Chapter 212
stir up the storm
Chapter 212 Stirring up the storm
I heard that the Southern Demonic Cult announced the closure of the mountain. The one who responded fastest was Song Guo. All the factions in the world were shocked by the news and urgently studied countermeasures. The Song Dynasty had already mobilized troops and horses. Marshal Liu Wu, appointed by Zhao Kuangyin, led the southern expedition of 100,000 troops to Hou Chu.
Since Nanping had been incorporated into the Song Dynasty and became a province, not only did they not stop the army from going south, the governments along the way also provided food, grass and clothing to the army. Abundant logistics allows the army to have no worries. Accompanying the army are elders and disciples from the Holy Fire Sect, Yuping Sect, Tianjian Sect, Chongyang Sect, Daming Temple, Jade Buddha Temple and other sects. There are about a thousand people in total, including ten masters in the Return to Void Stage and thirty masters in the Transformation Stage. A powerful force
Therefore, when the Song army entered the territory of Hou Shu, both the military cities and the cultivation sects along the way were as if they were faced with a powerful enemy and could not stand out. It was not until the army arrived in Chengdu that the Shushan faction could not bear it anymore and sent an elder to ask the Song army about their intention.
"Li Jun, the poor Taoist Shushan inner sect elder, has met all fellow Taoists. What do you want to do with the heavy troops in our country? Do you want to fight an undeclared war with me, Shushan?" This lean Shushan elder also returned to the void. Mid-term cultivation. He was considered a strong man in the world. He had a snow-white beard, a middle-aged face, and sharp eyes. On his feet, a snake-shaped sword light flew straight into the camp and shouted loudly outside the tent where the cultivators accompanying the army were resting.
When they heard that Shushan was coming, the cultivators in the tent did not dare to neglect the cultivators in the Returning Void Stage, led by Fairy Taiyan and Han'e. They immediately stopped what they were doing and went out of the tent to greet them.
"Hahahahaha. It's disrespectful and disrespectful to welcome a distinguished guest from a far distance. Please don't misunderstand me. The Great Song Dynasty came here to be an enemy of Shushan. It's just that not long ago, our country's Imperial Master You Longzi was attacked by the Southern Demon Cult in Hou Chu. Although there were no injuries, the Southern Demonic Cult's brazen attack on our Imperial Guard without declaring war with our country was a provocation in the eyes of the Song Dynasty! That's why His Majesty the Emperor ordered the use of troops against Hou Chu to avenge the Imperial Division and the Southern Demonic Cult. A lesson; secondly, defeat and occupy Houchu to fulfill your majesty’s wish to unify the world. It’s just destiny. I hope your faction understands the direction of heaven.” Taiyan laughed boldly and dismissed the other party’s accusations in a few words. Everything was clean.
"Yes, the Southern Demon Cult deceives people too much." "The people of Later Chu are in dire straits under the oppressive rule of the Demon Cult, and we need the Heavenly Master to come and rescue them." "That's right, the demon sect in the world has been around for a long time, I, Song Hengkong The purpose of being born is to clear away the evil atmosphere and restore peace to the world." "It's really not difficult for the Southern Demon Cult to mess with us first." As soon as Tai Yanren finished speaking, the other masters of the Return to Void Stage agreed one after another.
"Oh? So you are here just to attack Houchu Chu and have no other intention?" Li Jun's face softened slightly and he seemed to be relieved, but then he straightened his face and said: "If you want to attack Houchu Chu, why did you join me?" The border of Hou Shu?"
"Ah, fellow Taoist, I don't know." Fairy Han'e's voice sounded like a clear spring, making people feel relaxed. "Since we, the Song Dynasty, want to defeat and occupy Houchu this time, naturally we cannot just rely on us cultivators, but mainly rely on these ordinary soldiers and Taoist friends to say yes or no?"
Fairy Han'e is as beautiful as a fairy. Although she is veiled, her sweet voice still makes people fall in love with her as soon as she hears it. Li Jun is no exception. She moved the "cold jade cold light screen" in her hand and shrunk it into half the size of a palm. It was like a ball of ice crystals rolling in the palm of her hand, exuding bursts of cold air. Her beautiful eyes looked at Li Jun calmly with a hint of coldness.
