Witch Wind

Chapter 173 Carrying Firewood to Put Out the Fire (Part )

In the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, the golden osmanthus is fragrant.

The seat of Jieshi County and Pinghai County.

Since the Dragon Boat Festival this year, when Jieshi Gong Xing Tianli was conferred the title, everything was normal during the day, but at night, a boundless dark wind suddenly arose from the ground, and millions of ghosts ran around in the sky.

At the border between Jieshi County and its neighbor Canghai County, there is a range of small mountains full of excellent natural stones.

Every night, hundreds of thousands of armored warriors and evil ghosts come riding on clouds and mist, using the powerful ghost king method to transform their bodies into several meters in size. They mine the finest granite from the mountains, cut it into square blocks of several meters in size, and then carry it easily to Pinghai County.

There were also ghost generals and commanders with incredible strength. At night, they would spit ghost fire near Pinghai County, smelting metal ores and inserting various restrictions into them. High-temperature metal liquid sprayed all over the sky, tightly combining with huge pieces of granite.

In just a few months, Pinghai County, which had been destroyed in the war, had been rebuilt.

The newly built Pinghai County has two walls, inner and outer.

The inner city is twenty miles long and wide, and the inner city wall is twenty feet high and thirty feet wide. At the four city gates, there are city beasts carved from huge stones, which are the Azure Dragon, Black Tortoise, Vermillion Bird, and White Tiger. The four city gates are also named after the four sacred beasts.

Inside the inner city, square stone fortresses stood tall, all in the same style as the Xingtian clan's ancestral home, and were to be the residences of the Xingtian clan's future members. The Jieshi Mansion, which Xingtianli had made public, was also built directly here. There was a small barracks stationed in the southeast, northwest, and northeast directions, and each small barracks had a thousand Xingtian clan elites on duty.

The outer city is sixty miles long and wide, and the wall structure is the same as the inner city. There are three gates in each direction, and the Xun River winds through the entire city from south to north. In addition to other large and small rivers, the entire outer city has twelve land gates and six water gates.

The twelve land gates were named after the twelve zodiac signs, Rat and Ox.

The six water gates are named after the three rivers Xunhe River, Zhuohe River and Jihe River that run through the city. They are divided into Nanxun Gate, Beixun Gate, Nanzhuo Gate, Beizhuo Gate, Nanji Gate and Beiji Gate.

The newly built Jieshi Prefecture Government, Pinghai County Government, and many other functional institutions, as well as all the houses, shops, and markets, are all still in the outer city. Similarly, there is a permanent barracks in the four directions of southeast, northwest, and northeast, and each barracks is stationed with 50,000 elite troops all year round.

Outside the outer city, along the south bank of the river, just like the International Concession in Jiangbei, the river embankment was compacted with huge stones, and hundreds of large and small docks were built on the south bank of the river, which was more than a hundred miles long.

In this area of ​​more than 100 miles, Xing Tianli led his soldiers and demons to build a row of 28 "small cities" with a length and width of 10 miles. These "small cities" also have walls 50 feet high and 60 feet thick, and various facilities are extremely complete.

In the newly built Pinghai County, whether it was the prefectural governor's office or the county government office, all the official positions, big and small, were filled by elders with high moral character and prestige selected from the various branches of the Xingtian clan.

Not only that, all official positions in other counties under Jieshi County, and even in the newly built 28 "small cities", are also held by members of the Xingtian clan.

Xing Tianli is nepotism, and the entire fiefdom is ruled by Xing Tianli’s clansmen - if anyone disagrees, just fight him with fists, right?

It was noon on August 15th of that year.

Countless people who originally lived in Pinghai City happily returned to their homes with their families.

The newly built Pinghai County City has a neat structure and large specifications. The neighborhood planning is quite scientific and reasonable, and the number of households it can accommodate is more than twice that of the original Pinghai County City.

All residents of Pinghai County once received a spacious and sturdy mansion for free.

Anyone who wants to move into Pinghai County, whether they are businessmen or civilians, as long as they have good character and a clean family tradition, can buy houses and shops in the brand new Pinghai County at 50% off the market price.

