Chapter 456: A Hundred Trades and Industries, Clearly Divided

Outside the Fucheng, the city gates were wide open, and the flow of people surged outward like a tidal wave.

Today the great army was setting out, and every household was seeing off their pillars of strength; the scene was playing out everywhere! "You'er, take this Leather Robe with you. The wind is strong at night, be careful not to catch a cold."

At the moment of parting, Zhou You's father and mother and his new bride Hua Youxing came to see him off, reluctant to part.

With a traveler away from home, parents wish they could pack half the house for him; the large and small bundles required two carts to fit.

Zuo Lv and Lan Chengxiu stood by holding several horses, three for riding, and the rest to carry supplies and luggage.

"Master, take me with you! You must have someone by your side to look after you!"

Qi Qingdi was still pleading; he could not understand why his master would not take him, but instead took Zuo Lv and the other.

Zhou You comforted him, "When you break through to Martial Master, I will take you."

Qi Qingdi was stunned, then his fighting spirit ignited; it was his own strength that was insufficient. He decided to go into secluded training after returning, striving to reach the 9th stage of Blood Qi before his master returned.

"I leave the home to your care."

Zhou You said in a low voice to Hua Youxing. His new bride had used the channels of Xingren Tang during these days to raise a large batch of medicine for him; she could truly be called hardworking and meritorious. With a wife like this, what more could a husband ask for? "Father and Mother are very good to me, the home is harmonious, and although Qingdi is young at the martial arts school, he can hold down the fort, so there is no need to worry."

Hua Youxing said in a low voice, "I have several uncles who are also Martial Masters; if necessary, I can ask them to come and help."

Look at that, how worry-free it is to marry a good wife.

Parting only makes one regret that the days are too short; before long, the moment of separation arrived.

After mounting his horse, Zhou You took Zuo Lv and Lan Chengxiu with him and merged into the marching crowd, their backs fading into the distance within his line of sight.

Three thousand garrison troops were outside and did not exit from the city; however, three thousand from the martial arts circles and three thousand from the various trades were recruited from every household in the Fucheng. This time, as they left home, the relatives and family members seeing them off numbered as many as tens of thousands; the scene was once quite moving.

Equipment and horses were all self-provided; if one didn't have them, one could only travel on foot.

Among the crowd, those riding horses were not exactly rare, but they were few and far between; it was clear that most were poor martial artists.

Zhou You noticed that the ranks of the various trades were somewhat chaotic; the quality of those sent by each guild was uneven, with both the upper and lower limits being very low.

Thinking about it, it was normal; they were trade organizations, and doing work to earn money was their main business. Even if they practiced martial arts, it was a side job. Most were part-time practitioners, and only the thugs specifically kept could treat practicing martial arts as their main profession.

The elites among the various trades were, without exception, at the 'Red Stick' level, capable of charging into the fray.

"Don't underestimate the various trades; they have ancient Secret Techniques passed down internally that can kill without a trace."

Although Zhou You had heard this claim, he remained skeptical.

At the very front of the procession, the Hating Overlord Yan Shan rode alone, followed by Yan Wan Jun and many elites from the Overlord Martial Arts School, and only behind them were the Martial Masters and disciples of other schools.

His expression looked down upon all directions, taking in the landscape of mountains and rivers before him; a long spear was hung on the horse's belly.

"Master, the head of the various trades, Lu Wanchun of the Carpenter's Guild, is looking at you."

Yan Wan Jun spoke up to remind him.

Five hundred meters away, the leading figures of the various trades surrounded one person; it was precisely the Lu Wanchun that Yan Wan Jun had spoken of.

Lu Wanchun was a carpenter by trade, and his disciples and followers were spread throughout the prefecture. Not only in the Fucheng, but in other places with cities, there were highly skilled carpenters he had trained who had made a name for themselves and controlled the local guilds.

Whether in prestige or connections, he firmly held the number one spot among the major guilds of the Fucheng.

Of course, the trade guilds here excluded all guilds other than the martial arts circles.

The martial arts circles were essentially a guild as well, but they were generally not listed alongside the various trades and were calculated separately in any situation.

