Chapter 70 – Almost a Decade
Far away from the capital, lie six great mountains. The top of all of these mountains that pierce through the clouds has been shaved cleanly as if a sword had smoothly chopped off the peaks of these mountains.
However, only five of these mountains have people living on them.
These five mountains are where the five immortal sects are located, and they stand on top of the Empire as if they are the heavens and the empire is the mortal world.
They live peacefully with each other, as each and every sect has an important part to play in the protection of the continent. They view the continent as their property, and will not allow the greedy hands of other powers to stretch into what they see as theirs.
The empire army is too weak to fend off these invaders and too weak to pose a threat to the sects. They like it this way and want to keep it this way.
On the Yin Feng Mountain, the Qing Yu sect is located here. The Ying Feng Mountain is a beautiful place where the flowers bloom all year round and never wither. Fog covers the mountain all year long and the sect has strengthened the fog with an illusion formation, so uninvited guests who enter will never leave.
On one of the highest peaks that looks artificially created, a beautiful girl who has a long sword on her waist is looking towards the direction of the capital longingly.
"It has been almost a decade...When are you coming to bring me home?" she mutters and her beautiful soft voice can be heard if you try your best to listen.
She sighs as she looks up into the sky and starts practising her swordplay. Each and every move of the swordplay is exquisite and beautiful as if she was dancing. Sometimes she kicks off into the air and cuts the air with her sword.
She is practising the Jade Maiden Swordplay. This swordplay was created by one of the leaders of the Qing Yu sect but was never popular as it requires a pure heart to master it.
"Ah, Sister Yue is practising the Jade Maiden Swordplay again! It looks so beautiful when she practises it..." one of the young girls says with envy as she looks at the beautiful girl flying around in the sky.
...
A few minutes later, as she is finished practising the swordplay, another young and charming voice calls out to her as she slowly and gently floats back onto the top of the mountain.
"Sister Yue! I've brought breakfast for us!" A young looking girl, who has sharp features and is exceptionally beautiful, skips towards Sister Yue. She is Shang Da Ji. When she first joined the Qing Yu sect, life was hard for her. None of the other sisters doted of her and instead were envious of her looks. She was quickly ostracized and did not do much besides cultivation.
She slowly locked herself in her room and did nothing but cultivate. She had been forced to learn that the world was not a nice place. People who fawned on you wanted something from you. While the other people who did not would hate you for no reason.
This was until Ying Yue was brought to the Qing Yu sect. She was a treasure in every sense of the word. Ying Yue already had a master, a very powerful master and she was beautiful. Everyone wanted to be her friend. Da Ji hated her! Ying Yue was everything that she was supposed to be!
When she heard that her fiance was someone from the Shang family, she hatched a plan and use her identity as a daughter of the Shang family to get close to her. It worked wonderfully. The innocent, stupid and dumb Ying Yue accepted Da Ji as a friend and helped her join the disciplinary hall. From that moment on, Da Ji regained everything she lost.
Da Ji also realised another truth of the world, that power, is what you should always seek. She understood that if Ying Yue could bring her up, Ying Yue could also destroy her. She decided to be Ying Yue's closest friend in the Qing Yu sect, until at least, she could be strong enough to stand on her own.
"Ah! Good morning Da Ji! Ying Yue lets out a stunning smile. Her small mouth and big eyes that makes her attractive enhances her innocent and cheerful personality, instantly causing people to fall in love with her. Ying Yue has grown up and become a beautiful woman. Her stunning figure is the dreams of other woman and will never be their goal. All of her sisters in the sect who see her are envious. They are not sure if it is due to cultivation that she has developed this way, or if it was inherited.
Nothing is too big or too small. It is almost as if she is a goddess.
"Da Ji, do you miss home?" Ying Yue asks with a tint of sadness.
"Ah...Sometimes I think of my parents, but there is nothing I can do. I've not formed my core unlike you, and am not allowed to leave the mountain..." Da Ji sadly reminisces.
"I feel like I will soon break into the next realm. I plan to join the disciples who are heading out to conduct the disciple selections and visit home once I enter the Origin realm. Do you want to come along? I want to see my husband and ask him why he hasn't come to pick me up yet!" Yue Ying asks and makes a cute angry face as she wonders why her dummy husband has not even visited her once.
Even her parents had visited her several times already! Why hasn't the dummy who taught her how to cultivate so she could join the sects has not visited her once!
