Cao Fang stared toward the city gate for a while before cursing, “Idiots! That’s a person, not some black blob!”
Still swearing, he urged his horse to pick up speed. When he reached the front, he finally saw who was hanging there, and his fury instantly erupted.
“This is outrageous! The guards of Prince Kang’s residence have actually been hung from the city gate. What a disgrace!”
These were the very men he had sent ahead. To treat them like this was tantamount to showing no regard for Prince Kang at all.
Most importantly, they were all still alive. They were being tortured alive.
Inside the carriage behind him, Murong Zhou lifted the curtain and looked at one of the guards. “Go see what’s happening.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the guard who had gone ahead to investigate happened to return.
He cupped his hands respectfully toward Murong Zhou and reported, “Young Master, several people have been hung above the city gate. They appear to be the guards from Prince Kang’s residence—the same ones who were sent ahead earlier.”
Murong Zhou was startled. “They were all captured? And hung at the city gate for public display?”
He remembered that those guards were highly skilled. How could they have been captured so easily?
The gray-robed elder’s brows knitted tightly at the guard’s report. He had a vague feeling that something was wrong.
After a moment, he turned to Murong Zhou with a solemn expression. “Young Master, something is wrong with Xin’an City. There are no refugees or commoners lingering outside the city. The soldiers on the walls look as though they haven’t even noticed an army approaching; there isn’t the slightest sign of panic. There’s no way they didn’t see so many of us. There must be something wrong inside the city.”
This was the intuition that had allowed him to avoid danger countless times over the years. It had never been wrong.
Murong Zhou, however, did not take it seriously. He waved his hand dismissively. “It’s perfectly normal for there to be no refugees or commoners outside. Everyone knows that Prince Kang is coming to attack Xin’an City. Only an idiot would stay here and wait to die. As for the city walls, we’re still too far away to see clearly. Perhaps they’re all hiding in corners and trembling with fear.”
The gray-robed elder looked worried. “Young Master, we should still be cautious. Those guards of Prince Kang were no weaklings, yet they all fell here. We need to be careful too.”
Murong Zhou nodded perfunctorily. “Yes, yes, don’t worry. They only suffered because they were outnumbered and careless. We’re different. We have a massive army—not a force to be trifled with. All we need to deal with are the martial artists inside the city.”
The carriage continued slowly forward, and before long, it arrived beside Cao Fang.
Cao Fang was glaring furiously at the people hanging above the city gate, his eyes blazing with rage.
On top of the city wall, Xi Qingyue remained sprawled in her reclining chair without moving. She still held a cup of ice-cold soda in her hand and was drinking it in high spirits.
Scholar Han sat beside her on a small stool, seemingly lost in thought.
Ever since he had arrived on the city wall, the shock in his eyes had never faded. He knew that Xi Qingyue must have encountered some kind of extraordinary opportunity, but he had never imagined it would be so astonishing—so utterly beyond his understanding.
Not only was she immensely skilled in martial arts, she could also produce objects out of thin air, and every one of them was a miraculous treasure. With such things at their disposal, no matter how many troops came, it would be useless.
“Yue’er, they’ve already been here for some time. When shall we strike? Should we kill some and spare the rest?”
Xi Qingyue turned her head and shook it. “Uncle Han, once we attack, we won’t leave a single one alive. At least not this time. As the vanguard of Prince Kang’s army, they’ll only become a source of trouble if we spare them. Kill them all.”
Just then, a shout came from below the city wall:
“Those inside, listen up! Open the city gates at once! We are Prince Kang’s men. Prince Kang is benevolent and cannot bear to see you oppressed by demons, so he has come to eradicate the evil and restore peace to this land. Open the gates immediately and welcome us into the city!”
At that, Xi Qingyue burst out laughing. “What an inflated sense of self-importance. Since when did I become a demon?”
With that, she stood up.
Mu Jin and the others were waiting for her order. They were all eager to try out the new weapons in their hands.
