20demayo Page 63
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The more than one-meter-long gilded blade stretched out from the center of the blooming golden lotus.
The back of the blade is the spine of a small dragon, and the blade itself is forged from the world's hardest refined gold, secured by twenty-four dragon ribs.
The blade, capable of slicing through iron like mud, cutting through hair with a single blow, and killing without shedding blood, also gleamed with a terrifyingly cold light under the sunlight.
【Golden Flower Inlaid Dragon Treasure Sword】: +5 Accuracy, +5 Damage.
(Buddha Lotus) Defense +7, gain 7 points of all damage reduction, and recover 7 points of health each turn.
(Dragon Bone) Damage +7, grants a fierce aura when equipped. Each turn, it will attempt to intimidate all enemies within a 30-meter radius of terror and fear.
"A fine knife, a fine knife! But Wang Cai is just a merchant, he doesn't know anything about fighting. If this knife comes with me, wouldn't that be a waste of its potential?"
Wang Cai reluctantly picked up the precious sword, then turned to look at the Imperial Guard Commander Wang, his protector, and handed him the sword with a fawning smile.
"With this sword, Captain, it's truly a perfect match for a beautiful woman, and a fine sword for a hero!"
"In that case, I won't be polite."
The head of the Imperial Guards was very satisfied with Wang Cai's shrewdness and discernment. He grabbed Yang Zhi's family heirloom sword and examined it carefully in his hand.
Wang Cai immediately set up a banquet and booked the top floor private room of Fanlou to celebrate that Chief Wang had obtained this precious sword!
Wang Cai was very satisfied; all his plans were flawless. The only problem was why Dong Chao and Xue Ba, those two constables, hadn't returned yet. They should have arrived yesterday; why were they a day late?
Forget it, the journey from Tokyo to Beijing is long and arduous. The two must be held up by something. I'll have some fun with the constable here and wait patiently. I doubt that little Yang Zhi can escape alive!
While the two were colluding with each other, drinking and making merry on the top floor of Fanlou, Liu Hong and Yang Zhi returned to Dongjing City and, relying on the network of connections in the underground Fanlou, quickly located their target.
This matter was easy to handle. Liu Hong waited until the night was deep, then picked up Yang Zhi in his arms. The golden wings of the Golden-Winged Roc suddenly spread open, and the whole thing soared into the sky on the wind. It flew straight up, leaving two beautiful trails of gold smoke in the thick night, and flew directly to the top of Fanlou, where it landed steadily on the glazed tiles.
"Boom!!!"
Wang Cai didn't react, but the Imperial Guard Commander Wang frowned sharply. He looked up at the roof—the commotion from Liu Hong's landing was enormous. It wasn't the sound of a bird landing on the top of the Fanlou Tower; it was the sound of a person's footsteps on the roof!
However, before he could react, the Coiled Dragon Staff had already begun to spin angrily, suddenly emitting a roar like a dragon's cry! The steel chains were taut like a fully drawn bow, and the four-dragon short staff, propelled by centrifugal force, transformed into a wheel of shadows. Before the hum had even faded, it crashed down towards the dome with the force of a thousand pounds! The gilded brackets and the gray-blue roof tiles, accompanied by a violent roar, poured down like hailstones—this was not a collapse at all, but the entire sky collapsing downwards!
Shards of flying wood pierced the wine jar, and shattered roof tiles shattered the candlestick. Wang Cai hadn't even put down his porcelain cup when a gold-leaf-inlaid beam came crashing down upon him. Wang Dutou instinctively drew his sword to parry, but missed, and a copper nail that had sprung from the broken wood pierced his shoulder. The two staggered, knocking over the octagonal table. Yellowish wine mixed with blood from their foreheads, and in the dust, their bodies blossomed into crimson lotuses of blood. Covered in dust, they were utterly disheveled!
Chapter 143: The Blue-Faced Beast Kills Two at Jingfanlou
"Wang Cai! We have no past grievances or recent enmity, yet you are willing to kill me just to steal my family heirloom? How can you act so recklessly? Is there no law in this world?!"
Yang Zhi was furious at this moment. He roared and leaped down from the hole in the roof! His feet instantly shattered the wine table. The broken and shattered wood fragments, along with the delicious food on the table, were swept away by the shockwave and exploded in all directions! They crackled against the walls and pierced his body, causing blood to gush out!
