Ming Dynasty: Gain one supernatural power every day

The city wall was deathly silent.

An archer dropped his bow with a clatter to the ground, slumped down, and stammered, his lips trembling so badly he could barely speak: "It's not an illusion...it's truly divine...it's truly divine!"

"Amazing! There really are immortals in the Ming Dynasty!"

"Gods, we were wrong! We surrender!" The soldiers on the city wall watched as the arrows they had fired turned to ashes and vanished before everyone's eyes, their last shred of hope completely crushed.

It turns out that General Ruan's claim of "the mountain god appearing" was the biggest lie, and what the previous teams said was true. The one standing on these clouds is the true god invited by the Ming Dynasty.

Hundreds of arrows were fired simultaneously, but not a single one reached the enemy; they all turned to ash in mid-air. What's the point of fighting like this?

For mortals to fight against gods is like an egg hitting a rock.

"Truly—truly—truly a god..." Ruan Wenzhong watched this scene, the blood-dripping knife in his hand clattered to the ground, and he collapsed to the ground, his lips trembling as he repeatedly murmured "God... God...", his face ashen.

"You reckless Annamese, do you know who you've offended?" Zhu Gaoxu stood on the cloud, never putting down the jade tablet in his hand, his camera firmly fixed on the terrified Annamese soldiers below, his voice so loud that it could be heard throughout the entire Ailu Pass.

"You've offended the direct disciple of the Dao Ancestor! The Supreme Emperor of the Central Heaven! The Fourth Prince of the Ming Dynasty! The fourth son of my father, the Yongle Emperor! And Marshal Tianpeng, who commands 80,000 naval troops! And me—the War God of the Ming Dynasty, the Prince of Han! You're all doomed!"

"Disciple of the Dao Ancestor..." Pigsy muttered to himself, his eyes wide and an unnatural look flashing across his face.

In the human world, the Daoist ancestor often refers to Laozi, also known as Taishang Laojun, one of the Three Pure Ones. In the Journey to the West world, even the Jade Emperor has to show him some respect.

He had been wondering how this young man, who looked so young, could summon him from the Journey to the West world, but now he understood everything.

So he was Laozi's disciple. No wonder he had such great abilities. He thought to himself, "I've hit the jackpot by recognizing the younger brother as my second brother."

"Your Majesty is mighty!" The officials of Prince Rui's mansion reacted the fastest, holding up the jade tablet in one hand to record the video, while waving excitedly with the other.

They had watched helplessly as Zhang Fu and his men stole the limelight countless times along the way, even managing to flatter Prince Rui before anyone else. This time, they were determined not to let anyone else steal the spotlight.

Qiu Sheng took the lead in shouting, followed closely by Zheng Cong, Zhang Ni, and Xue Bin, each with a louder voice than the last.

Not to be outdone, the officials of the Han Prince's Palace nearby also joined in the shouting, and everyone who knew about the Investiture of the Gods was shouting in unison.

"Your Majesty is mighty!" Zhang Fu shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing in front of the gate.

After all, the best way to invest in someone is to call them Emperor before they officially become one.

Zheng Heng was stunned for a moment. He had just been leading the chant of "King Rui is mighty!" but he didn't expect that these people had changed their address. He had made a mistake and was careless, failing to dodge.

He wanted to shout too, but he felt that shouting now would be like following the crowd. So he decided to focus on watching His Highness display his supernatural powers. No, I mean, the Supreme Emperor of the Central Heaven would display his supernatural powers.

Zhu Gaoxi stood on the cloud, looking down at the Annamese soldiers kneeling and begging for mercy on the city wall, a cold smile appearing on his lips: "You don't know you're wrong, you know you're about to die."

He pushed the gourd.

The ice gourd on the left, which was entirely ice-blue, was the first to activate.

A stream of extremely cold air, visible to the naked eye, suddenly spewed out from the gourd's mouth, as if compressing the chill of the entire winter into a single beam. Countless tiny ice crystals condensed along the path of the cold air, making a crackling sound.

The cold front crashed against the city walls, and frost instantly spread along the bricks, covering the crenellations, arrow towers, flagpoles, and the ground with a thick layer of ice in the blink of an eye.

The Annamese soldiers on the left city wall were frozen into ice sculptures before they could even turn around and run away. They remained in the posture of kneeling and kowtowing or turning around to run away, and the fear on their faces was frozen in time by the low temperature.

Fresh ingredients need to be frozen to stay fresh; this is an age-old truth.

"This gourd can freeze people?" The Ming soldiers below exclaimed in surprise. Some of them subconsciously shrank their necks. Even though they were still far from the cold front, they felt the cold air had already seeped into their collars.

The bright red gourd on the right followed closely behind.

A scorching stream of air shot out from the gourd's mouth, distorting and deforming the air in the heat wave. Then, a pillar of red fire poured out from the gourd's mouth, like a fire dragon rushing straight towards the right side of the city wall.

Flames struck the crenellations and scattered, instantly igniting the wooden arrow towers on the city wall. Flames seeped into the gaps between the bricks, and the Annamese soldiers who had just been startled by the commotion of the cold front and run a few steps to the right were met with the oncoming flames.

Clothes and hair were burned to ashes in the blink of an eye, screams rose and fell, and people burning on the fire ran around like headless flies, some even jumping off the city wall.

This follows another principle.

The most perfect ingredients are often cooked in the simplest way, like grilling them directly over a fire, saving on seasonings.

"This red gourd is amazing! It can even unleash heavenly fire to burn people!"

"This red gourd is amazing! Is it releasing heavenly fire? I can feel the heat even from this far away!"

"There are still two gourds left. I wonder what those two are for?" Zhang Fu, Zheng Heng, and a group of military and civil officials all looked up at Prince Rui in the sky and the two remaining gourds floating in front of him, full of anticipation.

Zhu Gaoxi didn't make them wait too long. On the left, they were frozen; on the right, they were grilled; and in the middle, they were given electrotherapy.

The lightning-struck wooden gourd in the middle slowly rose to its highest point, its mouth facing down and pointing directly at the center of the city wall, where Ruan Wenzhong was the commander's platform and the area where the defending troops were most concentrated.

The lightning patterns on the gourd's surface began to flash wildly, emitting a hissing sound of electricity. The entire gourd rapidly expanded, growing from the size of a palm to the thickness of a water vat, with blinding electric light gathering deep inside the gourd's mouth.

Immediately following a series of crackling explosions, several bolts of lightning burst forth from the gourd's mouth. The silvery-white lightning tore through the air, each bolt as thick as an arm, striking the city wall and blasting it into large shards of rubble.

Before the Annamese general and his personal guards could react, they were engulfed by lightning. Electricity bounced wildly between their armor and weapons, and the air was filled with a pungent, acrid smell of burning.

When the lightning dissipated, only charred bodies, emitting wisps of smoke, remained on the command platform, slumped limply to the ground, unable to even stand.

Does it hurt? If it hurts a little, that's okay. It means the treatment is effective.

"Heavenly lightning! What was released from that gourd was heavenly lightning!"

"Good! Kill these Annamese beasts!" The Ming soldiers below cheered. Some were so excited that they slammed their spears into the ground, making a loud thud. Others felt a chill run down their spines, gasped, and thought to themselves how lucky they were not Annamese.