The Great Five Thunder Talisman unleashed terrifying power. Before the red cannon shot even reached them, the talisman’s force had already invaded the area around them, attacking both flesh and soul.
The five thunders corresponded to Heaven, Earth, Water, Dragon, and the Shrine Decree.
Heaven Thunder originates from celestial gods, Earth Thunder from earth deities, Water Thunder from water spirits, Dragon Thunder from dragon gods, and the Shrine Decree from the wild field and grass spirits honored in offerings.
The Five Thunder Talisman channels the divine power of these five deities into thunder.
Used at the palm level, it becos Palm Thunder, the Five Thunder Talisman.
Used across heaven and earth, it becos the Great Five Thunder Talisman.
On the cannon shot streaking through the sky, Great Five Thunder talismans covered the projectile. Now the runes erupted, forming brilliant talisman diagrams around the shot that linked the gods’ power to the world.
A sharp, tingling numbness spread through Chen Shi and the other imperial examinees. That was the Water Thunder’s effect—moisture in the body felt like it was evaporating, decomposing, and exploding.
So examinees with weaker cultivation swelled like balloons.
They reacted instantly, forcing their qi and blood to suppress the abnormality.
Now their hair puffed up, each strand stood on end and floated toward the sky.
A tingling ca from the soles of their feet, as if a bolt of lightning pierced through their bodies, connecting them to heaven and earth.
Earth Thunder and Heaven Thunder were coming.
At the sa mont, everyone’s spirit shook. A dragonlike roar filled their ears, unsettling their souls—this was the Dragon Thunder’s influence.
Behind them, the ruined old temple’s incense energy suddenly surged, as if a yin spirit had launched an underworld lightning strike, giving them the sensation of being pointed at by ten thousand spears and perishing without cause.
Even before the five thunders detonated, everyone felt extrely unwell.
They saw dozens of projectiles trailing fire and bursting with thunder, hurtling toward their position at incredible speed—there was no ti to flee.
The Great Five Thunder Talisman was only the appetizer. The real thunderfire eruption would occur the mont the shot struck the ground. Nine Yang Thunder Fire would accompany the five thunders, obliterating and shattering everything, lting all in its path.
One examinee reacted fast and imdiately sacrificed his Golden Core. A flash of thunder, and his Golden Core turned to ash.
He did not even utter a sound before collapsing dead.
The others froze in terror and dared not offer up their own Golden Cores.
Chen Shi produced his Protective Canopy. The canopy rose, spun in the air, quickly expanding to cover an area about an acre in size, shielding them from the Five Thunder’s power.
Chen Shi shouted, “You may sacrifice Golden Cores, Nascent Souls, and Primordial Spirits now!”
Sun Yisheng released his Primordial Spirit. A ten-zhang spirit form executed sword techniques, sending sword qi streaking through the sky to intercept the incoming projectiles.
The other exam candidates also invoked Golden Cores and Nascent Souls—though most could only bring forth Golden Cores, with only one or two having reached Nascent Soul.
Under the Canopy’s protection, the Five Thunders no longer hard them. Everyone activated spells, but these were mostly sword techniques like the Ziwu Evil-Slaying Sword, ant to intercept the shells.
However, as soon as their spells flew out of the Canopy’s shelter, they were shattered in the midst of the Five Thunders; the spells could not escape the Canopy’s protective area.
Even Sun Yisheng, a peak Refining Void realm master, with highly condensed sword qi, had much of his sword qi destroyed before it could even reach the projectiles.
Still, many sword qi strikes did hit the shells. The shells exploded in midair, and at the mont of detonation, searing fire and thunder erupted outward, rapidly expanding and blanketing about an acre. Thunder rolled, heavy and imnse.
Many people felt the thunder bore through their bodies; their souls wavered. The soul was split into three souls and seven spirits, as if each part would scatter in different directions.
Sun Yisheng fared poorly as well. By using spells to bluntly clash with the shells, the recoil aggravated old wounds in his Primordial Spirit.
The thunder’s vibration threatened to rip open his old injuries.
The dicine Sage Sun Simiao’s great invention—gunpowder—was deadly at hunting gods and demons, and equally ruthless against cultivators.
If one had not severed the Three Corpses, one still feared thunder. The Sage’s gunpowder paved the way with thunderfire—no matter how high one’s cultivation, a cannon bombardnt would overwhelm them; at most it was a matter of how much gunpowder.
Sun Yisheng ignored his Primordial Spirit’s wounds and waved his spirit arms; ten fingers unleashed more sword qi into the sky like a peacock’s tail opening, eting the remaining shells.
