The experiment went perfectly, and the Duke of Duke of Qin's suggestion was validated. Wang Ye, who was in the form of a puppet, could now indeed enter and exit the magic array!
This breakthrough gave the civil and military officials, who had been feeling stifled for several days, a glimmer of hope, but it also made them quite wary.
With Wang Ye's cooperation, the sorcerers devised a seven-day test. Each time, they would put Heavenly Mystery Lock designed by the Ministry of Works on Wang Ye and send him into the mist through a dozen or so entrances. After confirming that Wang Ye could enter and exit freely, they began to try to have Wang Ye bring living people in.
But the result was the same: Wang Ye could get out, but the others couldn't.
This means that once Wang Ye is let in, no one can supervise him, and the so-called intelligence will depend entirely on what Wang Ye says!
Later on, there was great controversy surrounding the decision to let Wang Ye in to gather intelligence, since it was questionable whether Wang Ye was trustworthy in his current state.
After several hours of heated discussion, the Duke of Qin finally made the decision, overriding all objections and personally vouching for Wang Ye, thus allowing the plan to proceed.
Ten days after Wang Ye arrived in Jiangnan, he finally, amidst the doubts, suspicions, and certain hopes of the crowd, boarded a military boat and entered Nanming Prefecture by water!
"Lord Shaoqing?"
On the ship, all the soldiers watched as Wang Ye brought several living corpses aboard from the water, and they quickly stepped forward to nail the corpses' limbs shut with their weapons.
Information about the living zombies had been gathered in the days leading up to the experiment, and warnings had been issued. No one dared to approach them lightly, let alone the terrifying number underwater.
Unexpectedly, this civil official dared to jump directly into the river and grab a few of them alive. Strangely enough, these zombies had an extremely strong desire to attack living people and were fearless of death, but they seemed to have no interest in Wang Ye at all. Even when he grabbed his companions, the zombies did not resist. It was really strange.
After changing his clothes, Wang Ye approached the zombies. Once on the boat, the zombies howled in pain and became increasingly frenzied. Wang Ye glanced at the sky and immediately noted down in his notebook that the zombies were afraid of sunlight.
He had basically figured out the general situation after spending half a day on the river.
"Record it," Wang Ye instructed the officer beside him to take notes, "Judging from their clothing and appearance, the living corpses underwater should come from the West Sea kingdoms. Judging from their numbers, it seems that the entire West Sea region shrouded in thick fog has been transformed into these monsters!"
Everyone shuddered at these words. If all the common people had turned into this monster, what about those of them who had entered?
Moreover, if this dense fog spreads...
"Sir, should we avoid inhaling the mist?" a tall general asked from the side.
Wang Ye glanced at the other man, Xu Ming, one of the Duke of Duke of Qin's deputy generals.
"We've been here for half a day. If inhaling the mist could turn us into this thing, what's the point of covering it up now?"
Everyone: "."
"However, General, there's no need to worry too much. Based on my probing over the past few days, these zombies are only interested in living people. Therefore, I suspect that their mutation is also transmitted through blood and flesh."
"That's good, that's good!" Xu Ming breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, wiping away his sweat. Although he had made the decision to fight to the death before he came, the thought of turning himself into this kind of monster still made his scalp tingle.
Wang Ye smiled but remained silent. After several days of testing, he had roughly guessed the motive and situation of this mist formation. The mist was sealing off the poison of the living corpses, so it wouldn't let any living creature leave. What he needed to test now was why it was divided into several zones.
"Be careful when maneuvering the boat. Remember not to cross the line. Once you cross it, I can get out, but you can't. And if I turn back, it will be very difficult to find you."
"We know that!" Xu Ming grinned. He came in this time to see if what Wang Ye said during the experiment was true. The reason why the Duke of Qin sent him was because he was strong enough to deal with Wang Ye!
And so, a ship swayed and rocked its way into the harbor.
--
"My lord, reinforcements have arrived!"
