Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 1939: Death of a Saint (VI)

Qianlong did not explain the latter possibility because she did not want that outcome.

The sacred tree is also a tree, not a god.

The sacred Fusang tree was dug up with its roots, and then transported to Sanghai after more than a month of bumpy journey, and transplanted to a ship that was not connected to the earth, which was a lot of trouble.

Although he managed to survive thanks to his strong vitality and even looked unharmed, it is hard to believe that he was not affected at all.

The disappearance of the three-legged golden crow may be because the sacred tree has changed. It is unwilling to continue living on it and simply left the sacred tree.

But it is also possible that the Three-legged Golden Crow and the sacred tree are closely related. If there is a problem with the sacred tree, the Three-legged Golden Crow will also be in trouble, suffer a serious injury, and be directly killed.

For Qianlong, in comparison, she would definitely prefer that the Three-legged Golden Crow had simply left rather than died.

After all, her mother's title was Dongjun, the sun god in Chu mythology, and she was a perfect match for the sun bird.

Tianming also didn't want anything to happen to the three-legged golden crow, but his idea was very simple, he felt that such a rare thing should not die so easily.

Besides, the Three-legged Golden Crow helped him a lot when he was on the mirage...even though it was fake.

Tianming did not worry too much about the fate of the Three-legged Golden Crow, because there was no point in worrying about it. Whether it left or died, it was an established fact, and a fact that they were not even aware of.

He has a more interesting question at the moment:
“By the way, is there any difference in appearance between the three-legged golden crow that I saw and the real one?”

"...Probably not." Qian Long thought for a moment and replied, "But my mother said that the real Three-legged Golden Crow is also very dangerous, and ordinary people must not approach it casually."

"Hehe, if the three-legged golden crow was still there, it would definitely be interesting to fight that mirage!"

Tianming jokingly proposed a scene that was sure to be very impactful.

"You're the only one who would think that." Qian Long replied with a smile.

………………

In the sacred Fusang tree, Shao Yu and Shi Lan squatted side by side, and in front of them lay Tian Ming, who seemed to be still sleeping.

The sun has risen completely and it is past the hour of Mao.

"He shouldn't be sleeping now, right?" Shao Yu touched his chin and made a judgment.

"Why do you say that?" Shi Lan was a little confused.

There doesn't seem to be much difference between drowsiness and normal sleep, and it is difficult to judge directly with the naked eye unless you really use some means to test it.

Shao Yu chuckled and said jokingly, "You've seen it before. When did this kid sleep so normally?"

"He must have fainted again."

After hearing this reason, Shi Lan couldn't help but chuckle. Just as she was about to say something, a voice sounded before her:

"You are slandering me! It is obviously you who has a bad sleeping posture!"

"You have a face full of white hair, and you call others goblins!"

Tianming opened his eyes and launched a ruthless counterattack against Shaoyu.

The smile on Shi Lan's face suddenly became even brighter - because Shao Yu and Tian Ming were right, they both had very ordinary sleeping postures, at least their sleeping postures were very ordinary when they slept on the Fusang sacred tree.

Shao Yu smiled and didn't argue with Tian Ming. He put his arm around his shoulders and asked about the matter:

"Don't worry about such trivial matters for now, let's get down to business."

"How is it, have you received any news?"

“Ah…” Tianming grinned, with a complicated expression on his face. “How should I put it? I got the information, but it’s completely different from what we expected.”

Shao Yu raised his eyebrows, "Looking at your expression, there must be some explosive news!"

“Haha!” Tianming laughed dryly and nodded, “It is indeed explosive news. Very explosive…explosive news!”

"Tell me quickly!" Shao Yu became completely excited when he heard this and urged impatiently.

Tianming was not in a hurry to reveal the news. He patted Shaoyu on the shoulder and said, "Let's get off the boat first."

………………

The heightened alert level of the Mirage not only made it more difficult for Tianming and his companions to get on board, but also made it much more troublesome for them to get off the ship.

Master Ban couldn't have waited for them all night and had already evacuated, so at dawn the three of them had to take the water route.

In the past, if you wanted to travel by water, you just had to jump off the boat and swim back. Although it was tiring, the process was very simple.

Now things are a little more complicated - they have to switch to diving to avoid the patrolling mechanical bat wings in the sky.

For Tianming and Shilan, this task was relatively easy. They both had high levels of internal energy and could hold their breath for a long time by relying on internal breathing.

Not to mention swimming back to the shore in one breath, at least it is not difficult to swim out of the surveillance range of those mechanical bat wings in the sky.

Shao Yu was in a more uncomfortable situation. Although his body was strong, he had not yet evolved gills. His lungs were not much bigger than those of ordinary people, and his internal strength was not good.

