Pawn Crossing the River

When Qi Xuansu arrived in Huainan Fucheng, it was already the evening of the second day.

He went to the market first and took the medicine according to the prescription written by Qiniang. The medicine shop had a decoction service, which saved Qi Xuansu a lot of time. After drinking the medicine, Qi Xuansu wandered on the street and walked around the city. After that, after making sure there was no tail behind him, he turned into a deserted alley.

It was getting late at this time and the alley was very dark. Qi Xuansu quickly walked to a small door at the end of the alley and knocked gently, first three times, after a pause of three breaths, and then four times. Down.

After a while, a voice came from the door: "Everyone has no worries, and everything is peaceful."

Qi Xuansu whispered: "The world is settled, and everyone from all directions wishes to have peace and prosperity."

As soon as he finished speaking, the door opened from the inside. There was no lamp inside, but the crescent moon shone dimly on it.

Qi Xuansu entered the door, and the person who opened the door closed it again.

Behind the door is a large house with winding paths leading to it. It turns out that this small door is just a back door.

The Qingping Society is very powerful, and Qi Xuansu has only seen the tip of the iceberg so far. It is difficult to imagine what the master behind it is going to do.

It's just that Qi Xuansu doesn't care much about these. He cares more about himself. He hopes that one day he can leave Qingpinghui safely, instead of becoming a chopping wood for the fire and dying silently like Zhuge Yongming.

So over the years, he has been accumulating meritorious deeds. This was also the condition when he joined the Qingpinghui. As long as he accumulated enough nine thousand meritorious deeds, he could leave the Qingpinghui. It's just that nine thousand meritorious deeds are not so easy to save. Qi Xuansu now only has more than three hundred meritorious deeds, and he is far away from leaving the Qingping Society.

The owner of this house was a middle-aged man dressed as a wealthy businessman. After meeting Qi Xuansu, he did not ask him about his specific tasks. He just arranged for him to stay and sent someone to help him boil water, prepare food and a change of clothes.

Qi Xuansu took off the muddy clothes, took a bath comfortably, and put on a brand new robe. He transformed into a seventh-grade Taoist priest of the Taoist sect, not the "rebellious party" mentioned by Qingluan Wei.

Qi Xuansu stayed here for one night, and Qiniang also came back at noon the next day.

The owner of the mansion here prepared a separate room for the two of them without any servants for them to talk.

The room was in the style of a study. Qi Xuansu took out the "Xuan Jade" from his bag and handed it to Qiniang. Qiniang looked at the "Xuan Jade" that looked like a knife and coin and asked, "Didn't you take the opportunity to study it? There are so many people competing for this thing. Son, you can see how valuable it is.”

Qi Xuansu said truthfully: "I have researched it, but I have no clue."

Qiniang nodded, put the "Xuan Jade" into her Sumeru items, then put on a businesslike expression and said: "The people who participated in robbing the 'Xuan Jade' this time were four-level wine-provoking Taoist priests. One person, one fifth-grade Taoist priest, one sixth-grade Taoist priest, and several Qingluan Guards. If you can successfully retrieve the 'Xuan Jade', you will be deemed to have performed well and will receive three hundred meritorious deeds."

Qi Xuansu was surprised: "There are also four Taoist priests involved in sacrificial wine?"

"You are lucky." Qiniang habitually took out her long cigarette, "Taiping Dao seems to have some scruples. The fourth-grade wine-offering Taoist priest did not come forward in person, but sent his subordinates to use the name of Qingluan Guard. The so-called case is actually just a "blocking". If someone pursues it later, it will only end with Li Sanxin, and the people behind the scenes will not be involved. This is the function of "blocking". In the end, I don't know which link was leaked. The rumor has attracted Taoist priests from the other two major factions. Now Taiping Dao is in trouble. The carefully prepared 'shield' has gone wrong, and the 'Xuan Jade' has not yet been obtained."

Qi Xuansu frowned slightly and asked, "Could it be that Qingluan Guard leaked the news?"

"This possibility cannot be ruled out." Qiniang thought for a moment, "Now that the two parties in the court are fighting and a major case has arisen, Taipingdao's plan should be to take advantage of the current major party dispute to capture Li Hongwen, the magistrate of Fengtai County, and seize him from him Take the 'Xuan Jade' from your hands, and then find a reason to kill Li Hongwen to silence him. Qingluan Guard is the key player in this, and everything cannot be bypassed by Qingluan Guard."

