A hoarse voice came from behind. Xu Yunfan turned around and saw an old man with a hunched back, walking slowly towards him with an iron stick in his hand.
The old man was dressed simply, his bare chest revealed extremely solid muscles, and his face was covered with deep wrinkles, but his eyes still sparkled with a sharp light.
He has great muscles and skin, and is a martial artist.
Xu Yunfan bowed slightly and said, "Junior Xu Yunfan, I was passing by here and saw the extraordinary aura of Shenbing Ridge, so I came here to take a look."
When the old man heard this, a complicated look flashed in his eyes, and then he smiled bitterly.
"Extraordinary? Haha, the Divine Weapon Ridge today is no longer what it used to be. That sword strike thirty years ago not only severed the mountain, but also severed our backbone."
After hesitating for a while, Xu Yunfan finally took out the magic weapon token from his arms.
"I also know a senior from Shenbingling, and he asked me to come and see him if I happen to be passing by."
Upon hearing this, the old man quickly took a few steps forward, took it and looked at it, and said in sudden realization: "It turned out to be Lu kid. I didn't expect he was still alive. Rare, rare..."
Before he finished speaking, he looked Xu Yunfan up and down and sighed, "If you had come two years earlier, there might have been a way to survive in Shenbingling. Now..."
He naturally knew what Lu Yi meant by this token, but unfortunately the inheritance was now cut off. Even he, the old man from Shenbingling, was just an outer disciple at the beginning. He returned Shenbingling to Xu Yunfan.
"Now the roots are gone, and even coming here would only delay you."
Xu Yunfan was silent for a moment, then asked, "Senior, who was that supreme Grandmaster who wielded the divine weapon back then?"
The old man shook his head.
"That man's origins are a mystery. All we know is that he wields a divine weapon called 'Heavenly Punishment'. He can cut mountains with one sword and slash people with the other.
After those two strikes, the inheritance of Divine Weapon Ridge was cut short, and all the masters within the sect perished. Only the old, weak, and sick like us are left, guarding these few broken blast furnaces and barely making a living."
Although the old man said so, Xu Yunfan could feel that there must be another secret. He did not ask any further questions. As it involved the matter of the Qigong Grandmaster, going too deep into it would only bring disaster to himself.
Xu Yunfan looked up at the smoking blast furnaces in the mountains and could faintly hear the clanging sounds of iron being hammered.
An idea struck him, and he asked, "Senior, is it still possible to forge weapons in Divine Weapon Ridge?"
The old man said, "Forging weapons? Haha, nowadays, the Divine Weapon Ridge can only forge ordinary swords and knives to barely make a living. The real divine weapons have long since turned to dust with that sword."
He glanced at the golden hammer on Xu Yunfan's back. This hammer, forged from fine steel, had many signs of wear and tear, and several clear sword and knife marks were visible, some newer and some older.
This is enough to show that the other party has had a difficult life.
The old man wanted to say something more, but in the end he just waved his hand and said, "Shenbing Ridge has now become Shenbing Valley. It has taken on some blacksmithing business and is just trying to survive."
Xu Yunfan remained silent. After chatting for a while, he said goodbye and left.
The closer he got to Wuzhou, the more desolate the official road became, and the more ragged refugees he saw. Many of the villages and towns he passed by were reduced to ruins. From time to time, he could see rebels lurking in the remote darkness, eyeing him covetously.
It was not until the fifth charred village appeared before his eyes that Xu Yunfan finally reined in his horse.
The bodies of women and children were curled up under the broken wall, and a child was still holding half a millet cake in his palm.
Thirty steps away, on the tilted boundary marker, the three large vermilion characters "Wuzhou Boundary" were soaked in blood, and swarms of green-headed flies were buzzing around.
"Whoosh!"
The sound of breaking air came from the left.
Xu Yunfan didn't even turn his head and grabbed the arrow with his backhand.
