Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 162 Advancement to Eighth-Rank Lightning Strike Technique! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

When Zhou Yi and Gongsun Da Niang found the car, the rain had turned into a light drizzle, and the water level on the street was also dropping.

Both of them were soaked to the bone. Zhou Yi took out two talismans and stuck them on himself and Gongsun Da Niang respectively. Their clothes quickly became half-dry.

Grandma Gongsun found it very amazing:
"What kind of talisman is this?"

"Based on the characteristics of hot, dry winds, my grandfather created a talisman by combining the Scorching Sun Spell and the Wind Spell, which can make clothes dry quickly."

When he spoke, his clothes were almost completely dry, except for some thicker parts that still felt damp to the touch.

The two got into the car, and Zhou Yi turned around and headed up the mountain.

Gongsun Da Niang, holding the sword in her arms, asked:
"Master, did we just kill that thing?"

Even Zhou Yi wouldn't dare to make a guarantee:

"You'll know when we get to the mountain; it's too early to say now."

Having done such a big thing, the black notebook should reward me with merit. I'll check it later to see if that bastard is dead or not.

Back on the mountain, the power was still out. Zhou Yi returned to his room with a flashlight. As soon as he took out his black notebook, he saw the small Bagua mirror on the cover, which was flickering on and off.

Huh, what's going on here?
The last time the Bagua Mirror flickered was when I wore a Taoist robe for seven consecutive days; that time, I was rewarded with a ninth-grade lightning strike technique.

It started flashing again today... Could it be that slaying the evil beast triggered another reward?
He placed his hand on it, and a warm current flowed from his fingers to his body, giving him an indescribable feeling of comfort throughout his limbs.

He opened the notebook to the first page and began to read the notes on the page:

[Slay the evil dragon and be rewarded with an eighth-grade lightning strike technique]

[Eighth-Rank Lightning Strike Technique: Trigger time halved, power doubled, consumes two coins of merit each time, use with caution]

Instead of rewarding merit, Zhou Yi was surprised to find that the lightning strike technique was upgraded.

The eighth-grade lightning strike technique is great in every way, except that the consumption has increased again, so I need to keep earning merit points!

He then looked at Granny Gongsun's page and discovered that this gluttonous girl had earned two taels of merit in one fell swoop:

[Slay the evil dragon and save the entire town, merit +20]

Seeing this reward, Zhou Yi suddenly felt that the eighth-grade lightning strike technique wasn't very cost-effective... It would be better to give me merit points first, so that I could unlock the Dao technique exchange.

However, the black notebook offered no room for negotiation and did not respond to Zhou Yi's complaints at all.

The rain had stopped outside, and Granny Gongsun, having changed into clean clothes, came to Zhou Yi's room with a small flashlight.

"Master, we haven't eaten yet. What are we going to eat later?"

Zhou Yi was surprised that this girl didn't give an acceptance speech; she was only thinking about food.
"There's no electricity on the mountain, so cooking isn't very convenient... You slew the evil dragon, you're the heroine of tonight. Tell me, dragon-slaying girl, what do you want to eat?"

"You said you wanted to eat hot pot before you came down the mountain. We have nothing to do now, so why don't we cook hot pot?"

Zhou Yi thought about it and felt that it was indeed a good idea. He took the portable gas stove to the restaurant with a flashlight, took out some frozen meatballs, mutton, frozen tofu and other ingredients from the freezer, picked some vegetables from the vegetable garden, and finally took out vermicelli and noodles from the cupboard. Then he started the fire.

A rechargeable desk lamp sat to the side as the two women ate their hot pot. Gongsun Da Niang was quite fond of the title "Dragon-Slaying Girl" and planned to show it off to Li Longji when they got back, to see if her grandson was afraid.

After finishing the hotpot, Zhou Yi went outside to enjoy the cool breeze. The mountain was pitch black at this moment, except for the streetlights near the Hall of Longevity. After cleaning up the dishes, Gongsun Da Niang tirelessly ran over and danced under the lights.

