WebNovel Chapter 150 Zhenwu Pass (1/2)
Chapter 150 Zhenwu Pass (1/2)
A month later, Xuanfeng Dao, one of the three Daos controlled by the royal Ji family.
Xuanfeng Dao is the first of the eighteen Daos of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and the royal city Xuanfeng City is in Xuanfeng Dao.
The other two Daos under the royal Ji family are Fengyi Dao and Fengwei Dao.
"Finally back, it's not easy."
Kong Tianyang rode on the [Scale-horned horse], looking at a boundary marker in front of him, sighing.
There were three big black characters on the three-meter-high boundary marker, Xuanfeng Dao.
Someone beside him said: "It was not easy. It took a month to rush and hurry."
Li Yan was standing behind the two people at this time, listening to their conversation, and couldn't help but recall the journey of this month.
There were not many difficulties on the road.
After all, the worst among the people were in the Yunzang realm, and some roads [Scale-horned horses] could not walk, and Li Yan and his team could even carry [Scale-horned horses] weighing thousands of kilograms to hurry on.
On the contrary, the bandits and robbers encountered along the way delayed everyone for a long time.
Starting from Shannan Road, to reach Xuanfeng Road, you need to cross two roads.
These two roads are Qianhu Road and Huangsha Road.
There are extremely developed water systems in Qianhu Road. It is said to be a thousand lakes, but there are more than that.
It can be said that the source of rivers in most areas of Dazhou is from Qianhu Road.
Li Yan and his team did not waste any time here. It took less than ten days to cross the entire Qianhu Road.
Along the way, they admired various beautiful and spectacular lakes. In addition, those innate warriors went down to the depths of the lake from time to time to fish out various exotic fish.
It made Li Yan feel like he was going out for a travel dinner.
However, the taste of exotic fish is really good, very delicious, and there are many ways to cook it.
It’s just that the meat is too tender and can’t be kept fresh. If you don’t eat it quickly, it will easily go bad.
When they arrived at Huangsha Road, the mentality of everyone’s previous travel and sightseeing was instantly destroyed by the continuous bandits and robbers along the way.
Huangsha Road, as the name suggests, half of the area in this road is covered by desert.
The environment and resources of Huangsha Road are the worst and most barren among the eighteen roads in Dazhou.
As the saying goes, poor mountains and bad waters produce unruly people. The people in this road naturally become very aggressive in such an environment.
It can only be said that under scarce resources, those who are not aggressive and do not actively compete for resources are destined to be eliminated.
When the resources in Huangsha Road were almost fought over, the people in Huangsha Road naturally turned their attention to the pedestrians and merchants passing by this road.
You should know that behind Huangsha Road is Xuanfeng Road. Such a geographical environment makes Huangsha Road not worried about no one passing by.
So, over time, the pattern of a thief's nest every ten miles and a large camp every hundred miles has been formed in Huangsha Road.
Of course, Huangsha Road also has a Taoist master, and his strength is not weak among the Taoist masters in Dazhou.
All this is due to his tax collection policy for the various thieves' nests and thieves' camps in Huangsha Road.
As long as the taxes are paid, the Taoist master of Huangsha Road will acquiesce in the legitimacy of these thieves' nests and thieves' camps.
However, since these thieves' dens and thieves' camps are all engaged in business that puts their heads on the line, their leaders change frequently.
Many of the next leaders disagreed with the tax quota signed by the previous leaders with the Yellow Sand Dao Lord.
How could the Yellow Sand Dao Lord tolerate this? He directly killed a group of thieves' dens that refused to obey the rules.
And all the gold, silver and jewelry in the thieves' dens were naturally confiscated.
In this regard, the Yellow Sand Dao Lord once said a famous saying: If the chickens you raise don't want to lay eggs, then there is no need to raise them anymore.
Those countless thieves' dens in the Yellow Sand Dao are the poultry raised by the Yellow Sand Dao Lord.
In order to beautify these anti-bandit actions, the Yellow Sand Dao Lord publicized that it was in response to the anti-bandit order issued by the Great Zhou Dynasty court, which attracted praise from the outside world.
