A Military Stronghold, Gouli Dao

"The western border is the Yellow River, the north controls the great desert, the east connects the passes of Daoma and Zijin, and the south guards the dangers of Yanmen and Ningwu."

This passage describes the strategically important northern city of Jizhou Hanping.

The world is in chaos now, with continuous warfare. Hanping, which originally belonged to the jurisdiction of Zhongzhou, has been occupied and firmly controlled by the northern Xiong and Qiang tribes, resisting the various countries of the Central Plains.

Currently, the Xiong and Qiang tribes have established four divisional commanders and thirteen guard posts here, with a force of 130,000 elite soldiers and 50,000 warhorses. These troops are all equipped with the unique Snow Wolf Steel Sabers of the Xiong and Qiang. The hilts are adorned with ferocious wolf heads, and the blades are snow-white. When over ten thousand soldiers move out and draw their sabers simultaneously, the sheer killing intent and the sudden burst of cold light are enough to shake people's hearts.

With the Xiong and Qiang tribes heavily entrenched, there are no roving bandit raids like in other places. In fact, it has been sixteen years since the last war. Over these sixteen years, refugees, artisans, and merchants have flocked here, creating a scene of prosperity with blooming flowers and bustling traffic.

From the city gate to the heart of the important town, there is a four-carriage-wide bluestone avenue. Calculating at the time, one carriage is pulled by four tall horses, so a four-carriage-wide avenue is wide enough for sixteen horses to gallop side by side.

A four-carriage-wide avenue runs north to south, with countless smaller roads like spiderwebs connecting this thousand-mile-radius important town. Various businesses have set up shops here, and the scene is lively with flickering candlelight until late at night.

Living here for a long time, one might forget that outside, wars are raging and nations are vying for supremacy, and one might also forget that a great battle could erupt here at any moment.

It is late autumn. While the south is still in the pleasant season for autumn outings, the cold in this far northern land grows heavier day by day.

The thick layer of white frost on the rooftops in the early morning alone foreshadows that in a few more days, as soon as there is enough moisture, a heavy snowfall will arrive.

In this prosperous, capital-like important town, the largest restaurant is Zhiwei Tower, located in the southeast. Zhiwei Tower is an establishment of Wangxingji, the largest merchant house in Su'nan. It occupies several acres in Hanping and is divided into three courtyards. Just looking at the pair of Taotie stone sculptures, each two people tall, at the main entrance, the vermilion gates, the gleaming copper nails, and the well-dressed, robust house guards at the entrance, one can tell that Wangxingji's financial strength and influence are at their peak.

Wang Zhiwei is the owner of Zhiwei Tower and the general manager of Wangxingji's seventeen various shops in this important town.

This morning, the cold wind was biting. From inside the house, one could hear the sound of the cold wind blowing from the north, snapping the dry grass on the roof. Before Wang Zhiwei could get up, he heard someone shouting sternly in the street, "Everyone get out of the way! If you're in the way, watch your lives."

"Seal off the surrounding streets. All shops are forbidden to open today!"

"Who are these people? They're so arrogant and overbearing!" Wang Zhiwei was somewhat taken aback. He quickly threw on his fur robe and pushed the window open a crack.

The east of the city is the most prosperous and lively area. The merchant houses that can set up stalls and shops along the street here are all supported by important figures in the military. Some of these merchant houses even have martial masters and cultivators of Taoist arts stationed there, responsible for escorting money and supplies and receiving goods along the post roads. Large quantities of silk, cloth, and grain from the south, as well as furs and spices from the north, are circulated in this manner.

"Who are you people? You can just close things down? Do you have the written orders of the four divisional commanders?"

Looking out from the gap in the second-floor window, Wang Zhiwei saw nine burly men standing at both ends of the street.

These nine burly men were all wearing identical black soft armor. It was unclear what this black soft armor was made of, but from a distance, it looked like patches of scales, shimmering with a faint blue-black light. This black soft armor covered the heads and faces of these burly men, leaving only their eyes and nostrils visible, giving them a fierce and imposing aura.

Looking closer, Wang Zhiwei noticed that these burly men were all carrying long swords in black scabbards, and the boots they wore on their feet emitted a metallic sheen, as if forged from steel.

Wearing armor and carrying swords, this clearly violated the regulations of the four divisional commanders here!

"It's Master Zhang from the Wei Zihhao!"

