Chapter 1 The Snowstorm Below the Mountain

Snow fell heavily on the mountain, and the wolves howled.

In Su Zhou's spiritual vision, he could see teams of demonic soldiers mixed with strange life auras from all directions, approaching cautiously, step by step.

"The beasts carrying wood qi, and the aura of animated spirit plants similar to wood centipedes, should be led by the demon general 'Beastmaster.' Its wolf beasts smell the fragrance on you that was tampered with by Grandmaster Han."

Knowing that he was surrounded, Su Zhou's expression did not change. He lifted his spirit iron cross spear, leaped up, and jumped onto a tree to survey his surroundings. He could vaguely see black shadows flashing through the forest in the distance. "The demon army is very clever… If we don't appear, they'll hunt down the migrants. If we appear, they'll start surrounding us—it's always a win for them."

"The informant even told them that I have very strong spiritual vision, so their forces must be very far apart. I could only find four 'scouts' until they confirmed that they had encountered us, and then they began to encircle us."

He then descended from the tree and reassured Zhou Buyi and the others, who looked serious and were preparing to break through the encirclement, "Don't worry too much. The demonic soldiers underestimated my strength. There are too few of them, and the forces in each direction are not enough. We can easily break out."

"Unless we're unlucky and encounter a demon general who holds me back, and then a second demon general comes to besiege us, but…"

"Boom!"

Su Zhou was speaking, but the next moment, he heard intense cannon fire.

Boom boom boom!

Continuous cannon fire sounded, accompanied by a shrill whistling. Cannonballs began to fall randomly over a large area—because the gunner did not know where the enemy was, there was no order. Two-fist-sized solid cannonballs fell randomly, interrupting Su Zhou, who had been about to explain his plan.

*Gan*, how did cannons suddenly appear in a *wuxia* world?!

For a moment, even Su Zhou forgot what he was going to say, and one couldn't just stay in the enemy's artillery bombardment zone, right? Immediately, the four people immediately chose a direction that would not directly return to the mountain, which might encounter a demon general blocking their way, and then began to break through with all their strength.

"It's the demon army's *zhenqi* cannon!"

While speeding through the forest, Liu Xizhao explained softly. She seemed to know more about it, and also seemed to want to make up for her guilt for being used, causing her teammates to fall into danger. She also planned to explain in detail to Su Zhou, who theoretically ran out of the deep mountains, "Grandmaster Su may not know, but the *zhenqi* cannon is…"

"Thank you, but I may know something about this, no need to explain." Su Zhou politely stopped the heroine's explanation—how could a modern person not know about cannons? Compared to panic, he was more surprised: "I guess so, the technology here is not as low as I imagined. There are *zhenqi* contraptions, so it's not surprising to have a *zhenqi* cannon."

—Moreover, the cannonballs that fell earlier didn't seem to be very powerful. The speed was probably only one or two hundred meters per second. It should be the 'zhenqi furnace' type, a strange mechanism driven by internal force martial artists, not the gunpowder cannonballs I imagined.

While Su Zhou was thinking, Zhou Buyi wasn't very panicked either. He took over Liu Xizhao's words and continued to explain, "Grandmaster Su, the *zhenqi* cannon is not a big threat. Martial artists or grandmasters who have reached 'Mind's Eye Clarity' can avoid it in advance or even block it head-on, and the means of firing the cannon are cumbersome, requiring a long time to fill with internal energy… The barrage just now was probably just to force us to start moving, not giving us a chance to think."

As soon as he heard these words, Su Zhou immediately stopped—and the other three were forced to stop as well, looking puzzled.

"Amitabha, Benefactor Su…" Monk Fang Hui spoke first, seemingly wanting to ask why he suddenly stopped.

But Su Zhou clicked his tongue, "Too late—there are only four directions. The mobility of the demon army's two demon generals can block two of them. Provoked by the cannon fire, we subconsciously won't turn back and run towards the migrants, and we can't run in the opposite direction away from Mount Taibai. Naturally, we won't run directly back to the mountain, or towards the direction of the demon army's main force, which is most likely to have demon generals intercepting or firing cannons."

