Longzang

Chapter 938 Spring Flower Show

Arguments occasionally broke out in the dark, endless void.

Didn't you say the road wasn't far?

"It's not far, isn't it right there? We can already see it."

Wei Yuan focused his gaze and saw a soft light in the darkness ahead. According to the Molten Dragon, that was their own realm.

But how do we get there?

Wei Yuan scanned himself with his divine sense and found nothing. His current state was particularly strange; he knew he existed, but he couldn't see or sense anything, and he had no idea how to move.

This world is right before him, but without breaking free from its current state, he'll never be able to return. In the past, when Wei Yuan traversed the void, it was always a flash of light in his eyes, and then he would arrive in a new world. But this time, it seems he's stuck at that flash of light.

Wei Yuan calmed his mind, regarded himself as a point, and then used his divine sense to move himself. It seemed that he moved a little, but the distance between himself and the world seemed to remain unchanged.

The dragon's voice echoed in his mind: "This won't work. Try casting a spell first, like the Golden Light Spell."

With a thought, Wei Yuan conjured a beam of golden light in the void—the Dao technique had actually succeeded! Overjoyed, Wei Yuan quickly activated his Void Travel ability, flying back to his original realm. This distance would likely take a few days to reach.

But after flying for a while, Wei Yuan realized something was wrong. The distance between himself and his own realm was sometimes closer and sometimes farther, fluctuating erratically without any pattern.

Wei Yuan was taken aback and asked, "What's going on?"

The molten dragon had been silent for a while when it finally said quietly, "You're only just realizing something's wrong? Serves you right for moving around! Now you can't stop, can you?"

As expected, Wei Yuan discovered that even if he stopped using the Dao technique of traveling through the void, he was still drifting forward, sometimes closer and sometimes farther away from his original world. He tried to stop, but he couldn't succeed no matter what he did. Either his strength was too great or too weak, or his strength was misdirected. After a series of attempts, his speed actually increased.

Wei Yuan was shocked and quickly made careful adjustments. After finally slowing himself down, he hurriedly asked Ronglong, "What's going on?"

The Molten Dragon said, "It's very simple. Your divine sense has always been within the world, so it was born according to the world. Naturally, it is not adapted to the void and beyond. For example, you think it is a straight line, but it may not be a straight line. Oh, you could say it is definitely not a straight line."

Following the guidance of the Molten Dragon, Wei Yuan saw the golden beam of light he had emitted. At that moment, it had transformed into a shimmering fish, swimming randomly.

Wei Yuan felt a chill in his heart at first, but fortunately he remembered that there was still the Molten Dragon. After Yu Jing, he would be going to the outer heavens from time to time, so he must be familiar with the void.

Seeing that Wei Yuan was sincerely seeking guidance, Ronglong humbly offered his instruction:
"First, to move in the void, you need to know for certain whether you've moved or not, and what your trajectory is. You can't trust your eyes or your divine sense; you can only trust the rules of the void. Hmm, you mentioned something called coordinates before, which is very useful. So now, our first task is to establish a coordinate system, at least three coordinates..."

To establish coordinates, you can first set two different points, then emit a beam of light from one point to the other and observe the trajectory of the light; then emit another beam and observe the trajectory again...

...Calculate the parameters based on different trajectories, and then adjust your spiritual sense accordingly. If you calculate correctly, you will be able to see a straight line and mark the coordinates on it..."

Wei Yuan, feeling dizzy from calculating, called a halt to the molten dragon's work: "Did you do the same thing back then?"

"When I first entered the void, I tried my best to observe and experiment. After about half an hour of trying, I learned how to walk in the void."

"How did you test it?"

"You just try things out randomly, and after a few hundred thousand tries, it will naturally work. I didn't know math back then, so how would I know there were so many fancy things in the world?"

Wei Yuan was taken aback, then anger surged within him: "You succeeded by just trying things randomly, and then you make me do the math?! Is this how you do human work?"

“I am a sorcerer, I do not do human things.”

Wei Yuan was speechless. No matter how much he provoked it, the Molten Dragon remained silent. Helpless, Wei Yuan could only continue to experiment repeatedly, record data, analyze patterns, and build a model.

In the darkness, beams of light appeared and moved about, like playful little fish swimming in a dark ocean. It was as if spring had arrived, and mountain flowers were in full bloom.

However, every now and then a few angry roars and howls would break the silence, which was quite a downer.

……

Qingming was calm, but the surroundings were anything but calm.

In Cui Family New City, the former city walls are now sparsely populated, with only a few pedestrians walking cautiously. The majority of the city is now filled with fully armed soldiers, searching through the ruins.

A squad of seven or eight soldiers stood in a line. The captain pointed to an area several dozen feet in diameter ahead and said, "Today's mission is to clear this area. Once we're done, we can call it a day and go back to camp for lunch. Be alert, everyone. This is a job where we risk our lives!"

The soldiers agreed and walked into the mission area, beginning to search carefully on the ground.

As one of the recruits searched, he cursed and swore, "These bandits are bastards! How could they come up with such a despicable trick?"

The captain immediately started yelling: "Seriously, don't go looking for trouble!"

The recruit was startled and shifted his foot to the side. Suddenly, with a loud bang, a cloud of green smoke rose up, and the recruit's calf was covered in blood and flesh, with most of his foot flying into the air!
The recruit fell to the ground, screaming in agony and writhing in pain. "Don't move!" the captain yelled.

But his warning came too late; two more explosions occurred beneath the recruit, and a severed arm flew into the air. This time, the recruit passed out and finally stopped moving.

