A Scroll of Infinite Glory

Chapter 235 The World Is in Motion

When Qiongying was young, her mother was coveted by others because of her beauty, so they plotted to kill her father. However, her mother was also a strong-willed person and would rather jump off a cliff to commit suicide than submit.

At the time, Lu Junyi was on patrol in the Hebei Road area when he encountered this incident. He rescued Qiongying and, seeing that she was beautiful and lovely with excellent physical attributes, adopted her as his goddaughter and taught her martial arts.

However, Lu Junyi was later sent to participate in the campaign against the Western Xia. After returning, he served as an official in various places and only returned to Daming Prefecture two years ago, where he spent little time with Qiongying.

Thanks to Qiongying's own hard work and skillful martial arts, when Lu Junyi returned, he tested her in archery, horsemanship, swordsmanship, and spear fighting. Seeing her excellent performance, he was even more delighted and taught her everything he knew.

Today, Qiongying sent someone to deliver a message, saying that the part of her cultivation technique that had been difficult for a long time had recently become clear and that she had made new progress. She used this as a pretext to invite Lu Junyi to a gathering.

"Godfather, please sit down in the garden, have some wine and food, and watch me demonstrate that spear technique."

Qiongying led Lu Junyi and Yan Qing into the small garden. The flowers and trees here were all carefully cultivated and pruned by her. The ground was paved with pebbles, and the winding paths led to secluded spots. It was a unique and ingenious design.

The stone table and round stools are placed perfectly, amidst the faint fragrance of flowers and the gentle shade of trees, providing coolness in summer and shelter from the cold in winter.

After Lu Junyi and Yan Qing took their seats, they saw that bowls, chopsticks, cups and saucers had been set on the table. A maid brought over a wine jar, and once opened, a wonderful fragrance wafted out, soothing the mind and making people relax unconsciously.

"What fine wine!" Lu Junyi couldn't help but exclaim, quickly picking up an empty cup and waiting for the maid to pour the wine.

Qiongying, carrying a spear, walked to a sparsely populated area in the garden. Suddenly, she flicked the spearhead, and the white tassel curled gently, sending the spearhead more than ten feet away.

She moved without disturbing the dust or trampling the grass. She moved with the gun, circling and flying, swift as a rabbit and falcon, as if the gun were the dragon's backbone and she were a celestial mist, shuttling among the flowers and trees, passing by the lush foliage in a flash.

Some of the pink and white petals were startled and fell, sticking to the hem of Qiong Ying's clothes and the tip of her spear. No matter how fast she moved, she was able to keep the petals from falling off the spear tip.

When the gun finally stopped firing, the petals were still so tender that they seemed to be glistening with dew.

As Lu Junyi watched her wield the spear, he had already tasted three cups of wine. He felt the aroma permeate his lungs, making him feel as if he had ascended to a celestial palace. Before he had even touched his chopsticks, he unconsciously drank two more cups.

"Well done! Ying'er has indeed improved rapidly. But your gun, while it looks nice, still lacks a bit of killing intent."

With a smile and two comments, Lu Junyi stood up, took the gun from Qiongying, grabbed the butt of the gun with one hand, and with a slight pull of his wrist, the tip of the gun immediately hung down to the ground nine feet away.

"Look carefully, a gun is for killing enemies, and a stick is for punishing people. Skills with guns and sticks are useless if they don't have enough imposing and murderous aura."

He still held the wine glass in his left hand, and with a flick of his right wrist, he thrust out a spear.

In an instant, the grass in the garden stood upright, the flowering trees shook wildly, and hundreds of petals rose from the treetops, only to suddenly freeze in mid-air after rising a few feet.

Lu Junyi stared at the tip of the spear, his murderous aura condensing into frost and snow on the suspended petals. In the blink of an eye, each withered petal was covered with a thin layer of cold white.

hum! !

He flicked the tip of his gun upwards, shattering the ice flowers and sending a clear, pure expanse of snow soaring into the sky from the garden.

Qiongying clapped her hands and said, "Father's marksmanship is still so good. I wonder when I will be able to catch up with Father's level."

"Haha, you are a girl after all, so it's understandable that you lack murderous intent."

Lu Junyi moved the spear aside, resting it among the tree branches, and returned to the table.

