Chapter 44: Together We Are a Fire, Scattered We Are Stars Across the Sky!

Gathered, they are a single blazing fire; scattered, they are stars filling the sky.

The climate of Fengzhou was hot, humid, and rainy, yielding not only bountiful harvests of grain but also birthing vast, sprawling wildernesses.

Though the rebel army had lost the three cities they had fought so hard to conquer after breaking their ranks into smaller units, they gained an immense amount of strategic depth in return.

Against the Demon Qing court's grand army of fifty thousand men, it would have been impossible for the rebels to contend had they stayed to defend the cities and territories.

A ruinous defeat would have been all but guaranteed.

Yet now, the rebels had retreated into the mountain-high, dense forests and miasma-choked wilderness; the enemy was in the light while they remained in the dark, making the tens of thousands of troops led by Ha'erchi seem quite inadequate.

Over the ensuing month, several imperial search parties were intercepted by the rebels, who used their superior numbers to launch pre-emptive ambushes, sparking a series of small-scale skirmishes.

With deliberate calculation pitted against the unwary, the rebels always outnumbered the ambushed search parties by two- or three-fold.

Once the fighting commenced, it was naturally difficult for the search parties to offer any resistance.

But that was not the most critical part; the true crux lay in the fact that the moment the rebels succeeded in a strike, they would swiftly strip the armor and weapons from the imperial soldiers before vanishing into the boundless depths of the wilderness.

This drove the imperial officers and soldiers, who initially wouldn't even look at the rebels with proper respect, utterly frantic with rage.

For after suffering such losses, they could not even find an object upon which to vent their fury!

To counter these unpredictable, elusive attacks from the rebels, Ha'erchi devised many methods, eventually going so far as to mingle martial artists from the Hell Wardens into the scouting parties to conduct entrapment operations.

Yet even so, it was as if the rebels possessed a divine eye, always able to discern accurately which of the several scouting teams was the trap.

After this happened time and again, Ha'erchi was driven to the brink of madness.

He finally ceased ordering his soldiers to search for traces of the rebels, turning instead to a scorched-earth strategy, holding fast to the walled cities in hopes of using time to starve out this rebel army that vexed him like a swarm of flies.

Deep within the mountain wilds.

Upon receiving this news, a faint smile curved the corners of Li Chang'an's mouth as he stroked his chin and murmured, "Heh, feeling the weight of what guerrilla tactics mean, are we? Don't worry, there are plenty of bigger surprises waiting for you later!"

Judging by the current state of the war, Li Chang'an did not believe the Demon Qing court possessed the capability to annihilate the Taiping Rebel Army within a short period.

Yet the established destiny revealed by the Mark of Reincarnation clearly indicated that his tenth year would be the time of his death...

If that were the case, the only possibility was that the Demon Qing court would abandon all pretense of chivalry and dispatch powerful martial artists to execute a dimensionality-reducing strike!

Aside from this unconventional method, Li Chang'an could think of no other means by which the court could bring about his demise.

Having clarified the fate he might face, Li Chang'an began once more to refocus his gaze upon his martial cultivation.

Relying on the chest of top-tier manuals from the peak era of Central Plains martial arts obtained beneath Taihu Lake, combined with his heaven-defying comprehension, Li Chang'an had forged the "Taiping Divine Body-Forging Technique."

After practicing this cultivation method, the physical fitness of the rebel army improved at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Under such circumstances, Li Chang'an's own martial realm naturally advanced by leaps and bounds; by now, the internal energy within his body had completely coalesced into a solid state, rendering him a true Martial King!

A powerful Martial King's internal energy could split mountains and shatter boulders, and ordinary men by the dozens or hundreds could not even draw near his person.

A martial artist of this realm had already begun to shed the limitations of the human concept, developing toward the immortal grace recognized by commoners as 'traveling to the Northern Sea by morning and resting at Cangwu by dusk.'

In this current era of withered martial arts, a master of the Martial King realm was entirely sufficient to guard and command an entire region.

This point could also be verified by the Banner Chief of the Hell Wardens, who oversaw the entirety of Fengzhou.

Li Chang'an was not yet nine years old, yet he had already stepped into the realm of a Martial King; reasonably speaking, there might not be a single soul in all of Fengzhou capable of threatening him.

But just because Fengzhou lacked such a figure did not mean the Imperial Capital did.