Inside the government office of Nanming Prefecture, a soldier hurriedly dismounted, so excited that he stumbled and scrambled, shouting excitedly from afar.
Upon hearing this, Admiral Zhou Hanyang and the others stood up excitedly, abandoning the drill on the sand table and rushing out the door.
"Reinforcements? Are you sure it's reinforcements?" Zhou Hanyang asked, lifting the fallen soldier up.
"Yes, I'm absolutely certain, it's General Xu Ming!"
" Xu Ming is here?" Zhou Hanyang burst into laughter, looking at Mu Hongqing: "Thanks to the Education Commissioner, if it weren't for you, we might not have received any reinforcements!"
"You're too kind, Admiral." Mu Hongqing smiled slightly, but his expression remained serious. "It seems the contents of the letter are genuine. The one in charge of the Jiangnan incident is the Duke of Duke of Qin."
These words created a slightly awkward atmosphere, since everyone knew the true nature of the relationship between the person before them Duke of Qin.
"Come on, take me to see this!"
Xu Ming, impatient as ever, disregarded his own strength and channeled his inner energy, running towards the city gate like a cheetah. The others quickly followed, stirring up layers of smoke along the way, causing the people hiding in their houses to climb over the walls to watch the spectacle.
"Tsk, they really have no sense of propriety. Don't they recognize General Xu? What are they waiting for? Open the city gates!"
Upon reaching the city gate, Zhou Hanyang immediately launched into a tirade of abuse at the deputy general guarding the city.
Xu Ming, seeing that Zhou Hanyang and the others were safe and sound, breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the situation had not reached its worst point. What he feared most was that the entire Jiangnan region would be turned into those living corpses at the bottom of the river.
"What are you doing, trying to act tough in front of the deputy general?" Xu Ming retorted with a laugh, "Isn't he just following military regulations?"
"Heh heh, you're so rigid, always following the rules, and you don't understand the principle of expediency in emergencies? No wonder you've only ever been a deputy general."
"You used to be so envious of being the Duke's deputy general, didn't you? Why are you complaining now? Alright, I'll go back and talk to the Duke about it."
"Hey, you old codger. Why do you keep bringing up the Duke?" Zhou Hanyang sighed helplessly as he ushered the group in, but frowned when he saw the hundreds of soldiers. "Old Xu, is this all the support you've got?"
"Not enough?" Xu Ming and glanced at the other party. "The situation is still unclear, so of course we can't just send in a large army. Once we figure out the situation, we'll naturally ask the Duke to send more reinforcements."
"Didn't the situation explain everything clearly in the letter?" Zhou Hanyang frowned.
"Can a letter be made true?" Xu Ming glared and said, "What a reckless fool! What if someone tampered with the letter? Such a big matter naturally requires living people to gather intelligence."
"That's exactly what Mu Xuezheng meant," Zhou Hanyang said, glancing at Mu Hongqing beside him.
Xu Ming also looked at Mu Hongqing, his eyes narrowing as he said, "It's been a long time."
Mu Hongqing, with a serious expression, cupped his hands and said, "Greetings, General Xu."
"What? You're not calling me Uncle Xu anymore?"
Mu Hongqing remained silent. Xu Ming sighed, then stopped pressing him and got down to business. "Tell me what the situation is."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Hanyang quickly recounted the events of the past few days.
" Lord Mu's previous prediction was correct. As long as we don't excessively exterminate the living corpses, no new living corpses will be released into the river. However, we can't just let them run rampant!"
Xu Yang nodded upon hearing this. If they continue to leave it alone, the zombies will penetrate deeper into the interior and harm the population of other districts and counties, and then even more new zombies will appear.
"Therefore, we will be dispatching elite squads to guard the key routes to several districts and counties in the next few days. Whenever there are groups of zombies heading towards a district or county, we will use our cavalry to clear them out in open areas, but..."
"But what?"
"But this method hasn't been very effective in the last few days," Zhou Hanyang said in a low voice. "Through my observations these past few days, I've noticed that those zombies are commanded. Unlike the mindless zombies, those commanding zombie leaders are clearly intelligent and will prevent their subordinates from dying pointlessly."