"Ah?! Yes! I would like to join the disciple selections Yue jie!" Da Ji excitedly says.
"Ah then don't worry! I will ask master about it once I have a breakthrough!" Ying Yue says happily as she thinks about the punishments she would give Shang Shi when she found out that he did not miss her.
"Yue Jie, do you really like Shang Shi? You only met him once and he is rumoured to be a person who cannot cultivate..." Da Ji has asked this several times as she cannot believe that such a talented girl would like a useless person. She also does her best not to insult Shang Shi in front of Ying Yue as she knows that she will get angry every time someone calls her husband a useless wastrel.
Sometimes, boys from the other sects would come to look at Ying Yue out of curiosity and when her reputation of being an otherworldly beauty spread, they came to propose marriage but were refused by both her and her master. Eventually they started to scold Ying Yue for liking a useless, disabled wastrel and were brutally beaten by Ying Yue.
Of course, these boys were angry and complained to their masters or parents but nobody cared about it as there no serious damage was done and Ying Yue's master had already told everyone that Ying Yue's marriage is decided and will not change.
Ying Yue lets out a soft sigh...
*sigh*
"You will not understand...I am not talented...and everything I am today was given to me by my husband. He saved me when nobody else could." Ying Yue says emotionally.
Chapter 71 – Mo Di
The Empire is a nice place to live. That's what the rich and powerful says.
People are beautiful and money comes easily. The Empire laws are strict, but that's only if you are poor. Even if you are sick, doctors with divine skills appear occasionally to heal people for free. Nobody knows why, or who they are, but who cares?
Occasionally you will hear of people trying to become gods, but everyone knows that rubbish. At the most, you can pursue the martial arts and join jianghu. These people claim that they can become gods, but only one out of a hundred people become powerful enough to fly in the skies.
Anyway, with power, the world is your playground! What a wonderful place to live! Even your children can be guaranteed a good and stable job with your connections!
Unfortunately, there are always people who believe that this world is hell.
Mo Di is one such person.
He has no parents and was abandoned as a child in front of an orphanage.
Growing up in an orphanage, it was the most peaceful time of his life. He had no name and no surname. He had no parents, and nothing was him when the orphanage director found him.
He was called Mo Di, which meant clean the floor. Everyone in the orphanage who had no name was called Mo as a surname from the orphanage and their given name would be the chore they would do daily.
The year before he was found, the previous boy who had the name of Mo Di had left the orphanage to become a blacksmith apprentice.
Children who become fifteen years old have to leave the orphanage and are forced to live on their own. Don't forget that in this world, the age where a child is considered an adult is very young. Children as young as ten in merchant families are already made to join their businesses as an apprentice.
The orphanage would have around a hundred children at all times. The director was bad at naming and it was impossible for him to think of so many names, so he just stopped caring and named them after the chores they would be doing. Being bad at lazy at naming didn't mean he was a bad person. Instead, he was a nice person and a good person.
Becoming a director of an orphanage was a thankless and but well paying job, however, he used the majority of his pay to provide more for the children.
Mo Di friends in the orphanage are Mo Chaung, whose chore is to wipe the windows, Mo Zhou, whose chore is to wipe the tables and Rui Cheng. Rui Cheng history was very sad. He grew up in a family that ran an armed escort business, but his entire family was killed by their enemies one day.
His mother protected him with all her might and used her body to shield Rui Cheng and he was only able to escape alive as their enemies believed him to be dead. His name is now Rui Zi, but he told his closest friends about his dark past, and his vow to exact revenge.
Eventually, Mo Di, Mo Chaung and Mo Zhou were taught the Rui's family martial arts in secret and they became strong, strong enough to become the local bullies of the area. They were naïve and only pretended to be bullies for fun thou so they just ran around with puffed chests, scaring the young children of other families.
They were jealous that they had parents. No matter how kind the director of the orphanage was, he could never replace the parents that they dreamed of, deep down in their hearts.
Many years past and soon, everyone went on their separate ways. Mo Chuang was the most successful out of the four. He became an accountant for a big merchant firm, while Mo Zhou found delight in being stronger than others and followed Rui Zi to join an Escort firm.
Mo Di wanted to protect the orphanage, as it was his home, so he joined the city defence force.
