Chapter 1141

"Hum-hum-hum."

A small red clay stove, heated by two pieces of red charcoal, with clear water in the clay pot bubbling and boiling.

Shen Zhongliang hummed a little tune, picked up a ceramic jar, selected some soaked salted Inspector Bian, pinched one out to taste, found it full of salty and fresh flavor, nodded in satisfaction, took out the Inspector Bian, and cut it into lengths like scallion segments.

"Old Song, you must calculate this well for me. The autumn tax for the Heaven Fire Sect this year must not be wrong. Although the abacus beads are small, they are bigger than my head, the head of an Elder of the Finance Department, Shen Zhongliang. You must remember, what you are calculating with your hands is my head."

"Elder Shen, please rest assured." The accountant of the Finance Department stroked his white beard, moved the abacus, and carefully calculated the Blood Treasures. "I followed you when I was in the Profound Bright Sect, and I have eaten Blood Treasures for thirty years. I have already calculated it carefully."

Shen Zhongliang's face stiffened: "Profound Bright Sect, Profound Bright Sect, what Profound Bright Sect? Now there is only the River God Sect! Does the Profound Bright Sect have anything to do with you?"

"Nothing to do with it, nothing to do with it!"

"Hmm, be careful in everything, it can't be wrong."

"Understood, understood."

Shen Zhongliang put the cut Inspector Bian into the clay pot, let the boiling water cool down and settle, waited for a while, and it boiled again, the fragrance wafting out.

"Eating salted vegetables and boiling Blood Treasures, the Sect Master's father is not as good as me."

Before Shen Zhongliang could stuff the Inspector Bian mixed with Blood Treasures into his mouth.

The sound of the abacus stopped.

"Something wrong?"

"Elder, the accounts are wrong." The accountant was terrified.

Shen Zhongliang frowned and put down his chopsticks.

"What's wrong? Don't talk nonsense."

"I wouldn't dare." The accountant was panicked. "From September this year to September next year, we have to hand over a total of 1,500 second-grade Blood Treasures. The Heaven Fire Sect has already reduced it a lot, but now in the three months of September, October, and November, excluding necessary expenses, the total in the treasury is only 300. In other words, we are short of 75 Blood Treasures."

Short 75?

Shen Zhongliang was shocked. He didn't remember taking that many.

"How can it be short so much? Don't calculate it wrong."

"It's not wrong..."

"Can you check the accounts?"

The accountant flipped through it quickly: "Found it, found it. Last month, the River God Sect Master hosted a banquet for the Heaven Fire Sect and drew 80 second-grade Blood Treasures, but the River God Sect Master did not fill it back. It has been missing. If you fill this gap, the number will be correct."

Shen Zhongliang breathed a sigh of relief.

So it wasn't him, it was the River God Sect Master.

He just said that he has always had a sense of proportion and would not touch the tax money.

But 80 second-grade Blood Treasures, how could it be so much? What dishes did the River God order?

Is this treating guests or bribery?

He didn't feel anything unusual when he organized the banquet...

Pacing in a circle.

"Is there any way to make up for it?"

"The Sect Master should have received the gift money from the Heaven Fire Elder. If you fill in the gift money, it should be fine."

"Of course there is gift money. I'm asking you if there is any way not to dismantle this gift money!" Shen Zhongliang was not very satisfied and patted the table. "You let the Sect Master take out the gift money to fill the hole, how can it show the ability of our Finance Department? Who can't calculate accounts? If you only calculate accounts, why keep us? Isn't it better to find a teacher? The key is whether we can open source and reduce expenditure, and squeeze out this missing part!"

The accountant looked embarrassed: "The sect relocation, the settlement of relatives, the expenses are huge, and we have to expand the staff. The Heaven Fire Sect has calculated the reduction. If we squeeze from other places, many projects will have to be shelved, and one hair will affect the whole body..."

