Becoming a martial arts god starting from the mortician.

The wheels rolled along the official road at a steady pace.

The sun was shining brightly outside the car window, but there was no warmth inside the car.

Shen Qi leaned against the carriage wall and reached out to lift half of the heavy linen curtain.

On both sides of the official road, hordes of refugees were dragging their heavy steps southward.

These people were dressed in rags, their faces were sallow and thin, and their cracked lips and empty eyes showed no trace of vitality.

Shen Qi raised his eyelids and glanced at the top of their heads.

Everything I saw was gray and desolate.

The lifelines on the heads of these disaster victims were pitifully short, a mixture of gray and white, as thin as paper, as if a gust of autumn wind would blow them all away.

Just then, a hunched-over woman tripped and fell straight into a pile of dry grass by the roadside. Her body twitched twice, then she became completely still.

Almost as soon as she breathed her last, the gray-white life-giving hair on her head, less than half a finger long, snapped off, turning into a few wisps of smoke, which were instantly blown away by the autumn wind.

died.

The other victims didn't react at all; they just numbly walked around the still-warm body and continued to shuffle forward, one step at a time.

Shen Qi frowned slightly, lowered the curtain, and kept the despair outside the carriage.

"Feel sorry for them?" Zhou Wenyuan, who was sitting opposite, suddenly asked.

His eyes were slightly closed, his hands were tucked into his wide sleeves, and his body swayed gently with the bumps of the carriage.

"I just feel that human life is too cheap." Shen Qi's tone carried a hint of inquiry. "I originally thought it was just a natural disaster, but I didn't expect that the outside world has become such a chaotic scene."

Zhou Wenyuan opened his eyes, a bitter smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"This is not a natural disaster."

He stared at the spots of light filtering through the gap in the carriage curtain and explained to Shen Qi, "These people are not subjects of the Dayan Dynasty either. Our Dayan Dynasty has always followed the teachings of our founding emperor, and each emperor has loved his people like his own children. How could we allow our people to be displaced for no reason? But there are always places in this world that the court cannot control. The barbarians in the north have never submitted to the rule of the king. They worship force and never restrain their warriors. They have been fighting for resources such as the earth veins for years, which is why they have brought about this disaster."

"War... how could it lead to a drought?" Shen Qi rubbed his forehead, looking puzzled.

"You haven't even embarked on the path of martial arts yet, so it's normal that you don't understand." Zhou Wenyuan shook his head, a hint of awe and longing flashing in his eyes. "In martial arts cultivation, once you reach the sixth realm, 'Flawless,' with perfect qi and blood and boundless strength, you're already a completely superhuman being. This time, a rare item appeared in the north, and those old geezers fought tooth and nail over it."

"As the energies intertwined, the clouds were shredded by the gale, and the earth's veins were severed by the powerful energy. As rain failed to fall, a drought ensued. Later, as more people died and corpses piled up like mountains without anyone to bury them, the malevolent energy leaked out, and naturally, a plague broke out."

Upon hearing this, Shen Qi's fingers clenched tightly inside his sleeve.

A few people fighting can alter the celestial phenomena of several prefectures?! What incredible power that is!

"Right now, the north is a quagmire. Besides the barbarians, there are also some heretics mixed in there." Zhou Wenyuan sneered. "Too many people have died on the battlefield, and in their eyes, they are all resources, especially martial artists. Those evil cultivators take the opportunity to collect the remains of martial artists and practice all kinds of evil techniques. They don't dare to invade my Dayan Dynasty, but the plague has still spread, and several towns in the north have been affected."

Shen Qi lowered her head, her heart pounding wildly.

The northern battlefield? The ground is littered with the corpses of martial artists?!

If I had the chance to take a trip to the battlefield...

But he quickly suppressed his burning desire. With his current meager cultivation, going there would only provide others with additional resources for their cultivation.

We need to establish a firm foothold in the prefecture first and improve our strength.

Shen Qi lowered his eyelids, revealing a look of lingering fear: "They don't even spare the dead, these evil cultivators really deserve to die."

Zhou Wenyuan closed his eyes again and stopped speaking.

……

three days later.

Suddenly, the neighing of horses came from outside the carriage, and the carriage came to a steady stop on the official road.

"We've arrived. Let's lift the curtain and take a look," Zhou Wenyuan said with a smile.

Shen Qi did as instructed, lifted the heavy carriage curtain, looked up, and her breath caught in her throat.

Chengping County City.

The dark blue city wall, dozens of meters high, resembled a ferocious beast with its jaws wide open, coiled on the ground, stretching as far as the eye could see. The crenellations of the city gate, several meters wide, were also covered with gleaming defensive weapons.

The carriage slowly approached.

Three thick, barbed barricades were set up outside the city gate.

A hundred fully armored soldiers, each wielding a spear, were checking each caravan and refugee preparing to enter the city.

The procession stretched for two miles.

The crowd was chaotic, filled with the cries of children, the conversations of merchants, and the shouts of soldiers.

The coachman showed no sign of slowing down and drove the carriage straight toward the checkpoint.

"Are you blind?! Stop! Submit for inspection!" A city gate guard, his hand on his waist sword, strode forward and shouted sternly.

Inside the carriage, Zhou Wenyuan lifted the curtain and threw out a sign.

The waist token spun in mid-air before landing steadily in the hand of the city gate guard.

The city gate guard, furious, looked down and saw three large, square, vermilion characters engraved on the sign: "Observatory of Astronomy."

Startled, the fierce look on his face vanished instantly. He quickly ran over, holding the waist token in both hands, and respectfully handed it back through the car window.

"This humble servant was blind and offended you, sir. Please forgive me!"

Having said that, he turned around, drew his sword, and shouted at the soldiers blocking his way, "Make way!"

Seeing this, the soldiers dared not delay. Two of them quickly stepped forward and moved the several-hundred-pound chevaux-de-frise aside, clearing a wide path through the crowded city gate.

The previously noisy merchants instantly fell silent, retreating to both sides and watching the carriage with awe as it drove straight in without stopping.

As soon as the carriage entered the city, a cacophony of noise hit us.

The road beneath our feet was paved with large blue flagstones, each over ten feet long. On both sides of the street, three- or four-story buildings with carved beams and painted rafters stood side by side, and the banners hanging from the taverns fluttered in the wind.

The sounds of hawkers' cries and horses' hooves mingled together, making it difficult to see clearly.

Shen Qi leaned against the window, his gaze sweeping over the pedestrians on the street.

A natural martial arts talent, which is rare in Qingping Town, has become commonplace in this county town.

He had only swept half a street when he saw dozens of people with red life threads floating above their heads.

Those guards dressed in short clothes, the bodyguards riding tall horses, and even the burly men drinking in roadside taverns, mostly had dark red hair mixed in with their veins. Although thin, there were quite a few of them.

As Shen Qi was carefully observing, his gaze was suddenly drawn to a few people.

Several young students dressed in pale white gowns were walking past the carriage, chatting and laughing as they fanned themselves with folding fans.

Shen Qi's gaze was drawn to the handsome student leading the group.

The life-giving hair on his head shone with a red and blue hue, blue like the trees in spring and red like the sunset glow in winter.