--- title: "Chapter 194: The Worst Batch" ---
Everyone's eyes lit up immediately. Cloud Deficiency chuckled and said, "Venturing deep into the Southern Borderlands to see if there are any experts among the rebels? Of course we're going! We can't let these rebellious commoners look down on our Imperial Academy. This humble monk will make them realize the dharma and convert them to our Buddha, all turning towards goodness!"
Qin Mu secretly shook his head. These fellows still underestimated the danger of this journey.
The road ahead was extremely difficult—one that even with one's life hanging by a belt might not be completed.
"Life and death are determined by fate. Now we'll see if the State Preceptor of Yankang, who claims to be the greatest person under the gods, lives up to his reputation!"
The State Preceptor of Yankang traveled lightly, striding southward. Qin Mu led the group to follow, asking Si Yunxiang and the others about their experiences on the battlefield, sighing continuously.
Si Yunxiang, Shen Wanyun, and the others had been much luckier than Qin Mu. Although all were blasted away by the Dutian Demon King, they hadn't encountered a twisted powerhouse like Long Jiaonan.
The Dragon Qilin landed not far from them. This Dragon Qilin was massive and conspicuous, so they headed straight toward its location. When the Heavenly Demon Cultists arrived, they surrounded the Dragon Qilin and fought side by side.
This Dragon Qilin also launched devastating attacks when facing the charging Heavenly Demon Cultists, displaying astonishing combat power. Si Yunxiang and the others relied on its strength to survive this catastrophe.
Qin Mu was surprised and looked at the Dragon Qilin. Hu Ling'er whispered in his ear, "Young Master, the big guy eats our food and drinks our beverages, but on the road he neither works nor puts in effort. Now, he's protecting others instead of us. I think besides squeezing dragon saliva, we could squeeze something else out of the big guy."
"I think so too," Qin Mu nodded.
He turned back to look at the increasingly distant Tianbo City, thinking, "Now that the Yankang army has entered the city, Long Jiaonan should have died in the chaos, right? And the Dragon King of the Dragon Taming Gate is probably dead too. It's a pity—the unique magic of the Dragon Taming Gate is gone. The Hongshan Sect is probably completely destroyed. It's such a shame I haven't learned the Demon-Expelling Decree yet..."
When the Dutian Demon King was summoned by him, the Daoists of the Hongshan Sect arrived, attempting to use the Demon-Expelling Decree to drive the Dutian Demon King back to Dutian. Unfortunately, the Dutian Demon King's power was too great, and he annihilated them with a single move.
However, the Demon-Expelling Decree was a spell specifically designed to deal with summoned ghosts and spirits, extremely exquisite. If cast by a stronger person, it could indeed drive the Dutian Demon King back.
The pity was that this technique had been lost with the death of the Hongshan Sect members.
Tianbo City was in shambles. Soldiers were still repairing the city walls, clearing the rubble from collapsed houses, and transporting debris out of the city.
On the river, thousands of ships and vessels were launching together, ferrying army after army across the river. The troops did not stop in Tianbo City but continued southward.
Some soldiers in Tianbo City were hunting down the remaining rebels and besieging the Heavenly Demon Cultists from Dutian, discovering that some commoners had survived. Soldiers carrying illustrated books of the rebel leaders walked among the surviving people, comparing them one by one with the images in the books.
"This girl is quite beautiful."
The soldier walked up to a panicked young woman and secretly praised her. The girl wore a dark green long dress that reached her feet, her hair styled in a palace bun. Her makeup was light, her crimson lips like two red pearls, and her willow-leaf eyebrows were delicately thin—clearly a lady from a prominent family in Tianbo City.
The soldier looked closely for a moment, then moved on. The girl's eyes were like autumn waters, and from her left earlobe hung a bright red jade earring. Suddenly, the earring moved slightly, stretching its body.
The earring was actually a tiny red snake, threaded through her earlobe like red jade, but it was a living creature.
If Qin Mu were here, he would have ordered the soldiers to arrest this woman immediately.
