ragginovel Chapter 658 Starry Night and Clouds
Chapter 658 Starry Night and Clouds
Chapter 658 Starry Night and Clouds
The twenty-second year of Yongtai, Qingming Festival.
A grand spectacle that will soon shake the martial arts world has already entered its warm-up phase.
At this time, an allied army led by the "Six Major Sects," along with dozens of smaller sects and countless wandering warriors, is converging on the southwest from all corners of the world.
Their destination was the mountain gate of the "Hun Yuan Star Gate"—Wawu Mountain.
As you may recall, we mentioned it briefly earlier. The "trigger" for this campaign was brought up the mountain by Chief Di.
On the second day after the chaotic battle at Wudang, Di and Hu "acted according to plan," dragging their injuries back to Wudang Mountain and telling everyone a story.
Of course, the reason this story was accepted so readily isn't just because of the injuries these two people sustained... it's mainly because they brought something back with them.
That thing is the True Hero's Token.
At this point, some people might say, "Not many people know that Lin Dong went to Di Bujuan to ask for the True Hero Token. From other people's perspectives, didn't Chief Di already have a True Hero Token? What does that prove?"
This is something that Chief Di and his men must have considered when they made their plans, which is why Di and Hu brought back not just one token, but six.
In the story told by Detective Di, after he and Hu Wenzhi were kidnapped, they met up with Sun and Huang, who had successfully reunited some time later. The two villains then revealed their true colors with smug expressions and gave a self-deprecating speech about how villains die from talking too much. After finishing, they prepared to kill them.
Just when Di and Hu thought they were about to die on the spot, another group of people suddenly appeared, fought with the people of Hunyuan Star Gate, and rescued them in the chaos.
They later learned that the people who rushed out to save them were the senior members of the True Hero Hall.
At this point in the story, the origins of these True Hero Tokens, and how Di and Hu escaped from the hands of those "Hun Yuan Star Gate masters" through their martial arts skills, complete a self-contained cycle of mutual corroboration.
Afterwards, based on everyone's inquiries, Chief Di would add a few hard-to-verify or hard-to-falsify patches to some of Sun Huang's previous actions, which did not affect the overall credibility of the story.
Then, there's another crucial piece of information...
Di Bujuan said that the seniors of the True Hero Hall hoped that he could give these True Hero Tokens to six people in the martial arts world, so that these six people could take the lead and lead the righteous martial arts world to jointly resist the powerful enemy.
We won't keep you in suspense any longer; these six people are—
Abbot of Shaolin Temple, Master Jizhen.
Master Yao Zhizu, the leader of the Wudang Sect.
Di Bujuan, leader of the Cao Gang.
The young master of the thatched cottage, Wen Yuzhai.
Meng Qi, the young master of Yuxiu Manor.
And Murong Xiao, the second young master of the Murong family.
The composition and underlying intention of this list, which was jointly discussed by Shuangxie, Zai Qianqiu, Yun Shili, Boss Ding, and others, should be self-evident to us, the listeners.
However, the opinions of these martial arts figures in the book are different.
It's not that anyone suspects there's something wrong with the person on the list, but those martial arts practitioners who weren't present that day inevitably find it strange... Why would they need to deploy this lineup to deal with a mere "Hun Yuan Star Gate"?
But for those who experienced the Battle of Wudang, this is perfectly normal...
From their perspective, whether it was the group of Yuxiu Manor assassins, each of whom was at least a first-rate expert, or the few Zhenxia Hall elders, each of whom was an absolute master... they were all combatants of the Hunyuan Star Gate.
This doesn't even include Sun Yixie, Huang Donglai, Yun Shili, the Three-Character King, Jiang Muchan (of these five, only Jiang Muchan was not recognized because she was masked)...and Chun Kong who "showed off his skills".
Of course, there is one person who doesn't care about any of this.
As you can probably guess, he is Zheng Dongxi, also known as Gu Qiying.
Old Gu clearly knew that Di and Hu were making up a story, and he could deduce from this story that Zhenxiatang and Shuangxie had joined forces. So he didn't expose them, but waited until later to talk to Di Bujuan in private.
In his opinion, now that everyone is "one of us," things will be much easier. He can just approach Shuangxie and kill them after he goes down the mountain.
Alas, fate seemed determined to let him miss out on this chance for revenge.
Gu Qiying learned that Shuangxie had already set off on a long journey long before Di and Hu returned to Wudang Mountain to make up the story.
So where did Sun and Huang go this time? And why did they leave in such a hurry? The two were still making a ruckus on Wudang Mountain in the early hours of the morning, and they set off without stopping after discussing their wicked plan with someone early in the morning.
The answer... is Wawu Mountain, or to be more specific—Xuanqi Sect.
That's to be expected. If you're planning to cause trouble in the Wawu Mountain area, you should at least give the local boss a heads-up first, right?
What? You mean Sun and Huang have never followed the rules? They caused trouble everywhere without ever asking any local bullies beforehand?
Ugh, how can that be the same...?
In short, we'll leave aside the question of what will happen to Sun and Huang for now; we need to talk about a few other things first...
Do you all remember that there were three "living" people from Yuxiu Manor who fell into the hands of Zhenxia Hall?
