A Scroll of Infinite Glory

Chapter 166 A Thousand Miles to Subdue the Dragon, A Pact of No War

Those mutated demons were not only horrifying in appearance, but their ferocity and vitality also deeply alarmed the experts among the indigenous people, such as Wu Pingqiang.

Even with the overwhelming aura of Luoyang's utter depletion, it still took An Feiyu, Wu Pingqiang, and the others nearly two quarters of an hour to completely eradicate these demonic mutants and extinguish their life force.

The group went to put out a fire at the granary, and before they could catch their breath, they received two pieces of bad news through their communication jade tablet.

One route came from Li Gong, and the other from General Yin. On the other two routes, they encountered mutated demons, but failed to seize the opportunity to intercept and kill them when they first appeared. Now, a total of nearly two hundred demons, neither human nor beast, have scattered into the wilderness and are causing destruction along the way as they head towards Chang'an.

The pursuers on both routes have split up again to continue their pursuit, but the situation is extremely dire.

Upon hearing the news, Wu Pingqiang, Jiang Jiusi, and the others instinctively looked at Guan Luoyang. Guan Luoyang's performance had left a deep impression and generated high expectations among them.

However, they quickly realized that if the demons were still gathered together, Guan Luoyang might be able to repeat his old tricks. But now, they were all scattered. Unless he had the ability to create clones, even Guan Luoyang could only try to track and kill them one by one.

The fact that the members of the Demonic Sect made such an arrangement seems to indicate that, in their journey to Chang'an, they possessed far greater patience and a more impatient desire for destruction than anticipated.

Before the main event of the assassination attempt in Chang'an arrives, this pursuit, which must continue, will be more tortuous and protracted than imagined.

However, the destructive acts committed by those demons in various places also provided Guan Luoyang and his group with targets for reinforcements.

The three communication jade tablets, along with the highest-level emergency communication channels of the Tang Dynasty's inner guard covering various regions, allowed countless messages to fly like snowflakes along these routes leading to Guanzhong.

In addition to the three pursuing forces that originally set out from Luoyang, local government offices and guard posts also received alerts.

Under the blazing sun, a swift horse galloped in.

The bodyguard, dressed in black, carried a bamboo tube sealed with a red wax stamp containing urgent documents. He looked out from his horse toward the ferry crossing and saw that the grain transport fleet had already set off. Without thinking twice, he leaped forward and seized a small boat.

The boatman was startled and was about to question him when the guard slammed an oar into the water. The oar, imbued with internal force, was not thrown haphazardly, but rather demonstrated a skill no less than that of the boatmen.

White waves surged, the small boat shot forward like an arrow, and the boatman lost his footing and fell into the water.

In a short while, the small boat had already chased after them for several miles, and was now less than a hundred feet away from the grain transport fleet.

Suddenly, people began to fall into the water from the fleet. It wasn't just one or two people, but dozens of people from just one boat fell into the water.

Starting with the leftmost ship in the fleet, followed by the second and third, it seemed like only a blink of an eye, and when you looked again, more than a hundred armored soldiers had already fallen into the water.

On the remaining grain transport ships, some people clearly noticed something was wrong, and their shouts of warnings could be heard hundreds of feet away.

The grain transport officer, wielding a red-tasseled spear, leaped between the masts of several ships with remarkable agility and internal strength. As if he had discovered something, he brandished his spear and charged at one of the ships.

The black-clad guards could see that when the grain officer was in mid-air, the red-tasseled spear in his hand suddenly accelerated and curved into a strong arc.

A burst of sparks erupted from the blade of the spear, mingling with the bright red tassel on the tip, and whistled as it cleaved towards the cabin.

But just before it hit the cabin, a faint, cool, water-colored sword aura flew out, cutting straight through the air and severing both the gun and the person.

It wasn't until after the grain officer fell into the water that his body was separated, leaving large patches of red stains.

The ship's cabins quickly became riddled with holes, and the sword energy emanating from within, some of it fine and sharp, pierced through anyone who tried to approach. No matter how brave the soldiers or how fine their armor and weapons, they were as fragile and brittle as empty paper in the face of such sword energy.