The main gates of the brand new Pinghai City were decorated with lights and colorful decorations, and drums and trumpets were blaring. Long firecrackers were rolled up on bamboo poles, and they kept making "crackling" sounds. Countless men, women, old and young laughed loudly, and in unison, they wished "Long live the Lord of Jieshi" and "Continuous blessings for the Xingtian family."

This was the first day that Pinghai County was officially put into use and the Jieshi Duke's fiefdom officially began to operate.

Not only were people cheering at the gates and in the streets of Pinghai City, but people in all the counties, towns, and small villages in the entire Jieshi County were clamoring and cheering like crazy, praying madly to God for blessings, to let Xing Tianli live forever, and to let the Xing Tian family enjoy eternal blessings.

It's very simple. The first order issued by Xing Tianli today regarding the territory and its people is to exempt all agricultural taxes.

The problem was that Xing Tianli's prerequisite for exempting agricultural taxes was that he distributed almost all the land he had obtained from the wealthy merchants who were involved in the sale of ecstasy to hired farmers and tenant farmers who had no land in the territory.

The land is still under the name of Xing Tianli and the Jieshi Mansion.

These lands were distributed to landless hired farmers and tenant farmers in Jieshi County, and some were also distributed to poor farmers who did not have enough land at home. On this basis, Xing Tianli exempted agricultural taxes.

In his previous life, Xing Tianli was just a senior otaku liberal arts student. How could he know anything about governance?
But he can plagiarize.

It is the business of scholars to copy a little homework. What is this? Can this be considered plagiarism?

Xing Tianli thought that this was called - good at learning and willing to follow good advice!
In his previous life, the ancient country where he lived exempted farmers from taxes and provided them with many welfare subsidies. He did not understand the meaning of it, but he could copy homework!
Therefore, Xing Tianli’s second order was that on the basis of exempting agricultural taxes, the Jieshi Palace would provide certain medical and living subsidies for the elderly over the age of 50.

The subsidy is not much, but at least it can ensure that farmers over 50 years old do not have to wait for death due to serious illness. If they have a headache or fever, they can ask for some medicine without any pressure. When they are old, no matter how big the changes in their family are, they can at least have a house to shelter from the wind and rain in winter, a quilt and a cotton-padded jacket to keep out the cold, and a bowl of thick porridge and a few vegetable leaves to fill their stomachs.

For the wealthy and powerful Xingtian family, this amount of expense is nothing.

Xing Tianli had seen many things in his previous life, so his third order was not directed at the people of Jieshi County, but at the provinces and counties of his neighboring countries.

He spread out his hands and said to his neighbors in a friendly manner: "I want to educate my people, but I lack teachers. Please send a number of teachers to the public schools in Jieshi County every year to teach those naughty children in the countryside."

"Jieshi is a newly established city, and all industries are waiting to be developed. Therefore, these teachers do not receive any salary. But they also need to eat, so please, elders, give them a salary subsidy."

"If they come and educate well, the people of my Jieshi Territory will naturally be well-educated and gentle; if they don't educate well, the people of my Jieshi Territory will become 'barbarians'. When they cross the border and beat people, don't be surprised that I didn't warn them."

Subsequently, Xing Tianli’s fourth order was directed at the people of Jieshi County.

In the territory, all children, when they reach the age of five, must be sent to the nearest public school for their initial education.

During the period of study, children will receive two sets of clothing subsidies each year in spring, summer, autumn and winter; children under the age of twelve will receive three meals a day, which are nutritious and contain a combination of meat and vegetables, all of which will be covered by the Jieshi Public Office.

For children over the age of twelve, if they are successful in their studies and are able to enter a higher-level secondary school, all their living expenses will be reimbursed by the Jieshi Palace before they are eighteen years old.

After the age of eighteen, if young people with excellent academic performance can be admitted to higher universities and receive more fresh knowledge and technology from the hundreds of countries in the Far West, they will be able to serve as officials in Jieshi County, join the army, and make a name for themselves and rise rapidly.

Even students at the university receive a certain amount of scholarship every month to subsidize their families.

