On the afternoon of the 16th of August, everyone was talking about how the Five Arenas had been destroyed by the leader of the Great Radiant Church. The people around her were filled with righteous indignation and murderous intent. She felt that things were getting out of control.
She did not sleep well that night.
In the wee hours of the morning, roars could be heard. The people in the rundown courtyards and houses shouted one by one. Some picked up long spears and long knives, while others lit torches. She followed them and, trembling, put on a few more tattered clothes. She found a wooden stick and tried to show her courage.
Fortunately, Aunty Huo waved her hand at her. "You guys stay at home and don't go out. Just take care of yourself. "
Men and women armed with knives and spears gathered in the courtyard. Someone said, "Little Xiucai, don't go."
Aunty Huo's name was Huo Qinghua. She was a tall, middle-aged woman with a scar on her face. It was said that she used to be quite pretty, but when the Female Enlightened came and caught her, she scratched her face to prevent herself from being humiliated. Later, she joined the Fairness Party and became a branch of the Seven Kills, the White Rakshasa. Now, she was the leader of this rundown courtyard.
The Fairness Party was in a mess now.
In the whole of Jiangnan, all the big and small forces with a bit of fame would raise their flags. However, half of them were not true members of the Fairness Party. For example, the Seven Kills under the command of the Yama King basically belonged to the "Mayfly" department when they first joined. After passing the test, they would join the "Heavenly Kill", "Impermanence", "Avici Yuan Tu", "White Rakshasa", "Slaughterer", and "Karma". But in fact, because the Yama King's department was developing too fast, many people who had joined the department randomly as long as they had some strength themselves were also recruited casually.
On Huo Qinghua's side, she belonged to the orthodox "White Rakshasa" branch. The dilapidated courtyard was extremely dirty and messy. The number of people gathered here wasn't considered many among the crooks and honest folk of Jiangning, but the surrounding forces would give them some face.
The so-called authentic "White Rakshasa" was a "professional" who worked with the "negative karma" faction. Usually, when the Fairness Party occupied a place, the "King Yama" would be in charge of arresting people and sentencing them. It was usually the "negative karma" branch.
On the other hand, the "negative karma" set up the stage, and the "White Rakshasa" sent people to act as the victims, stirring up the emotions of the surrounding people, so that they could directly kill the rich family on the stage and divide the property. Therefore, in the "White Rakshasa" group, there were many beggars, women, and disabled people with miserable fates. These people were fierce and had extreme methods. Not only did they not fall behind when it came to harming people, but they were also not afraid of death when it came to fighting with others. They were very difficult to deal with.
'Little Scholar' was Qu Longjun's nickname in this shabby courtyard.
After the conclusion of last year's Chengdu Assembly, the girl called Qu Longjun left the southwest.
Although she roughly understood that the situation in the southwest was currently the most peaceful, in her heart, there was still a grudge because her father had died in the Little Cang River. She no longer hated that black flag, but she could not bear to live peacefully in Chengdu. After all, if her father was watching from heaven, he might still be a little unhappy, right?
In the entire stage of her growth, the place she was most familiar with was, after all, Jiangnan.
After Wen Shoubin died, the property he left behind was applied for by Long Xiaoxia and returned to her hands. Other than silver, there were also several properties in Jiangnan. As long as she obtained any one of them, it would actually be enough for a weak girl like her to live for a good half of her life.
She followed the Hua Xia army's convoy out of the southwest and learned some skills to close accounts. Under the face of Aunt Gu, the Hua Xia army that went out to do business also further taught her many skills to survive in the outside world. Just like that, she followed them for about half a year before she really said goodbye and headed towards Jiangnan.
She knew that her appearance was too weak and easy to bully. Therefore, along the way, most of the time, she disguised herself as a beggar and stuck a piece of dead skin that looked like it had been burned on one side of her face as a disguise, moving forward in a low-key manner. These skills that she learned from the Hua Xia army's caravan allowed her to avoid some trouble, but sometimes she still could not avoid the attention of other beggars. Fortunately, during the half a year that she followed the caravan, she had learned some simple breathing techniques. Running every day, her speed of escape was not slow.
In this way, it was more daunting than dangerous, and she could be considered lucky to travel two to three thousand miles. However, the whole of Jiangnan had already been slaughtered by the Fairness Party.
When she arrived in Jiangning more than two months ago, she already understood that the land deeds and house deeds that originally belonged to Wen Shoubin were probably all useless now. She still walked forward for a while, but before she reached Zhenjiang, she was about to turn back. When she reached the vicinity of Jiangning, a thief stole the money in her bag, so she had to change from pretending to be a beggar to a real beggar.
