248: Chapter 248 Knowing but not reporting, the village is slaughtered!

The heavy, rhythmic sound of horse hooves, carrying an endless aura of slaughter, brutally shattered the tranquility of the early morning.

Gu Changsheng stood in the courtyard, his gaze piercing through the swirling wind and snow.

Hundreds of cavalrymen, clad entirely in black heavy armor, directly smashed through the already dilapidated wooden fence of Liuxi Village.

The warhorses were all exotic beasts covered in black scales, their four hooves thick and strong, nostrils snorting hot white steam.

As the hooves rose and fell, the layer of ice on the ground was crushed to powder, and mud mixed with ice shards splashed everywhere.

The leading captain stood nearly ten feet tall, like an Iron Pagoda.

Dark red blood-qi surged over his body, transforming into a tangible pillar of smoke that shot into the clouds; even the falling snowflakes evaporated instantly under this high temperature.

Vajra Realm.

Gu Changsheng's knuckles lightly tapped the side of his thigh as he quickly calculated the opponent's combat strength in his mind.

The Physical Body strength of this Body Cultivator is at least comparable to the Middle Foundation Establishment Stage of the outside world.

In an army of thirty thousand Imperial Guards, a random captain is a Foundation Establishment Stage Body Cultivator.

The foundation of this Desolate God Grotto-Heaven is indeed much deeper than expected.

"Everyone, get your asses to the threshing floor!"

The captain bellowed, his voice like rolling thunder, laced with violent blood-qi power.

The sound waves vibrated, and the roofs of several nearby thatched huts were directly blown off.

The black-armored cavalry dispersed, lashing out with long whips in their hands; steel barbs tore through the air, making ear-piercing sharp whistles.

Snap!

A villager who was slow to run was struck in the back by a whip; before he could even scream, his spine snapped on the spot.

Blood mixed with internal organs spilled across the ground, and the corpse twitched a few times in the snow before falling still.

The old grandfather pulled Shitou along, his legs so weak from fear that he collapsed directly into the mud.

Gu Changsheng grabbed the old man's collar with one hand and lifted him up effortlessly.

"Follow along, and don't make a sound."

His flat tone carried a will that brooked no resistance.

The grandfather and grandson trembled all over, biting their lips hard as they followed closely behind Gu Changsheng.

The threshing floor in the center of the village.

Hundreds of villagers were driven together, huddled in a crowd.

The surrounding area was packed tight with black-armored cavalry; a forest of spears stood tall, their tips glinting with a cold, sinister light.

The captain sat perched atop his exotic beast mount, looking down at this group of ants from a height.

With a flick of his hand, he fished out a fist-sized grayish-white stone from a leather pouch at his waist.

The surface of the stone was covered in complex dark red patterns, emitting a strange rhythm.

Blood-Testing Stone.

"A disturbance has occurred in the Imperial City; outsiders have infiltrated,"

The captain's voice was coarse, carrying a heavy aura of slaughter that spread across the entire threshing floor.

"His Majesty has ordered a full investigation of the entire Luoxia Commandery!"

"Any outsiders shall be executed without mercy!"

"Those who know and do not report shall have their village massacred!"

As the words 'massacre the village' fell, a wave of suppressed sobbing instantly broke out across the threshing floor.

The captain dismounted, his heavy armor hitting the ice with a dull, heavy thud.

Holding the Blood-Testing Stone, he strode to the very front of the crowd.

"Form a line, one by one."

"Drip a drop of blood onto it."

"Anyone who dares to hesitate, dies."

The first in line was a scrawny man.

Trembling, he bit his fingertip and smeared a drop of blood onto the grayish-white stone.

The blood was instantly absorbed by the stone.

A few breaths later, a faint red light lit up on the stone's surface.

The captain kicked the man away with a look of disgust, completely indifferent to whether he lived or died.

"Next!"

The red light represented the native blood-qi of this world.

Gu Changsheng stood in the middle-back of the crowd, quietly watching the scene.

The wither-flourish dao seed within his Dantian rotated slowly.

The principle behind this Blood-Testing Stone was outrageously crude.

It was nothing more than utilizing the exclusionary nature of the Grotto-Heaven's Heavenly Dao rules to detect the purity of blood-qi.

If it were an outsider who lacked the blood-qi Origin of the Desolate God Grotto-Heaven, the stone would not react at all, or might even burst with a repulsive gray light.

But in the face of absolute suppression by high-dimensional rules, this inferior detection method was simply a joke.

