Chapter 687: Heavenly Secrets Undetermined (Supplementary Update)

Xijin Yingdu, Diamond Zen Temple.

Winter dusk arrived exceptionally early; an hour after lunch, the sky had already darkened. The iron-gray sky, the sun large and dim, hung in the sky, emitting thin sunlight without any warmth.

A few cold crows swept past with shrill voices, some small alleys in the city were already too dark to see the road surface, the Diamond Zen Temple was full of killing intent, fallen leaves were blowing on the ground, and bare branches were ferocious on the horizon, like cracks in the sky.

The temple was cold and bone-chilling, the main hall was pitch black, and the light that had just been cast in an inch was swallowed up by the darkness. Only a side hall emitted a little dim light, which was the only place in this side hall that had warmth.

A violent cough suddenly sounded in the side hall, as if the lungs were about to be coughed out, which was heartbreaking to hear.

There was only one green lamp in the hall, the lamp light was dim, the Jin King and Qingtong sat opposite each other, and the Jin King hunched his body, his appearance withered, coughing hysterically.

It was only after a long time that he calmed down, and he smiled bitterly, "When I was young, I was dedicated to pursuing cultivation, but I didn't expect that the higher the cultivation, the more painful it would be when dispersing the power."

Qingtong's eyes were not yet open, and she said, "The time for homework hasn't arrived yet, don't move your heart."

"Homework? What is the point of doing this homework now? Living one more day is one more day of pain."

At this time, the Jin King's hair was mostly white, his eye sockets were deeply sunken, and his face was full of wrinkles, with brown spots of various sizes. At this time, he was completely an old man who was about to die.

Qingtong slowly opened her eyes and said, "You are going against heaven, so naturally it is painful, but it is not too late to regret now."

The Jin King breathed with difficulty, as if every breath was the last one, and there would be no next time. He said intermittently, "I have always been heartless, and I don't care about the suffering of the people. I have done quite a few perverse things in the past, but it was actually just for this bit of cultivation."

Qingtong said, "You have been practicing with me for a period of time, you should know that my method is the right path of heaven and earth. Your root bone was not high originally, and you were half-hearted during this period, but even so, how much has it improved over these years? Without my supreme method, how could you have today's achievements?"

The Jin King sighed, "I already know the Great Dao, and the principles are also clear; I understand all of this. Looking at the people's livelihood withering and the national fortune declining, but my root bone is improving and my cultivation is growing, how could I not know the power of this method?"

Qingtong said, "My method emphasizes fate, not force. National fortune is the shackles on your feet, and thousands of living beings are just blood-sucking insects attached to you.

The Great Tang Taizu picked up the ancestral system again, and the Wu Zu divided the countries, all to firmly nail you to the throne, using your own bloodline and national fortune as the cornerstone to support the Great Tang. What I teach you is the method to break the situation, why do you hesitate?

If we talk about merits and demerits, it was the Great Tang Taizu and Wu Zu who set the situation first, and all the karma is borne by them. Hehe, guess if they anticipated it? If my guess is correct, the scale of their true tombs is probably very amazing, and the layout inside, even an immortal would sigh in admiration."

The Jin King looked at his dry hands and the hair that fell down like withered branches, and said slowly, "During these days, experiencing the pain of dispersing power day and night, I suddenly discovered that death is not so terrible after all. Once I thought about it, many ideas changed."

Qingtong sighed, her voice softened, and said, "You and I have been practicing together for so long, there is always some affection, and I can't bear to see you end like this, you could have... been a wise king. Forget it, I will give up this pool of golden lotus to change the heavenly secrets for you."

"No!" The Jin King reached out, wanting to stop Qingtong.

Qingtong smiled slightly and said, "This pool of golden lotus, left or right, comes from you, now I will return it to you, that's all."

At this time, there was winter thunder outside the hall, heaven and earth changed color, and the entire pool of golden lotus withered!

And although Qingtong had no hair, a few strands in her eyebrows quietly turned gray-white.

She raised her hand, plucked the white eyebrows one by one, and gently put them into the lamp. The lamp fire jumped, reflecting the two figures constantly swaying, like the last two wandering souls between heaven and earth.

The Jin King sighed, "You, what is this for?"

"It's just wasting a few decades. Life is short, how can everything go as planned?"

The Jin King looked up at the roof of the hall, but still couldn't stop two turbid tears from flowing down, sighing, "It was I who failed you..."

"The heavenly secrets are currently undetermined, just wait for the change." Qingtong suddenly raised her hand, plucked another white eyebrow, and threw it into the lamp fire.

The lamp fire jumped again.

Great Jin Western Region, military energy has already condensed, towering like a mountain, connecting heaven and earth.

