Within the small town, a few buildings stood a dozen stories tall, towering above everything around them like cranes among chickens. Their glasses were dull and grey with grime, looking as though it hadn't been wiped in over a decade. Inside, the stairwell railings were slick with grease, blackened by years of neglect.

A soldier looked Wen Min and Qi Yuan up and down, then belched. "Old Chen asked me to escort you two through. No problem with that, but you'd better keep your heads down the whole way. Understood?"

He pulled back his coat, flashing the gun holstered at his hip.

The burly driver, Wen Min, answered swiftly, "No problem!"

Qi Yuan said nothing. That counted as agreement.

"Also, per regulations..." The soldier looked at both of them. "Hand over your weapons."

Without hesitation, Wen Min pulled two pistols from his waistband and placed them in the man's hands.

The soldier glanced at Qi Yuan and studied him. "You?"

Seeing how clean, neat, and pale-skinned he was, a hint of puzzlement flickered in the soldier's eyes. Qi Yuan clearly wasn't a local. He appeared more like some pampered young master who'd never known a hard day in his life. What's he doing here?

"Your weapon?"

Qi Yuan thought for a moment, then grabbed a fistful of air and held it out. "Does this count?"

Wen Min stared. He had absolutely no idea what he'd just witnessed.

The soldier blinked. "You don't have any weapons on you?"

Qi Yuan spread his hands earnestly. "As a martial cultivator, my fists and my legs are my weapons, but I can't give those to you."

He had far too many weapons to count. After all, as a cultivator, the very air around him could be turned into a weapon. Worried that the big man couldn't hold them all, so air it was.

"You're actually a martial cultivator?" The uniformed man chuckled, clearly taking Qi Yuan at his word. "When I was young, I was obsessed with martial arts too. Trained for about half a year, then got an injection and never went back."

The injection he meant was, of course, a gene serum.

The soldier delivered his verdict with the authority of a man who'd seen it all. "There's no future in Martial Dao."

Before Qi Yuan could respond, a man standing behind the soldier said, "Who says martial artists are useless? Just recently, one caught a Wugui priest off guard and beat him to death!"

The soldier laughed, saying casually, "Well, it won’t happen a second time. Don't let my looks fool you. If I run into one of those martial peak artists, I can take them on one-on-one without breaking a sweat. And if I can't win? I put a bullet in them."

His words more or less summed up the mainstream view of Martial Dao. It couldn't compete with gene serums, let alone guns.

***

About half an hour later, Qi Yuan was sitting in Wen Min's vehicle. The car had been searched, every weapon confiscated.

"Once we're in Wugui Country, I'll find an arms dealer and pick up some hardware," said Wen Min.

Without weapons, they couldn’t protect themselves, let alone rescue Kuang Huan.

"No need. Weapons are too flashy, and I have no use for them. Once we're in Wugui Country, just get me somewhere with a view of their military camp. I'll handle everything else."

Though Arch Star had weapons of every kind imaginable, he doubted he knew how to use most of them.

Wen Min blinked, puzzled. He turned it over in his mind for a moment before finally giving in. "Whatever Mr. Qi says."

His thoughts ran wild. Maybe Mr. Qi has a connection in the military camp?

He couldn't think of any other explanation. It certainly didn't occur to him that Qi Yuan genuinely planned to storm the camp alone.

Thus, the smugglers' caravan rolled slowly toward Wugui Country, led by the soldier. Over twenty vehicles kicked up clouds of dust as they moved. Outside the window were murky rivers, scorched earth, the occasional collapsed building, and craters caused by old artillery strikes. Every so often, a drone drifted through the sky overhead.

Wen Min watched one pass and shuddered. "If we ran into those drones on our own, we'd be dead for sure. Doesn't matter that we're not Yuelang Country soldiers, if we get gunned down by a drone, the Wugui soldier will still count it as a kill."

Qi Yuan watched them with complete indifference. "You're exaggerating. Those drones? One Turtle Qi Blast would take out them all. Where's the danger?"

He had the ability to protect himself now. The only things that could genuinely threaten him were missiles and whatever was above that.

Wen Min had grown accustomed to Qi Yuan's way of speaking. He smiled. "Well, Mr. Qi, your Turtle Qi had better outdo bullets. Ordinary rounds can't even scratch those drones."

The car sped on. Intermittent artillery fire could be heard in the distance. Wen Min explained it was likely the border exchange between Yuelang and Wugui, both sides shelling each other.

About two hours later, the convoy reached a Wugui Country checkpoint. A squad of soldiers was stationed there, well-armed and clad in body armor. They ran a thorough inspection of every vehicle. It took half an hour before they finally waved the convoy through.

Wen Min exhaled with relief, though he remained uneasy. "It all depends on you now, Mr. Qi."

Getting in was one thing, but getting out was another matter entirely. The smugglers had brought them in, but they wouldn’t be bringing them out.

"Mm..." Qi Yuan took a slow breath and peered through the window. "What are those red strips of cloth on the trees for? Don't tell me the trees have joined the Young Pioneers[1]."

Wen Min paused. "That's a ritual of the Guiran Wu Cult. A red strip on a tree means this area is under the Wu God's protection."

Wugui Country was a theocracy. Religious authority outranked even the monarchy. The state religion was the Wu Cult, and the god it worshipped was the Wu God. Over ninety percent of Wugui Country's population were believers.

One tenet of the Wu God's doctrine even stated, “All heretics shall be hanged from trees.”

Of course, in modern times, the cult still had to maintain appearances. They wouldn't openly persecute people. Only the most fervent fanatics would do such a thing. They would kill heretics, drain their blood, and soak cloth strips in it before hanging them from the trees.

Hence, some of the red strips on the trees were either plain dyed cloth or soaked in a dead man's blood. Once they crossed into Wugui Country territory, it became a common sight.

1. CCP's youth organization. Members wear a red handkerchief on their necks as part of their uniform. ☜