Seven dark gun muzzles locked onto the man in white.

The latter still played his qin, unhurriedly.

It was precisely this composure that left an indelible shadow in people's hearts.

Some soldiers exchanged subtle glances, preparing a tentative attack.

But at that moment, the melody shifted slightly. Without any visible action, the specially modified firearms in everyone’s hands twisted and contorted with a series of cracking sounds, turning into piles of scrap metal. The gun barrels were cleanly sliced in two by invisible sound waves and fell to the ground.

"Using external objects, indeed formidable."

"But these inanimate things, once destroyed, what do you have left to rely on?"

Zhou Yi and the others, as well as the soldiers in the camp, all wore grave expressions.

The guns held incendiary rounds capable of damaging demonic entities, and signal flares to pinpoint the location of the mountain god temple, but they were destroyed before they could be used. What was most unexpected was the strength of this demon.

To be able to slice through the guns without anyone reacting meant it could undoubtedly slice through human bodies as well.

A thick fog hung over the mountain, with demonic energy interfering, making it impossible to confirm the exact coordinates of the mountain god temple from outside.

Thus, a concentrated attack was impossible.

In Wei Yuan's eyes, an incredibly dense demonic aura emanated from the man in white before him, vaguely transforming into a crouching tiger, surrounded by kneeling chang gui (tiger's victims, now spirits that serve the tiger). To ordinary eyes, it was a mountain hermit playing the qin, but in Wei Yuan's eyes, it was a great demon king surrounded by ghosts.

The surrounding soldiers were momentarily intimidated by the demonic energy that blanketed the mountain, their movements sluggish.

Spiritual energy flowed through Wei Yuan's blood, leaving him largely unaffected.

Knowing that resolving this demon who had broken free from his seal required support from the rear, and that the rear's ability to accurately locate them depended on these Shenji Camp soldiers, Wei Yuan couldn't hesitate. He slightly raised the sword in his hand, slashing diagonally downward, the sword whistling fiercely, directly killing one of the chang gui.

The man in white looked at Wei Yuan, who was still able to move freely.

Wei Yuan sheathed his sword for the time being and said,

"Mountain Lord, before we fight, I have something I would like to ask you."

Wei Yuan was also taking a gamble. Since the Mountain Lord was here playing the qin, he obviously valued elegance and had taken the initiative to show himself, displaying confidence. The man in white did not attack, but frowned slightly, his amber eyes looking at Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan's move was originally to stall for time, but at this moment, he truly had a question.

He thought of the figures that appeared in his dream and slowly said:

"A few days ago, the matter of Dong Yu should also have been your doing, Mountain Lord. Let me ask, did you intervene in any way that led to her tragic end… And the case of Tian's Bone Woman back then, the Li woman's soul-swapping technique did not seem like something an ordinary peasant girl could obtain. Was that also your doing?!"

The Mountain Lord suddenly laughed loudly and said, "I wondered what it was?!"

"So you think I interfered, leading them to such ends?"

"Do you still think that such things are caused by us so-called demons, and not by humans?"

"Hahaha, you are wrong!"

"Witchcraft and Gu are originally techniques used by you humans to scheme against your own kind, and have nothing to do with me. After the witchcraft disaster of Emperor Wu of Han, countless people skilled in witchcraft changed their names and hid. The Tian family girl was just unlucky to encounter one."

"As for that poor woman a few days ago, she was abducted and sold, beaten to death by her husband's family, and her body dumped at the foot of the mountain. No demons were involved at all. It was all done by humans. It just so happened that it was right on the border of my mountain. Seeing that the resentment did not dissipate, I went to take a look. In the thousands of years I have seen, the actions of you humans far exceed the demons you speak of."

Wei Yuan said, "In that case, the Mountain Lord is instead punishing evil and promoting good?"

The Mountain Lord said with interest, "Of course not. Let me ask you, do humans have a heart of pity?"

"Naturally."

"I am also a different kind in your eyes. What is incomprehensible about pitying those who are also rejected by you? Moreover, mountains and rivers and all things have feelings, and I also enjoy seeing the joy of revenge. I pity what she experienced, so I helped her get her wish. This is what you call compassion."

Wei Yuan said, "Then why didn't the Mountain Lord intervene earlier?"

The Mountain Lord laughed, "I am, after all, a demon of the mountains."

He looked at Wei Yuan and said, "Speaking of which, I also have a question."

"Putting aside the matter of Dong Yu, the matter of the Bone Woman was already in the third year of the Yongping era of the Han Dynasty, more than a thousand years ago. How do you know so much about it in such detail?"

The rest of the people in the field, and in the camp behind, were all silent.

In the silence, Wei Yuan raised his sword, his tone calm:

"I saw it in the classics."

"Oh? Which classics?"

"I cannot say."

