Chapter 378: Powerful Strike

First, someone impersonated the Vermilion Bird Army, and now even the disappearance of the Vermilion Bird Army has occurred—a heinous incident—and Hua Changxi's mood is extremely foul.

She could only temporarily shelve the plan to arrange the teleportation array for 'Lingguang Hall—Karma Fire Platform'.

Fortunately, the teleportation array for 'Lingguang Hall—Nine Heavens Fire Spring' had already been set up. Hua Changxi taught the incantation to activate the array to Duan Jishan, the steward of the Martial Arts Hall, and instructed him to send the Vermilion Bird Army into the Nine Heavens Fire Spring for cultivation in batches.

After that, she personally set out to investigate the missing Vermilion Bird Army soldiers.

Patrolling Nanxiang County once more, Hua Changxi found that conflicts among cultivators had increased again.

Thinking about it, it made sense—since all sides dared to impersonate the Vermilion Bird Army, they naturally would not obey the order issued by the Vermilion Bird Army forbidding fights within Nanxiang County.

As the site of the former Nanxiang City, the greatest opportunities in Nanxiang County were naturally the reappearance of the original Nanxiang City ruins and the Twelve Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, but beyond that, various terrains such as mountains, rivers, and streams also held their own opportunities.

This resulted in top-tier powers contending for the 'great opportunities' like the City Lord's Token and the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, while minor powers and ordinary cultivators fought over other 'minor opportunities'.

For instance, a small mountain peak with dense spiritual energy drew over a dozen cultivators into a frantic scramble.

Cultivators fighting over resources was not unreasonable in itself, but these people showed no regard for the village at the foot of the mountain—dozens of villagers lay dead, sprawled haphazardly in pools of blood.

Seeing the village almost completely massacred, murderous intent surged in Hua Changxi’s eyes. She used the Buddha's Hand technique and directly struck down those dozen or so cultivators with one palm.

In the subsequent patrol, any cultivator whose fighting had caused casualties among ordinary people was all killed in a single palm strike by Hua Changxi, without any leniency.

As for those who had exercised restraint and not let their battles affect ordinary people, they were all captured and sent to Lihuo Cliff to mine.

After completing a full patrol of Nanxiang County, Hua Changxi killed nearly a hundred cultivators, among whom no small number were in the Nascent Soul stage; even more—two to three hundred—were caught and sent to mine at Lihuo Cliff.

However, regarding the missing Vermilion Bird Army soldiers, she found nothing.

Seeing that it was already dark, Hua Changxi frowned and returned to Lingguang Hall. She then sent a message to each centurion: in future patrols of Nanxiang County, each Vermilion Bird Army squad should be increased to fifty people per group.

Next, she sent a message to the steward of the Task Hall: any clue to the whereabouts of the missing Vermilion Bird Army must be reported, no matter how trivial.

Finally, Hua Changxi inquired about the summoning of artifact refiners, and soon a long list of names came through the Yiniantong.

There were nearly a hundred first- and second-grade artifact refiners, about twenty third-grade ones, and only seven fourth-grade ones.

"Inform these artifact refiners that the Vermilion Bird Army's equipment needs their forging, and have them assemble at the vacant square opposite the Discipline Hall."

In less than half an hour, all the artifact refiners had arrived at the vacant square.

Seeing this, Hua Changxi once again used the Buddha's Palm Realm technique, grabbed the artifact refiners, quickly left Lingguang Hall, and headed straight for Lihuo Cliff.

At the same time, because of Hua Changxi's ruthless intervention, the cultivators within Nanxiang County were so frightened that they dared not act rashly.

"Who exactly is that demoness?"

Killing Nascent Soul cultivators as easily as slaughtering chickens, and having them incinerated to nothing after death—how terrifying!

"Who else could it be? Cloaked in flames, her blaze like flowing light—it can only be one person."

"Who?"

"The Lord of Lingguang Hall!"

"Last time, someone impersonated the Vermilion Bird Army, and that brought out the Lord of Lingguang Hall."

For a time, news that the Lord of Lingguang Hall had appeared and was slaughtering cultivators ran rife, quickly spreading like wildfire among the cultivator circles.