The seemingly calm world of cultivation is actually cruel and full of killings, conspiracies, and disasters. If a cultivator can stand out and become a master in the return stage, he has to go through many hardships and adventures. In particular, women are inherently weaker than men, so they are at a disadvantage. The difficulty of cultivation for female cultivators is ten times more difficult than that for male cultivators.
Therefore, there are very few female cultivators who can stand out in the world of cultivation and become masters of the Returning Void Stage. All of them have well-known names, and most of them are the wives of the head teachers of a certain sect. There are very few masters like Fairy Hanyue who are still single and control a sect that is developing rapidly and has the potential to become a large sect.
Although people in the world of cultivation are busy cultivating and are relatively indifferent to human feelings, it does not mean that the desire has been eliminated. A female cultivator like Fairy Han'e who has both beauty and strength but also extraordinary wisdom and wealth can be regarded as a "star" among cultivators. She is pursued by many cultivators either out of greed, admiration or sincerity. Even among various sects, there are many suitors of Fairy Han'e.
It's just that the skills practiced by Fairy Han'e are biased towards the cold attribute, so she is cold-hearted towards her suitors, and her words are like an iceberg, which makes many suitors sigh with regret. But as the saying goes, the best is the best. Fairy Han'e's singleness and indifference gave her a strange charm, so those cultivators were even more eager to give up. All kinds of entanglements made her secretly annoyed. (I don’t know whether he was annoyed by the fly-like suitor or “someone” who didn’t express any closeness to him.) However, in terms of influence alone, Fairy Han’e can be regarded as the first person since Yunlong in the Song Dynasty.
Although Li Jun devoted himself to cultivating Qingxin, he did not dare to neglect Fairy Han'e. Besides, what the other party said was right. He nodded quickly and said, "Yes, although cultivators like us can intervene in the affairs of the mortal world at certain times, we must not interfere in the world of mortals." The entanglement of cause and effect is too deep and the Taoist heart is corrupted. This matter of mortal war is mainly accomplished by mortals themselves. "
"That's it." Fairy Han'e continued, "But between the Song Dynasty and the Later Chu Dynasty, the road is far away. These soldiers are all mortals. If they only find their way within our country, it will take several years. In this way, not only the saddle horses will be tired. Moreover, it will consume countless grain and fodder and only consume the national power. Therefore, we decided to take a shortcut from Hou Shu to attack Hou Chu. This can not only reduce consumption, but also have an unexpected effect."
After hearing this, Li Jun's face twitched slightly and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He snorted coldly. The other party is obviously talking nonsense. Indeed, if the Song Dynasty bypasses Hou Shu and attacks Hou Chu from the original southern Tang territory, the distance will be greatly increased, which will consume a lot of food and energy. However, although it is relatively close to reach Hou Chu from Hou Shu, one key factor cannot be ignored - -terrain!
"The road to Shu is as difficult as the blue sky." This poem refers to the difficulty of the road to Shu. If ordinary people want to pass through Shu, it will be difficult for ordinary people to climb to the sky if they are not familiar with the terrain. Most of the soldiers of the Song Dynasty were people from the north. They had been in the flat and vast northern land for a long time. They may not even have seen the hills. It would be a dream to easily pass through the mountains, valleys and mountains in Houchu.
Even if they finally managed to get out of Shu after going through all the hardships, the time it would take would definitely be far greater than the detour from Southern Tang. "Fellow Taoist, I belong to the righteous sect and it is our duty to eliminate demons and protect the Tao. But don't treat us as fools. Let's tell the truth." Li Jun pointed his hand at several soldiers standing guard around him and said: "These soldiers Although he is strong and strong, his physical strength is far from reaching the point where he can still be vigorous and vigorous after crossing the Shu Road."
"Fellow Taoist, you are too worried. My soldiers of the Song Dynasty can do something different. Please take a closer look here." After listening to Li Jun's words, a flash of understanding flashed in Fairy Han'e's eyes. Her veiled face smiled silently, and her slender jade fingers pointed at the place. Several soldiers.
