Since the other party didn't escape the city with Ciwen, their hiding place must have been very well concealed. How could they have been found so quickly?
Guo Jiwang casually said, "After I entered the city yesterday, the first thing I investigated was how Ciwen and the others sneaked into the city and where they were hiding. I quickly found out that they were hiding in a rice shop. Following the clues, I found three suspicious places. This morning, I had Chen Tie lead men to search them, and that's how we caught this person."
He spoke of it casually, but Wu Shuangren could imagine the difficulty involved.
If it were me or one of my subordinates investigating, we might not have been able to find Hong Zhanming so quickly.
Hong Zhanming turned to Guo Jiwang: "You said there are three suspicious places? What exactly are they?"
He believed he had kept a low profile and acted with extreme caution, employing a separate team he had cultivated himself, not people from the Mist Hidden Temple.
So he couldn't figure out where his weakness lay?
Guo Jiwang at the man and sneered, "You think too highly of yourself and too foolish of Ciwen. That rice shop was arranged by you in secret. In the end, he chose to hide there, which is equivalent to entrusting his life and fortune to you. Do you think he would be completely unguarded?"
Hong Zhanming was very intelligent and understood immediately. He murmured, "No wonder you wanted to find out where Ciwen was hiding right away..."
Guo Jiwang his head. "I'm just afraid that Ciwen might have some backup plan in the city. Capturing you is a pleasant surprise."
Hong Zhanming suddenly collapsed, and he looked at Wu Shuangren:
"Kill me if you want. I am no match for you, so I shall die."
Guo Jiwang a sip of wine and said calmly, "It's easy to want to die, but it's not so easy to die a quick death. Ciwen is already dead. What you need to do is reveal all the secrets of Mist Hidden Temple in the city and the mountains. If you tell me, I'll give you a quick death; if you don't, I'll let you die slowly over three days."
"Ciwen is dead?!"
Hong Zhanming suddenly raised his head, his face filled with shock.
Guo Jiwang pointed at Wu Shuangren: "He led his men to kill them last night, right in front of thousands of monks from Mist Hidden Temple."
"..."
Hong Zhanming stared at Wu Shuangren, speechless.
"Good."
He finally lowered his head, his face ashen. "I'm willing to cooperate, just give me a quick death in the end."
In the afternoon, more than a hundred riders emerged from the Yi Prefecture City.
Wu Shuangren led Xu Yu, Guo Jiwang, and a group of personal guards out of the city, while Xu Jing and Chen Tie stayed behind inside.
The group rode their horses and soon arrived at the foot of Mist Hidden Mountain.
Dismount and climb the mountain.
The Mist Hidden Mountain winds its way up, with trees rustling in the wind on both sides.
Halfway up the mountain, the majestic palaces at the summit could be vaguely seen.
Further up, the mountain gate was wide open, with no one guarding it.
Wu Shuangren led his men into the temple, which was in complete disarray!
The incense burner was overturned on the ground, ash was scattered everywhere, the doors and windows of several side halls were smashed, and Buddhist scriptures were scattered all over the ground.
As Wu Shuangren walked further in, he saw some monks scraping the copper plates inlaid on a Buddha statue, and several monks fighting over an incense burner.
Before the threshold of a Buddhist temple lay the corpses of several old monks...
Ciwen led all the monks in the temple away, leaving behind only some devout old monks who worshipped Buddha.
Just as Guo Jiwang predicted, after Wu Shuangren killed Ciwen last night, some of the warrior monks secretly escaped and returned to Mist Hidden Temple to continue looting valuable items, even resorting to murder!
"Search the entire temple, bring all the warrior monks to the front courtyard, and kill any who resist."
Wu Shuangren gave the order.
His personal guards, dozens of whom were dressed in infantry armor, scattered and began searching with the rest of the militia.
In less than half an hour, the entire temple was completely under Wu Shuangren's control.
More than three hundred warrior monks returned to Mist Hidden Temple!
