txolops Chapter 142 Regrouping, the Will of the People
Chapter 142 Regrouping, the Will of the People
The once magnificent vermilion pillars of the Demon Suppression Bureau's main hall have broken, pointing diagonally towards the gray sky.
The rubble was piled up together, with embers still burning in the gaps.
A few tits landed on the ruins, tilting their heads to survey the devastation, emitting short, mournful cries.
Gu Yan stood at the edge of the ruins, his shirt sleeves rolled up, holding an ordinary broom made of bamboo strips in his hand, sweeping the dust in front of the door like an ordinary mortal.
Not far from him, Song Hong was leading dozens of officers in black uniforms to clean up the scene.
"Junior brother."
Song Hong stopped and waved for the officers to step back.
She stepped forward and handed over two simple-looking storage bags with gold embroidery on the edges.
"The two corpses have been moved to a shady spot in the backyard. These are the items we found on them. A total of over ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones, and several bottles of high-grade pills, are all here. The remaining fragments of magical artifacts are too powerful, so I didn't allow my men to touch them."
Gu Yan stopped sweeping, casually took the two storage bags, and scanned them with his divine sense like ripples on water. After seeing them clearly, the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up, revealing a peaceful smile.
Inside Master Aoki's bag lay a mountain of spirit stones.
Besides the spirit stones, there were several rubbings of the Azure Dragon Sect's inner sect cultivation techniques, as well as a small flying boat with a broken mast, made entirely of fine Azure Spirit Wood.
As for the Yin Serpent Venerable's bag, it appeared much more sinister. Besides a pile of poisonous materials that could not be exposed to the light and several scrolls of array diagrams covered with strange patterns, there were also three Spirit Ascension Pills that emitted a strange fragrance.
"The resources of a Golden Core cultivator are indeed much more substantial than those of a Foundation Establishment cultivator."
Gu Yan casually tucked the storage bag into his pocket and looked up at Song Hong.
"Affix the Demon Suppression Division's 'Grade A' seal to those two corpses and put them in the ice cellar to keep them in place. Remember, do not touch their personal clothing, nor clean their wounds. We want every distinguished guest entering the city to see clearly that these two venerable elders truly killed each other, dying from the purest form of greed."
Song Hong let out a heavy sigh.
She found herself increasingly unable to understand this junior brother who usually had a friendly smile on his face.
But in such a chaotic situation, his ruthless and cunning nature gave her an unprecedented sense of security.
Xiao Chen strode over from the end of the long street, following the sound.
Black boots clattered rhythmically on the bluestone pavement.
The sword that had broken his karma was already sheathed in his arms. The sword intent that had been condensed to the extreme was even purer than last night, and there was a faint sense of sharpness about to break out of its shell.
"Inside and outside the city, all signs of unrest have vanished."
Xiao Chen stopped three steps away from Gu Yan, his gaze falling on the charred floor tiles, his tone cold and hard.
"Most of the surviving rogue cultivators fled before dawn. The remaining small group consisted mostly of unlucky souls who were either seriously injured or failed to gain anything. They are all huddled in the inn now, not daring to even breathe loudly. As for the spies who were keeping watch outside the city, they retreated to a distance of five miles after seeing the corpses of those deacons hung up."
Gu Yan nodded and casually tossed the broom aside.
"As expected. After all, the death of two Golden Core cultivators is a considerable loss for that high and mighty sect. Senior Brother Xiao, you don't need to guard the inner hall for the next three days. Take a team and go to the four city gates to post notices."
Gu Yan walked to the only relatively intact screen wall in the center of the hall, and looking at the mottled words "Suppress Demons" on it, his tone became serious and cold.
The notice contained only three points.
"First, the Demon Suppression Division thwarted the Blood River Sect's sneak attack, the city's martial law was lifted, and the people resumed their normal lives."
"Secondly, out of compassion for the suffering of the people, effective immediately, the taxes levied on ordinary people in Changning County will be reduced by 30%, the fees for merchants entering the city will be halved, and all shops damaged in the conflict can receive compensation upon presentation of receipts."
"Third, Changning County welcomes all fellow practitioners to trade, but if there are any more people below the Nascent Soul stage who do not abide by the rules, these two should be taken as a warning."
Xiao Chen, holding his sword, a strange glint in his eyes, asked in a low voice:
"Below the Nascent Soul stage? Junior brother, are you giving face to those major sects, or are you demarcating territory?"
"It's giving them a way out, but also telling them the bottom line."
Gu Yan turned around and looked at the rising sun that had just emerged from the horizon in the distance, a glint of light flashing in the depths of his eyes.
