Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 393 Sorting out
Looking at the prompt that appeared in front of him, Xiao Ran curled his lips: "I'm not the only one who fought, why are you holding on to me, so stingy."

After saying that, Xiao Ran pushed the door and walked into the store.

"I am back!"

After saying "you're back", the shopkeeper Li Botong at the counter looked up with a look of surprise on his face.

"My boss is back."

As he said this, he put down the brush in his hand and walked quickly out from behind the counter.

"Boss, you're back."

Li Botong hurriedly asked Xiao Ran to sit down, turned around and shouted towards the back hall: "Liangxiang, come and serve tea to the boss quickly."

"Liangxiang?" Xiao Ran frowned and looked at Li Botong.

Li Botong smiled and nodded to Xiao Ran.

Soon, a thin man came over with a teapot and carefully brewed tea for Xiao Ran. He then stood aside and said to Xiao Ran, "I'm Liangxiang, nice to meet you, my boss."

Xiao Ran took a careful look at the man in the light. He was probably in his early thirties and not very good-looking, but his eyes were very energetic.

"Boss, this is a new guy. He's very skillful and works very hard, so I'm going to keep him here."

"Well, you have the final say on this matter."

Xiao Ran nodded.

"You go down first." Li Botong signaled Liangxiang to step back.

Xiao Ran took a sip of tea before asking, "How long have I been out this time?"

"Soon, maybe a month."

"Fortunately."

Xiao Ran nodded and it wasn't long before she asked Li Botong to tell her about the major and minor events of the past month.

First is Huang Zaijun.

After Huang Zai's army crossed the river and headed south, they wanted to quickly annex Jiangnan, but instead suffered several defeats. The Jiangnan Jiedushi Zhu Wen gathered a large number of troops and defeated Huang Zai's army.

But afterwards, Huang Zai's army suddenly changed its style. They no longer engaged in head-on confrontation, but chose to fight in a roundabout way. At the same time, the slogans of Huang Zai's army began to spread rapidly in the Jiangnan area, causing many people to take the initiative to join Huang Zai's army.

"Open the city gates to welcome the locust god. When the yellow tide comes, don't pay taxes. The world's tax is ten buckets, and the rich and powerful take nine. Kill the evil gentry and punish the evil families. When the locust god comes, heaven and earth will be in balance."

This is the slogan shouted by Huang Chaoxin.

As soon as this slogan came out, it really resonated with many people.

"Of the ten bushels of grain in the world, nine are owned by the rich and powerful. This statement is truly heartbreaking. Huang Chao is indeed an extraordinary person."

Li Botong stood aside and sighed.

This statement is too inflammatory. The Five Surnames and Seven Families are wealthy and aristocratic families that have been passed down for thousands of years.

Even the founding emperor of that time had to consider the opinions of these wealthy families.

It is certain that people are dissatisfied, especially in recent years, when these people have controlled the imperial examination system so tightly that even the reputation of the literary world has plummeted.

As for those farmers who grow crops, let alone the farmers, who have been unable to make ends meet after farming all year round and still cannot even pay the rent.

Huang Chao's words were like a spark that could start a prairie fire. Soon the situation in Jiangnan was turned around. Now the situation in Jiangnan is very bleak.

"Um……"

Xiao Ran frowned.

He felt that Huang Chao had changed, becoming more stable than before. He no longer dreamed of relying on the power of the Locust God to advance all the way, but began to launch the people's tactics.

This made Xiao Ran feel very difficult.

How does the saying go? We are not afraid of hooligans acting like scoundrels, but we are afraid of hooligans with culture.

"Is there anything else?"

"Have."

Li Botong reported all the other matters, big and small, to Xiao Ran one by one.

The leader of the Runing Taiyin Society came to Ruzhou City in person and surrendered to Lu Cheng.

It means that Taiyin will be willing to obey Lu Cheng's orders obediently.

And he handed over the three hundred Taiyin divine soldiers to Lu Cheng for control.

This Taiyin divine soldier was specially trained by the Taiyin Society and is a Taoist priest who is good at magic.

The combat effectiveness of the three hundred Taiyin divine soldiers is still very strong.

Lu Cheng also gladly accepted the Taiyin Society's surrender.

At the imperial court, the incompetent emperor finally realized that something was wrong and began to mobilize troops on a large scale, summoning military governors to prepare to wipe out the Huangzai Army.

However, there are not many obedient people nowadays, and the emperor only has 80,000 elite troops left. In the court, two factions are in favor of war and the other is in favor of peace.

The situation in Ruzhou is relatively clear. Basically, under the control of Lu Cheng, it has become a rare peaceful place.

Oh, the Gao family in Wancheng has also recently contributed food and money, so that the son-in-law Lu Cheng has begun to have sufficient financial support.

The original force of 30,000 has now expanded to 60,000.

But I heard that Yu Deng gets a headache looking at the red number in the financial report every day.

He tried every means to raise military funds for Lu Cheng every day, and he lost a lot of weight.

This is not surprising. Although Lu Cheng is not short of food now, the way he trains his troops is simply burning money.

In addition to food, there must be meat for every meal, as well as porridge made from various medicinal herbs, weapons, armor, and war horses, all of which cost money. After Li Botong finished telling Xiao Ran about all the recent events, Xiao Ran understood the current situation.

"By the way, I... um, is there any news about Gao Yuting?"