During this period, she was chased and beaten by beggars. Once she was blocked in an alley and could no longer run away, Qu Longjun took out a small knife to defend herself. Later, she was about to commit suicide, but was coincidentally seen by Huo Qinghua who was passing by. She saved her and joined the "rundown yard".
Huo Qinghua said, mainly because she admired her determination when committing suicide.
Most of the people gathered in the rundown yard were people with extreme temperaments. Qu Longjun was extremely afraid when she first joined. Many people also tried to bully her, but Huo Qinghua stopped them. She tried to do odd jobs in this rundown yard, but the situation really improved after these people found out that she could read.
There were five children in this rundown yard. Being born in such an environment, they didn't have much discipline. Qu Longjun once tried to teach them how to read. Later, Huo Qinghua asked her to help take care of these things. Every day, she would bring some newspapers. If everyone gathered together, Qu Longjun would help read the stories in the newspapers to relieve everyone's boredom.
In the courtyard of "White Rakshasa", there was no one who could read. Although it was dirty and messy, no one said that they would do anything for the child. Most of the words that came out of their mouths were words of self-abandonment. However, when Qu Longjun did these things, she also realized that although no one mentioned it, no one made things difficult for her under any circumstances. Later on, she read the newspapers every day, and people called her "Little Xiucai".
Sometimes, when everyone went out to "raid", they would also bring her along. Sometimes, when they came back, they would bring her some smashed gold and silver objects. Qu Longjun would hide them secretly, preparing to sneak out of this place one day when she had a good and reliable way to get them.
Although the people in this courtyard had not harmed her, Qu Longjun still felt disgusted and repulsed by their actions of using lies and deceptions to kill an entire family. Although there were many strange sayings among these people, such as "Although these people didn't do these bad things, if we kill them, we can at least kill the chicken to warn the monkey", such reasons still couldn't pass Qu Longjun's judgment. Qu Longjun was an educated person.
Of course, when others discussed this kind of fallacious reasoning with great interest, she did not dare to directly refute it.
After staying in the southwest and experiencing the propaganda that women could hold up half the sky, Qu Longjun originally had a good impression of the Party of Equity. Now, all that was left was confusion and fear.
Sometimes, Huo Qinghua would talk about the changes in the Party of Equity over the past year.
Although she belonged to the most radical faction of the Party of Equity, she still felt some disdain towards the mixed bag of fish and honest folk, mud and sand mixed together.
For example, the "White Rakshasa" was originally created by Zhou Shang in the early days to use fake to pass off as genuine to do a good job. It was established so that the "Prince of Equity"'s law enforcement squad would have nothing to say, so that the people of the world would have nothing to say. Their "scam" had to be so perfect that no one would be able to tell that it was fake. But as the year progressed, the "King of Yama"'s side gradually became an extremely common routine.
No matter how clumsy the accusation and performance on stage was, if the people below didn't believe it at all, they would pick up a brick, smash the person to death, and then fight over it. In this way, the performance of the "White Rakshasa" became something dispensable. Even after people used the name of the "King of Yama" to smash and rob, they would bluntly shift the blame back to the Party of Equity, saying that this was how the King of Yama slaughtered the innocent. As a result, the Party's reputation became more and more tarnished.
This kind of thing became more and more intense. Huo Qinghua and the others didn't know whether this was good or bad. But occasionally, she would sigh about how "public morals are degenerating with each passing day" and how "people's hearts are not what they used to be". If all the "White Rakshasa" performed properly, no one would be able to find fault with them. Then why would there be so many people speaking ill of the Party of Equity?
They considered themselves to be "craftsmen" who made their living by crafting, and they even wanted to teach Qu Longjun some of these crafts. But when they saw Qu Longjun's resistance to going on stage, they finally let her go.
Recently, the situation in Jiangning City had gradually become tense, but most of the rich families had already been killed. Huo Qinghua and the others were actually considering leaving. But before they could make up their minds, on the morning of the 17th of August, the clue of this big fight had already appeared. With the order of "Killer" Wei Yiwen, thousands of machetemen attacked the territory of the "King of Chakravarti". And the people in the city who carried the banner of the "King of Yama" also chose to seize the opportunity to seize the territory.
As an authentic branch of the "White Rakshasa", even though there weren't many people in the shabby yard, they couldn't fall behind in this matter.
After gathering, they went out while shouting. Those who stayed in the shabby yard were mostly the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled. Holding a stick, Qu Longjun hid in the dark corner of the wall and guarded nervously for a long time. She knew that there would be a price to pay for this kind of fight. If you went to fight others, others would also fight back unscrupulously.
Fortunately, what happened that night was ultimately the revenge led by the "King of Yama". The "King of Chakravarti"'s counterattack had yet to arrive. About two hours later, Huo Qinghua came back with her people, shouting. Some of them were injured and needed to be bandaged. One of the women was more seriously injured, with a broken arm. She was crying and howling endlessly.
