Chapter 122: Chapter 29: A Wordless Journey, Sighing for the Fleeting Years
This clash of ideals was never going to be resolved with words, and Su Zhou, who had started the argument, found himself a mere spectator.
He remained where he was, watching the group of migrants depart. Su Zhou couldn’t help but frown, not just because of those who had chosen to abandon this land, but also because of the oath sworn by the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army.
’These people are true idealists. I have to admire them. You could even say they’re the perfect, idealized version of my own half-baked heroic fantasies... My own incomplete ideas are barely a shadow, while they’ve been following a complete doctrine for decades.’
He murmured to himself, ’But idealism can only last so long before reality wins out. Immortality... immortality... On that point alone, those migrant Martial Artists were right.’
’Of course, the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army has people like Zhou Buyi, who hold fast to their ideals and harbor a deep hatred for the Demon Dynasty. But it must also have ambitious warlords who only want to defeat the Demon Dynasty to take its place. They probably refuse the Demon Dynasty’s temptations only because they want to be the next Immortal Emperor themselves.’
’Even if they defeat the Demon Dynasty, the world’s true suffering will probably have just begun... unless.’
At this thought, Su Zhou’s expression changed, and a relaxed smile appeared on his face.
’Unless I completely sever the source of immortality and utterly annihilate the Divine Wood Spirit residing in the Immortal Banyan Tree!’
’Heh, and here I was thinking it was some big ask. Isn’t that just the third-to-last step on my "Divine Wood World Itinerary"?’
’By the way, the second-to-last step is to look cool, and the final step is to go home! The fourth- and fifth-to-last are chopping off the heads of that National Preceptor and the Dog Emperor!’
But Su Zhou knew very well.
Whether it was his own plans or the beliefs of the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army, both ultimately required power to be realized.
Military strength, financial resources, technological prowess, or any other kind of power—to change the world, what mattered most was power. And he had come to this world precisely because he needed more of it.
Power was the only currency in this Extraordinary World, one that could even purchase miracles.
Of course, that wasn’t what had made Su Zhou laugh so heartily just now. What truly delighted the recently-graduated high school student was a sudden realization: ’I can’t believe my accidental arrival can actually change the course of an entire world... Yara, I feel so awesome right now! I feel like I could take on ten Demon Generals!’
"Whatever makes you happy," the Snake Spirit replied with a sigh, draped over Su Zhou’s head. "I never would’ve thought a guy with a raging hero complex like you would fit the mood of this world so surprisingly well."
The migrants gradually faded into the distance, and Su Zhou’s group resumed their patrol of the surrounding mountain area.
Theoretically, the Demon Army wouldn’t just let a food supply—which is what the migrants were in their eyes—leave so easily. Based on decades of experience, the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army knew there had to be Demon Soldier scouts tailing the caravan. So, they decided to backtrack along the migrants’ path and investigate.
And sure enough, they found several scouts who thought they were well-hidden.
SNAP.
With a casual twist and a pull, as if opening a bottle cap, Su Zhou buried the body of the fourth Demon Soldier in the snow, its head snapped off and its spine and Undying Root yanked out. Having concealed his aura and circled wide to ambush them from behind, Su Zhou gave the Demon Soldiers no chance to even sound a warning.
Despite this, his expression was a little strange; he didn’t seem particularly excited about taking out several Demon Soldiers in a row.
Su Zhou said quizzically to the trio, who were using the Vermilion Bird Box to finish off another Demon Soldier, "Something isn’t right. I’ve found four scouts, but how come I haven’t seen a single proper Demon Soldier squad?"
When infused with Spiritual Power, Su Zhou’s Spiritual Vision could detect most Spiritual Qi traces within a nearly two-thousand-meter radius. The Demon Army’s black Spiritual Qi stood out like ink on a whiteboard against the bluish-white backdrop of the snowfield. That was precisely how he’d been able to spot these Demon Soldiers so easily and get behind them.
But from start to finish, he’d only seen these four scouts and no other Demon Soldiers. That shouldn’t be possible. ’Surely they don’t plan to attack the migrant caravan with just four soldiers?’
This wasn’t some defenseless village; the survivors of the Liaozhou demon disaster had plenty of Martial Artists and crossbows. Their fighting strength was not to be underestimated!
"Yes, it’s very strange."
Zhou Buyi, Fang Hui, and Liuu Xizhao were just as perplexed as Su Zhou. After fighting the Demon Dynasty for so many years, they had never encountered a situation like this. It was normal for a small number of Demon Soldiers to be stealthy, but there were nearly five hundred of them in the Taibai Mountain Area. If they had charged all at once, they could have shattered the migrant column, leaving them utterly defenseless!
Unless... from the very beginning, the migrants weren’t their target.
"AWOOOOO—"
Suddenly, the howl of a wolf echoed from the distant northwest.
At first, only Su Zhou, with his acute hearing, could catch it. But soon, the other three in his squad heard it too. From the west, southeast, northwest, and due north—from every direction—wolf howls rose one after another.
And in Su Zhou’s Spiritual Vision, black motes of light representing the Spiritual Qi of Demon Soldiers began to appear from all sides.
While Su Zhou had been circling to eliminate the scouts, their team had been surrounded.
"It’s the Demon General, ’Beast Taming,’" Zhou Buyi whispered, his expression grim at the sound of the howls. "If I remember correctly, Beast Taming is the second-fastest of all the Demon Generals. If he gets a lock on us... we’re in trouble."
"They seem to know our exact location."
Su Zhou nodded thoughtfully. He took a deep breath, then turned to Liuu Xizhao, who stood beside him with an equally grim expression, her long, straight sword already drawn. "You have a nice scent," he said.
At first, it sounded like harassment, but after a moment of shock, both Zhou Buyi and Fang Hui quickly understood. They immediately turned to look at the quiet swordswoman in their group.
Liuu Xizhao blinked, and her expression quickly soured.
"Impossible... This scent is just a natural herbal fragrance from handling too many Spirit Plants. In the wild, it should mask my body odor..." For a moment, she was flustered, becoming more talkative as if to prove she wasn’t a traitor. But she wasn’t the one Su Zhou suspected.
"You’re not the only one with that scent," he said. "So does Han Xiaoqian."
He narrowed his eyes, gazing toward a distant peak. "Grandmaster Han."
「At that very moment.」
With a full head of white hair, his face so old that every wrinkle was visible, the Postnatal Martial Artist Grandmaster Han Xiaoqian strolled slowly toward his cabin in the camp.
But as he walked, his expression grew heavy, and his pace involuntarily slowed.
Then, from around the last corner before his cabin, a middle-aged Daoist in a white robe slowly emerged.
The man who appeared before Han Xiaoqian was none other than Li Daoran, his face expressionless, one hand resting on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
A few seconds later, with a rush of wind, Weilie appeared as if from nowhere, dropping from the sky to land behind Han Xiaoqian.
The three Grandmasters were gathered together, just as they always were.
But this time, the past harmony was gone.