In the City defence force, they are taught the Cloud Piercing cultivation technique. In order to learn this cultivation technique, they need not swear loyalty to the empire but had to swear not to spread it. This is because this cultivation technique is believed to be useless by everyone.
Once you have cultivated with this technique to the realm of core formation, there is no way to continue cultivation. At least, no one has ever found a way to continue cultivating yet. Their eyesight is also improved tremendously and their qi also has more piercing power than the qi of other people.
However, This is not the reason why people believed the technique is useless and it was instead because fights between cultivators are usually melee fights. This makes the boosts that the Cloud Piercing technique gives useless.
The fights between cultivations are usually melee since there are many techniques that allow a person to instantaneously move over large distances and at higher cultivation, you would be able to travel over larger distances with just one step.
How are ranged attacks going to work, when you are faced with such circumstances? Not to mention that cultivators are able to move faster than a projectile, so they would never get hit by an arrow if it was a one on one fight.
The city defence force, however, was not established to fight with cultivators. They were made to deal with spirit beasts, bandits and armies. If a cultivator came to attack, then their role would be to serve as cannon fodder and buy as much time as possible until the army arrived.
Mo Di was talented in cultivation and he quickly became popular in the city defence force. The standard equipment of the city defence force was a short bow, a mini hand crossbow and a short sword. His popularity soon caught the eyes of his captains and he was recommended into the elite ranger unit.
He was a cheerful and happy guard. His life was full of happiness until he watched his entire unit get slaughtered by a cultivator.
It was supposed to be just another routine scouting mission into the forest. Mo Di and his unit were jumping around the trees, making markings and making changes to their maps according to the trees that died or grew out over time.
However soon, they found a crazed manticore started rampaging around. The crazed beast quickly saw one of the rangers and started attacking him. Everyone had formed their cores in the ranger unit and was no stranger to danger, so he quickly drew his short sword to defend him.
Once he pushed away from the manticore's claw with his dagger, he quickly fired a shot with his hand crossbow into the exposed underside of the beast. The bolt had pierced into its skin and caused it to bleed but it dealt no serious damage. Instead, the beast became more enraged after being hurt.
The rest of the ranger unit including Mo Di quickly fired arrows at the beast, causing more damage than the bolt since they the bow was their main weapon. Their captain had readied a charged arrow and fired it at the manticore's head, spending it flying backwards as it crashed into a huge tree.
"ROARRRR" it roared in anger and pain.
Manticores were common in this forest and it was one of the stronger spirit beasts. Soon the captain yelled "Retreat!"
Everyone heard the captain's order and turned back, only to see the captain's head flying in the air as a sword slashed past.
With a kick, the sword-wielding man sent the captain's body flying towards the manticore.
"Be the food for my pet hehe." The man said as he let out a sheepish grin.
"Captain!" one of the rangers yelled. The other rangers had already aimed their bows at the swordsman and fired, but the man quickly jumped around the trees as he laughed.
Mo Di, who was in-between the swordsman and the manticore who had recovered, was already eating the captain's body hungrily and since everyone else was attacking the swordsman, he decided to take aim the manticore.
*Woosh*
The arrow flies towards the manticore and pieces its eyes and the manticore cried out in pain.
The swordsman who saw this became angry and yelled, "YOU PUNK!"
His movements became more concise and faster, and slowly all, he started slaughtering the rangers who were attacking him. With each kill, he moved closer and closer to Mo Di, who was afraid.
"This man was too strong!" he thought in his heart.
A few minutes later, everyone in the ranger unit was killed right before Mo Di eyes. The swordsman looked at Mo Di with a grin, and Mo Di's chest was pierced from behind by the manticore's tail.
Mo Di eyes slowly closed...
...
When he awoke, he was in the hospital of the city defence force. A Nurse who was checking on another patient saw Mo Di open his eyes and quickly ran to inform the doctor.
Soon, the doctor and the mayor of the city defence force came.
The doctor gave Mo Di a check-up while the major asked Mo Di what happened.
Mo Di truthfully told the major everything he remembered and the major left. Mo Di was fine because the manticore missed his heart, but everyone else had died. Mo Di watched everyone die...
A few months later, Mo Di was discharged, and he resumed his duties. He was assigned to a new ranger unit, but he had changed. He kept to himself and always volunteered for the dangerous missions.
