Zongwu: Aspiring to be the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 360 Narcissism and Inferiority Complex, the Power of the Agreement
Although the three thousand Rakshasa soldiers were all of innate level, the cultivation methods they practiced were shortcuts with extremely high costs. Needless to say, their lifespans were shortened, and their intelligence was also damaged.

After all, the cultivation techniques they practiced were provided by Jade Rakshasa.

Jade Rakshasa's goal was to control the entire Rakshasa army through the control abilities of the Rakshasa Token, a rare treasure of heaven and earth.

Even with the help of the Rakshasa talisman, achieving this is not easy.

Therefore, it is normal to artificially reduce the difficulty of operation.

Previously, when this army was in the hands of Yu Luosha, because Yu Luosha herself had limited abilities and could not control each Luosha soldier for a long time and with precision, these Luosha soldiers mostly had a certain degree of freedom.

But after they fell into Zhou Ming's hands, he handed them all over to Xiao Ai to control.

Three thousand soldiers are fine in normal times, but once they enter battle, they completely lose their own thoughts and ideas.

Although they are usually quite silly.

If Li Xunhua reached the point where infatuation was tantamount to ruthlessness because he placed all his affections in another person, then...

These people are simply devoid of emotion and desire.

They can't even be called human; they're more like puppets!
Shi Guanyin's move is extremely effective against 99% of men in the world, but it is very ineffective against women.

After all, it is based on desire and passion, and thus has the ability to influence the mind and spirit.

Now, it's useless against these puppets.

The dozen or so Rakshasa soldiers around him did not change their stance in the face of this move; they still held their spears and thrust straight at him.

Shi Guanyin was protected by a protective aura, so this kind of innate-level attack could not harm her at all.

However, the fact that the dozen or so people on the other side were completely unaffected by her "men can't be seen" move shocked Shi Guanyin.

She naturally didn't understand the reason behind this, and for a moment, she thought that her beauty had lost its effect and could no longer attract people.

Shi Guanyin is a rather contradictory person.

On the one hand, she was extremely narcissistic and obsessed with her own appearance.

On the other hand, she was extremely jealous and resentful of other beauties. Back when she was still in the Central Plains, she had heard of the name of the number one beauty in the martial arts world at that time, 'Qiu Lingsu', and forced her to disfigure herself.

It was only later that she was hunted down by the major sects of the Central Plains and had no choice but to flee to the Western Regions. Otherwise, many beauties in the Central Plains would probably have suffered.

This action reflects her extreme lack of confidence in her appearance.

True strength lies in facing all challenges head-on.

On the one hand, Shi Guanyin believed that her beauty was unparalleled in the world, but on the other hand, she was jealous of the beauty of others.

It's like a martial arts master who thinks he's the strongest in the world, but when faced with challenges from other martial arts masters, he tries every means to plot against them so that they can't perform at their best in the battle.

Perhaps his martial arts skills were indeed powerful, but his weakness of heart was exposed the moment he began to plot.

Stone Guanyin is like that. She is obviously very beautiful and thinks she is very beautiful, but deep down she doesn't have much confidence.

In the original story, she lost to Chu Liuxiang because her mirror was broken.

A reason that was utterly ridiculous, yet utterly real to her.

Whose mirror reflects her face?

But at this moment, the same thing is happening in different ways.

Although no mirror was broken, the fact that the numerous Rakshasa soldiers were completely unaffected by her "men can't be seen" tactic exposed her psychological problems in that instant.

She doesn't understand.

These people are all men, so why is it that none of them are affected by this move?

You should know that even when she faced Bai Tianyu, Lu Xiaofeng and others, only Li Xunhuan was unaffected.

But here, everyone is!

Could it be that... my appearance was damaged in the battle just now?

Shi Guanyin immediately took out a mirror from her bosom and examined herself.

The actions of a mentally ill person are indeed completely unpredictable.

No one, including Shi Guanyin herself, would have imagined that one day, when she was preparing to escape and was surrounded and killed by countless people, instead of thinking about running away quickly, she would take out a mirror to check if her face had been injured.

Tuotuo, who had been chasing after them, was stunned for a moment when he saw the other party's actions.

I thought Shi Guanyin had some kind of conspiracy.

Just to be on the safe side, she took out a combat card and inserted it into the beast's mouth at her waist.

