Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 502 - 401: Truly a Good Daughter-in-law (Seeking Monthly Tickets)_1

Chapter 502: Chapter 401: Truly a Good Daughter-in-law (Seeking Monthly Tickets)_1

"What is this thing?"

Li Xuan was pondering over the sword, inserted by a little girl with a green sword, into his mind.

In Lv Qiluo’s hands, it was a green sword, but when inserted into his Shenpo, it turned into a piece of golden-yellow soil, along with a peculiar seed.

This soil and seed, existing between Xushi, are now in his Shenpo, and within his soul.

"A piece of Jiutian Xirang and a seed of an innate gourd vine." Lv Qiluo casually said: "You’re amazing, still have the leisure to ponder over this at the moment?"

Li Xuan was rather puzzled, in his previous life he read some Hongmeng and Divine Enthronement novels.

He knew that ’Jiutian Xirang’ was the material used by Nvwa to create humans, the remaining piece in the hands of Nvwa was said to be full of immense merit, with unparalleled defence; the gourd vine, a preexisting spiritual root, once having seven gourds, was also used to create humans. The gourds were transformed into seven spiritual treasures, the most famous of which was the ’Immortal Slaying Dagger’ that spares no immortals.

But at this moment, Li Xuan was have no room to think about all these, he felt his body numbing and a thick layer of earth forming outside his skin. even his skin itself began to petrify, eventually spreading to the flesh inside; that seed of the gourd vine, however, sprouted countless roots in an instant, piercing every corner of his Shenpo.

The pain was dozens of times greater than when he previously condensed his Martial Law Golden Body. What made Li Xuan more fearful was that the roots of this gourd vine not only completely drained his Divine Sense in an instant, but even went further, draining his Primordial Spirit.

"It’s not as exaggerated as you think." Lv Qiluo, who seemed to vaguely perceive Li Xuan’s thoughts at this moment, said: "This is something I came across in my early years, they do not have any merit, nor are they spiritual treasures, their only function is to catalyse, to help your Shenpo and Golden Body cross that boundary, giving you the qualifications in the future to challenge for that level."

Her gaze was very solemn as she looked down at Li Xuan: "To reverse the course of time, and to overturn the immense trend, relying solely on the Wenshan Seal is far from enough. But divine artifacts have spirits, if you can’t subdue them, make them merge into your body, you will be assimilated into wood and stone by them, and become their nourishment."

At that very moment, Li Xuan suddenly roared, his entire body engulfed in flames, leaping into the sky, instantly burning a huge hole in the ceiling above.

Concurrently, he once again cast aside all thoughts, and fully contemplated on the ’Li’ character in his soul, and the ’Dari’ scene.

Using the ’Li’ character to suppress his Shenpo, and the infinite flames generated by Nuclear Fusion, he directed them towards that supposed ’Jiutian Xirang’, as well as the spiritual seed of the ’gourd vine’.

At this moment, a bit of starlight appeared in Lv Qiluo’s slightly dilated pupils. She stretched out her hand again, touching Li Xuan’s forehead, a green luminescence covering Li Xuan’s cracking body.

Also at this moment, inside the Underground, a burly figure pierced and entwined by seven chains and being burned by seven types of poisonous fires, suddenly exhaled a long breath, shaking the whole Underground for a moment.

Then, this figure casually placed a black chess piece on the huge empty chessboard in front of him.

※※ ※※

Meanwhile, in the imperial library of the Forbidden City, Jingtai Emperor, who was sitting behind the desk, put down a memorial with an exceptionally ugly expression on his face.

"Wu Zhiqi——"

He slammed the table in anger, his eyes were filled with murderous intent: "The Dushui Bureau of Tongbai should be damned!"

"The minister has already dispatched men to investigate." Grand Secretary Chen Xun, with a serious expression, bowed slightly: "But the pressing matter at hand is how to rectify the situation. The Qintian Bureau observed the sky at night and found that the moisture in Jiangnan is heavy, and there are also Wu Zhiqi and Xiangyue causing trouble. In these few tens of days, there will be continuous heavy rain in Jiangnan. The scale of this flood will be once in five hundred years, and both sides of the river will be swept by the flood."