What kind of world is this today?
The Great Yu Dynasty was a corrupt feudal dynasty. The corrupt officials were arrogant and domineering, and they were servile and willing to be licking dogs. The common people worked like slaves and could only barely make ends meet. Natural disasters and man-made disasters continued, and the officials and gentry took advantage of the situation. Countless people were displaced and became unemployed vagrants.

Under such circumstances, Xing Tianli brought all the things he had seen and learned in his previous life to Jieshi County of the Dayu Dynasty. Without any warning, and while no one was prepared, he poured all of them on the heads of the common people one by one.

It's like, a group of starving people who have been exploited to the point of being on the verge of death, suddenly a prodigal son jumps out and throws bowls of white rice, big pieces of fat meat, bowls of good soup, and new clothes directly on their heads, without allowing them to refuse - hey, this is yours, you are not allowed to give it back!

In other words, the people of Jieshi County were confused by Xing Tianli, that is, Xing Tianli had not yet shouted out the slogan 'The Heaven is dead, and a new Emperor shall be established someday', otherwise today, Xing Tianli would have just presided over the official opening ceremony of Pinghai City, and in the evening, the freshly made imperial robe would have wrapped him into a ball with three layers inside and three layers outside.

There was noise and bustle all around.

Countless people, regardless of gender, age or status, cheered and leaped for joy like crazy.

Xing Tianli, along with a group of clan elders, slowly came to the newly built White Tiger Gate, and quietly looked at Zhang and Zhang Qingshu, who had been wrapped in countless evil spirits and tortured for more than three months.

The bodies of the two men were still intact, but the light in their eyes was completely gone.

For more than three months, Xing Tianli was brutally tortured, with many incredible witchcraft tortures being carried out one after another. The atrocities were so cruel that even Xing Tianli shuddered when he recalled them.

However, he carefully tried hard to maintain it, and finally managed to barely allow Zhang and Zhang Qingshu to retain the last bit of spiritual awareness.

He walked up to the nominal mother and son, adjusted the direction they were facing, so that they looked at the countless people inside and outside the city gate who were cheering and jumping for joy, and said sarcastically: "Look, you are about to die, but I will live with the title of a duke and an earl, and with the destined prosperity of the Pingyuan Hall Xingtian clan, and with the support of all the people."

"One hundred years? One thousand years?" Xing Tianli smiled brightly: "I am a Taoist, so I am destined to have a long life. I don't know how much of this earthly bliss I should enjoy."

There was a faint light flickering in the eyes of Zhang and Zhang Qingshu. They opened their mouths at the same time and roared at the top of their lungs like evil spirits.

Xing Tianli looked at Zhang and chuckled, "Did you get the title of Lady of a Marquis back then? Well, that old queen mother was quite sensible. After I received the title of Duke of Jieshi, she heard that I had held such a grand reburial ceremony for mother and used all the members of your mother's family as sacrifices. She quickly conferred the title of Lady of a Super-Rank Duke on mother."

"All the imperial edicts, court dresses, and all the ceremonial objects are now displayed in my mother's temple."

Xing Tianli sighed: "Look, look, you killed my mother, you racked your brains to plot against Xing Tian's property, but in the end, didn't you still get nothing?"

Zhang screamed and vomited blood. The corners of her eyes were broken and blood was flowing down her face. She looked so evil that she was even more terrifying than the evil spirits in the eighteen levels of hell.

With a "snap", her intelligence, her consciousness, and the imprint of her self completely collapsed under Xing Tianli's heart-piercing words, and not a trace of them remained.

At the original place, there was only a mass of turbid soul energy that was extremely deep, extremely evil, full of murderous aura and endless resentment.

Xing Tianli carefully shook the Tongtian Yuling Banner and absorbed the evil soul energy. During this time, when he was taking care of the affairs of Jieshi County, he had already thought of the use of this thing.

He looked at Xing Tianqingshu again and nodded with a smile.

"You once licked Princess Yihe's ass. You wanted to get close to a rich and powerful person, didn't you?" Xing Tianli said calmly, "What a pity. You know? Jin Santan has visited me many times in the past few months, and he hinted that as long as I am interested, I can choose any princess or princess of the Great Yu Dynasty. One is not enough, ten or a hundred will do."

"You said, if I let Princess Yihe be my maid..." Xing Tianli smiled brightly.