His level was high and his spells ran extrely fast; even cannon shots were broken one by one by him.
In an instant, those shells were a hundred zhang away, and another group was hit and detonated, giant waves of fire sweeping the ground, lting sand and stone.
Sun Yisheng’s Primordial Spirit had its flesh stripped from the hands, revealing bone as his injuries flared, yet he still summoned more sword qi to confront the remaining shots.
One shell after another exploded in midair. The final shell flew to within two zhang of them and was about to strike. Sun Yisheng, reeling from repeated recoil, could not block it in ti. Gritting his teeth, he readied his Primordial Spirit’s Dao Field to withstand the blast.
“Even a Dao Field cannot dispel the entirety of this shell’s power! Among those present, I might be the only one to survive the bombardnt. I can’t protect these examinees…”
Before his thought finished, a flowing dragonlike sword qi shot from the Canopy and cleaved the shell.
The shell detonated with a thunderous blast.
Thunderfire poured down, air waves surged, and thunder rolled, sweeping everything before it.
Sun Yisheng aid to resist, but saw that under the parasol above, a Heavenly Palace scene had appeared. One thousand two hundred talismans lit up, transforming from flat diagrams into three-dinsional forms, forming one thousand two hundred gods and deities of various sizes, arranged in perfect order.
The parasol spun, bearing the onslaught of thunderfire. Countless bolts exploded outside the canopy, and the fire waves surged.
The parasol howled and spun. Bombarded by thunderfire explosions, it skidded backward. The people under the parasol stepped along rapidly with it, retreating a hundred or so paces in continuity. The parasol had absorbed the full force of that shell and ca to a halt.
Everyone stopped.
Chen Shi raised his hand. The parasol shrank quickly; the heavenly deities condensed back into talismans and returned to the canopy’s surface and shaft, landing in his hand.
Yet the runes on the parasol dimd considerably.
Still, the Luo Heaven Sacrificial Rite had held off this bombardnt.
However, the ruined old temple they sheltered in had collapsed under the cannon fire and no longer existed.
Chen Shi leaned on the parasol, puzzled. “Could the Divine chanism Battalion be the ones shelling us?”
He had seen the Divine chanism Battalion shell Xiao Wangsun before, and he had seen many of their experts descend through thunderfire like gods to besiege the ridge where Xiao Wangsun stood. The red cannon combined with cultivators’ personal might to create a strangling formation that flattened even a mountain peak.
Even soone as powerful as Xiao Wangsun nearly lost his life.
But wasn’t Jin Hongying the leader of the Divine chanism Battalion?
Would Jin Hongying betray old feelings and murder them on the road?
They had once peeked at Little Jin bathing—how could she be so heartless?
Sun Yisheng controlled his wounds and thought, “Since heading west, my injuries never healed…”
He had suffered the most cannon fire; the relapse of old wounds made him a little sombre.
When the thunderfire dissipated, the ground ahead was molten and steaming, and even he felt dread.
From a distance, more cannonfire flared—streaks of fire approaching.
“Run back!” Chen Shi shouted.
Everyone snapped to their senses and bolted back along their path.
Once these cannon shots were fired, they could not turn midair. If they ran back, they could escape the bombardnt range.
Besides, the red cannon was heavy and slow to move; outrunning the cannon’s movent was enough.
Their cultivations varied, so running speed did too. Each activated Horse Gallop Talismans, but short-term they could not all escape the bombardnt radius.
Sun Yisheng hurried to catch up with the wooden cart and looked up. He saw the projectiles trailing fire and thunder change trajectory midair and curve toward them.
Sun Yisheng was stunned and cried out, “These projectiles have beco Talisman-Arms!”
Projectiles are normally single-use. If one crafts them as talisman-weapons, repeatedly copying talisman scripts and offering incense until they beco sentient, they can be guided in flight.
Such projectiles would be extrely valuable.
“Who could marshal the Divine chanism Battalion’s force to ambush us?” Sun Yisheng wondered, thinking of Chen Tang’s orders. A thought stirred in his heart: “Could it be the Thirteen Great Clans?”
He and Chen Shi flanked the examinees, escorting them like enraged dragons rolling over the desolate plain.
Above them, thunderlight and fire approached fast.
Chen Shi shouted, “Lord Sun, how could they know our position?”
Sun Yisheng realized and shouted, “There must be scouts hidden in the clouds above, following our movent!”
The shells were nearly upon them. Chen Shi urged the parasol upward and cried, “You deal with the scouts, I’ll protect the cart!”
