This scene was eerie and savage.
Dozens of sturdy men, several of whom had already stepped into the threshold of the Peiyuan Realm, were turned into mummified corpses in an instant.
The guards from the Shou Gong Jian—who had charged forward like wolves and tigers—suddenly became like neutered tomcats, meek and hesitant.
Many of the officers and strongmen slowed their pace, and the jailers, who were usually sharp-witted, started shouting loudly but not a single one dared to step forward.
As for the field ghosts that the jailers had gathered, these creatures stopped in their tracks as well.
Lu Qian even saw some clever ones secretly retreating backwards.
A long howl echoed from afar: "Those who fight bravely will be rewarded! Those who fear battle and hesitate will be executed!"
Several officers who had charged to the front shivered suddenly.
They raised their hands and shouted sharply, "Bowmen, ready your shots!"
On the rooftops of shops lining both sides of the street, more than a hundred archers drew their bows, while a good number of crossbowmen loaded their machines with a sharp snap.
The next moment, arrows and bolts whistled through the air without pause—three-foot-long carved-feathered arrows and one-and-a-half-foot pure steel crossbow bolts fell like a storm of rain, densely striking the red Luan Phoenix sedan chair.
A thin mist wrapped around the Luan Phoenix sedan chair.
All the arrows and bolts pierced through the sedan chair with dull thuds, fully penetrating it.
Whether it was the carved-feather long arrows made of ironwood shafts or the pure steel crossbow bolts, after piercing the sedan chair, a thin layer of ice crystals quickly formed over them before they fell heavily to the ground.
With the sound of breaking, the ironwood shafts and steel bolts snapped and shattered.
The Luan Phoenix sedan chair had been pierced hundreds of times, but there was not a single hole to be seen.
It was as if it were a shadow without any physical substance, crashing straight ahead toward two blue-robed officers blocking the middle of the street.
The two officers froze for a moment, then instinctively stepped apart to either side.
Behind them, among the white-robed jailers, the three black scorpion brothers stood out.
Qiu Da and Qiu Er, who had come through the night's pursuit unscathed, sneered maliciously and strode quickly toward the sedan chair head-on.
Whether from recklessness or being newcomers to the Shou Gong Jian eager to prove themselves, they ignored the dozens of dried corpses on the ground and waved their two scorpion tail whips as they charged straight ahead.
Amidst the chaotic crowd, someone loudly praised, "What real warriors! Within our Shou Gong Jian, we too have iron-blooded heroes!"
Old He, standing back-to-back with Lu Qian on the street, his arms frozen stiff by the ice crystals, trembled like a leaf and muttered, “Fools. The faster you charge, the faster you die. It’s not like you’re raiding a traitor’s home for loot. Why the hell are you risking your neck like this?”
Qiu Da and Qiu Er, who had cultivation depths of the Twelfth and Eleventh Layers of the Meridian Expansion stage, were indeed formidable experts in today’s Dayin Empire.
Their scorpion tail whips tore through the air, leaving black arcs behind.
The poison-coated barbs at the tips sliced the air with an unsettling shrill crack.
From over six feet away, they lashed fiercely at the Luan Phoenix sedan chair rushing straight ahead.
The curtains of the sedan chair did not even flutter.
Two pale, delicate hands passed directly through the curtains and lightly touched both of the scorpion tail whips.
With a faint sound like silk tearing, the twin steel-wire braided scorpion whips shattered into pieces.
A chilling white coldness surged up the whips in an instant.
Qiu Da and Qiu Er gave startled cries as their right hands holding the whips were immediately covered by a layer of white ice crystals.
Among the crowd, Qiu San—who had been slashed a dozen times by bounty hunters from the Sikoutai and pierced in the calf by an arrow—shouted as well.
His right hand trembled, and several thumb-sized pellets flew out with a soft crackle, shooting straight toward the sedan chair.
The pellets struck lightly against the chair and exploded on the spot, releasing clouds of blue, green, and red powder that quickly turned into poison gas, enveloping the sedan chair.
Qiu Da, Qiu Er, and Qiu San immediately turned and fled.
The officers, strongmen, and jailers lagged a little behind in their reaction.
The cold wind carrying the poison gas swept over dozens of them in an instant.
The chill seeped into their bodies, chilling their internal organs.
Those touched by the cold wind and poison felt numbness in their hands and feet, their movements stiffening.
Then a mix of sweet, spicy, and foul smells invaded their noses.
Several dozen Shou Gong Jian personnel—including one officer, seven strongmen, and more than thirty jailers—wobbled and collapsed face down in the street, their skin instantly turning black.
“Poison!” One blue-robed officer, luckily not caught in the toxic wind, cursed angrily, “Which son of a pig’s ass among us used such a ruthless method? An antidote! An antidote, damn it!”
Finishing his outburst, the officer shouted loudly, “But damn, what a good trick! Such fierce poison... You bastard, whose underling are you? After this, how about joining me?”
