Fire is a terrible beast. Wherever it goes, it wreaks havoc, either burning everything to ashes or reducing everything to ashes.
The more it burned, the faster the fire spread. People hurriedly poured water and looked for water, but they could not stop a raging fire of this scale.
When Xi Heng rushed to the scene with a sword in hand, the surrounding buildings had already begun to collapse and fall one after another. The clattering sound was like a giant hand pushing dominoes.
There was no peace in any direction; there were cries, shouts, screams and wails everywhere, as well as calls for help that never stopped.
Anyone who could still walk did not stop to escape or put out the fire; anyone who could still speak was shouting for help.
The tall building was burned down in the flames, and the sound of its collapse was like an earthquake.
Then, sounds of fear and screams reached my ears.
In the chaos, it seemed that Xi Heng was the only one standing steadily in the street, looking up at the tall towers with many bright red roofs collapsed into ashes.
A burning plaque with the words "Juxian Pavilion" written on it fell to the ground first, and the golden characters were immediately swallowed up by the dark fire.
The fire broke out in the middle of the city, and now it has spread to the commercial street. Countless families, both large and small, have been awakened by the noise, and got up wearing only a single layer of clothing, shouting and angrily trying to put out the fire.
In a disaster, there is no distinction between rich and poor, no matter if they are the dignitaries in the restaurants and shopping streets, or the government constables stationed here, even the night watchmen and countless civilians have all devoted themselves to the simple task of putting out the fire.
However, this place is hundreds of meters away from the river, and drawing water from the well is extremely slow. Amid the cries of fire-fighting, the fire continued to spread. People's efforts had no effect at all in the face of such a horrific disaster.
The buckets of water poured out are just a drop in the bucket.
Looking up again, the raging fire had burned the dark clouds red.
Xi Heng took a deep breath, went in the opposite direction of the fleeing crowd around him, and walked steadily into the sea of fire in front of him.
The extremely hot air blowing against her body reminded her that she couldn't stay here for long.
The girl listened carefully to the cries of chickens and ducks that some people didn't have time to take away, and jumped towards the backyard of the tavern loft.
A gust of wind suddenly blew in the night sky, and the coolness weakened the roaring fire for a moment, and the soaring temperature also dropped a lot.
Wow.
For some reason, a woman remained in the fire, with a look of despair on her face, holding a water jar and pouring water at the raging flames around her, but it was almost ineffective in the fire.
Xi Heng walked around the man, listened to the neighing of chickens and dogs, and performed light Kung Fu. He then flew over the courtyard wall and the burning mulberry tree and saw the chicken and duck shed in the yard.
The thatched hut was ablaze with flames, and inside was a mess with chickens and eggs flying everywhere and burnt feathers scattered on the ground.
Xi Heng glanced over and saw that there were only two or three dead chickens on the ground. The others were clucking and flapping their wings, trying to fly away from the shed, and quite a few had indeed flown away.
Two or three chickens were not enough to complete a sacrifice, not even the simplest blood arrow spell.
But she didn't want to catch the chicken in the sea of fire, as it would be a waste of energy and time.
After a moment's hesitation, Xi Heng left the place directly and continued to run on the street using Qinggong.
She wanted to find an abandoned pigsty or cowshed to obtain a large amount of flesh and blood to cast spells.
Fortunately, the streets in the central city are wide, and there are only a few fire debris burning in the long avenue, without too much obstruction.
And the night breeze could bring a slight coolness, allowing her to stay in the fire longer.
She continued to listen to the sounds of animals around her, and found a pigsty. She immediately stepped into it, but found that the pigs had gone away and the sty was empty.
All the bars were opened, but some piglets failed to escape and were roasted by the fire.
Xi Heng held his forehead and said to himself in disappointment: "Why is it so difficult to find some flesh and blood in a disaster..."
If this continues, she will really have to find a corpse to use.
"No...most of the people who died in the fire were trapped inside the building, so it would be more difficult to find them." Xi Heng shook his head and suddenly heard the neighing of a horse in the distance.
She looked immediately and saw a tall brown-gray horse with a burning saddle on its back galloping through the streets.
Whenever the horse encounters an obstacle, it jumps high and continues to gallop after landing.
It seemed to have risked its life and had run a distance of 100 meters in just six or seven seconds.
Xi Heng noticed that there was still a rein around the man's neck, but the other end of the reins had been burned or torn off.
The brown horse ran away after a few seconds. Xi Heng heard bursts of neighing coming from the direction where the horse came from, as if there were still horses trapped there.
She no longer hesitated and continued to run towards the center of the fire.
The cold wind blew wildly at night, and the fire seemed to get smaller as it got closer to the center of the city. Many places had been burned to gray and black, and the fire on the charcoal was no longer as turbulent as outside.
On the way here, Xi Heng saw many figures lying on the street, motionless.
