Two hundred and thirty years after the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the shadows in the gloom sucked the blood of young people and bloomed in the wilderness outside Tianyuan City.

The succession of Emperor Kuang of Zhou is the prologue of the whole story.

Zhou Kuang Emperor Zhou Minghuang, the ninth grandson of Zhou Yin, the founding emperor of the Great Yin.

This young man, who had no chance of succeeding to the throne, won the favor of heaven, and Tang Yu, the great pope of the secret religion of Qin Tianjian who transcended the mundane, threw his blue eyes to Zhou Minghuang.

As a result, Zhou Minghuang stood out in the environment surrounded by wolves and inherited the throne of the Great Zhou Dynasty, which had been vacant for one year and three months, and the "rule without a king" ruled by eunuchs came to a complete end. On the day that Zhou Minghuang succeeded to the throne, Tang Yu stepped into Tianyuan City.

The ruler of the secret religion chose to step down from the altar and walk on the dust of the world.

Twelve horses of white victorious snow pulled a long chariot, their long manes white and snowy, sprinkled like silk, and their horns shimmered like crystals.

The onlookers at the gate of Tianyuan City praised the luxury of the carriage and guessed the identity of the owner of the carriage, but Tang Yu did not lift the dark curtain embroidered with stars and silver moon.

The noble Pope did not come for love and peace, and the onlookers did not understand this at the time.

The next day, Tang Yu was enshrined as the Great Zhou National Teacher, and twelve months later, the Qintian Supervisor was revered as the first force of the Great Zhou.

Hundreds of black-clad cultists gathered in the imperial capital from all directions, holding aloft the black banner of Chenyue, with fluttering hoods hanging low in front of them, passing through the streets and alleys in absolute silence, and finally went to the "astrological platform" without exception.

This is the emperor's new shrine for Tang Yu, the palace door is always open, but no one dares to walk in.

Beyond the wall, you can see that the shrine is made of huge stone blocks, not in the style of architecture familiar to the people of the Eastern Continent, and the majestic central altar pierces the sky, like a hill raised from the ground. Subsequently, the edict of Tianxu was promulgated to all parts of the country with a majesty and number higher than that of the holy decree.

By the time the princes realized the change in the imperial capital, it was too late, and after a brief confrontation, the three great powers of Chu, Ming, and Tang accepted the teachings of the Great Pope in the spirit of loyalty to the imperial family, and the monarchs were the first to declare their acceptance of the teachings of the Qin Tianjian.

And the remaining vassal states were only annexed one by one.

The princes' concessions were exchanged for six years of apparent calm, but the war did not stop for a moment.

In the past six years, there were many conflicts between the princes, and the three great powers that were the first to annex Chenyue received the favor of the Great Pope, and the rest of the kingdoms disobeyed slightly, and immediately had a decree ordering the nearby great princes to raise troops to fight.

Usually it was not until the army of the powerful country came to the capital of the small country and the lord of the small country presented a painful repentance that the great pope would order a truce, and the cities, people, and goods that had been captured belonged to the powerful country of King Qin.

The three great powers have also benefited enormously from this. Just when people thought that the pattern of the Eastern Continent vassal states would evolve into three major vassal states, the shocking news came from Hokuriku that a peerless hero had appeared among the steppe tribes that had been in the midst of frequent civil wars.

The king of Sun, Akanti, a slave cub who did not even have a surname, rode his steed, and with his only seven thousand men, forced all the tribes of the steppe to sit down and talk together, and the tribes of the steppe fell down together under the sword of Akanti, as a sign of respect for the common ancestor of the god Pantar, and from then on the tribes were brothers for generations.

After Akanti straightened out his rear, he immediately crossed south with light cavalry, and the change in the direction of the sea tide made the Tiantuo Strait this moat become gentle, and Akanti even obtained the Mulan longship provided by the Donglu Chamber of Commerce, and it was rumored that the big head who mastered the commercial lifeline of Wanzhou and Akanthi were like brothers.

The Eastern Continent was in despair in the face of barbarian light cavalry on low horses.

