Chapter 186 - 139: Escape
"You’ll join the baggage train and be cannon fodder for the Martial Arts Army! Hahaha!"
SQUELCH.
The Squad Leader was laughing heartily when he suddenly felt a black streak flash by. He clutched his neck and collapsed to the ground in agony.
It was Wei He, who, finally unable to stomach it, had drawn his sword and killed the man.
"You’re rebelling!"
"Quick, call for help!"
Seeing Wei He kill someone, the other soldiers turned pale with fright.
Wei He strode forward, unleashing his Storm Sword Technique. With a flurry of strikes, he lopped off the heads of the four soldiers, one by one.
Instantly, Yicao Hall fell deathly silent. The apprentices were all stunned.
Wei Chun was the first to react. "So be it. Wei He, go get the box from my room. We’ll give everyone their severance pay. You should all flee."
Wei He wiped his sword clean and obediently brought the box over for Wei Chun.
One by one, they distributed the severance pay to the apprentices.
After taking the money, the apprentices certainly didn’t dare to raise the alarm. They fled from Yicao Hall as if escaping for their lives.
"Grandpa, let’s go to Qin City."
"I can’t stand another day in Jiangzhou. Master Lu is in Qin City. For old times’ sake, he’ll surely take care of us if we go there," Wei He said.
"But... that’s the Demon Dao Saint Demon Sect..." Wei Chun was still hesitant. The memory of the Gluttony Demon Sect disciple, Lin Ye, eating people in Jiangzhou was still fresh in his mind.
He had always been wary of the Demon Sect.
"Grandpa, you’re being naive! What era are we in? Who cares about the Demon Dao or the Righteous Dao?"
"If you ask me, all that matters is that we survive."
"We’re going to Qin City! I’ve already contacted a boat. We can leave at any time!"
The boy, Wei He, had recently sensed that the atmosphere in Jiangzhou was off and had already looked into ways of leaving.
"Alright then. Master Lu should look after us..." Wei Chun finally made up his mind.
Immediately, Wei He packed their belongings and led Wei Chun out of the apothecary.
They locked the apothecary’s main door and hung up a "Closed" sign, which should conceal the bodies inside for some time.
The grandfather and grandson walked out of the hall and onto the main street.
Looking up, they could see white funeral banners hanging everywhere on Five Horses Street.
It was difficult to find a single Martial Arts Hall that wasn’t displaying a white banner.
Under the current circumstances, the Martial Arts Halls on Five Horses Street were being hit the hardest by the forced conscription of soldiers.
This was because the Martial Arts Halls were easy to bully. They lacked enough Rebirth Realm Martial Artists to back them up, yet they had the largest number of Middle and Low Tier Martial Artists.
Forced by the Jiangnan Prefecture Martial Arts Army, their only choices were to go to the front lines or go to prison.
The Jiangnan Prefecture Martial Arts Army was no longer something that Mansion Master Hong Ying could command on his own.
As the war progressed, the Jiangnan Prefecture Martial Arts Army had become a conglomerate of various Martial Arts Powers from all over Jiangnan Prefecture.
The five major army divisions had each formed their own interest groups.
The Jiangnan Central Army, for example, was completely under the thumb of the Divine Sword Sect.
Today’s Jiangzhou was no longer the most prosperous of places; ravaged by war, it had become a living Purgatory.
As the grandfather-grandson pair of Wei He and Wei Chun walked along, they saw many refugees on the streets.
These refugees had mostly fled from the cities that had been conquered.
All the refugees had flocked to Jiangzhou. This was the Prefecture City. If even the Prefecture City fell, then as common people, they would have no other options.
Wei He quickly led Wei Chun to a pier.
Wei He found a dark-skinned boat captain.
"Old Hei, it’s just me and my grandfather, two people. We need to leave Jiangzhou first. The direction doesn’t matter, but we have to go as soon as possible."
"You’re in luck, kid. There’s a boat leaving right now, heading toward Cyan Mountain Prefecture."
Wei He nodded, paid the fare, and quickly boarded the boat with Wei Chun.
The cabin was crowded and stank, but there was nothing to be done. If the murders at the apothecary were discovered, he and his grandfather would be as good as dead.
"Sigh, what kind of Domain-Breaker ends up in a state like this," Wei He couldn’t help but mutter as the stench in the cabin assailed his nostrils.
"What did you say, Wei He?"
"Ahem, nothing. Let’s get out of Jiangzhou first, then head to Qin City to seek refuge with Master Lu."
’The way things are going in the world now, it’s obvious the Saint Demon Sect is headed for total unification.’
’It’s good to have a powerful backer. I’ll latch onto Master Lu for now and wait for the right opportunity to make my move.’
...
Jiangzhou Prefecture Yamen.
Hong Ying’s face was haggard.
As the Mansion Master, he naturally had access to more data, all of which showed that Jiangnan Prefecture had reached its limit.
’We can’t win. We really can’t hold on any longer.’
The overall strength of the Daliang Alien Race was simply too great. The foundations Jiangnan Prefecture had accumulated over the years had been slowly and completely depleted by the brutal war.
"Sigh." Hong Ying let out a long sigh.
Seeing this, the silver-haired old man at his side was at a loss for words of comfort.
"Mansion Master, we’ve done all we can. Why don’t we... evacuate Jiangzhou?"
"News came from the front lines. Yesterday, Li Zongdao and Pei Yuanshi had another great battle."
"From the looks of it, Li Zongdao came out one step behind this time."
"The Jiangnan Central Army is the last line of defense before Jiangzhou. If this is true, I’m afraid the vanguard of the Daliang Alien Race will be at the gates of Jiangzhou City in a few days..."
Hong Ying knew, of course, that his steward’s analysis was correct.
But...
Hong Ying gave a bitter laugh. "Evacuate? Where could we possibly evacuate to?"
Indeed. To the west of the current Jiangnan Prefecture was the Demon Dao Influence in Cyan Mountain Prefecture. To the north, the Saint Demon Sect was blocking off the Capital Region.
Daliang was still relentlessly on the offensive.
As a Prince of the Great Song, he had nowhere left to run.
"There is a place, Mansion Master. There’s a small island to the south. I had my men set up a manor there, enough for us to survive," the silver-haired old man said, finally revealing his secret through gritted teeth.