A bluish-white light mixed with light blue pierced everyone's eyes. They instinctively closed their eyes or turned their heads away. There was a loud sound of metal breaking, and one end of the severed feather arrow was thrown out, drawing a long trajectory, and fell outside the city wall. It banged into the feet of a rebel soldier below, and the shaft was still shaking slightly.
Almost at the same time, the old man standing behind the parapet had his hair scattered by the strong wind and waves. He stumbled back a few steps and only felt something touching his back before he could stand firm.
After a while, the dazzling light faded away, and the soldiers on both sides opened their eyes. Only then did the old man who had retreated dare to open his eyes.
The boiling drums of war stopped abruptly, and the fields and city walls suddenly became silent.
At the back of the battlefield, Chen Fu, who was sitting on horseback, slowly lowered the longbow in his hand and threw it into the guard's arms. His previous heroism and smile gradually faded, and his face became as dark as a deep ancient well.
"... How... How could it arrive so quickly? The Immortal Sword must be the Immortal Sword..."
The light completely dissipated, and looking ahead, his eyes suddenly shrank.
An ancient long sword was hanging outside the wall, and the magic light was like a wisp of fairy air floating around. The next moment, the sword flew away with a light hum and rushed to the nearby city wall.
Over there, a figure stood on the rooftop, his robe swaying in the blowing wind and rain.
“Liang Sheng…” the old man called out, and a smile finally appeared on his tense face. He felt his body relax and he was about to touch the wall. The county magistrate at the side called out, “Grand Scholar!” and rushed over. Suddenly, a cyclone of air wrapped around the old man’s body and he did not fall.
On the city wall.
The moon was trembling as it slowly swam to one side. Lu Liangsheng imitated the movements of a certain toad, standing in the lead-blue rain curtain with his hands behind his back. The raindrops fell down and turned into wisps of white mist and dissipated less than two inches around his body.
"Chen Jing."
The words were spread by magic power. Liangsheng looked coldly across the dark army below and at the old man under the waving "Chen" flag. After a moment, he looked at the young man beside him.
"The State of Chen has been destroyed for many years. This land and its people have long been governed by the State of Sui. Can't you see that? The world has been divided for a long time. Why bother to start a war on this land?"
Looking over from the distant city wall, under the fluttering flags, Chen Jing pursed his lips and lowered his head slightly. He had a resolute but gentle character, and was somewhat hesitant when questioned.
"Mr. Lu..."
A rider on a spurred horse came out slowly from the side. Chen Fu raised his hand to tell Chen Jing not to speak. In terms of knowledge and eloquence, he was far from being a match for the man opposite him, so there was no point in putting himself at a disadvantage.
"General Cao, if the front troops don't advance, use your direct troops. If Lu Liangsheng takes action, his righteous face will be broken. If he doesn't take action, we can just capture the city and take over Hegu County!"
Over there, Cao Shouren was looking at Mr. Lu who was surrounded by magic swords. When he heard what the old man said, his face was stunned.
... Damn it, you are gambling with my capital...
However, as a rebel general, he was already in a difficult situation and he tightened his sword in his hands, his thick beard split open, and he roared while swinging his sword.
"Listen, command! Beat the drums and march!!"
There were three carts with turbans and bare-chested men. They looked at each other for a moment and had to swing their drumsticks and hit the drumhead hard. The quiet dust particles bounced up at the first drum sound of "dong".
Then, the drumsticks kept hitting.
Boom boom boom—
Ten thousand infantrymen surrounded the central army, and the spears were bombarding down. The soldiers in front held shields and stretched them out. The blades held tightly in their right hands were raised and lowered, and the backs of the blades hit the shields in unison, forcing the three phalanxes that had stopped before to continue moving forward.
On the distant city wall, hearing the sudden sound of war drums, Lu Liangsheng looked at the army that was advancing again, countless thoughts flashed through his mind quickly. The moment he stopped, he roughly guessed the opponent's intention.
"I'm not the kind of person who can be cruel..."
