Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 794 - 653: Li Xuan Arrives in the Capital_1

Chapter 794: Chapter 653: Li Xuan Arrives in the Capital_1

When Li Xuan captured Liang Heng’s Primordial Spirit, the former General Zhenshuo resisted fiercely.

Seeing the ’Jiuyou Soul Refining Lamp’ in Li Xuan’s hand, Liang Heng knew what was happening and was terrified for his future.

Enduring torture every day that exceeded ten, or even a hundred times the punishment of capital punishment stirred deep-seated fear, even in a person like him.

However, his Primordial Spirit’s power had already been exhausted and was completely incapable of resisting Li Xuan’s heavenly level power.

"Li Xuan, you dare! The saying goes, when you kill a man, you only put him to the sword. I urge you not to be too ruthless!"

"You bastard, if you have the guts, kill me. You, Li Xuan, are a renowned scholar in this world, don’t you know the way of mercy? What kind of hero are you when you trap someone like me into a soul lamp?"

"I beg you! I beg you! Don’t do it. This Liang is a first-class general under the court’s command and an hereditary Marquis of Wuqing. Even if I have committed a crime, it should be handled by The Court."

You wretched thing! I curse you that your entire family will not die in peace!"

It was only after Liang Heng’s Primordial Spirit was completely trapped by the Soul Lamp that peace returned to Li Xuan’s ears.

He divided Liang Heng’s divine soul into two parts. First, the Armored Taotie devoured the strongest and most core part Liang Heng’s Wuyi, and the remaining part was then trapped in the soul lamp.

In this way, both ends are satisfied. It neither affects the torture of Liang Heng, nor wastes his Wuyi.

Then Li Xuan reached out his hand to retrieve the two immortal artifacts left by Liang Heng from a distance.

One was the ’Taiyin Magnetic Arm’, the other was the ’Qikun Tianpan’ – which was actually a belt. In ancient times, belts were called ’Pan’.

The abilities of ’Taiyin Magnetic Arm’ naturally need not be said. As for the ’Qikun Tianpan’, it had been used by Liang Heng for many years and was quite famous. It is said to be made from the demon cores of seven huge sea monsters, each of them not lower than the middle heaven level.

These sea monsters were not only one of the rare beast species known for their strength, but their vitality was also incredibly robust.

Thus, the ’Qikun Tianpan’ not only provides its owner with immense strength, but also an endless source of Life Element.

Of course, there is a limitation, or else Liang Heng would have become an immortal monster.

"Yurou, these two things are for you."

Li Xuan offered the two items to Leng Yurou, looking at her with a solemn expression and concern: "Yurou, you are too weak in defending yourself right now, these two things will come in handy."

In fact, the ’Qikun Tianpan’ was quite suitable for Jiang Hanyun, but she already had a pair of ’Giant Thunder Fists’.

However, stacking up the same kind of immortal treasures actually has little effect, it’s too wasteful.

Moreover, the reason he could take these two immortal treasures was largely due to Leng Yurou’s contribution. Without Leng Yurou’s four fourth-grade ’Great Five Elements Yin-Yang Magnet Needles’ severely injuring Liang Heng, Li Xuan could not have restrained him.

Leng Yurou was taken aback for a moment, her eyes were shimmering. She thought, Li Xuan still has me in mind.

Then, at the next moment, she heard Li Xuan cough lightly: "Well, can I also write off the over 400,000 taels of silver that I owe you, Yurou?"

This over 400,000 teals mainly consisted of the debts incurred after strengthening the ’Fumo Vajra’, and also the cost of over a hundred field breechloader cannons, which The Court still hadn’t paid.

The price of these guns was extremely high, so the Ministry of War and Ministry of Revenue both had significant disputes and haven’t yet agreed to allocate funds for arms purchases. Li Xuan placed the order with Shenqi Union under his own private name after asking the Emperor.

He was looking forward to writing off Leng Yurou’s debt and then asking The Court for money when he returns to the capital. In this manner, he would have several hundred thousand taels of silver bar.

Leng Yurou’s lips twitched at the corners. She thought to herself that her young master’s shamelessness had risen to a new height.

Both of these immortal treasures had been shot by tens of thousands of firearms. They were already badly ruined by now, and just to repair them would cost several hundred thousand taels of silver.

Leng Yurou cursed inwardly, but still took the things.

She was interested in the ’Taiyin Magnetic Arm’. According to Li Xuan’s concept, the power of the Magnetic Arm could help in shaping metal components, which would be suitable for precision processing.

As for the ’Qikun Tianpan’, apart from self-defense, the life force it provides can also help her practice quickly and save a lot of time.

’Refining Essence into Qi’ as proposed by Taoism, practices Life Essence. The more essence, the more Qi can be refined.

Li Xuan then turned his gaze to the battlefield in front of him. The entire situation had reached its finale with Liang Heng being bombarded to death by thousands of guns.

The entire Forbidden Army of Jingying had already collapsed and fled when the iron-clad cavalry of thirteen-thousand was slaughtered.

Liang Heng’s brother, Liang Yuan, and the Zhihui Qianshi of Jingying, Ma Lin, had already escaped to an unknown location.

These two men anticipated the dire situation, and they had fled far away without even thinking about rescuing Liang Heng.

The eighteen-thousand cavalry of Jizhou under Li Xuan’s command were currently chasing after them on his orders.

Li Xuan’s firearm tactics could take on a stronger opponent with lesser numbers, and could directly crush an opponent with several times their own number of men and horses, but it has a significant flaw in pursuit and annihilation.

If he wanted to maximize the damage to the enemy, he still needed to rely on the support of the cavalry.