He witnessed more and more of his teammates die during these dangerous missions. In truth, Mo Di wanted to die, but he didn't want to die a meaningless death. He wanted to die with a purpose. He did not blame himself for the deaths of his ranger unit and friends but believed he should have died with them that day. They were the elite! They were the best! But they were all cut down by a person and his pet.
Eventually, the news came that the military investigators had found the man and the manticore and killed him for his crimes, but it felt meaningless. They were already dead and he had already changed...
Years passed like this and eventually, he realised that he would never find death doing these missions as part of the rangers. This was when the circular which said that the judges were looking for guards to follow them on their riding circuit came.
Mo Di believed he had found a way to die, and he signed up for the transfer.
Chapter 72 – Undercover
The next couple of days were spent leisurely in Lu Wang city. Everyone who participated in the riding circuit was ordered to take some time off in Lu Wang city and they would receive new orders once they are done with their investigations.
Since that night, I hardly saw my father anymore and realized that he was working undercover to investigate a church called the 'Crying God Church".
The system mocked this false god, saying that if such a god would never exist. The reason was simple because if he was real, he would have committed suicide in shame the second he acquired this title.
The system then started telling me the glorious titles of our god. Some of his titles were familiar, but they belonged to several other gods, such as Ares's title of God of War, Junos the Aegis, or the Trickster Mercury. It seemed like all of the myths and legends on Earth are the adventures of God having fun in the mortal world and it looks like Earth only has one god.
There is a saying that good times never last long and it was true because soon I received a mission from General Ling's aide. He said my father has infiltrated deep into the Crying God Church, and will not appear in case his cover is blown for a while. He also said that my father gave a suggestion to General Ling. The aide said that I should rest for a few days, and then be given the option to join the investigation into the Crying God Church if I wanted.
I would be able to gain meritorious merits if I joined when the investigation was finally concluded. I thought about it for a while and decided to join the investigation. My father was here anyway and he was the commander of this operation. He also had the emperor's medallion so he had the highest command rights right now.
...
A few days passed and I had successfully joined as one of their devotees. Mo Di also joined the church with me since he was bored and believed this was a good way to bring home some merits. When I asked General Ling, he was more than happy to include Mo Di in the investigations as Mo Di history of an elite ranger was impressive.
General Ling praised us so much it felt unnatural, but it seemed like my father was more influential as I thought.
My cover name is Di Dang and Mo Di's new name was Guang Di.
Surprisingly, Mo Di acting was impeccable. We were already briefed about how they would use a gem to make us cry but you would still be shocked about how effective it was.
The tear gas we had on Earth is all rubbish when compared to this. This would elicit some real emotions from you and make you cry for real. Nothing could prepare you for what you would experience.
I don't know what Mo Di thought of when he cried, but I started thinking of my life on Earth, my parents and my friends, and then my mother and siblings of this world. I had realised that I actually missed them all although I never really thought of them while I was on this riding journey.
After each session, we would feel refreshed and Mo Di would be much happier and more interactive. He was so different from how he normally is.
I remember that almost all the guards had some sort of history. Ding Sha and Zhao Keng left the army because they were tired of all the killing, Mo Di is supposed to be a history that is similar to theirs. I wonder if maybe, this was Mo Di real's personality before whatever happened to him.
Weeks past like this and no real secrets were exposed to us. It was difficult to climb the ranks of the Crying God Church too since the city was on lockdown and there were no new people joining anymore since almost everyone who lived in the city is part of the Crying God Church right now.
...
One random morning, Yap Chen Bei is spotted running excitedly around General Ling's base. Once he reaches General Ling's study, Yap Chen Bei excitedly bangs on the door.
*Bang Bang Bang!*
"Who is banging my door so loudly? Do you believe I will whip you for causing a ruckus so early in the morning?" General Ling grumpily shouts.
Once he hears General Ling's voice, he opens the door and runs in excitedly.
"General, we found it! We found it!" Yap Chen Bei excitedly says.
"Found what? Why are you shouting so loudly! Do you want everyone to know what you just found?" General scolds Yap Chen Bei harshly.
Yap Chen Bei excitement tones down a notch after being scolded and he quickly whispers "We found the poisoned cache of the Crying God Church!"
General Ling eyes widen and he lets out a devious smile.
"What kind of poison is there? Can we use them?" he asks softly.
"General, there are all kinds of poison stocked! It seems like they were planning to poison the entire town to death if the plans of these Agostic barbarians failed. They have a massive amount of a poison that is colourless and odourless stocked.
