In the inner hall of the county office.
Chen Tong held three books in his hand and handed them to Cui Heng respectfully. “My Lord, I interrogated Sun Panshi and Wang Qingquan and obtained these.”
“Alright.” Cui Heng nodded slightly. He took the books and flipped through them slightly. He smiled and said, “Not bad. Do you have anything you want?”
“I… I would like to take a few days off to return to my hometown.” Chen Tong bowed and said somewhat embarrassedly, “I have a younger sister who is away all year round and will be returning to our hometown to visit our relatives soon. I want to take some time to cook her something delicious.”
“Oh?” Cui Heng immediately laughed when he heard that. He nodded and said, “I didn’t expect Captain Chen to have such a side. Alright, I’ll allow you ten days of leave. Is that enough? Your salary will be as usual. I won’t deduct any.”
“Thank you, my Lord!” Chen Tong bowed and thanked him before saying, “Actually, I don’t need ten days. Recently, my Lord has implemented a new decree. Logically speaking, I shouldn’t leave for too long. Seven days will do.”
If it really didn’t work out, he could bring his sister to work.
After all, she was already in her twenties. She should be able to take care of herself.
That was what he thought.
“Alright, as you wish.” Cui Heng nodded.
He had a good impression of Chen Tong now. He was even considering if he should keep Chen Tong as a captain.
Originally, Cui Heng saw that Chen Tong was idling around all day and did not have the enthusiasm to work. He planned to hand the position of captain to Hui Shi.
It seemed unnecessary now.
Moreover, Hui Shi was clearly more suitable to be a sharp knife in his hands to advance specific matters. He was not suitable to participate in management.
Chen Tong left happily. Cui Heng also opened one of the books and flipped through it carefully.
These three books were the secret martial techniques manuals of the Taichong Sect, the secret martial techniques manuals of the Wang Clan of Langya, and the information Wang Qingquan knew about the 100-year Immortal Opportunity.
Now, Cui Heng was reading a book about the 100-year Immortal Opportunity.
Although Wang Qingquan was only the person in charge of the fourth branch of the Wang Family in Langya, he was still a top-notch cultivator of the Inner World realm. He was qualified to participate in the distribution of Immortal Opportunity and knew a lot of information.
First of all, this Immortal Opportunity was indeed brought about by the Human Immortals of the “Upper World”.
As for the specifics of the opportunities, he could not be sure because it would change according to the thoughts of the Human Immortals in the Upper World.
It could be a divine technique, a divine weapon, a divine medicine, an immortal herb, or a divine pill that could extend one’s lifespan, so on and so forth.
In short, they were basically treasures that did not exist in the human world.
This was especially true for the top Inner World realm experts. This might be their only chance to break through to the Deity Realm in their lifetime.
Whenever the 100-year period arrived, the chief official of a state could bring at least three top-notch experts to hold a sacrificial ceremony.
They would then kneel to welcome the Human Immortals of the Upper World.
As for whether or not they would be bestowed with Immortal Opportunities and what Immortal Opportunities they would be bestowed with, it all depended on the performance of the State Overseers and the top-notch experts.
Moreover, perhaps due to tradition or some restrictions of the Human Immortals in the Upper World, the Immortal Opportunities could only be handed over to the State Overseers for distribution.
Therefore, in this process, the position of the State Overseer was indispensable.
However, it did not matter who the person in the position of State Overseer was. Therefore, every 100 years, any State Overseer who did not have any background would basically die in an accident.
This was the case with Cao Quan.
Previously, Cao Quan had roped in a newcomer top-notch expert like Xu Feng’an to use his power to protect his life.
Unfortunately, he did not succeed in the end and still lost his life.
This was why there was the current situation of the county governors fighting for the position of State Overseer. It was actually because of the once-in-a-century Immortal Opportunity.
Wang Qingquan had come to Fengzhou for the same reason.
The Wang family of Langya occupied Luzhou. The distribution of Immortal Opportunities in the entire Luzhou was basically out of his reach. Most of them would definitely be obtained by the Wang family. Thus, there was actually no need for them to covet the Immortal Opportunities of other states.
However, the Wang family’s internal distribution was different.
As the head of the fourth branch, Wang Qingquan could not get much at all. Naturally, he placed his attention on Fengzhou, which was suddenly empty.
He wanted to use his power to support a governor to ascend the position of State Overseer and use this favor to obtain a huge portion of the Immortal Opportunities in Fengzhou.
He planned to break through to the Deity Realm and leave the main lineage to establish his own sect.
However, it was not easy to push someone to the position of State Overseer.
At the very least, one had to obtain the support of a peak faction like the Dao sects’ First Dao Palace, the head of the Buddhist sects’ Baolin Buddhist Hall, or two of the Distinguished Families from the Seven Distinguished Families. Then, they had to be recommended by the current other State Overseers of the Central Plains. Only after receiving the Emperor’s approval could the new State Overseer take office.
Of course, unless the Imperial Court’s decree was approved by the important ministers from the Seven Distinguished Families, it would be almost impossible for it to leave the Central Continent. Furthermore, the election of the State Overseer required the support of two families from the Seven Distinguished Families. Therefore, most of the recommendations would be omitted.
At most, he would set up an altar and burn the recommendation letter in the direction of the Central Continent.
It was precisely because of these reasons that Wang Qingquan brought Wang Jinsheng along.
Although Wang Jinsheng was not the direct descendant of the Wang family of Langya and was only the eldest son of the third branch’s head, his mother was from the Xie family of Mt. Ping, and his grandmother were from the Ye family of Jiangnan. His father was also indebted to Jiang Wanshan, the current Head of Secretariat of the Jiang family of Nanhe.
He could contact four of the Seven Distinguished Families alone. In the process of electing a State Overseer, he was extremely useful.
