Chapter 650: 思淵 Ghost General

**Year 973 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**Luo Si was tragically framed and killed by his direct lineage, leaving no remains. His body was not interred in the ancestral hall, and his vengeful spirit transformed into a fierce ghost, descending into the Underworld.

**Year 974 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**His soul, eroded by resentment, drifted aimlessly along the banks of the Oblivion River, nearly dissipating. Guided by the Old Man of Gray Bones, he was taught the "Forgetfulness Mantra" mental cultivation technique. He used the waters of the Oblivion River to purify his obsessions and vowed to repay the kindness.

**Year 980 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**He enlisted in the army, serving as a squad leader. Leading five disabled soldiers, he set up whirlpool traps at Disaster Beach, ambushing and killing the bandit leader. His talent in water combat first emerged, earning him a promotion to platoon leader.

**Year 982 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**During the Yellow Turban River escort battle, he lured the enemy by sailing a damaged boat, then used hidden currents to counter-ambush and defeat the Nine Nether Water Bandits, capturing their boats. He was honored with the title "Oblivion River Water Warrior" and promoted to Centurion of the Blackwater Army. After the battle, he personally authored "Ten Rules of Boat Handling" to train new recruits, achieving significant results.

**Year 986 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**He deployed a hundred light boats to create a deceptive formation, luring the drowned army into a shallow bay. He secretly accumulated water momentum for three days, then suddenly launched a vortex attack, annihilating three thousand enemies. He was promoted to Deputy General.

**Year 990 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**He defended Dragon Break Gorge against the Bone Fleet. After being besieged by the Bone Fleet for over three months, nearly running out of ammunition and supplies, he fished to calm the morale of his troops. While fishing, he comprehended the military strategy "Scales Hidden in the Abyss." He then voluntarily abandoned the large ships and, using thousands of small boats, launched a night attack from the city. With an ant-like overwhelming force, he destroyed several of the enemy's large warships. The Bone Fleet withdrew, and Luo Si successfully rescued himself, though severely wounded. He was granted the title "Abyssal Thought Ghost General."

**Year 993 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**He was transferred to North Deer Immortal City for recuperation, also serving as the City Guard Commander. He suppressed the Smiling Casino riot and purified Resentful Infant Alley.

**Year 995 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**When foreign enemies attacked and the Lord of Solid Ice Immortal City fell, Luo Si was specially transferred to serve as the City Guard Commander and interim City Lord. He surveyed hidden reefs for seven days, adjusted angles to guide currents, resolved the ice-jammed river tides, and ensured the smooth flow of supply lines. He identified soul-eating Yin Worms and repelled them with soul waves, protecting ninety percent of the medicinal fields and thwarting the enemy's plot.

**Year 996 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**He quelled a violent uprising of malevolent spirits in Ice Nest without damaging the seal in the slightest.

**Year 997 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**His special training at Corrosive Bone Beach proved successful, leading to the creation of a new troop type: Frost Hell Thought Guards.

**Year 998 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**He was promoted to Commander of the Northwest Frost Halberd Army. He defended the frontier, slaying thousands of enemies and deterring ghost wolf packs from encroaching, thus ensuring peace along the border.

**Year 999 of the Oblivion River Calendar.**He was ordered to attack White Paper Immortal City in the mortal realm and was appointed as interim commander.

After reading Luo Si's resume, Sun Lingtong exclaimed, "I can't believe Ghost General Luo Si, in only two or three decades since his death and descent into the Underworld, has already risen to the position of a provincial commander!"

Zeng Jide, who was beside him, withdrew his spiritual sense. "He received guidance from the Old Man of Gray Bones. I suspect there's a larger scheme at play from the latter. Luo Si's career path has been too smooth, step by step."

Sun Lingtong frowned. "Why did that Nascent Soul cultivator rush here to retrieve Luo Si's resume? Could it be—"

Zeng Jide said, "An official's resume is akin to a life tablet or soul lamp in a super sect; it's a powerful means of restraint."

"What else could it be?""It's simply using this resume to deal with Luo Si.""It seems Luo Si isn't obedient and needs a good lesson."

Sun Lingtong nodded, his own suspicions matching this. He couldn't help but worry, "The Oblivion River Underworld's attitude towards Luo Si has taken a sharp turn for the worse. Could it be that he pulled back during the battle, deliberately held back, and aroused suspicion?"

