Portal:Investiture of the Gods/Chapter 58

This chapter is titled "Lu Yue, the God of the Plague". This certain man deployed was none other than Zhou Xin, who was met shortly by Jinzha outside the eastern gates of Phoenix City. Fleeing faintly following a few rounds of battle, Zhou Xin struck his pair of chimes three consecutive times, sending Jinzha fleeing into Phoenix City in a great headache, fearing prior that such a factor could have led to his potential death if he had not fled. The day following such an incident, Li Qi appeared before the enemy's gates only to be confronted by Muzha, who in turn was resolved to avenge the humiliation that his elder brother had suffered earlier. To the detriment of Muzha, however, Li Qi waved a large pennant several times, resulting in the former turning exceedingly pale with the feeling of intense fire burning within his flesh. Fleeing back to the capital city in fear at knowing his current vulnerability, he fell to the ground and began to foam at the mouth -- a point to which he was no longer conscious.

Hearing from Li Qi of his two consecutive victories, despite not taking the former foes captives, Lu Yue began to sing in great joy knowing that the magical prowess within the hands of his disciples is truly unrivaled. As like the two days prior, Zhu Tianlin volunteered to meet the oppositon the day following, to which he was confronted by Thunderquaker. Experiencing great difficulty in striking at Thunderquaker--as the latter constantly used the vantage of his wings to evade any potential attack--Tianlin retreated a set distance before suddenly landing a blow upon Thunderquaker at an unexpected angle, forcing him to fall to the ground with intense gravitional pull being thrusted upon his body. Despite such a disadvantage, Thunderquaker managed to kick about a great measure of sand with the strength left within his wings, resulting in more or less lucky escape.As Thunderquaker returned to Phoenix City with the assistance of neighboring scouts, Jiang Ziya received report that a fourth man had just confronted their territory: A man seemingly different from the three originally confronted. This individual, who was expectedly Yang Wenhui, was met in short measure by Dragon Beard Tiger, a man to which he considered exceedingly strange in appearance. As Dragon Beard began to unleash volleys of stones upon the opposition, Wenhui retorted by negating each attack with the swift movement of his silver-edged whip; the Zhou general had little choice but to flee, knowing that his technique proved fruitless against such a foe.

The Prime Minister being highly distressed at such continued happenings, obtained report that a fifth Taoist with three eyes had just appeared before the city's gates. Riding forth from the gates with generals at his right and left hands, Jiang Ziya confronted this man--who was known as "Lu Yue"--and immediately realized that he must be the reason as to why Su Hu had not been won over at the beginning - - for he eternally trusted the words of Yellow Flying Tiger and knew that Su Hu must have been controlled due to such assumed intentions. As the generals of Zhou impulsively charged and surrounded Lu Yue from all sides, not intending on giving in to any form of reconciliation that could end with detriment, Zheng Lun immediately assisted his master with immense speed; but at the moment to which he caught sight of Huang Tianhua, he immediately realized that Su Hu must have setten free the former in an eventual attempt at Jiang Ziya's life. Knowing that the situation at hand is of far greater benefit with Lu Yue at his side, Zheng Lun thrusted his club at the youthful warrior, but was met by Nezha in merely an instant. As Lu Yue began to consider the situation with desperation, he transformed himself into an enormous beast with six heads and sword-like fangs. Unfortunately however, Yang Bliss seized such a moment to shoot Lu Yue consecutively with his golden balled bow, forcing the latter into immediate retreat with a wounded Zheng Lun tailing behind him. Grinning with delight nontheless upon his return to the Shang camp, Lu Yue first healed his disciple's wound with an elixer pill before ordering his other four disciples to scatter forth many plague pills within the rivers, streams, creeks, and ponds that were used as provisionary supplies for the benefit of the Zhou forces and fellow civilian of Phoenix City.

The people of Phoenix City, who did not visibly notice any difference in their natural consumable water, fell right and left, torn apart by a hidious plague that spread about as a resolution of their unknowing. As all generals discluding that of Nezha and Yang Bliss were also effected by this plague, Zheng Lun obtained the consention of both of his commanders, and charged at the city gates with high morale and great determination to prove his past defeats as being a mere strick of bad luck. To his immediate surprise however, he took notice of many soldiers gathered before the city wall ready to pounce upon him as if it were an ambush rather than an act of desperation as he would have naturally considered. Cautioning the situation, Zheng Lun decided to return to the side of Lu Yue, where he elaborated the evidence that Phoenix City is seemingly strongly guarded. Yang Bliss, who had created many false warriors out of grass while molding their figures with the assistance of his magic prowess, began to perspire, knowing that he had little more than a few hours left to preserve such a tactic. At such a critical moment in time, Yellow Dragon and Jade Tripod had originally felt in their minds an unpredicatable happening could have taken place, and thus arrived within Phoenix City and greeted Jiang Ziya and King Wu, to which they were enlightened about the situation. With such knowledge, Tripod ordered his disciple, Yang Bliss, to head immediately to Fire Cloud Cave for the sake of obtaining elixers from the the "Three Holy Masters" while he personally continues the original grass-soldier technique in the latter's stead. Obeying his master's command and arriving shortly before the intentioned cavern, Yang was allowed entry after obtaining the consention of a Taoist lad, where he confronted the three masters: Emperor Heaven, Emperor Earth, and Emperor Mankind. Kowtowing before Fu Xi, the Emperor of Heaven, and elaborating the rationale behind his arrival, Fu Xi asked Shen Nong to hand the former three specialized elixers that could negate such a continued tragedy in entirity. As Shen Nong consented, he additionally handed Yang Bliss a magical herb that possessed the ability to cure any infectious disease if boiled in water; Yang thus left shortly afterwards, fully grateful for the kindness recently considered towards the cause he fought for.

Using every such instruction noted with the three elixer pills present, the plague dispersed at a quick pace while the magical herb cured the diseases that had been previously rampant. At this same point in time, Lu Yue, after hearing Zheng Lun's words prior, and concluding that their former stand was only a final desperate movement, besieged the city from all external provisions for an entire week, longing for the people of Zhou to feel great humiliation in the face of the greater power wielded within his palm. As Su Hu was naturally unwilling to accept such a truth after seeing the evidence of Lu Yue's former defeat, he scoped the city from a high position and realized that full activity was present within the capital city -- concluding that such a plague obviously did not have any visible effect. Returning to the camp and scolding Lu Yue for not being aware of the situation, Lu Yue, in his enraged wonder, saw the truth with his own eyes, and thus ordered his five disciples to immediately strike the city from all directions with a combined force of 15,000 soldiers. As the people of Phoenix City had not recovered their strength after such a plague was only recently diminished, Nezha, Yang Bliss, Yellow Dragon, and Jade Tripod all headed to the four gates in order to block the opposition's assault from all sides.

封神演義/卷058