Chapter 1 The Toll of the Bell

The tolling of a bell signaled the call to return home.

In the rainforest,

figures dressed in green uniforms moved about.

They were of varying ages,

but mostly young men.

At a glance,

most had youthful faces.

They came from all over the country, spoke different dialects, and had different eating habits, but seventy years ago, they joined the army and came to this foreign land together.

For thousands of years,

the dynasties had changed like flowing water,

but the spirit of the army remained steadfast.

They were the best testament to this.

Zhou Ze walked in front, and tens of thousands of military souls followed behind him, with him as their guiding light.

If at first, Zhou Ze had acted impulsively and somewhat blindly,

because the appearance of the fog meant that these tens of thousands of military souls might be inexplicably taken away and used, which was why he had stood up.

Then now,

he was truly and completely awake.

The mountain was still a mountain, and the tree was still a tree.

However, when a person changes, the mountains and trees they see also naturally become different.

Zhou Ze held the rusty military canteen in his left hand, and his ghost messenger certificate in his right. It wasn't that Zhou Ze had deliberately taken it out, impatient.

It was because after he awakened the tens of thousands of military souls, his ghost messenger certificate started to heat up and float, as if sensing something.

Looking at Zhou Ze himself,

the fangs on both sides of his lips were faintly visible.

His clothes, worn from days of travel, were torn in many places, revealing skin that seemed to have ancient runes flowing across it.

If the old Daoist priest and Old Zhang were here and saw this scene, they would definitely be moved.

Because when facing the Earth God of Tong City, the resurrected Ying Gou had directly turned the two tomb robbers bound to the trees into walking corpses.

Although Zhou Ze wasn't doing anything to these tens of thousands of military souls at this time, nor was he changing anything,

the two seemed to have something in common.

Yingying followed closely behind Zhou Ze, carefully watching him. She knew that the boss had just recovered from a serious injury and was now throwing himself into this, and she was really afraid that he would suddenly collapse.

In fact,

Zhou Ze was really tired.

In the heat of the moment, he had been excited and hadn't felt anything,

but now,

as he became more and more aware,

the pressure and the energy consumed with each step were enormous.

Fortunately, he had the experience of walking out of the Naihe Bridge with Ying Gou a while ago.

Although he felt like he was carrying a thousand pounds on his shoulders, every step he took was solid.

The white fog had completely dissipated. Before, Zhou Ze had just rushed forward with his head down, not caring about anything else. However, because he was in the middle of the flood, he hadn't realized how terrifying the combined aura of these tens of thousands of military souls was.

But after that,

he was left with taking one step back at a time.

After walking for a long time,

Lawyer An and Xu Qinglang caught up.

Xu Qinglang took out some food from his backpack, seemingly preparing to give it to him, but Lawyer An grabbed his hand.

"What?"

"I'm going to give him some food."

"Why don't you just give him a Kuomintang flag to wave as he crosses the line?"

"..." Xu Qinglang.

"He'll be fine missing a couple of meals. What we're most afraid of right now is interrupting him. If this feeling is disturbed, it'll be hard to get it back."

Lawyer An took out two cigarettes, handing one to Xu Qinglang.

Seeing Lawyer An say this, Xu Qinglang took the cigarette and squatted down with him, preparing to rest.

Around them,

were figures of military souls everywhere.

Several thousand people could fill a middle school playground, let alone tens of thousands.

Exhaling a smoke ring,

Lawyer An stuck the remaining cigarettes in the pack into the ground and lit them.

"Hey, brothers, we're going home. Those passing by, have a smoke. Chunghwa, good cigarettes!"

These seven or eight cigarettes burned quickly,

in a few seconds,

they were directly burning at the filter.

Xu Qinglang looked at the approaching soldiers with some surprise.

"Are there female soldiers too?"

"What's so strange about female soldiers in the army?"

"Nothing strange."

Xu Qinglang flicked his cigarette ash.

Lawyer An rubbed his hands, looked at a row of female soldiers walking past him, and said slowly:

"When they entered the Savage Mountain, it seems that more than three hundred female soldiers came in together, but it seems that only one female soldier walked out alive."

Xu Qinglang was silent for a moment, then sighed.

Immediately after,

as if feeling that this atmosphere was not good, he looked at Lawyer An beside him and said, "Did this matter count as a success?"

"It'll only be a success when we send the military souls home, at least after crossing the border or the Nu River."

"I always feel like something is strange." Xu Qinglang said.

"What's strange?"

"The appearance of this fog is a little strange, it's too coincidental."

