Chapter 55: The Great Jin's Collapse

  Bai Qi resented the Jin emperor, but not the soldiers of the great Jin dynasty. When he was young, he lived with border soldiers for three months, and those simple soldiers left a deep impression on him.

  Bai Qi had always thought that the soldiers of the Great Jin Dynasty were all like that, sacrificing their lives and forgetting death, with unparalleled loyalty.

  The officer under his foot, whom Bai Qi detested, was trampled on twice before he continued, "I am a cultivator of Qi. Falling into my hands, you'd best hope that I'll let you die quickly and painlessly. Do you understand?"

  Three bodyguards saw their commander being trampled by a young Taoist, and instantly became like mad tigers, charging forward with knives. From mid-air, six sword pellets flew down, severing the hands and feet of these three bodyguards. The severed limbs froze in blood, as the three bodyguards rolled on the ground wailing.

  Bai Qi released a demonic gourd, and with a whooshing sound, it sucked in three soldiers. Immediately afterwards, it spat out three complete skeletons.

  Bai Qi's feet loosened, and the officer turned over, but didn't dare to get up. The three bodyguards saw the result very clearly - this white-robed Taoist was indeed a cultivator of internal energy, not just someone wearing a Taoist robe to swindle people out of their money.

  "How dare you!" The officer's face was ferocious, though he was afraid in his heart, his voice remained loud and clear.

  "Chat with you for a bit, tell me what you know."

  Bai Qi said, taking out a chair from his sleeve and sitting down. The officer wanted to stand up, but Bai Qi shouted: "Speak on your knees!"

  The officer saw six sword pellets flying over his head and pressing down on him, so he knelt down in front of Bai Qi with a thud.

  "How did you end up in this remote mountain stronghold?" Bai Qi asked, his tone relatively simple. He wanted to know what had happened on the territory of the Great Jin Dynasty. These officers and soldiers had run all the way to such a desolate place, probably losing more than 90% of their men along the way.

  Baili Tongzi's hands were ruthless and poisonous, the entire village was filled with the cries of the government soldiers. These soldiers who were whipped by him had flames on their wounds that could not be extinguished, burning all the way to their bones. Bai Qi let him leave a few survivors, he used his magic to knock out a few, threw them into the hands of the mountain people, and had them tied up.

  The officer saw that the situation was already gone, and he was a little stunned. However, facing the cultivator, he couldn't keep his mouth shut. His army was defeated by the cultivator and fled all the way, encountering several killings on the road, and only one in ten arrived here. The horror of the cultivator, he already knew, no need for Bai Qi to scare him again.

  "Marshal, I am... the deputy commander of Qingzhou Prefecture. It's been more than three months since it started." The officer paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts before continuing: "The Emperor's purge of the Qi Refiners has enraged all the major sects in the land. First, there was the uprising in Donghai, where over a dozen prefectures were taken over by the Qi Refiners. The officials sent by the Emperor were either expelled or killed, and thousands of miles of territory have become lawless."

  Bai Qi listened attentively, without any expression. The officer continued: "Next is the western Shu state, which has completely broken away and is now under the control of a certain sect. All foreign troops have been expelled, with countless casualties. Then there's the southern region, where the prefectures of Yunmeng have also declared independence. Finally, in the north, the border regions are in chaos, and it's said that heavenly soldiers and generals have appeared on the other side of the Wu River, slaughtering officials of the Great Jin dynasty and not allowing anyone to enter."

  Bai Qi was stunned, he had thought that the Alchemists would find a way to kill the Jin Emperor and then slowly digest the Great Jin Dynasty. Instead, independence broke out everywhere, it's clear that the Alchemists have no interest in governing the country, they simply start to disintegrate the Great Jin from the outside, making the Jin Emperor an isolated and helpless person.

  Even if Jinling City is not broken, the Jin Emperor has no meaning now. He wants to kill all the alchemists in the world, and the alchemists of the world will disperse his dynasty. Where does he still have half a bit of dignity?

  In this way, the Jin Emperor wants to maintain the dynasty, but must go on expeditions in all directions. However, relying on ordinary human armies, it is impossible to break through the mountain gates of those major sects. Su Mou's one sword, Bai Qi remembers deeply, and even if the army is stopped again, it cannot stop this level of cultivator. How much blood does the Jin Emperor have? Can he withstand how many Golden Elixir cultivators?

  He dares to conquer the world with his own bravery, this Emperor of Jin is so stupid, and his father's death was truly unjust.

  Even if Duke Jing of Jin had the nine tripod cauldrons, he could suppress the immortal, but it still can't solve the current problem.

  The Central Plains have completely fallen into chaos. From now on, ordinary people will be controlled by the sects of cultivators just like in the other eight major states.

  It's all right, the luck of the great Jin Dynasty is exhausted, and the Jin Emperor will not be able to continue his progress. In the future, it will also be easier for him to kill himself.

  "What's the situation in the Central Plains now?" asked Bai Qi.

  "It's a mess, many Qi refining sects are vying for territory, expelling troops. My troop was slaughtered by one of the sects, leaving only these few hundred people." The officer said this with great indignation.

  "How many more provinces can Jinling City still control?"

  "It's all gone, all the places have been divided up by the Alchemists, the Emperor is left with only Jinling City, a hundred miles around."

  "It's actually so fast..." Bai Qi realized once again that today's outcome was absolutely not accidental, but rather the result of a long accumulation, bursting out. Jin Huang must have also seen this point, which is why he wanted to launch a war and eliminate the Alchemists. This kind of thing has no room for reconciliation, it's either you die or I perish.