Some sword energies, however, become larger the farther they fly, appearing as cool, clear water, faintly transparent, severing a corner of a ship's bow, splitting open the cabins of other ships, cutting off masts, and even blasting large holes in the side of a ship.

One by one, the large ships laden with grain took on water, slowly tilting and sinking. The people on board either became corpses or hurriedly jumped into the water to escape.

A sword aura flew from afar, covering a distance of a hundred feet, flashing by like a giant shard of glass.

The small boat, which was still a hundred feet away from the grain transport fleet, split in two from bow to stern. Then, the two halves of the boat exploded into palm-sized pieces of wood, which were scattered on the surrounding water.

However, the black-clad guards had already jumped into the water and disappeared.

Inside the only large ship with hundreds of holes in the top of the cabin but an intact bottom, many rice sacks were also torn open by sword energy, and purplish-black rice grains poured out like water.

Shao Lingxiao lowered his sword finger, and his flamboyant black robe became smooth and compliant. The hem of the robe touched the wooden board on the ground, and he watched as the rice fell to the ground and piled up into a small mountain.

The fire at the Luoyang granary was extinguished so quickly that day that, although Shao Lingxiao did not witness it firsthand, he could easily estimate the damage caused by the fire.

—It should be around 10,000 shi.

This level of damage, even for a granary, might be enough to cause heartache. The symbolic significance of the fire at the world's largest granary would also bring a lot of trouble.

However, only a small portion of the Tang Dynasty's annual grain production was designated as reserve grain. If even a small portion of that reserve grain was lost, it would be negligible for the entire Tang Dynasty.

Things will be different after today. With this fleet, 10,000 shi will immediately become 1,010,000 shi.

"Master."

Zhu Linlang entered the cabin, clasped her hands in a salute, and said, "This is the only ship left in the entire fleet."

Shao Lingxiao nodded, stepped forward, and caught the flowing rice grains with his right hand, quickly filling a handful. The slightly cool and dry rice continued to slide down from around his palm.

He withdrew his hand, lowered his head to sniff the handful of rice, and inexplicably revealed a slight smile. He turned his palm to the side, watching the rice grains slip away, finally leaving many purple pink marks on the skin of his palm.

This purplish-black rice is not dyed in this way, but is a naturally occurring, ancient food that is consistent inside and out.

The southwest region has a long history of rice cultivation. The unique climate and environment between the terraced fields with their flowing streams have enabled the local area to produce grains that are plump, fragrant, and rich.

However, differences in variety, region, and farming level have led to many grades of even the most common grain crops, with purple rice being the highest grade.

In the southwestern land of Liuzhao, every year they had to pay tribute to the headquarters of the Demonic Sect with various kinds of fragrant rice, including purple rice.

Shao Lingxiao still remembers that every year when this batch of tribute rice was delivered to the main altar, according to the rules, a portion would be allocated to those followers who were not of high rank but were diligent and worthy of praise. This was often accompanied by rewards such as coins, pills, and cultivation techniques.

When he was a child, he loved to go to the cliff behind the Demonic Sect's headquarters at that time of year, overlooking the mountains. Looking down, there were only deep abysses and misty mountains; looking into the distance, there were only rugged rock forests. But eventually, a hundred, a thousand, and an immeasurable number of wisps of smoke would rise above the dark peaks and connect with the clouds in the sky.

At that time, his master, who was old and somewhat forgetful, would patiently tell him that in the Six Zhao Kingdom and the Ten Thousand Mountains, wherever smoke rose from the chimneys, those were his future people, the sacrificial grounds for the sect, and the soil for the birth of boundless and free people.

"Western envoy, when I devised the plan to burn down the granaries, Motian decided to have you carry it out, and you accepted the task without the slightest hesitation."

Shao Lingxiao's expression still carried a lingering sense of nostalgia. "But now I'm a little curious, do you really have absolutely no objection to our actions?"

The Fire Luo Path, now regarded by outsiders as a remnant of a demonic cult, has actually been in the Central Plains for a generation since it came from the Western Regions.

