Chapter 329

"Liangzhou?"

Hearing Li Hao's inquiry, the inn waiter was not impatient, but instead, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he said with a smile, "Guest, are you from Liangzhou? Then you must have seen that Young General Haotian, right?"

"Hmm?"

Li Hao was surprised and said, "You know him too?"

"Look at what you're saying, sir! Who wouldn't know that!"

The inn waiter couldn't help but laugh: "Our Youzhou is not far from Liangzhou. The Liangzhou turmoil from a few months ago, and the matter of those damned demons surrounding and attacking, had long since spread to every province. I heard that the old man from our Youzhou Xia Clan's Divine General Mansion even went to provide reinforcements."

As he spoke, he looked at Li Hao with curiosity and anticipation:

"I heard that in that catastrophe, the demons came out in full force! Countless demons swept through, and Demon Kings were flying all over the sky—dark and dense, the sky lost its color, the earth lost its green; it was simply like a plague of locusts, leaving nothing behind. Liangzhou was almost on the verge of falling at the time. Who would have thought that a Young General Haotian would emerge from nowhere and suppress all those demons? By the end of the killing, a single battle flag could deter countless demons. Is all of this true?"

"..."

Li Hao didn't expect that the Liangzhou affair had already spread here, to the point that even an inn waiter in a township in Youzhou knew about it.

But it seemed normal; after all, a few months had passed, and news, no matter how slow, would have spread by now.

"Pretty much, I suppose."

Li Hao asked, "What is the situation in Liangzhou now? Have the demons retreated? Is there still war?"

"It has long been peaceful now. No demons dare to go to Liangzhou anymore. I heard that the Imperial Court has sent troops to clear up and handle the aftermath. Let alone demons, even a stray dog has to have a tag to enter the city now. They have been managing things very strictly there lately."

The inn waiter recounted what he had heard.

Li Hao breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the ones sitting in command of the Liangzhou battle at the time were the Candle Zhu Huoshen couple, and the true power of the Dragon Gate and the Holy Palace had not been gathered in Liangzhou.

And now, this greatest Demon King who had attacked Liangzhou was standing behind him, having already submitted to him.

Thinking of this, Li Hao didn't say much more. He went to the room, changed into the simple clothes prepared by the inn waiter, and looked at the night outside. It was still early, and there was the noise of gongs and drums in the town.

Li Hao was in a good mood and said to Xiyan, "I'll take you out for a stroll."

"Okay!"

Hearing this, Xiyan immediately became lively. Her small red whisker wrapped and rubbed against Li Hao's wrist, and at the same time, she curiously transmitted her voice, "Is that Young General Haotian the person just mentioned, you?"

"Hmm."

"Is 'Young General' a job title? It seems there is no such title in the Great Desolate Heaven."

Xiyan had stayed in the Great Desolate Heaven, and the information she obtained was all from those who went to snatch the Dao Rhyme Blood Fruit. She only had a half-understanding of the Great Desolate Heaven and knew nothing at all about the humans of the Great Yu Divine Dynasty.

Li Hao smiled, explained patiently to her via voice transmission, and at the same time, brought her and the Candle Zhu Huoshen out.

As for Lady Yin, she remained in Li Hao's heaven-and-earth space.

Previously, when healing Lady Yin, he had injected a large amount of heaven-and-earth power, and Lady Yin had briefly merged with the Candle Zhu Huoshen, seemingly touching the threshold of the Dao Realm, and was currently in seclusion.

In the night, Li Hao strolled around this rural township.

Although the township was dilapidated, the smell of firewood and food from every household drifted about, filled with the scent of human life.

Stone roads, old wooden stakes, and a small river gurgled, flowing past thousands of households.

Lanterns were hung along the way; it seemed to be some kind of festival.

Following the sound of gongs and drums, Li Hao arrived at the center of town. There was an opera stage here, and many people were standing outside the stage listening to the opera.

