Chapter Thirty-Two: Xuanwu Appears, Devouring Spirits Subdued

  The enormous silhouettes of the three beasts held for a moment before suddenly disappearing, leaving only one man standing proudly in the sunlight, making it impossible to look directly at him. The terrifying spear "Devouring Soul" was grasped by this person's bare hands on its blade, unable to advance even half a step further.

  The Moon Princess Wang and the four Mo brothers were stunned, none of them had expected that the Son of Heaven could catch such a deadly weapon with his bare hands. The four Mo brothers thought to themselves that even if they were in their brother's place, they wouldn't have been able to catch the golden spear, although they had already sensed that the Son of Heaven was also a cultivator, but his cultivation level was still some distance away from theirs, yet he possessed such incredible abilities. The Moon Princess Wang had the best eyesight and saw the blood flowing from Zhang Ziyue's palm, she knew that "Devouring Soul" had the terrifying ability to devour souls, her heart skipped a beat again. What was strange was that when the long spear came into contact with Zhang Ziyue's blood, it suddenly went against its usual behavior, only absorbing a small amount before stopping, and the golden light began to flicker erratically.

  Zhang Zixing secretly circulated his internal energy and found that except for the palm of his hand being cut by the blade, there was no other abnormality in his body. He stretched out his other hand and gently grasped the spear shaft, but unexpectedly did not encounter any resistance. Instead, he felt a warm and powerful energy emanating from it, adjusting the internal energy that had been disrupted by the intense circulation of the True Martial Spirit Technique earlier. Before long, Zhang Zixing felt that his strength had fully recovered, and seemed to have even improved. The energy from the Golden Spear was very familiar, seemingly originating from the same source as the True Martial Spirit Technique. It appeared that escaping death and subduing the Golden Spear earlier were also due to this reason...

  The war was pressing, Zhang Zixing didn't have time to think carefully, and raised the long spear high, "Xīnguì" seemed to have gained a new life, emitting an unprecedented brilliant golden light.

  All the soldiers of Shang Jun saw this scene, their morale greatly boosted, and suddenly they shouted in unison: "The divine power of the Son of Heaven!"

  The Moon Princess saw him so brave and able to turn danger into safety, and even tame the fierce "Fang of the Soul Devourer". She was overjoyed and wept. Zhang Zixing suddenly felt a numbness in his injured palm, looked down and saw that the wound cut by the blade was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. He couldn't help but show a look of surprise - when he saved Sun Mou's siblings at the market that year, his shoulder injury also healed on its own, and at the time, he thought it was Yun Zhongzi secretly using magic, but today the same thing happened again, apparently it was not a coincidence.

  The Eastern Yi kings saw the scene of King Shang suppressing "Shi Yue" with his bare hands, and they were all shocked. Wang Cangjie knew that the situation was already gone, and decided to mobilize the allied army to fight a decisive battle: "We are in a desperate situation today, we must fight to the death, maybe there is still a way out!"

  "Wait!" The one who shouted to stop him was surprisingly the Witch King, who had been helped up by his attendants.

  "Our army has already been defeated today, it's better to surrender." The eastern Yi tribes did not expect that their spiritual leader, the Shaman King, would utter such words of surrendering to the enemy.

  Cang Jie Wang was shocked and didn't even use the honorific "daren" anymore: "Wu Ji Wang, have you gone mad? How can you be so greedy for life and afraid of death?"

  "How dare you!" Wu Ji Wang angrily said: "My Zoumen clan has inherited the position of witch doctor for generations, leading various tribes with the intention of the war god. When have we ever produced a coward? If I were afraid of death, how could I use the forbidden secret treasure 'Devouring Soul' today?"

  King You of Zhou asked: "Since it is so, why did Wu Zixu utter such astonishing words?"

  The Witch King's face revealed a complex expression, pointing at the golden light of the Shang Military Commander's position, and sighed: "The War God's greatest treasure 'Devouring Soul'... has already acknowledged its master!"

  Upon hearing Wu Ji's words, Xing Ning and the others finally understood his meaning, their faces changing greatly: "'Devourer of Ghosts' acknowledges its master! Could it be that the Shang king is actually... the reincarnation of Chi You, the War God?"

  "Have you just seen that Xuanwu Fa image? It's actually similar to the secret technique passed down from Xuan Emperor by Chiyou, the war god. My tribe is a descendant of Jiuli Miao, and we have been worshiping the war god for generations. How can we possibly go against our master?"