Among the branch altars they established in various places, many of the lower-level followers were native Tang Dynasty people.

However, at the highest levels of the main altar, until Yamotian implemented reforms and compiled various new religious rules, more than 90% of the leadership was still controlled by people from the Western Regions.

Today, among their high-ranking members, 50% are evil masters recruited in recent years, 30% are from the Western Regions, and 20% are former members of the Demonic Sect.

Zhu Linlang was a person from the Western Regions. Although he dressed entirely as a commoner from the Central Plains, his facial features, slightly different from those of people from the Central Plains, could still be seen through his smoky blue beard and hair.

Compared to those heretical sects in the Central Plains, he, a man from the Western Regions, believed he could better understand Shao Lingxiao's feelings.

Many countries in the Western Regions were constantly at war with each other. Because the territory of each country was not large, some of them were just one or two earthen cities, so the destruction of a country was a common occurrence for the people there.

However, while countries may differ in size, people's hearts are not so different.

Some of the Western Region kingdoms that managed to survive for over a hundred years had developed a strong sense of national identity. When they were wiped out, the remaining people's desire for revenge was so great that they were willing to burn everything they saw to ashes.

Compared to these former members of the demonic sect, the only difference is that the people of the fallen kingdoms in the Western Regions often lack the ability to put their biggest, most destructive ideas into practice. Their opponents are mostly confined to kingdoms between desert oases, rather than vast empires like the Tang Dynasty.

Whenever Zhu Linlang thought of this, she felt a little like sighing.

After Yemotian's sweeping reforms, the Huoluo Dao has expanded its strength to this extent in the last ten years. If it were willing to go to the Western Regions, it would not be impossible for it to unify the various countries and form a more powerful nation than the Six Zhao in ten or twenty years.

Unfortunately, it was precisely because Zhu Linlang could understand that feeling that she understood even more how difficult it was to get Shao Lingxiao to regain his ability to move and Ye Motian to regain his confidence in revenge, so that they would no longer look at their enemy... Even in the Tang Dynasty, it was the same.

"The vice leader has done me a great favor. Fifteen years ago, I swore that I would spend the rest of my life going through fire and water for him without hesitation."

In the end, Zhu Linlang only gave this answer.

"Fifteen years ago, oh, was it because of that incident in Kucha?"

Shao Lingxiao patted the purple rice noodles off his hands and said, "The Grand Preceptor of Kucha was so fortunate that he cultivated to the Grandmaster level, and then he became ambitious and wanted to suppress the surrounding tribes. As a result, he broke into one of the tribes during a sacrificial ceremony, disrupting their most sacred custom. They fought to the death, but he slaughtered their entire tribe..."

Hearing this again after so many years, Zhu Linlang's fingers tightened, almost forming a fist, as she asked, "Does the sect leader also know about this?"

"At that time, you were not yet a powerful envoy, and Xu Miyuan was unwilling to seek revenge for the sake of you few. After Mo Tian heard about this, he led you to assassinate that person."

Shao Lingxiao shook his head. "Do you know that Motian didn't actually do it entirely for you? It's because the method that person used to become a grandmaster was passed down from our sect's treasure manual. Several generations of grandmasters in our sect have achieved their status using the 'Life in the Morning and Death in the Evening' sword technique, rather than by following that method."

"Motian was very displeased, feeling that no one within the sect could achieve it, and those outside the sect were even less worthy. He sent me fourteen letters in a row, so I went and learned that technique, and then told him how to kill the person who had become a grandmaster using that technique."

Zhu Linlang didn't seem surprised.

Back then, when Yamotian told others that the King Preceptor of Kucha had gone mad, which gave them the opportunity to assassinate him, he had repeatedly recalled the events over the years and had already guessed that the person's madness was inextricably linked to Yamotian.

"In any case, the Vice-Sect Leader's kindness is real. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been able to take revenge even today."

Shao Lingxiao smiled and asked, "Then do you think we can get revenge? Tell the truth."

After a moment of contemplation, Zhu Linlang replied, "Once the sect leader has fully recovered from his injuries, there should be a 60-70% chance of assassinating the emperor."

