Tying Up Loose Ends, No More Fighting in the Capital

First kill the Ghost King, then destroy the Pear God.

The Pear God, already sealed within the Sanqi Divine Sword, struggled and resisted for less time than the Ghost King.

It was 2:30 a. m.

Chu Tianshu sat in the reception hall in the eastern part of the manor and breathed a sigh of relief.

The longsword lying across his knees felt light again.

The pear blossoms that had always been faintly visible on the mirror-like sword blade finally vanished completely.

The waiters who were originally in the hall had already scattered like birds and beasts when they heard the various explosions coming from the artificial lake.

After defeating the Ghost King, Cai Shanjun led dozens of his men to find Liu Yanqi to work together on matters in the city.

Now, only Chu Tianshu and Sun Feng'an remain in the hall.

Oh, and there's also Yuanzai lying on the ground.

"I'm staying here to obliterate the Pear God, and I have no interest in matters of the capital, but you..."

Chu Tianshu said, "Aren't you going to show your face and increase your share of attention to secure a better future for your Jiangdong faction?"

Sun Feng'an sat on the opposite sofa, holding a plate of cake in his left hand, and was using a fork to skewer the fruit on it.

"I'm tired too."

He chewed on some fruit and mumbled, "From the very beginning, I stood beside General Cai to protect him, using the ribs of my fan to help him resonate."

"Strictly speaking, I've been vibrating my fan for just as long as General Cai has been playing the zither, and I'm almost out of energy myself."

"Whether those people in the capital surrendered or resisted, I have no interest in them now."

Sun Feng'an casually poked at the cake with a fork.

"As for Jiangdong, those who are capable and competent will naturally be able to keep their positions."

"If necessary, I should contact the newly surrendered people in the capital in advance, so that we can rely on each other and consolidate our future position."

"Wouldn't that make them a bunch of rats?"

Sun Feng'an scooped up a piece of cream and tasted it, "How could I, a fine man, possibly run around for a bunch of scoundrels?!"

Chu Tianshu laughed heartily, placed the sword on the table, and got up to cut a piece of cake.

The cake uses fresh fruit and has a rich, creamy flavor. It's slightly cloying but not overly sweet.

After a series of battles, eating something like this feels quite satisfying.

Chu Tianshu ate a piece in a few bites, then picked out another piece with lots of fruit for himself, and walked over to Yuanzai while eating.

"Master Yuan, this whole table is covered in food, and it's all stuff that spoils easily. It's a shame to throw it away. Do you want to die eating your fill?"

He lightly kicked Yuanzai's shoulder, transferring the force to release the pressure point that had rendered him speechless.

Yuanzai said, "You just want to know the whereabouts of the Dharma Master from me. Don't bother with these tricks."

The old Daoist priest has shown no signs of recovery since his mental breakdown, and his eyes are somewhat unfocused.

"I never imagined in my entire life that the Dharma Master might die before me."

"Hehehe, very well. I witnessed the Five Rampancies Dharma Sect reach its zenith over the past few decades, and I will witness its demise before I die. It can be said that I have had a proper beginning and an end."

There was no need to share food; Yuanzai began to recount the whereabouts of the Five Chang Gods.

In recent years, the Five Rampancies have been plotting to return to the Dragon Vein.

According to Chu Tianshu's deduction, every world he has traveled through so far has a similar existence to the Spirit Realm.

However, these Spirit Realm have different focuses and are quite different in scale.

The Spirit Realm back in my hometown truly feels like a world unto itself.

Physical matter also exists within the Spirit Realm, along with various different races that spontaneously reproduce.

According to various ancient texts, the Spirit Realm, or dragon Dragon Vein, in the Republic of China era did not contain any physical matter.

Moreover, as early as thousands of years ago, the Dragon Vein has been filled with the Origin Canon of famous people from all over the world.

With the growth of the world's population and the evolution of systems and technologies, it is almost inevitable that the number of Origin Canon will continue to increase.

The scale of the Dragon Vein is relatively limited, which, in this case, becomes a good thing.

Human achievements have continuously filled the void, directly squeezing out the living space of Ghost God.

Therefore, by the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, before the Dragon Vein had moved away, many Ghost God and gods were no longer willing to reside within the Dragon Vein.

For the Ghost God of this realm, the interior of the Dragon Vein has become a more polluted and harsh environment than the real world.

However, once they actually arrived in reality, the Dragon Vein had moved away, and their spirituality in reality had faded.

Now the environment has deteriorated even further than within the Dragon Vein.

They went from one extreme to another.

The misfortunes and Ghost God, having been plagued by bad luck, remained dormant for nearly two thousand years.

Some Ghost God and spirits suffocated themselves.

People like Five Rampancies not only didn't die, but also saw a tremendous opportunity.

If you take advantage of the Dragon Vein's return, you should be the first to move Dragon Vein.

While humans in this era are not yet making good use of Dragon Vein, and are not very active in them.

Not only can the Five Rampancies do whatever they want within it, but they can also steal and replace things, gradually becoming the most influential entity within the Dragon Vein.

"... So back then, we took the statue of the Dharma Lord, which we had worshipped for generations, to the Stone Stele Alley and, taking advantage of the local war, held a blood sacrifice to help the Dharma Lord completely enter the Dragon Vein."

This attempt actually failed.

The Dragon Vein of today are indeed not as active as before, but the Origin Canon from back then have not only not disappeared, but have become solidified.

To squeeze in, one must wait for the power of the Origin Canon to be developed and loosened. However, if the Origin Canon is developed too much, the Dragon Vein will become active again and will continue to repel Ghost God.

To strike the right balance.

The Five Rampancies lineage thus developed the method of stealing the Origin Canon, transferring the power of these Origin Canon to unsuitable people, and creating opportunities for the Five Chang Gods.

