Troubled times: Start practicing spiritual practice by taking care of your sister-in-law.

Chapter 618: Soul Devouring Formation Reappears, King Worshipping Formation
The sky darkened and the rain fell heavier, washing the earth and washing away the blood on the city walls.

There were sounds of conversation in a rouge shop in the city.

"Listen to the noise outside, our troops have broken in."

"What?! Oh no, there is an ambush in the city. We must inform Duke Anguo and the others immediately."

The staff in this rouge shop are all spies of the Supervisory Guard.

In order to conceal themselves, these spies were just ordinary people with extremely good skills. If they got the upper hand, they could kill the newly-qualified warriors.

After all, low-grade warriors do not have innate spiritual energy to protect their bodies, they are just flesh and blood with greater strength than ordinary people. These spies are proficient in assassination methods and can quickly slit the enemy's throat and kill accurately.

A few days ago, they discovered that there was an army in the city, ambushing in the houses and restaurants in the city.

However, because the entire city was under blockade, even a fly could hardly fly out. There were no imperial guards patrolling the city, so they had no chance to transmit the information. They could only pray anxiously, hoping that Duke Anguo and his men would not be fooled.

But judging from the current situation, Duke Anguo and his men have fallen into the trap.

"Lu Xuan, Lu San, when we get out later, the three of us will go separately. You must tell the army that there is an ambush in the city. Remember that?" said the leader of the spy team.

The two people who were called Lu Xuan and Lu San licked their cracked lips and said, "Brother, I haven't been this nervous for a long time. I don't know if my old arms and legs can still handle it."

"Even if it costs our lives, we have to deliver the message. We spies get a pension of thirty taels of silver." The team leader laughed, easing the tense atmosphere.

The whole city was under blockade before, and they had no chance to send the message out. But now that the army has broken in and the city is in chaos, they have a glimmer of hope.

The message must be delivered before the army penetrates deep into the city.

"promise."

Zhuque Street, the main road in Luonan City.

Chen Jun's vanguard team had already arrived here. Faced with the fleeing soldiers who refused to lay down their weapons and surrender, they simply took out their crossbows and shot them.

The screams were endless.

One after another, the defeated imperial guards fell in a pool of blood.

Zheng Guozhu is the captain of one of the four vanguard teams. He was originally a subordinate of Yang Minggui, one of the thirty-six generals of the Tianshi Army. After Yang Minggui died in Xialin City, he defected to Chen Mo.

Now he is considered a veteran in Chen’s army.

His cultivation has also reached the eighth level.

He made a gesture, and immediately four soldiers left the squad, forming a group of two, back to back, holding a crossbow in one hand and a dagger in the other, and approached the houses on both sides of the street, while the squad was responsible for keeping alert to the surroundings.

Soon, the soldier who walked in front kicked open the door of the house, and the teammate who was leaning against his back immediately went into the house to check, while the soldier who was walking in front watched behind him.

They carefully searched the house, knocking and banging to confirm whether there were any secret rooms or cellars, then went out and shook their heads at Zheng Guozhu.

The team continued to move forward, and then followed the previous method, checking every house in the city to prevent enemy troops from hiding in these houses and waiting to stab Chen Jun in the back after they passed by.

They work in perfect harmony.

Soon, they came to a huge building. Judging from the plaque on the building, it was a restaurant. It was no longer suitable for them to search in groups of two.

Zheng Guozhu divided the team into two groups. He led one group into the restaurant, and the remaining group stayed outside the restaurant.

The door of the restaurant was closed and harder to open than the door of the house before.

In the end, Zheng Guozhu had to kick the door open himself. There was a pile of tables and chairs blocking the door, and there were many messy and wet footprints in the hall on the first floor. Seeing these footprints, Zheng Guozhu instantly became alert. The soldiers following him divided themselves into groups and started searching the hall on the first floor without Zheng Guozhu saying much.

Soon the shivering shopkeeper was found under the counter.

After being discovered, the shopkeeper kept saying "spare me" and his body was wet. He was actually scared to pee. Zheng Guozhu asked him if someone had come in before, but he didn't answer and just kept saying "don't kill me".

Zheng Guozhu took a quick look at him, then let him go and searched the backyard.

at this time.

"Don't move. Surrender your weapons and we won't kill you!"

"do not come"

There was a noisy sound coming from the stairs on the second floor of the restaurant.

When Zheng Guozhu arrived, the soldiers under him were confronting the defeated soldiers hiding in the restaurant.

Chen Jun kept telling the defeated soldiers to lay down their weapons and surrender.

