Chapter 1 Contemporary Confucian Sage

The contemporary Confucian Sage was named Lu An, courtesy name Chengping. He was one hundred and nineteen years old, born during the reign of King Xiao of the An Dynasty. Originally, he was an ordinary Confucian scholar. When he went to the capital to take the imperial examination, he happened to encounter a seriously injured chivalrous man, offered him a helping hand, and received his cultivation method as inheritance.

Lu Chengping's talent was mediocre, and he didn't take martial arts very seriously at first, treating it only as a way to increase his spirit and assist in his studies. After all, his wholehearted dedication was to burning the midnight oil to study the words of the sages, for the sake of cultivating himself, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world, not to become a martial artist who only knew how to wield the three-foot sword in his hand.

With his talent, Lu Chengping was confident in becoming a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial exam), serving the country, being benevolent to the people, governing a region, and becoming a good official loved by the people… At least, that was what he thought at the time.

That year was the second year of Yongning. King Xiao had passed away not long ago, and the new emperor was revitalizing the court, opening the Enke (special imperial examination) to select talented people. Lu Chengping bid farewell to his wife and young children, who had just given birth, and to his elderly mother at home. After respectfully offering incense and kowtowing several times in the ancestral hall, he set off with his luggage.

Along the way, he felt quite strange. First of all, almost all the carriages and horses on the road were heading to Nantianjing (Southern Capital), but there was no flow of people leaving Nantianjing. Moreover, at the checkpoints and docks along the way, there were teams of black-armored Imperial Guards patrolling, seemingly supervising something.

Lu Chengping was still a Confucian scholar at that time, and his martial arts cultivation was not good, but he could see that those Imperial Guards basically had a rather strange 'qi' about them… How to put it? It wasn't quite like people. That qi was more like that of plants, and vaguely revealed a strange sense of danger to him.

At that time, Lu Chengping was not as sharp-minded and perceptive as he was now. Although he felt that something was wrong, he still boarded the official ship and began his journey to Nantianjing by waterway—the so-called sense of danger was probably just the authority of the government, after all, who wasn't afraid of these armored soldiers?

Because it was a ferry operated by the government, there were naturally Imperial Guards on board. Moreover, the atmosphere on the ship was very strange. Whether it was the crew or the guards, they all looked at the passengers with strange, smiling eyes, being unusually enthusiastic for ordinary official boatmen—at that time, he thought it was preferential treatment for the scholars taking the examination and was quite pleased with himself.

Until that day.

"I'm so thirsty."

On the day when Nantianjing could already be seen in the distance, Lu Chengping heard an Imperial Guard utter such a suppressed voice, as if he could no longer endure it: "No, I'll just eat one… just one!"

When Lu Chengping heard this, he wanted to chuckle, thinking that these martial men were indeed not strong-willed, unable to endure even a small desire for food… But what did he want to eat? Fruit?

He was lightly contemplating the problem when he saw that the Imperial Guard, whose voice was becoming increasingly hoarse and strange, pounced on a merchant beside him in the next instant, opened his mouth wide, and bit into the other's neck!

Swish—vines danced, and roots spread. The merchant wanted to scream, but he lost his breath in an instant—and under Lu Chengping's incredibly horrified gaze, the merchant's body immediately turned into skin and bones as flesh and blood writhed. The aura on the Imperial Guard's body soared, and then began to slowly transform into wood qi, merging into the world.

Then, there was a revelry—"Zhang Lao Er (Old Two) has already eaten one, let's eat too!" "Anyway, as long as we send enough back, no one will care if we eat a few on the sly." "Eat, eat, hahaha!"

Lu Chengping didn't remember very clearly how he escaped from this official ship full of malice and murderous intent and returned to his hometown in a daze. He only knew that even if he tried his best to explode with power at that time, he couldn't kill even one demon soldier. Even escaping was very difficult. The other party was just too lazy to go into the water to chase him and simply fired a few arrows from a distance.

"No, this world is going to be in chaos!" Lu Chengping, who was incognito and planning to return to his hometown, was extremely terrified. He saw beacon fires rising in the towns along the way, and teams of people with strange auras rushing into the cities. Then, the sound of killing and wailing resounded throughout the cities—seeing this, even a fool would know that the world was about to change, and why it would change, why the world would suddenly change after three generations of peace without any foreign enemies… The words of the sages had never taught him this.

He didn't understand.

Worried about his elderly mother, wife, and young children in his hometown, Lu Chengping sped along the way, but human strength was really too slow. He only regretted that he had disdained practicing martial arts in the past and had not carefully studied qinggong (light body technique). But what was the use of regret now?

When he rushed back to his hometown, his hometown had already been reduced to a burnt ruin.

Corpses, ruins, charred bones, scattered limbs, fragments of skulls that had been chopped off and even crushed… How could Lu Chengping not know what had happened to this once prosperous town? He just couldn't believe it. Lu Chengping roared and ran to his own home, which had also been reduced to ruins. He pried open the collapsed bricks and stones. The man didn't want to find anything. He just wanted to see nothing, so that he could at least deceive himself and tell himself that they had escaped from here and hadn't…

However, he found them.

