Chapter 120: Chapter 27: The Parting Ones’ Distant Crossing
The Taibai Mountain fortress sat high above its surroundings, overlooking a vast, unsheltered expanse of snowy plains. Martial Artists stood watch at all hours, using their senses to scan the area, making it impossible for anyone to sneak in, even at night.
The Taibai Mountain Area was a region of many volcanoes, with a complex and treacherous terrain. Abrupt cliffs, sheer drops, and bottomless ravines appeared without warning, often hidden by the snow. Because of this, their predecessors had driven black wooden stakes into the ground to mark the paths.
"They also guide the Demon Soldiers, but a little ice and snow won’t stop those Demons. Besides, if a Demon runs into trouble, it won’t die. If I run into trouble, it’s game over... Instead of making the path difficult for our own people just to hinder the enemy, it’s better to make the staked path a bit more winding and roundabout. That way, when the Demon Soldiers follow the black stakes up the mountain, we can spot them earlier and prepare."
The one who said this was Monk Fang Hui from the Great Moon Temple. The monk was tall and powerfully built, a full head taller than Su Zhou, yet he spoke with clear logic. He had a kind and gentle demeanor and held no prejudice against Su Zhou for the brutal beating he had received from him earlier. In fact, it was Su Zhou who had been rather embarrassed afterward, sincerely apologizing for being too heavy-handed.
One of the main materials for forging the Blade of Annihilation, a Relic from a Divine Monk of the Innate Realm, came from the Great Moon Temple’s very own Divine Monk Fa Kong... "If the hordes of Demons cannot be saved, what use is leaving behind a Relic?" This was supposedly the decision of the Great Moon Temple’s current abbot. As a result, all seventy-one monks of the temple had joined the Hundred Schools, and most were now at the front lines.
On the other side, the silent Swordman, Liuu Xizhao, was a woman of refined and uncommon beauty. She wore no makeup, and the only scent about her was the faint, elegant fragrance of medicinal herbs and plants.
Liuu Xizhao hailed from the same sect as Grandmaster Han. Her master was also at the front lines now. She herself had joined the escort team not as a combatant, but as a physician.
Her sect was called the Hundred Herbs Hall. They excelled at combining various Spirit Plants and medicinal herbs into ointments and pills for both internal and external use, which were highly effective. The Four Spirits Jade Liquid Pill from before had been created by the current Sect Leader of the Hundred Herbs Sect.
As for why she used blades, there was no special reason. It was mainly because her master hadn’t taught her any Combat Skills or Martial Arts when she was young, so she could only practice Sword Skills with the army... Who would have thought that Liuu Xizhao had an unexpected talent for Martial Arts and Sword Skills? Before she even became a formal physician, her Inner Qi Cultivation had already broken through to Tier One, making her a bona fide expert Swordman. She was skilled in an unusual dual-wielding style using a long, straight blade and a short, curved one. However, she had lost the short, curved blade in a surprise attack by Demon Soldiers before meeting Su Zhou.
Coincidentally, the three members of the small team led by Zhou Buyi were all essentially orphans.
There was no need to elaborate on Zhou Buyi; the uprising and death of his parents had been a turning point in the world’s precarious balance. Monk Fang Hui’s parents had died in a famine while fleeing the chaos of the Demon Emperor’s reign, and he himself had been found and taken in by the monks of the Great Moon Temple along with a dozen other infants. As for Liuu Xizhao’s parents, they had died a heroic death in one of the four great battles for the Southern Celestial Gate years ago.
Having grown up within the Hundred Schools and with such backgrounds, the three of them were naturally from the most Direct Lineage. Most of the personnel in the teams escorting the main materials for the Divine Soldiers came from similar circumstances.
’The Demon Emperor’s chaotic reign wiped out several generations in the entire Central-South Region of the Divine Land. How many people were displaced, their families shattered? And how many had their bodies left unburied, becoming nothing but bloody fodder for the Demon Emperor, his Demon Soldiers, and the Divine Wood behind them all?’
