Unlimited employment

Chapter 159, Section 158: [Your Majesty, I have a grudge against you!]

Outside the main world.

A tall flagpole, forged from dozens of stacked skulls, hangs a large banner emanating a sinister aura.

A fierce void storm swept past nearby, making the banner flutter loudly.

A middle-aged man dressed as a scholar, with one arm inserted into the membrane of heaven and earth, was drawing talismans in the air with his fingers, guiding the spiritual energy in the void to transform into talismans and then casting them into the large banner in front of him.

He wasted no time and was busy refining his natal magic weapon.

Just as Chen Sheng inside the fruit erased the brand on the five ghosts' bodies, the pitch-black Ten Thousand Souls Banner suddenly trembled, causing Fu Fengzi, who was forming hand seals, to stop his actions.

His eyes widened as he turned to look at the crimson membrane between heaven and earth.

"How is that possible? The five ghosts lost contact at the same time. Are they dead?"

Cross-world communication via the amniotic sac is a great supernatural power. Fu Fengzi doesn't have that ability, but he can still barely sense the existence of the Ghost Slave through the connection between the Ten Thousand Soul Banner and the Ghost Slave Brand.

The loss of contact with the brand means that the evil spirits sent into it have either been killed or captured.

Without the help of evil spirits from within the fruit, Fufengzi would forever lose the opportunity to enter it and become the master of the world.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch. I thought I'd stumbled upon a tremendous opportunity, but it turned out like this."

Unfortunately, I've already lost five fourth-tier evil spirits and the Netherworld Blood-Transforming Gourd. This reckless action has resulted in significant losses.

The thought that if he could sell the Netherworld Blood Gourd and obtain enough resources to refine his Myriad Soul Banner to a higher level made Fu Fengzi feel so distressed that he wanted to vomit blood.

"Damn it, I admit defeat this time."

This area belongs to the Ren-character branch of the Yanfu fruit tree. The largest open fruit on the branch is the Beike World, which I visited once.

If I remember correctly, there should be a merchant guild founded by a sixth-level cultivator in the Bei Ke world. It is said that they dare to sell anything from the side branches of the Ren-character guild, and they also hold auctions from time to time that can only be attended by cultivators of the fifth level or above.

Should I send a clone to the Bei Ke world to auction off the news that the fruit's membranes are damaged?

This way, I can not only recover my losses in this realm, but perhaps even make a fortune.

Fu Fengzi is a rogue cultivator. He was able to cultivate from a small beggar to the Yang God cultivator he is today by knowing when to be fearful and when to be greedy.

His past experiences have taught him that it is the wise choice to stop now.

But the thought that entering it would give him the chance to seize the core of the Yanfu Fruit and entrust his Yang spirit to it to gain immortality made him somewhat unwilling.

After much deliberation, Fu Fengzi ultimately made a decision that went against reason.

"Those who are afraid of losing their lives when they are about to accomplish great things are not the ones who will achieve great things."

I have been cautious my whole life, and the only time I took a risk was when I was advancing to the fifth rank, which led to my current achievements.

Life offers few opportunities to truly strive; one must seize those limited chances to achieve something.

Now, I have less than two thousand years left before the end of my lifespan. If I give up this opportunity so easily, I may spend the rest of my life in regret.

Forget it, I'm not selling this information anymore. I'll try my best again.

The lifespan of a fifth-order cultivator is extremely long, ranging from ten thousand to one hundred thousand years, depending on factors such as cultivation methods, the blessings bestowed by superiors, and the elixirs and spiritual fruits consumed.

Fu Fengzi was not a long-lived person, with only a mere 20,000 years of lifespan to squander. His decision to take a gamble at this moment was a desperate move because his remaining lifespan was insufficient for him to break through to the sixth rank.

Therefore, he conceived the idea of ​​borrowing a huge sum of money in the Bei Ke world, setting up a boundary-breaking array, opening a hole in the membrane of heaven and earth, and personally going in to explore.

Originally, given the size and energy level of this fruit, a complete membrane of heaven and earth would be something only a seventh-level cultivator could break. However, the broken gap before him allowed this fifth-level cultivator to make a plan with the help of external forces.

Having made up his mind, Fu Fengzi himself remained at the spot to guard the breach.

The Banner of Ten Thousand Souls before him wriggled and transformed into a human form, flying rapidly toward the direction of the Northern Ke World.

……

Inside the fruit.

Chen Sheng, who had already taken Ox-Head and Horse-Face, Black and White Impermanence, and the Judge of the Pen into the Lung of the Heavenly Pot, stood beside the Lung of the Earth and branded a mark onto the golden carrying pole.

Woof woof—

A golden dog's head, bearing the brand, emerged from the carrying pole, its tongue lolling out as it spat out the brand.