Sun Yisheng hesitated, but the parasol grew larger, covering about an acre. From under the canopy a swordlight shot out, cutting open a ghostly spring. On the other side of that spring, there was an underworld dark with yin energy.
A shot the size of a human head crashed into the spring and detonated in the underworld.
Seeing this, Sun Yisheng wasted no more ti. His Primordial Spirit soared. From high above he swept the skies and found three clouds following the cart, hovering four or five li above the ground.
His Primordial Spirit howled as it flew toward them.
Each cloud concealed a person, lying low with Thunder-Avoidance talismans attached to their bodies. The clouds beneath them were specially refined, usable to float through the air.
Seeing him approach, the three n rose. One waved a banner, and thunderfire surged toward him.
That banner was a talisman-weapon, painted with thunder and fire talismans and accompanied by saltpeter gunpowder—terrifying in power.
Sun Yisheng’s Primordial Spirit activated a Dao Field and charged through. The Dao Field trembled under the thunderfire and the explosion of gunpowder.
He cut through the inferno. Sword qi sliced out and beheaded one of the n, then a swordlight flew and t another charging man.
That man saw the swordlight split into two, then four, then eight, then sixteen—constantly dividing.
He remained calm and activated his magic as if sprouting a thousand arms, each casting spells to block the swordlights.
But when the swordlight divided for the tenth ti, he could no longer hold.
“Shh—shh—shh!”
Sword light pierced his body from all directions.
He opened his eyes wide, held his form, and cried, “Chen Tang’s Xuanwei Sword Scripture?”
Sun Yisheng’s Primordial Spirit flew past him and his voice reached the man: “You recognized Xuanwei Sword Scripture? Then you must be an expert of the Western Capital’s Divine chanism Battalion. I only learned Master Chen’s tenth resolution. If you can endure the tenth, I cannot kill you.”
“Is Chen Tang really that strong?” the man snarled through clenched teeth, whiskers bristling, “I don’t believe it!”
He could not maintain his corporeal integrity and suddenly shattered into countless chunks of flesh.
Sun Yisheng pursued the last man. Glancing down, he saw under the Canopy a treasured sword moving like a swimming dragon, guiding incoming shells into the underworld.
Those shells detonated in the underworld; none hard them.
So shells veered and exploded around the wooden cart, waves of fire and air rolling and sweeping everything, but the cart’s speed was astonishing. It threw the fire and shockwaves behind it.
Yet the projectiles moved so fast that any mistake could have ant everyone under the canopy dying.
Sun Yisheng chased down the last attacker. The man was a talisman master and unleashed hundreds of talismans that exploded into gods and demons to besiege him—extrely troubleso.
Sun Yisheng disregarded the talisman-ford deities and relied on speed and injuries to trade blows. Despite dozens of wounds on his Primordial Spirit, he finally slew the talisman master.
As he descended to return to his body, another shell slamd toward him.
Sun Yisheng hastily activated his Primordial Spirit’s Dao Field. The shell struck the Dao Field and detonated.
His body convulsed. Mustering a breath, he maintained his Primordial Spirit intact and fell back into his body.
His face was deathly pale. He still wanted to shield Chen Shi from the remaining shells, but spat a mouthful of blood and grew dizzy. His Primordial Spirit showed signs of collapse.
“Young Master Chen, tell Master Chen Tang I did not flee,” Sun Yisheng murmured thinly to Chen Shi, “I do not repay his kindness with abandonnt, but I may not be able to get you to the Western Capital…”
“You won’t die!” Chen Shi shouted, grabbing the Horn-Shaped Underworld Lamp. “Black Pot, Black Pot! Save him!”
Black Pot scrambled up and pulled Sun Yisheng’s Primordial Spirit out of his body, pressing it into the lamp’s fla.
Chen Shi’s expression hardened as he supported the swaying Sun Yisheng.
The other examinees hurried to help, carrying Sun Yisheng onto the wooden cart.
They all ran crazily around the cart and finally escaped the bombardnt radius.
Chen Shi slowed the cart. The sky was filled with fireclouds; dusk approached.
The examinees were panic-stricken and kept glancing around, whispering, “The evil spirits will likely co now.”
When the fireclouds cleared, moonlight fell upon the earth, though the moonlight itself was a gray-yellow.
The wind rose again.
Chen Shi stopped the cart and told everyone, “We’ll camp out in the open.”
He set a Wind-Stabilizing Talisman on the cart and hung the lantern his grandfather had left at the cart’s head.
