Even if there are some black-hearted boatmen who have some power and specialize in cheating people, as long as there are a dozen soldiers with swords and armor standing behind them, no matter if he has cheated dozens or hundreds of people in this beautiful river, they dare not act rashly. They can only listen to orders humbly and use all their strength to send the soldiers across the river time and time again.
Xi Heng stood at a distance and watched for a while. She only saw the corners of the Northern Frontier Army. Before she could see the whole picture, she saw a patrol soldier looking towards her in the distance.
She then turned the reins and steered the horse backwards, away from the troublesome area.
On the way to Jinshi City, she didn't want to fight with the officers and soldiers of Da Zhao first.
There are three powerful masters of Hua Jin in the Great Zhao Army. Who knows if one of them may be right in front of him.
The horse walked along the wet mud road along the river in the opposite direction for more than two hours before finally finding a place to take a boat when the sun was about to set and heading to the southern end.
On the way, Xi Heng passed through Gui'an and Xiuzhou, had a simple meal and stay in the city for a day, and then continued to leave the city and head south.
Whenever the officers and soldiers of the Great Zhao approached these small southern cities, they would order the generals in the city to bring a large group of elite soldiers who were skilled in making siege equipment to accompany them south.
When Xi Heng arrived alone on horseback outside Jinshi City, he could see a pile of tent camps and the flags of the Great Zhao fluttering, tightly surrounding the three city walls.
A huge fire had been set in the woods surrounding Jinshi City at some point, and most of the trees had been burned to charcoal, making it difficult to use them to make siege equipment.
If we really have to make it, we'll probably have to send people to cut trees more than ten miles away and then transport it over.
But that would be a waste of time and manpower. The facilities that could have been completed in twenty days would now take a whole month.
Xi Heng looked at the scorched barren land and woods, feeling a little unhappy.
She actually hoped that the siege would begin as soon as possible so that she could take advantage of the situation and kill people in Jinshi City.
"I hope there are no Tianliang Huajin masters stationed in the city. If there are, save the game immediately."
"If I could fight life-and-death battles with Hua Jin warriors over and over again, as long as I wasn't killed instantly every time, my swordsmanship would improve rapidly..."
"What is this? Doctor Strange? Dormammu?" Xi Heng held his forehead with his hand.
"I don't want to keep dying, after all, it's very painful... But if there is really such a chance, I can give it a try."
As for the pain, as long as you get used to it, it shouldn't be too uncomfortable, right?
Xi Heng stood on the top of a hill and saw smoke rising from the military camp in the distance. Teams of carriages and horses carrying grain were arriving one after another from the north.
"It seems like it will take quite some time... Are the soldiers of the Great Zhao not in a hurry to attack the city?"
"That's right. The northern border hasn't been attacked yet. We don't have to worry about Yan Mengguo moving south. The situation shouldn't be particularly urgent... We just need to pay attention to the reinforcements from Jinshi City. The Ever-Victorious Army shouldn't be afraid of that either."
Xi Heng felt that these soldiers from the Great Zhao should be able to easily deal with Tianliang's miscellaneous soldiers and generals.
After a month's journey, the Ever-Victorious Army arrived in the southeast from the north of Zhao. However, the army remained well-organized, showed no signs of fatigue, and maintained high morale.
I am afraid that as long as the logistics and money and food are sufficient, the 10,000-strong Northern Frontier Ever-Victorious Army can defeat the 100,000-strong Tianliang Army.
The more Xi Heng thought about this, the more he felt that Zhao Qianyuan deserved to die.
How on earth did that guy squander the entire Great Zhao Kingdom into its current state of decline? This is probably the biggest loser in the world...
If there is a hell after death in this world, the previous emperor of Great Zhao would definitely beat and scold Zhao Qianyuan, the unfilial descendant, one by one.
"As long as Zhao Qianyuan is not around and he is replaced by a slightly more normal emperor, the Great Zhao can at least last another one or two hundred years, right?"
Although dynasties will eventually come to an end, the current Zhao is still strong in both military and military power, and it is obviously not time for its decline.
As Xi Heng thought about it, he became murderous again and wanted to find another Zhao Qianyuan to kill. Maybe this would help him improve his swordsmanship a little bit more.
It’s a pity that Zhao Qianyuan is dead in this life, and it wasn’t her who killed him.
"Tsk."
Xi Heng turned his gaze back to reality, looking at the endless Zhao army camp in front of him, and said to himself:
"It will take at least ten days to build a siege ladder, right?"
