Chapter 76

Time rewound to about half a month ago, when He Qi and Xia Xueyi had just descended from Blackwood Cliff to Wenzhou, and Gu Santong and others were closely following behind.

Yan Shisan, Ren Woxing, Zhang Chengfeng, and Wudu Laozu secretly headed straight for Jingzhou City, the center of the southwest.

Riding swiftly, they did their best to travel, and in about eight days, the four arrived secretly at Jingzhou City, the largest city in the southwest.

As the center of the southwest, Jingzhou City could naturally not be controlled by any single force. It was jointly controlled by the eight major forces in the southwest and the Ming Dynasty court.

Generally, the Ming Dynasty court managed it, but Jingzhou City also had the interests of the eight major forces. These forces, wary of each other, reached a consensus not to occupy Jingzhou City, allowing the Ming Dynasty court to manage it, but the Ming Dynasty court could not harm the interests of the eight major forces.

Of course, the title of the eight major forces was just a private name used by the people in the southwest martial world, not publicly acknowledged.

However, both the eight major forces and the Ming Dynasty court tacitly accepted this title. As for the super-major forces, the southwest truly had none. After all, super-major forces were too few compared to the entire world, and it was extremely difficult to break through to the Grand Master realm.

The entire southwest could not possibly have only eight major forces, but the strongest were only eight, with the rest being lower or middle-level Grand Master forces.

What were the eight major forces? They were the forces that had at least one Supreme Grand Master. Do not underestimate a Supreme Grand Master; anyone who could reach the supreme level in the Grand Master realm was very talented and not to be trifled with.

Even the Sun Moon Cult was only rated as one of the eight major forces two years ago when Dongfang Bubai displayed his might in Jinling City.

During Zhou Tianxing's era, the Sun Moon Cult could not be considered a top force in the southwest. If not for the knowledge that Blackwood Cliff was extremely dangerous and the mutual wariness of various forces, like Chizunxin inviting Qian Luo to join forces against enemies, fearing being surrounded, perhaps a nearby, powerful major force would have already attacked Blackwood Cliff.

Until now, the eight major forces still warily avoided a large-scale conflict. A few days later, the Sun Moon Cult broke the peace first.

After secretly entering Jingzhou City, Yan Shisan and others did not even go to the Sun Moon Cult's base in the city. They went directly to a pre-arranged place and stayed overnight.

The next night, Yan Shisan and Ren Woxing secretly arrived at a large mansion. The owner of this mansion was surnamed Wan, a well-known second-tier force in Jingzhou City.

The head of the family, Wan Zhen Shan, was celebrating his birthday that day, and the house was bustling with activity. Yan Shisan personally took action, following the plan, to force Wan Zhen Shan to reveal the whereabouts of the Liancheng Decree, inadvertently revealing that it was in the hands of his junior, Qi Changfa.

Afterward, Yan Shisan did not harm him and left directly.

On the third day, news of the Liancheng Decree's appearance reached the bases of the eight major forces in Jingzhou City.

It was said that Mei Niangsheng was a descendant of the Liang Dynasty royal family, and his senior disciple was the current Wan Zhen Shan of the Wan family. The Liancheng Decree was in his possession. A few days later, through pigeon messages, the eight major forces all received this news simultaneously.

After passing the message, Yan Shisan and the others left Ren Woxing to monitor the Wan family. The remaining three went to Tianning Temple, about fifty miles outside the city. This was where Dongfang Bubai had told them the Liancheng Decree's treasure was. They did not know how Dongfang Bubai knew, and they did not want to know. They just followed the plan.

Next, they hid for a while, until twelve days later, when they followed a group of people from Blackwood Cliff and entered Jingzhou City semi-secretly.

At the same time, countless experts entered Jingzhou City in the past few days, most of them also semi-secretly.

...

At the Sun Moon Cult's base in Jingzhou City, Yan Shisan, Gu Santong, Ren Woxing, Zhang Chengfeng, Fan Song, He Qi, Jia Bu, and Xiang Wentian, along with Wudu, were already sitting in a secret room.

Among them, Gu Santong and three others came from Wenzhou, while Yan Shisan and the others were from the Sun Moon Cult, led by Jia Bu and Xiang Wentian.

At this point, the entire base was defended so tightly that no one in Jingzhou City could eavesdrop on their conversation, thanks to the presence of Gu Santong and Yan Shisan, two supreme Grand Masters.

After some pleasantries, everyone turned to the main topic.

"How is the situation?" Gu Santong's face became unusually serious as he directly asked Jia Bu, who was the most informed about all the details. Everyone's gaze was also serious as they looked at Jia Bu.

Jia Bu's face was already extremely serious. After organizing his thoughts, he said, "After sorting out the situation, it is now very complex. Let's start with the situation at Gu Gezhu's place.

According to accurate information, Qian Luo agreed to Chizunxin's request to besiege Gu Gezhu. Fortunately, the message from Yan Gezhu and others was transmitted in time, causing Chizunxin and Qian Luo to abandon the plan to besiege Gu Gezhu. This part of the plan went smoothly.