In the front row, there were tables and chairs, and some wealthy men and local squires with status in the township were sitting there, cracking melon seeds, drinking tea, and listening to the opera.

Xiyan was like a curious baby, catching Li Hao and asking questions about everything, curious about everything.

The Candle Zhu Huoshen was like Li Hao's shadow, quiet and inseparable. Although his face was indifferent, he was also observing everything around him, and the scroll of the human world was reflected in his eyes.

Children were playing outside the opera stage, fighting paper sparrows, and the elderly would clap and praise the opera from time to time.

Li Hao walked forward, handed over an ingot of silver, arrived at a tea table, sat down, and also sat quietly to listen to the grand opera.

In the nights of the Great Desolate Heaven, during short rests, he could only look at the stars and moon and play music himself to pass the time, but here, it was a rare relaxation.

But not long after, Li Hao's expression changed slightly, but he didn't get up; he just casually grabbed some melon seeds on the table, cracked a few lightly, and threw the shells onto the ground.

And the melon seed shells that fell to the ground suddenly flew up in the night, as if a breeze had risen, whistling and soaring into the sky above the township, and then rushed toward a hillside more than ten miles outside the town.

Here, a group of demon figures arrived in the night wind.

Staring at the lights of ten thousand homes in the town ahead, as well as the bursts of lively gongs, drums, and laughter, a ferocious grin appeared on their faces.

But just as the leading demon said a word, suddenly, a melon seed shell descending from the sky, like a small black dot, swept past rapidly.

Pfft, pfft, pfft! Under the envelopment of the power of controlling objects, it quickly pierced through their bodies.

A dozen demons died on the spot, not even seeing how they had died.

Only one melon seed shell remained, falling beside the corpse of the last demon.

Inside the township, the opera continued as usual; outside the township, the moonlight was quiet, covering the corpses of this group of demons.

"Good."

Li Hao heard the exciting part and also followed the surrounding crowd, applauding and cheering together.

When the opera ended and the people in front of the stage dispersed, Li Hao also followed the crowd, bringing Xiyan and the Candle Zhu Huoshen back to the inn to sleep soundly.

Since coming from the Great Desolate Heaven, it had been quite a few days since he had slept well and peacefully.

The next day at dawn, the morning sun rose, shining on the demons outside the township. It was unknown who saw these demon corpses by the light of dawn, but they screamed in terror, fled in panic into the township, and ran toward the Demon-Suppressing Division.

The broken gate of the Demon-Suppressing Division was only slightly ajar. The two demon-suppressing envoys hadn't even put on their clothes yet, sleepy-eyed. After hearing the news, they rushed to the hillside in doubt. When they saw the corpses of those demons clearly, they were all startled and dumbfounded.

The news of demon corpses outside the township quickly spread, making everyone in the township shocked and panicked. However, Li Hao, early in the morning at dawn, asked the inn waiter for the direction to Liyang City and brought the Candle Zhu Huoshen to rush over.

Since he was here, he would incidentally go and see. Liyang City was in trouble, and the Xia Clan was also a Divine General Mansion that had provided reinforcements to Liangzhou. Li Hao had no reason to ignore it and leave directly; after all, he was also a human.

Following the official road all the way forward, passing through two cities, upon entering the cities, Li Hao quietly covered Xiyan with his Dao Domain, while the Candle Zhu Huoshen relied on his own Dao Domain to hide his aura. Although they didn't have the demon pass for demons, they also avoided the detection of the magic arrays on the cities.

The magic arrays could only detect demons in the Scholarly Realm; they were helpless against demons in the Taiping Realm who had mastered the Dao Domain.

Unless it was the capital of a major province or the Imperial City, there were special divine weapons that could sense even if a demon in the Taiping Dao Realm set foot there.

But such items were rare, and ordinary cities could only rely on magic arrays.

Those two cities were also heavily guarded. Obviously, there had been demon attacks, but they were not as serious as Liyang City.