These people who lived on horseback could go to war for dozens of days without dismounting, their horses did not pick forage, they could get supplies everywhere, and they hunted with bows and arrows themselves for food, and did not need to be followed by baggage at all.

They did not conquer the cities, but they quickly went around the cities and attacked the rich towns and villages, taking away the food and utensils there, killing all the men, and humiliating the helpless women.

In the end, a lonely barbarian light horse appeared under the Tianyuan city wall, and this barbarian who had lived in the vast prairie all his life looked blankly at the majestic capital in front of him, and was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth.

And the Great Zhou soldiers on the city wall were also stupid, and in the history of the Great Zhou, no barbarian had ever killed the imperial capital.

Grand Pope Tang Yu walked out of the heavenly ruins in silence and climbed the city wall. After staring at the brute from afar for a moment, he stretched out his pale hand from under his black robe, took the boxwood crossbow handed by the disciple, and shot the brute with precision.

This was the official declaration of war by the Great Zhou Dynasty against the barbarians.

The Tang and Chu states quickly received the order, gathered their strongest forces to cross the barrier of Shanhaiguan, and rushed straight to the north, where they joined the Ming iron cavalry, which had bravely resisted the barbarians for half a year, on the Zhongzhou Plateau, and the strong troops of the three kingdoms tried to annihilate the invading barbarian light cavalry in one fell swoop. But no one expected that on the eve of the decisive battle, the barbarian light cavalry accurately touched the main tent of the Chinese army located in the secret place of Changyangchuan, and annihilated the elite generals including Chu Gong Chu Hou and Tang Guo Gong Tang Xiu in one fell swoop.

Zhu Ji is a forbearant and heroic figure, and he knows that it is not appropriate to plot to attack at such a time.

At this time, only the capital city was able to resist the enemy with the tall city walls, and everyone in the small city was frightened by the bow, and the elusive barbarians pulled the horned bow and hid in the dark outside the city, shooting and killing those who dared to step out of the city gate.

Zhu Ji decided to lead his troops out of the border of the Ming Kingdom, march towards Tianyuan City, and defend the heart of the Eastern Continent under the imperial capital.

And Zhu Ji didn't expect that at this moment, all the barbarian elite soldiers had received orders and were quietly approaching him from all directions, and a net to round him up had been opened.

Just when Baili Ji's song was sent to the emperor's throne and asked for Chen Bing to defend against the Tianyuan city wall, the barbarian attack began.

Zhu Ji, who was caught off guard, fell into a bitter battle and asked Tianyuan to open the city and put in the defeated soldiers of the Three Kingdoms.

Grand Pope Tang Yu appeared in the city again, still took the boxwood crossbow handed by the disciples, and shot three arrows in front of Zhu Ji in a row, cutting off his retreat.

The gates of Tianyuan City were locked, and the blood of the loyal and brave soldiers gradually spread over Zhu Ji's feet.

The loyal prince and the grief-stricken hero finally understood that he, like the small nations he had conquered, was nothing more than a pawn in the hands of the great pope, one pawn capturing the other, and the first pawn would be sacrificed after all.

He couldn't save his soldiers or guard his imperial capital, so he angrily swore to the sky that even if the descendants of the Zhu clan had only the last person left, even if they only had the last nail in their hands, they would nail Tang Yu's throat and kill him.

Then Zhu Ji cut off his own head with a horizontal sword, and his body stood on the battlefield for a day and a night, and finally a small man came out of the barbarian horse team and gently pushed him down. Some people say that is the King of Sun.

Curiously, the barbarians did not take advantage of the victory to attack the city, they quietly retreated.

It is rumored that this is a transaction at all, Tang Yu used the death of the elite army of the Eastern Continent in exchange for the retreat of King Xun and the absolute power of Qin Tianjian. At this time, Kyushu was like a strange chess game, playing against Tang Yu and King Xun, but the person who played against him died no slower than his chess pieces.

Half a year later, King Xun died in Beilu, under the sword of the barbarians themselves.

