Chapter 212: Dust Settles

Bai Lang stroked his moustache, laughed heartily, feeling triumphant—this Qing's world is over. Now the court in Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)) has completely lost the ability to rule the world; Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng))'s markets can still hold on—those looters will be killed by Bai Lang, especially after some people voluntarily surrendered to the young protector Bai and obtained his demand to maintain order in Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng))'s markets.

All the Manchus in the city who had money managed to flee with their belongings, heading beyond the passes— even the emperor had already died; if they didn't want to face the Han people's wrath that was coming or had already arrived outside the city, the only way was to go out of the passes. Bai Lang didn't stop them, because these people's hard lives would continue. The present Three Eastern Provinces are not the later Republic's vast black‑soil farms; they are merely a bitterly cold land, so these people would have to start farming again after leaving.

As for the Eight Banner youths, farming? Bai Lang expects they'll end up paying ten taels of silver per dou of rice or simply starve to death in the Northeast.

What about the poorer Banner people? Simple: change name and surname and flee, just don't stay in Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng))—most of them don't even speak Manchu. Usually the language is hard to separate—especially in front of troops coming from the south. Bai Lang doesn't care about this; he knows that keeping track of the world's movements is actually very hard— the court is completely out of control, news from everywhere naturally doesn't reach him, and he truly lacks the ability of Divine Sense covering the heavens and earth.

He is a melee‑type martial arts master, not a spiritual‑type one. Moreover, even as a spiritual‑type Innate Expert, he cannot cover ten thousand li of the world in a single thought; those who can extend Divine Sense a hundred li are already strong among Innate Experts—and that can only be achieved in the original world. Here? Such Innate Experts covering a single li is already impressive. Bai Lang, as a master, can only cover a little over a zhang, which in the original world would be about three to five li in radius.

To be honest, he's not very familiar with this kind of Divine Sense covering and locking strike ability—he has no master, no senior teacher to gradually teach him. Bai Lang reached his current level thanks partly to a big boss's protection and partly to his own trial‑and‑error; unfortunately the big boss didn't teach him, just tossed some martial arts for him to practice. Right now the rogue is boxing on Jingshan, the space is cramped and inconvenient—so he'll go to the palace instead.

There is still some order inside the Forbidden City, because Bai Lang is nearby suppressing the palace—he actually dealt with a guy who tried to loot the palace and burn the main hall, which gave the eunuchs inside a certain illusion that this lord wanted to move into the palace. As for the consorts left by Qianlong and such, they must find their own way out; Bai Lang won't spend the night on the Dragon Bed, he just practices boxing on the square before the three main halls each day.

As for news, he casually mentioned to the eunuch who brought food, and these people also risked everything to gather a bit for him. "You're sharp; I have a few divine skills here, take them to practice for protection." Bai Lang flipped through the items in his hand, casually bestowed some martial arts on the eunuchs before him. These martial arts were copies he had taken from other worlds in past years, especially from another Ming's martial arts. Bai Lang can't practice them himself, but he memorized them and now just copies them out for these people.

He wants to see if these people can practice them; if they can, perhaps he'll discover some pattern. So Bai Lang, unusually, paid attention to the eunuchs' cultivation and offered some guidance. With his Innate Expert level, his overarching advice naturally far exceeds what these people could figure out on their own, and Bai Lang confirmed a problem: "The inability to cultivate these martial arts seems to be my own issue; had I known, when I brought them back I should have found a child in the original world to teach them, to see whether it's an individual or a universal problem..."

Bai Lang is now preparing to hand‑copy the secret manuals, lest he forget them after some time—actually, with his Innate Expert level, he wouldn't normally forget unless he deliberately did.

Those eunuchs' martial arts progress is actually not bad; Bai Lang has several secret manuals in his hand that were originally hidden within the Ming court, the techniques are unconventional, likely crafted by some martial arts prodigy big boss specifically for the eunuch profession. Bai Lang can't practice them, but under his guidance the eunuchs entered the basics extremely quickly, and now they vaguely resemble the level of the chief founder they first saw.

"Almost at Huo Qingtong's level; with a bit more effort your former prince wouldn't be your opponent either," Bai Lang thought this was quite interesting—does that world's Ming have such martial arts? It can be understood, after all there's the Hua Mountain Sect, and looking back, the Hua Mountain Sect members' martial arts are indeed generally higher than this world's masters. The ceilings of the two worlds differ.

The south has become a patchwork of several major powers, each independently launching a "Northern Expedition" in different directions, reminiscent of the late Yuan period. The Qing garrison troops have no will to fight, worse than the late Yuan armies; countless Manchus who cut off their braids to rebel against Qing and restore Ming— they didn't have time to flee beyond the passes, so they quickly surrendered and tried to survive on their own abilities. After switching sides, these people's combat power became at least ten times stronger than before, sweeping those who hadn't surrendered yet.

The Qing is now a pushover; effectively the Qing only remains beyond the passes and around Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)), even Shandong has risen a rebel army, and there are beacon fires everywhere in Henan and Shanxi.

Those eunuchs had been cultivating for less than a year, and when the Qing collapsed and lost Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)), they had attained "Innate". This type of martial art suited for eunuch cultivation is swift as lightning, with poisonous, sinister strikes, and its yin force is unparalleled. Yet there is also an extremely yang technique—this technique can only be mastered by eunuchs who, after castration, lack yang energy; yin gives birth to yang. Eunuchs were originally men, but after castration become yin beings, yet unlike women they can still use a bit of yang to ignite the yang seed within boundless yin.

So this kind of martial art is actually impossible for women to cultivate...

The force that broke Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)) came from southeastern Zhejiang, not the nearby Shandong rebels; the Red Flower Society for some reason didn't appear—Bai Lang thinks perhaps the Zhan Guard figured it out and simply took the beauty home; he has no power to manage world affairs. The Red Flower Society's people playing the rebellion game should wake up; throughout history, rebellions never used their kind of method.

Later on the day Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)) fell, Bai Lang had already left the city; just after exiting Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)) he encountered Huo Qingtong—this female slave seemed to have been waiting for him for several days. Bai Lang waved his hand, "Now you're free; if you want to take revenge on me, then act. Otherwise..."

"Otherwise what? Hahaha, of course we just go our separate ways, I should leave now. Just think I'm dead, hahahaha," Bai Lang said, looking at the woman's face with a very wicked smile.