We talked all night by candlelight and stayed up all night.
Because the discussion with the God Lord's clone was all about the design of the future path, and it was often necessary to deduce plans, Zhou Bai actually felt a little mentally exhausted.
This was an impossible situation even if he handled government affairs for three consecutive days and nights.
However, when the soul reaches the spiritual void state, the supernatural power manifests itself, and after a moment of meditation, it becomes exhausted and there is no delay in breaking up camp and marching into the army.
On July 15th of the first year of Tongzhi, Zhou Bai ordered Xu Yun to stay in Shuiyang City and be responsible for transferring money and food, while the Southern Expedition Camp headed directly to Ruinan County.
In front of the Southern Expedition Camp was the 20,000-strong main force commanded by Zhou Yuan, flanked by a guard and horse each led by Zhou Ping and Huang Jingtong. After occupying Yicheng and Tianlin counties, they incorporated local armed forces and were responsible for supporting the main force.
In less than ten days, all the military strongholds in the northern part of Ruinan County had been completely cleared. Ruinan City was nakedly exposed to the front of the Anbei Army, and there was no way to avoid it.
It is night, the time when the gates of hell are said to be wide open and the yin energy of the heaven and earth is at its strongest in a year.
As if being stimulated by something, the ghosts of the underworld are frantically attacking the yin-yang rift in Tianyuan Continent, and are bound to go to the human world to cause trouble.
Zhou Bai guessed correctly. The Qingxu warships that landed in various places did not miss this opportunity. They joined forces with the previously lurking demons to launch another offensive.
The dark hands of the underworld were used last time. They attacked the temples of the city emperors from the mortal world, broke the divine domain, and expelled the gods.
After weakening the seals on the cracks as much as possible, and cooperating with the general environment on July 15th, when the yin energy is the strongest, some ghosts successfully crossed the yin and yang.
Groups of demons dance wildly, hundreds of ghosts walk at night, and the earth is full of ghosts.
If these ghosts really follow the Zhongyuan tradition, it would be okay to say that it is not a sin to use incense to meet relatives.
The scary thing is the fear of lonely ghosts, who have no bonds in the world and only want to devour flesh and blood to gain vitality from living people. This is the instinct of ghosts to advance and survive.
Don't worry in prosperous areas with many gods and sects. The supernatural power is so powerful that ghosts that dare to wander through the city will be suppressed immediately.
But now the world is in troubled times, with local divisions and inconsistent powers and responsibilities, which inevitably leads to disasters for innocent people.
Especially in border states such as Dingzhou, except for Zhou Bai's quick actions and clearing out the Qingxu warships and other open forces in the territory, most of the other counties are still suffering from the invasion of foreign enemies.
After a day's march, the Southern Expedition Camp chose to station in a plain area, surrounded by rolling wheat fields with golden waves of wheat rising one after another.
This does not meet the conditions for camping in a high terrain and located at a strategic point. There is no danger to rely on and it is easy to be attacked.
But considering the 20,000 main force hundreds of miles ahead and the advantages of convenient traffic control, a little flaw is nothing.
In the southern expedition camp, there were ten thousand elites following him, including two thousand well-prepared demon-suppressing troops.
The place where the camp was set up was filled with military energy and blood was boiling. Not to mention ghosts with malicious intentions, not even the monks and gods dared to approach easily.
Zhou Bai was sitting in the big tent, his spiritual consciousness overlooking a ten-mile radius. As he took charge of the army longer and practiced Hunyuan Qi Luck Daozang for a long time, he became less and less restricted by his own military aura.
His spiritual consciousness swept over it, and indeed he couldn't see any ghosts on the wilderness plain.
There is naturally a reason for the disappearance of ghosts on July 15th. If you look closely, you will find that there is a familiar aura of gods in the distance, which belongs to the divine court.
Zhou Bai's avatar can be called the God Lord, not only because of the status title in the Book of Luck, but also because she has the ability to be a divine monarch.