However, upon seeing the militiamen in their armor, these monks dared not resist and surrendered without resistance. They were all gathered and taken to the front yard.
Next, Wu Shuangren called Hong Zhanming over and asked him to lead the way.
Hong Zhanming led the group through the back hall and along a path towards the back mountain.
After passing through a bamboo forest, the group arrived at a mountain wall.
The mountain wall was covered with moss. Hong Zhanming walked forward and pressed his hand on a protruding rock on the mountain wall a few times.
Soon, a stone door silently slid open, revealing an extremely deep opening.
The mechanisms here are extremely well concealed; from the outside, there is absolutely no indication that anything is amiss.
If it weren't for Hong Zhanming leading the way, even if Wu Shuangren sent people to search the entire temple from top to bottom, they might not have been able to find this place.
There are three secret rooms inside.
Hong Zhanming said blankly, "Ciwen probably didn't touch the things in the secret room; she's saving them for the future."
Wu Shuangren sent two militiamen in first.
Soon, a militiaman's voice came from inside the cave. "Commander, there really is a secret room!"
Wu Shuangren led his men inside, escorting Hong Zhanming.
Just as they said, there are three secret rooms inside.
The first secret room contained more than a dozen large wooden crates, their lids somewhat worn. The guards stepped forward and pried them open one by one, revealing a gleaming display in the firelight.
The box contained copper coins, silver ingots, and gold!
The second secret room contained armor and weapons. A preliminary inventory revealed a total of fifty sets of lamellar armor and three sets of intact infantry armor.
Knives, guns, bows, shields, and more than a dozen powerful crossbows were also hanging on the wall.
The third secret room is the smallest, and it contains several rows of wooden shelves.
Dozens of booklets were neatly arranged on the wooden shelf.
Wu Shuangren casually flipped through a few books; some contained notes on Internal Skill cultivation methods, others on sword techniques, palm techniques, staff techniques...
"Some of these are martial arts techniques passed down within the Mist Hidden Temple itself, while others were seized from elsewhere over the past few decades."
Hong Zhanming said.
Wu Shuangren found a wooden box that looked extremely well-preserved on the top shelf of the bookshelf.
Open the box; inside are two secret manuals.
One is thin and one is thick.
The thinner one has the title on the cover: "The World-Purifying Wisdom King Mantra".
The thicker one has the title on the cover: "The Leakless Golden Body".
Looking at this shelf full of martial arts manuals, Wu Shuangren was even happier than when he had acquired several large boxes of money!
The incense at Mist Hidden Temple has ceased burning today.
All the martial arts skills of Mist Hidden Temple fell into Wu Shuangren's hands.
This can be considered a unique form of inheritance.
PS: There shouldn't be any updates tonight. There's only one more part of the first volume's plot left; I need to organize my thoughts.
145. The Qilin Fights the Tiger General, Reinforcements Arrive from Shannan.
Ya Province, Tiger Soul Pass.
This is one of the two passes leading to Shannan Circuit. The pass is located between two mountains, with walls four zhang high. There is only one official road leading to the pass, and both sides are cliffs hundreds of zhang high.
After Mount Liang's 20,000-strong army entered Ya Province, it took them only four days to capture the Ya Province City!
Next, the Mount Liang army split into two groups. Commander-in-Chief Song Hai personally led 10,000 elite troops to attack Heavenly Spring Pass, while Grand Marshal Lu Yulin led another 10,000 troops to attack Tiger Soul Pass.
All the county towns they encountered along the way were captured by the Mount Liang army.
Local warlords and militias faced a choice: surrender, flee, or die!
Upon arriving at Tiger Soul Pass, Lu Yulin's army finally encountered a major obstacle. After six days of continuous attacks, the pass remained unconquered, and the Mount Liang Army had suffered nearly a thousand casualties.
As night fell, most of the soldiers in the camp had already gone to sleep.
