Chapter 50: A first visit to Sunjiaping
Qingshi and the other three were talking when the captain came over and said they had arrived. He pointed forward and said that it was Sunjiaping where the Sun family lived.
Qingshi looked around and saw a large building about twenty miles ahead. The building was generally compact and square, with a length and width of more than two miles each. The city wall was low, but it was surrounded by a wide and straight moat. Surrounded by it, the river also branched out into several tributaries, cutting into Sunjiaping and crisscrossing it, dividing the entire Sunjiaping into squares of similar sizes.
Sunjiaping is surrounded by flat land on its north, south and east sides. The main entrance is in the east. There is a small hill a few miles behind in the west. There is also a small building on the top of the hill.
The moat water is drawn from a large river in the south. It is first led to a large circular pond at the foot of the hill, then flows out into Sunjiaping, and finally flows away from the southeast corner of the outside of the ping.
The spacecraft slowed down and flew slowly towards Sunjiaping, heading towards its main entrance from east to west. Qingshi stood on the bow of the ship and observed. He first ordered the spacecraft to be lowered to a height of fifty feet, and then circled around the entire Sunjiaping, including the hill behind Pingping. Finally, the spacecraft arrived thirty feet away from the main entrance and hovered more than five feet above the ground. at.
Everyone observed the entire Sunjiaping. The houses in Sunjiaping were neatly arranged and the roads were neat, but no one or living thing could be seen. The entire Sunjiaping was completely silent.
After the boat stopped, no one got off the boat. They saw four people running quickly from the east. Soon they came under the boat. One of them shouted loudly: "The Detective Department of the Criminal Department of the Datianlong Kingdom is inspecting Wanjin and our place." Army Commander Wu Zheng is asking to see Mr. Xiang and all the lords of Tianlong Academy."
"Come up." Xiang An said.
The four people immediately jumped on board. Wan Jinyi was a short and fat middle-aged man. After boarding the boat, he first saluted Xiang An. Xiang An did not return the salute. He only motioned for Zheng Fangyi, Qingshi and Teng Shouqian to come forward.
Wan Jinyi quickly called the three people behind him to come forward and introduced them to everyone one by one. One was his assistant, and the other two were the commanders and commanders of the local armies of the three surrounding prefectures including Jianming Prefecture of the Hatoshan Kingdom.
Xiang An also introduced Zheng Fangyi Qingshi and Teng Shouqian to several people, and then said to several people: "These are the special envoys assigned by the imperial court and Tianlong Academy to handle the case. Mr. Zheng Fanyi is fully responsible. If you have anything to report, please report directly to Master Zheng, tell me."
The commander immediately stepped forward and saluted, saying that he had been surrounding Sunjiaping for several days and was just waiting for the superior officers to come and ask Master Zheng for instructions on how to deal with it.
Zheng Fangyi and the other three are just students of Tianlong Academy and have no official positions. This time when they went out to perform the mission, the empire arranged for them to have temporary false posts to facilitate their movement. Although they were false posts and the level was not very high, they were imperial envoys, so Wan Jin First-class people dare not neglect.
Zheng Fanyi asked: "Is there anyone in the Sun family who is absconding?"
"No," the commander Wu Zheng replied resolutely, "Xiaguan has already surrounded Sunjiaping on the orders of Palace Master Huang. No one can escape."
Zheng Fangyi thought to himself that if one of their masters sneaked away quietly, you wouldn't be able to detect it, but this kind of inquiry is just a procedure, and Commander Wu's answer is inevitable.
"Palace Master Huang?" Qingshi was confused, "Hasn't Palace Master Huang been dismissed?"
"The official didn't make it clear," Wu Zheng said quickly, "The Master Huang I'm talking about is the newly appointed Master Huang Qian, not the former Master Huangyan."
"Is your surname also Huang?" Qingshi asked, "Is there any relationship between the two Palace Masters Huang?"
"Yes, it does matter," Wu Zheng replied, "Master Huang Qian is Huang Yan's clan brother."
"From a family?" Qingshi thought for a moment and then asked, "Is the position of the head of the palace in your country a floating official or a local official?"
"He is both a foreign official and a local official." Wu Zheng replied.
"Speak clearly." Xiang An frowned.
"Yes, yes," Wu Zheng said quickly, "according to the national law, the position of the palace lord is a temporary official, appointed by the court for a term of ten years. However, powerful families in various places often like to find themselves a person who is the king of the county. The imperial court also acquiesced in the official position of palace lord, so there were situations where the entire family had lived in the palace for generations and was the chief family of the local indigenous people. There were also situations where a clan member became the lord of the palace, so the official became a native official. For example, The Huang family of Jianming Mansion was originally the first family in our house. The position of head of the mansion was also held by the Huang family. Every ten years, the person who replaced him was still a member of the Huang family. This time, Huang Yan was removed from his position and replaced him. But they are still the Huang family."
