Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 163 The Battle Between "Change" and "Usurpation"
Wang Hengzong blocked the mountains and rivers of Zhenzhou in the north, attempting to confine Xie Yue's "evil power" to Zhenzhou and lock it within Lelang City.

From space, it appears as a dome hundreds of kilometers long, like an iron curtain locking down Lelang City. Outside Lelang City, the rebels in Laocheng are gathering and simultaneously sending cavalry to coordinate their efforts from the north and south.

The main building of the city lord's mansion in Laocheng was destroyed by a battering ram. The banner with the character "Wu" fell down, and the banner of "Acting on Behalf of Heaven" was raised. The special envoy of the Wu family army in the city was shot dead. As for the city lord's treasury, the accounts that had been filed by Wu Xiaoque since the Wu family took over were all inexplicably burned.

However, apart from that, the rebels did not rush to attack cities and fortresses after their rebellion. Instead, they mingled with various local families and merchants in Zhenzhou through letters.

The contents of their letters were mostly like this: "Hello, I'm fine," "The epidemic is bad," "Wu Hanluan's extortion is bad," "Wu Hanluan is practicing evil magic," and "We have a common goal."

Thus, the two sides reached a consensus on the mutual misunderstanding.

The rebels planned to hold Laocheng while other parts of Zhenzhou rebelled simultaneously.

Meanwhile, the various families in Zhenzhou invoked their millennia-old wisdom: "Wait and see, and choose sides only after things become clear." As long as Wu Hanluan failed to capture Laocheng, each family would wait for an opportunity to act.

In these chaotic times, the outer disciples of the Wangheng Sect are constantly on the move, actively contacting various parties who can "add fuel to the fire" in this rebellion.

These disciples, ringing bells and carrying banners, visited families under the guise of praying for blessings and warding off disasters, and were treated as honored guests by the various prominent families of Zhen!
However, due to the ravages of war in recent years, these aristocratic families could no longer entertain guests with gold and jewels as they had in the past; they were now only served fresh fruit.

The various families in Zhenzhou treated these immortal sect disciples as honored guests, but were unwilling to contribute to the righteous path right now!

…When their own interests are involved, the immortals are very proactive…

On a mountain ridge upstream of the Zhen River, Xia Sihong, the most outstanding disciple of the third generation of the Wangheng Sect, was using his "observation technique" to watch Wu Hanluan gather a large number of troops at Lelang City and attack Laocheng. The "righteous army" in the city was like a sandcastle facing a tsunami alone.

These third-generation disciples, who actively engage in worldly affairs and seek merit and sect merit points, found such a sparsely populated place, set up a spirit array to isolate the herb gatherers in the mountains, and it was not easy for them to gather again.

A place that was once a tranquil and elegant place with flowing streams and wine cups is now a gathering of figures on the wind, a place where "wind and clouds converge".

Xia Sihong addressed the other righteous disciples who had arrived, saying, "The power of the evil forces is overwhelming, and the righteous army may be no match for them. We must lend them a helping hand."

Another disciple said, "Senior brother, the armies are engaged in battle, and the murderous aura is like a furnace. We cannot get close. How can this be allowed?"

At this moment, a Taoist priest stood up beside Xia Sihong.

Chang Hao: "Listen to me, everyone. The reason the Wu family is so rampant is because their fortune has not yet run out. I possess the art of reversing feng shui, which can cause evil energy to devour the blessings of the Wu family's ancestral land."

One disciple from a sect remarked, "This technique is probably some kind of unorthodox or heretical method."

Xia Sihong: "When dealing with evil spirits and heretics, don't worry about so many rules; as long as it works, that's enough."

…The perspective shifts to the battlefield…

From Laocheng to Lelangcheng, there are no natural defenses between them. Back then, Wu Hengyu fought his way through the enemy lines and helped the Wu family take over Zhendi.

Now Wu Hanluan has led 6,000 troops out of the city, but unlike before when Wu Hengyu was in charge of field battles, Wu Fei is in charge of construction.

After riding his mount out of the city, Wu Hanluan looked around and felt all alone.

On this expedition, Wu Hanluan was not only missing his close family members, but also various subordinates who came to visit him with gifts.

In the army, Wu Xiaoque was in charge of extorting money from the land, and the merchants following behind her profited from it, so the army had many supporters. But now, after leaving the city, not a single messenger has come to report the news.

Wu Hanluan's army was covered in blisters, and when they walked along the road, there were no birds chirping and the grass and trees were withered and yellow. Because of their appearance, no one dared to approach them.

Looking at the road ahead, where sandstorms were swirling, Wu Hanluan had a premonition that his decades-long career on the battlefield would end here.
He silently endured the pain from the blisters. He patted the winged tiger under his saddle on the head: "If I lose, you must return to the Southern Frontier immediately."