The only one left was the Great Pope Tang Yu, whose teachings and loyal followers were still rampant in the land of the Eastern Continent, and the three vassal states that had lost their monarchs welcomed the messengers of the gods at the same time.

The heir has been chosen by the Great Pope, the Three Kingdoms have no choice, the three puppets have been propped up, and the sons of the noble people who are eloquent and eloquent have been put under house arrest.

The Chu clan, the Tang clan, and the Ming Zhu clan, these noble families can't even mobilize their own troops easily, and revenge has become a luxury.

Then the person who appeared later did not disappoint Zhu Ji, his youngest son Zhu Tian, a weak young man, stood up at the clan assembly.

He said that my father said that even if the last descendant of the Baili clan holds a nail, he will nail Tang Yu to the wall of the Apocalypse, we have no war knife, but we can turn to the nail in the shadows!

The subsequent historical facts are vague, but everyone believes that Bai Li Tian left behind the dignity of the nobility and turned to the most terrifying shadow organization in the Eastern Continent, "Tianluo".

This power organization that raised the best killers and existed in the shadows recognized Zhu Tian, so nearly a hundred excellent Tianluo killers infiltrated the imperial capital, and within a few months, the imperial capital became a slaughterhouse, and countless high-ranking disciples of Qin Tianjian were killed in the dark night.

Killer, this is the only nail that Zhu Tian can find. Although there was only a little blade, with Zhu Ji's resentment and hatred before his death, it was enough to kill Qin Tianjian.

The Great Pope did not give in, and the armed "soothsayers" who had already been formed and belonged to the Qin Tianjian were officially dispatched.

The two sides are engaged in a brutal strangulation under the darkness of Apocalypse City, with the soothsayers holding the permission to kill and the advantage of numbers, while the Celestial Killers have more sophisticated technology.

The strangulation between the two sides spread, and soon the wandering samurai, who were not originally part of Tenra, were bought as murderers for a huge amount of money, and the soothsayers expanded their ranks to seven guards almost the size of an army.

A bloody massacre intensified, and legend has it that the princes are plotting to overthrow the rule of the Great Pope, and some say that the Great Pope has made an agreement with the new Maharaja of the Northern Continent, Alam Khan, to work together to pull out the remnants of the princes.

However, they have just experienced a war with heavy losses, and neither side has superior forces in their hands, and they are not yet able to raise troops to challenge on the frontal battlefield, but rely on the cruel and hidden "killer war" to wear down the opponent's fighting spirit and buy time for themselves. This killer battle finally swept through almost all the power organizations, and in the city of Apocalypse at night, black shadows and bloody ghosts were running.

October of the tenth year of the Holy King, Tianyuan City.

There is also a counterpoint. He felt that his arm had become almost numb from the long period of rest, so he tightened and relaxed every muscle in his body very slowly, like a sleeping snake loosening its bones, and he had to prevent his body from being sluggish by the long period of stiffness.

For five pairs, he has always maintained this fateful position.

His ten fingers were slender and powerful, and his lean body was curled up together, like a baby in the womb of a pregnant woman, and he hung himself under the cornice of the torii by the strength of his fingers and legs. This archway is in the downtown area, because of the long-term sun and rain, the glazed tiles and colored glaze of the past have long fallen off, and the cornices used for decoration only fly out obliquely less than two feet, and they are done by cutting corners, and it is difficult for people to even shelter under the rainstorm.

But two feet is more than enough for this killer. No one could have imagined that a big living person could be hidden here.

The killer was very satisfied with the location he had chosen, and from late last night until the early hours of the morning, he had been hiding here, watching the light and shadow change under the eaves, and listening to the silence and noise outside.

This snake-like relaxation made him feel a dull ache, and his muscles had stiffened for too long.

There was a precedent in the Tianluo Assassins that someone could no longer relax because of the excessive tightening of his body for a long time, and he could only spend the rest of his life on his back.

But these were nothing to him, and he moved his right hand slightly, feeling the sharp and seductive silk threads beating lightly around his fingers, like his own poisonous snakes, docile and deadly.