Qu Longjun had learned how to bandage wounds. She sensibly treated people's injuries while listening to the others. It turned out that not long after the fight started, the law enforcement team of "Virtuous Dragon" Fu Pingbo arrived nearby and chased them back. The group of people didn't occupy the remote area, and cursed and swore that Fu Pingbo would die a horrible death. But Qu Longjun was a little relieved. In this way, she could finally answer to her superiors.
Dawn was approaching, and it was the time when the darkness was the thickest. Some of the fighting outside had weakened slightly. Presumably, the law enforcement team of the "King of Fairness" was gradually calming down the situation.
Among the five major factions of the Fairness Party, the situation on the side of the "King of Fairness" was slightly better. They had surrounded a small area in the northwest of the city. The damage there was slightly less than the damage outside, and there weren't many fights. Compared to the territory of the "King of Fairness" in the southeast, they were the two most prosperous areas in the city. But to the people of the other factions, the "King of Fairness" had many rules, was "high and mighty", and "considered everyone beneath him". Not only did he always send out the law enforcement team to dictate to others what to do, but most importantly, he had fewer opportunities to "seek riches in danger" compared to the other factions. Therefore, unless one had a family to feed, there weren't many people who wanted to join his side recently.
If one chose short-term profits, ordinary people could follow "King of Hell" Zhou Shang and destroy everything along the way. If one was religious, they could also choose Xu Zhaonan, who had a great reputation and was protected by faith. If one wanted a long-term goal, the "King of Equality" Shi Baofeng had a wide circle of friends and had the most resources. His target was the heart demon in the southwest, and in the eyes of the people, he had a very promising future. As for "Heavenly King Gao", he had strict military discipline and a strong army. Now that chaos had descended, this was the most direct strength that could be relied on in the long run.
As for the "King of Fairness", he was annoying. At least in the eyes of the people in this shabby courtyard, he was about to be outdated. Sooner or later, they would think of a way to destroy that place and drag out those rich, heartless, and arrogant people to be "fair" once again.
In the atmosphere of cursing and swearing, the people who had originally stayed behind to guard this side walked around, treating the wounds and dealing with the aftermath. There were also some people who cooked meat porridge for those who had gone out to fight. The woman with the broken hand was placed in a room at the side of the courtyard. Although she had been treated, it was not ideal. She was constantly wailing. Everyone sat in the courtyard and listened to the mournful cries. After a while, the sky gradually brightened.
"Little Xiucai." Among the crowd, Wanyun, who was the most beautiful and quiet but had the most ruthless personality, opened her mouth. "Take out the newspapers from yesterday and read them to us to relieve our boredom."
"Oh, okay." Qu Longjun nodded.
She usually read the newspapers in the afternoon before dinner. Yesterday, because they had been beaten up in the Five Direction Arena, the people were cursing and swearing for a long time, shouting for revenge, so they did not read the new newspapers. At this time, Qu Longjun took out the newspapers, sat in front of the crowd and began to read.
The newspapers circulated by the Party of Fairness did not record much news. Most of them were stories from other places, legends of the underworld, and there were also stories from the southwest that were printed here. There were also some vulgar jokes — in any case, these were the kind of things that the people of the common people loved to read. After Qu Longjun read for a while, the crowd burst into laughter. Someone said, "Read a little louder, I can't hear you clearly."
Qu Longjun also read a little louder.
The reason why the crowd felt that they "couldn't hear clearly" was not because she was not reading loudly enough, but because the wailing of the woman with the broken hand at the side of the courtyard continued. The crowd could not do anything about it. They could only pretend that they did not hear it, and laughed as they listened to the story.
After reading two newspapers in this way, they moved on to the third one. The wailing in the room at the side gradually became softer. Sometimes, some vague words would be said, and those voices would echo in the morning breeze.
"Mother …"
"I'm in pain …"
"My baby, my darling … Ah …"
"I was wrong …"
"I'm in so much pain … Mother … Father …"
The woman with the broken hand was already in her forties, and her parents were long dead. These wailing voices were hoarse, and the last "ah" at the end of each sentence was dragged out for a long time, until the last breath in the throat stopped. Qu Longjun's heart sank as she listened. She knew that she had to leave this place as soon as possible. The "King Yanluo" had gone to the "Turning Wheel King's" territory tonight. Wouldn't the "Turning Wheel King" have to fight back the next day?
With this thought in mind, she read a piece of news about Mount Tongshan from the newspaper.
"… This devil is highly skilled in martial arts. Under heavy siege … he kidnapped the daughter of the Yan Castle … and even left his name …"
"… This devil is known as the Five Feet Yin Demon … Dragon … Dragon …"
At this point, she paused for a moment, as if she had not realized anything. But a moment later, she took another look at the newspaper.
