The Villain's Counterattack

Lin Pingzhi contacted Taoist Chongxu through a carrier pigeon and ordered people to disguise themselves as him and flee overseas. However, he changed into the Feiyu uniform of the Jinyiwei and wore a brocade sword. He rode a tall horse with a beard and a scar on his head, and swaggered north along the official road.

Lin Pingzhi's identity is a little complicated. He is the General of Jinghai, a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, a scholar, and also has the secret identity of the Crown Prince of the Ryukyu Kingdom. He is very popular among officials, especially among the military officers. Many people want to get in touch with him.

Their Lin family controls the money-making channels of Liaodong, Luzon, Japan and Goryeo, and the annual profits are really enviable.

The power of civil officials is huge and has almost penetrated into every aspect of the Ming Dynasty. There are countless cases of collusion between officials and businessmen, or officials being businessmen and businessmen being officials. They also have a general understanding of the power of the Lin family. Although they are unwilling, they can do nothing about it. Since Lin Zhennan is the head of the family and they don't return to the Ming Dynasty, there will not be much benefit for them even if they capture Lin Pingzhi. They may even offend a large number of people.

Lin Zhennan has declared himself king overseas, vigorously developing his navy. He's like a barefoot man fearing no one wearing shoes. I can sail my large ships and appear at any time along the coast of the Ming Dynasty. But if your Ming army, with its limited navy, wants to attack me, it will first need two years of naval development. And that's assuming I don't harass you. If you make any noise here, I'll immediately bring my ships to plunder and burn, and you might not even be able to develop your navy.

For such a self-proclaimed king, who was clearly willing to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty and pay tribute every year with generous benefits, no one wanted to openly offend him, as he would be isolated by the vested interest groups, including the current emperor. In addition to paying tribute, he also brought a lot of trade to the coastal provinces, with a large amount of jewelry, seafood, timber, and spices, which made a lot of money. His tentacles even connected to more than a dozen provinces through the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, and the Grand Canal.

The previous business of Fuwei Escort Agency has not been completely cut off. Even after it was split up, they would still help with work after receiving the money. They were more efficient and proactive than before. After all, they worked for others before, but now they make money for themselves. Although the reputation of Fuwei Escort Agency has weakened, its influence has not diminished at all.

There was a secret channel in the Embroidered Uniform Guard that allowed Lin Pingzhi's letters to reach the emperor directly. Lin Pingzhi wrote down the general situation, development potential, development direction and methods, hidden dangers and defects, current situation of officialdom, etc. of each province in the Ming Dynasty without any hesitation. This allowed His Majesty the Emperor to write and draw on the map of the Ming Dynasty every day, and know everything about the world without leaving his home.

His Majesty the Emperor always sighed that what the Ming Dynasty lacked now was people who dared to speak and tell the truth. Moreover, this kid not only saw, but also dared to think. It was a pity that as the emperor, he could not go out in person, otherwise he would definitely travel all over the world and even try to govern the local areas himself to see if it was really that difficult.

Unable to intervene directly, the orders issued by those ministers would be seriously distorted. The emperor was furious and secretly ordered the Jinyiwei to find several key points raised by Lin Pingzhi and appointed his trusted civil officials to make an attempt. As a result, half of them were secretly transferred halfway through, and some were corrupted. Only two people persisted to the end. One of them made some chaos because he did not know how to adapt, but still gained a lot in the end.

Lin Pingzhi's assessment of them was that any innkeeper who could do accounting was better than them. They were all lazy and incompetent, not even as capable as the military accountant. The emperor, in a stroke of genius, actually found an impoverished county and promoted a half-baked scholar from the military. He forged a legend in just five years, but that's a story for another time.

Taoist Chongxu was also elusive and found Lin Pingzhi in a secretive way. Then the two of them turned into a pair of wandering Taoist priests, going from street to street to treat people. Lin Pingzhi learned a lot of medical skills in order to practice martial arts, and Taoist Chongxu, as a Taoist master, naturally also had good medical skills. The two of them were actually very popular, and their medical skills scared a lot of people.

As night fell, it was pitch black at the foot of the Blackwood Cliff. Lin Pingzhi tied a rope around his waist, wore spiked shoes and non-slip gloves, and had a backpack on his back. He climbed the Blackwood Cliff with full equipment. Even with his lightness skills, he managed to hide and conceal himself all the way, but it still took him more than half an hour to succeed. He made several mistakes during the process, but he finally reached the top safely.

They chose a secret place, built a simple foothold, used ropes to make a simple lifting basket, and transported Taoist Chongxu up. The security at Heimu Cliff was not as strict as they had imagined. The two of them did some simple exploration at night and left before dawn.

