Secular world: My destiny has no taboos

Chapter 413: Lord of Beiming Mansion (Part 423)
Guan Shuo is now considered a general in the Beiming Army. He dares to fight and kill when facing the enemy. Although he is just an ordinary person, he does not have the extraordinary strength like Xing Liang, Zhang He and others, and does not have the cultivation level of establishing a government or even summoning gods.

But it was precisely because of his fearless performance that he enjoyed high prestige in the team he led. In addition, he was heroic and not fussy about details, so everyone respected him. After the Battle of the Starving Ghosts, he was deservedly promoted from sergeant to captain.

He followed a group of generals of the Beiming Army, led by Wu Huo and Luo Bingzhong, and walked into the meeting hall.

After crossing the threshold of the hall, everyone looked forward and saw Lin Beixuan sitting at the first seat across the long conference table.

At this time, Lin Beixuan rested one arm on his knee, his upper body slightly leaning forward, holding the document in one hand and flipping through it. The relaxed and indifferent expression on his face was seen by the generals of the Beiming Army.

These generals had all experienced Luozhou, which was ravaged by famine, and later joined the Beiming Army for various reasons.

It can be said that there are all kinds of people here. Some, like Guan Shuo, were born into a peasant family, while others came from a scholarly family before Luozhou was destroyed.

In short, they all knew that they were gathered together by the person sitting casually in the first seat in front of them.

Now that the source of the starving ghosts has been killed, the remaining starving ghosts in various parts of Luozhou are also being eliminated one by one.

The reason why Luozhou was able to be snatched back from the hands of the starving ghosts is closely related to the person in the first place.

These generals, with their faith in Lin Beixuan reflected in their eyes, entered the meeting hall one after another.

However, not everyone can sit at the ceremonial table. Only a few senior generals in the Beiming Army like Wu Huo or Luo Bingzhong are qualified to sit at the table.

As for the reason... it's very simple, because most of the seats have already been occupied by the secular gods.

Naturally, mid- and low-level generals would not be so short-sighted as to dare to compete with vulgar gods for positions.

Seeing that there was no place to sit around the ceremonial table, they consciously walked to the back and dragged some unoccupied chairs to sit down. Those who couldn't even find a chair could only stand in the corner.

Guan Shuo couldn't find a chair, so he could only stand. Before Lin Beixuan spoke, his eyes involuntarily glanced at the vulgar gods sitting on the high chairs.

He could not see the appearance of these secular gods clearly, because in his eyes, each of them was emitting a thin mist of different colors, making it impossible for him to get a full picture.

As for these mists, they were not released intentionally by the secular gods. Instead, they have been helping the Beiming Army to deal with the starving ghosts over this period of time. In the last battle, the secular gods were all seriously injured.

The soldiers of the Beiming Army saw this and naturally began to respect and admire him. In addition to worshipping the supreme general, their families would also worship an additional secular god.

For example, Guan Shuo, in addition to offering incense and offering sacrifices to Lin Beixuan at home, he also set up a shadow god next to him.

The reason was that in their final battle with the starving ghost Speedy, the effect of Shadow God's altar almost saved the lives of his entire infiltration team.

This is not just true for Guan Shuo. Many in the Beiming Army have been influenced by the altar of secular gods. Those who survived the final battle with starving ghosts will believe in and worship an additional secular god in addition to Lin Beixuan.

In the secular world, there is no such thing as believing in and worshipping only one secular god.

Therefore, in addition to Lin Beixuan monopolizing the majority of the incense offerings in the Beiming Army, the secular gods of Luozhou can also receive a lot of incense offerings.

As large amounts of pure incense continued to flow into their incense temples, the secular gods had no time to refine it, and the power of the incense began to evaporate into mist.

"Now that everyone is here, let's officially get started!"

At this moment, Lin Beixuan, who was sitting in the first seat, suddenly put away the document and glanced at everyone in the meeting hall.

Guan Shuo tensed up when he heard that. He took a deep breath and stood up straight.

Lin Beixuan glanced past Guan Shuo, crossed his hands on the table in front of him, and spoke in front of everyone.

He first exchanged some pleasantries and then got down to business.

Currently, the forces of Zi Gu God and Evil Spirit Lord are on the verge of a conflict. The situation in Anle County and Huangshi Village is dangerous. Luozhou still has a lot of things to deal with. Lin Beixuan does not intend to delay in the post-war summary.

After all, during the time he had been back in the human world, the Beiming Army, who were excited about the victory, had been waiting for a long time while suppressing their excitement.

"Let's talk about the post-war rewards first!" Lin Beixuan said lightly.

As soon as he said this, he could clearly feel the eyes of the Beiming Army generals becoming hot.

Thanks to Lin Beixuan’s new merit exchange system, rewards and punishments in the Beiming Army have become transparent, and merit is enough to prove everything.

How much effort you put in and how many enemies you kill will all be counted as merit.

