Chapter 175

The green dragon twisted slowly, its eyes condensed from Immortal Xuan Qi flashing with the divine power of thunder, daring not to be looked at directly.

Boom

Vaguely, it seemed one could hear the sound of thunder.

Dragon roar!

"Legend has it that the dragon is a divine beast that can travel through clouds and rain, controlling the thunder of the nine heavens; the dragon roar is like thunder, steady and thick."

Li Rui looked at the dragon head that was almost pressed against his cheek.

With a thought.

The green dragon turned into wisps of light smoke and merged back into his body.

"Truly miraculous!"

Experts in the Willow Sinew forming stage can condense form with Qi, releasing true Qi to face the enemy.

Just like his dragon form.

He could release the green dragon, attaching it to his fist or blade, greatly increasing its power.

Fighting with a divine dragon dancing was truly majestic.

Of course.

Li Rui wouldn't do such a high-profile display; fighting is just fighting, no need to open special effects.

The next day.

He left the Anning Guard early, went directly onto the official road from the West Gate, walked all the way, and entered the mountain forest.

Not long after.

He found a giant rock that was a full zhang high and big enough for four or five people to embrace.

Li Rui stood opposite the giant rock, only a foot away, and gave a low shout:

"Rise!"

The next moment, the green dragon reappeared, coiling around his arm.

His eyes focused.

A punch with a dancing divine dragon slammed into the giant rock.

Boom!

Dust flew!

The huge rock, almost the moment the fist touched the stone body, was covered with dense cracks like a spider web.

Breaking stone and opening mountains!

Li Rui looked at the crushed stones on the ground and nodded with satisfaction:

"Who is stronger, me or the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms?"

With this palm, that hero from his past life probably wouldn't have been useful even if he held a speaker.

Dragon form's great success greatly increases power.

Legend has it that the Ying Dragon opened the heavens as a god, its power infinite; the dragon itself is a symbol of power.

This day.

Li Rui was flipping through a book in his room.

A muffled, thunder-like sound came from the doorway.

He put down the book in his hand and walked toward the door unhurriedly.

He didn't even need to see the person to know it must be that scoundrel Tan Hu; others wouldn't knock on the door like this.

Pushing the door open.

"Sure enough."

"Brother Tan, something up?"

Tan Hu rubbed his palms, his eyes full of excitement: "Brother Li, a big job has come."

"Big job?"

Li Rui raised an eyebrow.

"It's the Mingguang Sect; they're about to be raided and wiped out!"

"..."

Li Rui looked at Tan Hu sideways; why was he so excited about others being raided?

But thinking of Tan Hu's nature of fearing that the world wouldn't be chaotic enough, he understood; not to mention that his previous grudge with the Mingguang Sect could only be said to be suppressed, not resolved.

"What exactly happened?"

Tan Hu scratched his head: "Chief Ning didn't say the specifics, just told us to pack up and prepare to set off. The Mingguang Sect's branch in Qinghe has already been surrounded by the Wu-character Battalion and the Jia-character Battalion!"

Seeing the little stars twinkling in Tan Hu's copper-bell-sized eyes.

He knew it definitely wasn't as simple as just being surrounded.

Eight out of ten, the men were already sent to the border, the women sent to the Music Bureau, and it was even possible there were no living souls left in the residence.

"Could it be that the Mingguang Sect rebelled?"

Li Rui muttered in his heart.

He called Liang He and headed straight for the gate of the Anning Guard camp.

A moment later.

When Li Rui arrived, there were already no fewer than five hundred people standing there.

That is to say, half of the Anning Guard had been dispatched.

Not only that, Cao Wei was personally leading the troops.

This kind of formation was the first time he had seen it since the establishment of the Anning Guard.

Soon.

Li Rui found Ge Hong and Wei Ming.

He remembered that Tan Hu had said before that it was Ge Hong's Wu-character Battalion that surrounded the Mingguang Sect's Qinghe branch.

Tan Hu was only interested in fighting and knew very little about other things, so asking him was a waste of time.

