I am Jinshan Youxia

Zhang Chengyi continued, "Which sect are you from? Where is your martial uncle?"

What's in this newspaper is pure slander.

"I...I am a disciple of Longhu Mountain." The young Taoist priest looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old. He said pitifully, "My master uncle travels all over the world and his whereabouts are uncertain. I...I don't know either."

"I came from Jinhua, but how do I look like a monster?"

When Zhang Chengyi couldn't find the real culprit, he immediately started arguing with the other party, since he had obtained the small newspaper from the Taoist's bundle.

While it's said that rumors stop with the wise, if no one says a word, then what's the point of stopping them?

The young Taoist priest said weakly, "Your Majesty, you destroyed the thousand-year-old tree demon in Guobei County with a single stroke of your hand, and then used your corpse energy to turn dozens of miles around Guobei County into scorched earth. My uncle was a guest at Maoshan at the time and was invited to go to Guobei County to see for himself..."

"What king? Don't call me king!"

"Well, this, this was my mistake. You know what a mistake is, right? Even zombies make mistakes." Zhang Chengyi first denied the way the other person addressed him, then forced an explanation for the good deed he had done in Guobei County, before pointing to the second newspaper and saying, "What do you mean by 'sweeping through Fengyang'? Who did I sweep through?"

The young Taoist priest shrank back further and whispered, "When the Palace Master of Tianjing Palace saw the evil aura soaring to the sky, he took his junior brother and the inherited magic artifact, the Five Elements Compass, to look for you, sir. Not only did they lose the Five Elements Compass, but the Palace Master of Tianjing Palace was also struck by lightning and lost all his magic power overnight."

"The monks and Taoists attacked together, but you took away many of their magical artifacts."

Zhang Chengyi remembered those two guys, and the group of bald Taoist priests who inexplicably came to seal him afterward. He said righteously, "They caused me trouble for no reason. I was just defending myself. After I won, I didn't kill them. I just took some spoils of war!"

The young Taoist priest dared not refute, but inwardly he thought: You are so evil that you are walking back and forth in other people's territory. You are about to rush into the city. If I don't stop you, am I just going to watch a peerless zombie enter the city and start a massacre?

Zhang Chengyi felt he had at least one point of justification, so he ripped off the second newspaper, pointed at the third, and said, "What Zhenxian Temple? I've never even heard of it. What do you mean I wiped out their entire family..."

The female ghost whispered in his ear, "Master, yesterday when you were playing with the corpse poison grass, you forgot to put it away. The corpse poison grass was catalyzed by the corpse energy. The Taoists from the Zhenxian Temple in Henan sent Gu worms to investigate and took some away. The entire sect was infected with corpse poison. That night, they ordered the disciples who were traveling to flee to Southeast Asia. All the Taoists in the sect committed suicide."

She thought for a moment and added, "There's a newcomer who's a female Taoist from the True Immortal Temple."

Zhang Chengyi felt a little embarrassed. The spreading corpse poison grass was quite annoying. Its vitality was exceptionally strong. It grew into a large patch in a single day. When he woke up in the evening, all the animals around him had been captured by the corpse poison grass and injected with corpse poison. While being captured by the corpse poison grass, they were screaming wildly and producing more corpse poison as nutrients for the corpse poison grass due to infection. The scene was really too eerie.

However, he cleaned it up afterwards—no, the True Immortal Temple—

"Don't worry, sir, the True Immortal Temple has sealed off its gates," the female ghost reassured him once again.

The young Taoist priest frowned when he saw the zombie king suddenly stop talking. He looked like a prisoner, but now he seemed quite smug.

Even if he dies, the truth cannot be lied about.

Zhang Chengyi, too lazy to even look at the last tabloid, said, "How did a disciple of Longhu Mountain end up in Hebei? Wasn't this place supposed to have become a demon kingdom?"

Longhu Mountain is in Jiangxi Province, which is farther than Jinhua is from Beijing.

Upon hearing this, the young Taoist priest proudly puffed out his chest and said, "The current Celestial Master Zhang is my grandmaster. He is going to the capital to suppress evil spirits, and I will accompany him as his attendant."

"Where is Zhang Tianshi? Why is there still such a strong demonic aura and resentment over there?" Zhang Chengyi looked in the direction of the capital.