Qi Xuansu suddenly understood something in his heart.

After Qingpinghui got the news about "Xuanyu", he sent him to fight for "Xuanyu". Because he had Qingpinghui's special compass, he could accurately locate the location of "Xuanyu", so he didn't need to be mysterious or have a big battle.

At the same time, Taiping Dao also got the news. Taiping Dao did not have the special compass of the Qingping Society, so it could not accurately find the location of the "Xuan Jade", let alone steal the "Xuan Jade" directly. It could only turn the Li family upside down. So Taiping Road staged a cover-up drama through Qingluan Guards, which seemed to involve a party dispute in the court. In fact, it was used to confiscate Li Hongwen's house in order to search for "Xuanyu".

Precisely because the key to this matter was not party strife, they did not dare to send Li Hongwen to the imperial capital and throw him into Zhao Prison to avoid overturning the case in the future. They could only silence Li Hongwen and die without any evidence. As a result, Li Sanxin has not been found for a long time. "Xuanyu" was acquired by Qi Xuansu, and the news leaked out, attracting people from other Taoist sects, and the so-called "obstruction" became a joke.

In summary, there is not much problem with Taipingdao's plan, but there are some problems with its execution.

Qi Xuansu asked: "Can't Li Hongwen just hand over the 'Xuanyu'? Why drag a whole family to die?"

"It's not surprising that people die for money and birds die for food." Qiniang said slowly, "I will give you 10,000 Taiping coins now, and then a Taiping Taoist priest asks you to give him these 10,000 Taiping coins. Will you agree?" Is it true? Taiping Dao had probably come to ask for it, or even threatened it, and Li Hongwen must have refused, but Li Hongwen didn't expect that this fourth-grade wine-sacrifice Taoist priest would be so ruthless that he would come to kill him directly. If you surrender, you will die, if you don't surrender, you will die. It is better to hold on and refuse to surrender, and bet that the Qingluan Guards will not dare to kill anyone, maybe there will be a chance of improvement. "

Qi Xuan nodded understandingly.

Qiniang blew out a smoke ring and continued: "I have a hunch that this matter is probably the result of the instruction of a certain Taiping Dao master. There are nine Taiping Dao masters. No matter which master it is, its reputation cannot be tarnished. , that's why they created such an obstruction. The fourth-grade Taoist priest was just a pawn in front of them, which was regarded as the second level of obstruction. Having said that, a small pawn has such energy, if it attracts the attention of a real person. "A few lives of yours and mine are not enough to compensate."

Qi Xuansu looked solemn and nodded in agreement.

Qiniang continued: "You have exceeded the quota this time. I can give you two rewards within my authority. You can choose one of them."

Qi Xuansu was overjoyed and felt that Zhuge Yongming's punches were not in vain.

Qiniang took out a wooden box from her Sumeru treasure, placed it in front of Qi Xuansu, and said: "This is the 'Dragon Hand Gun' produced by the Shenji Camp in the 36th year of Jiushi's life. It has an ivory handle and a brass body. , decorated with the shape of a dragon head, breech-loading ammunition, using a metal fixed-loading ammunition with an integrated structure, canceling the small fusilla machine and replacing it with a firing pin structure and a rifled rifle. The effective range is one hundred steps, and it can be broken within fifteen steps. Whether the body-protecting Qi of an innate person can damage the body is another matter. It comes with twenty rounds of armor-piercing talismans with a copper shell and a fixed load. The black market price is about eight hundred Taiping coins."

Qi Xuansu opened the lid of the box and saw a gorgeous handgun lying in the velvet. It had graceful curves and exquisite decoration. It didn't look like a murder weapon, but more like an excellent handicraft. There were twenty pointed fixed-loaded ammunition next to it. , there are many strange lines engraved on the warhead, which seem to be some kind of talismans, and are indeed different from common firearms.

Qiniang was also admiring this expensive gun, and added: "This gun is not only valuable, but also a symbol of status. Even among men in black, only guerrillas and above can wear it."