However, what the outside world does not know is that the anti-bandit order issued by the Great Zhou Dynasty court to the Yellow Sand Dao was applied for by the Yellow Sand Dao Lord himself.
Otherwise, the court would not have the leisure to care about your life or death.
As long as the taxes were paid on time, the court would let other Daos that were not directly under his control go.
It was also because of this that Daoist Master Huangsha had an unexpectedly good reputation in the Great Zhou Kingdom.
There were even many people who set up longevity tablets for the successive Daoist Masters of Huangsha.
The only people who could do such a thing were those who were rescued by the soldiers under Daoist Master Huangsha.
These people were also lucky. They happened to catch up with the annual Bandit Suppression Day and were rescued by the soldiers sent by Daoist Master Huangsha to suppress the bandits.
Bandit Suppression Day is usually one month before the Chinese New Year and lasts from three to seven days.
During this period, Daoist Master Huangsha would clear out those disobedient thieves' nests in Huangsha Dao and those thieves' nests that were too powerful.
Occasionally, some blind thieves' nests would be cleared out. These thieves' nests provoked people they shouldn't have provoked, and their families paid a certain price, asking Daoist Master Huangsha to add these thieves' nests to the elimination list.
For example, the bandits that Li Yan and his team met along the way.
They had clearly put up the sign of envoys to avoid trouble, but they still encountered trouble along the way.
Because no bandits believed that such a team of less than 20 people was actually the envoys of the royal city who went on a grand mission years ago.
So, everyone had to kill their way here.
After killing seven or eight large camps and dozens of thieves' dens in a row, their reputation finally spread throughout the Huangsha Road, making the bandits behind them dare not act recklessly.
Otherwise, if he continues to kill, it may take even longer to come back.
Of course, during the journey, Yun Mi, as the special envoy, also asked Huangsha Taoist Master to send someone to escort them.
After all, as long as the Yellow Sand Taoist's signature is displayed, which den of thieves will dare to act arrogantly.
Then, the request that I thought would be normal was unexpectedly declined by Huangsha Taoist Master.
The reasons given by the other party were irrefutable. Da Zhou and Da Yue were at war again on the border, and Huangsha Taoist Master was asked to be responsible for the logistics of the fighting army.
His first priority now is to provide logistics for the army. He does not have many troops to escort Yun Mi and others.
Anyone with a discerning eye knows that this is an excuse, and Yun Mi naturally knows it too, but she can't say anything.
Then, when Yun Mi returned angrily, the gangsters were in trouble.
Yun Mi personally took action and directly killed a group of gangsters.
It was through Yun Mi's actions that Li Yan learned how terrifying the higher level of force in this world was.
Yunmi's casual blow can create a large crater in the ground, which is comparable to the power of a small missile.
But in terms of effective attack distance, it is far less than the attack range of missiles.
Eyes pulled back.
Everyone stood next to the boundary monument of Xuanfeng Dao and sighed for a while before crossing the boundary monument. Keep moving forward.
After traveling less than thirty miles, an extremely tall pass gradually appeared in front of everyone.
The three words "Zhenwuguan" are very eye-catching hanging on the gate of Xiongguan.
Li Yan visually estimated that this [Zhenwuguan Pass] is at least fifty feet high, which is nearly twice as high as the city wall of Nanshan City.
The entire Xiongguan Pass stretches for ten miles, and on both sides of the Xiongguan Pass are cliffs as high as a thousand feet.
[Zhenwuguan] is firmly stuck in the middle of the cliffs on both sides. For thousands of years, it has resisted enemy invasion.
"After passing Zhenwuguan, even if we truly enter Xuanfeng Road, we are only three days away from the royal city."
"let's go."
After saying that, Yun Mi took the lead and rushed towards [Zhenwuguan].
Seeing this, the others looked at each other and smiled, and then the laughter became louder and louder.
"It seems that the special envoy is also homesick."
Afterwards, everyone hurriedly followed Yun Mi, who was almost running away in front of him.
Under [Zhenwuguan], a large group of people gathered from all walks of life in the Zhou Dynasty, and even people from other countries.