Li Jun followed the direction of Fairy Han'e's fingers and finally discovered that the soldiers were different from the Houshu soldiers he had seen before: there was a talisman on both sides of their legs with some simple talismans drawn on them. There is also a pattern of a horse outlined in cinnabar in the middle.
"Magic Talisman! You actually equip every ordinary soldier with a Divine Talisman? This... this is really too..." Li Jun swallowed the "prodigal" in his mouth. He finally discovered this The difference among the 100,000 Song soldiers was that they actually had two "divine walking talismans" affixed to both sides of their legs!
The divine talisman is one of the most basic talismans in Taoism. It can be used by ordinary people even if it is inspired by the blood energy alone. If you stick it to the side of your leg, you can speed up the tutorial to travel eight hundred miles in a day and five hundred miles in a night. You can be as light as a swallow and as fast as a galloping horse.
Since it requires very little spiritual energy and very simple materials, even a newbie who has just entered the Qi training period can refine it. The specific method is to find a piece of yellow paper, grind it with cinnabar, write the divine talisman on the yellow paper, and then input a trace of spiritual energy into it, which is approximately equivalent to a day's practice of a cultivator in the early stage of Qi training. After inputting the spiritual energy, complete the last stroke of the talisman. That’s it.
Since yellow paper and cinnabar are the most basic materials in the world of cultivation, even if they are sold in the secular world, almost every cultivator who has practiced how to refine talisman paper has refined the popular talisman such as the Divine Walking Talisman. Law. But as the saying goes, a little makes a lot. Even if the worst materials are collected by 100,000 people, they can be piled as high as a hill.
The amount of yellow paper and cinnabar consumed by the same 100,000-person magical talisman should not be underestimated. The accumulated value of the huge amount is almost equivalent to that of a magic weapon. This does not take into account the scrap rate and time consumed. It's no wonder that Li Jun thought it was a wasteful behavior to pay such a high price in order to walk faster. You must know that it was not until he became a master in the Returning Void Stage that he received a top-quality magic weapon from his sect and no longer had to repeat the dilemma of having only one top-quality magic weapon. This is when a top sect like the Shushan Sect is replaced by an ordinary small sect, even the most powerful treasure may not be as good as the best magic weapon.
"Now, fellow Taoist, I understand. With the help of the magic talisman, crossing the Shu road will no longer be difficult and will become like walking on flat ground. If the local people in Hou Shu cooperate with me, the Song army will be able to march into Hou Chu in less than a month." The troops are coming to Changsha!" Fairy Han'e felt a sense of sadness when she saw the dumbfounded look of Li Jun, an elder of the inner sect who was considered to be a high-ranking person in Shushan.
When Yunlong took out the mountain of magical talismans from the ring space and placed them in front of her and Tai Yanren, the strong impact was simply more shocking than the shock of a first-class magic weapon being completely destroyed in front of their eyes - not to mention a hundred thousand divine talismans. The value of the talisman is more than one piece of magic weapon, but the visual impact caused by too many.
She was very curious about where Yunlong got so many magical talismans? A total of one hundred thousand. Even Maoshan and Dunjia Sect, who are good at the art of talismans, can't come up with such a big deal. It's not that they don't have enough wealth, but they can't use so many magic talismans at all. After all, apart from making the body as light as a swallow and speeding up walking, the magical talisman has no use. Only low-level cultivators and cautious cultivators will carry some with them to save energy when they are on the road. Therefore, usually these sects do not reserve so many magical talismans. Even if they have enough cinnabar and yellow paper, they are used to refine other talisman papers. It is impossible to "waste" these lowest-level talisman papers.
In response to her question, Yunlong just smiled mysteriously and said, "A gift from a friend." He said nothing more. In fact, Yunlong didn't lie to her. The 100,000 magical talismans were actually made by Yun Canghai's clone to the Yin Yang Sect in Haizhou. The Yin Yang Sect and the Vinaya Sect monopolized the entire cultivation world in Haizhou and had many disciples. After hundreds of years of development, except for the carefully selected core disciples, there are still a small number of outer disciples, disciples, disciples and disciples in various places, such as temples, temples and other places. The number is tens of thousands. Although the quality of them varies, they all have received basic cultivation education and are still within their ability to make these lowest level magic talismans.