Zhou Yi entered the Hall of Longevity, and by the light of the outside lamp, he opened the guestbook on the offering table and wrote down the names of Emperor Zhezong of Song (Zhao Xu) and Emperor Shizong of Zhou (Chai Rong).

He actually wanted to include the names of Zhu Biao, Yue Fei, Han Xin, and others, but he was worried that it would anger the Eternal Emperor.

Okay, okay, I'll just write two for now and see how it goes before deciding on the remaining spots.

Astronauts come in batches, and historical figures who come to Hunyuan Palace must also follow the trend and come in batches... As the abbot, we must be considerate of the difficulties of the gods and not treat them like cattle and horses.

After writing the name down, he placed it on the altar, added some offerings, lit an incense stick, raised his hand in a Taoist salute, and then went outside to continue admiring the dragon-slaying girl's dance.

The next morning, Zhou Yi found that the power had come back on, and the residents' group chat was full of messages about the receding water. Zhao Wei took a break from his busy schedule to go fishing in Huangniwa and caught a seven or eight-pound carp, which he called a "flood fish," and invited everyone to his house at noon to taste it.

Big-Headed Yang saw through the guy's trick at a glance:
"You just want to hear us flatter you, don't you? Nobody'll go if we don't serve at least four dishes."

Zhao Wei then sent out ingredients like spare ribs and oxtail. This time, Da Tou Yang stopped complaining and volunteered to be a kitchen helper so that Zhao Wei wouldn't waste the ingredients.

Zhou Yi scrolled through the chat history and found that no one was talking about the dragon's roar last night. He thought that was good, so as not to make it a hot topic again and attract a large group of internet celebrities to come over, claiming to investigate the truth, but actually just to ride the wave of popularity.

Aunt Gongsun came out of the room yawning, rubbing her eyes, and asked:

"Master, where did the dragon's corpse end up? Should we drive over and go look for it?"

The Book of Changes says:

"It must have been because the dark clouds dissipated that no one in town was discussing it anymore, and the fishy smell from last night had also disappeared... It's good that it's gone, so that no one can take pictures and explain it away." The world of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, on the northern grasslands of Dingxiang.

Huo Qubing led his army on a night of frantic march and finally caught up with the Xiongnu. Unfortunately, this was not the main force; there were only a little over a thousand men, who appeared to be a small Xiongnu tribe.

Upon hearing this number, everyone, including Huo Qubing, hung their wild boar spears in convenient positions, picked up their bows and arrows, and launched a charge at dawn.

As usual, the army was divided into three parts to encircle the enemy from three directions.

Before they even got close, the Xiongnu were awakened by the sound of horses' hooves. As soon as they rushed out of their tents, they were met with a volley of arrows from the Han army.

Using a bow and arrow alone requires an extremely high level of skill from the archer.

But with volley fire, the goal is to deal area damage; as long as the arrows are fired, that's enough.

After a volley of arrows, the Xiongnu were thrown into chaos, especially those who rushed out of their camp without bothering to put on their armor and were hit squarely by the flying arrows.

Those who die instantly are fine, but the real problem is those who don't die immediately, lying on the ground groaning in pain, which is a huge blow to morale.

Huo Qubing rode closer and fired rockets into the camp, setting several tents ablaze. As the fire raged, the Xiongnu were thrown into even greater chaos.

They attempted to break out of the camp several times, but were intercepted by the Han army each time.

Several sharpshooters hid on the camp wall, trying to launch a sneak attack, but were rendered helpless by several Han soldiers wielding laser pointers, unable to aim accurately at all.

Once the Xiongnu's morale had dropped to a certain level, Zhao Ponu put a loop on the rope and swung it like a lasso, securing the rope firmly to the stockade wall. With the combined effort of seven or eight horses, they managed to pull the wooden stakes out of the stockade wall.

