Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 26: Eight Heavenly Dragons
Sure enough, this task fell on Princess Chenliu.

Su Ze looked at Princess Chenliu with eyes full of longing, but the matter of Yongning Temple was so complicated and confusing that he himself didn't figure it out yet.

Su Ze shook his head and said, "Please return to the monk's quarters first. Something like this happened in Yongning Temple today. The temple is going to be very busy."

Princess Chenliu nodded immediately. The burning of the Yongning Temple wooden pagoda, which was the most important physical evidence in the empress dowager's assassination case, would certainly cause a huge disturbance in the court. Now that she had escaped by chance, she should immediately return to the monastery and stay there obediently.

The bad luck of the group seemed to have been burned away by the flames of the Yongning Temple Pagoda. On the way back to the monastery, there were no accidents. Lu Zhu helped Princess Chenliu back to the yard, while Yang Zongjia and Fan Dalang followed Su Ze into the house dejectedly.

Entering the room, Su Ze was sitting upright on a Hu bed, while Su Bai was standing behind him. When Yang and Fan saw this, they immediately knelt down in front of Su Ze.

"The princess is a royal relative and can do whatever she wants. Who are you to dare to get involved in such things? Aren't you afraid of dragging your brothers into this?"

The Yulin soldiers all lived in the streets of Jianyangli. Looking back, Yang and Fan realized how dangerous this adventure was. Their own deaths were a small matter, and if things went wrong even their families would be implicated and held accountable.

"My dear, no, Captain Su is going to spare my life!"

Yang Zongjia undressed, placed the golden bell hidden on his body in front of him, and kowtowed to Su Ze to admit his mistake.

Fan Dalang also imitated Yang Zongjia and kowtowed to Su Ze continuously.

After the two of them had broken their heads, Su Ze said:

"You two poor soldiers, what are you going to do with this golden bell? Are you going to set up a stall in Sitong Market?"

Yang Fan and Su Ze looked at each other, and then said:
"If you trust me, I will help you deal with it first!"

Yang Fan and the others said quickly: "Our lives were given by Captain Su, so we are completely at the Captain's disposal!"

Su Ze stood up and said, "You exchanged your lives for this gold bell, but if something happens to you, the brothers in the whole team will be implicated. I will distribute the things exchanged for this gold bell to the brothers in the team."

Yang and Fan hurriedly said again: "It's all up to the captain to handle!"

After the two left, Su Bai also took out the gold he had hidden on his body. When Su Ze left Su Bai in the wooden tower today, he arranged for Su Bai to carry out the commission of [theft]. These were all the gold stolen by Su Bai.

From this Yongning Temple incident, it can be seen that the chaotic times of the Northern Wei Dynasty are approaching.

Now Su Ze has adjusted his mentality. Since he has come to this chaotic world, if he wants to make a name for himself, both fame and a strong team are indispensable.

Only if you are famous can you gain the trust of others at critical moments. In this era where heroes are judged by their origins, if you do not have a distinguished family background, you must have a great reputation in the world, otherwise no one will invest in you.

In troubled times, a team that is loyal to you is particularly important.

Although the Northern Wei Yulin Army had become more decadent than when it was first established, it was still a professional army.

Yang Zongjia and Fan Dalang are also strong and have passed all military exercises. With this batch of gold, Su Ze will have the capital to win over people's hearts.

There is also a system.

The [Followers] summoned by the system are all absolutely loyal to themselves. Although Su Bai, the envoy of Cao Bailu, cannot kill the enemy head-on, he is a good assassin of spies.

As long as he can purchase more [Followers], Su Ze will be able to gather a group of completely loyal guards, and then he will have a place in the troubled times.

As for how to cash out the gold, Su Ze already had an idea. "Call Su Tong in, and continue to gather information in the temple."

After Su Bai went out, an old monk walked into Su Ze's monastery shortly afterwards.

"Can you cast this gold into a Buddha statue?"

Su Tong's entry was "A monk who is good at casting statues." He bent down and carefully examined the gold scattered on the ground. Then he put his hands together and said:

"My Lord, it is not difficult to cast a Buddha statue, but it is too wasteful to do this."

"waste?"

Su Tong said: "Even the most upper-class families in Luoyang cast statues in bronze and then wrap them in gold foil. Casting Buddha statues directly in gold is probably only for the royal family to be so extravagant."

As expected of the system's purple follower, Su Tong is indeed professional. Su Ze nodded and said:
"Then I'll leave it to you to make the statue."

Su Tong nodded, and then pointed to a piece of gold and said:
"My Lord, this piece of gold is medicinal gold and cannot be used to make a statue."

Medicine money?

Su Ze picked up the piece of gold. This was not the gold on the golden bell. He opened the system records and found that this was the gold that Su Bai knocked off the golden bottle on the top of the tower.

“Isn’t Yaojin real gold?”

Su Tong nodded and said, "Since the Han Dynasty, Taoists have had the method of making medicinal gold. This medicinal gold is like gold but not gold. It is made from lead and mercury. Its weight and appearance are the same as real gold, but it is not fire-resistant. When it encounters fire, it will release miasma and cannot be melted."

Su Ze then remembered that the desire for gold since the Han Dynasty had made alchemists keen on refining "medicinal gold". Thinking of the "medicinal gold" in history books, a flash of lightning flashed through his mind, and various events were connected together. The truth emerged in his mind. So that's it!

At the same time, when the Yongning Temple wooden pagoda was almost burned out, the flames were finally put out. This building, which consumed countless manpower and resources and was one of the three tallest pagodas in Luoyang, was completely burned down. Looking at the smoking ruins, the three important officials of the Northern Wei Dynasty all looked grim.

Chief Justice Pei Yanjun had the ugliest look on his face. The Chief Justice's Office was the main person in charge of this investigation. Now that the most important physical evidence, the Yongning Temple Pagoda, had been burned down, he was naturally the one who bore the greatest responsibility.

Pei Yanjun called the guards and asked sternly, no longer caring about the manners of a young man from an aristocratic family:
"How could the wooden tower catch fire? Why didn't you put out the fire quickly?"

The captain on duty at the Imperial Court knelt down and said:

"Your Majesty, please be advised! A thunder dragon entered the tower yesterday, and the fire spread rapidly. There was no way to put it out."

Chief Justice Pei Yanjun came from the Wenxi Pei family in Hedong. The Pei family was a family of Confucian classics. When the previous emperor was in power, Pei Yanjun once wrote a letter to the emperor, suggesting that he distance himself from Buddhist scriptures and devote himself to the study of classics and history. As a result, he was banished from Luoyang. It was not until the new emperor ascended the throne that he was recommended by King Qinghe and returned to the capital Luoyang.

Naturally, he didn't believe in these weird and superstitious words.

Just when Pei Yanjun was about to reprimand his subordinates, the Junior Supervisor of the General's Office, Mu Shaoyou, suddenly said:

"I also saw the thunder dragons entering the tower. After counting carefully, there were eight thunder dragons descending. After the thunder dragons entered the tower, flames shot up into the sky immediately."

At this time, the captain of the Tiger Guards who was guarding the wooden tower also said, "Sir, when the wooden tower was on fire yesterday, someone tried to escape from the wooden tower, but we shot him back into the tower with bows and arrows. Today, we found a charred body in the ruins."

Mu Shaoyou immediately said, "Could it be that the Buddha saw the villain using the Buddhist magic weapon Golden Bottle to assassinate the Supreme, so he sent down the eight heavenly dragons to punish him?"

(End of this chapter)