Chapter 233: Rebellion!

Since Nie Jin Feng's last visit, Qin Shuo has been in seclusion at home.

In just three days,

His strength has undergone an earth-shaking change.

Not only did his martial arts realm leap from the initial stage of Visceral Refinement to the Great Completion of Visceral Refinement,

Furthermore, with the aid of the Hundred Thousand Vitality Blood Pill provided by Nie Jin Feng, he in one go refined the Six True Gang and the Wind Thunder Four Symbols Arrow contained in the Wind Thunder Crouching Flood Bow.

He also refined the remaining three supreme arts of Wind Thunder Valley—the Five Thunder Extermination Palm, the Wandering Dragon Wind-Riding Step, and the Thunderclap Divine Palm.

By this point, the thousand-year accumulation of martial arts heritage in Wind Thunder Valley could be said to have all entered Qin Shuo's possession.

Pa!

Inside the training ground.

With a thunderclap exploding.

The newly replaced blue stone arrow target, from several zhang away, Qin Shuo shattered it with a palm, sending broken stones flying.

"This Thunderclap Divine Palm truly possesses overwhelming power!"

Admiring the electric arc jumping like a child's delighted cheer in his palm, Qin Shuo sincerely praised.

Apart from the yet-unrefined Wind Thunder Overlord Body, this mere fragment of the Thunderclap Divine Palm possesses power far surpassing Wind Thunder Valley's supreme art, the Five Thunder Extermination Palm.

After all, the Five Thunder Extermination Palm merely imitates the warrior's gang qi condensed from thunder and lightning.

Whereas the Thunderclap Divine Palm controls genuine lightning.

A single palm strike can pulverize even extremely hard azure stone and melt metal into molten iron; its power cannot be considered weak.

Besides this, Qin Shuo also gained an unexpected harvest.

That is, using thunder and lightning as the power source and the primordial magnetic meridians as the hub, he recombined the Divine Foot and the Wandering Dragon Wind-Riding Step, two divine arts and supreme techniques, to create a new Lightning Divine Step!

This step technique, propelled by lightning, combines the agile dodging and maneuvering of the Wandering Dragon Wind-Riding Step with the straight-line extreme speed of the Divine Foot, a step technique tailor-made for him.

With this step at his side, Qin Shuo is confident that, as long as he does not encounter a martial arts grandmaster equally skilled in speed like Old Nie Deng, escape is absolutely no problem.

Huu~

He heavily exhaled a mouthful of turbid qi, Qin Shuo slowly gathered his power.

After washing up in his room, he then put on the uniform of the Cloud Dragon Colonel and headed toward the Demon Suppression Office.

These past few days, the Demon Suppression Office has searched everywhere for Xiao Yingqi and the disciples of Mysterious Soldier Mountain, but found nothing.

It was as if these people, like earth-escape zombies, left no trace, vanished completely within Yunzhou City.

"Colonel Qin!"

"Colonel Qin!"

……

Entering the Demon Suppression Office, the many Cloud Pattern Colonels enthusiastically greeted him, their eyes filled with fervor and respect.

Since three days ago, after he publicly defeated Lu Dingzhou,

his prestige within the Demon Suppression Office reached a peak, even surpassing that of the three Demon Suppression Generals by a bit.

"Old Qin, you've finally arrived!"

When he reached the central courtyard, a youth wearing a Golden Eagle martial robe ran toward him,

who else could it be but Golden Eagle Colonel He Mingjing?

In the current Demon Suppression Office, the only one who addresses Qin Shuo as "Old Qin" is him.

"What's happened?"

Seeing He Mingjing in such a flustered state, Qin Shuo knew without thinking that something must have happened again.

Indeed, He Mingjing's next sentence confirmed his guess.

"Earth-escape zombies have appeared again, and not just one, but a whole group!" He Mingjing's expression was grave.

"A group? Inside the city or outside?"

Qin Shuo slightly raised his eyebrows, realizing the seriousness of the problem.

Earth-escape zombies differ from other demons; their combat strength may not be exceptionally strong, but their threat to ordinary civilians far exceeds that of other demons.

Simply put, any corpse whose blood has been drained by them, if not promptly cremated, will become an earth-escape zombie.

This means that if the earth-escape zombies are not wiped out in a single day, Yunzhou City will be in grave danger.

"It's outside the city; the outlying settlements to the east, south, and north of the city have all found traces of earth-escape zombies, their numbers huge, the situation urgent.

The Mountain-Moving General, the Sea-Trampling General, and the Flying Star General have each led their troops out of the city to suppress them."

"What about the west of the city?"

"So far, no traces of earth-escape zombies have been found in the west of the city." He Mingjing answered truthfully.

"Wait a moment."

Qin Shuo suddenly stopped in his tracks, raised his brow, and asked, "Where is the Demon Suppression Office's great prison?"

"In the west of the city!"

"Oh no! Xiao Yingqi and the Ghost Mother Sect are going to break into the prison!"

