Prince of Yuzhang

"Damn your mother!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the "Consort Ding" repelled before him, a flash of ferocity crossing his eyes.

Riiip!

A crisp, tearing sound rang out.

His right arm, corroded by corpse poison, was torn off entirely by Zhu Yuanzhang.

He gazed up at the "Giant Specter" suspended in the air by ribbons of white silk, his expression ferocious.

"No matter what kind of thing you are..."

"With all the study I, Minghe, have dedicated to the Dharma in this life!"

"Come and fight!"

Zhu Yuanzhang stared at the figure that had returned once more.

"Fixed-Light Manifestation! Ancient Buddha Dropping Radiance!"

With another ten years of his lifespan poured into the True Fire, the two flames of True Fire upon his body surged with increasing intensity.

Through Zhu Yuanzhang's reckless expenditure, he ignited a second True Fire.

Yet, it was a pity that with Hou Jing laying siege to the city, the effects of Xiao Tong's essence blood and the dragon aura of Xiao Liang—which had always protected Zhu Yuanzhang and made his cultivation in Taicheng nearly unstoppable—were rapidly fading.

This time, Zhu Yuanzhang could not see the "Bitter Sea."

Naturally, he could not comprehend any new Dharma manifestations from within it.

As the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire dispersed the eerie candlelight emanating from the rooms on both sides of the path, which had blurred his vision, the true form of "Consort Ding" appeared before his eyes.

It was a highly decomposed corpse, its skin a vibrant, ink-green color, covered in deep black patches.

The abdomen was distended high from bloating, revealing dark, congealed blood vessels beneath the skin.

The head was swollen and putrid like a rotten apple, having long since entered the stage of a Giant Specter, decayed beyond recognition.

Zhu Yuanzhang admitted that observing such a highly decomposed corpse at close range, even if the deceased might have been exceptionally beautiful in life, was indeed a terrifying affair.

The Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire did more than just disperse the mist obscuring the truth.

It also brought a question to Zhu Yuanzhang's mind.

That was, faced with such a highly decomposed corpse, why had Fu Qi been so certain that this was "Consort Ding"?

Unfortunately... Fu Qi was already dead.

Zhu Yuanzhang cast a regretful glance at the dried corpse on the ground that had shattered into pieces.

Facing "Consort Ding," who stared at him once more with cold, hateful eyes, Zhu Yuanzhang assumed the stance of the Mountain-Shrinking Fist again.

He said calmly, "Golden Threads Adorning Afar! Stone Shadow Floating Light!"

A sizzling sound, like fish fillets being grilled, rose from all around Zhu Yuanzhang's body.

At this moment, the Great Wisdom Zen Technique, bolstered only by the Holy Wish-Fulfillment, could no longer reconcile the conflict between the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique and the Mountain-Shrinking Fist.

A flicker of pain crossed Zhu Yuanzhang's face, shrouded as he was in immense light.

Yet, it only served to make his fighting spirit soar even higher.

"Consort Ding" was injured.

Looking at the concubine of Xiao Yan, draped in white gauze and singing a dirge, Zhu Yuanzhang saw the traces of the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire that had lingered upon the corpse.

There were also large patches of carbonization where the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire had scorched her.

"The Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire is effective!"

"Increase the intensity!"

Waves of the scent of grilled fish wafted from Zhu Yuanzhang's body.

He had not yet dealt a thousand points of damage to the enemy, yet he had already suffered eight hundred himself.

But Zhu Yuanzhang was completely oblivious.

He had great confidence in the physical strength of his Deep One body.

As both sides hacked and slashed at each other, consuming one another, the victor would surely be...

Crack—

Icy cold surged from all directions, as if to freeze his entire body solid.

It sounded like the snapping of some sharp, brittle metal.

A black shadow darted out from the government office at the end of the road.

It floated in the sky, constantly expanding, resembling a gigantic eye.

It watched everyone in Hualin Garden in silence.

Zhu Yuanzhang's field of vision shifted.

He saw himself—or more accurately, his own lower half.