Li Yan saw a group of people wearing strange clothes and with crescent moons painted on their foreheads, being inspected by the soldiers at Zhenwuguan.
"Uncle Zhang, are those people from Dayue Kingdom? Didn't they say that we, Dayue, are fighting again? Why do they still dare to come to us, Dayue?"
Next to Li Yan, a young man asked the old man next to him.
Li Yan looked over and saw that the two of them were dressed very well and were surrounded by more than a dozen guards. At first glance, they were no ordinary people.
"Yes, young master, they are indeed from the Dayue Kingdom. The Dayue Kingdom is different from our Great Zhou. Their entire country believes in a god named Moon God."
"The ruler of our Great Zhou is the King of Zhou and belongs to the royal Ji family, while the ruler of the Great Moon Kingdom is the Moon Temple."
"When the Moon King of the Big Moon Kingdom ascends the throne, he not only needs the consent of the Divine Envoy of the Moon Temple, but also needs the Divine Envoy to give blessings on behalf of the Moon God."
"With this blessing, it means that the Moon King is the one chosen by the Moon God."
"While consolidating the rule of the Moon King, it also prevents the Moon King from doing anything disrespectful to the Moon God."
"Whatever is disrespectful to the Moon God is entirely decided by the Moon Goddess."
As soon as Uncle Zhang finished saying this, the young master couldn't wait to say: "Doesn't this mean that the Moon King is just a puppet of the Moon Temple of the Great Moon Kingdom?"
He spoke a little loudly, attracting a lot of attention.
Fortunately, they were far away from the group of people from the Big Moon Country and did not attract the attention of those from the Big Moon Country.
"Shh, young master, keep your voice down. Don't dare to say these nonsense. If those people from Dayue Kingdom hear this, they will probably fight us to the death."
Uncle Zhang quickly covered the young master's mouth.
It wasn't until he was sure that the people from Dayue Kingdom hadn't heard that he let go of the hand covering the young master's mouth.
"Sorry, Uncle Zhang, I was too loud just now."
The young master was sensible and apologized quickly.
Naturally, Uncle Zhang kept shouting, "Young Master, no".
There was a look of satisfaction in his eyes, and it was obvious that no servant disliked a sensible master.
After that, Uncle Zhang continued to answer his young master's doubts: "Dazhou and Dayue did go to war, and it was the most intense war in ten years."
"I heard that both sides invested a total of eight legions, which was larger than the amount of troops invested in the war ten years ago."
"I just hope that Dazhou will not lose one-third of the land like last time."
Uncle Zhang looked a little sad when he said this.
He used to be from that group, but when the war came, their city was occupied by the Dayue Kingdom.
The Big Moon Kingdom did not carry out massacres or other acts like massacres, but it forced the people in the city to believe in their moon god.
Those who believe in the Moon God can not only get food and housing provided by the Big Moon Kingdom, but even those who are pious can get the opportunity to practice.
If you don’t believe in the moon god, I won’t sell you anything even if you have money.
In the end, the people in the city were forced to either flee or start to believe in the moon god.
The Dayue Kingdom does not prohibit those who escape. The only requirement is that each person can only bring three days' worth of food, and all gold and silver wealth must be left behind.
This series of policies has led to 99% of the residents in the city starting to believe in the Moon God, and only a few diehards of the Great Zhou have left.
Zhang Bo is one of the diehards.
However, if he were to make a choice again, he might not make the same choice again.
Because along the way, almost all of his relatives died.
After calming down the remorse in his heart, Zhang Bo continued: "As for why they dared to enter the Great Zhou when the two sides were fighting, you can see the symbol on their bodies."
Zhang Bo pointed to the patterns of the alchemy furnace painted on those people.
"You should recognize those patterns, young master."
Looking in the direction of Zhang Bo's finger, the young master carefully identified them and whispered in surprise: "Members of the Tianwu Dan League."
"Yes, young master has a good eye."
Zhang Bo praised.
However, the other party smiled bitterly: "Zhang Bo, don't make fun of me. Our Zhang family is in the alchemy business. How can we not know the existence that we should not provoke the most?"
Hearing this, Li Yan looked at the direction of those Great Yue people.
