The movements of the entire Eastern Tang were very nimble.
They immediately sent out another imperial envoy to Longbei County, intending to negotiate with Chang 'an and appease them.
To express their sincerity, they relaxed their blockade and control of Longbei County.
City Lord Zhang welcomed this with open arms.
Then, he pushed his luck.
The timber business in Qin State expanded wildly, not only supplying Longbei County but also opening up markets in other counties and states.
As for the Eastern Tang imperial envoys, Master Zhang's attitude had always been to open the door and welcome them warmly.
But this time, the guest made him a little unhappy.
In order to express their sincerity in the peace talks, or perhaps in order to numb the Chang 'an side, the Eastern Tang carefully selected their own civil officials. In the end, they chose an official whose rank wasn't low, and who didn't have a Confucian cultivation, and sent him to Longbei as an imperial envoy.
Even in the accompanying team, there were only a few First Realm and Second Realm military officials as guards.
The Eastern Tang had put in a lot of effort, but Master Zhang didn't think much of it.
The system randomly generated a guardian mission. The minimum requirement was to be a Third Realm cultivator. Completing the mission would reward 100 guardian experience points.
If one wasn't at the Third Realm, the mission wouldn't be generated.
Zhang Dongyun didn't even have the intention to detain him. He directly ordered his subordinates to chase him out.
The Eastern Tang didn't have much of a reaction to this, though.
Or rather, they had expected it.
When they sent the envoy out, there was already a dispute within the Eastern Tang.
The imperial envoy this time wasn't as high-ranking as the Left Assistant Minister from the Ministry of Rites.
If the Eastern Tang were the recipient, they would also be furious.
Thus, Prime Minister Lu Meng searched for a long time and finally sent out another envoy.
This time, his official rank wasn't low, but his cultivation was only at the Second Realm of the Confucian school.
Zhang Dongyun chased him away again and directly called for the Eastern Tang Prime Minister Lu Meng to come personally.
This old fellow was the director of Songyang Academy, an Eighth Realm Confucian, and one of the few Confucian experts in the entire Eastern Tang.
Once he came, he would be rewarded with 700 guardian experience points!
Master Zhang had a good plan, but Dean Lu wasn't stupid either.
Lu Meng still hadn't forgotten about the incident of him detaining his student.
He was also worried that he would be detained by Chang 'an if he went there.
Moreover, he had led a team to attack Tingshan Academy and forced Li Zhibin, the head of Tingshan Academy, to his death.
Li Zhibin's son and the director of the Tingshan Academy, Wan Li, were all in Chang 'an.
Lu Meng was not afraid of them, but who knew if the masters of Chang 'an would stand up for them?
It was a tradition for two countries not to kill their envoys at war, but Chang 'an City had a precedent …
Prime Minister Lu refused to go to Chang 'an, so naturally, Master Zhang would not give him face.
After a while, the peace talks failed.
However, Hu Yingjie, Hu Ming, and the others, who had heard the news, were eagerly waiting for their clansmen to come to Chang 'an.
The only thing that could comfort them was that the Eastern Tang would not harm the lives of Hu Yinghua and the others for now.
Now, they could only work hard for Chang 'an and strive to show their faces in front of the City Lord and Mr. Dark Cloud. They could ask them to make an exception and let Hu Yinghua and the others come to Chang' an.
However, although the peace talks failed, the blockade around Longbei County had not been lifted for the time being.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, not only the timber business in Chang 'an, but also the personal trade in the two cities was also flourishing.
At present, the coverage of Invincible City spanned the entire Longling Mountain Range from north to south.
Under Zhang Dongyun's arrangement, the road through the Longling Mountain Range was quickly built.
Therefore, the mountains that separated the two places were opened up, and the north and south of Longling could be directly connected through Chang 'an.
This immediately raised the status of Chang 'an's transportation by several levels, and the trade of the entire Chang' an improved greatly.
Even if the Eastern Tang dynasty tried to reopen the blockade, there were still countless people who took the risk and went to the north and south of Longling through Chang 'an.
Seeing that the market in Chang 'an was becoming more and more prosperous, and even the Qinzhou Prefecture outside the mountain was becoming prosperous, Zhang Dongyun was also in a good mood.
However, after Master Zhang was happy for a few days, something suddenly happened.
The current coverage of the system far exceeded the city walls.
Zhang Dongyun knew everything within the coverage of the system like the back of his hand.
For example, Shen Herong left Chang 'an City and wandered around.
She first walked around the Qinzhou Prefecture.
She only stayed in the prefecture for a few days. Most of the time, she walked around the towns and villages.
Every time she arrived at a place, she would teach the local children and enlighten them as Mr. He.
Shen Herong basically didn't teach the children principles or poems, but simple literacy.
Like sowing seeds, she walked through one place after another and didn't find it boring at all. Instead, she enjoyed it.
However, she went farther and farther, and the range became wider and wider. She was about to go beyond the coverage of Invincible City.
If she went beyond this range, Zhang Dongyun wouldn't know what she was going to do.
Although she brought the Eye of Heaven, she had the initiative. If she wanted to hide it, the Eye of Heaven was naturally a decoration.
Through the previous conversation and interaction, Zhang Dongyun was sure that she was not the traitor back then, and now she was not hostile to him, her "big brother," and was even very close to him.
But he was also very sure that she had some secrets of her own.
Convinced that Shen Herong was a friend and not an enemy, Zhang Dongyun was not in the mood to dig into her privacy.