  Cang Jie Wang saw that the kings of various tribes had shown a lot of movement, and hastily shouted: "What war god reincarnation, it's simply nonsense! How can the war god be reborn in the great king of an enemy country? Moreover, my tribe has been at odds with Da Shang for generations. If we surrender to the enemy army, we will surely die without a place to bury our bodies."

  Cang Jie Wang insisted on fighting for two reasons: firstly, the divine bow and fine cavalry of the poor country had almost all been defeated in this invasion, leaving him with a heart full of hatred; secondly, he was the main culprit who initiated this war, and he thought that although King Shang might pardon others, he would never forgive him and the people of You Miao.

  Just as the various tribes were in a state of internal conflict, the Shang army launched a powerful offensive. The Eastern Yi army was originally disheartened and not a match for them, and they suffered heavy casualties instantly. King Cang Jie rallied the troops of the Zhen Guan and Zhen Xun tribes, using his remaining divine archers and elite cavalry to open up a path, attempting to carve out a bloody road, just as he encountered Huang Feihu's Left Army.

  Zhang Guifang recognized Cang Jie Wang as the commander-in-chief of the Allied Army, and hastily rushed forward, shouting "Cang Jie Wang, if you don't dismount now, what are you waiting for?" Cang Jie Wang couldn't resist, and involuntarily dismounted, only to be beheaded by Zhang Guifang on horseback. The armies of the three tribes, Youqiong, Zhen Guan, and Zhen Xun, saw Cang Jie Wang's death and fell into great chaos.

  "The Eastern Barbarians surrender quickly! If you surrender, you will not be killed!" The uniform shout from the Shang army's formation made the various tribes that were already hesitant completely lose their morale. With the enthusiastic encouragement of Wu Ji Wang, they dismounted and surrendered one after another. This call to surrender was originally a request made by Yu Jie to Zhang Zixing in order to reduce casualties among his own people, but unexpectedly it had an extraordinary effect.

  Just as the soldiers were rounding up the prisoners, the ground suddenly began to shake and tremble. Huge mounds of earth quickly rose up, forming a series of conspicuous tracks, as if something was moving underground. Before long, amidst flying rocks and debris, a massive body burst forth from the earth - it was the buried Xiangyuan. The Xiangyuan truly lived up to its reputation as an ancient magical beast, for it was not comparable to ordinary wild boars. With its immense strength and sharp teeth, it had managed to use its snout to dig out a path to freedom. Although it had escaped, it had expended a great deal of energy in doing so, and its two nostrils were still heaving with exhaustion. However, the fierce glint in its eyes remained undiminished. Zhang Zixing had subdued the "Devourer of Spirits", and upon seeing the Xiangyuan appear, he decided to test the power of his Golden Spear. He took a few steps back, focused all his energy on the True Martial Spirit Technique, and with full force, hurled the Devourer of Spirits Golden Spear at the Xiangyuan.

  The dried skin of the seal was incredibly resilient, and it also had a defensive ability that made it immune to even the magical weapons of the four generals. Today, however, its luck ran out as it encountered the ancient evil weapon "Devouring Soul". The seal's massive body should have only suffered minor damage from being pierced by the golden spear, but for some reason, when it was hit, it let out a deafening screech that caused the nearby horses to tremble with fear and lose control of their bowels. After its screech, the seal stopped moving and fell to the ground. A short while later, its massive body rapidly deflated like a punctured balloon, leaving only an empty skin behind. The cause of all this was naturally the golden light within the skin - the ancient evil weapon "Devouring Soul"!

  This terrifying scene made everyone's scalp explode, and only then did they realize how frightening the golden spear that Zhang Zixing had just subdued was. Especially the surrendered soldiers of Dongyi, each with a fearful expression, secretly rejoicing in their early surrender.

  Zhang Zixing revealed a faint, almost imperceptible smile. This was the completely stunned effect he had been aiming for. However, the power of the Devourer was indeed beyond his expectations, and it had instantly killed Feng Chou. Just as he was about to personally go forward to retrieve the Devourer, he suddenly felt his entire body go weak, as if all his blood had been drained out, and he almost lost his footing. Moon Princess Wang hastily dismounted her horse to support him.