"If that's the case, why not devise a decapitation strategy?" Xu Ming frowned. "These zombies aren't individually strong fighters, are they? Even with warriors and cavalry, is it impossible to decapitate them?"
"It's possible, but it's useless," Zhou Hanyang said with a strange expression. "These command-type zombies will keep spawning. If you kill them today, more will appear tomorrow!"
"I see." A young voice chimed in, "I observed these zombies devouring each other; apparently, this is how they become stronger."
Who is this?
"You've been on the frontier for so long, you might not know, but this is Wang Ye, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review," Xu Ming introduced with a smile.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Hanyang glanced at Mu Hongqing, who remained silent beside him, and thought to himself: Mu Hongqing guessed quite accurately; the imperial court really did summon Wang Ye!
"Even so, shouldn't we stick to the decapitation strategy?" Wang Ye frowned. "Even if new ones emerge, as long as we keep killing the leaders, it will only exacerbate the infighting among the zombies, won't it?"
"No." Mu Hongqing shook his head upon hearing this.
Why?
"The method you mentioned is what the Shen Family of Nanyang City did before. The Shen Family has several great sorcerers, so the decapitation operation would be more efficient. However, according to their letter, once too many zombie leaders are killed, even more powerful high-level zombies will appear in the river."
"Oh?" Wang Ye narrowed his eyes. "How powerful?"
"According to the information in the Shen Family's letter, they will become increasingly powerful. The two monsters that appeared the other day are already approaching the level of Second Rank martial artist!"
Upon hearing this, Xu Ming was stunned. What did this mean? The more they killed, the stronger they became? If they continued to kill high-level zombies, would First Rank martial artists or even monsters Above First Rank appear?
Isn't this a bit too eerie?
Wang Ye nodded, having a general idea in mind, but not entirely certain, so he asked, "Is the information from the Shen Family reliable?"
"I don't know," Mu Hongqing shook his head. "After all, we're separated by the fog, and everyone can only communicate through the wooden bird. So we'll have to trouble Wang Ye to go to Nanming and find out the truth!"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Hanyang and the others looked at Wang Ye with even stranger expressions. Clearly, they had all heard Mu Hongqing mention that Wang Ye was a puppet.
Wang Ye didn't care about the strange looks from the others, and smiled, saying, "It's alright, that's why I'm here."
Before Mu Hongqing could speak again, Wang Ye spoke first, " Lord Mu, would it be convenient for us to have a private chat?"
The military officers' expressions immediately changed, especially Xu Ming, whose smile vanished instantly, replaced by a cold stare. " Lord Wang, you've crossed the line!"
Wang Ye, however, paid no attention and pulled a gold medal from his sleeve. "His Majesty's decree!"
The group was taken aback, their expressions shifting between light and dark, but they all recognized that it was indeed a genuine gold medal, bearing the image of Golden Crow engraved by a court sorcerer!
After hesitating for a few moments, the group finally stepped back and knelt down. "Your Majesty's decree!"
" Lord Mu, please?" Wang Ye said with a smile.
"Okay!" Mu Hongqing nodded, already having a general idea of what it was about.
The two arrived at a room inside the government office. Wang Ye activated the power of the Evening Elephant to isolate the surroundings, and then spoke, " Lord Mu, His Majesty is very concerned about whether the bloodline in the Thousand-Faced Fox's belly is stable?"
Mu Hongqing frowned. His Majesty actually told Wang Ye about this?
That shouldn't be the case; Liu Yu had strongly opposed it in the first place.
"Nothing should have happened yet," Mu Hongqing replied. "After all, Master Ziyue is personally overseeing things."
" Master Ziyue." Wang Ye's eyes gleamed.
Dugu Ziyue, the chief sorcerer of the palace and the sole inheritor of the Heavenly Moon Technique!
Mu Hongqing looked at Wang Ye, then suddenly realized what was happening, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "His Majesty didn't tell you!!"