Qin Shi Ambitious

Page 208

Both were highly skilled in internal energy cultivation, but in terms of sheer depth, Zhu Jia's internal energy was superior to Xinghun's at this time.

However, the subtlety of gathering qi into a blade is more focused on lethality than the Zhu family's acupoint striking techniques. After exchanging several blows, when they finally separated by a palm strike, the Zhu family member retreated several steps more.

Holding the bronze box in one hand, Xinghun proudly raised his head. Just as Zhu Jia was about to step forward again, Changping Jun, who had stepped out from under the protection of his guards, reached out and stopped him.

"Did Lord Xinghun of the Yin Yang School come here on Ying Zheng's orders to kill me?"

Xiong Qi met Xing Hun's gaze calmly, showing no unusual reaction to the Azure Dragon Bronze Box in his hand.

"No." Xinghun roughly slashed the bronze box with his gathered energy blade, but the box didn't budge. "I just came to retrieve this box."

"Is that so..." Xiong Qi turned to look at his frightened daughter and said in a deep voice, "Since that's the case, Lord Xinghun has already gotten what you wanted, so please leave."

Upon hearing Changping Jun's words, the Zhu family's expression changed, but they didn't say anything more. Xinghun was also taken aback for a moment, then quickly chuckled and said, "This box isn't something completely insignificant to you, is it?"

"Lord Xinghun just spared my daughter, and now he's only taking away a small box. How could I refuse?" Changping-jun even laughed along at this point.

Given the distance, if Xinghun really wanted to attack Mi Lian, the Zhu family wouldn't have had time to rescue her.

"However, I have a small question. I wonder if Lord Xinghun could answer it?" Changping-jun's tone was leisurely, as if the tense atmosphere did not exist at all.

“I can consider whether to answer.” Xinghun wasn’t worried that Changping Jun was stalling for time. On one hand, he was aware of the army’s mobilization speed and had a bottom line for how long he would stay. On the other hand, with such a commotion here, if the Zhu family could notice it, Yue Shen Dongjun in the inner courtyard wouldn’t be unaware.

"How did Lord Xinghun know that this item was in my possession?" Changping-jun's expression was unusually curious, but such curiosity appearing on the face of an old fox like him could not be trusted to be genuine.

"A friend told me about this," Xinghun said meaningfully. "This friend, Changping-kun, has probably never actually met, but must have heard people mention him..."

After saying this, the Left Protector of the Yin-Yang School used his lightness skill to leave with the items.

Zhu Jia and the guards looked at Lord Changping, awaiting his orders.

However, even after Xinghun's figure had completely disappeared, Xiong Qi still did not give the order to pursue...

"Father..." Mi Lian timidly approached her father, burying her head in her chest and looking down at her shoes: "I'm sorry..."

"Yes, go see your mother, don't let her worry." Changping-jun calmly replied, without offering much comment, and turned to go back to the front yard.

"Although Xinghun of the Yin Yang School is quite strong, if we launch an ambush, he will still be killed." In the council hall in the front yard, Zhu Jia expressed his opinion.

"Even if you discard the secrets it hides, the Azure Dragon Bronze Box is just a box." Xiong Qi shook his head easily. "The fact that Xinghun didn't harm Lian'er proves that he wasn't sent by Ying Zheng. As long as the box doesn't fall into Ying Zheng's hands, it doesn't matter who else has it. There's no need to take any risks."

"So, are we just going to let the Yin-Yang School take the box away like this?"

"Xinghun deliberately exposed himself today, and the fact that he still had the mind to listen to my casual conversation under those circumstances proves that he is absolutely confident in leaving safely. He probably has other powerful accomplices. Just in case, we are only letting him leave the mansion for now."

"What does Changping-jun mean?"

"Quietly gather troops tonight and surround the old royal palace in the city tomorrow morning!" Xiong Qi said calmly.

"The old royal palace?" Zhu Jia exclaimed in surprise, his mask shifting to one of doubt.