At this moment, a soldier finally restrained the invasion of the great demon-level demonic energy, his eyes wide with anger, and suddenly raised his hand, unfastening the individual-carried launcher from his back. Wei Yuan reacted instantly, stepped forward, and swung the Eight-Sided Han Sword in its sheath.

Three crisp sounds rang out.

The sheath of the Eight-Sided Han Sword was directly pierced through.

The sword body slid along, and with the force dispersed, three qin strings were directly stabbed into the ground.

The Mountain Lord did not seem to expect that a mere mortal body could withstand his attack. At the same time, the soldier had desperately pressed the launch button, slightly shifting it upward, and the individual-carried cloud explosive bomb flew directly towards the architectural area behind the Mountain Lord, which resembled a celestial realm.

The latter directly abandoned everyone and stood in front of the building, seemingly only knowing ordinary firearms, and slashed a wave of demonic power towards the cloud explosive bomb.

Wei Yuan's expression changed, and he retreated rapidly, drawing his sword.

The other soldiers also struggled free and retreated towards the rear.

The effective kill radius of a cloud explosive bomb was fifty meters.

Wei Yuan had only taken a few steps when he heard a loud bang, followed by a muffled groan. A wave of heat spread out, and fierce flames burned violently, then were slashed open. The man in white from just now was still as before, the building behind him was unscathed, but the hand he held behind his back trembled slightly, and his expression was gloomy.

This time, all the individual weapons had corresponding coordinate devices.

Their goal was to discover the mountain god temple and confirm its specific location.

A concise and forceful voice came from the Bluetooth headset.

"Retreat!"

Because the Mountain Lord appeared directly, the first phase of the mission had been completed quickly.

Next, they needed to retreat a certain distance, leading the enemy away while withdrawing within a radius of three hundred meters, to ensure that the firepower would not be intercepted and could saturate the mountain god temple.

This was the most dangerous phase of the mission.

The other party was obviously enraged.

After the order was given, everyone retreated at top speed, while firing grenades and other individual weapons to hinder the legendary demon. The elite of the Special Operations Group began to mobilize their magic power, using talismans, while Wei Yuan violently甩开 his sword sheath, bit his finger, and quickly drew a talisman on the sword's surface.

Breathing a sigh of relief, a great sense of unease suddenly struck his heart.

Could a human outrun a tiger on a mountain road?

Wei Yuan glanced back. The smoke and dust from the gunpowder explosion dissipated, and a white figure was unharmed. Without any visible action, the mountain road became even more rugged, and the entire Crouching Tiger Mountain seemed to be shaking, turning into a living thing. Qin strings hung in the air, piercing down towards the ground like flying feathers.

Wei Yuan quickened his pace, wanting to avoid them.

But then he realized that behind him were the soldiers whose speed was slowed down by the equipment they carried.

He could dodge, but those soldiers who were slowed down by the weight of their individual weapons would surely die.

Wei Yuan gritted his teeth and turned his feet, reversing his movement. The Eight-Sided Han Sword in his hand thrust out violently, hitting a qin string. Qi and blood churned in his chest and abdomen, and his wrist turned, forcibly mobilizing the Crouching Tiger Art. The speed of the Eight-Sided Han Sword in his hand suddenly accelerated, and he fought as he retreated, using the Dragon Sword stance to block all the qin strings.

Sparks burst out, mixed with the sword light, like a blizzard in the blazing summer sun.

The last qin string was guided by the force and pierced into the mountain stone.

Before Wei Yuan could regulate his breathing, the Mountain Lord's figure was already close.

In the illusion, a huge tiger tail shadow lashed out at Wei Yuan with a fierce wind.

Wei Yuan stepped according to the Yu steps, advancing instead of retreating, changing his position, and appearing on the Mountain Lord's left side, the Eight-Sided Han Sword in his hand by his side. He gritted his teeth and fiercely抹向 the Mountain Lord's waist and abdomen, the bloody talisman on the sword body bursting out a ball of light. The demonic power, which had just withstood the violent impact unscathed, seemed somewhat difficult to defend against in the face of this strong sword.

The Mountain Lord, who had no defense, had a section of his clothes cut off.

A shallow scar could even be seen on his abdomen.

Wei Yuan's tiger's mouth had already cracked, and blood was dripping, making him look even more miserable.

The Mountain Lord's wound healed instantly, but his expression suddenly changed, a mixture of anger and a trace of fear. He finally noticed the faint aura of the Crouching Tiger waist tag on Wei Yuan's body.

"So it's you..."

Wei Yuan took a breath, feeling some pain in his lungs. The other members had already retreated to a safe place, not lingering around. He smiled and said:

"Has the Mountain Lord noticed? How far have we retreated now?"

