Unforeseen Changes One After Another

The strange beast within the flames was violent and ferocious.

With a body seven or eight meters long, a casual swing of its limbs sent waves of fire sweeping out as it forced its way through the rain of bullets.

The Black Flood Dragon Army had hurried out of Cloud Harmony City to pursue the Demon Wraiths, so they had not brought much equipment, much less heavy machine guns.

The firearms in their hands were breech-loading guns, far superior to the muzzle-loading rifled guns carried by ordinary constables. They were all imitations of the Kingdom of Migallon's Model 188 fully manual rifles.

Muzzle-loading guns had painfully slow firing intervals, managing only one or two shots per minute.

Breech-loading guns, on the other hand, were not only safer and more mobile, but also had a much higher rate of fire, capable of five to eight shots per minute. They had also replaced the dense square formations of traditional musket armies.

Take the Black Flood Dragon Army, for example. After encountering this mountain-fire beast and losing quite a few comrades, they immediately spread out, forming two staggered lines. Some lay prone while others stood, firing at the beast in the center from all across the forest.

Gunfire rang without end.

The firelight and conflict here disturbed the birds and beasts deeper in the forest, and chaotic rustling sounds filled the air.

"They can't fire continuously. Their rate of fire is slow; they aren't like the modern rifles from my previous life."

"This skirmisher formation is considered decent for this era. But in a place where visibility is obstructed, when facing powerful martial artists, its deterrence is far inferior to what it was on open, level ground."

Jiang Jingnian crouched nearby and observed. Ignoring Huo Qi's predatory stare, he merely calculated the deterrent power of those firearms in silence.

In an open area.

A few guns posed limited danger to martial artists. Unless they had laid an ambush in advance and launched a surprise attack, Jiang Jingnian did not consider their loading and firing speed especially fast.

It was not that he was faster than bullets.

Rather, he felt that while those people reloaded and manually fired their guns, he could already throw more than a dozen punches.

"More importantly, these relatively primitive rifles aren't very accurate."

If it had been the open, flat terrain near the village earlier, Jiang Jingnian would naturally have been somewhat wary of such concentrated fire.

Because no matter how fast his reactions were, if more than a hundred guns fired at him, even if only a small portion hit, both man and horse would be riddled like sieves.

Yet beneath this chaotic night sky.

He was no longer worried about those gun-wielding soldiers.

The greatest threat to Jiang Jingnian remained Butler Wei of the Inner Qi Realm, as well as Huo Qi, the Marrow Tempering Stage Martial Master standing guard not far away.

In the span of a few short minutes, the gunfire remained unceasing.

Black Flood Dragon Army soldiers were burned alive from time to time, while others were crushed to death by the charging giant beast.

The areas engulfed in flames actually began shrinking at a visible rate.

And the strange beast's charge unexpectedly slowed considerably.

Jiang Jingnian and the other escort agency members, together with the jianghu folk, were all positioned in the middle of the formation. They could only feel heat waves surging at their faces, their hair curling from the heat.

Yet that seemingly ferocious flaming beast did not charge directly into the crowd.

Instead, the Black Flood Dragon Army soldiers at the front suffered heavy casualties.

Tao Yanchen, stationed farther back, watched the mountain-fire beast roaring without end. A trace of confusion appeared in his narrow eyes. "Butler Wei, that doesn't seem to be Bi Fang's Fire, does it? Could it be a servant of that Demon Wraith?"

Some powerful Demon Wraiths.

Would gather weaker Demon Wraiths of similar affinity, or produce offspring, and use them as servants.

"...It doesn't seem like it."

Even as a great expert of the Inner Qi Realm, Butler Wei could not possibly know every unfamiliar Demon Wraith inside and out. He thought carefully before saying, "Bi Fang's Fire is only half a person tall. It can emit blue flames, cries like an infant, and resembles both a sparrow and a hawk. It cannot fly and can only move close to the ground."

"Young Master, we should retreat."

Axu, who had barely spoken along the way, stretched out a hand to feel the heat waves coming from afar. "This fire, this size, and the shape of that Blackstone look somewhat like the Stone Demon of Baobai Mountain."

The Stone Demon?!

The old man and the young man beside her both looked shocked.