"We were able to kill those two Golden Core cultivators because of the formation of the earth veins in Changning County, which caught them off guard. If we had really angered those Nascent Soul elders from the major sects, the hundreds of thousands of lives in Changning County would have been wiped out with a flick of their wrists by those kinds of people."
Gu Yan sighed softly and added:
"By setting the boundary below the Nascent Soul stage, I'm telling those old fogies that as long as you elders don't get involved, I'll play the game with your juniors. They can go ahead and try to find the relics of the Nascent Soul stage or bribe rogue cultivators. But if they dare to touch the people of Changning County or this land, I'll take the entire county's fortune and perish with them."
Gu Yan spoke these words with extreme calmness, revealing an undeniable fighting spirit.
In this cultivation world where human life is treated like dirt, those who know how to show weakness and when to bare their fangs are often the ones who live the longest.
As the sun climbed over the mountains and slowly rose, the sound of doors opening could be heard sporadically on the streets of Changning County.
Li's Steamed Bun Shop in the west of the city.
Old Li boldly opened a narrow crack in the door and saw that the Demon Suppression Division captains patrolling the street looked normal. He also noticed that the arrogant and domineering immortal masters of the past were nowhere to be seen.
Only when the kind captain was helping the neighbor repair the roof tiles that had been blown off by the blast wave did Old Li's anxious heart finally settle down.
"May Heaven protect us, Lord Gu, please protect us!"
Old Li muttered to himself as he unlatched the door.
Immediately afterwards, the news of tax reductions and exemptions from entry fees spread like wildfire throughout every alleyway of Changning County.
The once tense town of Changning was brought back to life with bowls of steaming hot tofu pudding and the calls of vendors.
When the people took to the streets and saw the dilapidated main hall of the Demon Suppression Bureau, they panicked. But when they saw Gu Yan safe and sound, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Gu Yan keenly noticed this change.
In his divine sense, an incredibly dense layer of white mist slowly rose above the entire Changning County.
These mists are not naturally occurring water vapor, but rather the power of incense offerings gathered from the heartfelt gratitude, reverence, and prayers of tens of thousands of ordinary people who survived the catastrophe.
These wishes are invisible yet omnipresent.
They pierced through the thick ground, ignoring all the array shields, and continuously flowed into Gu Yan's Qi Sea.
Deep within the Qi Sea, the Tower of Gods and Demons began to tremble violently, emitting a deep and magnificent resonance.
The original white jade-like pagoda gradually transformed under the influence of these wishes, each brick and tile becoming as smooth and translucent as mutton fat jade, with faint wisps of divine light appearing.
The black dragon coiled around the tower also appeared much more peaceful.
Its ferocious scales are slowly absorbing the impurities in the willpower, transforming them into nutrients to strengthen itself.
Gu Yan closed his eyes and sensed the changes in the foundation of the divine and demonic path.
He discovered that, due to the integration of the Xuanwu Earth Vein Pearl and the overwhelming incense offerings, his Divine Demon Foundation Building had reached a truly perfect critical point.
For a typical Foundation Establishment cultivator to break through to the Golden Core stage, they need to comprehend the ethereal Heavenly Dao and use it as a guide to condense a spiritual core.
Gu Yan's path, however, involves using the incense offerings of countless families as a guide and overwhelming malevolent energy as a foundation to forcibly compress this towering structure into an unprecedented divine and demonic pill.
This level of difficulty is ten times higher than that of a regular Golden Core cultivator, but if successful, one's strength will experience a qualitative leap.
"It's not time yet, the timing isn't quite right."
Gu Yan forcibly suppressed the urge to break through to the next realm.
He knew that if he rushed to break through now, before his foundation was fully consolidated, he would easily attract a heavenly calamity.
What he wanted was not the low-grade Golden Core that could live for a few hundred years under the patronage of a sect, but an Eternal Golden Core that could bear the essence of gods and demons and suppress the fortune of this area within a hundred miles.
……
After returning to the side hall of the county government office.
Gu Yan sat down at the old desk, spread out the Xuan paper, and personally wrote three letters.
The first letter was sent to the Discipline Hall of the Liuyun Sect.
In his letter, Gu Yan wrote earnestly, with a tearful tone, reporting on the insane sneak attack that Changning County had suffered at the hands of the Blood River Sect of the Demonic Cult.
In his letter, he highly praised the two elders of the Azure Dragon Sect and the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons, saying that they risked being surrounded to protect the important assets of the Flowing Cloud Sect, and ultimately fought each other to the death, truly setting an example for the cultivation world.