"Bring it here for me to see." Shen Zhongliang took the account book, flipped through it a little, waved his brush, and wrote with iron-painted silver hooks. "Here, here, here, change it all, won't it come out?"

"Salary halved for three months?"

"The sect relocation is difficult, everyone tighten their belts."

"Relatives' housing postponed?"

"Anyway, there is a place to live in the old home. It's no problem to come two months late. Men, they won't be suffocated. When we go back, we will make an agreement with the pleasure boat at the foot of the mountain, and we can still make a profit."

The accountant read it up and down. Before he could match the accounts, another disciple hurried up the mountain.

"Report to the Elder, someone from the Heaven Fire Sect is here!"

"Who?" Shen Zhongliang stood up suddenly.

"It's the envoy who sent us the super-grade Blood Treasure last time, named Fu Ruo'an, representing the Heaven Fire Sect, stationed in the River God Sect."

"How so fast..." Shen Zhongliang was secretly shocked.

As a direct sect under the Heaven Fire Sect, a first or second-grade sect naturally would not be a hands-off shopkeeper. There would be Heaven Fire Sect personnel stationed inside the sect to supervise, but he didn't expect them to come so fast.

"You go and call the Elders to go out to welcome them."

"Yes!"

"Elder Shen, our accounts..." The accountant stepped forward worriedly. When someone from the Heaven Fire Sect comes, checking the accounts is definitely a key that cannot be bypassed. If they feel something is wrong, it will be troublesome if they intervene.

"What are you panicking about!" Shen Zhongliang flicked his sleeves, calm and composed. "Can Shen Mou walk to this day by flattering? Let's go, let's meet this envoy!"

If the River God doesn't fill the hole with the gift money, doesn't he understand what that means?

Lao Yingtian twisted the super-grade Blood Treasure, the brilliance surging.

It's so beautiful, magnificent.

How to use it?

Exchange it for many first-grade Blood Treasures and directly bribe the Elder of the Genealogy Department? It is definitely the most wasteful approach. Without a middleman, the outcome is very likely that they will take the Blood Treasure and not do things. But if you don't exchange it, you have one and only one super-grade in your hand. Where should it be used?

Hit the snake seven inches.

If used well, it might be done in one step, and the remaining seven first-grade ones can be kept for oneself. If not used well, all efforts will be wasted.

"Brother, didn't you say yesterday that you would introduce me to young talents? Why is there no sound?" Lao Mengyao lay on the table, imitating the handwriting, and copied the sect regulations.

"Oh, he was scared."

"Scared? Scared of what?" Lao Mengyao was confused.

"Who knows, after seeing my sister, he just felt ashamed of himself."

Lao Yingtian thought of Bao Jiaxiang's reaction.

That day after leaving the Sixth Treasury, Bao Jiaxiang was scared enough and dared not have any contact with him again. The matter of introducing his sister naturally came to nothing.

Timid as a mouse.

Slap!

Clenching the super-grade Blood Treasure, Lao Yingtian had a plan in his heart again.

"Did your Master say when he would return from the River God Sect?"

"No."

"Be diligent when you have nothing to do, wash the quilts and clothes for your Master, don't be unobservant, Elder Yu is a person who does big things."

"Oh, I'm not stupid, I know, I know."

The Blood River Realm is changing dynamically.

The Yang world is mighty, intending to create more ghosts. The team of more than 40 Perfected Form led by the River Basin Office has arrived at the center of the main city of Nanhai County to accept the banquet of the Nanhai King.

From the ship to the Prince's Mansion, a short journey of more than ten miles attracted countless eyes.

"Hot, so hot."

The bat hung on the tree, hid in the shadow and shouted, the wild boar was covered in mud, its tail swung into a small whirlwind, walking a step and dripping a little, Tatta Kai carried a Zen staff on its shoulder, carrying luggage, its tail dragging on the ground, its facial features drooping, the whole river otter was half-melted.