This poison blocks the Qi pathways of a person when it enters their system and as more and more poison is absorbed into their body, they will soon be unable to use any qi at all and will be no different from an ordinary person!"
"There is a problem, however, as it will affect everyone and there is no antidote since the poison will be flushed out of our bodies automatically in a few hours. I guess that the barbarians believed that they could kill everyone with their stronger physique since they do not rely on qi much unlike us." Yap Chen Bei says.
"Have you obtained the cache of poison?" General Ling asks.
"Yes general! We can poison everyone as soon as you give the word!" Yap Chen Bei replies.
"We should let every one of our soldiers wear a wet cloth over their faces anyway. We will take action two days later! From now on, get our elite soldiers to keep tabs on Governor Shang, his song and all of their people immediately."
"Yes general!" Yap Chen Bei gives a salute and leaves the room.
"Shang Shi...You cannot blame anyone for your death! You were the toad who lusted after a swan's meat! A person from the Shang family should know better than to keep things that are out of your reach! Now you will get your friends and your father killed with you! I will offer you some incense a year later even if you don't deserve it!" General Ling says with a devilish grin.
Chapter 73 – Fog
Today was unusually foggy. It was near the end of the year and it would usually get cold in the night and if it rained, it would become foggy in the morning. From the temperature, it feels like snow will come in a few weeks.
The fog is unusual because it didn't rain last night, but everyone seemed to be going on with their lives so nothing seemed to be wrong.
I overheard some of the merchants talking about the fog on the way to the church, and head to buy some snacks from them so I can listen to their conversation.
"I wonder if we'll be able to sell anything today, considering that the fog is so thick." Merchant A says as he feels down.
"Don't worry. Since the city was locked, business has gotten better. Especially since the curfew was implemented, most people want to leave their house for some reason. Even the daughters of the big bosses who usually stay at home are coming out of their houses!" Merchant B cheers him up.
"You're right! It's funny how none of them wants to leave their house when there's no curfew but now they're all coming out to play! My business has gotten better ever since, but it is a problem since it is hard to replenish our stock..." Merchant A replies.
"I just hope that the lockdown will continue into the New Year, or we might run low on food once the snow comes. Since it is already foggy, I'm sure snow will come soon. Every year it gets foggy before the snow comes." Merchant B complains.
"Haha yeah! As long as the city gates are closed, the government will feed us until our stomachs are full without asking for payment!" Merchant A laughs happily.
"Boss, does the government give you your supplies now too?" I ask curiously.
"Oh yes! They give us whatever we need to continue running our stalls as long we're selling food, snacks or toys! This is so the people don't go crazy when all the shops sell out and close down. I think the city also prevents the economy from crashing down this way." Merchant B cuts in and replies me.
"Ah aren't you the in training priest of our church? Here, take this on the house! If it wasn't for the Crying God Church, the people would have already rebelled. It has been almost a year since they closed the city gates! Isn't it ridiculous?" Merchant A gives me some snacks happily as he complains about the city gates being locked.
A few minutes later, Mo Di arrives and greets me.
"Hey, I'm sorry I'm late. The fog was a surprise and I slept longer since I thought the sun hasn't risen. Did you wait long?" Mo Di casually says. Since we're undercover, he can't greet me like how he used to and we are pretending to be colleagues of equal status.
"Nope, I just arrived here a few minutes ago and was chatting with the two bosses here about the fog. It might snow earlier than we expected according to them!" I told Mo Di about what I learnt from the shop bosses and said my thanks to them.
"Let's go to the church's training hall. We'll learn how to conduct our own prayer session today." Mo Di says as we walk towards the church.
...
*pat* *pat* *pat* *pat* *pat*
The sound of someone running echoes throughout the hall and then, a loud bang is heard.
*Bang!*
The door of the head priest's office slams open.
The head priest who is in a discussion with another priest is shocked.
"Head priest, there is something I need to report to you now!" the man says loudly.
The head priest notices the look of urgency on the man's face and nods.
"It seems the quartermaster has something important to report right now, would you excuse us for a few minutes?" the head priest says to the priest he was talking to.
"Yes, your holiness! I will be waiting outside if you need me!" the priest who is Governor Shang in disguise gives a bow and respectfully leaves the room.
Once Governor Shang steps out of the room, the quartermaster says "We must gather everyone right now and either escape or start our plans to destroy this city! The secret room was found and they took all of the Qi Sealing powder!"
