All Beings Will Save Me [Mythology Crossover] - Chapter 20

Chapter 20

One hundred days is a duration that is neither too long nor too short—a very subtle amount of time.

Previously, while in the Zhou military camp outside the city, Jiang Ganqing had noticed that in the vastness of Xiqi, the only person who had truly glimpsed the threshold of cultivation was actually Jiang Ziya alone. While there was no lack of fierce generals among the others, they could only deal with mortals; the moment they encountered someone like Zhang Guifang, who practiced heterodox arts, they could only stare helplessly while being utterly crushed.

Consequently, when Jiang Ziya’s attention was entirely focused on the confrontation and war with the Shang army, it was naturally difficult for him to spare much attention for Xiqi City behind him. He certainly never imagined that his “home base” would be infiltrated.

Jiang Ganqing gripped Huang Tianxiang and came to a halt in the air outside Xiqi City, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of entering.

“What’s wrong, Nezha?” Huang Tianxiang squirmed in his grasp, somewhat puzzled. “Why aren’t we going in?”

He had already seen his favorite shop selling pancakes! If they went too late, they would all be sold out, and nothing would be left!

“Shh.” Jiang Ganqing placed his other free hand to his lips, making a silencing gesture to Huang Tianxiang. “Let me look closely.”

Huang Tianxiang simply thought he was seeing the prosperity of Xiqi City for the first time and wanted to admire it properly. “Oh, you can look whenever you want, but first let’s enter the city.”

“No,” Jiang Ganqing said. “The entire Xiqi City is currently enveloped in evil spirits and curses. It’s fine for me to enter, but as for you, it’s better if you don’t go in for now.”

Huang Tianxiang almost cried out in shock, but Jiang Ganqing covered his mouth with one hand, stifling all the subsequent screams so as not to attract the attention of the people below.

Realizing his own recklessness, Huang Tianxiang signaled frantically with his eyes, indicating he wouldn’t be rash again and asking to have his right to speak returned.

Jiang Ganqing stared into his eyes for a moment before slowly withdrawing his hand.

“What do you mean by evil spirits and curses?” Huang Tianxiang asked rapidly. “Neither sounds good… Will they affect the people living in the city?”

Jiang Ganqing’s gaze bypassed the obstruction of the city walls and landed on the pedestrians walking along the streets inside. Although every one of them seemed to move freely and without major issue, appearing full of energy at first glance, Jiang Ganqing could see the grayish-black deathly energy lingering on everyone’s faces.

“There won’t be an impact for the time being,” Jiang Ganqing said. “What a malicious method. Although there’s no effect in the short term, once the amount of this filth accumulates to a certain point, it will suddenly erupt, becoming a ferocious calamity that no one can react to or handle.”

Huang Tianxiang asked cautiously, “Like…?”

“Like?” Jiang Ganqing tapped his temple with a finger and thought for a moment. “Sudden deaths for no apparent reason, plagues with no detectable source, growing weaker day by day while being unable to do anything but watch yourself die… If the current situation is allowed to continue, these things are inevitable.”

Although Huang Tianxiang couldn’t see the black energy—the kind that would make one feel physically uncomfortable and nauseous just by looking at it—he followed the scenes Jiang Ganqing described and let his imagination wander. Instantly, a vision of a living hell unfolded before his eyes.

Huang Tianxiang gave a violent shudder.

“We must stop it, Nezha! Let’s go back and find the Prime Minister.”

He stopped mid-sentence. Clearly, Huang Tianxiang remembered that the reason he was able to lead Nezha out of the camp so leisurely today was precisely because Jiang Ziya was away on business.

“What—what do we do?!”

No matter how one looked at it, Huang Tianxiang was still just a teenager. Though he was exceptionally brave on the battlefield, he inevitably lost his composure when faced with such an unexpected emergency.

“Don’t panic,” Jiang Ganqing said in a deep voice. “One hundred days is neither long nor short.”

“Things haven’t reached the worst stage yet.”

He thought for a moment, found a secluded spot outside the city gates to land, and set Huang Tianxiang down. “I’ll go into the city to check it out; you go back to the camp to report this. Tell the King to, on one hand, temporarily cut off all paths to Xiqi City and forbid anyone else from entering. Additionally, please contact the Prime Minister as soon as possible to come back and handle this—”

He paused subtly.

“Um… after all, regarding spells and such, my studies weren’t exactly proficient.”

Whether Jiang Ganqing’s studies were clear or not was unknown, but Nezha most certainly knew absolutely nothing about them.

Huang Tianxiang clearly felt this was ridiculous. “…Then what do you usually study?”

This question was easy to answer; Nezha’s response was given without hesitation: “Fighting.”

Huang Tianxiang: “???”

Please, isn’t that even more ridiculous!

Seeing Jiang Ganqing about to leave him and head toward the city gate, Huang Tianxiang grabbed him. “Wait! That’s not right! You won’t let me in, so why can your rabbit go in with you?”

Jiang Ganqing looked down at the rabbit in his arms, his eyes momentarily dazzled by the Emperor’s Purple Qi surrounding it.

Is it his imagination, or does the Purple Qi on the rabbit seem thicker than before…?

He instinctively rubbed the rabbit again and looked up, staring at Huang Tianxiang with a half-smile.

Although Jiang Ganqing didn’t speak, Huang Tianxiang miraculously felt he understood what the other meant.

You can compare yourself to a rabbit?

The blow was a bit too heavy!

Jiang Ganqing patted the rabbit’s backside. “Go on, give General Huang a performance.”

The rabbit suddenly lunged from his arms and delivered a “shadowless kick” straight to Huang Tianxiang’s solar plexus. Huang Tianxiang was caught completely off guard; he stumbled back several steps and nearly fell. It was only because Jiang Ganqing reached out to grab him that he avoided the embarrassing scene of being kicked over by a rabbit.

Once Huang Tianxiang regained his balance, Jiang Ganqing let go and slowly caught the returning rabbit. He curled his lip at Huang Tianxiang. “See?”

The result was crystal clear!

It was actually because the rabbit was shrouded in Emperor’s Purple Qi. Never mind this filth in Xiqi City, which was intentionally weakened to avoid detection by Jiang Ziya and only dared to influence things gradually; even if it were hundreds or thousands of times more concentrated, it wouldn’t be able to get within a hair’s breadth of the rabbit.

“I’m going in then,” Jiang Ganqing waved at him and walked away gracefully.

Watching Jiang Ganqing’s back disappear into the city gate, Huang Tianxiang suddenly realized something.

Wait.

He was brought here by Nezha’s flying.

How is he supposed to get back now?!

Jiang Ganqing used his waist token to easily enter Xiqi City.

If one ignored the black filth spilling out from all directions, constantly trying to stick to him, Xiqi City was indeed several times more prosperous and bustling than Chentang Pass.

Unfortunately for the filth, since Nezha was a lotus root incarnation, no amount of grime or impurity could linger for even a second under the pure, cleansing aura of the lotus, let alone influence him.

Jiang Ganqing could see the black filth flowing through the city, so he followed the path of the air currents, walking all the way toward their source.

The further he walked, the denser the surrounding filth became. In the end, in Jiang Ganqing’s eyes, he was practically walking in total darkness, and the temperature had dropped enough for water to form a thick layer of ice.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Jiang Ganqing finally stopped.

Before him was a dried-up well hidden in the overgrown grass. He didn’t know how long it had been abandoned, but from within it surged a wave of filth so nauseating it made one want to retch.

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