Two charred and shriveled female corpses that had been scorched by the high temperature, and a small corpse that had been casually discarded in a corner, seemingly crushed alive.

Who was it?

More than seventy years had passed, and Lu Chengping, who was already white-haired, still had vivid memories of that moment… The king led beasts to eat people, led beasts to eat people! He didn't truly understand what Mencius had said until then.

His home was destroyed, his country was destroyed, his nation was destroyed, the world was in mourning. Who could he devote his learning to? What was the meaning of cultivating oneself, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world?

And who, with what method, could pacify this world that had already been ravaged by demons?

Boom! Above the sky, thunder roared. The tall contemporary Confucian Sage stood at the bow of a zhenqi (true energy) airship, and the wind mixed with the rain beat against his clothes, just like those days many years ago when he ran wildly in the wind and rain.

This cold and humid rain reminded the Confucian Sage of his most painful memories. He shook his head slightly, clearing his mind, and then looked around.

Engines roared, propellers whirred. A total of twelve huge zhenqi airships were flying under the clouds, making a huge noise.

Amidst the rolling dark clouds, torrential rain poured down like a curtain of water from the gray-black rain clouds. On the twelve zhenqi airships, dense figures with neiqi (inner energy) auras stood on the ship's edge, overlooking the huge pass below them, and the ships and soldiers that were also beginning to gather on the opposite bank of the river.

Nanjiang Tianguan (Southern River Heavenly Pass).

Nearly eighty years later.

The Confucian Sage Lu Chengping once again embarked on the journey to Nantianjing—with 120,000 righteous soldiers, 1,124 Houtian (Acquired Realm) martial artists, 17 Grandmasters, and three Great Grandmasters, embarking on a journey called 'Acting on behalf of Heaven' and 'Pacifying the World'!

And this time, what he had to do was to reduce that city and the demon tree, along with the demon emperor who had already fallen into the Avici Hell, all to ashes!

"—The Emperor—is wicked!"

It could be heard that on the opposite bank of the river, among the neatly arranged army, a martial artist's angry roar rang out: "—The common people—are suffering!"

In the next instant, voices echoing the slogans below rang out on the twelve zhenqi airships.

"—We, the Hundred Schools—act on behalf of Heaven—to eliminate demons and destroy rebellion!"

In the distance, it could be seen that demon soldiers were gathering on the Nanjiang Tianguan. Siege weapons were being pushed onto the walls, and warships were being released from the pass's city gates, confronting the Hundred Schools' righteous army across the river. They were also shouting slogans, and demon generals were also controlling spirit plant demon beasts to soar into the sky, trying to stop the advance of these twelve zhenqi airships.

But their voices were too small, too small, barely audible.

At this moment, the shouts of 100,000 righteous soldiers shook the clouds: "After this, we will pacify the world, quell the chaos, for the sake of all the people in this world—"

Whoosh—on the four core zhenqi airships, four beams of neiqi light suddenly lit up. That was the neiqi light of the four Great Grandmasters. Their power was like a horn that guided the attack, igniting the flames of war in an instant!

"Rebuild! Peace!"

"Fire!" The Dao Sage's voice was like a thunderclap, and the violent sound waves spread throughout the battlefield with the dance of the raging wind: "Release the bombs!"

Along with this order, the lower ends of the twelve zhenqi airships all revealed a gap, and one after another, huge shuttle-shaped iron bombs fell straight down, whistling as they broke through the air, falling towards the Nanjiang Tianguan!

Boom! At the moment when the iron bombs fell and shattered, countless red and white phosphorus powder exploded out, and then, a pure fire spirit power leaped up from the core of the bombs, instantly igniting a raging fire within a radius of tens of meters, bringing dazzling fire and heat!

Dozens, hundreds of phosphorus fire iron bombs fell, crashing down on the originally impregnable Nanjiang Tianguan, turning the entire pass into a forest of flames in an instant. The dazzling flames persisted even in the pouring rain, bringing countless demon soldiers' miserable screams!

Moreover, it wasn't just these—in the riverside positions, dozens of trebuchets and several times that number of zhenqi cannons rose up within the Hundred Schools' positions. Although these trebuchets were called trebuchets, they were not loaded with large stones enough to destroy the city walls this time. Instead, they carried containers filled with a black, viscous liquid.

The trebuchets launched at the same moment that the Nanjiang Tianguan was ignited by the flames, hurling hundreds of jars of black liquid onto the demon army's warships—then, the zhenqi cannons fired, the phosphorus fire exploded, and the same fire spirit power erupted again, instantly setting the entire river ablaze, turning half of the river into a burning hell!

For a time, only the demon army's miserable cries for death echoed across the battlefield in the raging fire hell… But all of this could not stop the righteous army's frantic attacks, but rather sounded like the drums of war, driving them madly forward!