Natural deterrence, easily making other gods surrender is just the basis. The key is that she can actually be a god, and the god she has been canonized is equivalent to the official edict, and will not be suppressed by the gods of heaven and dragon.
When the divine master cloned himself into a god, he received the help of the Heavenly Book of Fate, and was recognized by heaven and earth. He condensed a core talisman into himself, which Zhou Bai called the Shinto talisman.
The original meaning of talisman in ordinary people is to mobilize soldiers and generals by activating military talismans. Among monks, it often refers to the ritual of summoning generals through divine talismans.
To put it simply, the talisman call is the certificate for superiors to recruit subordinates, and the Shinto talisman summoned by the divine master is what she relies on to establish a new divine court. It can be said to be the golden finger of the clone.
Every god who is enshrined by the God Lord will receive a talisman of corresponding divine quality.
For example, the land in Chengdong Village, Cangbei County, was transferred to Hongni Township under the arrangement of Zhou Bai. Originally, it had an unfair name and could only be slowly cultivated by the incense of the villagers. It has never been able to fully exert its functions as a land god.
Now that he has been granted the land talisman, he has officially become the eighth-level land of the Divine Court. In a short time, he can master the power of the land god according to the priesthood conferred by the Shinto talisman.
The successful summer harvest in Hongni Township was largely due to the rural land.
Shinto talismans have many benefits. They can save the time for the gods to understand the rules of the priesthood, and the speed of refining incense and accumulating divine power is greatly accelerated.
On the contrary, there are many restrictions on using Shinto talismans to summon gods.
Shinto talismans can only consecrate gods lower than their own divine level. Except for the god master who can consecrate different gods, the land in the eighth-level township can only be consecrated to the land in the ninth-level village.
The superior gods are natural leaders with the help of Shinto talismans. The emperor of the seventh-grade county issues orders to the land of the eighth-grade township in the county. The rural land must obey, otherwise the superiors can use the Shinto talisman to suppress the subordinates.
This is completely opposite to the previous Shinto system that was not subordinate to each other. The Divine Court formed a tight institutional network under the series of talismans, and the administrative efficiency was extremely high.
The source of all Shinto talismans is the Divine Lord. The more gods that govern, the stronger the Divine Lord is. Now he is only one step away from the Golden Imperial Order, and can be said to be the strongest in the sixth level.
Such a Shinto system will inevitably burst out with considerable vitality at the beginning of its development, and it will surge along the road of rapid expansion.
However, it is foreseeable that the Shenting in the future may become rigid and lack development potential.
Therefore, Zhou Bai planned a lot of additional supplementary systems, preparing to establish a Supervision Department, a Merit Examination Department, etc.
In the Divine Court, some independent gods still retain their positions, such as the Xiaoqingshan Mountain God, and the two innate gods who are planning to join in the future.
The priesthood paths of these gods should not be limited by Shinto talismans, and more possibilities will be lost.
While Zhou Bai was still thinking about the future road shape of the divine court, several gods happened to pass by the military-covered periphery and saluted in the direction of the big tent.
As his own deity, Zhou Bai can also sense the Shinto talismans on their bodies. These are all divine generals of the Divine Court, and their priesthood is the wandering god.
They didn't know that the Lord of God was Zhou Bai's clone, but they knew that the Anbei Governor's Office supported Shenting, completely opened up folk beliefs, and allowed the gods of Shenting to build temples.
The wandering god is the most common priesthood in the divine court system, and is the least constrained by the humane administrative region.
If he were an earth god from Bei'an County and ran to Ruinan County, his strength would be suppressed by at least half, leaving him no power to suppress the underworld ghosts.
The wandering gods of Shenting swept away the ghosts in the wilderness, and then groups of heroic spirits came from Bei'an County, and their direction was also heading south.
The area south of Ruinan County is not Zhou Bai's territory yet, but everyone in the Anbei Governor's Mansion believes that it is already within their grasp.