Inside the central command tent, seven or eight First Rate Mount Liang warriors stood in two rows, with Lu Yulin in the center.
He was about forty years old, tall, with eyes like stars, imposing and with a touch of nobility.
In the seating arrangement of the Mount Liang Gathering of Righteousness Hall, the first seat naturally belonged to the Grand Commander Song Hai, and the second seat belonged to Lu Yulin.
He once went to the capital to participate in the martial arts examination after ranking first in the Hebei Circuit martial arts examination, and later won the title of martial arts champion in that year's examination!
He thought he would rise to prominence from then on, but because he offended someone, he was assigned to a position taking care of the imperial guards' warhorses.
Unwilling to suffer humiliation, Lu Yulin resigned from his post and returned home in a fit of anger.
After returning home, he continued to hone his martial arts skills. He spent more than ten years in Hebei Circuit, making friends through martial arts and defeating no one in the eleven prefectures of Hebei Circuit. He was recognized as the number one martial artist in Hebei Circuit!
Later, he was forced to join Mount Liang. In terms of martial arts alone, whether in foot combat or horse combat, Lu Yulin was the best in Mount Liang. Only he could firmly suppress Lin Qian!
Song Hai had intended to give up the position of Grand Commander to Lu Yulin, but his subordinates objected, and Lu Yulin, knowing he had no real power base in Mount Liang, politely declined.
After the uprising, Lu Yulin was appointed Grand Marshal of Mount Liang by Song Hai, nominally giving him command over all the troops.
The First Rate fighters from Mount Liang in the tent also respected Lu Yulin.
However, marching and fighting are different from fighting alone. In terms of individual martial prowess, no one in Tiger Soul Pass could match Lu Yulin. Yet, he led a group of arrogant and fierce soldiers, but he was unable to capture the pass in front of him for a long time.
Tonight, Lu Yulin summoned several hall masters to discuss their next steps.
"Zhang Liao is too good at defense; he's left no room for error. This pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack. We don't know how many brothers will have to die before we can take it!"
"I never knew there was such a person as Zhang Liao in Jiannan Circuit?"
"Master Wu, you killed the tiger with your bare hands. This pass is also called Tiger Soul Pass, so it's only right that you conquer it."
Hahahaha--
"..."
The crowd chattered amongst themselves, and Yan Xiaobing, a Mount Liang expert, tried to lighten the mood, bringing a smile to their otherwise serious faces.
Suddenly someone came to report from outside the tent that the commander-in-chief's letter had arrived.
Everyone in the tent was taken aback. Lu Yulin then had someone bring in a letter.
He took the letter from the messenger, opened it, and glanced at it, his face expressionless.
Everyone in the tent was looking at him.
"The Grand Commander has captured Heavenly Spring Pass."
Lu Yulin said.
There was a moment of silence in the tent, followed by a burst of cheers.
The burly, handsome Wu Song laughed, "The Grand Commander is indeed formidable!"
But soon, everyone fell silent.
Heavenly Spring Pass has fallen, but we are still suffering under Tiger Soul Pass. If we drag this out any longer, not only will we lose face, but we will also be ranked lower than others when it comes to rewards for our contributions.
"At daybreak tomorrow, I will personally lead my elite troops to storm the city!"
Lu Yulin had already made his decision. Yan Xiaobing wanted to persuade him, but seeing Lu Yulin's expression, he ultimately chose to remain silent.
"Wu Song led three hundred men to attack the left flank first, Huyan Chi led three hundred men to feign an attack on the right flank..."
He proceeded with the arrangements one by one, and finally said:
"Tomorrow we will surely breach the pass!"
The generals responded with a resounding roar.
After everyone had left, only Lu Yulin and Yan Xiaobing remained in the tent.
"Brother, Zhang Liao inside the pass is also First Rank expert. He's stationed on the city wall, taking full advantage of the terrain, and he's also accompanied by elite guards. You almost got injured the other day when you led your men up the city wall. Be careful tomorrow."