After another pair, his target would pass through here, the one who controlled the first soothsayer and was closest to Tang Yu.

The information given to him by this hall is simple, clear, and deadly: the soothsayer is a Wei Chang Xifeng, a master of the secret arts of the Yin Pond system, and the dry autumn is the time when his arcane skills are the weakest, and it is also the time when he is most likely to be killed.

The killer licked his chapped lips, and with the right time and place, and his own target, he would definitely die today.

He heard familiar footsteps, a group of people with neat steps approaching, although he couldn't see it from his current angle, but he knew that it was a group of people in black robes and black armor.

In the late autumn Tianyuan, a rare windy day, there were still some pedestrians on the street, but because of the arrival of this group of people, it quickly quieted down, leaving only the whistling wind to roll up the light dust, which seemed a little depressed. Twelve black-robed and black-armored soothsayers walked at the front of the line, with the soothsayers' black-sheathed knives at their waists.

In the center of the team are four burly servants, who are also dressed in black fish scale armor, and protect an old man in a black robe in the center.

The old man's hood had been removed, revealing an old, withered face, and eyes as dark and deep as the night.

Under the towering official hat, the beard and hair are all white, and the long gray beard hangs down to the waist.

He carried a thin wooden cane in his right hand, and his knuckles, thin as the roots of a tree, clasped the delicate swirl pattern on the cane.

Ti Wei's first guard, Chang Xifeng, is also the "Great Elder" of Qin Tianjian, and has a powerful force that is not commensurate with his stature.

His steps were steady and slow, and the fallen leaves, which had been swept away by the strong wind, fell abruptly and vertically as they passed the group, and then were crushed into pieces by the black cowhide boots that followed, making a dry sound.

The killer under the cornices also felt a strong oppressive force, and he gently bit the tip of his tongue, and the pain that quickly spread made him regain his composure.

He relaxes his whole body and keeps every inch of skin and muscle in tip-top condition.

There is only one chance, and it must be hit with one hit. Twelve soothsayers passed under him in turn, the delicate lines on the black helmet were clearly recognizable, he held his breath, narrowed his originally bright eyes into a line, and the whole person merged with the surroundings, even if someone looked up, it was difficult to notice him at first glance.

After the two burly black-armored servants passed, Xi Feng's white hair appeared in front of him, right now!

He swooped down in that moment, like a bat in the night, his hands were open, and the sharp filaments of his blade were like a flying net covering all space.

Xi Feng raised his head at that moment, and in an instant, the old man saw death on that strange smiling face.

The killer felt the blades cut through the hard armor of the Servants, and the next step was a hot splatter of blood, and his full force carried its own weight with a sharp blow.

Time seemed to slow down in his senses, and he could feel the finely forged steel armor shatter and then slowly fly away.

He was ready to listen to the joy of death with pleasure, only to find that it had not sounded for a long time. Slowly, then still. It turned out that it was not his delusion, his lightning-fast movements did slow down, and finally stood still, his eyes could see, his ears could hear, his hands could exert force, and his brain could think.

But he couldn't move. It didn't seem to see Fan Yushi chanting at all, and the water vapor around him quickly condensed together at a speed visible to the naked eye, and finally turned into a cloud of mist that enveloped him.

The surrounding servants reacted after a moment of surprise, but they were also wrapped in this heavy mist and could not move. The killer stretched out his arm with all his might, the filament of his left hand almost touching Xi Feng's wrinkled neck, but he couldn't move a single bit.

His eyes widened, and his whole body was suspended in the air by the mist, facing the old man who was close at hand.

He felt the moisture of the entire space condensed with his cold sweat, damp and heavy.

Fan Yushi smiled slightly, the wrinkles on his face were as deep as knife carvings, "As far as mortals are concerned, you have done a good job." ”

I'm not reconciled! The edges of the killer's eyes had begun to redden, and his whole body was bruised from the exertion, but his whole body was like a viscous bucket of paste, unable to move at all.

Xi Feng slammed the wooden cane on the bluestone floor, making a muffled sound.

