Chapter 1732: A Living God

Empowered by the black qi, the bandits launched a fierce assault, repeatedly attempting to scale the walls.

The walls of a small fortified village like this naturally could not compare with a proper city wall. Aside from being less sturdy, their height was also lacking, at only 6 meters tall. Thus, storming the walls was not as difficult for the bandits as one might imagine, while defending the village was by no means easy.

There was clearly a leader among the bandits. He was dressed more extravagantly than the others and wore a crude suit of armor. He also wore a black eyepatch over one of his eyes. Rather than leading the charge himself, he remained in the back to direct the army.

Neither the bandits nor the villagers noticed the two figures quietly approaching the battlefield under the cover of night.

In the past, these were things Qi Xuansu could accomplish with a mere thought. Now, even while moving forward, he had to keep his eyes and ears open in every direction.

Before long, several of the fiercer bandits made it onto the top of the wall and barely managed to establish a foothold. The villagers could not even get close to them, much less drive them back down.

A breach had been torn open in the entire defensive line, and more bandits would soon be able to scale the wall through this opening.

At this rate, the fortified village was in danger of falling.

It was about time.

Zhou Mengyao gave her cloak a shake. Though there was no wind, the cloak began billowing and snapping loudly, carrying Zhou Mengyao slowly into the air.

Qi Xuansu remained concealed and continued creeping closer.

He was not merely standing by and watching the show. He was their second layer of insurance. If Zhou Mengyao slipped up, or if she failed to frighten the bandits away in one stroke, then it would be Qi Xuansu’s turn to act.

After all, he was a professional when it came to sneak attacks.

Naturally, Zhou Mengyao could not emit light in her current state, but she had prepared a precious pearl beforehand. It was a semi-immortal object, but Qi Xuansu did not know what its original purpose was. Now, its main function was to provide illumination, casting a halo of five-colored light behind her and making her exceptionally conspicuous. Doing this naturally turned her into a living target, but Zhou Mengyao’s cloak could even stop bullets from a pistol, so arrows were certainly no concern.

When Zhou Mengyao made her exceedingly ostentatious appearance above the fortified village, she looked like a divine being descending into the mortal world. It did not take long for the first person to notice her flying in the sky, wreathed in a halo of five-colored light.

Instinctively, the man tugged at the person beside him. Then, like a chain reaction, more and more people raised their heads to look.

Sure enough, they saw a figure hovering in midair, with a halo of five-colored light shining behind her.

Before long, both the bandits assaulting the walls and the villagers defending them froze in place, staring upward in a daze. No one dared continue fighting, for fear of angering the divine being.

This gave Qi Xuansu an opportunity to quicken his stealthy approach, since everyone was awestruck by Zhou Mengyao. Qi Xuansu inwardly scoffed at how little of the world these people had seen. Zhou Mengyao might be an Immortal, but that did not mean anyone who could fly and glow was necessarily a divine being.

Zhou Mengyao was very satisfied with everyone’s reaction, especially when she saw that even the bandit leader was thoroughly stunned. Without further hesitation, she made her move. Concealed by the five-colored halo behind her, the onlookers could not even see how Zhou Mengyao had attacked. They only saw a flash of fire, followed by what sounded like a clap of thunder.

The bandit leader immediately toppled from his horse. A small bullet hole had appeared between his brows, so deep that it looked almost black.

Naturally, that was not thunder, but the sound of gunfire.

This gunshot also jolted everyone out of their stunned stupor.

When the bandits saw their leader fall dead from his horse, they immediately descended into chaos.

At the same time, Qi Xuansu had already crept close. He suddenly leaped forward like a thunderbolt.

Two of the bandits who were still reeling from the shock of their leader’s sudden death became Qi Xuansu’s first victims. Before they could even react, Qi Xuansu stabbed them to death, sending them off to follow in their leader’s footsteps.

Only then did the other bandits notice Qi Xuansu charging into their midst. They drew their sabers one after another and closed in around him.

Yet in his first exchange with the bandits, Qi Xuansu had already wrenched a weapon straight from the bandit’s hand. Then, with a horizontal sweep of his saber, he sliced across the throats of two men, leaving behind only a thin red line. A fraction deeper would have been excessive, and a fraction shallower would have been insufficient to kill them. The cuts were just enough to take both their lives.

That single stroke was no ordinary feat. The remaining bandits were badly frightened and dared not advance.

A man who appeared to be the second-in-command let out a great shout and prepared to charge forward, intending to lead from the front and rally their morale.

Without breaking stride, Qi Xuansu charged forward with a sword in hand.

Suddenly, a cold gleam flashed, accompanied by an icy wind. A soft clang followed as half of the saber’s blade fell to the ground. The hilt and remaining half of the blade were still clutched in the hand of the supposed second-in-command. He slowly lowered his head to look, only to suddenly feel the scenery before his eyes inexplicably shifted.

In the next instant, the man’s body had been severed diagonally from his neck to his ribs. Half of his body, which was still frozen in the posture of looking downward, slid away at an angle as blood gushed out from the massive wound.

Qi Xuansu remained expressionless as he flicked the blood from Qing Yuan.

When the remaining bandits looked at Qi Xuansu again, their entire bodies trembled uncontrollably. With a clang, one man’s weapon dropped from his hand. He turned and fled, and the others promptly followed suit, throwing down their sabers and running for their lives.

