Chapter 10: Return

“Shooosh!”

As the King’s Seal charged straight towards him, the shaman’s eyes rarely showed panic. The shrill bone whistle kept sounding.

Invisible sound waves condensed in the void, seemingly transforming into deadly toxic arrows!

The King’s Seal, however, darted like a spiritual snake, moving forward in curves, occasionally lowering and bowing to avoid the invisible poison. Suddenly, it arrived before the shaman, thrusting its spear to impale the foreign sorcerer in one move.

Puff!

A flower of blood bloomed on the shaman’s right hand. The bone whistle dropped as Wu Ming seized the opportunity, shooting an arrow that nearly took the shaman’s life.

“You… will all die!!!”

The shaman glared at the King’s Seal and Wu Ming with deep hatred, cursing them in stiff and rigid Daxia language. Ignoring the injury on his right hand, he directly took off his ritual drum and struck it hard!

Boom!

An even more terrifying drumbeat than last time came forth. In an instant, Wu Ming felt his blood congeal, as if hearing wailing ghosts in his ears, his vision flashing golden stars, nearly causing him to faint.

And the King’s Seal fared even worse.

The spear that was about to strike drooped weakly, blood seeping from his mouth and nose, with two streaks of blood trailing from his ears!

This single strike injured two mighty martial artists simultaneously!

However, this move didn’t seem to be commonly used. Wu Ming saw the shaman stagger after hitting the drum, almost falling to the ground.

He sneered coldly, then took out a black scorpion from his waist pouch and flicked it toward the King’s Seal’s face.

“Ahh!”

With a scream, the King’s Seal couldn’t dodge in time and was stung on the face by the scorpion. Instantly, he collapsed to the ground, making no further sound.

“What a deadly poison!”

Wu Ming felt as if he bore a thousand catties of weight, trapped in a nightmare from which he couldn’t awaken. He saw the shaman’s sinister eyes fix on him while the flames behind dimmed, revealing the figures and shouts of the Hu cavalry.

“Move! Move now!”

Wu Ming screamed mentally, his blood and qi reaching their peak in that instant. Suddenly, there was a crack, as if something had shattered. A thread of pure qi emerged from his dantian, quickly flowing throughout his body.

“Qi Realm (True Qi Realm)!”

Feeling his ability to move restored, even with a stronger physical body, Wu Ming immediately realized he had broken through in his martial cultivation.

“It appears the shaman just unleashed some kind of area-of-effect attack. What’s more, the damage increases with proximity. Although the King’s Seal had reached the Qi Realm, he was too close and ended up bleeding from all seven orifices. As for me, being farther away, I only experienced temporary qi disruption—something that could be stabilized after breaking through to the Qi Realm…”

Wu Ming’s mind raced while he outwardly displayed a face full of panic, watching the shaman slowly approach with a sinister grin, now taking out a two-tailed centipede.

“You, Han Chinese… will die a most miserable death…”

The shaman reluctantly put away his ritual drum, holding the centipede as he approached with a ferocious grin: “I will flay your skin entirely to make a new drum…”

“You wish!”

Wu Ming suddenly looked up, smiling brightly, drawing his bow and shooting an arrow made from wolf teeth.

Without hesitation after firing the first arrow, he took out another and shot again.

Two wolf-teeth arrows nearly flew tail to tail. The shaman couldn’t believe Wu Ming could still move and quickly turned to flee. A layer of blood-red light appeared around his body, deflecting the first arrow, but he finally couldn’t dodge the second!

Puff!

A flower of blood bloomed on his neck. The shaman fell to the ground, his mask falling off to reveal a cold, sinister face: “No… it’s impossible…”

“Zizi!”

At this moment, his breath weakened, and the creatures on his hand immediately turned against him. The two-tailed centipede shrieked and bit his thumb, killing him instantly.

[Shaman killed, gained 300 minor merits!]

“Pity…”

Hearing the prompt from the Temple of the Main God, Wu Ming glanced at the cavalry charging from afar and the corpse of the shaman covered with crawling black insects, then reluctantly retreated, quickly vanishing into an alley.

Although the shaman’s blood drum and whistle seemed like fine treasures and there might even be some sorcery manuals on his body, the layer of tiny black insects crawling all over him made Wu Ming’s skin crawl.

After barely defeating him, it would be extremely unfortunate to get killed while looting his body, wouldn’t it?

In the chaos, Wu Ming easily moved through the village and suddenly arrived at the back of a luxurious courtyard. He pushed aside the soil and lifted a stone slab.

“You’re here!”

In the dim light, the beauty’s eyes shone like stars.

“Yeah!”

Wu Ming glanced around quickly, suddenly clapping his palms to topple a brick wall, then swiftly slipped inside, covering the stone slab behind him.

Rumble!

A loud noise came from above, clearly sealing the entrance.

In the darkness, only the fragrance of the beauty Huangying remained, bringing a breath of fresh air as Wu Ming exhaled deeply.

“Did the Hu leader die?”

Huangying asked.

“Of course he did… Next, we’ll just stay here until the time limit comes!”

Wu Ming tried to regulate his breath, recovering his previously exhausted energy, while his ears constantly listened to the sounds outside.

In the faint heat, voices like “The Hu people are leaving!” “The fire is spreading!” “Save people and put out the fire!” kept coming, but Wu Ming remained calm and composed.

