Chapter 122

Deep autumn, the dew is heavy.

On the official road of Black Water City, Qin Shuo bade farewell one by one to the people of Liuhe Martial Arts Hall.

"Xiong Ge, A Lan is entrusted to your care!"

Qin Shuo ruffled the head of the little girl crying uncontrollably, and instructed Zhang Xiong who had come to see him off.

"Rest assured, junior brother, as long as I, Zhang Xiong, am here, no one dares to bully A Lan." The towering youth thumped his chest forcefully and spoke boldly.

Afterwards, Qin Shuo mounted his horse, clasped his hands to the crowd, and said: "Master, fellow senior brothers, farewell!"

"You little rascal, when you reach Yunzhou, remember to send a letter back."

Wei Yuan's face was full of glory, with not a trace of worry on his face, only pride and arrogance.

His Liuhe Martial Arts Hall could also be said to have produced a truly outstanding figure.

Cloud Dragon Captain of the Demon Suppression Division.

In Yunzhou, this is considered a top-ranking official.

What virtue or ability does Wei Yuan possess to have taught such a dragon among men, a phoenix among people? Truly, it can be said that his ancestral grave is smoking with green smoke.

Qin Shuo returned the salute one by one, then gave a sharp shake of the reins and urged his horse forward.

"Brother, come back soon, I'll be waiting for you at home!"

Seeing the convoy escorting prisoners gradually fade into the distance, the little girl finally stopped crying and shouted loudly at Qin Shuo's retreating back.

Qin Shuo turned his head, waved at the little girl, then brought down the horsewhip heavily, completely disappearing from everyone's sight.

The brownish-yellow horse galloped swiftly along the official road, and soon Qin Shuo caught up with the prisoner escort convoy.

Due to the long distance, He Mingjing worried that delays might bring changes.

Therefore, this time escorting the prisoners, they did not use prisoner carts, but everyone rode horses.

Of course, hand and foot shackles were still naturally worn, but the chains were intentionally left a little longer to not hinder horseback riding.

Only Du Wenzhong, the former advisor of the City Lord's Mansion, was fully equipped with all sorts of gear, including cangue and shackles.

There was no way around it, this fellow was a principal accomplice and required special handling.

The prisoners being escorted this time were all core members holding important positions within the City Lord's Mansion.

As for the ordinary soldiers, they were all locked up in the great prison of Black Water City.

Once everything is clarified and settled, the Demon Suppression Division will naturally give them justice—those who deserve death shall die, those who deserve release shall be freed.

If anyone has been wronged, the Demon Suppression Division will not stint on money and will compensate for losses.

Qin Shuo walked at the rear of the horse convoy with bow on back and quiver of arrows, feeling reluctant in his heart, yet even more so filled with anticipation for the vast world beyond.

It has been nearly half a year since he came to this world.

He is finally about to leave this godforsaken little town and go see a more prosperous city.

According to what He Mingjing said, among the eight prefectures of Yunzhou, Songyang Prefecture is the most remote and desolate.

Precisely for this reason, the Xiaoyue Yaowang fled here to recuperate after being severely wounded, to evade the pursuit of the Demon Suppression Division.

Horse hooves tread upon the wind as they go.

Qin Shuo sat astride his horse, practicing the Longxiang Breathing Method to circulate his inner breath on one hand, while turning thoughts in his mind, considering the matter of condensing the Heavenly Meridian next.

According to what Wei Laotou said, the so-called Heavenly Meridian is to condense, at the Baihui point atop the head, a qi vein connecting heaven and earth using one's own qi and blood and spirit.

Once the qi vein is formed, one can inhale and exhale the Essence of Heaven and Earth, the brilliance of sun and moon, merge them with one's own qi and blood, and transform them into True Essence.

The qi and blood of the human body are dispersed throughout, refined by martial artists into qi strength, gathered in the dantian, and can flow through meridians and acupoints to strengthen tendons, bones, and the entire physique.

But to injure an enemy from a distance is extremely difficult.

Only when qi and blood fuse with the Essence of Heaven and Earth, condensing into a stronger True Essence, can one achieve the emission of qi strength to wound from afar.

Qi strength emitted from the body!

This is a realm attainable only by masters of the Condensing Truth Realm.

This is also why, when He Mingjing, with his Tongmai Small Accomplishment cultivation, emitted a forty-meter-long blade-shaped qi strength, Qin Shuo was so shocked.

As the saying goes: strength emitted one foot, qi reaches three zhang.

With the emission of true qi, a martial artist's attack range greatly increases, and killing power surges accordingly.

