The corpse soldiers rushing towards Xu Qing were like rats hiding in the sewers, each struggling and howling, desperately trying to burrow back into the ground, returning to the cemetery stele forest.
The towering apparition of Lady Bao Sheng stood atop the divine platform, and anyone who came could perceive that Xu Qing was the deity who should truly be revered there.
The Human Lord General raised his head, looking at the divine apparition bathed in golden light on the moral high ground, finding it dazzling. He genuinely could not discern the appearance of Xu Qing nor distinguish if he was divine or demonic.
Not just the Human Lord General, but even the well-informed Celestial Lord General had never witnessed such a spectacle!
This young man, enveloped in corpse aura and seemingly more akin to a corpse demon than the two brothers, how did he suddenly transform into a deity in the light?
Xu Qing ignored their speculations, reached out to retrieve the green branch from the mother gas bottle, and flicked it outward.
The next moment, the blood lake surged, incense smoke ascended like rosy clouds, and the perpetually dim Ancient Yin River Dao rarely saw a multicolored glow.
Beneath the glow, hundred thousand corpse soldiers wailed and fell to the ground, their flesh and bones smoldering.
The scroll in the Human Lord General's hand instantly lost its brilliance, and those golden seal characters were no longer at his command.
Merit incense can only suppress evil but will not act against the most sacred and virtuous.
At this moment, in the eyes of the Taiping Sutra, Xu Qing was already deemed an esteemed elder, possessing great merit, great determination, and great vision.
A being far surpassing the Grand Sage, worthy of reverence even by the Sage himself.
"Are you trying to compare merits with me?"
Without holding back, Xu Qing, during the Human Lord General's moment of distraction, his Ghost-slaying Treasure Sword shot forward like a rainbow, targeting the top of the Human Lord's head.
Before the sword's edge reached him, the corpse aura on the Human Lord General had already recoiled and dissipated.
Relentlessly, Xu Qing pressed forward, and just as he was about to reach the Human Lord General, the white-haired, white-bearded Celestial Lord General, clad in golden armor, abruptly blocked the way, cutting in between.
"Who are you exactly? In these troubled times, with bandits rampant, why do you not save the common people but seek trouble with my Taiping Dao? Is it that you think I have encroached on the incense of your followers..."
Xu Qing frowned, finally realizing something was amiss.
According to the Demon Exorcism True Monarch, before his death, the Celestial Lord General failed to achieve great feats and entrusted the Taiping Dao practitioners to use the evil technique of burning straw and hitting cauldrons to open the underworld by borrowing corpse power. Later, in Guangzong, using the life grievances of a hundred thousand soldiers, forcibly refined himself and two brothers into corpse demons, neither human nor ghost.
Yet, at this moment, Xu Qing felt this might not be the truth.
Regardless of the schemes involved, it was all history from thousands of years ago, and Xu Qing would only give it a fleeting glance in the carousel; as for now...
"Celestial Lord General, you have been dead for years, and the realm has long undergone several dynasties. There is no Taiping Dao, no Han Dynasty in this mundane world."
"Only the Five Filthy Evil Worlds trapped by the Nine Netherworld corpse powers, and the Celestial Lord General is a corpse demon refined by these forces, a pawn to invade the secular realm!"
The Celestial Lord General's face changed dramatically, overwhelmed by the demonic sounds in his ears, he firmly denied, "You must be my heart demon, deceiving me, I must eliminate you!"
"..."
Xu Qing truly experienced the obstinacy of corpse demons.
Such fiends, corrupted spiritually, are like prostitutes seasoned in the storm and struggle, long devoid of purity.
Xu Qing equating reasoning with them was akin to persuading a brothel keeper to reform, only drawing ridicule from the corpse demon.
"Speaking of which, I have a certain karmic connection across lifetimes with the Celestial Lord General, thus I will use this bowl to send the General on his way."
While speaking, Xu Qing took out the Doumi Bowl from the Cat Immortal Hall's Dharma Realm, a treasure containing merit comparable to the Sutra of Salvation.
The Celestial Lord General's eyes widened upon seeing the bowl.
"This bowl was clearly destroyed by me, how can you possess it?"
Xu Qing paused his hand, prepared to draw incense to perform the salvation ritual.