There were obvious scars all over these people's bodies, and there were pools of dried blood where they fell. It did not look like they died in a fire, but rather in an attack.
But this had nothing to do with her, as she was getting closer and closer to the neighing of the horses.
By the time Xi Heng found the position and broke in, the thatched roof of the entire horse shed had been burned to a skeleton, and several horses had fallen to the ground, but the pillars to which the horses were tied were still standing firm.
There were reins tied to wooden pillars. Some of them had broken, but there were still four or five left, each connected to five horses lying on the ground with their fur burnt.
One of them was still screaming. It was obviously burnt and smelled like a burnt tree, but it was still holding on and not dying.
Xi Heng drew the long sword from his waist, aimed at the thick neck of the collapsed horse, and slashed downward with force.
Blood gushed out, and after a twitch, the horse lost its movement and sound and stopped moving.
Xi Heng squatted down, stretched out his palm to catch some warm blood, turning his entire hand blood red.
Blood dripped from his fingertips, drawing strange and twisted patterns on the ground.
If the paint is not enough, add more blood.
Gradually, a ripple-like blood-red circle surrounded the corpses of the five horses.
The blood was stained with some charcoal ash, and the formation turned gray and black, making it even more weird.
Xi Heng drew a rough, vase-shaped oval pattern in the center of the formation, dragged several horse corpses into it, and then drew twisted, rising blood patterns around the flesh and blood. The blood patterns wrapped the corpses and extended in all directions like five fingers or tree branches.
It took her a lot of effort to complete these actions. If she didn't have the strength, she might not even be able to pull the smallest horse.
In the midst of fire and blood, the girl patted the burnt horse hair on her hands, and warm, fishy, sticky blood splattered everywhere.
Xi Heng looked down. After staying in a place full of blood, charcoal and thick smoke for a long time, his body was inevitably covered with dust.
"Tsk, as soon as possible."
After drawing the rituals and formations with blood on the charred ground, she formed a hand seal and took mysterious steps beside the formation.
"The flesh feels life and fate changes, fate calls your spirit to gather, deep resentment revives the blood and spirit always condenses..."
As he took each step forward, the dark bloodstains on the ground glowed scarlet as the flames swayed.
The finger techniques changed, and some of the stripes on the formation pierced into the chests of the five horse corpses.
Xi Heng squatted down, catching the warm blood with three fingers, and drew three blood marks like claw marks on the back of his hand.
After the mark was drawn, the thinnest pony in the ritual room had all its blood sucked out and turned into a dried corpse.
She continued walking and drew another sword mark on the back of her right hand.
As there was not enough space on the back of the hand, he continued to paint on the arm, creating a bone pattern that goes around the forearm.
The spell 'Shocking Bone Transformation' consumed significantly more energy, sucking all the blood out of the two horses in one go, drying up their muscles.
Just as Xi Heng was about to continue engraving the Blood Arrow Technique, the sound of swords clashing suddenly came from outside the stable, approaching rapidly.
The bang sound traveled some distance in the air and landed in the courtyard outside the shed.
Several sounds of swords landing were heard one after another, and the sound of sword fighting stopped at this moment, as if the situation had changed from a sword fight to a confrontation.
Xi Heng took a quick glance outside the stable and saw several blurry figures holding weapons falling into a charred courtyard. The firelight was swaying and the air was distorted, making it impossible to see their faces and postures clearly.
She then slowed down her movements and lowered her voice, retreating to a corner and waiting for these people to leave.
I just came here tonight to take flesh and blood. Now that my goal has been achieved, I don’t want any conflict.
"We can't stay in a fight in a fire scene like this for long. Let's wait a moment..." She thought to herself, peeking outside from time to time.
Outside on the right, there are three figures with green scarves on their heads, holding knives and striking stances. On the left, there is a figure in a robe, holding a long sword in one hand and something in the other.
The torn cloak swayed in the firelight, and the faint sound of a child crying could be heard from underneath it.
Xi Heng stopped what he was doing and concentrated on eavesdropping.
A shout rang out, and the voice of the person in front of the green-clothed figure was full of energy: "Senior Guo, you are old-fashioned and pedantic. It's fine to be an enemy of Huangmei Mountain. People in the martial arts world don't talk too much. But tonight you want to go against my Tianliang Army. Aren't you afraid that your wisdom in the first half of your life will be ruined and you will be beaten into a court dog?"
The old man in robe held the sword steadily, his hair fluttering and his eyes sharp.
Looking at the three people in front of him, he said in a deep voice:
"It is rumored that the Southern Tianliang Army is a righteous army that will establish rules and regulations to help the people. It will save the people from fire, water, hunger and cold, and raise the banner of justice to help the world... But today, it turns out that this is not the case."
