Lightning Strike

Chen Shi's face flushed red with embarrassment. As he stammered, about to answer, Prince Xiao coughed and reminded him, "Before you answer, be mindful of your surroundings. This is Wuwang City; be careful not to have your tongue ripped out."

Chen Shi felt a chill run down his spine. He warily glanced at the woman in red, categorizing her as a dangerous type.

If I had been a bit reserved and said I didn't want to answer, my tongue would surely be gone. You can't speak your mind here! he thought to himself.

Prince Xiao said, "Jin Hongying, why bother with a junior?"

The woman in red shot him a look, leaning her elbows on the tea table, her chest pressing against it. She smiled and said, "Prince Xiao, you have quite the nerve to steal from my Divine Machine Battalion. Hand it over, and I can let bygones be bygones."

Chen Shi blinked. Divine Machine Battalion?

He had heard of the Divine Machine Battalion. Before, Yandang Village had produced a recommended scholar with exceptional talent. He heard that the scholar later joined the Divine Machine Battalion and became one of its soldiers.

After this person returned to the village, matchmakers broke down his door with marriage proposals.

He heard that the Divine Machine Battalion served the Emperor, had high salaries and status. To become a soldier in the Divine Machine Battalion, one's ancestors must have had incredibly good fortune.

Prince Xiao ignored the red-clothed woman's beauty and said calmly, "I stole it, so I stole it. What, am I supposed to return it to you?"

Jin Hongying dipped her finger in tea and drew circles on the table, smiling faintly. "Isn't this meeting precisely to discuss its return? Otherwise, why would we be meeting? Prince Xiao, I'll give you two options. The first is that you return it voluntarily, and the Divine Machine Battalion will let bygones be bygones. The second is that after my Divine Machine Battalion kills you, we'll search your corpse and take it back."

She looked up and smiled, "The injuries you sustained last time should not have healed yet. This time, it will be more than just an injury. I might even send you on your way, old man!"

Prince Xiao was injured?

Chen Shi's heart stirred as he recalled the first time he met Prince Xiao.

At that time, Prince Xiao, like himself, had been recuperating in a coffin at a manor in the mountains.

But wasn't that a corpse-raising ground of extreme yin?

Prince Xiao wasn't a corpse, so why did he need to recuperate there?

What puzzled him even more was, I'm not a corpse either, so why did Grandpa send me there to recuperate?

Prince Xiao's expression remained calm. "My injuries have healed."

Jin Hongying's heart grew serious. She leaned back, her chest heaving slightly, and smiled, "So, there's nothing to discuss?"

Prince Xiao nodded gently.

Jin Hongying smiled and said leisurely, "I've heard Prince Xiao is exceptionally talented and extraordinarily charming. I was born too late to witness it firsthand. However, tonight, perhaps I will have the chance. If you can survive tonight, I will also let bygones be bygones regarding you stealing my Divine Machine Battalion's treasure."

She stood up, glanced at Chen Shi, and smiled, "Little brother, don't follow him. You'll die."

With that, she swayed her hips and left.

Chen Shi withdrew his gaze. Prince Xiao asked, "Was she good-looking?"

Chen Shi was about to answer when he quickly shut his mouth, thinking, Prince Xiao is also very dangerous. He almost made me have my tongue ripped out!

Prince Xiao drank his tea, watching Jin Hongying leave Wuwang City. After a moment, he stood up and said, "You stay here. I'll be back shortly. If I don't return, leave Wuwang City before dawn. Don't linger."

Chen Shi quickly asked, "What if I don't leave Wuwang City?"

"You will disappear along with Wuwang City."

Prince Xiao walked towards the stairs, his voice echoing, "Those who disappeared with Wuwang City in the past never reappeared. Whether they lived or died, no one knows."

Chen Shi shivered.

Prince Xiao did not take a carriage but walked out of the city and soon disappeared into the moonlight.

Chen Shi drank his tea and ate dried fruits and jerky, waiting quietly.

After a long while, he blinked and chuckled.

"What are you laughing at?" a voice asked from beside him.

