Witch Wind

Chapter 19: Lady Zhao (Part )

The old priest was staring at these armored warriors, when suddenly, the soul-soothing spell fell quietly into his mind like an invisible thunderbolt. The silver bell in his hand suddenly exploded, and the Our Lady badge inlaid with a small gem hanging around his neck broke into seven or eight pieces with a "snap".

Under the impact of the silver bells, the slightly confused armored soldiers roared in unison: "Evil demon!"

They had no time to swing their swords. Several metal boxes on their shoulders emitted sharp explosions, circles of gas burst out, and short metal crossbow arrows shot out, densely covering the old priest and the young nuns around him.

The old priest was shocked by Xing Tianli's plot and blood spurted from all his seven orifices, and he took a long time to recover.

The fair skin of several little nuns squirmed, and sticky gelatin flowed out of their pores. They were about to transform into the form of giant human-shaped insects, but Xing Tianli decided to go all out. The big cauldron in his heart shook slightly, and he blasted a soul-calming spell at each of them.

The power of the soul condensed into an invisible seal, which smashed down heavily with a strong Taoist rhyme.

Before the little nuns had time to transform, blood spurted out of their seven orifices. They wailed in unison, staggered and fell in all directions.

The sound of "Puff" was heard continuously. The crossbow arrows fired by the armored soldiers pierced through the bodies of the old priests and young nuns. The crossbow arrows with great force passed through their bodies, bringing up long streaks of blood.

"Merciful Virgin Mary!" The old priest finally came to his senses, he looked up to the sky and shouted, took out a small needle from his sleeve, and stabbed it into his neck. The viscous liquid medicine was quickly injected into his body, and the old priest turned around and left without saying a word.

Several young nuns also took out life-saving injections and stabbed them into the neck, then followed the old priest covered in blood.

The armored soldiers roared in low voices and were about to chase after the old priest, but behind the old priest, dozens of priests were ready to meet him.

Seeing that a fierce battle was about to break out between the two sides in the center of the town, Xing Tianli suddenly pulled out the pistol of the patrol officer behind him and fired six bullets into the sky in one breath.

"Dear gentlemen, please remember that this is Xiaolongqiu Town, the territory of our Great Yu Dynasty." Xing Tianli said coldly: "Isn't it a bit too much for you to start a war on our territory?"

Several armored warriors suddenly looked at Xing Tianli, and one of them laughed strangely and said, "The weak are not qualified to make requests."

Another round of gunfire rang out, and Li Kuisheng led a large group of people to charge over. He held a large-caliber double-barreled shotgun in each hand and cursed like a ferocious monster: "Come on, fight, fight. Whoever starts the fight first, I will help the other side to fight him!"

"Come on, get started! Whoever starts this, I'll make sure he can't survive in Xiaolongqiu Town!"

The armored soldiers stared at Li Kuisheng with cold eyes. Their bodies did not move, but the frequency of the high-pressure airflow ejected from their joints became higher and higher, and the sound became more and more shrill.

Suddenly, from all directions, led by Boss Li, Mr. Sun and others, the townspeople shouted angrily.

"Heretic, get out!"

"Get out of town!"

At first, there were only dozens of people making noise, but gradually, more and more townspeople gathered from all directions, hundreds, thousands, thousands of people... In the end, it seemed as if all the townspeople of Xiaolongqiu Town were roaring, howling, and pointing viciously at the armored soldiers.

Even though these townspeople were unable to pose any threat to these heavily armored warriors, as the saying goes, 'being pointed at by thousands of people will lead to a dead end', these armored warriors, who had just been weakened by the old priest's mental attack, suddenly turned pale in the face and involuntarily retreated step by step amid the thunderous roars.

After retreating dozens of steps, these armored soldiers shouted together, turned around, broke through the armed guards who had abandoned their weapons behind them, and rushed to the dock and back to the two inland gunboats close to the shore.

Yingji's ships slowly left the shore and gradually disappeared from sight.

An inland gunboat left the formation and headed south at full speed.