"I’m afraid it can’t be stopped!" said Minister of Revenue Xiao Ci, his eyebrows slightly furrowed and filled with anxiety: "I’m afraid it’s not only Wu Zhiqi and Xiangyue, but there might be other forces involved too, otherwise, how could these two big demons come out? Zhihuishi Duogan of the Zhihuishi Division had previously reported that the various demons in the upper reaches of the Tongtian River also showed signs of wanting to do something.

This flood is unavoidable, I request your Majesty to allocate from the inner treasury to prepare for relief. Your Majesty, because we had been strengthening our defenses in the north, the Ministry of Revenue no longer has any surplus money and grains."

"Relief work must be done, but this flood also has to be blocked:" Shangshu Wang Wen, the Minister of Personnel, expressed in a cold tone: "Jiangnan is a crucial place for wealth and tax, it cannot be lost. The grain depot in Huguang is related to whether this year’s canal grain is sufficient, how can we let it flow away?

Once these two places are lost, how much money the Court has to invest in relief work, how much annual income will be left next year?"

Jingtai Emperor was rubbing his forehead in a headache: "Where has the Southern Zhili Navy reached?"

"The navy, led by Earl Chengyi, has been traveling day and night, and arrived at Jiangcheng (Wuhan) a day ago. After hearing that one of Wu Zhiqi’s Law Bodies had escaped, Earl Chengyi stationed the navy at the mouth of the river in Jiangcheng, where the Yangtze River and the Han River meet."

The one who answered was the Shangshu Yu, Minister of War, his brows were also tightly furrowed: "Just in the two days when Wu Zhiqi escaped, the water level of the Han River rose by eighteen feet, countless water demons descended along the river, already threatening Southern Zhili."

The color on Emperor Jingtai’s face was even more blue and purple, he knew that although the Han River was a tributary of the Yangtze River, it was often listed alongside the Yangtze River, Huai River, and Yellow River due to its vast river system, collectively known as ’Jianghuai Hehan’.

"The Southern Zhili Navy has been fighting in Jiangcheng for a day and night, killing countless water demons, but nearly thirty percent of the projectiles and crossbow arrows the navy carried have been consumed, and a large amount of military equipment has been damaged. Earl Chengyi has sent a letter to the Ministry of War in Nanjing asking for more arrows and swords.

Your Majesty, because it is naval warfare, the arrows they use are special, they must be amulet arrows that can break through the water waves. But because of the previous rebellion by Jianling remnants, who stole and sold military weapons, the stores in all the armories in Southern Zhili have less than 100,000 of these amulet arrows, which is not enough for a big battle."

Yu Jie knitted his brows slightly, "The Ministry of Works’ Arsenal and the Internal Bingzhang Institute are indeed operating at full capacity, but distant water cannot quench imminent fire. The Minister of War from Nanjing suggests that the court should allocate five million teals of patterned silver to purchase supplies from the public."

"Many workshops in south Zhili have the capacity for large-scale production of arrows, ammunition, and even have connections with Shenqi Union, allowing for them to gather 300,000 arrows in two days."

"Five million teals? We’ve just had a flood in the south and need to be prepared for troops in the north, plus money for disaster relief. Where is the court supposed to get all that money?" The Minister of Revenue, Xiao Ci, sighed ruefully before bowing to Emperor Jingtai, "I beg to be dismissed - I think Your Majesty should choose someone else for this task!"

Emperor Jingtai felt even more perplexed: "There really isn’t any money in the treasury. At most I can only provide three million teals. Xiao, do you really not have any other solutions?"

"There is another method." Xiao Ci raised his head: "We could relocate arrows and armaments from the northern border to the south, or perhaps withhold some of the salary silver first."

Yu Jie, Minister of War, suddenly had a look of anger in his eyes.

However, before he could object, the Grand Secretary, Chen Xun, interjected: "Let’s not discuss the arrows for now. Minister Yu, all I want to know at the moment is whether the court’s naval forces can withstand Wu Zhiqi, Xiangyue and the water demons of Tongtian River?"