"They even used it and spread it all over the town! The Qi Sealing powder is the damned fog and everyone is poisoned right now, even us! The person who stole and spread it must have realized that we are from the Agostic continent!" The quartermaster says anxiously.
The head priest is visibly disturbed and is frowning right now.
"Did they take everything in the secret room?" the head priest asks.
"No. They only took all of the Qi Sealing powder. The other poisons were left alone. They must have no clue about the uses of the other poisons in the room or had no time to take everything from it." The quartermaster quickly says.
The head priest nods and says, "We have not made enough preparations to defeat the corps that is taken over the city. I will go to the secret room and burn the rest of the poisons while you shall fire the purple flare right now. Once you have fired the purple flare, bring a torch and help me burn down the secret room then we will escape together.
"Yes!" the quartermaster says as he moves towards the door.
Before they could leave the room, however, Governor Shang who is outside has heard everything they said as he was eavesdropping on their conversation. The second he heard they were from the Agostic continent, he knew that he had to take them down and stop them from doing whatever they are going to do.
Thankfully, the head priest's office is located in a secluded area of the church. Since his office had to be grand and out of reach from the rest of everyone else, Governor Shang was alone in this corridor.
He readied himself to attack the head priest and the quartermaster the second they come out of the room.
*BAM!*
Governor Shang's punches out the second the quartermaster takes a step out of the doorway, landing a Drill Punch on the quartermaster's head. The quartermaster was unable to put up any resistance or defence from this sneak attack, and his head is blown off his neck, flying off into the distance.
The quartermaster dies immediately and the head priest is shocked at the sudden turn of events.
"YOU! WHO ARE YOU!?" the head priest shouts as he jumps backwards and makes some distance between him and Governor Shang.
"I'm the one who will send you to hell!" Governor Shang says as he leaps towards the head priest using Instant Blink.
Governor Shang's use of instant blink is more powerful and exquisite than Shang Shi, and he is able to land attacks while blinking. The head priest, however, is strong enough to notice that Governor Shang is going to slam a kick on his head and he raises his arms to defend himself and blocks successfully block Governor Shang's kick.
He tries to perform an uppercut on Governor Shang's stretched leg and Governor Shang uses the force from the block to bounce upwards and away from the head priest.
"You must be a highly ranked spy from the military! Speak! When did the army start to become suspicious of our activities?!" the head priest shouts angrily.
"From the second you spread your influence so quickly." Governor Shang says as he starts gathering his qi in preparation for another attack but his expression changes quickly as he says, "My qi is hindered?"
"Hehe...Your cultivation must be quite high if you only noticed it now...You've already been poisoned by me. If you surrender now, I can still let you live!" The head priest starts using the fact that everyone is poisoned to his advantage and lies through his teeth.
Chapter 74 – Massacre
Unknown to the people of Lu Wang city, General Ling is slowly fortifying the defences of the city gate so that no one can escape once they take action. The poison that hinders qi was spread by the soldiers in the middle of the night and everyone in the city has been poisoned. Of course, nobody except the general and his aides know that they are poisoned, as there are no symptoms until you use to manipulate your qi.
The moment Shang Shi and Mo Di left the church, General Ling summoned all of his captains into his room and informed them that they will be attacking the Crying God Church in half an hour, as they are all barbarians from the Agostic continent.
He also said that the entire town except the Xia family has been brainwashed and they are to kill everyone they encounter, except the people of the Xia family. in order to make sure no accidents occur, a group of elite soldiers will head to the Xia family and prevent them from leaving their house until the operation is concluded.
Each of the city gates will also be reinforced by another squad of soldiers so nobody can escape. Furthermore, they will start their systematic extermination of the city starting from the city walls and move towards the centre of the city.
As the church is probably where the barbarians have built their base, a battalion of troops will be sent to surround and exterminate them all. Finally, the general informed everyone that the fog is a poison that hinders qi, so they should be careful when fighting with the barbarians and cover their faces with a wet cloth, so they will not breathe in more poison.
Once the briefing was done, the soldiers moved out and General Ling himself would command the attack on the Crying God Church.
An hour later, the soldiers have already surrounded the church and are moving in. While they could burn the church down from outside, the general and his aides are aware that there is a huge stockpile of unknown poisons in the building.
