"The disaster of pond fish..."
Zhang Yao sighed, deeply feeling his own powerlessness.
Even though his skills are close to perfection and his skills are far superior to ordinary people, he has never practiced martial arts and is inferior to an ordinary soldier.
If something like this happens tonight, you can only run away without even a trace of resistance.
"If you are unlucky or not cautious enough, you will probably fail tonight."
"It seems that I have to find a way to practice martial arts as soon as possible. I don't want any real mystical skills, but at least I have to be able to protect myself."
In Zhang Yao's mind, he began to think about his future path.
The Qingping Palace was finished, and the Taoist Mysterious Skills he had worked so hard to pursue had also come to nothing.
After finally escaping, where should we go?
"This rebel army is powerful. Now that it has destroyed the Qingping Palace, the nearby villages and towns may not be able to live in peace in the future."
"In such troubled times, ordinary people are in danger. If they want stability, they must find a big city with strong walls and heavy defenses..."
When Zhang Yao thought of this, a place name immediately appeared in his mind - Changping.
As the administrative seat of this county, Changping City is the largest city within a hundred miles and is so powerful that it has never been breached in a hundred years.
The refugee army half a year ago and the rebel army that fled this time were all defeated by Chang Ping's soldiers.
"Staying in Changping City is far safer than other places."
"Changping is only a few dozen miles away from here. With my current physical strength, I can get there in two or three days at most even on foot."
Zhang Yao felt a little more at ease when he thought of this.
Changping is a big city, and he has the skills to master medicinal materials. Even if he is penniless, he can still starve to death by working as an apprentice in a medical clinic or drug store.
Besides, he doesn't have any capital at all now.
"Master Guanlu..."
Zhang Yao sighed, looked back from the direction of Qingping Palace, and looked at the gray package in his hand.
The package was not big, only about the size of two palms, but it was heavy. It was estimated to weigh at least a dozen kilograms.
He opened the gray package and found, as expected, an ingot of silver. The largest one was twenty taels and the smallest was five taels. The total amount was more than one hundred taels.
"Ordinary people can't earn this much money in a lifetime."
Zhang Yao's expression moved slightly, feeling that he had underestimated the treatment of the senior officials of Qingping Palace before.
He hesitated for a moment, then took out a five-tael piece of silver and tied the package up again.
These silver coins are the life savings of Master Guanlu. The fact that they can be entrusted to him when the future is uncertain shows that they value him.
Of course, this should also be based on Master Guanlu's own considerations: if he is safe and sound, he will be able to easily recover Zhang Yao and the money afterwards, and he will not be afraid of being hacked.
Besides, he still trusted Zhang Yao more than other Taoist boys and Taoists, and when the incident happened suddenly, he had no better choice.
"These are the property of Master Guanlu, not mine."
Zhang Yao took a deep breath and firmed up his thoughts: "Although the real Guanlu is most likely to be in danger, but we haven't heard of his death, we still can't misappropriate it casually."
"Let's wait until we get to Changping City before making plans..."
…………
Inside the Qingping Palace.
The original pure Taoist temple has now turned into a hell on earth, with bloodstains, wreckage and corpses everywhere.
Soldiers wearing iron-lined armor, carrying steel knives and torches, patrolled and retaliated. They did not swarm around to loot property, but were well-disciplined. They were obviously not ordinary rebels.
Atrium: A tall man with a beard wearing black armor looked at the battlefield in the atrium where corpses were strewn with a gloomy expression.
The thick armor on his body glowed like cold steel under the light of the torch, but there were many damaged areas.
The most obvious breach spanned half of the chest and abdomen. A large area of the armor was cracked and damaged, almost splitting the entire armor in half, and faint traces of blood seeped out.
"Brother."
A soldier hurried over and looked at him worriedly: "Is your injury okay?"
"It doesn't matter. With my external skills, the bleeding has already stopped."
The big man with a beard waved his hand and said in a deep voice: "How are the injuries to the brothers?"
Upon hearing this, the soldier's face became a little ugly, and he whispered: "More than thirty people died, and a dozen brothers were seriously injured. I'm afraid they won't survive more than two days..."
When the tall man with a beard heard this, his expression suddenly changed.
Although he had been mentally prepared, he did not expect that the casualties would be so heavy, with almost one-third of the damage being lost.
If the battle had not been short and he had been taking the lead, the army would have collapsed and fled in all directions.
"These bull noses are really fucking difficult to deal with!"
The big man with a beard cursed: "Especially that old Niubi, he almost killed me with one sword!"
He had to admit that he felt a little regretful.
If we had known earlier that these Taoist priests from Qingping Palace were so powerful, they might as well have listened to their subordinates and robbed the big families down the mountain.
The brave militia groups of several local villages and towns were not taken seriously by them at all, and they were all in danger of collapse.
"right!"
The soldier also said with a serious face: "That old Taoist priest is really powerful. He killed more than ten of our brothers by himself."
"The remaining Taoist priests are not easy to mess with. Their internal martial arts practice has already gained considerable momentum."
"Um……"
The big man with a beard looked gloomy and asked slowly: "Is there any fish that slipped through the net?"
"……have."
The soldier opposite hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "There are three people who escaped in total."
"A little Taoist priest ran very fast and the brothers couldn't catch up. There was also a young Taoist priest who was protecting a teenage boy and ran out of Chaimen."
Hearing this, the big man with a beard furrowed his brows and was a little dissatisfied: "I have arranged ambushes at every back door and Chaimen of Qingping Palace, but how can I let people escape?"
After he finished speaking, without waiting for a reply, he sighed again, waved his hand and said, "Forget it, just run away. It's just a few small fish, and it won't make any big waves."
"Let's bury the bodies of the brothers who died in the battle together. Give the seriously injured brothers a good time and pay homage to them tomorrow."
As soon as he finished speaking, a military man hurried over and reported: "Inform the captain, the basement of this Taoist temple has been found."
When the two of them heard this, they immediately became energetic. The big man with a beard said repeatedly: "Quick! Take me there quickly!"
Soon, the big man with a beard led several people along the back hall area of Zangzhen Pavilion and entered the secret basement of Qingping Palace.
Seven or eight military men were guarding here with fire guards in their hands. When they saw the big man with a beard, he immediately saluted.
"Hey! Good guy!"
The big man with a beard held a torch and took a deep breath when he saw the scene in the basement clearly.
Several large boxes in the basement have been pried open.
The large box among them was neatly stacked with silver ingots. At a glance, there were at least tens of thousands of taels of silver.
In the few remaining large boxes, there are antiques, calligraphy and paintings, as well as some collected Taoist scriptures and classics with yellowed pages. They are obviously treasures.
"Brother, these bull noses are really rich!"
A soldier got excited and said loudly: "My eldest brother is wise enough to come and snatch these noses. It's really a big deal!"
The remaining leaders also praised him one after another. The big man with a beard suddenly felt proud, and most of his previous annoyance was gone.
In fact: he had already sent people to inquire, and found out that the wealth of Qingping Palace was no less than that of the wealthy families in the villages and towns at the foot of the mountain.
Although the big families at the foot of the mountain are rich and easy to acquire, most of their assets are farmland, shops and land. In terms of cash, they are definitely not as good as the Qingping Palace.
Therefore, he ignored the advice of his subordinates and decided to attack Qingping Palace.
Now after destroying the Qingping Palace, his original decision was indeed proved to be correct.
"How can you make more money by robbing those big businesses than by robbing these cow noses? It's impossible for us to manage those fields and land."
The big man with a beard nodded with satisfaction and said, "Now, with this money, we can occupy the mountain as king and build a camp, and we can live happily for at least ten years."
