The Buddhist Monks of Greater Yuezhi
"Drive!"
"Honorable Mage, we have arrived at the Greater Yuezhi. The Greater Yuezhi Kingdom is hostile to us slaves, and venturing too far is extremely dangerous!"
"Outrageous! You bunch of useless trash!"
Zhang Xuezhou cursed.
His arrogant and Gaogao attitude made the Xiong State slaves following behind him afraid to utter even a single word in rebuttal.
From the small tribe Xie Hun to the medium-sized tribes Hunyu, Qushe, Dingling, Gekun, and Xinli, Zhang Xuezhou even passed through a large tribe, but he didn't dare to go in to freeload.
It's common for small tribal chiefs to be below the Divine Ability Realm, medium-sized tribes involve experts at the Divine Ability Realm, and large tribes have cultivators at the Sole Self Realm. Even if such a large tribe only has one or two Sole Self Realm cultivators, it still poses an unpredictable risk to Zhang Xuezhou.
The people following Zhang Xuezhou changed batch after batch. Whenever he rode his horse and left the people out of sight, Zhang Xuezhou would use his flying ability to dash and dart through the area, and then find the tribe he was staying in and repeat the same trick.
After three days of back-and-forth operations, he had traversed this vast and Xiong State region.
The journey took place faster than Zhang Xuezhou had anticipated. The territory of the Greater Yuezhi Kingdom was far smaller than that of the Xiong State. As for some of the smaller kingdoms, they were not worth mentioning. Zhang Xuezhou could potentially cross them in a day on horseback, and flying would make the journey even faster.
"My business cannot be delayed. Since you are all too weak, I will wait until I return!"
Zhang Xuezhou cursed, then abandoned the Xiong State slaves and rode away.
"What treasure is this venerable monk searching for that he's so eager to find?"
"We don't know, we just followed along!"
"Yes, the mage said he wanted to catch some kind of hairy creature, so we just followed him around catching them!"
"That guy Mao is too powerful! We chased him on horseback the whole way but couldn't catch him. Some brothers said that the Master has been chasing him for three days and three nights!"
"The fact that the mage can chase after someone like that around shows he's even more powerful!"
"Master, you can ride directly through the Greater Yuezhi Kingdom; surely you have nothing to fear from those Tocharians and Buddhist monks of the Greater Yuezhi!"
"If we join forces with the Wusun Kingdom to attack the Greater Yuezhi Kingdom from both sides, those Tocharians and Buddhist monks will be terrified and won't dare to show their faces!"
Tens of thousands of men charged forward, their arrows raining down like a storm, making the Xiong State's slaves almost invincible. However, the long-range shots of a hundred or so men could only hit one or a dozen people.
Among the hundred or so Xiong State slaves who followed Zhang Xuezhou in pursuit were many skilled fighters, but having already crossed the border by over a hundred miles, none of them dared to venture any further.
Everyone was well aware of the consequences of encountering the Greater Yuezhi tribe and their patrol legion; once surrounded by a thousand men, they would not be able to escape even with their Demon Power.
The journey to follow this sorcerer from the Yedie River Holy Land had to be halted due to the cross-realm conflict. Many skilled slaves discussed the matter in hushed tones, and some were not optimistic about the pursuit, but no one dared to say so.
The Yedie River Holy Land is not the kind of place where a powerful force suppresses and dominates, but rather it is filled with eeriness and unpredictability, making it impossible to guard against. Once a mage strikes from behind, the death will be gruesome, and some people will not even be able to be reincarnated in their next life.
No one dared to speak ill of the Sacred Land Master behind his back, let alone question or challenge him to his face, which made Zhang Xuezhou's trip of freeloading extremely smooth.
Since the group was traveling far and dared not linger to talk with him, they managed to understand the situation somewhat. Some people felt that they should inform the major tribes or the royal court of the news to avoid the endless trouble that might result from the death of this Yedie River Holy Land in the Greater Yuezhi Kingdom.
