Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

He stopped in his tracks.

Under an old locust tree by the roadside, a little girl of about five or six years old was lying on the already cold body of a woman, wailing loudly.

The woman had a deep, bone-revealing laceration on her back, clearly a result of the aftermath of the previous battle.

The girl's cries were hoarse, her little hands clutching her mother's clothes tightly, her face covered in mud and tears.

The refugees passing by were all in a hurry, and no one paid any attention to this orphan who was destined to starve to death in this chaotic world.

Li Changqing walked to the old locust tree and bent down slightly.

He took a slightly hardened flatbread from his sleeve and gently placed it in front of the little girl.

The little girl looked up, her swollen, red eyes staring at the strange man in the blue robe.

Seemingly soothed by the calm and peaceful aura emanating from him, the crying gradually subsided.

Li Changqing reached out and gently stroked the little girl's messy hair twice with his long, slender, fair fingers.

A warm, mellow scent flowed from his fingertips into the girl's body.

This aura was enough to keep her from hunger and from the cold and heat for three days.

"There's always a reason in this world. Now that you've eaten, just wait here for a bit."

Li Changqing's voice was gentle and mellow, like a spring breeze that dispelled the dark clouds.

The little girl picked up the flatbread with a blank expression, staring blankly as the figure in the blue robe straightened up again and merged into the crowd moving against the flow.

Li Changqing turned around and continued eastward.

He looked at the billowing smoke on the horizon ahead and took a deep breath of the air, which was filled with the smell of blood and gunpowder.

For a century, he lived in seclusion in the desert, and it was thought that his heart, which had experienced so much, would have long since become calm and undisturbed.

But when he truly saw the land he had painstakingly cultivated being ravaged, and saw the people of the Ming Dynasty, whom he had vowed to feed and clothe, being displaced, he was deeply saddened.

The anger that had been dormant for a century finally began to slowly and irreversibly awaken within this seemingly frail body in a blue robe.

He was the one who opened up the maritime borders of the Ming Dynasty.

The emperor in the Forbidden City was trained by him.

This land, this nation, and these peddlers and laborers on the streets.

They were all indispensable characters in his grand, century-long drama.

"You dare to cut down the trees I planted?"

Li Changqing slowly pulled out the mottled Xiangfei bamboo folding fan from his sleeve.

With a soft "snap," the folding fan unfolded in front of her chest.

The fan surface is completely blank, leaving only a chilling expanse of white space.

He lifted his foot and took a step forward.

With that step, the surrounding clamor of cries and chaotic footsteps seemed to be instantly ripped from this world.

Shrinking the earth to an inch, yet feeling as close as a foot away as the ends of the earth.

When his figure solidified again, he had already traversed dozens of miles and appeared at the end of the ancient road outside Tongzhou City.

Ahead lies the last pass leading to the capital.

Baliqiao.

At this moment, the setting sun on Baliqiao Bridge was like blood.

The stone lions at the bridgehead have been neatly cut in half.

The bridge surface was covered with the corpses of Ming Dynasty soldiers.

A captain with a missing arm was gritting his teeth, holding up a long, blunted sword with his only remaining hand, blocking the middle of the bridge.

Behind him was the last barrier of the capital.

On the other side of the bridge, Ying Que and his two siblings were suspended in mid-air, watching the Ming officer, who was struggling like a cornered beast, with great interest, as if he were a clown on a stage.

"The will of mortals is surprisingly tenacious. But this 'mantis trying to stop a chariot' scenario gets boring after a while."

Ying Que yawned, lazily extending a finger, a dazzling blue halo gathering at the fingertip.

"Send him on his way, lest he miss the time to go to the capital to watch the show."

Knowing he was doomed, the one-armed captain looked up and let out a desperate and tragic roar.

Dragging his long sword, he fearlessly charged towards the immortal in mid-air.

Just as the light from Ying Que's fingertips was about to shoot out and pierce through the commander's chest.

"call."

A gentle breeze, seemingly from nowhere, softly swept across Baliqiao.

There seemed to be a barely audible sigh in the wind.

Followed by.

The one-armed captain only felt a blur before his eyes, and an irresistible, gentle force moved him backward several feet, landing steadily at the end of the bridge.

Where he had just stood, a dignified figure in a blue robe had appeared.

Li Changqing waved his folding fan, looked up at the three high-ranking cultivators in mid-air, his eyes showing no anger or killing intent.

There is only a profound sorrow in looking at three ignorant frogs at the bottom of a well.

"Everyone."

Li Changqing spoke, his voice not loud, but clearly drowning out the howling autumn wind.

"Having eaten the salty sea breeze for thousands of years on the island, has it damaged their brains?"

The three people, Ying Que and his companions, who were in mid-air, were suddenly stunned.

Since they set foot on this continent, all the mortals they had seen were kneeling and begging for mercy, or struggling helplessly like mad dogs.

They had never seen such a madman who, instead of being afraid of these terrestrial immortals, dared to mock them.

What alarmed them even more was that they hadn't noticed at all how this person had appeared on the bridge!

"You audacious mortal! Who are you to dare utter such insults against the Immortal Sect!"

The female cultivator raised her eyebrows and shouted angrily.

Li Changqing ignored her and simply tapped the folding fan lightly in his palm.

"Those who live outside the secular world should simply remain on their islands like clay bodhisattvas. With nothing to do, they can absorb the essence of the sun and moon and gain the empty title of immortality."

Li Changqing looked at them, his tone as calm as if he were reprimanding a few unruly children.

"But you insist on getting involved in the karma of this mortal world, attempting to overturn the table of mortals. Do you know that the karma in this world is very heavy?"

"If you get it, it can kill you."

Ying Que was so angry that he laughed instead.

He carefully scanned Li Changqing with his divine sense, but found that there was no trace of true energy fluctuation on the man in the blue robe.

They are mortals with no cultivation whatsoever.

He must be some worldly martial arts expert who is reckless and doesn't know his own mortality.

"You ignorant ants, daring to speak of cause and effect! Today I will show you that the difference between immortals and mortals is as vast as an insurmountable chasm!"

Ying Que's eyes turned cold, and he slashed downwards with his right hand, fingers pointing like a sword.

"Sizzle!"

A long, incomparably sharp, azure sword beam tore through the air, accompanied by a piercing whistle, and slashed down towards Li Changqing on the bridge.

This blow was enough to cleave the sturdy stone bridge and the people on it in two.

The one-armed commander watched from behind, his eyes wide with despair, and closed them in utter hopelessness.

however.

Li Changqing didn't even frown.

He neither dodged nor used any magical artifacts.

He simply and casually raised the mottled Xiangfei bamboo folding fan in his hand slightly upwards.

"Smack."

A very faint sound, like the soft sound of bamboo ribs striking stone.

The celestial sword beam, powerful enough to split mountains and shatter rocks, struck the seemingly fragile folding fan the instant it touched its surface.

stopped.

It was as if we had crashed into an insurmountable iron wall that stretched between heaven and earth.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, and no scattered bursts of qi.

The cyan sword light, like a venomous snake whose vital point has been pinched, trembled violently above the folding fan, emitting mournful cries.