“This Wang Jinsheng actually has such an identity. Could this be the key information that Sun Panshi wanted to use as a bargaining chip?” Cui Heng suddenly laughed when he saw this.
“In that case, this Wang Jinsheng can’t be killed easily.”
Just holding this person would attract the hostility of four preeminent families and the hatred of several top-notch families.
How much black light that symbolizes evil could he obtain?
This was simply a top-grade monster luring machine!
This was definitely an unexpected gain. Cui Heng had originally planned to directly kill Wang Jinsheng after the public trial.
Fortunately, he did not.
Otherwise, he would only gain the emotions light for fear or anger.
Then, Cui Heng flipped through the other two martial techniques manuals and focused on what Wang Qingquan had copied.
This was the martial arts inheritance of the Langya Wang Clan. Perhaps he could glean some information about the Deity Realm from it.
So far, he had never seen a true Deity Realm expert, nor had he seen any Deity Realm martial techniques.
The Deity Realm was equivalent to the Seventh to Ninth levels of Qi Refinement. It was just a guess he made based on the fact that Inner World cultivators were only equivalent to the Sixth level of Qi Refinement.
“Why are the martial techniques Wang Qingquan knows only limited to the Inner World realm?”
Cui Heng was a little disappointed after roughly flipping through it. “Could it be that even a large clan like the Langya Wang Clan only passes the cultivation of the Deity Realm to the main branch of the direct line of descent?”
This was indeed extremely likely.
In this martial arts world, the core reason why the direct descendants of the main lineage could maintain their status was none other than to widen the gap between them and the other branches in terms of resources and martial arts inheritance.
“After the new government decree is implemented in Lu County and I obtain a wave of disgust, if the Wang family of Langya, the Ye family of Jiangnan, and the Xie family of Pingshan don’t find trouble with me, I’ll go and borrow some secret manuals from them to take a look.”
Cui Heng made a decision.
At the very least, before the so-called Human Immortal descended into the world, he had to figure out what realm the Deity Realm and Human Immortal Realm were equivalent to. Only then could he estimate the level of the Earth Immortals and Golden Immortals.
“I wonder how Hui Shi is doing?”
He looked up in the direction of Taichang County and felt that he could already see a scene of heads rolling and rivers of blood flowing.
….
Taichang County.
Hui Shi had been here for three days, but there was still no progress.
Actually, on the first day he arrived, he had already found the county magistrate here and explained Cui Heng’s intentions. He wanted the county magistrate here to follow the Governor’s decree and put up a notice to explain the contents of the decree to the people.
The county magistrate promised that he would do as he was told.
Hui Shi did not take action directly. Instead, he waited quietly for news.
But now that three days had passed, not to mention implementing the decree, there wasn’t even a single notice!
“Zhao Huai, do you think that I’m too kind?” Hui Shi asked a middle-aged man beside him.
This person was Zhao Goudan’s third uncle, Zhao Huai. He was also one of the soldiers who followed Cui Heng to Lu County City.
Due to his good performance and diligence, he was transferred to Hui Shi’s side as a personal guard.
“Sir, you’re indeed kind-hearted.” Zhao Huai nodded and said, “In the past three days, I’ve secretly visited many families and heard many things about the Taichong Sect bullying the commoners.
“They’ve kidnapped women, raped young girls, bullied people in the fields, and so on. The Taichong Sect has done all of them. Such a sect is completely the local tyrant of Taichang County. They should be killed directly!”
“Haha, Zhao Huai, are you mocking me?” Hui Shi looked at Zhao Huai in surprise and said with a smile, “I remember that you weren’t like this before.”
“In the past, when I was a refugee, I had to be a little timid in order to protect myself. I didn’t dare to say too much.” Zhao Huai had his own reasons. “Now that I’m following you, Sir, you asked me to speak frankly. You said that this was to remind you, so I naturally did as you said.”
“Yes, that’s right. You did the right thing,” Hui Shi said with a nod. “Originally, I wanted to show off my ability other than killing people so that the Governor would see that I didn’t just know how to kill people. That’s why I waited three days.
From the looks of it, I was wrong. I, Hui Shi, really only know how to kill! Let’s go, follow me to the county magistrate’s office. Let me see how tough that fellow’s neck is. He actually dares to disobey me!”
….
In the inner hall of the Taichang County Office.
The county magistrate, Qian Fangkong, was a little uneasy. He said to Song Ming, who was beside him, “Do you think we’ll anger the county governor by doing this? It’s said that this new county governor has started a massacre in Lu County and raided many big merchants!”
Lu County City was more than 400 kilometers away from here, and information was not transmitted every day. Now, they had just received the news that Cui Heng had ordered a city raid in Lu County. They had not even heard about the public trial yet.
“County Lord, you’re thinking too much.” Song Ming smiled calmly. “Think about who those big merchants have backing them. They’re either from large sects or large families.
Since ancient times, the people with real power in the world have always been them. Take our Taichong Sect for example. You wanted to seek an audience with them to discuss the decree from the governor, but you couldn’t even get through their main gate.
That governor dared to risk the world’s condemnation and openly offend these large sects and families. I’m afraid he won’t live for long.”
“Yes, yes, that’s right.” Qian Fangkong heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this. He nodded repeatedly and said, “That’s right. These large sects and clans are the true rulers of this world.
Hehe, I wonder what that new county governor is thinking. He actually issued such a decree to forcefully purchase the businesses of the sects and families at 10% of the price.”
“This is called eating arsenic.” Song Ming sneered. “They feel that they’ve lived too long!”
Bang!
At this moment, the door to the inner hall of the county office was kicked open.
Hui Shi walked in with a bloody steel saber. His cold gaze swept across Qian Fangkong and Song Ming as he asked, “Who were you two talking about just now?”