Longzang

Chapter 967 Rampant Banditry
Hulegaon is going to open the tribal treasury, and it's unknown when he'll return. Wei Yuan won't wait, and the fortress construction task is already scheduled for next year, leaving him with nothing to do. With nothing to do, Wei Yuan took the hundred or so young Dao Foundation Establishment cultivators he had specially brought with him and set off eastward to explore the road to the Ji Kingdom.

There were also a few special figures in the group: a scholar and a dozen or so attendants. The scholar had thick eyebrows and large eyes, and a resolute and righteous look on his face. His name was Liu Yanzhi. He was the one who had come on behalf of the Jieyang Prefect to deliver the proclamation against the bandits, and he had only brought a dozen or so guards with him.

The outcome was predictable; Wei Yuan immediately ordered his men to capture them all.

Among the entourage were several old, unruly, and reckless veterans who didn't take Wei Yuan seriously at all. They stubbornly begged for death, hoping that Wei Yuan wouldn't dare to kill them.

Wei Yuan readily agreed and promptly beheaded several people, after which the rest stopped struggling.

Then Wei Yuan starved them for seven days straight, until their eyes glowed green in the night. Meanwhile, large bowls of delicious food were placed outside the prison gates, their hunger intensifying with the aroma. After seven days, even the most stubborn among them had completely lost their arrogance.

Then Wei Yuan returned to Qingming, where he was placed under the supervision of several jailers.

Those who were able to accompany Wei Yuan to the mountain people's land in the first batch were naturally no pushovers. These jailers, having been exposed to the dangers firsthand, were also quite shrewd. They would only throw in a few steamed buns each day, averaging two bites per person. As a result, the starving crowd started fighting over food, showing no respect for the scholar, always pushing him into a corner so he wouldn't get a single bite. Although the scholar was a Dao Foundation cultivator, he refused to fight with his servants for food for the sake of his pride, and so he went hungry.

Three days later, the prisoners had developed a deep-seated hatred for each other, were wary of one another, and refused to sleep together. The prison guards then used a few steamed buns to break their unity.

Once the fortress was fully prepared, Wei Yuan was ready to head to the State of Ji when he remembered there was still this group of people. Luckily, they hadn't starved to death. So Wei Yuan talked with the scholar, who was on the verge of starvation, for half an hour. The scholar was unyielding and refused to lead the way, only asking for a quick death.

Wei Yuan felt helpless, but he wasn't too bothered. After all, the nine surviving followers had already provided eleven routes to the State of Ji.

But when Zhang Sheng heard about this, he chatted with the scholar for a few words, and the scholar immediately bowed down and swore to be loyal to him to the death.

Wei Yuan was very puzzled and secretly asked the scholar Zhang Sheng what he had said to him, but the scholar looked down on Wei Yuan from the bottom of his heart and refused to say anything even if it meant death. Wei Yuan didn't want to ask Zhang Sheng, so he could only take him on his journey.

Wei Yuan only brought one hundred light soldiers this time. Every so often, a dozen or so would fly off in all directions to survey the terrain and record the landscape. They would usually explore for about a hundred miles before returning to the main force.

Wei Yuan had already determined his location using the map of the Taichu Palace. However, the map of the Taichu Palace was very vague in this area, and the immortals' main targets were the Liao tribe in the north and the Wu tribe in the south. Since there was ample time on this trip, Wei Yuan planned ahead and intended to refine the surrounding map, as this would be crucial for future military victories.

According to the route chosen by Wei Yuan, the territory they would enter this time should be south of Jieyang, in Xiangshui County, on the upper reaches of the Sishui River. The reason for choosing this place was that they learned from scholars that Xiangshui County was the area where the rebels were active, and beyond that was Fengyuan County.

Wei Yuan planned to first make contact with the rebels to assess their strength before formulating a military strategy. Ultimately, he hoped to engage in a battle with a small rebel force.

As for Jieyang Prefecture, which was the closest to them, Wei Yuan decided to put it aside for now. The governor of Jieyang Prefecture was somewhat unpredictable and strange, inexplicably knowing of their presence from thousands of miles away. According to the scholar Liu Yanzhi, the governor had ordered him to travel thousands of miles to this place to deliver a proclamation denouncing the rebels, but the reason was never mentioned.

Liu Yanzhi's father, a minor official, had been imprisoned for a crime and was awaiting execution in the autumn. The prefect said that if Liu Yanzhi delivered the proclamation, his father's punishment would be absolved. Therefore, the scholar came prepared to die, with no intention of returning alive. As far as he knew, there were several other similar groups of people, each dispatched to different places.

Upon hearing this, Wei Yuan sensed something was amiss, so he decided to remain calm and ignore the Jieyang Prefect for the time being. He would wait until the Prefect lost his composure and reveal his true intentions.

Speechless all the way.

Ten days later, Wei Yuan stood in front of an old and mottled stone tablet, looking at the four large characters "Boundary of Ji State" written on it, with an inscription below: "Inscribed by Marquis Xuanwei".

Beyond this stone tablet lies the territory of the State of Ji. However, the stone tablet is not only dilapidated, but also surrounded by numerous traces of animal excrement, clearly indicating that border defenses are lax and even important boundary markers are no longer patrolled.

Wei Yuan looked around for a while before saying, "Let's go." Then he took the lead and entered the border of the Ji Kingdom.

