Chapter 278: Without Worry or Sorrow

The seventh day of the first lunar month.

The weather in Yujing has begun to warm up.

After attending the wedding of Sixth Senior Sister and Seventh Senior Brother, Zhang Suannai decisively chose to return to the capital.

Life in the sect was truly too decadent; aside from showing off to one another, they would just gather to play mahjong. Yet, she always lost at mahjong, and over these past few days, she had already lost quite a bit of money. She couldn't compare to these people in bragging and showing off either; having finally found an opportunity in the silly group chat to force a show-off, she ended up being ignored by everyone to this day.

This is the drawback of forcing a show-off—

When you're in the heat of the moment, you don't feel anything; in fact, you feel quite excited. But once you come to your senses and the excitement fades, it feels awkward no matter how you think about it.

Yet that group of people wouldn't speak, not a single one of them, as if they had collectively lost their internet connection.

This resulted in her not daring to open the group chat for these past few days.

Every time she opened the group, it was just her own forced show-off.

It was as if these people had taken a photo of one of her most embarrassing moments, framed it in a giant picture frame, and hung it at the head of her bed.

"Damn it!"

Zhang Suannai was currently riding her motorcycle, speeding along the highway; the highway was boring, and her mind was filled with wild thoughts.

She encountered several major traffic jams caused by the return peak along the way, and the advantage of the motorcycle became apparent; she could easily weave through, and using the emergency lane wouldn't result in any point deductions. But sometimes the traffic was so jammed that even the motorcycle couldn't easily get through, so she would stop, and in front of all the drivers, store the motorcycle into her Space Artifact and fly over on her Sword.

Returning to Yujing from Jianzhou took her nearly the better part of a day, and the sun along the way made her feel drowsy, leaving her very exhausted.

Upon returning to the Dormitory, she lay on the sofa and fell asleep.

In this sleep, she had another dream.

For some reason in the dream, aside from her, the silly group members and her own goddess roommate had actually spent the New Year together. Just as she felt this was absurd, the group members in the scene all saw her forced show-off messages in the group chat and held a discussion about it, concluding that she was a show-off offender.

It infuriated her.

Among them, that silly Qingcai spoke the most fiercely.

Not replying to her was his idea.

The most infuriating thing was that her roommate was also present.

These idiots, how could they slander her in front of her own roommate?

However, she soon realized that this was just a dream.

So it was just a dream.

Zhang Suannai let out a sigh of relief.

But immediately after, the scene changed.

Time began to flow backward, returning to the past.

In the dream, a scene appeared of her roommate expressionlessly holding a Mobile Phone, silently watching her chat in the group.

Grandma always says: You must not tell my goddess!

Grandma always says: You cannot let my goddess know about the embarrassing things I did in the group, you cannot let her know I am a silly person!

The roommate in the dream sneered.

How is it still a dream?

Zhang Suannai thought to herself, and woke up.

When she woke up, it was already May of this year, and the Martial Body meet was being held again.

And today was the grand final.

Because she had been slack in her cultivation these past few days, she had fallen behind that silly Qingcai. The Arena at that time was the focus of all attention, yet no matter how she fought, it didn't feel right; the Sword in her hand felt stiff, and in the end, under the gaze of countless eyes, she lost to that silly Qingcai, and without any power to fight back.

"Ah!"

Zhang Suannai sat up instantly.

The twilight light shone into the Dormitory; the living room was empty, and the surrounding silence formed a sharp contrast with her violently beating heart.

Just at this moment, the Mobile Phone ringtone suddenly sounded.

It was a call from her Master.

Zhang Suannai let out a long breath and answered the call.

"Hello, Master?"

"Have you arrived?"

"I have."

"When did you arrive?"

"I arrived a while ago."

"Why didn't you report that you were safe to us?"

"I was a bit tired, so I fell asleep..." Zhang Suannai couldn't help but smack her lips; she felt her throat was a bit dry, her body was covered in cold sweat, and she answered very honestly.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing is wrong..."

"I can tell from your voice that your heart is very chaotic."

"Master."

Zhang Suannai's expression gradually became solemn; she pondered for a moment and said into the phone, "I have a vague premonition that I have encountered the nemesis of my life."

"Isn't your nemesis Wu Eiwei?"