Shao Lingxiao then asked, "Is taking revenge on just one emperor enough?"

Zhu Linlang said, "If we want to take revenge on the entire Tang Dynasty, it would be better to go to the Western Regions, unite the various countries, strengthen our forces, and then gradually take action."

Shao Lingxiao: "The Western Regions are a barren land. Even if we could conquer and unify them, it would take at least twenty years to train our troops and strengthen our forces. Ten years have already passed. If it takes another twenty years..."

Twenty years is not a long time for a top-notch master.

Shao Lingxiao is not lacking in such patience. If he were willing to express his opinion, then Ye Motian would only follow that opinion.

Unfortunately, many, many people cannot wait twenty years.

Shao Lingxiao said no more. He slashed down with his sword, sinking the ship carrying tribute rice. He stepped onto the wooden planks and crossed the river with Zhu Linlang.

On the other side of the river, Qiu Ruzui, Qin Jianshusan, and their four attendants were already waiting there.

Shao Lingxiao led them along the riverbank, and when they saw the outline of the city wall, they moved away from the riverbank and headed towards the city gate.

They were supposed to pass through the city, but when they passed a restaurant, a delicious aroma wafted out. Shao Lingxiao glanced at it and seemed to be attracted by the aroma, so he led everyone into the restaurant.

The restaurant's main hall was quite spacious. In addition to tables, chairs, and guests, there were many waiters hurrying around, and many wine jars were piled up near the counter.

What's unique is that in one corner of the main room, there are several small stoves, and a waiter is using wire mesh to cover something and roast it.

Snow-white beef tendons, bright red beef and mutton, and tender yellow goose wings quickly turned oily and golden in their hands. As the oil dripped, the charcoal flames dipped slightly and then surged, releasing a hint of charred aroma.

However, the most eye-catching thing was not these things, but a bright red mushroom.

The scattered seasonings and the chaotic charcoal fire couldn't conceal the vibrant red of the sliced ​​mushrooms, which became even more apparent over the fire.

Upon seeing these items, Qiu Ruzui patted her flat stomach and said, "I am indeed quite hungry, Master. What would you like to eat?"

Shao Lingxiao chose a table and sat down, then pointed to the mushrooms and said, "Let's start with that one."

Seeing their impressive bearing, one of the shop assistants, who was already waiting nearby, immediately beamed and said, "Sir, you have a good eye. This Red Fairy is one of a kind in heaven and earth. It is a rare treasure that can only be found in our West Mountain Forest, and it can only be found in May and June of each year."

"Moreover, when this Red Fairy just emerges from the soil and hides under the dead leaves, it grows extremely slowly and can easily be trampled and damaged. Once the time comes, it sprouts in the rain and grows extremely fast. Within two hours, it will grow to the size of a baby's fist, with its canopy becoming fluffy, curled up, and aged. At that point, it is no longer edible, so it must be picked in time."

"It's one of a kind, in heaven and on earth. Ah, in the vast mountains of the southwest, things like this are not uncommon," Shao Lingxiao said. "But these were indeed picked at just the right time."

The waiter smiled broadly: "Sir, you are truly knowledgeable, even knowing about things in the Ten Thousand Mountains."

Qiu Ruzui ordered a few more dishes, and the waiter hurried off to prepare them.

The guests at the next table, who were drinking, also started talking.

One of the men, a one-eyed man with a dart pouch at his waist, said to the people at the table, "Speaking of the Ten Thousand Mountains, something has been making headlines lately..."

The person sitting opposite him interrupted, "I know. Back then, the leader of the Southwest Demonic Sect reappeared, Lao Jun Mountain was attacked, and Master Tianfang fought the leader of the Demonic Sect, shattering the void. I heard about this a couple of days ago. Those remnants of the Demonic Sect colluded with the Fire Luo Dao, and our sect's master had already made contact with the Inner Guard a while ago, and launched an attack, destroying a Fire Luo Dao branch altar in our Weizhou. I heard that many other sects in various places have also taken action."