He had seen Long Jiaonan's true face. When Long Jiaonan shed his skin, his entire body had been exposed to him. When this woman had just crawled out of the skin pouch, she had no adornments. Now restored to her feminine appearance, she looked completely different from the seductive young master of the Dragon Taming Gate!
Several soldiers were transporting corpses from the city, throwing them onto carts and pushing them outside the city for burial. Long Jiaonan followed behind, crying, "Soldiers, is my father's body among these?"
The soldiers stopped and said, "Young lady, there are too many corpses in the city. We don't know which one is your father. Why don't you check if he's on the carts?"
Long Jiaonan looked through them and shook her head, saying, "I haven't found him."
One soldier said, "He's probably in the mass graves outside the city. General Yu ordered us to dig several large pits there to bury the corpses. The dead are all being taken there, and they haven't been covered with earth yet. Why don't you come with us to see?"
Long Jiaonan thanked them and followed the soldiers to the mass graves outside the city. There, a huge pit had been dug, over ten feet deep, filled with thousands of corpses.
Long Jiaonan looked up and saw that besides this large pit, there were dozens of such pits in the mass graves. Soldiers were pushing carts to the edges, throwing the corpses into the pits.
Long Jiaonan looked around and suddenly called out in a loud voice, "Father! Father! Your daughter has come to find you. If you can hear me, please respond!"
She called out several times. The soldiers looked at each other with amused expressions, "This woman must have gone mad."
At that moment, a weak voice came from one of the large pits, "I'm here, currently shedding my skin, but I'm too seriously wounded..."
The soldiers by each large pit were confused. Suddenly, a general shouted, "Something's not right! Everyone, be on guard!"
Hearing this voice, Long Jiaonan smiled and said softly, "Xiao Hong."
The tiny red snake hanging from her left earlobe stretched its body, dropped from her earlobe, and upon hitting the ground, suddenly grew to massive size. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a giant serpent, its mouth spewing poisonous wind that sent the soldiers at the mass graves tumbling.
The giant serpent slithered like the wind, swallowing the soldiers one by one, while Long Jiaonan entered the pit, tossing aside the corpses until she finally dug out the Dragon King who had been buried among the dead.
"Your daughter thought you were dead!" Long Jiaonan giggled.
"Daughter?" The Dragon King of the Dragon Taming Gate snorted coldly.
Long Jiaonan's expression changed slightly, and she lowered her head, saying, "Your son thought you were dead..."
The Dragon King sat up, "I faked death and hibernation to deceive that demon god, and was thrown into this mass grave as a corpse. I just wonder how Red Flood Dragon is doing."
He pursed his lips and emitted a low whistle. Before long, a small monster—like a serpent but not quite, like a dragon but not quite, with claws—crawled out of the forest.
The Dragon King breathed a sigh of relief and examined Red Flood Dragon's injuries, saying, "Both Red Flood Dragon and I need to shed our skin and hibernate for a while. Good son, I'll leave things to you during this time. Let's go!"
Long Jiaonan called the giant serpent. The serpent, enveloped in rolling demonic energy, soared into the air, carrying the two people and one dragon away with a roar. The soldiers in Tianbo City only then reacted, but it was too late to pursue.
"This time, who exactly caused this commotion, resulting in such a great defeat?" the Dragon King asked. "How many of our Dragon Taming Gate members survived?"
"Only us," Long Jiaonan replied.
Long Jiaonan snorted coldly, "I heard the scholars of the Imperial Academy call him Doctor Qin. He was the one who summoned the demon god and destroyed our Dragon Taming Gate. The only regret is that I was useless and let him escape."
"As long as we father and son are alive, the Dragon Taming Gate is not destroyed," the Dragon King said coldly. "As long as we know who he is, that's good enough. This kind of enmity must be avenged. We must tear him to pieces!"
Qin Mu and his party followed the State Preceptor southward. Before long, the main army surged up from behind, passing them and heading to the front.
They walked at a leisurely pace. Qin Mu seized the opportunity to consult the State Preceptor of Yankang, saying, "State Preceptor, you are a scholar who has mastered heaven and earth. This student has something he doesn't understand and dares to ask for the State Preceptor's guidance."
