31: Chapter 31 Seven "Captures" of Huo Meng

Su Chen's soul body swept across the vast, misty forests of the Southern Border, searching for the other six marked locations.

The scenes he witnessed could only be described as bizarre and grotesque.

At the second marked location, he saw a clone of Huo Meng, who excelled at controlling venomous insects.

At that moment, it was being chased all over the mountains and plains by a rebel general.

The rebel general's eyes were bloodshot, and he turned a blind eye to the swarms of venomous insects filling the sky.

He shouted, "Darling, don't run!" while crushing countless scorpions and centipedes with his bare hands.

Huo Meng's clone was careless for a moment and was knocked down by a sneak attack from the rebel general.

Ignoring the fact that he had been stung until his face was swollen like a pig's head, the rebel general yanked down Huo Meng's pants and bit right down on the "venomous insect."

The third mark was by the river.

The Huo Meng clone, who specialized in underwater lurking, had already been stripped naked by a rebel general.

He was lying completely naked on the surface of the river.

Beside him, another rebel general was "frolicking in the water" with him.

Aside from water stains, there were also some yellow stains on his body.

The fourth location... the fifth location...

Every battlefield was staging a similar, yet uniquely distinctive, drama of star-crossed lovers.

The level of bizarreness was comparable to the story of a certain foster father and foster son that Su Chen had seen in his previous life...

He even saw that one of Huo Meng's clones was wearing a woman's dress that was clearly ill-fitting and had been put on in a hurry.

Presumably, this was a desperate attempt by Huo Meng to deal with some sort of special "fetish."

Unfortunately, the effect backfired, only inciting the rebel general to be even more "passionate."

"This Huo Meng is truly ruthless when it comes to protecting his chrysanthemum," Su Chen remarked.

Su Chen watched with amazement, yet his hands showed no mercy.

He pointed his fingers like a sword, sometimes stabbing through the air, other times sweeping with his sleeves.

The sword energy was precise and elegant.

Every strike was accompanied by the complete annihilation of a purple-red mark and the disintegration of a Huo Meng clone.

There were no earth-shattering explosions, no angry roars of a dying struggle.

There was only the bewilderment and fear of the rebel generals as they instantly regained their clarity.

And the overwhelming sense of relief, acceptance, and indignation in the eyes of Huo Meng's clones before they dissipated.

In less than an hour, the remaining six marked locations were cleared.

Far away, in the Southern Border army camp in front of Zhennan Pass.

Huo Meng's original body, which was still sitting cross-legged, suddenly opened its eyes wide.

He spat out a mouthful of blood.

The aura around him had weakened by at least seventy percent.

Besides the resentment and disbelief on his face, there was also a hint of shyness and indignation.

"No—!"

"My cultivation, my clones, my innocence!"

"They're all gone!"

The "Seven Killings Clone Technique" he had cultivated to perfection not only strengthened his clones but also made them an inseparable part of his original body.

Once his clones were eliminated one by one, the resulting backlash was enough to cost him half his life.

"Zhuge Jinyu... if I do not avenge this, I, Huo Meng, swear I will not be a man!"

But now, severely injured and with his vitality damaged, let alone taking revenge, it was uncertain whether he could even survive the subsequent backlash.

Huo Meng closed his eyes and fainted on the bed.

His aura gradually withered until it slowly faded into nothingness.

The so-called Southern Border King was now a king in name only.

But at the same time, outside his tent, it was a completely different scene.

Huo Meng's clones were finished, but the Southern Border army under his command did not abandon the attack on Zhennan Pass just because their commander had disappeared.

Ultimately, the Southern Border was too lacking in both resources and food.

It was insufficient to support the large population and cultivators of the Southern Border.

They could only rely on plundering the Great Qian to obtain them.

Now, without the command of their commander, the main force of the Southern Border was even more excited, launching an attack on Zhennan Pass like a tidal wave.

Most of the Southern Border cultivators had thick, muscular bodies and were covered in all kinds of strange tattoos.

They rarely relied on spiritual power to attack like the cultivators of the Central Plains Immortal Dynasty; instead, they used their spiritual power to strengthen their physical bodies.

This also resulted in their extremely formidable physical strength.

When a group of Southern Border cultivators ran, even the pass city walls would tremble constantly.

Above the pass wall, Zhuge Jinyu stood against the wind in white clothes as pure as snow.

The gale blew her white hair and sleeves, yet she stood as firm as a rock, motionless.

Her fox-like eyes calmly swept over the surging enemy tide below, and the vermilion bird feather fan in her hand was raised gently.

"Our cultivators' close-combat abilities are completely not on the same level; a head-on confrontation is not advisable."

"Archers, prepare."