For three consecutive days, they would transport things to the top of the mountain every night to explore the terrain and leave before dawn. At the same time, they also gained a deeper understanding of the Black Wood Cliff. It was indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it was only relative. For top masters like himself and Taoist Chongxu, they could still take it down by surprise, provided that the other side did not have too many masters.

Ren Woxing is here!

As soon as the news of the Wudang disciples and the Embroidered Uniform Guards came, Lin Pingzhi and Taoist Chongxu immediately took enough dry food and fresh water, went up to the Black Wood Cliff at night, and hid quietly. At this time, the two of them were wearing the same clothes of the Demon Sect disciples. If they were not acquaintances, no one would suspect them easily.

Of course, the prerequisite is that the two of them can be found. They have dug a hiding place in the past few days. As long as they don’t come out, no one will think that there is such a place on the edge of the cliff.

Ren Woxing was a man of great skill and courage. He took Xiang Wentian, Ren Yingying and a group of masters he had subdued, and pretended to be captured on the Black Wood Cliff. He looked quite miserable. Except for Dongfang Bubai, who did not see outsiders, no one on the Black Wood Cliff was his match. Yang Lianting was captured without having the strength to fight back. The fake Dongfang Bubai also showed his cowardice and was beaten badly.

As the alarm sounded, Lin Pingzhi and Taoist Chongxu rushed out immediately. They went straight to the Sutra Library, and while passing on false orders, they knocked down all those who were unwilling to leave. The two top masters attacked together, and even if those disciples of the Demon Sect had two first-rate masters, they could not escape the fate of being killed in seconds and become prisoners.

The two first-rate masters guarding the Sutra Library were in tears. They were proud of their martial arts skills, but these two guys who were obviously disguised were definitely not ordinary people, so they couldn't even send out an alarm.

"Where is the "Sunflower Manual"? Tell me and you will be spared from death." Lin Pingzhi almost made Taoist Chongxu stagger when he opened his mouth. You want that thing too?

The Demon Cult elder shook his head repeatedly, looking at the dagger on his neck, and could only confess: "The Sunflower Manual is a secret of our sect that has never been passed down. It has always been kept by the leader himself. We really didn't know about it."

"Where is the Star-Absorbing Art? Dongfang Bubai is practicing the Sunflower Manual, so Ren Woxing's Star-Absorbing Art must be in the library, right?" Lin Pingzhi pressed down with his dagger, and a line of blood appeared, causing the demon cult elder to groan in pain.

"The Star-Absorbing Art is also the previous leader's secret manual of magical skills. It won't appear here. Most of the skills here are stolen from other sects and ordinary martial arts. At most, they are learned by elders."

"We risked our lives to sneak into Blackwood Cliff, and you actually want to send us off with those junk?" Lin Pingzhi casually dislocated his arms. "What's the point of having you if you don't have top-level skills? Do you have them or not?"

"Yes, yes, the Wudang Sect's Tai Chi Chuan Sutra is hidden in the library. Only we know about it. Others..."

"The Tai Chi Chuan Classic? It's originally a handwritten copy?" Lin Pingzhi quietly kicked the seemingly impulsive Taoist Chongxu and said coldly, "Don't try to be cunning. The Tai Chi Chuan Classic is so precious, it's three times more powerful than the Sunflower Manual and the Star-Absorbing Art. How could it be abandoned here? Is there a trick?"

"It's unfair. It's true that the Tai Chi Boxing Classic is profound and extensive, but no one in our sect can understand it." The Demon Sect elder was really wronged this time. The Tai Chi Boxing Classic was too profound and difficult to understand, so it soon became the treasure of the Sutra Library from the sect leader's collection.

"Hehe, there is such a good thing. What other good things are there besides the "Tai Chi Boxing Classics"? Since you have the "Tai Chi Boxing Classics", do you have the Shaolin "Yi Jin Jing"? I heard that thing is also very good." Lin Pingzhi made a unreasonable request for a while, and finally extorted more than a dozen books of martial arts techniques one after another.

Taoist Chongxu heard the noise gradually subside and hurriedly patted Lin Pingzhi, saying, "Brother, we're almost done over there. If we don't leave quickly, we might not be able to leave. These things are enough for us brothers to practice."

"Hmph, you're lucky, big brother. We can just take a few more and sell them later." Lin Pingzhi packed up thirty or fifty books of martial arts without caring about whether they were good or bad. Then he locked them up and rushed back to their hiding place with Taoist Chongxu.