Chapter 80

Wang Pushi’s expression presently became a little unbecoming. Suncheer was inside the range of his jurisdiction, but how would he know what kind of thing the Black Wind Camp was.
Hua Chengzan thought for a little: “It seems this place is on our list of names, but it’s just ranked too low so we couldn’t spare any time dealing with them for all these years.”
A very long time later, Li Qingshan would come to learn that every Eagle Wolf Guard office from top to bottom had a list of names ranked by strength, the degree of evildoing, the magnitude of their disturbance, and the amount of benefits. The Eagle Wolf Guard would send masters to kill them one by one starting from the top. This was a blacklist that made men of the martial world terror-stricken as soon as they heard of it. If you could be ranked high enough on the blacklist, it was proof you were strong enough and rampant enough, but it also entailed you weren’t far from death. However, because a variety of figures emerged one after another like flies, the Black Wind Camp more or less belonged to the sort that would never have their name come up.
Wang Pushi said with a quiet shout, “You talk too much!”
Feng Zhang saw that Li Qingshan had gotten on captain Wang’s bad side and saw his opportunity come. He said with rising courage, “Captains, this kid stole the spirit ginseng, indiscriminately killed innocents, damaged my Eagle Wolf Guard’s authority…”
“You’re trying to fool me?” Gu Yanying interrupted him. It wasn’t a question but rather amazement, as if Feng Zhang had done something very difficult to believe.
“No, I’m not…” Feng Zhang wanted to quibble, but Wang Pushi’s vision fell on him with an ashen expression, and it was as if his neck had suddenly been choked. He was unable to say out one more word.
“Although us Eagle Wolf guards aren’t any sort of good and honest folks, we still haven’t degenerated so low to be ordered about by men of the rivers and lakes, or fabricate these falsehoods with neither head nor tail.” Gu Yanying shook her head and didn’t pay any further attention to Feng Zhang. She said to Wang Pushi instead, “Old Wang, did you bring the map?”
Feng Zhang’s expression looked simply as if someone had struck him with a sword. His face was pallid without any shred of blood on it, and his body was covered by large amounts of sweat from head to toes. Anyone who’d cultivated to his level would be able to freely control their body, so it was easy to tell from his behavior how low his state of mind had fallen.
“Brought it!” Wang Pushi took out a huge map from a pouch at his hips.
Li Qingshan opened his eyes wide. A spatial pouch!
There was no telling what animal leather the thick map was made from. It unexpectedly also glowed with spiritual light when it was unfolded on the small table. This wasn’t an ordinary map.
Gu Yanying said: “You inject true qi inside and silently read the two words ‘Suncheer City’ in your mind.”
Li Qingshan put his hand on the map and thought “Suncheer City.” An extremely faint ray of light brightened on a corner of the map. His mind also naturally received many information on top of that, including Suncheer City’s population, surface area, location, and so on.
Gu Yanying said, “Think again of the Clear River prefecture.”
Li Qingshan’s thoughts revolved. Then he saw hundreds of light dots brighten up at the same time, as resplendent as a river of stars. Every bright spot was a city, and the ray shining from Suncheer City practically belonged to the weakest batch, while the brightest spot at the very center represented the Clear River capital city.
Three hundred seventeen cities, a territory of three thousand miles from north to south and from east to west. This was precisely the Clear River prefecture.
Li Qingshan had long know this world’s mountains and rivers were boundless, but he didn’t expect it’d actually be big to such an extent. He’d once heard the elders in the village talk about it, but he’d merely taken them as exaggerated stories. He never thought it was unexpectedly true.
He suddenly understood in an instant why the lord prefect would casually hand over the head county magistrate title to the unlearned and incompetent Ye Dachuan. It was because a small city was fundamentally of no consequence for the whole of the Clear River prefecture. And the Black Wind Camp was even more insignificant. Unless the Black Wind Camp had directly torn the flag in revolt, it would have been very difficult otherwise to transmit the news to the Clear River capital a thousand miles away.
The imperial court of this world was not only not weak, it was frighteningly powerful instead. It was only due to the surface area being too big that it allowed local officials to act like autonomous lords. Autonomy didn’t represent freedom however.