She didn't know much about siege and was just guessing.
"If we need to build something bigger, it will probably take even longer. The day of attacking the city may still be a long way off... I'm probably here too early."
"However, I should be able to kill some villains and bandits in the city during this period of time, and barely hone my sword skills."
There are quite a few people in Jinshi City. In the past few months, Tianliang’s city guards have been poorly managed, and it is very likely that a lot of evil gangs have formed. It would be a good idea to enter the city and kill some of these evil people first.
Xi Heng cast her gaze towards the side of the tall and wide city wall. That area was not surrounded by the soldiers of the Great Zhao Dynasty, so she planned to sneak in from there.
She flicked the reins and let the horse gallop for more than ten miles, then she tied the reins to a mountain forest with few people and covered with green grass.
The reins were long enough, and the lush green grass around was enough for it to eat for a while. Xi Heng planned to come back every few days and change the position of the tied horse so that it could continue to graze, which could be considered raising a horse.
After doing all this, she threw her bag and hung it on a high branch, letting it sway in the wind.
Xi Heng only took a bag of silver and used light skills to go to the location on the city wall she had chosen.
After finishing the work, it was already dark.
The setting sun fell to the ground, and the sky and the clouds were dyed with layers of dark colors.
Fires were lit up on the city walls, swaying continuously.
As a dark force warrior, Xi Heng could not be detected by these ordinary ancient soldiers who basically suffered from night blindness.
A swallow-like figure flashed in the night sky, and then she landed lightly inside the city wall.
The night was dim and the streets were deserted.
Xi Heng didn't find it strange. During the siege, people in the city either fled or were under curfew. It was normal that there was no one there.
But there are some strange things...
Why isn't there even a single guard patrolling with a lantern in this city?
Are all the Tianliang soldiers so lazy that they don’t care about what’s happening in the city?
Then why are people so obedient to the curfew even without patrols?
Is it possible that there are no more people in the entire Jinshi City?
Questions popped up in Xi Heng's mind. When he walked around a street corner, he saw a beam of fire rising high in the distance and heard the faint sound of people chanting.
"There seems to be a lot of people gathered over there, chanting something..."
She couldn't hear clearly, so she walked over quickly.
As the distance shortened, Xi Heng saw that the fire was not the large bonfire she had imagined, but an entire thatched house that was burning.
At the same time, she also heard clearly what the people gathered here were chanting.
"The pure fire spreads throughout the world, illuminating the world, always happy and peaceful, without any curses... He experiences joy without any troubles, and if you say there is suffering, it is not true..."
"I don't quite understand." Xi Heng tilted his head.
The overlapping sounds formed resonance and mixing, and traveled very far.
After turning a corner, the crowd of people appeared before her.
"Always in the land of happiness and brightness, there is no point in saying that there is illness... If one can live in that land, there will be no sorrow at all..."
There were more people than she had imagined.
Crowds of people standing filled the streets and squares of the entire city.
This circular square in the center of Jinshi City was originally used for reading notices, and it would not seem too crowded even if five or six hundred people gathered around it.
Now, the square is packed with people, and the surrounding streets are also crowded. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are three or four thousand people gathered.
Xi Heng stood behind the huge crowd and looked up, all he saw were heads.
At this moment, they were all staring at the thatched house that was burning fiercely in the square.
The room was piled with dry firewood, almost filling up the entire hut. In the fierce fire, it quickly turned into black carbonization and emitted wisps of blue smoke. There was also the sound of some kind of shrill breath surging, which continued.
"Wang Liao——"
In the center of the square, a middle-aged woman dressed in strange clothes and holding a bell was shaking the bell and shouting.
"Every place is solemn and pure; all evil impurities do not exist!" the man shouted in his hoarse voice.
"The place is solemn and pure; all evil and impurities do not exist..." Thousands of people around heard it and chanted together in praise.
The blazing flames reached three meters high.
Xi Heng used his light Kung Fu to jump onto the roof nearby. He was a hundred meters away from the house, but he could still feel a slight burning sensation.
The person closest to the house must have been burned all over, right?
Silently thinking about these unimportant things, Xi Heng stepped on the eaves and looked down, listening carefully to the poems recited by the figure in the square.
"This seems to be a missionary poem... but it also looks like a religious conference..."
"This seems to be the Jingming Sect mentioned in the rumors, but isn't the Jingming Sect located in the coastal area? How come it has been reported here recently?"