Currently, although the exact movements are unknown, from various traces, the heads of the seven major forces are likely in Jingzhou City.

This means that the seven major forces we informed are all here, plus the Southwest Prince's Mansion, making a total of eight major force leaders gathered in Jingzhou City. This part of the plan also went smoothly.

However, the eight major forces probably all know that each other is in Jingzhou City.

The Wan family is already under strict surveillance by various forces, but they all know something is amiss and are wary of each other, so no one has taken action against the Wan family.

But they have all confirmed that the Liancheng Treasure is real.

Qi Changfa, after escaping from the Wan family, was captured by Chief Ren and is now in our hands. This part went smoothly.

In the past few days, the Embroidery Thief suddenly appeared in Jingzhou City, attracting the troublesome Lu Xiaofeng."

Everyone was taken aback. They had heard about the Embroidery Thief, but they did not know about the trouble with Lu Xiaofeng.

Thinking of Lu Xiaofeng, even those present could not help but feel annoyed. In the Ming Dynasty, there were two widely recognized troublemakers: one was the four-eyebrowed Lu Xiaofeng, and the other was the thief king Chu Liuxiang. These two were contemporaries of Yan Shisan.

They were once listed on the list of young talents alongside Dongfang Bubai and Yan Shisan. Now they were all Grand Masters and extremely powerful ones at that.

Combined with their extremely intelligent minds and many powerful friends, they had solved many strange and dangerous cases since their debut, never failing once.

"No problem, Lu Xiaofeng is indeed a troublemaker, but so what? Our plan was never very tight and had many issues.

However, because of these issues, no one will suspect that we are controlling everything.

Various forces probably know something is amiss, but they cannot resist the temptation of the wealth that rivals a nation and the Heaven-level cultivation techniques. Lu Xiaofeng cannot stop their temptation.

We just need to drag it out for another month. As long as we are not discovered as the ones behind everything in this month, we will be fine." Ren Woxing said with a mocking smile.

Everyone knew this was a mockery of the major forces' inability to resist temptation. In fact, if they were honest, even among them, few could resist such temptation.

Moreover, the leaders of the major forces, with their different positions, had different perspectives. They were not short of money or martial arts manuals, but when faced with wealth that rivaled a nation and Heaven-level cultivation techniques, they were more lacking than anyone else.

Thinking of this, everyone could not help but admire Dongfang Bubai, who had resisted such temptation. However, that was not entirely correct. He did not resist the temptation; he wanted more.

Putting aside their thoughts, everyone continued to look at Jia Bu, listening to him continue.

Jia Bu looked at everyone and continued, "The Embroidery Thief might be able to tie up Lu Xiaofeng, but be careful not to let the Embroidery Thief disrupt our plan.

As for Qi Changfa, although we captured him and made him take the Three-Corpse Brainworm Pill, he is very cunning and extremely cold-hearted. He is unlikely to be of use to us.

After using him to spread the news, it would be best to kill him."

Everyone nodded in agreement with Jia Bu's words. However, thinking of the Three-Corpse Brainworm Pill, most of them felt a chill, and their eyes glanced at Wudu Laozu with some hostility.

Wudu Laozu felt somewhat helpless and even a bit sad. This could not be entirely his fault! Moreover, he and his son were the biggest victims.

The Three-Corpse Brainworm Pill was the pinnacle creation of the Five Poisons Hall and the Medicine Hall in the past two years, an extremely sinister poison.

The pill contained three types of corpse worms. After consumption, there were no immediate symptoms, but if the antidote to control the corpse worms was not taken by noon on the Dragon Boat Festival each year, the worms would emerge. Once they entered the brain, the person would act like a ghost or a demon, even biting and eating their own parents and spouse.

These corpse worms had great resistance to internal energy. No matter how deep the internal energy, it could not harm them. Even techniques like the Suction Power Technique were useless because the pill would fuse with the worms in the body, making them inseparable. Only the antidote that could control and kill the worms would work.

Otherwise, as long as one was not at the Grand Master level, they could not escape the Three-Corpse Brainworm Pill.

Moreover, the amount of ingredients used to make the poison was different, so the antidote was also different. This meant that even if Ping Yizhi and his brother, or Wudu and his son, did not know the exact amount of ingredients, they could not make the antidote.

After the poison was developed, it was handed over to Dongfang Bubai, and all related documents were destroyed. No one else, including Ping Yizhi and his brother, or Wudu and his son, could make it.

To ensure the poison did not leak and to prevent them from making it privately, Ping Yizhi and his brother, and Wudu and his son, were the first to take the poison, made personally by Dongfang Bubai. He was the only one in the world who could provide the antidote.

Fortunately, Dongfang Bubai had his own pride and did not need to control his subordinates with such poison. Therefore, he did not make others take it. Ping Yizhi and his brother, and Wudu and his son, only took it as a precaution, fearing they might make the highly dangerous poison privately.

...

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