At this moment, moonlight poured down from the shattered, cracked dome, like silver silk torn by an invisible loom, tassels wrapped with stardust, dangling in the center of a messy table. At the edge of the hole, an elemental riot was unfolding—a hissing, eerie acid corroded the beams, while crimson flames exploded above them, turning into fiery serpents; ice crystals hovered in the scorching heat, refracting rainbow light, while lightning had transformed into purple dragons, tearing winding cracks between frost and fire.
Surrounded by moonlight and elements, Yang Zhi descended upon the battlefield like a demon lord!
"Yang, Yang Zhi? Impossible, how are you still alive?!"
Wang Du wiped the blood from his forehead, seeing Yang Zhi still shaken, but he was also quite resolute. Realizing the problem, he immediately drew his golden dragon-inlaid sword. The blade, accompanied by a dragon's roar, slashed upwards. In that instant, Yang Zhi twisted his waist, bracing himself against the cold blade's edge, and crashed into the center. Wang Du then joined his left index and middle fingers together like a sword, fiercely stabbing Yang Zhi's wrist, causing him to bleed profusely. Crimson blood soaked the dragon-skin hilt of the sword.
Not only that, the dragon pattern on the blade was splattered with blood and trembled violently as if awakened by its former master. Wang Dutou, blood gushing from his tiger's mouth, still refused to let go and swung the blade to strike. But Yang Zhi seemed to have foreseen his attack. He lowered his head, spun around, and swept his leg like a green dragon whipping its tail, kicking the opponent's shinbone hard with the instep. With a crisp sound of bones breaking, he kicked the opponent's shinbone and broke it!
"what!!!"
The head constable let out a miserable scream and fell to the ground. His golden dragon-inlaid sword spun seven times in the air, the red tassel on the hilt drawing nine bloody arcs in the moonlight before piercing the wall of the restaurant. The blade was still trembling slightly.
"Quickly, seize the knife!!!"
As expected of an Imperial Guard officer, even after being beaten so badly, Wang Dutou instinctively grabbed Yang Zhi's right leg, restricting her movements, while roaring at Wang Cai, ordering him to immediately seize the knife and fight back! Yang Zhi frowned. When the officer fell, he had momentarily fallen out of his sight, which meant he hadn't seen his future actions, hence the oversight.
Meanwhile, Wang Cai, the owner of the chamber of commerce, also realized what was happening and rushed towards the wall, trying to retrieve the precious sword and fight Yang Zhi again!
It's okay. No matter what, the situation is two against one, and the advantage is in my hands!
Yang Zhi's eyes were sharp. He firmly planted his right foot, which had been grabbed, on the ground, and swung his left foot back, aiming the toe at Wang Dutou's head, and delivered a standard Cuju kick!
In an instant, Wang Dutou realized that the jade foot, carrying a destructive storm, was kicking him hard. The pink toe of the straw sandal filled his pupils instantly, too fast for him to dodge! He felt as if his nose had been hit by a battering ram, and the bridge of his nose broke instantly along with splattered blood. His entire face was blown backward by the wind pressure.
Then, his entire facial bone was shattered by that kick! The broken bone fragments embedded themselves in his brain like shotgun pellets, and his cervical spine was also stretched with excruciating pain. His hands involuntarily loosened their grip on Yang Zhi's calf, and then he was kicked away like a kite with a broken string! Dragging through the air with his face covered in blood, he spun and flew several times, just in time to knock Wang Cai, who had snatched the knife from him, to the ground!
Yang Zhi snorted coldly, stomped her feet hard on the ground, leaped backward, and gracefully rushed towards the wall. With her slender hands, she precisely drew her family heirloom sword, skillfully twirling it in the air. The dragon-bone blade reflected the shattered moonlight, and swung it across the ruins of Fanlou, leaving a icy spray that sliced off three inches of Wang Dutou's disheveled hair. The black strands of hair flew wildly, perfectly capturing the essence of a hair being chopped off with a single blow.
