Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 67 The Collapse of Mountains and Rivers
In the 31st year of the Tianli era, the governor of Jiuyang County reported that bandits, with the assistance of some unorthodox and wicked people, along with scoundrels from prestigious families who acted as "strategists," had come out of seclusion to aid the wicked, causing many wealthy families to suffer calamities.

At this stage, those who are reported as "robbed" by the prefect are already well-known and prominent families.

The wealthy households chosen by the bandits all met specific conditions.

The Li family was a prominent family in Jiuyang County, a branch of a large clan from the Heluo region that had migrated here, with over three hundred members. However, they had only been established here for three generations and their roots were not deep.

What does it mean to lack a deep foundation? In the genealogies of other prominent families in Jiuyang County, there are also about a hundred descendants, which may even seem smaller than the Li family's. However, this only refers to the number of direct descendants. The collateral branches and their illegitimate offspring number in the thousands. Among them are many who make a living in various local circles, some as peddlers, some as hunters, and many who joined the bandits during the chaotic times.

The outlaws themselves didn't know the exact relationship between their recruited brothers and the local families, so they dared not kill them. However, the Li family, who had just migrated to the area, was different. They had only been around for two generations, so their connections with the locals were very clear.

Because the Li family originated from a prestigious noble family in the Heluo region, they had an inflated sense of self-importance. Their previous generation was not proactive in intermarrying with local families, but instead preferred to return to the Heluo region to marry into other prominent families, which also affected their integration into the local community.

Narrator: During the late Qin Dynasty, the actions of Old Master Lü, who was forced to come from Qi, were very correct and standard. He married his daughter to Liu Bang, who seemed to be in dire straits in the area. It was not because he saw the dragon's aura from the beginning, but because Liu Bang had influence among the local young men. At least it could protect the Lü family from being attacked by random bandits.

The modern logic that money equals power is built on a foundation of stable rules. Well-established rules and a deeply ingrained system of authority allow money to be reliably exchanged for power. In feudal times, however, grassroots order was lacking. The lower classes were largely populated by impoverished people who were more concerned with inequality than scarcity. Wealthy newcomers from other regions who wanted to survive had to forge alliances with local powerful families through marriage.

The Li family of Jiuyang County did not anticipate that the situation would change so quickly. At least ten years ago, the state of Dayao was not yet in trouble. Theoretically, as long as Dayao continued to be peaceful for a hundred years, the Li family's collateral branches and illegitimate children would still be able to integrate into the local area without much effort, and the legitimate sons and daughters would not need to participate in the task of localizing the family.

Just as the outlaws were preparing to attack the Li family's shops and caravans, the Li family sensed the impending storm.

The old patriarch of the Li family had already gathered all the clan members to discuss the matter, and they had roughly come up with two options: first, to defend the area if possible, and second, to relocate back to their ancestral home in Heluo if they couldn't defend it. Although they would become collateral relatives there, at least they would have a place to stay in this chaotic world.

…Conflict dividing line…

In front of the Li family manor, between the earthen ditch and the earthen wall, the outlaws and the servants of the Li family were facing off. The Li family steward promised the servants "twenty coins for each person if they repel them," but the servants' hands, gripping their broadswords, were still trembling. Some even calculated in their minds that if the other side rushed at them, they would clash with their swords a couple of times, which would be doing right by the old master of the Li family, and then they would find an opportunity to slip away.

The reason is that twenty coins is too little. The "slave servants" all know in their hearts: the steward earns several hundred coins a month gambling, and now everyone is risking their lives for just twenty coins, so why don't you step up?! You're hiding in the back pretending to be a big shot.

The steward was furious to see that the servants were still listless. It was like how some company leaders in the 21st century would be very disrespectful to their employees when they heard that they had no energy or enthusiasm after working overtime.

Steward: Twenty coins per person, that's so much money, I won't be able to go to Dianluan Tower for months.

If a member of a traditional military family were to see the Li family generals as a bunch of cowards, he would surely find it laughable. Meanwhile, the outlaws besieging the area outside were cautiously probing, gripping their spears. This was largely due to the deep-rooted influence of the powerful and influential families in the region.

Normally, the servants of the Li family are not so timid. When they gang up to bully people, they are very daring and aggressive! Today they kick a beggar and say, "Don't you have eyes? Get out of my way!" The day after tomorrow they point at a vendor and say, "I'm giving you face by eating your food. You don't know any better and dare to ask me for money?" They are all like the character Hao Nan from Causeway Bay.

And so it turned into this comical standoff. The balance lasted for a short while, when a person jumped out from inside Lijiazhuang.

