Bai Yuan lowered his voice and spoke with rare seriousness.
"This is not the only problem. If Wang Jiayin's men recognize you in the middle of battle and shout out, 'Wang Er, why are you on the other side,' then everything collapses. Every single person here will hear your name. That would be a disaster."
Wang Er's entire body stiffened.
For a moment, he felt like someone had poured cold water down his spine.
Only now did it truly hit him.
He was not some minor figure. He was the most infamous rebel in the world right now. The court treated his name like a curse. Any battlefield he stepped onto would become a spotlight aimed directly at him.
And now, he was standing in front of more than a thousand people from Heyang County.
If even one person connected his face to his name, it would spread like wildfire.
He had just been thinking about loyalty and righteousness. Now he realized that survival required something else entirely.
Disappearance.
He immediately tore off a strip of cloth and wrapped it tightly around his face.
Then he raised his hand.
"Give me a yellow hat."
Bai Yuan paused.
"You should be wearing a white hat."
Wang Er shook his head firmly.
"White hats are for scholars and learned people. Blue hats are for skilled tradesmen. A man like me, rough and unrefined, wearing a yellow hat is the most natural choice."
Bai Yuan stared at him for a moment, then slowly nodded.
It actually made sense in a strange way.
So Wang Er took the yellow hat and pulled it down low over his face.
Behind him, more than a hundred men from Wang Family Village followed his example without hesitation. Each of them wrapped cloth over their faces and put on yellow hats.
From a distance, they no longer looked like soldiers or rebels.
They looked like construction laborers who were simply afraid of dust and debris.
A group of ordinary workers in a chaotic world.
At the same time, Zhang Yuanwai was also busy organizing the Heyang County militia.
Compared to Gao Family Village militia, their equipment was chaotic beyond belief. No armor, no uniform weapons, just random spears, rusty blades, wooden sticks, and farming tools hastily turned into weapons.
The only order came from urgency.
Then someone noticed something near the ground.
The thousand or so laborers who had fled earlier had left behind their yellow hats.
Sturdy hats. Thick cloth. Not bad at all.
Someone shouted.
"These can be used as helmets!"
That single sentence changed everything.
Soon, the militia rushed forward and grabbed the hats. One by one, they placed them on their heads.
Now the entire Heyang militia wore yellow hats as well.
Different clothes underneath, different identities, different loyalties, but the same color above their heads.
From a distance, Wang Er's disguised group and Zhang Yuanwai's militia had completely merged into one confusing mass.
Even standing side by side, no one could tell who was who.
Wang Er slowly exhaled.
Good.
Now even ghosts would not be able to identify him.
…
Above Heyang County, Li Dao Xuan shifted his vision.
His sight could not reach Qiachuan dock, so he focused instead on the county itself.
What he saw was chaos.
The rumor of incoming war had spread faster than truth ever could. People ran through the streets like startled birds. Shop doors slammed shut. Children cried. Adults argued while still running.
"I heard the magistrate took all the militia to Qiachuan dock!"
"They said bandits are landing there!"
"Who is it? Who is attacking?"
"No one knows. They say the surname is Wang. Worse than Fan Shanyue!"
"Then why not defend the city walls instead?"
"You idiot. If we lose the dock, the whole county is finished!"
Arguments turned into shouting matches, and shouting matches turned into people pushing past each other.
Everyone rushed toward the southeast corner of the city, trying to see the dock that was thirty li away.
Of course, nothing could be seen.
But people still stared anyway, as if staring harder would make distance disappear.
In the middle of this chaos, four figures moved carefully through the crowd.
Gao Yiye, San Shier, Qiu Ju, and Dong Xue.
They had no combat strength, and in theory should have been the most vulnerable people in the entire city. Yet strangely, they were the calmest.
Above their heads, a faint floating cloud drifted like a protective canopy. It followed them silently, shielding them from the worst of the panic.
Gao Yiye looked around and spoke softly.
"These people still do not know that Dao Xuan Tianzun watches over them. Just hearing a rumor of war makes them lose control. If they were in Gao Family Village, it would not be like this."
San Shier nodded slowly.
"That is why the illustrated books and storytelling performances must be spread here as well. The name of Dao Xuan Tianzun must be established in Heyang County sooner rather than later."
He paused, then suddenly remembered something important.
"Saintess, how is your Dao Xuan Tianzun Subdues Demons story progressing? Which episode are you on now?"
Gao Yiye's eyes lit up immediately.
"Oh, Episode Five is being drawn right now."
San Shier looked interested.
"What happens in this episode?"
Gao Yiye smiled proudly.
"This one is very exciting. It is about Chang'e falling in love with Dao Xuan Tianzun. But then Tianpeng Marshal gets jealous and starts bothering Chang'e. Dao Xuan Tianzun gets angry, defeats Tianpeng Marshal, and sends him to the Jade Emperor for judgment. Then the Jade Emperor punishes him by sending him down to the mortal world, where he becomes Zhu Bajie…"
San Shier froze.
Then he spat out his tea.
"Wait, what kind of adaptation is this…"
He could not even finish his sentence.
Because at that exact moment, outside the box of reality, Li Dao Xuan was sitting and eating a fluffy old sponge cake.
He paused.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
He repeated what he just heard in his mind.
Dao Xuan Tianzun fights Tianpeng Marshal.
Tianpeng becomes Zhu Bajie.
A chaotic fusion of myths and absurd storytelling.
His fingers tightened.
The sponge cake in his hand suddenly crumbled.
"…"
And then it happened.
Crumbs began to fall.
At first, only a few.
Then more.
Then it became a soft rain of broken cake fragments drifting down through the sky.
"Ah no."
Li Dao Xuan reached out instinctively, trying to catch them.
But he was too slow.
Too human.
The crumbs slipped through his fingers and fell into the world below.
…
In Heyang County, a man running in panic suddenly felt something hit his head.
"Who threw something at me?"
He looked up.
The sky was full of falling soft objects.
Small ones. Big ones. Irregular shapes drifting down like snow.
"What is this?"
"Something is falling from the sky!"
"Hide your heads!"
People screamed and ducked into houses.
But then something strange happened.
Someone picked up a fallen piece.
It was soft.
It was fragrant.
It smelled sweet.
It did not hurt at all.
Another person cautiously bit into it.
In the next instant, his expression changed completely.
His eyes widened.
His body froze.
Then, like a starving beast discovering treasure, he dropped to the ground and began guarding the crumbs with both arms.
"Mine. All mine. Do not touch."
That single action triggered everything.
In Heyang County, survival instincts were strong, but curiosity and appetite were stronger.
"This smells like flour!"
"There is egg fragrance!"
"It is sweet!"
"Stop thinking. Just eat it first!"
Within moments, more people began grabbing pieces from the ground. Fear of war was replaced by a far more immediate concern.
Food.
One man shoved a piece into his mouth and immediately dropped into a defensive crouch, shielding his pile of crumbs like a treasure vault.
Another person copied him.
Then another.
Then another.
The behavior spread faster than panic had earlier.
Soon, the entire street transformed.
People who had been running for their lives seconds ago were now crawling on the ground collecting cake crumbs like precious gold.
Even those who did not understand what it was instinctively followed the crowd.
Because in chaotic times, the fastest truth is always the one people can eat.
Above it all, Gao Yiye looked up at the sky calmly.
San Shier followed her gaze.
And both of them spoke at the same time.
"Dao Xuan Tianzun is manifesting his divine grace."