Chapter 574: The Thrill of the Volley

Neither Xu Xu Lanshan nor Wei Boyang had expected that the horse bandits would actually dare to open fire, and that this shot would have such an extreme range—it could actually strike twenty *li* away!

Chaos instantly erupted atop the walls of Hanyang Pass; the garrison commanders had no idea where this sudden disaster had flown in from. The defending troops were in a state of total disarray, scrambling in a panic to push out their bed-mounted crossbows, but within their field of vision, where were the enemies?

Those with keen eyesight saw figures flickering on the summit of a distant small hill, but they did not believe the attack had originated from there. Unless it was Fenhai Zhenjun Master Yu Jing, no one could fire a Daoist technique or an arrow that far.

The various elders of the Xu family watched with their own eyes as the horse bandits adjusted their firing angles along the way. A few horse bandits even took out instruments they had never seen before to measure something. Those horse bandits who had gone to plant flags before Hanyang Pass had not gone for nothing; they had been measuring the distance as they walked.

Originally, all the elders had assumed they were just bluffing, but no one had expected that the horse bandits would actually load the shells and then score a hit with the very first shot!

The elders' minds were blank at this moment, not knowing how to respond. But they had all made up their minds: they would absolutely not be the first to step forward. In any case, Xu Xu Lanshan was in charge here; if something went wrong, she would be the one to bear the responsibility.

Only Xu Xu Lanshan and Wei Boyang saw that the shell's flight trajectory had been somewhat erratic in its final stage, clearly guided by a cultivator's spiritual sense, which was why it could be so accurate—blowing up all the soldiers at the city gate while leaving the gate itself undamaged.

Faced with this situation, Xu Xu Lanshan could no longer remain silent. She shouted in a deep voice, "Are you trying to start a war?"

The small horse bandit leader below grinned, revealing a mouthful of ghastly white teeth, and said, "What else? If we don't have a few rounds with you, you'll really think we're afraid of you? If you want to fight, I'll give you two choices. Take your pick."

Facing this small horse bandit leader, Xu Xu Lanshan was uncharacteristically serious and solemn. She asked, "Which two choices?"

The small horse bandit leader said, "First, you come to our territory alone, and our Great Chief can have a one-on-one with you."

"Why not on our territory?" Xu Xu Lanshan countered.

"Do I need to tell you what kind of reputation your Xu family has? Let's put it this way: I don't care who you are; as long as your surname is Xu, I won't believe a single word you say. If you want to fight, come to our territory! If you're not convinced, you can go out and ask around—which band of horse bandits in the Western Regions doesn't have better credibility than your Xu family?"

When the conversation reached this point, the complexion of the Xu family elder who had been standing very close to Little Wei Yuan gradually changed. He began to inch away in the air, bit by bit, fearing he might attract Little Wei Yuan's attention.

Before Little Wei Yuan's voice had even faded, a flash of light suddenly appeared in the sky, and an immortal thunderbolt descended silently, striking directly onto his head!

The immortal thunderbolt came without any warning; it was already above Little Wei Yuan's head the instant it appeared!

Seven-colored light instantly surged from Little Wei Yuan's body—the aura was actually that of immortal spiritual energy—weakening the thunderbolt by half. The remaining thunder struck Little Wei Yuan, instantly reducing his clothes and equipment to fly ash and carbonizing his Dharma body, leaving it charred black.

Amidst a clattering sound, Little Wei Yuan's storage magic treasures were all destroyed, and their contents fell all over the ground.

In the split second before his thoughts could even turn, a woman in red seemed to appear. She walked over gracefully, picked up a few storybooks from the scattered items on the ground, and then vanished.

Even the crowd of Dharma Form elders only felt a blur before their eyes; it was as if they had seen someone, yet as if they hadn't.

Xu Xu Lanshan's hair stood on end in an instant—one of the two hidden assassins had finally revealed herself! She really was Master Yu Jing, and not just an ordinary Master Yu Jing. The moment the woman in red appeared, Xu Xu Lanshan realized she had still underestimated her.

