Dragon Canon

Once again, the northern district presented a different scenery. The streets were crowded with low shacks. Each shack looked like they were crammed with dozens of people at the minimum. The streets were flooded with sewage, and there were barely any dry ground in sight. He was wading through water chock-full of floating filth and emitting an overwhelming stench with every step he took. Fortunately, he was currently empowering himself with fortune. The filth either drifted away or brushed past him, never soiling his boots.

When he was passing through a shack, a dozen or so small heads poked out from behind the door and watched him with curious, fearful eyes. The youngest child was holding a palm-sized beetle that was clearly missing a few bites’ worth of body parts. Luckily for the child, the beetle looked like it was roasted to an extent. There were also a woman lying on the floor, and two men sitting against the wall inside the shack. Looking at their appearance alone, it was impossible to say if they were dead or alive.

Wei Yuan reckoned that this shantytown alone was crammed with tens of thousands of people. Everyone living in this area was a mortal—fraily, sickly, and perpetually teetering on the brink of life and death. Their souls were so dim and lifeless that even the Shamans would refuse to accept them as offerings.

However, Wei Yuan also spotted a few massive limestone courtyards ahead of him. Unusually grand, each courtyard occupied a huge plot about a hundred zhang in radius. The foundation of the courtyard was raised by three chi, ensuring that the sewage would never pool within its boundaries. The walls were two zhang high and built sturdy. A fair number of guards were standing on them and overlooking the sprawling shantytown literally one street away.

It was clear that these residences belonged to humans. They were bristling with private soldiers as well.

Wei Yuan had heard many hidden secrets on the way here, and a good amount of them had something to do with these large courtyards. It was said that the residents belonged to the Xu Clan, and that they were fairly important people too. It was also said that two of the courtyards were specifically used for stashing troops. They likely housed nearly a thousand formidable private soldiers. The Xu Clan operated numerous businesses, in Willow Ash Town, overt or covert, and even the Shamans gave them considerable leeway.

To be honest, Wei Yuan couldn’t really understand the relationship between the Xu Clan and the Shamans. The two sides had fought a big war just a few years ago, losing heavens-know-how-many people and accumulating even more hatred. However, they were co-existing peacefully in Willow Ash Town. Assuming that the information he eavesdropped were to be trusted, there hadn’t even been a particularly big clash between the two factions.

Suddenly, one courtyard gate swung open, and dozens of Body-tempering stage warriors flooded into the open. They were carrying vermillion surveyor poles and planting them as they walked. It wasn’t long before they had marked out a land tens of zhang in radius. Then, a man who looked like a housekeeper shouted, “This land belongs to our master now! Everyone within the area marked by the poles must move out within one ke. This food is your reward!”

The warriors carried a few big baskets of multigrain biscuits over to a clearing and dumped them on the ground. Countless people immediately pounced toward them like starving dogs. At the same time, several high-tier warriors began setting fire to the shacks within the marked area. The fire started from the north and slowly burned its way to the south. Fire fueled by a Dao spell could not be extinguished by mere water. Although the fire was progressing slowly, a few people still failed to escape in time and burned to death.