"Brother Ge, Brother Wei, what kind of heinous thing did the Mingguang Sect do?"

Wei Ming grinned: "More than heinous, it's treason and rebellion!"

"!!"

Li Rui was shocked.

It really was "speak of the devil"; the Mingguang Sect really rebelled.

Ge Hong interjected: "Indeed, the secret imperial edict has already been sent to Regional Commander Xue. Last night, I followed Chief Ning to the Mingguang Sect's Qinghe branch overnight. We killed for a whole night, the blades were all chipped, not a single living person was left; it was truly miserable."

Killing so many people was rare in Qinghe, or even the entire Yunzhou.

The laws of the Yu Kingdom were strict, but their enforcement was loose.

This matter had to be traced back to the time of the Founding Emperor.

The Founding Emperor had a fierce nature and hated evil like an enemy; with a wave of his hand, he set down over seven thousand iron laws.

Let's just talk about one.

Children picking up chopsticks before their parents finish eating, ten strokes of the cane.

Too strict.

If this law were really enforced, parents wouldn't have to worry about picking up chopsticks, because there would be no children left.

There was almost no possibility of practical operation, so at first, it was managed strictly, but even while the Founding Emperor was still alive, there were signs of slackness.

In later generations, even the Three Judicial Offices didn't care about the specific terms of the Great Yu Law.

It completely degenerated into a tool for factional strife.

Only when you provoke someone you shouldn't can you know that there is still this clause in the Yu Kingdom law.

Later emperors also discovered this problem. Reduced again and again.

But the Yu Kingdom advocated ancestral systems, emphasizing that the ancestral system cannot be abolished; the Founding Emperor set seven thousand rules by himself, so no matter how they were reduced, the effect was minimal.

Therefore, crimes were generally punished leniently.

Situations of raiding homes and exterminating clans were even rarer.

Unless it was an extremely evil matter like treason.

The Mingguang Sect was very lucky; they chose the most difficult path.

About the time of a stick of incense, the last Ding-character Battalion also arrived.

Only then did Cao Wei shout loudly: "Set off!"

The army didn't pass through the city, but went directly out of the city from the other direction of the military camp, and went onto the official road as soon as they left.

Jiang Linxian didn't show his face the whole time.

Under normal circumstances, one of the Assistant Regional Commander or the Assistant Regional Commander must stay behind.

=9+Shu_ba

Although the Assistant Regional Commander also leads troops, his duty is more to supervise the internal affairs of the guard station; in principle, matters like going out to crusade against rebels are the responsibility of the Assistant Regional Commander.

This time, three of the five Garrison Commanders came.

Two were Cao Wei's people, and only Ning Zhongtian came from Jiang Linxian's faction, with Lu Jun staying in the camp.

Ning Zhongtian naturally had to follow Cao Wei's orders, but he also had to take into account Jiang Linxian's supervisory duties.

Following Cao Wei's order, Ning Zhongtian and Feng Yu each led their own Night Scouts to ride fast horses.

To scout the situation of the Mingguang Sect in advance.

Everyone in the Galloping Tiger Cavalry had horses, a day of forced marching.

That night, they arrived at the Mingguang Sect.

The horses had long been tied in a mountain gully two miles away, guarded by four soldiers.

Ning Zhongtian personally led Li Rui, Tan Hu, and other Galloping Tiger Cavalry soldiers to lurk in the mountain forest outside the Mingguang Sect to spy on the situation.

The Mingguang Sect was a great sect of the Anning Prefecture.

It opened up a city alone in a valley a hundred miles outside Anning City.

The scale was not small.

The city was a hundred acres in size, and inside lived the core elders and disciples of the Mingguang Sect, totaling over a thousand people.

The bushes swayed.

Tan Hu's big head poked out from behind the bushes, looking at the Mingguang Sect standing majestically in the mountain forest.

"Chief Ning, what exactly did the Mingguang Sect provoke that they shouldn't have?"

Ning Zhongtian raised an eyebrow.

He didn't expect that Tan Hu, who was so rough, could also discover the clues to this matter.

