Chapter 135: Forging the Sword Using Heaven and Earth as a Furnace

at the same time.

Sheng'er, the former daughter of a musician and now a newly-appointed Jinshi, walked into the government office of Wannian County and handed over the official seal at her waist.

A yamen runner grabbed a stick, his face showing a vigilant look. He caught a glimpse of the bronze official seal with "Wannianling Yin" engraved on it, and slowly opened his eyes. After a moment of stagnation, he turned around and ran towards the yamen, shouting as he ran: "The county magistrate is here!"

Sheng'er smiled slightly, hung the official seal back on his waist, and looked at the Wannian County Government in front of him with his hands behind his back.

The government office is four rooms wide, with double eaves made of blue bricks. There is a drum tower on each side of the east and west, and the gates are arranged in an orderly manner.

Walking into the lobby, there is a plaque with the words "A Bright Mirror Hanging High" hanging in the center, and couplets on both sides read "If I were to sell Dharma, my brain would be smashed to the ground, how dare you deceive the sky in your heart."

There is a desk below the plaque, with a screen with clouds and geese rising up behind it, and ceremonial objects of "Silence" and "Avoidance" placed on both sides.

Overall, the Wannian County Government is tall, majestic, and well-organized, worthy of being a large county directly under the capital.

The position of county magistrate of such a big county was not originally the vocation of an orphan girl like Sheng'er with no background.

After all, the emperor is currently battling with the aristocratic families, and she is the one with the least worries among the new scholars.

The right prime minister put all his own sons in jail, but went to great lengths to ensure that she would remain the county magistrate for eternity.

The capital is an important place, where a falling leaf can hit two noble people. It is not easy to be a county magistrate, but in this era of great change, it is also a rare opportunity.

Before Sheng'er took office, the Right Prime Minister summoned her, but he didn't give her any additional instructions. He just tested her a few words and encouraged her in a gentle voice.

Sheng'er knew clearly that although she was now an important chess piece of the Right Prime Minister and His Majesty, she was not indispensable.

Whether she can shoulder the heavy responsibility depends on her performance after taking office.

Since she had no ties, she was well prepared to take up the post this time. She wanted to be a knife in the hand of His Majesty, a sharp knife that stabbed at the aristocratic families and the old system.

"Sir... Sir Gu..."

Footsteps and shouts sounded at the same time. Sheng'er turned around and saw the runner leading a green-robed clerk rushing over. The latter shouted in panic, "Sir, please forgive me... Huh..."

"No hurry." She glanced at the charcoal ash on the two men's robes, and waited until they came closer before she said in a deep voice, "There's no one in the county government office, but what happened?"

"Yes... yes..." The clerk panted and looked at her hesitantly, "...something big happened! The big fire in the capital three years ago, have you heard about it?"

Sheng'er nodded slightly.

"That fire burned through half of the capital. To this day, the North Street of Wannian County is still a scorched earth. However, just yesterday, the sound of sheng, flute and string music came from those burned houses. The people of the county walked into the North Street one after another and never returned."

"The county lieutenant has already taken his men to the scene, leaving me here to wait for the county magistrate. However, just now, thick smoke and flames rose from the direction of North Street, just like the terrible fire that year, but there was no sign of spreading. The smoke and flames lasted for about half an hour, and then disappeared again."

After explaining the whole story in one breath, the clerk wiped the sweat from his forehead, his tone becoming more tense: "As the saying goes, when something is out of the ordinary, there must be something fishy. I didn't dare to delay and hurried to ask for the demon hunter, but when I got to the county gate, I was distracted and returned to the back door of the county government. My Lord, is this a ghost wall? Our Wannian County, no, no, we won't encounter any big demon, right?"

By the end of his speech, the clerk's face had turned pale, his words were slurred, and he was about to faint from the fright of his own imagination.

Just as Sheng'er was about to speak, the yamen runner next to him stepped forward and slapped the clerk three times in a row, turning his face red.

"Ah." He shouted, "All right, all right, I'm awake now."

The yamen runner stepped back respectfully: "I'm sorry."

Sheng Er: “…”

Half of the clerk's face was swollen, and he pointed at the yamen runner in embarrassment: "I made an agreement with her that whoever is possessed will be beaten to wake up... We don't have official seals to protect ourselves, so this method is convenient and effective..."

Sheng Er nodded in understanding, looked around, picked up the steel knife from the weapon rack, played with it for a few times, then turned to the clerk and the yamen runner and said, "Since we can't get out, let's go to the North Street and have a look."

The clerks looked at her in surprise, their eyes moving to the official seal on her waist. It seemed as if the new county magistrate had seen a lot of the world and was accustomed to such evil things.

Before he could decide whether to obey, the yamen runner beside him came forward with a stick in his hand, clasped his fists and said, "Sir, I will lead the way for you."

The two glanced at each other briefly and then walked towards North Street. The clerk stared at their backs blankly, hesitated for a moment, and followed them with a sigh.

Even if she couldn't leave the city, she didn't have to go to the tiger mountain even though she knew there was a tiger there. Alas, the county magistrate had just taken office today, and if anything really happened, it couldn't be blamed on her. Why bother trying so hard...

The three of them hurried along the way and soon arrived at North Street. Sheng'er smelled a burnt smell from afar, but did not feel the residual heat that should have been left after a fire.

She had heard stories about mirages before, and wondered if this place was also some kind of illusion.

However, as she gradually approached North Street, she could see the thick smoke floating in the air and the charred human figures that seemed to be trying to escape, but were permanently fixed in the house with only a black frame left.

She was startled and realized that the scene before her was definitely not just an illusion.

"Hasn't the county cleaned up this place before?"

