Chapter 189: Jinhua Ancient Bell

The night ended and the sky brightened.

Li Heng and Kong Que spent the night crossing various counties, and by the morning hour, they could already see the outline of Jinhua City, the seat of the Beijun Prefecture.

Jinhua City covers a vast area; according to official statistics released five years ago, its population has reached one million, and its commerce is prosperous, divided into four districts—east, west, north, and south—with eight wards and four markets.

The wards are residential areas, and the markets are commercial areas.

"Let's go down; that way, entering the city will have a sense of ceremony."

Li Heng smiled slightly, and the human and the demon descended from the sky, walking slowly in line to enter the city like other merchants and foot soldiers.

The city gate of Jinhua City is more than several times larger than that of Bei'an City, but even so, during the morning hours when the flow of people is high, one still has to queue to enter slowly.

Looking around, there are many long, dragon-like convoys, which gives an idea of how massive the trade throughput of this city is.

Moreover, Jinhua City is near the "Dajiang," one of the major water arteries that runs through the north and south of Great Li, making transportation extremely convenient.

It can be put this way.

Starting from here and traveling down by boat, one can even reach Nanjun, which is opposite Beijun, not to mention the dense waterways that cover the land, meaning the trade volume is far more than what is seen before one's eyes.

Soon, it was their turn to enter the city.

Although there were some Guards at the city gate, this time the Guards were mostly just checking the merchants and convoys carrying goods, and they were too lazy to pay attention to people like Li Heng who didn't even carry luggage.

After paying a few coins for the city entry tax, they signaled for the two to enter.

Li Heng didn't care, as it was just official business, and he was about to enter the city.

Suddenly, a Guard spoke up.

"Wait, why do you two look somewhat familiar?"

The Guard was a bit puzzled; he thought for a moment and suddenly remembered the wanted poster he had forgotten to post on the wall, then immediately took it out from his person, unfolded it, and looked closely.

He looked at Li Heng, then looked at the wanted poster, comparing them carefully.

Then he nodded.

"Oh, I was mistaken, you may enter."

The Guard muttered, signaling for the two to enter.

Li Heng smiled slightly and didn't care, and the human and the demon stepped into Jinhua City. The Guard watched them leave, cold sweat breaking out on his back, his heart relieved as he looked at the wanted poster in his hand.

He stared closely at the lifelike portrait of the head.

He cursed inwardly.

Damn it, I didn't expect to actually run into the real person!

It really was the person on the wanted poster; isn't it said that wanted posters posted in cities are useless? Which martial artist or cultivator on a wanted poster wouldn't use a disguise, and which one would honestly enter through the city gate?

I didn't expect that someone would actually be this honest?

Fortunately, he reacted a bit quickly, otherwise he would surely die here; he couldn't beat such a fierce person who made it onto a wanted poster.

He didn't intend to report this matter either.

He didn't want to be charged with dereliction of duty.

Let the lords in the city worry about this matter.

He chuckled in his heart; anyway, posting this wanted poster was just a formality, no one expected to be able to catch anyone at the city gate, and the lords in the city wouldn't associate it with him.

Thinking leisurely, he casually posted the wanted poster on the city wall.

The human and the demon had already walked into Jinhua City.

Kong Que frowned and spoke softly, "Master, that Guard seems to have something suspicious about him; he was suddenly nervous, as if he recognized us."

"I am already aware of this matter; no need to pay it any mind."

Li Heng spoke calmly; it seems Ma Suxuan really is in trouble, as his portrait is already on a wanted poster. That Guard had already recognized him, but he was too lazy to care.

He never intended to hide.

He wanted to see, between himself and a Dharma Aspect, who is stronger and who is weaker?

"Ding dong dong."

Suddenly, a bell rang.

Ripples like those on the surface of water spread out over Jinhua City, affecting the commoners in the city and instantly touching Li Heng and Kong Que.

The other commoners and Li Heng were unaffected.

But Kong Que's expression changed suddenly, revealing a look of difficulty, as if she had been affected by this ripple.

Li Heng frowned slightly.

He tapped his finger on Kong Que, releasing his Great Sun Divine Intent, wrapping Kong Que's entire body, which made Kong Que feel much better; her whole body felt warm, and she even groaned in comfort.

However, Kong Que soon realized she had been impolite in front of her master, her face turning somewhat red, and she hurriedly explained, "Thank you, Master, for your intervention; that bell sound just now seemed to have the power to suppress the demon race."

"I am aware of this; let's go, let's go see the source of the bell sound."

Li Heng nodded and didn't care, signaling for Kong Que to follow.

In the center of Jinhua City stands a tall Bell Tower, and on the Bell Tower is a Bronze Ancient Bell named Jinhua, which is said to date back a thousand years to when Jinhua City was first built.

This Jinhua Bell is struck once every morning and evening by a Bell Ringer; it is said that it can deter Evil Demons from all directions and break apart demon spirits and Weird occurrences.

Of course, to ordinary people, this is simply ethereal. Therefore, for the commoners in the city, its greatest function is to tell time; for example, right now, once the bell rings, the market opens and trade begins.

On the Bell Tower.

Ma Xingkong wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a long sigh; he didn't expect that striking this Jinhua Bell would be so exhausting, consuming nearly ninety percent of his strength, leaving his body feeling a bit drained.

But his grandfather hadn't lied to him after all.

When the bell rings, the Bell Ringer also receives great benefits; one can use the force of the counter-vibration to temper one's physique and internal organs, and use the mysterious bell sound to temper one's Godly Intent.

