After being demoted, my 300,000-strong army trampled the imperial city!

Flames raged, and poisonous fire scorched the sky.

At this very moment, on the mountain battlefield, countless poisoned soldiers lay dead on their way to victory.

"Wind, wind, wind—"

As the Western Regions army advanced, the remaining Poisonous People fought fearlessly, perhaps for them, this was the best end.

Chen Futu, standing amidst the army formation, could only sigh as he gazed at the distorted figures.

Soon only shadows remained in the sea of ​​fire, with the bronze-armored corpse and the drought demon stirring restlessly.

The shadow ignored this and continued to stare intently at Chen Futu, the killing intent and resentment in its eyes almost tangible. "What goes around comes around. You have caused a bloodbath in the Western Regions. You will not have a good end."

Chen Futu calmly said, "War inevitably results in death. As for my fate, you need not worry about it. If one day I also meet such an end, I will have no regrets."

Having said that, the bronze-armored corpse and the drought demon pounced on it.

Shadow roared and fought back desperately. He was only a Martial Emperor, and a fake Martial Emperor who had been forcibly raised by poison. How could he be a match for two puppets? Even so, when he was knocked away, he kept moving towards Chen Futu's direction. It was clear that his will was covered by hatred. Even if he died, he wanted to take Chen Futu with him.

Seeing this, Wang Zhaojun stepped forward, and the heavy, icy chill swept over her, extinguishing the flames of revenge amidst the falling snow.

The shadow lay prone on the snow, its hand outstretched towards Chen Futu, staring defiantly, the flames of anger in its eyes undiminished.

He died, and the war finally ended.

The number of people who died in this war was no less than those who died in a skirmish.

Chen Futu gazed at the poisonous corpses covering the mountains and fields, their twisted and resentful faces, and remained silent for a long time. Then he ordered Dongfang Bubai to command the army to collect the poisonous corpses and burn them to prevent them from polluting the land.

The atmosphere on the way back was somewhat subdued.

Zhao Xi'er asked cautiously, "Has Your Majesty ever regretted it?"

"I may be wrong, but I will never regret any decision I make."

This was Chen Futu's reply.

Which emperor didn't rise through mountains of corpses and seas of blood? What's done is done, so why regret it? But today's experience should serve as a warning, so that we don't so easily sow seeds of evil in the future.

"Heh, as expected of the Great Sage Emperor, he kills without hesitation and is bloodthirsty by nature."

Xuanyuan Lie followed behind the group, speaking in a sarcastic tone.

Xiao Bai waved her fist in dissatisfaction, "Old man, you want a beating, don't you? Believe me or not, Silly Girl will beat you to death!"

Sensing hostility, the drought demon immediately roared at Little White. Little White, with wide eyes, imitated it, "What's that red-haired monster yelling about? Silly Girl can yell too, woof, woof—"

"Okay, stop making trouble."

Chen Futu chuckled and patted her head, then asked Xuan Yuanlie, "Didn't you say you didn't want to form an alliance with me, senior? Why did you send the drought demon to attack just now?"

"I wanted to test the Poison Man's strength, not to help you."

Xuanyuan Lie snorted, completely denying it, and was quite arrogant.

Chen Futu could see that Lao Deng was not an irredeemable villain. He was just harboring too much resentment from the perspective of the Sand Sea Clan. He released the drought demon to wreak havoc on the Black Sand Sea to vent the injustice that Heaven had done to the Sand Sea Clan. He would still take action if something could cause a bloodbath.

To put it bluntly, what he hated was the powerful figures of Lizhou. If there were powerful figures to help the Sand Sea Clan suppress the Sand Eye, they wouldn't have lost so many people. And those who could cross the Black Sand Sea were mostly martial artists. Those people died, so be it. Ordinary people had no hatred for the Sand Sea.

Chen Futu saw through it but didn't point it out, lest he lose face.

After returning to the city, Chen Futu handed Xiaoqing over to Zhao Xier, instructing her to take Dongfang Bubai and Xiaobai to search for the other hiding places of the poisoners. In short, even if all the poisoners were killed, they could not be allowed to come out and cause a catastrophe.

In just a few days, Zhao Xier wiped out several poison-making settlements within her jurisdiction and obtained a secret manual called "Poison Scripture," which contained methods for refining poison-making techniques.

Chen Futu gave the Poison Scripture to Dongfang Bubai. She chose to stay in the Western Regions temporarily, intending to destroy the Barbarian King's Stronghold and find vicious individuals to refine poison-infused humanoids to fill the ranks of the Sun Moon Cult. The Western Regions were also a suitable place for her to carry out her plans.

Ding!

System upgrade complete.

The system's long-absent voice finally rang out again.

As mentioned before, it opens up the "Life and Death Tribulations" instance for civil and military officials, and Chen Futu can also bring people in, but the focus is on participation, and no one will gain anything.

[Upgrade Rewards Issued]

Reward 1: One random summon card.

Reward 2: One Large-Grade Creation Pill.

Reward 3: The host's cultivation level has been raised to the mid-stage of Martial Emperor.

[The system has detected that the host has not completed the Sand Sea binding. The system will open the Sand Eye-related panel after the binding is completed.]

The system kept ringing for a while, and then suddenly issued a task.

[Recently, the presence of a bronze-armored corpse, a drought demon, and a poisonous man has been detected near the host. Would you like to unlock related side quests?]

"Anecdotes? What do you mean?"

[The host's recent activities have been mostly related to corpses, thus triggering the "Corpse Anecdotes" quest. Upon completion of the quest, the host will receive a unique puppet. The puppet's cultivation level will be determined based on the host's completion rate.]

"That sounds good, tell me more about it."

Chen Futu was somewhat envious of the drought demon, but he couldn't easily deal with such a being. The bronze-armored corpse required him to be distracted and controlled, so the puppet crafting reward from the system must be extraordinary.

[If you activate the Anecdotes, you will encounter related events within a few days. Participating in and completing them will earn you rewards.]

This is a mechanism similar to duplication, only it's materialized in the world.

After hearing the system's description, Chen Futu felt his scalp tingle and goosebumps falling like raindrops.

"System, do you mean that after it's activated, I'll encounter some scenes from stories I've read?"

【Yes】

"Ju-on, The Haunted Village, Zombie series? Go to hell! If you want me dead, just say so. I'm not activating it."

[Host, please rest assured that the template will be used to match this world, and no ghosts or monsters will appear. Instead, high-level powerful beings will be used to represent them. Once completed, they will all disappear and will not affect the development of this world.]

"That makes sense. If I were to fight the Ancient Temple, could I activate the Anecdotes and lure them in?"

Please, host, don't be so shameless.

"a ha ha ha!"

"It's decided then and there. We'll keep the anecdotes for now, and when we face the Ancient Palace, we'll see the BOSS from the anecdotes wreak havoc."

[Host, please note that this is a martial arts world, and even the BOSS may not be able to defeat the Ancient Palace.]

"It's okay if I can't beat them, isn't it great to just get the completion points for free?"

Chen Futu muttered to himself, and the system suddenly went silent, as if it had been stimulated.

Over the next few days, the Shen family caravan parted ways. Before leaving, Shen San said he would find an opportunity to visit the capital, which meant that Chen Futu had officially extended his reach to the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce.

It is worth mentioning that Wang Zhaojun's cultivation level has returned to the Martial Emperor level. To level up further, she must take elixirs or enter relevant dungeons.

After a long journey of half a month, the group finally returned to the capital.