Chen Zhongbang, who stayed behind in Bei'an, was the most cautious, but when he learned that the three northern counties of Ruinan had been captured so easily, he sent the selected list of Ruinan reserve officials to the Chinese Army overnight for Zhou Bai to review.
For the sake of subsequent governance, the God Lord will certainly not hold back at this time. In addition to the manpower to stabilize Bei'an, most of the wandering gods and heroic spirits are sent to Ruinan.
With the divine court suppressing the underworld, Zhou Bai felt much more at ease, and then planned to continue handling official duties. There were still a few letters of trust from Ruinan, who needed to wait for his reply.
Under the orange candlelight, I wrote and wrote a reply.
It is obviously a major overhaul in the later period of Yin Shen, but daily life is mostly leading troops to fight and dealing with political and secular affairs. It should be more or less inconsistent, right?
However, Zhou Bai didn't think there was anything wrong, and he was even happy with it. The exercises he practiced required institutional power to provide luck.
Establishing a new system and making it grow continuously is Zhou Bai's path.
Furthermore, don’t the emperors and saints in heaven need to be distracted by “common affairs”?
Of course these big shots know that this will be a waste of time, but only by managing the Heavenly Court well can the Heavenly Court provide them with more resources and luck, so that they can hope to achieve enlightenment.
It has been said from ancient times that when the Heavenly Court is established, Haotian will attain enlightenment.
Multi-tasking, and halfway through writing the reply, Li Yuan's voice came from outside the tent asking for permission to come in.
Li Yuan, who received Zhou Bai's key training, has made rapid progress in cultivation, especially with the help of the spiritual tide and the war between the two realms, and is now only one step away from the Yin God.
Without waiting to report the information, Zhou Bai looked at Li Yuan for a few times, then took out a jade slip from the storage ring and handed it to him: "The eyes are filled with light, the spirit is embedded in the body, and the cultivation of the mortal realm has been reached to perfection. ,very nice."
"But your soul is too weak, and you are still in ignorance. You can't break through to the Yin Shen realm. The jade slip contains the soul cultivation method. Use it to practice for a long time. When Ruinan gets it, you can exchange your contribution points for some soul crystals to become a Yin Shen. It just comes naturally.”
"Thank you very much, Governor. I will keep the grace of enlightenment in my heart, and I am willing to die for the Governor." Li Yuan burst into tears of gratitude and paid homage. How could he not know the preciousness of the soul cultivation method.
Different monks have different requirements for the word enlightenment. For Zhou Bai, it is to pursue the ultimate eternal road.
But for most monks, becoming a Taoist is equivalent to becoming a Yin Shen, being respected as a real person by others, and living as long as the country.
"Tell me, is it Yan Luo who made the move, or is there something else?" Zhou Bai waved his hand and asked nonchalantly.
He doesn't care about the loyalty of his subordinates, but he cares about performance.
Judging from Li Yuan's achievements, it is definitely not enough to obtain the Great Evolution of the Soul, but it is almost the same to obtain a method that can cultivate to the early stage of Qingming Realm. The Taoist priest group needs to be in charge of the three realms.
"Back to the Governor, the news ahead is that something happened in the Xuanwu Mountains. The sect Xuanwumen above was just attacked by a combined force of two warships." Li Yuan did not dare to neglect and replied respectfully.
Zhou Bai frowned slightly and turned around to look at the map. The Xuanwu Mountains were clearly marked on it.
Located 480 miles southwest of the county, it was previously recognized as a fairy mountain by Ruinan County, because there is the Xuanwu Gate of the Xianzong in the Xuanwu Mountains. There is a second-level spiritual vein at the mountain gate, which can provide the spiritual energy for cultivation in the Mortal Realm.
You must know that even Cangshan is only a quasi-level three spiritual vein, and the spiritual stone minerals that can be mined are even classified as level two by the Qingxu general.