Her voice was cold and clear, yet it spread across the entire city wall.

The archers, who could no longer restrain themselves, drew their bows and notched their arrows, the arrowheads glinting with a dangerous light under the dim sky.

"Fire!"

At the command.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

In an instant, arrows poured down, shooting densely toward the Southern Border barbarian soldiers.

The Central Plains cultivators holding the bows were, after all, not ordinary people; some Southern Border soldiers were hit by the arrows and fell to the ground.

But there were still some variables.

Some of the Southern Border cultivators rushing in front suddenly took out pieces of armor that looked like they were woven from ancient vines from their backs and quickly put them on.

The vine armor presented a deep, dark green color and looked extremely sturdy; it was clearly not an ordinary item.

The Southern Border soldiers who put on this armor, facing wave after wave of arrows, just grinned, suffering no harm at all.

"What is this thing? I have never seen it before!"

Old General Qin was dumbfounded when he saw that the Southern Border soldiers had actually taken out a piece of armor they had never seen before.

Zhuge Jinyu frowned, remembering what Su Chen had told her.

The changes in the Southern Border and the Eastern Region might both be caused by the same person behind the scenes.

"It's vine armor!"

An old soldier's expression changed, and he exclaimed.

"I have seen it on other battlefields before."

"This armor is light and tough, difficult for ordinary blades and arrows to damage, and it can even resist spiritual power impacts to a certain extent!"

Zhuge Jinyu narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Vine armor?"

"Vine..."

"Made of plants?"

Thinking of this, the corners of her mouth curled into a faint arc.

With the protection of the vine armor, the Southern Border soldiers were no longer afraid of the volley of arrows from Zhennan Pass, and one after another, they rushed toward the city wall as if they had been injected with adrenaline.

Some even climbed onto the city wall, using their extremely formidable physical strength to begin a dimension-reduction attack on the Great Qian cultivators.

Zhuge Jinyu was unhurried and gently waved the vermilion bird feather fan in her hand forward.

"Second volley of arrows, fire!"

"Target, vine armored soldiers."

"Fire!"

The second rain of arrows rose into the air, and Zhuge Jinyu seized the opportunity, waving her feather fan violently!

Unlike before.

This time, the arrows trailed with crimson flames.

Like meteors filling the sky, they shot accurately toward those Southern Border cultivators wearing vine armor.

The fire arrows landed.

The vermilion bird spiritual fire attached to them instantly encountered excellent fuel and erupted into flames with a roar.

That tough vine armor was simply vulnerable in the face of the divine beast fire, which specifically countered the wood element.

The Young Prime Minister remained calmly seated on the city wall, gently waving her feather fan.

"If it's made of wood, it must be afraid of fire."

"Ah! Fire! So hot!"

"This fire can't be extinguished!"

"Save me! Quickly save me!"

Screams of agony instantly resounded across the battlefield.

One by one, the Southern Border cultivators wearing vine armor instantly turned into raging fireballs.

If the vine-armored soldiers in the front row couldn't withstand the volley of fire arrows, the ordinary soldiers in the back row went without saying.

The originally aggressive Southern Border offensive was brought to a standstill.

Most of the barbarian soldiers' bodies were ignited, and only a few who were in the rear doing logistics, slacking off, or the old, weak, sick, and disabled fled in embarrassment, escaping with their lives.

This volley of ten thousand arrows from the Female Prime Minister took away far more than ten thousand lives.

It is foreseeable that in the short term, the once powerful Southern Barbarians will no longer have the ability to contend with the Great Qian.

Listening to the continuous cheers on the city wall.

"The Chancellor is brilliant!"

"Burn these Southern Barbarians to death!"

Zhuge Jinyu waved her feather fan gently, looking at the sea of fire below the city, her eyes calm and waveless.

She was waiting.

Waiting for one person's praise, waiting for one person to appear.

Until that milky-white figure appeared.

Under the setting sun, that face, which was originally hazy and invisible, became clearer and clearer through her efforts.

"Xiao Yu, you did well this time. You've worked hard."

"Sir!"

On Zhennan Pass, there grew a lonely peach tree.

Under the reflection of the sunset, it looked like a bride waiting to be married.

Zhuge Jinyu gently took out a mirror that had always been held against her heart.

She hung it on the peach tree.

Like a general returning home, waiting to marry the sweetheart who was waiting in her bridal makeup.

"Sir, let us return to the capital."

A faint smile appeared on the corners of Zhuge Jinyu's mouth.

The internal strife had been quelled, and the border defense was secure.

Next, it was time to ferret out those clowns acting in the dark and improve the internal affairs.

It was time to fulfill her promise to Sir.

It was time to lead the army in the Northern Expedition and pacify the world.