However, the task Li Xuan gave to the Jizhou cavalry was not to annihilate the enemy, but to force a surrender and capture prisoners as far as possible.

Both sides were of Jin People, were brothers-in-arms from the Jin Dynasty. A large majority of them were merely forced to participate by Liang Heng and other northern generals.

Li Xuan could be ruthless and merciless on the battlefield, treating lives like worthless weeds, but once the main culprits were eliminated, and the outcome was decided, there was no need for further bloodshed.

However, there were some people that Li Xuan was unwilling to spare no matter what.

Such as those officers born from northern military families, and Liang Heng’s confidants from the Tenth Battalion and the Fifth Army.

In his eagerness to return to the Capital City, Li Xuan left this responsibility to his deputy commander Wang Yuan, "Leave the clean-up here to General Wang. For those who have surrendered, follow the methods I’ve established before. Officers from the Tenth Battalion and the Fifth Army who rank below Qianhu should be immediately regarded as rebellious and decapitated. Officers ranking above Qianhu should be heavily shackled and handed over to the Court for execution, extending to their three generations. As for the army of Weisuo Institute, those below the rank of General can temporarily be unhandled, but those above require some discretion. Any related to the northern generals, cut them down! Those above the rank of Qianhu should be dealt with as Jingying. Also, you have to pick some reliable and courageous defectors to station around the city to prevent any chaos caused by the collapsing soldiers."

In Li Xuan’s view, today’s Jingying and Weisuo Institute’s senior officers were all guilty.

While the lower-level soldiers had no choice, these officers did. To resist orders, or to abandon their posts, was it that hard?

At that time, Liang Heng was anxious to leave the city to fight, and had no time to consider them.

In Li Xuan’s mind, these people were either dissatisfied with the Court, agitated by others, or harbored the wishful thought of gaining wealth and prestige through crowning the dragon (new emperor). These thoughts led them to follow Liang Heng’s steps and participate in the Battle of Chaobai River.

Li Xuan spared their three generations, which was already very merciful.

As for those military officers above the rank of Qianhu, they certainly deserved to die a thousand deaths.

Li Xuan kept them temporarily alive due to worries of being accused of acting high-handedly.

Wang Yuan followed all Li Xuan’s instructions without any hesitation.

Li Xuan also trusted him, and once he had handed all the details, he rode his Jade Qilin and galloped northward.

At this point, although the outcome of the Chaobai River had been decided, Shenji right and left camp still had to accept the defeated army, clean up the battlefield, and handle various tasks.

Li Xuan estimated that his Shenji Camp would not be free until the Hour of Wu.

So, Li Xuan simply left his army behind, taking only a dozen or so relatives, friends, and followers and hurriedly entered the city.

When he arrived at the Chaoyang Gate, he found that there were no guards at the gate. The streets were full of smoke, and cries were heard from all sides.

Those were the collapsing soldiers of Jingying, and some rogues taking advantage of the chaos to rob and plunder the people.

He could see along the way that the Liudao Division and the Shuntian Government were trying their best to suppress the chaos, but the number of soldiers who had rushed into the city were too many, and many demons took the opportunity to create trouble.

The manpower of the Liudao Division was limited, and they were just struggling to suppress the demons.

This is one of the changes brought about by the current Divine Venerable Zhu Mingyue. According to the traditional practice of the Liudao Division, whenever the royal family had a ’dragon fight’, the Liudao Division needed to stay shut and maintain ’neutrality’.

In the face of all these disturbances in Beijing, Li Xuan was helpless. All he could do was open his Liuli Haoqi and stun all the collapsing soldiers and bandits sensed along his path.

This remedy was temporary, but behind him, a cavalry of ten thousand from Jizhou was rushing to the rescue.

By the time these troops entered Beijing, the situation with security will greatly improve.

By the time Li Xuan reached the palace, he found that the major fight inside had ended.

The heavenly-level experts that had followed the Zhengtong Emperor and Prince Xiang into the Forbidden City had already heard about Li Xuan’s victory at the Chaobai River.

Those people knew the changes with the times, and when they knew things were hopeless they fled without trace.

Only Empress Sun was trapped in a block of thick azure frost, with her eyes closed and her face purple, she couldn’t move.

At that moment, only the True Emperor Zhengtong was left in front of Qianqing Palace, engaged in a deadly struggle with the Emperor.

This former emperor, covered in wounds and drenched in blood, had been chopped by Emperor Jingtai’s sword to the point where he was barely human. But still, he was desperately struggling, exerting all his strength to wield his sword, slashing and thrusting towards Emperor Jingtai.

It was like a dying beast, extremely frenzied.

The dragon qi controlled by both sides was also tearing at each other like beasts, causing wounds all over each other’s bodies, and their mysterious yellow blood sprinkled all over the palace.

As for the Emperor Jingtai, he still seemed calm, with an airtight defense, and occasional counterattacks would badly hurt the Zhengtong Emperor.

The only abnormality was that Emperor Jingtai’s face had a strange blush.

Li Xuan looked at Luo Yan first, and found that except for her hair all turned white she seemed completely unharmed, with a normal aura, no different from her usual state.

At least on the surface, nothing unusual seemed to have occurred with Luo Yan.

Li Xuan frowned slightly, suppressed his worry for Luo Yan, and asked Yu Hongchang, "What are you all doing, just standing there and watching?"

Didn’t anyone notice the abnormality in Jingtai Emperor? He seemed to be in the stage of final radiance.

Yu Hongchang bit her lower lip with gritted teeth, her fingers deeply dug into her own flesh, her eyes were red, and the corners of her mouth were bleeding, "Father will not allow us to intervene. He said he wants to personally resolve the disputes between him and his brother."