Chapter 56: Chapter 56: News (Revised)
Mountain Lord didn’t take all of its “salary” but left the remainder in Wang Sheng’s care, which suggested that Mountain Lord now held a high degree of trust in Wang Sheng.
For Wang Sheng, this was certainly good news; it seemed a Guardian Divine Beast was secured.
“If you want to eat next time, just find those people!”
Considering that some people in the village might not be able to handle the shock, Wang Sheng decided not to let Mountain Lord come to the village to find him. Scaring some of the elderly to death would have been a sin.
“Roar~”
Mountain Lord clearly understood this point; otherwise, it wouldn’t have looked to Zhou Yong.
After saying this, it lumbered away—there was grain to guard!
After seeing Mountain Lord off, Wang Sheng also spoke with Zhou Yong before leaving.
Teaching the martial artists of the village or dealing with Mountain Lord could only be considered a “side” activity. Cultivating his own skills was what mattered most.
He had too many skills at present, and without one or two months, even those that had not achieved a Breakthrough would not improve much. He could only slowly progress, and in the future, this pace would only slow further. Now it might take one or two months, but later it could take one or two years, or even longer.
“Just keep grinding away!”
He returned to his daily routine.
However, this routine was disrupted about ten days later with the arrival of a piece of news.
A huge explosion occurred in Jiangyuan City, resulting in massive damages.
“The Mechanical Giant Beast exploded, Great Grandmaster King Yong Nian suffered extremely serious injuries, and the entire city of Jiangyuan along with a large surrounding area was destroyed, leaving a huge crater. The waters of the Yellow Dragon River poured in, forming a lake.”
This was the news that Li Yongfeng and the other two had brought back.
Upon their return, they immediately convened the important figures of the village to discuss the matter.
After hearing the news, Wang Sheng was somewhat bewildered. This brief statement was full of information.
Jiang Yuan’s king and King Yong Nian had held their peace for such a short period before erupting into conflict again following the Dharma Decree.
And this time, no Dharma Decree had emerged.
What this implied was self-explanatory.
The imperial family of the Imperial City could no longer restrain certain matters.
After briefly outlining the information, Li Yongfeng continued with more details.
“It’s said that both Jiang Yuan’s king and King Yong Nian suffered heavy losses, several Grandmasters perished, and countless other Martial Artists and ordinary soldiers died.
Not to mention the common folk nearby; the villagers and towns close to Jiangyuan City experienced something akin to an earthquake. Every house collapsed, and who knows how many died, while many more have already fled beyond Shuzhou—with at least tens of thousands seeking refuge…”
Although he hadn’t seen it firsthand, Wang Sheng could imagine the degree of disaster.
Tens of thousands of refugees, and in the end, the number who would survive…
He realized just how vulnerable common people were in a world where individuals could wield great power.
Li Yongfeng, having had prior notice of the news, wasn’t as emotional and continued, “There’s also a piece of news that’s uncertain if true. It’s said that if not for King Yong Nian’s last-ditch effort to contain the explosion, the impact might have been even greater.
However, one thing that can be confirmed is that both King Yong Nian and Jiang Yuan’s king were greatly affected. Only a few Grandmasters on each side remain in a standoff, with neither side daring to act rashly…”
To put it simply, Jiang Yuan’s king had managed a covert action against King Yong Nian, and now, even without a Dharma Decree to prevent it, both parties were in a standoff.
“Is there any news about Jiang Yuan’s king?”
Li Yongfeng shook his head.
The news he could gather was easy to come by, and naturally, he didn’t know the more detailed information.
Wang Sheng nodded and asked no further.
There were only two possibilities, either Jiang Yuan’s king was unharmed and seizing the opportunity to counter-attack while King Yong Nian was injured—though one must be wary in case King Yong Nian was feigning serious injury to lure his enemy—or Jiang Yuan’s king had also been gravely injured, and both parties continued their deadlock.
However, he felt that Mountain Lord probably wouldn’t run into trouble, after all, the explosion of the Mechanical Giant Beast seemed to be Mountain Lord’s doing, sacrificing some of his men to deceive King Yong Nian, but he wouldn’t cut off his own military power.
Xu Qu said, “These matters shouldn’t affect the village for the time being, right?”
Although it sounded harsh, in reality, besides the initial shock causing some panic, such incidents didn’t have any real impact on Qingshan Village; Qingshan Village had long been prepared with a retreat plan.
But Li Yongfeng shook his head.
“Not necessarily, on the way back, I found out that the Green Flood Dragon Gang has made a move on the county government office, and they’re said to have obtained our county’s territorial survey map.”
“How dare they!” Village Chief Zhou Zhengwen was the first to disbelieve it.
Qingshan Village belonged to Lushui County of Baiwu Prefecture in Shuzhou, and Lushui was a tributary of the Yellow Dragon River.
Although the Lushui County government office wasn’t particularly strong, how could a gang dare to take on the official forces?
“Because of the power struggle between Mountain Lord and King Yong Nian, Mountain Lord has drawn away a significant portion of the martial forces of the counties, leaving only a handful of martial artists in the county office, the strongest being just a Third Grade Martial Artist, not a match for the Green Flood Dragon Gang at all…”
The Vice Gang Leader of the suddenly emerging Green Flood Dragon Gang was at the fifth grade.
Li Yongfeng and the others, of course, had thoroughly inquired about these matters.
Village Chief Zhou Zhengwen dejectedly sat down.
“Most likely, most of the martial artists won’t return, that’s why the Green Flood Dragon Gang is so brazen, right?”
The explosion had caused heavy losses to Mountain Lord’s martial artists, and it wasn’t just Li Yongfeng and his group who could obtain information.
The Green Flood Dragon Gang, being powerful, would only have access to more information.
They must have received some secret message to dare attack the county office.
“Territorial survey map, that’s troublesome!”
With the territorial survey map stolen, it means that everything in Lushui County is under the Green Flood Dragon Gang’s control.
Given the modus operandi of the Green Flood Dragon Gang, Qingshan Village was likely to be targeted too.
“Let’s speed up the relocation process!”
Village Chief Zhou Zhengwen quickly made his decision.
Originally, due to the fact that Qingshan Fort could not be inhabited, combined with the hope that King Yong Nian’s forces wouldn’t have moved in, he had planned to delay things.
But with this development, any further delay could lead to disaster.
There weren’t many villages in Lushui County, and it would soon be their turn; Zhou Zhengwen would not pin his hopes on the guess that the Green Flood Dragon Gang would disdain their poor village and not come.
Having said that, the village chief greeted everyone and left, obviously to spread the word.
Wang Sheng and the others exchanged glances and then dispersed, as they had come here mainly for news from the outside world.
Only to say that this time the amount of information was quite substantial.
Mountain Lord and King Yong Nian were likely to resolve their conflict soon.
And Wang Sheng hadn’t forgotten another point, King Yong Nian had spread the martial arts plague throughout the Shuzhou Yellow Dragon River region.
“Why hasn’t it broken out yet?”
The people of Qingshan Village were safe because Xu Qu was with them, able to eliminate the effects of the martial arts plague, and once removed, one could not be infected a second time, but the martial artists outside didn’t have this opportunity.
Yet none of the news that Li Yongfeng and his group heard mentioned the martial arts plague.
At this stage, with heavy losses on their side, and still no outbreak of the martial arts plague, what was King Yong Nian doing with all that effort?
Or could it be that the conditions to trigger the latent martial arts plague were very stringent?
Wang Sheng always felt that something was off!
…