Chapter 71: The Hell on Earth

When Wang Hai arrived outside the Tai'an city gate with Xiaosi, Liu Baiyun, Mei Mei Qinghe, and others, it was already late at night.

From afar, they heard the heart-rending cries and pleas for help from countless people in the city faintly coming from the night sky.

The few dismounted, used light-body technique, and rushed to the city gate.

Outside the gate, several officials with dozens of soldiers were trembling as they guarded the city gate, not daring to look back in the direction of Tai'an City.

Seeing the few rushing like lightning, and remembering Li Miao's ruthless words, one of the officials barely overcame his fear, stepped forward, drew his sword, and stopped the few.

"Tai... Tai'an City is under martial law! No one is allowed to enter or leave! Stop!"

Wang Hai stepped forward, took out his Embroidered Uniform Guard waist token, showed it to the man: "I am here by the order of Embroidered Uniform Guard Battalion Commander, Lord Li Miao, to relieve the disaster! Open the city gate and let us in!"

The man looked at the Embroidered Uniform Guard waist token and let out a long breath.

Cheng Yuanzhen had taken away almost all the strong soldiers in the city, leaving only some old, weak, sick, and disabled ones here. He saw these few people coming with light-body technique and only thought they were Jianghu people; they couldn't be stopped by just a few of them.

"My lord, the city gate cannot be opened... listen..." He pointed tremblingly at the city gate behind him.

Wang Hai listened carefully, but it was a hair-raising sound.

When they were far away, they could only hear the wails in the city.

At this moment, when they were close, they heard the sounds of knocking and scratching continuously coming from the heavy city gate. But there was no human voice.

It was as if a group of soundless beasts were trying to escape from the city gate.

The official wanted to speak, but was choked for a moment, and tears flowed down.

"It really cannot be opened... my lord, we all live here, and our relatives and friends are in the city... how could we have the heart..."

"Just a moment ago, a colleague opened a crack, wanting to go in and see the situation..."

"He hasn't made a sound for a long time..."

"If we let the people inside come out and run to the surrounding villages and towns, even if we had the merits of ten lifetimes, it wouldn't be enough to be sliced in the Yama Hall after death..."

"It cannot be opened... it cannot be opened..." The official said while crying.

Wang Hai turned to look at Xiaosi.

Xiaosi stepped forward quickly, drew the long sword from the official's waist, and wiped it across the blade.

Fresh blood gushed out, but Xiaosi's expression didn't change; she stepped forward, pressed the wound against the crack of the city gate, and then smeared it downward with force, using enough strength to roll up the skin and flesh at her wound, drawing a scarlet bloodstain on the crack of the gate.

The scratching sound stopped, and immediately, vomiting sounds and painful groans came from inside the gate.

Xiaosi covered her wound and said to Wang Hai: "Brother Hai, you can open the gate, but it won't last long."

Wang Hai didn't care about the persuasion of those officials, stepped forward, pressed against the city gate, channeled true energy, and exerted force suddenly, pushing the city gate open just enough for one person to enter.

Mei Mei Qinghe entered first.

But she was shocked by the scene before her, her face showing horror, unable to speak for a moment.

The city was pitch black, but there were several fires soaring into the sky, clearly having caught fire.

On the street in the distance, a few people were stumbling along, occasionally tripped by things, and struggling on the ground for a long time without being able to crawl up.

And under her feet, more than a dozen people were lying on the ground, vomiting continuously, with something wriggling in what they vomited.

Only after vomiting blood did they collapse softly and stop moving.

Mei Mei Qinghe rushed forward to test their breathing and let out a breath: "Still alive... what exactly is the situation here!?"

Liu Baiyun entered afterward, sighed at the scene before her, turned to the outside and said: "Disciples below the rank of Executive should not enter; stay outside the gate and guard the city gate with the lords."

Afterward, a few older Huashan Sect disciples entered.

Wang Hai said to the official outside: "You did well. Rest assured, it will be fine."

Then he patted his shoulder, took Xiaosi's hand, and entered Tai'an City.

The city gate closed slowly behind them.

The Huashan Sect crowd had never seen such a scene, lost their minds for a moment, stood in place, muttering, unable to speak.

Wang Hai had already put on the hook-blade gloves, clapped his hands, making a clanging sound of metal clashing.

"Everyone, come back to your senses."

"This is not the time to be stunned; follow me to the prefectural Yamen and rendezvous with the Battalion Commander."

The crowd agreed and rushed toward the direction of the prefectural Yamen together.

When they arrived at the entrance of the open prefectural Yamen, they stopped.

They saw dozens of corpses lying outside the gate, all with a large hole in their chests, transparent from front to back, a full head in size, looking as if they had been hit head-on by a cannon.

The few stepped inside, only to see the courtyard inside the Yamen filled with people, lying under the eaves, on the steps, and even on the roof, lying motionless at this moment, their chests rising and falling slightly.

A loud noise came from behind.

Wang Hai turned to look, only to see Li Miao grabbing the head of a person who was roaring continuously, and slamming that person suddenly against a wall.

Boom!

The wall collapsed with a loud noise, blood splattered, and the person's torso collapsed softly.

Only then did Li Miao flash over, raise his hand, and toss a person he was carrying in his right hand to the ground.

"You're here." He looked at the crowd and greeted them.

Then he raised his hand to stop Gao Ling and Liu Baiyun who wanted to pay their respects: "Spare the pleasantries; I will explain the situation before us first."

"The Ming Sect people planted Gu in the commoners of Tai'an City."

"The onset time of this Gu is about four or five hours; the time of planting the Gu was early and late, but eating and sleeping together will lead to being parasitized by Gu insects, so eight or nine out of ten commoners in the city should have been infected with Gu."

"Before you arrived, I searched the city roughly. These people—" Li Miao pointed to the people lying everywhere in this Yamen.

"Were the first to be planted with Gu and have already had an onset. I used true energy to force out the Gu insects, and there is no worry for their lives for the time being."

"There are still many Ming Sect disciples in the city who have also been infected with Gu." Li Miao pointed to the corpses lying outside the gate.

"I dug some Gu insects from the chests of these Ming Sect members, and comparing the two, they should be the same type of Gu insects as those in the commoners."

"Everyone, pay attention."

Li Miao said coldly.

"The Ming Sect disciples who have been infected with this Gu are already half a Zuo Lishan. Their true energy, strength, and moves are far behind, but their skin and flesh are solid, hard to injure and hard to die, and in terms of madness, they are even worse."

"I compared the size of the Gu insects in the Ming Sect and the commoners; before dawn, there will be commoners going crazy and attacking others. By noon tomorrow, the commoners of Tai'an City will also become like these Ming Sect disciples."

Li Miao turned to look at Xiaosi: "Xiaosi, this time it might be hard for you."

"Master, don't say such distant words." Xiaosi smiled sweetly.

Li Miao was silent for a while: "After this matter is finished, I will take you to the Miao region."

"Everyone." Li Miao raised his head to look at the crowd: "The commoners in this city are left to you all."

"As for the surrounding commoners, bring back those you can, and hand them to Xiaosi to handle. If you are unable to do so, do not go out, and guard Xiaosi well."

"During this time, there will definitely be Ming Sect disciples coming to harass you; do not hold back, and do not be kind to beasts."

At this time, Li Miao no longer had his usual lazy smile, his eyebrows and eyes were hidden in the shadows, and sticky blood and broken flesh kept dripping from his gloves.

Liu Baiyun, Mei Mei Qinghe, and the Huashan disciples all felt cold all over, as if falling into an ice cellar.

"I'm going to slaughter the head of these beasts."

(End of chapter)