“There are no suspicious characters entering Chenying City’s city gate records. Xinghun and his accomplices did not enter the city through legitimate channels.” Changping Jun picked up a bamboo scroll from the table, spread it out and read it attentively, while saying, “I deliberately left a loophole in the city, which is the old royal palace.”

"If the other party intends to stay in Chenying, they will definitely do so there."

"So Lord Changping had already made arrangements." Zhu Jia's doubts deepened at this point: "But what if the other side isn't here? Besides, if we surround them again tomorrow morning, they can leave directly tonight."

“The Yin-Yang School has many unpredictable methods, and surrounding our soldiers at night is even more disadvantageous.” Xiong Qi patiently explained to the head of the Farmer's School, “If the other party is not here or has already left, then let them take the box with them.”

"The State of Chu is not short of that box now. The secret of the Azure Dragon Seven Mansions has been unsolved for nearly five hundred years since Duke Zhuang of Zheng. In these five hundred years, many influential figures have been helpless against this secret. Let them take it away."

Lord Changping was quite open-minded about the Azure Dragon Bronze Box. He believed that even without this secret, the Qin state would still be just as powerful. If the world could be unified simply by relying on a few boxes, what would be the point of the struggles of generations?

Xiong Qi believed that his Azure Dragon Plan was more likely to change the world than the so-called Seven Mansions of the Azure Dragon.

Perhaps there were gods in ancient times, but now we live in an era ruled by men, and humans are now greater than those ethereal gods!

Lord Changping never confided such disrespectful thoughts to anyone. Perhaps it was precisely because of this disrespect that he was the one who willingly relinquished the position of Right Chancellor of Qin and chose to plunge Chu into peril together!

------

Back at the old palace, Xinghun had just put the box down when Lu Wei, the Moon Goddess, and Dongjun appeared.

"The item is indeed with Lord Changping; your information was correct." The Left Protector confirmed the authenticity of the box.

Changping Jun didn't know they were coming, and there was no need for him to make a fake box for his daughter to play with.

"So easy! Did you plan this all along?" Dongjun pulled the box into the air, checked it again himself, and then squinted at Lu.

"Of course not, I was surprised too." The hall master shook his head with a smile, but his demeanor and words didn't quite convince anyone.

Especially since they witnessed firsthand that the peasants had infiltrated Changping Jun's ranks, it's possible that the Zhu family were Lu's lackeys within the peasant faction!

"In any case, at least we got the stuff." Although the Moon Goddess knew many of Lu Wei's secrets, she was still unsure how many other things he was hiding.

"The most urgent thing is for us to leave Chenying immediately." Lu Wei took the box, examined it, compared it with the box from Wei Kingdom in his memory, and then tossed it to the Moon Goddess.

"Are you worried that Lord Changping will send troops to encircle and suppress us?" Xinghun pondered for a moment and guessed the reason why Hall Master Lu made such a suggestion.

Dongjun and Yueshen remained silent on these matters, while Lu Wei calmly nodded: "If I were him, after the Azure Dragon Bronze Box was lost, I would probably try to force you out of the city. Sending troops to besiege you would obviously be a good solution."

"Is this just to force us to leave?" Xinghun smirked.

"Of course, we also have plans to ambush you. After all, even if he guesses you didn't come alone, he certainly wouldn't guess it was the four of us." Master Lu pointed to himself matter-of-factly.

"Especially since I'm here!"

Chapter 233: Thousands of Gold to Buy Horse Bones

The mission of the Yin-Yang School's Sun, Moon, and Stars to the State of Chu has been accomplished, and there are still several months before Wang Jian attacks the capital of Chu.

In theory, the three of them could have returned directly to Xianyang, but they each had other things to do, so after temporarily keeping the bronze box with the Moon Goddess, the Sun, Moon and Stars went their separate ways.

Dongjun Yanfei has gone north to the Mo Family's Mechanized City. Currently, several of the Mo Family's top leaders are in Shouchun, as is Yan Dan. If the Yin Yang School launches its invasion of the Mechanized City at this time, the lower and middle-level disciples of the Mo Family will suffer heavy losses.

