Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1280 Rumors in the world

Although Fengzhen is just a town, it is the most prosperous place in the vicinity. At least there are many pedestrians on the streets, there are still vendors selling their wares on the streets, and most of the shops are open. Combined with some of the towns that Lu Ning has passed through before, this place can now be said to be a place where people can live and work in peace and contentment.

As for the remaining expenses on the road, Lu Ning had also learned what she needed to prepare for the journey in the previous scene. She was not in a hurry. After walking all the way to the most prosperous street in Feng Town, she chose a teahouse and walked in.

The sign at the door said that there would be storytellers in the afternoon and evening, and in the morning, they would invite people to tell some rumors. Generally, if these restaurants and teahouses have some ability, they would make an appointment with some people like "Bao Da Ting" and "Bai Xiao Sheng" to come here to tell these stories every once in a while. After all, compared to the official newspapers about where the banditry and natural disasters happened, people are more interested in these anecdotes - provided that they don't happen to them.

With just a few copper coins, a pot of tea and a plate of peanuts, you can sit here for a whole morning. For Fengzhen, a relatively wealthy town, this is also an affordable expense for ordinary families.

Lu Ning found a corner and sat down. The waiter brought her the food she ordered and poured her a cup of hot tea. Then he was busy greeting other customers. The teahouse was doing a booming business, and these customers were also the boss's face. Lu Ning sat for a while, and before the first cup of tea had cooled down, she saw an old man with gray hair and beard walking up the small platform in the middle of the hall.

The old man took the stage, and the buzz of the guests talking to each other suddenly began to slowly fade away, which was quite similar to the feeling of a teacher walking up to the podium after class. Lu Ning chuckled, picked up the teacup, and gently sipped a little tea along the edge of the cup - it was not a good tea, just something to quench thirst.

The old man waited until the sound died down before picking up the wake-up stick on the table and tapping it gently.

"I served as a general and a prime minister in a cold frontier, and I trained my troops for ten years to defend a place. My heart remains loyal to the vows I made when I was young, and I am the top scholar in Cangsong and Beihai."

The old man glanced down and smiled gently.

"You all should know who I am going to talk about today."

"You must be talking about the current Grand Master, His Excellency Qin Zhong," said a guest in the front row.

"That's right. The first person we are going to talk about today is Master Qin who is far away in the northern frontier." The old man stroked his beard and began to talk.

It has to be said that, given the historical context of this world, the latest news mentioned by the old man happened half a month ago.

Lu Ning listened and recalled.

Junying taught that if the basic productivity of a scene is sufficient, then you can quickly raise the high-tech level on this basis, and use technology iteration to quickly climb the technology tree to achieve your goals. But on the other hand, if there is not enough basic productivity in the scene, then it is not suitable for climbing technology, because the distribution center will not give tourists time to really rub a technology tree.

This is the current context. In this context, self-improvement is more reliable than building power externally.

Lu Ning thought about it and also learned about Qin Zhong's past.

At that time, this man was both civil and military, and he passed the civil examination and was selected by the emperor as the third place. At that time, the Kalai people in the northwest were ambitious and created wars at the border several times. Qin Zhong volunteered to lead the troops in the northwest, vowing not to return to the capital until the Kalai people were injustice.

This trip lasted for ten years. Not only did he eliminate the Kalai tribe, he even broke into their royal city, chopped off half of the Kalai royal family, and captured the other half alive and sent them back to the capital. He was praised by the emperor at that time as a pillar of the country.

Later, Qin Zhong fought in the south and north in his prime, and never lost a battle. The emperor at that time admired him very much and appointed him as the prince's tutor. Later, Qin Zhong also showed his talent in politics as an official. He had both military power and military merits in his hands, and he was trusted by the emperor. Few officials of the court could compete with him. Until today, when there was a turmoil in the northern frontier, no one in the court could be used, and Qin Zhong went there in person, and has been there ever since.

According to the old man, the rebellion in the northern frontier was mainly caused by the integration of several nomadic tribes. A man named Chaheer claimed to have the help of the Six Dings and Six Jias and invaded the border of Wei. He captured several towns at once. The so-called Six Dings and Six Jias were twelve masters of different ethnic groups. Relying on their high martial arts skills, these twelve people sneaked into the city, destroyed armaments, set granaries on fire, and even beheaded officers. They did everything they could.