This wasn't a Hollywood blockbuster, which would deliberately create a lot of "coincidences" in order to show all kinds of conflicts and contradictions in two hours. This was reality.

And in this reality, apart from the unknown identities of Ying Gou and the Lord of Mount Tai, Zhou Ze was just a ghost messenger.

"Hey, who knows."

Saying that,

Lawyer An stood up and patted Xu Qinglang on the shoulder.

"Let's go, the boss has already walked far away."

…………

Zhou Ze had never been a sports or fitness enthusiast. He was lazy and instinctively rejected anything that required movement.

But this time, he trekked through the rainforest,

for two full days and nights.

Not only hadn't he closed his eyes or rested,

but he hadn't even stopped his pace.

Although he wasn't running, the frequency of his walking hadn't decreased.

At first, he was tired, hungry, and thirsty,

but slowly,

as time passed,

all sensations were wrapped in numbness.

You couldn't feel anything at all.

He just treated himself like a machine on an assembly line,

advancing,

advancing,

and advancing again.

It wasn't that he didn't want to stop and rest.

It was that Zhou Ze could clearly feel the eagerness and desire of the tens of thousands of military souls behind him to return home.

Although none of them urged Zhou Ze,

with tens of thousands of people following behind you,

you could feel tens of thousands of gazes on you.

You would have a feeling that

even delaying for a second at this time

was a crime and a blasphemy.

It wasn't bitter, at least his heart was willing.

Finally,

the Nu River was in sight.

Because it was winter, the water level of the Nu River wasn't as high as in the summer, and there weren't particularly big waves except for short periods in the morning and evening. Even so, it was still an insurmountable chasm.

More than seventy years ago, Chinese and Japanese troops had engaged in extremely bloody battles on both sides of this river, and the blood had stained the entire river red.

"Boss, should I find a raft?" Yingying asked.

The nearest bridge was still far away. Because of Lawyer An's bizarre way of leading the way, the way Zhou Ze had walked back was naturally not a tourist route, and there couldn't possibly be a bridge waiting for him ahead.

If it had been before, she wouldn't have worried about her boss not being able to swim across, but now, she was really worried that something unexpected would happen.

Zhou Ze pursed his dry lips,

without saying a word,

and continued to walk forward.

Ahead,

was a cliff.

"Boss!"

Yingying was shocked when she saw Zhou Ze step off the edge. She immediately reached out to grab her boss, preferring to use herself as a cushion and fall down with him!

However,

just as Yingying's hand grabbed her boss's clothes,

she found that her boss's feet were actually standing upright on the cliff,

and he continued to walk down.

Yingying didn't dare to exert any force and let go.

She looked down,

well,

the female zombie felt that her brain wasn't working properly.

The precipitous cliff was like flat ground to Zhou Ze.

Around him,

tens of thousands of military souls followed closely.

Some were singing military songs,

some were singing tunes from their hometowns.

Xintianyou, Huangmei Opera,

chaotic but lively.

In Zhou Ze's vision, sometimes there was a joyful team, and sometimes there was the desolate and deserted Nu River valley.

Yingying found a spot that wasn't too steep and slid down. Not long after she came down, she saw her boss walking steadily down the cliff step by step.

Then, he continued to walk step by step into the river.

There wasn't the exaggerated scene of the river being divided to allow Zhou Ze to lead people across.

Yingying saw her boss quickly disappear into the river.

The military souls beside him also entered the Nu River together.

Yingying only felt that she was worried sick. The boss himself was muddleheaded, like a naughty child who liked to kick off the covers while sleeping. She immediately dived into the water and saw her boss's feet stepping on the sand and gravel at the bottom of the river;

step by step,

still the same stride,

still the same frequency.

The debris below, the aquatic plants below, all failed to stop her boss in the slightest.

Tens of thousands of military souls plunged into the Nu River together,

causing the originally calm Nu River to suddenly surge, as if suddenly injected with vitality, suddenly rushing!

"Plop!"

Zhou Ze's head emerged from the water.

Next,

was his body below.

The river water completely soaked his clothes, making the runes on his upper body more obvious. At this time, he was like an ascetic, and like an enlightened one.

From the forest he came,

from the cliff he came,

from the bottom of the water he came.

At this moment,

in the clouds above,

suddenly there was a suppressed roar!

Like a heavy drum sounded,

Yingying's face trembled, with a very clear fear.

Ordinary people might not feel anything when encountering thunder, but for some existences that are not tolerated by the heavens, thunderstorms are a gateway to hell!