The one-eyed man sighed: "This matter is ancient history. Just now, I heard it with my own ears at the government office. The demonic sect has indeed created a group of demons, covered in fur and horns, with strange scales and armor. They are heading to Chang'an from the Eastern Capital in many different routes, burning, killing, and eating people along the way, committing all kinds of evil."

"The government office needs to mobilize all its manpower to guard the granary. I'll be going there after we finish our drinks."

The person at the opposite table was taken aback: "Is that so? Then why didn't you invite me?"

"Hehehe, that's what I was saying. It would be great if Brother Li were willing to go."

The one-eyed man picked up his wine glass. "After we finish this pot, we'll go together."

Shao Lingxiao looked at them with great interest and said, "My two gentlemen, I've heard that the demons of that cult are thick-skinned, incredibly strong, comparable to top-tier martial artists, and they really do eat people. Are you not afraid at all?"

The one-eyed man laughed heartily, "Brother, please. As the saying goes, those who follow the righteous path will find many helpers, while those who stray from it will find few. Although the Demonic Sect is indeed vicious, it is ultimately weak and outnumbered."

"We have countless courageous men across the land. Even though top-tier experts are rare, once we've been alerted, we've rallied together, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. With our numbers outnumbered, and our hearts united, what is there to fear in killing one or two demons?"

Shao Lingxiao wholeheartedly agreed, saying, "Well said. The Demonic Sect has so many experts; it would be fine if they gathered together and infiltrated Chang'an. But they insisted on splitting their forces to plunder and kill in all directions. They are truly extremely foolish."

"Apart from the borders, the most prosperous martial arts sects in the world today are located along the routes between Luoyang and Chang'an, and in the surrounding areas. There are so many masters that it is said that there are seventy percent of the masters in the Tang Dynasty in Guanzhong."

He sighed slightly at this point, "But I've also heard that most of the masters in Guanzhong are wise and self-preserving. It's not easy to establish oneself in this land of plenty, and they are all intelligent people. Are they willing to take such risks?"

"The Tang Dynasty is a land of etiquette. Their restrained behavior is not entirely out of fear of danger, but rather out of consideration for propriety."

A voice outside the door took over the question and answer session.

A handsome and extraordinary musician, draped in brocade and carrying a pipa, stepped into the main hall of the restaurant. His deep, sorrowful eyes looked at Shao Lingxiao and said, "The demons released by the Demonic Sect have set fire to granaries, spread to houses, eaten human flesh, chewed human bones, and swallowed them whole. The bloody and tragic scenes they have left behind are too unbearable to witness."

"The courtesies of Guanzhong will never be applied to them, and the swords of Guanzhong will never hesitate to behead them."

Shao Lingxiao clapped his hands and laughed, "The three armies serve their lives for merit and rank, and dare to fight to the death. The great battle ten years ago was like this, so it's not worth mentioning. But if, ten years later, experts from the common people act spontaneously and dare to face demons and monsters without regard for their own lives, then I should really toast them."

The musician strummed his strings and said, "We are afraid we cannot accept the Master's wine. If we truly wish to show some respect as enemies, then please listen to my piece, Master."

"The pipa of Chang'an is famous far and wide, but just listening to the music is too bland. Let's make a bet."

Shao Lingxiao said, "You and your friends are temporarily separated, but you seem to think that there are many like-minded people in Guanzhong. So let's bet on how many strangers will dare to stand by your side when you finish this song. If there are a few, I promise not to make a move for a few days."

The people at the one-eyed man's table had already sensed something was amiss; their expressions changed several times, and they stood up, clutching their dart pouches: "Who exactly are you...?"

Shao Lingxiao picked up a chopstick and tapped it on the wine glass.

Ding!

A ripple spread outwards, expanding into a deafening roar. The restaurant's roof shattered and overturned in all directions, the doorposts and walls collapsed, and tables, chairs, and people were swept away.

The one-eyed man and his companions rolled around like a windmill a dozen times, head to toe, but when they landed, they felt that their injuries were not serious and they only coughed up two mouthfuls of blood.

"Go, spread the word throughout the city, send a message outside the city, and find those you think dare to come."

They heard the sound.

"With Shao Lingxiao here, who dares to come looking for him?"

(End of this chapter)