The arrow shaft was covered with rancid corpse oil, and the iron arrowhead was covered with red spots. This was a poisonous arrow. If an ordinary person was slightly scratched by it and got a wound, without medicine, they would only have their skin ulcerated and wait for death.
"A fat sheep!"
Five figures emerged from the withered forest.
The scarred leader was waving a notched hatchet, and the other four were holding sharpened wooden spears. The refugee with sunken eye sockets actually pushed the pregnant woman in front of him to use as a shield.
The woman's belly was swollen like a drum, and there was a hemp rope around her neck, causing her to stagger forward.
The robbers' eyes were bloodshot as they looked greedily at the horse under Xu Yunfan and the bundle on the horse, completely unaware of the golden hammer in Xu Yunfan's hand.
These bandits can no longer be called human beings. They only know how to rob and kill, like the walking dead.
Xu Yunfan's pupils were bloodshot.
"Red eyes and sparse teeth."
The golden hammer slammed into the ground, and the shock wave caused the fallen leaves within five feet to blow back.
"The look of a cannibal."
Scarface suddenly froze.
He saw the black-clothed warrior's muscles begin to bulge, and a hot breath rushed towards him, finally dispelling the greed in his eyes, and he saw the long-handled heavy hammer in Xu Yunfan's hand, which was as light as a feather.
This is a warrior!
When he was about to retreat, Xu Yunfan had already rushed towards him on horseback.
When the first hammer fell, blood mixed with bone fragments flew everywhere.
Xu Yunfan turned his hammer into a pen. The hammer fell like thunder, and the tip of the handle picked up the tendons like drawing. He turned around and swept through thousands of troops without any opponent matching him.
When the attack was over, the five headless corpses knelt down to apologize, and the hemp rope around the pregnant woman's neck had already turned into powder.
"Thirty miles north, in Licheng, Qingzhou, there is a disaster relief tent."
He stuffed the water bag and dry food into the woman's hands. There were still traces of brain matter on her wristband.
"If you can get through, you should be able to survive."
When the numb-looking woman looked up, the man and the horse had already gone far away and quickly disappeared from her sight.
As night fell, Xu Yunfan saw the border of Wuzhou and the city wall of Dingbei.
The moat had long since dried up, with human and animal bones piled up on the riverbed. The plaque on the city wall had long since fallen to the ground and broken into two pieces.
Most of the arrow towers on the city wall had collapsed, and the gaps were randomly blocked with wooden stakes. The defenders' patched coarse cloth clothes were exposed under their standard leather armor, and it was clear that they were ordinary people in disguise.
"Steamed buns! Hot meat buns!"
There was a hoarse hawking sound coming from the foot of the city wall, and Xu Yunfan turned his head to look.
The one-eyed old woman was standing by the steaming steamer, but there was not a single bun on the bamboo plate.
Three hungry people with green eyes were wandering in front of the stall, and suddenly they all pounced on the steamer.
A cold light flashed from the old woman's sleeve, and a boning knife was already stuck in the throat of the hungry person in front.
"Crack!"
Xu Yunfan's fingers were crackling.
He saw clearly the body of the young child curled up in the steamer. The child was missing his left leg, and coarse salt was sprinkled on the wound, which was the source of meat.
The old woman licked the blood foam on the blade, her single eye dancing with frenzied joy: "How many baskets would you like, sir? The meat of the ones that are just one month old is the most tender..."
Xu Yunfan took a deep breath, dismounted, and swung the Golden Hammer fiercely. The entire section of the city wall was shaking.
When the first ray of morning light pierced through the dark clouds, a nine-foot-high corpse tower appeared in front of the gate of Dingbei City.
Xu Yunfan held the bloody golden hammer upside down and walked towards the half-broken city gate on the blood-stained ground.
In the shadow of the city wall, dozens of greedy eyes were cast upon him, but no one dared to step beyond the line.
Most of these people are survivors of the fall of Dingbei City. Now, in order to survive, their actions are almost like those of demons.
All I see is devastation.