"What?"

"That is the most heavily defended great prison in all of Yunzhou,"

just the divine crossbows alone number eight.

The guardian of the great prison, Cloud Dragon Colonel Xu Longsheng, is moreover a quasi-grandmaster on the verge of igniting his furnace.

Although he is already old and frail, with depleted qi and blood,

yet, equipped with eight divine crossbows, even a grandmaster arriving in person would find it hard to retreat unscathed.

Could Xiao Yingqi have lost his mind, running to raid the great prison?"

He Mingjing was frightened by Qin Shuo's speculation,

But his intuition told him that Qin Shuo's speculation was likely correct.

After all, the monster calamity outside the city appeared too suspiciously,

Anyone with a bit of brains could easily tell there was deceit in this.

But what of it?

Even knowing it's a trap, the Three Great Demon-Subduing Generals had no choice but to send troops to suppress it.

After all, if those Earth-Escape Zombies are left to run rampant, it won't be long before Yunzhou City is completely surrounded by zombies, and then the casualties will only increase.

Yunzhou City has a population of ten million, making it a rare megacity.

The settlements outside the city each have tens of thousands of people, totaling at least a hundred thousand.

If they all turned into Earth-Escape Zombies, the consequences…

Just thinking about it gives one chills.

It's obvious, this is a blatant scheme!

It is Xiao Yingqi, in order to rescue the Xiao family, joining forces with the Ghost Mother Sect, who set up this blatant scheme against the Demon Subduing Office.

"The greatest ability of Earth-Escape Zombies is to burrow underground and dig holes."

"Perhaps the Xiao family members have already escaped from the Great Prison, even left Yunzhou City."

Qin Shuo speculated about the worst possible outcome.

"What should we do now? Should we summon the three generals back to the city?"

He Mingjing felt a bit flustered.

If the Xiao family's over a hundred members were allowed to escape, all the Demon Subduing Office's day-and-night searches over the past half month would be wasted.

"It's too late."

Qin Shuo pondered briefly, then took a swift horse from the rear courtyard and galloped toward the western Great Prison.

"Halt, whoever approaches!"

Before reaching the Great Prison, shouts came from ahead, followed closely by the sounds of machinery turning and bowstrings being drawn.

"I am Qin Shuo, Yunlong Colonel of the Demon Subduing Office, here to inspect the Xiao family prisoners in the Great Prison; please open the gate!"

The angry shout ceased abruptly.

An old man with white hair and beard, clad in armor and wearing a long sword at his waist, stepped out from the shadows, his gaze cold and stern;

"Halt!"

"Colonel Xu, what is the meaning of this?"

Qin Shuo's face darkened, and his heart sank as well.

Just as he approached this Great Prison, he sensed an unusual energy.

Besides the Earth-Escape Zombies, there are other demons inside this Great Prison, and not just one.

The situation seems even more serious than he imagined!

"Halt!"

Xu Longsheng's face was expressionless, merely repeating mechanically.

His left hand pressed down slightly on the saber at his waist, he wore heavy armor, his aura fierce, as if about to step forward and launch an attack.

Colonel Xu, the earth‑evading zombies are rioting in the east, south, and north of the city; I suspect remnants of the Xiao clan have colluded with demons, planning to lure the tiger away from the mountain, seize the chance to break into the prison, and I hope Colonel Xu will let me enter the great prison for an inspection.

Qin Shuo's face sank like water, his gaze swept over the divine‑arm crossbow on the wall without a trace, and his pupils involuntarily contracted.

Breaking‑Gang Crossbow!

Eight divine‑arm crossbows, all engraved with Daoist talismans, are Breaking‑Gang Crossbows!

These specially made bolts are aimed specifically at grandmaster martial artists; once hit, even a protector of true vigor will be injured.

"There are important criminals in the prison; unless the prison warden arrives in person, no one is allowed to advance a single step!"

Like Qin Shuo, the old man wearing the cloud‑dragon colonel's uniform spoke with resonant words and a stern attitude.

"What if Qin insists on entering?"

Qin Shuo's eyes narrowed slightly, his face darkened to the extreme.

Fu Lingyuan has been out of contact for over half a month; even if news inside the great prison is slow, he would not be this oblivious.

Therefore, Xu Longsheng is deliberately making things difficult.

Yet I have no grudge against him; why is he making things difficult for me?

Moreover, at this moment the aura of the earth‑evading zombies and unknown demons inside the great prison is so strong,

With Xu Longsheng's strength, he could not possibly fail to notice, yet he insists on blocking my way in.

In that case, there is only one answer:

Xu Longsheng, he has betrayed!

Bang bang bang~

In the flash of his thoughts, outside the great prison, on the wall, the archers had already launched, arrows shooting like a meteor shower, covering the sky and earth.

At the same time, Xu Longsheng's voice, devoid of any emotion, sounded again:

"Then kill without mercy!"

……