After suppressing Zhao Gongming, whose loyalty and righteousness towered into the heavens, Xiao Tian breathed a small sigh of relief. Without Zhao Gongming, none of the others in Jiejiao could persuade the Three Skies to intervene. With that, Xiao Tian had achieved his objective. As for whether the other Jiejiao disciples perished, he did not particularly care.
Meanwhile, battle resumed. Hong Jin took command of the Yin Shang forces, but in his very first engagement, Yang Jian's wife, Deng Chanyu, battered his face swollen with her Five-Colored Light Stones and sent him fleeing in defeat.
The next day, fighting broke out again. Unwilling to accept his defeat, Hong Jin returned to battle, only to be captured by Nezha's wife, Princess Longji.
In the original plot, Hong Jin had actually been Long Ji's destined partner, and even the Old Man of the Moon had intervened.
In this life, however, Yaoji had arranged everything, marrying Long Ji to Third Prince Nezha ahead of time.
After being captured, Hong Jin remained utterly defiant. Xiao Tian immediately gave the order for Nezha to execute him on the spot and send him onto the Investiture of the Gods.
With that, Sishui Pass fell. Xiqi's army drove straight through and continued advancing toward the Yin Shang capital, Zhaoge.
Hu Lei, the Shang commander guarding Jiameng Pass, was a fourth-generation Jiejiao disciple who knew the substitution art. His master was the third-generation Jiejiao disciple Fire Spirit Holy Mother, a direct disciple of Duobao Daoist, Jiejiao's senior disciple.
In the original plot, it had been Fire Spirit Holy Mother's death that brought the conflict to a head and plunged Jiejiao and ChanJiao into all-out war.
Xiao Tian, however, already had an idea. His adopted son Lei Zhenzi was still a bachelor, and Fire Spirit Holy Mother was a