"Green Sword Fairy?"

"Correct."

"Yes, people in the martial arts world now call her the White-haired Fairy. After the battle of Wancheng, she showed up once and killed a bandit hiding in Wancheng with one sword. In full view of the public, no one even saw how she drew her sword. So the rumors in the martial arts world are that this girl has received the true teachings of the Frost Concubine, her strength has greatly increased, and she is now qualified to be promoted to a first-class martial arts master."

"Oh."

Xiao Ran nodded lightly, not surprised by Gao Yuting's strength.

Shuang Fei gave her the last wisp of her soul, which contained her understanding of the way of the sword.

The realization of the heaven and the man is of great significance. Even if Gao Yuting has only comprehended a part of it, at least there will be no problem in entering the Tao.

This couldn't help but make Xiao Ran feel envious. Having a good master really can help one avoid taking a lot of detours.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but curse in his heart: "Look at my master, Yinshan Taoist, you old man, you deserve to be trapped in the underworld."

"This guy...what are you going to do with him?" Xiao Ran pointed outside the house, referring to the guy Liang Xiang.

There is no problem in recruiting employees, but Liang Xiang has been found out before. He is one of the bad guys in Ruzhou City.

Li Botong must have his own reasons for hiring this man as his assistant, but Xiao Ran still wanted to ask a question.

"Boss, this guy came looking for us. He has created chance encounters time and again. It is obvious that he has set his sights on our family. In addition, we have also received news from other branches of our family. They have all been noticed by the Bad People recently."

Li Botong pinched his beard and said, "I think it's because we've been doing too much and too big these days that we've attracted the attention of the Bad People. However, the Bad People have been declining over the years, so we're not afraid that they can do anything to us. But since they've come to us, we might as well just keep them under our noses."

According to the policy originally designed by Xiao Ran, the Amazing Pavilion began to trade in official intelligence.

As a result, business was surprisingly good.

Especially in Chang'an, Luoyang and other places, officials were buying intelligence from others.

In just one month, the Amazing Pavilion made a lot of profit.

But this obviously attracted the attention of the Bad People, who wanted to infiltrate the Amazing Pavilion to find out the truth, and also to use the Amazing Pavilion's ability to gather intelligence to serve the Bad People.

Li Botong used to be someone close to Li Jingqi, so it was easy for him to deal with these bad guys.

Besides, it is always better to keep them under your nose than to let them hide in the dark.

"That's fine, let's do as you say. I'll go back to my room and rest, and we'll talk about the rest tomorrow."

Xiao Ran returned to the room, closed the door, then took out his little notebook, holding a pen in one hand, frowned and thought for a while.

Then make a list of what you are going to do next.

First of all, there is the issue of the paper-folding craftsman. I brought a lot of paper this time, enough for the branch managers of the Amazing Pavilion to take advantage of the paper-folding craftsman's advantages.

At the same time, Xiao Ran planned to print more ghost money. The amount did not need to be large, one or two taels of silver would be enough.

Distribute it to the shopkeepers of the Amazing Pavilion branch, and ask them to extradite the souls of the dead and earn merit for themselves.

Through the notes written on the [Soul Crossing Sutra] given to him by the Zhou family.

The easiest way to gain good karma is to help the dead souls to be liberated.

In today's era, this is the most appropriate method.

After all, he had taken over the Zhou family's seal, which was also the good karma that the Zhou family would owe him. It would be better to pay it back as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if you owe too much, you will get yourself into a lot of trouble.

Next comes the matter of offering sacrifices to Mount Tai.

According to Liumu, his knife was incomplete because it lacked a deity to preside over it, and he originally wanted to complete it at home.

But there were changes in Guling Street, and Xiao Ran didn't dare to rashly offer sacrifices to the gods at home, for fear that if something happened, he would get into trouble.

I can just walk away, but Sister Liu and Gu Ling Qiu Kui will be in trouble.

Now that he was here, Xiao Ran was thinking about going to Mount Tai.

But this Mount Tai is not in Shandong. It is too far away. Even with the [Spiritual Clothes], it will take two or three days to go back and forth.

He plans to go to Xitai Mountain.

The so-called Xitai Mountain is located in the hinterland of Funiu Mountain in Luoyang.

It is the place where the first ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven was held after the alliance between the Yan Emperor tribe and the Huang Emperor tribe. It is dotted with famous scenic spots such as the Yanhuang Peak.

The main peak resembles the giant statues of Emperor Yan and Emperor Huang, and was called "Erdi Peak" in ancient times.

This is the original Mount Tai, which was named by Duke Boqin of Lu. Later, Boqin moved the capital to Shandong and named Mount Dai as the new Mount Tai, which is the first of the Five Sacred Mountains in later generations.

But whether it is Xishan or Mount Tai among the Five Great Mountains, since they are all Mount Tai, the effects should be similar.

The most important thing is to be close enough.

There aren't many things to do, so let's focus on these two. The rest, such as continuing to develop [Amazing Pavilion] and taking time to go to the underworld to purchase goods, can be done slowly.

The most important thing at the moment is to go to Wancheng first.

After all, it has been so long, it would be a lie for Xiao Ran to say that he doesn't miss his wife.

Once you taste the marrow, you know the taste, right?

Then he took out his [Spiritual Clothes], hugged his body, and quickly flew towards Wancheng...

(End of this chapter)