Soldiers cleared the road.

The common people poked their heads in the alley, looking curiously at this strange-looking team.

Long Long Eying couldn't stand the noise, created an iceberg for them, let the wild boar drag it, the water beast made a pounce, hugged it tightly, and was overjoyed.

"Haha, iceberg, look at my Heavenly Dragon Drill! Chua-chua-chua!" The little mirage dragon twisted its body, spun crazily, turned into a small whirlwind, drilled into the inside to swim, and stuck to the ice to make faces at Tatta Kai.

"It's alive..."

The bat wiped away the sweat, stuck out its tongue, swung its hot butt, spread its limbs and sat into the iceberg.

Black bats shouldn't come out during the day.

"It's really strange, the people here all have short hair? And tattoos!" Long Li looked around.

"'Cutting hair and tattooing, accustomed to water and warlike, using boats as transport', this is the characteristic of the Southern Frontier." Liang Qu looked around. "Nanhai County is adjacent to the Southern Frontier, and the opposite is the sea, so it is inevitable to be influenced by its customs."

In the Central Plains, cutting hair and tattooing is a somewhat punitive operation, but it is the norm near the Southern Frontier.

Everyone is like this, so there will be no special shame, and gradually it becomes a habit.

"Why is there such a custom?" Long Li was curious.

"First, the weather is too hot. If you don't cut your hair short, the lice in your hair are enough to make you drink a pot. Second, facing the water on three sides and the sky on one side, this environment is more likely to give birth to ancestor worship and special customs.

The so-called 'tattooing a dragon on the body, so the fishing boat has no worries about the dragon', if the water in the south of the Yangtze River is soft, the water in the Southern Frontier becomes fierce.

The main reason is still the hot climate. The south of the Yangtze River has four seasons, and the four seasons are distinct, while the Southern Frontier has four seasons like summer, the environment is humid, and there are many snakes, insects, rats, and ants, which creates a more difficult and harsh living environment.

The environment is bad, so people are more accustomed to huddling together to fight the environment, and at the same time exclude outsiders from grabbing the few living spaces, which is manifested as clan and ferocity."

"So that's it." Long Long Yanrui suddenly realized.

He likes to listen to the Elder's analysis, and listening to it, he can always hear a truth - people in the world are all the same, and the differences are all caused by the acquired environment.

Although I don't know if it's right, the meaning expressed is very comfortable, completely different from the arrogance of others.

Hearing snakes, insects, rats, and ants, Long Yao and Long Li felt nauseous and lifted their feet to avoid the grass.

Liang Qu gave birth to a bit of bad taste: "The Southern Frontier ephemera collect blood, taking another path, and they will be there between breaths. Nanhai County is so close, and they have been here all night. Maybe many invisible insects have drilled into your bodies, moved into the flesh, and bred eggs!"

"Eww!"

The two got goosebumps, held their breath, and pinched the herbal sachets on their bodies tightly.

"You just scare them. You'll be happy if you scare them away and they cry to go back. Who will clean your room? Tatta Kai?" Long Long Eying said angrily.

"That's right, that's right." Long Yao and Long Li echoed, "Tatta Kai cleans your room, it's all hair!"

Liang Qu shrugged.

Entering the Prince's Mansion, there were ice platforms spraying cold air everywhere, and the water beasts cheered and dispersed.

Asking the Prince's Mansion steward and getting permission, the water beasts soaked into the pond all at once, sighing.

Comfortable.

Before the meal, the Nanhai King never showed up. Only the Prince's Mansion steward Shi Wei sent a map and a sand table.

"Generals, please look, this is the current situation map!"

Liang Qu and Ji Yanyu stood at the forefront, and others followed in turn, stretching their necks.

Liang Qu is the Marquis of Baron Xingyi, the strongest; Ji Yanyu is the leader of Nanzhili, the theoretical head.

To look at the map, naturally, the two of them look first, and it is a bit uninteresting for others to squeeze up.