Faced with the resistance of weapons, Chen Sheng simply placed his large hand on the dog's head, and a ball of Buddhist fire burst forth and burned.

After that, no matter how much the golden dog struggled, it was to no avail; the brand was still integrated into its body.

"This is the first time I've ever seen a Yama Fu treasure with a spirit. The crafting techniques of the Ziwei Palace are truly unique and mysterious."

When the golden light subsided, the spirit became affectionate towards Chen Sheng, hopping and skipping around him and licking his fingers, just like a loyal dog that had been by his side for many years.

Chen Sheng stroked the spirit's head, but his mind was elsewhere.

"Speaking of which, the Great Xia Dynasty's reaction speed is a bit too slow."

"The Five Ghosts have been attacking Youzhou Blessed Land for so long, and I've already dealt with them. Why hasn't the Great Xia come to arrest the thieves who stole the golden carrying pole yet?"

Perhaps it's a case of "speak of the devil and he shall appear."

Just then, the sun appeared, and the countless stars hidden in the sunlight shone brightly at the same time.

Chen Sheng looked up at the sky and saw that the seven constellations in the south—Jingmu Han, Guijin Yang, Liutu Zhang, Xingri Ma, Zhangyue Lu, Yihuo She, and Zhenshui Yin—were shining exceptionally brightly.

Dozens of stars formed a lifelike bird, emitting a deafening cry, and gathered seven dazzling rays of light that shone down.

The seven constellations of the Vermilion Bird in the south form a celestial image, resembling a bird.

boom!
The starlight representing Jingmu Han descended upon this area, falling straight towards Jin Biandan, but Chen Sheng used the [swastika symbol] to distort the trajectory of the starlight, causing it to fall more than ten miles away.

At that moment, Chen Sheng casually tossed the golden carrying pole in his hand into the churning lava of the earth's core, controlling it to burrow deeper underground.

The twenty-eight secret treasures of Jambudvipa in this world correspond to the celestial stars above, the earth's energy below, and the human fortune in the middle; they are truly regional treasures.

The golden carrying pole is intricately linked to the land and people of Youzhou, and cannot leave the territory of Youzhou.

Chen Sheng wanted to prevent the Vermilion Bird Protectorate Formation from taking shape, and the only way he could do this clumsy method was to prevent the golden carrying pole from participating in the formation.

At this very moment, his [Azure Eyes] also saw the scene thousands of miles away. In six different directions of the Great Xia Kingdom, pillars of starlight descended, pulling the six Jambudvipa treasures high into the sky, thousands of feet above the ground, shining with dazzling brilliance.

However, due to the absence of the Golden Shoulder Pole, the constellation Well in the starry sky quickly went out, leaving the Vermilion Bird without a wing to take flight.

The brilliance of the stars overshadowed the sun, and the starlight that fell upon the earth began to gather into a large mass in the sky above Chen Sheng's head, which quickly wriggled and transformed into a majestic face.

The face looked down at the earth, and the voice boomed like thunder.

"Who is stealing the national treasure of my Great Xia?"

Chen Sheng looked up at that face, slightly lost in thought.

"You must be the emperor. You look very much like the deceased Crown Prince Shengde."

Chen Sheng's unexpected answer caused the anthropomorphic face in the sky to frown, and its tone became even more subdued.

"Since you've brought up that wretched child, what is your relationship to him?"

The emperor of the Xia Dynasty was Chen Sheng's enemy.

Nine years ago, the emperor, who was in his prime, felt threatened because the crown prince's martial arts were about to break through to the fourth level. He then promoted several favored ministers in the court and carried out several major cases to frame the crown prince for treason, thus wiping out the crown prince and his cronies.

This is the infamous case of the deposed crown prince in this dynasty.

This case had far-reaching implications, resulting in the execution of more than 600 officials and over 30,000 commoners, with several times that number being exiled to various places.

The Chen family, originally a low-ranking military officer's family, was also imprisoned as a whole in this case. Chen Sheng, as a child among the family members of those implicated, was sent to the Black Mountain Gold Mine to mine gold and was separated from all his family members.

It was only after he seized the Black Mountain gold mine that he asked the Black Mountain mine supervisor to inquire through connections and learned that all the adult men in the family had been beheaded in the year the crime occurred, and the women in the family had been sold to the brothel, where they also died one after another over the next three years.

Chen Sheng was reincarnated as a baby, and before he realized the mystery of his birth, he had already established a deep bond with his family in this world.

Therefore, he later learned a bloodline-searching spell in the Wanshou Daozang. After mastering it, he used it to confirm that all his blood relatives within three generations had died, and only then did he give up the idea of ​​searching for them.

The culprit behind all this is none other than the emperor before us.

The reason I didn't seek revenge before was simply because I lacked the strength.

Now that he has the ability to take revenge, he will surely kill the emperor.