"Brother Su, my accompanying you this time was actually my master’s idea."
As the group traveled silently across the snow, Zhou Buyi moved closer and used his Inner Strength to transmit his voice quietly, "On the mountain... I’m afraid there’s still a traitor who hasn’t been caught..."
"Yes, I know."
Su Zhou narrowed his eyes. He had long suspected as much and had taken precautions.
And after last night, he had already tentatively identified a target of his suspicion.
At that moment, the group of four reached a cliff’s edge halfway up the mountain. From this spot, they could overlook the distant mountains and rivers, as well as several former human settlements in the vicinity.
At Zhou Buyi’s suggestion, Su Zhou stopped and swept his enhanced Spiritual Vision across the surrounding landscape to check for any nearby Demon Soldiers. But before he could spot the Spiritual Light Trajectories of the Demon Soldiers—which stank worse than dog shit—the young Transcendent let out a small, curious sound. He turned his head in confusion toward the other three, who were also scouting the area with binoculars and other means.
"Strange. Everyone, I just saw large clusters of Spiritual Light Trajectories in the distance. At first, I was delighted, thinking it was the Demon Army on the move, but a closer look revealed that it might be something else... Come take a look. What do you make of it?"
After speaking, he pointed in a direction for Zhou Buyi and the others. Faintly visible among the mountain paths in the distance, large groups of people were on the move. The long, squirming stream of humanity was surprisingly conspicuous against the vast white snowfield, like ants marching through fallen leaves, crawling ever forward.
"Oh, there."
Zhou Buyi raised his binoculars and observed carefully, not bothering to comment on what Su Zhou meant by being ’delighted to see Demon Soldiers’. A moment later, he said with understanding, "Those are migrants, preparing to cross the Taibai Mountain Area to reach the coastal ports of Old Goryeo and leave this land behind."
Lowering the binoculars, Zhou Buyi let out a long sigh.
"In other words, they are the ’Departed’—those who have given up on this land and its kingdom to wander into the far-off distance."
There’s an old saying: "a mountain in view can run a horse to death." Running from the mountainside down to a spot you can see from above is an incredibly arduous task.
However, all four of them were Martial Artists. While they couldn’t yet treat the entire world as a flat road, a mere cliff was nothing to them. As long as there was even the slightest incline, a Martial Artist could use their Inner Strength to break their fall.
Compared to the output of their Extraordinary Power, their body weight was negligible.
So, with Su Zhou in the lead, the four of them traveled in a straight line, racing directly toward the group of migrants.
"If we can see them, what about the Demon Army?"
Su Zhou continued, laying out his thoughts, "With my eyesight, I can confirm there are no Demon Army units nearby, but is it possible they haven’t spotted these migrants? Absolutely not. In my opinion, those beasts will definitely send forces to intercept and kill them."
Liuu Xizhao nodded slightly, speaking her first words of the outing. "In this icy weather, the Demons need to expend more Blood Qi to maintain their peak state. If they find ordinary people, they certainly won’t pass up the opportunity."
Fang Hui also spoke up. "We should follow this group of migrants and assess the situation. We’ll likely find traces of the Demon Army, and we can warn them to be on guard for a sneak attack."
Since the vast majority of the team agreed, Zhou Buyi, who was leading the way, naturally consented. Or rather, whether they agreed or not, Su Zhou was going anyway.
In any case, they were already heading down the mountain to patrol the surrounding forests. Following the migrant caravan was just a slight detour, and it would greatly increase their chances of finding the Demon Army.
"That’s a lot of people." As they drew closer, observing the caravan from several kilometers away, their thermal vision was even clearer in the icy landscape. Su Zhou raised his eyebrows in surprise. "This group is split into three sections—front, middle, and rear—and each section has nearly a thousand people... Almost three thousand people migrating at once?"