On the altar battlefield, a torrent of military strategy raged through the Imperial Guard's position, crippling the entire defending army almost instantly. Both friend and foe were too stunned; there were only the screams of the severely wounded and the sounds of the military strategies wreaking havoc. Countless gazes, like sharp arrows, shot directly at Luo Si. If these gazes could kill, Luo Si would have already been pierced by a thousand arrows, deader than dead.

Yet, under the gaze of thousands, Luo Si remained perfectly calm, as if he were not the one who had turned the tide of battle with a sudden counterattack. His eyes were even slightly unfocused as he looked at the "Scales Hidden in the Abyss" military strategy before him, recalling the moment of his epiphany at Dragon Break Gorge, a place true to its name.

On both sides, scale-like black rocks interlocked like the fangs of a colossal beast, tightly gripping the most turbulent and treacherous section of the waterway. Turbid waves roared, crashing against the gorge walls, shattering into a sky full of foul-smelling Yin-energy spray, only to rejoin the endlessly surging current.

Luo Si, then merely a Deputy General, was ordered to hold this strategic choke point and block the main advance of the Bone Fleet. After more than three months of fierce combat, most of Luo Si's warships were damaged, arrows and talismans were exhausted, and arrays became increasingly difficult to repair.

The makeshift water fort, temporarily constructed deep within the gorge, swayed like decaying wood in a storm, heavily besieged by the Bone Fleet. The omnipresent Yin wind on the river carried whispers of despair as it swept through the fort.

Luo Si had exhausted all methods and confirmed there would be no reinforcements. He knew he was trapped in a desperate situation with no hope, but with his great vengeance still unfulfilled, he was unwilling to give up.

The morale of the army was like a bowstring stretched to its limit, on the verge of snapping at any moment. Luo Si knew he had to stabilize their spirits. Otherwise, defeat and ruin awaited them in the next moment. Even in this dire situation, he did not want to give up, despite seeing no hope.

Military provisions and armaments were depleted. To stabilize morale, he had to find another way. Fortunately, he had a hobby of fishing, which made things simpler.

Every dusk, when the Bone Fleet's assault briefly subsided, he would go alone to the most prominent overhanging rock at the gorge entrance. Below the rock was where the main artery of the Oblivion River converged with the surging currents of the Nether Dragon River, a place teeming with whirlpools and hidden currents, where Yin winds swirled.

He wore no armor, only a dark robe, holding a fishing rod, casting a long line to fish.

Every cast of Luo Si's rod, every gaze fixed on the subtle ripples on the water's surface, carried a nearly martyric concentration and tranquility. Silence enveloped him, and strangely, it enveloped the entire water fort as well.

The soldiers, hidden behind broken ship railings, watched their general with exhaustion, even numbness. The suffocating despair and anxiety within them were, surprisingly, slowly suppressed and settled by a deeper, colder force during this silent ritual.

Luo Si sat for a long time, as if cast from iron, outwardly calm and composed, but inwardly anxious, desperately pondering how to break free from their desperate situation.

Only three main warships remained, none of them a match for any of the Bone Fleet's large ships. While there were still numerous small boats, each could carry a maximum of five people, rendering them seemingly useless.

As he struggled for a solution, his gaze pierced the river's surface, seeing a faint blue light quietly drifting in the water. It was a school of small fish, arriving silently like motes of dust. Then, more tiny blue dots lit up one after another, gathering like particles, and a shadowy outline gradually became clear—an endless, layered mass of fish!

They silently churned beneath the water, their bodies imperceptibly trembling, emitting a mysterious blue light. Suddenly, billions of tiny lights rapidly converged, forming a surging, rushing river of blue-silver coldness, silently roaring as it swept through the water.

The stream of light illuminated long-sunk broken weapons and ship wreckage, lighting up the silent underwater battlefield.

A single small fish was as insignificant as a speck of dust, but now the collective fish formed a vortex, surprisingly altering the direction of the currents beneath the river surface, creating a colossal spiraling undercurrent, like a giant tornado, a behemoth in an instant!

