The immortal is beside me

Chapter 16 Visitor Zhou Wuqing

At the end of December 564 AD, the Yellow River's spiritual veins changed, causing the river to burst its banks, bringing disaster to the cave. Disciples went to control the flood.

[Taohuayuan took advantage of the situation and sent its monks to attack. The guest official Zhou Wuqing was ordered to meet the enemy at the bank of the Wei River. He killed over a hundred of them with a single sword, and their corpses fell into the Wei River, spreading for over a hundred miles.]

In the spring of 565 AD, Taohuayuan attracted a surprise attack from the northern barbarians, who crossed the northern defense line and headed straight for the Taibai Mountain Cave Heaven.

The three elders of the sect led five hundred elite disciples and engaged the enemy for over a day. The guest official, Zhou Wuqing, entered the enemy camp alone, beheaded a Nascent Soul, and the enemy was routed, all of whom were killed by our sect.

In the summer of 566 AD, our sect triumphed in the Eastern Expedition, and the Northern Zhou army subsequently occupied Hengzhou. Three sects were trapped there. Upon hearing the name of the newcomer, all three sects knelt and became our disciples.

Several pairs of eyes were glued to the pages of the book, and the specialists in the confidential room were all reading it intently. They had never thought that one day they would be able to read the mission information so attentively.

Since the Northern Wei Dynasty split in 557, there has been almost no other record in the entire history book. At a glance, all you can see are wars of all sizes, and the separations and reunions caused by the wars.

From the overall situation, the North and South were still in a stalemate during this period, with wins and losses roughly evenly matched. However, whenever a record with "Zhou Wuqing" appeared, it almost always ended with the enemy being defeated.

This is the war of the cultivators. Unlike the mundane world's emphasis on numbers and military tactics, due to the vast differences in individual strength among cultivators, the emergence of a single powerful individual can often influence or even determine the entire course of a battle. In the face of absolute power, all tactics are meaningless.

The entire confidential room was shrouded in silence, broken only by the occasional rustling of pages and the muted sighs of emotion. Just now, everyone had their own opinions of Zhou Wuqing, but as they read on, their assessment converged into one single word.

Strong.

Too strong to be unreasonable.

Even from the cold, icy words, they could sense the overwhelming pressure from the guest. It was hard to imagine what those monks who had faced him in person thousands of years ago must have felt. It was like a cavalry squad encountering a humanoid self-propelled artillery turret.

The room was unusually quiet, with only the occasional, deliberately suppressed sigh of admiration.

Everyone present was a veteran specialist from the Environmental Sanitation Bureau, and each of them had seen more than one ancient cultivator. Because of this, they could better understand the value of these records.

In every record of his victory, Zhou Wuqing always fought alone, often defeating hundreds or even thousands of enemies alone, rarely relying on the help of the sect. This is why he left so many prominent records in historical records.

From a broader perspective, this wasn't particularly good news for the Jiuli. Fighting alone meant he wasn't under the sect's management, and couldn't coordinate with others to form the group formations commonly used by cultivators in warfare. Placing such a person in the middle of a battle presented a significant uncertainty.

But because his record is so outrageous, all the above shortcomings can be ignored.

If they were still questioning at the beginning why the Jiuli Sect had to lower its stance so much to win over this person, now their question has become what means the Jiuli Sect used to accommodate such a ferocious tiger.

At the end of July, the sect received an urgent report stating that the enemy had ambushed two thousand elite troops and that the guest official was in danger.

The leader summoned his elite disciples to rescue them. They searched for them at the foot of Mount Yao, but found the ground littered with enemy heads, with some remnants fleeing into the ridge. Zhou Wuqing set the mountain on fire, but once the fire was extinguished, corpses piled up like a mountain, devastating hundreds of miles.

[The battle is set. Elder Lingchuan has written to the Sect Master, stating that the guest official Zhou Wuqing is acting recklessly and ruthlessly. If he is allowed to continue, it will damage the reputation of Jiuli. The Sect Master is requested to punish him.]

In August, the nine elders of the Council Hall were changed to eight elders.