[Tail Stitch]

Shi Guanyin was relieved to see that her face was unharmed.

However, by then, she had already missed the best opportunity to escape.

Black armor had already appeared before her.

Tuotuo raised her hand and clapped it, and a rich power of heaven and earth gathered in her palm.

The power of this palm strike was so great that even Shi Guanyin dared not underestimate it. She quickly threw away the mirror in her hand and raised her hand to gather her inner energy to block it.

Huh?
Why the palm?
The enemy, who was clearly holding a weapon, suddenly abandoned it and fought her with his bare hands.

Even if she suddenly falls ill, Shi Guanyin is not stupid.

Mental illness and stupidity are not the same thing.

She instantly realized something was wrong, a deadly threat surged into her heart, and she hurriedly activated her internal energy to continuously expand her protective qi.

In an instant, it transformed into a five-foot-long protective aura.

But that long black whip, like a swimming dragon, had already pierced through.

The entire whip was imbued with boundless power of heaven and earth, and its pointed tip was like a barb on a scorpion's tail, making it extremely deadly.

Even though Shi Guanyin reacted quickly and instantly condensed five feet of protective energy, it was easily pierced by the long whip!
The five-foot-long protective aura was pierced through in an instant.

The pitch-black, sharp cone pierced right through Shi Guanyin's throat!
Shi Guanyin's eyes widened: "How...is this possible..."

She still found it hard to believe.

But the facts will not change because of her will.

Tuotuo's cultivation and willpower were superior to Tie Zhan's, so although the combat power he unleashed after using the combat card did not reach the theoretical limit, it was not far off.

Moreover, the [Tail Needle] she used and Tie Zhan's [Raging Lion's Fury] are clearly not the same type of move.

The Lion's Fury has a wide attack range, so its attack power is somewhat insufficient when facing a single target.

The Tail Needle, on the other hand, concentrates all its power into a long whip. Although its attack range is small, its destructive power is extremely terrifying.

Therefore, it was able to easily pierce through the five-foot-long protective aura of the Stone Guanyin. The long whip was gently withdrawn.

At the same time, it took away the life of Shi Guanyin.

Sensing the rapid loss of life, Shi Guanyin couldn't help but reveal a mocking smile.

Some say that before a person dies, they often have the chance to look back and see their entire life.

Although this is clearly just wishful thinking.

After all, how could someone who has truly died leave behind such words?
But at that moment, Shi Guanyin seemed to truly recall her life experiences, every single detail of which reappeared before her eyes.

Looking back on my life, it seems so wonderful, yet everything is also so... ridiculous!
What will ultimately remain?
Like countless ancestors in this desert, I fear that once the yellow sand rolls up, nothing will be left.

No one will even feel sad for me for a moment.

After all, her whole family had been wiped out by the Huashan Sect long ago, her husband had been dumped by her, and her son had been used by her.

As for her disciples and male concubines... heh, even if they were still alive, let alone dead, they would never miss her.

Thinking about it this way, my life has truly been a failure...

No, there should be at least one person who might feel some regret about their own death.

Shi Guanyin took out a medicine bottle and held it in her hand.

Then, using his last bit of strength, he fell face-first to the ground, burying his face in the sand.

Because she knew that once she died, her Tianwu nerves would stop functioning, and her face would return to its normal age.

She would rather die than let the world see her face like that.

Tuotuo naturally noticed her actions, but he didn't care and ordered, "Clean up the battlefield!"

The army quickly cleared the battlefield, finishing off all the corpses. Only after confirming that no one was feigning death did they leave the battlefield and head to the next mission location.

Heavenly Fragrance Kingdom!
In the portable space.

Zhou Ming stroked his chin and said, "The power of the battle card is severely limited by the user. Not only can it not exert the ideal maximum power, but it can only be used once within a certain period of time... Although it is still somewhat effective, overall it is still too useless."

During the use of the battle card, the user is subjected to an excessive amount of the power of heaven and earth in a short period of time. The human body obviously has a limit to its capacity. It is fine for a short time, but if the time is too long, it will cause serious damage to the body.

Therefore, battle cards cannot be used continuously; a considerable amount of time must be allowed between uses to allow the body to recover.

With very few exceptions, most battles in the martial arts world are not very long.

After all, a martial artist's internal energy is limited.

A battle that lasts for a quarter of an hour is quite rare in the entire martial arts world.