The demonic aura was overwhelming, and the resentment transformed into dense, dark clouds. If gods or Buddhas were present, they would probably have already struck down heavenly lightning.

He wondered how many people had died to create so much resentment. As soon as he arrived in Hebei, he realized that the surrounding environment had been permanently changed, and a cold, gloomy feeling made it completely unsuitable for human habitation.

The young Taoist priest lowered his head and remained silent.

Zhang Chengyi frowned. "That Zhang Tianshi wouldn't have gone to his death too, would he?"

The young Taoist priest instinctively retorted, "Nonsense, the patriarch is only temporarily unable to deal with the demonic dragon."

"Looks like he's not dead yet." Zhang Chengyi thought for a moment, then looked up and gestured for the female ghost to release the little Taoist priest. He then said, "You guys wait for me to come back here for now. You probably won't be able to participate in the upcoming battle."

When he unleashes the full power of the heavenly lightning to the point that even lightning resistance can't withstand it, the power is incredibly strong, and he can't control it well. The female ghosts inside his body are easily affected.

Having said that, his feet sank deep into the ground under the force of the corpse energy, and then shot into the sky at high speed like a rocket, opening his mouth to spew out corpse energy, and frantically propelling himself forward with his buttocks.

"Boom!" The clouds, which were filled with resentment, roared terrifyingly after being invaded by the corpse energy, and black lightning of the yin attribute darted through the clouds.

"Snapped!"

-----------------

In the capital city, in the imperial palace, in the roofless Golden Palace.

"Zhang Tianshi's Seal, Vajra Pestle, Thunder Ancestor's Token, Celestial Master's Magic Sword, Golden Bell..."

Pudu Cihang, with the tattered body of an emperor, sat on the bare dragon throne, calling out the names of the magical artifacts he recognized one by one, and sneered: "What, aren't you afraid that after you die, the family fortune passed down from generation to generation in Longhu Mountain will be reduced to ashes?"

The fat old man, who was sitting down and enveloped in golden light, had a very calm expression. "It is my incompetence that I cannot kill you, you monster. But I am just the worst one. Otherwise, I would not have been left to inherit the position of Heavenly Master."

"I see that you are utterly wicked and I will wait for you to die without a burial place."

"Hahahaha!" Pudu Cihang burst into wild laughter, "Old man, do you think this is still a hundred years ago?"

"The gods and Buddhas have long since fled, and the demons, haha, have fled in panic and left this world because of a vague prophecy."

"Without gods or Buddhas, at this very moment, who dares to kill me? Who can kill me?"

Just as the fat old man was about to speak, he suddenly turned his head to look at the distant sky.

"Boom!!!" Amidst a deafening roar, a figure streaked across the sky above the capital, followed by a strange, electronic-sounding shout:

"Pudu Cihang, come out and see me!"

Chapter 241: Battle!

"There isn't a single living person."

Zhang Chengyi floated in mid-air using the corpse energy, and the entire capital city was dead.

When the rebel leader Li Zicheng entered Beijing, or when the Tartars entered Beijing, they would leave some people alive. But monsters really do kill and eat indiscriminately, leaving no one alive.

Then there's no need to hold back.

He urged the corpse energy to surge out of his mouth at top speed, turning it into a thick black mist that enveloped the area below.

"How dare you!" A majestic voice boomed, "What kind of monster are you, daring to invade!"

Golden light flashed, and the corpse energy was repelled outside the city.

"Pretending to be something you're not."

Using the corpse energy as a slingshot and himself as a pebble, Zhang Chengyi pulled it to its limit, his entire body crackling with heavenly lightning, and with a boom, he shot down towards the location of the imperial palace.

"Sizzle!" The golden light made a violent friction sound against the burning and thundering zombie.

During the stalemate, a Five Emperors' Coin Sword secretly stabbed at the golden light from the inside.

"Crack!"

"Old man, you're asking for death!" Before Pudu Cihang could even make a move in his shock and anger, Zhang Chengyi descended from the sky.

"boom!"

The Golden Palace, already somewhat dilapidated from numerous battles, was now engulfed in flames by the explosion. The shattered building materials melted under the intense heat, and the gold paint mixed with molten iron slowly flowed across the ground.

The sounds of secondary combustion compressing air were incessant.

Pudu Cihang, disguised as an emperor, stood up from the dragon throne with a livid face. Then, a figure flashing with lightning emerged from the mist that distorted the air.

