The Blade-Wielding Legend

"Only living people, no living breath left!"

Wang Shuazhu’s narration made everyone in the lower cabin frown slightly.

Though it’s a border guard station, it is not without various suppressing objects.

The entire station being wiped out is definitely not the act of an ordinary little ghost.

Daoist Wang Daoxuan stroked his beard, his face grave, "Living people standing stiff, fake smiles like puppets, shadows controlling souls... This is no ordinary demon. It resembles the Chang Ghost or Corpse Puppet arts nurtured in an Extremely Yin Land, but it’s also different."

At this moment, the bearded Rakshasa leader also came down. Although he couldn’t understand Wang Shuazhu’s words, seeing the look of absolute terror on his face and his gesturing, along with the few words like "guard station" and "evil spirits" that he could guess, his face turned as pale as paper.

He quickly drew a cross on his chest, shouting in a terrified voice mixed with Rakshasa language and some barely recognizable Han words, "Devil! Strigoi!"

Li Yan frowned, "What did you say?"

Fortunately, Soldier Wang Shuazhu understood Rakshasa language. Once he was put down and given a bowl of hot soup, he immediately started translating for everyone.

"Devils in the snow! Soul-suckers! Blood-freezers! Don’t go! It’s a land of death! A cursed land! Divine punishment!"

The Rakshasa pirates clearly had a deep belief in similar terrifying legends.

"This Strigoi... in their lore, is an evil spirit that roams snowy nights, sucking human blood and freezing souls..."

Wang Tiezhu animatedly translated.

The pirates from Raksha looked at him with admiration, after all, in the legends, no one could escape from a Strigoi.

Li Yan seemed deep in thought, his gaze swept over the terrified Rakshasa pirates, and finally rested on Wang Shuazhu.

The Nuerhan Governorate is a crucial frontier town of Great Xuan. If indeed an entire guard station has been silently controlled by evil spirits, it is no small matter.

Especially at this stormy moment.

"How far is that guard station from here, and in which direction?" With this in mind, Li Yan hurriedly asked.

Wang Shuazhu shivered, pointing northeast out of the boat, "Follow... the sea to the northeast, see the large frozen forest, go inside... even on fast horses, it takes two days... Kuerka Guard Station is by the banks of a tributary of the Ussuri River..."

"Alright." Li Yan turned, his gaze sweeping over the group of shaking Rakshasa pirates, and said coldly, "Have them set sail, turn around, and dock. Head to Kuerka Guard Station."

Being at the mercy of others, the pirates dared not resist.

In their desperate yet submissive maneuver, they struggled to turn the ship’s bow, breaking through the gray and cold sea waves, sailing toward the snowy coast...

...

The sailing ship anchored in a hidden bay near the ice-bound coastline of the Nuerhan Governorate.

The frigid north wind whipped snow into their faces like small knives.

Li Yan and his party abandoned ship and landed, stepping through knee-deep snow, trudging in the direction of Kuerka Guard Station under Wang Shuazhu’s guidance.

Two days later, they lay low behind a ridge covered in thick snow. Below, Kuerka Guard Station lay quietly on an open field at the bend of an icy river.

From a distance, this station was no different from the usual border military fortresses.

Walls a meter high made of adobe, with watchtowers at each corner, and the wooden gate tightly shut. The walls bore the Dragon Banner of Great Xuan, flapping in the cold wind.

On the watchtowers, silhouettes of sentries could be seen, wrapped in thick fur coats, holding long spears, occasionally pacing.

Inside the fortress, smoke trickled from a few chimneys, blending into the lead-gray sky. Faint shouts and the clanging of metal from inside suggested drills or the handling of supplies.

"It looks normal, huh?" Sha Lifei exhaled a breath and rubbed his frozen, reddened ears.

His flintlock short gun’s ammunition was long exhausted, now merely an ornament.

"Normal?"

Wang Shuazhu lay in the snow, his voice filled with suppressed fear and urgency, "Mr. Li, Daoist Wang, brave souls, don’t be fooled by this facade!"

"The night I escaped, it looked just like this! But inside... inside the people, they’re no longer alive!"

"That smile... that smile can chill you to the bone!"

He shivered uncontrollably as he recalled the horrors of that night.

