Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Once the train left Jinshi, the scenery outside the window changed from the gray suburbs to vast fields.

The corn cobs stood bulging on the stalks, and occasionally you could see a few farmers bent over, busy working in the field.

Chen Mo leaned against the car window, watching the farmers resting and drinking water on the ridges of the fields, and thought that the world wasn't so bad after all.

At least the crops in the fields are still growing, and people are still alive.

"What are you looking at?" Li Jinrong leaned over from the opposite side, following his gaze. "What's so interesting about crops?"

"You don't understand."

"How could I not understand? Isn't that just corn? I saw you eat four last time, you were eating them like a squirrel, your cheeks were all bulging out."

Chen Mo's face darkened: "If you can talk, then talk more."

Li Jinrong was taken aback by his words, opening his mouth and then closing it again.

He felt that Chen Mo's words had a hidden meaning, but he couldn't figure out what it was, so he simply stopped thinking about it and took out the deck of cards from his pocket and started shuffling them.

"Come on, let's play cards. We're just killing time anyway."

Shen Yunjin looked up from her book and glanced at Chen Mo, seemingly waiting for him to say no.

But this time Chen Mo didn't say anything. He just took the cards from the table and washed them like Li Jinrong did.

Li Jinrong looked at his clumsy technique suspiciously: "You really don't know how?"

"I really don't know how."

"It won't get better, it will."

Li Jinrong chuckled, explained the rules to him, and then began dealing the cards.

"When we play Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game), we stick stickers on the player who loses. The loser gets a sticker stuck on theirs."

Shen Yunjin put down the book "Miscellaneous Records of Feng Shui in Southern Jiangxi" in her hand, placed her hands on the table with her hands folded, and had a faint smile on her lips.

The cards have been dealt.

Chen Mo picked up the cards, rubbed his fingers on the surface, and frowned slightly, as if he was trying to identify the cards in his hand.

Seeing his appearance, Li Jinrong felt much more at ease; he certainly looked like a novice.

......

The card game continued intermittently, killing time on the long train journey.

By the time the sun set, Li Jinrong had eleven slips of paper stuck to his face, Shen Yunjin had thirteen, while Chen Mo's face was clean, without a single slip of paper.

Are you acting like me?

Li Jinrong squinted at Chen Mo, prying open the note covering his face.

"What are you acting for?"

"I'm just pretending you can't play cards!"

"I really can't."

"Then how come you keep winning?"

"Good luck."

"...Had you been lucky all afternoon?"

Chen Mo glanced at him and nodded seriously: "Mm."

"I'm not playing anymore."

Shen Yunjin angrily ripped the note off her face. "That liar."

She actually believed the other person was a novice.

Just then, the train suddenly jolted, as if its wheels had run over something it shouldn't have.

Chen Mo stood up instantly.

"Oh no, hold onto your seat!"

He shoved Li Jinrong’s head between the seats and pressed down on Shen Yunjin’s shoulder with his other hand.

Almost at the same second, a huge roar came from the direction of the front of the train, and the entire train seemed to be lifted up by something.

The ear-piercing sound of metal breaking mingled with the screams of the crowd, creating a particularly tragic atmosphere.

The carriage tilted violently, and the teacups and playing cards on the table flew off with a clatter.

Chen Mo held one in each hand, his feet firmly planted on the floor to steady himself.

After a long ten seconds or so, the carriage finally came to a stop, tilted at an angle of about thirty degrees on the roadbed.

Screams echoed from outside, mixed with the crackling sound of something burning.

In the darkness, several flashlights lit up, illuminating the chaotic crowd.

Li Jinrong's face was deathly pale, and his lips trembled as he stammered, "Wh...what happened?"

"The train has derailed." Chen Mo released his grip on their hands, broke the glass, and climbed out.

The night wind blew in, carrying the smell of burnt food and blood, as well as the chill unique to the wilderness in late autumn.

He glanced outside.

The locomotive had gone off the tracks and was lying askew on the left side of the roadbed, with black smoke and sparks billowing from the cab.

Some of the later carriages overturned, while others derailed and became lodged obliquely on the tracks. The baggage car and the cargo car were completely overturned, with boxes and cages scattered all over the ground.

Further away, in the darkness, countless torches emerged from the fields on both sides of the railway, like fiery snakes swimming across the fields.

At least four or five hundred people surrounded the train from both sides.

Some carried rifles, some held broadswords and spears, and some held torches.

The torchlight illuminated their ferocious faces and the weapons in their hands.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

A shot rang out.

It wasn't the robbers' side, it was Tie Kun's men.

Several guards near the cargo hold reacted and lay down behind the overturned carriages, firing outwards.