He slowly swung the sword to the right, pointing at the surrounding area filled with gray-black smoke, charred walls, burned-out buildings, scattered furniture that could barely make out some shape, charred rubble that had been burned to white ash, and smoke and dust, and asked:
"You said you wanted to save the people from dire straits, is this how you do it?"
"They all deserve to die! This central city should have been destroyed long ago!" The sword-wielding warrior did not hesitate at all:
"These exquisitely carved pavilions, stone ornaments with flowers and birds, gold, silver and jewels, white jade steps, bluestone paving, yellow glazed tiles, and red lacquered gates - which one of them was not obtained by exploiting us common people? Which one of them was built by the owner of this place himself? Did they dig the gold and silver from the mountains, or did they lay the tiles?!"
"These local gentry, local tyrants, civil and military officials! They only know how to suck the fat of the people and rip off the common people! They make everyone resentful every day, men and women can't farm or weave, and families in the village sell their children and die!"
"The people of Central City talk a lot about morality, but they are all thieves and prostitutes! The strong bully the weak, and the rich oppress the poor! These people are all f*cking traitors to the people! Man-eating tigers and wolves!"
The more he talked, the more vicious his eyes became. He clenched the long knife in his hand tightly, and murderous aura burst out of his body, as if he was about to attack in the next second.
"What about this child?!" The old man who was in opposition to him seemed to be infected by the other party's tone, and his hoarse voice became louder: "What kind of heinous crime did this two or three-year-old child commit? Why don't you even let this child go? Why do you have to kill him all?"
"Since we've already started, we have to kill everyone. Do we have to wait for him to grow up and come back for revenge?!"
"According to the rules of the martial arts world, misfortune will not extend to one's wife, children and family members!" the old man said in a deep voice.
"You are confused! We are soldiers!" The young man with a green scarf on his head shouted, "Mr. Guo, I will respect you as a senior for the last time. Let him go, and we will pretend that this incident never happened today. You can also keep your good reputation!"
"I have this man protected! Either kill him or retreat!" Guo Zhengwo swung his sword and the sword energy surged forward like waves.
The fluctuating sword energy swept up the surrounding flames and flew towards the distance like waves from a sea of fire.
Several green-turbaned warriors focused their eyes and jumped up to avoid the incoming waves of fire.
After landing, he immediately grabbed the long knife and slashed towards Guo Zhengwo.
The swordsmanship of these three men is fierce and sharp, and there are vague similarities in their moves, as if they are from the same school.
However, their target was not Guo Zhengwo himself, but the crying child in the other's left arm.
The three swordsmen moved as fast as lightning, their sword techniques echoing each other, one slashed after another, not giving the gray-clothed old man even a moment to breathe.
The blade collided with the sword, and the sparks flashed like fireworks, while countless sword chants and knife whistles were heard.
Xi Heng hid in a stable dozens of meters away, spying on the overly intense battle outside and swallowing his saliva.
Fortunately, I chose to dodge at the first moment. If I were involved in a fight between such martial arts masters, I would probably be defeated in just three or five moves.
"Just keep hiding..." she muttered to herself.
Outside, the sword techniques of the three young warriors forced the man in gray, who could only fight with one hand, to retreat again and again, and he was about to leave the courtyard outside the stable.
Before Xi Heng could breathe a sigh of relief, he suddenly heard a familiar female voice again.
"Senior! I'm here to help you—"
She was suddenly startled, and a familiar figure and face appeared in her mind. She quickly turned around and poked her head out from under the thick wreckage.
Sure enough, the woman who suddenly appeared outside and drew her sword was Senior Sister Hong Miao.
"Why is she here... and wants to get involved in this kind of thing?" Xi Heng's mind was full of questions for a moment.
Seeing Hong Miao joining the battle with a sword in hand, she even began to hesitate for a moment, wondering whether she should also shoot a few arrows.
Forget it.
Xi Heng shrank further into the darkness, wanting to escape from this place even more quickly.
With Senior Sister Hong Miao joining the battle to restrain them, the three sword-wielding warriors had to deal with more variables, and their originally coherent moves and momentum became chaotic.
The gray-robed old man's sword was finally freed up and he stopped blocking all the time. He would occasionally thrust out a few sword strikes.
However, the moves they used were quite conservative. They all gave up their killer moves and used simple offensive and defensive moves, and it seemed that they were unwilling to start a real fight.
The gray-clothed old man who was originally under pressure turned around and suppressed the three young swordsmen. Every movement of the sword would cause several wounds. Although they were not fatal, the pain and the impact on the moves were quite real.
In just one minute, the three green-turbaned warriors withdrew from the fight, looked at each other, left a harsh word, and retreated.
Left in the courtyard were Senior Sister Hong Miao, the old man in gray, and the three-year-old child in his arms.
The child was still crying and wailing, and refused to stop.