It is now March 18th of the 2nd year of the Tianyou calendar.

…The perspective shifts to the south…

Xia Sihong led Chang Hao to the mountains outside Tianchi City.
Inside Tianchi City, Yao San Niang, who was taking her child home to visit relatives, glanced at the mountains outside the city and then revealed a playful smile.

Yao San Niang asked Jia Mude, who had come with her, "Daoist Master, did you see it?"

Jamud frowned as he looked at the clouds gathering in the distance, the trails left by cultivators flying on their swords (just like contrails in the 21st century).
Yao San Niang said leisurely, "Someone is trying to disrupt the feng shui of my family's land."

Wu Qing, dressed like a maid, asked from the side: "Madam, are you sure it's true? Who's so bold?"

After years of immersion, Wu Qing has come to consider himself a member of the Wu family.

Jiamude took Yao Sanniang's words very seriously and had already begun to calculate. He even took out a gourd and took out a Spirit Gathering Pill to assist his calculations. The yin and yang energies above his head were fiery red, clearly indicating that he was overheating.

Yao San Niang walked into the courtyard and lightly stepped on the floor. As she stepped down, the floor in front of her instantly undulated like clay, revealing the mountain and river landscape of Lingnan, as well as feng shui lines.

With a flick of her finger, Yao San Niang sent out a group of paper figures that landed on her.

The paper figures transformed into sticky notes marking the mountains.

Third Sister pointed her finger into the air, and multiple lines resembling blood vessels ran north to south across the map, with the ancestral graves of various families in Lingnan scattered throughout, like grasshoppers on a line.

The fortune of mountains and rivers will spread along these bloodline-like lines. For example, the ancestral graves of the Wu family are located at one point, extending north to Zhendi and south to Nanjiang.

This map also shows that the Wu family was closely connected and influenced each other with other prominent families in Lingnan.

Yao San Niang pointed out three key lines, all of which are nodes in the Wu family's current fortune development towards the north, that is, the dragon veins.

Yao San Niang: "Now someone wants to sever my family's lineage and at the same time wants to corrupt my family with evil spirits."

Wu Qing immediately stated his position: Absolutely not. Yao San Niang then showed her waist token and summoned Wu Zhan Tie and his group of younger brothers who were reporting from the Southern Frontier.

The people Yao San Niang summoned were nobles who had been exiled to the Southern Frontier by Wu Fei. However, after fulfilling their responsibilities as local lords in the Southern Frontier over the years, they successfully took over the discourse power left to the frontier group in Wu Fei's system, and were more loyal and reliable to the current system of this sect.

Three hours later, the group of Wu family soldiers arrived in the courtyard and sat down according to their rank and seating arrangement.

Upon hearing this, Wu Zhantie immediately declared, "This is absolutely unacceptable, sister-in-law. Don't worry, just give the order, and I will find these people."

Yao San Niang simply said, "Select about a hundred people and have them lie in ambush in these eight directions. Your murderous aura is too strong; each of you needs to wear a string of Bodhi seeds." Yao San Niang drew a circle on the map with her finger.
Wu Zhan Tie replied, "Yes, sir."

After making the arrangements, Yao San Niang lit the lotus lantern and placed it in her room to guard it carefully. As long as the lotus lantern was lit, the Eye of the Future would not be able to see what was happening here.

Gazing at the blue moon in the sky, Yao San Niang knew that "Wan Bian" intended to use the entire Wu family's power as a means to worship "Qing Bao Tian Zun"; in this way, the Wu family army would gradually become the key to unlocking the plan. However, Yao San Niang altered this plan.

The Wu family cannot be used as a sacrificial offering now. Yao San Niang's reasoning was sound: if the power of "Azure Treasure Celestial Venerable" were introduced into the Wu family, it would inevitably clash directly with the power of the Vermilion Bird in the Earth's core. The Celestial Venerable's power would be hampered. Yao San Niang silently thought, "I'm doing this for the Celestial Venerable's own good."

Now, the Wangheng Sect, which uses unorthodox methods, has come into the sights of Yao San Niang.

Wu Lu, standing to the side, looked at the lit lotus lantern and asked, "Mother, why does it look like there's an eye in this lantern?"

Yao San Niang tapped her son's forehead: "Go recite your lessons."

…plans to plans…

On the 19th, Xia Sihong and his group landed on the mountaintop. After setting up their command flags, they raised their heads and used the connection between the celestial phenomena and the terrain to perform a divination ceremony.

Chang Hao lay on the ground, turning over rocks and walking around until he finally pinpointed a spot and said, "Right here, drive the 'earth vein nail' in, and the Wu family's feng shui network will dissipate."