Standing on the street were two middle-aged men in luxurious deep blue robes. Their faces were indistinct from afar, but one could sense their arrogant and overbearing demeanor. The command to seal off the surrounding streets and forbid all shops from opening had clearly come from these two. The one questioning them was a lean, capable man around forty years old, with a spirited gaze, wearing a short goat-skin jacket and a long beard, resembling a steward.

Wang Zhiwei recognized him as the steward of the Wei Zihhao, Master Zhang.

Wei Zihhao was a wealthy merchant from the Heluo region, primarily dealing in pawnshops and herbal ingredients. Their financial and influential power even surpassed that of Wangxingji. Although Master Zhang did not have a remarkable appearance, Wang Zhiwei knew he was an unfathomably profound expert. Several years ago, Wang Zhiwei had witnessed Wei Zihhao and a merchant house called Hangshengji in a dispute. Master Zhang had sent a horse-drawn cart loaded with goods, weighing several hundred jin, flying with a single palm strike. Such power made even some of Wangxingji's experts feel inferior. In recent years, Wang Zhiwei had also befriended the manager of Wei Zihhao and learned that Master Zhang was also skilled in Taoist arts and knew many divine abilities related to ghosts and spirits.

If not for Wei Zihhao and his own strength, he would not have dared to step out alone to question them when so many men in strange black armor had blocked both ends of the street.

"Oh? So you're a disciple of the Wangwu Sect. No wonder you dare to step forward."

The two men in brocade robes, whose faces Wang Zhiwei could not clearly see, both had fair complexions with an ivory-like sheen. Upon hearing Master Zhang's stern questioning, the man on the left, with triangular eyes and a hooked nose, narrowed his eyes, and a cold glint flashed within them. "You don't need to worry about who we are. Hurry back, or if you insist on interfering, you'll regret it deeply."

His sect exposed with a single sentence, Master Zhang's heart trembled. However, having escorted Wei Zihhao's goods for over twenty years and experienced countless situations, he commanded considerable prestige on the roads within a thousand-mile radius. If he were easily intimidated by a casual remark, his accumulated authority would crumble by at least half.

"You tell me to leave without even stating your identity? That's a bit unreasonable?" Master Zhang straightened his back and said coldly.

The eyes of the two men in brocade robes swept over the scene, noticing some stall vendors and shops still standing in place. An extremely cold smile appeared on their faces. "It seems they are all following your lead. Excellent, we'll use you to make an example!"

The words of the two men in brocade robes were filled with chilling intent and extreme arrogance. But before they finished speaking, a faint voice drifted from afar, "Too much nonsense is laughable. Killing a mere Wangwu disciple is simple."

"It's simple to kill them!"

Although the voice was calm, the words spoken sent a chill down Wang Zhiwei's spine as he peeked through the window.

Even the leading commander here would not be able to speak words of life and death so easily.

As soon as the voice faded, eighteen streaks of white radiance shot towards Master Zhang in the middle of the street.

"Flying Sword!"

Master Zhang's pupils contracted, and his entire body felt as if it had fallen into an ice cellar.

He could tell that the men in black armor carrying swords who were blocking the road must possess extraordinary skills, but he never expected that they were not ordinary martial artists but cultivators who wielded Flying Swords!

Unless a cultivator reached the realm of Yuan Tianyi, the Unity of Heaven and Man, they would naturally exude a certain fluctuation of spiritual power even when standing still. But it wasn't until these people released their Flying Swords that Master Zhang felt strong spiritual power fluctuations.

It was the scale-like black soft armor on their bodies that had concealed their previous spiritual power fluctuations!

"You are from the Gouli Dao!" In a flash, Master Zhang recalled a sect from the north. The founding ancestor of this sect had killed a Black-winged Sea Serpent with a thousand years of cultivation in the Northern Sea. He refined its wings and bones into a magic treasure, the Yin Scale Black Banner, which could emit poisonous smoke and water lightning. He also used the Black-winged Sea Serpent's hide to craft a batch of black armor. This black armor could resist swords and spears, repel water and fire, and was difficult for ordinary Flying Swords to damage. Another function was to allow cultivators to conceal their aura. Years ago, Gouli Dao was in conflict with a sect in the north. A group of their disciples, wearing this precious armor, secretly infiltrated the opponent's mountain gate, catching them off guard and achieving a great victory.