"I am not very optimistic about this." Yu Jie sighed quietly and then bowed slightly to Emperor Jingtai, "Earl Chengyi, a notable general of the navy, will certainly do his best, but Your Majesty, you are well aware of what kind of person Wu Zhiqi is."

"Moreover, the Immortal Master Shuide has gathered fifty-seven Dragon Kings, a million-strong army of the aquatic clan in Dongting Lake. However, the East Sea Dragon Clan has always been on the losing side of the conflict with the Tongtian River aquatic clan. Now, with Xiangyue stirring up trouble, it’s more difficult. Unless we call for heavenly level reinforcements to come southwards, we will struggle to resist the upstream forces."

"Summon heavenly level troops?"

The eyes of Emperor Jingtai were full of difficulty. In recent days, Xiuyiwei and the Ministry of War had reported that Meng Wu’s tribes; Datan and Shivei, were deploying troops in the grasslands. They had already mobilized 190,000 tents and seemed to have the intention to move south.

At this time, the spring cold on the grassland had not yet receded, the horses and livestock were not at their full strength, and it was not the best time to deploy troops. Therefore, this was likely Meng Wu’s intention to draw them out with a feint.

However, Emperor Jingtai did not dare to take the risk. No matter what, he could not redeploy the troops stationed in the north at this time.

At this moment, the court only had Helian Fulong who had not fully recovered and was able to move south, along with Yu Hongchang who had a hidden drawback, and the Young Heavenly Master from Longhu Mountain who, with the help of immortal treasures, possessed part of the heavenly level combat power.

However, these three, in front of a true heavenly level, all possessed fatal flaws.

"What about the Liudao Division? Can Venerable Zhu be invited to Jiangcheng?"

"Venerable Zhu may need to wait a few more days." This was said by the chief eunuch, Qian Long, from Sili Bureau, who said with a wry smile: "I asked before, and their reply was that he was still in the tomb of the Tai Grand Emperor of Liao. There are some loose ends there that have not yet been dealt with, and he is temporarily unable to return."

※※ ※※

While the debate about the flood in Jiangnan was ongoing within the cabinet, there was the sound of the battle drum at the mouth of Jiangcheng River.

Li Chengji’s Jinling Navy, with seventy-two tower ships at the forefront, formed a huge fan shape that almost covered the entire surface of the river, moving upstream against the current of the Han River. Behind them, a large silver net was being dragged, trapping and blocking all water demons and the like in the water.

Behind them were various types of craft such as Meng Chong, Warships, Sea Whippets, Patrol Boats, and Recreational Boat etc., moving around, firing arrows like locusts, shooting all the trapped water demons down. Occasionally, when encountering a powerful big demon, the warship and patrol boat would charge up and engage in melee combat to prevent them from breaking the net.

This continuous slaughter turned the river into a sea of blood, drifting downstream.

A day after the Jiangcheng troops were stationed, Li Chengji finally decided to order the fleet to go upstream of the Han River to first eliminate the water disaster from the Han River.

One reason was that the Immortal Master Shuide had already gathered the dragon clan to launch a northward assault on Yichang, blocking the upper reaches of Yangtze River. Secondly, the preparations along both banks of Zhili Nan were sufficient. Some water demons that slipped through could hardly cause any trouble.

But at this moment, Li Chengji looked at the surging river surface with his eyes filled with worry.

He found that the speed of the river flow was getting faster and faster, so much so that his fleet took half a day to advance less than fifty miles upstream.

At this moment, Li Chengji turned his head as if sensing something and saw two female figures and a huge mechanical puppet flying in from a distance.

Aside from that mechanical creature, the two women were familiar to him. Therefore, Li Chengji immediately waved his hand, signalling his soldiers not to react excessively.

Then, Zhaojun’s figure fell onto the deck behind Li Chengji.

"Father!" Su Zhaojun wore a set of silver armor and looked valiant: "Yurou and I rushed down here overnight and brought 350,000 symbol arrows from Shenqi Union and have already transported them near Jiangcheng."

Li Chengji immediately looked overjoyed, thinking that these two children were indeed his good daughters-in-law.