You can only get a small amount of basic merit by being content with the status quo, but if you fight bravely and kill the enemy, you can get a large amount of additional merit.

And those who can stand here now are all those who have fought on the battlefield and killed a large number of starving ghosts.

As Lin Beixuan called out the names one by one, the generals whose names were read stood up one after another to welcome their own moment of glory.

Lin Beixuan read out each person's merits accurately. He held a booklet in his hand, which contained a list of merits recorded by Shen Tingmiao before she left.

Behind each name above is a record of the number of enemies killed by the Beiming Army soldiers in the final battle of starving ghosts. You just need to calculate according to the scores of different starving ghosts.

Moreover, the Beiming Army will also refer to the merit calculation to promote military ranks, which is formal and transparent, and almost all the promotion paths and rewards and punishments in the army are clearly laid out in front of the soldiers.

Even an almost illiterate farmer can understand and calculate it once he becomes familiar with the rules.

Of course, the merit system also has a drawback.

That will greatly increase the murderous nature of the Bei Ming Army's soldiers. In the long run, anyone who is hostile to the Bei Ming Army will probably no longer be a living life in the eyes of these soldiers, but a cold number.

Lin Beixuan had naturally thought of this, but the current situation was chaotic. Even if he could temporarily solve the problem of starving ghosts in Luozhou, there were still external forces such as the Zi Gu God who were eyeing him covetously, and he could not afford to relax at all.

Besides, will the Li Dynasty want to regain control of Luozhou after learning that the starving ghosts in Luozhou have been dealt with? What will the Beiming Army do then?
In fact, anyone who thinks a little bit longer-term knows that both Lin Beixuan and the current Beiming Army are like a ship that has lost its maneuvering pole. They can only raise the sails and move forward against the wind, with no way to retreat.

So what if I’m too murderous!

In this chaotic world, only those who survive first are qualified to talk about these things.

A dozen secular gods sitting on high chairs quietly watched the generals who stood up excitedly after Lin Beixuan's recitation.

They are different from the soldiers of the Beiming Army. There is no such thing as merit points for ordinary gods, and they don't care much about it.

Even many of the things that were exchanged for merits were paid for by these secular gods out of their own pockets.

Otherwise, with Lin Beixuan's own financial resources, how could he possibly meet the needs of tens of thousands of Beiming troops.

To put it in worldly terms, the secular gods present here are essentially the major shareholders of the Beiming Army, a corporate group created by Lin Beixuan.

As shareholders, what they gained was naturally different from those mortal soldiers of the Beiming Army, so they looked down upon these merits.

When Lin Beixuan read Guan Shuo's name, Guan Shuo cheered up and took a big step forward.

He followed the example of the generals before him, puffing out his chest high, his eyes flashing with excitement.

Lin Beixuan looked at Guan Shuo. He knew that the man in front of him was the one he brought out from Xiahe Village when he was trapped in the Kuhe Divine Stomach Palace. At that time, after the entire Xiahe Village returned to the ground, only a dozen people headed by Guan Shuo stayed with him with their wives and children.

Thinking of this, Lin Beixuan couldn't help but sigh and said with a smile: "Have I ever broken my promise?"

"The general has never broken his promise!" Guan Shuo said loudly, extremely excited.

Lin Beixuan patted Guan Shuo on the shoulder.

"Guan Shuo, the leader of the Beiming Army, killed 21 low-level starving ghosts, 2 mid-level Tao minions, and 1 Xie minion. Together with his subordinates, he killed 2 high-level starving ghosts, Speedy Minions. He is awarded 505 merit points, with a total of 1,300 merit points. He is promoted to the rank of lieutenant..."

As he spoke, Lin Beixuan took two medals from Wu Huo, who had been waiting nearby.

One of the medals was brass in color, with a starving ghost corpse engraved on the front with a steel knife stuck in its body.

This was forged by Lin Beixuan after discussing it with master craftsman Hu Yan from Sheshan long before the war broke out.

My thought at that time was very simple, just to give myself an expectation.

If the battle against the Xuanhuang Hungry Ghosts is won later, this medal will be distributed to every Beiming Army soldier who participated in the battle against the hungry ghosts.

If they lose, the people of Sheshan will bury their bodies with medals as their remains.

This is a medal representing the Naju Starving Ghost Battle. It is both a merit and an honor.

Lin Beixuan personally put it on Guan Shuo's lapel. He could clearly feel Guan Shuo's body trembling slightly with excitement.

Immediately afterwards, he took the second medal handed to him by Wu Huo.

This medal is different from the Starving Ghost Medal. It is silver-white in color, and the engraving on the front is also different, showing a long knife and a sharp claw fighting in an X shape.

Lin Beixuan called this medal the Hungry Ghost Medal of Bravery. Unlike the Hungry Ghost Medal, which every Beiming Army soldier had, only those who performed outstandingly in the war could receive this medal.