He found that although the guards of [Zhenwu Pass] looked at the Dayue people with hatred in their eyes, their actions were not rash at all, and their words did not express their own emotions.
The whole process was full of formulaic appearance, and people could not find any faults.
It was not until all the Dayue people had completed the entry procedures and entered the pass that the soldiers showed their resentful expressions.
Then the next person who went through the procedures was unlucky and became the punching bag of those soldiers, who made things difficult for them.
Although he still entered the pass in the end, he was very angry, but he had nowhere to vent.
"Tianwu Dan League, one of the most powerful forces in the Tianwu Dynasty."
"If I can have such a layer of skin on my body, it will be much easier to go to other countries in the future."
At this moment, Li Yan remembered his alchemy skills that were about to produce elixirs.
"However, before that, I still have to join the Great Zhou Alchemist Alliance."
Among the information Li Yan has collected these days, there are bits and pieces of information about the Tianwu Dynasty and the Tianwu Dan League.
Da Zhou, Dayue, Da Man and Da Feng, these four dynasties are all under the management of the Tianwu Dynasty.
Of course, the Tianwu Dynasty ruled far more than these four countries, and no one knew how many there were.
It is only known that the Tianwu Dynasty divided the various countries under its jurisdiction into levels.
They are small countries, big countries, and vassal states of the dynasty.
Da Zhou, Dayue and Da Feng are all small countries in the classification, and Da Man is a big country.
As for vassal states of the dynasty, these four countries are not qualified to be. For the Tianwu Dynasty, a country like Da Zhou is even worse than chicken ribs.
Anyway, when Li Yan got the news, he was extremely shocked.
How big is this world?
Such questions became another motivation for Li Yan to explore this world.
And the Tianwu Dan League of the Tianwu Dynasty is said to have a ninth-grade alchemist.
As a sub-alliance of the Tianwu Dan League, the highest level of alchemists in the Da Zhou Dan Master League is only the fifth grade.
It can be said that every country under the jurisdiction of the Tianwu Dynasty will have an Alchemist League.
Tianwu Dan League holds an alchemist conference every ten years, inviting the best young alchemists from all countries to participate.
Those who perform well will have the opportunity to directly join the Tianwu Dan League.
No alchemist can resist such a temptation.
Over time, the alchemist alliances of other countries have always been well-behaved.
However, Tianwu Dan League has always been full of vitality.
It is no exaggeration to say that new elixir formulas are created by Tianwu Dan League every day.
In the territory of Tianwu Dynasty, it has become a holy place for all alchemists.
"Li Yan, what are you daydreaming about? Come here quickly."
"Special Envoy Yun has acquaintances here, so we don't have to queue up and can go directly through the special channel."
Suddenly, Kong Tianyang shouted to Li Yan.
"Here, here."
Li Yan hurriedly followed Kong Tianyang's footsteps in the envious eyes of others.
"Special Envoy Yun doesn't look like a person with a wide range of friends, but he has acquaintances here."
Li Yan, who was following Kong Tianyang, asked quietly.
"This? It's okay to tell you, but don't shout it around."
Kong Tianyang thought for a moment, glanced at Li Yan, and warned.
Li Yan quickly assured: "This is Envoy Yun's private matter. How could I tell anyone about it? If Envoy Yun knew about it, he would chop me down with one palm."
"Okay, I believe in you."
"It's like this, that man is one of the guards of Zhenwu Pass, and also a proud son of the royal city. He has been pursuing our Envoy Yun's sister."
Kong Tianyang said in a low voice.
Uh, Li Yan was stunned for a moment. He thought he was pursuing Yun Mi's dog.
How did he become Yun Mi's sister's pursuit?
Li Yan, who was puzzled, asked: "Envoy Yun is also very beautiful, why doesn't he pursue Envoy Yun."
Kong Tianyang rolled his eyes at Li Yan after hearing this question, "Let me ask you, when you marry in the future, do you want to marry a gentle or domineering wife?"
Combining the experience of two lives, Li Yan answered neatly: "Well, gentle is better."
"Then it's done."
After saying that, Kong Tianyang quickened his pace, and the people in front urged him.