The first one is Park Dae-ryung, one of the six gentlemen of the Wanyuan Sect, known as the "Blue-Clad Gentleman". He was killed by the assassins of Yuxiu Manor during the battle on Wudang Mountain, so the number of "living witnesses" is reduced by one.
The second one is Cui Youshan, one of the six gentlemen of the Wanyuan Sect, known as the "Purple-Clad Gentleman". Because he was seriously injured by Zheng Dongxi when he was captured, he was not taken up the mountain, but was imprisoned to recuperate.
The third is Mo Fangyuan, one of the masters of Yuxiu Manor who was captured while acting alongside Park Dae-ryung. He is known in the martial arts world as "Silent Toad." The reason he wasn't taken up the mountain is quite simple: firstly, he doesn't know as much as the other two, and secondly, he is mute, so interrogating him would require communication through writing, which would be quite troublesome.
Speaking of "interrogation," as you might expect, Yun Shili will be making his appearance here again.
In the eyes of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, I don't care if you're a "patient" or a "mute"... as long as I want to interrogate you, I'll find a way.
So, under Brother Yun's "miraculous healing touch," Cui Youshan and Mo Fangyuan quickly vomited a lot of useful and useless information.
Yun Shili combined this information with the intelligence networks of Zhenxiatang, Youjiabang, and Linglouzhu (after Chunxin was killed, Linglouzhu's "witness" lost its meaning, and apart from the Shaolin involved, not many people cared about how to deal with her afterward, so she soon managed to get away) and cross-referenced and analyzed it, and then made several deployments.
First and foremost, the most important and urgent task is to relocate and protect all the eunuchs from Sichuan and the Sun family from Hangzhou.
Although these two families were already under the surveillance and protection of the imperial court, the situation has escalated, so it's always better to be more cautious.
Of course, don't think that Yun Shili really cares about the lives of these two families. In fact, his core purpose, or what he really wants to transfer and protect, is Huangmen's "weapon production line".
If we think of him in a darker light, then this move is a scheme of "ostensibly protecting, but actually holding people hostage for unforeseen circumstances, and incidentally using this as an excuse to seize Huangmen's entire production line."
Just like the situation with Sun Huang and others in the capital, whether to judge Yun Shili's actions by his deeds or his intentions afterward depends on what you choose to believe...
The second thing is to request His Majesty to send an envoy to Korea as soon as possible.
Although it was called a mission, everyone knew in their hearts that it was just an expeditionary force disguised as a mission.
Their stated mission was to use their status as Grand Envoys to probe the Joseon royal family's attitude towards the collusion between King Manwon and the commoner through diplomatic means... In short, they would talk if they could, and if they couldn't reach an agreement, they would consider giving them a warning.
The mission of the undercover agents is to use the Wanyuan Sect as a "real-world exercise".
This matter has to do with the "weapons" made by Huang Donglai. When Huang Donglai and Master Huang were talking about the blueprints and production lines, they got a little carried away, or rather, they seriously underestimated the wisdom of the ancients... This led to a series of chain reactions.
Although the history and technological development of this universe are different from the history we are familiar with, it is obvious that what Huangmen is currently mass-producing is a bit too advanced... Also, because the internal situation of Da Ming during the Yongtai era is relatively stable, and the north has recently won a battle, it is really not easy to find actual combat targets to test those mysterious products such as "charge crossbows", "hand-held shotguns", and "hand grenades".
Well, Brother Yun has now found an overseas civilian organization called "Wanyuan Sect," which is the kind that poses a direct threat to Da Ming. It seems quite suitable to use them for training in secret.
Zhu Yi approved the plan, but the Eastern Depot was in charge of carrying it out. The operation was codenamed "Times Have Changed." We'll discuss the outcome later.
Finally... there's a third thing.
This matter wasn't directly related to the overall plan to confront the illegitimate master. It was just that Mo Fangyuan was driven to desperation by Brother Yun's interrogation and racked his brains to squeeze out a piece of information that he thought might be related to Yun Shili.
It is said that he once overheard other people in the villa talking about it, and that the "waning moon" in "Wind, Clouds, Water, and Moon" is actually a fake. The real one... is locked up under a tailor shop on Caiyi Street, east of the Xiaoqinhuai River in Yangzhou.
Since he had already heard about Yue Youque being impersonated from Sun Huang and Feng Manlou respectively, this information also came right into Yun Shili's hands.
After listening, Brother Yun pondered for a moment: As the situation at Wawu Mountain unfolds, the forces of the young master and Yuxiu Manor will inevitably be mobilized and gathered in the southwest. As a result, the number of people originally stationed in various places will decrease accordingly, and the defensive strength will also weaken. Isn't this a good opportunity to launch a rescue operation?
Although he and Yue Youque weren't particularly close, he wasn't really comfortable entrusting this task to someone else. Besides, if he succeeded, he would not only have saved Yue Youque's life, but he would also have made Feng Ge, the number one in Da Ming, owe him a favor, which would definitely be a win-win situation.
With this in mind, Yun Shili decided to make the trip himself.
So, after completing the few arrangements at hand, he boarded a fast horse that very night and headed for Yangzhou under the stars and moon.