No wonder this job as a Bell Ringer is so sought after; just to be a Bell Ringer for one day and strike the Jinhua Bell twice, not fearing hardship or fatigue—it turns out the benefits are this great.

It seems his grandfather still dotes on him quite a bit.

With the heart of a youth, Ma Xingkong couldn't help but feel happy.

Of course, the next moment, his mood felt a bit dejected again.

But since his grandfather doted on him so much, why did his grandfather not listen to his opinions at all, completely ignore his aunt's situation, let his aunt be thrown into the Heavenly Prison, and let his aunt suffer such grievances?

At the mere thought of the current plight of his aunt, who had always doted on him.

Ma Xingkong felt a bitter taste in his heart.

He recalled the argument he had with his grandfather last night.

"Grandfather, those damned fellows in the city actually dared to make a move against Aunt; we cannot just sit by and do nothing. We are all members of the Ma Family, and Aunt's personality would absolutely never do such a thing as a Blood Sacrifice!"

"Xingkong, you don't understand; this is actually a good thing."

"A good thing? How is that possible? Aunt has been thrown into the Heavenly Prison, and those fellows will likely use some method to torture her."

"You can rest assured about that; they won't."

"But we still shouldn't have thrown Aunt into the Heavenly Prison."

"Hmph, a trip to the Heavenly Prison is fine; it will save her from continuing to be willful. She is not young anymore, yet for decades she hasn't even returned home, acting as some bullshit Division Chief here—this is something she must return for!"

After saying this, his grandfather stopped talking about the matter.

Then he arranged for him to be the Bell Ringer for a day...

Now, thinking back carefully, Ma Xingkong still had some doubts about those words; since their Ma Family could protect his aunt, why couldn't they let her out, and instead just sit by and do nothing?

Could it really just be to make his aunt go back?

But, is something like this really right?

He shook his head, feeling that he didn't know either.

Ma Xingkong looked at the massive Bronze Ancient Bell in front of him, sighed, and then sat cross-legged, beginning to quickly recover the Original Qi and Qi and Blood consumed by ringing the bell.

After all, he also knew some embarrassing stories about the Bell Ringers.

For example, some guy became a Bell Ringer, and after ringing the bell once, he collapsed from exhaustion, completely unable to ring it a second time that evening, once becoming a laughingstock for others and wasting such a great opportunity.

He didn't want to be like that.

At this time, Li Heng and Kong Que had already arrived in front of the Bell Tower.

Li Heng looked at the massive Bell Tower before him, as well as the huge Bronze Ancient Bell hanging above the tower, lost in thought.

"So it is such a heavy artifact; that is no wonder."

"Master, was the bell sound from just now coming from here? But the appearance of the ancient bell above looks very ordinary, and I don't feel even a trace of spiritual energy or anything else."

Kong Que said, looking somewhat bewildered.

"This is not strange; divine objects hide their own brilliance."

"But speaking of which, you are quite embarrassing too. Didn't you say you were a spirit beast? How could you be suppressed by this bell sound?"

Li Heng teased Kong Que.

"Spirit beasts are also part of the demon race, just not the man-eating demon monsters; the demon race has always been divided into many types."

Kong Que blushed and defended herself.

"Fine, fine, let's go up and see how this bell is, and if it's easy to use. By the way, you also need to ring it; being suppressed the moment the bell rings won't do, you need to practice."

Li Heng ignored Kong Que's defense and spoke indifferently.

Kong Que was startled upon hearing this; is this really okay?

If this ancient bell is truly the source of the bell sound from just now and is truly a divine object, as a member of the demon race, if she rings the bell once at close range and endures the power at close range, wouldn't she be a dead bird?

However, seeing that Li Heng was serious, she became determined again.

Since Master told her to ring it, then she would ring it!

This Bell Tower was very high, but that was only relative to ordinary mortals; for Li Heng and Kong Que, under the exertion of their power, it was only a distance of a few steps, and they quickly arrived at the top of the Bell Tower.

The area at the top of the Bell Tower was still quite spacious.

At the very least, it was the size of a basketball court.

Ma Xingkong, who was meditating and recovering beside the ancient bell, was startled in his heart. He opened his eyes to look and was immediately stunned; who were this man and woman in front of him, and why did they run up here?

They looked so unfamiliar; could they be some evildoers?

But this Bell Tower was located in the center of the city, with people coming and going, and it was adjacent to the surrounding aristocratic mansions, where experts were as numerous as clouds; which evildoer would dare to cause trouble in such a location?

"Who are you?" Ma Xingkong asked with a serious expression.

"You should be surnamed Ma, right?"

Li Heng smiled slightly; he could easily sense the flame within Ma Xingkong's body similar to that of Ma Suxuan, which was originally the so-called Yang Extreme True Flame, only much weaker than Ma Suxuan's.

"I want to ask who you are."

Ma Xingkong reiterated.

He was not surprised that the two people in front of him knew he was surnamed Ma; after all, as a descendant of an aristocratic family, although he was not too famous in Jinhua City, he still had some reputation, and it would be strange if they didn't know.

"Us? We are probably old acquaintances of Ma Suxuan."

Li Heng thought for a moment and said indifferently.

"Aunt's old acquaintances?"

Ma Xingkong's expression was astonished, and he blurted it out.

Aunt? Li Heng raised his eyebrows slightly; so that's how it is?

"Since Ma Suxuan is your aunt, then it's easy to handle. We came here intending to ring the bell; Kong Que, go ahead."

He signaled for Kong Que to step forward and ring the Jinhua Ancient Bell.