While the Martial King realm was certainly enough to reign supreme in local regions, if the enemy were the Demon Qing court, it remained utterly fragile.

What was the price paid for the withering of Central Plains martial arts?

It was that the Demon Qing court had confiscated nearly every martial cultivation method and secret manual in the Central Plains that could possibly be seized!

It was said that within the subterranean library of the Demon Qing court, known as the 'Vast Ocean,' the collected martial arts manuals and secret texts were piled so high they could scarcely fit.

One could well imagine how prosperous the royal family's martial arts must be.

The reason the fires of resistance across the realm could still exist, and had remained active for so many years without suffering total annihilation, was not because the Demon Qing court truly lacked the ability.

It was merely because the royal family could not be bothered to pay mind to a band of harmless, jumping clowns.

The waters of the royal family ran unfathomably deep; if they truly exerted themselves, they could perhaps destroy the entire present-day Central Plains martial world once over with a single hand.

All this information had been voluntarily shared with Li Chang'an by Wang Su a few days prior.

Wang Su's lineage hailed from the Sacred Cloud Daoist Temple of more than three hundred years ago, a time when martial arts flourished; unlike other martial sects that were deeply involved in worldly affairs, the Sacred Cloud Temple stood detached from the world to focus solely on cultivation, and thus had not been heavily impacted by that bloody slaughter.

Though the inheritance of the Sacred Cloud Temple had grown weaker and weaker over the past century, by the time it reached his generation, it had at least avoided being completely extinguished.

It was precisely for this reason that the old Daoist understood the terror of the Demon Qing court far better than the other sects of the Central Plains!

"I have told you in the past that this path is far more difficult to tread than you imagine, and far harder than most people in this world could ever conceive!"

Looking at the increasingly heroic young man before him, the expression on the old Daoist's face bore a touch of gratification.

He could not help but sigh, saying, "Chang'an, with your talent, had you been born in the Central Plains martial world of three hundred years ago, you would surely have ascended to the absolute peak, leading the glory of Central Plains martial arts for decades or even a century!"

The old Daoist appeared to be praising Li Chang'an, but it was more an expression of his unwillingness to accept that Li Chang'an had been 'born at the wrong time.'

One could also say—his heart harbored an injustice!

This era of withered Central Plains martial arts was an absolute hell-mode difficulty for geniuses!

Li Chang'an possessed world-astonishing talent but lacked manuals; after exhausting immense effort to collect manuals, he lacked a famous master.

To have both manuals and a master, one could only choose to become a dog for the Demon Qing court.

It was truly a case of heaven envying brilliant talent!

Seeing that the old Daoist's mood seemed somewhat pessimistic, Li Chang'an offered words of comfort, asking, "Can a genius who is swayed by the era truly be called a genuine genius?"

Upon hearing this, the old Daoist merely gave a bitter smile, shaking his head as he replied, "Do you still not understand? You are not merely making an enemy of the Demon Qing court now; you are making an enemy of the entire Central Plains martial world of three hundred years ago!"

Wang Su was not the type of person to grow disheartened at every turn.

Quite the contrary, he possessed a carefree character that allowed him to take things up and put them down with ease.

He not only knew the terrifying nature of the Demon Qing court, but he also knew that with his own abilities, rising in rebellion was destined to be a path of a moth rushing into a flame, a road destined never to reach the opposite shore.

Yet even so, he had still trodden it firmly.

Now, the reason he felt so despondent was that he truly saw hope in Li Chang'an—the hope of overthrowing the Demon Qing court!

This hope also kept him from wondering: if this child could only be given a little more time, would the outcome be entirely different?

Li Chang'an sensed his dilemma and pain, and could not help but smile knowingly, "Master, you need not worry for me, nor do you need to rail against fate on my behalf. You always speak of how the Central Plains martial world was three hundred years ago... but in my view, it was actually nothing more than that!"

Speaking to this point, his voice paused.

His gaze shifted toward the rebel army not far away, who were felling trees and setting up camp, as well as those few disciples within the rebel ranks who still bore an air of innocence but possessed a fortitude completely unbefitting of children their age.

With high spirits, he declared, "Just watch closely. I will let you see what true martial prosperity looks like, where every soul is like a dragon! Even if I fall midway and cannot reach the opposite shore, someone will take the spark from my hands and walk on with unyielding resolve, bound to restore a bright and clear world to this realm!"

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