Xing Tianli knew that they were going to Pinghai City to deliver a letter. Whether they were attacked last night or Joms was conquered by the Holy Mother Church, it would take several days for the Yingjishi Consulate General in Pinghai City to receive the information and make a decision.

Patting his head lightly, Xing Tianli muttered in a low voice: "Well, there are telegraphs in this world. However, they are wired telegraphs, which are only installed in small quantities in those big cities. In fact, there are none in rural places like Dalongqiu County."

"But, at least we can have some peace for a few days, right?" Li Kuisheng looked at the gunboat running at full speed towards the south and scratched his head hard. "These past few days, I've been really tormented. What's going on?"

"Tut-tut-tut," two tugboats were pulling two cargo ships on the lake, loaded with numb and tired men and women, and slowly approached. On the tugboats, a gloomy-looking man shouted loudly. On the shore, several British soldiers and a large group of armed guards surrounded the dock, and a group of porters had prepared baskets filled with large chunks of coal.

Silver bells rang, and the old priest, who had just been beaten like a sieve by a crossbow arrow and had been injected with a life-saving potion and was fleeing in a panic, came up again with his men and a large number of townspeople.

Joms was howling loudly.

Several responsible Yingji men on the shore were suddenly confused, and the armed guards even folded their hands and stood aside at a distance.

The laborers looked at each other and also shrank aside.

The old priest, whose face was slightly pale, rang the silver bell and shouted, "Lost children, your suffering is about to end. This will become your new home."

Two tugboats towed the long fleet to the shore. The escorting men had no idea what was happening, but the fanatical townspeople had already jumped into the shallow water at the shore and hurriedly dragged the men and women on the cargo ships, forcing the weak men off the boats and pulling them ashore.

"Children, welcome back to the habitat that Our Lady of Supreme Mercy has arranged for you."

The old priest shook the silver bell in his hand faster and faster, and the "ding-ling-ling" sound of the bell drifted far away with the wind. The men and women, who were already exhausted from the long-distance transportation, obeyed the old priest almost without any resistance.

They slowly got off the boat, waded slowly through the shallow water, and walked to the shore in a daze.

Several nuns were standing on the upwind side of the pier, carrying small incense burners with delicate shapes. As the wind blew, white smoke with a faint fragrance filled the air, and the last bit of worry in the hearts of the men and women who came ashore was washed away. Their numb and haggard faces gradually revealed extremely happy smiles, and their dry eyes gradually became bright.

Xing Tianli rushed over and stood in front of the old priest: "What do you want to do?"

The old priest looked at Xing Tianli with gentle eyes: "Child, the grace of the Virgin Mary has fallen on you. I am obeying the will of the Virgin Mary and helping you. Look, according to the system of the Dayu Dynasty, as long as the population of this town exceeds 50,000, a new county can be established."

"If the population here grows past one million, we can create a new county."

"The larger the population, the greater your power, and the greater the help you can bring to us in the future." The old priest smiled and said, "We will help you first, and then you will help us. In the end, we will become a loving family in the grace of the Virgin Mary. We will move forward side by side and stand together through thick and thin. There is no power in the world that can stop us from spreading the glory of the Virgin Mary to all corners of the world!"

"You are provoking a war!" Xing Tianli said angrily, "You are deliberately provoking a war. The Yingji people spent a huge price to get so many people from the northwest. Are you here to intercept them?"

The old priest spread his hands indifferently: "If they want war, we are not afraid. We even welcome the coming of war. In order to let the glory of the Virgin Mary shine on the earth, war and death are always inevitable."

Xing Tianli was surrounded by murderous intent.

The old priest felt the murderous intent in Xing Tianli. He chuckled and said, "Kid, you didn't understand one thing. You misjudged our determination on this matter."

"You don't have the power to kill me."

"Even if there is, what's the point of killing me? There will be servants of my Lord who are higher in status and more powerful than me, who will come here with more believers and continue what I failed to accomplish!"

The old priest smiled brightly: "No one can stop this."

