Ming Dynasty: Gain one supernatural power every day

The army continued its advance.

As Zhu Gaoxu rode on the back of the Fierce Tiger King, he reached into his robes and touched the jade pendant. His mind began to race. He thought about how the scene of Marshal Tianpeng transforming into a giant mountain-splitting creature would surely make the eldest and third brothers jump for joy if he sent it to the group chat.

He was about to send the jade pendant to the group chat and chat with the Princess of Han when he caught a glimpse of Zhu Di's back in front of him, and he withdrew his finger.

Forget it, we're almost at the enemy's city walls, and there's a battle going on. If I send this out, the old man will probably scold me.

I'll post it after I'm done playing; the video isn't going to grow legs and run away anyway.

The massive army advanced forward in a mighty and unstoppable march.

Zhu Di, Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxi, and Zhu Bajie rode on clouds above the army, looking down at the earth from their high vantage point.

The passage that Pigsy just cleared out is even more visually striking and awe-inspiring when viewed from the clouds.

The once dense forest, stretching for twenty or thirty miles, now looked as if it had been turned over from head to tail by a giant plow. The soil was neatly turned up, and tree branches were evenly mixed into the soil like fertilizer.

The air was filled with the scent of damp grass and earth, and there were several piles of cleared stones and tree trunks nearby, neatly stacked.

Zhu Di looked down at the scene below, then glanced at Zhu Bajie beside him, who was carrying a rake and humming a tune. He thought to himself: No wonder he is Marshal Tianpeng, who commands 80,000 naval troops. He can plow such a large, dense forest into flat land in the blink of an eye. It is terrifying.

He glanced at the fourth prince sitting steadily on the cloud beside him, feeling incredibly fortunate. He thought to himself, "Thank goodness Marshal Tianpeng was someone I invited. If the enemy had one like him, we wouldn't have to fight this battle. I truly am the Son of Heaven. Maybe the fourth prince was sent down by the Dao Ancestor to help me."

Zhang Fu and his entourage of civil and military officials walked on the newly opened passage. The soil under their feet was soft and flat, and occasionally they stepped on a few small stones crushed by rakes, which made a soft crunching sound.

The air was filled with the moist scent of the forest, mixed with the fresh fragrance of grass and earth rising from the soil, making the walk much more comfortable than the narrow valley path we had passed before.

"Old Zhang, look at this road," Zheng Heng said, stomping on the dirt under his feet, his voice still somewhat dazed. "I can't believe that in such a short time, this large forest has turned into a dirt road like this."

Zhang Fu casually remarked, "Hey, Marshal Tianpeng commands 80,000 naval troops on the Milky Way. For him, opening up mountains and carving roads is as easy as drinking water. There's no need to be so surprised."

Zhang Fu spoke casually. After all, these past few days, following Prince Rui, he had witnessed the teleportation portal and the Investiture of the Gods, each of which was astonishing on its own. He had gradually developed a strong heart from his initial astonishment. Although the scene before him was indeed spectacular, it was relatively calm compared to the previous Investiture of the Gods.

Xue Lu remained silent, riding on the lion with his head tilted to the side, seemingly pondering something.

After a long pause, he suddenly spoke up: "Hey, have you guys noticed something?"

"What's wrong?"

Xue Lu seemed thoughtful, gesturing with his chin towards the plowed dirt road ahead: "I'm thinking, the way Marshal Tianpeng used that rake to clear the way... it looks just like farming! The posture, the rhythm, and the way he moved the rake forward—it's exactly the same as when I'm tilling the soil at home. Do you think they have to farm in Heaven too?"

Xue Lu's ancestors were ordinary military households in Jiaozhou. Under the military settlement system of the Ming Dynasty, military households were required to cultivate land and pay grain taxes. He came from a poor family and did a lot of farm work in his youth. Later, he joined the army and followed Zhu Di in the Jingnan Campaign, rising through the ranks to become a Duke.

"We can't tell that, neither of us has ever farmed." Zheng Heng and Zhang Fu exchanged a glance and shook their heads at the same time.

One came from a family of generals, and the other came from a military background. They were experts in troop deployment, but when it came to farming, well, that was definitely a blind spot for them.

Xue Lu clicked his tongue and waved his hand dismissively, "I shouldn't have told you two. Hey, where's Old Qiu?" He turned to look for Qiu Fu, knowing that Qiu Fu had also come from a poor background and had worked the land.

He craned his neck and shouted behind him. Qiu Fu, who was swaying on the rhinoceros's back, looked up when he heard the noise.

"Old Qiu, did you see the way Marshal Tianpeng cleared the way? Doesn't it look like they're farming?" Xue Lu asked at the top of his lungs.

Qiu Fu sat on the back of a rhinoceros slightly behind him.

A thick cowhide felt was spread on the broad back of the rhinoceros, and a soldier was driving the rhinoceros while he sat comfortably on the felt.

Hearing Xue Lu call him, Qiu Fu leaned out, nodded, and said, "Yes, indeed. The Marshal's posture just now was just like that of an old farmer who has been tilling the land for many years, each stroke of the rake hitting the mark perfectly, left and right, with an impeccable rhythm. However, we dare not speak carelessly about what the Heavenly Court is like, lest we be struck by lightning."

After he finished speaking, he shrank back onto the rhinoceros's back and couldn't help but rub his hands together.

He had been itching to get his hands on the jade tokens when he saw everyone taking out the recording. After the battle of Ailiu Pass, he would definitely remind Prince Rui to give him the jade tokens and the mount.

Zhu Gaoxi rode on a cloud, floating in mid-air, his spiritual power constantly covering the surrounding movements.

He heard every word of Xue Lu and Qiu Fu's conversation, and his lips twitched slightly as he almost burst out laughing.

Xue Lu was right; Zhu Bajie did indeed farm—after being banished to the mortal realm and reincarnated as a pig, he served as a son-in-law in Gao Village for three years, diligently farming and harrowing the fields for the Gao family. He was capable of doing the work of more than a dozen farmhands.

The way they're carving roads through mountains must be muscle memory honed from plowing the fields in Gao Laozhuang back in the day.

The troops ahead had already crossed the newly plowed land. Zhang Fu and Zheng Heng were riding side by side when suddenly a sharp-eyed soldier shouted, "Sir, there's something ahead!"

Just then, a low commotion came from ahead.

Zhang Fu and his men found some tripwires scattered on the ground at the edge of the cleared area, several poisoned arrows stuck crookedly in the mud, and a few pieces of clothing half-buried in the mud nearby, their grayish color obscured by the mud.

Most of the Annamese soldiers who had ambushed the enemy in the jungle were quick enough to escape, but a few were slow and didn't make it out of the range of Zhu Bajie's rake. They were crushed into the ground, their armor and bodies crushed together, leaving only these scattered relics on the muddy ground.

Xue Lu used his scabbard to pick up a tripwire, looked at it, and threw it back on the ground, scoffing, "Where are the horses ahead? Our lions are at the very front, and rhinoceroses and elephants are behind. Is he preparing this tripwire for himself? He can't be preparing it to trip up His Majesty's clouds, can he?"

Several military officers around him also started laughing.