The 14th Round of the Soul Reaper

  Kuang Cheng had just led the cavalry to chase down to the city, and was forced back by a rain of arrows. Suddenly, the gate of Wusong Gorge opened wide, and a black fog rolled out, covering half of the city tower in an instant.

  That dark fog moved occasionally, as if it had life. The fog transmitted waves of mournful cries and howls, and from time to time, there were dark, slippery things moving in the fog, grayish-white scales, unfortunately too far away to see clearly.

  Kuo Cheng hesitated for a moment, reined in his warhorse, and dispatched 100 elite cavalrymen to charge into the city gate amidst a hail of arrows. From within the city walls, the sound of sonorous and rhythmic Sanskrit Buddhist chanting could be heard, as if thousands or tens of thousands of monks were reciting scriptures together. The words being chanted were unintelligible. Those 100 elite cavalrymen, however, were like clay oxen entering the sea, never to return again.

  The dark fog in the city is getting wider and wider, and a strong gust of wind suddenly blows at the front of the city, with flying sand and stones. The fist-sized stones are rolled up by the strong wind, killing several cavalrymen on the spot. Guo Cheng hurriedly led his army to retreat again. The range of the strong wind is not large, but it's more than a mile away. Later, Zhe Keshuai led his army to follow up and saw this scene, also at a loss for what to do.

  The elite soldiers and generals of the Great Song Dynasty were actually blocked here and could not advance.

  Zong Shidao rode his horse over, furrowing his brow: "Are those barbarian monks causing trouble again? Can we use filthy objects to break this evil spell?"

  Guo Cheng shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it won't work. General Zhe once used black dog blood to sprinkle on them, but unfortunately those barbarian monks didn't take it seriously."

  "Can the two generals tell what these barbarian monks are up to?"

  "It's said that they are the Red Hat Lamas from Western Regions, ascetic monks of the Nyingma Sect. The royal family of Xia Country reveres Buddhism, and these foreign monks are the ones who offer sacrifices in the palace. I've also heard before that they can perform miracles, but I didn't expect them to have some real skills." Zhe Kesu furrowed his brow as he looked at the smokeless city gate, saying: "A massive army of tens of thousands, yet we're being blocked by just a few foreign monks. When we return, it's likely that we won't be able to give an account to His Majesty..."

  Zong Shidao sighed and said, "It's a pity that Chen Daozi didn't come." Seeing the two of them looking puzzled, he explained: "Chen Daozi is a strange person I met in the capital. His real name is Chen Xizhen, his Taoist name is Daozi, and he is a fire-dwelling Taoist who serves as the commander of the capital. He can summon thunder from his palm, call up wind and rain, has refined a precious sword and several treasures, and also possesses excellent martial arts skills."

  Just before he left, his cousin was competing with a good fellow named Lin Chong for the position of instructor of the 800,000 Imperial Guards on the training ground. He was killed by Lin Chong's spear and was somewhat depressed about it. He told me that he wanted to practice the Five Thunderbolt Seal Great Method and couldn't go with the army. If Chen Daozi had come earlier, with his skills, how could the Tibetan monk have been so arrogant?

  Zhe Ke sighed and said to Guo Cheng: "The capital actually has such a strange person!"

  Zong Shidao smiled and said: "Listening to Chen Xizhen's words, there are no more than eight or nine people in the capital who are more brilliant than him. However, they hide themselves away and do not like to meet strangers. If such a rare talent can join our army, what mountain would be too high for our Great Song Dynasty to conquer? I will write a letter immediately and send someone to hurry to the capital to invite Chen Xizhen. Ah, where are Commander Wu and Supervisor Yang?"

  Guo Chengdao said: "Just now I only saw the three of them rushing into the city, and then saw a black fog surge up. Until now, they haven't come out yet. I'm afraid something terrible has happened to them."

  Zhang Da shouted in surprise and turned pale: "If we don't have Wu Song, how can we break through the cavalry of the barbarian monk? Two generals, do you have a plan to break through the demonic law of the barbarian monk and rescue them?"