Qiongying also sat down and asked him some questions about marksmanship. She subtly kept urging him to drink, and later they chatted about some everyday matters.

Before he knew it, Lu Junyi had already drunk four or five jars of wine, and his face showed signs of drunkenness.

When he held a gun, he was majestic and imposing, as if the essence of ten tiger kings and a hundred lions were gathered between his beard, hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. He truly deserved the title of Jade Kirin, the best in the world when it came to spears and clubs.

But once he takes off his gun, his eyes look like those of a dull, slow, and even somewhat foolish water buffalo.

As he drank, Lu Junyi's eyes became somewhat glazed and hazy. He forced himself to stay awake and said, "I can't drink anymore, or I'll get drunk."

"It would be better if he got drunk," Qiongying said with a smile. "I have more than one room in this garden. It's rare for my godfather to come over. If he gets drunk, he and Brother Xiaoyi can stay here for the night."

As she spoke, she glanced at Yan Qing and suddenly realized that he showed no signs of drunkenness, as if he had only tasted half a cup of wine from beginning to end. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

Yan Qing smiled at Lu Junyi and said, "Master, you've been rising and falling in various places all these years, with all your skills going to waste. Even when the prefect and others invited you to a banquet, you didn't feel comfortable drinking. It's rare that Qiongying has found such good wine for you, how can you not drink to your heart's content?"

Although Lu Junyi and Yan Qing were nominally master and servant, they actually had a deep friendship, and Lu Junyi often consulted Yan Qing on matters.

Since Yan Qing had said so, Lu Junyi simply drank freely, and as he became more and more drunk, he casually recounted all sorts of things that had happened over the years.

No one knows how much wine Qiongying brought, but the snacks on the table had been changed five times, and there were more than twenty jars piled up next to him. Lu Junyi finally got so drunk that he passed out and gradually slumped onto the table.

Yan Qing patted his back, and seeing that he was only snoring and not responding, he turned to Qiong Ying and said with a smile, "The wine that can make the master drunk must be brewed by sorcerers and mages. You've spent a lot of money on this today."

Qiongying said, "When my godfather left Daming Prefecture, he entrusted his family business to me. What does this wine amount to today?"

Yan Qing said, "But I heard that the steward and servants that the master left for you seized the family property in less than a year. They even tried to poison you under the pretense of being seriously ill. You escaped from the Lu family alone and suffered for several years before you were able to reclaim the property."

"Nothing can be hidden from Brother Yi."

Qiong Ying smiled and said, "Then, Brother Xiao Yi, would you like to guess what I'm going to do next?"

"I won't guess." Yan Qing took out his iron flute and said with annoyance, "My flute is also stained with wine, I'll go wash it first."

Before he finished speaking, he got up and left.

The maids nervously watched his retreating figure and whispered to Qiongying, "Miss, should we put some anesthetic on him and knock him out? Some of the older maids have secretly practiced some peach blossom miasma because they think he's handsome. I'll get them here. If we all use them at once, we'll probably succeed."

Qiong Ying glanced at her irritably: "We've had a hard life since we were little. What incredible luck we had to learn martial arts and magic! I told you to practice diligently, and this is all you've got?"

The personal maid secretly pressed her chest; she also had two handkerchiefs hidden in her bosom that could release peach blossom miasma. She said with a wronged expression, "I don't have any."

Qiong Ying snorted coldly: "Brother Xiao Yi is a shrewd person. Now that he's gone, we don't need to worry about him anymore."

She removed Lu Junyi's envoy badge, left two maids behind, and instructed them to take good care of Lu Junyi, and to give him a few more jars of water if he woke up.

Afterwards, Qiongying led her people outside the city and drove a large herd of cattle and sheep, probably several thousand in number, to the military camp in Daming Prefecture.

"The Pacification Commissioner knows that you all train hard every day, so he specially sent us to buy some cattle and sheep to reward the brothers."

Qiongying showed her waist token and led the herd of cattle and sheep into the military camp.

Because there were too many cattle and sheep, Qiongying suggested that they be dispersed to various parts of the military camp, slaughtered on the spot, and large pots set up so that it would be convenient to eat around the pots.

The military commander agreed, thanked her, and dispersed the cattle and sheep.

The military camp was already in an uproar. These soldiers usually lived a rather austere life. Although there was not much shortage of ore for cultivation, their food was bland and not even salty.

