Chapter 55: The Battle of Ping'anburg

Chapter 55: The Battle of Ping'an Grad

He led everyone to a secluded valley, a place Luo Feng had discovered while tracking the foreign sorcerers from the East. Luo Feng named it Heaven Escape Valley, designating it as the second sanctuary in plain sight. As for the first sanctuary, it resided within the Shangqing Sect.

Over several days, the Eight Miraculous Techniques were employed to treat Luo Yuan, and the initial results were promising. Luo Yuan's complexion grew increasingly healthy, and from time to time his fingers twitched, stimulating his soul. Zheng Zha, however, showed no signs of improvement, trapped in a state between life and death.

One day, Luo Feng was suddenly struck by a premonition of danger.

“How could this be?” he muttered, frowning as he retraced every step he'd taken for any flaw.

He checked himself—five layers of talismanic defenses were intact. He tapped his three inner armors, none damaged. He moved to the side, shifted the table, and used his spiritual sense to inspect the first secret passage—no issues. He activated the mechanism in the desk to check the second secret passage—again, nothing amiss. He opened the skylight, kept it unobstructed—still, no problem. He looked outside—three layers of defensive formations were undisturbed, two layers of mist arrays ready to be triggered at any moment. His spiritual sense swept over the rear mountain; the hundreds of tons of explosives he'd gathered remained untouched.

…

Luo Feng was puzzled, scanning left and right with his spiritual sense. Within a thousand miles, he found no dangerous foreign sorcerers, nor any large armies. Suddenly, his spiritual sense swept across a priest in the valley.

An audacious idea occurred to Luo Feng.

“Zhou Sheng,” he said, appearing suddenly and patting the Wudang priest’s shoulder.

“Greetings, Senior Luo,” Zhou Sheng exclaimed in shock before bowing respectfully.

“How have you been these days?” Luo Feng asked.

Zhou Sheng managed a slight smile. “With no more foreign sorcerers hunting me, fortune has favored me. I dare not hope for more.”

Luo Feng grinned, “In that case, could you do me a favor? I hear you are a master of the occult—draw me into the inner realm, I wish to see the Way of Heaven.”

Zhou Sheng shuddered, a bead of cold sweat trickling down his forehead, his voice quivering with resignation. “Spare me, Senior. The Way of Heaven you seek is beyond my ability to summon.”

He had witnessed this man’s power—enough to shatter mountains with a single finger. Even among the ancestral masters of Wudang, few reached such heights. This was the realm of immortals, far beyond the reach of ordinary mortals like himself.

Luo Feng shook his head and recited, “The divine dragon bearing the map emerges from the Luo River, the colorful phoenix carries the book amidst the azure clouds. By fate, Wind Hou devised the script, and thus began the mysteries of the Escaping Arts.”

“Wind Hou’s Mysteries, first among the Escaping Arts—you need not be modest.”

“Besides, I do not ask you to inquire, merely to maintain the four-fold formation. I will ask myself.”

Zhou Sheng instinctively wanted to refuse, but thought better of it, given Luo Feng’s strength. He nodded obediently.

…

The four formations activated, countless hexagrams unfolded, and Luo Feng confronted the Way of Heaven through the occultist’s art. He observed delicate threads weaving into runes, then assembling into a system.

Luo Feng pondered, extending his hand to mimic the patterns, sketching hexagram runes in the void.

A sharp crack resounded—he had failed.

Zhou Sheng, presiding over the formation, sighed in relief without realizing it. Had Luo Feng succeeded, all occultists under heaven would be out of work. What need for divination when fate could be grasped by hand? They might as well return to farming.

Though disappointed, Luo Feng’s resolve did not waver. It was not that the Escaping Arts were too difficult, but that he lacked sufficient shards of the Lord God. With a third shard, perhaps he could attempt it.

Yet Luo Feng did not forget the purpose of his visit.

“Master Zhou, let us begin,” Luo Feng said softly.

Zhou Sheng gritted his teeth and stomped his foot. The hexagrams whirled, four formations activated, the mysteries manifested, Escaping Arts returned to their source!