This behavior undoubtedly violated the rules of the martial arts world. Therefore, there were many martial artists who followed Qin Zhong to the northern frontier to hunt down the Six Dings and Six Jias. In the past few years, eight of the Six Dings and Six Jias had been killed, and Chahar also restrained his previous arrogance and began to stabilize his defense. With his military talent, once he began to defend, even Qin Zhong would not be able to quickly capture him.

  At this time someone asked, who are the Six Dings and Six Jias?

The old man then explained that the Six Dings and Six Jias were scums who had left the Central Plains martial arts world. Some of them came from big sects, some learned skills from secret masters, or some were even bandits themselves. They could not make it in the Central Plains and fled to the northern frontier. This was the most important point that the Central Plains martial arts world could not tolerate.

The following narration was nothing more than the story of Qin Zhong winning another battle in the past two months and retaking a city. Although he described it as if it happened on the spot, Lu Ning could tell that there was a lot of artistic processing in it. At least, he did not reflect the cruelty of the battlefield at all, but described more of the bravery of Qin Zhong and his soldiers.

But such a story would not be that long. After the old man finished speaking, he moved on to the next topic.

"After talking about Grand Master Qin, it's time to talk about what has happened and what is going to happen in the martial arts world recently. As everyone knows, our Fengzhen is managed by the Salt Gang and the Water Transport Gang. The Salt Gang and the Water Transport Gang are two of the four gangs with the largest number of members in the martial arts world today. The other two are the Beggar Gang and the Mountain Gang. Every September 9th, the four gangs will hold a Five Lakes Meeting, but this year, the preparations for the Five Lakes Meeting encountered some difficulties."

"I'm afraid it's not just a simple difficulty."

A burly man among the guests suddenly spoke up, and everyone looked over at once. The old man then smiled and said, "What the gentleman said makes sense. It's not a trivial matter. In fact, the four gangs have all suffered multiple assassinations in the past month, with heavy casualties. Now, a wanted notice has been issued to find the perpetrators or the forces behind them."

"Who dares to mess with our Salt Gang and the Water Transport Gang?" several men shouted loudly.

"I don't know." The old man spread his hands. "If I knew, I would take this information to the local helmsman and get a reward."

"A notice has been posted on the city gate about this matter," said a middle-aged man in a patched scholar's gown. "Anyone who reports the murderer will be rewarded ten taels of silver. If the murderer is caught alive, there will be a reward of one thousand taels of silver. Even if he is dead, there will still be a reward of five hundred taels of silver."

This money immediately caused people to talk about it. After all, there were quite a lot of illiterate people here, and most of them could not understand the notice.

Lu Ning took a sip of tea and waited for the sound to slowly die down.

The sound of the wake-up stick silenced all discussions.

"This is just hearsay. If you know any clues, you might as well go to the local four major gangs to see if you can get a reward. I am here just to tell you about the major events that have happened in the martial arts world in recent days."

The old man seemed like a news anchor and immediately went on to talk about the next thing.

The birthday banquet that Master Luan is about to hold will undoubtedly gather many heroes in the world. Zhenjian Villa has already sent out invitations. The seven major sects, four major gangs, and heroes from all over the world will attend. It is even rumored that Master Luan has sent invitations to some hidden sects. "I wonder if you know which hidden sects they are?" A young man sitting in front suddenly raised his hand and called the waiter over, and then put a heavy silver ingot in the waiter's hand.

The old man's eyes lit up immediately when he saw this, and Lu Ning, who was standing behind him, took the opportunity to see the young man's profile when he turned his head to put the ingot into Xiao Er's hands.

She remembered this face. It was the man she saw when she left after building Giant Knuckles.

"Since this young master is so generous, I will also tell you some of the things I heard from others." The old man's tone was a little excited. "As you know, there are many hidden sects in the martial arts world, but many of them are actually because their families have fallen into decline or there is no successor to the sect, so they have to hide their identities to avoid being hunted down by their former enemies. However, if we really talk about the most mysterious hidden sect today, there is a ballad I can tell you about."

The old man stroked his beard, shook his head and chanted: "I left Penglai Qingyun Temple in the morning, the sun shone on the Ice River and the Snow Gate. The moon rose over the Three Fairy Islands in the East China Sea, and disappeared in the Yellow Sand Iron Face Tower at night."

He tapped the wake-up stick gently.