This was Li Xuan, a disciple of the Li family who had just descended from the Immortal Sect. He rushed to the front of the battle. He wore a Demon Suppression Bureau badge at his waist, the same as the military's amulet for avoiding evil spirits. This badge was officially designated and allowed cultivators to avoid being tainted by evil spirits when casting spells in the mortal world. As a third-generation disciple, he unleashed a torrent of sword light, slicing the spear shaft in mid-air as easily as a flying knife cutting a watermelon.

Suddenly, the atmosphere reversed. The once aggressive bandits retreated several steps, like a herd of wild boars forced to confront tigers and leopards.

The Li family servants shouted, "The Third Young Master is mighty!" while cursing outside, "You lowly bastards, get out of here!" "Grandpa can smell the stench of urine from your crotches!"

Li Xuan stared at the bandits in the countryside, sword held horizontally. However, he felt a chill in his heart, already sensing the heat emanating from his waist token. The spell he had just used was only thirty percent as powerful as when he unleashed it at full strength on the mountain, but his magical energy was already stretched thin, because his waist token, according to military standards, only indicated him to be a battalion commander.

Before descending the mountain, his senior brother, seeing that he couldn't persuade him to stay, could only give him this waist token and warn him, "The mountain and the foot of the mountain are different. Without the token of the mortal dynasty, when we fight in the mortal world, our Taoist arts will be tainted by evil energy, especially when we participate in battles among mortals, our minds will be invaded. Do not think that the token is to restrict the power of your Taoist arts and take it off! Once the waist token is broken, you must immediately stay away from the battle!"

Li Xuan looked at his waist token. Although he felt that it greatly restricted his magical power, he still held it firmly.

This waist token has an upper limit; even disciples with higher cultivation levels are subject to its restrictions.

The bandits currently confronting the Li family, while lacking the ferocity of a true army, were still stronger than their own servants. The servants only bullied the poor and needy, killing someone when they were bored. These bandits, however, had wreaked havoc throughout Jiuyang County months earlier, forcing tens of thousands of households to relocate; they were simply killing for fun.

Therefore, in the standoff, the outlaws had the upper hand.

Li Xuan thought that after scaring the bandits away, they made way for each other, and a female bandit with a red peach blossom tattooed on her face came out. As soon as she appeared, she smiled and teased, "Pretty boy."

The female bandit's unrestrained words made Li Xuan blush.

But before he could react, the female bandit threw out a hidden weapon shaped like a peach petal, and in an instant, Li Xuan felt his vital energy expand uncontrollably.

The female bandit boasted, saying things like, "I've been cursed by my own love charm."

The waist token on Li Xuan's body was tainted by the malevolent energy, causing cracks to appear. His rational mind told him to retreat immediately, but a strong emotion surged into his heart. Then, sword energy erupted from his body.

Four bandits were slain by the sword's edge, their blood blooming in the air like flowers. The evil moon watched everything intently from high above, casting its blessing upon the scene.

…煞气 (negative energy) can permeate emotions, and the negative energy in chaotic places is truly filthy and disorderly…

The bandits were torn apart by chariots, and that very night the Li family celebrated with their sect members. In his euphoria, Li Xuan forgot all the sect's rules and regulations, indulging in sensual pleasures. However, a month later, several women within the family inexplicably had their chastity violated by an unknown lecherous thief.

Eventually, disciples from other sects came to investigate, and all the evidence pointed to Li Xuan.

After being exposed, Li Xuan began to fully display his martial arts skills. At this time, his cultivation of replenishing yin and yang broke through several levels, and many people could not subdue him. His eyes were purple, which meant that he had completely fallen into demonic possession.

Subsequently, they were forced to retreat by demon hunters sent by the Demon Suppression Bureau and became wanted by the authorities. As for the Li family, they were also conscripted by the prefect, surrendered their local properties, and then withdrew.

…Six months later…

Xian Daoren watched the Li family's relocating convoy and revealed a playful smile.

In the Li family's convoy, a "peach petal" happened to fall on a girl's neck, with a blue vein on it.

This eldest daughter of the Li family could not forget the scene several months ago when her cousin entered her room to try and extract her essence. Although she held a wisp of blue light needle bestowed by an immortal in her hand, her cousin did not succeed. But later, as many women in the clan were harmed and eventually disposed of by the family and married off to ordinary men, she also felt a deep sense of fear.

As for this protective magic item? It was a concealment technique given to me one night by a mysterious young man in blue.

The next day, she passed the examination by the clan's old matron. She was very grateful and could not forget the dark blue in the eyes of the young master who saved her.

…Blue feathers fall, scene changes…

Beside Xian Daoren, Chang Wangri and Dai Tanyue served him like lackeys. This strategy of framing the Li family was devised by Chang Wangri for the outlaws. They avoided a direct confrontation that would have drawn a strong reaction from the government troops, instead seizing the Li family's wealth by sharing the spoils with the prefect and other local tycoons.