Before the severed hair, mixed with cold sweat, even hit the ground, the Dragon Bone Heavy Blade in Yang Zhi's hand had already hummed and bloomed with golden lotus winds in her palm. With a flash of cold light, sparks flew, and a clanging sound rang out. The sword that Wang Dutou had hastily drawn and the sharp sword that Wang Cai had raised in panic were both cut in two by the golden dragon-inlaid treasure sword, which was just as capable of cutting through iron like mud.
Before the severed waist knife and sword fragments could fall to the ground, Yang Zhilong's pupils constricted, and with lightning speed, he unleashed a second and a third slash, the two blades combining in mid-air to form a death cross, swiftly and decisively severing the heads of the two men!
Two bewildered, terrified, and frightened heads flew up, landed, and spun around. Two bodies, dazed and struggling, fell to the ground, and it was a full three seconds before blood began to spurt out like a fountain, let alone stain the blade—truly a case of killing without shedding blood.
When the song ended, Yang Zhi snorted coldly, kicked the two heads out of the window, and sent them flying like footballs into the bustling night market of Kaifeng. Only then did he manage to vent his anger.
"We've avenged ourselves, it's time for us to leave. There are still some formidable figures in Kaifeng, we can't stay here any longer."
At that moment, Liu Hong also jumped into the room, grabbed Yang Zhi's arm, and tried to retreat.
"Let me take one last look at Kaifeng."
Yang Zhi looked out the window at the bustling Kaifeng night market, her eyes momentarily glazed over. The once vibrant streets appeared distorted and deformed in her eyes.
The brightly lit ten-mile-long street, in her bloodshot eyes, twisted and turned into a festering scar stretching to the horizon! The lanterns of the seventy-two workshops were not candlelight, but thousands of sugar-soaked blood tumors pierced by bamboo sticks. The flickering candlelight seemed like flowing pus and blood, and the bustling pedestrians looked like maggots wriggling on the scar.
The lanterns on both sides of the Rainbow Bridge are clearly the rotting ribs of a giant beast, with the silk of the fish-dragon dancers seeping an oily sheen from between the bones. The aroma of wine wafting from the brothels of the market is mixed with nail clippings, and the bells of the Great Xiangguo Temple shake the bronze bells on the eaves, splashing out brain matter with the smell of rouge as they fall to the ground.
Yang Zhi, who had spent half his life in the officialdom of the Liao and Song dynasties, did not understand, knew, or comprehend the darkness within the government.
The moment she was banished from the arena of power, she instantly realized that the majestic and magnificent Song Dynasty palace in the distance was not a symbol of supreme power at all, but clearly a chaotic demonic mountain that oppressed all living beings, treated all things as mere weeds, and regarded the people as straw dogs.
Yang Zhi's chest heaved violently, and blood tears streamed down his blue dragon eyes.
If it weren't for that treacherous Gao Qiu, I wouldn't have squandered my entire fortune.
If it weren't for that old scoundrel Gao Qiu, I wouldn't have had to sell my precious sword and cause so much trouble.
If it weren't for that treacherous Gao Qiu, how could I have possibly become an outlaw!
"Let's go, brother,"
Yang Zhi sighed, no longer looking at the bustling Kaifeng night market. This place had nothing to do with him anymore.
“One day, I will return here using the method you gave me.”
Chapter 144: Liang Zhongshu's Second Pledge of the Birthday Gifts
After killing the two, Liu Hong once again picked up Yang Zhi in a princess carry, flapped his wings, and quickly disappeared from the top of Fanlou, as if the two had never been there. When the waiter and the owner of Fanlou heard the noise, they rushed downstairs, only to find the room in ruins and the headless corpses of the two who had died tragically.
Even the Kaifeng Prefecture could only deduce that Yang Zhi was responsible for the incident based on the tragic deaths of Dong Chao and Xue Ba, Yang Zhi's escape, and the deep-seated hatred and entanglements among the individuals. They also put up a reward for her, but it wasn't much—50,000 strings of cash—which made Yang Zhi somewhat unhappy.
I accept the 300,000 guan bounty on Lin Chong; she is truly strong. Even though I can use my Azure Dragon Eyes to permanently see six seconds into the future and observe her actions six seconds from now, my physical speed simply can't keep up, so I can't hit her.
But Liu Hong's fighting ability is no match for mine! Why is his bounty twice mine? Just because he robbed the birthday convoy once? No way, I'm going to rob it too! I'll raise my own bounty!
