capture you, strip you of your magic power, and cast you into hell.”

"Relying on Taoist arts to kill mortals? Minister Kou, you are mistaken." Luo Yan slowly transformed back into his true form and said, "When have you ever seen me kill anyone? Those who died because of my subordinates were not killed by Taoist arts."

Kou Zhun sneered: "Are you trying to say that those puppet armors weren't made by you using magic?"

The Ruyi Treasure Book is only a part of the Nine Heavens Secret Manual; it only records magic spells and does not include methods for alchemy and weapon crafting.

These mechs were indeed not made with magic, but Kou Zhun didn't care about that.

"Lord Kou has misunderstood. Those mechs were all crafted using the methods of ordinary people..." Luo Yan explained.

"Hey! Heaven has eyes. It's no use arguing with me. Whether the karma is on your head or not is up to Heaven to decide." Kou Zhun glared angrily, completely ignoring Luo Yan's words.

Luo Yan's expression turned cold as he said, "Karma? I don't think my actions will bring karma. Zhao Ji was incompetent and tyrannical, causing the people to suffer. I seized his throne, drove out the barbarians, restored Yan and Yun, and restored the land of China. Humanity flourished. My achievements are comparable to those of the emperors of the Han and Tang dynasties. How could Heaven bring down karma?"

"Shut up, you traitorous scoundrel! The ruler of the world is predetermined. To rebel at this time is to defy the will of Heaven."

"The way of Heaven is predetermined. So, could you have predicted that two years later, the Jin army would march south and hundreds of thousands of people would be taken away by the Jin army like cattle?"

Kou Zhun's expression changed drastically, and he hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

After Kou Zhun became the god of incense offerings, he acquired the divination techniques of immortals and was able to glimpse parts of the future.

He couldn't foresee things too far in the future, but how could he not foresee the Jingkang Incident two years later?

Even if he couldn't foresee it, the Jingkang Incident didn't happen out of nowhere. The decline of the Northern Song and Liao dynasties and the rise of the Jin dynasty—even without using magic, with Kou Zhun's top-notch civil official's insight, how could he not have noticed it at all?

But what if he foresaw it, what if he sensed it? He is now a god of incense offerings, a subject of the Heavenly Court, and abides by the rules of Heaven.

Heaven forbids gods and immortals from interfering with mortals; no matter how much Kou Zhun worried about the country and its people, he could not prevent the Jingkang Incident from happening.

If he were to reveal heavenly secrets and attempt to change the course of the Jingkang Incident, he would suffer a backlash from Heaven, be cast down from his pedestal, and at best suffer damage to his soul, or at worst have his soul scattered.

Seeing the change in Kou Zhun's expression, Luo Yan sneered, "It seems you know about the Jingkang Incident."

"It's laughable that you stand by and watch the future Chinese people suffer a great calamity. Instead of fighting back and rescuing the people from their dire straits, you interfere with my actions. Is this your sense of right and wrong, Kou Zhun?"

Kou Zhun sighed and said, "Alas, this is a calamity destined for our Great Song Dynasty. The Jingkang Incident and the southward migration of the gentry have meant that the Mandate of Heaven still belongs to our Great Song Dynasty. Our Great Song Dynasty can continue for another hundred years. But what you are about to do will directly sever the continuation of the Great Song Dynasty and will not be tolerated by the Heavenly Way."

"Pooh!"

Luo Yan spat fiercely, "Heavenly Dao, Heavenly Dao, you keep talking about Heavenly Dao, would you be willing to die if Heavenly Dao asked you to?"

“I…am willing…” Kou Zhun answered with difficulty.

Humanity is still the ultimate authority; we can loudly proclaim that the ways of Heaven are not to be feared, for humanity can surely overcome Heaven.

However, after becoming the God of Incense, his soul was altered by the power of incense offerings and he was bound by the rules of Heaven, losing the uprightness and strength he had as a human.

Luo Yan finally realized that the Kou Zhun in front of him was no longer the same Kou Zhun. He took a deep breath and said, "You follow the way of heaven, I follow the way of man. I believe that man can conquer nature. Our paths are different, so we cannot work together. If I cannot persuade you with words, then I will persuade you with physics."

Kou Zhun's expression also turned cold: "That's exactly what I meant."

The tension between the two was palpable.

The soldiers and officers of Junzhou City below, as well as the Iron Eagle Warriors under Luo Yan's command, all stared wide-eyed.

They didn't dare to interrupt when Luo Yan and Kou Zhun were talking.

One of them was a lotus prince descended to earth, and the other was a deity worshipped by incense. The two debated and fought, and no one dared to interrupt.

Let's hear what they have to say.

Two years later, the Jin army marched south, and the gentry fled south.

These words sent chills down the spines of General Wang and his soldiers.

Before the Song Dynasty, Han Chinese twice migrated south in their traditional attire. During the Five Barbarian Invasions, Emperor Yuan of Jin fled the chaos and crossed the Yangtze River to establish the Eastern Jin Dynasty in Jiankang.

During the An Lushan Rebellion, Li Bian established the Southern Tang Dynasty in the south.

Both times, the Han people fled south in their robes, and each time they suffered heavy casualties and bloodshed.

Is our Great Song Dynasty also destined to be captured and destroyed by barbarians?

The more books one reads and the more knowledge one has, the greater one's sense of crisis becomes. General Wang, for example, was more apprehensive than ordinary soldiers about Kou Zhun's prediction of the southward migration of the elite.

General Wang was also worried that hearing such heavenly secrets might lead to him being silenced by the two great gods.

After Luo Yan and Kou Zhun were about to begin their magical duel, General Wang finally couldn't help but shout, "All soldiers, immediately retreat one mile from the city wall!"

He's too scared to stay here anymore and wants to leave.

The soldiers weren't idiots; they wouldn't dare stand between the two immortals fighting. With General Wang's order, they all turned tail and ran away.

"Your Majesty, shall we pursue them?" the centurion asked, looking at the fleeing Song soldiers.

"Go, get away from me, and arrest all those Song soldiers."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

At the centurion's command, more than 500 Iron Eagle Warriors took to the air and flew in the direction General Wang had fled.

Kou Zhun did not stop these mortal soldiers, letting them leave. After he appeared, his only target was Luo Yan.

In his view, as long as Luo Yan, the cultivator, was dealt with, those mortal soldiers would be no threat at all, and there was nothing to worry about.

Furthermore, as the City God, he is bound by heavenly laws and cannot act against mortals without authorization.

Even if Luo Yan's Iron Eagle Warriors massacred the city, he could only watch and could not interfere.

Chapter 202 Battle of Wits

One by one, the mortals around Luo Yan and Kou Zhun left.

Kou Zhun slowly retracted the golden curtain in the air. The curtain that had blocked Luo Yan shrank slowly and fell into Kou Zhun's hand, turning into a handkerchief. Kou Zhun stuffed it into his sleeve and it disappeared.