On the fifth day of the first month, the heavy snowfall continued.
Even with the help of the Daoist officials from the Qintian Supervision, the snowstorm still showed no signs of abating, and at best, some snow was removed so that it would not bury the city.
The cold is getting worse and worse, and a large number of people are fleeing to the south in Yunzhou, which is to the north, unable to bear the cold weather.
Today, as always, congee was served at the Soksi Palace.
The congee was given by wealthy conscientious families, officials sent by the court, but more often by Taoist priests from the Daoist clan.
The Daoist priests who have martial arts are strong and can spare a lot of manpower to give congee. Therefore, the Daoist priests could even be seen carrying large buckets of porridge along the road in this Soksi province, bringing the hearts of more than half of the victims to rest in just half a day.
“Save the suffering and save the suffering, blessings of the Heavenly Father.”
“It is truly compa*sionate.”
——
The victims didn’t care whether their praise was appropriate for the Daoist priests or not, they just said all the good things they could think of anyway. There were even terms like “living Bodhisattva” mixed in with them.
And as everyone praised the virtues of the Daoists, a Daoist smiled with satisfaction on a high building beside Wenxin Street in Sotheby’s.
“What are you rejoicing about?”
Just as the Daoist was beaming, a sudden voice made his face stiffen.
“Hoo-”
The window door not far behind him opened at some point, and the wind and snow rushed in as a tall, thin figure stood in the cold wind blowing into the house.
The wind was cold and the snow was cold, but the chill in this man’s words was even colder.
“Nan Huairen, you are a Daoist official under the Qintian Supervisor and one of the first Daoists to join the Northern Zhou, why do you want to do this?”
The man stared at Nan Huairen, his gaze as if it carried a chill, and under his gaze, a layer of frost spread from under Nan Huairen’s feet, quickly sealing his ability to move.
“Lord Guduan,” Nan Huairen said somewhat dryly, “I didn’t expect that such a great man as you would come out straight away.”
Gu Chen was the head of the first Daoist officials in Northern Zhou and the supervisor of the Qintian Supervisor as decided by Qing Yu. He was in overall charge of all the Daoist officials in Northern Zhou and his status was similar to that of the Divine Constable of Department Six of the Great Qian.
Such a big man, who had stepped in when things were just getting a little bit tentative, was really out of Nan Huairen’s expectation.
“Your Majesty has summoned me, so I will do my best as a minister.”
Gu Chen flicked his dust and closed the window door behind him, saying, “When I received the summons, I had already noticed that there were some people who had been eating out of the palm of Qintian. Therefore, not only the poor Taoist, but also Lin Wenhe and several other friends of the Dao, have all gone to various places to investigate.”
The Qintian Supervisor has a direct connection with the Yin Devil Sect, and many people in this department also work as a*sa*sins for the Green Dragon Society, so naturally, there is no need to mention the sensitivity of information.
However, such a well-informed department waited until Zhuge Longjue had finished collecting information for submission before it discovered the appearance of such a pseudo-divine faith as the Qinglian Heavenly Sovereign for the Relief of Suffering, which was alarming.
“Over the years, the Great Zhou has taken great strides forward and developed rapidly, but it has been a bit lax in its internal investigations. So much so, that it has allowed vermin to appear within the Qintian Supervisor.”
Speaking of this, Gu Chen burst out in anger, and frost suddenly covered Nan Huairen’s thighs, chilling and still upwards.
But Nan Huairen at this moment ignored the fact that the lower half of his body was close to being completely frozen, and angrily shouted and questioned, “We are all people who serve the Daoist Monarch of Qingyu, what loyalty do we talk about to that Zhou Emperor?”
“Without the support of the Daoist Monarch, the Northern Zhou would not be as glorious as it is today. However, after the rise of the Northern Zhou, the Daoist monarch began to fade away from the Northern Zhou court, allowing those from the Devil’s Way and the Sword Palace to steal high positions.
The unexpected words left Gu Chen at a loss as to how to reply.
He would never have imagined that Nan Huairen’s intention in committing such a treacherous act was to voice his displeasure for the Daoist monarch.
“——”
Gu Chen was silent for a moment and subconsciously slowed his tone, “But don’t you know that setting up faith after a great disaster has the potential to cause chaos?”
Faith is something that is most unreliable and most likely to go to extremes. The biggest drawback of believers is that they are easy to follow, and once they are exploited by those who have a mind to do so, the number of believers will be as great as the chaos.
Especially in this period of calamity, it is most prone to unexpected changes.
“Qinglian Heavenly Father, who saves suffering, is based on the Taoist monarch, and we venerate the Taoist monarch, so how can chaos arise!” Nan Huairen said categorically.
In his opinion anyway, the Daoist Monarch was right, and anything related to the Daoist Monarch would never be wrong.
Gu Chen looked at this obstinate Taoist priest with a bit of a headache, with a million thoughts in his mind, but not knowing what to say.
To say that Nan Huai Ren had a bad heart? It didn’t seem quite right, he was just a bit fanatical about the Daoist monarch, treating him like a god.
I am afraid that Nan Huairen and some others are thinking of wrapping themselves around public opinion to do justice to Daoist Monarch Qing Yu. That said, it was also an act of goodwill. Although in reality such acts of kindness merely add to the chaos.
The Daoist monarch does not need a small Taoist priest to fight for his name and power, but in the Northern Zhou court, the Daoist monarch’s status is very high.