"What? What what?"

"The one from the Royal Court."

"Oh! What was her name again?"

"Wu Eiwei."

"So that's her name..."

Zhang Suannai twitched the corner of her mouth; this name was too strange, how could anyone be called that?

But she had no time to worry about that right now, only shaking her head as she said to her master: "No, the trash of the Royal Court is irrelevant. I'm talking about a nemesis, do you understand, nemesis? If you don't understand, Master, you can look it up in a dictionary after you hang up. I feel like I've already developed a Xinxie... No! I have to find a way to take him out!"

"Are you still not awake?" the Old Sword Master said. "We in the Sword Sect don't have this concept of Xinxie; only the Buddhist Sect and the Daoist sects do."

"I..."

Zhang Suannai was halfway through her sentence when she suddenly looked toward the door.

Familiar footsteps approached from afar, accompanied by the sound of a suitcase being dragged.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The Dormitory door was pushed open, and the footsteps became suddenly clear.

The goddess roommate walked in at the front, looking at her with a calm expression: "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, nothing..."

Zhang Suannai hurriedly denied it, waving her hands repeatedly: "I'm on the phone with my master. I just woke up and was talking nonsense... Hello? Master? Hello?"

There was silence on the other end of the line for a long time.

So long that Zhang Suannai once thought her master had hung up the phone and run off to do something else, yet there was clearly the sound of faint breathing coming from the other end.

Finally, a voice came through again, but it was full of disbelief:

"What did you just say?"

"I didn't do anything."

"Who... who made you so panicked?"

"My roommate is back."

"Who is your roommate?"

"It's my roommate."

"Think about the tone you were using just now..." the Old Sword Master paused, his tone complex. "Where is the demeanor of a Sword Sect Disciple?"

"Emmm..."

"You should reflect on yourself properly."

"..."

Zhang Suannai threw the Mobile Phone aside, unconcerned.

A Sword Sect Disciple is born between heaven and earth; how could she be bound by those rules and regulations? Once she becomes the Sword Master, she would also make up random, nonsensical rules to bind others.

Thinking this, Zhang Suannai reached out to wipe her face and stood up to greet her two roommates.

The twilight light shone upon this ruined land.

Everywhere ahead were explosions; shells and bullets in the air were as dense as raindrops, Sword Qi splashed in all directions, and Spirit Power surged violently. The originally invisible Defense Barrier was outlined by the ripples and the dust rushing up against it. Bombers flew through the high sky, invisible to the eye, dropping massive aerial bombs; once they landed, it was with the force of moving mountains and splitting earth.

This was the base of the largest sect in Puluo, the Yolv Zong.

It was precisely because Lan Ya had colluded with the foolish high-level members of the Yolv Zong that the situation within Puluo had become this chaotic.

Modern warfare focuses on two words:

Precision, speed.

After Yiguo militarily intervened in Puluo, they immediately made a decisive choice based on the intelligence they possessed: to first encircle and suppress the Yolv Zong. Only a few days later, Yiguo used its powerful delivery capabilities to quietly transport troops here and launched a sudden military strike against the Yolv Zong.

Meng Haoran, in full military uniform, stood beside a War Chariot, gazing into the distance.

Hunter Aircraft deployed from a Sky Carrier over a hundred kilometers away had already blockaded the area. It was difficult for the Cultivators of the Yolv Zong to have any possibility of escape, and from the very beginning, the Yiguo army had conducted a shield-breaking strike against the Yolv Zong, shattering their largest Protective Dharma Array without much effort.

The current strikes were, on one hand, to destroy the small-scale defensive mechanisms scattered throughout the Yolv Zong, and on the other, to eliminate their effective strength. It would be best if they came out to surrender on their own; in this day and age, it was not good to cause too much slaughter. But if they could not, the current fire coverage would pave the way for subsequent clearing operations.

At first, the Yolv Zong still had counterattacks—

Attacks constantly came from the mountains, whether traditional Spell techniques or modern weapons, but they were all blocked by the Defense Barrier of the positions.

The Yolv Zong also organized several waves of raids, attempting to drag the Yiguo army into close-quarters combat with traditional Cultivators. However, under the firepower of the Yiguo army, they could not close the distance between the two sides at all. Even if they attacked from underground, they would be scanned and killed by specialized weapons, saving the effort of digging.