"Overestimating yourself!"

Master Zhang spoke, with a hint of conciliation in his tone. He first conjured a magic treasure like a blue silk cloth, wrapping it around himself to protect his body. But the two men in brocade robes did not reply. They snorted coldly, and with a tug, both of them, as if pulling from thin air, unfurled a black banner about twelve feet long.

As the black banners unfurled, a sky full of black mist rolled down. "Yin Scale Black Banner!" Master Zhang did not know that the Gouli Dao's magic treasure came in pairs. Seeing that the two men refused to speak and directly unleashed their powerful magic treasures, he knew that today's matter could not be resolved peacefully. He gritted his teeth, channeled his energy, and hurled a golden talisman covered with lightning patterns into the air.

As the Golden Light Divine Thunder Talisman was thrown, it crackled in the air and transformed into a golden-yellow lightning hand, startling the already terrified merchants on the entire street into prostrating themselves on the ground.

The Wangwu Sect primarily cultivates talismans and incantations. This talisman was the Golden Light Divine Thunder Talisman from the Wangwu School of Talismans, one of the most powerful talismans in their repertoire. Master Zhang had obtained it from his elders and could not refine it himself. It was one of his trump cards. Seeing over a dozen Flying Swords forming a formation and crisscrossing, and the menacing Yin Scale Black Banner approaching, Master Zhang had no choice but to unleash the Golden Light Divine Thunder Talisman.

With several "crackling" sounds, as the Golden Light Divine Thunder exploded, two solid black winged serpents suddenly emerged from the two black banners. These two ferocious serpents shook their bodies, unleashing a large area of eerie blue lightning and cold air, which violently scattered the golden lightning hand.

"Disaster! This Yin Scale Black Banner is so ruthless!"

Only then did Master Zhang realize that the Black-winged Sea Serpent killed by the Gouli Dao's ancestor was not one, but two. Moreover, the Gouli Dao's ancestor had actually sealed the thousand-year-old serpent souls within the black banners. The power unleashed by the Yin Scale Black Banner in an instant was even greater than his sect's Golden Light Divine Thunder Talisman. Cultivator battles were far more perilous than the clashes of swords and sabers among worldly warriors. Master Zhang failed to react properly, his move not as ruthless as those of the Gouli Dao. Once the Golden Light Divine Thunder Talisman was broken, it was too late to release other magic treasures. This thought became Master Zhang's last thought.

The golden light vanished, and the black mist swirled. Master Zhang stiffened all over. The treasure, like a blue silk ribbon, lost its fluidity, revealing only a few inches of gap. The eighteen flying swords circling and slashing outside instantly pierced through.

With just a twist, Master Zhang, who had been standing in the middle of the street, was torn into dozens of scattered pieces of flesh. The vital energy on the eighteen flying swords seared, and Master Zhang, known on the northern roads as Wei Zihhao, was utterly annihilated, not even a trace of his yin soul remaining – his form and spirit were both destroyed!

When had mortals ever witnessed such a vicious and brutal magic battle?

Before the two men in brocade robes who had unleashed the Yin Scale Black Banner could utter a word, the onlookers let out a cry and scrambled away, rolling and crawling until they had completely vanished. The once bustling street was suddenly vast and empty.

"Something big is going to happen!"

From Zhiwei Tower in the distance, Wang Zhiwei watched, trembling all over. After slowly closing the window, he forced himself to calm down and repeatedly shouted, "Prepare the horses! Prepare the carriages! Pack the account books, gold, silver, and valuables! Notify everyone in the southeast of the city to evacuate to the west!"

The experienced manager of this large merchant house could tell that a great disaster was about to befall this place. Such a battle between cultivators was not something even an army could intervene in, let alone their merchant house. Although there were still two streets between them and the sealed-off street, Wang Zhiwei felt no sense of security.

In the west of the city, Wangxingji also had properties, and there were troops stationed nearby, making it the safest place in the city.

"These cultivators, who can end lives in an instant, are making such a grand display. Who are they targeting?"

The employees of the large merchant house were extremely efficient. Not long after Wang Zhiwei issued his orders, all their belongings were packed, and the carriage was ready. As he boarded the carriage, his mind still churning with this thought, Wang Zhiwei looked on, dumbfounded, as dozens of figures converged on that street from all directions of the city at astonishing speed.