"Boom!"

The golden light was rippled by the fist carrying heavenly thunder.

Pudu Cihang's face twisted into a ferocious grin as he said, "My fate is intertwined with the nation's; such petty tricks are nothing to me—"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Zhang Chengyi became ruthless, his fists leaving afterimages as he swung them, each strike carrying the maximum amount of heavenly lightning, turning the ground into a completely glassy crystal.

The golden light protecting the Bodhisattva of Compassion trembled repeatedly under the hammer blows, yet it remained standing firm.

“It’s no use.” The fat old man in the Taoist robe said loudly, “It has bound itself to the Ming Dynasty. It must be either an attack powerful enough to destroy the Ming Dynasty or a treasure tainted by the national fortune of a past dynasty. Otherwise, it is impossible to break through the golden light of the dragon vein.”

"Speak up!"

Pudu Cihang glared at him, and invisible weapons clanged three feet in front of the fat man, but to no avail.

The old fat man was just ringing the golden bell he was holding in his arms.

"The power of idealism."

Zhang Chengyi withdrew his hand, lost in thought. Meanwhile, his body was being struck by a barrage of clanging and banging as invisible weapons slashed at him relentlessly from all angles—swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, and forks. Even his eyes were being attacked at a high frequency.

Unfortunately, all that was produced was a series of sparks. His body had been baptized by the heavenly lightning to the point of being in a state of extreme condition, and his steel-like bones were truly impenetrable. Moreover, he was protected by endless corpse energy, so killing him was not something that could be done by ordinary means.

The attack stopped quickly.

Seeing that another formidable opponent had arrived, Pudu Cihang was too lazy to waste his own strength.

The human, the corpse, and the demon were once again locked in a stalemate.

Without the protection of the dragon vein and the Ming Dynasty's national fortune, the demonic dragon would probably be no match for the Zombie King.

The old fat man huddled in a corner, clutching a large pile of Celestial Master's Mansion treasures that he himself wasn't very good at using, his mind wandering aimlessly.

With the arrival of the external demons, many famous sects fled, and Longhu Mountain was no exception. However, Longhu Mountain had always been too deeply bound to the imperial power. Before fleeing, they chose the most incompetent descendant of Zhang Tianshi to remain and inherit Zhang Tianshi's position.

That's him.

Many of the magical artifacts that the people couldn't take with them were left behind. Otherwise, he felt he wouldn't have lasted more than a few rounds against the demonic dragon, let alone be able to injure the skin covering it.

Originally, it was thought that the demonic dragon would be invincible, but unexpectedly, the Zombie King in the south is even more powerful, shaking the dragon vein with his bare hands. This means that the opponent's power has surpassed that of mortals. If given time, the Zombie King may be able to slaughter the entire world by himself.

The Way declines while the Demonic Way rises; the Way declines while the Demonic Way rises!

The fat old man sighed.

Zhang Chengyi suddenly made a move, drawing the attention of the other two guys. He opened his mouth and exhaled corpse energy, blowing away the molten iron and flames on the ground. He stomped on the foundation and then reached out and poked his hand into the soil.

Under the puzzled gazes of Pudu Cihang and the old fat man, plants quickly sprouted from the ground, and clumps of brown grass spread out as if they had appeared out of thin air.

In the blink of an eye, it spread from beneath Zhang Chengyi's feet to most of the area where the Golden Palace was originally located.

While Pudu Cihang was still pondering what these things were, the old fat man jumped two meters high as if he had sat on a cactus and rushed outside in a great hurry.

Look at that dark, oppressive aura above—a world-destroying demon! A world-destroying demon!

Nourished by the massive amount of corpse poison, the grass grew faster and faster, soon pushing aside the stone slab beneath Pudu Cihang's feet. These brown corpse poison grasses greedily clung to the golden light, squeezing in little by little.

They spotted an excellent prey.

"Squeak~ Crack!" The golden light of the dragon vein, which had been incredibly firm in the face of Zhang Chengyi's fist, let out a mournful cry.

Pudu Cihang's expression changed immediately. This thing is too eerie!

The 'emperor's' body, having devoured the dragon vein, possessed various abilities, yet it was merely an ordinary person, unable to escape even if it wanted to. Otherwise, it wouldn't have remained in the Golden Palace.