Butler Wei shook his head repeatedly. "Second Madam, the Huan Mountain Stone Demon is dozens of meters in size. Its limbs have claws and its head bears two horns. It prowls Baobai Mountain like a giant tiger."

The Stone Demon's full name was the Huan Mountain Stone Demon.

Some disaster refugees also called it the Blackstone Mountain Lord.

In appearance, it resembled a horned tiger dozens of meters long. But it was not made of flesh and blood; its entire body was formed from black stones.

It had already devoured several small towns near Baobai Mountain until they were empty.

Furthermore, that Stone Demon had killed many skilled jianghu fighters and sect experts.

Even the Western Ocean missionary group the foreigners had sent there last week had been completely swallowed up within Baobai Mountain.

It posed a grave threat to the safety of Peace City's northern region.

The newspaper reports had already minimized the situation as much as possible, in order to avoid causing panic among Peace City's citizens.

"This naturally isn't the Stone Demon itself from Baobai Mountain. If we truly encountered it, it would already be good fortune if four or five of us escaped."

Axu's voice remained cool as she spoke calmly. "But what if this strange beast is the Stone Demon's offspring, or its avatar?"

The Stone Demon's offspring.

Or its avatar.

At those words, not only did Butler Wei sink into thought, even Tao Yanchen's handsome face showed a slight daze. "But Axu, there was nothing like this in my hexagram."

"The Western Ocean mystical divination you learned, combined with the Dou'a Sect's Time-Replenishing Hexagram, is indeed much more accurate than ordinary divination."

Gunshots and screams continued to sound from the front from time to time, yet in such a scene, Axu still explained with an indifferent expression, "But hexagrams can also become hopelessly muddled or obscured."

"If you rely too heavily on divination and fortune-telling, treating it as an absolute guiding rule, then even your fleshly shell will fall into it, unable to find rebirth."

All things beneath heaven.

To obtain something.

A price must be paid.

Going too far was as bad as not going far enough.

Her words were somewhat obscure.

But the old man and the young man beside her both understood. If one worshipped and trusted the hexagrams too deeply, they could very well become the cause of one's death.

Butler Wei frowned. "Young Madam, how precious is Young Master's life? What you said is inauspicious."

"Whether it is auspicious or not isn't for me to decide."

Axu's beautiful eyes shifted slightly as she looked toward Tao Yanchen, whose expression kept changing between light and dark. "Young Master, do we stay or retreat? While matters are still under control, make your decision quickly."

At this moment, even Tao Yanchen, who had always been mercurial in temper, felt that things were thorny.

Naturally, he believed in his own divination.

Yet Axu was also right. Hexagrams could only serve as reference; they could not be treated as events certain to happen.

Because this world contained secret arts capable of confusing hexagrams and muddling outcomes.

And at this very moment.

The appearance of this mountain-fire beast truly differed from the hexagram he had divined beforehand.

"Yu Ming, how is the situation now? How many casualties are there?"

After hesitating for a moment, Tao Yanchen summoned the deputy officer directing the front line and asked in a deep voice.

"Young Master, everything around us is too chaotic to provide a complete figure. But among our brothers, around thirty or forty should have died in the exchange of fire. The main cause was still the sinkhole that suddenly collapsed at the beginning, which caused far too many casualties. Our bullets are still effective against the strange beast; it cannot break in for now."

"If we switched to that batch of enchanted bullets I imported from the Kingdom of Migallon some days ago, could we drive back or even kill this strange beast?"

"We probably could, Young Master! But we would need Butler Wei and the martial artists' assistance! If our brothers handle it alone, the casualties may be too severe."

Faced with that question, the deputy officer hesitated for several seconds before giving his answer.

Tao Yanchen looked at the still-cool Axu beside him, then at the strange beast in the distance whose flames had dimmed considerably. His narrow eyes narrowed further before he gritted his teeth. "Fine. Change the ammunition. Kill that monster for me!"

Butler Wei said quietly at his side, "Sixth Young Master, that batch of enchanted bullets was meant for dealing with Bi Fang's Fire."

This strange beast still had a physical body and could be struck by ordinary bullets. But Bi Fang's Fire could slip into the shadows beneath the ground at any time, evading most forms of material harm.