However, someone nearby said, "Let's not be so ruthless. Just let Wu Hanluan be the only one." Chang Hao agreed, pointing to a spot nearby and holding a bone, saying, "This is the skull of a vengeful spirit from Zhendi. If we implant it here, Wu Hanluan will reap what he sows."

Chang Hao inserted the bone into a rock, and the bone suddenly went in. At that moment, someone shouted from the side, "Senior brother, what's wrong with you?!"

Xia Sihong's eyes flashed with blue light as he inserted the "Earth Vein Nail" and declared loudly, "The Wu family's sins are too heavy, and they are doomed to eternal damnation!"

Xia Sihong suddenly had this thought: his actions had already provoked the Wu family, so rather than continuing down this path, he might as well go all the way and let the Wu family's fortune completely dissipate, so as to prevent a Wu family member from making a comeback and causing trouble for the Wangheng Sect in the future.

However, the moment he inserted it into the vein, the mountain range trembled.

Wu Zhantie and the others who were lying in ambush below heard Yao Sanniang's instructions that they would start to erupt as soon as the earth's veins moved.

Just as Xia Sihong and his group of cultivators felt they had "fallen into the mountains and rivers" and could leave gracefully, a sudden surge of malevolent energy came from all directions.

With a loud shout from Wu Zhantie, "What are you doing?!" these cultivators were like thieves caught red-handed stealing at night. In this world, a thief caught stealing at night and encountering a barking dog will suffer a severe blow to their soul. That is, they will be so frightened that they will convulse, and in severe cases, they will suffer a sudden heart attack and die.

These cultivators, unwittingly, were also subject to the law's punishment. They had originally arrived riding the wind, but now their magical power was stagnant.

Torches were raised, illuminating the scene. The heroes surged forward, raising their flying swords in a desperate attempt to resist, but they were cut down by broadswords, and the released spirit beasts were pinned to the ground by crossbow bolts.

Faced with this overwhelming rage, the otherworldly aura emanating from these immortal disciples melted away as quickly as ice and snow in summer.

Immortals need to avoid the mortal world because there are many rules in the mortal world, and these human rules will lock away the magical power of immortals.

In particular, "grave robbing" is strictly prohibited under the laws of the Great Dao. The laws of the Great Dao can suppress military forces when the land is in perfect order, and even immortals cannot escape them.

Wu Zhantie saw the mountain range shaking and knew they were already doing something, while Chang Hao, who was beaten up, confessed immediately.

Chang Hao pleaded and begged, shamelessly saying, "It's all the fault of the Wangheng Sect! They're the ones who wanted to ruin your Wu family's feng shui! I was just dragged here by them!"

…You were born into a celestial sect, yet you became a thief…

A quarter of an hour later, Jamud arrived at the mountaintop in a nine-cart. Wu Zhantie respectfully said to the sorcerer, "Take a look."

Jamud glanced at the shaking mountains and the falling rocks, then nodded: "It's just a small hole, nothing serious, we can fix it."

Wu Zhantie: "What do you mean by 'no big deal'?"

Jamud: "It means that your family has committed too many killings, and you may face some calamities."

Wu Zhantie gritted his teeth. That damned Wangheng Sect, usually so righteous, actually did such a despicable thing?! Clearly, he thought he had committed too many murders and might be severely punished.

Jamud then blurted out, "I have a method that can cause the Wangheng Sect to suffer a karmic backlash."

Wu Zhantie suddenly turned his head and then bowed respectfully: "Please speak, Daoist Master."

Dust to dust, ashes to ashes…

Two hours later, at a carefully chosen burial site beneath the Wu family's ancestral tombs. This location precisely corresponds to the spot beneath the feet of the Wu family's ancestors when they were buried. Along the same straight line is a lotus pond, symbolizing the Wu family ancestors ascending to heaven on lotuses.

The Wu family has now dug deep pits, each large enough to accommodate one person, in front of the lotus pond, reaching a depth of nine feet.

After being tied up, Xia Sihong and the others were put into a pit, where they struggled repeatedly, wriggling like worms.

Jiamude said to Wu Zhantie, "Pay attention, your head should be facing north. If you follow this line, you will fall into the Wangheng Sect due to karma."

The hundreds of young men from the Wu family were very serious. With towels hanging on their shoulders and spitting on their hands, they carefully filled the pit. As for the cultivators, they sewed their mouths shut with thread and then sealed their eyes with hot wax.

"Stone stake" (a metaphor for a strong, unyielding practice)!
As a former member of the royal family of Da Yao, Jamud possessed a series of secret texts on witchcraft and sorcery, including a malevolent method that involved burying cultivators in specific locations to inflict curses on celestial sects. Historically, this method caused many disciples of ancient sects to perish in the calamity of their inner demons.

