Chapter 00157: The Ruined City and the Greenery
# The Ruined City and the Greenery
Chapter 157
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 157: The Ruined City and the Greenery
However, those who possess a Soul Artifact are exceptions.
For example, the vengeful spirits and heroic souls of Panlong City rely on the Great Square Pot as their anchor, allowing them to roam freely throughout the Panlong Desert.
Such divine objects are rare and hard to come by.
He assumed that Hong Xiangqian did not possess such a powerful Soul Artifact, so Lu Yao should quickly find a new host after his dissolution, relocating Hong Xiangqian's primordial spirit.
Forget it, thinking too much gives me a headache; let my father worry about it.
Returning to his room, taking advantage of He Yue's absence, He Lingchuan closed the door and pulled out a dozen items from his bosom, laying them out on the bed one by one.
These were all relics of Lu Yao, retrieved right under Zhao Duwu's nose.
Considering he was the son of a noble, although the Folded Charge Manor was displeased with such pillaging behavior, they ultimately said little about it.
A few ingots of gold and silver, some elixirs, two finger rings, and besides that, there were only small miscellaneous items.
Oh right, there was also the Ghost Eye Bow that He Lingchuan had been longing for.
No one had told him that this powerful bow, when not activated, was only the size of a palm, wrapped in gray cloth and hidden close to Lu Yao's body.
Otherwise, if it had appeared in a menacing form, Zhao Duwu would likely not have let it go.
He Lingchuan grabbed the Ghost Eye Bow, and as he infused a bit of spiritual power into it, it grew to its actual size.
The grip felt icy in his hand, and the surrounding temperature immediately dropped by four or five degrees, as if urging the archer to enter a state of calm.
He Lingchuan felt a chilling wind at his back, and ghostly whispers echoed in his ears, repeatedly persuading the archer to sacrifice his life in exchange for a powerful triple-arrow divine ability.
He would not listen to ghostly words.
What if he didn’t sacrifice? He Lingchuan drew the bow to test it.
It was still a good bow; that divine ability could be considered a special effect, which would not trigger without a sacrifice.
After playing with the Ghost Eye Bow for a while, until the Divine Bone Necklace began to heat up again, he remembered he hadn’t attended to the important matter.
The necklace was growing impatient.
Thus, he picked up the remaining miscellaneous items and brought them close to the Divine Bone.
The first few items showed no reaction until he picked up two black talismans.
After Pei Xinyong smashed Lu Yao's sternum with a hammer, Lu Yao immediately pulled out a black talisman and chewed it, which He Lingchuan witnessed with his own eyes.
Clearly, Lu Yao had high hopes for the black talisman, firmly believing it was an effective life-saving technique that could support his escape from the battlefield.
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.
These two black talismans, aside from their unusual color, appeared nothing special.
He Lingchuan turned them over and over, feeling no special fluctuations of spiritual power; he could only say that the crimson symbols on them were different from any he had seen before.
Specifically, how they were different, he had not studied in this field.
However, when he brought one of the black talismans close to the Divine Bone Necklace, an anomaly occurred.
The black talisman instantly turned to powder, sucked into the hole within the Divine Bone, as if there were a whirlwind inside.
He Lingchuan reached out himself but felt no wind force.
Well, let’s call this hole the Wind Eye.
In just a few blinks, the black talisman was completely absorbed, leaving not a speck of powder behind.
The Divine Bone Necklace remained unchanged, aside from the flickering red light indicating its desire for the remaining black talisman.
“I won’t let you eat this one yet,” He Lingchuan murmured to himself, “I need to keep a backup.”
What exactly was this black talisman, and how could it enter the eye of the Divine Bone? Lu Yao was a rough man; He Lingchuan found it hard to imagine him sitting at a table meticulously drawing talismans, so the black talismans were likely obtained from someone else.
Who could have drawn them? He Lingchuan could only think of one possibility:
“Saint Master” Hong Xiangqian.
After all, Lu Yao's Ghost Eye Bow also came from Hong Xiangqian, so it wouldn’t be surprising if there were one or two more items.
From the perspective of the Wang Court, Hong Xiangqian was merely the leader of a rabble of rebels.
Why did the Divine Bone desire two ugly black talismans instead of the Ghost Eye Bow?
Indeed, he had also tried the Ghost Eye Bow, and the Divine Bone Necklace showed no interest in it.
It was so picky; He Lingchuan had not grasped its taste.
The next day, the supporting army set out, continuing northward.
Before leaving, the magistrate of Wuliu County personally bid farewell to He Chunhua, bringing along a piece of news:
The large-scale manhunt for Lu Yao's remnants and Pei Xinyong's two factions of rebels had already begun.
The artist had worked overnight to create wanted posters featuring their faces, which were sent to various counties and towns yesterday, with even people dispatched to the villages and towns to specifically announce it.
Especially for those who discovered Pei Xinyong, the informant would receive a reward of one hundred taels of silver, while those who captured him alive would receive one thousand taels.
After all, Lu Yao was dead, but Pei Xinyong, the general under the rebel leader Hong Xiangqian, was still alive and kicking, with over a thousand followers.
How could the local officials sleep soundly?
One hundred taels of silver was equivalent to one hundred thousand wen; given the current prices, it was enough for a family of three or four to eat and drink for five or six years, and still have plenty left over.
Therefore, it wouldn’t be long before the surrounding villages and towns would be buzzing with discussions.
He Lingchuan saw the government’s wanted notice at the market, which exaggerated Lu Yao's ferocity and brutality, stating that although this bandit leader had been slain, his subordinates were equally bloodthirsty, often slaughtering villages and towns, capturing infants and women to serve as food; Pei Xinyong was equally notorious, having committed countless murders, and so on.