Originally, they were already more than a hundred meters away from the mountain god temple, and they had retreated for so long afterward.

They had long since exceeded the safe distance.

The Mountain Lord frowned slightly, then became puzzled. There was no creature in this mountain that could threaten him.

What did this sentence mean?

In the camp in the rear, orders were quickly transmitted.

"Our members have withdrawn to a safe range."

"We have requested authorization to open fire from the military region."

"Authorization to open fire granted."

A girl with glasses, who looked weak and refined, pressed a button.

"Open fire."

Thirty kilometers away, the Fire Dragon series of rockets began to launch. Some reporters were filming the scene of military training and broadcasting it to other TV stations, and some military personnel were responsible for explaining the power of this series of rockets.

Twelve parent bombs can be launched in an instant.

The power covers a radius of three hundred meters.

The maximum deviation does not exceed ten meters.

Of course, these are just rockets, not ballistic missiles, haha, of course not.

Destructive power...

Along with the explanation, rockets like fire dragons soared into the sky in an instant. With the top rocket positioning system in the entire Blue Star, the entire sky darkened for a moment. These modern weapons carrying a large amount of explosives landed on the mountain god temple on Crouching Tiger Mountain, and flames and high temperatures instantly enveloped the area within a radius of three hundred meters.

The shock wave mixed with the scorching high temperature swept out.

…………………………

Thick black smoke billowed into the sky.

The architectural area that had just seemed like a fairyland became a ruin, submerged in the sea of fire.

The Mountain Lord, who had been calm and unhurried, suddenly turned pale, and his overall aura weakened by an unknown amount, as if an aura had been directly drawn out of his body, no longer to the point of being completely irresistible. Wei Yuan actively pressed a button on his special combat uniform, and the special medicine was injected into his body, quickly regenerating the consumed magic power.

A mist swirled around the Mountain Lord's body, and his voice was low and mixed with tiger roars, extremely angry.

"As expected, it's you, Sili Xiaowei (Inspector of the Capital), no wonder you know about the events of that year, no wonder you call me Mountain Lord instead of Tiger Lord, only you would call me that..."

"Your ancestors were the ones who suppressed me in this mountain back then."

"Zhang Daoling is dead, and his disciples and grandchildren are too far away from here."

"This thousand-year-old hatred of suppression, and the hatred of today, I will first take it back from you!!!"

………………

Down the mountain in the camp, everyone finally saw that the mountain god temple had been bombed, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

This tiger demon could withstand the frontal impact of individual missiles and cloud explosive bombs unscathed.

It could mobilize the勢 of an entire mountain.

This表現 was beyond their imagination.

After all, in this world, not everyone has the opportunity to come into contact with this kind of great demon king who existed in ancient times.

They were really worried that the other party's mountain god temple could directly withstand the impact of rockets.

If he himself could withstand the cloud explosive bomb, and the mountain temple could withstand the rocket barrage.

Then……

But, thankfully……

The officer, who had been serious and quiet before, sat down on the chair, sweat beading on his forehead.

He calmed down for a while before saying:

"Adjust the positions of the members, who is closer to that tiger demon now, the Special Operations Group, or our soldiers?"

A communicator quickly replied:

"It's that outside staff member."

The officer's expression paused. He thought of the words he had heard from the Mountain Lord earlier, slowly nodded, and said:

"It's that person who has read a lot of classics, is knowledgeable and well-informed, worthy of being a museum curator."

"Connect his communication..."

The sound mixed with tiger roars came, and due to the influence of the demonic power, the clarity of the communication was constantly decreasing, but the tiger roars still made people tremble in their hearts and their scalps tingle. One could imagine the pressure of facing this demon king directly. Even after adjusting as much as possible, the voice, filled with intense hatred, was still only intermittent.

"As expected, it's you..."

"No wonder you know... calling me Mountain Lord..."

"Your ancestors... suppressed me... in this mountain back then."

"Zhang Daoling is dead... the hatred of suppression for thousands of years, and..., I will... take it back from you!!!"

Finally, accompanied by the cracking sound after the tiger roar, the instrument transmitted a rustling sound.

The instrument was damaged.

A dead silence.

…………

Wei Yuan also heard unstable sounds in his ears. He took off the broken headset and left it aside, raising his sword.

Since the other party wanted to take revenge on the Sili Xiaowei, the first generation Celestial Master Zhang Daoling, who had sealed him back then, as a later Sili Xiaowei, and practicing the sword art of the Celestial Master's Mansion, he should naturally accept it.

The broken sword in his left hand was held in reverse, and the long sword in his right hand was held diagonally.

"Sili Xiaowei, Crouching Tiger Wei Yuan."

"By order, to诛杀妖魔!" (exterminate demons!)

ps: Four thousand words, an absolutely large chapter in the new book period... asking for a vote...