Although that incident failed, it resulted in the Five Rampancies Dharma Lord's legendary statue being stuck halfway between the Dragon Vein and the other half in reality, making it impossible to move.

This statue still stands at the former site of the Stone Stele Alley Arsenal.

Stone Stele Alley is located in West City District.

Chu Tianshu didn't know the way. After finishing the cake, he held the longsword upside down in his left hand and grabbed Yuanzai with his right hand to point the way. Sun Feng'an also followed to join in the fun.

However, as they approached the West City District, they discovered that every street and alley was filled with people who looked flustered and were moving around in a hurry.

Even though it was already past midnight, the knocking and barking were still incredibly noisy.

There were also groups of beggars wandering around.

Upon arriving at Stone Stele Alley, I even encountered a familiar face.

Cai Shanjun arrived carrying his zither.

What's wrong with you?

Chu Tianshu and the other person asked the same question in unison, then Chu Tianshu laughed and said, "The Five Rampancies ' hiding place is right here."

"I see."

Cai Shanjun gazed into the distance and said, "I've come here to quell the riots."

"Many people in the capital have already surrendered to us, but some are still harboring treacherous intentions, or know that there is no chance of survival. After we took control of the key military locations, they started plotting against us here."

Between the western and northern parts of the capital city, there were many poor people and beggars.

Especially the area around Stone Stele Alley.

The blood sacrifice performed by the Five Chang Gods here years ago failed, leading to the explosion of the gunpowder depot.

The book "Occasional Notes on the Capital" also records this incident, saying that due to carelessness at the arsenal, an explosion occurred, destroying the factory on the spot. The meditation room and kitchen of the nearby nunnery were also blown to smithereens, with only the Buddhist hall barely remaining.

The surrounding people suffered heavy casualties.

The emperor ordered a thorough investigation, which ultimately revealed that only six people had died.

The imperial court did not investigate this deceptive practice further, but the changes among the people could not be hidden.

Since the explosion, few well-off families have been willing to live in the vicinity, and more and more poor people have moved in.

In the early years of the Republic of China, a poor people's reformatory and a mental hospital were simply established here.

Those with malicious intentions who packed their valuables and fled their homes tonight found themselves unable to Chucheng, and hiding within the city was not a solution either.

They then conceived the idea of setting fires to create unrest, and using the pretext that a mutinous army was about to enter the city to incite the poor to take the opportunity to loot everywhere.

In this way, those bastards could find an opportunity to Chucheng.

Chu Tianshu asked, "Do you need my help?"

"Slaying the Five Rampancies is a major event; you should go and get busy."

Cai Shanjun floated onto the rooftop, placed the guqin in front of him, and said, "I would like to invite everyone to listen to a piece of music."

Chu Tianshu nodded and walked into the former site of the arsenal.

In this place, the remains of collapsed walls and houses still remain, and the ground is covered with scorch marks and ravines torn by gunpowder explosions, with rubble everywhere and not a blade of grass growing.

Yuanzai bit his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Ahead, half a wall lay in ruins, stained with specks of crimson.

A statue of a deity with a black face and eyes like copper bells appeared above the ruined wall, its height similar to that of an ordinary person.

As soon as it opened its eyes, it stared at Yuanzai, then suddenly turned to Chu Tianshu, revealing a look of fury, and its divine power shone through.

Chu Tianshu didn't take it seriously and walked to the side to look at it with interest.

The statue was indeed only half complete.

It's like being cut in two; the latter half doesn't exist in reality.

The sound of a piano had already begun outside.

It is not a piece of music about "Pillowing a Skull," nor is it a method of inducing hallucinations or causing people to kill each other.

Instead, it's a pleasant and relaxing melody.

The sound of the zither is like a gentle spring flowing down from a high mountain, reaching the countryside and passing through the city.

The restless sounds of the West City District —people shouting, dogs barking, banging on doors, sticks poking at tiles, horse-drawn carriages speeding by—all subsided and became faint.

It's like being washed and filtered by layers of clear spring water.

This is Cai Shanjun's ambition: to sit on a high mountain and watch the flowing water in his spare time, and to have a clear spring flowing into the countryside.

The flames of war have been extinguished, the decay washed away, and everyone can taste some coolness and sweetness.

"Ah!!"

The roar of the Five Chang Gods, seemingly both near and far, emanated from the arsenal.

The statue swung its arms rapidly, resisting the Four-Leaf Seal that fluttered like wildflowers.

The silver-white longsword spun around Chu Tianshu once before landing in his right hand, where the aura of death had not yet dissipated.

"Spirit-Shocking..."

With the divine sword raised high above his head, Chu Tianshu's left hand, pointing the sword, swept across the spine of the blade.

"Go!!"

It was as if a dreamlike silver ray of light first locked onto the forehead of the statue.

Immediately, the tiny, meteor-like Sword Radiance of the Weapon Soul arrived in a flash along its predetermined trajectory.

With a cracking sound, the Sword Radiance pierced through the brain and went straight into the Dragon Vein.

The half-body hidden within the Dragon Vein was shaken by the Sword Radiance's light, exposing the entire statue to reality.

Chu Tianshu instantly spun around and slashed horizontally with his sword.

Clang!!

The Five Chang Gods had its eyes wide open, and its neck suddenly snapped open, decapitating it on the spot.

The music grew more melodious, and amidst the still moon and drifting clouds, a sense of peace prevailed in the square city.

Liu Yanqi stood in the large square in front of the palace gate, where thousands of people of all kinds looked uneasy.

At this distance, only Liu Yanqi could still hear the zither music, feel the sudden surge of divine power, and then its destruction, and smiled knowingly.

With the Five Rampancies without a head, there will be no more fighting tonight.

(End of this chapter)