Blue, Red and White Dark Abyss Cauldron

After Chu Xiaomu said goodbye to Gao Yijue and others, he set out with Yu Aqi, Yang Dou, Huai Xiaomeng, Hai Wuqing and other 14 people. Gao Yijue said that he would first arrange a dozen people to find a small path around the mountain, and it would not be too late to leave after finding it, looking confident.

During the months of being slaves, Chu Xiaomu and Yu Aqi had already learned the terrain around Jiaoshan, and knew where there were rivers, roads, mountains, and plains. They planned to start from Jinshui Bay, go west along Shiyan Creek, bypass Bingwu Camp, turn southeast, pass Bailagang, cross the official road between Jinyang City and Bicheng at night, turn east, cross Xiaotu Mountain, turn south, and cross a dense forest to reach the jurisdiction of Bicheng.

The people were no longer slaves, and although there were no carts to sit in or horses to ride, they felt extremely relaxed and walked very briskly.

Yang Dou was extremely excited to see his two childhood friends again, and they were both safe and sound, and he kept talking along the way.

Everyone talked about the rebellion. Hai Wuqing said, "Thanks to Brother Xiaomu for saving my life, otherwise I would have been beheaded by that martial leader named Pang Shisan. He also said he would hang my head on the flagpole..."

Yang Dou asked curiously, "Why did Pang Shisan want to chop off your head?"

Hai Wuqing then gave a brief account of what happened that day and what had happened.

Yang Dou said: "Mu Tou has always been quite courageous, I know that. But he is not a fool, he will definitely not do such a thing as putting his head under the knife of others. If it was Xiao Meng, it would be almost the same..."

Huai Xiaomeng said angrily: "Do you mean to say that I am a fool?"

Yang Dou quickly shook his hands and said, "No, no, you are just strong, not stupid." Huai Xiaomeng was walking behind him, and was so angry that he wanted to catch up with him and beat him. Yang Dou quickly ran away.

Yu Aqi said: "We were not fully prepared for the rebellion, but the supervisor named Ma suddenly died mysteriously. I have always felt strange. Are you hiding something from me? Was it Xuanying who killed that man?" He turned his head and looked at Chu Xiaomu who was walking side by side with him.

Chu Xiaomu nodded and said, "Xuan Ying killed him. I didn't expect that he would do it on that day."

It turned out that Chu Xiaomu, Xuanying and Yu Aqi had been preparing for rebellion and escape. They drew secret codes on the palms of their hands and communicated with each other among the slaves.

Later, it was agreed that the slaves who were willing to join the rebellion would rotate the knot of their forehead scarf to their left ear. That way, anyone who was willing to join the rebellion would know at a glance who shared the same ideals, but outsiders would not be able to guess or understand no matter how hard they tried.

In order to prevent the conspiracy from being leaked, everyone only passed the message to those who were severely bullied by the supervisors or soldiers in Jinyang City, or those who were upright, loyal and reliable. They did not mention those slaves who were weak, afraid of death, greedy and slick.

Therefore, only eleven of the twenty-eight people in the two Junuding houses where the three men were located knew about this matter. Even Gao Yijue, Liu Zang, Luo Daxi and others did not know about it.

Yu Aqi even gave this group of people a name, "Xuan Zuo Righteous Men".

The three men had originally planned to gather about 500 slaves and then start a rebellion when the opportunity arose. However, on the day when the supervisor Ma Baocheng was killed, there were only about 300 people, far from the expected number, and not enough to control the situation of nearly 2,000 people.

Yu Aqi said, "Xuan Ying has a strange personality. Sometimes he is so calm that he never said a word even when Ma Baocheng bullied him. Sometimes he is too hasty. If it weren't for the coincidence that Pang Shisan was captured and the large group of soldiers didn't patrol the mountains, the consequences would be disastrous."

Chu Xiaomu said: "Xuanying is very careful. I guess he must have discovered something, so he took action in advance."

Yu Aqi said: "Fortunately, we escaped without any danger."

Yang Dou interrupted and said, "It's still too early to escape from Jinyang City. I heard that the Jindao Sect is very powerful. They have disciples, warriors, followers and so on in every place in Jinyang City. Even if they have spies in other cities, I guess there must be some in Bicheng as well."

A young man named Lin Zhen who was traveling with us also said that this was indeed the case. The Golden Sword Sect was indeed all-powerful, and everyone had to be more careful now, otherwise their efforts would fail and they would be taken back to be slaves, or they might even be beheaded.

Huai Xiaomeng said, "If I am caught again, I would rather be beheaded than go back to be a slave. Besides, what's so scary about beheading? We dared to start an uprising in Jiaoshan, and we were already risking our lives."

Hai Wuqing grumbled a few times and said, "Killing people and beheading them is fine, death is death, but I'm afraid they will use some vicious punishments like 'skinning a frog' or 'burning a sky lantern', making people unable to live or die, that would be terrible."

Huai Xiaomeng said: "I'm not afraid of anything. The worst that can happen is I'll just slit my throat before I'm caught..." Suddenly he thought of his parents' unavenged death and he couldn't just die like this, so he stopped talking.

Hai Wuqing said: "It is said that Cangmu Country has excellent culture and everyone is kind, but who would have thought that there would be so many ways to torture people? It is really hard to understand. Even in our Shui Country, Dragon Snake Island, which is known for its barbarity, we have never heard of such cruel punishments."

Lin Zhenda disagreed and said, "There is no 'frog skinning' on Dragon Snake Island in Water Country, because they look like frogs and naturally cannot skin themselves. But they have the custom of cutting open the stomach and taking out the internal organs to offer sacrifice to the spirits. Compared with 'frog skinning', it's the same as the other way around."

Hai Wuqing said: "Taking the internal organs to offer sacrifices to the spirits has been a custom of the Water Country since ancient times. The internal organs are where the spiritual energy in the human body gathers, the foundation of the spirit body, and it is best to use them to offer sacrifices to the spirits, but they cannot be used exclusively to harm people."

Lin Zhen said: "What nonsense! The internal organs are so good, why don't people who offer sacrifices to the spirits use their own but use others'?"

Hai Wuqing and Lin Zhen actually started arguing about this. One said that Cangmu Kingdom did not live up to its name, claiming to the outside world that it was the best of the four countries, but in fact many people could not afford clothes or food. Take the issue of giving birth to slaves for example, only in Cangmu Kingdom was it considered a business, and it was done "successfully".

Another said that the Water Kingdom was a barren land that had not been civilized for hundreds or thousands of years. The people loved to eat raw food, lived naked in caves or under rocks, and did not allow others to approach.

Hai Wuqing's voice became louder and louder, and he shouted: "You are talking about the places of the Pincer Hand People and Frog People. Our Pearl Island, Golden Liu Island, Silver Liu Island and other places are completely different. Even the people of Dragon Snake Island can build their own houses..."

Lin Zhen deliberately angered him: "If you are uncivilized, then you are uncivilized. You refuse to admit it. Even the name you gave is so low-class. It's all gold and silver. It's so ugly!"

Hai Wuqing said anxiously: "You...your Cangmu Kingdom is the same, Jin...Jinyang City...doesn't it also have the word 'Jin' in it?" He was so anxious that he kept chattering, causing everyone to laugh.