"Brother Buyi is right, the cannon fire is not an attack, it's just to make us start moving, not allowing us to think."

Saying this, Su Zhou gripped the great spear in his right hand, while his left hand stretched out in front of him, seemingly holding something in the air. In an instant, the head *lan* armor was activated, and the young grandmaster said in a deep voice, "I have already seen the spiritual energy."

"The demon general is in front."

"If that's the case, then there's no other way." Hearing this, Zhou Buyi and the others also revealed solemn expressions. Liu Xizhao drew her long knife and neatly swallowed a scarlet pill, while the warrior monk Fang Hui and Zhou Buyi both took out two hard candy-like spirit medicines and directly pressed them under their tongues. Saliva moistened them, and the medicinal power began to slowly spread. The three people's eyes revealed a ruthless meaning: "We can only fight to the death!"

At this time, the four people could see waves of churning snow dust rapidly approaching in the distance, and along with it came the increasingly clear and ear-piercing wolf howls!

"It hasn't reached that point… Listen, you guys deal with the miscellaneous soldiers later, and I'll deal with the demon general."

Su Zhou, who had no intention of playing a chase game with the other party, stared at the cyan-black aura mass in his spiritual vision, which was much larger than that of the demon general Chidi, but more loose—holding 'Chidi's Evil Soul' in one hand, and gripping the spear shaft tightly in the other, his expression was not nervous, but rather calm and composed as he waited, and told a cold joke, "Also, interrupted by the cannon fire earlier, I haven't finished my words yet."

"If we encounter a demon general, then there's no need to be afraid. As long as we kill it before the second demon general surrounds us, then there won't be any problems."

The area where the four stopped was a relatively open forest clearing, and under the gray and gloomy sky, in the shadows of the snow-covered forest covered with snow, pairs of green eyes lit up. One after another, gray wolves with their backs covered in tree roots, as if wrapped in a layer of wooden armor, emerged from the shadows and surrounded Su Zhou and the others, who were standing in a square formation.

"Awoo—"

They howled, exhaling white hot air and baring their fangs. Their sharp claws clawed at the ground, easily scratching deep marks in the ice and frozen earth, looking extremely ferocious.

Immediately afterwards, with a gust of evil wind blowing, accompanied by continuous cracking sounds, pine trees along the way were directly and rudely broken and fell. Scattered snow dust and light brown pollen filled the air, and a green centipede that was as thick as two people galloped like a high-speed train, and then suddenly stopped in front of the waiting crowd!

It could be seen that on the back of this green wood centipede, which was a size larger than the wood centipede Su Zhou encountered at the beginning, was a semi-human figure—it was a ferocious human figure that had been completely petrified, without a nose, mouth, or ears, leaving only six scarlet eyeballs inlaid in the head. Its dark green hair was disheveled, its arms tightly gripped two cavalry sabers, and seven long leaves grew out of its back.

"Bleep—zzz—beep!"

"Awoo!!"

On the back of this humanoid, air vents were exhaling rhythmically, blowing the leaves and causing them to vibrate, emitting all kinds of sharp whistles that ordinary people could not tolerate or hear. And with the sound of this sharp whistle, all the wood-armored gray wolves that had been staying in place all let out excited and bloodthirsty howls, and the giant wood centipede's mandibles also bit hard, making 'kaka' sounds, shaking its whole body armor, and its aura became even more ferocious!

—Demon General Beastmaster!

And the next moment, seemingly having finished giving instructions and saying some mocking words, the demon general Beastmaster waved his cavalry saber, and all the wolf packs, along with the green wood centipede, rushed towards the crowd like a tide!

However, before they launched their attack, Su Zhou, who had been waiting, had already completed all his combat preparations.