All in all, one breath is not enough.

………………

On a coast somewhere outside the city, Shao Yu suddenly emerged from the sea, turned over and lay on his back like a big character, gasping for breath, like a stranded fish.

After him, Tianming and Shilan also went ashore.

They didn't look as embarrassed as Shao Yu, but they were also sitting on the ground gasping for breath, looking very tired.

Shao Yu, who was lying on the ground, raised his arms and said weakly, "We have to change the plan next time. This way of swimming won't work. It will kill me sooner or later."

In order to avoid the mechanical bat wings in the sky as much as possible, Shao Yu could only hold his breath and swim as far as possible. When he could not hold on any longer, he surfaced to take a breath and then continued to swim.

Maintaining a state of hypoxia and near hypoxia for a long time made Shao Yu dizzy and vertigo throughout the whole process. Even though he didn't have to dive underwater anymore, he still couldn't recover.

Tianming and Shilan were in much better condition, they were just simply tired - unlike what they had expected, the distance they swam this time was more than three times greater than before, which was really too much to handle.

Tianming nodded in agreement with Shaoyu's suggestion, "You're right. Next time, we can't swim so hard. We need to plan our evacuation route in advance."

"Huh..." Shao Yu took a deep breath to ease the dizziness in his head, and then said, "Can you tell me what happened now?"

"Okay, I'll tell you." Tianming also lay on the ground, found a comfortable position, and continued, "The reason why Mirage returned is actually very simple, because they had no choice but to come back - there was a big trouble at sea."

"big trouble?"

Shao Yu Shi Lan immediately became interested when she heard this.

Tianming didn't keep the topic a secret and went straight to the point, "They encountered a monster."

"ah!???"

………………

"You encountered a monster!?"

Inside the Mohist stronghold, Master Ban was filled with question marks after hearing Tianming's story.

At this time, Tianming and the other two had returned and informed Master Ban of the information about the mirage. Master Ban's reaction was similar to Shaoyu Shilan's before, and it should be said that he was even more surprised than the two of them.

Shao Yu, like Tian Ming, has seen a lot of things. He has fought against soldiers, demons and gods, so he can accept any ghosts and monsters he encounters.

Although Shi Lan had never seen such things, the people of Shu Mountain had been protecting and worshipping the Fusang sacred tree for generations, and she had heard related legends since she was a child. Even if she suddenly heard about monsters, she could barely accept it.

Master Ban, on the other hand, has experienced many ups and downs in his life, but they were all "ordinary things" and he has never seen any real crooked ways.

"Are you sure you're not fooling me, an old man?"

"Don't worry, I guarantee in the name of the great master that the news is absolutely authentic!" Tianming waved his hand and guaranteed his words.

"Times have really changed..." Master Ban rubbed his temples, feeling exhausted. "Then tell me about the monster. What exactly happened?"

"Oh, it is said to be a kind of mirage... The people of Yin-Yang School on the ship can't do anything about it, so......"

Tianming explained everything about the mirage to the master through gestures and narration.

Shao Yu on the side reacted indifferently. He had already heard Tian Ming say everything before he came back.

Master Ban seemed to be listening to a foreign language, his eyebrows twitching and his eyes widened.

After hearing this, he looked at a loss as to what to do, and kept stroking his beard, "This... this..."

Tianming saw this and reminded, "This actually has nothing to do with us."

"The Empire wants to go to sea, but the Mohists don't."

"That's true..." Master Ban smiled in astonishment, and then asked Tianming, "Whether there is a fierce monster or a dragon on the sea, it is a problem for the empire and the Yin-Yang family."

"But... Tianming, what do you think the Mo family should do while taking advantage of this opportunity?"

"Uh... aren't these what you have considered?" Tianming scratched his head, didn't respond to the conversation, and kicked it back.

"Don't you always shout that you are a great man?" Master Ban replied with a smile, "Today I will let you be the boss for once."

"Then..." Tianming hesitated, and did not refuse. He just replied awkwardly, "But I have no idea either."

"Mirage is back. The Mohist School always has something to do, targeting the Empire, the Yin-Yang School, or the conspiracy between the Yin-Yang School and the Empire..."

"I don't know which of these is more important, which is more difficult, and which is more urgent."

"I have no idea how much strength the Mohist School can mobilize right now."

"What the hell can I say about this?"

In short, Tianming is like an emperor who has been sidelined for years. Even if he suddenly regains power, he doesn't know how to use it.

"Let's not consider the issue of manpower or difficulty for now. It just depends on whether you want to do it or not. What do you choose?" Master Ban responded happily.