"I'm laughing at how bizarre my encounters tonight have been. I went to seek revenge and kill someone on the imperial road, then suddenly fell ill on the way home, was chased by a Malevolent Spirit, and then coincidentally met Prince Xiao," Chen Shi said with a laugh. "Then I came to this strange city and met people from the Divine Machine Battalion. Now, I'm in a ghost city, drinking tea and eating dried fruit, waiting for Prince Xiao to return from his battle with the Divine Machine Battalion. This experience is truly too absurd! It's so ridiculous I could burst out laughing..."

As he spoke, he suddenly realized that since Prince Xiao wasn't here, who was talking to him?

He quickly turned his head to look. The waiter with four arms from before was nowhere to be seen. In his place was a strange creature with a toad's head, its head four or five times the size of a normal person's, with green and white stripes. It had a large mouth, holding a pipe with three thick, short incense sticks, puffing out smoke.

Its two legs were incredibly slender, supporting its plump body, and it held an impossibly large teapot in its hand.

It must be the teahouse's tea server, coming to refill Chen Shi's tea.

"What are you looking at?" the voice asked again.

Chen Shi then noticed that it wasn't the toad speaking, but the large teapot it was holding.

The teapot lid opened and closed, asking him questions, with two eyes growing beneath the lid.

"Don't speak."

The toad tea server whispered to Chen Shi, "It likes to ask questions. Don't answer. This fellow made several guests have their tongues ripped out today."

Chen Shi became alert and immediately shut his mouth, saying nothing.

The large teapot asked him a few questions. Seeing that he didn't answer, it lost interest in him.

The toad tea server refilled Chen Shi's tea and carried the large teapot to other tables.

The large teapot asked the guests at another table, "Troubled?"

"No... Ah—"

A scream echoed. Chen Shi watched as the tongue of a customer at a tea table was ripped out by a strange force, leaving him unable to speak and only able to whimper, clutching his mouth.

"Were you just secretly peeking at that woman in red's chest?" the teahouse owner asked another customer.

"I didn't... Ah—"

A spray of blood flew through the air, followed by another tongue.

Chen Shi shivered, categorizing the teahouse owner as dangerous.

Right, this Wuwang City must also be a Ghost and God Domain!

Chen Shi suddenly realized. There were many kinds of Ghost and God Domains: some, like the kiln factory, could turn people into porcelain; others could transform tomb-guarding beasts into gods and demons; some had distorted time; and then there was Wuwang City, where lying was forbidden.

Anyone who lied would suffer the Calamity of Wuwang, the torment of having their tongue pulled out, hence its name, Wuwang City.

"Wuwang means truth! Thus, Wuwang City is a City of Truth, where lies are not tolerated."

Chen Shi felt a surge of joy upon understanding this, and his fear of Wuwang City vanished.

He was a man who lived by the mountains and understood the importance of following rules.

Whether it was a Ghost and God Domain or a Malevolent Spirit, as long as one followed its rules, they could coexist peacefully.

Suddenly, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the sky outside the city. Chen Shi looked up quickly and saw streaks of lightning rising from the ground, tracing red arcs through the air before striking a mountain under the moonlight!

Explosions of fire erupted, illuminating the mountain as if it were day!

Chen Shi quickly stood up and gazed at the mountain outside the city. He saw wave after wave of lightning, fanning out from the ground, rising into the air, and striking the mountain peak. In just a short while, hundreds of lightning bolts hit the mountaintop.

Under the glow of the lightning, Chen Shi looked more and more closely. He saw what looked like a figure standing on the mountain, a tiny silhouette at the very summit.

A thread-like cold light was spinning rapidly around him! Its speed was so great that even from this distance, it was almost impossible to track with the naked eye!

"What is that?"

Chen Shi was stunned. He couldn't see the light clearly at all.

The cold light was incredibly faint, yet it always arrived in an instant, just before the lightning struck the mountaintop, piercing the lightning bolts.

When pierced, the lightning would explode, sending sparks and light flying everywhere, followed by deafening thunder after a moment.

Those lightning bolts hadn't actually hit the mountain at all!

What he had seen earlier was merely a visual illusion.

