The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 68 Fallen Leaves
"Why aren't you awake yet?"

"It should be around this moment."

In a quiet room, Zhou Yingxue and Deng Baixuan stood aside. Zhang Jingfeng held the pulse of a person on the bed and slowly transferred true Qi into it.

This man was none other than the Taishan sect disciple who was captured by Li Miao that day and who had asked about Zuo Lishan's location, and who had then been shocked and frightened by the aftermath of the fight between several people and had fainted on the spot.

About an incense stick of time later, he woke up slowly, but was at a loss for a moment. He shook off Zhang Jingfeng's hand in fear and curled up on the bed.

Tomorrow is the day of the Five Mountains Alliance Meeting. The three leaders have been waiting anxiously these days and can’t care about much else.

Zhou Yingxue went up and pressed the disciple's acupoints, and then questioned him in detail.

The disciple answered the questions incoherently, and it took half an hour before the three masters finally understood what happened that day.

Zhou Yingxue knocked the disciple unconscious with another finger and looked at the other two.

"Zuo Lishan...it seems that he is not just colluding with the Ming Cult. His appearance has already shown abnormality. He has cut himself off from the righteousness of the martial arts world and the imperial court. Apart from the Ming Cult, he has no other way to go."

"He is nowhere to be seen at this moment. Either he is dead or he has escaped and joined the Ming Cult."

"The real leader has escaped. Tomorrow is the Five Mountains Alliance Meeting. Whether it is the imperial court or the Ming Cult, the day of action should be tomorrow... How should our three sects deal with it?"

The few of them were silent for a while, and Zhang Jingfeng said, "Let's go! No matter what the two leaders choose, our Hengshan Sect will leave now."

Deng Baixuan said, "But the letter left by Sect Leader Liu..."

Zhang Jingfeng raised his hand to stop Deng Baixuan: "Master Deng, listen to me."

"Right now, whether it's the Huashan Sect, the Taishan Sect, the Ming Cult, the Jinyiwei, or even the imperial court, they are all not on the same side as us. Only the three of us have the same interests. At the very least, the more people who can survive, the greater the chance of overcoming this disaster. So I'll make it clear to the two of you."

"Master Liu is trustworthy. But no matter how trustworthy she is, she can only show us a path that she can see clearly. And right now, I don't think the situation is still under the control of Master Liu, or even the court."

"I've been thinking about it these past few days. The imperial court must have known that Zuo Lishan had colluded with the Ming Cult and had taken over the Huashan Sect in advance. They then planned to use the Taishan Sect as an example at the Five Mountains Alliance Conference and round up all of our sects.

"This should be the reason why Sect Leader Liu said, 'This matter is a foregone conclusion. You won't have to worry about your life if you stay here.'"

"But we still have to go."

"First, if they really would be fine if they stayed, why did Sect Leader Liu rush down the mountain and even take all the Huashan disciples with him?"

"Secondly, the three who fought that day were Li Qianhu, Zuo Lishan, and Lan Lechuan. That means there was no one else from the Ming Cult present except Lan Lechuan. Apart from the leader, the Ming Cult has Zuo Shi as the most respected. Who would let him be a pawn and even lose his life?"

"Besides, you have seen the traces left behind. If there is another fight like this, and the three of us are involved, we will surely die."

"Third, get involved in the Taishan Sect's affairs. If the imperial court wants to take us in, I accept it. As long as we can protect the sect's inheritance and the lives of our disciples, it will be fine. But not here."

"The Ming Cult has already thrown a Left Emissary into this mess of the Five Mountains Alliance. We don't know how messed up it will get. If we're not careful, we'll be trampled to death.

"Let's go back to our sect first. Once the imperial court arrives, we will kneel down and receive the order."

"We have already wasted a lot of time. Tomorrow is the Five Mountains Alliance Meeting. It is possible that people from the Ming Cult and the imperial court have already arrived at the foot of the mountain by now."

"If you can leave, leave. If you can't leave... just leave it to fate."