For a time, Zhang Xuezhou ran very fast ahead, and the people scattered and rushed to their respective tribes at an extremely fast pace. Some of them even blew whistles to summon falcons for reconnaissance and communication.
Did the Xiong State actually capture many Han Chinese, or did these Han Chinese continue to multiply their populations in the Xiong State?
The Xiehun tribe was relatively close to the territory of the Great Han, so it is not surprising that there were some prisoners. The Han Dynasty also had many slaves working with their feet in shackles at Yanmen Pass. Slaves captured in the Northern Border areas were used to kill and establish authority, and few were left alive.
However, as Zhang Xuezhou ventured deeper into the heart of the Xiong State, he discovered that there were quite a few people with Han Chinese features.
When he passed through the tribe, the people there also knelt on the ground, not daring to make a sound, making it extremely difficult for Zhang Xuezhou to distinguish them.
The closer they got to the frigid lands, the worse their fate became. They were often slaughtered and even used as food to survive the winter. Some were also used for sacrificial offerings. But the further west they went, the cleaner these Han Chinese people looked.
Zhang Xuezhou could even see a leader who looked like a Han Chinese.
This is something that cannot be achieved in just a few years or even decades, leading Zhang Xuezhou to lean towards the latter conclusion. He even thought of Hongku and others in the Sacred Land.
"Most people seem to have little concept of nationhood!"
Even someone as unpredictable as Zhang Xuezhou knew very well that he was born within the territory of the Great Han Dynasty and that his roots were also in the Great Han Dynasty.
If the Great Han Dynasty had not fallen, he would not have joined another country.
For many people, however, the stance of these individuals is not entirely clear, such as that of Ma Lang and Niu Xun.
If they hadn't been unable to survive in the Xiong State, Zhang Xuezhou believed that these two would not have considered returning to the Great Han Dynasty.
"I wonder if Your Majesty is capable of restoring order to the Great Han Dynasty and uniting the people?"
National consciousness and the hearts of the people cannot be formed overnight. One of the reasons why the Luofu Dynasty Luofu Dynasty is so unforgettable is that it achieved unification, and there was almost no more disturbance in the surrounding areas.
However, it took the Luofu Dynasty hundreds of years to achieve this goal, and it wasn't until the last emperor, Luo Zhong, that it was completed.
If it weren't for the man-made disaster caused by Huang Daoxian, which triggered the rebellion of many ministers and generals in the dynasty, the Luofu Dynasty would hardly have collapsed in such a short time.
The Great Han Dynasty had a long way to go to achieve all of this.
Zhang Xuezhou didn't have many profound feelings about his first journey through the Xiong State, but after he settled down in Chang'an City, his feelings about his second journey through the Zhang Xuezhou Xiong State undoubtedly became more complex.
He thought of the new emperor, even of Wu Chao, and of Zhang Qian and others who had been forced out of the pass by Huo Huo.
"Hey, Annie Mama!"
Zhang Xuezhou was overwhelmed with unspeakable thoughts. Only when someone shouted and threw a stick at him did Zhang Xuezhou at lightning speed.
As soon as he dismounted, the demonic horse he had been riding was struck down with a club, its body tumbling to the ground and neighing incessantly.
"Who is it? Don't hit our own people!"
Zhang Xuezhou shouted in the Sacred Land Language, which made the distant chatter even louder.
Another golden bell flew out into the air, and before it even reached Zhang Xuezhou's vicinity, it made a loud bang, making everyone's ears ring.
Zhang Xuezhou rolled over and stood up. He saw two scruffy monks, one fat and one thin, dressed in yellow robes, shouting and yelling, using strange language to control their Law Treasure to attack him.
"We don't speak the language here, so there's no way to scam people here!"
Zhang Xuezhou was caught off guard, but he was not defeated despite being repeatedly ambushed, which proves that his opponent's strength was indeed lacking.