Daoist Wang Daoxuan furrowed his brows tightly and took out the Turtle Shell Compass from his robes.

The compass, disrupted by Evil Qi on Penglai Island, had malfunctioned, but now in the Divine Land, its pointer quivered slightly, its spirituality restored.

He muttered incantations, traced talismans in the air over the compass with his fingers, eyes slightly closed, then suddenly opened them, a clear light seeming to flow within, gazing toward the station.

"What do you see?" Li Yan whispered.

Daoist Wang Daoxuan concentrated on the Qi Observation for a moment, then showed deep confusion and a hint of gravity on his face, "Strange... so strange!"

"The compass is stable, clearly directed. The Qi Observation sees battle Qi gathering above the station, as is normal for a border guard station, and there is no trace of sinister Yin Sha or grievances from evil spirits."

"The Qi flow is flawless!"

This result left everyone staring at each other.

They naturally trusted Wang Daoxuan’s Qi Observation skill and the Turtle Shell Compass.

Could it be that what Wang Shuazhu saw was all an illusion?

Or... the entity controlling the station had techniques so advanced that it could perfectly obscure the Heavenly Mechanism, deceiving even the detection of Mystic Sect Techniques!

"Impossible! I saw it with my own eyes!" Wang Shuazhu almost cried out in anxiety, held down by Lv San.

"If even Daoist Wang can’t see through it..." Sha Lifei licked his chapped lips, a flash of fierceness in his eyes, "This only proves the place is sinister! Whether human or ghost, let’s sneak in and see first!"

"I don’t believe those fake-smiling things can withstand a strike from me!" He instinctively reached for the knife at his waist.

Li Yan’s eyes were sharp as a hawk, surveying the station and its surrounding terrain. The snowfield was vast, deathly silent, save for the wind’s mournful wail.

The sense of unease in his heart grew stronger.

If something seems unusual, there must be something demonic!

"Let’s scout first." Li Yan slowly drew out the Duan Chen Blade.

They had witnessed all kinds of formations on their journey, braved Blade Mountains and seas of fire several times over, and naturally would not shrink back.

Just as they were preparing to move closer to the station under the cover of the wind and snow to investigate——

"Wait!"

Lv San, who had been intensely focused on controlling the hawk, suddenly called out low.

He swiftly raised his hand, pointing to the far end of the snowfield west of the station, where low snow-covered hills and sparse pine forests spread.

"Look over there!"

Everyone’s gaze was immediately drawn in that direction.

A line of moving black dots appeared first on the horizon of the snowfield, like ink drops on a white scroll.

Soon, the black dots quickly expanded, elongated, transforming into a silent marching troop.

Banners!

The Dragon Banner of Great Xuan and the battle flags of the Border Army struggled to fly in the cold wind, albeit half-concealed by the snowstorm, their familiar forms unmistakable.

Armor!

The soldiers wore standard Great Xuan Border Army cotton or leather armor, overlaid with white winter coats for camouflage in the snow.

Swords and spears!

Spears stood like a forest, the waist knives gleamed, and in the middle of the ranks were several small new cannons being dragged by mules or horses.

The number was about two thousand, maintaining a certain order even in deep snow, exuding a sense of lethality and solemnity typical of battle-hardened elites.

They were marching steadily towards Kuerka Guard Station.

"It’s the court’s troops!" Kong Shangzhao whispered, a hint of surprise in his eyes, "Going by the banners... they look like the elite of Liaodong Town!"

"Why are they appearing here in the far north of the Nuerhan Governorate? This place isn’t a main defense area, and Kuerka Guard Station is just a medium-sized station. Why send two thousand elites a thousand miles through the snow to get here?"

The question instantly emerged in everyone’s mind.

The court dispatching troops must have a reason.

Maybe to suppress rebellion, to enhance defense, or to execute special military tasks.

But here, in this icy wasteland, sparsely populated northern frontier, the sudden appearance of such a well-structured elite force was truly curious!

Li Yan’s gaze instantly became exceedingly sharp.

He recalled, before departing from Japan, the secret report by the Xuan Sacrificial Officer mentioning "Jianmu Organization’s core tribute Zhao Changsheng setting a ’Grinding Plate’ trap in court."

This army’s arrival, was it a coincidence, or part of the trap?

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