However, just as Chang Wangri and his bandits were contemplating whether to take advantage of the Li family's departure from Jiuyang County to plunder some wealth and have some fun with the women, he and Dai Tanyue were lightly flicked by Xian Daoren's whisk. The flick wasn't severe, but it felt as if steel wires were piercing and tightly binding their foreheads, causing them pain for several hours.

These two demons, who thought they had become powerful, recalled the unfathomable methods of the Daoist Master.

Xian Daoren said: "The way of change is to look to the long future and not to think about mindless things or act on a whim."

The seemingly gentle Taoist priest's "earnest teachings" made the two demons kneel down, moved to tears of gratitude.

The Taoist Master, helpless at the two demons' pleas for mercy, sighed, "Foolish indeed!" He then vanished in a gust of wind. After confirming the Taoist Master was gone, the two demons looked at each other and then breathed a sigh of relief.

…In this vision of the future, those who cannot adapt to change will rise and fall in an instant…

Jiuyang Mountain then began the next round of victim selection, but encountered a tough opponent. After learning that Li Xuan had gone mad, the sect had begun to keep an eye on the local bandits. Just as the Jiuyang Mountain bandits were trying to frame another family, several sect disciples who had obtained the Demon Suppression Division tokens formed a sword formation and killed four leaders of Jiuyang Mountain.

Subsequently, the imperial court dispatched 500 soldiers to suppress the rebellion, and local households also contributed their courage and strength to help.

When the bandits of Jiuyang Mountain heard that the army was coming, most of their tens of thousands of bandits had already fled. The few fierce bandits who fought against the government troops were immediately defeated when they were touched by the long spear and the Blood Demon. Within a few hours, the bandits were all wiped out.

Chang Wangri and Dai Tanyue escaped in the chaos, and the soldiers' search yielded no results.

For Xiandaoren, these two are still useful and won't extinguish their luck; this is just a lesson.

…A cunning strategy that kills multiple birds with one stone…

After the bandits of Jiuyang Mountain dispersed, Xian Daoren arrived at the foot of Jiuyang Mountain. Looking at the mountain range that had been ravaged by the bandits, he smiled and pushed aside the wronged spirits in the clouds, beginning to perform a ritual with his fingers. As his magical power surged, the clouds in the sky began to disperse, revealing the starry sky, and a blue, malevolent moon hung in the sky.

The evil moon in the starry sky gradually revealed its gaping maw, aimed at the mountain range that the Taoist had pointed to.

…a thousand miles away…

In the southern part of Zhenzhou, a vanguard of 1,500 men was advancing in a winding path. Wu Hengyu rode his steed, Wuzhui, at the very front. Wuzhui remained in horse form; for this divine beast, horse form was equivalent to a dormant state. This reduced the contamination by malevolent energy and preserved its essential spiritual beast nature.

As for the two ghost chariots crawling through the army, they had been completely consumed by the evil energy and were now pure war beasts. The only way out for these war beasts, whose minds had been taken over by the evil energy, was for the army to return victorious after a hundred battles. As their tamers' hair turned white and they became uncontrollable, they would be worshipped with incense and become guardian beasts.

Once the guardian beast has collected enough incense offerings to end the evils of war, it will be restored to its battle form after receiving guidance from the next descendant of a military strategist with the bloodline of a commander, and will continue to conquer the human world.

But what if the incense offerings cannot cleanse the sins? Then the statue, which serves as a guardian beast, will gradually lose its incense offerings as it weathers away, and eventually, under the influence of weathering and the seeds of bird droppings sprouting in the cracks, it will crumble and break.

Compared to Confucianism, Legalism, and the military school, the core of military strategy is not entirely about conquest, but about the great order that comes after the killing. Therefore, if one cannot achieve long-term peace and stability after the killing, no matter how many exhilarating battlefield victories one has, they are still not worth mentioning.

As tools of war, war beasts must ultimately prove themselves in this way: as the murderous aura of war permeates their being, and as their lord grows old and lays down his sword, the war beast transforms into a guardian beast. However, if they do not receive offerings and have their blood drained, they will ultimately be unable to find liberation.

In every great calamity, there is only one victor. In ancient times, each faction had its own war beasts. Therefore, the war beasts that people see today are actually only one in a hundred of the ancient war beasts.

The military mage accompanying Wu Hengyu clearly disliked the evil aura of the ghost carriage.

…on the supply wagons in the middle of the marching column…

Bai Renfeng walked with his junior brothers and sisters, hanging his waist tokens around his sides to maintain an aura that kept strangers at bay, preserving the tranquility of his Dao heart amidst the army's murderous aura.

