More than twenty days have passed. Demonic feathered birds often fly in and out of the guest courtyard of the Grand Commandant's mansion. Li Molin learned about the battle reports from the front lines from the mouths of the many demonic feathered birds. He also learned that Liuli had been traveling with Shi Chan to help the suffering people in the war-torn areas.
He had been waiting anxiously, eager to bring Liuli back to his side, but Yu Ke had repeatedly dissuaded him from leaving. With the situation on the front lines uncertain, he also didn't want to leave Yingyang City. If leaving meant missing the Imperial Seal and allowing the Buddhist and Taoist factions to obtain the Heaven-Mending Stone, it would be a huge loss for the Demon Clan.
At this time, the Imperial Seal of the State, carved from the Stone of Mending the Sky, is a weapon that, once refined, can become almost as powerful as an ancient divine artifact. Moreover, this weapon can be refined according to one's own will. If one allows it to absorb one's own essence and blood during the refining process, it can recognize its master. Then, one can wield a weapon with the same power as an ancient divine artifact as easily as using one's own arm. Wouldn't that be amazing?
However, since the Imperial Seal was the Emperor's most precious treasure, neither Li Molin nor the Buddhist and Taoist factions dared to directly snatch it from Emperor Rui, lest they incur divine punishment. The three factions could only try their best to ascertain the seal's location and then devise a way to avoid divine retribution before daring to attempt a snatching.
The only way to avoid divine punishment would be if Emperor Rui willingly handed it over to someone, but that was almost impossible. Then there was Li Molin's idea: first, to reach an agreement with the rebellious Northern Rong, so that after obtaining the Imperial Seal, they would hand it over.
After waiting for more than twenty days, a piece of news that satisfied Li Molin finally came from the front line.
At the border between Moyan Prefecture and Qi Prefecture, there is a pass called Huyue Pass. Huyue Pass is built at the passage between two mountains. It is a necessary route to the Central Plains and an important pass to protect more than a dozen major prefectures in the central part of the Central Plains.
Overwhelmed by their resounding victories, the Northern Rong army repeatedly challenged the defenders of Huyue Pass, but the guards refused to engage. Later, the brothers Liang Yimo and Liang Yihan arrived with their troops and cleverly lured Yelü Yan and his ten thousand Northern Rong soldiers into a valley. The Dasheng Kingdom's ambush force then emerged, killing three thousand of the ten thousand Northern Rong soldiers, capturing seven thousand, and taking their commander, Yelü Yan, prisoner.
Liang Yimo led his troops to a victory in their first battle, acquiring countless suits of armor and provisions. When the news of the victory reached Yingyang City, Emperor Rui was overjoyed, while Zhang Chao's faction was furious.
Subsequently, Liang Yimo dispatched a large force to detain Yelü Yan and send him back to Yingyang City to be dealt with by Emperor Rui. Meanwhile, he received orders to prepare to recapture the entire Moyan Prefecture.
Just then, another message was brought to Li Molin by the Demon Feather Bird.
In the eastern part of the Central Plains, near the East Sea, there was a large state called Donghai State. In Haicheng, the largest city in Donghai State, a young man named Hai Linqin rose up in rebellion. Within a few days, he gathered two thousand soldiers, proclaimed himself the Heaven-Sent General, and launched a rebellion under the pretext of purging the emperor's corrupt officials and punishing the treacherous minister Zhang Chao.
When the news reached Huyue Pass, Liang Yihan pondered for a long time, devising his own plan. After discussing it with Liang Yimo, he left Liang Yimo to lead the troops to recapture Moyan Prefecture, while he himself set off for Donghai Prefecture. In Liang Yihan's mind, the Northern Rong had lost their leader and shouldn't have much fighting power in the short term. Liang Yimo should be able to handle it alone, and the peasant uprising in Donghai Prefecture was more important.
When Hai Linqin's peasant uprising broke out, the imperial court hurriedly dispatched troops to suppress it. However, at this critical moment, another major event occurred: Yelü Yan, who was being held captive by a large force and taken back to Yingyang City, was rescued on the way, and none of the more than one hundred elite soldiers who were holding Yelü Yan survived!
Emperor Rui was furious, instinctively assuming that the Northern Rong army must have rescued their leader. He almost blamed Liang Yimo, believing that Liang Yimo had been negligent in letting such a Northern Rong army into the heart of the Central Plains. It was Liang Shen who sensed something was wrong and hurriedly went to the palace to request an investigation. Emperor Rui finally agreed to investigate, but the investigation only made things more bizarre.
According to interviews conducted around the scene of the incident, many people said that more than 100 soldiers in full armor passed by that day, led by a general. There was also a prison van in their procession, and the men in the van were wearing shackles and handcuffs, clearly serious criminals.
But at noon that day, a strange phenomenon suddenly occurred: dark clouds covered the sky, and a fierce wind carrying yellow sand swept across the hundred-plus soldiers, completely obscuring them. After a quarter of an hour, the phenomenon slowly dissipated, but all one hundred-plus soldiers were dead. Their bodies bore no wounds, and there was no blood on the spot, yet the soldiers remained lifeless. Furthermore, the serious criminals in the prison cart had vanished, leaving only tattered shackles and broken leg irons inside.
A few days later, Yelü Yan, having returned to the Northern Rong, reorganized his troops and once again launched a large-scale southward offensive.
The guest quarters of the Grand Commandant's residence.
Li Molin and Yu Ke sat in the main hall. Yu Ke was saying, “The results of the court’s investigation are similar. Yelü Yan’s disappearance is indeed strange. It can be confirmed that it was not our clan that made the move. Moreover, according to the message from the Demon Feather Bird, the strong wind and yellow sand with their demonic aura were definitely not caused by Buddhism or Taoism.”
Li Molin pondered, "Could it be a demon? Has a demon that has finally come into its own?"
Yu Ke nodded and said, "Could it be... a demon?"
The term "demon" refers to a monster that has developed intelligence and cultivated itself after birth. Its cultivation has deepened until it attracts a heavenly tribulation. Only after it has safely passed through the tribulation can it be called a demon. The cultivation level of a demon is equivalent to that of a Taoist cultivator in the Golden Core stage, making it an extremely powerful existence.
Nowadays, the Central Plains are rich in spiritual energy, and many plants and animals have become demons. However, because the righteous path of the Central Plains does not tolerate them, their cultivation path is extremely difficult. Even if they hide in the deep mountains and forests and achieve some success after arduous cultivation, they will still attract heavenly tribulations. These heavenly tribulations, known as demon tribulations, are several times more powerful than the heavenly tribulations of human cultivators. Only one or two percent of demons can safely pass through the demon tribulations.
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