The line moved forward quickly.

The investigation process was extremely bloody.

Any villager who was half a beat slow, or who couldn't squeeze out blood due to fear,

Was directly impaled through the chest by a nearby cavalryman's spear.

The corpses were carelessly tossed aside, blood staining the snow on the threshing floor red.

Soon, it was the grandfather and Shitou's turn for the inspection.

The grandfather and grandson passed and were roughly pushed into the safe zone.

Gu Changsheng stepped forward and stopped in front of the captain.

The captain looked up, his gaze falling on Gu Changsheng.

The movements of this Vajra Realm military officer suddenly froze.

An indescribable sense of dissonance welled up in his heart.

Among this group of ragged, mud-covered natives, this man not only wore clean clothes, but even his breathing frequency was terrifyingly steady.

No trembling, no cowering.

He was as calm as a bottomless ancient well.

"Your turn."

The captain snorted coldly, but did not make Gu Changsheng drip blood.

He suddenly reached out, grabbed the Blood-Testing Stone, and brutally pressed it against Gu Changsheng's wrist.

An extremely cold probing force instantly drilled into Gu Changsheng's Meridians through the point of contact.

This force carried the will of the Heavenly Dao rules, attempting to rummage through the Dharmic Power fluctuations hidden deep within the flesh and blood.

Gu Changsheng didn't even have the thought of resisting.

He allowed that probing force to enter unimpeded.

At his chest, the taiyin submerging spirit jade quietly activated.

[Effect One: Trace-less].

[Effect Two: Deception].

The overlapping of two high-dimensional rules instantly constructed an absolute information barrier within Gu Changsheng's Meridians.

Just as that probing force touched the wither-flourish dao seed,

The Taiyin Mana directly assimilated and twisted it.

In the perception of the Blood-Testing Stone, there wasn't the slightest bit of external technique fluctuation within Gu Changsheng's body.

There was only a stream of extremely pure native blood-qi that perfectly conformed to the Heavenly Dao rules of the Desolate God Grotto-Heaven.

The taiyin submerging spirit jade even thoughtfully helped him conceal his terrifying Physical Body strength,

Disguising him as an ordinary Mortal who hadn't even reached the Blood Tempering Realm.

A soft red light lit up on the surface of the grayish-white stone.

It was no different from those villagers before.

The captain stared fixedly at that ball of red light, his facial muscles twitching slightly.

He looked up, gazing at Gu Changsheng once more.

This time,

Under the influence of the 'Trace-less' effect of the taiyin submerging spirit jade,

Gu Changsheng's already blurred face became even more unremarkable in the captain's vision.

The sense of dissonance that had just arisen vanished instantly.

Even his sense of presence was infinitely weakened in the captain's perception.

Standing before him was merely a piece of withered wood that could be found anywhere.

"Get over there."

The captain waved his hand irritably and took back the Blood-Testing Stone.

He didn't even have the interest to spare Gu Changsheng another glance, stepping past him toward the next person.

Gu Changsheng lowered his wrist and unhurriedly smoothed the wrinkles on his green robe.

He stepped forward, walking toward the safe zone.

He let out an imperceptible sneer.

Is that it?

Using a broken stone to try and uncover the background of a Purple Mansion True Person like him?

These natives knew absolutely nothing about the power of high-dimensional rules.

As long as he didn't actively withdraw the concealment of the taiyin submerging spirit jade,

Even if the Heavenly Dao of this Grotto-Heaven descended in person, it wouldn't find the slightest clue on him.

The suppression of information asymmetry was the most unsolvable killing move in this world.

The investigation lasted for a full hour.

Of the three hundred plus people in Liuxi Village, over twenty were executed on the spot.

The rest were all shivering in the cold wind, not even daring to cry out loud.

"Mount up!"

After the captain confirmed there were no outsiders, he leaped onto his exotic beast warhorse.

"To the next village!"

Hundreds of black-armored cavalry whistled away.

Leaving behind only a mess and the pungent smell of blood.

The threshing floor was deathly silent; the villagers stared blankly at the corpses on the ground, not daring to move for a long time.

Gu Changsheng stood at the edge of the crowd, his gaze directed toward the direction the black-armored army had departed.

Those three idiots from the Northern Plains had certainly helped him draw all the fire.

The more trouble they caused at the Imperial City, the safer remote places like Liuxi Village would be.

He now had plenty of time to slowly harvest the resources of this Grotto-Heaven.