Chen Shi watched with a pounding heart. The lightning strikes grew more frequent, and the cold light seemed to be struggling, with more and more lightning bolts landing on the mountaintop and exploding with a roar.

Each time, the ground trembled!

Increasingly, lightning bolts broke through the defense of the cold light and struck the mountaintop. Soon, the mountain appeared to be glowing red, becoming brighter and brighter.

Inside Wuwang City, both humans and monsters watched with bated breath.

If those lightning bolts had landed in Wuwang City, this Ghost and God Domain would likely have instantly turned into an inferno, leaving no survivors!

The city's inhabitants craned their necks to watch. Some even pulled their heads off their necks, holding them up with their hands to get a better view.

Chen Shi inadvertently saw someone in the crowd whose neck suddenly elongated, becoming thin and bamboo-like, lifting their head one or two zhang high to watch intently.

"Do you want to take some scissors and snip his neck?" the teahouse owner asked others again.

"No..."

Thwip!

Chen Shi's guard went up. He clamped his mouth shut, determined not to speak no matter who asked him.

The lightning barrage lasted for over an hour. The mountaintop visibly shrank under the lightning and fire, likely due to the rocks being blasted away and melting!

Suddenly, someone shouted, "It's almost dawn! Hurry, go—! If you don't leave now, it'll be too late!"

Instantly, the crowd in the city surged, rushing out of the city gates.

Chen Shi also hurried downstairs, finding people, ghosts, and monsters crammed everywhere, jostling each other.

"Guest, your carriage is ready," the four-armed waiter emerged from somewhere, reminding Chen Shi.

Chen Shi followed him to the back courtyard. Prince Xiao's carriage was indeed still there. This time, Prince Xiao was absent, yet the coachman and the four magnificent horses had not turned to stone.

Chen Shi boarded the carriage. The coachman gently flicked the reins, and the four horses immediately pulled the carriage and charged towards the city gates!

The horses ran faster and faster. Ahead, there were more and more people, ghosts, and monsters. Just as it seemed they would trample or crash into many, clouds suddenly appeared beneath the horses' hooves. Treading on these clouds, they pulled the carriage over the heads of the crowd and headed straight for the city gates.

Chen Shi was astonished. He watched as the horses pulled the carriage through the city gates and sped away. Once outside the city, they landed on the ground, their hooves clattering crisply as they pulled the carriage into the pre-dawn darkness.

The carriage is heading towards that mountain!

Chen Shi's heart leaped. He saw the coachman flicking the reins, the carriage accelerating, and a smell of gunpowder gradually filling the air.

Chen Shi looked suspiciously. After the carriage traveled another two li, he saw several corpses by the roadside, along with a massive metal contraption.

"A Hongyi Cannon from the legendary Divine Machine Battalion!" Chen Shi's eyes widened.

He had heard the people of Yandang Village talk about this kind of firearm. It was said to be incomparably powerful, capable of unleashing the might of heavenly thunder. With a single cannon blast, it was like a heavenly tribulation descending!

However, the thick barrel of the Hongyi Cannon had been severed, its broken end extremely sharp. Even the talismanic patterns carved within the cannon's bore had been cut through!

Chen Shi caught a fleeting glimpse. The cannon's bore was red, likely from being soaked in cinnabar ground with black dog blood. He wondered what method the Divine Machine Battalion used to carve talismans inside the cannon bore.

Next to the Hongyi Cannon was a cart of cannonballs, each larger than a child's head. The cannonballs were cast from black iron, with talismans carved on their surface and traced with cinnabar and black dog blood to increase their power.

"Great Five Thunder Talisman!"

Chen Shi recognized the talisman on the cannonball with a quick glance, his heart jolting.

The Great Five Thunder Talisman was an extremely potent lightning spell talisman. When combined with black powder, its power increased severalfold!

He suddenly realized that the lightning strike they had seen last night was not a spell from the Divine Machine Battalion, but the cannon firing!

The scene must have been dozens, or even hundreds, of Hongyi Cannons firing simultaneously, empowered by the Great Five Thunder Talisman, bombarding Prince Xiao!