When Li Hao passed by, he also incidentally helped them solve the demons lurking dozens of miles outside the city.

For him, it was just a matter of a single thought.

Liyang City.

A border city in the northwest of Youzhou, surrounded by towering mountain ranges on the left and right, acting as a natural barrier. Therefore, Liyang City became the biggest obstacle here.

And this was also the main thoroughfare in the northwest of Youzhou. The Xia Clan had sent heavy troops to guard it all year round. Losing Liyang City was equivalent to losing the northwest border line of Youzhou, which would lead to the fall of more than a dozen other cities. At this moment, dozens of miles outside the city, numerous corpses were piled up, including demons and Xia Clan soldiers, as well as broken battle flags covering the corpses.

In the City Lord's Mansion inside the city, in the council hall, three advisors and seven generals were all here, among whom were several young Xia Clan generals, all of whom were flushed with anger at this moment.

"These damned beasts, they have cut off our reinforcements and food supplies, intending to trap us here and starve us to death!"

"Wanting to take us down with the minimum cost—these demons have learned to play tricks too!"

"Should we ask the family for reinforcements? There are two demons in the Three Imperishable Realms sitting in command among those demons, and we don't know if there are hidden ones. If it weren't for relying on the magic array, we would have fallen long ago. There is no need to hold on stubbornly."

"Ask for reinforcements? The demons of the Gluttony Valley are just waiting for us to ask for reinforcements. Once the family sends people over, they might have already laid an ambush halfway and intercepted them, intending to use us as bait!"

"That's right, the situation at the family side is not optimistic either. Half a month ago, the Valley Master of the Gluttony Valley just went to make a scene, and we still don't know where it is hiding now."

"Now that we are guarding Liyang City, we cannot count on the family for everything. We have to solve this difficulty ourselves. How about we also imitate the methods of Duke Xing Wu of the Li Clan in Yanbei, and spread the news to let various aristocratic families come to provide reinforcements?"

"The situation is different. Yanbei was not held by those aristocratic family armies; that was only a relatively small part of the assistance."

"Small is still power. It can at least make those aristocratic families bleed a little. Usually, they only know how to collect wealth, eat, and drink, and squeeze the common people. When demons kill their way over, they only know how to move and shrink to deeper places, without any sense of responsibility. Now it is time to let them contribute!"

"Difficult. There is not enough time to call for them now. I do have a proposal."

"What?"

Everyone looked at one of the advisors.

This middle-aged advisor looked around, his gaze passing especially over the several young Xia Clan generals, and said in a low voice, "How about we change a battle flag?"

"Change the battle flag?"

"That's right. Everyone knows about the Liangzhou affair, right? How about we try sending an elite force, change their armor, and hang the battle flag of that Young General Haotian from Liangzhou, pretending to be reinforcements coming from inside the pass?"

Hearing this middle-aged advisor's words, everyone was stunned, but the several city guards of Liyang City had their eyes lit up, feeling it was a good idea.

But the three young Xia Clan generals had grim expressions. One of them was deep in thought, while another directly shouted angrily:

"Impossible! This is Youzhou, this is the place of our Xia Clan. We are not dead yet, and you want to hang an outsider's battle flag?!"

The middle-aged advisor had also expected opposition and hurriedly said, "This is a special period. As long as we can save the common people, as long as it can be effective, and can save many soldiers from casualties, that is what is real."

"No!"

The young general shouted angrily, "In this Youzhou, only one kind of battle flag can be hung, and that is the battle flag of our Xia Clan! This is our Xia Clan's headquarters!"

"This is just an expedient measure..." The middle-aged advisor still wanted to persuade them.

"What if we hang that person's battle flag but it doesn't scare these demons away?"

Another person interrupted him and asked, "That person has long since disappeared, and his battle flag has also been studied by demons for these past few months. Where would it still have such a great deterrent effect? Now there are people everywhere taking his battle flag to try to intimidate demons, and the demons have long seen through this point. The deterrent power of that battle flag is no longer that great."