The armored elder before him stated solemnly: "The presence of the Doumi Bowl heralds a year of famine and disaster, with starving bodies and bones scattered across the path."
"The bowl, meant for saving lives, indicates war and hunger upon its appearance, isn't it then an evil object?"
The Celestial Lord General took a sudden step forward, glaring at Xu Qing, "I have devoted myself to the people, yet remain unblessed by the heavens. My teacher, Nanhua Elder Immortal, said that I am destined by heaven, but I am constantly thwarted, puzzled and defeated at every turn."
"Reaching Guangzong, my army needed supplies, and at the crucial moment, the Doumi Bowl held not a grain of rice; clearly in times of disaster, monstrosities emerge, is this bowl not a demon?"
Xu Qing's face showed a peculiar expression, "You put it that way, but I say this bowl is a life-saving treasure, appearing in times of great disaster to save people."
"Moreover, do you truly understand how to use this bowl?"
The Celestial Lord General replied coldly, "How could I not! This bowl is a device of heavenly virtue, a treasure of the Yellow Heaven. It takes life force from the Greedy Wolf star for rice grain form; moisture from the Moon star granting the rice a pearly shine; the Qi of the Earth from the common soil for the fragrance of rice."
"As long as the celestial pattern circulates unceasingly, grain will continuously replenish within this bowl, inexhaustible and ever-present!"
"Otherwise, how could I have relied entirely on this bowl? Alas, I was clever all my life, only to be harmed by this demonic vessel!"
Xu Qing raised an eyebrow, "Who told you this, General?"
"Naturally, my teacher, the Nanhua Immortal."
"..."
Xu Qing was utterly speechless.
"I say, General, you must have been tricked by a charlatan. This bowl does not have the supposed inexhaustibility and cannot conjure rice out of nowhere."
"The grains in the bowl when it was first handed to you, were likely placed by Nanhua Elder beforehand."
Xu Qing clicked his tongue, "I guess, he must have instructed you to store all harvested and army provisions in the bowl, didn't he?"
"..."
The Celestial Lord General's eyes widened, as if struck by lightning.
"Impossible, my mentor wouldn't deceive me, he couldn't deceive me... Surely, you are my heart demon, deceiving me!"
"..."
Finally stepping nearer to the Celestial Lord General, Xu Qing broke into a relieved smile.
"I did deceive you, but only to conserve some incense, that's all."
Speaking, Xu Qing decisively reached out to grasp the Celestial Lord General's hand, yet the corpse demon's response was swifter.
The Celestial Lord General seized Xu Qing's wrist, his corpse aura and demonic presence surged over Xu Qing like maggots clinging to bones.
Despite having a Flying Corpse body and a millennium of Daoist cultivation, under the overwhelming corpse evil invasion, Xu Qing experienced a backlash of his magical power, corpse aura congestion and negative impacts.
Was it attempting to overpower him?
Xu Qing was truly caught off guard by the Celestial Lord General's move!
"Courtesy demands reciprocity, farewell, General."
Almost simultaneously with the corpse evil entering his body, the Sutra of Salvation in Xu Qing's mind began flipping rapidly.
"This is..."
The Celestial Lord General's whole body shook, the demonic hindrances affecting his consciousness and the force allowing him to remain posthumously receded like fading tides.
In this moment, although plagued by endless fear, the Celestial Lord General's consciousness from life swiftly regained clarity.
The carousel in his mind synchronized with Xu Qing's, flashing quickly, in that instant, the Celestial Lord General understood everything and freed himself from the control of the Nine Netherworld corpse force.
But concurrently, he faced impending true death.
"I see... thank you, my friend..."
At a certain moment, the mountainous Celestial Lord General knelt down with a roar, as he lost all power and was about to return to the nether soil, he lowered his head, straining to voice one last sentence.
When a person is about to die, their words are kindly.
After glancing at the Celestial Lord General's corpse, Xu Qing abruptly turned to gaze at the Human Lord General dressed in scholar's robes.
Seeing the monster that had just performed strange divine techniques to eradicate his elder brother approach, the Human Lord General became frenzied:
"We are the ones left by the corpse force to walk the Yin River, eliminate us and you won't fare any better yourself!"
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