Luo Si's heart was deeply shaken, as if struck by a sledgehammer. A flash of enlightenment pierced his spiritual sea, broke through the dimness of his mind, and illuminated the chaotic waters at the bottom of his heart.

"Military might is depleted, deeply mired in desperation. If this deep valley accumulates water, the abyss, like a beast's maw, can swallow all living beings.""However, the deeper one faces the abyss, the more one must hide scales within the water.""We, who are weak like these small fish, hide silently at the bottom of the abyss—awaiting a fleeting flash of light, gathering like dust, acting in unison, forsaking life and death, we too can become a torrent.""The longer the abyss accumulates, the more irresistible its wave-breaking power becomes.""Once it erupts, it can transform into the strongest abyssal current, engulfing everything!"

Thousands of wreckage pieces and broken weapons at the bottom of the river, in the deepest, most silent parts of the riverbed, seemed to unleash their past cries, now resounding like thunder in Luo Si's spiritual sea.

Luo Si reeled in his rod. From the empty hook tip, a drop of water fell, returning to the abyss. His resolve was firm.

He turned, facing the countless pairs of eyes in the water fort, some bewildered, some weary, some holding a glimmer of hope. Back in the camp, he issued his command, his voice so calm it was almost indifferent: "Abandon ship."

Everyone was stunned. Abandon ship? In this aquatic dead end, how was abandoning ship any different from cutting off their own escape?

Luo Si's gaze swept over the three heavily scarred main warships, whose array spirit stones were almost exhausted, without a hint of reluctance. "Large ships are useless, merely targets. Destroy them, take their refined iron keels to forge spears and arrows. All remaining small boats and rafts are to be equipped with oil paste and Yin Fire Talismans."

The command was concise, every word carrying immense weight.

That night, under the cover of dense river mist and exploiting the Bone Fleet's slight complacency due to their clear advantage, countless small boats set out simultaneously.

Empowered by the "Scales Hidden in the Abyss" military strategy, each small boat moved like a part of a fish school, coordinating closely. They followed the river's flow, attacking en masse, heedless of sacrifice, pressing forward relentlessly! This was the momentum of an ant swarm!

Each light boat's attack was as weak as an ant's bite. But when dozens, even hundreds, of tiny attacks erupted simultaneously, it was like a school of fish churning, forming a deep undercurrent. Deadly chaos spread through the massive Bone warcraft! The screeching groans of snapping keels, the explosive sounds of Yin fire licking the hulls, the panicked roars of crewmen—

One, two... several colossal vessels tilted and disintegrated in the darkness!

Luo Si led the charge, his soldiers clinging and climbing like ants swarming a dam. Fierce battle cries tore through the dense mist, and the firelight reflected on the gorge walls like infernal flames.

The enemy general was a mix of shock and fury; he had never witnessed such an eerie, cunning, and bone-clinging tactic! Seeing his colossal ships suffer one after another and his army's morale in disarray, he had no choice but to order a retreat. The vast and formidable Bone Fleet, for the first time before Dragon Break Gorge, turned tail and fled like wolves and foxes.

The battle was a success, a desperate counterattack! Victorious, Luo Si, gravely wounded and near death, was carried back to the water fort.

The Prefect personally issued an edict of commendation, and in remembrance of Luo Si's fishing enlightenment and his profound defense of Dragon Break Gorge on that day, bestowed upon him a new title, one that better fit his current temperament and military strategy: "Abyssal Thought Ghost General"! This title implied his mind was as deep and unfathomable as an abyss, and also praised his patient and unyielding character, capable of accumulating power and erupting to achieve success in a single stroke!

The dramatic and perilous past, so vivid, ultimately condensed into a brief and simple description in his resume.

His unfocused gaze sharpened. Luo Si concentrated, observing the results of his attack. This strike of his had been long in the making, long planned. "Scales Hidden in the Abyss" had marshaled most of Luo Si's forces; its power was terrifying, instantly slaying countless Imperial Guards.

Luo Si's control was precise and ruthless, specifically targeting the Mother of a Hundred Ghosts. As a result, the latter frantically deployed defensive measures, but after holding out for three breaths, she was killed by the surging waves of "Scales Hidden in the Abyss"!

The Imperial Guard, over ten thousand strong, was also crippled. A large section of their formation in the center was directly cleared out, leaving only remnants of cultivators at the four corners, all fleeing in terror. Chaos. Everything was in disarray.