"It's a mess." Ji Yanyu was worried.

Three hundred miles west of Nanhai County is the red-marked front line.

But before the Bai Yuan incident in June this year, this red-marked front line should never have been near Nanhai County, but a thousand miles west in Qinzhou and Linjiang, with the Lao'ai Mountain and Lucang River as the boundary!

Now Qinzhou and Linjiang are all within the red line, not to mention being captured, at least the Southern Frontier control and influence are greater!

"Lucang River..."

Liang Qu's gaze was not on Qinzhou and Linjiang, but crossed the Lao'ai Mountain and fell on a large river with a strange direction.

The E River in the North Court, the Yellow Sand and Huai River in the Great Shun, the three large rivers, except for individual river sections, are all in a relatively obvious east-west direction.

The Lucang River in the Southern Frontier is north-south, far greater than east-west!

The reason is nothing else, the Ten Thousand Mountains.

The existence of the Ten Thousand Mountains forcibly changed the flow of this big river, forcing it to go east in a stepped manner, constantly going south, looking for the exit of the river. As a result, when it merged into the sea, it didn't go much east-west, but went north-south for most of it.

The Lucang River is exactly where the Southern Frontier is preparing to let the pseudo-dragon become a real dragon!

The hope of the transformation of the Drought Demon position!

The Lucang River has always been alternately controlled by the Great Shun and the Southern Frontier.

The main difficulty of this move in the Southern Frontier is how to firmly put the Lucang River into its own hands and carry out the dragon transformation ceremony on a large scale.

Steward Shi Wei introduced: "I heard that the Marquis of Baron Xingyi participated in the Great War in the North Court, but the Southern Frontier is different from the North Court. There are Ten Thousand Mountains here, with overlapping peaks, complex terrain, and jungle miasma. It is too difficult to build a Great Wall, and the cost is too high. Therefore, we will be more inclined to stronghold control and road defense, and then use the triangular area to intersperse with each other."

With so many Perfected Form Grandmasters present, Shi Wei only mentioned Liang Qu and spoke to him, which shows his high status.

No way, Liang Qu has a "precedent". The Great War in the North Court the year before last was fought too beautifully. In ten days, eight beasts were reduced to three. One of the key reasons was Liang Qu's timely maneuvering and powerful combat power.

Now Liang Qu's strength is even better, no, several times better, so Nanhai County is inevitably giving high hopes.

Liang Qu nodded, signaling the other party to continue.

Shi Wei pointed to Qinzhou and Linjiang, which were already within the red line: "The original Qinzhou and Linjiang were our two main strongholds. Unfortunately, in the middle of this year, you all know that a major event happened. Tiandong and Baicao Stream brought out two more powerful Gu insects, catching us off guard. Now these two strongholds have all fallen and are occupied by the Southern Frontier."

"So these two strongholds have Southern Frontier Perfected Form?"

"Of course there are." Shi Wei didn't understand what Liang Qu meant.

"Are there Southern Frontier Mirage Dragons?"

"This... yes."

"Oh, there are."

Liang Qu looked regretful.

The surrounding Perfected Form and Shi Wei's eyebrows jumped.

No.

What if there are, what if there are not?

If there are none, you will fight up, right?

"Marquis of Baron Xingyi, strongholds are easy to defend and difficult to attack, the terrain is complex, and Southern Frontier Gu insects are powerful and extremely difficult to deal with. If you act, you need to plan carefully." Shi Wei said earnestly.

"I naturally know the difficulties. If it weren't difficult, why would the imperial court send people to support you?"

That makes sense.

Shi Wei fell silent.

The hall was a bit quiet.

This guy, is he bragging?

The Perfected Form from Nanzhili exchanged glances.

It is true that Liang Qu is powerful, and he wouldn't be able to kill three beasts if he weren't, but it seems he can't see the situation and the trend.

