Chapter 62: The Final Test and Demonstration

Tiance Mansion, training ground.

Zhu Jinzhen, along with Zhangsun Wangqing, Caoxue Yang, Yang Ning, Yan Yimei, and others, waited quietly for the return of the secret guards.

"Your Highness, the mission was successfully accomplished."

"Murong Fu and his retainers, five in total, have all been executed."

"Please inspect, Your Highness."

A secret guard dressed in black placed the corpses of Bao Different and the others, wrapped in rough cloth bags, before him.

Zhu Jinzhen looked at Murong Fu’s lifeless head and the blade marks on the corpse, and couldn't help praising, "A single strike to behead, swift as lightning. Yunxiang's mastery of the blade has improved once again."

"Just a minor achievement, entirely thanks to Your Highness's cultivation. You flatter me too much," the black-masked Yunxiang replied with a chuckle.

Another black-masked secret guard threw a large, round bundle onto the ground, bowed, and reported, "Your Highness, this is the elder of the Clean Clothes Faction of the Southern Song Dynasty Beggar Sect who arrived in Jiayuguan three days ago. It is said the Ming Dynasty Beggar Sect contacted them to come here. For some reason, they intended to organize some Beggar Sect disciples within Shaanxi."

"According to the secret guards' intelligence, they had already plotted to kidnap or abduct children from remote villages and towns, preparing them for human trafficking and mutilation."

"Oh? What about the children?" Zhu Jinzhen was not surprised. He held no fondness for the Beggar Sects of the Ming, Northern Song, Southern Song, Mongol Yuan, or any other nations. For those in Shaanxi who genuinely could not survive, he would provide a path to life.

The training standards for the Diamond and Mysterious Profound realms in Cangyun and Tiance required cultivating at least a hundred acres of wasteland every month to support those citizens with disabilities or lacking special skills.

However, Zhu Jinzhen would never tolerate beggars within his fiefdom.

Especially manufactured ones, whether reduced to begging through deception, coercion, or theft, and even less so the emergence of mutilated child beggars. Once discovered, they would be hunted for a thousand miles until completely exterminated, with no leniency whatsoever.

"Replying to Your Highness, the secret guards had already pinned them down, giving them no chance to make a move, just waiting to use them to flush out more rats. Tonight, your subordinate merely happened to encounter them and executed them in advance; no commoners were harmed."

Although no commoners under his rule were harmed, Zhu Jinzhen still felt a trace of dissatisfaction.

"Yimei."

"If something like this happens again, there is no need to wait; capture them and throw them into prison. I refuse to believe their mouths are harder than red-hot irons in the Embroidered Uniform Guard's詔狱 and the Eastern Depot's Celestial Prison."

Although she could guarantee the secret guards' deployment was foolproof—after all, keeping an eye on a few upper-third-rank Beggar Sect trash warranted deploying one Mysterious Profound expert and several Diamond realm experts to watch in the shadows, along with Tiance and Cangyun patrols standing by at all times—even if the top brass of the Northern and Southern Song Beggar Sects came in person, they stood no chance of making waves.

Yet Yan Yimei also caught the dissatisfaction in her master's voice and the implication of his words. She could thoroughly dig up the Beggar Sect and all accomplices and rats behind the scenes, using interrogation under torture or crushing military might—any method was acceptable.

The one thing she could not do was use the commoners under their rule, especially children, as bait.

From the moment Zhu Jinzhen spoke, Yan Yimei knew she was wrong.

Yan Yimei bowed and admitted her fault, "Understood. This subordinate was wrong; please punish me, Your Highness."

"Forget about punishment."

"Let this be a lesson."

Zhu Jinzhen waved his hand. In this matter, Yan Yimei and the Profound Armor Secret Guards had certainly done an airtight job; his words were merely a warning, because bottom lines sometimes lowered step by step.

"Thank you for your understanding, Your Highness." Yan Yimei let out a long breath and bowed back.