Yang Zhi cursed and swore all the way, but Liu Hong didn't say anything. Taking advantage of Wang Cai's death, he rallied the brothers of the underground Ghost Fanlou and raided the small commercial street. Taking advantage of the fact that the members of the merchant guild were in a state of confusion, they robbed a lot of their property and made a small fortune.
As for the rest—Wang Cai had already offended quite a few people and had many enemies. His sudden death and the fact that he had squandered his property like this meant that many people would take advantage of the situation and permanently destroy the stronghold. The rest was no longer something he needed to worry about.
After resolving all the issues at Guifanlou in Kaifeng, Liu Hong returned to Liangshan Marsh with a group of underground ships transporting supplies. Everyone warmly welcomed Yang Zhi's arrival, and Lin Chong happily joined them in drinking and discussing martial arts.
At this moment, Yang Zhi willingly joined Liangshan, and Liu Hong's eighth star, which he had slain, lit up.
【Yang Zhi - Dark Star】: When you use the Heavenly Gang Slash, you can predict and observe the opponent's actions in the next six seconds, with a hit rate of +6 (equivalent to 6 character levels).
After settling Yang Zhi in, Liu Hong continued to search for a spellcaster skilled in teleportation in order to determine the whereabouts of Wu Song and Lu Zhisheng.
Time flies like a white horse galloping past a crack in the wall. A year has passed since the group went up the mountain. Winter has gone and spring has come. The summer is warm. Song Wan and Du Qian, who were assigned by Liu Hong to the Ghost Fanlou in Daming Prefecture, suddenly received news that Liang Zhongshu was going to send gifts to Cai Jing again. This time it was the same old routine: 100,000 strings of cash for a birthday gift. Boss, should we give him another blow?
At this moment, the original plot had been completely messed up by Liu Hong. Liang Zhongshu did not obtain Yang Zhi, a powerful fighter, and Suo Chao was also taken away by Liu Hong. Therefore, Yang Zhi's disguised escort plan was wrong from the beginning.
However, Liang Zhongshu learned from his previous experience: the 100,000 strings of cash were mostly copper and silver coins, and the amount he had handled last time weighed seven or eight tons, making normal transportation impossible. He had no choice but to use large ships for escort, but that would be too conspicuous and attract too much hatred; he absolutely couldn't do that.
Therefore, after plundering the people's wealth, Liang Zhongshu used all the money to buy gold, silver, gemstones, pearls and other precious metals.
According to the price system of the Northern Song Dynasty, a copper coin weighed about 3.5 grams, and one thousand copper coins made one string of cash, which was 3.5 kilograms. One hundred thousand strings of cash would weigh thirty-five tons.
However, one tael of silver is about 40 grams, which is equivalent to the value of one string of copper coins. If all the copper coins were replaced with silver, this terrifying weight of 35 tons could be compressed to 4 tons.
One tael of gold is 40 grams, which is equivalent to the price of 400 grams of silver. This can compress the terrifying weight of four tons into 800 jin (400 catties).
Liang Zhongshu was so obsessed with preventing the birthday tribute from being robbed that he became somewhat possessed. He plundered the copper coins from the common people and cleverly took the gold and silver from the merchants. Then he tried to find ways to exchange them for money. In the end, the weight of this birthday tribute was actually compressed to 1500 catties.
This weight means that even if you hired about thirty porters, each carrying about 50 kilograms of gold and silver jewelry, they could walk all the way to Tokyo without any oxen or horses.
After careful consideration, Liang Zhongshu decided that taking the waterway was not auspicious—the last time the birthday tribute was lost by water, and those thieves might have a path dependency and were waiting for him in the water.
No, this time we'll go by land.
However, without Yang Zhi's help, Liang Zhongshu did not choose to disguise himself and travel light. Instead, he went to the other extreme—"Fine, since a few hundred soldiers couldn't guard the birthday tribute, and since these thieves left like this, then I'll send more soldiers! A more powerful armed force!"
If I cannot mobilize the Imperial Guards, I will write directly to Tokyo and ask my father-in-law, Cai Jing, to ask Grand Commandant Gao Qiu to pull some strings and open a back door so that I can mobilize the Imperial Guards of Daming Prefecture to assist in escorting the grain. At that time, I will also invite a few experts from the surrounding area of Daming Prefecture. This time, the escort will be foolproof!