His several nights with Huangying were naturally not as Qin Hu had imagined, indulging in pleasure, but surveying the terrain and digging a cellar.

As for the fire outside, it was naturally set by him secretly.

The outer part of Daqing Village was similar to a slum area, with grass and wood huts that caught fire easily. The place Wu Ming had chosen, however, was in the village’s rich district, located at the center like the ancestral hall and the headman’s mansion. These were all brick and tile buildings that were not easily set ablaze. The villagers also gathered here, naturally striving to put out the fire to save their lives, thus suffering the least impact.

Huangying remained silent, not asking why they had to hide.

After all, first there was Qin Hu’s betrayal, then Wu Ming setting the fire. Even if it was for the good of the villagers of Daqing Village, revealing it would surely provoke outrage, possibly even leading to their deaths.

But not setting the fire wasn’t an option either.

If the Hu people achieved a great victory, they would kill even more brutally.

Moreover, Wu Ming was also very clear that if hiding one’s head could easily pass the crisis, he could have been a coward from the start.

Therefore, the Hu shaman, who certainly had the ability to search for living beings, must be dealt with through a scheme, or else it would truly be like catching fish in a barrel.

At this time, amidst the chaos, no matter whether the Hu people or the villagers emerged victorious, they would be powerless to deal with him.

The commotion lasted the entire night.

Until the next day, through the air vent, Wu Ming still heard a lot of crying mixed with voices like “Catch that pair of bastards!” and “Burn the outsiders to death!” Apparently, Qin Hu and his actions had become the villagers’ scapegoat.

“Aren’t you angry?”

Huangying’s voice came again: “If not for your decisive action, perhaps everyone in Daqing Village would have perished today!”

“I already expected this, so why waste more energy?”

Wu Ming closed his eyes: “Miss Huangying, if you still have strength, you might as well rest more, because we still need to endure for some time!”

In the cellar, there was naturally some dry food and clean water, enough to survive the remaining time. However, Wu Ming still preferred to conserve his energy in case of major changes.

At this moment, he focused his mind and could feel the threads of true qi being generated in his dantian, flowing through his limbs and meridians.

“Truly a blessing in disguise… Unexpectedly, even though I had already given the shaman high regard, his strength still exceeded my expectations…”

Wu Ming pondered inwardly.

This time, he had considered almost everything, the only oversight being the shaman’s astonishing strength, including his long-range area attacks!

If it weren’t for the King’s Seal taking the brunt and his own last-minute breakthrough, he would certainly have faced a life-or-death situation.

“But… finally reached the True Qi Realm!”

Wu Ming sank his qi to the dantian, feeling the strength several times greater than before, feeling somewhat gratified.

In this world, martial cultivation initially had nine stages: Mind Stabilization, Flesh and Skin, Tendons and Bones, Internal Strength, True Qi, Innate, External Qi, Internal Qi, and Ultimate Transformation.

Mind Stabilization was the beginning of the path. After that, stages like Flesh and Skin, Tendons and Bones, and Internal Strength were processes of continuously refining the physical body, cultivating blood and qi, tendons, bones, muscles, and even internal organs.

Previously, the spoiled noble had abundant resources, actually completing the foundation long ago. He was only stuck at the Internal Strength stage due to a lack of training and mental fortitude, failing to generate True Qi.

Now, with Wu Ming’s breakthrough in the heat of battle, it was natural and smooth.

In the darkness, time passed unbearably slowly.

Wu Ming tried to find joy in hardship, researching his martial cultivation progress:

“After generating True Qi, a martial artist’s every move possesses superhuman strength. Next is continuously cultivating and strengthening the True Qi, filling the dantian, acupoints, meridians, and purifying the entire body, which is known as returning to the innate from the acquired!”

“But… must I stick to martial cultivation? A meat shield warrior has no future. Should I go back and look into Taoist priests and cultivators… No! With the Temple of the Main God here, can’t I choose any path I want? As long as I have enough reward points! No, merits!

“Master Wu Ming?!”

Just as Wu Ming was deep in thought, a soft, gentle voice came from beside him, filled with a tremble and an indescribable allure.

“What’s wrong?”

Wu Ming was slightly taken aback, then suddenly felt a scorching warm body fall into his arms. The beauty’s whisper came to his ear: “For rescuing me, I can’t repay you in any other way but to…”

Having experienced two lifetimes, Wu Ming was no longer a gentleman bound by etiquette. Besides, in life and death situations, it’s easiest to ignite a man’s desires.

Without rejecting, his hands began to explore indecently…

Huangying responded gently, and just as the two were about to go further, an imposing and grand voice inappropriately rang out:

[Main mission completed! Return of the Reincarnator!]

Instantly, a feeling of the world spinning came over him. Wu Ming could only silently give the Temple of the Main God the finger in his mind, then everything went black before his eyes.

“Where… is this?”

Wu Ming stood in the void, looking at the surroundings that resembled the beginning of chaos, the primordial state before creation, and his heart stirred again: “No Huangying, it seems we each returned to our own personal space?”

[Mission completed! Settlement begins!]

A voice that shook the soul came forth, and in an instant, a light screen appeared before Wu Ming.

But he suddenly looked up, seeing above the primordial chaos a magnificent, radiant, and indescribable celestial palace standing proudly, as if eternal and transcending the universe!