Zhang Qingshu let out a shrill roar, opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood. Endless resentment and murderous aura rushed up, and the last bit of his spiritual intelligence was completely wiped out by his own resentment.

Xing Tianli let out a long howl, and in his soul on the purple palace of the spirit platform, a shadow of the "essence" of the innate spiritual treasure floated out and quickly merged into the Tongtian Yuling Banner. Xing Tianli merged the two groups of resentful souls of Zhang and Zhang Qingshu with the "essence" of the innate spiritual treasure, and then in the Tongtian Yuling Banner, millions of armored warriors and evil ghosts who were cultivating in the same place opened their mouths and spewed out their own life spirit.

The overwhelming pure ghost energy and two groups of resentful soul energy were entangled together.

Countless mysterious and infinite innate spiritual patterns appeared and disappeared, accompanied by shrill ghost howls, and a bloody, real and illusory female figure rushed out with a terrifying, evil and resentful aura that could not be tolerated by the world.

The belly of the female figure suddenly bulged, she opened her mouth and let out a long, hoarse howl without any intelligence at all, muttering all kinds of extremely evil ghost spells, each of which contained evil power that was enough to make a person's soul fly away and their blood drain away.

Xing Tianli let out a light shout. A few days ago, he had killed members of the Zhang family one after another. The resentful and poisonous souls he had extracted from their bodies were also injected into the body of this bloody woman.

Then, her abdomen swelled rapidly, and finally, it swelled to a transparent belly, and then it burst open with a "crash", and nine pale, semi-transparent, virtual and real shadows of children floated out.

At first glance, the female figure looked like Zhang.

These nine pale white shadows, which were constantly changing in reality and unreality and filled with terrifying evil aura, had facial features that were exactly the same as Zhang Qingshu's.

"The Nine-Child Rakshasa Mother... In the prehistoric times, it was the life-saving method of a semi-saint who entered the ghost path through killing..." Xing Tianli felt the monstrous resentment in the Tongtian Yuling Banner suddenly thicken a hundred times, and said softly: "It is the fundamental method, and it is also an innate spiritual treasure with infinite potential. The more killing, the greater the power."

"This evil creature, haha, matches your temperament very well."

"In an endless purgatory, with endless murderous thoughts in my heart, and suffering endless pain, only killing can slightly relieve the pain, but it is like drinking poison to quench thirst. The more I kill, the stronger my cultivation becomes, and the pain I bring is endless and never-ending."

"Cry, shout, yell, curse, and then, the pain will last forever. You have forgotten who you are, you have forgotten why you suffer, you only know, you only need to know, your pain will continue forever."

"Unless a saint takes action and destroys this spiritual treasure, you can gain eternal liberation."

"Shh, Saint?"

"In this Dharma Ending Age, where can you find a saint?"

Xing Tianli pointed his hand, and the bloody Great Rakshasa Ghost Lord and nine Rakshasa sons floated out from the Tongtian Yuling Banner. With a gust of wind, their bodies solidified and became the same as real people.

They stood quietly beside Xing Tianli, not saying a word, their faces distorted, their bodies convulsing. If you listened carefully, it seemed as if inside every pore of their bodies there were billions of wronged souls crying, begging, cursing, and spouting terrible, incoherent nonsense.

The elders of the Xingtian clan standing by, even though Xingtian Li had opened their bloodlines and they already possessed some extraordinary powers, they just saw the ten figures up close and they suddenly felt a tightness in their chests and started vomiting.

There were even elders in the tribe who felt dizzy, with endless hallucinations before their eyes. They rolled their eyes and fainted.

Xing Tianli coughed awkwardly, then hurriedly shook the Tongtian Yuling Banner to take in the ten horrible evil creatures.

This is the embryo of a great Rakshasa mother. She has not experienced the practice of killing on the battlefield, but she is already so ferocious? When they kill enough creatures and devour enough souls and resentment, how far can they grow?
Xing Tianli was just thinking about this question when Xing Tianren jumped up in two or three steps and shouted at the top of his voice: "Brother, there's someone coming from the northwest. He said it's your uncle, Li Kuisheng!"

(End of this chapter)