But these defeated soldiers, either because they were frightened or too panicked, kept holding their weapons and asked Chen Jun not to come over.

At this moment, a soldier of the Chen army could not stand the pressure anymore, so he pulled the trigger of the crossbow and shot a fleeing soldier who had lost his armor.

The standoff was broken in an instant.

The remaining fleeing soldiers were met with dense crossbow arrows and stabbing spears.

In just a moment, the stairs were stained red with blood.

Zheng Guozhu didn't say anything and continued to ask them to check the restaurant.

As for the bodies left behind, they had no time to deal with them.

After checking the restaurant, the team continued to move forward.

The heavy rain did not stop them.

A hundred steps behind them, the main force of Chen’s army followed slowly.

In the study room of the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Lu Sheng was discussing matters related to the Soul Devouring Formation with Xu Zheng.

Xu Zheng was still advising: "Prime Minister, please think twice. Once the formation is set, there will be no turning back."

"There is no turning back for me. Today will determine the winner." Lu Sheng's voice was cold. His initial battle with Chen Mo at the East Gate had made him more determined.

"Prime Minister, Chen's army has already passed Zhuque Street." At this moment, a voice sounded, and it was Lu Sheng's housekeeper. Facing his master's excited face, he pondered and said, "But this is just the vanguard of Chen's army, and they have searched the houses on both sides carefully. It won't be long before they find our ambush."

"what?!"

Lu Sheng's face changed and his expression became extremely ugly.

In order to lure the enemy deeper into his territory, he did not even tell the defenders of Luonan.

He did not "help" Chen's army in the loss of the four city gates. They were actually defeated by Chen's army. Those deserting soldiers did indeed retreat, and Lu Sheng did not issue any order for them to retreat.

And this is just to make Chen Jun relax his vigilance so that he can pursue the victory and catch up closely behind him.

Coupled with the previous defense of Jushan Pass, Lu Sheng was trying to tell Chen Mo that he had run out of ideas.

Lu Sheng's expression changed and he sighed.

This was not something he could not accept at all.

After all, there is no such thing as a perfect plan in this world.

Just as he was pondering, the angry voice of King Chong was heard outside the study: "Lu Sheng, what are you doing? The Chen army has already entered the city, and the four city gates are blocked. Now even if we want to escape, we can't." King Chong walked in wet, leaving a trail of footprints behind him. His battle robe was still dripping with water, and his face was stained with the blood of Chen army soldiers. He didn't have time to wipe it off. He looked at Lu Sheng angrily.

The sudden arrival of King Chong made Xu Zheng unable to hide in time. He wanted to escape, but there was no chance because King Chong had already seen him.

But at this moment, King Chong didn't care about him at all.

Lu Sheng's housekeeper frowned.

Listening to Lu Sheng's question, Lu Sheng's eyes narrowed, and he suddenly said sinisterly: "Your Majesty, don't you want to know what I have been hiding from you? Today, I will tell you."

"Array up!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the bookshelves, tables and chairs in the study, and then the entire study, suddenly began to tremble.

Before King Chong could react to what was happening, he heard a loud "boom" suddenly, thunder sounded in the sky, lightning flashed, and a bright white light flashed outside the study window.

The sudden change in light and darkness made King Chong's eyes narrow slightly. At this moment, Lu Sheng's figure blended into the darkness, almost without making any sound. His big hands tightly pinched King Chong's neck and lifted him up.

In just a moment, King Chong's blood was filled up, and the innate spiritual power in his body instinctively surged out to resist. King Chong continued to struggle: "Lu Sheng, what are you going to do? My spiritual energy."

King Chong fell into great panic. At this moment, he felt the innate spiritual energy in his body being drained away bit by bit.

His breathing became increasingly difficult, and he uttered with difficulty: "What on earth did you do to me, the king?"

"Why, doesn't Your Majesty know about Emperor Taizu's Soul Devouring Formation?"

The study was shaking more and more violently, and all the innate spiritual energy of the entire Prime Minister's Mansion was converging towards the "eye of the formation", and the range was still spreading outward towards the Prime Minister's Mansion.

It’s just that the innate spiritual energy between heaven and earth is too “mixed” and not pure enough. Ten thousand strands of this innate spiritual energy are not as good as one strand in King Chong’s body.

Moreover, what King Chong cultivated was dragon energy, which was exactly what the Soul-Devouring Formation needed. There was no need for any transformation and Lu Sheng could directly absorb it.

Feeling the changes in the breath in his body, Lu Sheng's face turned deep red.

When King Chong heard the words "Soul Devouring Array", he turned pale.

