Chaotic Times and Disasters: I Hunt Down Martial Arts Masters and Become a God

Fu Qing stayed at home for three days.

He didn't go anywhere for the past three days. He left the affairs of the military camp to Han Yue and Ma Xiong, and stayed under the jujube tree by himself.

Song Yawei's belly was so big that she had great difficulty moving around. She had to hold onto Fu Qing's arm to stand up from the recliner.

Song Nini is doing alright; her belly is smaller than her sister's, and she walks quite nimbly, but she keeps complaining of back pain.

Fu Qing peeled walnuts for the two of them, filling a porcelain bowl to the brim. Song Nini grabbed a handful and stuffed them into her mouth, giggling.

"The walnuts my brother-in-law peels taste better than the ones you buy at the market."

Fu Qing reached out and pinched her cheek.

However, the peaceful days were short-lived, and on the morning of the fourth day, the alarm bells rang.

A huge bronze bell was struck, its sound heavy and urgent, causing the green dates on the date tree to fall to the ground.

This is a warning bell at the border; when it rings, it means something big has happened!

Fu Qing was startled. He immediately put down the walnuts, stood up, took the knife from the wall and tucked it behind his waist. He then glanced back at Song Yawei.

Song Yawei stood up, supporting her belly, and straightened his shirt. "Go and come back soon."

...

When Fu Qing arrived at the city wall, it was already crowded with people.

Ma Xiong climbed down from the city wall, his face deathly pale. Pointing north, he exclaimed, "Boss, those damn Di dogs are really going to attack the city!"

Fu Qing walked up the city wall and looked out. On the northern horizon, there was a dark mass of soldiers. The Di Kingdom's army stretched for several miles from east to west, with cavalry, infantry, and archers in square formations one after another.

In the middle of the army formation were more than a dozen catapults and three siege engines, each as tall as a three-story building, which shook the ground as they rolled over the grass.

What's even more chilling is that wisps of black mist are faintly visible in the air, and something is wriggling inside them, like a living dark cloud.

Zhou Tie strode out of the military camp, holding a horse-slaying sword in his hand, without even bringing its sheath.

He stood atop the city gate tower, looking at the Di army to the north, and shouted loudly to everyone on the city wall.

"I've been fighting on the border for twenty years, and this is the first time I've ever seen so many Di people! Don't panic! Commander Tian will be here soon!"

...

Tian Jingming led the main force of 50,000 border troops to Tiexue City that afternoon.

Fifty thousand troops entered the city, filling the streets to capacity.

Without even taking a sip of water, Tian Jingming went straight up to the city wall, walked around it, and then ordered the defenses to be deployed overnight.

The crenellations on the city wall were reinforced with a layer of sandbags, and the moat outside the city gate was deepened and filled with a layer of mud mixed with kerosene.

Each of the four city gate towers was equipped with eight crossbows, the bolts of which were taller than a person.

Standing atop the highest point of the city wall, Tian Jingming addressed all the soldiers in the city with only one sentence: "I, the commander, will personally oversee this battle. Everyone in the city, regardless of whether they are soldiers or civilians, will be issued weapons."

Fu Qing stood on the city wall, watching the Di army pressing in from the north, his hand on the hilt of his sword.

The Di army had already begun to form ranks, with cavalry on both flanks, heavy infantry in the center, and catapults pushed to the front of the formation.

A group of people dressed in black robes had set up a high platform behind the army formation. Several Gu cultivators were standing on the platform, releasing Gu worms.

The black mist was drifting out from the high platform.

Fu Qing squinted and looked over, feeling that Mr. Wu was most likely there.

On the first day of the siege, the Di army launched a barrage of catapults.

Dozens of millstone-sized stones simultaneously crashed into the Ironblood City wall with a deafening roar. Several sandbags on the wall were knocked away, and one stone struck the crenellation of the wall, collapsing half of it. Broken bricks flew out and landed below the city.

Immediately afterwards, a second wave of stones came crashing down, creating several breaches in the city wall.

The Di cavalry seized the opportunity to charge forward and climbed the city wall using ladders.

Fu Qing led his team to block the breach in the city wall. The first Di soldier had just jumped onto the city wall using a ladder and hadn't even gotten his footing when Fu Qing slashed him with his sword. The man was split in two, and his body tumbled over the city wall and fell down.