In Xuanfu Mansion, Wei Zhenjie had just finished discussing matters with the Five Generals of Xuanfu when all six of them successively received the news of the Lingguang Hall Lord’s appearance.

After reading the news, Lu Zhenting said thoughtfully, "Last time, impersonators of the Vermilion Bird Army were merely captured by the Lord of Lingguang Hall. But this time, the Lord has started killing outright—something must have happened that we don’t know about."

Qin Feng picked up the conversation: "True. That Lingguang Hall Lord is incredibly lazy. It’s been several years since Lingguang Hall appeared in the world, and she still hasn’t even issued identity tokens for the Vermilion Bird Army. She truly is..."

"For someone so inactive to have no choice but to act, something significant must have occurred."

Huo Jinglei also shook his head with a sigh: "The Vermilion Bird Army, one of the Four Holy Armies of the Four Spirit Realm, being impersonated—what an absurd joke under heaven."

Lu Zhenting saw that Wei Zhenjie had remained silent and asked with a smile, "Has the Central Holy Land really not uncovered the identity of the Lingguang Hall Lord?"

Wei Zhenjie shrugged and said nothing.

The Five Generals of Xuanfu greatly disliked Wei Zhenjie’s secretive manner, but they did not press further.

Lu Zhenting: "Now that the Vermilion Bird Army has taken over Nanxiang County, it is bound to clash with various factions. The current chaos was already foreseeable."

"A blade is sharpened by grinding; no invincible army can avoid the tempering of hardship. Next, we’ll see whether the Vermilion Bird Army can hold up."

Qin Feng snorted: "With such an inactive hall master, the Vermilion Bird Army... it's tough, it's hard!"

Wei Zhenjie spoke up: "Everything has a process of development. The Lingguang Hall master may not really be that bad. She... just hasn't experienced much, and can't think far ahead."

"But the Lingguang Hall master's vision and breadth of mind are still convincing. Think about it—in just a few years, the Vermilion Bird Army has grown to tens of thousands. That's not something an ordinary person could achieve."

The Five Generals of Xuan Yuan, recalling the various difficulties they had faced when recruiting for the Xuan Yuan Army, showed expressions of agreement with Wei Zhenjie's words.

Lu Zhenting: "As soon as the Lingguang Hall revealed itself, the Lingguang Hall master dared to openly recruit the Vermilion Bird Army. That move was indeed bold enough and showed great foresight."

Wei Zhenjie: "So, give the Lingguang Hall master some time, and everything will slowly improve."

Lu Zhenting smiled at Wei Zhenjie: "It seems you have high hopes for the Lingguang Hall master."

Wei Zhenjie laughed heartily: "I have high hopes for anyone who promotes the development of the Four Spirits Realm."

But Qin Feng spoiled the mood: "But the Lingguang Hall master has no rules in her actions. This time she appeared and killed nearly a hundred people in one go. Isn't that killing nature too strong?"

"And she captured several hundred people. Is she afraid that Nanxiang County isn't chaotic enough?"

On this topic, Lu Zhenting also spoke up: "Speaking of which, the chaotic battles among cultivators in Nanxiang County had previously been suppressed by the Vermilion Bird Army. Why did it become chaotic again afterward?"

Qin Feng was in charge of oversight in the southern region and knew more about the situation in Nanxiang County: "It's because the noble scions from the Yuan, Gu, Tang, Duan, and He families disappeared for no reason. Those families searched everywhere, and so, some people began to fish in troubled waters."

"That would have been one thing, but then the Lingguang Hall master captured over a dozen cultivators who were impersonating the Vermilion Bird Army, many of whom were scions of noble families. The situation grew more and more chaotic."

"Just wait and see. The Lingguang Hall master's heavy-handed strike will definitely provoke counterattacks from various forces."

Wei Zhenjie, however, said: "In chaotic times, severe laws are necessary. There's no other way."

"Fortunately, the signal the Lingguang Hall master has sent is very clear: cultivator fights don't have to result in death, as long as they don't affect the common people. But once they do affect the common people and cause casualties, death is certain."

"This move should at least make some people think twice."