Suiyang.
Feng Aotian discussed the next strategy against the enemy with his subordinates. He carried a jade talisman he had bought from Yuan Qi at his waist. After several defeats, the jade talisman at his waist had developed cracks.
All of Feng Aotian's generals of the fourth rank and above who were able to move were here, a total of sixteen people, twelve of whom were members of the Feng family.
Everyone looked worried, and the atmosphere was very somber.
A soldier guarding outside the main tent came in to report: "Great General, the Imperial Advisor has arrived!"
Feng Aotian immediately perked up: "The reinforcements have finally arrived!"
Hope ignited in the eyes of the general surnamed Fu: "With the arrival of the Imperial Advisor, those evil spirits will surely be crushed."
Feng Aotian led his subordinates out to greet them. The Imperial Preceptor, with white hair and a youthful face, held a magic staff and walked leisurely from outside the gate with six disciples behind him. They had used several teleportation talismans to get there quickly.
Xuanji looked at the soldiers in the camp, who were low-spirited and listless. The camp was eerily quiet, and ghosts even occasionally drifted by.
When everyone saw the arrival of the Imperial Advisor, their spirits lifted.
Feng Aotian actually disliked Xuanji in his daily life. Relying on his own abilities, Xuanji was indifferent to everyone. If it weren't for the needs of the war, Feng Aotian wouldn't want to say anything more to Xuanji.
Therefore, his attitude was merely polite: "Your Majesty, you must be tired from your journey, please—"
After everyone entered the main tent, Feng Aotian asked a junior member of the Feng family, who was also a fourth-rank general, to explain the situation of the previous battles with the rebels.
"Grand Preceptor, it's like this. In previous battles, our army suffered defeats. The rebels weren't many, only about ten thousand strong. But as soon as the drums sounded, black mist would rise from their positions, making it pitch black from a distance, and we couldn't see their troops at all. Their leader is a man named Tanxi. The Grand General has already investigated him, but he can't find any background. Before the rebellion, no one had ever seen him; it's as if he appeared out of thin air. But he's quite capable; he can conjure up food, so the surrounding people greatly admire him."
“Every time we fight, this person conjures up black mist. This black mist is extremely powerful, killing people invisibly. Anyone who has fought against the black mist dies without any wounds on their body. Everyone says that Tanxi is an evil spirit, which is why he is so strange.”
Xuanji frowned upon hearing this: "It was him? We couldn't find him for months, so he actually found a physical body here to commit evil. Watch me take him down!"
Everyone's eyes lit up, and Feng Aotian asked him, "You know him?"
Xuanji gave a serious "hmm": "The palace was attacked by evil spirits a few days ago, resulting in many deaths and injuries. It was this thing that caused the trouble."
Upon hearing this, Feng Aotian understood something, and his expression towards Xuanji changed, his eyes containing a hint of sarcasm: "Grand Preceptor, I heard that your injury last time was quite serious. I wonder if the Grand Preceptor has the confidence to defeat this person this time?"
Xuanji was also worried. After all, he was the Ghost King, who had once dominated the region, and even a large number of Taoist priests working together couldn't defeat him. To be honest, he wasn't confident.
However, he couldn't show weakness in front of these useless people: "Don't worry, I brought a lot of magic treasures this time. I'm sure I can subdue him and make him kneel down and beg for mercy."
Hope was ignited in everyone's hearts, but Feng Aotian didn't really believe him. He thought the Imperial Advisor was useless, otherwise he wouldn't have been injured and recuperating for the past six months.
But with morale low right now, even if Feng Aotian looks down on Xuanji, he can't say anything discouraging.
"May the Imperial Advisor achieve immediate success."
The Feng family was arrogant and disdainful of everyone, a fact well understood by the Imperial Advisor Xuanji. When the Emperor asked him to devise a plan to eliminate the Feng family, he devised a method to cause the Feng family's children to gradually die young. However, Yuan Qi thwarted this plan.
He finally managed to get hold of a grim reaper's weakness, but Yuan Qi easily dragged him back to the underworld.
Xuanji also looked down on the Feng family, believing they would eventually be finished. No family could rival imperial power.
"General Feng, are you waiting for good news?"
Feng Aotian led Xuanji to the entrance of the main tent: "Grand Preceptor, have you seen this? There's a chilling wind everywhere in the military camp, and the sky has been overcast for half a month. Does the Grand Preceptor have any way to dispel this chilling wind?"
Xuanji had long noticed something amiss in the military camp and its surroundings. He also knew that if the eerie wind wasn't dispelled soon, the imperial troops would likely meet their demise without the rebels even needing to intervene.
"Alright, I will now perform a ritual to dispel this evil wind. Please, General King, bring some candles."
There were plenty of candles in the army, and every tent needed to be lit at night, so soon someone brought a basket of candles.
Xuanji's disciples arranged the candles according to the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams. Xuanji stood in the middle, holding a peach wood sword, and began to perform the steps of the Big Dipper while chanting incantations. Sure enough, after a short while, the wind began to blow in and around the camp.
This was no ordinary wind; it stung people's faces, but it was truly effective. The gloom gradually dissipated, and the sun, which hadn't been seen for many days, finally peeked out. Everyone felt warm and relaxed.
The soldiers praised the imperial advisor highly, and smiles appeared on their faces.
Xuanji stopped his ritual and handed the peach wood sword to his chief disciple, Kongji.
"This formation will be placed here; it can dispel evil spirits." After giving the order, Xuanji entered the main tent.
The morale of the soldiers has also been restored to some extent.
Inside the main tent, Xuanji, Feng Aotian, and several high-ranking generals were still discussing strategies for dealing with the enemy.
Xuanji concluded that the dead soldiers had their souls harvested, and that although the enemy forces were few, their magic was extremely powerful.
“I have prepared several magical artifacts, enough to deal with these evil spirits.” He placed the artifacts he had brought on the table and introduced them one by one. “This pagoda-like thing is called the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda. It can suppress evil spirits and bring them in.”
He pointed to a sword and introduced it: "This is called the Xuan Yue Sword. It is best at killing ghosts. Even a powerful figure like Tan Xi would be afraid of this sword. Don't worry, everyone. I can also use the magic of scattering beans to turn into soldiers. I can make the opponent die without losing a single soldier."
Xuanji wasn't entirely sure himself. Ghost King Tanxi was quite powerful, able to attract ghosts from a thousand miles around to form a Yin army. Although the soldiers he created by scattering beans were powerful, they were still somewhat inferior to evil ghosts.
He pointed to a stack of talismans: "These are Five Thunder Talismans, which can attract heavenly thunder. One bolt of heavenly thunder can kill hundreds of Yin soldiers..."
After seeing the hidden meaning, everyone understood.
However, Feng Aotian still felt that his abilities were just so-so, otherwise, when those ghosts attacked the palace's great formation, how come the Grand Preceptor couldn't defeat the Ghost King?
Furthermore, Yuan Qi's Five Thunder Talisman was enough to annihilate all the ghosts attacking the palace.
"Report—" A soldier came in from outside, "Reporting to the Great General, the rebels are challenging us again."
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