After the spiritual energy is revived, it will take at least half a year for Cangshan to be fully promoted to the third level of spiritual veins.
"As far as I know, the founder of the Xuanwu Sect is a real person, and his mountain guarding formation is also at level three. How can two warships that cannot activate their main guns be defeated?" Zhou Bai asked in confusion.
Li Yuan explained in detail: "The reason why the Xuanwu Mountain Range is shrouded in clouds and fog all year round and is so cold is because there is a fissure in the underworld nearby that affects the environment. The Qingxu Army may have learned that we were entering the army, so they jumped over the wall and used two warships to self-destruct. The price hits the cracks.”
"The appearance of ghosts is only secondary. The key is that the majestic Yin Qi gushing out of the cracks shook the foundation of the formation. The foreign enemies from Qingxu were able to successfully break through the Xuanwu Gate's defense regardless of sacrifices and losses."
It is reasonable to assume that if Zhou Bai were the commander of two military-level warships and knew that the forces that had just destroyed the general ships were coming soon, he would have taken a stand.
Li Yuan seemed to have remembered something again, and quickly added: "By the way, according to the resistance situation of Xuanwu Gate, it is possible that Master Xuanwu is not at the mountain gate."
"Captain, Master Xuanwu has been in the Yin Shen realm for two decades, and his strength is unpredictable. This is a variable, what if he supports Yan Luo?"
Zhou Bai sneered and shook his head: "It's not a variable, it's a certainty. The real person behind Yan Luo is him. I just don't know what benefits this real person Xuanwu got. Even if the mountain gate is not guarded, Yan Luo must be protected first."
"Come here! Call Qu Zhi and Gao Hu to come."
Soon, Qu Zhi was commanded by his own soldiers, who were all covered in armor and had a serious face. Gao Hu, who was covered in heat and had a spear on his back, was ordered to enter the tent.
"Qu Zhi, go to the front camp in person and ask Zhou Yuan to change direction. The first troops will surround Xuanwu Mountain and kill the foreign enemies in Qingxu."
"Gao Hu, lead my personal guard battalion and two thousand demon-subduing troops to set out overnight. We must block the southward passage of the Qingxu people."
The tiger talisman was issued, the military spirit was in full swing, and the camp was almost half empty.
After another two hours, before daybreak, the remaining soldiers and horses hurriedly finished their breakfast and set off.
The Zhou banner was fluttering in the wind. Even though there were less than 7,000 people left around him, the direction of the advance was always Ruinan County.
Zhou Bai was not at all worried about whether the Qingxu Army could succeed in slaying the Xuanwu Mountain Range. With 20,000 government troops plus personal soldiers and demons, it was impossible that even the two warships coalition could not deal with it.
Moreover, the two third-sequence captains, with the God Lord watching them, would not be able to escape even if they were lucky enough to break through.
As for what he was doing with the Chinese army to the county town, it was naturally a matter of concealing it.
After another two days of high-intensity marching, on the night of July 17, the Zhou banner officially appeared outside Ruinan County.
The army took advantage of the darkness to set up camp and set up camp tents for the 30,000-strong army. Even the camp flags were numerous.
Master Xuanwu in the city calculated that something had happened at the mountain gate, but he failed to calculate that the main force of Anbei Army outside the city was fake. Yan Luo and his advisers also believed that the main force of 30,000 was genuine.
The one-of-a-kind Zhou flag embroidered with strange fish and dragon patterns, and the majestic appearance of Zhou Bai himself, did not conceal the aura of heaven and man at all.
There was no suspicion at all in Ruinan Jiedu's mansion, and they didn't even send troops to test.
After all, none of them would have thought that Zhou Bai would mobilize his main force to destroy the foreign enemies of Qingxu first, instead of targeting Ruinan City.
All the Chinese army staff officers and generals also admired Zhou Bai. This was the pattern of their commander-in-chief.