Whether the Black Wind Camp or the Horse Rein Village, no matter how much they tossed about, they’d merely be tossing around a small place. If you tossed about too fiercely, they’d directly send one or two Eagle Wolf guards and squeeze you to death. You’d never be able to rattle the foundations of the imperial rule. It was a regime that was simply firmer and more secure than any dynasty Li Qingshan knew of.
“The Ruyi region I administer has nine prefectures. Half a year ago, in Joyful Triumph prefecture, the White Lotus cult sacrificed a whole city in order to refine a magical treasure. Maybe two hundred thousand people.” Gu Yanying lifted her head and drank a cup of wine. Hua Chengzan hurried to refill it for her.
Two hundred thousand people! For Li Qingshan, the Black Wind Camp’s massacring villages was already a hackles raising heinous behavior, but how could he imagine there were people a thousand times more evil.
Li Qingshan subconsciously searched for the Ruyi region on the map. He saw almost ten times more dots of light brighten up. Just looking at the map, a dot of light going out seemed to be a mere trifle.
The Ruyi Region was ten thousand miles across.
Although Li Qingshan didn’t have a precise concept about geography, he was still very aware this was already much greater than the entire surface area of the China from his former world. At this moment, Gu Yanying was clearly right in front of his eyes, but also appeared to be far away beyond the furthest clouds, in a realm so distant he had no way to touch.
Just like a frog at the bottom of the well seeing the stance of the eagle in the sky. It could only have the strength to look up.
The eagle circled in the sky, searching for even greater preys. How would its vision fall inside the well and pay attention to the disputes between some insects and flies. This time it had also merely stopped beside the well by chance, and noticed an unusual frog.
Wang Pushi said very cautiously, “Captain, did you come here this time for the matter of the White Lotus cult still?”
The Holy Mother of the White Lotus cult was a Golden Core stage demonic cultivator, she was a frightful character he couldn’t afford to provoke. It wouldn’t be good thing if he were to be mixed inside this kind of conflict. Captain Gu had led men to encircle and annihilate the White Lotus cult five times, and although she’d seized an overwhelming victory every time, she’d still lost more than a dozen men just counting the White Wolf Guard. Meanwhile, the strength of a Red Wolf captain like him was merely equivalent to a first level White Wolf guard.
Gu Yanying smiled and said, “Why would I come alone then? The White Lotus Holy Mother is wounded, she’s already gone into hiding. I’ve only learned a superficial knowledge of my Six Lines Divination and can’t find her. Besides, a Golden Core cultivator is indeed not that easy to kill.” So saying, she looked again at Li Qingshan and lamented the inadequacy of her Six Lines Divination. She couldn’t clearly figure out even this person.
Since it wasn’t for the White Lotus cult, then there truly weren’t many people left in the Ruyi region worth her acting personally. Everyone watched her with curiosity. Gu Yanying put down the cup of wine from her hand and paused a moment, the expression of a headache floating on her face. “It’s her lady concubine Serenity’s cat that’s gotten lost, she let me come find it.”
“Find a cat!” Li Qingshan was stunned. He originally thought she’d have some very important matter, that she was going to capture what terrifying figure. He didn’t think she actually hurried from thousand miles away all the way to this small Suncheer City just to find a cat.
Gu Yanying let out a sigh. “I’d rather go fight a decisive battle with the White Lotus Holy Mother.”
Wang Pushi and Hua Chengzan knew what the two words “concubine Serenity” meant. Their expression became entirely prudent, and they didn’t dare butt in or ask too much. This probably involved a conflict at the highest level of the Verdant province; it wasn’t something they could intervene in.
Gu Yanying’s mouth hadn’t stopped while talking, and one cup of wine after another went down her gullet. When she stopped talking she’d already emptied a cauldron’s worth of wine. A trace of blush floated on her face, as if the world had returned to spring. Her allure was unparalleled.
Gu Yanying stood up free and easy. “Alright, there’s no more wine, I’m done talking.” She took out a bag from a jade ring on her hand and put it on the table. “You take those spirit stones, it’s my thanks for the wine. Properly cultivate and hurry to break through!”