Several more cold flashes streaked through the darkness. Blood stains blossomed from the backs of several bandits. Their corpses continued hurtling forward for more than 3 meters before finally crashing to the ground. Soon after, pools of blood formed beneath them.

Two other bandits had already climbed onto their horses and were about to flee into the distance. Qi Xuansu simply hurled the long saber in his hand, instantly skewering the two of them, like candied hawthorns on a stick.

In the blink of an eye, every leader of the bandit gang had died at Qi Xuansu’s hands.

With their leader suddenly dead and the other deputies killed by Qi Xuansu, the bandits attacking the walls naturally lost all will to fight. Their ranks collapsed completely as they scattered in every direction, fleeing for their lives. Some even leaped directly from the walls. Although several were shot dead by the villagers’ bows and arrows, many others escaped into the darkness and vanished without a trace.

In the blink of an eye, the siege of the fortified village had been broken.

Neither Zhou Mengyao nor Qi Xuansu had any intention of pursuing them. Instead, they prepared themselves to receive the villagers’ welcome.

The two had a clear division of roles. Zhou Mengyao would pose as a prophet and proclaim herself a living god, so she would speak in cryptic, incomprehensible terms and maintain an air of mystery. Thus, the one actually handling matters would be Qi Xuansu. In practice, he would use his identity as the hero who had saved the village to get acquainted with the village chief. His slaughter of the bandits was the most convincing proof of his abilities. In troubled times, displaying one’s personal martial prowess was an extremely effective means of winning respect.

Just as the two had expected, the villagers did not repay kindness with hostility by shutting the gates and refusing them entry. Instead, they opened the gates of their own accord.

If it had merely been Qi Xuansu displaying his individual martial prowess, there might indeed have been a chance that the villagers would repay their kindness with hostility. But with Zhou Mengyao’s divine miracle, things were entirely different.

People could not fight an enemy that lay beyond the limits of their understanding. That was why, whenever ordinary mortals caught even the slightest glimpse of an Ancient God or an Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon, the outcome was invariably terror and madness rather than a heroic death in battle.

Amid the villagers’ cheers, the village elders emerged from the fortified village and approached the two with expressions of reverence and awe.

Everything was proceeding according to plan.

......

This island was by no means small. In the deepest reaches of the island was the dark mountain that Qi Xuansu had seen from afar. A city was built against the mountains at a strategic pass, and its terrain made it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In a sense, the city somewhat resembled a Western castle while also serving some of the functions of the Great Wall. Its walls extended all the way up onto the mountain ridges. Its name was Cangyun Fortress.

If Qi Xuansu were at the fortress, he would discover that the entire place was permeated with vast quantities of black qi, identical to the black qi that had clung to the bandits. It was precisely because of this that Cangyun Fortress appeared exceptionally sinister and foreboding.

At the very center of Cangyun Fortress was the bandits’ main stronghold.

Strictly speaking, the bandits Qi Xuansu had encountered were not actually bandits but rebel soldiers. However, it was hard to say whether bandits or rebel soldiers were more terrifying.

Those living within the stronghold were in considerably better shape than the other rebel troops outside. At the very least, they were still clad in armor and carried proper weapons, preserving some semblance of the military bearing they had possessed before turning outlaw.

At the highest point of the entire Cangyun Fortress was an observation tower. Should an enemy army arrive at the gates, the commander could ascend the tower to survey the situation outside the city while directing the battle.

A burly 50-year-old man dressed in the robes of a military official from the Qi Dynasty era climbed the observation tower. He gazed out at the scenery beyond the city. Even the grass, trees, and vegetation outside seemed to have been tainted by the black qi, turning a deep green and exuding an eerie aura.

“Commander!” A general encased from head to toe in iron armor followed behind the man, keeping half a step back.

Back in the days of the Qi Dynasty, there had been 24 Commanders appointed throughout the realm. Their duty was to inspect and evaluate the conduct of local officials. These 24 Commanders were divided into three ranks. The lowest rank was the Junior Commander, the middle rank was the Commander, and above them was the Senior Commander. There were only 4 Senior Commanders.

The greatest distinction between a Protectorate and a Commander’s Office was that a Protectorate was primarily responsible for frontier affairs, whereas the Commander’s Office was a local administrative institution established by the Qi Dynasty in important regions to oversee domestic affairs. At certain times, the positions of Commander and Provincial Inspector could even be held concurrently by the same person.

Judging by the size of this city, its ruler was clearly not a Senior Commander and was most likely a Junior Commander.

However, this island had already been completely severed from the mortal world, so naturally there was no imperial court here. Thus, it did not matter whether one was a Senior or Junior Commander. One would still be the supreme ruler of this place.

The general said quietly, “The rebellion is still ongoing. Rebels throughout the land are refusing to pay their taxes and are building fortified villages to resist our troops.”

The middle-aged man addressed as the Commander ignored the report. Instead, he extended a hand, with black qi swirling around his fingertips. He said, “Can you feel it? Outsiders have descended upon this world.”

This black qi was like an extension of his eyes and ears, conveying vast amounts of information to him and making him nearly omniscient and omnipotent within this world.

His subordinate remained silent.

The Commander continued, “I am the one entrusted by Heaven to shepherd and govern the people, so I must eradicate these outsiders. This is the will of the Azure Heaven.”