Wang Pushi's expression was rather ugly. Qingyang was also under his jurisdiction, but how was he supposed to know what the Black Wind stronghold was?
Hwa Seung-zan thought about it and said, "I think there's a place like that on our list, but it's just too low on the list. We haven't been able to make a move in all these years."
Only after a very long time did Li Qingshan learn that every single member of the Hawkwolf Guard had a list. They were ranked according to their strength, how much evil they had committed, how much influence they had, and how much they could benefit from it. The Hawkwolf Guard would send out masters to kill them one by one from top to bottom. This was the blacklist that terrified the people of the jianghu. If you could rank high enough on the blacklist, it would prove you were powerful enough, but it also meant you were close to death. However, due to the endless number of people, the Black Wind stronghold was basically the type that would never be ranked.
"You've been too talkative!" Wang Pushi barked.
Feng Zhang saw how Li Qingshan had offended commander Wang, so he thought his opportunity had arrived. He gathered his courage and said, "Commanders, this kid stole the spiritual ginseng and slaughtered the innocent, ruining the prestige of our Hawkwolf Guard …"
"Are you lying to me?" Gu Yanying interrupted him. She was not questioning him, but surprised, as if Feng Zhang had done something unbelievable.
"No, I didn't …" Feng Zhang wanted to quibble, but Wang Pushi looked over with a darkened face. He immediately felt like he had been grabbed by the neck, unable to utter a single word.
"Our Hawkwolf Guard might not be some kind people, but it's not like we've fallen to such a level. We've been ordered around by the people of the jianghu and have to come up with these ridiculous lies." Gu Yanying shook her head and no longer paid any attention to Feng Zhang. Instead, she said to Wang Pushi, "Old Wang, did you bring a map?"
Feng Zhang's face basically seemed like he had been struck by a knife. He was sheet-white, without the slightest hint of blood. He was covered in sweat. After all, even people who had reached such a level of cultivation could control their bodies freely. His behaviour only demonstrated just how distracted he was.
"I did!" Wang Pushi fished out a large map from the pouch on his waist.
Li Qingshan widened his eyes. A spatial pocket!
A thick map made from the fur of who knew what animal was unfurled on the small table. It actually glowed with light. It was no regular map.
Gu Yanying said, "Channel your true qi into it and recite the three words' Qingyang city '."
Li Qingshan placed his hand on the map and thought of Qingyang city. An extremely weak speck of light lit up in a corner of the map, and he obviously received a lot of information in his head, including the location, area, population, and so on of Qingyang city.
Gu Yanying said, "Think about the Clear River prefecture."
With a thought from Li Qingshan, a hundred specks of light lit up at the same time. They were as resplendent as a river of stars. Every single speck of light was a city, and the light from Qingyang city was basically the weakest. The brightest speck of light in the centre was Clear River city.
Three hundred and seventeen cities spanned fifteen hundred kilometers. This was the Clear River prefecture.
Li Qingshan had already known that this world was vast, but he never expected it to be so vast. He had once heard the elders in the village mention it, but he only treated it as an exaggerated story. He never thought it would actually be true.
In a flash, he understood why the prefect had casually given the position of district magistrate to the incompetent Ye Dachuan. This was because a small city was completely insignificant to the entire Clear River prefecture, and the Black Wind stronghold was even more insignificant. Unless the Black Wind stronghold directly rebelled, it would be very difficult for the news to reach Clear River city that was thousands of kilometers away.
Not only was the imperial government of this world not weak, but it was terrifyingly powerful instead. Due to the sheer size of the land, they allowed the local officials to govern themselves like feudal lords. However, autonomy did not mean freedom.
Whether it was the Black Wind stronghold or the Drawn Reins village, no matter how much trouble they caused, they would only cause trouble in a small place. If they caused too much trouble, they could directly send one or two Hawkwolf guards over to crush them to death. It would not shake the foundation of the imperial government at all. It was basically more stable than any of the dynasties that Li Qingshan knew of.
"The Ruyi commandery under my jurisdiction has nine prefectures. Half a year ago, the White Lotus Sect sacrificed an entire city in order to forge an arcane treasure in the Yuecheng prefecture. There were around two hundred thousand people." Gu Yanying tilted her head back and drank a cup of alcohol. Hwa Seung-zan filled it up for her in a hurry.
Two hundred thousand people! To Li Qingshan, the Black Wind stronghold's actions of massacring an entire village was already a heinous act, but he never thought there would be people who were a thousand times more heinous.
Li Qingshan subconsciously searched for the Ruyi commandery on the map and saw almost ten times the number of specks of light. However, from the map alone, the extinguishing of a speck of light seemed like a trivial matter.
The Ruyi commandery spanned tens of thousands of kilometers.
Although Li Qingshan was not particularly familiar with geography, he did know that this was already much larger than the entire China of his past life. In that moment, Gu Yanying was clearly right in front of him, yet she also seemed to be beyond the clouds, so far away that he could not reach her.
He was like a frog at the bottom of a well, seeing the posture of an eagle in the sky. All he could do was look up.
The eagle circled in the sky in search of larger prey, so why would it cast its gaze on the well and pay attention to the conflict between a few flies? This time, it had only stopped by the well by chance and seen a special frog.
Wang Pushi said carefully, "Commander, have you come this time for the matter of the White Lotus Sect?"
The White Lotus Mother was a Golden Core demonic cultivator, a terrifying figure that he could not afford to provoke. Getting involved in a conflict like that was definitely not a good thing. Commander Gu had led people to encircle and annihilate the White Lotus Sect five times. Although they emerged victorious every time, just the White Wolf guards had died, and his strength as a Scarlet Hawk commander was only on par with the White Wolf guards.
Gu Yanying smiled. "Then how could I have come alone? The White Lotus Mother is injured and has already gone into hiding. I've only scratched the surface of the Six Trigrams Divination, so I can't find her. Moreover, Golden Core cultivators aren't easy to kill. " Reaching there, she glanced at Li Qingshan again and lamented over the fact that her Six Trigrams Divination was truly lacking. She could not even divine this person clearly.
Since it was not for the White Lotus Sect, there really were not a lot of people in the Ruyi commandery that were worthy of her taking action. Everyone looked over in confusion. Gu Yanying placed down the cup in her hand and paused. She seemed like she had a headache. "Her highness the Dark Queen's cat has gone missing. She sent me to look for it."
"Look for a cat!" Li Qingshan was stunned. Originally, he thought she had something very important to do, coming to capture some terrifying figure. He never thought she would travel all the way to Qingyang City just to find a cat.
Gu Yanying sighed. "I'd rather fight the White Lotus Mother."
However, Wang Pushi and Hwa Seung-zan knew what the Dark Queen meant, so they became extremely cautious. They were afraid to interrupt and ask too much. That was probably a conflict that touched on the upper echelons of the Green province. It was not something they could interfere with.
As Gu Yanying spoke, her mouth did not stop, downing cup after cup of alcohol. By the time she reached there, she had already finished the cauldron of alcohol. Her face was slightly flushed, like spring had returned. She was incomparably enchanting.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
