Chapter 801

That look on his face was as if Wu Yuanying and Fu Qingzhu had come to assassinate Liu Jingyi.

Liu Jingyi could not tell whether to laugh or cry; he could only give Fu Qingzhu an apologetic smile, then point at the pile of heads and say with a wretched expression,

"Dongluo, look carefully — these are people from Liucheng!"

Qiu Dongluo immediately looked closely at the stone table and found that some of those heads did indeed look familiar.

After another careful look, they were indeed people from Liucheng.

"Th-this-this… what's going on?"

"It's like this…"

Liu Jingyi's face was wretched once more, and he repeated what Fu Qingzhu and Wu Yuanying had just said.

Then he added,

"Sigh! Within Liucheng, only Liu Daxiong had a smattering of Wu Gong, and even he was only second-rate.

Yet even so, the Qing court, Fenghuo Liancheng and others used the Martial Prohibition Edict as a pretext to slaughter every single person in the city!"

Within Liucheng, there truly were no experts.

Both Liu Jingyi and Qiu Dongluo knew this only too well.

That was also why Liu Jingyi's heart had trembled the moment he realized these were the heads of Liucheng's people.

"How could this be? Didn't the Qing court merely issue the Martial Prohibition Edict?

They say that as long as one hands over one's martial arts inheritance and swears not to practice martial arts again, they will let bygones be bygones, no?"

Qiu Dongluo was also somewhat shocked as he recited the contents of the Martial Prohibition Edict.

"Heh! Hand over one's martial arts inheritance and never practice again!"

Fu Qingzhu let out a cold laugh and said,

"Across the Nine Provinces, the Wu Feng is strong — who would not wish to rise above their station through the martial Dao and become a true person!

Yet this single Martial Prohibition Edict from the Qing court not only forcibly forbids people from practicing martial arts, it also tries to cheat them out of their inheritances.

A damnable decree — it wants the common folk of the world to remain their pigs, dogs, cattle and sheep forever.

So they can be slaughtered at will, powerless to resist — isn't that the idea?"

Fu Qingzhu had long nursed a deep grudge against the Martial Prohibition Edict.

Hearing Qiu Dongluo's words now, he naturally let it all spill out.

In truth, the Nine Provinces did indeed have a strong Wu Feng; everyone dreamed of becoming someone like Ximen Wudi — able to shatter realms with a single sword, and with another strike, pin down and slay an army of a hundred thousand.

But even if one only achieved modest success in martial arts, at the very least one could lengthen one's years and keep one's body healthy, no?

This Martial Prohibition Edict of the Qing court truly stripped everyone of any chance to advance and change their fate.

That was also why, since the edict's promulgation, it had been resisted by the various powers and Gedamen Sect of the lands beyond the court's reach.

If not for the Qing court's superb methods — luring over a wave of unorthodox experts, then splitting up a wave of orthodox ones —

this decree that ran counter to the will of all under heaven would never, by any means, have been pushed through.

In fact, the Qing court's purpose in issuing this decree was twofold: first, to seize the chance to root out the forces connected to the Qinglong Society and vent the fury of their earlier defeat;

second, having been taught a lesson by that prior destruction in which the upper ranks of the imperial clan were slain,

they felt all of it was caused by Wu Gong!

Therefore, so long as ordinary people could not practice martial arts and only the imperial clan could, the Great Qing Jiangshan would endure for ten thousand generations, passed down forever!.

605 — Eagle Claw lackey, give me your life!

"Who are you?"

Qiu Dongluo did not pick up Fu Qingzhu's thread; his face merely hardened, and he looked at Fu Qingzhu with a face full of suspicion, asking bluntly.

Fu Qingzhu, caught off guard by the question, was suddenly at a loss and did not know how to answer.

After all, he had once been a martial official in the Ministry of Justice of the new dynasty, and the Heaven and Earth Society was a notoriously anti-court organization.

When the new dynasty first replaced the Great Qing, some Heaven and Earth Society members had not caught on in time and caused the new dynasty no small amount of trouble.

As a Ministry of Justice martial official, Fu Qingzhu naturally had to deal with these Heaven and Earth Society members.