Night fell. Outside the cart, the wind grew stronger. It howled, whipping sand and pebbles through the air.
In the darkness, strange figures crept closer. But when they encountered the lantern’s light, they recoiled as if burned, quickly retreating.
Inside the cart, Sun Yisheng coughed. The examinees rummaged out various spirit dicines and brought them in. Chen Shi thanked them and returned the dicines.
“These are for Primordial Spirit injuries; these dicines won’t help,” Chen Shi said.
There were still so spirit dicines in front of Chen Shi’s small temple, but he did not know their properties. Luckily, among the examinees there was a pharmacist—he had earlier offered to heal them—nad Huang Fengnian. Chen Shi brought Huang Fengnian to the small temple to identify the herbs.
“This plant treats soul injuries; it’s called Settling Soul Grass. This fruit is from a Returning-to-Life Blossom and can be used too. But to achieve maximum effect, they must be refined into pills,” Huang Fengnian explained.
Chen Shi gathered herbs while Huang Fengnian prepared them. But the prepared materials still needed an alchemist to refine them into pills.
An examinee sheepishly raised his hand. “I—I am an Alchemist. My pill refining is passable, but my furnace is poor and I can’t control the temperatures well.”
Another female examinee said, “I specialize in fire-based spells; perhaps I can help you control the heat.”
They cooperated and soon refined the required pills and fed them to Sun Yisheng.
Chen Shi examined him and saw the injuries stabilize; the danger was not as severe as before.
Black Pot took Sun Yisheng into the underworld and used the underworld’s power to nourish his Primordial Spirit.
Chen Shi sat by the cart and questioned the examinees. He discovered each of them had one or two skills: pharmacist, musician, talisman master, alchemist, a fortune teller, a geomancer—every trade was represented.
“Although we passed the provincial exam, without money we have no way to survive. You still have to make a living, right?” said a female examinee nad Tian Yue’e with a laugh.
Their cultivation thods were mostly the Heavenly Heart Righteousness Technique and could only reach Golden Core. Only one person—the pharmacist Huang Fengnian—had surpassed Golden Core, and it happened because he accidentally consud an excellent spirit herb.
Those who could pass the provincial exam and cultivate this far were not fools. But lacking suitable techniques, they could not advance further.
“Did none of you switch to other techniques?” Chen Shi asked.
They all laughed.
“Where would we go to change?” Tian Yue’e replied. “An old master in our county wanted to be his concubine—no status, just a wild woman—but promised a technique to reach Nascent Soul. I thought about it for three or four days and refused. My father worked himself to death to support my schooling. I’ve cultivated all these years; I won’t beco that master’s concubine.”
Huang Fengnian said, “The county magistrate wanted to work at the office, saying he could promote . I followed him for years. He promised a Nascent Soul technique but never delivered. I feel he used that promise to dangle forever.”
Another female examinee laughed, “You at least have connections. I have none. I live in a village; I’m the only examinee there.”
They chatted and shared their misfortunes, then laughed together. Sunburned faces and bright teeth made them look cheerful.
Chen Shi could not help but say, “With your skills, none of you would fail the palace exam! Why risk your lives to go to the Western Capital?”
“Because this is a chance to change our fate,” Tian Yue’e said with a smile.
Soone whispered, “If we don’t seize our one chance to change fate, that’s it for our lives.”
They laughed, saying if they failed the palace exam, their lives would have reached an end.
Chen Shi was silent a mont and thought to himself, “If you do not teach people how to fight, you abandon them. The court has already abandoned us.”
He taught them the refining thod from the Seven Refinents of the Northern Dipper. “Follow the Seven Refinents to practice Seven Returns, Eight Transformations, and Nine Reversions, and you’ll soon reach Nascent Soul. As for the techniques, I’ll teach them when I return. We’ll go to the Western Capital together and make the magistrates there afraid of our results!”
He stood, pulling the Protective Canopy off the cart. “You stay by the cart. I’m going out for a bit. Feifei, take care of Nannan. Night has fallen, don’t run around.”
The examinees listened, startled as they contemplated the Northern Dipper Seven Refinents.
Tian Yue’e asked, “It’s late and the wind is fierce—where are you going?”
“To get vengeance.”
Chen Shi walked into the howling wind leaning on the Protective Canopy and called back, “The Master said, ‘If one learns the Way in the morning, one can die content in the evening.’ I heard their cannon fire; tonight I’m going to them to kill them!”
The moonless, windy night—perfect for murder and arson.
—A five-thousand-character grand chapter
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