Upon entering the State of Ji, there was a county town several dozen miles away. However, the city gates were wide open, the city walls were in disarray, and the city towers had been burned to ashes. Countless crows circled overhead, and there was not a trace of human activity to be seen.

Wei Yuan flew into the county town first, only to find the entire city burned to the ground, littered with charred corpses, most bearing marks of swords and knives. In front of the county government gate, dozens of corpses lay piled up, topped with a large flag bearing a tiger's head and the large character "Xu." All the corpses were missing their arms and legs; their whereabouts were unknown.

Wei Yuan walked around the city, his face already ashen.

There were over 30,000 corpses in the city, not a single survivor. Even those hiding in cellars and woodpiles were dragged out and killed. It was clear that a powerful cultivator had used their divine sense to search the entire city, allowing for such a clean sweep. Wei Yuan reached out and grabbed the tiger-head flag stuck in the corpse, which snapped in two and flew into his hand. He tore off the blood-stained flag, handed it to his men, and said, "Release the useless ones, the entire army march!"

All the attendants were immediately released, while the scholar was carried by Wei Yuan and taken into the air, following the marching tracks left on the ground. A hundred soldiers also took to the air, closely following Wei Yuan.

The scholar was greatly surprised, only then realizing that the soldiers Wei Yuan led were all very young, some even a bit immature, but they were all actually Dao Foundation cultivators!
Based on the degree of decomposition of the corpses in the city, Wei Yuan judged that the rebels had left no more than three days ago. His entire army consisted of Dao Foundation Establishments cultivators; they could catch up in less than half a day.

Wei Yuan wanted to ask why these rebels, who were supposed to purge the emperor's inner circle, were now targeting ordinary people, leaving no one alive.

After flying more than a hundred miles, Wei Yuan saw another county town, which was also burned down, leaving no survivors. There were more than 27,000 corpses in the town, including infants still in swaddling clothes.

Wei Yuan didn't say a word, got up and gave chase. This time, the young cultivators of the Xu family had to use all their strength to barely keep up.

Before long, Wei Yuan saw a military camp. The camp was set up in a very messy manner, with a large flag standing at the entrance bearing the character "Luo". The soldiers in the camp wore all sorts of clothes, but most of them had a yellow cloth tied around their heads.

With a sweep of his divine sense, Wei Yuan knew that there were more than a thousand bandits in the camp, and the leader was a Dao Foundation Perfection cultivator.

Without further ado, Wei Yuan used the aura of human life to suppress all the bandits below the Dao Foundation level in the camp, instantly causing them to lose consciousness before they landed in the military camp and entered the largest military tent.

Inside the camp, the bandit leaders were drinking and making merry, watching several naked women dance. Suddenly, they felt a heaviness in their heads and all fainted, except for two Dao Foundation leaders who remained conscious. Upon seeing Wei Yuan, both were filled with shock and fear, knowing that a powerful figure they couldn't afford to offend had arrived.

Before Wei Yuan could even ask a question, the two exchanged a glance, knelt down with a thud, and cried out for mercy from the immortal!

Wei Yuan threw the tiger-head flag in front of the two men and asked, "Whose flag is this?"

One of the leaders hurriedly said, "This is the banner of General Xu Kuang! General Xu is a former general, nicknamed the Man-Eating Tiger. He never hesitates to fight. General Xu recently defeated the Ji Kingdom's army of 100,000, so he was allowed by Leader Liu Heihu to relax in the border area."

"Relax?" A murderous glint flashed in Wei Yuan's eyes.

The two bandit leaders, oblivious to Wei Yuan's change in expression, explained, "After a bloody battle, the army is exhausted, both physically and mentally. At this time, the leaders will send them to counties and townships they haven't been to before, to collect military pay and provisions while also finding some entertainment. That's how they relax."

"Where can we find grain now?" Wei Yuan asked.

It was mid-to-late February, not yet March. Spring had just begun in the State of Ji, a time of scarcity before the harvest. Along the way, Wei Yuan saw fields that were still empty, not yet ready for planting. Wei Yuan remembered how, as a child, Wei Youcai would be deeply worried every year around this time, meticulously calculating the cost of rice and grain, helping the poorest tenants through this difficult period.

Upon hearing Wei Yuan's inquiry, one of the leaders, eager to demonstrate his loyalty, replied, "Although there is no grain at this time of year, there are plenty of sheep!"

"Where are the sheep?" Wei Yuan had a vague sense of unease.

The leader pointed at a woman lying unconscious on the ground and said, "Aren't these just two-legged sheep?"

Unable to bear it any longer, Wei Yuan reached out and grabbed, forcibly pulling two transparent souls from the leaders' bodies and into his sleeve. The two bandit leaders immediately collapsed, motionless.

This was the first time in Wei Yuan's life that he had ever captured a soul. Such a person's sins were so grave that only physical torture could not atone for the suffering of those mortals who had died so tragically.

Wei Yuan stepped out of the tent, looked at the thick resentment and karmic energy permeating the camp, and said coldly, "Kill them all, leave no one alive."

The captain in charge saluted and then led his men into the camp, where they soon slaughtered all the bandits.

Wei Yuan reached out, and two trembling souls appeared in his palm. He asked, "Which direction is Xu Kuang in?"

(End of this chapter)