Lu Zhenhai's eyelids twitched slightly. He knew without looking that the expressions of other people were the same as his.

The last remaining doubts vanished. The thinking of those ancient monsters who had ruled the Central Plains for millennia was truly unquestionable. The Jiuli Sect's continued existence to this day was due to far more than just military strength. [In December, seven Jindan cultivators arrived with hundreds of their disciples, claiming to be remnants of the Baihua Sect. Their sect was destroyed by the evil ways of the Peach Blossom Spring, forcing them to wander the land. They now wish to join our sect, and the Sect Master has granted their consent.]

In early 569, dozens of independent cultivators visited the cave heaven, requesting to see the guest official Zhou Wuqing. The sect leader politely declined, but the independent cultivators had no complaints and only requested to join the sect as an outsider. After discussion in the elder hall and scripture hall, they agreed.

In June, the leader of the sect opened the treasury and issued an edict to the world: anyone who killed a cultivator from the Peach Blossom Spring sect could bring their head to the sect to claim the reward. Those who killed the most enemies could enter the sect and be treated as such through the main gate.

If you only look at these records, they may seem dull. But if you combine them with ordinary history, you will find that the Northern Zhou Dynasty was rapidly rising, while the Northern Qi Dynasty to the east seemed to have a corrupt monarch, social unrest, and an increasingly weak national power.

The rise and fall of mortal dynasties is a barometer of the supernatural forces behind them. Although the current situation of the Peach Blossom Spring forces is unknown, records show that since Zhou Wuqing joined the sect, he has been flocking to Jiuli. Within a few years, the sect's membership has expanded to over ten thousand people, and the entire Central Plains has seen a trend of the west rising and the east declining, and the north rising and the south declining.

At this time, there were still twenty years left before the Central Plains was reunified.

At the same time, in a corner of Liangzhou Park.

The sun was slightly westward in the sky, the most refreshing time of the day, in the afternoon. A gentle breeze blew through the leaves, and fragments of light swayed among them.

Amidst the swaying shadows of the trees, Qin Jiajia and Zhou Qing sat side by side on a stone bench by the roadside. The former chatted fluently, her voice rising and falling; the latter listened attentively, nodding slightly from time to time. To simply look at the scene, they looked a bit like a pair of young students chatting.

".And then this morning, they called me and told me to meet you at the park entrance as planned. That's all."

After saying the last sentence, Qin Jiajia licked her dry lips, grabbed the milk tea that had settled a little next to her, shook it well, and drank it in big gulps.

After the conversation lasting several dozen minutes, she was no longer as nervous as she had been when she first arrived. Although they were discussing dangerous topics, Zhou Qing still spoke in his usual nonchalant tone, which made her feel a long-lost sense of familiarity.

Familiarity breeds trust, and trust made her relax. She felt that she was not facing a dangerous cultivator, but the old classmate she was familiar with.

The only thing she was still a little worried about was Zhou Qing's opinion of the Sanitation Bureau's actions. As she drank her milk tea, she quietly observed his expression, waiting for his comment.

"This brings back some old memories."

Zhou Qing slowly sipped his lemonade. "There was a group of people who wanted my help before, and they sent people to me over and over again. Even after I rejected them several times, they still didn't give up. In the end, they sent a little girl like this. It's been so many years. The practices of these big forces are still the same."

"Help?" Qin Jiajia blinked. "What help?"

"It was simple. They paid me a little and asked me to help them deal with a few enemies. This kind of thing was not uncommon at the time."

That was 1500 years ago.

"That's it."

Seeing this, Qin Jiajia didn't ask any more questions. She had already accepted the assumption that Zhou Qing was a thousand-year-old monster, and it was impossible for him to remember everything that had happened over the years. Since he said so, it must be very simple.

But since he can say this, at least he won't have a head-on conflict with the Environmental Sanitation Bureau.
Just as she was thinking secretly, Zhou Qing over there suddenly spoke again.

"So, do you still want to stay in the Sanitation Bureau?"

(End of this chapter)