"Then... then I want to find an opportunity to kill the people from the Yin-Yang family first." Master Ban said this, and Tianming spoke out his thoughts bluntly.

The Mohists could certainly take advantage of the opportunity of the mirage's return to do something, but they couldn't do anything important.

One reason is that the current situation in Sanghai is different after all. It is no longer the super vortex that could trigger the world situation with the slightest change.

The second reason is that the power of the Mohist school was also hindered by the Book Burning Order.

Master Ban glanced at him and asked in a playful tone, "You sound like you're going after a personal vendetta, don't you?"

Master Ban didn't know the deep hatred between Tianming and the Yin-Yang family. He just thought that Tianming was brooding over the several times he had been put in danger by the Yin-Yang family in the past.

"I am a leader of the Mohist school. The Yin-Yang school almost took my life several times. Revenge is natural, and it cannot be considered a personal grudge." Tianming immediately complained for himself.

"Not to mention that our Mohist School and their Yin-Yang School have been enemies for hundreds of years."

"Now the power of Luowang has been withdrawn from Songhai, the Shadow Secret Guard has also been reduced in manpower, and even the Empire's troops have been transferred away."

"Now is a good opportunity to deal with the Yin-Yang family."

Master Ban nodded, then sighed, "Your analysis is correct, but unfortunately the Yin-Yang family has no helpers now, and their strength is empty, while our manpower is even more scarce."

"Even if we don't consider the Empire's help, just talking about the Yin-Yang family, even if there are seven masters, we can't handle it anyway."

The Mohist School has never been able to compare with the Yin-Yang School in terms of top combat power - in this regard, few of the hundreds of schools of thought are stronger than the Yin-Yang School.

The Mohist School was able to compete with the Yin-Yang School because they had more manpower and mechanical beasts.

But the Yin-Yang School has been hiding in the mirage. Even if we don’t consider whether we can spare any manpower, it is impossible for the Mohist School to mobilize a large number of manpower and mechanical beasts to board the ship to surround and kill them.

Tianming wanted to deal with the Yin-Yang School, unless they suddenly lost their minds, left the Mirage, and separated from each other, giving the Mohist School a chance to defeat them one by one.

Tianming was of course aware of this, and replied with a smile, "It's impossible to force it, so find an opportunity."

"The mirage monster is a big problem. It's unlikely that the Yin-Yang family will just sit on the boat and wait for a solution. Who knows, some unlucky person might get off the boat and be left alone."

"It's wishful thinking to think that we can catch them all at once. If we can find a chance to kill one or two of them, it would be a great harvest."

"Do you think there is a chance?" Master Ban asked back.

"Maybe." Tianming shrugged and replied, "Anyway, no matter what you do, you have to wait for others to give you a chance."

With the current strength of the Mohist School, even if it borrows strength from other anti-Qin forces, it can basically accomplish nothing big.

No matter what you do, if you want to succeed, you have to wait for the empire to give you the opportunity.

The difference lies in what kind of opportunities they will give.

“That’s true…” Master Ban stroked his beard and nodded, understanding what Tianming meant.

Tianming reminded him, "Old Ban, no matter what we decide to do in the end, as long as it's not nothing, you have to figure out how to gather people."

The so-called gathering of manpower does not mean asking Master Ban to mobilize Mohist disciples - he had already mobilized the manpower that could be mobilized and was ready.

Tianming asked him to contact other anti-Qin forces and borrow manpower.

There are many anti-Qin forces who want to take advantage of this opportunity to cause trouble for the empire, and there are even more forces who want to take advantage of this opportunity to try to gain benefits. Master Ban can always find a few reliable forces to join forces with to increase his strength.

Master Ban smiled bitterly and replied, "I know, I won't delay... I still can't sit idle at my age!"

Shao Yu interrupted at the right time and said, "If you need anything, Master Ban can contact Uncle Liang. The Xiang family still has some manpower."

"I won't be polite with you." Master Ban stroked his beard and replied with a laugh.

"Hehe, those who are capable should do more work. Only someone of your status and position is qualified for this job." Tianming said flattering words with a grin.

Although he always liked to argue with Master Ban, as if two children were bickering, he was still willing to support the other party at times like this.

Master Ban rolled his eyes at him and was not flattered by Tianming's flattery. "You are becoming more and more cunning. You even know how to flatter me, an old man."

"I can't be idle, and neither can you. Go and keep an eye on the Mirage."

Master Ban rarely took the initiative to assign a task to Tianming.

This was because he intended to start taking charge of the matter at dawn, and also because he really was short of manpower and someone was needed to keep an eye on the situation in the city.