Daily Intelligence: From Water Snake to Jinghe Dragon King

Chapter 216 A Ghostly Spirit Parasitizes the Bamboo Leaf Green Pest; The Earth God and City God Besiege the Tang Army

Liu Qing used his divine sense to control the Yin Jade Spirit Banner and released the mother and daughter ghosts he had brought back from the City God's realm.

"My benefactor, please accept our mother and I's bow."

As soon as the mother and daughter ghosts appeared, they bowed down.

"There's no need for that. Saving you and your daughter was just a favor I did. Now that you're safe for the time being, what are your plans?"

"You lack cultivation; it's not good for you to stay inside my Yin Jade Spirit Banner for too long."

Liu Qing was telling the truth. These mother and daughter ghosts were mortals in life and ghosts after death. They had never cultivated. As the power of the Yin Jade Spirit Banner increases, if they stay inside, they may be unconsciously affected by the Yin Jade Spirit Banner, causing their minds to be extinguished.

The mother and daughter ghosts looked at each other, hesitated for a long time, and did not give an answer.

Liu Qing was somewhat impatient: "You only have a lifespan in the underworld, not in the living world. You cannot be reborn as ghosts. If you are willing, I can send you to the City God's realm, where Judge Li Hu will take care of you. You can happily spend your lifespan in the underworld and then be reincarnated as humans."

“My benefactor, my daughter and I don’t want to be human anymore. Being human is too tiring.”

Liu Qing frowned: "If you don't want to be human anymore, would you be willing to be a demon?"

The mother and daughter ghosts' eyes lit up immediately, and they nodded repeatedly.

“My daughter and I are willing to become demons and become demon queens in the future. We will do our best to serve our benefactor and repay his great kindness.”

Liu Qing nodded, looked around the island in the middle of the lake, and took in all the creatures nearby: fish, shrimp, birds, insects, foxes, and deer.

The mother and daughter ghosts followed the gaze, and suddenly their eyes lit up as they saw two bamboo snakes on a clump of bamboo.

These two bamboo vipers are entirely emerald green, but their tails are blood red. They are slender and one is larger than the other, making them a mother and daughter pair of snakes.

“My benefactor, my daughter and I wish to entrust a little of our spirit to this Bamboo Leaf Green Child. If she is human, we are mother and daughter; if she is a demon, we wish to continue our mother-daughter bond.”

Liu Qing nodded in agreement and waved his hand to disperse the demonic mist that shrouded the mother and daughter ghosts. Otherwise, in broad daylight, without the demonic mist to cover them, the two ghosts would have been melted by the scorching sun long ago.

As soon as the demonic mist dissipated, the blazing sun's heat instantly poured down, scorching their souls and causing their ghostly energy to rapidly dissipate. The mother and daughter ghosts, writhing in agony, let out agonizing screams.

In an instant, the mother and daughter ghosts were dried out by the yang fire in the sunlight, turning from ghosts into ghostly creatures. Seeing that the time was right, Liu Qing reached out and grabbed their ghostly creatures, then threw them into the bodies of the pair of bamboo green snakes.

The ghosts of the mother and daughter were scorched by the yang fire, and their souls turned into ashes that dissipated into the air, carrying a peculiar smell that could not be seen or smelled by anyone but those with profound Taoist cultivation.

Liu Qing sniffed, frowned, and looked out towards the island in the middle of the lake.

"When I came out of the pass, I noticed an inexplicable strangeness in the air. It turned out to be the smell of souls dissipating and soul ashes floating in the air."

When dynasties change, the first to be affected are the gods and spirits of the previous dynasty. Their faith collapses, their incense offerings decline, and even the evil spirits and ghosts in the realm of yin are scorched to ashes by the fire of yang due to the shattering of the realm of yang.

After Li Shimin captured Chang'an, he also took over several counties attached to Chang'an.

In counties such as Lantian, Wannian, Xianyang, Sanyuan, Weinan, and Gaoping, there are county gods, as well as local earth gods, mountain gods, ancestral spirits, and so on outside the city.