Someone had once said that Lu Wanchun was ranked first among the guilds because the martial arts circles did not participate.

If the martial arts circles were included, the person ranked first among the major guilds of the Fucheng would undoubtedly be the Hating Overlord Yan Shan.

Regarding this, the two people involved expressed different attitudes.

Lu Wanchun politely stated that Master Yan was the pride of the Fucheng, and he dared not compare himself to him, and that he still needed to work hard to benefit the masses, and so on... When it came to Yan Shan, it was much more concise: a single word: "Bah!"

It was common knowledge that these two had a grudge; they had always been like kings who never met, and they had never appeared in the same frame at any major occasion.

This time, setting out on an expedition, the two each led the martial arts circles and the various trades, with three thousand men under each, clearly divided, and both existed in competition.

"Father, the people of the Yan martial artist are spying on us."

The one speaking was Lu Wanchun's son, Lu Bizhi, a sturdy middle-aged man.

The carpenter's trade, which involved lifting giant logs and operating saws daily, was a natural mold for practicing martial arts. Moreover, it was a profession passed down from ancient times, and the antiquity of its internal heritage was beyond what outsiders could imagine.

Especially for master craftsmen like Lu Wanchun who had held onto the secret methods of the craft for generations, they could never be viewed as ordinary carpenters. They also held identities as wealthy households and employers, harshly exploiting apprentices and hired hands.

As a ruling class, mastering martial force was a link in maintaining their own strength, so practicing martial arts was indispensable.

The fist techniques and Secret Techniques circulated within the carpenter's trade were rarely known to the outside world due to their tight organizational structure.

Just seeing that Lu Wanchun had been on par with Yan Shan for so many years without being killed by him showed that he had some real skills.

"Don't worry about him. Now we are serving the Prefectural Monarch, so we will speak with battle merits."

After Lu Wanchun reprimanded his son, he turned to several old men beside him and said politely, "I will have to rely on you all."

The several old men were all experts in the various trades, with numerous disciples and followers.

Hearing this, they responded politely, "With a hundred trades and a hundred industries, we are of one mind and branches of the same tree; we will look out for one another."

A shrill sound of a flute rang out from afar.

A black dot in the sky expanded rapidly; it turned out to be someone riding a Wooden Kite descending from the sky, landing in front of Lu Wanchun.

The feathers and frame of the Wooden Kite were pieced together from wood, looking lifelike.

Do not look at its simple appearance, without gold, silver, or jade decorations; the cost of building one was no less than the equivalent weight of pure gold.

"What is the urgent report? Speak quickly!"

The messenger who came down from the Wooden Kite was a scout sent by Lu Wanchun, who traveled through the clouds with the wind to gather intelligence.

"A hundred miles away, the strong warriors of the Witch Tribe are attacking; the strong warriors of Dayin Mountain and Wanxiu Mountain are currently engaging them in battle."

"The battle is intense, the heavens and earth are changing color, the great rivers are flowing backward, and the ground is covered with wild people and beasts killed by the shockwaves."

"We cannot continue to move forward."

The messenger's legs were swollen, his face was cracked by the strong wind, and it was covered with shocking bloody gashes.

Although he was also a Primary Martial Master, forcing himself to move quickly at high altitudes still inevitably damaged his body.

Looking at this state, it will take at least a month or two of recuperation to recover.

The news spread rapidly...

The six-thousand-strong army that had just left Fucheng stopped one after another.

Ahead, powerful martial artists were engaged in battle, and the regional weather and geography had been battered into complete chaos; the number of people, livestock, and wild beasts killed in the aftermath was countless, so to rashly charge in at this time would be throwing one's life away for nothing.

The vanguard of the Shaman people had actually already killed their way to within a few hundred li of Fucheng; this distance was too dangerous.

"Did you see other Shaman people appearing?"

The Wooden Kite messenger caught his breath and continued, "Yes, quite a few; the tribal armies following the Shaman martial powerhouses have also stopped, with the battlefield separating them from us."

(End of this chapter)