At the end of the letter, Gu Yan very subtly listed a long list of the huge losses suffered by Changning County in the battle, including three thousand houses shattered by the blast wave and eight hundred wells contaminated by poison gas, implicitly demanding a large sum of compensation resources from the sect.
The second letter was addressed to the Azure Dragon Sect.
In his letter, Gu Yan not only expressed his deep regret that Qingmu Zhenren "fell while fighting for justice after being ambushed by the Demonic Sect," but also thoughtfully stated that the Demon Suppression Division was keeping a close watch on Qingmu Zhenren's belongings and remains, and that the Azure Dragon Sect was welcome to send someone to retrieve them at any time.
However, in order to quell the anger of the "Changning people who were frightened by the aftermath of Master Qingmu's battle", the Qinglong Sect needed to pay a small amount of money for the people's burial and resettlement.
Gu Yanding the price was just right.
This would make the Azure Dragon Sect feel the pinch, but wouldn't make them feel like they were going to war with the Flowing Cloud Sect over such a small amount of money.
The third letter was sent to the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons, a force whose highest level of power was only the Golden Core stage.
The letter was simple and blunt, containing only one sentence: The venom of the Yin Serpent Venerable has severely polluted the earth veins of Changning County. If sufficient compensation is not provided, none of the remaining disciples of the Ten Thousand Poison Valley will be allowed to leave Changning County alive.
After finishing writing, Gu Yan put down the pen and gently blew the ink dry.
Once these three letters are sent, what could have been a deadly feud will quickly escalate into a protracted tug-of-war over interests.
After all, in the eyes of major sects, the life of a Golden Core elder is certainly precious, but compared to a full-scale war after tearing off the mask, resolving issues through negotiation and spirit stones is the trick these old foxes are best at.
"Junior brother, what if they get really angry and join forces to attack after you send this message?"
Song Hong stood aside and, upon seeing the amount in the letter, felt her heart pound with fear.
"Won't."
Gu Yan sealed the letter and handed it to the elite captain waiting outside.
"Not only will they not attack, but they will also become suspicious of each other because of this letter. The Azure Dragon Sect will suspect that the Myriad Poison Valley is hiding that so-called Nascent Soul Map, and the Myriad Poison Valley will hate the Azure Dragon Sect for going to such lengths. As for our Flowing Cloud Sect..."
Gu Yan smiled and looked toward the verdant Lingjian Mountain in the distance.
"Once the Flowing Cloud Sect sees the corpses of those two old monsters, they will understand that although I, Gu Changsheng, am of mediocre talent, the Changning County behind me is a stubborn rock that can break their teeth. They will give me more rewards to keep me here guarding their gate. Because as long as I am here, they can get the biggest piece of the pie."
The key to being a good chess player is to make all the players feel that keeping you alive is more profitable than killing you.
After dealing with these complicated official matters, Gu Yan returned to the underground steel chamber.
He dismissed his attendants and took out the jade box that he had always kept in his bosom, which sealed the severed finger of the Nascent Soul cultivator.
After last night's forceful action, most of the sealing runes on the surface of the jade box have been worn away, revealing several fine cracks.
The charred, blackened finger lay there quietly, yet the faint aura of malevolence emanating from it made the surrounding air thick and heavy.
Gu Yan stared at the cold jade box, a chill flashing in his eyes.
The secrets of Sunset Valley are far from being revealed, and the fall of that deity was no accident.
This cause and effect will eventually come knocking on your door along this finger.
He stretched out his finger and quickly traced lines in the air.
A nearly transparent, specially made paper figure slowly emerges.
The paper figure bears a striking resemblance to Gu Yan himself, but the aura emanating from it is a strange energy composed entirely of resentment, malevolence, and the power of incense offerings.
"Go, follow those sect spies who fled. I need to know just how many eyes are still trying to dig for treasure in Changning County within this 500-mile radius."
The paper figure lowered its head, its form swayed in the air for a moment, and then silently disappeared into the shadows.
Gu Yan sat down cross-legged, his breathing deep and even. Around him were spirit stones, each radiating a multicolored light, that had been counted from the storage bags of the two Golden Core cultivators.
He took a deep breath, and the divine and demonic energy within his body began to surge wildly along his meridians, making a sound like a roaring river.
As he exhaled, the mountain of spiritual stones around him transformed into fine white mist of spiritual energy, which entered his mouth and nose.
In the embers of this great battle, in this absolute silence that belonged only to him, Gu Yan began a cultivation journey that was even more perilous and terrifying than the battle of the previous night.