The Di soldiers climbing the ladders below the city saw the centurion's corpse fly overhead and crash to the ground with a "bang," their momentum momentarily halted.

Someone shouted something below, and the Di soldiers on the siege ladder hesitated.

In just a few moments of hesitation, the border troops used their spears to push the ladder away from the city wall, and the Di soldiers on it fell down like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

Fu Qing wiped the blood from his knife onto the city bricks and shouted to Ma Xiong behind him, "Next!"

A tug-of-war broke out on the city wall, with Gu worms rampaging across the battlefield. Black swarms of Gu worms, like locusts, swarmed over the city wall.

If the border soldiers are infected by the Gu worms, they will collapse, convulse, foam at the mouth, and lose consciousness.

Xu Heng immediately organized the disciples of the Medicine Palace to set up medicinal gas on the city wall. The pale green medicinal gas rose from the medicine cauldrons in the hands of several disciples, forming a thin barrier. When the Gu worms came into contact with the medicinal gas, they hissed and fell down as if they were being burned.

However, there were too few disciples in the Medicine Palace. The medicinal energy barrier could only protect a few sections of the city wall, and the Gu worms still ran rampant in the areas not covered by the medicinal energy.

Xu Heng's expression was very unpleasant. He ordered someone to send an urgent request for help to the Jingjing Medicine Palace overnight.

After attacking the city for four hours, the Di army finally retreated, set up camp outside the city, and surrounded Ironblood City.

Fu Qing dragged his injured body back to the camp, exhausted both physically and mentally.

Although he wasn't seriously injured, he had been hacking at people for four hours straight, and by the end he was numb, relying entirely on instinct.

Even when Zhou Tie came over and patted him on the shoulder, he threw a punch back, startling everyone.

Zhou Tie wasn't angry; he just squeezed his arm and said, "It's okay, it's okay, you'll get used to it."

...

On the second day of the siege, the Di army tore a large hole in the city wall.

A battering ram crashed into a section of the south wall, causing bricks and stones to collapse and reveal a gap more than two zhang wide.

The Di Kingdom's heavily armored infantry surged in like a tide.

Fu Qing led Ma Xiong's hundred-man squad to rush up and block the gap. Ma Xiong took the lead and cut down two Di soldiers who were charging at the front. Before he could even raise his sword to face the third Di soldier, a centurion cleaved him in the chest with a single blow.

Ma Xiongfei flew out and crashed into a pile of bricks on the inner side of the city wall. He spat out a mouthful of blood, cursed, and couldn't get up.

The man slashed again, and Fu Qing rushed over to take the centurion's sword.

The two men clashed sword to sword twice, each blow heavier than the last, and Fu Qing was forced back two steps by the impact.

The centurion scoffed, "You think you can block my way?"

Fu Qing sneered and threw the knife at him.

The centurion knocked the longsword away with a single blow, and was about to grin when Fu Qing closed in on him and punched him in the chest.

This punch was devoid of any fancy moves; all the power of a second-level Qi Condensation cultivator was concentrated on the fist.

The centurion's smile froze on his face, a fist-shaped indentation appeared on his chest, and the clothes on his back were shattered by the force of the impact. He was sent flying backward as if hit by a battering ram, knocking over several Di soldiers behind him before finally falling to the ground motionless.

Fu Qing bent down to pick up the knife, then ran it across his arm. "Who's coming to die?"

The soldiers beside them exchanged glances, none of them daring to rush forward.

Han Yue was surrounded by two soldiers at the ninth level of Body Tempering on the city wall. He was stabbed in the left leg, the blade striking the bone. Han Yue retaliated by slashing at their necks. Another Di soldier seized the opportunity to strike Han Yue in the back.

Just as the blade was about to strike, a short spear flew from the side and pierced the enemy soldier's waist.

Xiao Lu and Ding Meng attacked from the side. Xiao Lu stabbed the enemy soldier to death with a knife, while Ding Meng pulled Han Yue up, carried him on his shoulder, and retreated.

As Han Yue was being carried away, he cursed, "My legs aren't broken! Put me down!"

"Don't try to act all high and mighty!"

Ding Meng ignored him and carried Han Yue all the way back to the military medical station behind the city wall.

On the third day of the siege, the Di army introduced something new.

A dozen giant wolves rushed out from behind the Di army and pounced on the city wall. These wolves were several times larger than ordinary steppe wolves, with dark fur and empty white eyes.