"Qingyun Temple, Taxue Sect, Sanxian Island, Tiemian Tower. Even though they are not among the eight major sects in the martial arts world, they do not cultivate martial arts, internal strength, or swords or hidden weapons..." The old man paused here for a moment, and when he saw that everyone's attention was on him, he continued, "They cultivate immortality."

Before everyone could react, the old man waved his hand again: "Of course, this is just what I heard. If you have time, you might as well go to the birthday banquet of Master Luan. Maybe you can meet these people."

"Thank you, father-in-law." said the young man.

"You are too polite, sir. As for the following matter, I would like to ask all the elders and villagers to pay more attention. A group of river bandits came from the south, led by the notorious 'Green-faced Dragon' Xiahou Lun. They burned, killed and looted along the way. The last time we heard about them, they were already in Huishui County."

"Isn't that very close to us?"

"The Salt Gang and the Water Transport Gang have already prepared their defenses, and Xiahou Lun's whereabouts are elusive, so he may not necessarily go upstream and find us."

"But Xiahou Lun... when the soldiers tried to capture him, he killed an entire team. If we let him come here..."

"What are you afraid of! If he dares to come, let him taste the power of Feng Zhen's iron-headed crossbow!"

The old man slapped the wake-up stick.

"Everyone, if it is not necessary, it is best not to travel long distances by water in the near future. In order to avoid running into these vicious bandits, even if you are able to escape, it will still be a hassle."

Lu Ning took note of this. The route she and Lu Qingxu were planning now was to go down the river, but if such an incident happened, it would probably be safer to take the land route.

"Next, the prison in Huizhou Prefecture caught fire five days ago, and we have not yet found out who caused it. The three most severely punished criminals in the prison, 'Living Yama' Song Xiao, 'Flying Hawk' Li Changxi, and 'Beheaded' Gao Jinren, have all disappeared."

"Father, is there no good news? If these three people come to our place..."

"Don't worry, there will be good news next." The old man stroked his beard with a smile, "Did you know that the Xiangjiang hero Yan Huanchu and the Snow Mountain Sect's Master Jingning have both arrived in Fengzhen?"

The burly man spoke again: "Last winter, the hero Yan defeated the bandits on Cuibo Lake with one sword, and the abbot Jingning is the best among the second generation of the Snow Mountain Sect. With these two here, I believe the villains will not dare to act rashly."

These two people probably came for the birthday banquet. But Lu Ning knew what the old man meant. As long as this matter spread, those evil people would avoid these famous chivalrous people.

The subsequent news in the martial arts world were all just hearsay, such as conflicts between different sects, the reputation of the disciples of each sect, and even some martial arts weapon list, talent list, etc. Lu Ning paid a little attention, but found that there were too many people on this wild list. In addition to the first few, there was another row behind. The old man only mentioned the famous deeds related to it, but she couldn't find many memorable points from it.

It was estimated that people who came to the teahouse just listened for fun. Lu Ning even heard someone at the next table muttering that the list was completely different from the one mentioned by the previous person.

After talking for the whole morning, the old man stood up, bowed and left. He had earned a lot of rewards in this morning. At least the pieces of news he mentioned that necessitated vigilance were indeed of concern to people. There were several people who were willing to donate generously. He had made a lot of money just from talking this morning.

Lu Ning did not plan to continue eating here, but turned around and walked out, found a shed on the side of the road, ordered a bowl of noodles and two flatbreads to fill her stomach.

The food was not tasty. The noodles were watery with only two drops of oil. The flatbreads were made of coarsely ground sorghum and bean flour mixed with wheat bran. They were hard on the teeth and throat, and were difficult to bite without dipping them in the noodle soup.

But it's cheap.

Lu Ning was still thinking about how to make some money when suddenly someone sat down opposite her.

It was that young man. He grinned at Lu Ning, asked the boss to serve him a bowl of noodles, and then winked at Lu Ning.

"What advice do you have?" Lu Ning asked.

"Meeting is fate, and what's more, you and I can be considered to have met again. My name is Chen Yusheng, from the Kunwu Chen family. May I know what your name is?" The young man smiled heartily.

"Lu, Lu from Huai Ling Lu family. Single name Ning." Lu Ning couldn't tell anything from this man's face, but it was normal for a fifth-level tourist to hide his true purpose.

"Are you also going to celebrate Old Master Luan's birthday?" Chen Yusheng asked quickly.