The captain leaped up, carefully landed beside the recruit, picked him up, and flew towards the camp, shouting back, "Everyone, continue the search!"

Another recruit, his face pale, wiped the blood splattered on his face and asked, "Is Erdan alright? I heard there are medical geniuses in the army who can make severed limbs grow back."

The old soldier next to him snorted and said, "What are you thinking! Do you know how much it costs to regenerate limbs? We ordinary soldiers don't get that kind of treatment. Erdan is lucky to survive; he's definitely going to be disabled."

Helpless, the new recruit could only curse, "These damn bandits! See you next time, I'll pay..."

The veteran interrupted him: "You're new here and have never really fought bandits before. Let me tell you, the bandits here are different. If you really run into one, you'd better run as fast as you can. Even if our whole team were together, we might not be able to beat an ordinary bandit."

The new recruits were dumbfounded: "Is he really that good?!"

"They are that powerful! It's just that the higher-ups don't allow us to say it, but those who experienced those battles know."

The recruit finally believed him and then complained, "How many of these things did they throw into the city? Tens of thousands?"

"Who knows! Maybe even more. Let's clean it up slowly, otherwise no one can feel at ease living here. Haven't you seen that the men have all moved to the new district?"

The new recruit muttered under his breath, "Even if we successfully clean it up, what if the bandits come back and throw it all over again?"

This time, everyone fell silent.

A little over a month ago, bandits stormed the city, occupied the city lord's mansion, and looted all valuables. They also scattered countless objects known as "hidden mines" throughout the city. Each of these mines, about the size of a finger, was planted using Taoist power, penetrating a foot into the ground. They would explode whenever someone passed by.

The explosion from the hidden mines wasn't very powerful; it wouldn't kill a warrior with a fully developed body forging ability, only severing their limbs. However, limb regeneration was extremely expensive, only affordable for Dao Foundation officers; ordinary body forging warriors would be crippled if struck by the explosion.

The hidden mines were extremely difficult to defend against; even cultivators' divine sense couldn't detect them. The only way to protect the city was through a tedious, manual search, piece by piece. Otherwise, the city was uninhabitable. Even so, nearly a thousand people had been injured in the bombings over the past month, most of them left disabled.

Inside the city lord's mansion, Cui Chengxiao stood by the window. At that moment, a faint explosion could be heard in the distance. He frowned slightly, then sighed. Just then, a beautiful woman in palace attire approached, her face filled with worry.

Cui Chengxiao asked, "Is Lian'er feeling any better?"

"She's still the same; she only eats a little bit every few days." The beautiful woman in palace attire wiped away her tears and said, "I'm going back to the Song Kingdom tomorrow to seek immortal artifacts. Should I leave Lian'er here or take her with me?"

Cui Chengxiao glanced at the desolate new city and said, "This place has been blessed with good fortune, which has strengthened Lian'er's foundation. If we leave now, all our previous efforts will be in vain."

"Alright, I'll be going now. You need to take good care of yourself."

"That's natural."

"And what about He Zhiyou? He ran away at the crucial moment, causing Lian'er to suffer! When I return this time, I will definitely remove him from his position as elder and imprison him to bring him to justice!" The beautiful woman in palace attire gritted her teeth.

Cui Chengxiao nodded, though he was somewhat skeptical. He Zhiyou had fled that day, and the beautiful woman in palace attire had branded him the culprit, vowing to kill him to avenge Lian'er. He Zhiyou, being a royal courtier, had naturally heard the rumors and hadn't appeared since.

Just then, a burst of energy suddenly shot into the sky from afar, followed by a column of smoke, with military aura faintly visible.

The beautiful woman in palace attire paled and glared angrily, saying, "Those bandits again! I'll fight them to the death!"

Cui Chengxiao hurriedly stopped him, advising, "Getting the immortal artifact is the most important thing! Let those bandits go."

The beautiful woman in palace attire gritted her teeth and agreed, then stopped making a fuss.

But Cui Chengxiao knew in his heart that the bandits were fierce, brutal, treacherous, and cunning; they could ambush anyone they encountered. If he went, all would be well, but if the beautiful woman in palace attire fell into an ambush, she would surely meet a terrible end.

Over the past few months, the more Cui Chengxiao dealt with Zhang Sheng, the more he understood her cunning. This woman was utterly shameless; she only said the decisive battle would be after three months, but she didn't mention a truce during those three months. As a result, Cui Chengxiao was caught off guard, and his army was ambushed by bandits, suffering heavy casualties.

That wasn't all. Next, the Qingming army and bandits joined the fray, harassing them day and night. They fought where they could, and if they couldn't, they moved to a more advantageous location. If Cui Chengxiao dared to leave the city, they dared to enter, then they would plant more hidden traps in the already scoured areas. Meanwhile, Yu Jing, skilled in stealth, constantly lurked around the area, preventing Cui Chengxiao from making a move.

This is where He Zhiyou's importance becomes apparent. With him protecting him, Cui Chengxiao can certainly unleash his full power.

Although he had some reservations about the beautiful woman in palace attire, he felt that if she fell into Zhang Sheng's hands, Zhang Sheng would definitely beat her severely first before the duel would take place as scheduled.

War raged around Qingming, with armies launching successive attacks. Song Cuixin City was just a small target. The furthest Qingming force had already reached thousands of miles away, penetrating deep into the mountainous region and beginning to compete with Li Zhi for food.

The mortal world is in chaos, and even amidst the everyday hustle and bustle of life, there is no peace.

(End of this chapter)