Above the burning world, in the roaring, boiling Nanjiang River, the Hundred Schools' righteous army launched their final war against the demon dynasty. Martial artists rode in huge flying airships driven by zhenqi furnaces, dropping burning phosphorus fire and pouring black fuel, turning the entire Nanjiang Tianguan into a sea of fire in an instant!

They came for revenge, for righteousness, for the peace of the world, vowing to turn the entire New Nantianjing and the Divine Tree Undying Pan Rong into ashes!

But even so, the demon dynasty was not without means of resistance… Along with angry shouts, along with the shaking of the forests behind the Nanjiang Tianguan, extraordinarily tall trees wriggled, pulled up their roots, and transformed into huge banyan tree giants, striding towards the front lines—these thirty-meter-tall banyan tree giants were covered with wooden centipedes, like living armor. They pulled up the trees along the way, sharpened their hands, and turned them into sharp wooden spears.

Then, these city-guarding giant demon generals, cultivated by the power of the Divine Tree, aimed their wooden spears at the zhenqi airships high in the sky. They waved them with all their might, bombarding the sky, intending to smash those annoying airships that were releasing the sea of fire to the ground!

In such a battlefield filled with flames, demonic qi, and strange demon spirit plants, Su Zhou stood at the forefront of an airship, and in the howling wind of the propellers, in the lightning that constantly flashed in the clouds in the sky, in the pattering of the torrential rain on the deck, his blue-purple vertical pupils scanned the earth.

The demon hunter silently smiled.

In this storm, he could hear countless voices, whether it was the Hundred Schools' righteous army's earth-shattering war cries or the demon army's strict commands, he could hear them all. All of this information converged in his mind, allowing Su Zhou to perceive everything without having to 'see'.

"Watch out for the impact!"

His ears twitched. Su Zhou turned his head, his gaze piercing through the dark clouds and rain, and saw the danger that was coming—Su Zhou loudly announced to the martial artists behind him: "We're going to prepare to land!"

And in the next instant, a huge wooden spear suddenly took flight from behind the Tianguan. It was like a sharp thorn soaring into the sky, wanting to poke a hole in the clouds, and it sped towards the airship where Su Zhou was with a violent wind!

On the outer layer of the zhenqi airship, the huge lanfeng yunwen (gale wind cloud patterns) suddenly lit up. Although this shield, which was originally used to block the high-altitude wind, shattered in response to the wooden spear's bombardment, it also shifted the wooden spear's aim, causing it to brush past the airship—in an instant, in accordance with Su Zhou's order, the huge airship made a dangerous arc, like a large meteorite, and fell towards the bottom!

Immediately afterwards, the other eleven airships that had finished throwing the fire bombs followed Su Zhou's airship, carrying a thousand martial artists, and descended at the same time!

However, before the airship landed, a figure had already jumped directly from a height of several hundred meters—Su Zhou spread his arms, laughed loudly, and jumped directly from the top of the airship. A blue-purple lan shield lit up around his body, and the power of feng zhu (wind assist) was activated, not only not slowing down his falling speed, but also accelerating it, rapidly increasing the speed of his fall!

Falling with the rain, even faster than the rain, faster than the wind!

It could be seen that the place where Su Zhou was pouncing was a huge banyan tree giant. This banyan tree giant had just thrown a wooden spear, and was now searching for a suitable tree on the ground, preparing to continue throwing and bombarding. But suddenly, a violent alarm rang in its heart, which had become rigid due to its assimilation with the giant tree.

The giant raised its head, and was stunned to see a small figure falling rapidly towards it. One of his hands was pressed against his waist, on the hilt of a divine saber that was blooming with fire and lightning.

Su Zhou made eye contact with the banyan tree giant, whose face was filled with shock. He felt the raging winds and torrents around him, held the divine saber that could destroy immortality, and called upon thunder and fire. He showed a grin that could be described as ferocious to the familiar, huge, but 'weak' figure in front of him.

"Demon General—"

Time seemed to freeze, and only the saber light, like thunder and flames, flashed and disappeared.

Boom! Su Zhou landed on the ground with a roar that collapsed the ground. Even with the power of feng zhu, he directly smashed a half-meter-deep pit in the muddy ground!

And behind him, a golden-red fire line appeared on the body of the huge banyan tree giant—in the next instant, the fire line exploded, and the banyan tree giant burst into flames in a miserable wail, turning into a torch!

After that, a huge zhenqi airship fell in the storm, crushing the banyan tree giant's burning corpse under the bottom of the ship, grinding it into powder!

"Hurry up."

Su Zhou laughed heartily. He picked up a dark green evil soul with one hand, and then swallowed it in one gulp—The Devouring Demon Master urged the martial artists behind him, who were constantly jumping out of the airship: "Our goal is to rush to the cloud palace and kill that dog emperor!"

"The divine saber can't wait to drink the demon emperor's blood!"