However, Yanfei was not in a hurry to destroy the Mo family. She wanted Yan Dan to be killed by his daughter. Therefore, her trip north was to teach him Yin-Yang techniques.

Calculating their ages, next year, Yan Dan's daughter, the child who received the title of Princess Gaoyue, will be six years old (by the traditional Chinese age reckoning). Teaching her Yin-Yang arts at that age is a bit premature. But Consort Yan doesn't care; even if that child is innocent, she still carries half of Yan Dan's blood!

Lord Dongjun is not one to show mercy.

The moon goddess also visits children, but she visits her own children.

Xiao Qian'er is more than a year younger than Gao Yue, making it even less suitable for her to learn Yin-Yang techniques at this age.

The Moon Goddess has a clear plan for Lu Qian's upbringing. Her trip to Daze Mountain is primarily to solidify little Qian'er's foundation. At the same time, as his mother, the Moon Goddess hopes to have a stronger presence in Qian'er's growth.

Lu Qian's material life is not bad. After all, he is the young master of Gonggong Hall, and he is usually cared for by the former head of the Yijia Sect, so there will be no problems.

However, in terms of family affection, the little guy is very busy with both his parents and receives very little attention from Lu Wei and the Moon Goddess.

The Moon Goddess was often unable to go because of her identity as a member of the Yin-Yang School, while for Lu Wei, his career was more important than his two children!

The former head of the hall once mocked Tian Guang, saying, "Yan Dan possesses good qualities of a ruler, but those qualities are generally not considered good." Now, he himself is merely a "peasant lord," yet he has already picked up a whole host of bad habits.

This is all because he learned the Yin-Yang arts! Master Lu brazenly found a reason for his heartlessness in his heart.

Xinghun certainly had no children to visit, but compared to the atmosphere of the Yin Yang School, he naturally preferred to wander outside.

Xinghun's grandfather, Gan Mao, was once praised by Su Dai for "knowing the terrain of Yaosai and Guigu well, whether it is dangerous or easy". He had never had the chance to see the path his grandfather had traveled before, but now he could.

Sun, Moon, and Star were about to leave, but Lu Wei had no intention of returning to Mount Daze with the Moon Goddess.

Since he had already arrived in the State of Chu, he decided to take the opportunity to travel southeast and visit Jing County, where the development had undergone significant changes in the new year.

When Xiao He last contacted and dispatched disciples to Juyang to cooperate with Tian Guang's plan, he briefly reported some of the contents in his letter:

First of all, the reconstruction of Jinghu Medical Manor on Jinghu Island has been completed. Next time Lu Wei takes Xue Nu, Duanmu Rong and others to the south for vacation, it will no longer be crowded.

Furthermore, due to the rapid development of Jing County, its sphere of influence inevitably overlapped with that of the Dong'ou Kingdom further southeast. In essence, this was an act of invasion by Jing County, except that it did not use swords and spears, but instead employed multiple forms of soft pressure, including food, civilization, and the indispensable potential threat of force.

Although the Ouyue people are descendants of King Goujian of the ancient Yue Kingdom, due to their distance from the Central Plains civilization and the pressure of their environment, they gradually developed into a primitive form of "cutting their hair and tattooing their bodies" and feeding on snakes, frogs, fish and clams after merging with the coastal natives.

The introduction of Jingxian's "advanced civilization" culture resulted in some people in Ouyue's lower classes yearning for it while others rejected it, but these people did not exercise sovereignty.

Ordinary people are just ordinary people. The key issue facing the infiltration of Jing County lies in the attitude of Ouyang Yao, the King of Dong'ou.

Ouyang Yao's cultural invasion of Jing County...of course, he welcomed it wholeheartedly!

The ruler of Dong'ou had long been unable to tolerate the barbaric conditions in his country and was determined that even if he could not restore the country to the prosperity of the time of Goujian's ancestors, he could not continue to be regarded as a barbarian by the Central Plains states.

The rulers of the Yue states were basically nominally subservient to the Chu state. The Chu state had never been interested in this remote part of the Yue territory, nor would it voluntarily give the seeds of civilization to the Yue. However, while the Chu state could not do this, the two counties could.

