He Has No Time

"Remember, there are no demons or monsters in this courtyard—only ancestors and immortals," Wei Yuan solemnly warned. Xu Jingfeng nodded repeatedly, only half-understanding. After delivering his warning, Wei Yuan left the Xu manor. The Old Tree alone showed that the foundation of a major family was truly terrifying. The Xu family of Ningxi had surely intended to put down roots for the long haul, which was why they had stationed an ancestral spirit whose peak combat strength rivaled a late-stage dharma idol to guard it. The previous times Wei Yuan had entered and left the Xu manor, he had accompanied Xu Jingfeng, and Zhu Yuanjin had likely worked in secret to conceal him, which was why the Old Tree had not noticed in the slightest. But if Yuan Qingyan tried to force his way into the ancestral residence to kill Xu Jingfeng, he would be kicking an iron plate with a vengeance. After leaving the Xu manor, Wei Yuan did not pause for a second, circling toward the northeast. Along the way, he rendezvoused with the riders arriving from the domain, forming a company of fifty horsemen that vanished into the wilderness in the blink of an eye. The eastern border of Ningxi Commandery had originally been the jurisdiction of three counties, but it was now a scorched wasteland. The chief officials and retinues of the original three counties had all been relocated to the west by Wei Yuan, while the commoners had been driven into Qingming Domain by Yuan Qingyan. Now, only a few military redoubts guarded the strategic choke points, cutting off communication between east and west. The Wu domain was dense with forests and countless swamps, leaving very few roads suitable for large merchant caravans. If a road saw no caravan traffic, it would fall into disrepair within a year, swallowed by the encroaching forest. Wei Yuan had already discovered that Yuan Qingyan had deployed over seven thousand men along the entire eastern front, distributed across six large and small military redoubts. At this moment, the one before him was one of those redoubts, garrisoned by a thousand troops. Ten masked riders appeared before the redoubt, advancing at a slow pace. The defenders atop the ramparts had spotted them long ago and immediately swiveled their siege crossbows toward them. An officer mounted the wall and barked at the top of his lungs, "A bunch of cowards hiding your heads and tails! Who are you? Take one step closer and don't blame our bolts for being blind!" The lead rider adjusted his iron mask and called back, "We are the Fifty Bandits of the Heaven-Battling Gang! Our gang is short on food and clothes, and we heard you officers live lush lives, so we came to borrow some provisions and coin!" The officer laughed in pure fury. "Borrowing provisions from the imperial troops? You're blind as dogs! Have you all gone mad from poverty?" The rider smiled, flashing a row of snow-white teeth. "You're right, General. We have gone mad from poverty. Nobody on this Western Regions soil isn't mad, but you're the ones who drove us to it. Attack!" The officer was about to roar with laughter—a mere ten men daring to raid an encampment? Yet at that very moment, powerful auras surged from both sides to the rear. Dozens of riders split into two wings, charging straight for the redoubt! Turmoil erupted throughout the compound. Several imposing auras flared up as a few officers, stunned and enraged, braced themselves to intercept the horsemen breaching their defenses. These riders wore masks and held lances. When they reached the perimeter, they abandoned their mounts altogether and flew directly inside! All several dozen riders were Dao Foundation cultivators! The officers were appalled. It was too late to flee, so they had no choice but to dig in their heels and fight. Then, groups of riders swarmed each officer, leveling their lances at the officers' vitals, followed by a rolling wave of thunderous booms! Smoke from gunpowder billowed into the air, obscuring everything for a time, and officers began dropping like stones with loud clatters. In an instant, the officers saw only gouts of fire erupt before them; their bodies felt as though several heavy sledgehammers had slammed into them at once, sending them crashing to the ground with grievous injuries. Only after hitting the dirt did they realize that the spearheads of those lances could actually be fired! In a one-on-one fight they might have stood a chance, but with four or five riders surrounding each officer and ambushing them in unison, they were wiped out in the blink of an eye. A thousand-man redoubt was typically manned by about ten Dao Foundation officers. With all the officers brought down, and a volley of Dao arts felling a large swath of the remaining soldiers, the rest lost all will to fight and threw themselves to the ground in surrender. The riders hauled the heavily wounded officers to the center of the camp's drill grounds, then herded all the soldiers onto the grounds to fall into ranks. At this moment, the officers displayed all sorts of reactions: some hurled curses, preferring death to