Of course, if you say that Jamud is practicing unorthodox methods, then you are underestimating his true abilities. He is following the orthodox ancient shamanic tradition, which is inherited from the "Cheng" dynasty.

During the Cheng Dynasty, every year during the sacrificial rites, prisoners of war were buried alive under the altar, and human sacrifices were used for burial.

Specifically, the burial pits for human sacrifices were arranged in a protective, arched manner to guard the location of the ancestral tablet. This is the location now "stepped upon" by the Wu family's ancestral graves. Buried in this location, the spiritual power of the sacrificed person was extracted to repay karmic debts.

After Xia Sihong and the others entered the pit, they disappeared amidst shovelfuls of soil and the ringing of bells.

After the pit was filled in, hundreds of martial arts disciples, dressed in mourning clothes, walked across the area. Stone slabs were laid on top to create a path up the mountain, thus bringing everything to a close.

After these cultivators breathed their last, in Tianchi City, Yao San Niang, who had lit the lamps in her courtyard, nodded slightly. In the landscape map she had activated, the moonlight that Xie Yue had been staring at the Wu family turned into blue lines that fell on the spiritual mountains and rivers of more than a dozen major sects, including Wangheng Sect, Shaoyang Sect, and Qingxiao Sect.

After Yao Sangu lit the lamps, the spiritual veins of these sects also began to flare with evil fire.

Thousands of miles away, none of the cultivators of the Wangheng Sect, who believed they were "manipulating" all living beings on the dry shore, realized that beneath their sacred mountain, a small flame flickered. This flame, though still small, clung to the spiritual veins, slowly spreading like ignited alcohol. Where it spread, chunks of rock on the mountain softened like candles under the flame. After about an incense stick's time, a cavern large enough to accommodate a person was burned out. And this "cavern" would grow larger and larger as the flame expanded, like termites hollowing out a towering tree.

The immortals who had set up a grand formation around the land with colorful clouds and mist were still watching the battlefield, unaware of what their outer disciples had provoked them.

Perhaps in a few months, a task sign will be hung in their sect's miscellaneous service hall to investigate the reason for the mass disappearance of these outer disciples.

…Obsessed, one must pay the price…

On March 20th, on the battlefield of Laocheng, Wu Hanluan's 3-strong army was scaling the city wall. The "rebels" on the wall kept throwing stones, but they were easily defeated by the battle-hardened soldiers.

After the entire city wall was taken down, only a small number of defenders remained, putting up a stubborn resistance.

Wu Hanluan watched as the city was about to fall on the battlefield. He then rode his winged tiger onto the city wall. Bai Cunxi, who had been forced to a corner of the city wall, saw Wu Hanluan approaching and shouted, "You worthless scoundrel! Even if you take this city, your fate will be sealed!"

Upon seeing this, Wu Hanluan felt a surge of anger and walked towards the broken section of the city wall, asking his guards to make way for him.

Meanwhile, Bai Cunxi was also pinned against the wall by groups of spears and unable to move.

The spearmen made way, and Bai Cunxi smiled when he saw Wu Hanluan arrive. Wu Hanluan paused slightly.

Then he saw Bai Cunxi move a brick or tile hidden under his feet. As Bai Cunxi raised his hand, a fire talisman was released, igniting the thing hidden under the brick or tile. Wu Hanluan was startled: "Not good!"

That was a "Thunderbolt" specially made by Wang Hengzong.

With a deafening explosion, everyone was blasted off the city wall by the shockwave, and Wu Hanluan himself was pierced through the heart by a fragment.

Of course, Xie Yue had blessed him for decades and did not want him to die completely at this time. His body was broken and mangled, but as a green light from the ground poured in, his body began to swell.

Wu Hanluan was terrified: "No!"

Wu Hanluan tried to stop the power from flowing into the Golden Dou, but a loving voice told him, "You are going to die. Accepting this power will save you from death."

However, just as Wu Hanluan felt the green moonlight growing warmer and the joyful songs of the creatures on it becoming clearer, a sharp phoenix cry suddenly rose in his mind.

Wu Hanluan snapped out of his daze and gazed at the Vermilion Bird constellation in the sky. Although his body was beyond saving, he suddenly felt relieved. In a flash of red light, he burned and turned into smoke, some of the black smoke entering the Evil Moon, and some dissipating into the land of Zhenzhou.

Wu Hanluan is dead, but it's not over yet. Like a dung bucket that has been overturned, endless corrosion surges from the earth, and a huge green pit is slowly swallowing everything.

(End of this chapter)