Chapter 36: The Non-existent Iceberg

Chapter 36: The Non-Existent Iceberg

A few days later.

Ning Xuan did not wait for a political marriage, but instead waited for his eldest brother to emerge from seclusion.

The Moonview Prefecture began receiving refugees from the north, and incidents involving ghosts and monsters began to erupt. There were reports of gnawing sounds in the middle of the night, human skin drifting in the wind, and the dead rising from new graves; in short, the people were in a state of panic.

After some calculation, Ning Xuan realized there was no avoiding it, so he could only brace himself and "open for business."

Thus, a group of three, accompanied by four battalions of prefectural soldiers and one hundred and thirty-six people from the martial arts world, headed north along the official highway.

He did not bring any Taoist masters, as they were needed to deal with those "human-skin demons."

Although Moonview Prefecture was far from falling into "great chaos," the common people living in comfort had already begun to witness "demons."

As for the four battalions of prefectural soldiers, three were composed of ordinary troops, while the fourth was the "Blazing Fire Battalion," equipped with barrels of fire oil.

Among the one hundred and thirty-six martial artists, half came from a sect called the "Hunter Gang."

Moonview Prefecture had many mountains and many hunters; these surplus hunters had spontaneously formed the "Hunter Gang," roaming the forests with dogs and hawks. Ning Xuan had dealt with them frequently in the past.

This time, as they headed toward Ping'an Prefecture, he had recruited men from the "Hunter Gang" so that their hunting dogs could scout the path, thereby reducing casualties.

Those ghostly things were formless and invisible; they could only be detected once they had burrowed into a target's body.

However, those things were also quite easy to deal with; a single burst from the Blazing Fire Battalion was enough to exterminate them.

By using hunting dogs to scout, the moment a problem arose, the Blazing Fire Battalion would move in immediately; if that failed, Ning Xuan and the others would take action.

This was the first time Ning Xuan had led a campaign in such a novel way. He didn't have to manage the men—everyone protected him in the very center—but he still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

He truly experienced what it meant that "war costs money," and more specifically, that "damn war is all about money."

If no one died today, it would be fine; but if people died and pensions had to be paid, the silver would pour out like water.

That amount of money would be enough for him to establish a harem of three hundred beauties.

And if the enemy were particularly brutal and everyone he brought today died, he would have enough to establish an entire imperial palace harem.

The key was that while this money appeared to belong to the Prefect, it actually belonged to his family.

He looked at his eldest brother beside him.

This army was not organized by him, but led by his brother.

To ensure his safety, his brother had brought a well-trained army, operating on the principle that if a problem could be solved with money, he would never let Ning Xuan solve it with a blade.

Chou Nu was riding a horse, watching the advance ahead with an expressionless face.

Sensing Ning Xuan's gaze, Chou Nu turned his head slightly and asked, "What are your orders, General Ning?"

Ning Xuan replied, "Nothing."

The Ning family needed stability.

If stability could be bought with money, then it would be bought.

As for the dead?

Ning Xuan had long understood the principle that "a merciful man cannot command an army."

Train soldiers for a thousand days to use them in a single moment.

On the battlefield, it is best for those in power to view everyone as chess pieces, striving to achieve the greatest victory with the least sacrifice, rather than thinking "these people will die" while moving the pieces.

If one lacks even this basic awareness, the result is often the greatest defeat achieved through the greatest sacrifice.

Letting soldiers clear the way while watching from the rear before acting—that was the minimum sacrifice.

The Daoist Fairy Yao Zhen, clad in a python-patterned robe, did not ride a horse. She moved ethereally, her feet barely touching the ground, extremely light. Compared to when she first arrived at the Ning residence, she now wore a white veil over her head, so that from the outside, no one could see what she looked like.

Her ability to do this proved that traveling by floating consumed almost no energy for her.

She had seen Ning Xuan's strike and already knew the boy possessed the qualities of a general. Now that she had entrusted the only "Whisper" connection to this young general, there was a sense of "destiny" between them—that they were bound to partner together by imperial power and responsibility.

At this moment, she was sensing information within the "Imperial Capital Celestial Circle." These people were scattered everywhere and could provide a vast amount of intelligence.

She selected carefully, then her lips moved slightly.

She only needed to emit the faintest sound—so faint that even if someone beside her listened intently, they wouldn't hear it—to transmit her words into Ning Xuan's ears.

"In the north of Ping'an Prefecture, a mountain has appeared that never existed before.

It is an iceberg. The iceberg has many hard ice spikes, and many corpses are impaled upon them.

This iceberg is strange; although it is nearly summer, there is no sign of the ice melting at all.

The demon plague in Ping'an Prefecture may be related to this iceberg."

"In Ping'an Prefecture?"

"No, north of Ping'an Prefecture."

"Then is it in Ping'an Prefecture?"

"No, it is to the north of Ping'an Prefecture."

"Hmm, then it has nothing to do with us."

"However, if you wish to become a Divine General, you must proactively explore these places. Once you become a Divine General, you will receive the resources of the entire nation for your cultivation."

"If it's there, I'll go. If not, forget it," Ning Xuan responded once again.

Yao Zhen fell silent.

Combined with his previous dissolute manner, she understood the temperament of the general she had come to assist.

She began to recall why she had left the Imperial Capital and decided to assist this youth in the first place.

Oh...

She remembered.

The memorial had stated: "His slaying of demons at Manfeng Mountain was like a thunderclap, intimidating all evil; he even cowed the fierce elite guards of the Grand General, while simultaneously executing a Celestial Master and a demon-plague child, both of whom were petty villains acting with ill intent."