Now, Qin Shuo, with the aid of the Meta-Magnetic Earth Pearl, has refined many precious medicinal ingredients and elixirs, successfully unblocked the Twelve Standard Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians within his body, and his strength has reached the Tongmai Peak.

Only awaiting the completion of the Heavenly Meridian can he step into the Condensed Truth Realm, and his strength will rise another level.

And to quickly condense the Heavenly Meridian, the first thing he must do is refine the Heaven Reaching Pill.

The Heaven Reaching Pill is a powerful elixir researched by Xue Chengkong to reforge the shattered Heavenly Meridian, capable of gathering qi and blood and spirit, and transforming them into a Heaven-Piercing Vein.

And to refine the Heaven Reaching Pill, one must first use the Taotie Cauldron to refine the Wind Thunder Treasure Furnace left behind by Xue Chengkong.

Only by mastering Xue Chengkong's alchemical techniques can he refine the Heaven Reaching Pill.

And all of this can only be realized once he reaches the prefectural city.

Because the Taotie Cauldron currently lacks sufficient charge, and the exotic beast meat in Black Water City has been completely consumed by him, only by reaching Songyang Prefecture City can he replenish supplies.

The setting sun blazed like fire, and the clouds at the horizon seemed to be burning.

On the desolate official road, more than ten prisoners wearing shackles rode horses at full gallop, producing a clinking collision sound.

Although they did not use prisoner carts, Qin Shuo had no worry whatsoever about them escaping.

After merging with the fragmented demon spirit of the Xiaoyue Yaowang, his perception has already reached an extraordinarily terrifying level, worthy of being called divine awareness.

Once he fully unleashes the Heavenly Wolf Power, within a ten-li radius, any movement cannot escape his perception.

These prisoners, if placed in Black Water City, might still be considered to have some strength.

But for the current Qin Shuo, as long as he wishes, he can slaughter them all in an instant.

Nightfall descended.

Qin Shuo, exhausted from a day's journey, sat cross-legged on a tree as thick as a water jar, inhaling and exhaling moonlight, refining his spirit.

This is what he has been consistently doing these past few days.

The moonlight drawn in by the power of the Heavenly Wolf not only contains vibrant vitality, but also nourishes the soul and strengthens the spirit.

Wei Laotou once told him that even among Condensing Truth Realm martial artists, there are differences in level.

The greatest distinction lies in whether the Heavenly Meridian is sufficiently stable and strong.

The more stable the Heavenly Meridian, the greater the amount of Essence of Heaven and Earth that can be drawn in simultaneously, and the faster the refinement of True Essence will be.

Besides this, the Breathing Method is also extremely important.

After reaching the Condensing Truth Realm, while replenishing blood and qi remains important, what matters more is gathering the Essence of Heaven and Earth, the radiance of sun and moon.

And the gathering of Heaven and Earth's power must be accomplished through the combined effort of the Breathing Method and the Heavenly Meridian.

Therefore, before departure, Wei Laotou repeatedly urged him that upon entering the Demon Suppression Division, he must absolutely choose a superior Breathing Method, which will greatly benefit his cultivation.

What Wei Laotou does not know is that Qin Shuo himself possesses such a superior Breathing Method.

Moreover, it is a top-tier, supreme-level Breathing Method.

This Breathing Method was learned by Qin Shuo from the spiritual imprint of the Longxiang Monk while he was refining the Longxiang Golden Body Divine Intent Map.

At this moment, he uses it to inhale and exhale the moonlight, and the vast silver radiance pours down like a waterfall, completely submerging him.

The moonlight enters his body with his breath.

Qin Shuo feels his entire body become somewhat clear and unobstructed, and the fatigue from a day's travel is completely washed away at this moment.

His spirit is nourished and replenished by the moonlight, becoming extraordinarily abundant and full, and his essence, qi, and spirit have all reached the peak attainable at this moment.

Hu!

A peaceful night.

Early the next morning, the group sets out again, heading toward Songyang Prefecture City.

Since everyone is mounted and they have been galloping nonstop, they only took four days for Qin Shuo and the others to enter the territory of Erlong Mountain.

This time, Qin Shuo did not ride ahead to scout the path, but instead proceeded together with everyone.

Times have changed from before.

With his current strength, he naturally no longer needs to fear the mountain bandits who appear and disappear mysteriously in these mountains.

But soon, he furrowed his brow.

Under the influence of the Heavenly Wolf Divine Sense, he can clearly sense that on a mountain road several kilometers away, a fast horse is galloping straight toward them.

Following closely, there is also a strong scent of blood.