[Undead Demon General Chidi's Evil Soul]

[After use, it can be transformed into a spirit attachment of 'Chidi's Demon Poison' through spiritual burning, and attached to all equipment props.]

Cyan-purple demonic fire wrapped around the evil soul in his left hand. Su Zhou felt his 'Devouring Demon Lord's' cold supernatural demonic fire transforming the evil soul into a ball of violently tumbling black-scarlet spirituality. He brazenly pressed this after-burned spirituality directly onto the tip of the great spear in his hand. A poisonous spiritual glow flashed, and mysterious patterns flowed.

Zhou Buyi glanced at the glow out of the corner of his eye. His heart, which was beating more and more violently under the impetus of the 'Yiyong Candy' medicinal power, suddenly felt a burst of palpitation. The instinct of his bloodline was rapidly warning him to stay away from that 'poisonous' thing!

At this moment, Su Zhou really didn't feel any tension at all, but rather full of eagerness to try.

Surrounded? Intercepted? No, no, no… Sometimes, people can't tell who is the stronger party—when did the act of dispersing one's strength, and then gradually encircling after discovering the target, be called 'oppression'?

If they gathered into a military formation and pressed forward head-on, it might make his head ache, but if it was now, if the demon general Beastmaster brought such a group of wolf cubs and took the initiative to pounce on him…

Su Zhou preferred to call this act: Transport Captain.

Buzz! The evil soul spirit attachment had been completely successful. A layer of black-scarlet dim lines and luster appeared on the mountain above the dark green spear tip. Su Zhou laughed and swung the spear in his hand, and then, without hesitation, he took a step and charged towards the demon general Beastmaster, who was riding the wood centipede!

Seemingly inspired by this behavior, Zhou Buyi and the others also roared and swung the sharp blades and long sticks in their hands at the wood-armored demon wolves that were rushing like a tide!

The demon general Beastmaster's charge alone had the aura of an entire cavalry unit. The green wood centipede's huge and swift movements were far superior to fierce horses in the snow, but Su Zhou's speed was not slow either—the solid frozen soil of the northeast mountains was cracked under his feet. Su Zhou, who was charging head-on at the enemy, leaped up directly at the moment when he was about to be bitten in half by the wood centipede's mandibles, stepping on the other party's head, and stabbing the human-shaped head straight with a spear!

Bang! Su Zhou's spear pierced the air with a sonic boom, but the demon general Beastmaster did not dodge or avoid it. Its two thickened cavalry sabers also slashed directly at Su Zhou's chest, abdomen, and legs at the same time, intending to exchange injuries for injuries!

—Fool, my human form is just a target, it's just to lure you rigid martial artists who are still obsessed with human forms!

The demon general, who had already given up 'language' as a means of communication with humans, coldly flashed a mocking thought in his mind, but a moment later, it was shocked to find that the young grandmaster, who seemed to be charging fiercely, had actually retained 30% of his strength. He lifted his internal force, and his whole body rose several feet out of thin air, directly crossing over the slash of his cavalry saber from above, dodging it lightly!

But also, because he temporarily burst out his internal energy to change his position, the flying star spear, which was originally aggressive and seemed to explode the enemy's head, became a light stab. It pierced the demon general Beastmaster's left arm as if skimming the water.

*Hoo*—the confrontation was only in an instant. The two people confronted each other in one round, but neither caused any damage to the other. The giant wood centipede immediately stopped and turned, countless segments inserted into the snow and the ground, directly a big tail flick, bringing up the sky of snow at the same time, then turned successfully, again facing the young figure that was lightly falling on the ground not far away.

"What is this? Are you playing with me?"

The demon general Beastmaster's six scarlet eyes flashed with a puzzled light. He saw the smile hanging on the corner of Su Zhou's mouth, and felt inexplicable in his heart.

But just as the demon general was preparing to continue attacking, it suddenly felt something was wrong, its whole body felt a little wrong.

—Its arm was paralyzed?!