Looking at the boundless army, Wei Yuan said sincerely, "I only brought one hundred thousand people to the capital to meet the Emperor, which is truly a good minister of the Great Tang for thousands of years."

Xu Yi covered his mouth and laughed, and Cui Yu couldn't help but roll his eyes. Wei Yuan did indeed bring one hundred thousand troops, but the fifteen thousand following behind could only be called armed laborers.

Now that the Qingming army is dispatched, it can no longer advance lightly as before, saying how many is how many. Now if Qingming wants to dispatch ten thousand people, at least thirty thousand people must follow behind to transport supplies.

This time it was marching inside Xijin, Wei Yuan flipped through the Jin Law and Tang Law, and according to the system, when going to the capital to meet the Emperor, the states and counties along the way should be responsible for reception and supply.

So Wei Yuan didn't bring too much grain and grass, most of them were ammunition, winding all the way, and would pass through seven counties, making two turns before arriving at the Jin capital, Yingdu.

These seven counties were all governed by the Crown Prince's confidants.

At this time, the time had arrived, and amidst the sound of horns, the army set off one after another.

Wei Yuan suddenly remembered one thing and hurriedly asked, "Has the letter to the Xiao family been sent?"

"It was sent by a special person early this morning."

Wei Yuan was relieved.

Cui Yu couldn't help but say, "Can you write fewer letters? If this continues, I feel that Junior Brother Xiaoyu's Dharma Form is a bit mysterious."

Wei Yuan was a bit surprised, "There are new achievements, shouldn't they be shared with fellow disciples?"

Cui Yu also had nothing to say.

The mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops shocked both Jin and Zhao countries.

Li Chengfeng received the news and was moved, gathering his army to head to the Qingming border, but after leaving the domain for only a few hundred miles, he was intercepted by Bao Yun's First Army.

Looking at the Qingming First Army of only twenty thousand, Li Chengfeng sat with seventy thousand people, hesitated for a whole day, and finally did not dare to act and returned to Bishui.

At this time, Wei Yuan had already dispatched more than ten teams of light cavalry, each team of several hundred riders, to go to the counties and counties along the way in advance, notifying the local government to prepare for the reception of the army meeting the Emperor. It was just that Wei Yuan only planned to walk through seven counties, but these cavalry teams covered more than twenty counties, almost including all the counties from the Western Region to the capital.

Qingming's light cavalry was exceptionally arrogant and unreasonable. Every time they arrived at a place, they would survey the key terrain and study the city defense. The local government and garrison wanted to stop them, and the two sides often had conflicts, so there were often scenes of thousands of local garrison troops being chased by a hundred or so riders and running around the city.

These riders had a sense of proportion, not hurting lives, just breaking their limbs.

Wei Yuan's army was magnificent, bypassing Hanyang Pass, and heading north all the way.

At this time, a ten-day auction gala was being held in the pass, which was very lively. Many people even ran outside the pass to observe Wei Yuan's army from afar. That terrifying military energy made them shocked and unable to control themselves.

Just after Wei Yuan's army passed, a group of more than ten thousand horse bandits suddenly appeared and killed their way into Hanyang Pass. The vanguard of this group of horse bandits, three thousand people, had exceptionally terrifying combat power, and their firepower was unimaginably fierce. Tens of thousands of garrison troops collapsed at the first touch, and in the blink of an eye, they surrendered with more than twenty thousand new recruits.

Many veteran soldiers had experience; being caught by horse bandits was the same as being caught by Qingming. As long as they didn't do stupid things, they could come back after paying a ransom. Among the fifty thousand garrison troops, many had paid ransom two or three times.

If they were really too poor to pay the ransom, it didn't matter; staying in Qingming seemed to be better.

So the speed of the garrison's surrender made the horse bandits sigh in admiration, almost not having time to receive the territory.

Such elite horse bandits were naturally the Mietian Gang. Their goal this time was not the Xu family, but to sweep all the merchant firms in the pass, and by the way, catch all the big figures of various merchant firms and families who came to participate in the auction gala in one net.

After some screening, the Mietian Gang finally took half of the people and left Hanyang Pass, and by the way, ransacked the merchant firms of these people.

A few days later, when the merchant firms and families who got the news rushed over with large sums of ransom, what they got was bad news: the horse bandits had already sent back the heads of everyone.

These people had second-generation ancestors, little grandsons who were most loved by the old ancestors, and some were real-power elders, backbone mid-levels, and even three were the heads of the families themselves.

Their identities were different, but they all had one thing in common: the families or merchant firms they belonged to were all more or less related to the robbery of the Qingming merchant caravan.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 688 =====