Assembled Mountain Search Team (Please Follow, Bookmark, Recommend, and Vote Monthly)

That night, the Shu County Deputy Magistrate led one hundred armored soldiers and six hundred hastily conscripted Militia members to the camp being built in the Mountain Forest of North Mountain. He personally came to pay Guangxuan a visit, his attitude utterly different from when he had faced Wang Ping and the others before. As for the old County Magistrate, he had already retired and returned home.

After the county magistrate took his leave, Xia Yao sighed softly. "The Imperial Court's laws have vanished into thin air. The southern regions no longer know what an emperor is, what the realm is, or what the common people are."

Hearing this, Guangxuan looked seriously at Xia Yao and replied, "The Imperial Court's laws devour people. Look at the war in the northwest—how much blood and sweat have they scraped from the people? If Shu County did not have the business of North Mountain's forests, what you would see would probably be a city full of refugees waiting for relief."

"Even so..." Feng Miao said solemnly, "If this continues, Shu County will become a ghost city."

"That is why we are here!"

Feng Miao clearly disliked Guangxuan's reasoning and wanted to argue further, but she realized that continuing would only lead her into absurdity, so she wisely chose to keep quiet.

Deep Night...

Wang Ping, Feng Miao, and Xia Yao were placed in the main family's courtyard, each finding a room to meditate in.

As Wang Ping Entered Meditation, Yulian woke from his wrist, returned to her original size, and coiled around his body. She intertwined with the surrounding vortex of spiritual energy, drawing in even more of it.

"The killing intent on you is too heavy. Refine it first..."

"Alright!"

So-called killing intent was a shift in one's fortune brought about by slaughter and battle. If Qi practitioners allowed killing intent to disturb their State of Mind during cultivation, they could easily become manic and irritable. In mild cases, they would Go Astray while refining Qi; in severe cases, they would turn into Madmen who sang and danced wildly.

The process of refining killing intent was simple. One only needed to use Daoist principles to sort through one's feelings. Put plainly, it meant finding a reason for one's killings, then reciting a scripture once for every soul fallen beneath one's blade.

It might not have any effect at first, but after doing it a few times, one would reap unexpected gains. Then, as time passed, everything would gradually become insignificant.

Time could wash away everything...

In less than two hours, Wang Ping's State of Mind, stained by killing intent, became calm...

Morning.

As dawn broke, Wang Ping awoke from meditation, rose, and pushed open his door. Soon after, as if sensing something, Feng Miao and Xia Yao also pushed open their doors and emerged.

The three exchanged glances and merely nodded to one another before walking toward the front courtyard. Guangxuan, who had been meditating in the pavilion there, sensed their arrival and immediately rose to greet them.

Outside the Mountain Forest of North Mountain...

Overnight, a floating bridge wide enough for five people to cross abreast had been built across the Five Gods River. The forest beneath the mountains on the north bank had also become flat ground overnight. Felled trees lay piled everywhere; most had been made into chevaux-de-frise and City Walls around the camp, while some had been fashioned into Sentry Towers at key points throughout the Mountain Forest.

Even from afar, Wang Ping found it unbelievable. Even with the industrial standards of Earth before his transmigration, it would have been impossible to accomplish this overnight. Yet once he approached the camp, he found it all understandable.

To Qi practitioners, that dense forest was no more than something two uses of the Sword Control Art could handle. As for transporting materials... there was a Qi technique called the Transport Art.

Wang Ping even saw two elderly Qi practitioners in a temporary carpentry yard, using the Sword Control Art to cut logs into sections with an efficiency comparable to machinery.

"Are you planning to build a city here?" Feng Miao found all this large-scale construction rather strange.

"Shu City is caught between two prefectures. Any slight movement displeases both sides, so it has always been poor. This time, while searching the mountain, we will also develop North Mountain. After we leave, the camp can remain as a village."

Still wearing his genial smile, Guangxuan explained, "If you want those below to put forth real effort, rewards and punishments must be fair. We have punished the wrongdoers, but the rewards for searching the mountain cannot be lacking either. Besides, without the business of North Mountain's forests, Shu County will have no way to deal with the Imperial Court's taxes for the southwestern war in the future. Only by developing this place and leaving it to the people of Shu City will they have food to eat."

At this point, he turned his gaze to Wang Ping. "This can only succeed thanks to Thousand Wood Temple's activities in Shang'an Prefecture. Otherwise, even if we built villages, the people of the two prefectures would still engage in large-scale armed clashes."

Wang Ping nodded after hearing this, while inwardly he could not help but sigh...

Before traveling through Hushan Kingdom, he had imagined the world of immortals as old men sitting in meditation and refining Qi. After going to Hushan Kingdom, he had thought cultivation was a cruel world of rigid hierarchy. Now, however, he felt that cultivation was much the same as the Mortal World—it cultivated human connections, human hearts, and all the dust and turmoil beneath heaven.

After hearing Guangxuan's explanation, Feng Miao complained, "Aren't you exhausted, calculating every last thing like this? If that's how you have to calculate, why cultivate the hell out of anything? You might as well stay at home."

Guangxuan only smiled and did not argue with Feng Miao. The people and matters they dealt with were entirely different, and the principles they understood were not the same either. There was no need to debate.

Three days later.

More than ten Qi Refining Disciples from Thousand Wood Temple arrived as well, still led by Wang Kang. The Prefectural Office of Sanhe Prefecture also sent one hundred armored soldiers, while more than eight hundred Militia members conscripted from other villages arrived in succession.

By then, excluding Qi practitioners, more than fifteen hundred members of the Mountain Search Team had gathered in the camp, including two hundred armored soldiers.

The Militia carried iron forks and round wooden shields, with all kinds of handy short weapons at their waists—axes, mallets, woodcutting knives, iron hammers, and more. They worked together in groups of ten, with every member of each group coming from the same village. Some groups also had one or two hunters armed with bows and arrows.

The day after the teams had assembled.

Before dawn, every camp was already lighting fires and cooking. Ten iron pots had also been set up in the center of the camp, boiling the Wild Game hunted the day before.

At a Sentry Tower two li ahead of the camp, Wang Ping withdrew his gaze from the camp below and looked toward the end of the road leading into the mountains. That direction was thick with Demonic Qi, and in some places it had even taken tangible form!

"So many Demons!"

As Wang Ping shifted his gaze, Yulian returned to her original size. Coiling around Wang Ping's Left Arm, she raised her head level with his height and stared toward the entrance of the Mountain Forest, flicking her tongue. Then, after giving Feng Miao and Xia Yao beside her a sidelong glance with her Vertical Pupil, she shrank back to around a foot long and made herself inconspicuous.

"Are they going to charge us head-on?"

Feng Miao wore an eager expression, but Guangxuan beside her looked grave. "They are clever. If they scatter, those farmers can tear them to pieces. But if they gather together, even regular prefectural troops must fear them. We are facing a hard battle!"

"Why not give them a fire? In this crisp autumn weather, one fire and I could burn half the mountain."

Huoxing danced in Feng Miao's hand.

Everyone else automatically ignored Feng Miao's suggestion. Of course, she was only joking.

"Damn it!"

A soldier in the nearby Sentry Tower suddenly cursed, staring blankly at the sky.

Wang Ping and the others were also startled, because more than ten enormous boulders suddenly shot out from the Mountain Forest, hurtling toward the camp with a shriek that made their scalps tingle.

Fortunately, the operators of the enemy's catapults might have lacked experience, or perhaps the catapults were too far away. Every boulder landed outside the camp.