Many of these incense gods were bestowed titles by the Sui emperor and were loyal to the Sui dynasty. Therefore, after Li Shimin captured the county, he ordered the people to stop worshiping them and denounced them as evil gods.

In this way, their incense offerings are cut off. Without the support of incense offerings, not only will their spiritual cultivation decline, but as the building blocks of the Dharma realm, the collapse of incense offerings will cause the Dharma realm of incense offerings to slowly shrink and break down.

The demons and ghosts within the incense-burning realm, those with the lowest cultivation, will be the first to be scorched by the infiltrated yang fire and reduced to ashes.

This is why Liu Qing could smell the scent of Soul Ashes floating in the air when he was at Dawan Lake.

Liu Qing remained silent, neither happy nor sad. In the world of mortals, dynasties rise and fall, and when new gods rise, old gods always fall.

This is a law. Take Wei Xiaokuan of the Western Wei Dynasty, for example. After the Sui Dynasty replaced the Western Wei, he, as the river god of the Jing River appointed by the Western Wei, also perished.

A letter floated on the water's surface and was carried over by several river shrimp.

Since Xia Kexing became one of Liu Qing's most favored confidants, the river shrimp in the Jinghe River system have flourished and become the second largest species after snakes and pythons.

This letter floated all the way here from the moat of Chang'an.

The letter was sealed and stamped with Li Shimin's seal, with three red feathers inserted on it, representing the highest rank.

Liu Qing beckoned the letter over, flicked a drop of Monkey Spirit Wine to a few river shrimp that were delivering the message, and then opened it.

"To Brother Liu: Today, the incense gods of the previous dynasty are causing trouble and using evil magic to wreak havoc within the territory. Shimin sent Donkey Shiheng and his son Mule Shixin to quell the rebellion, but they were besieged by the evil gods. Shimin is helpless and can only earnestly request Brother Liu's help."

Liu Qing understood.

I could just smell the embers of souls in the air.

Now Li Shimin urgently requests my help.

This suggests that these deities of the Sui Dynasty were unwilling to slowly perish and wanted to try to make a final stand before they died.

Liu Qing expressed her understanding of their actions.

But understanding is understanding, yet no mercy will be shown when it comes to action, simply because we are on different paths.

Liu Qing relayed Li Shimin's words from his letter to his twelve avatars, including the old crocodile dragon, and then sent them out of the River God Temple to lead their ghostly soldiers.

The soul beasts that Liu Qing forcibly captured from the City God's realm, each of his avatars and the old crocodile dragon, were each assigned a battalion of a thousand men. If any low-ranking minor deities caused trouble, they could lead their own Yin soldiers and soul beasts to deal with it. Upon receiving Liu Qing's orders, the twelve avatars and the old crocodile dragon mustered their Yin soldiers, mounted their soul beasts, and led their army out of the River God Temple to quell the rebellion.

The mounts and spirit beasts were selected from among a thousand Yin soldiers. Each of them possessed extraordinary cultivation and a majestic appearance, and most of them were tigers, leopards, bears, or wolves.

These soul beasts bestowed by Liu Qing can serve as both Yin soldiers and mounts, and they are all extraordinary, enhancing the River God's majesty by a third.

The first clone rode the wild bull demon, Te Chushi.

Liu Qing himself then unfurled his fiery wings and flew directly to Xianyang County.

As Li Shimin stated in his letter, he sent Donkey Shiheng and his son Mule Shixin to quell a rebellion, but they were besieged by the city god, the land god, and the mountain god who were loyal to the Sui Dynasty.

The siege took place in Xianyang County.

Xianyang is an ancient city, the capital of the first Qin Dynasty to unify China.

During the Qin Dynasty, Xianyang was a place where fortune converged and the central hub of the world. Unfortunately, after the fall of Qin, Xianyang's status quickly declined, and now it has been reduced from a majestic city to a small county, located below Chang'an.

Nevertheless, Xianyang, unlike its heyday during the Qin Dynasty, has been reduced to a county. However, the ancient city's heritage still makes it superior to other county towns such as Lantian, Wannian, and Weinan.