Just as its name implies, the Heroic Hungry Ghost Medal is more valuable and symbolic than the Starving Ghost Medal.

Just like the previous medal, after awarding it to Guan Shuo, Lin Beixuan immediately began to award the medal to the next general.

This process took more than an hour to complete. Although Lin Beixuan felt a little tired during this period, he did not feel dissatisfied at all.

After sitting back in the seat, Lin Beixuan looked at the medals worn on the lapels of the generals in front of him and nodded with satisfaction.

"There are more than 10,000 soldiers in the Beiming Army. I will present your medals today. The rest of the soldiers will be gathered on the parade ground tomorrow to be presented with medals."

After this sentence, the reward for the Beiming Army generals was over, and the next step was to discuss the future development of Luozhou.

First, Lin Beixuan repeated the parts of the document handed to him by the Fox Spirit God that he agreed with, and then put forward his own opinions on the parts that he disagreed with.

"For the brothers who died in this war, I think it is not appropriate to let their families take their bodies home for burial. Moreover, many of the fallen soldiers have relatives who are no longer alive."

"So I plan to make unified arrangements for the soldiers who died in this war. I will select a hill in Luozhou and bury these soldiers here. From now on, all the soldiers who died in the battle of my Beiming Army can be worshipped by the people."

When these words were spoken, the first person to be shocked was not the generals in the army, but the secular god who had been sitting on a high chair and watching Lin Beixuan awarding honors for an hour.

"This……"

The Shadow God looked stunned. He turned his head to look at the Earth Guardian God who was sitting on a high chair next to him and wanted to say something.

However, when he saw Lin Beixuan noticed his movement and looked at him, he swallowed back the words he wanted to say.

However, he didn't say anything, Lin Beixuan smiled and took the initiative to speak: "Does Lord Shadow God have any opinions?"

Lin Beixuan smiled gently and his eyes were clear, as if he really just wanted to know Shadow God's opinion literally.

The Shadow God recalled the grace of Lin Beixuan when he killed the Xuanhuang hungry ghost. He felt a little afraid and instinctively wanted to say that he had no objection.

However, the eyes of the surrounding secular gods were all looking at him, and the incitement in them was self-evident.

Apparently, not only the Shadow God, but other secular gods were also somewhat confused about this decision.

Because since ancient times, only gods and immortals in the secular world have been able to receive incense and offerings from mortals, and it has never been heard that soldiers can receive the same treatment as them after their death.

They could accept that they were being suppressed by Lin Beixuan, but they could not accept that those dead soldiers could also take up the incense that should have belonged to them.

You must know that in the secular world, the competition for incense offerings between human immortals and secular gods is very fierce.

The reason why there were no secular gods fighting each other for incense offerings in Luozhou was because the situation in Luozhou was declining, with only one in ten living people left. Everyone was thinking about how to solve the big problem of the Xuanhuang hungry ghosts and had no time to worry about other things.

Now that the Xuanhuang hungry ghost has been eliminated and the incense in the Beiming Army is so pure, the secular gods of Luozhou will naturally start to measure it.

The Shadow God knew that the secular gods had high hopes for him, so he could only ask with gritted teeth.

"General, we Luozhou's secular gods have made great contributions in this war. We shouldn't be abandoned so soon, right?!"

This statement is quite clear. Incense and offerings are what secular gods need. Once Lin Beixuan makes this decision, if people all go to worship the sacrificed soldiers, who will still worship them?

Not only did they not pay me after the lesson, they also stabbed me in the back!

Lin Beixuan smiled when he heard this, and scanned the faces of the secular gods on the field. He saw that each secular god had a different expression on his face, but they all had a questioning and inquiring look.

Even the Fox Spirit God shook his head slightly at him, thinking that he shouldn't do this.

However, Lin Beixuan pretended not to see it. He smiled bitterly, shook his head, and sighed.

"Master Shadow God, your words are too serious. I never mean to get rid of the donkey after it has done its work. Without the help of you masters, the Beiming Army would not be able to defeat the Xuanhuang Hungry Ghosts in the battle against the Hungry Ghosts."

"I allow the soldiers who died in this war to be worshipped by the people with incense and offerings, and I have no intention of splitting up your incense and offerings."

"Regarding the sacrifices for the fallen soldiers, they will only be held during the Qingming Festival each year. Sacrifices will not be held every day. Please rest assured about this."

All the secular gods breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this.

That’s more like it. If it’s just one day, then it doesn’t matter. They won’t miss one day’s worth of incense.

But then they began to wonder why Lin Beixuan did this.

Incense is of great use to secular gods, but for the wandering souls of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Beiming Army, it can only help to condense their souls.

Lin Beixuan smiled at the secular gods in front of him, but did not speak directly. Instead, he said meaningfully: "This is related to another development of mine, which is not easy to reveal to you for the time being."

(End of this chapter)