  "Beruo, you haven't stopped eating blood yet?" Bai Qi suddenly turned his body and asked, Beruo Tongzi nodded.

  "Those people, don't torture them anymore, use them as fertilizer." Bai Qi said, taking out the demon gourd and sucking in the struggling soldiers on the ground. Inside the demon gourd was the true body of Pi Luo Tong Zi, that huge demon tree still needed to absorb nutrients to grow. This demon tree didn't need sunlight, but it needed mud.

  The spiritual gourd is not poor in resources, but the beheaded general's Sealing God Platform requires too much yuan energy to recover, and it's impossible to give any benefits to the demon tree.

  Several hundred soldiers were sucked into the gourd of the demon spirit, and the remaining survivors, Bai Qi called over one by one to ask and verify the officer's words.

  The officer wasn't lying, the current Jin Dynasty has already collapsed.

  However, this officer had little understanding of the Xiu Dao Jie and only knew rumors. The specific situation was even more unclear to these soldiers. They only knew that their army was attacked and followed their superiors in escaping into the mountains to hide.

  Those mountain people looked from a distance, not daring to approach. Bai Qi wore a Taoist robe, sitting there interrogating the soldiers, and Pi Luo Tongzi was standing beside him with his hands hanging down. The gods they worshipped were so respectful to this Taoist priest that these mountain people did not dare to come up and disturb them. It's just that these soldiers destroyed their homes, and one by one, the mountain people's eyes spewed out flames of anger, looking at the few surviving soldiers.

  Bai Qi finished questioning and knew there was no valuable information to dig out, so he pressed the Moon Wheel Sword down, beheading the officer and the remaining soldiers, absorbing their spirits into the gourd, using them as fertilizer for Pi Luo's true body.

  Bai Qi said to Pi Luo Tong Zi: "Do you still care about these people?" He was referring to the mountain villagers.

  Bailu Tongzi's face changed, and he said: "Master, these mountain people don't understand anything. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be able to break through the physical constraints either. You'd better spare them, they won't leak out your affairs."

  "Is this the sentiment of incense and fire?" Bai Qi looked at Beiluo Tongzi with curiosity, this demon was still in the stage of devouring flesh and blood, yet it could produce emotions towards these mountain people? It seemed that his own slaughter of demons to extract their essence wasn't quite right either. Moreover, he himself was also a demon by birth, so using the excuse of subduing demons and exorcising evil spirits wasn't very good either.

  Bai Qi's thoughts drifted away, and before he knew it, he had forgotten about asking Pi Luo Tong Zi's question. Pi Luo Tong Zi quickly knelt down and said, "Master, please don't kill these people, I beg of you..."

  "Hmm." Bai Qi casually pointed at the four symbol soldiers and said: "You command these symbol soldiers to help rebuild the village."

  "Thank you, sir!" The child hurriedly got up and directed the soldiers to retreat far away from Bai Qi. He was afraid that Bai Qi would change his mind. Bai Qi shook his head, these mountain people didn't understand anything, they wouldn't reveal his secrets. He wasn't a bloodthirsty demon king after all, he had killed those soldiers because he had just become a cultivator and still had the emotions of an ordinary person.

  Those soldiers slaughtered innocent mountain people, which was completely at odds with the education Bai Qi had received since childhood. To Bai Qi, such things were inhumane and absolutely intolerable.

  I don't know if I'll be fortunate enough to attain immortality in the future, but by then, I probably won't care about these things anymore. At that time, I might not even feel any emotional fluctuations over the life and death of ordinary people.

  Rebuilding the stronghold wasn't difficult, Piroth had magical powers and also had the limitless power of his Fu soldiers to use as laborers. In about a day's time, Piroth had restored the stronghold to its original state.

  Bai Qi sat there, watching as Bei Luo Tong Zi displayed his magical techniques and the changes in the heavenly and earthly primal energies that occurred when he used them. His divine sense could no longer be described as powerful; after being repeatedly tempered by the nameless sword energy, Bai Qi's divine sense had been repeatedly mended, nourished, and polished by the Inverse Scale Spear until it was crystal clear and perfectly round, its strength and resilience such that even a cultivator in the Unity stage would find it difficult to match.

  His current spiritual exploration distance is over a hundred feet away, and he can clearly distinguish the flow of yuanqi and its combination methods. Today's harvest is not small either.

  Baili Tongzi comforted the mountain people with a serious and proper attitude, then returned to Bai Qi's side and called out "Old Master".

  Bai Qi got up and looked at the sky, saying: "Let's go back to the cave first. You pack your things and follow me."

  "Isn't the old master going to retreat and cultivate anymore?" Bi Luo Tong Zi spoke more, but still quickly mounted the wind and rose, wrapping up Bai Qi, flying towards his own cave. This time, Bai Qi's body was even lighter and more agile, flying speed increased a lot, in less than half an incense stick of time, the two returned to the mountain waist's cave.

  Bai Qi ignored Tongzi's question, slowly analyzing in his heart whether he should go to a small sect and hide his identity. Although the Inverse Scale Spear could speed up his cultivation, the problem was that the promotion of various realms would not be possible just by accumulating heaven and earth's original energy later on.

  The foundation you've built is good, but it's only limited to the stage of refining and purifying your energy. To break through to the realm of spiritual transformation, you'll need more knowledge of the Daoist path, and even relying on Bi Luo Tong Zi won't be enough. This demon god's realm is purely achieved through bitter struggle and time, and it doesn't help yourself at all.

  But with the collapse of the Great Jin Dynasty, humanity is in chaos and the world has changed. Will this small sect's survival be extremely difficult?