But there was an exception.
The Immortals' fragment.
Because of this, Zhang Dongyun could only apologize to the twelfth sister.
According to Shen Herong's previous words, she once had a fragment of the Immortals, but it was lost.
Could her loss of the fragment have something to do with the two reincarnations that she kept secret?
Daming Palace. Zhang Dongyun snapped his fingers.
Soon, a blood light flashed, and an old man in red appeared in the main hall and bowed to Zhang Dongyun.
"Your Majesty, this old servant greets you."
The person who came was Blood Shadow.
His entire temperament was much calmer than before.
But a cold murderous intent and bloodthirsty madness seemed to be hidden deep within, and could erupt at any time.
After a period of seclusion and cultivation, the old devil had successfully taken another step forward and formed a demonic soul, reaching the eighth level of the demonic path.
He had a deep understanding of the "Blood Book of the Phoenix" cultivation. Although he had just formed a demonic soul, his strength was so strong that there were few who could match him among the eighth level cultivators.
At this time, if he dragged Purple Sun in front of him again, the old devil was confident that he could beat him up so badly that even his parents wouldn't recognize him.
To a certain extent, the "Blood Book of the Phoenix" allowed him to keep his mind clear even after his demonic cultivation had increased, so that he wouldn't be corrupted by the blood of the Phoenix and lose himself.
"Follow Ming Yixue," Zhang Dongyun ordered.
Blood Shadow's eyes narrowed. "His Majesty suspects that she …"
Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Dongyun interrupted him. "Protect her secretly. Don't let her know. Bring back any suspicious people who have been in contact with her."
Even though Blood Shadow was calmer and more experienced than before, when he heard this order, he instantly broke down and was a little dumbfounded.
Protect her secretly …
Bring back any suspicious people who have been in contact with her …
The first half of the sentence sounded like His Majesty was concerned about that little girl, but the second half was a little contradictory.
… Why did it sound a little like a man who was wary of his wife cheating on him, or a father who was worried that his daughter would be deceived by a man?
Blood Shadow was frightened by his own thoughts and wanted to slap himself a few times.
He hurriedly cleared his mind of distracting thoughts and calmed himself down. "Rest assured, Your Majesty, this old servant will set off right away."
The Old Devil took his leave from Daming Palace. Following Zhang Dongyun's instructions, he found Shen Herong, who was about to leave the Qinzhou government.
Shen Herong's Taoist cultivation was only at the fifth realm. Ordinary people wouldn't be able to tell that he was Mr He with his magic, but he couldn't fool Blood Shadow's sharp eyes.
The Old Devil didn't suspect the identity of that Mr He in the city. He was just curious as to why "Ming Yixue" was pretending to be Mr He and running private schools everywhere to teach.
It was easy to explain why she was pretending to be Mr He. She was just a ten-year-old girl; if she went to teach children around her age, no one would listen to her.
But why did she want to teach?
She was clearly practicing Taoist techniques.
Blood Shadow could only guess that this little girl saw that His Majesty had ordered everyone in the city to study, so she followed suit to please His Majesty.
This little girl knows how to curry favor. Unfortunately, this old man doesn't have the patience … Blood Shadow thought to himself.
He had formed a devil soul and his cultivation had advanced greatly. He transformed into a blood phoenix and condensed into a streak of red light.
The other party was only at the fifth realm; there was no way she could detect him at the eighth realm …
Just as the Old Devil was thinking this, His Majesty's voice suddenly rang out in his ears.
"Too close."
Blood Shadow jumped in fright and hurriedly put some distance between them.
Although it was a little strange, he didn't dare take any chances. After that, he kept his distance. Blood Shadow hid high up in the sky and followed Shen Herong from a distance.
The two of them walked and stopped, one in front and one behind, until they left the Qinzhou government's territory.
After leaving the Qinzhou government, Shen Herong still did the same thing.
Blood Shadow could only follow her like this.
It was so dry and boring that it was hard to put it into words.
If it wasn't for His Majesty's task, Blood Shadow would have lost his patience long ago.
He could only grit his teeth and endure as he slowly followed Shen Herong north. They were almost out of Longbei County.
Just as Blood Shadow was in so much pain that he wished he was dead, Shen Herong's movements suddenly changed.
She was no longer teaching, but looking for something along the way.
Blood Shadow's gaze abruptly turned sharp.
The other party's actions were abnormal. Could this be why His Majesty wanted this old man to keep an eye on her?
Blood Shadow thought carefully and realized that the other party seemed to have suddenly changed after taking a rest in a pavilion.
The Old Devil thought for a moment, then specially returned to the pavilion to check.
There was a stone tablet in the pavilion with some poems written on it.
It was probably written by different scholars who had passed by to take a rest.
Although the Old Devil didn't understand calligraphy, he could immediately tell that one of the poems was different from the rest.
The other poems were left behind by ordinary literati.
But one of them contained literary talent and was definitely written by a Confucian cultivator.
Moreover, the ink on this quatrain was clearly new.
The Old Devil couldn't see anything more, so he first memorized all the words and would ask His Majesty to make a decision when he returned.
He intuitively felt that this poem was the reason for Ming Yixue's abnormal behavior.
The Old Devil hurried forward.
Fortunately, the little girl was searching for something as she walked, so she wasn't fast. Blood Shadow quickly caught up.
This time, there was no need for Zhang Dongyun to remind him. The Old Devil was on full alert as he did his best to hide his tracks and carefully followed the girl.
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.