Therefore, the City God of Xianyang is second only to that of Chang'an. The City God of Xianyang is a sixth-rank official. Now that Yang Zhen, the City God of Chang'an, has been killed, he has become the head of all the gods.

The city gods of other counties, as well as the land gods, mountain gods, and ancestral spirits of prominent families, all obeyed his command.

According to information gathered by his clone, the City God of Xianyang is named Yang Yong.

Yang Yong, the elder brother of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty and the original crown prince, was killed by Yang Guang after he usurped the throne. After his death, Yang Yong was moved out of the capital and demoted to Xianyang to serve as a county city god.

This rebellion, which involved a group of worshippers who were loyal to the Sui Dynasty, was led by Yang Yong, the City God of Xianyang.

Even though he was dead, he was framed by Emperor Yang Guang of Sui during his lifetime, and he was resentfully demoted to the position of a mere county city god.

But when the world was in chaos and the Sui Dynasty was about to collapse, he still stood up.

Not for anything else, but for the sake of the Yang family's Sui Dynasty, to fight to the death one more time.

Liu Qing flew northwest.

After reaching perfection, the Firewing talent was incredibly fast, and in just a short while, it flew over Xianyang City.

Looking down from a high place.

At this time, Xianyang City had already undergone a complete transformation.

Within a radius of dozens of miles outside the city, countless wild grasses and vines grew wildly, submerging the land in an eerie green.

Tree-people, transformed from ancient trees, stood expressionless on the city wall, each holding a giant wooden club.

Then came a series of small hills, each with a mountain god sitting cross-legged on it, his eyes red as he made hand seals, summoning mountain giants about ten feet tall.

On the city wall, where the guards should have stood, were replaced by ghostly soldiers, and the generals leading them were ancestral spirits dressed in tattered armor.

These ancestral spirits were the ancestors of prominent families who had accompanied Emperor Wen of Sui in his campaigns across the country and made countless contributions.

Meanwhile, within the city of Xianyang.

The once bustling ancient city, teeming with people, was now deserted. Even though it was daytime, there were no pedestrians on the streets.

A dense aura of yin energy, mixed with incense smoke, enveloped the entire ancient city. If Liu Qing hadn't possessed the Yin-Yang supernatural power, he probably wouldn't have been able to see the scenery within the city.

On the black cloud formed by the yin energy and incense smoke, a middle-aged man sat cross-legged. He was dressed in white, had a dashing appearance, and was holding a pot of "Drunken Soul Spring" wine, which he kept drinking.

"What joy is there in life, what sorrow in death? The blazing incense burns my withered body—"

He glanced at the sky through his drunken haze, saw Liu Qing arrive, grinned, and pointed to the thousands of Tang soldiers floating in the dark clouds, as well as Donkey Shiheng and Mule Shixin, who were trapped and revealed their true forms as donkeys and mules.

"Kill me, and you can save them."

Liu Qing showed no sadness or reluctance, but a fierce glint flashed in his eyes: "Fine!"

He stretched out his right hand and hooked it. Instantly, countless black lightning bolts rose from the moat of Xianyang City, gathered in his palm, and transformed into a huge ball of lightning.

The lightning ball is black on the outside, representing Yin, and white on the inside, representing Yang. It represents a perfect level of water and lightning supernatural power.

With a flick of his hand, Liu Qing sent the water mine flying toward Yang Yong. As it approached, he activated his divine sense, causing the yin and yang to immediately reverse and collide. Then, with a loud bang, it exploded.

A flash of deep green appeared just outside the city; countless wild grasses and vines had formed a thick barrier before the mines exploded, keeping Yang Yong, the City God of Xianyang, behind them.

"Your Highness, please be careful—"

"Your Highness, this fellow is coming on strong; you must not be careless—"

Several eighth and ninth-rank local deities outside the city used their divine power to manipulate wild grass and vines to block an attack for Yang Yong, and couldn't help but offer a word of warning.

(End of this chapter)