Ultimately, under Liang Zhongshu's enraged scheme, the person chosen to escort the birthday gifts was selected this time.
The head escort officer was Wen Da, the military commander of Daming Prefecture in Beijing. He was skilled with a thunderous broadsword and was known as one of the thirty-six generals of the Thunder Department: Jing Lang, the Yuan Gang Demon-Slaying General of the Thunder Mansion, who was incarnate as a demon. He was Suo Chao's superior.
His deputy was another military commander from Daming Prefecture in Beijing: Li Tianwang Li Cheng, who was also a brave and skilled general.
The two generals mustered an entire battalion of Imperial Guard cavalry, totaling five hundred men. Among them were two hundred and fifty heavily armored shock cavalrymen clad in gleaming armor and wielding long spears, maces, and shields; and two hundred and fifty lightly armored archer cavalrymen clad in leather armor and wielding bows and scimitars. Each cavalryman was equipped with a makeshift configuration of one horse and two horses, one carrying the birthday gifts or pack bags. With five hundred cavalrymen prioritizing speed, they charged forward at breakneck speed along the main road. I want to see how ordinary bandits can stop me!
Two generals and five hundred cavalrymen had gone to such lengths to escort a birthday tribute, yet Liang Zhongshu was still not satisfied. She even devised a circuitous route. Originally, Hebei to Henan was a straight line, but instead of heading directly south to Kaifeng, she started from Hebei, detoured through Shandong, and then went to Henan. This would allow her to avoid the bandits' deployments along the way and catch them off guard.
Finally, Liang Zhongshu thought for a moment and wrote another letter to a man in Daming Prefecture who was renowned throughout the land. Although the wording was appropriate, the language was respectful, and the writing was excellent, the whole letter was full of praise.
But the real meaning is only one: Lu Junyi, the government is forcing you to perform one labor service to escort the birthday tribute for me—this rich man, you don't want to be unable to make a living in Daming Prefecture, do you?
Chapter 145: The Bearded Gentleman's Hunting Trip in Yuncheng
In the imperial court, Liang Zhongshu began a second grand escort of the birthday tribute.
Far beyond the mountains and forests, heroes began to covet this immense wealth.
Many outlaws looked at Liu Hong and his gang with envy and jealousy: these guys only robbed the birthday gifts once, and immediately used that 100,000 strings of cash as start-up capital to start their own business in Liangshan! Look at how well they're doing in Liangshan now, how comfortable they are. In just one year, they've almost rivaled the three generations of the Zhu Family Manor's foundation. Who wouldn't be envious!
Moreover, when Liu Hong robbed the birthday gifts, there were only about a hundred people, while we had more than a hundred. If we could also seize such a large sum of start-up capital, then in the future, we would definitely be as powerful as the Great Sage Equaling Heaven!
In an instant, heroes from Hebei, Henan, and Shandong were eager to make their move. Liu Hong was also preparing his troops, planning how to use his thousand infantrymen and navy to intercept the five hundred imperial guards cavalrymen who were moving at lightning speed.
Meanwhile, in Yuncheng County, Liang Zhongshu's letter arrived. Magistrate Shi Wenbin opened the letter with a bewildered expression and found that the sender had given him a death order: when the cavalry escorting the birthday tribute passes through your area, you must thoroughly eliminate the bandits under your jurisdiction, wipe out the bandit dens on both sides of the road, and when the birthday tribute enters Yuncheng territory, send all the local garrison troops to assist the cavalry of Daming Prefecture in escorting the birthday tribute until the troops leave Yuncheng territory and make contact with the garrison troops of the neighboring county.
If any of the above is delayed, you will be held responsible!
Shi Wenbin gasped and immediately summoned Zhu Tong, the cavalry captain, ordering her to lead the local troops to quickly clear out the bandits, at least cleaning up the bandit strongholds along Liang Zhongshu's route.
As for Liangshanbo... Shi Wenbin was in a real bind. If he didn't tell Liu Hong about this, what if the Great Sage really went to intercept the birthday tribute a second time?
But if I tell him, what if he didn't know before? If I tell him and he finds out and tries to rob the birthday gifts, I can't stop him. Wouldn't that make me colluding with the Liangshan bandits to rob the birthday gifts a second time?