Xing Tianli remembered the demands of the eunuchs in the weaving department. He gritted his teeth and said, "What exactly do you want to do? How does the human trafficking of the British people hinder you?" The old priest looked at Xing Tianli with a grim look.

After a moment's silence, the old priest gently shook the silver bell and said, "Okay, I can tell you."

"We don't care about the Yingji Kingdom trafficking in people. Even if they kill all these people, we don't care. But the Yingji Kingdom sends these healthy men and women to the force behind them to supplement their manpower. We must stop this!"

Xing Tianli's breathing paused slightly.

What is the power behind the Kingdom of Yingis? Yingis is known as the strongest country among the 100 countries in the Far West. Is there any power behind them?

That force needs to replenish the health of men and women?
Xing Tianli asked the question straightforwardly: "Is there someone else behind the Kingdom of Yingjishi?"

The old priest smiled in an unusually mysterious way: "Of course there are people behind them. Otherwise, what else? Do you think that they could have carried out the so-called 'Civilization Renaissance' and launched the so-called 'Industrial Revolution' sixty years ago just by relying on themselves?"

"Sixty years ago was a dark time."

"Overnight, they mastered the steam engine, the railway, and even the artillery and flintlock rifles. As a result, the power of the church was completely overturned overnight. The kings and emperors who used to be timid dared to stand before His Majesty the Pope with their heads held high!"

“Even…” The old priest’s face turned red, and his voice became high-pitched and aggressive: “Even, they dared to blaspheme the glory of the Virgin Mary.”

"However, the power of the Virgin Mary is far beyond the imagination of mortals." The old priest said proudly: "Just when the church was about to perish, the Virgin Mary performed a miracle."

The old priest suddenly reached out and grabbed Xing Tianli's wrist: "Child, accept baptism and become a believer of my Lord. You will see a brand new, 'truly glorious' world that you can't even imagine!"

Xing Tianli shook his wrist and shook off the old priest's hand. He said in a cold voice: "There are people behind the Holy Mother Church, right? You came to Xiaolongqiu Town and made it so chaotic. You were instructed by them to come here to disrupt the population transportation of Yingjishi? Well, are they enemies of each other?"

The old priest was silent.

He gently rang the silver bell, and after a long while, he nodded gently: "What a smart child, you really should become a believer of my Lord. You have great potential, and you are full of the glory of God's grace. You must become a believer of my Lord, or you will be completely reduced to ashes under my Lord's wrath."

Xing Tianli shook his head without comment.

Suddenly, a very sharp and high-pitched eagle cry was heard from the sky. The eagle cry was like a metal stone cracking the air, with an inexplicable penetrating force. Xing Tianli felt that his spiritual palace shrank slightly, and the rhythm of the old priest shaking the silver bell suddenly became chaotic, and even his eyes were scattered, obviously shocked by the eagle cry.

Xing Tianli raised his head slightly, his pupils slightly condensed.

Just above the dock, two exotic Gyrfalcons, whose bodies were as white as snow, but whose beaks and claws were as bright as pure silver, were circling at high speed with their wings spread. They were about twenty feet above the ground, staring at the old priest with a pair of golden eyes, and making sharp calls from time to time.

Suddenly, a Saker Falcon folded its wings, turned into a streak of white light and flew down. Its claws, as big as an adult's palm and as sharp as a knife, made a sound of breaking through the air and grabbed the old priest's crown.

Xing Tianli quickly took two steps to the side.

The two Saker Falcons had a strange aura, which seemed to have a little bit of Taoist charm, but it was not. When the diving Saker Falcon approached rapidly, Xing Tianli's soul swept over its body and was shocked to find that this guy's body was a bit too strong.

A flash of white light shot out from the side, and a black-robed priest pointed his hand, and a bone shot out, heading straight for the diving Saker Falcon.

The Saker Falcon screamed and swung its claws fiercely. With a "clang" sound, sparks flew and the bone spur was smashed into pieces by its claws. The Saker Falcon was also shaken by the huge force and had no strength to dive anymore. It spread its wings, flapped its wings, and circled up proudly, bringing up a gust of wind, and rushed back into the air.