The alliance between Jing County and Fan County had already spread throughout the Baiyue region and was not rejected by the Yue people.

They would not use force to seize the territory of the Yue people, nor would they interfere with the appointment of the ruling class within the Yue people's country. This demonstrates their basic sincerity in communicating with the Baiyue.

Ouyang Yao's Dong'ou people were the Yue people closest to the former territory of Goujian's Yue state, and therefore they were the first to seize the opportunity to send envoys to Jing County for in-depth exchanges.

In the past, before Jing County was established, the Fanxian chieftain would send caravans to trade with the Yue tribes through barter, and communication between the two sides was mainly initiated by Fanxian. Now, the Yue people have taken the initiative, which is obviously an inevitable survival measure in the chaotic world.

Xiao He readily agreed to the request of the Yue people of Dong'ou, and relations between the two sides developed rapidly within a year.

After Dong'ou took the initiative, Wuzhu, the ruler of Minyue further south, also showed signs of wanting to make a move.

If we consider Ouyue and Minyue as allies, along with Fanxian, such an alliance would essentially have no enemies south of the Yangtze River.

Only the southernmost Nanyue, Xiou, and Luoyue remained hidden deep in the mountains and forests, rarely interacting with outsiders. Even the barbarian ruler Wu Rui had little contact with them.

These three Yue peoples were also the Yue people who resisted Qin the longest in the future. Even with the strength of the Qin army, facing the forests of the three Yue, they still suffered the loss of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Xiao He sent envoys and merchant caravans to the Three Yue regions. After discovering that the other side was indifferent, he wisely maintained only a fixed and low frequency of exchanges, barely keeping the two sides in contact.

Lu Wei's trip to Jing County was to discuss with the Hall Master in detail the measures Xiao He had devised to appease the Yue people.

At that time, large areas on the south bank of the Yangtze River were barren and undeveloped, far less developed than the Yellow River region in terms of resources and population.

But if he weren't tired, how could Lu Wei possibly be affected at this moment...?

Moreover, if in the future, the stability of these remote border regions—from Shushan to Fanxian, Minyue, Ouyue, Jingxian, and further north to Dazeshan in Qi, and even into Yan—depends entirely on Lu's word, then a front for the anti-Qin uprising will have been formed, effectively encircling them...

...

"This is the Chu Kingdom's 'Cloud Pattern Bronze Tablet.' The precious beasts clinging to the tablet are all made of pure gold, and each beast's eyes, claws, and other special parts are adorned with different colored gemstones, which appear to be seven colors in the dark."

In a treasure pavilion in Jing County, Chen Ping, a disciple of the Taoist Renzong sect, was smiling as he pulled the Dong'ou envoy around a rectangular object that was about four feet long and one and a half feet wide, admiring it.

As he clapped his hands, the attendants on both sides extinguished the candles. At this moment, the gems on Tong Jin's body indeed emitted a faint seven-colored light, just as he had described, causing the envoy to be mesmerized by the exquisite beauty of the treasures.

"It is said that when King Kaurye was alive, he loved this artifact very much, and even couldn't bear to let it sleep in the dark tomb, so he chose to leave it in the human world." Looking at the envoy, Chen Ping smiled and casually made up a few more stories, making the object in front of him even more sacred.

"This is truly a treasure of a great nation. Dong'ou is a small and weak country, and there is no way we could have such a treasure in our country." As the nephew of King Ouyang Yao of Dong'ou, Ouyang Yang was highly trusted. This time, he came to Jing County as an envoy for the exchange of New Year's gifts. Jing County not only prepared a high-level banquet to receive him, but County Magistrate Xiao He also sent his junior brother Chen Ping, who had come to visit Jing County after the Taoist "Debate on Swordsmanship between Heaven and Man," to personally receive him.

Of course, officially, Chen Ping was no longer a disciple of the Human Sect, but rather held a position in Jing County and was considered an official of Jing County.

"If the envoy likes it, I will immediately have it packaged and sent to the post station. When the envoy returns home after the New Year, he can take it back and savor it carefully."