"Finally... It"s over?"
Within the rubble, Yu Jian crawled out. He was left stunned as he witnessed the burning inferno and the blood everywhere.
"Yup... It"s over!"
Li Hu finally let go of his knife. Looking at the glowing walls, his let out an expression of disbelief. "Who would"ve known that even Descending Star City would experience such a thing!"
"I"ve heard from Lord that..."
Yu Jian"s eyes glittered. The strength of a country is not determined by its geographical location, but by the heart of the people!"
"Heart of the people?"
Li Hu looked at the mess and was deep in his own thoughts.
"That"s right. I want to go back!"
Li Hu clenched his fist. "I want to transform our village to become the strongest, to the extent that even beasts native to the icy plains wouldn"t dare to attack us! I want to make it become the second Descending Star Country!"
This young men, for unknown reasons, had given up on the plan to move to Descending Star City and had set a new goal for himself.
"Mm... That"s good! But before that..."
Li Hu didn"t feel normal at all. "Should we treat our own injuries before meeting up with our fellow villagers?"
"Eh?"
At this point in time, Yu Jian realised that he had an open wound on his leg; so deep that even his bone could be seen. With a cry, he laid on the floor helplessly...
"So this is the city master"s mansion?"
At the same time, Fang Yuan placed his hands behind his back like the owner as he looked at the large plot of land that was under construction.
"That"s right..."
By his side, the blind Kongming was guiding him respectfully like a servant.
"Based on what I know, this is the location of all the treasure vaults of the past city masters!"
"Oh? So their all mine now!"
Fang Yuan laughed jokingly. "What do you think I should so as to take over the old city master"s influence as soon as possible?"
Kongming the G.o.dly Monk gave it a deep thought. "The old city master had two Wu Zongs as his sidekicks. However, both of them are dead now. Array masters wise, other than him, I"m the only one left, and I can convince the other spiritual disciples for you... Therefore, the only thing you have to do is to call for the high ranking officials of the city and show them your skills. Soon you will be able to rule them with fear!"
"I see!"
Fang Yuan looked around. There were already many nervous soldiers surrounding him.
"However, I think a direct method would be better!"
With the wave of his hands, the entire city master"s mansion shook.
"Roar! Roar!"
"Aw! Aw!"
The green dragon, white tiger and black tortoise all appeared, taking three corners of the mansion.
Although they worth nothing in Fang Yuan"s eyes, they were akin to the G.o.ds to the people of the city. They were the proof of power!
"What"s happening?"
"Is this... the Three Elements Spiritual Array?"
"Didn"t the city master went off to deal with the Wu Zong? Why would he be surrounding the mansion?"
There was too much commotion and many martial artists filled the mansion. All of them were at the peak of the 12th Gate and were all spiritual disciples of array masters. Seeing that Fang Yuan was the one manipulating the array, their expression changed. "Why is it you? Where"s city master?"
"City master?"
Fang Yuan smiled. "From today onwards, I am the city master! Those who follow me shall live, and those who are against me shall die! Kneel before me!"
"Crazy!"
"You"re a madman!"
"This person is possessed!"
"But why is Kongming the G.o.dly Monk following him... sh*t, we have to really kneel!"
As the high ranking officials looked at each other, none of them had a good feeling about this.
The few unimportant people at the sides were shocked and excused themselves.
"Roar!"
As the green dragon swung its tail, a 12th Gate Martial Artist was flung to the wall and became a pile of b.l.o.o.d.y mess.
"Roar! Roar!"
On the other end of the mansion, the white tiger roared and as its claws landed, it sliced through a martial artist which was attempting to run away.
"Don"t kill me, don"t kill me!"
A female martial artist knelt down. "I am willing to follow you!"
With the first, many others followed suit as they bowed down.
After a moment.
In the study, Kongming the G.o.dly Monk let out a soft sigh.
"What"s the matter? Do you think I overdid it?"
Fang Yuan was flipping through a martial arts manual. In it were the recordings of "Dragon Tiger Protective Seal". He looked up and smiled.
"The way you did it was direct and struck fear in all of them. Of course, it"s effective! However, it might be a little extreme and therefore it would be hard for you to win over their hearts for you to rule of the city properly in the future..."
Kongming the G.o.dly Monk reminded him, as though he was truly thinking for Fang Yuan"s sake.
"I understand the difference in use hard and soft tactics..."
Fang Yuan opened the windows and looked at the world outside.
If he were to stretch out his hand, the entire city would be at his disposal.
But how could this city compare to Secluded Country?
He couldn"t even care less about Secluded Country. Why would he give up his dreams and ambitions for the sake of this small city?
"How would the normal understand the ambitions of the n.o.ble..."
He shook his head and continued. "We"ll check out the treasure vault later!"
"Yes, Sir!"
Kongming the G.o.dly Monk bit on his lips and was dismissed, much to his reluctance.
Leaving Fang Yuan to the entire study, a glow appeared on his hands and a few ancient books disappeared.