Two Saker Falcons cried together. The high-pitched cries were incredibly penetrating and carried far away in the wind.

In the distance, on the lake, a few sails are coming with the wind.

It was strange. In the early morning, the wind on Xiaoyan Dang Lake was not strong. The sails were not able to take advantage of the wind, but they seemed to be flying like birds, very lightly and close to the lake surface. When I first saw them, the sails were still ten miles away, but soon, the sails were right in front of me!
These were three large ships, about 40 meters long, made of snow-white exotic wood, with a light layer of rare birds and flowers embossed on the outside. Each ship had three tall masts, and the high-hanging sails reflected magnificent light in the sun. The sails were surprisingly made of the finest brocade!

On the decks of the three wooden boats, many men and women were standing in groups of three or four.

Each of them was handsome, male and pretty. The men wore black brocade robes, and the women wore white brocade robes. The robes were all of the same style, with round collars, wide sleeves, and gold or jade belts tied around their waists. The brocade robes were embroidered with flower patterns with light-colored silk threads.

On the bow of the wooden boat in front stood a five-foot-six-inch (185-cm) tall young woman wearing a purple brocade robe and with her long hair tied into a simple bun with a purple ribbon. She looked extremely noble.

On the purple brocade robe of this woman, there was a hornless dragon turning the sea upside down embroidered with light purple silk thread.

Behind the woman stood a dozen men who were over six feet tall, extremely strong, and as strong as iron pillars. These men had cold expressions and stern eyes. They stood on the high bow of the ship and looked down at the people below, giving people an inexplicable feeling of indifference like a butcher looking down at livestock.

This is a bunch of embryo killers.

Xing Tianli said to himself.

Glancing over the three white wooden boats, Xing Tianli saw a small flag hanging on the top of the mast in the middle of the three wooden boats. The flag was also made of brocade, and was decorated with patterns of the sun, moon, stars, and river and sea waves all around, with a lazy dragon pattern in the middle.

In the middle of the flag, a small word "Zhao" was woven with light yellow silk thread and written in Slender Gold font!

A faint light flashed in Xing Tianli's eyes.

You read it right, it was the Slender Gold style, each stroke was agile and thin, thin but not without flesh, with a very distinct and unique beauty. In his previous life, when Xing Tianli was cultivating in the cave, he was extremely bored and imitated a piece of Slender Gold style calligraphy.

However, once the font "Slender Gold" is associated with the character "Zhao", its meaning is always not very good.

The gyrfalcons that had just attacked the old priest cried out loudly, rolled over, folded their wings, and landed on the bow of the first wooden boat. They seemed to be greatly wronged, and they kept crying at the purple-robed woman on the bow.

The purple-robed woman looked towards Xing Tianli with a hint of laziness.

Behind her, a man wearing a blue robe, over six feet tall, with a red face and a three-inch short beard, who looked quite powerful, took two steps forward and shouted sternly, "Which ignorant bastard dares to hurt our master's pet? Get out here and accept death!"

Such a powerful man had a sharp and thin voice, with a strange feminine feeling.

Xing Tianli shuddered - a eunuch with a beard? What a rare and bizarre species!
"Hey, you are shameless, huh? You did something and you don't dare to stand up? Ha, originally it would be enough for you to die alone, but now, hehe, I'm going to implicate your entire clan!" The mighty man chuckled strangely, and two Saker Falcons screamed at the same time. His eyes suddenly fell on the old priest.

The old priest had blond hair and two striking blue eyes.

The expression of the divine man changed slightly: "You are indeed a barbarian slave, a lowly thing that is not worthy of being on the stage... Since when, in this land of Shenzhou, even lowly people like you can walk around without restraint?"

Xing Tianli was horrified - there seemed to be something else behind these words!

The old priest was so angry that his face turned blue. He shook the silver bell vigorously and shouted: "Merciful Virgin Mary, please forgive these foolish sinners!"

The purple-robed woman glanced at the old priest and waved her hand nonchalantly: "Kill him. Is it worth arguing with a mere barbarian slave?"

(End of this chapter)