One might even say his hands were stained with the blood of more than a few of them.

Liu Jingyi was a magnanimous man and understood the circumstances; he did not blame Fu Qingzhu.

But other members of the Heaven and Earth Society clearly would not see it that way.

Seeing Fu Qingzhu's difficulty, Liu Jingyi was about to explain when Qiu Dongluo spoke to Liu Jingyi again,

"Big brother, the situation is still unclear, and the autumn wheat is about to be harvested.

If we pull out rashly while things are still unclear, at the very least a few of the villagers in the manor will starve to death!

How could you bear it?"

"Er…"

The words stuck in his throat, and Liu Jingyi fell silent.

He too knew that what Qiu Dongluo said made perfect sense.

In past years, this was precisely the time for harvesting the autumn wheat.

The villagers of Wu Manor relied on the autumn wheat to get through the harsh winter.

Truly, this was not the moment to withdraw.

Yet Fu Qingzhu and Wu Yuanying had spoken with such conviction, and the heads of Liucheng's people were a horrifying sight.

If Fenghuo Liancheng — or even the Great Qing's forces — were heading straight for Wu Manor,

then standing our ground without dodging or retreating, how would we survive the winter?

"How about this! I propose we gather the elders and villagers at the ancestral hall, and we discuss it together — what do you say?"

Qiu Dongluo spoke up once more.

"Mm! Alright! Dongluo, hurry and prepare — this is truly a matter of life and death."

Liu Jingyi thought it over, and in the end still felt that Qiu Dongluo's words made sense.

Qiu Dongluo immediately cupped his fists in a salute to Liu Jingyi, then glanced at Fu Qingzhu and Wu Yuanying, and only after that withdrew into the darkness.

"Master Liu, your reaction is so slow — I'm afraid once the people of Fenghuo Liancheng get the news and march day and night, things will be very troublesome."

Fu Qingzhu, who had been keeping silent all along, could not help but stamp his foot and sigh now that Qiu Dongluo had left.

These past days, tailing behind the people of Fenghuo Liancheng, he had truly witnessed the terror and cunning of this unorthodox army.

These unorthodox troops not only had decent Wu Gong, but also great numbers.

More importantly, in order to carry out the Prohibition on Martial Arts edict and claim the Qing court's bounty, they—

—were not only cruel and bloodthirsty, but also full of cunning tricks.

Hero Shan Zhi and Shi Lang had given chase and still had not returned after a long while.

Given the cunning nature of Fenghuo Liancheng, they would surely speed up and come sweeping in to slaughter.

If they waited any longer, the people of Wu Zhuang would be in dire danger.

"Sigh! Hero Fu, Wu Zhuang lies in the northwestern wasteland — food and supplies to keep warm through winter are all in short supply.

In years of plenty past, one careless moment and villagers would still starve to death.

If now we abandon everything and don't even reap the autumn wheat, I'm afraid half the villagers will starve to death!"

Liu Jingyi too was full of worry; deep down, he was willing to trust Fu Qingzhu.

But the situation at hand was indeed a hard one to handle.

"Sigh!"

Fu Qingzhu stamped his foot and sighed once more, falling silent.

After a long while — nearly half a shichen had passed —

the small square in front of the ancestral hall gradually began to bustle.

The village elders of Wu Zhuang, supported by the young folk, came tottering over.

Though Liu Jingyi was the Master of the Manor, these village elders were all elders within the manor, and each one he had to personally go greet with proper courtesy.

After quite a commotion, another roughly the time it takes to drink a cup of tea went by.

Once the pleasantries were done, Liu Jingyi finished explaining the present situation, then pointed at the pile of heads on this side and asked the assembled village elders,

"Right now! That's how things stand — the Qing court's army, and those unorthodox scoundrels, will likely be upon us in the blink of an eye.

I'm thinking, should we immediately relocate the whole manor into the mountains, to evade the enemy's slaughter?"

The village elders, hearing that the Qing court's army and the unorthodox army were about to arrive, and that the pile of heads belonged to people from Liucheng —

many were utterly stunned, their mouths opening and closing, unable to speak for a long while.