Zhou Ze also raised his head,

silently looked at the sky,

opened his mouth,

revealing his fangs,

"Roar!"

This was provocation,

as if to say,

come on,

strike me to death,

come on!

If you have the ability, strike me to death,

strike!

The gathering of tens of thousands of dead souls, their aura attracting the phenomenon of heaven and earth, naturally attracted the attention of the heavens.

However,

with Zhou Ze's roar,

the tens of thousands of military souls around and behind him also raised their heads,

and roared at the sky!

Home was right in front of them,

once they crossed the river, they would be home.

Whoever dared to stop them was their enemy!

Countless shouts, countless roars, made this area of the Nu River howl with ghosts and wolves, and the阴 wind raged!

Zhou Ze was a point, and the tens of thousands of military souls around him formed a plane for him.

The dark cloud layer above became more and more dense, advancing rather than retreating before the pressure of the heavens!

"Buzz!!!!"

In the sky, lightning seemed to be brewing.

Heaven and earth have rules that cannot be desecrated; otherwise, the tentacles of the underworld would have completely covered the entire yang world.

And the tens of thousands of military souls below, led by Zhou Ze, were not giving in at all, point against point!

They would rather be struck into ashes by lightning,

than continue to be wandering souls!

"Buzz!"

"Buzz!"

"Buzz..."

At the same time,

the boundary markers near the border line trembled at this time. Several boundary markers were near the checkpoint, which also aroused the surprise of the border guards stationed here.

The statues and tombstones in the Martyrs' Cemetery on Song Mountain also trembled together.

Figures appeared in the distant mountains, including Old Sun, who had just died.

It was as if a force was being wiped towards the sky.

The thunder,

was slowly dissipating.

The oppressive air,

seemed to have been relieved.

Yingying breathed a sigh of relief. At that moment, she really felt that she was going to be struck to death by lightning.

Zhou Ze raised his hands,

and continued forward,

until,

his feet,

finally stepped onto the shore.

Then,

his whole body trembled,

and he knelt directly on the ground.

Blood spilled from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and his entire face became frighteningly pale.

His chest heaved,

Zhou Ze opened his mouth,

"Back... home!"

"Thump!"

Zhou Ze's body leaned forward,

and fell heavily to the ground.

"Boss!"

Yingying was alarmed. She didn't want her boss to sacrifice himself for doing good. However, just as she was about to rush forward, she stopped.

Her boss's ghost messenger certificate floated out,

suspending above Zhou Ze's lying body,

constantly emitting a soft light.

The military souls who had followed Zhou Ze all the way were lined up in neat formations,

walking past Zhou Ze one by one,

saluting the Zhou Ze who was lying on the ground.

It was him,

who had brought them out,

ending their seventy years of cold loneliness.

Although "an inch of mountain and river is an inch of blood, a hundred thousand youths are a hundred thousand soldiers,"

there is also: birds fly back to their old home, and foxes die with their heads towards their hills.

As more and more military souls passed by Zhou Ze,

the ghost messenger certificate was undergoing a subtle change.

After these military souls passed by Zhou Ze,

some looked for fellow villagers in groups of three or two,

some looked for their comrades-in-arms and their teams,

and some walked alone,

laughing and joking.

On the cliff on the other side of the Nu River,

Lawyer An was biting his fingernails hard, it could be seen that he was very nervous.

"What's wrong? Haven't they crossed the river?" Xu Qinglang asked.

"No, tens of thousands of military souls, if they disperse, do you know what the consequences will be?"

That would be equivalent to tens of thousands of fierce ghosts howling out. Even if we tried to catch them, we wouldn't be able to catch them all!

Let alone tens of thousands, even if there were thousands, it would definitely be a great disaster that could not be atoned for!

"I said, you prepared so much before, how come you only thought of this now?" Xu Qinglang paused, "Also, I don't think it will come to that."

On the Zhou Ze's side of the Nu River,

tens of thousands of military souls crossed the river one after another.

They stood densely on this side of the riverbank,

thousands of troops and horses, the阴 army crossing the border!

A figure squatted down beside Zhou Ze.

It was a pity that Zhou Ze was unconscious, otherwise he would have been able to recognize that this was the "regiment commander" who had possessed him.

The regiment commander glanced at Zhou Ze's condition. Seeing that his life was not in danger, he stood up.

and shouted:

"We're going home!"

Tens of thousands of military souls cheered together:

"We're going home!"

"We're going home!"

"We're going home!"

In this cheer,

tens of thousands of military souls,

collectively dissipated,

with no one continuing to stay in the陽 world to cause chaos!