"You said that the Huang family used to be the first family in Jianming Mansion," Qingshi asked still calmly, "Is it not the case now?"
"Yes," Wu Zheng said, "The Sun family rose to prominence six years ago, and its power surpassed that of the Huang family in just three years. It is said that after the Sun and Huang families reached an agreement, the positions of palace masters will take turns. However, this time The Sun family is going to be doomed."
Qingshi and Zheng Fangyi exchanged glances with each other, both secretly thinking that the Huang family had a motive to frame the Sun family. But the two did not reveal their tacit understanding of each other.
"So, the relationship between the Huang family and the Sun family is very good?" Qingshi continued to ask.
"Yes," Wu Zheng replied, "Sun Ba, the current head of the Sun family, was once a student of Huang Shiren, the current head of the Huang family."
"Huang Shiren?" Qingshi couldn't help laughing.
Everyone was confused, and Wu Zheng asked doubtfully, "Is there something wrong with the name Huang Shiren?"
"No, no, it's a good name." Qingshi suppressed a smile and said, "Go on."
"Oh," Wu Zheng continued, "Brothers Sun Xiong and Sun Ba came back and quickly seized the sphere of influence of other families such as the Li family, Yuan family, etc., but they were very respectful to the Huang family and even gave a lot of benefits to the Huang family. family, so the relationship between the two families is excellent.”
"Since the new palace master has taken office, why doesn't he come to see us?" Qingshi continued to ask.
"Master Huang Qian is arranging containment work on all sides. He is afraid that the Sun family will be exposed, so he has no time to escape. He said that once the arrangements are completed, he will naturally come to pay homage to all the superior officials." Wu Zheng replied.
Qingshi nodded and stopped asking questions.
Zheng Fanyi said to Wan Jinyi, "Were you responsible for investigating, collecting materials and reporting the case of the Sun family's murder of the Jiang family?"
"It was the four men under my humble command who collected and reported it together." Wan Jinyi said.
"Your report said that Jiang Suhe did not go directly to the Sun family, but first went to Huang Yan to ask for care for his family in accordance with national laws. Some people said that Jiang Suhe first went directly to the Sun family to ask for benefits, and then Palace Master Huang intervened. Yours Is the report wrong?"
"Absolutely correct!" Wan Jinyi and his assistant looked at each other, and then replied decisively at the same time. It seemed that their attitude was very determined.
"Well, let's talk about the strength of the Sun family." Zheng Fanyi said.
"Yes." Wan Jinyi replied. He had already figured out the strength of the Sun family and reported them one by one immediately. Sunjiaping has a total population of more than 16,000, of which about 2,500 are from the Sun family. The entire Sun family, together with the monks from other vassal families living in Sunjiaping, has more than 300 people.
In terms of strength, there are more than ten monks in the Sun family who are above the Qi Ning Qi realm. The ones with the highest cultivation levels are Sun Xiong and Sun Ba, both of whom have reached the low level of the Yuan Dan realm.
There should be two or three elders in his family who have reached the peak of the ninth level of Qi Condensation Realm, but these elders cannot break through the Yuan Dan Realm, and they are already old and their energy is declining and their lifespan is short.
The original head of the family, Sun Xiong, had also been beheaded to death by Jiang Suhe, so the current head of the family, Sun Ba, should be the most powerful in terms of debate.
Among Qingshi's group, Xiang An and Zheng Fanyi are already masters in the Yuan Dan realm, and the other eleven, except Qingshi, are all high-level cultivation in the Qi Condensation realm.
In terms of combat power, although Sun Ba is already in the Yuan Dan realm, he, the number one master of the Sun family, may not even be able to defeat Xiao Ji Yin Yuhuang and Teng Shouqian. These ordinary Yuan Dan realm monks in the world basically rely on long-term cultivation. Those who have accumulated and broken through to the Yuan Dan realm are naturally far behind those geniuses from Tianlong Academy.
Just like Sun Xiong, although he was also at the Yuan Dan realm, he was killed by Jiang Suhe who was at the Qi Condensation realm. Therefore, the only thing the Sun family can rely on is the magic circle that their family has been running for hundreds of years.
Zheng Fangyi asked a few more questions, but got nothing more. Immediately he said: "Since the Sun family won't take the initiative to surrender, let's just take action." After saying that, several people looked at Qingshi together. Qingshi is a formation master, so naturally it is up to him to decide how to break the formation.
Qingshi said: "Just now I took a brief look at the Sun family's defensive array. It is indeed good. Breaking the array with force is not advisable, so the only way to destroy the energy source of the array is the most feasible. I'm going to test it out, Senior Brother Zheng Please help me protect the law."
After saying that, Qingshi jumped off the spaceship and headed towards the main entrance of the Sun family.
Zheng Fanyi did not dare to be careless and took Xiao Ji and Yin Yuhuang to follow Qingshi.
