A few minutes later, in front of the County Government Hall.
"I am Li Guanyi, a Taoist from Fulong Temple. I greet the Nine Colonels!" A Taoist wearing a blue robe, a Mixed Element Cloth headband, white socks in cloth shoes, holding a horsetail whisk, with a black beard hanging down, stands with one hand raised in salute.
"Thunder Mountain’s Yuan Kun, pleased to meet you." Another person, with a faint purple complexion, a single horizontal vermilion eyebrow, hair angry and bristly like a metal brush, eyes flashing with lightning, awe-inspiring as he moves, with the sound of Tiger and Leopard Thunder Sound subtly present, clearly a cultivator of some accomplishment.
As for the last one, dressed in a grey robe, with grey hair at his temples, his eyes hidden with a touch of dignity, his hand on a support, his eyes gleaming sharply,
"Qing Yangzi of Shu Mountain Sword Sect, I have long heard of the Nine Colonels’ fearsome reputation, and now I can see the rumors are true. Just now, you easily detected us, and considering the Colonel’s youth, we old folks are a bit embarrassed."
Chen Yuan greeted the others, then turned to Qing Yangzi, "All of you are famous figures in the Worldly society, I dare not presume too much. I’m grateful for your presence, and it has taken a weight off my mind, otherwise with the current situation, I might have fled at the first sign of trouble."
Chen Yuan half-jokingly, half-seriously said, like Pei Yanhu mentioned, in this world it’s every man for himself first, and only then the external elements.
"Perhaps not necessarily. If the Nine Colonels really thought that way, would you have come alone to siege the city? We’ve seen the scale, and it’s impressive." Qing Yangzi’s eyes widened, smiling as he made eye contact with the others, some nodded, others smirked.
"We’ve only just arrived in Guang’an Prefecture, and were pulled over here. It seems you already have a plan, Colonel. Please share your thoughts."
Qing Yangzi got straight to the point.
The three other Sect Heavenly Pass individuals clearly had the same thought, their eyes sharpened slightly as they landed on Chen Yuan, curious to hear his strategy.
Chen Yuan nodded then gestured with his hand inviting the others to take a seat, "Please, have a seat. This place is crude and doesn’t even offer a cup of tea, I apologize for the inconvenience!"
The others said nothing and sat down.
Chen Yuan also sat down, leaning on the armrest of the chair next to him, his expression as normal as he spoke, "After receiving the news that you all would arrive in Guang’an Prefecture immediately, I thought that it’s better to attack than to defend. So I took the initiative to probe the recently occupied Jiang’an County. Fortunately, it was taken over by the Night Fox Clan with only one Heavenly Pass, which I took the opportunity to strike!"
"To test the reactions of other Demon Races! According to the information we have, Weiyuan Prefecture was overrun by the combined forces of six mountains’ Demon Races before, with ten Heavenly Pass Demon Generals present. The few Colonels who perished managed to take down five of them, but there are definitely reinforcements, and the number of Heavenly Pass Experts is unclear..."
"Following that, what we will do, my friends, is wait! Wait to see if any fish bite. I’m out in the open, while you all stay hidden. We take them down one by one as they come!"
Chen Yuan’s eyes narrowed as he spoke, his eyes full of an indescribable presence — the thrill of a hunter lying in wait for his prey.
By revealing his own thoughts, his intentions were clear.
The four Sect Heavenly Pass representatives listened, exchanged glances, and without much hesitation, nodded in agreement.
"Since the Nine Colonels already has a plan. We are willing to flank and assist."
Meanwhile, on the other side,
Seven hundred li west of Jiang’an County, there was a county known as Gulan County.
The dawn rose from the east, and under the golden light, the silhouette of a city emerged from the shadows.
A whip cracking through the air shattered the quiet of the morning.
One could see, from all around the county, figures in tattered clothes, dragging heavy chains, slowly emerging from houses. Those who moved too slowly would be met with a swift whip, screeching through the air and finally landing on the figures, leaving a bloody wound and a despairing scream.
Shortly after, commands were shouted.
"Hurry up, hurry up!"
"Did you not have breakfast?"
"If you upset the masters, you’d better watch your life."
Tens of thousands of people, like black ant trails, were driven from all sides of the county, under the lash, toward the center of the city.