"It can’t be helped. A few days ago, didn’t the Demon General Red Land slaughter a village? The local residents have some means of communicating with each other. When they learned that another group of the Demon Army had arrived in Liaozhou, they had no choice but to abandon their homeland and risk migration, heading for the coastal ports to take a ship to Fusang."
Zhou Buyi’s tone was calm, almost detached, as he said this. "Heh. The world is in chaos, and the people can’t survive. Undead Demon Soldiers are burning, killing, and plundering all over the Divine Land, offering up human blood and Human Souls to the Undying Root within them."
"Sure, fire can kill them, and lightning can kill them. But how is that even a weakness? Who in this world isn’t afraid of fire and lightning?"
’I’m not particularly afraid of them...’ Su Zhou instinctively wanted to say, but he knew the atmosphere wasn’t right and held his tongue.
At this, Monk Fang Hui chanted "I Buddha," then closed his eyes and shook his head. "These few thousand people leaving the northeast is actually a small number. Most are just survivors of the past Demon disaster in Liaozhou. But in this world, who isn’t a survivor of some Demon disaster? In the coastal areas of the Central-South Region, where the Hundred Schools can’t reach, it’s said that tens of millions have already fled their homeland for the Southern Ocean. This vast Divine Land is nine-tenths empty, with countless cities and towns deserted."
Although the Demon Army had the advantage on the water, they weren’t yet strong enough to stop the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army on the Nanjiang River while also dealing with the refugees fleeing along the coast.
Su Zhou committed this information to memory. He kept his Spiritual Vision active, scanning the surroundings while also observing the people in the caravan to make sure no Demon Soldiers had secretly infiltrated their ranks. But it was this careful inspection that brought a problem to light.
"What? There are actually a few Postnatal Second Rank experts, almost at the Grandmaster Level, among these migrants?"
He couldn’t help but be surprised. According to the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army, across the entire Divine Land of the Divine Wood World, there were only five Grandmasters, while the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army and the Demon Dynasty together had a total of about fifty Grandmasters.
Of course, both sides would have some trump cards hidden, but not too many. In a situation like this, trying to hold back would only get you killed.
Below the Grandmaster level, Postnatal Second Rank experts were already considered mid-to-high-tier combatants. Zhou Buyi, for example, was one such expert, and he was qualified to lead a team escorting the main materials for a Divine Soldier. Yet this migrant caravan actually had two of them, as well as a handful—seven or eight of them, to be exact—of Postnatal Martial Artists.
Su Zhou and his group had come to warn the migrants about a potential sneak attack, so they didn’t conceal their auras. When the Martial Artists in the caravan leaped up to observe them, the four of them openly displayed their Inner Qi to show they were not Demon Soldiers wreathed in resentment and curses.
Zhou Buyi seemed to know the two Tier Two experts among the migrants. He took the initiative to approach them and inform them that several hundred Demon Soldiers had recently arrived in the Taibai Mountain Area, not just a single squad, so they were very likely to be attacked.
Meanwhile, Fang Hui explained to Su Zhou, "Those two, Huang Boduo and Cui Chengzhong, were both renowned experts from the old Fourteen Commanderies of Liaozhou. When the Demon Army was running rampant, they were the ones who led the remaining survivors of Liaozhou to build settlements deep in the mountains, escaping the Demon Army’s hunt... Judging by this migration, they’ve completely given up on Liaozhou and are preparing to head for the port in Old Goryeo to cross the sea to East Japan Fuso."
"Protecting the people is admirable—but why not try to join the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army instead of just running away?"
This was Su Zhou’s real question all along. "According to you, tens of millions have fled this land, and there must have been many Martial Artists of this caliber among them. With such a large population and so much power, if that force had been added to the fight against the Demon Dynasty, you might have already conquered the Southern Celestial Capital by now."
Su Zhou didn’t lower his voice; he intended for the two Martial Artists not far away to hear him. Upon hearing his words, they looked up in anger and rebuked him, "You little brat..."
