337: Chapter 153 Hundred Coffins_2 337: Chapter 153 Hundred Coffins_2 “Martial Immortal?” Cao Zhen was completely bewildered.
If someone could be called a Martial Immortal, they must be an incredibly terrifying and powerful being, yet he had no memory of such a person.
However, Lan Pili spoke up directly, “The person you’re talking about is that disaster caused by the Guardian Immortal Imperial Dynasty back then, isn’t it?”
Head Catcher Zhao nodded, “Indeed, what I’m referring to is exactly that disaster from the Guardian Immortal Imperial Dynasty.”
Cao Zhen asked curiously, “Disaster?
Do you mean to say that this Martial Immortal, Helian Baitian, caused a disaster?
What’s his background?
The Grand Preceptor was already around at that time, wasn’t he?
How could he still cause a disaster?”
Lan Pili picked up a teacup from the side, took a sip of tea to moisten his throat, and then began to explain, “Helian Baitian, although called a Martial Immortal and associated with an Immortal, was not actually a practitioner of Immortal Cultivation.
He was merely a mortal.”
“A mortal?
A mortal could cause such chaos?” Cao Zhen became even more puzzled.
“It’s precisely because he was a mortal that he caused the disaster, and although he was a mortal, he was completely different from any other mortal, which makes this a long story,” Lan Pili said as he gazed at Cao Zhen and explained, “It’s been so many years since then that I’ve forgotten how many, but at the time, the Grand Preceptor had indeed emerged and became the Grand Preceptor of the imperial court.
The Guardian Immortal Imperial Dynasty was growing stronger and stronger, and indeed there were some Immortals who began to help the mortals of the Guardian Immortal Imperial Dynasty—commanding the clouds and the rain to help mortals ward off disasters.
However, the Guardian Immortal Imperial Dynasty was too vast, and there were still some remote areas that the Immortals couldn’t reach in time to assist the mortals.
There were also many places where natural disasters struck with such ferocity that even ordinary Immortals found them impossible to fend off, leading to some citizens of the Dynasty living in hardship.
Furthermore, what was even more worrisome was the issue with people.
While it’s true that the presence of the Grand Preceptor had made the Dynasty’s bureaucracy much cleaner, even he wasn’t able to guarantee that every official would be fair and devoted entirely to the people,” Lan Pili noted.
Cao Zhen nodded slightly in agreement, “You can’t expect every official to be fair and honest; even if the majority were, it would already be quite an achievement.”
He had experienced the era of the information explosion in his previous life and knew all too well how severe corruption among ancient officials could be.
Throughout the ages, no ruler had ever ensured that all officials were incorruptible during their reign.
“That’s right, even the Grand Preceptor could only ensure fair weather; he couldn’t eliminate all the corrupt officials, despite him being very serious about governing the country.
After all, human nature is the hardest thing to grasp in this world.
Where there are people, there is greed, which is something that can never be overcome or satisfied,” Lan Pili remarked and continued, “If the officials’ oppression is light, the commoners might bear it, but if the officials’ tyranny is too harsh and unbearable, and if natural disasters occur in the area simultaneously, it can easily lead to an uprising.
At the time, the Guardian Immortal Imperial Dynasty was at war with another Dynasty, and there were frequent natural disasters within the Dynasty during those years, so many uprisings erupted.
Martial Immortal Helian Baitian also launched an uprising during that time.
In reality, he was just an ordinary person, someone who couldn’t survive due to the oppression by the officials.
At that time, he organized hundreds of people just like him, who were being oppressed by local officials to the point of not being able to survive, and they launched a rebellion, attacking the county town they lived in.
Although it was just an ordinary county town, the town also had guards, and even the local county magistrate kept a private group of guards for protection.
Under normal circumstances, those hundred people wouldn’t be able to take down a county town.
But Helian Baitian possessed Innate Divine Strength, an enormous power; although he was just a mortal, he could lift the stone lions within the town and swing them around at will.
That day, he took the lead, using a Great Stone to smash open the city gates with his bare hands, leading hundreds into the town, tearing the county magistrate to pieces alive.
Although he killed the county magistrate, he also knew that he couldn’t hold the town.
Once the Dynasty’s troops arrived, he was certain to die.
So he opened the granaries and, after looting the county magistrate’s house, he took countless commoners with him to Lake Mountain, living as a Mountain Bandit king.
At the time of his attack on the town, he had only a hundred people, but when he left, his numbers had nearly reached a thousand.
He even found a perfect location at Lake Mountain, surrounded by a lake on all sides.
To attack the mountain, one had to cross the river, and the mountain itself was vast; once they hid inside, it was extremely difficult to find them.
So the Dynasty sent troops to attack, but after several attempts, they couldn’t take him down, while he himself grew even stronger.
They say that initially, he only relied on his brute strength; he didn’t know anything about the art of combat among mortals let alone the abilities of Immortal Cultivation.
However, as he fought the Dynasty’s troops over and over, his battle experience grew richer and richer, making him seem like a veteran General.
It seemed that with each encounter with the military, he learned all the combat techniques from his opponents.
And his own forces continued to grow more reckoned.
Even some of the military’s Generals and soldiers defected to him.
As time went on, many mortals actively sought to join him.
Although mortals don’t practice Immortal Cultivation, they do have martial arts and techniques.
As more and more people skilled in martial arts joined him, his personal strength improved by leaps and bounds.
He no longer stayed in the mountains but led his army to take over cities one after another.”