With no other option, Shi Wenbin could only send Song Jiang with good wine and meat to Liangshan to gather information and test Liu Hong's reaction, to see if they could keep the Great Sage in check. If all else failed, they would have to reveal their hand!
I'm begging you on my knees: you've killed so many wealthy men these past few days, you've probably amassed at least 80,000, if not 100,000. Please don't try to intercept the birthday tribute anymore. This time it's a tough case. Two generals and 500 Imperial Guard cavalrymen have come at once. They're too tough to handle! Don't let this result in you losing men and me being branded as negligent!
Liu Hong was indeed somewhat envious of the birthday gifts, but he didn't necessarily have to snatch them.
As Shi Wenbin said, Liangshan expanded very rapidly during this period, and plundered a lot of money and grain. Although two-thirds of it was used to win over the people and reward the soldiers, there were still tens of thousands of yuan left. Even though they had purchased a lot of building materials during this period and built the seven peaks in the center of Liangshan, the four dry camps in the east, south, west and north, and the four docks, there were still 20,000 strings of cash left. They could also be self-sufficient in weapons and gunpowder, so they were not short of money in the short term.
Liang Zhongshu's Imperial Guard cavalry was indeed troublesome. According to Suo Chao, these 500 cavalrymen were all at least level six, and the two generals, Wen Da and Li Cheng, were even level ten experts, making them the core garrison force of Daming Prefecture in Beijing. In addition, Liang Zhongshu forcibly conscripted a group of talented individuals from Daming Prefecture, led by Lu Junyi, to assist him.
Last time, Zhu Tong only led a hundred Xiangjun cavalrymen with an average rank of 1. Even when five or six hundred Liangshan soldiers mobilized together, they were unable to surround him. They managed to kill a few of the enemy soldiers and then retreated calmly.
Now, Liangshan is facing five hundred Imperial Guard cavalrymen, each with an average level of 6. Liu Hong asked himself honestly, without Yang Zhi's genius suggestion to lead a group of soldiers disguised as merchants and take a back road, he really didn't have a sure chance of successfully robbing and killing this second wave of birthday tribute.
However, just because Liu Hong didn't want to fight didn't mean others didn't. Hearing that Wen Da and Li Cheng had already left Daming Prefecture with the birthday tribute, many heroes couldn't wait any longer and had already started their operation!
For a time, Zhu Tong felt utterly exhausted. He led a hundred Xiangjun cavalry and two hundred Xiangjun infantry, sweeping along the Yuncheng Avenue repeatedly. Every few hours, a group of ignorant bandits would come to investigate the birthday tribute. Some powerful mountain strongholds even tried to launch an attack on the Xiangjun!
This endless repetitive work drove her to distraction, causing her tentacles and mouthparts to wilt and curl up. This mind-stealer was forced to work overtime for several days in a row, killing many of these bandits before she could barely frighten their ambitions and make them wary.
The price, however, is that these militiamen have become somewhat obsessed. Given that some bandits are bold enough to use them as practice targets and even attempt to ambush them, these men are now extremely nervous and paranoid, ready to act at the first sign of trouble! They'd rather capture a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person escape!
Under such extreme circumstances, Zhu Tong finally couldn't hold on any longer after a routine night patrol. He led a team of thirty cavalrymen to rest in a mountain god temple. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a woman lying in front of the statue of the god, resting.
Zhu Tong suddenly raised his hand, and the thirty cavalrymen, upon seeing the gesture, immediately stood silently in place like statues. The girl had strikingly long red hair, with fiery crimson strands flowing like lava all over the ground. On her fair and beautiful forehead was a strange red birthmark, like the holy mark of the war god Chi You.
Zhu Tong frowned slightly. This red hair was too eye-catching, and he didn't remember having such a person in Yuncheng.
Moreover, she was holding a broadsword!
Strangers, reluctance to stay in hotels, illegal weapons—yet another petty thief!
Zhu Tong's eyes erupted with a terrifying aura of spiritual energy. In an instant, the broadsword shone with silver spiritual energy and quietly flew into the air, leaving its owner. Zhu Tong snatched it away and then impatiently waved her hand, ordering her cavalry to swarm forward and capture the thief who had lost his weapon!