The physical constitution of a Deep One allowed him to remain alive even under the negative status effects of being frozen into an ice sculpture and severed at the waist.

Though only for a few seconds.

Within his vision, upon seeing the black smoke emerge from the government office to form that massive black cyclopean eye in the sky.

"The blood of my son."

Looking at the bisected Zhu Yuanzhang, Consort Ding let out a shrill, mournful cry.

Then, the Giant Specter raised its head in fury.

"Old man Xiao Yan!"

"You killed my son!"

"You harmed my grandson!"

"And devoured my great-great-grandson!"

"I curse you to be abandoned by all! May your usurped dynasty crumble into dust! May you yourself die of hunger and cold!"

"Ahhh!!!"

Accompanied by a series of frantic, maddened shrieks.

Thousands of slender white arms reached out from the Giant Specter.

On both sides of the road, those sparse figures holding candlesticks by the windows instantly transformed into hideous, terrifying ghouls.

Following the Giant Specter, they shattered the windows and lunged toward the giant black eye in the sky.

Good grief, the boss unlocked its second form after its home got raided.

As he was trampled into ice shards by those monsters with too many limbs and eyes, Zhu Yuanzhang watched everything unfold and thought to himself.

The Deep One's superior night vision allowed him to see many details within that giant black eye in the sky that he could never have noticed before.

The giant black eye hung suspended in the air.

It looked down upon the entirety of Taicheng with a gaze that was almost cold-blooded.

Whether it was the Zhu Yuanzhang frozen into an ice sculpture in an instant, or Consort Ding, the garrison, the eunuchs, and the palace maids, all were reflected in the eye's pupil.

Its eye was like a mirror.

Reflecting the whole of Taicheng.

Yet, strangely, it seemed to contain something abruptly different compared to reality.

Zhu Yuanzhang cast his final remaining strength into the center of those giant eyes.

There, a youth with a panicked expression could be seen.

Dressed in gold-threaded python robes, he was running aimlessly through the ruins of Hualin Garden.

Recalling Consort Ding's earlier words about "devouring my great-great-grandson."

Combined with Fu Qi's description of the appearance of Xiao Tong's grandson.

This was likely the target of this mission.

He was also the crucial character-item for Zhu Yuanzhang to open the Grand Marshal Gate.

The Prince of Yuzhang, Xiao Dong.

The moment he noticed the Prince of Yuzhang, Xiao Dong, trapped within the giant black eye, a massive foot as thick as an elephant's stomped over Zhu Yuanzhang's head.

He shattered into a pile of bloody ice fragments.

[You have died]

Scarlet characters flashed before his eyes.

"Rest assured, Uncle Faci, I shall certainly uphold the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra as the primary fundamental law of our Tongtai Temple."

Where Faci's white-bone dharma body had vanished, Zhu Yuanzhang lit three sticks of incense, chanted a passage of the Rebirth Sutra, and then rose to walk toward the hitching post in the courtyard.

The donkey had been gnawed down to a skeleton three days ago, but that was not why Zhu Yuanzhang had come.

He picked up the cloth bag that had fallen over the donkey's bones, and some qiu and dried steamed buns spilled out onto the ground.

Zhu Yuanzhang grabbed a handful of the qiu.

So-called qiu was a mixture made by grinding roasted rice, wheat, or beans into powder, then seasoning it with salt, soy sauce, and wine to preserve it.

It was also one of the primary dry rations carried by the armies of the Southern Dynasties during this era for long-distance marches.

Zhu Yuanzhang dipped his index finger into it, placed it in his mouth, and carefully savored the taste.

"As expected."

Zhu Yuanzhang swallowed it calmly.

"Not a hint of salt."

Having reached his conclusion, he leaned down.

He picked up the cloth bag Huzi had used to store salt.

It was completely empty, not even a single grain of salt remained.

It was as if this bag had been empty from the very beginning.

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed.

Though his heart trembled, he was not at all surprised by this result.

"Truly a great divine power."

Facing the brightly lit Jiankang Palace in the distance, Zhu Yuanzhang could not help but exclaim.