Neither Xu Lanshan nor Wei Boyang had anticipated that the horse bandits would actually dare to fire the cannon, let alone that its range would be so vast, reaching a staggering twenty li!
Chaos erupted atop the walls of Hanyang Pass. The fortress general had no clue where this calamity falling from the sky had come from. The defending troops were thrown into utter disarray, scrambling in flustered haste to roll out bed crossbows—yet within their field of view, where was any enemy to be seen?
Those with sharp eyes caught glimpses of swaying figures atop the distant small hill, but they refused to believe the attack had originated from there. Unless one was a Scenery Command True Monarch, no one could project Dao arts or shoot arrows from such a distance.
The Xu family elders, however, had watched with wide eyes as the horse bandits adjusted their firing angle step by step. Several bandits had even brought out instruments the elders had never seen before to measure something. Those bandits who had marched up before Hanyang Pass to plant the flags hadn't made the trip for nothing either; they had been pacing out and measuring the distance as they walked.
All the elders had originally assumed it was mere bluster, yet none of them had imagined that the bandits would actually load a shell into the breech and score a direct hit on the very first shot!
At this moment, the elders' minds were blank, at a total loss for how to react. Still, they were resolved on one thing: under no circumstances would they step forward first. Xu Lanshan was in charge here anyway; if trouble arose, she would bear the blame.
Only Xu Lanshan and Wei Boyang noticed that during the shell's final stretch, its flight path had wavered slightly. It had clearly been guided by a cultivator's divine sense, which was how it achieved such pinpoint accuracy—killing every soldier at the city gate in a single blast without damaging the gate itself.
In the face of this, Xu Lanshan could keep silent no longer. She barked in a deep voice, "Are you trying to start a war?"
Below, the bandit sub-leader grinned, flashing a mouthful of gleaming white teeth. "What else? If we don't trade a few blows with you, you'll actually think we're afraid of you. If you want to fight, I'll give you two choices. Pick whichever you like."
Confronting this bandit sub-leader, Xu Lanshan was uncharacteristically serious and solemn. "Which two choices?"
The bandit sub-leader said, "First, come alone to our territory, and our grand chief can fight you one-on-one."
"Why not on our territory?" Xu Lanshan countered.
"Do I even need to talk about your Xu family's reputation? Put it this way: I don't care who you are, as long as your surname is Xu, I won't believe a single word out of your mouth. If you want to fight, come to our territory! If you're unconvinced, go ask around—which band of horse bandits in the Western Regions doesn't have a better reputation than your Xu family?"
With words spoken to this point, the Xu family elder who had been standing quite close to Wei Yuan began to pale. Little by little, he edged back through the air, squirming away to put distance between them, terrified of drawing Wei Yuan's notice.
Before Wei Yuan's words had even faded, light flashed across the sky. A bolt of immortal thunder descended silently, striking him square on the head!
The immortal thunder came without the slightest warning; almost the instant it appeared, it was already crashing upon Wei Yuan's head!
Seven-colored radiance surged instantly around Wei Yuan. The hazy luster, carrying the aura of immortal spirit, diminished the immortal thunder by half. The remaining thunder crashed onto Wei Yuan, reducing his clothes and implements across his entire body to flying ash in a flash, while his dharma body was charred black, carbonized.
Amid a flurry of clatters, Wei Yuan's storage dharma treasures were entirely destroyed, scattering items all over the ground.
In a breath too fast for thoughts to turn, a woman in red seemed to appear. She walked over gracefully, picked up several storybooks from among the scattered miscellany on the ground, and then vanished.
Even the gathered dharma idol elders only felt a blur before their eyes, as though they had seen a person, yet also as though they had not.
Xu Lanshan's hairs stood on end in an instant. One of the two hidden assassins had finally shown herself! She was indeed in the Scenery Command realm, and no ordinary Scenery Command at that. In the instant the red-clothed woman appeared, Xu Lanshan realized she had still underestimated her.
Speed like this was simply horrifying. Without prior vigilance, from the woman's approach to striking a fatal blow to making a calm retreat, Xu Lanshan might not even have drawn her sword in time.
Against an assassin of this caliber, when one lagged behind by a major cultivation realm, survival depended entirely on the protective dharma treasures bestowed by one's immortal ancestor. The trouble was that such treasures were limited in number and would eventually run out, while Scenery Command assassins were immensely patient, watching day and night until their target finally slipped.
Worse still, Xu Lanshan sensed two assassins. The qi of the other had remained locked onto her from start to finish, yet she could not detect where that assassin was hiding at all.
Only now did Xu Lanshan realize that Qingming's power was truly unfathomable. No wonder two True Monarchs had been dispatched on previous occasions and millions of troops had been committed in succession, only to suffer crushing defeats every single time without winning even a single battle.
Previously, Xu Lanshan had always thought the Xu family's private army was rotten to the core and pathetically weak in combat effectiveness. Now she realized that perhaps it was not that the Xu private army was too weak, but that Qingming was simply too strong.
Although all the clothes on Wei Yuan's body had been blasted away by the immortal thunder, his mask remained completely undamaged. Forged from refined nether iron, it possessed immense resistance against Dao arts and immortal methods; after the immortal thunder was diminished layer by layer, it could do nothing to this mask.
Wei Yuan shook his body. Dense fissures abruptly spidered across the charred surface, revealing tender pink skin beneath. The blackened, carbonized crust flaked off continuously, exposing large expanses of fresh flesh reminiscent of pink jade.
Wei Yuan's dharma body was exceptionally formidable. His flesh and blood were already condensed to the level of precious jade; when his blood coursed through his vessels, it was like fluid jade that flowed at will, yet the moment it left his body, it would instantly congeal into jade beads.