The Daxuan court was founded in the north and was based on the virtue of water. Because among the five elements, there are green wood, white gold, vermilion fire, loess, and black water. Therefore, the Daxuan court advocated black, and the clothes and armor of the soldiers were mainly black. Known as the "Man in Black" by the world. The Shenji Battalion that Qiniang mentioned earlier is a member of the imperial army. It mainly focuses on firearms. It is not only good at using firearms, but also good at developing and manufacturing firearms.

Qi Xuansu asked: "Where is the second reward?"

Qiniang said unhurriedly: "The Taoist sect has developed to this day, and its strength is the strongest in the world. For the Taoist sect, unless it is a genius with amazing talents, there is not much difference, even if it is a A Taoist sect can use its resources to build a useless person who can fly into the sky and escape from the earth. The key is how to allocate resources. Therefore, the nine-level Taoist priest system came into being, and the promotion of grades within the Taoist sect became a top priority. "

Qiniang asked: "Are you still a seventh-grade Taoist priest now?"

Qi Xuansu nodded and said: "Yes. After Master died, I was stuck on the threshold of the eighth rank. Now, I am only a seventh rank."

Qiniang said: "The seventh-grade Taoist priest is not considered low, but it depends on who you compare with. If you want to reach the position of a fourth-grade Taoist priest one day, you have to climb higher step by step. If you fail to keep up with each step, you will not be able to keep up with each step." ”

"Today's young people, after coming out of the Wanxiang Taoist Palace where the Dharma is unified, are in their prime years. When they enter the Taoist sect, their status changes from a Taoist boy to a ninth-grade Taoist priest. There will be a three-year assessment period. If you can During the assessment period, if you are favored by the fourth-grade Jiji Taoist priest and the third-grade Youyi Taoist priest, you will have a backer. If you are directly favored by the second-grade Taiyi Taoist priest, you will reach the sky in one step. Don’t be discouraged if you haven’t been chosen, there is still a chance.”

"Because the Taoist sect felt that the Confucian sect was old and indifferent at that time, it has always advocated the use of young people, so age has become the key. After the three-year assessment period, no matter what, you must become an eighth-grade Taoist priest within two years. If you pass At the age of twenty-five, he is not even an eighth-grade Taoist priest, so this is the end of his life.”

"Then you must be promoted to a seventh-grade Taoist priest within the next five years. If you are thirty years old and are not even a seventh-grade Taoist priest, you will be out of business. You will be marginalized in the annual assessment and promotion, mosquito legs. It’s none of your business.”

Qi Xuansu already somewhat understood what Qiniang was going to say.

Qiniang continued: "If you can become a sixth-grade Taoist priest before the age of thirty, you will be listed by the Taoist sect as 'preparing for sacrificial wine.' If you can become a fifth-grade Taoist priest before the age of thirty-five, you will be listed by the Taoist sect as As long as there is a vacancy for the fourth-grade Taoist priest, priority will be given to promoting the candidate for the ceremony. In the same way, priority will be given to promoting the candidate for the ceremony. "

"Of course, if you can become a fourth-grade Taoist priest before the age of thirty, you will have embarked on the road to success. You are truly young and promising, and your future is limitless. A second-grade Taiyi Taoist priest is also within your reach."

Qiniang looked at Qi Xuansu with a smile and asked, "Do you understand what I mean?"

Qi Xuansu sighed and said: "I understand, Qiniang wants me to go one step further. Can the Qingping Association even operate this?"

Qiniang pretended to be mysterious and said: "Qingpinghui has great magical powers, Qingpinghui is omnipotent, even if you want to be a great leader, Qingpinghui can still find a way."

Qi Xuansu laughed it off and just thought Qiniang was telling a joke.

In fact, Qiniang was indeed joking on purpose.

Who is the Grand Master? Standing at the highest point of the entire Taoist sect, he is also known as the Grand Master. He is located at Chaopin, lives in the Kunlun Ancestral Court, and commands the entire Taoist sect. He is the leader of the Taoist sect and the representative of the Supreme Being in the human world.

Want to be a great leader? I'm afraid it would be easier to ascend to immortality.

After laughing, Qiniang said seriously: "With my authority, of course I can't directly promote you to a sixth-grade Taoist priest beyond Ziwei Hall, but I can give you a chance, it depends on whether you can grasp it."