Those with official positions naturally had access to lavish meals of fish and meat, but ordinary soldiers rarely had the experience of eating meat in large quantities, so they couldn't help but be envious of these cattle and sheep.

Immediately, someone sharpened a dagger, found a large, fat ox, and prepared to stab it in.

The big bull reacted quickly, twisting its body and immediately letting out a miserable cry: "My butt!"

Those around were astonished to see the cow speaking human language.

While they were still in shock, suddenly all the cattle and sheep in the camp stood up, and their hides split open in the middle and fell off, revealing more than a thousand well-dressed men and women.

Without prior arrangement, everyone took out ritual implements such as earthenware jars, small drums, pots and pans, handkerchiefs, and hairpins.

Five-colored clouds and smoke instantly filled the entire military camp.

Qiongying leaped onto her horse and killed the commander-in-chief with a single spear thrust. The entire battalion of soldiers were subsequently poisoned and fell unconscious.

Even the fastest one could only jump over the fence and run fifty feet away before collapsing to the ground headfirst.

"Brothers and sisters aged twenty-five and above, stay in the camp to deal with these soldiers. The rest of you, follow me to attack the prefect's residence."

The officials, constables, and clerks of Daming Prefecture were caught off guard and suffered repeated defeats. Half of the prefectural government's residence was left in ruins and collapsed.

The prefect used the imperial dynasty's fortune-gathering techniques to create a colossal cloud-like statue. With every gesture, it stirred up surging waves of energy, and the surrounding eaves only reached the statue's waist.

However, Qiong Ying combined her strength with her spear, unleashing a powerful attack that shattered the clouds into scattered fragments.

When she landed her gun on the roof of the prefect's residence, her eyes were red-rimmed. She turned to look at the shattered prefect, her expression burning like gold.

"Your salaries and emoluments are the people's blood and sweat, you dig three feet into the ground, sucking the marrow from their bones. Since you've been doing this kind of thing for so long, don't blame me for tearing your bones apart!"

The clang of gun blades, the sound of jade spring water gurgling, and snow falling all around—if Lu Junyi could see this scene, he would find that Qiong Ying's murderous aura was even more intense than his own marksmanship.

In the distance, the melody of Yan Qing's iron flute drifted over, its sound gradually rising in pitch, though no one knew where he was.

Accompanied by this music, the rebel army raised their banners and captured Daming Prefecture.

Less than a day apart.

Suddenly, troops and soldiers, covering the mountains and plains, attacked the city along the Jingxi Road.

The defenders on the city walls were already terrified and blew their iron whistles and struck their scorched earth, but the number of rebels was beyond comprehension, with countless banners fluttering in the wind across the mountains and fields.

There were flags bearing the characters Cao, Liu, and Sun, as well as flags bearing the characters Lü, Zhao, Dian, Guan, Ma, and Zhang.

Colorful armor and banners, like the tidal wave of the Qiantang River, rolled up the city walls. Strangely, all the horses and infantry moved silently.

In the city, high-ranking officials and generals used their supernatural powers to blast away large numbers of soldiers. After those soldiers and horses were blasted to death, they floated lightly into the air and turned into pieces of colored paper that burned.

"So it's just some mere paper horse and sword technique, a trivial evil art!"

One of the generals shouted, "As long as we maintain our composure and are not intimidated, the killing power of these bandits will naturally weaken."

Before his shout had even finished, one of his personal guards was cleaved in two with a single blow.

The city is in chaos, and it's not something that can be calmed down easily. As long as those paper figures and horses don't die, when they wield their swords and spears, they're no different from real swords and spears.

Moreover, among the countless paper figures and horses, there are also some living people who use martial arts and magic to launch surprise attacks and kill.

Especially a man in rags, carrying a withered wooden staff, with thorns wrapped around his head and long, disheveled hair.

"Insignificant?"

He swung his wooden staff, and a hundred swords pierced through the wind, turning the shouting general into a pincushion. He whispered, "These are paper cuts made by hand by the old, weak, women, and children of thousands of households as we traveled through thirteen provinces."

Gan Chijun, Zhang Wanxian, claimed to have gathered 300,000 people and started an uprising on Jingxi Road.