"Who cares! I'm unhappy right now!"

Tao Yanchen's face turned vicious. Then he suddenly burst into laughter. "Still, going beyond my original plan is quite interesting. Quite fun, isn't it?"

However.

Not long after his laughter faded.

An internal conflict actually erupted among the Black Flood Dragon Army soldiers in the rear!

Some soldiers who had just finished loading their ammunition turned their gun barrels away from the strange beast in the distance and fired at the brothers beside them instead.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Brother, what are you doing?! Ah—"

"Stop right now! Don't shoot your own people!!!"

"They've gone mad! They've all gone mad!"

"Why?!"

"Ah!!"

Screams, wails, and cries for help mingled with gunfire, rising and falling one after another.

Not only was the deputy officer, who had been preparing to withdraw and order the ammunition changed, stunned; even Tao Yanchen and the other two froze for a moment.

Then they immediately realized a grave problem.

If the hexagram had been wrong.

Then Bi Fang's Fire might be near the foot of Hongfeng Mountain, or it might not be there at all. It might even appear elsewhere, and the timing of its appearance might be drastically off.

And what if it had happened to appear in this dense forest?

"Bi Fang's Fire has arrived."

A strange glimmer flashed through Axu's beautiful eyes. She directly grabbed Tao Yanchen's hand, preparing to lead him away. "The situation cannot be salvaged. Leave quickly! Butler Wei, take the others and cover our retreat."

"No, that's not right. Demon Wraiths cannot cooperate with one another!"

The events of this night had changed too quickly and become too chaotic, instantly slipping beyond Tao Yanchen's control. His face was filled with madness and disbelief.

Ever since returning after completing his studies, his hexagrams had always been unfailingly effective.

How could such a major deviation have occurred?

"Even if they aren't cooperating, we still have to face two Demon Wraiths at the same time! We're under attack from both front and rear. The Black Flood Dragon Army you brought won't last even the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before being wiped out."

"If we don't leave now, we'll remain here too."

Axu tugged at Tao Yanchen, but could not move him. Just as she prepared to use more strength, she saw a massive wave of flame suddenly shoot out from the front.

Its target was precisely where they stood.

The scorching heat wave rushed at them head-on, even fiercer than the flames it had released before.

And the flames, which had seemed on the verge of dying out, suddenly surged to life once more!

That wave of fire shot toward them.

It cast every face in flickering light and shadow.

"Soldiers who haven't been parasitized, change to enchanted bullets at once! The rest of the martial artists, follow me and stop the parasitized soldiers!"

Butler Wei frowned and barked. The muscles across his body swelled as he transformed directly into a brawny man over two meters tall. His inner qi burst free from his body, forming a translucent, invisible barrier over his skin.

Tonight's unforeseen changes came one after another.

Even this great Inner Qi Realm expert had no choice but to personally join the battle. He had originally been conserving his strength for Bi Fang's Fire.

Boom—

His hands became like blades, slicing apart the incoming wave of flame. Then he charged forward to halt the mountain-fire beast's advance.

As for the martial artists, obeying his command, they began stopping the parasitized men who were firing wildly.

"Good chance!"

Seeing the surroundings instantly descend into chaos, and even Butler Wei heading off to block the mountain-fire beast, Jiang Jingnian exchanged a glance with Wei Yu. They both saw the meaning in the other's eyes.

They split up.

Then turned to block the parasitized men firing wildly.

Those parasitized men looked no different from ordinary people. Yet in this dim environment, the blue flames burning inside their eye sockets were clearly visible.

That was the best proof of parasitism.

Beneath the night sky, flames soared into the heavens.

The sounds of fighting and gunfire continued without end.

Jiang Jingnian first knocked out several parasitized soldiers. Then, seeming to fight while retreating amid the chaos, he was actually fishing in troubled waters as he moved toward an area with fewer people.

Less than ten minutes later.

He had already moved far away from the center of the chaos. "I can finally escape. I hope the other people from the escort agency can leave safely too!"

He then dove straight into the grass, preparing to depart.

"Escort lad, where do you think you're going!"

A sharp blade wind swept toward him.

Before the blade arrived, its searing heat already caused stabbing pain. Even the nearby grass curled up from the heat.