This kind of speed was simply too terrifying. If there had been no prior precautions, then from the moment the woman in red approached, to striking a vital point, to retreating calmly, Xu Xu Lanshan might not even have been able to draw her sword.

To deal with an assassin of this level, when one is still a major realm behind, one can only rely on protective magic treasures bestowed by the immortal ancestors to save one's life. The problem is that the number of magic treasures is limited and will eventually run out, while Master Yu Jing assassins are all very patient, guarding day and night, always able to wait until the target lets their guard down.

And what was even more fatal was that Xu Xu Lanshan sensed there were two assassins; the other's energy signature was constantly locked onto her, yet she couldn't detect where that assassin was hiding at all.

Only at this moment did Xu Xu Lanshan realize that the strength of Qingming was truly unfathomable. No wonder the True Lords had dispatched two people each time in the past, and later even mobilized a million-strong army, only to suffer crushing defeats—they hadn't won a single battle.

Previously, Xu Xu Lanshan had always thought that the Xu family's private army had rotted to the core and that their own combat strength was too poor. At this moment, she realized that perhaps it wasn't that the Xu family's private army was weak, but that Qingming was too strong.

Although Little Wei Yuan's clothes had been completely blasted away by the immortal thunderbolt, his mask remained intact. This mask was forged from purified Nether Iron and had extremely strong resistance to Daoist techniques and immortal arts; even after being weakened layer by layer, the immortal thunderbolt could do nothing to it.

Little Wei Yuan's body shuddered, and dense cracks suddenly appeared on the charred surface, revealing the tender skin beneath. Then, the charred carbon skin fell off continuously, exposing a large area of new flesh that looked like pink jade.

Little Wei Yuan's Dharma body was extremely formidable; his flesh and blood had condensed to the point of being like precious jade. When fresh blood flowed through his vessels, it was like a jade substance that could flow at will; once it left his body, it would immediately condense into beads of jade.

Now, his flesh and blood didn't even have an obvious growth process; they just squirmed, and new skin was generated. However, during the process of his flesh and blood growing all over his body, the vitality within Little Wei Yuan erupted to the extreme, instantly bringing a strange yet highly impactful pleasure that made him tremble uncontrollably.

Little Wei Yuan immediately cursed his luck. With so many pairs of eyes watching, how could he have such a shameful reaction?! He immediately reached out, grabbed an outer robe, and put it on calmly, covering up one of the top-tier physical Dharma bodies in the Dharma Form realm.

However, for the elder who had just spoken to him, as well as the Xu family elders, Little Wei Yuan intentionally let them catch a glimpse of his "assets," just to let these old fellows feel inferior, so they wouldn't go around telling others about his "three guns" later. At this moment, the Xu family elders were all pale as death.

The immortal thunderbolt was naturally issued by their own immortal ancestor, Xu Wangu, and its power was sufficient to kill a Dharma Form cultivator and severely injure a beginner Master Yu Jing. The immortal ancestor had struck from across the void from far beyond the heavens; such was the power of the immortal thunderbolt, and he hadn't held back at all.

But the small horse bandit leader before them had actually endured it as if nothing had happened, and it seemed he had even been struck into a state of pleasure. Moreover, the ancestor's lightning had only scorched one layer of this guy's skin. Looking at that formidable, unbelievable Dharma body, how could they not know who this small horse bandit leader really was?

It was just that the "assets" Little Wei Yuan had intentionally displayed were subconsciously ignored by them.

Little Wei Yuan put on his outer coat, took several storage magic treasures from the people beside him, waved his hand, and collected everything that had fallen on the ground. Then he stretched his body, showed Xu Xu Lanshan a mouthful of white teeth again, and said:

"Alright, now that you've taken your ancestor's lightning, let's continue with the second choice. I heard you've been training a firearm unit, so I'll give you a chance for a decisive battle. A duel of ten thousand men is fine, thirty thousand is also fine. Pick the battlefield, set a time, and fight to the death."