Jiangnan Road is crisscrossed by rivers and streams. The government received news that a large number of ore ships bound for Bianliang had recently been hijacked. Therefore, the navy was mobilized to suppress the river bandits.

Hundreds of figures with severed hair and tattoos moved through the water like a large school of fish, battling the wind and waves, using the force of the water to break through the bottom of the ship, fighting on the sinking vessel.

A man clad in bright golden armor rampaged across the boat, slaughtering his way through the air. In his hand, a five-pronged, dark gold fork propelled the wind and waves, stirring up the riverbed mud and creating turbulent currents.

Small boats would capsize and sink if swept by the turbulent currents, while large ships would be shaken violently by the impact, and even have large holes torn in their hulls.

"Hahaha, brothers, everyone who has reached the ship, kneel down before you stop. Once we win this wave and seize the warship, we can go into the city and loot it."

In Jiangnan Road, there was a bandit leader named Gao Tuoshan who fought the Jiangnan navy three times and won all three battles. He then fled to various places, causing panic and disorder in the surrounding prefectures and counties.

The Liangzhe Road area has Shi Sheng, Zhu Yan, Wu Bang, Chen Shisi, and Qiu Daoren.

On Guangnan Road, there were people like Wu Hu and Liu Dagu.

Xichuan Road has figures such as Lü Shinang, Prince Li, and Heavenly King Yang.

On Liangshan Mountain, Li Yingzheng compiled the recent news he had received and reported it to Guan Luoyang.

"If you only go to those prosperous cities under the rule of the Great Song Dynasty, you might still be able to see some of the glorious appearance of a prosperous era with flowers in full bloom and oil boiling over.

"But in reality, the world has long been in chaos, and now that the winds have blown, its true colors have been revealed."

Li Ying sighed, "Those high-ranking officials in the imperial court could never have imagined that the flames of war would spread so quickly. However, a month ago, I would never have believed that there were still so many heroes in the martial world."

The rebellions and unrest in various places were actually far more numerous than these, but most of them were suppressed by the government army as soon as they began to emerge. After all, the elite soldiers of the Song Dynasty who had cultivated demonic arts were indeed not something ordinary people could resist.

Each of these renowned individuals was capable of achieving victory against the Song Dynasty's soldiers.

Although many of them were quickly defeated and fled during the government troops' encirclement and suppression, Li Ying still felt deep admiration for them.

Guan Luoyang had anticipated this situation to some extent, but he was still taken aback by the speed at which it happened.

After careful consideration, he realized that he had underestimated the impact of the revival of the demonic path on the world.

With that set of precise and efficient methods for prospecting mineral veins, the Song Dynasty's army not only became stronger externally, but also more ruthless internally under the command of the current court. Uprisings that should have broken out long ago in many places were suppressed and held back, and no one dared to take action.

The news of the Liangshan uprising, the capture of Quancheng, and the killing of the Grand Commandant of the Palace Guard provided an opportunity for people in various regions to erupt, both in terms of the war effort and the people's hearts.

"When the news spreads throughout the land, the whole world is in turmoil."

Li Ying murmured softly, looking at Guan Luoyang with deep respect, and said, "Chief, there is some news that is closer to us. It is said that the bandit strongholds in the mountains of Qingzhou have also been active recently, looting the mines in various parts of Qingzhou and attacking Qingzhou City in turn. They have already achieved quite good results."

"They appear to be fighting independently, but they seem to be connected, possibly having formed an alliance and receiving guidance from a master. However, for some reason, this master refuses to reveal their identity. They are too close to us; should we take action?"

Guan Luoyang nodded and said, "No rush. I've only been here for less than a month, and there are still many things to arrange. Let me finish my homework for the brothers of Liangshan before considering anything else."

Li Ying asked in confusion, "Homework?"

"I'm currently working on changing their training methods, and I'm starting to see some progress."

Guan Luoyang said, "Go and call Lin Lingsu over. He has more experience in cultivation. I'll have a detailed talk with him."

Li Ying nodded and walked out of the Hall of Gathering Righteousness, which Gongsun Sheng had built with magic.

Outside, the sky was bright and clear. Some of the Liangshan disciples were training, while others were farming. Everything was well-organized, both on the mountain and in the water.

While the world was in turmoil, Liangshan gradually accumulated strength in peace.

(End of this chapter)