The title of cannibal demon was a double-edged sword; when the wind was at their backs, it could make enemies retreat in fear, but in times of desperation and flight, it could also incite deep hatred, with both officials and commoners eager to see them exterminated.
In this way, these rebels would soon find themselves caught in the ocean of people's war.
Moreover, the magistrate of Wuliu County had also reported this matter to the local prefecture; if the rebel army escaped the boundaries of Wuliu County, the intensity of the pursuit would not be diminished.
After leaving Wuliu County, He Chunhua ordered the entire army to quicken their pace, and they arrived at Woling Pass five days later.
This place was the junction of mountainous terrain and plains; after so many days of walking through towering mountains, He Lingchuan suddenly found himself in an open area, with a view stretching for miles, and saw the great river flowing eastward, finally understanding why Hong Xiangqian and the Wang Court fought desperately at Woling Pass:
Once they left Woling Pass, the plains by the mountains and rivers were indeed defenseless.
Woling Pass was actually composed of both the checkpoint and the auxiliary city behind it, standing about three zhang (ten meters) high, with walls three feet thick, quite solid.
However, after experiencing the grandeur and solemnity of Panlong Ancient City, He Lingchuan felt that there was a stark difference between the two, like that of a giant and a dwarf.
As the supporting army entered the pass, He Yue kept looking around, seeing the scars and arrow holes on the city walls, as well as the blood-stained stones, and couldn’t help but gasp, “How many people must have died here!”
“These are the pits made by catapults,” He Lingchuan pointed to the indentations on the wall and said to his brother, “They missed; otherwise, the rolling stones would have fallen on the city gate.”
He pointed to another area where there were obvious black and yellow stains flowing down from above, which had long since solidified, “This was probably a direct hit; do you know what it is?”
The little scholar naturally had a thirst for knowledge, staring intently, but he didn’t know what it was.
He saw Zeng Feixiong trying to hold back laughter and said irritably, “Do you know?”
Zeng Feixiong coughed twice, “Second Young Master, that’s boiling excrement!”
“What boiling excrement?” He Yue still didn’t understand, “Is it the boiling excrement that’s as solid as gold?”
The soldiers nearby burst into laughter.
“The words are correct, but the meaning is wrong. I thought you were well-read,” He Lingchuan maintained a stern face, “You should know that reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles!”
Mao Tao shouted, “Second Young Master, boiling excrement is boiled feces, the best for humans. When the enemy uses ladders to attack, the defenders pour the boiling excrement down; it’s a bit smelly, but it works!”
He Yue’s expression froze, feeling a faint stench lingering in the air.
Morale is crucial in an attack, but even the most valiant and combative warrior cannot endure the humiliation of being met with excrement! Moreover, wounds that are burned and then contaminated with boiling excrement would quickly become infected, leading to severe consequences, from flesh being cut away to amputations, even threatening life, causing a heavy blow both spiritually and physically.
He Yue looked around, suddenly pointing to the left, “Is that a siege tower?”
The left side of the city wall had collapsed halfway, creating a large hole.
Two oddly shaped vehicles were pressed against the wall, their roofs partially crushed by rolling stones and earth.
These vehicles were about two zhang long, with thick shields on all sides, made of iron and wood layered together, but the front shield had already vanished without a trace.
Its top cover was very tight, allowing someone hiding inside to likely be immune to various attacks from above, whether it be fire stones, arrow rain, or boiling excrement.
However, these vehicles were not powered by horses but were entirely pushed by people.
He Yue had read about these vehicles in books; they had two uses.
One was to attach a heavy ram to strike the city gate; the other was to add a top cover and push it to the base of the enemy's city wall, where the engineers inside would start digging at the foundation.
As long as the foundation was dug well, no city wall would stand.
Woling Pass had evidently suffered greatly in this regard, ultimately being breached when the soldiers dug through the foundation.
He Lingchuan also stared at these two siege towers in a daze, “Did the rebels not use divine abilities to reinforce the city?”
“They did,” the one who answered was Wu Shaoyi.
Everyone turned to see his calm expression, “But later a small team of rebels defected, directly removing the Saint Master’s talisman formation from within, rendering the reinforcement divine abilities ineffective, allowing the soldiers to take advantage of the gap.”
So the parties involved were right here; the onlookers were momentarily at a loss for words.
He Yue murmured, “Indeed, the most fortified fortress is always breached from within.”
He Lingchuan, however, looked at the giant hole in the wall and said, “Now that Woling Pass has been reclaimed, won’t the local officials repair and patch up the checkpoint?”
It was evident that since Woling Pass was breached, no one had managed it.
The importance of Woling Pass had undoubtedly become apparent during these months of war.
If he were a local official, he would certainly want to repair the city gate as soon as possible.
Otherwise, if another wave of uprisings came, the capital would be in danger again.
No one responded to this.
After a long while, He Chunhua casually remarked, “After fighting for so long, perhaps they can’t afford to repair it.”
Then, he sent someone to investigate the secret chamber in the southeast corner of the auxiliary city, where Hong Xiangqian had “perished.”
As they walked deeper into Woling Pass, traces of the ravages of war were visible everywhere.
This place had been fought over repeatedly, suffering through great fires; abandoned war chariots, houses, and stockades lay uncleaned, and now it was deep autumn, yet in the broken wheels and the crevices of the walls, green and yellow sprouts had already begun to emerge.
The work is done; have a happy weekend!
(End of Chapter)