As for the materials, Haizhou has many volcanoes and earthquakes. Cinnabar is originally a sulfide ore. It can be said to be everywhere in Haizhou. As for yellow paper, it is easier to make. Papermaking technology has been very developed in this era. The paper is soaked in lime water and then dried. Yellow paper. With the support of huge manpower and material resources, one hundred thousand magical talismans were produced in just two days and then carried by Yunlong to the Song Dynasty.
But the relationship between the Onmyoji and him was still a secret, and it was not the time to reveal it yet, so Yunlong did not tell anyone else. As a result, Fairy Han'e became even more curious about Yunlong. She felt that this man seemed to be shrouded in a fog, making it difficult to see clearly. He was so mysterious. This also aroused his huge curiosity. Yunlong didn't tell her, but she wanted to know the secret. But what she doesn't know is that when a woman becomes curious about another man, it often means that she is "interested" in this man and is not far away from being captured by her heart.
After shaking off the thoughts in her mind, Fairy Han'e felt her heart beating a little too fast. She suddenly lost interest in talking and nodded apologetically to Li Jun before returning to the tent.
Although he was a little puzzled by Fairy Han'e's sudden departure, Tai Yanren reacted quickly and quickly raised his hands and said to Li Jun: "Haha, fellow Taoist Han'e may be a little uncomfortable today, don't take it personally. We have also explained the reason for entering Houshu. Elder Li should explain it to the master and the real person after he returns to the mission."
What can Li Jun say now? The other party has made it clear that he would rather be a prodigal than pass through Houshu. The two of them are not hostile now, and they are here to "eliminate demons and defend the Tao". Of course, it is difficult to stop them, although they know that the other party must have a "conspiracy". "But there is no excuse to stop it, so I can only say depressedly: "It turns out that such a poor man will definitely report this to the headmaster after he returns. I wish you all success in getting rid of the devil immediately and say goodbye!" Said Ran and everyone returned to the virtual world. Grandmaster Qi said goodbye one by one and then moved away with his sword in a flash of sword light.
After reaching an understanding with the Shushan Sect, the Song Dynasty army continued to advance all the way through mountains and rivers. Because of the blessing of the divine walking talisman, the army moved very fast. At that time, the land of Sichuan was still dominated by high mountains. The overlapping mountains were like natural walls that isolated the land of Sichuan and Sichuan from the outside world. The complex and steep terrain has no other way except for birds, whether humans or animals want to get out of the outside world, except to follow a few ancient roads that have been explored since ancient times. Due to inconvenient transportation, most of the people are trapped in one place with little communication with each other. Fortunately, the land of Shu has outstanding people and good weather, and it can produce enough food for the people to eat and drink, which means that it is a "small country with few people".
However, inconvenient transportation not only hinders travel, but also hinders the circulation of culture and economy. Because the mountain roads are difficult to walk, even those local people who have been climbing mountains and ridges here since childhood can only travel far away during the New Year and holidays to exchange their belongings for some clothes and money. Moreover, the politics of Later Shu were corrupt, corrupt officials were rampant and exploited the people. Thanks to the good weather, there was no large-scale famine. Therefore, although the people's lives were barely enough for food and clothing, they were definitely not wealthy.
Faced with this situation, the Song Dynasty army, which was "just and benevolent", naturally could not "sit back and ignore". So the Song Army immediately dispatched a group of special troops. They looked serious, polite and wore standard uniforms, but they "righteously" destroyed the tax cards set up by corrupt officials and entered the villages and towns to listen to the complaints of the people, just like the great masters of Qingtian. Judgment and justice for those people. After the ruling, a team broke into the county government office to confront the corrupt officials with "just words".
Since corrupt officials can do unscrupulous things, their consciences will naturally be eaten by dogs. How can they care about these outsiders? Naturally, they will send out government officials to drive them away. Seeing that the "persuasion and education" was ineffective, these originally polite soldiers immediately transformed into martial arts heroes and beat these lackeys with three punches and two kicks and fled.
(Foreshadowing... Foreshadowing...o(╯□╰)o)