Several gunshots rang out and carried far across the open field. Several of the robbers who were at the forefront fell to the ground, their torches dropping to the earth.

But even more people surged forward.

"Robbery?!" Li Jinrong's face turned from white to green. "This is robbery?! They even dare to rob a train?!"

"Stop talking, come with me."

Chen Mo pulled Shen Yunjin out of the carriage and led them towards the cargo compartment.

Tie Kun climbed out of the window of the carriage in front of him, his face covered in blood, and he was carrying a Mauser pistol.

"Mr. Li! The cargo hold has overturned! Uncle Fu is holding it up over there!"

"How many people?" Li Jinrong asked.

"I can't see them all, at least three or four hundred, and they're still coming out!" His voice was a little heavy. "And there are tough guys in there. I just saw a few people, and their movements weren't like those of ordinary bandits."

Chen Mo swept his face with Yin energy, and his expression turned completely grim.

Among those four or five hundred robbers, seven or eight had exceptionally vigorous blood and energy.

One of them was particularly outstanding, his qi and blood were as refined as mercury, and he had already reached the Copper Skin Realm of martial arts cultivation.

Moreover, behind the robbers, there were two hidden, sinister auras, clearly belonging to unorthodox individuals.

These are definitely not ordinary robbers; they've clearly come specifically for the Li family's shipment.

"Tie, take some men and guard the cargo hold, and secure the boxes."

Chen Mo's voice was calm. "Send someone to Texas to report and request assistance. The nearest garrison or police station, the sooner the better."

Tie Kun glanced at him, didn't hesitate, and then turned to a young guard beside him, yelling, "Little Liu! Take the back road to Dezhou! Find the police station or the garrison, tell them the train has been hijacked by hundreds of bandits, and tell them to come right now!"

The guard named Xiao Liu took off running, dashing south along the railway line and quickly disappearing into the darkness.

Several gunshots rang out, bullets hitting the rails and sparks flying, but Xiao Liuzi had already run far away.

"Let's go! To the cargo hold!"

Chen Mo, along with Li Jinrong and Shen Yunjin, moved towards the cargo hold under the cover of Tie Kun and several guards.

Bullets whizzed past my ears, torchlight flickered in the darkness, and shouts of killing and screams filled the air.

The cargo hold was in complete chaos.

Uncle Fu, with twenty gunmen and twelve martial arts guards, formed a defensive line using the overturned cargo cars as cover.

There were already more than a dozen robbers' bodies lying on the ground, but more robbers were flanking from both sides, and the bullets were getting denser and denser.

"Iron Master!"

Uncle Fu's face was covered in blood, it was hard to tell if it was his own or someone else's. "We can't hold on anymore, there are too many! And some of them are weird. Just now, Lao Lin and Lao Zhang rushed out to try and take out their machine gunners, but they were killed by a guy in black who slapped them one by one!"

Tie Kun's face turned ashen.

Among the bandits, the martial artists at the Bronze Skin Realm were no longer hiding.

A bald, burly man with a blue dragon tattooed on his body was striding toward the cargo hold.

The bullets did no harm to him.

Further away, on a hillside behind the robbers, two black figures did not participate in the charge.

They stood on a carriage, one holding a copper bell and the other a peach wood sword. In front of them was an offering table with incense burners, yellow paper, and other items.

"Ring ring ring..."

The irregular ringing of the bell pierced through the gunfire and shouts of battle, reaching everyone's ears.

Li Jinrong shivered: "What was that sound? Why is it suddenly so cold?"

"It's the Soul-Controlling Bell; those two Taoist priests are summoning souls."

Shen Yunjin clenched the book in her hand, her lips turning white.

Chen Mo glanced at her.

How could a lady from a prominent family recognize the Soul Bell?

Shen Yunjin seemed to see the question in his eyes and explained in a low voice, "My maternal grandmother was a shaman, and I've heard her talk about many unorthodox methods."

"This kind of bell is called the Soul-Summoning Bell. It can summon souls and exorcise ghosts, and it is most adept at harming people."

"Do you know those two people?" Chen Mo asked.

Shen Yunjin shook his head, his gaze falling on the two black figures on the distant earthen slope, his brows furrowing into a knot: "I don't recognize them, but if I'm not mistaken, these two are the Meishan Duo."

"The Twin Fiends of Meishan?" Li Jinrong's voice changed; just from the name, he knew they were not to be trifled with.

Chen Mo's gaze swept across the battlefield and landed on the two men in black.

"Brother Tie, you take some men and hold the front," Chen Mo said. "I'll take care of those two Taoist priests."

