Daqian Night Emperor

Chapter 33 The "Truth" Gradually Surfaces

As the night deepened, an exquisite copper candlestick on the desk in the study emitted a dim and warm light.

Zhao Qi'an leaned back in the sandalwood chair, gently turning the pages of the book in his hand by candlelight.

These are all records about the "Salvation Church", including local chronicles, official documents, and some rumors.

It’s a pity that although there is a lot of content, most of it is unimportant or the news is difficult to distinguish between true and false.

All Zhao Qi'an could understand was that the Salvation Church believed in a deity called "Mother of Life", and that the doctrines they believed in were mostly about "natural disasters are coming" and "world cleansing". They preached belief in the Mother of Life and purification of the soul, so that the soul could be led to the "other shore" by the "Mother of Life" during a natural disaster.

Most of the sects that deceive the masses have this tone.

But despite this, there are still people who continue to believe in it.

Based on the interpretation of the doctrine, the Salvation Church is divided into three factions: the Blue Lotus Sect, the White Lotus Sect, and the Red Lotus Sect.

Among them, Qinglian Rudder is the most mysterious. It is led by the leader of the Savior Church himself. No one knows its code of conduct, and even people in the world rarely know about the Qinglian sect of the Savior Church.

The Bai Lian Duo believes that only by doing more good deeds can the soul be purified. This faction is also the main force in the Salvation Church to spread faith and recruit believers. It has a good reputation among the people of the Daqian Kingdom. They kill corrupt officials, rob the rich and unkind, and help the people of the dawn... They have done many things like this.

Among the followers of this sect, there are also so-called heroes, kind-hearted wealthy businessmen, and world-famous scholars...

As for the Red Lotus Rudder, they believe that in order to purify the soul, one must control the seven emotions and six desires.

What they cultivate is desire, what they practice is the way of practicing with flesh and blood, and they often do devious and evil things.

The evil and strange methods spread by the Salvation Sect were mostly from the Red Lotus Sect, but it also attracted many powerful people, so the sect was not weak.

Although both are salvation religions, the difference in behavior between the White Lotus and the Red Lotus is so huge that it is puzzling.

It's a pity that the Xiaoweis didn't collect much information. Most of the thick information was just rumors. The useful stuff could be explained in less than three pages.

"The ability of the Xiaowei to gather intelligence is still a little weak."

Zhao Qi'an was somewhat helpless. It was fine in Kyoto City. After all, Kyoto City was where he was based and the layout was very tight. Any disturbance could be transmitted to his ears through the Xiaowei.

But outside of Kyoto City... Xiaowei basically relies on Zhao's Trading Company to collect intelligence, and can only collect information that can be collected on the market. If they go deeper, they can only get information that is passed on by word of mouth by people in the martial arts world, and their authenticity is unknown.

If the news is more detailed, we have to send someone to the source to find out the truth.

However, there was also something in the news brought by Xiao Wei that interested Zhao Qian.

For example, the place where the Salvation Church is most rampant now is Jingzhou.

He recalled what he had heard from his staff in the market not long ago - there was a severe drought in Jingzhou and there was no rice this year.

A drought has struck Jingzhou, but the news has not yet reached the capital city. It is obvious that everyone in Jingzhou, from the governor to the county magistrate, has been deceiving their superiors and concealing the news from their subordinates, and has not revealed any of it.

But no matter how tightly the news is kept secret, some clues will always come out.

For example, the price of rice.

For example... refugees!
Officials in Jingzhou could keep the news secret, but they could not appease the people who demanded to live.

When there was a severe drought in Jingzhou, many people would surely abandon their fields and migrate thousands of miles to other states in order to survive.

Kyoto City is not close to Jingzhou, but it is not far away either. In addition, it is the capital of the Daqian Kingdom. Logically speaking, after so many days, there should be refugees in Kyoto City.

But so many days have passed...and not a single refugee from Jingzhou has appeared in Kyoto!

So where did these refugees go?
Zhao Qi'an thought of the group of people from the Salvation Sect at Baiyun Temple, the human-refining pills found in Yuzhen's bedroom, and the fact that the recent "logs" of the Patrol of the Astronomy Bureau did not mention the frequent disappearances of civilians in Kyoto City...

If you take out each of these scattered messages and look at them individually, you won't be able to tell anything.

But when all the clues are laid out, just like a puzzle being put together piece by piece, the truth behind it gradually comes to light...

There was no wind in the room, but the candlelight on the stage flickered.

The dim firelight reflected on Zhao Qi'an's face, adding a bit of gloom. ...

The next morning, Zhao Qi'an got up early and prepared the carriage to go to the market in the west of the city.

This time, he did not bring the ugly slave, but he brought the little Taoist boy.

In the early morning of the market, many shops have not yet opened. The huge market seems a little deserted. From time to time, a clerk comes out of a roadside shop, yawns, hangs up his sign, and sweeps the ground with a broom.

Zhao Qi'an held the little Taoist boy's hand, crossed the streets of the market town, and walked towards the Treasure Pavilion.

After entering the Treasure Pavilion, someone immediately came to greet us.

"My boss."

Zhao Qi'an nodded and ordered, "Send someone to Fuxiang Tower and ask Nichang to come here to see me."

The steward replied respectfully, "The Third Miss is in the Treasure Pavilion today, and should be with Dean An now."

Zhao Qi'an was stunned for a moment, then smiled.

This is quite a coincidence.

"You go do your thing, I'll go up by myself."

"Yes."

……

When Zhao Qi'an brought the little Taoist boy to the fifth floor of the Treasure Pavilion, he heard an old and somewhat helpless voice as soon as he reached the stairs.

"You can't calm down, you're not cut out for chess..."

"If Guan Xiang can do it, why can't I? Dean, this is really unreasonable."

Zhao Qi'an looked in the direction of the sound and saw two people sitting by the window, playing chess on a chessboard.

An Shoudao twirled his beard, looked at Zhao Nishang, who had a look of dissatisfaction on her face, and shook his head helplessly.

He raised his eyes and saw Zhao Qi'an coming. His eyes suddenly lit up and he stood up quickly: "Boss Zhao is here."

Zhao Qi'an cupped his hands and said, "I'm sorry to bother you, Dean."

"Oh, don't bother me, don't bother me."

An Shoudao waved his hands repeatedly, his face clearly showing relief.

It seems that he has been troubled a lot by Zhao Nishang, this bad chess player.

Zhao Nishang also stood up and came over, bowing politely: "Adoptive father."

"Ah."

After Zhao Qian agreed, she slowly stood up and looked at the little Taoist boy he was holding. She said with a smile, "Is this the child? This is the first time I've seen him. He looks quite cute."

The little Taoist boy turned a blind eye, his eyes still unfocused, immersed in his own world.

Zhao Qi'an gently stroked the little Taoist boy's head, looked at An Shoudao, and said, "The main reason I came here today is to let Dean An take a look at this child."

An Shoudao's originally kind gaze fell on the little Taoist boy. He looked at him carefully and quickly saw the clues. He couldn't help but let out a light exclamation.

"Huh? This kid..."

He looked at Zhao Qian'an, and after getting Zhao Qian'an's approval, he took a step forward, squatted down, and touched the little Taoist boy's hands, feet, and back of the head.

After Zhao Qi'an handed the little Taoist boy to An Shoudao, he pulled Zhao Nishang and took her aside. Then he said, "I came here today to ask you to do two things..."

Today's update, please read it~
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(End of this chapter)