In recent days, they have figured out how to apply magic in the army. When magic is used beyond the limits of the token, the effect is greatly amplified, and the magic power is quickly depleted as if it is leaking.

Bai Renfeng already knew why the sect had previously sent its third-generation disciples, such as himself, down the mountain instead of sending the second-generation senior disciples. It was because there were only so many slots for the waist tokens to ward off evil spirits; even though the senior disciples had high cultivation levels, they only had so much magical power to circulate when encountering evil energy.

This is like being pressed down by a huge mountain. Sometimes birds are not as agile as ants, since ants can find crevices in the mountain.

In this oppressive environment, the quick-thinking Huang Yao said, "Senior brother, there are wisps of demonic energy in the mountains on both sides. Shall we go and investigate?"

Qinglin: "Junior brother, don't be reckless. We are in the military now, and we must follow the rules."

Huang Yao muttered, "Rules, rules, so troublesome."

Han Jiangxue: "This trip north is to the territory of the Xinghong Sect. This sect is now also interfering in human affairs and supporting the false Guan."

Zhu Yanming: "Nowadays, which major sect doesn't engage in worldly affairs? We disciples of this generation are all coming out of the mountains to face the tribulations for our sect."

Bai Renfeng said, "Don't talk about questioning the sect. How much can we, as juniors, understand the concerns of the sect leaders?" He then got up and left.

Qinglin and Hanjiangxue: "Senior brother, where are you going?" They asked in unison, then glanced at each other secretly.

Bai Renfeng: "I'm going to see the general (Wu Hengyu). The vanguard has found out some things and summoned me to handle them. You all stay here and rest."

……

At the vanguard, the Wu family army cavalry dragged over a monstrous creature. Wu Hengyu was using his Xinghan Spear to poke at this guy, who was covered in skulls and had bloodstains painted on his face.

While the main army was at the front, this guy was devouring a peddler who appeared to be passing by. Upon seeing the army, he charged forward without flinching and was then killed by an arrow.

Bai Renfeng arrived just in time. Wu Hengyu stepped aside and asked, "Senior brother, may I ask what this is?"

Bai Renfeng: "Ordinary people who have mistakenly entered the heretical path: In this day and age, the atmosphere of heaven and earth is turbid, and strange forces often surge from the earth. These strange forces have been polluted by the evil moon in the sky. Some mortals, after mistakenly obtaining them, do not understand the righteous way, and thus their minds are impacted by the evil energy in the strange forces, and they become neither human nor ghost. This person who is committing evil deeds suddenly got the feeling that 'killing' can increase his power, so he became lost in it."

This method of using power without any limits seems very free. Compared to Bai Renfeng and those Taoist disciples who must always uphold the Taoist heart and are willing to let their magical power be limited by their rank, this method makes one incredibly powerful after becoming possessed by demons. However, when faced with the even more unreasonable martial arts aura, it is immediately suppressed back to its original form and brought here like a dead dog.

Wu Hengyu took a deep breath and slowly said, "The mountains and rivers in the north are severely damaged." He looked at the withered grass at his feet.

Bai Renfeng said to Wu Hengyu, "General, you have the heart to uphold justice for the world, and we also have the wish to eliminate evil and protect the righteous path!"

Wu Hengyu paused for a moment, then replied perfunctorily, "Yes, to eliminate demons and uphold justice, and to bring order to the world." At this time, demons and monsters were rampant in all directions, which made Wu Hengyu very disappointed with Da Yao.

However, at that moment, the sharp blade of the sword rang out from its sheath.

Meanwhile, Wu Hengyu's black horse rapidly swelled up, revealing its divine beast form. The two of them stared intently at the east, where a blue light appeared on the eastern horizon, piercing through the earth and into the sky like a straw.

Immediately following, a black block rose into the sky amidst the blue light.

The cultivators had excellent eyesight. Wu Hengyu murmured, "This is—" Bai Renfeng also said in an incredulous tone, "The mountains and rivers have collapsed!"

…Let's switch the perspective back…

The Daoist Master stood on this crumbling earth, his eyes closed, watching with his third eye as the Nine Suns Mountains collapsed and ascended into the sky. The wind howled and swirled wildly, sometimes east, sometimes west, like a strange laugh.

The massive mountain peak blocked out the sky. After it was lifted into the air, its internal cohesion was insufficient, and it broke into a large number of fragments. Many cracks also appeared on the intact mountain peak. At this moment, the sound of rocks collapsing in the sky was truly earth-shattering.

Amidst the rubble of the mountain range, the spiritual energy flowed like a trembling fish, attempting to return to the earth, but was inevitably swept away by the power of the evil moon in the sky.

(End of this chapter)