The current situation is not better than the North Court in the past. Dealing with the North Court, both sides were evenly matched or even the Great Shun had the advantage, so there was so much space left for Liang Qu to operate.

Now the advantage is the Southern Frontier, not flat ground but a quagmire. Everyone can't lift you up, and even have to drag your hind legs. If someone really hits in, they might be gone.

Shi Wei couldn't say much. It was useless to say such things, and it was easy to offend the other party, thinking that he was looking down on him.

As a steward, what kind of food to eat and what kind of errand to do, not related by blood, is it worth it?

"So all the current strongholds have been gathered in Nanhai County?" Ji Yanyu opened his mouth.

"That's right, you all saw the front line." Shi Wei pointed east with his finger, "Now we are using Nanhai County as logistical support, Lower Dragon Bay as the front line, and the Red River as a barrier to block."

"Is there a Martial Saint in Lower Dragon Bay?" Liang Qu interrupted again.

"Lower Dragon Bay..." Shi Wei looked at Ji Yanyu.

This... is there or is there not?

"What are you looking at him for?" Liang Qu knocked on the table, "I'm asking you."

"There is no Martial Saint in Lower Dragon Bay." Shi Wei answered honestly.

No Martial Saint!

Liang Qu was overjoyed.

Shi Wei: "..."

You are happy, right?

"Marquis of Baron Xingyi should act together." Ji Yanyu couldn't sit still.

"I know, I know, I have a sense of proportion." Liang Qu waved his hand, "Does the Southern Frontier have experts like the Eight Beasts and Twelve Wolves of the North Court?"

"Yes, Marquis of Baron Xingyi, yes." Shi Wei nodded repeatedly, "The North Court has Eight Beasts and Twelve Wolves, the Southern Frontier has Five Gu, Nine Poisons, and Twenty-Four Evil Spirits!"

Five Gu, Nine Poisons, and Twenty-Four Evil Spirits!

Liang Qu secretly remembered it in his heart.

There are quite a few.

"Wait, I have a question." Long Long Yanrui raised his hand, "Why do the Southern Frontier and North Court have such domineering titles, but the Great Shun doesn't?"

Everyone was stunned.

That's right.

Why doesn't the Great Shun have them?

Liang Qu was strange: "Why not? Isn't Zhang Longxiang's Northwest King, and my Marquis of Baron Xingyi?"

"This... is it not quite the same?" Long Long Yanrui scratched his head.

"Actually, it's the same." Liang Qu pointed to the Southern Frontier on the map, "Eight Beasts, Twelve Wolves, Five Gu, Nine Poisons, Twenty-Four Evil Spirits, are these really good to hear? Rather than honorary titles, they are bandit names. In the final analysis, it is a psychological countermeasure under the asymmetry of power."

Ji Yanyu was curious: "How to explain?"

Liang Qu pondered for a moment, walked seven steps, and prepared the draft.

"Facing the powerful comprehensive national strength and cultural radiation of the Central Plains, as a relatively weak force, the North Court and Southern Frontier are at a disadvantage in psychology and culture.

They need a way of 'de-personalization' and 'de-humanization' to describe and resist this behemoth-like oppression, which belongs to spiritual self-protection.

This itself is also a psychological weapon. Like wild beasts and poisonous things, such titles will be embellished in the spread, further strengthening fear, spreading fear, and making up for their lack of overall strength and organizational power.

This title system also helps the forces to condense a sense of identity and fighting will internally, and take back the 'right of definition' of culture from the hands of us Central Plains people.

On the contrary, in our view, such titles are domineering enough but lack connotation, are heavy with Jianghu spirit, and are barbaric and childish. If you can earn the name of Champion Marquis, isn't it much better than these titles?

A reward from the imperial court, a great victory, a famous general sitting in town, its deterrent power far exceeds one hundred 'Tiger Kings'!"

Everyone's eyes lit up suddenly.

(End of chapter)