Burning the building would eventually lead to the poisons being burned and could perhaps create a poisonous smog, which could possibly kill everyone, so they did not want to take the chance. They have to slowly kill everyone in the building and take over the church, one step at a time.
As the soldiers advanced into the church with their sabres drawn, they would mercilessly kill everyone they came across. Many of the townsfolk were confused at what was happening but eventually, they realised that the army was killing them and they started struggling.
The people in the church were not prepared for the attack and they could only start throwing furniture at the soldiers. Some of the men who could keep their calm started breaking the legs of chairs and tables to use as a makeshift weapon, but they were still no match for the well trained soldiers.
Some of the people managed to land some lucky hits and knock out some of the soldiers, but it did not affect the morale of the soldiers at all. They were marching in formation, and whenever a soldier fell, someone would drag the fallen soldier back into their ranks and keep their comrade safe.
Terrible screams and shouts echoed throughout the once holy halls of the Crying God Church and once, these cries for help reached the rooms that Shang Shi and Mo Di was in.
Everyone in the room was curious about what was happening and afraid because they were screams and pleas for help.
They left the room and soon, witnessed the soldiers killing the townsfolk in cold blood in the distance, as people were fighting back or trying to flee in their direction.
"What...What is going on here??" Mo Di asks and is confused by what is happening.
Ever since the city implemented a curfew, many people have started leaving their houses in the morning and afternoons. As the church is located in a central area of the city and has increased the number of group sessions, the church is filled with people right now. Watching the crowd of people running towards us, with expressions of fear and despair somehow places some kind of pressure on us to run as well.
"Run!" one of the people running towards shout.
"Move away!" another person shouted.
These are the only two words I can make out among the many screams that the people are making.
In the front, the soldiers are systematically killing everyone as they advance towards us. The bodies of the people, who they kill, are either stepped upon or kicked forward so it does not hinder their advancement. A huge amount of people have already been slain and the smell of blood in the air is strong.
Smelling the blood in the air, I feel sick but I feel a nudge on my shirt. I look at the direction of the nudge and I see Mo Di with a shocked expression.
"We need to go now...We must leave this building..."Mo Di says but he too is rooted to the ground.
Just like him, I too, have realized what is happening. The army is attacking the Crying God Church right now. Watching the crowd run towards our direction, I turn around and give Mo Di a tight pull and say "RUN!"
Once everyone hears me shout run, the people around us start panicking and they start pushing each other to get a head start on us and start running for their lives. I almost fell when the people around me starting shoving me, but Mo Di stood strong and pulled me up, and then started running with me.
As we were running, I could not help but wonder why this is happening. General Ling clearly knew we were undercover! My father should be aware that I am here as well! Why would they give the order to start the attack right now!
Furthermore, they are killing innocent civilians! It would be much better to attack at night when people are not allowed out of their houses!
Wait! We are undercover!
"Mo Di, stop...stop running! We can tell the soldiers we are one of them!" I shout at Mo Di.
Mo Di looks at me as if I am an idiot and says "If you go near them right now, it won't matter even if you tell them that you are their father, they will cut you down."
"Get on my back, since you cannot use qi, I will carry you and go ahead." Mo Di says and he is not taking no for an answer, so I quickly get on his back.
Mo Di bends his knees and start manipulating the qi in his body, and then he executes his movement skill and starts to jump. At first, he jumps a distance and bounces off the walls several times but suddenly, he loses control and crashes on to the floor.
We start rolling forward and we both start groaning due to the pain caused by falling, but Mo Di groans sounded much more painful than mine.
I look at Mo Di and his legs are a little reddish. I grew concerned and ask "What's wrong! What happened to your legs?"
"I'm...fine...I can't walk anymore...quickly carry me and run! My qi went berserk in my body for some reason...it felt like my qi pathways were congested." Mo Di struggled to say.
Chapter 75 - Poison or Medicine
I quickly grab Mo Di and start running towards the inner halls. I'm not sure if there is an exit there but there is nowhere else to run right now.
"The flow of my qi is hindered??" Mo Di mutters in confusion on my back. He should be examining and check his own body right now, to find out what happened.
Since I cannot use my qi, as my injure myself every time I do, I am just using my strong physical body right now to run ahead with Mo Di on my back. Mo Di's movement technique sent us far ahead of everyone else and soon, I can see the garden that is before the inner halls.
"Shang Shi, try using a small amount of your qi." Mo Di says.