submission; others dropped to their knees begging for mercy, weeping bitter tears. Yet the fifty bandits of Heaven-Battling remained utterly unmoved by words or pleas. Indifferent to whatever the officers did, they methodically searched them and stripped their clothes. In no time at all, every officer was stripped buck-naked and bound together. Once the officers were stripped, it was the soldiers' turn. The soldiers stripped themselves, however, placing their armor, weapons, and underclothes in designated spots. With ten naked superiors leading by example, the soldiers offered no further resistance. In a flash, over a thousand naked pigs crowded the drill grounds. Among the fifty bandits were several young women, who covered their mouths and giggled, their eyes darting across a few unusually proportioned men. Next, the bandits had the soldiers load the grain, fodder, armor, and weapons onto carts, disassembling the siege crossbows to pack them up as well. All the officers' and soldiers' undergarments were heaped into a pile and set ablaze. Once everything was done, a masked rider stepped forward in front of the soldiers and announced, "Anyone who has reached the culmination of Body Casting or is close to it, and has no family ties or attachments holding them back, step forward now if you want to join us. I can't promise you wealth or glory, but I can promise you a Dao Foundation!" The rider waited a moment before two soldiers hesitantly stepped out of the ranks. Asking no further questions, the rider took the two men along to escort the carts, and then put the redoubt to the torch. Ten li from the camp, a relief force of a hundred people was already waiting to receive the caravan. As for the fifty bandits, they charged straight toward the next redoubt. In a single day, the fifty bandits covered a thousand li across the battlefield. In one fell swoop, they dismantled five redoubts, stripped four thousand troops into naked pigs, hauled away every piece of weaponry, armor, and stockpiled grain, and took away over a dozen soldiers at the culmination of Body Casting. Now, on the entire eastern front, only one redoubt remained, garrisoned by three thousand men. Outside this redoubt, a single masked rider arrived to taunt them, boasting that if they dared step fifty li outside their camp, he would see their entire force annihilated. Facing such arrogance, how could the officers of the imperial army endure it? Right then, several men rode out of the camp to fight him in single combat. In the end, that masked rider battered seven or eight officers into the dirt in succession. In every bout, he acted with utter ease, striking straight at his opponents' weaknesses and vitals, dropping them in two or three moves. Only then did the officers realize with horror that this rider was actually a Heaven Foundation! Although the commanding officer of the camp was at the late stage of the Dao Foundation, he dared not ride out to fight at this point. He could only watch as the man flaunted his might, dropped a string of vicious threats, and sauntered away. Morale in the camp plummeted to rock bottom. The next day, intelligence arrived confirming that all the other redoubts had fallen. The vice general grew thoroughly petrified, ordering all four gates sealed shut with no one permitted to leave, while simultaneously dispatching messengers to Yuan Qingyan for help. Meanwhile, in the Commandery Prefect's Office, Yuan Qingyan sat in the official yamen, his face dark as iron as he read the incoming battle reports one after another. Flanking him in the chamber sat a general and several officials, most wearing blank expressions, with the exception of General Xu. General Xu sat to Yuan Qingyan's left, slumping lazily in his seat and casting occasional contemptuous glances at the general across from him. Before finishing the reports, Yuan Qingyan slammed his palm heavily against the desk and snarled, "What Fifty Bandits of the Heaven-Battling Gang? It's clearly Wei Yuan!" The assembled officials remained silent. None of those who had reached these positions were fools; every one of them knew the Heaven-Battling Gang was just Wei Yuan in disguise. But what then? Before one wave could subside, another arose. A soldier stepped inside to report that the adviser and his escorting soldiers had been found and carried back, and were now lying just outside the chamber. The soldier's choice of words made Yuan Qingyan's heart sink, and he ordered them brought in. In an instant, several figures caked in filth and mud were carried into the room, all hanging on by a thread, their limbs twisted and deformed—evidently broken by brute force. "What sheer audacity!" Yuan Qingyan shot up, slapping the desk. "Men! Go to the Xu family at once and order Xu Jingfeng to come see me!" The Xu residence was in the north of town, while the prefectural yamen was in the south, barely ten li apart. Thus, it took only a short while before a bailiff returned to report: "Milord, that Xu Jingfeng said... he has no time." With a loud crash, the teacup in Yuan Qingyan's hand shattered into powder against the floor.