The killer felt light, and then there was a sharp heart-rending pain in his forehead.

His whole body exploded into blood in the air, and his shattered body and internal organs fell, wrapped in mist mixed with blood, and slowly flew out, and finally fell to the ground around him, exploding on the bluestone slab.

The damp and heavy streets were instantly crisp again, and only the wreckage on the ground proved that something had happened.

The soothsayers all around them knelt on the ground and chanted the miracle of God, just now they watched the killer descend from the sky, but they themselves were wrapped in mist and could not move.

The four servants also knelt to the side, led by a barbarian appearance, who was a student who had followed Xi Feng for many years, and Hankong was his Donglu name.

His voice was low, "The student is incompetent and frightens the teacher." ”

Xi Feng stretched out his thin left hand and stroked the top of Xu Yan's head, "As long as we believe in the fate determined by God, we can be fearless. ”

"The student understood." Hankong replied.

"Get up, we still have a long way to go." Xi Feng raised his head, and under the dark and gloomy sky, the wind began to rise again.

Qin Tianjian, Observatory.

Xi Fengping retreated from the four burly servants and stepped on the last stone staircase alone, the dull footsteps echoing in the huge stone room, and the high door of the Observatory Hall was hidden, and he could vaguely see the mist inside.

There was a black-robed young man standing at the door, his entire face almost hidden in a dark shadow.

The young man stretched out his hand to push open the door, turned his head and said, "The teacher already knows that the Great Elder is coming, please come in." ”

The clear voice was suppressed by the boy himself, carrying a heaviness that did not belong to his age.

Xi Feng bowed slightly, and walked in through the open door. Heavy columns supported the dome of the main hall, and in the depths, a withered figure turned around, and under the long silver hair, there was an emaciated face, and the place where the eyes should have been covered was a black-brown linen.

Under the black banner of the stars and the moon, Tang Yu, the spokesperson closest to God, quietly faced Xi Feng.

The light of the incense burner reflected on Gu Lun's face, which made this face a little angry, and Fan Yushi could even feel the two sharp gazes through the linen.

"I've heard all about today's events, and even the Seal Pool Array has been launched, so I think you're also in trouble."

Tang Yu's voice was low and dry, echoing in the vast hall. "The troublesome things are more than that," Xi Feng took a step forward, and his thin left hand reached into his arms and took out a stack of papers, on which was densely written, "Shaobao, the third Hongluqing, Dali Siqing, Zhongsan Doctor, Yilang, Tingwei, Nangong Guard Order, Xiaohuangmen Shilang, Zhijinwu, Sili Lieutenant...... Of all kinds of officials of the Apocalypse, one hundred and twenty-seven have been assassinated so far, and the rest of the horsemen are innumerable. ”

"Tianluo...... What a terrible group of opponents, even the soothsayers can't do anything? Tang Yu asked.

"If there are no soothsayers, I'm afraid that this number will have to multiply several times." Xi Feng smiled wryly, "But these spiders are naturally good at hiding in the shadows, and most of the people we can exterminate are the warriors and low-class nobles who have flocked from the vassal states, and there are very few spider minions who are really strangled by the blade of the gods. ”

Tang Yu sighed imperceptibly, "I know what you mean. "It's good that the Great Pope understands, and his subordinates hope to start 'slash farming'."

Xi Feng's eyes stared directly at the covered eyes, and he did not back down. "God is a knife, if you plough like a plow......" Tang Yu paused with some emotion, "You go and do it, although it is a little early, but it's time to completely remove these fangs that only know how to hide in the dark." ”

In the past, why didn't we hide in the dark? Xi Feng nodded, "My subordinates understand." "Step down, things will be hard for you in the future."

Tang Yu waved his hand, "I hope to hear good news from you." ”

As he moved, the stack of sheets made a crunch before dissipating into powder.

Only the ethereal scent of sandalwood remained in the main hall, and Tang Yu turned his back and disappeared into the overlapping brocade.

In October of the tenth year of Emperor Kuang of Zhou, the first snow in Tianyuan City was about to fall soon.