The State Preceptor of Yankang was surprised, "Who did you learn to flatter from? You're quite skilled."
Qin Mu was puzzled, "Is this flattery?"
Yue Qinghong, Cloud Deficiency, Shen Wanyun, and the others nodded repeatedly. Even Si Yunxiang nodded incessantly.
Qin Mu said awkwardly, "My elder taught me this. My elder is a cripple who always greets people with a smile. He speaks very pleasingly but is ruthless in action... Never mind that. State Preceptor, I would like to ask: in the Spirit Womb realm, the Spirit Womb is very useful for coordinating one's own qi. But the Five Planets realm seems somewhat..."
He thought for a moment and said, "Somewhat useless. The Five Planets realm seems very powerful, but it's difficult to unleash its full potential. For example, the Five Planets Divine Storehouse contains five deities, each with their own strengths. But how can one bring out the full power of the Five Planets Divine Storehouse?"
Shen Wanyun and the others felt a chill in their hearts. The question Qin Mu asked was something they had also wondered about, but they hadn't come up with an answer.
The Five Planets realm did indeed seem somewhat useless compared to the Spirit Womb realm. Although cultivation increased, it was merely an increase in cultivation without a qualitative leap.
The State Preceptor of Yankang was surprised, "You haven't discovered the secret of the Five Planets? Or did the Imperial Academy not teach you?"
Qin Mu shook his head, and Shen Wanyun and the others shook theirs repeatedly.
"This batch of Imperial Academy students is no good," the State Preceptor sighed. "They don't even teach this. This is the worst batch I've ever seen. The Five Planets Divine Storehouse is the Five Elements Divine Storehouse, containing the Five Elements within, corresponding to the Five Planets Star Lords in the heavens. These five deities are king-level gods, not ordinary minor gods. When you activate your respective techniques, do you sense something abnormal—a mysterious power coming from the heavens, transmitting into your bodies, resonating with the Five Planets Star Lords?"
Everyone nodded repeatedly.
The State Preceptor of Yankang continued, "This is the power of the Five Planets. Metal Planet corresponds to metal, Fire Planet to fire, Water Planet to water, Wood Planet to wood, and Earth Planet to earth. When these five powers are activated, they allow you to master the power of the Five Elements. Have the Five Planets Star Lords within your bodies returned to their respective Star Palaces?"
Everyone nodded again.
The State Preceptor of Yankang sighed, "The Imperial Academy teaches too shallowly, far too shallowly. What are the current Imperial Academy teachers even teaching? They don't even teach anything profound. When the Five Planets Star Lords take residence in the Star Palaces, it means you have mastered the power of the Five Planets, which is the power of the Five Elements. When the power of the Five Elements combines with your qi, it gives your qi five additional attributes."
He raised his hand, and a golden shield appeared before him, saying, "Metal."
"Wood."
Then the golden shield dispersed, and the surrounding mountain forests and vegetation grew wildly. The State Preceptor of Yankang said, "Water."
Then great waves surged up, lifting them all into the air, letting them float in midair, standing on the waves.
"Fire."
Then fire clouds appeared in the sky, lifting Qin Mu and the others, allowing them to walk forward in the air on fire clouds.
"Earth."
The ground churned, countless amounts of soil and rocks flew into the air, forming a giant earth sphere.
The State Preceptor of Yankang dispelled these five powers, and everyone drifted gently back to the ground. The State Preceptor of Yankang said, "The power that the Five Planets allow you to master is different from the power that your spiritual bodies and Spirit Wombs allow you to master, and it's also different from the four types of qi—Green Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, and White Tiger. These four types of qi cannot be simply distinguished as wood, fire, water, and metal, because each type of qi contains the Five Elements within... Why do you all look like you're listening to heavenly scriptures? You don't understand?"
The State Preceptor of Yankang was puzzled and shook his head, saying, "This batch of students is too stupid. It's the worst batch I've ever taught."
————Second update! Today's third update is at eight o'clock in the evening!