As a member of the royal family, Prince Chong had naturally heard of the Soul Devouring Array, but had never actually seen it.

Because the Soul-Devouring Formation is related to the foundation of the royal family.

The Soul-Devouring Formation absorbs the dragon energy from the underground veins and the innate spiritual energy within a certain range as energy, and replenishes it to the practitioners at the center of the formation. The price is that no grass or crops will grow on the area where the formation is set up.

This will lead to the people having no food to eat. If the people have no food to eat for a long time, it will cause riots and disrupt the stability and order of a place.

If future emperors use the Soul Devouring Formation to improve their cultivation, the Song Dynasty will become more and more barren, thus affecting the stability of the dynasty.

Emperor Taizu had anticipated this and split the Soul Devouring Formation for this reason.

The diagram of the Soul Devouring Formation was handed over to the royal family for safekeeping.

The method of setting up the formation and launching it were handed over to the Imperial Observatory.

Until the moment when the country is destroyed and foreign races invade, even the emperor is not allowed to use the Soul Devouring Formation.

Of course, in the nearly four hundred years since the founding of the Song Dynasty, there have been emperors who have used their power to forcibly use the Soul-Devouring Array to practice, but they have all failed.

First, it is difficult to find the dragon vein.

Second, setting up the formation requires large-scale construction and consumes a lot of money.

Third, the ministers will strongly dissuade it.

After all, we must not set a precedent by activating the Soul-Devouring Array without reason, otherwise people will follow suit.

Fourth, the royal family will also oppose it.

Faced with so many obstacles, I had no choice but to give up.

"What did you do to King Zhao?" It was becoming increasingly difficult for King Chong to speak, and his consciousness was becoming increasingly blurred.

Prince Chu Yue of Zhao, now the head of the royal family, is in charge of the diagram of the Soul Devouring Array.

Although Luonan has the formation base left by Emperor Taizu, it is impossible to restart it without the formation diagram.

And King Zhao would definitely not hand over the battle formation to Lu Sheng easily.

However, what Prince Chong did not know was that the emperor who wanted to forcibly activate the Soul Devouring Array at that time, Song Zhongzong, although he prevented this idea due to numerous obstacles, the first step had been implemented before he gave up.

They were people from the Imperial Observatory. They had seen the diagram of the Soul-Devouring Formation, and there were also people with ulterior motives who replicated the diagram.

This makes the formation diagram of the Soul Devouring Formation no longer unique.

Otherwise, Xu Mu, who was Yang Minggui's military advisor at the time, would not have been able to set up the Soul-Devouring Formation in Xialin City, Qingzhou.

Xia Lin’s soul-devouring formation was only a small one.

It is only enough to allow a mid-level warrior to break through to the upper level.

The soul-devouring formation in Luonan City is a truly large-scale soul-devouring formation.

"He will come to accompany you soon. Now, let the prince be the first person to offer sacrifices." After saying that, Lu Sheng strangled King Chong's neck and threw him to the ground casually.

Although King Chong was dead, the Soul Devouring Formation was still draining the innate spiritual energy from his body.

Xu Zheng, who was standing by, was already petrified with fear.

He never expected that Lu Sheng would actually kill King Chong in front of him.

After all, he is a prince and you are just a subject.

Lu Sheng didn't look at Xu Zheng, and said to the housekeeper: "No more waiting, take action, do your best to delay the Chen army in the city, so that I can absorb more."

"promise."

The butler stepped back.

In the dungeon of the Xiangguo Mansion.

Zhou Qin and a group of officials who wanted to escape from the battlefield were imprisoned here. Their cultivation was not abolished, nor were they tortured. They were just kept in the dungeon, tied up with special ropes that bound their innate spiritual energy.

But even so, after only a few days in detention, Zhou Qin looked haggard and unkempt.

Just then, there was a noise outside the dungeon, and Butler Le from the Prime Minister's Mansion appeared in front of them.

Zhou Qin seemed to have seen a savior, and slammed the prison door loudly: "Butler Le, Butler Le, I know I was wrong, really wrong, please help me ask Prime Minister Lu to let me go, I will never dare to do it again, Butler Le, I beg you."

The officials in the neighboring cells followed suit upon seeing this, and for a moment, there were tears and sobs in the dungeon.

Butler Le’s next move also made them shine.

Because Butler Le actually opened the door of Zhou Qin's cell and untied the ropes on Zhou Qin.

Just when Zhou Qin was about to express his gratitude, Butler Le suddenly slapped him with his palm, and Zhou Qin instinctively mobilized his innate spiritual energy to resist.

(End of this chapter)