The bluestone came to the moat outside the main entrance of Sunjiaping. The river was about ten feet wide, and a wide stone arch bridge was built over the river. On the other side of the stone bridge was the city wall, and there was a tall stone gate tower. This was the main entrance of Sunjiaping.
Qingshi smiled at Zheng Fanyi and said, "I haven't seen President Zheng take action yet. Why don't you show your hands and give it a try?" As he spoke, he licked his lips towards the Shimen Tower.
Zheng Fanyi didn't say anything. He waved his hand and a broad long sword appeared in his hand. Zheng Fanyi took a step forward, exhaled and drew the long sword forward. I saw a faint sword energy flying towards the Shimen Tower more than ten feet away.
Just as the sword energy flew over the moat, it suddenly hit an invisible wall. A transparent curtain wall suddenly appeared in the originally empty air. The sword energy hit the curtain wall, cutting out large cracks. The cracks were struck by the sword energy. Starting from the center, it spreads in all directions, causing ripples like water ripples on the curtain wall.
Then, the cracks slowly disappeared and the ripples gradually calmed down. The curtain wall lost energy disturbance and regained its original calmness, seemingly disappearing.
"Awesome!" Qingshi praised with a smile, "Senior Brother Zheng's sword energy is even more powerful than I imagined, and seems to be stronger than Brother Duan Qi. The Sun family's defense formation is not as strong as I imagined, otherwise How about you chop two more swords and break the formation directly with your strength?"
Zheng Fanyi knew that he could not break the formation with his strength, so he put away his sword and said to Qingshi: "Stop relying on your words. Tell me how to break the formation."
Qingshi thought for a while and said, "I'll set up a formation first to see what's going on inside." As he said that, Qingshi began to wave, and every time he waved, a golden bamboo stick more than a foot long would fly out and float in the air.
Yin Yuhuang looked at the bluestone formation and couldn't help but ask: "Isn't the situation inside clearly clear?"
Qingshi didn't answer and just continued to set up the formation. In just a few breaths, Qingshi had already thrown eighteen golden bamboo sticks, forming a large ring with a diameter of about one foot in the air.
These bamboo sticks are the set of formation sticks obtained from Yunlu, which are made of bamboo pieces imitating the bones of the seventh-level spiritual beast Golden Jong. This is the first time Qingshi has used it.
After finishing the arrangement, Qingshi shouted: Get up.
I saw that these bamboo sticks began to emit golden light. The light flashed and then disappeared. Then several people saw a different scene from the circular space formed by these formation sticks.
This circle is like a window. Looking at Sunjiaping on the opposite side through this window hole, the perspective is in the air and is not blocked by the city wall, and the content seen is different from that seen from outside the window hole.
Looking at Sunjiaping from the outside, the houses seem to have neat roads but no life such as trees and people. However, the Sunjiaping seen through this window is full of trees and crowded with people.
Yin Yuhuang was shocked. At a glance, he saw at least a hundred people waiting behind the arrow stacks on the city wall, each one nervously peering in his direction from their hiding place.
Xiao Ji laughed and said: "I asked why I couldn't see anyone, but it turned out that I had made an illusory array, just pretending to be a ghost."
The people in Sunjiaping seemed to find that their magic array was not working. They saw waves of white mist slowly rising throughout Sunjiaping. Soon, the entire Sunjiaping was completely enveloped by a large piece of white mist. This time it was Looking out of the window, it's all completely white.
Qingshi put away the formation stick and said to a few people, "Return", and the four of them immediately returned to the boat.
After returning, Qingshi said to Zheng Fangyi and An Teng Shouqian: "Can I arrange the next steps?"
All three of them agreed that this was exactly how it should be. Qingshi gathered everyone and explained to everyone his analysis of the situation and his plan on how to break the formation.
Qingshi judged that Sunjiaping's defensive array was divided into two parts. One was the large array centered on Sunjiaping and used water as the formation medium; the other was the civil array centered on the hill behind Sunjiaping.
These two arrays should be able to defend independently and support each other, which means that the energy sources of the two arrays can be connected and assist each other.
Judging from the topography, this place is surrounded by plains, but there is a hill behind Sunjiaping. This shows that there is probably a natural spiritual vein under this hill, and this spiritual vein should be the energy source of the two magic circles. Of course, there are also natural spiritual veins in Sunjiaping. There must be auxiliary energy sources, but they must be man-made, and they will not be able to continuously gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth like natural spiritual veins.
The plan to break the formation is divided into several steps. The first is to cut off the ground connection between Xiaoshan and Sunjiaping. The second is to find a way to break through the hill. After the hill is captured, the underground spiritual veins of the hill will be used to attack and consume Sunjiaping until Sunjiaping's formation is destroyed. When the energy source is exhausted, it will naturally collapse.
Seeing that everyone had no objections to the plan to break the formation, Qingshi further explained the specific plan on how to break the hill. Everyone was amazed and admired the ingenuity of his plan, and they all eagerly asked Qingshi to lead everyone into action.