The face in the sky did not receive a reply from Chen Sheng, but the emperor had already guessed his identity and spoke to himself.

"So you're the remnants from back then. It's all the fault of the officials who handled the case for not cleaning you up properly, which allowed a fourth-level cultivator to emerge and cause this disaster today."

But it doesn't matter, I will personally take action and send you, this remnant who has lived nine more years, to your death, so that you can reunite with your deceased family.

Amidst a disdainful sneer, six dazzling starlight beams instantly shot out from the six secret treasures of Yanfu thousands of miles away.

The Emperor of Great Xia made a killing move.

At the speed of light, which can travel tens of thousands of miles per second, a distance of a few thousand miles is so short and fleeting that no one can escape such an attack.

Even though the power of the starlight was reduced by at least 30% due to the incomplete formation, even the most skilled fourth-tier cultivators in defense and escape techniques could not withstand the siege of the six starlight beams for long.

As the starlight fell upon Chen Sheng, the emperor could already imagine the miserable state he would be in when he was besieged.

But what happened next made him suddenly uneasy.

The moment the formation was activated, Chen Sheng summoned a blood-red gourd from his waist, from which a black and red demonic light shot out.

The demonic light enveloped him, swallowing all six incoming starlight beams into the gourd's belly. The starlight beams, then enveloped by the sea of ​​blood and the ghostly aura of the underworld, were completely dissolved into the vast gourd.

If the Netherworld Blood Gourd did not possess such a method, how could the Five Ghosts have withstood the siege of the Azure Dragon Protectorate Formation for two years?

It could even withstand the Azure Dragon Formation at its peak, let alone the Vermilion Bird Formation, which has been weakened by 30%.

Moreover, even the Five Ghosts were confident in dealing with the incomplete Vermilion Bird Protectorate Formation of the Great Xia Dynasty. How could Chen Sheng, this fake monk wearing the Arhat Golden Body Mecha, be afraid of the Emperor of the Great Xia Dynasty?
After confirming that the emperor was powerless against him, Chen Sheng remotely controlled the golden carrying pole to continue its journey deeper into the earth, while simultaneously using the [Thousand-Spoke Wheel] to teleport rapidly towards the capital.

"Your Majesty, are you ready? I'm coming to collect a debt from you."

Watching his figure gradually disappear on the horizon, the starlight in the sky said solemnly.

"This strange gourd...it looks a bit like that fifth-tier magic artifact that the Great Spring Kingdom reported about."

But weren't those five sinister ghost cultivators the ones who slaughtered countless lives in the Great Spring Kingdom? How did this magical artifact end up in the hands of this remnant of the crown prince?

The Great Xia Emperor was merely a fourth-level cultivator, relying on the power of the formation to control his current attack power. He had no idea that Chen Sheng also possessed the Arhat Golden Body as a reliance.

Seeing that Chen Sheng was about to attack the capital, he had no time to think and quickly controlled the formation to launch another attack.

For a moment, starlight fell like rain.

A series of dazzling rays of light swept in from a thousand miles away. Most of them were captured by Chen Sheng's Netherworld Blood Gourd. Occasionally, the starlight that missed its mark would blast holes a hundred or two feet deep into the ground, demonstrating its power.

However, such a continuous offensive could not harm Chen Sheng in the slightest, which made the emperor in the capital break out in a cold sweat.

Youzhou was not far from the capital, and within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Chen Sheng saw a magnificent city.

The layout of the capital city of the Great Xia Dynasty looks like concentric circles, with five towering city walls forming the palace, the second ring, the third ring, the fourth ring, and the fifth ring from the inside out.

The residents of the city were divided into different classes, with the more expensive residents going further in and the less expensive residents going further out. The social hierarchy was clearly defined and orderly.

Chen Sheng grew up in this city before he was ten years old. Now that he has returned, everything has changed.

At this time, the emperor had obviously informed all parties in advance of the news of the foreign enemy's attack. Huge protective shields were raised on the five city walls, like five concentric hemispheres, protecting the safety of the capital.

Outside the city's protective formation, more than a dozen high-ranking officials with fourth-level cultivation were flying in the sky above the capital.

Chen Sheng's figure had only appeared a few dozen miles away from the capital when, before they could even make a move, he simply waved his hand. Eight fourth-level cultivators were instantly stripped of their inner energy, their cultivation levels dropped, and they fell weakly to the ground.

With a single move, he terrified the other fourth-tier Life Dao cultivators who were preparing to launch a joint offensive formation.

They felt that this enemy was incredibly powerful, so they immediately scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing in all directions.

"When disaster strikes, everyone flees for their lives. It seems that even the high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital are nothing more than this."

Chen Sheng laughed loudly and released the magic needle, which transformed into a giant pillar that crashed straight down towards the capital city below.

(End of this chapter)