A breach has appeared in the stockade wall; we can now lead our troops in to storm it.

However, Huo Qubing did not do that. Instead, he waited a while to make sure that the Xiongnu's morale had been broken before leading a charge and capturing over a thousand people.

With drones and walkie-talkies, even with equal troop strength, it's a game-changer.

Every move in the camp was under the surveillance of drones. Huo Qubing could even see several leaders arguing and disagreeing.

After all the Xiongnu people were captured, Zhang Qian rode over and began to interrogate them one by one.

Sima Qian stood by and took notes. The status of a prisoner determined the magnitude of their merit, and this had to be clearly remembered.

As he was asking the question, a man who understood Chinese glared at Sima Qian and began to curse him viciously:
"You shameless Han dogs! You've seized my grasslands and destroyed my homeland! The gods will not let you get away with this!"

Upon hearing this, Sima Qian immediately began to refute:
"If you hadn't raided southwards, would we be in this mess today?"

The man in charge was dissatisfied and was about to continue arguing when he was stabbed to death by Zhao Ponu, who was patrolling on horseback.
“Zichang, remember this well: prisoners have no right to bargain. If you find anyone with a foul mouth, grab the knife in your hand and hit him... This is a battlefield, not the imperial court. They don’t need to be convinced.”

After Zhao Ponu finished speaking, worried that the Xiongnu people might not understand, he thoughtfully repeated it in the Xiongnu language.

During this process, he randomly killed several Xiongnu officers, and the Xiongnu people instantly mastered civilized language, answering any questions asked, and even their gazes towards the Han army became respectful and docile... It can be described as the fastest form of moral education.

After asking around, Zhang Qian finally figured out the origins of this group of people:
“They are Xiongnu people from the northern foothills of Yinshan Mountain, from the same tribe, who were ordered to be stationed here to scout out the main force of the Han army for the Chanyu’s army.”

Wei Qing urgently needed to find the main force of the Xiongnu, intending to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

Meanwhile, the Xiongnu were preparing to evade the main force of the Han army and secretly infiltrate the heartland of the Han people to carry out raids... This was a typical battle of hide-and-seek.

Huo Qubing asked:
When will we see the main force of the Xiongnu?

Zhang Qian asked for a rough estimate of the time:

"Within ten days, the main force of the Xiongnu will march south from here. Should we inform the General?"

Huo Qubing felt he should speak out, but he wasn't sure if it was a conspiracy:

“I’m going to see my master to see what happened yesterday, and I’ll also ask him to do some divination to see if the Xiongnu’s southward movement from this place is a trick.”

The Xiongnu were very poor and didn't even have a decent headdress. Huo Qubing was somewhat disappointed. He instructed everyone to guard the camp well and then disappeared into thin air, arriving at Hunyuan Palace.

Just as Zhou Yi and Granny Gongsun were about to have breakfast, Huo Qubing arrived in the courtyard. Before he could even greet him, Granny Gongsun started showing off:
"Champion Marquis, how did you know that I killed a menacing dragon yesterday?"

Now it was Huo Qubing's turn to be dumbfounded:

"Are there really dragons?"

"It's not a dragon, it's a jiaolong. The Taoist priest said that dragons have smells: a fragrant smell is from a real dragon, a fishy smell is from a jiaolong, a spicy smell is from a weilong, and a sweet smell is from a milk dragon..."

As they were talking, the girl took out a pack of Weilong spicy strips, put them inside a steamed bun, and started eating them with relish.

Huo Qubing washed his hands, sat down to eat breakfast, and casually asked Zhou Yi to help him divine the accuracy of the information.

Zhou Yi took a bite of his steamed bun and said:
"What's intelligence? After dinner, come with me to the Sanqing Hall, and the two of us, master and disciple, will directly divine the location of the main force of the Xiongnu!"

(End of this chapter)