"The corpses...the corpses were buried properly..." came the clerk's faint voice, his voice trembling with a hint of crying, "...even if they were not buried, it would not have been possible to preserve them for so many years." And he was escaping before death.

Sheng'er suddenly felt as if something was stuck to the soles of her feet. She looked down and saw a mass of melted fat. She took a few steps back and looked carefully for a while, and found that the fat was also in the shape of a human.

“There are also…”

"And here's mine."

The clerks and the bailiffs followed her gaze to the ground and noticed something unusual under their feet. The three of them looked around and saw that the ground was covered with greasy human shapes, all of whom were stretching their hands out and running forward.

At the end of these human figures, there is a gate with the words "Beijie" inscribed on it.

When Sheng'er turned her head again, she saw a charred house next to her and a burnt human hand almost touching her shoulder.

The three of them had actually entered North Street without realizing it.

A piece of coke was pressed against the nose of the clerk, and he fell backwards with his eyes rolled up. The yamen runner lifted him up with a stick and slapped him in the face.

There was a crisp sound, and Sheng'er also woke up a little.

"Why don't we switch sides next time..." the clerk muttered tearfully. The bailiff just said okay when he was suddenly stunned.

I saw human figures that were burned into charcoal and melted into fat rising from the house and the ground, growing flesh and blood, growing skin, hair, and nails, and gradually turning into living people.

The pitch-black scorched earth gave birth to blocks of blue bricks and weeds, leaving only the trusses of the house filled with walls, windows, and door panels. Elegant and clear music came from the house, and a dancer held a pipa behind her, raised her right leg, and danced to the music.

The three of them stood with their backs to each other, looking around. Pedestrians holding pots and drinking wine walked by and laughed. Occasionally, someone would see the steel knife in Sheng'er's hand and throw two copper coins to her, as if they took her for a street performer.

Crowds of people came and went, and North Street turned back into the bustling and prosperous street it once was, as if the dead had been resurrected.

"No." The yamen runner frowned as he looked at a pedestrian wearing a green robe and an official hat, "Isn't that the county lieutenant?"

The clerk took a closer look and said, "That's her!"

The three of them looked at each other and ran after him. If... if it wasn't a dead person resurrected, but a living person who walked into North Street and became a part of North Street...

The clerk shook his head, not daring to think about it any further, lest he faint from overthinking and be woken up by the bailiff.

The three men were clearly following very closely, staring at the county lieutenant's back without blinking, but as the crowd grew increasingly crowded, someone pushed them and they lost track of their target.

Sheng'er heard the clerk's shout and was about to turn around to look, but suddenly he felt that the crowd had stopped flowing.

The music coming from all the houses, near and far, became the same one, passionate and uplifting. Sheng'er, who had learned music since childhood, recognized it immediately. It was a piece of music passed down by the last emperor of the previous dynasty, called "Sword Forging".

It is said that when Daxia was destroyed, an attempt was made to mobilize the entire country to forge a sword to kill gods.

No one knows what this sword is called or why it has such great power. Musicians have passed down from generation to generation that this song describes the entire process of forging the magic sword. Whoever can learn the true meaning of the song will be recognized as the master of the magic sword.

Sheng'er has always scoffed at this. If Daxia really forged the Sword of God-Slaying, how could the country be destroyed?

However, at this moment, hearing the song again in this burned-down North Street, she couldn't help but be alert.

She saw that as the music played, people around her took out something like a chip, passed it to each other, and shouted loudly: "Taishang Hunyuan... Taichu Hunchun... Taiyi Shenzhen... Taishi Tianzun..."

The music became more and more intense, people's shouts became louder and louder, and the official seal hanging around her waist became hotter and hotter. Sheng'er frowned and saw the figure of the county lieutenant again. She was surrounded by many yamen runners holding sticks, who were also holding chips and shouting with everyone.

She turned her head to look in the direction of the clerks and bailiffs, but couldn't find them for a moment, so she pushed through the crowd and walked to the side of the county lieutenant. He grabbed her shoulders, trying to wake her up, raised his hand, hesitated, and changed the slap to pinching her cheek.

The county lieutenant looked at her in confusion, then turned around and continued to call out that name.

Sheng Er: “…”

Sheng'er looked down at her palm, but couldn't budge it, so she grabbed the hot official seal and pressed it against her shoulder.

"Ah." The county lieutenant trembled all over from the burn, and the chips fell from her palm. The next moment, her pupils trembled, as if she had woken up from a dream, "You..."

"I'm the new county magistrate." Sheng Er said quickly and loudly. It was too noisy around. "What are you doing?"

"Forge a sword..." The county lieutenant opened his mouth and suddenly looked up at the sky, "...Use the heaven and earth as a furnace to forge a sword that can kill gods!"

As she finished her words, there was a loud bang all around and blazing flames burst out, surrounding North Street. The flames illuminated people's fanatical faces and burned the entire sky red.

In the sky, the shadow of a giant sword appeared, and where the tip of the sword was pointing, a giant hand was reaching out to grab it.

People looked at the giant hand and shouted in fear: "Tai Shi Tian Zun... create the Sui Sword again... and kill the evil god..."

Outside the North Street, Chi Yangzi, who had been following Gong Li in his wheelchair, suddenly felt his chest burning. He lowered his head and took out the "Great Zhou Treasure Scroll" from his arms. The hot scroll immediately burned a layer of skin off his palm, but he remained calm and looked intently at the words on it.

I saw a line of [Master Duotian, rebuild the Suijian], the first four characters were being twisted and changed by an invisible force, sometimes turning into [Tai Shi Tianzun], and sometimes returning to [Master Duotian].