“The occultist asks the heavens!”

Luo Feng sensed a profound transformation all around him—everything was orderly yet chaotic, grand beyond measure, vaster than any ocean. This was the world itself.

“I wish to know—who seeks to kill me in these days?”

A fireball the size of a basketball appeared before Luo Feng.

The question was simple, and Luo Feng had already guessed the answer. He touched the fireball lightly; it shattered.

Foreign sorcerers from the East.

Aside from them, no one bore such bitter enmity toward him.

War had broken out between the nations. In the secular world, the Easterners pressed forward relentlessly. The Chinese, fractured by warlords and disunity, retreated again and again, resistance forces locked in stalemates everywhere.

In the world of sorcerers, the opposite held true—thanks to Luo Feng’s monstrous abilities, Eastern sorcerers were rarely seen on the battlefield. Thus, a few massacres were avoided, and the Easterners were denied opportunities to forge evil artifacts.

“Where do they plan to kill me?”

No sooner had he spoken than the fireball swelled hundreds of times, towering like a skyscraper.

This question was yet unresolved, the event yet to occur. Luo Feng faced it solemnly; the convergence appeared thrice more.

Thunder rumbled; flames burst forth.

Instantly, the four-fold formation shattered.

Zhou Sheng coughed up a mouthful of vital blood, his energy greatly diminished.

“How are you, Senior?” he asked.

Luo Feng smiled calmly. “I have found it.”

“As for your involvement with the Thirty-Six Thieves, I will discuss it with the other sorcerers.”

Zhou Sheng froze, then was overcome with joy.

He had been hunted by every faction because he bore the name of the All-Nature Sect. Those pursuing him were the so-called righteous path.

Yet, they were not the greatest force for justice in this era. The truest righteous path lay with the group of twenty-four heroes who, with no support, ventured alone to the Northeast.

With Luo Feng's endorsement, Zhou Sheng could return openly to Wudang.

“My deepest gratitude, Senior!” Zhou Sheng bowed deeply.

Luo Feng paid no mind, his thoughts fixed on one thing.

The foreign sorcerers from the East intended to kill him in Ping'an County.

Ping'an County—site of the Battle of Ping'an Grad!

The turning point of World War II should have been the Battle of Ping'an Grad.

The assault on Ping'an County prompted a large-scale mobilization of Japanese forces in northwest Shanxi, which in turn necessitated the redeployment of troops from other areas, creating gaps in Shanxi and forcing continual troop transfers, exhausting the army and affecting the broader situation.

The capture of Ping'an County opened up the northwest of Shanxi, and indeed the entire Chinese resistance front, invigorating the fighting spirit of the national anti-Japanese forces.

On the Pacific front, the fall of Ping'an County established a precedent for Chinese forces seizing county seats, shattered the myth of invincible Japanese forces, stalled their nationwide conquest, and revealed their true combat strength to America, helping the hesitant Americans to resolve on declaring war against Japan.

From the wider perspective of the Second World War, this slowed the Japanese advance, allowing the Soviets to focus on Germany, relieving their disadvantage on the Eastern Front and buying critical time for the defense of Moscow.

This prolonged the siege of Moscow, forcing Hitler to transfer troops from North Africa and Southern Europe to the Soviet front, thereby indirectly aiding the North African and Balkan campaigns.

In other words, Tito’s liberation of Yugoslavia, Montgomery’s defeat of the Desert Fox, and Eisenhower’s daring Normandy landing—all owed a debt to the Battle of Ping'an.

Thus, to summarize, the true turning point of World War II should be recognized as the Battle of Ping'an Grad.

“Do they really think I will charge in blindly?”

Luo Feng smiled coolly, immediately crafting teleportation talismans.

One for the Celestial Master of Dragon Tiger Mountain, one for the Chief Priest of Wudang, one for the Abbot of Shaolin… and so on.

Why fight alone when you can fight together?

“To deal with evil and foreign devils—especially those little devils—we righteous ones need not concern ourselves with chivalric codes. Let’s all join forces and take them down together!”

(End of chapter)