Scholar Han also sprang to his feet and glared furiously at the people below the wall. “What treasonous rabble are you? How dare you spread such nonsense here! I am the newly appointed magistrate of Xin’an City. The people here are honest and upright; there are only immortals here, not demons. If you want to rebel, then rebel, but don’t dress it up with such grand and false claims. It makes me sick just listening to you!”
Mu Jin immediately joined in. “Exactly! All I know is that Prince Kang has been snatching and abducting children everywhere and using them to refine pills. Is that something a human being would do? If he wants to rebel, then he should just rebel. Don’t cloak his vile deeds in some lofty, hypocritical excuse. It’s disgusting.”
Cao Fang had originally ordered his men to shout those words. The moment he heard this, he flew into a rage.
He urged his horse a few steps forward and shouted, “How dare you! And you still claim you aren’t demons? You hung Prince Kang’s guards from the city gate and tortured them. If that isn’t demonic, then what is? Release them immediately and open the gates to let us in. Otherwise, not a single person inside the city will survive today!”
He believed that once he said this, the commoners inside the city would panic. In their terror, someone would surely open the gates.
Sitting confidently atop his horse, he regarded Scholar Han and the others’ words as nothing more than empty bravado. He did not take a small city like this seriously at all.
Above the city wall, Xi Weilan carried a rocket launcher on her shoulder and took aim at Cao Fang’s position. Nan Yun and the others also aimed at targets in different directions.
Xi Qingyue let out a cold laugh. With one step, she flew from the city wall and into the air outside the city.
“You dare invade Xin’an City and still boast that you’ll slaughter everyone inside? Who gave you such courage?”
She hovered in midair outside the city, stopping between the two sides. Her expression was indifferent, with a trace of mockery in her eyes.
Cao Fang was instantly stunned. He had seen people with exceptional lightness kung fu before, but never anything like this. Then, however, delight replaced his shock.
He immediately ordered, “Fire! Release the arrows!”
The soldiers had long since drawn their bows and nocked their arrows. At his command, they unleashed them all at once. Tens of thousands of arrows shot toward Xi Qingyue like a torrential rain flowing backward into the sky.
At the same time, Xi Qingyue’s calm voice rang out. “Weilan, do it.”
Xi Weilan calmly pulled the trigger, then silently waited for the fireworks to bloom.
Mu Jin and the others attacked at the same time. Streaks of white smoke and light descended toward the army below like falling stars.
Just then, the rain of arrows about to strike Xi Qingyue was suddenly pushed backward by both her palms. The arrows instantly reversed direction, flying back several times faster than before.
Inside the carriage nearest Cao Fang, the gray-robed man shouted, “Run!”
He grabbed Murong Zhou and tried to leap out of the carriage, but it was already too late.
At the critical moment, he struck Murong Zhou with one palm, sending him flying far away.
Thunderous explosions erupted beside them. Flames and smoke completely engulfed Cao Fang and the carriages around him.
Cao Fang was killed on the spot. The gray-robed man and the others nearby also failed to escape death.
The gray-robed man’s palm had sent Murong Zhou crashing beside another carriage. The moment he hit the ground, a streak of white light struck him. He felt a flash before his eyes and a sharp pain throughout his body, then lost consciousness.
Smoke billowed into the air and shattered stones flew in every direction. The army of more than twenty thousand troops instantly collapsed into chaos, completely losing its formation.
Just then, the city gates slowly opened, and dozens of people armed with submachine guns charged out from within.
Mu Jin and the others lowered their rocket launchers, grabbed their guns, and leaped down, instantly joining the effort to mop up the enemy.
The sight left the ordinary soldiers and the civilians who had been prepared to defend the city to the death utterly dumbfounded. They had been living in fear for days, only to discover that they had never been needed at all.
Xi Qingyue stood in the air, keeping watch over the entire battlefield. When she spotted several martial artists who had avoided the attack trying to escape, she fired several water arrows with pinpoint accuracy.
A series of wet, piercing sounds rang out, drowned by the screams and chaos at the scene.
Xi Qingyue smiled in satisfaction. She didn’t care where they had come from—anyone who came to kill her would have to pay with their life.
Standing atop the city wall, Scholar Han watched with deep emotion. How foolish must those people who had left earlier have been!