  The two shook their heads and smiled bitterly: "If there is a way to break through the foreign monk's magic, we can take down Wusong Mountain. Why would we be stuck here?" Zhong Shidao listened, at a loss for a moment, saying: "Even if we invite Chen Xizhen, he doesn't want to hurt many lives. Without Wu Song, it's still impossible to break through Xia Guo's cavalry... what can be done..."

  Inside the gate of Wuyan City, Wu Song and his two companions were arguing over who deserved the most credit for their victory. Suddenly, they were enveloped in a thick black fog that reduced visibility to almost zero. Lu Da immediately swung his crescent-shaped shovel into action, charging forward with a loud "clang" as he crashed into a wall. He quickly froze, motionless, but continued to wield his shovel with increased ferocity.

  Yang Jian didn't say another word, and immediately raised the White Bone Flag. More than a dozen skulls jumped out of the flag, transformed into grinding disc-sized objects that whirled around him with a howling sound, adding an eerie atmosphere to the dark fog.

  Behind Wu Song, a demon's spirit suddenly appeared, hovering in mid-air like a ferocious tiger descending the mountain to devour humans. A faint hum came from the black fog, and Yang Jia heard this sound, the skull on his head let out a strange cry, and he rushed towards the sound, only to hear several muffled sounds, and the skull was bounced back.

  Yang Jian's face turned pale, and he was obviously injured by this blow. He shouted in a shrill voice: "When did Xianmen Mizi learn to use such despicable means?"

  "Tan Yue was dressed in a suit, the law is not divided into high and low..." The monk who was hiding in the dark had not finished speaking, Yang Jiaolong took out the white bone fan again, colliding with some defensive treasure of the monk. At the same time, Lu Da threw the crescent shovel like a javelin, but heard a loud noise, and a muffled hum came from the darkness.

  Wu Song suddenly rushed forward, his hands grasping the sword, raised it above his head and chopped down fiercely!

  The Luli Zunzhe sword seemed to have hit something like a lid, only to hear the ear-piercing sound of tearing silk, followed by the sound of the treasure sword cutting into human flesh, and a hot blood splashed onto his face.

  "We've got them now!" Rudah, Yang Jian and Wu Song let out a burst of sly laughter. Suddenly the sound of horseshoes echoed through the air, and in the darkness it was impossible to tell how many men and horses there were. Rudah listened intently for a moment, then shouted: "There are probably about a hundred cavalrymen!"

  That batch of cavalry rushed towards them, Yang Jiaolong immediately raised the white bone banner, more than a dozen skulls flew up to meet the sound, in the darkness people and horses fell, wailing incessantly, in an instant one hundred cavalry were killed by him.

  That black fog had not yet dispersed, but it was vaguely visible in the distance. Yang Jiaolong looked at the corpses all over the ground, whether human or horse, and they were all sucked dry by the skull head. The general manager shivered: "It seems to be our own soldiers..." He shivered again, staring at Lu Da and Wu Song: "You didn't see anything!"

  Wu Song was observing the fierce tiger spirit leaping behind him. Upon hearing this, he immediately nodded and said: "Right, right, we haven't seen anything!"

  Ruda's eyes widened as she looked back and forth between Bai Gu Huang and Meng Huo Yuan Shen, bewildered: "One is a demon person, one is a demon monster..."

  Yang Jiaolong coldly smiled and said: "Wang Zhihua's head..."

  Wu Song sneered: "The head of a fugitive like you..."

  Lu Da snapped out of it and immediately nodded: "I didn't see anything!"

  Wu Song and Yang Zong let out a sigh of relief, just about to speak, when suddenly there was a rustling sound behind them. Before they could even react, their bodies were suddenly wrapped up by a huge object, spinning around and around, constricting them so tightly that their bones crackled and popped. The three of them were unable to move for the time being!

  They looked up to see a black-scaled serpent as thick as a water bucket, its head held high, gazing coldly at them. The snake's scales were raised seven inches apart, thin as knife blades, like an elliptical bamboo mat. Its flat head had a hooked beak, and it stuck out half a meter of red tongue, licking the three people's faces once, bringing a wave of fishy smell to their noses.

  Behind the giant snake's head, there was a pair of cicada-like wings, stiff and fluttering, extremely strange.

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  There are flowers now, 555555, this is Pig So-and-so's first time receiving flowers in his life, although they weren't sent by a girl... Burst into tears——