The three of them looked at each other, turned around and walked out the door together, each calling their disciples, and even left their luggage and dry food behind, and hurried down the mountain.

During this time, some disciples from the Taishan Sect came to stop them, but they fought back with both soft and hard tactics. In this situation, there was no need to save face for the Taishan Sect.

The Taishan Sect was naturally in a panic these days. Seeing the few people leaving in a hurry, there was a moment of chaos inside the sect. Some people were smart and secretly took money and followed the three sects, wanting to leave together.

The others saw this and followed suit, and the number of people in the group grew.

So after a period of chaos, the group of people walked down the mountain in a mighty manner.

But he ran into Cheng Yuanzhen who was leading his troops.

Cheng Yuanzhen didn't pay much attention to the gangsters at first, but as he saw more and more people coming towards him, his face became more and more unsightly. Finally, he shouted, "Surround the group of people in front!"

He brought more than 200 people from Shuntian Prefecture, plus more than 200 Jinyiwei and more than 1,000 soldiers from Tai'an City. They surrounded the one hundred or so people on the opposite side, so there was no need to worry about anything going wrong.

The people from the three factions were a little nervous and put their hands on the hilts of their swords, ready to take action.

But when he saw the uniforms of the soldiers and the Jinyiwei on the opposite side, Deng Baixuan's shoulders slumped at first, and then he let out a long sigh with a mixture of joy and sigh.

"You two... Thank goodness..."

Although he didn't manage to escape, at least he encountered people from the imperial court. If they were people from the Ming Cult, he would have fought them to the death.

Although it may not sound good to surrender to the imperial court in the underworld, it is at least a choice that everyone can understand.

Joining the Ming Cult...When Ji Tianrui was dominating the martial arts world, some people would say, "The court is Da Shuo's court, and the martial arts world is the Ming Cult's martial arts world."

Then Ji Tianrui died.

No matter how strong you are or how high your martial arts skills are, it is Emperor Dashuo who rules the world.

If you offend the Ming Cult, you will die. If you offend the imperial court, your entire family will be exterminated. It's that simple.

So the three of them went together, walked quickly to Cheng Yuanzhen, and bowed: "Sir."

"Zhou Yingxue, Deng Baixuan, Zhang Jingfeng." Cheng Yuanzhen called out their names one by one.

"go back."

Zhang Jingfeng looked up in astonishment: "Sir!"

"My family said, go back."

"We are here on the orders of the Emperor to kill the traitors."

"You commoners, do you want to fight against the imperial envoy?"

Cheng Yuanzhen's eyes swept across the faces of several people.

Zhang Jingfeng suddenly realized a problem.

Our family? This man... has a white face and no beard, and a shrill voice. How come he looks like a eunuch? There are no eunuchs in the Jinyiwei!
Eunuchs have always served the emperor in the palace and have never been involved in matters of the underworld.

Looking at the people around this man, they seem to be his trusted ones... they all seem to be eunuchs.

The more than 200 Jinyiwei kept a distance from this side, with a clear distinction between them, and a hint of hostility could be seen on their faces.

Zhang Jingfeng made one last attempt: "Sir, a few days ago, Lord Li Miao of the Jinyiwei sent someone to leave us a message. We already know that the Taishan Sect is colluding with the Ming Cult."

"This trip is to go down the mountain, report to the authorities, and capture the rebels together."

Cheng Yuanzhen sneered, "Who cares about you, Mr. Zhang or Mr. Li? I have the final say here. I said go back, don't you understand?"

Zhang Jingfeng understood.

He had previously considered the imperial court as one party, which was hasty.

At present, another party besides Jinyiwei appeared in the court. Moreover, unlike Li Miao's domineering attitude a few days ago, they were not alert.

As a result, the troops from the Hengshan, Hengshan and Songshan sects, together with the disciples of the Taishan sect who had fled down the mountain, were washed back to Mount Tai like fallen leaves swept away by the surging waves.

It was almost sunset.

At the foot of Mount Tai, Li Miao and Wang Hai rode their horses into Tai'an City.

(End of this chapter)