"As generals, we cannot be like those stupid commoners, listening to that mythologized legend and really treating a teenager as a god. No matter how strong he is, having been missing in the Mo River for so long, his battle flag has long since lost its deterrent power!"

"Correct."

The previous young general said, "Don't pin your hopes on outsiders. Let's think about how to lure one of those Three Imperishable Demon Kings out and try using the array order to send it into the magic array, so we can beat the dog in the water."

Hearing this, the middle-aged advisor couldn't help but sigh inwardly, knowing that these few Xia Clan youths valued the Xia Clan's honor too much, which led to such thoughtless refusal.

And in fact, he felt it would have some effect. If they were lucky, it might even break a gap and bring hope.

While they were discussing again, a vibration suddenly came.

Everyone in the council hall was startled, and several generals hurriedly rushed out.

They saw the magic array outside Liyang City emerge, golden runes flickering, while in mid-air outside the city was a middle-aged figure, waving its sickle-like arm, bombarding the magic array.

"Stop!"

A young Xia Clan general soared into the air and shouted angrily.

"I thought you were sleeping. Let me give you a wake-up call."

This middle-aged figure chuckled, didn't stop, but instead continued to attack the magic array a few more times: "Don't let your guard down, oh. We will attack at any time."

His arrogant posture made the young general's face turn red with anger, knowing that the other party was making them stay tense at all times, not giving them a chance to relax and rest.

They could adjust and adapt, but the large army in the city would inevitably be panicked, without such good physical strength and mentality to support them.

"Provoking our Xia Clan, your Gluttony Valley will pay the price sooner or later!"

The young general said angrily.

"Oh? What price? I am right here now. Why don't you come out and let me see?" The middle-aged figure sneered.

Other generals also flew over, telling the young general not to be impulsive. One of the old generals stepped out, exuding the aura of the Three Imperishable Realm.

Seeing this, the middle-aged figure immediately stopped and retreated hundreds of meters, sneering: "I will come again tomorrow."

Having said that, he prepared to leave.

The old general directly rushed out and roared: "This is not a place where you can come and go as you please!"

He rushed out of the magic array and erupted with power to kill.

The middle-aged figure retreated rapidly, and the two chased for a thousand meters, but after chasing for a thousand meters, the old general could only stop his anger. He saw that ahead were dense demon tides, and if he continued to pursue, he would fall into an ambush.

"Heh."

Seeing that the other party didn't fall for the trick, the middle-aged figure didn't care, chuckled, and then greeted the demon army in the distance, preparing to retreat.

But just at this moment, on the official road in the distance, a figure came riding on horseback.

The crisp sound of horse hooves trampled on the official road, arriving slowly.

"Hmm?"

"There are actually things that don't fear death, daring to walk this official road. Are they also here to slay demons and compete for merit?"

The middle-aged figure saw the youth riding on horseback on the official road, his eyebrows raised slightly, but he didn't pay any mind. These young masters of aristocratic families among humans were stupid; recently, many had died here.

He turned and flew away directly, but he didn't fly far; after only a few hundred meters, he stopped abruptly.

Just because he felt that the demon tide occupying both sides of the official road behind him was rapidly decreasing in aura.

He turned around abruptly and looked, and saw a bizarre scene.

The youth came riding on horseback, the horse hooves were not hurried, but where he stepped, the demon tide outside the official road that was preparing to attack the youth and divide him up, rapidly withered like a wheat field, falling stiffly in patches, losing their life aura.

At the same time the middle-aged figure turned his head to look, the youth also raised his head slightly and saw him.

The moment their gazes met, the middle-aged figure felt his heart shrink fiercely. Immediately afterward, an indescribable aura suddenly enveloped his body.

Boom! His body exploded in mid-air.

(End of chapter)