Ming Dynasty: pacifying the rebellion and defending the border, dominating the world

Chapter 404: Complete Exposure, The Mortal Saint

At the third quarter of the hour of Yin (3:45 AM), the night was still deep, pressing down on the continuous palaces and eaves of the Forbidden City like solidified ink.

Suddenly, a deep, resonant drumbeat erupted from the Meridian Gate tower, shattering the stagnant silence.

Chengtian Gate, Duan Gate, Wu Gate... the drums sounded in succession, the dull thuds like thunder, pounding heavily on the bricks and stones of the majestic palace walls, forcefully rushing into the ears of most people in the capital.

The palace gates opened one after another, and the heavy vermilion lacquer flowed with a deep luster under the lamplight.

The Cangyun Army and Tiance soldiers, clad in bright armor, stood in solemn formation, like statues cast in bronze and iron, the sharpness of their halberds flickering in the swaying palace lanterns.

One after another, incredibly powerful figures, whose strength was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people, soared into the sky and stood in various directions of the Forbidden City, guarding this sacred and solemn enthronement ceremony and preventing any possible accidents.

As the sun rose, the foreign envoys who had spent a sleepless night in the state guesthouse and post station proceeded one by one to the site of the coronation ceremony, arranged by officials of the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty.

The enthronement ceremony was surrounded by a dense array of Cangyun Army and Tiance soldiers.

Their iron-blooded and fierce aura was concealed yet not revealed; their powerful martial arts momentum, so strong that it was terrifying, was unrestrained, and no one dared to ignore them, constantly proclaiming their strength.

Among the envoys from Beili, Lei Mengsha, one of the Eight Young Masters of Beili who came to see the world on his master's orders, had been swallowing saliva non-stop since he stepped out of the state guesthouse.

"Seventh Brother, am I seeing things?"

"A whole bunch of Grandmasters at the Finger Profound Realm?"

"You didn't see it wrong, but you didn't see enough."

A reminder came from the side, it was Zhuo Sen, the chief eunuch in charge of swords, one of the five great supervisors of Beili: "If you look closely, you will find that there is a Grandmaster of Celestial Phenomena every 150 steps between the garrisons on both sides of the capital!"

"Five hundred paces..."

"A terrestrial immortal!"

By the end, even Zhuosen's voice was trembling.

The existence of these five eunuchs was similar to that of the supervisors of the Eastern and Western Depots of the Ming Dynasty. They all possessed unparalleled martial arts skills and were responsible for protecting the safety of the emperor and the royal family.

Even the lowest level is a Grandmaster of Celestial Phenomena.

The strongest Zhuoqing is even the pinnacle of terrestrial immortals.

However, even Zhuo Sen couldn't help but feel a surge of shock when he saw no less than a hundred figures comparable to Zhuo Qing and the Imperial Preceptor Qi Tianchen, yet they stood silently guarding both sides of the streets of the Ming Dynasty.

"This is both a deterrent and a declaration."

Langya King Xiao Ruofeng wore a bitter smile. The shock and awe he felt were no less than those of others, but he saw things more clearly: "The new emperor of the Ming Dynasty seems to want to tell us, to tell the world, just how powerful the Ming Dynasty is at this moment through this method."

"this?"

Some of the Northern Li envoys looked on in confusion.

Grand Tutor Dong Zhu murmured, his mouth full of bitterness, "To subdue the enemy without fighting, the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty truly has his sights set on the world."

The competition between nations, besides the most direct close combat, also involves other forms of conflict.

There are also more direct and effective methods, namely, clashes in multiple fields such as economy, military, and people's livelihood.

During his coronation ceremony, Zhu Jinzhen directly revealed the strongest trump cards of his Cangyun and Tiance armies to intimidate neighboring countries and the people of the world, showing his enemies that he possessed the power to easily destroy the world.

Those who are pragmatic will naturally know what to do.

If they don't know how to adapt to the times, the Tian Ce and Cang Yun that the Ming Dynasty has revealed today will naturally teach them how to adapt.

……

They arrived at the venue for the coronation ceremony. The Cangyun and Tiance forces standing here were the absolute elite, selected from among hundreds.

Looking at the Cangyun and Tiance soldiers who terrified them, the envoys from various countries who had certain thoughts in their hearts, and the officials of the Ming Dynasty who had escaped this purge, all their thoughts disappeared.

If their gaze met that of any Cangyun Army or Tian Ce soldier, they would quickly look away, not daring to meet their eyes.

"Old Li, if I'm not mistaken..."

“You didn’t see wrong.” Li Chungang interrupted Xu Fengnian directly, his expression more solemn than ever before. His eyes swept over the Tian Ce soldiers and Cang Yun army stationed at the enthronement ceremony, and only one thought remained in his mind.

The Ming Dynasty is invincible!
"real or fake?"

Xu Fengnian's eyes twitched violently, and the panic in his heart could no longer be suppressed: "Are they really all Grandmasters of Celestial Phenomena?"

As far as the eye could see, there was not a single soldier around the coronation ceremony who was lower than a Grandmaster of Celestial Phenomena.

How terrifying would an army composed of such martial arts masters be?
Xu Fengnian couldn't have imagined it.

But he knew that even if all 300,000 iron cavalry of Beiliang were to be sent, and even if all the able-bodied men of Beiliang's million households were to fight to the death, they would still be unable to stop an army composed entirely of Grandmasters of Celestial Phenomena.

"What you should look at is not them, but the heavens."

A notification sounded.

Xu Fengnian was startled and subconsciously looked around, quickly spotting an old man with white hair and a youthful face.

However, the other party's condition is not very good at the moment.

The figure was elusive, like a mirage, as if it might burst at any moment like a bubble.

"Who is your Excellency?"

"Zhang Fuyao, a Confucian sage."

Li Chungang answered Xu Fengnian's question for the visitor. Looking at Zhang Fuyao's disheveled state, he couldn't help but laugh: "If all the scholars in the world knew that you, the Confucian sage, were in such a sorry state, they would probably condemn you with their words and writings."

“Then it’s better for them not to know.” Zhang Fuyao sighed with a bitter smile. He didn’t want to come, but the fortunes of Confucianism and Taoism had been shaking one after another, and had become dimmer day by day in the last three days, as if they were about to be completely crushed and destroyed.

And in this distant Central Plains of the East, he could see a surge of fortune soaring straight into the heavens, even from thousands of miles away.

I had thought it was just the birth of a person with extraordinary destiny or the rise of a powerful dynasty.

Thinking of the unity of heaven and man, I came here to explore the truth.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he stepped into the capital of the Ming Dynasty, he was surrounded by more than a dozen celestial beings. Without saying a word, they launched an attack with the overwhelming power of celestial beings, and he was almost beaten to a pulp on the spot.

"The Confucian Sage? Zhang Fuyao?"

Xu Fengnian's mouth dropped open in astonishment. If Li Chungang and Wang Xianzhi beside him were the most stunning figures in the Jianghu of Liyang over the past sixty years, and Zhang Fuyao, who had lived for eight hundred years, was the most revered figure in the hearts of all scholars in Liyang.

Oh, the sage of Confucianism!
A living saint on earth.

Even with Xu Fengnian's strong will, he couldn't help but feel excited that such a person had appeared in front of him.

"Boom!"

The thunderous drumbeats startled Xu Fengnian, who was still reeling from the shock, and he remembered what Zhang Fuyao had just said. He looked up curiously and asked, "What's up in the sky?"

Li Chungang gritted his teeth and remained silent.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Fuyao's expression also turned solemn, and she even spoke with a hint of panic: "There is a great terror! A terror unlike any other in the world!"

(End of this chapter)