Now, his flesh and blood did not even undergo a noticeable growth process; with merely a slight squirm, new skin was formed. Yet as his flesh and blood surged to regenerate across his entire body, the vitality within Wei Yuan erupted fiercely, bringing an alien yet overwhelmingly intense surge of pleasure that made him shudder involuntarily.
Wei Yuan immediately cursed inwardly. So many pairs of eyes were watching—how could he have such a shameful reaction?! He immediately reached out, drew an outer robe to his hand, and calmly slipped it on, concealing a physical dharma body that ranked among the finest of all dharma idols.
However, for the elder who had spoken with him just now and the rest of the Xu elders, Wei Yuan had intentionally let them catch a glimpse of his assets, humbling these old codgers beforehand so they wouldn't go around telling others whatever nonsense about Three Spears.
At this moment, the Xu family elders were all ashen-faced.
The immortal thunder was, of course, cast by their own immortal ancestor, Xu Wangu. Its power was sufficient to strike a dharma idol dead and severely wound an early-stage Scenery Command. The immortal ancestor had struck across the void from the distant beyond; such was the might of the immortal thunder, held back by not even a sliver.
Yet the bandit sub-leader before them had endured it as if nothing had happened, and seemed to have even enjoyed the strike. Furthermore, their ancestor's lightning had only scorched a layer of outer skin. Looking at that absurdly formidable dharma body, how could they still fail to realize who this bandit sub-leader actually was?
It was just that the assets Wei Yuan had deliberately put on display were subconsciously ignored by them.
Wei Yuan finished putting on his outer robe, took several storage dharma treasures handed to him by the bandit beside him, and swept his sleeve, collecting everything scattered on the ground. He then stretched his limbs and flashed another grin of white teeth at Xu Lanshan.
"All right, now that I've taken a lightning strike from your ancestor, let's move on to the second choice. I hear you've been training a fire gun force, so I'll give you a chance for a decisive battle. A clash of ten thousand troops works, or thirty thousand. We pick a battlefield, set a date, and fight to the death.
"Two choices: a duel or a pitched battle. Take your pick!"
Xu Lanshan said coldly, "And if I don't want to choose either?"
Wei Yuan bared his gleaming white teeth once more. "Trust me, you will. Otherwise, it will be all-out war. Let's start by seeing if the defenders inside your Hanyang Pass can even set foot outside that gate."
By this time, the cargo wagons behind had rolled onto the hilltop, pushed into clearings that had been leveled in advance. The wagon compartments were then disassembled, revealing mounted city-defense cannons inside! As the wagon supports touched the ground, they immediately served as ready-made gun carriages.
In the blink of an eye, dozens of cannons were arranged across the small hill. Coupled with the two long-range heavy cannons, the firepower was truly appalling.
Moreover, the five hundred heavy knights formed up behind the hill, while the three thousand riflemen established several defense lines along the forward slope.
Anyone with even a shred of military knowledge could see that although the defenders numbered only four thousand, taking this small hill would likely cost tens of thousands of casualties at the very least.
Xu Lanshan stared at Wei Yuan, then said abruptly, "Your Excellency is considered a hero of this generation, famed from youth, heroic and brilliant. Why do you insist on indulging in such clandestine antics?"
Wei Yuan cupped his hands toward the direction of the Tang Territory. "This is my basic courtesy to the imperial court."
Xu Lanshan fell silent for a moment, then said, "I need to think it over. I will give you an answer in a few days."
With that, she turned and departed. Watching her retreating figure, Wei Yuan started to say something, but shook his head and let her go.
Up in the sky, Wei Boyang gave Wei Yuan a thumbs-up, then returned to his flying boat and sailed toward the Tang Territory. In the blink of an eye, the flying boat vanished into the distance, leaving only his bold, desolate singing echoing through the air.
Yet to the very end, Xu Lanshan never realized that the second assassin had actually been standing right behind her the entire time. It was simply that Wei Boyang—from his appearance and disposition to his identity—bore no resemblance whatsoever to an assassin, leading her to overlook him subconsciously.
At this time, the subsequent five thousand troops and transport convoy also arrived and began constructing fortifications according to preset blueprints. Qingming's method for fortifying positions now involved wooden planks reinforced with steel plates, allowing for rapid construction. During this period, more suicidal soldiers from Hanyang Pass ventured outside the city gate to show off, only to draw two incoming cannonballs that wiped out seven or eight of them together.
Only then did the defenders of Hanyang Pass finally realize that the bandits on the opposite hill had no concept of restraint or reserve. They had drawn a red line, and the moment anyone dared step past it, they truly would open fire.
While the horse bandits dared to fire, the defenders of Hanyang Pass had no orders from above and dared not retaliate at all.
A low-ranking officer clamored to fire back with bed crossbows, only to receive a scathing tongue-lashing from the gate defense commander. After berating him, the gate commander ordered the officer to stand guard in the gate tower, while he himself slipped down the wall and ran off to secretly observe from a section of wall a hundred zhang away.
This general was by no means stupid. The enemy's shot could land within a few zhang of the gate; tilting the barrel up just slightly would blast the gate tower to pieces. If he stayed up there, he wouldn't even know how he died.
Having finished organizing the defense, Wei Yuan changed into the clothes of an ordinary horse bandit and vanished among their ranks. This time, all Fifty Heaven-Destroying Bandits wore uniform masks and identical garments, and because their masks were forged from nether iron capable of isolating qi and Dao power, it was impossible to distinguish one from another aside from their aura.
At this moment, thunder roared across a section of the sea within Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, forming an ocean of lightning several tens of zhang across. These lightning bolts were wondrously extraordinary; dense and unyielding, they heaved and surged like real water.
Chapter 572