The crowd was talking.
"… What's a yin demon?"
"… Shameless, that despicable and shameless yin demon …"
"… This daughter of the Yan Castle isn't that great after all …"
"… In my opinion, when you meet a man like this, you should just …"
"… It hurts so much … My mother … My father …"
"… Hahahahaha …"
The crowd laughed and then began to discuss various ways to deal with such a pervert …
The morning light gradually grew brighter, and the crowd who listened to the news gradually dispersed. They returned to their rooms to rest. Huo Qinghua arranged for a patrol and returned to her room to rest as well. The wailing woman at the side of the courtyard gradually quieted down. She was about to die. She was lying on a tattered mat, and her breathing was weak. If someone went over to her and listened to her, they would still be able to hear her wailing.
"I'm in so much pain … Mother …"
"I have to go … I have to go …"
Qu Longjun took the newspaper and sat in the courtyard. When she finally walked to the room, she went in and closed the woman's eyes. The same name flashed through her mind.
Long Aotian …
Why did he go to Mount Tongshan …
Mount Tongshan … Where is it …
*****
In the morning, "Virtuous Dragon" Fu Pingbo, who was now in charge of law and order in Jiangning, gathered people from all sides, including "Killer" Wei Yiwen and "Turning Wheel King" Xu Zhaonan, to start a negotiation. Wei Yiwen expressed that he had no knowledge of what happened in the early hours of the morning. It was a spontaneous act of revenge by some of the violent members of the Fairness Party who were dissatisfied with the so-called "Leader of the Great Radiant Sect" Lin Zongwu. He wanted to arrest these people, but they had already escaped out of the city. Wei Yiwen expressed that if Fu Pingbo had evidence of their crimes, he could arrest them and punish them.
On the other hand, Xu Zhaonan expressed that Lin Zongwu was a respected leader with unparalleled martial arts skills. He was highly respected and highly skilled in martial arts. If he wanted to do something, Xu Zhaonan couldn't stop him. If Fu Pingbo was dissatisfied with Lin Zongwu's way of doing things, he could talk to Xu Zhaonan face to face. In any case, he couldn't do anything about it.
"Heavenly King Gao" and "King of Equality" didn't have much to say about the fire last night. They supported Fu Pingbo's arrest and punishment, and at the same time, warned Lin Zongwu not to continue acting recklessly. But Xu Zhaonan's status was higher than theirs, and he didn't care about such warnings.
Also that morning, after the fruitless negotiations, Lin Zongwu released the news that he would step into Gao Chang's "Million Soldiers Arena" in three days.
The atmosphere in the city suddenly became more tense and murderous, and a visible storm was gathering.
But it was just a fight. Everyone was mentally prepared, and no one was afraid.
After a busy night, Ning Ji slept in the inn until noon.
For some reason that he didn't want to think about or admit, he didn't want to give up the title of "Long Aotian". So last night, he beat up many people.
…
Thousands of miles away in the southwest, Ning Yi and Ning Xi, who had just finished the Mid-Autumn Festival in Zhang Village, were on a carriage to Chengdu for work.
"Father, where do you think Second Brother is now?"
"Who knows? It's good that he didn't die outside …" Ning Yi sighed.
"We all guessed that he must have gone to Jiangning. With Xiaoji's martial arts skills, he won't lose much. Father, don't worry." Ning Xi was more optimistic. "Maybe he's about to make a name for himself, I'm so envious …"
"Maybe the family name has been ruined by him." Ning Yi rolled his eyes. Of course, this was just the old father mocking him out of habit. He was confident in his second son's skills and character.
As for the fact that he had people in Jiangning, he didn't need to tell his eldest son too much.
"This way, Second Brother will be the first person to return to Jiangning. Actually, all these years, mother and the uncles of the Su family have said that they would return one day. "
Ning Xi sighed. Ning Yi thought about it and didn't reply. He often missed Jiangning. Moreover, according to the intelligence, although the old house had been through a few wars, it had been preserved.
After a while, Ning Xi changed the sad topic. "… Father, when we go back, mother said that she told you to bring a roasted chicken from Zhang Village."
"Did she?" Ning Yi asked with a frown.
"Yes." Ning Xi propped up her chin with both hands and stared at her father's eyes.
"I don't really remember these small things." Ning Yi held the document and replied calmly. "… Let's not talk about this. This thing of yours is a little problematic …"
"Father, you can't do this …"
"Listen to me first. As for whether or not it makes sense, think about it carefully … Look at the first one …"
The bright sunlight shone on the newly built road. The carriage galloped forward, stirring up a cloud of dust.
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