However, this fifteen-minute period is far from enough for the user's body to recover and withstand the second battle card.

In other words, a user may only be able to use one battle card in a single battle.

Xiao Ai's eyes flickered slightly, as if images were appearing one after another in her eyes. She said, "Solution 1: Cultivate external martial arts techniques to increase the body's endurance. Solution 2: Cultivate restorative internal martial arts to accelerate recovery. Solution 3: Reduce the mental energy in the combat card, turning one powerful move into multiple smaller moves."

Zhou Ming patted her head and said, "The plan is good, but the first two plans need time, and the last plan is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The combat cards are researched to allow them to unleash their strongest combat power. If we reduce their power for the sake of multiple uses, it would be a loss."

Furthermore, the Celestial Crystal and the Energy Box aren't always in the same person's hands. If they suddenly switch users, the user's combat power will be greatly reduced... Hmm, it seems I still need to find a way to add some external power to these armors.”

Xiao Ai's eyes flickered slightly: "Divine weapons, or, mechanical arts."

Zhou Ming thought for a moment: "Divine weapons are too ordinary and lack originality, so let's use mechanical arts! Once we've figured it out, we can send a copy of the results to Master Yoda. Hehe, the mechanical arts in the Qin Dynasty are quite advanced, plus those few Heavenly Crystals..."

Perhaps it was the last glimmer of kindness that appeared before her death that stirred Chu Liuxiang's compassion, and in the end, he took Shi Guanyin's body away to bury it.

However, he was completely helpless against the remaining three thousand cavalry corpses.

Because the land of death was only a day or two away from the territory of the Kingdom of Guizi, and the people of Guizi had already received news that the queen was about to return, but after waiting for several days without seeing her, they sent people to investigate.

As a result, they immediately saw three thousand corpses that were about to be buried by the desert.

When the news reached China, it immediately caused a huge uproar.

Many of the traitors immediately began to have such thoughts.

They weren't particularly loyal to Shi Guanyin, but since they couldn't be completely sure whether she was alive or dead, they kept their minds to themselves for the time being.

But secretly, they all began making preparations.

Once Shi Guanyin's death is confirmed, a fierce battle for the throne will likely begin immediately.

But then, one piece of bad news after another arrived.

First, the Star Luo Sect urged the Gui Zi Kingdom to abide by the previous agreement and send a sufficient number of people to the Star Luo Sect.

The Kingdom of Guizi dared not disobey.

They initially planned to send the slaves directly to the Star Luo Cult, but this move was met with opposition from many nobles.

Slaves were valuable in the Western Regions; only nobles could own large numbers of slaves, as they were their property.

The nobles were naturally unhappy that the king wanted to take away their property.

If the Stone Guanyin were still alive, she could probably suppress it easily.

However, not only was Shi Guanyin absent, but she also took tens of thousands of soldiers with her, tens of thousands of whom have not yet returned, and three thousand cavalrymen have been confirmed dead.

As a result, the military strength of the Kingdom of Guizi was greatly reduced, and without a strong leader, the ministers could not withstand the questioning from the nobles and had no choice but to give up and instead choose to arrest civilians.

Although this move provoked strong opposition from the public, it was eventually quelled through the joint efforts of many ministers and nobles.

Why would nobles join forces?
For them, getting involved in this matter would bring them enormous benefits.

That is to take advantage of the chaos to arrest civilians and turn them into their own slaves.

The ministers sent troops to arrest tens of thousands of people, and these nobles also arrested tens of thousands of people, even more than the ministers.

Although the Kingdom of Guizi was a major power in the Western Regions, occupying multiple cities, possessing vast lands, and having a population far exceeding that of other kingdoms, it could not withstand such a method of capture.

After their atrocities, the number of commoners in the Kingdom of Guizi drastically decreased, while the power of the nobility expanded to unprecedented levels, and all industries in the country collapsed. However, the nobles seized this opportunity to send their slaves to occupy the industries.

Therefore, from a business perspective, there doesn't seem to be much change.

But from the perspective of the country, the changes are too great.

Because nobles have privileges, their properties are exempt from taxes.

If taxes can't be collected, the entire country is basically on the verge of collapse.

It can be said that this great power in the Western Regions has entered the countdown to its demise.

And this was simply because of an agreement reached between Shi Guanyin and the Xingluo Sect.

(End of this chapter)