  Zhang Zixing felt the power that had been extremely abundant in his body just now suddenly become extremely weak, thinking that this move was indeed not good to use, Jinmao was very fierce, but it consumed too much power, after one strike, his own combat power also dropped to zero, it seems that he can't use it lightly until the last moment.

  Now that the two great demons have been extinguished, the inner elixir still exists within Jiu Ying's body. Zhang Zixing thought for a moment and did not let the four generals of the Demon Clan destroy the inner elixir, but instead ordered them to extract it. Firstly, this would completely sever Jiu Ying's vitality, and secondly, the inner elixir could also serve as a research subject.

  Just then, a crane's cry suddenly came from the sky, and two giant cranes descended afterwards. Two people got off the back of the cranes, a man and a woman wearing Taoist robes.

  The pair of men and women who descended from heaven wore Taoist robes, with handsome looks and a celestial air.

  The man took a look at the scene in the field, and walked with the woman to Zhang Zixing, who was wearing a golden armor, bowed his head and said: "General, my humble brother and sister have arrived."

  "How dare you! This is the sacred chariot of our dynasty's Son of Heaven! Don't you hurry to pay your respects!" Mo Liqing shouted loudly. The four brothers were also cultivators, so they didn't place much importance on the two men's Daoist identities.

  The men and women heard that the commander was actually the great merchant Tianzi, slightly surprised, looked at each other, but did not pay their respects.

  Zhang Zixing knew that the man and woman were disciples of Fang Wai's cultivation, and he didn't blame them for their lack of courtesy. He gently broke free from Yuemei's support and asked: "How do you address yourselves? What brings you to this battlefield?"

  The man said, "I am Deng Hua, the fifth disciple of Yuan Shi Tian Zun in Yu Xu Palace. This is my fellow sister Wu Ping. I don't know if Your Majesty has come to conquer, please forgive me for my offense. I have come here specifically to ask Your Majesty for something."

  Zhang Zixing was taken aback, Deng Hua, a disciple of Yuanshi Tianzun? He had some impression of this name. Although Deng Hua's title sounded loud - the fifth disciple, his actual abilities were not that great. In the battle of the Ten Extremes Formation, he was used as cannon fodder by Ran Deng Dao Ren and died at the hands of Tian Que in the Heavenly Extremes Formation. As for Wu Ping, Zhang Zixing had never even heard of him.

  "Deng Daochang, no need to be polite, what goods do you want, just say it straightforwardly." Yun Zhongzi had a good impression of Zhang Zixing back then, and the Yan Jiao was not standing on the opposing side of the big business at present, so Zhang Zixing's words were still relatively polite.

  Deng Hua smiled and said, "I have been cultivating the Water Fire Divine Halberd, and I urgently need a Nine-Infant Internal Elixir. I've searched for it everywhere for a long time. Recently, the heavenly machine has been unpredictable, and I calculated for many days before finally figuring out the location of the Nine-Infant. So, I came to settle this strange life, but unexpectedly, Your Majesty arrived first. Please, may I ask Your Majesty to do me a favor."

  Zhang Zixing's eyes flashed with a hint of cold light as he gazed at Wu Ping, who was staring intently at the corpse of Jiu Yin. A cold smile spread across his face: "Calculations? One month ago, during the great battle on the plains where our army suffered a crushing defeat, why didn't you calculate the position to 'finish off' Jiu Yin then? Now that we've finally managed to kill Jiu Yin with great difficulty using the Shocking Heaven Bow and Piercing Cloud Arrows, just as we were about to take his inner elixir, you people show up? It's clear you're here to reap the benefits of our hard work, and yet you have the nerve to say I 'stole a march' on you? It's as if I'm the one who's in the wrong?"

  Deng Hua saw that Zhang Zixing's face was not pleasant, and he said: "This thing is the accumulation of nine infants' evil energy over many years. Not only will it be useless to Your Majesty, but it will also bring great disaster. Therefore, I beg for it, and please grant my request."

  Mo Jia's four generals felt indignant, seeing Deng Hua repeatedly asking the Son of Heaven for it. Mo Li Hai shouted: "This thing is our army's spoils of war, whether to take or leave it depends on Your Majesty's will, don't rely on being under Yu Xuan Men to forcibly and rudely demand it!"

  Deng Hua had not spoken, but the female Taoist priest Wu Ping spoke first, her tone very stern: "Under the Jade Void Gate, how can we tolerate such disrespect! If you people do not have military positions, I would like to learn from you, and see what kind of skills these few masters possess!"

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