Revered Cold Mist trembled violently, roaring in shock and fury, "Luo Si, you traitor!"

Luo Si's subordinates, a mix of shock and anger, surrounded him, weapons and magic treasures in hand. "Luo Si, what is going on? Are you being controlled?"

Luo Si's defection during the battle was absolute; he had either not acted at all, or acted with earth-shattering power! With just one strike, he had overturned the entire battle situation. Despite performing such an astonishing feat, his face remained serene, his deep eyes reflecting the scene of the Green Blight Army charging forward.

His gaze subtly fixed on Ning Zhuo. He calmly replied, "I also thought about parting ways amicably, but the situation evolved such that I was forced to act."

"My apologies, everyone.""I am a good person."

"What in the world?!" His subordinates were dumbfounded.

Luo Si suddenly raised his voice, which resonated across the entire battlefield, reciting a declaration.

"Indeed, the Dao of Heaven is manifest, and the laws of ghosts are glorious!""I, by the command of the heavens, attack the disloyal, wielding divine punishment to strike down the rebellious!""The Prefect of the Oblivion River, originally granted the emoluments of the Underworld and balancing the scales of the Oblivion River. Yet, he is ravenous, devouring the heavens; his demonic heart eclipses the sun; his sins permeate the netherworld—""First: Disrupting Yin and Yang! The Sky Ghosts perished in primordial times, their remains ought to have returned to silence. But the Prefect of the Oblivion River, using defiled earth to mold bones, turbid qi to forge veins, and refining them on an altar, presumptuously stole their celestial talents!""Second: Usurping the King's Mandate! Bearing the esteemed position of Prefect, yet deeming his authority insufficient, he coveted the remains of the Sky Ghosts, and with the dignity of a ruler, committed acts of thievery and corruption to this extent, for which even ghosts and gods would condemn him!""Third: Slaughtering Cities for Sacrifice! Under the pretense of 'offering to the calamity,' he carried out acts of blood sacrifice! A million inhabitants of White Paper Immortal City all became fuel in his furnace. The verdant blood of the common people stained pure paper; such demonic acts are intolerable even to the Nine Nethers!""Fourth: Imprisoning the Dao, Severing Righteousness! The Valley Lord of Water Burial Valley, adhering to the heavenly mechanisms, remained tranquil; his kindness to me was like rebirth, his benevolence widespread in the netherworld. But the Prefect, relying on brute force, compelled him to conceal the heavens, imprisoning my benefactor in the cold pond and locking the celestial orbits in the deep valley! I now bear this ring to repay his kindness, how can I allow jackals to imprison a Qilin and Phoenix?""Now I raise my spear and turn my banner, not to betray my lord, but truly to follow Heaven's will! You have treated the Oblivion River as your private tool, regarding all ghosts as mere dogs;""The dark lord is without Dao, but a clear ruler is in sight! Wielding my sword, I follow the True Dragon, to redefine the universe!""Heaven's punishment is manifest, shining upon my courage! With the enlightened ruler by my side, my blade grows colder!!"

To wage war, one must occupy the moral high ground; this principle was, of course, very clear to Luo Si.

Both friend and foe: Revered Cold Mist trembled with cold fury, repeatedly denouncing, "Traitor! Utterly shameless, with a glib tongue, deserving of ten thousand deaths!"

Ning Zhuo, however, was pensive. Sun Lingtong had previously explored the Underworld alone and encountered Luo Si by the Oblivion River, receiving his help. Therefore, Ning Zhuo knew many inside details, including Luo Si receiving guidance from the Old Man of Gray Bones.

Among those present, Ning Zhuo was the first to accept this reality.

Qing Chi: "What's he saying?"Ning Zhuo sent a spiritual message: "Ignore all that, attack with full force!"Qing Chi: "Oh!"

Under the maiden's command, the Green Blight Army seized this crucial opportunity, charging all the way, like a sharp dagger, directly piercing into the heart of Luo Si's forces.

Luo Si's army had previously had too many forces diverted, their minds were greatly shaken, morale plummeted dramatically, and they were instantly weak and exhausted, suffering countless casualties, unable to put up any significant resistance.