"Mm... There are a few good martial arts manuals in this study, not forgetting the scrolls which detailed the techniques of casting spiritual arrays. From all of these, I can train up a spiritual array master myself... Of course, the most important would be these maps. They would allow me to figure out the rest of the path to Da Qian Empire..."
After reaping from the study, Fang Yuan arrived at the city master"s treasure vault.
This was almost half of all the treasures the city master once had.
However, it was a pity that Fang Yuan were not appreciative of most of the treasure.
"Eh?"
At one corner, he discovered a small surprise.
"Is this.... an Elemental Crystal?
It was the size of his thumb and was translucent, and the discovery brought much joy to Fang Yuan.
This was a commonly used treasure in the martial arts world of Da Qian Empire. It had the ability to quickly replenish a Wu Zong or spiritual knights elemental energy, and could also be the energy source for arrays or spiritual weapons. Therefore, it was highly sought after.
"Although its quality seems average and it can only be considered a low-grade elemental crystal, the good thing is that there is a lot of it. These few thousands of it is worth quite a fortune if I remember correctly in Yang Fan"s memories... let"s move it all out!"
With the Mountain River Pearl in hand, Fang Yuan kept everything that was there.
"Even if it was rubbish, it would have its value. Anyway, I have an infinite storage s.p.a.ce in the Mountain River Pearl, and I"ll just put in everything that I can..."
When Kongming the G.o.dly Monk returned, he was stunned. Even a beggar would cry if he entered the treasure vault now.
"City master, you..."
Although he was blind, he had a strong spiritual will and knew what had happened. "You don"t have to do this even if you had a spiritual treasure that could store items, right?"
"Alright!"
Fang Yuan was satisfied. With a mischievous look, he continued. "By using my authority as the city master of Descending Star City, I will now give my first order!"
"Yes, Sir!"
Kongming suddenly became serious as he bowed.
"Mm, I shall appoint you as the city master. When I"m not around, you shall handle everything in Descending Star City!"
With the wave of his hand, a glow appeared from the ground. The asteroid appeared, and it became imprinted with Kongming"s spiritual aura as well.
In reality, this was giving him the authority to manipulate the Four Elements Spiritual Array.
"What? You"re leaving?"
Kongming had already guessed it from the beginning and could confirm it now.
Fang Yuan did not care about the state of the city as he was about to leave!
However, he did not keep the asteroid with him, and this was a sign that he had given the city dwellers a chance to live on.
"Of course... Descending Star City cannot satisfy my ambitions!"
Fang Yuan waved his hands and left without hesitation.
"Eh..."
Kongming"s eye socket looked at Fang Yuan as he left, and he sighed.
It was envious to see how Fang Yuan could be unmoved by external enticements.
It was a pity that he was a monk and therefore could never reach the stage that Fang Yuan was at.
If h.e.l.l was not empty, he would not become a G.o.d peacefully! This was not only an oath, it was also his way of living!
Outside Descending Star City.
Fang Yuan opened up a piece of map.
This was from the personal collection of the old city master and was much more detailed than the one he gave to Fang Yuan previously.
"To reach Da Qian, I will have to traverse through 13 Dangers. Among these 13 Dangers, only three are suitable for people to live in. These places have their own city lakes and are the Vast Desert, the Death Corridor, and the h.e.l.l of Thousand Ghosts..."
Fang Yuan shook his head.
The ancestors of the old city master and Kongming the G.o.dly Monk were the group of migrants who settled down the furthest from Da Qian Empire. They were only an icy gorge away from the mainland in the South but were thousands of miles away from Da Qian.
"As long as I know the direction to head towards, it"s alright!"
Fang Yuan was extremely confident about this.
He had made it through the most arduous icy gorge. If the ancestors of Descending Star City could make it through the 13 Dangers, he should not have much problem doing the same.
"Let"s go!"
Taking one last look at Descending Star City, Fang Yuan turned his back and left.
At the gates.
Yu Jian and Li Hu were escorting goods out of the city. With a look of grief, they too slowly left the city.
Although they had received help from an anonymous benefactor which helped them sell their goods and even receive a huge amount of compensation, a few villagers still died gruesomely from the disaster which struck the city.
In response, a group of villagers could only keep their corpse properly. No one was in the mood to talk about revenge, and the entire caravan back was solemn.
"Ah... this is all fate!"
Li Hu sighed. "Let"s go! Even though some of our villagers have died, we will still split the profits and earnings with their families!"
"Naturally!"
The other villagers would also hope for their families to receive their share if they were the ones to be met with unfortunate incidents. Therefore, all of them agreed and gave an appreciative look towards Li Hu.
As the leader, Li Hu seemed matured. Looking at Yu Jian, he commented. "Let"s go, stop reading your book..."
"Oh, alright!"
From the incidents, Yu Jian had also matured. Closing the book, his hands were still s.h.i.+vering. "I"m coming!"
In his heart, he was utterly shocked. "Martial arts manual! This is much more impressive than the ones in the village! Indeed, treasures are only found in dangers..."
Looking at Descending Star City for the final time, he had mixed emotions. "Descending Star City... I will be back!"