As he shouted, the officer glanced at the Luan Phoenix sedan chair that was nearly in front of him.
His body wavered, gritted his teeth, and let out a hoarse roar.
His palms struck each other with a harsh metallic clash; within his fingers, sparks flew faintly.
Thwack!
The officer’s two palms struck the sedan chair’s carrying pole with a series of brutal blows.
Just like all the previous attacks by archers and crossbowmen, the officer’s mighty palm strikes pierced straight through the pole.
A white cold mist swirled around his palms.
The sparks between his fingers quickly died out as a layer of frost began to form and spread over his hands.
“What kind of ghostly thing is this?”
A middle-aged man, the brother-in-law of Lu Tianxing, who had given orders from afar for the Shou Gong Jian personnel to attack, was already dashing across rooftops like a great bird.
A few leaps later, coming from the direction of the Steamer Alley, he shouted sharply when he saw the strange Luan Phoenix sedan chair from afar.
“Archers and crossbowmen, shoot!”
Having just been stunned by the sedan chair’s eerie display after the previous volleys did nothing, the archers and crossbowmen quickly came back to their senses.
Together, they shouted and unleashed another wave of densely falling arrows and bolts with sharp whistling.
The middle-aged man’s pupils suddenly contracted.
By the light of lanterns and torches all around, he saw clearly the bizarre phenomenon as the arrows struck the Luan Phoenix sedan chair.
The sedan chair was like a phantom—every arrow passed right through it without leaving a trace.
Not only that, but the arrows and bolts that pierced it were all frozen solid, shattering into pieces upon hitting the ground.
“Cut down!” he roared.
The middle-aged man let out a long shout.
A blue-green energy ribbon swept from his waist, and a beam of cold light, three to four fathoms long, with a sharp, howling sound, slashed down onto the Luan Phoenix sedan chair.
Quick-eyed Lu Qian noticed that the middle-aged man had drawn from his waist what appeared to be a rare kind of thin, flexible sword, only two fingers wide, as thin as a cicada’s wing, and over five meters long.
The almost transparent sword was stretched straight in his hand; the tip released a beam of cold light over six meters long.
The ruthless cold aura spread everywhere.
Within a hundred fathoms, small snowflakes floating down seemed magnetically attracted to the sword light, converging on it and adding to its deadly sharpness.
The sword strike was as fast as lightning, filled with murderous intent.
Seemingly aware of the attack’s power, the Luan Phoenix sedan chair, originally charging straight down the street, suddenly spun ninety degrees on the spot like it had no inertia, speeding up slightly as it headed toward a closed and locked shop on the roadside.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the man sneered coldly.
His sword spun in his hand, and the fierce sword light spiraled into dozens of vortex-like whirls, striking the sedan chair again and again with sharp pokes.
This time, the sedan chair was truly damaged.
The sword light sliced through it, revealing dozens of fine, transparent slashes across the surface.
A biting, bone-chilling white vapor sprayed out continuously from these cracks, freezing the ground beneath it with an inch-thick sheet of ice.
From inside the sedan chair came a plaintive, sorrowful cry: “My ruthless, merciless husband!”
The Luan Phoenix sedan chair sped up fiercely.
After receiving dozens of sword strikes, it collided directly with the shop’s wooden door.
Then, in front of hundreds of people, the sedan chair passed right through the door panel.
The door was not even scratched; the sedan chair truly seemed like a ghostly apparition that had passed straight through.
The middle-aged man cursed loudly and slashed his sword outward, cleaving the entire shop door and half the storefront into two halves.
The structure collapsed; bricks, tiles, beams, and roof parts fell with a crash.
But amidst the rising dust and rubble, there was not a trace to be seen of the ghostly sedan chair.
The man landed heavily, swung his right hand, and retracted the long flexible sword into the size of a chicken egg scroll, casually tucking it into his belt.
He scowled at the ruined shop and said with difficulty, “Did my eyes deceive me? It didn’t crash through the door and force its way in, it just—passed through?”
Two red-robed Seven-Star Generals and large groups of blue and green-robed officers and strongmen arrived one after another.
They respectfully stood behind the middle-aged man, all with somewhat stunned expressions as they stared at the sword-split shopfront.
They had witnessed the whole thing with their own eyes.
The sedan chair had indeed passed through the door panel like a phantom, then disappeared without a trace.
“Send someone to report every detail of this incident step by step to the Surveillance Commissioner... I’m afraid we’ve truly encountered some strange and wicked thing this time.”
The middle-aged man slapped his belt with both hands, shivering inexplicably.
He lowered his voice and asked, “Who sent the distress signal just now? Who was the first to encounter this sinister thing?”
Lu Qian and Old He were brought to stand beside the middle-aged man.
Before the man could ask, Lu Qian shouted loudly, “General, please order the arrest of everyone on the Ping’an and Fuyin ships. I suspect the woman inside that sedan chair is their accomplice!”
(End of chapter)