"Alright, Yunxiang, Jingzhong, you've worked hard in the middle of the night, go down and rest."

"To serve Your Highness is our duty; we dare not speak of hardship!"

"This subordinate takes leave."

Yunxiang, Zhou Jingzhong, and the others bowed and departed.

Yan Yimei did not understand why Zhu Jinzhen had ordered Yunxiang and the others to kill Murong Fu, nor why they had dismembered the corpse. She assumed Murong Fu had angered her master, so she stepped forward, cupped her fists, and asked, "Your Highness, does this subordinate need to send people deep into the Northern Song to uproot the Gusu Murong family?"

"Watch quietly for now."

"Next comes the moment to witness a miracle."

Zhu Jinzhen waved his hand. He harbored no personal enmity toward Murong Fu; he merely wanted to test the Tivat Fried Egg.

There was no need to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Unable to suppress the excitement in his heart, Zhu Jinzhen glanced at the corpse of Bao Different and the others... Yunxiang's strikes had been well-measured, essentially killing them instantly with a single blow and separating head from torso.

"Select Murong Fu, use Tivat Fried Egg," Zhu Jinzhen silently recited in his mind. The Tivat Fried Egg in his hand instantly transformed into a beam of light brimming with rich life force, rushing straight into the separated corpse of Murong Fu.

"Whoosh!"

Murong Fu's head, which had rolled onto the ground, was instantly yanked back to his neck by a mysterious force.

Then, under the shocked gazes of Zhu Jinzhen, Zhangsun Wangqing, Caoxue Yang, Yan Yimei, Yang Ning, and all the Cangyun and Tiance generals, Murong Fu's corpse—which had been decapitated and was as dead as could be—suddenly twitched.

Followed by the sound of a heartbeat, beginning to thump steadily in the quiet night air.

"This is?"

"Isn't he dead?"

"A corpse coming back to life? Or resurrection? One can clearly feel his aura dropping drastically and his vital energy being utterly depleted, yet one can also clearly hear his heartbeat and the sound of blood flowing."

The generals of Tiance and Cangyun looked at each other in utter shock.

Resurrection from the dead.

For the first time, it appeared before them in such a magical, even terrifying manner.

Of course, everyone present knew this was inevitably the work of their master.

While experiencing shock beyond measure, an incomparable fervor surged in their hearts. If their master had mastered the art of bringing the dead back to life, would they ever need to fear death when fighting on the battlefield in the future?

Zhu Jinzhen felt his scalp tingling with excitement at this moment. The Tivat Fried Egg he had just used was materialized from the Gourmet's Tablecloth—what did this mean?

Infinite supply of Tivat Fried Eggs = infinite resurrection?

With a flash of his figure, Zhu Jinzhen grabbed the newly resurrected Murong Fu, who still wore a dazed expression mixed with the lingering terror and resentment of his final moments. Suppressing him with true qi and swordsmanship, he began to closely examine Murong Fu's body.

"Vital energy depleted, the Mysterious Profound realm intact."

"The extraordinary meridians and the five zang-fu organs are complete, just like someone who has suffered severe injuries and is on the verge of death, hanging by a thread that refuses to snap."

Zhu Jinzhen's fingertip vibrated with true qi, forcing Murong Fu to lean back uncontrollably.

He carefully observed Murong Fu's neck and found it stained with blood, but the blade wound that had decapitated him was entirely gone. "Interesting, even the wound has healed?"

After repeated observation, Zhu Jinzhen reached an extremely satisfying conclusion.

In reality, a game resurrection item like the Tivat Fried Egg possessed its most heaven-defying trait: aside from bringing the dead back to life, it actually possessed the ability to repair fatal wounds and staunch bleeding.

It was hard to tell whether this was high-dimensional suppression by game rules.

Or the sheer uniqueness of those game rules.

Zhu Jinzhen casually slapped the newly resurrected Murong Fu back to death, then smeared another fried egg right across his face with a backhand motion.

He wanted to confirm it once more.