Wielding the Thunders Across Two Worlds

"A drizzling rain falls on Qingming Day."

"It often rains during Qingming in the north, but it doesn’t seem to in Yangcheng, right?"

On Qingming Festival, the sun shone brightly over Yangcheng. The sky was clear and the air was crisp—a perfect day for a stroll and some shopping.

According to Jiang Shishi, Gu Zhao had been in seclusion for quite a while. Besides needing to blow off some steam, he also needed to get out more and reintegrate with society. Otherwise, the more he cultivated, the more reclusive he’d become, and he might just end up living in the deep mountains and forests for good.

"We’re only twenty-four or twenty-five. We need to have a life outside of work!"

"I don’t have a job."

"A Daoist’s cultivation *is* their job."

Jiang Shishi pointed to an advertisement hanging on the mall’s main facade. "Want to try an escape room or play live-action CS?"

Gu Zhao was speechless.

"How about we just go see a movie instead," Gu Zhao sighed.

’Could the terror of an escape room even compare to the seal on the Demonic Qi at the bottom of Mo Lake, or exorcising the Dragon King of Ten Thousand Spirits?’

’As for live-action CS... better not even mention it!’

So, they went to an early movie screening. It wasn’t crowded, so it was a fairly comfortable experience.

After leaving the theater, they found a Sichuan-style hot pot restaurant in the mall. While they were waiting for their food, Jiang Shishi, who was scrolling through her phone, suddenly paused and held it out to Gu Zhao.

"Honey, look at this!"

"What’s wrong?"

Gu Zhao took the phone. A video was playing on the screen, and its title was horrifying.

*Human Traffickers’ Arms Suddenly Severed Mid-Crime!*

In the video, three men and a woman were in a standoff with a crowd. Two of the men were brandishing knives, waving them frantically. The four were charging in one direction, apparently trying to break through the crowd.

The video’s audio was filled with shouts from the background: "The child’s been saved!", "Get them!", "Human traffickers!", "Take them to the public security bureau!", and "Don’t let them get away!"

Although the crowd was furious and the person filming was clearly agitated, the perpetrators had knives. The onlookers were forced to back away, and it was clear they wouldn’t be able to stop them for much longer.

But just then, the arms that the three men and one woman were waving suddenly detached. Four people, eight arms, all separated from their bodies in an instant and fell to the ground.

"AHHHH!"

The four of them let out bloodcurdling screams!

The onlookers were clearly startled as well, and they all backed away, staring in bewilderment at the four people now writhing and wailing on the ground.

"What’s going on?"

"I don’t know!"

"Should we help them?"

"Help them? Hell no!"

"Quick, quick! The security officers are here!"

Just as the police arrived on the scene, the video ended.

He opened the comment section. Most people were saying they deserved it. Some speculated it was a laser weapon, while others claimed an Extraordinary Being from within the country had taken action. A few had even done a frame-by-frame analysis, posting screenshots that showed a flash of silver light.

"Screenshot at the twelve-second mark. Look where I’ve drawn the red circle, there’s a thin white line."

"The video was compressed after being uploaded, so it’s blurry and has a low frame rate. I could only spot it in one place, but thankfully it was still visible."

"It’s definitely a Flying Sword or a Magical Treasure!"

"A passing Cultivator must have seen it and righteously intervened, directly chopping off the traffickers’ hands! Since they use their hands to steal children, they won’t be using them anymore!"

"Why not just kill them? They should’ve just killed them!"

Compared to the various sci-fi or fantasy speculations, very few people were suggesting the video was edited. This was because a certain city in Jin Province had already issued an official announcement with white text on a blue background.

Some Celestial Xia people in Kabia had already uploaded videos to domestic networks, saying an old Daoist with the air of an immortal had appeared and rescued all the workers trapped in a factory district. They even attached a photo of a large, twisted metal sphere.

Anyone paying even a little attention to international news could see the shift in Kabia’s situation and the subsequent rapid change in its attitude towards Celestial Xia. It was said that after Kabia’s original government was restored, other countries also began to grow closer to Celestial Xia.

"Was this done by an Extraordinary Being?" Xiao Ya asked curiously.

"Yes," Gu Zhao nodded.

Yangshuo had already informed him about it. He had gone home to visit family yesterday and happened to run into some traffickers in the middle of kidnapping a child. They were trying to escape after being discovered.

He saw that it would be a while before security officers arrived and that the onlookers were in danger of getting hurt, so he unleashed his Flying Sword and severed all four of their arms.

It was just as the comment said: since they used their hands to steal children, they wouldn’t be using their hands anymore.

As for not taking their lives, that was Yangshuo’s way of respecting the system, letting it pass judgment on their crimes.

What’s that you say?

That severing their arms was also a form of vigilantism?

Heh... A Taoist Master does as he pleases!

"Wow!" Xiao Ya exclaimed in amazement. Then Jiang Shishi leaned in as well. "What about this one? Is this one real?"

Gu Zhao took the phone. It was another video.

This one, however, looked like security footage, seemingly from a hotel lobby. In the video, a group of middle-aged and young men and women were gathered together, pointing and shouting at a young woman opposite them. A crowd of onlookers surrounded them, watching the spectacle.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman, looking furious, stepped forward and swung her hand to slap the young woman, but the younger woman caught her wrist.

The middle-aged woman then began to throw a fit, and a middle-aged man and a young man from behind her moved to help.

In the next moment, something strange happened. An invisible current of air seemed to burst from the young woman’s body, blasting out in a fan shape and sending the dozen or so people in front of her flying.

The dozen-plus people were all thrown back seven or eight meters. Some tumbled across the floor, others crashed into walls or smashed vases. One by one, they ended up groaning on the ground, unable to get up.

The onlookers were all stunned. The lone woman left standing also seemed to be in a daze for a moment before she turned and hurried away.

Gu Zhao clicked his tongue. He recognized the young woman in the video. It was Jingyi of the Lao Mountain Pure Sect. However, she hadn’t reported this incident to him.

’No wonder she said she didn’t have a family anymore. Her relationship with her relatives is terrible. I wonder what happened.’

Gu Zhao thought to himself, but at the same time, he confirmed Jiang Shishi’s suspicion. "That’s right. It’s real, too."

"Wow!"

Jiang Shishi and Xiao Ya both looked at the woman in the video. Jiang Shishi said admiringly, "This awesome lady is quite pretty. Do you know her?"

"I do." Gu Zhao leaned back in his seat. "She’s also a Daoist. She cultivates on Lao Mountain."

"Huh? She’s a Daoist?"

"On Lao Mountain?"

"Honey, you actually know her." Jiang Shishi had only been asking casually before, but now she was genuinely curious. "Is the cultivation circle in the country really small, so everyone knows each other?"

Gu Zhao thought for a moment, then nodded seriously. "All the powerful ones know each other."