Tie Kun glanced at him: "Are you sure you can manage on your own?"

Chen Mo did not answer, but pushed Li Jinrong to the back of an overturned carriage.

Using the overturned carriages and scattered boxes as cover, the figure blended into the night and silently approached the earthen slope.

.....

On the earthen slope, the two villains of Meishan were still casting spells.

Xie Guiling, one of the two villains, shook the Soul-Capturing Bell, the dark red copper bell appearing even more eerie under the red moon.

He had already summoned seven or eight fierce ghosts around him, each with a ferocious face and wrapped in black and red evil energy.

"Senior brother, what exactly is in this shipment?"

While drawing talismans on yellow paper with cinnabar, Liao Yinmu casually asked, "That customer is quite generous, offering a deposit of one thousand silver dollars, and another three thousand after the deal is done."

"Such a big undertaking, just to hijack a train?"

Xie Guiling stopped ringing the bell, wiped the dew off the copper bell with his sleeve, and slowly said, "Who cares what it contains? As long as I get the money."

That's one way of putting it.

Liao Yinmu pasted the drawn talisman onto the peach wood sword, and the sword immediately emitted a layer of eerie green fluorescence. "But I always feel something is wrong. We've been in Xiangxi and southern Hubei for so many years, and the Bureau of Investigation has only offered two thousand silver dollars for our heads."

"This customer spent four thousand in one go, much more generous than the official."

"This customer spent four thousand in one go, much more generous than the official."

"That's because they have good taste and know we're worth the price."

Xie Guiling snorted and hung the Soul-Capturing Bell back on her waist. "Besides, what kind of business does the Li family do in Jinshi? They have plenty of valuable goods. They might even think they're making a profit by buying our goods for four thousand silver dollars."

Liao Yinmu was still somewhat uneasy: "But the customer didn't even show his face, only sent an intermediary to deliver the message, and wouldn't even leave his name. I'm afraid this kind of clandestine business..."

"What are you afraid of?" Xie Guiling interrupted him, her eyes turning sharp. "In all the business we've done in the past ten years, when have we ever been cheated out of our money? Anyone who dares to owe us money, we'll scatter their ancestral graves."

"We'll get the job, take the money, and leave, who cares who the employer is."

Liao Yinmu fell silent.

He knew his senior was right.

They were the Meishan Duo, the most feared and ruthless bandits in western Hunan and southern Hubei.

Murder, arson, summoning spirits and exorcising ghosts, slaughtering villages and refining corpses—what haven't they done?

An employer who hides his true intentions is not worth their trouble.

"Besides," Xie Guiling's tone softened a bit, and he reached out to pat his junior brother's shoulder, "after this job is done, who in the entire middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River won't know the name of the Meishan Twin Fiends? People will probably be lining up to ask us for favors."

Liao Yinmu's eyes lit up.

So don't overthink it.

Xie Guiling picked up the Soul-Capturing Bell again. "Let's finish this job first. I see there are quite a few guards over there, including a few martial arts practitioners. They're not easy to deal with."

Liao Yinmu nodded, gripped the Netherworld Sword tightly, and turned his gaze back to the battlefield.

"By the way, senior brother," he suddenly remembered something, "I heard the Li family brought along a heretical practitioner this time?"

"I've heard about it."

Xie Guiling scoffed, "So what? These days, any Tom, Dick, or Harry dares to call themselves a heretic. Let him come; I'm just short of a few fresh souls."

The two looked at each other and smiled simultaneously.

The laughter was sinister, like the call of an owl, carrying far on the night wind.

Unbeknownst to them, a figure was quietly approaching from the darkness below the earthen slope.

Chen Mo squatted behind an overturned carriage, less than twenty feet from the earthen slope.

He didn't rush to take action, but first used his divine sense to scan the surrounding terrain.

The earthen slope was small, with only a horse-drawn carriage and an offering table on it.

The two stood on the left and right, less than ten feet apart.

Behind the earthen slope was a harvested field, bare and unobstructed.

Ahead was an open, flat area with no cover whatsoever.

If you charge straight at them, the distance of twenty zhang is enough for the enemy to use magic to intercept you.

Chen Mo withdrew his gaze, took out the Merit Banner from his bosom, and slowly poured the Yin energy within his body into the banner.

The banner trembled violently, emitting a low hum.

"go."

More than thirty grayish-white ghostly figures emerged from the banner, rose into the night sky, and silently drifted toward the earthen slope.

Meanwhile, the shadows behind the Meishan Duo were also twisting, slowly coalescing into eight black figures...

On the earthen slope, Xie Guiling was the first to sense that something was wrong.

"Um?"

He looked up and glanced at the night sky.