Bayue Weiban

Chapter 435 Slaying the Rebels

"Master... why are they..."

Zhao Yuebai pointed to the scene before them, though he already had an answer in his heart.

"Their homes were burned, their parents, wives, children, and friends were all brutally slain by the blades of these executioners."

Ji Yuan had appeared, standing beside Zhao Yuebai, his face complex as he sighed. "Only by doing this can they vent the fury in their hearts."

He was silent for a moment, then casually sent out several sword energies, controlling them to sever the ropes on more than twenty people.

After a quarter of an hour, once all the rebel soldiers stopped breathing, the people who had been captured gradually ceased their frenzied actions.

Everyone fell into silence. Then, as if one person started it, the strong young men suddenly began to weep uncontrollably. Some boys, no older than twelve or thirteen, even wailed loudly, clutching their heads.

Ji Yuan sighed deeply, silently formed hand seals, and cast the 'Divine Rain and Sweet Dew Curse' along with the Mind Calming and Soul Soothing Art, scattering gentle rays of light upon everyone.

The former healed minor injuries and restored some strength, while the latter soothed their minds, preventing them from succumbing to excessive grief and mental breakdown.

"Thank you... thank you both, immortal masters!"

Several of the older, strong men, their steps unsteady, came before the two and prostrated themselves on the ground.

The more than ten people behind them followed suit, some even crawling on all fours across the ground, pressing their foreheads to the earth.

Ji Yuan gently shook his head and sent out several pulses of spiritual energy to lift the people before him.

He then used his spiritual energy to retrieve the dry rations and water skins from the rebel soldiers, handing them to the people before him.

"Go home now."

He thought for a moment, and this was all he could say.

However, the group lowered their heads even deeper. Some looked around blankly, silent tears falling from their eyes.

They... no longer had homes...

"To the southeast, there is an abandoned village. If you have nowhere else to go, you can go there to rest temporarily."

Ji Yuan pointed in a direction, towards a place near the woods where a village had been abandoned for over ten years.

Within the rebel-controlled territory, it should be a relatively safe place for these people to rest for a while.

As for what would happen in the future, that would depend on their own plans.

After watching the more than twenty people leave with desolate figures, Ji Yuan then brought Zhao Yuebai back on their journey.

They followed the official road and before sunset, found two more rebel groups, similar in size to those they had encountered earlier.

Zhao Yuebai took action successively, first killing the accompanying cultivators, then targeting the panicked rebels.

In these two encounters, they rescued over fifty young men and boys, though only a very small number still had homes to return to.

Most of them had lost their homes and loved ones in the flames of war, and in the end, could only follow Ji Yuan's guidance to the abandoned village to the southeast.

"Master, when we leave, can we take these people with us?"

As the sky gradually darkened, Zhao Yuebai suddenly looked up and asked.

Hearing this, Ji Yuan nodded. Even if his disciple hadn't brought it up, he had been thinking about how to take these homeless people back to the vicinity of Linfu County.

To remain in this place was to eventually be found by the rebels, captured to be conscripted, forced to join the army, or enslaved as tools.

The night passed without incident. The next morning, Ji Yuan continued to lead Zhao Yuebai in searching for rebels near Shilong County.

Throughout the entire day, they found seven rebel groups, though their numbers were smaller, only around twenty to thirty people each, and none were accompanied by cultivators.

From these rebels, they rescued a total of over a hundred people, including not only captured young men but also many elderly, weak, women, and children.

Seeing this, Ji Yuan's expression inevitably grew somber. This situation made it easy to guess that the rebels ahead were severely short of manpower, otherwise, they wouldn't be capturing the elderly and children.

By the third day, large-scale rebel groups were rarely seen, and the number of accompanying cultivators had also increased significantly.

On the fourth and fifth days, each rebel group had at least fifty people, with seven or eight accompanying cultivators, and the distance between each group was no more than five to ten li.

During one of Zhao Yuebai's attacks, the other party immediately launched signal flares, drawing the surrounding rebels to converge.

This time, even Ji Yuan had to intervene, killing the rebel soldiers before him at the fastest speed, and then breaking out with Zhao Yuebai.

In the process, they encountered several cultivators in the late stage of the second realm. They were all from various sects, and although they didn't pose a great threat, they certainly caused considerable trouble.

Furthermore, after breaking out, Ji Yuan even sensed the aura of a third-realm cultivator from afar, clearly the one stationed in Shilong County.

The continuous killing of rebels for several days, and doing so without any scruples, naturally alerted the enemy, who then mobilized their forces to encircle and suppress them.

"Let's go back to Shilong County!"

Ji Yuan's eyes flashed, knowing that the time had come.

He led Zhao Yuebai back to the county town and indeed found that the number of rebels in the city had significantly decreased, now only a mere two to three hundred.

More than half of them were holed up near the county government office, with only a small portion gathered at the warehouse where supplies were stored.

Among the cultivators stationed there, besides one in the late stage of the Spirit Sealing realm, the other five were all at the early to middle stages of cultivation.

Judging by their appearance, they likely belonged to the same sect.

Ji Yuan had Zhao Yuebai hide in the shadows, while he himself chose to personally act, using thunderous methods to kill the cultivators guarding the area and dozens of rebel soldiers.

"There's so much stuff, how are we going to take it all away?"

Zhao Yuebai looked at the mountains of supplies and was momentarily troubled.

Relying solely on the Mountain River Pouch, even Ji Yuan's Rainbow Cloud Jade Pendant could not take all the supplies.

At best, it could hold one or two-tenths, and that would already be quite difficult.

After all, it was gathered from hundreds of li around, and some of it was intercepted from the direction of Linfu County.

However, Ji Yuan looked on without the slightest bit of worry. He released his natal flying sword, and wherever it passed, the mountain-like supplies vanished.

This white jade flying sword, refined by a great master using a thousand-mile jade vein and ten thousand-year jade marrow, contained a vast space within it, enough to be called a small world.

Let alone holding the supplies here, even several times more would be no problem.

Furthermore, as Ji Yuan refined this flying sword further, the world within it became even more expansive, and it could even hold living beings without issue.

This was a significant difference from ordinary storage artifacts.