"Indeed, near vermilion one gets stained red, near ink one gets stained black; there is progress!"

"Letting Brother Li go to the Galloping Tiger Cavalry really works."

He chuckled and praised Tan Hu.

Then his smile turned cold, looking at the Mingguang Sect not far away: "Treason?"

"Give the Mingguang Sect a hundred guts, and they wouldn't dare to rebel."

"The nephew of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites is the Deputy Sect Master of the Mingguang Sect; the Imperial Observatory has a new Gu Jianzheng, and Vice Minister Liu of the Ministry of Rites has entered the Three Judicial Offices."

Tan Hu scratched his head.

What kind of headless and tailless things were these.

The nephew of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, the new Gu Jianzheng of the Imperial Observatory, the Three Judicial Offices, what were these things, all foggy.

Li Rui, who was beside him, narrowed his eyes slightly.

"No wonder."

Those who can be punished with such heavy crimes mostly have only one situation, which is factional strife.

In recent years, as the Imperial Preceptor's power has grown larger and larger, the Xuan faction has gradually had a trend of suppressing the Lin faction.

Whatever the "child prodigy" Grand Secretary Zhang pushes, the Xuan faction opposes.

It is estimated that the Emperor also saw the clues and was unwilling to let one side grow too big.

This is why there is a new Gu Jianzheng.

The new Gu Jianzheng unexpectedly became one of the leaders of the Lin faction, and the counterattack was inevitable.

The Ministry of Rites is one of the foundations of the Xuan faction.

Vice Minister Liu of the Ministry of Rites is targeted by the Three Judicial Offices; no need to think, there must be the Lin faction pushing behind the scenes.

What is the Three Judicial Offices?

Officials who enter there, and they are third-rank high officials, there is no doubt that ironclad evidence has been found.

Once Vice Minister Liu of the Ministry of Rites falls, the forces attached to him will all be liquidated.

Ning Zhongtian continued: "I heard this is the Emperor's intention; it's all matters above, we just need to do our job well."

Li Rui nodded.

Thinking too much, besides troubling oneself, has no effect.

Looking toward the city wall of the Mingguang Sect.

Suppressing treason is a secret; Qinghe has now been sealed, and the people of the Mingguang Sect's Qinghe branch are all dead, with no one to pass the news.

From the peace of the Mingguang Sect, one knows they are still kept in the dark, not knowing that disaster is imminent.

Ning Zhongtian chuckled.

He waved to Li Rui and the others beside him.

"Let's go, our work is already done."

Tan Hu said in a muffled voice: "Chief Ning, aren't we going to fuck them?"

He had long been displeased with the Mingguang Sect; this time he came with the goal of breaking through the Mingguang Sect.

Ning Zhongtian rolled his eyes:

"We came here just to make up the numbers; do you really want to risk your own head to work for the one surnamed Cao?"

Tan Hu said "Oh."

And followed Ning Zhongtian obediently into the depths of the mountain forest.

Inside the Mingguang Sect city.

A huge residence covering ten acres.

"Sect Master, news came from the capital that my uncle has been escorted to the Three Judicial Offices; it's dangerous."

Deputy Sect Master Liu Qian of the Mingguang Sect said in a deep voice.

His uncle was exactly that Vice Minister Liu of the Ministry of Rites.

Sect Master Lü Qiu's face was gloomy to the extreme.

"I know."

The backing behind the Mingguang Sect was this Vice Minister Liu.

Escorted to the Three Judicial Offices...

What is the Three Judicial Offices?

That is the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Court of Judicial Review; two of the three are Lin faction, and Vice Minister Liu, this big Xuan faction figure, wants to come out of that place, it's difficult!

Liu Qian tried to stabilize Lü Qiu first: "Don't worry, the Imperial Preceptor and the Duke of Dingyuan will not sit idly by; Sect Master can rest assured, we will definitely be safe and sound!"

Lü Qiu's eyes flickered, and finally he took a deep breath:

"Good."

(End of chapter)