There was even resistance from an Eight-Tier Practitioner.

This was the most dangerous resistance they had encountered, but it was also submerged under the combined strikes of the Hunter Aircraft.

Now, there was no movement in the mountains.

"Boom—"

The entire mountain had basically been plowed over once.

The Puluo people were indeed spirited; they still hadn't surrendered. No wonder they were the most restless among the many vassal states.

Next, reconnaissance planes, Drones, attack aircraft, and Hunter Aircraft entered the field one after another, beginning to scan and scout, and precisely clearing out High-level Practitioners.

"All units, prepare."

The order came from the rear command post.

The entire unit immediately prepared to advance.

"Advance!"

"Boom—"

Heavy Shield Tanks charged down the hillside, any obstacles being rammed aside or crushed, followed closely by soldiers in full metal armor and fully armed. Behind them, even larger giants constructed of metal ran with long strides, each step making a heavy sound.

Support Aircraft circled in the sky, ready to provide fire support at any time.

As expected, the Yolv Zong still had the strength to resist.

In this world with Cultivators, it was difficult to clear out enemies relying solely on long-range bombardment and aerial strikes, unless one threw a Zhan Lue Wu Qi.

However, Yiguo's ground forces were equally powerful.

Although this unit rarely had Cultivators and was mainly composed of cheap Martial Artists, at least they were all Third Stage Martial Artists. Moreover, they did not rely on the power of Martial Artists to kill the enemy, but only used the physical fitness of Martial Artists to control this battle armor, and used the reactions and Spiritual Sense of Martial Artists to operate the weapons they carried. Their true combat effectiveness came from the equipment on their bodies.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

Armor-piercing rounds pierced through the bodies of the Yolv Zong Cultivators, one after another, and Defense Barriers were shattered by shield-breaking rounds.

Modern war machines unleashed their firepower without restraint.

Heavy Shield Tanks roared as they crushed everything in their path.

The sky gradually turned dark.

Yolv Zong announced their surrender.

The Battlefield calmed down as a result.

Next was the process of counting the prisoners.

Standing on this scorched earth, Meng Haoran panted while turning his head to look around, unable to help but feel a sense of emotion.

Under the weapons of a modern great power, it is difficult for traditional Cultivator sects to have any power to resist anymore—as the largest Cultivator sect in Puluo, and a major sect even in Yiguo, Yolv Zong possessed three Eight-Tier Practitioners and over a dozen Seven-Tier Cultivators, yet facing this unit, how much power to resist did they really have?

Just at this moment, a shrill air-raid siren sounded on the Battlefield again.

From the distant sky came a faint, rolling thunderous sound, like the noise of supersonic fighters tearing through the firmament.

Behind clouds as black as ink, a beam of light flew in from afar, its speed extremely fast; in the blink of an eye, it tore through the black clouds and the night sky, approaching the position.

The nearest Hunting Fighters immediately turned their direction to launch an attack on it, while at the same time, more Hunting Fighters flew in from the distance, urgently returning to reinforce their own position; within the visible sky, at least dozens of Hunting Fighters appeared in the blink of an eye.

"Boom!"

Starlight gathered into a heavenly punishment, containing suffocating Spirit Power, yet it did not leak a single bit; invisible and without light, it struck that figure with precision.

There was no explosion, no shockwave.

But that terrifying Spirit Power was still enough to make one tremble; even this Ninth Stage powerhouse was nearly knocked down.

"Evacuate!"

"Emergency evacuation!"

A shrill sound rang in the ears.

But that beam of light had already landed in the position.

Morning light shone obliquely from the top of the palace wall, illuminating the newly bloomed peach blossoms.

This peach tree was always the first to bloom.

Meng Chunqiu held his fan, looking up quietly.

No one knew how many years ago this tree was planted, but in any case, it was very old, its branches showing a deep ink color. Not a single leaf had grown, only small pink flowers dotted among them, with the vermilion palace wall as a background, appearing even more delicate under the morning sun.

Meng Chunqiu was filled with Joy, watching for a long time before he had seen enough.

After watching for a long time, he stretched, and while walking away, he couldn't help but leisurely recite: "Pink powder adorns the branches, with no green and no sorrow..."