An image of a heroic general immediately formed in Yao Zhen's mind. She felt that waiting any longer might not yield a better candidate, so she chose him and arrived with an imperial decree to assist him. Instead, the first things she received were "Then I want to sleep with you, does His Majesty agree?" and "It has nothing to do with us."

"Great Pure Celestial Lord, calm my wrathful heart."

"Great Pure Celestial Lord, calm my wrathful heart."

Yao Zhen muttered several times in her heart, suppressing the inexplicable surge of irritation.

As they were speaking, a dog bark suddenly came from ahead.

A leading hound suddenly collapsed, and the surrounding dogs barked frantically around it.

The soldiers of the Blazing Fire Battalion stepped forward immediately. Fire erupted, screams echoed through the air, and then a cloud of black smoke rose into the sky like cooking fumes. The nearby soldiers looked solemn and tense.

Looking at the charred hound.

A soldier steeled himself and stepped forward, slicing it open with a blade. The hound instantly split in two, and a large chunk was missing from its abdomen, as if it had vanished into thin air.

A strong sense of dread emerged.

The army continued forward.

The sound of barking dogs gradually increased.

Soon, the Hunter Gang's hounds were all exhausted.

The closer they got to the Ping'an Prefecture area, the more of those invisible ghostly things appeared.

This did not mean that Ping'an Prefecture had fallen; rather, it was because Ning Xuan's group was traveling on a northern route. If they went thirty miles further and turned right, they would reach Ping'an Prefecture; if they went straight, they would reach the iceberg Yao Zhen mentioned. Thus, it was not surprising.

It also verified that these ghostly things were very likely related to that iceberg.

At the same time, both Yao Zhen and Chou Nu sensed the presence of demonic qi.

It was a faint, sky-covering demonic qi that enveloped the area.

Ning Xuan suddenly stopped his horse.

When he stopped, everyone stopped.

Ning Xuan said, "The road is long. Soldiers, fall back ten miles and set up camp."

He was prepared to sacrifice soldiers, but the kind of sacrifice before them was meaningless and seemingly bottomless.

Chou Nu frowned.

Ning Xuan suddenly said, "Celestial Master Chou, you stay behind as well."

Chou Nu was about to speak.

Ning Xuan glanced at the horse Chou Nu was riding, then glanced at the floating Yao Zhen, and asked, "Celestial Master Chou, can you do what Yao Zhen does?"

Chou Nu shook his head.

He had also noticed for a long time that this Celestial Master from the Imperial Capital had been flying the entire time; he simply could not do it.

But...

"No, I must go in with you."

"Celestial Master Chou, you should provide support from the outside. If I exhaust my strength and manage to run out, at least there will be someone outside to help block them for me."

"Then you must be extremely careful."

Half an hour later.

The young general, carrying a long beast-slaying blade on his back, walked into the depths on foot.

He used his Bodhisattva Golden Body to seal all the "apertures" around his body, making all the ghostly things useless against him.

At first, he was still trying to kill these ghostly things, but as he walked deeper, he gave up.

There were too many.

They were dense, like mosquitoes in summer.

He glanced again at Yao Zhen beside him.

Yao Zhen was surrounded by an invisible golden sphere of light. Black smoke-like objects constantly rushed toward the surface of the sphere, but no matter how fast they moved outside, they became extremely slow once they entered the golden sphere. As Yao Zhen moved, those extremely slow black mists were left far behind.

Ning Xuan was not surprised by this scene.

He had already communicated with Yao Zhen before the campaign.

He had learned two things.

First, Celestial Masters were divided into ranks.

The ranking system was quite strange: Rank One was the lowest, with no apparent upper limit.

If ranked normally by official status, Rank One would actually be the highest.

Why was it ranked this way?

Because no one knew what level a "Celestial Master" could reach. Therefore, every time a qualitative change occurred, they would rise by one rank, with Rank One being the natural minimum.

A Celestial Master who could see through mountains to the scenery on the other side, move mountains, suppress souls, or travel miles underground in three breaths, and could smash demons unconscious with a Celestial Seal, was a Rank One Celestial Master.

A Celestial Master who possessed abilities such as sensing the earth for dozens of miles, establishing mountain barriers, shrinking distances so that enemies could not move a single step, or instant teleportation and extremely fast recovery... was a Rank Two Celestial Master.

Of course, there were also Rank Three Celestial Masters.

Yao Zhen was a half-step Rank Three.

And according to this classification, Chou Nu was a half-step Rank Two.

There was a massive gap between the two; naturally, Ning Xuan did not bring his brother.

Second, Golden-Bodied Demons were a extremely special, extremely troublesome, and so far extremely rare type of demon. They were not particularly afraid of suppression by Celestial Masters, and they could utilize their golden bodies to exert powerful physical strength, making them extremely difficult to deal with.

Their existence was quite mysterious; while other demons came in swarms, they always traveled alone.

However, fortunately, the true bodies of all Golden-Bodied Demons were extremely fragile; this was perhaps their only weakness.

Currently, no matter how strong a general was, they were strong in flesh and blood, but none possessed a Golden Body.

It could be said that generals were all flesh-and-blood demons wearing human skin and possessing rationality.

But Ning Xuan was different.

He had a Golden Body, and he also had flesh and blood.

Therefore, he felt he could cautiously take a few steps forward to see if that terrifying Fragrance-Stealing Rat had actually made its way here.