Xi Heng remembered that when he was emperor, he had also heard some news about cults in memorials.
At first, she thought it was just a normal occurrence at the end of a dynasty, so she casually stamped her imperial seal on it without looking at it any more or even remembering the names of those evil cults.
Today was the first time he witnessed it with his own eyes, and Xi Heng was quite interested.
Thousands of believers surrounding the scene chanted the words of praise several times in succession, and were then stopped by the woman in the center with a strange look and makeup.
The believers immediately stopped talking, and the scene became somewhat quiet.
Xi Heng tilted his head and saw the strange woman twisting and turning in a weird dance pose, which was really uncomfortable.
The middle-aged woman wearing a gold and silver crown uttered a series of strange noises, and then said:
"Pure Fire Heavenly Venerable! Pure Fire Altar Master! Chawan Eternal——"
"The Immortal Master of the Pure Fire of the East! Break through the smoke and stuffiness, burn the hurricane mud, and cut through the poisonous water miasma!"
"There are demons in the mortal world! They indulge in lust and cause disputes. It is the demon lord who gave birth to you and me. You and I are the offspring of the black demon. It is original sin!" The strange-looking woman said this and started to cry:
"Original sin!"
There were also some bewildered believers below who were crying and shouting, as if this was a fact that was hard to accept.
"The Great Immortal Father of the Pure Fire of the East! The Immortal sent the Great Envoy of Light to redeem our mortal souls that are burdened with original sin with the Great Light!"
"Praise to the Immortal Lord, the Pure Fire Father of the East!"
"Praise to the Immortal Lord, the Pure Fire Father of the East!"
"..."
As the sound rang in his ears one after another, Xi Heng tilted his head, wanting to ask if the teachings of this evil cult were a little too simple?
"Perhaps this simplicity makes it suitable for preaching..."
As for the so-called immortals and the salvation of souls, Xi Heng naturally didn't believe in them.
If there really are immortals in this world, she would rather find them herself, rather than listening to these crappy doctrines that are not presentable and that no one with a bit of culture would believe.
"I, the Goddess of the Pure Fire Sect, am leading 4,000 troops in an uprising in the southwest, calling myself Dachen!" The woman in the crowd shouted again:
"Marshal Tianliang has formed an alliance with the goddess of our sect. You must guard the gold and stone for the goddess. When the goddess comes to rescue you, you will become the pillars of our sect."
"All believers must abstain from sex, keep silent, cultivate their skills, be vegetarian, fast, and pray, so that they can have their souls purified by the Great Bright Immortal Venerable, and ascend to the Great Bright World in the future, and obtain eternal life for their souls!"
……
An hour later, the thatched house was reduced to ashes in the raging fire, and the entire grand cult event came to an end. Many civilian believers dispersed and left.
"The soul's eternal life..." Xi Heng heard these four words many times.
Although the body of a believer dies, his soul is immortal and can be reborn in the Great Light Realm, accompany the Pure Fire Immortal, and obtain infinite bliss - this is the preaching of the Jingming Sect.
She was away for just over a month, and when she came back the entire Jinshi City was controlled by the cult, with no idea how many followers there were in the city.
The leader of the Pure Fire Cult, known as the Scarlet Sky Goddess, has also led an uprising like Tianliang, and the rumor has become a trend.
At the missionary meeting just now, the woman with strange clothes also preached:
The Goddess of Red Sky is a messenger from heaven who has received magic from the immortal mountain. She knows the art of Qimen Dunjia and can cut grass to make horses, scatter beans to make soldiers, call the wind and rain, move the constellations, ride on clouds and spit fire, summon gods and command ghosts...
It is said that after she became a mortal, she was just a fisherman's daughter. Later, she was taught magic by the immortal in heaven and awakened her memories of past lives. She realized that she was actually an angel sent to the mortal world by Jinghuo Mingzun, and her mission was to overthrow the Zhao court, which was dominated by tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves, and bring peace and prosperity to the world.
"We should ignore this evil cult. It didn't cause any major trouble in its previous life."
Xi Heng's mind was only focused on the various magic spells that the missionary had just mentioned.
"Calling the wind and rain, creating soldiers by throwing beans, summoning gods and ghosts... these are probably just exaggerations."
"But there may be some truth in these rumors. Maybe this Scarlet Sky Goddess really did get a spell book?"
"But there were rumors in previous lives that Tianliang Grand Marshal Fang Tiande also had power that was invincible to dragons and elephants, and an indestructible body, and could also turn beans into soldiers..."