"Use some qi? You know I will get hurt if I try to execute any techniques right?" I ask in confusion.
"Yes, try it! I am not sure what has happened to us, but I am sure that the flow of my qi would not be hindered for no reason! I've been with you since morning so your flow of qi should be hindered as well, allowing you to execute techniques now!" Mo Di says with confidence and I start to believe that the flow of my qi is hindered too.
I lock down on the door of the inner hall and with a thought, I execute instant blink!
*BANG!*
I wreck the door as my instant blink sends me flying through the door, causing a loud bang!
"IT WORKS! I CAN USE QI AGAIN!" I excitedly shout.
However, Mo Di is worried right now and says "You can use qi right now...but it seems like something has gone terribly wrong...We might all have been poisoned, we must get out of this place now!"
"Poisoned? What kind of poison is this? It actually fixed my problem!" I unconsciously say but Mo Di quickly gives a retort.
"It only fixed your problem because you are abnormal! What kind of person would be able to store and control more qi than his body can use? You are literally the only person to get hurt whenever you execute a technique because your power is too much for your body to handle! If you die because of this, you would also become the world's greatest joke!" Mo Di said jokingly.
"Anyway, get back on my back. We have to proceed deeper into the inner hall since it doesn't look like there is an exit here. Even if I can use my techniques again, I am unable to punch through Azurite..." I quickly change the topic and once Mo Di gets on my back, I quickly run towards into the inner halls.
The inner halls are the place where priests are trained and where they refine their art of preaching. Right now, however, the priests are already all armed with weapons. All of the priests are armed with axes, maces and polearms.
A few of the higher ranked priests were armed with swords and shields. All of these weapons were supposed to be decorative ornaments that were hung on the wall. Nobody knew that they could be assembled into proper weapons because they were always missing one or two pieces when they were hung on the walls.
For example, one sword would be missing its blade, while another sword would be missing its handle and grip. However, when added together, they would become a proper weapon. Another example was that the handle of the maces would be too short to use as a weapon, but an extension could be screwed on to make it longer. This was an ingenious way to hide and smuggle weapons around.
The majority of priests who are in the inner halls are devotees who have been brainwashed to believe whatever the head priest and higher ranked priests say. Even if they are asked to commit suicide, they will kill themselves in a heartbeat, as they believe that they are asked to do so because it is for God! It is the right thing to do, and God will bless you and all of your loved ones because of your unwavering devotion!
Right now, all the priests are staring at us with hostility. "Blasphemer!" one of the priests shouts at us as he charges towards us.
"Heretic!" another priest shouts as he randomly swings his mace and runs towards us.
My face pales as I have no clue how to react to this scene. They are just ordinary people who have been brainwashed by the church.
"If only I had become a priest sooner, I could pretend to be one of them!" I thought to myself.
"How dare you defile the holy ground!" another priest shouts.
"There is no choice! You must fight them back! They are your enemy right now!" Mo Di who is behind me shouts into my ear and wakes me up.
The crazed priests are only a few steps away from me and I deftly take a step back to regain some distance. Since I have already regained the ability to use qi, I use the smallest amount of qi I can muster and start attacking.
Every punch I make sends the priests flying into the distance, but I have no time to stop fighting and take a look at them because there are about thirty priests trying their best to murder me right now.
It is even more difficult to dodge all these attacks because they are coming from all sorts of angles and they are so random since none of these people actually know how to fight or wield the weapons they are holding!
In the corner of my eye, I can sometimes see the higher ranked priests escaping deeper into the inner halls and they seem to be spreading some kind of powder as they run. It looks like there is a reason for launching the attack on the church without informing us, especially if the general is afraid that they will spread poison throughout the city once we start the attack but still, damn him for putting us in this situation!
This was supposed to be a safe and easy mission to get merits! There isn't supposed to be any kind of danger or I would have rejected this mission!
Aarggghh! Always remember the Shang family rules. Never get involved with religious people even if it is to kill them all or investigate them!
Soon, all of the thirty priests were lying on the floor or against the walls, but they were also lying in pools of blood... I head closer to check on them and it seems like the impact of my punch blew a hole on the other side of their body...
I...killed them all...
"Move! We don't have time to waste! It was either you or them! Now's not the time to think about what just happened!" Mo Di said as he pulls me away from the body and towards the direction where the higher ranked priests escaped towards.