The Fur of Xiashi Mountain
If you don't take the route to Beishan, you'll inevitably have to cross mountains and valleys while traveling.
The people of Zhang Household Village had more mounts, but they didn't dare to ride around openly near Shouchun City, for fear that too much noise would attract the attention of Shouchun City patrols or those tracking down the horses.
The number of mounts was not enough to provide one horse for each person, so in the end, many women rode horses while the men led them.
With Rong Tianding, who was more familiar with the route, leading the way, Zhang Cigong planned to return to Shouchun City to get another batch of mounts.
Aside from a few young people who either died of old age or were sent away and never returned, there were a total of 124 people in this group.
The entire Zhang Household Village was divided in two, and these 124 people became more than 100 incomplete families.
Even at Zhang Xuezhou's home, he failed to bring Lady Yourong out during this rescue attempt.
After everyone had left, he commanded Yang Po to drift towards Xiashi Mountain.
This is an area that Zhang Xuezhou has not explored before.
The pitch-black night provided cover, but also made the investigation more difficult.
Even when villagers are doing normal work, Zhang Xuezhou has difficulty distinguishing them, let alone at this moment.
Moreover, Zhang Xuezhou's Yang Soul had been separated from his body for too long, and he had been continuously casting Drowsiness Technique, so he was inevitably feeling a bit tired.
Like a withered leaf blown down by a strong wind, his yang spirit body drifted and floated towards Xiashi Mountain.
It was a pitch-black mountain, with only occasional small sparks indicating the presence of people below.
The mountain in the Beishan area is not a pointed mountain in the conventional sense, but a continuous mountain range. Several villages can be located in such a mountain range, and there are even reservoirs and surrounding rivers.
When Zhang Xuezhou was searching in Zijin Mountain, he had to rely on "human medicine" to advance his search; now, he has no such opportunity.
Zhang Xuezhou could only see a single point of light and then drift down to search along the trails of human activity.
The fires could be seen at charcoal kilns and patrol checkpoints.
Next to the charcoal kiln lay some sleeping charcoal workers, their faces all blackened. Zhang Xuezhou peered at them for more than ten seconds by the firelight but still couldn't tell if they were men or women.
"Mom probably won't send her to burn charcoal. She'll probably be washing clothes for the soldiers every day, like those aunties. They're like medicine; the labor is just a way to keep them occupied, not something they'll do to work themselves to death!"
Charcoal kiln, garrison troops, thatched huts, blacksmith shop...
Zhang Xuezhou could not find many buildings in the Xiashishan area, and the people were difficult to identify.
His search was mechanical and repetitive.
Zhang Xuezhou wanted to wait until dawn to explore, but Zhang Xuezhou also knew that Zijin Mountain would inevitably discover something strange after daybreak, which would lead to various subsequent troubles.
His current search is based on the hope of stumbling upon the Lady Yourong and then seeking an opportunity to leave.
As for the others, Zhang Xuezhou was willing but unable to do so, and could only make choices based on the situation.
"You night owl, who are you?"
Zhang Xuezhou hoped to find the Lady Yourong, and he also looked for people from Zhang Household Village who he might know. If he found someone from Zhang Household Village in Xiashi Mountain, they might be able to give him the right address.
This allowed Zhang Xuezhou to check both men and women when he turned people over.
When he climbed over to a disheveled man next to the charcoal kiln, he heard the man shout loudly, which echoed throughout the Xiashi Mountain.
"I am..."
"You must know I'm going to forge the toughest chainmail in the world, so you came here specifically to steal the rosewood charcoal from my furnace. Tell me, who sent you?!"
"Us..."
"You don't need to tell me to know you're Wu Bei's man. He's been forging the strongest sword, constantly coming to spy on my side, and now he's even planning to steal my fine rosewood charcoal!"
"My lord, I am Wu...!"
"You charcoal thief, take this from your master Mao with an axe!"
The disheveled man shouted repeatedly. Before Zhang Xuezhou could finish replying, he reached out and grabbed a half-body suit of armor from the ground. He quickly patted it on, and the armor was fastened.
He grabbed a long broadsword with a chain attached and swung it at Zhang Xuezhou.
This axe blow looked like something an ordinary person would wield, but the speed at which it came down was incredibly fast.
The long axe moved with the ease of a sword in the opponent's hands. Before Zhang Xuezhou could dodge, the axe had already landed on him.
The moment they touched, a deep red light burst forth from the blade of the long axe, cleaving directly into Zhang Xuezhou's Yang Soul Body.
With a push and a pull of the long axe, Zhang Xuezhou felt a chill run through his body.
His Yang Soul Body's heart was ruptured, and his body became stiff and unable to move for a while.
If he were a normal human body, his heart would have already been ripped out by the other party with an axe.
The opponent's speed was too fast and the attacks were too fierce. Zhang Xuezhou felt that more than 90% of spellcasting cultivators would be at extremely high risk if the opponent got close to them.
Moreover, the deep red blood light that had just erupted from the axe blade also indicated the opponent's cultivation level.
If there isn't another Grandmaster of the Sole Self Realm in Xiashi Mountain, then the other party must be the guardian of this area.
Zhang Xuezhou was surprised to find that Li Shang and Zuo Wu had come down the mountain after hearing the bell. The man was still burning charcoal in the kiln and did not even look like a great cultivator.
Where did this monster come from?
Zhang Xuezhou was surprised, and Mao Bei, who was opposite him, was even more startled.
He accepted that his martial arts skills were not outstanding and that there were still many masters who could crush him, but Mao could not accept that when he chopped the opponent with his axe, the opponent's body was cut open but he was not seriously injured.
He looked at the heart that the axe had dug out; it was green, and seemed to be wreathed in a faint, shimmering Demon Power.
But in just a few seconds, the heart disappeared with a "poof".
On the other side of the blanket, he saw that the other person's body was undergoing some kind of strange restoration.
"I'll take another swing from your Mao-ye's axe!"
Seeing that Zhang Xuezhou was slowed down by his own Qi and Blood martial arts, Mao shouted and swung his long axe again.
The head flew off with a thud, but strangely, no blood flowed from the head or body.
"Jin Chang... did you use a puppet to scare me? Don't do that, you son of a bitch! It's too scary in the middle of the night!"
Seeing the head fly off and land on the ground while the other person's body remained standing, Mao Bei couldn't help but come to his senses.
He shouted at the headless body and even touched it. Then, the body crashed down and turned into countless green lights that scattered wildly.
"It has Yao Qi? This thing doesn't seem to belong to a puppet?"
Mao squatted down and reached out to touch the green light, feeling a chilling aura emanating from it.
This aura seemed to linger from a peerless demon.
In just two short attacks, he seemed to have killed a bizarre and powerful demon, a feat so simple that Mao found it hard to believe his own abilities.
"The problem is, who would believe such a fantastical thing if I told them? This thing hasn't left any evidence of a demonic corpse yet?"
The green light touched my palm, bringing an icy chill, then seemed to transform into a fiery heat, and then, like a school of fish, it turned into specks of green light that drifted towards the sky.
Mao muttered something under his breath.
He looked in the direction where the green light was drifting, picked up his long axe, and quickly ran out.