This indicates that the rider has suffered severe injuries, to the point where even the dissipation of his own blood and qi can no longer be controlled.

Yet strangely, behind that person, there is clearly no pursuer—so why does he not stop to rest, but instead continues galloping all the way?

Most importantly, that person's aura seems somewhat familiar.

But who exactly it is, Qin Shuo cannot recall at the moment.

"Hold position and regroup!"

Qin Shuo furrowed his brow, rode his horse to He Mingjing's side, and said: "There's a situation."

"Enemy attack?"

He Mingjing's expression changed, he became tense, gripped his sword hilt with his hand, and stared fixedly ahead at the mountain road.

After that, ten minutes passed with no movement whatsoever on the mountain road.

Just as he was about to find Qin Shuo to question him, a faint horse hoof sound came from the mountain road far in the distance.

Immediately after, a blurred figure burst out from a bend, moving at extreme speed, and vanished in the blink of an eye into another bend.

"Are you blessed with wind-hearing ears? You can hear movement from this far away?" He Mingjing exclaimed in shock.

From the time Qin Shuo warned him of the situation to when that person burst out from the bend, nearly half an incense stick's worth of time had passed.

Such a distance...

Probably even a Condensing Truth Realm expert would not be able to detect it, right?

However, Qin Shuo paid no heed to his astonishment, but instead set his face sternly, clamped his legs around the horse's belly, and rode forward to meet him.

The distance was too great for He Mingjing to see clearly who was on the horseback, but Qin Shuo saw clearly.

It was Song Tianhao.

However, the Song Tianhao at this moment is vastly different from the steady and confident middle-aged man in his memory—disheveled and dirty-faced, pallid, and seriously wounded.

"Something has happened to the Song Family!"

Qin Shuo's heart gave a sudden jolt, and his expression turned solemn.

He spurred his horse forward and soon met the galloping Song Tianhao.

"Song Family Head!"

Even from far away, Qin Shuo had already spoken.

His deep voice shook the mountains and forests, startling the birds in the trees on both sides into flapping up in panic.

"Qin Brother, save Ayan!"

Looking at the youth galloping toward him on horseback, Song Tianhao, whose face had not a trace of blood, seemed to experience a final burst of strength before death, suddenly straightened his body, and shouted loudly in response.

This exertion stirred his internal injuries, and he suddenly spat out a large mouthful of fresh blood; his already deathly pale face became even more dim and lifeless.

"Song Family Head."

Upon meeting, Qin Shuo leapt forward and directly pulled him down from the horse's back.

It is evident that Song Tianhao's condition at this moment is very poor, sustained only by a single thought, and he could die at any moment.

He circulated the Heavenly Wolf's power to temporarily stabilize the other's injury.

Then he took out the Peiyuan Pill and the Blood Qi Pill for him to take, and only then did he barely pull him back from the gates of hell.

"Song Family Head, what happened? How did you end up in such a state?" Qin Shuo asked in a deep voice.

"It's the Fang family, and Song Tianlin..."

Under the vigorous recovery of the Tianlang power, Song Tianhao's complexion improved slightly, and he immediately confessed everything about how Song Ci and his son, together with the Fang family, had captured Song Yan a few days earlier and seriously injured him.

"At that time, when Ah Yan learned that they wanted to use her life to threaten you, she immediately tried to kill herself on the spot."

"Fortunately, I was close to Ah Yan and managed to stop her in time, but as a result, I was ambushed by Song Ci and Fang Yongping and seriously injured on the spot."

"If it weren't for the Guest Minister Wang Songming, whom I had recruited years ago, arriving in time and risking his life to hold off the two of them, I would probably have been killed by now."

"After escaping from Songyang Prefecture City, my injuries were too severe, so I hid in a ruined temple outside the city for several days."

"Later, when I discovered they were no longer pursuing me, I seized a fast horse and intended to go to Black Water City to find you and deliver the news."

"But I never expected to meet you here."

"Qin Brother, Ah Yan is my elder brother's only bloodline; I beg you, please save her."

Saying this, as the head of the family, Song Tianhao, despite his serious injuries, forced himself to stand up and bowed deeply to Qin Shuo.

"Song Family Head, rest assured; since this matter arose because of me, Qin Shuo will naturally not stand by idly. You should focus on healing your wounds, and I will handle the rest."

Qin Shuo helped him back onto the horse, then gave a word to He Mingjing, and took the lead in galloping swiftly toward Songyang Prefecture.

Since the Tian family and Song Ci are bent on seeking death, then old scores and new scores—let's settle them all together!