"Two choices: single combat or military formation, take your pick!"

Xu Xu Lanshan said coldly, "What if I don't want to choose either?"

Little Wei Yuan revealed his ghastly white teeth again and said, "Believe me, you'll want to choose. Otherwise, it will be total war. I'll see if the garrison in your Hanyang Pass can even make it out of the city gates first."

At this moment, the cargo trucks in the rear had already driven to the summit of the small hill and were pushed into pre-leveled open spaces. Then, the truck beds were dismantled, and inside were actually city-defense cannons already set up! As the truck supports hit the ground, they became ready-made gun carriages.

In the blink of an eye, this small hill was densely packed with dozens of cannons. Added to the two long-range heavy cannons, the firepower was truly appalling.

Moreover, the five hundred heavy cavalry were arrayed behind the hill, while three thousand riflemen had set up several lines of defense in front of the slope.

Read every single word carefully!

Anyone with even a slight understanding of military affairs could see that although the garrison only had four thousand men, trying to take this small hill would likely require paying a price of tens of thousands of casualties.

Xu Xu Lanshan stared at Little Wei Yuan and suddenly said, "You are considered a hero of your generation, and you became famous in your youth, full of heroic spirit. Why do you like to engage in such skulking behavior?"

Little Wei Yuan cupped his hands toward the direction of the Tang Domain and said, "I am showing the imperial court the minimum amount of respect."

Xu Xu Lanshan was silent for a moment, then said, "I need to think about it. I'll give you an answer in a few days."

Having said that, she turned and left. Watching her receding figure, Little Wei Yuan wanted to say something, but he shook his head and let her go.

Wei Boyang in the sky gave Little Wei Yuan a thumbs-up, then returned to the flying boat and flew toward the Tang Domain. The flying boat drifted away in the blink of an eye, leaving only his heroic and desolate singing echoing in the air.

It was just that Xu Xu Lanshan never discovered until the end that the second assassin had actually been standing behind her the whole time. It was just that Wei Boyang's appearance, aura, and identity were completely unrelated to an assassin, causing her to subconsciously overlook him.

At this time, the follow-up five-thousand-man unit and the transport convoy had also arrived, and they began to build the positions according to the preset blueprints. Now, Qingming built positions using wooden boards nailed with steel plates, building them extremely quickly. During this time, some of the garrison inside Hanyang Pass ran out of the city gate to jump around, only to invite two more shells, resulting in seven or eight people being wiped out together.

With this, the Hanyang Pass garrison finally understood that those horse bandits on the opposite hill had no concept of restraint or decorum. They had drawn a red line, and as long as anyone dared to cross it by a single step, they truly dared to open fire.

The horse bandits dared to open fire, but the Hanyang Pass garrison, without orders from above, did not dare to retaliate at all.

A minor officer who clamored to use the bed-mounted crossbows to fight back was met with a face-full of scolding from the city gate commander. After the scolding, the city defense commander ordered the minor officer to guard the gate tower, while he himself quietly went down the city wall and ran to a section of the wall a hundred *zhang* away to observe secretly.

This commander was not stupid at all; the enemy could land a shell a few *zhang* in front of the city gate, and they could bombard the gate tower by just slightly raising the muzzle. If he stayed in the gate tower, he really wouldn't even know how he died.

At this time, Little Wei Yuan finished arranging the defenses, changed into ordinary horse bandit clothes, and disappeared into the crowd of horse bandits. This time, the fifty Great Thieves of the Heaven-Extinguishing Band all wore uniform masks and identical clothes, and the masks were all forged from Nether Iron that could isolate aura and Daoist power; apart from their energy signatures, one couldn't tell who was who.

At this moment, on a stretch of sea in the Human Realm's Fireworks, thunder light was rolling; it was actually a sea of thunder covering a radius of several dozen *zhang*. These thunderbolts were extremely miraculous, condensing without dissipating, surging restlessly like real water.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 575 =====