The border soldiers' knives struck them like stones; a single swipe of their claws could send a fully armed border soldier flying. Some soldiers had their shoulders bitten by giant wolves and their arms torn off.

Fu Qing slashed at the neck of a giant wolf with his blade, but the blade bounced off, leaving only a faint white mark on the wolf's skin.

He immediately understood—this was not a real wolf, but a painted beast created by Mo Shiqi.

He threw away his knife and charged forward with his bare hands. It took him quite a while to kill one of the painted beasts. The painted beast turned into a pool of ink and fell onto the city wall.

This thing has the combat power of the Qi Refining Realm, and the city defense army suffered heavy casualties in a short time.

Zhou Tie fought two Di generals at the Tongmai Realm on the city wall.

The sword severed the neck of a cultivator at the second level of the Meridian Opening Realm, but it also cleaved the back of another cultivator at the third level of the Meridian Opening Realm. The blade sliced ​​through the armor, leaving a deep gash on the back that exposed bone, and blood soaked through half of the armor.

Zhou Tie knelt on one knee, using his horse-slaying saber to support himself and avoid falling. He raised his curved saber, having reached the third level of the Meridian Opening Realm, ready to deliver the second strike.

Just as the scimitar fell, a long spear thrust in from the side. With a muffled "thud," the spear tip pierced through Di Jiang's left chest and emerged from his back, with bits of flesh still clinging to it.

Tian Jingming stood behind Zhou Tie, gripping the gun barrel with one hand, and kicked the corpse aside.

He glanced down at the knife wound on Zhou Tie's back, then turned to his guards and ordered, "Carry Commander Zhou away and bandage him."

...

The reinforcements from the Medicine Palace finally arrived on the morning of the fourth day of the siege.

A total of fifty people came. The leader was a young woman in a plain white robe with a jade pendant from the Medicine Palace hanging at her waist. She didn't say a word from the moment she entered the city until she climbed the city wall.

Her face was as cold as an ice sculpture, but wherever she went, the rotting flesh on the wounds of the injured border soldiers began to fade under the influence of the medicinal vapors.

Fu Qing raised an eyebrow slightly, his gaze drawn to her.

Her disciples from the Medicine Palace were well-trained and quickly dispersed to various parts of the city wall without any command, each occupying a node and simultaneously lighting their medicine cauldrons.

Pale green medicinal vapors rose simultaneously from fifty medicine cauldrons, converging above the city wall to form a visible barrier of medicinal vapors.

The Gu worms crashed into the barrier, screaming as they turned into black smoke, just like moths drawn to a flame.

When Xu Heng saw Su Wen personally taking action from the city wall, his tense expression, which had been on his face for several days, finally relaxed.

A disciple from the Medicine Palace beside him was so excited he almost dropped the medicine cauldron. "It's Senior Sister Suwen! The Palace Master sent Senior Sister Suwen!"

Suwen stood in the center of the city wall, three silver needles between her fingers, the tips of which were coated with a faint green medicinal scent.

With the protection of the medicinal vapor barrier, the border troops no longer needed to be distracted by the Gu worms and could devote themselves entirely to the battle.

The Gu cultivators under Mr. Wu's command had clearly also noticed Su Wen, their expressions turning solemn.

"The current goddess of the Medicine Palace, with unparalleled talent, who would have thought it would be her!"

"She's just a little wench, I'll give her a try!"

On the high platform, a Gu cultivator sneered, took out a dark red Gu worm from his sleeve, bit his tongue, and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the Gu worm.

The Gu worm let out a hiss and transformed into a streak of blood, rushing straight towards Suwen, who was applying medicine on the city wall.

Without turning his head, Su Wen flicked his wrist with his right hand and pointed out a pale green medicinal gas that struck the Gu worm.

The medicinal aura and the blood-red light collided in the air, and the Heart-Eating Gu, enveloped by the medicinal aura, began to struggle violently.

Suwen clenched her five fingers, and the Heart-Eating Gu emitted a piercing screech before turning into a pool of black water that fell onto the city wall.

The Gu cultivator on the high platform clutched his chest and coughed up a mouthful of blood—his natal Gu had been destroyed, and he was doomed.

Su Wen withdrew her finger. "Tell Lord Xu that I will deal with the Gu poison here."