Lu Liangsheng sighed, took back a heavy purse from his hands behind his back, and slowly let his arms fall to his sides. He always gave people the impression that he had many magic spells and ways to kill people, but when it came down to it, his best skill was still the magic of painting.
From the cuff of his fire-patterned sleeve, a small stick slid into his palm. It swelled in the wind and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a scroll with a dead wood as the axis. This was a magic weapon that he had specially refined to resist Pu Du Ci Hang in the past. He didn't expect that it could come in handy at this time.
In an instant, Lu Liangsheng raised his other hand to point at a sword, and his sleeves spread out. Under the guidance of the magic power of Qiankun Zhengdao, seal characters were drawn in the air. The scroll made of old pine branches attached to it seemed to wake up, and the magic light gradually brightened, turned dark green, and a trace of Yin energy overflowed.
The scholar on the city wall had his robe rustling and threw the scroll in his hand to the field outside the city.
— "Soul Burial in the Underworld"
The wind blew the raindrops and they turned into white smoke and drifted away. Lu Liangsheng raised his sword and the scroll in the air suddenly unfolded. The rebels who were advancing below raised their heads and saw that the unclear picture was full of evil spirits and skeletons.
"What...what is that?!"
"There are a lot of ghosts up there." "What are you afraid of? Soldiers like us won't be afraid!"
"The general has ordered that anyone who climbs the city wall will receive five ounces of silver!"
Under the flag at the rear, the warhorse shook its head restlessly and kicked its hooves. While Chen Jing was trying to comfort it, he was also looking at the scroll floating in the air.
"Master... that's a magic weapon?"
Chen Fu on the side did not answer, his eyelids twitching from time to time. He always had a bad premonition, and hurriedly used the magic of Six Dings and Six Jias to move the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to break the opponent's spell.
But... the old man who was quickly pinching the spell stopped his fingers and suddenly raised his face. He couldn't feel that the other party didn't borrow the five elements of the five directions.
"No, this is not the Five Elements Dao..."
The next moment.
Lu Liangsheng was on the city wall, he waved his sleeves and cast another spell at the same time.
"Resurrection Spell!"
There was a rustling noise in the woods around the field. Frightened birds flapped their wings and flew out in the drizzle, disappearing in a farther direction.
The floating scroll was blooming with magical light, and Yin Qi overflowed from the frame, sinking to the ground and quickly spreading over the insteps of the soldiers. A wisp of Yin Qi rose up and was sucked into the mouth and nose. His eyes suddenly widened, and he saw a sad and beautiful woman flying towards him with her sleeves dancing. The moment she was in front of him, her pretty face instantly turned into a skeleton, and he screamed in shock, "Wow--".
On the vast plain, the rebels who were advancing towards the city wall could hear the clanging of weapons hitting the ground one after another. The soldiers stood there trembling, falling into fear.
"Attack, what are you doing?!"
"Pass the order, beat the drum!"
"I'm going to skin you—"
There were more than a thousand soldiers left as reserves on both sides. The soldiers retreated in panic, fearing that they would be contaminated by the spreading negative energy. Cao Shouren looked at this scene and roared in anger. When he swung his knife to chop down a soldier who wanted to escape, Chen Fu used the spell of summoning wind from the Six Dings and Six Jias.
The strong wind blew across the field, but the spreading negative energy was not affected at all and continued to spread in all directions.
Xunfeng is not an ordinary wind in nature, but a wind borrowed from the Six Ding and Six Jia gods. It has great power to restrain evil spirits and demons.
…not Yin Qi.
The old man withdrew the spell and tried it again, then he guessed a possibility - an illusion!
'That Yin Qi is an illusion. Lu Liangsheng used illusion as a medium and used his magic power to pull people into the illusion. I didn't expect that the magic that is usually not taken seriously by people who practice Taoism would be used in a different way by him...'
"Master, Mr. Lu... Lu Liangsheng is missing!"
During Chen Fu's brief thoughts, his apprentice's voice suddenly sounded from the side. He came to his senses and found that the figure standing on the city wall had disappeared without him noticing.
