Besides, the barbarian guards defending the city are not blind. True evil demons and heretics might not dare to show themselves, but isn't it clear to them that you are merely an incapable honest person?

In these times, having no skills means you deserve to be killed. If you dare to recklessly enter the city, they would truly dare to chop off your head with a single stroke, treat you as a bandit leader, and throw your corpse into the ditch by the moat to feed the dogs.

Those who can live within high walls are either soldiers or bandits. Those with family businesses, relatives, friends to rely on, abilities, strength, or some charm, wouldn't have fallen to this state; they would have long been seized and divided by various factions.

The remaining elderly, weak, sick, and disabled are, bluntly put, unwanted trash. Apart from wasting food and drink, they are useless paupers, unqualified to enter the city or even to be robbed by mountain bandits. They can only be slaughtered, driven, and devoured by various evil demons and heretics, wandering like headless flies through rugged mountains.

At this moment, this refugee army was camped outside the forest, seemingly clearing mountains and cutting wood, hunting, and farming. Because of their large numbers, they had almost deforested several nearby hills.

There is no choice, people will die if they don't eat. It was the beginning of midsummer to early autumn, the climate was warm, the mountains and forests were lush with vegetation and teeming with demon beasts, the right time to gather food. Otherwise, when the cold sets in, and the demon tide heads south and the rebel armies battle, without winter reserves, wouldn't they all starve to death?

Huangfu Yi observed for a while, considered for a bit, then dismounted, unfastened the saddle reins, let the horse go, soiled his cloak with some dust, picked up a bundle of twigs to hold, concealed the flying sword in his bosom, and blended into the crowd, sneaking into the refugee army.

There were refugees everywhere; no one spared him a glance, allowing Huangfu Yi to smoothly slip into the camp.

Judging by their accents, these people came from the Gen Kingdom, probably because life there was no longer sustainable.

In fact, refugees existed every year and in every place. Natural disasters, famines, man-made calamities, demon tides—ordinary folks lived like mayflies, born in the morning, dead by night, easily falling into the plight of ruined homes, displaced lives, fleeing for survival.

But previously, the Gen Kingdom was relatively prosperous. Even if the frontier folks suffered military calamities, were raided by Northern captives, faced famines or poor harvests, or encountered monsters, refugees could still flee to southern towns for food. The fortunate could find places to clear land or sell themselves to Gate Valve landlords to get a meal.

And if such a refugee group truly grew to the scale of several thousand or ten thousand, the local vassal state government would certainly respond, organizing a reactionary alliance of vassals, Gate Valve, rural gentry, and landlords. Whether it's through garrison or suppression, arrangements would be made to handle it, lest a bunch of lowly people wander about, polluting the environment and disturbing the gentry's peace, ruining crops and delaying the next year's harvest.

But now the South also suffered military calamities. Northern Soldiers rebelled for sixty years, plaguing the land, ceaselessly slaughtering and producing nothing. Even the local Gate Valve can barely survive, let alone the common folk.

The rebel troops under the Stone Jiao were even more terrifying than demons when killing people. Demons ultimately only killed to fill their stomachs, and once full, they left. But Hu Cavalry Wolf Soldiers dragged the elderly by horse tails, impaled infants on spear tips, and hung women on archery targets for shooting fun. Which is more terrifying? Definitely humans.

Moreover, in recent years, frequent vassal state wars breached dykes flooding cities, while demons emerged into the world. Countless Jiao and snakes took advantage of the chaos to become spirits and build nests, breaching river barriers and levees, leading to frequent flooding of the Gen River, each flood drowning tens of thousands, displacing hundreds of thousands.

With worsening famine and warfare, even if people gathered in large numbers, they could not cross the Gen River to Henan. Thus, more people roamed in chaos in Genzhou, looting and begging everywhere, driven by hunger and death, even enduring demon attacks to cross lofty mountains and cross the Xuan Nu Mountain Range, wandering into Qianzhou for survival.

Huangfu Yi was suddenly lost in confusion.

Frankly, even though he grew up in the icy wastelands, with no living parents, living on others' food, never having luxury, he had received a military aristocratic education. Daily Gang Fist exercises, diligent martial training, studying military texts. Recalling the past, every day uncles and elders would preach about Demon Extermination, glorifying ancestors, Enfeoffment and Ennoblement, serving the court.

So in essence, Huangfu Yi and the Pei Family's stance was similar. That's why he agreed to their invitation, putting effort into pursuing all the way to rescue the Pei Mansion's young miss.

But when the young man stepped over refugee hovels and saw the starving corpses scattered about, smelled the scent of the sick and decayed elderly, he inexplicably became confused, as if something in his heart was shaken.

Demon Extermination...

But the demons were still sealed beyond the pass by the Immortals of Emei. Are these people's current situation truly the demons' fault...

"Xianliang Master! Xianliang Master!"

"Xianliang Master is back!"

Suddenly, the seemingly dying, expressionless crowd around him sprang to life, as if resurrected corpses suddenly rising from the ground, each bursting forth with an unbelievable will to live, all swarming towards the East.

Huangfu Yi was startled, turned his head, and saw yellow Qi stretching across the sky, covering the heavens and blocking the sun, golden light shining for miles, rosy clouds filling the sky, as radiant as wheat ears in a rice field, showering like the morning sun, almost covering the Eastern sky, forming a spectacle as if two suns were in the sky!

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