“It’s better to let Daoist Master Lin handle it.” Gu Chen said helplessly.
Lin Zixiao’s position in the Dao Sect was not ordinary, he was a big figure supported by the Dao Monarch, and in the absence of the Dao Monarch, Lin Zixiao basically took charge of the affairs of the Dao Sect in Northern Zhou.
It was only in recent times that Lin Zixiao had gone to the Eastern State, which had caused the Dao Sect to do so much in the shadows.
The frost spread, covering Nan Huairen completely and blocking off his ability to resist. Gu Chen was about to step forward to take away this newly formed ice statue when he felt something strange ahead.
“Not good!”
True Qi erupted, intending to defend against the sudden attack, but unfortunately, it was too late.
With just a crunching sound, a gaping hole appeared in the head of Nan Huairen’s ice statue, and an ice-blue cold iron flying blade, shot deep into Nan Huairen’s brow, straight down to the shank.
Due to the ice seal of the ancient dust, Nan Huairen’s power was also sealed, and he did not have the slightest power to resist, he was just like this, the flying knife entered his brain and instantly lost his life.
“Careless!” Gu Chen said in an annoyed voice.
Due to Nan Huairen’s remark, Gu Chen thought that this was a group of people who fanatically believed in Daoist monarchs doing a bad thing with good intentions, and in a moment of carelessness, he had let others extinguish his mouth.
But this also revealed a message that ——
There were really people, who were plotting against each other.
Nan Huairen may have been used, or possibly, he was one of the miscreants, and Fang’s words were merely deceptive.
In any case, it was now really certain that someone was making a move against Northern Zhou.
————————
When Ren Piaomiao and Lin Zixiao returned to the Northern Zhou, Lin Zixiao immediately received a message and hurriedly rushed to clear the Northern Zhou Daoist Sect.
Ren Piaomiao, on the other hand, returned to the Piaomiao Sword Palace without any haste.
As one of the three souls of the Qing Yu, he had already learned all the information on the way and knew that an enemy was secretly at work.
In response, Qing Yu’s attitude was – leave it to the people below to investigate.
He had come this far and was already undisputedly a big man and a big brother, so if he were to step in himself and rush to investigate when something went wrong, what would he need those underlings for?
Qing Yu formed his forces so that they could serve him, not so that he could babysit the people below him.
So he went back to the Sword Palace quietly, without telling anyone.
The Sword Palace’s Sword Sealing Tower was still bustling with activity, and even with such a university, it did not delay the swordsmen’s desire to try their swords.
In the freezing cold weather, when ordinary people did not even dare to leave their doors, there were nearly a hundred swordsmen sitting on their knees on the snow in front of the Tower, dressed only in single clothes.
At times they mumbled to themselves, at times they danced as if no one was watching, and when they had learned something, they entered the tower to try out their swords.
In fact, the swordsmen sitting in front of the Sword Sealing Tower at this moment all have at least the cultivation level of the Divine Origin Realm, so as long as they are not facing a natural disaster, they can ignore the weather changes.
“The Sword Realm is getting stronger and stronger under the nourishment of the many Swordsmen.”
Ren Piaomiao looked at the invisible overlapping space on the Sword Sealing Tower with great satisfaction, revealing a satisfied smile.
When normal people looked at the Sword Sealing Tower, they merely saw a building with sword qi rushing upwards, while Qing Yu, however, was able to see the changes in the Sword Realm.
The sword-shaped world had grown through these days, becoming more and more magnificent in scale, and had become able to withstand more people trying out at the same time.
If someone who is proficient in looking at qi arrives here, they will be able to see the sword intent that goes straight into the sky, and the long river of qi on the other side of the divine capital on Datong Mountain standing on both sides of the divine capital, one literary and one martial, corresponding to each other.
In the divine capital, the dragon’s qi appears, sometimes overwhelming the sky, revealing its divine power, sometimes invisible, without a trace.
Like the divine dragon, it can be large or small, ascending or concealing; large enough to exhale clouds and mist, small enough to hide its form; ascending to soar across the universe, concealing to lurk within the waves.
If someone wants to create chaos in the divine capital, they are basically old men eating arsenic – they are tired of living.
At this moment, a sword qi came across the sky, sweeping over the heads of nearly a hundred swordsmen on the snowy ground and straight into the Sword Sealing Tower.
“Yuan Jianzi is going to challenge the thirtieth floor again.”
“Guess, will Yuan Jianzi win or lose this time?”
“Then you might as well guess how long Yuan Jianzi can last? The thirtieth floor, it’s too terrifying.”
——
When the swordsmen on the snow saw such an arrogant move, not only were they not angry, but they discussed it with interest.
Among the sword qi that swept past was Yuan Jian Yi, the most famous sword madman in the past year. After receiving Shen Yunji’s residual sword qi, this man often challenged the Sword Sealing Tower to refine himself and refine Shen Yunji’s sword qi.
This man was no less than a natural seed of the sword dao, and the more he sharpened it, the sharper it became. Over the past year, his progress was evident to all and he was already the undisputed strongest swordsman among those who came to the trials.
But this is the same kind of person who has never broken through the thirtieth level.
It was because in the past, the 30th level was personally guarded by the Xuan Yin Swordsman, but now, it was the Sword Realm that shaped a Tong Shen Realm incarnation of Ren Piaomiao to guard this level.