The uneasiness in his heart was like a swarm of ants crawling across his back. He pulled the reins and shouted to the young emperor beside him.
"Jing'er, go!"
The moment the horse turned around, a sharp sound came from behind. Chen Fu bit his fingertips and tapped the hindquarters of the warhorse that Chen Jing was riding.
—Shh!
The warhorse raised its hooves and neighed loudly. The moment its front hooves touched the ground, it stirred up a thick layer of mud and sand, and then it galloped wildly forward.
Ta-da-da…
Chen Jing lay on the violently ups and downs of the horse's back, looked back at the old man who was getting farther away, and shouted: "Master!!"
"Jing'er, go!"
At the back, the old man repeated the sound on horseback, grabbed the magic sword on the carriage, raised a cold light, turned around and chopped it out, colliding with an ancient long sword that was attacking. Two different magical powers exploded, and the magic sword that was attacking broke into pieces and was thrown into the rain curtain.
The warhorse let out a mournful cry, raised its hooves in the violent gust of air, rolled sideways and fell to the ground with a dull thud. Chen Fu, who was standing above, spurted out a mouthful of blood, flew sideways, and hit a big tree on the side of the road. The tree trunk shook violently before it rolled to the ground.
"Ding and Wei are born together..."
The old man climbed up from the ground in a panic with his inner clothes stained with mud, his lips muttering something and moving rapidly. As he retreated, the figure in the black and gold-plated robe appeared with a sword in his hand.
“… The fire and earth will trap and repel the demons!”
After the last Dharma words fell, Chen Fu spread out one palm, and a burning sensation came from under the feet of Lu Liangsheng who was coming towards him. Before he could react, the Yin Fire in the ground suddenly jumped up and wrapped him up.
"Hahaha-"
The old man stumbled forward two steps, looked at the scholar who was swallowed by the earth's fire, wiped off the mud on his face, and laughed crazily.
"Finally you fell into my trap, haha!!!"
The next second, there was no miserable scream from the fire. In the burning fire, the human figure suddenly turned into fragments and dissipated.
The smile on Chen Fu's face froze, then he turned and ran.
On both sides of the burning ground fire, several Lu Liangshengs dressed in black robes appeared, each holding a Yuelong sword and dancing with sword moves, chasing after them.
Illusion!
…Another illusion.
Chen Fu, who was performing the magic of shrinking the earth into an inch, looked back from time to time. While running, he kept drawing magic patterns on the palm of his hand with his bleeding index finger, and then pushed back.
boom!
As the illusion that was coming at him exploded, the disheveled old man used his magic power to attack frantically. The magic patterns drawn on his palms formed balls of light that kept flying out from his palms.
Boom boom boom—
The ground exploded one after another, and countless mud and dust were raised high. A big tree nearby was affected, and its roots and trunks broke and fell down under the bombardment.
"Dead?"
Looking at the ground full of holes, the old man, who had almost exhausted his magic power, turned back breathlessly. The smoke and dust were flying in the rain curtain, and the several illusions that were chasing him had stopped moving.
As soon as the whispered words fell, the flying dust suddenly surged, and a figure rushed out. Before Chen Fu raised his hand to cast the spell again, his arm was hit and fell down.
On the opposite side, Lu Liangsheng had already approached him and raised one hand high.
Then... with a snap, he slapped her.
The old man's hair was disheveled, and with the force, it spread out in one direction along with his face, leaving deep five-finger marks on his cheek.
"I have no father?"
The hand that was fanning him was raised again and fell heavily.
Snap—
With another wave of his other hand, the deflected cheek suddenly turned to the other side.
"I have no mother?"
Blood was hanging from Chen Fu's lips. Under his messy gray hair, the old man glared at the man opposite him fiercely, "How dare you..."
Lu Liangsheng's face was calm. He raised his hand again and slapped him hard, interrupting him.
"I have no ancestors?!"
Bang!
A slap hit his skinny cheek, and Chen Fu flew out horizontally and smashed into the woods. The drooping branches and leaves rustled and there was a "crack" sound. A whole tree was broken in half and fell down dragging a lush tree cage.