It was clear to see that the center of the county had been leveled to the ground, where a massive stone foundation stood, about a hundred and eighty zhang high and thirty to forty zhang wide, with the vague outline of a gigantic statue emerging.
Practically the entire city’s population, now ruled by demons, had been turned into laborers, from children of seven or eight to the elderly in their sixties with silvery white hair, all driven like cattle by the whip, to build this enormous statue of a demon.
The ones wielding the whips, however, were not demons, but ferocious-looking people.
In their eyes, why should those ’masters’ do such hard labor when they could make others do it for them?
In the crowd, the sound of chains rang out as a youth was kicked over.
"Dare to glare at me, I’ll whip you to death!"
"No, please, my child hasn’t eaten for three days, I beg you, Er Gouzi, back then I even helped your mother..." A woman in ragged clothes, her face smeared with pitch-black mud, cried and shielded the youth from a bald-headed man with scabs.
Under his mother’s protective arm, the youth glared red-eyed at the man with scabs.
Before the woman could finish pleading, a sharp crack sounded through the air.
"Shut up, Er Gouzi is not for you to call. Don’t you dare claim kinship with me."
Lai Zitou heard the woman call out his nickname, and an expression of fierce cruelty warped his ugly face. Cursing in rage, he spat a mouthful of foul saliva at the woman and violently lashed his whip at her several times.
The woman let out a few screams; her flesh split, and blood spurted.
The boy howled, hastily turning his body to shield his mother from the whip, biting down hard to endure the pain.
Meanwhile, in a corner tower beside the massive rock, a figure with a face painted white as if with lacquer, horns on his head, and mismatched pupils—one black, one white—watched the scene, a sinister smile curling at the corner of his eyes.
At that moment, the sound of clanging metal resonated from outside.
A sharp female voice called out.
"I want to see the lord of the Bo Clan."
The shadowy figure turned around, speaking as he did so, the mismatched black and white eyes shimmering with eerie light.
As he was speaking, the door opened.
In the hallway before the door, a woman with fox-like eyes and a forehead marked with green lines, her eyes a dark green, was being forced to kneel by several horned Bo Clan People, who held strange stone spears to her neck.
The woman was none other than Madam Bachi from the Night Fox Clan—her husband, Tuoba Shi, and child had both died in Jiang’an County, and she had managed to escape.
Madam Bachi lifted her head to look into those black and white pupils, her eyes filled with resentment and poison, "Lord Botan, my husband has been killed. I beg of you to take action."
"A foreign Mountain Lord."
"Oh, what a pity for Brother Tuoba," the shadowy figure shook their head, "But you should seek help from your Night Fox Clan, not me."
"According to our agreement..." The Night Fox lady’s eyes widened, her voice filled with unwillingness.
"Hmph, every time there’s a task to be done, your Night Fox Clan is hesitant and obstructive. Now that you’re in trouble, you remember to call for help. Show her out!" The shadowy figure sneered coldly, waving a hand to close the door abruptly.
"You bunch really are treacherous and unfaithful. My child! I will take this to the Clan Elder Meeting to accuse you..." The Night Fox lady let out a shrill howl.
This was already the second time she had been turned away.
The first time was in Zhangtian County, three hundred miles to the southwest!
But the next second, a streak of light flashed out.
The sharp voice of the Night Fox lady was abruptly cut off, her resentful gaze dimmed, and her life force extinguished.
"Ignorant fool, who do you think you are!"
From within the room, a chilling voice followed by muttering could be heard.
"A Mountain Lord? Forget it, with the Lu Shu Clan ahead, I’d rather not bother with this."
Just like that, from sunrise to sunset, a day passed!
Jiang’an County was quiet and peaceful.
Chen Yuan did not encounter the Demon he was waiting for!
He was unaware of the sordid intrigues among the Demons.
But inside the County Government, Chen Yuan grew restless; life is full of disappointments, and currently, the Sect Heavenly Pass was watching.
With a wave of his hand, several Contracted Demons appeared in the hall.
Chen Yuan spoke with a stern voice, his eyes shooting out a chilling gleam,
"Send my order to Gou Zhi, seal off Guang’an Prefecture, no person or message is to come in or out."
Following that, he stood up and sent out his message.
"Ladies and gentlemen, since these beasts won’t come to us, then it’s time we go looking for them!"
"Speed is of the essence!"