Chapter Eighty-Five: Besieging the Mountain

  Lin Fan took a leave of absence and went to Qingzhou City to buy all kinds of food, pastries, fine wines and delicacies stored in the Qiankun Ring.

  After that, he no longer stayed and went straight to Beizhou. The first gate of Beizhou is the Wu Emperor's Gate, which was built between two mountain peaks. From above, the gate is lined with elite soldiers and strong generals. However, the lives of the people are extremely difficult. A talented scholar from Qingzhou jokingly called the emperor of Beizhou "Wan Shui" (Ten Taxes). Cars had to pay taxes, bridges had to pay taxes, having children required head taxes, and even raising a horse required grass taxes. Even when someone died and was buried, they had to pay burial taxes. Those who couldn't afford it were cremated, but even cremation required fire burial taxes. The people of Beizhou said that they "can't live, can't die". The imperial court of Beizhou believed that everything under heaven belongs to the king, so if you use something, you naturally have to pay taxes.

  Because Buddhism and Taoism do not pay taxes, many poor people have no choice but to either become eunuchs or become monks. Therefore, the Northern Dynasty court is quite dissatisfied with Buddhism and Taoism, and there are also suggestions for levying taxes on monks, but the Hanlin Academy believes that it has touched the bottom line of not forcing the common people to rebel, so they continue to tolerate it.

  Beizhou Xiu Zhen Da Pai, one is Qingpingmen, located in Huoyue Mountain, later renamed Qingpingshan Shang, which is just a mountain head, not a mountain range. There is also the Shengyin Temple where Jueshe is located, at the top of Beizhou Tian Shan.

  Qingping Gate is in the heart of Beizhou, and when four people approach Qingping Mountain, they see flames filling the sky, black smoke billowing, and as they fly closer, they see countless soldiers and horses forming nine military arrays that completely surround Qingping Mountain. The archers are igniting fire arrows and shooting them to burn the mountain.

  "Let's go take a look." Zhang Chenglong said, and the five of them used their stealth technique to descend from the clouds and enter the sea of flames. They then made a fire-avoiding gesture, which was a simple spell that could ward off ordinary flames.

  There are hundreds of houses on Qingping Mountain, including grand halls, libraries, sword pavilions, and alchemy towers... etc. Now all these buildings are bathed in a sea of flames. There is no sign of any cultivators on Qingping Mountain, and the fire is devouring everything at will.

  Xie Fengzi snorted coldly: "Hypocrisy, what about this army of 100,000? It can be reduced to dust with just a wave of my hand." These words were not false. If Xie Fengzi alone launched a fierce fire attack, he could defeat the army surrounding Qingping Mountain. Ordinary people simply couldn't contend against cultivators.

  Lei Zhenzi said: "Attacking civilians, slaughtering the people, attacking the army... are considered evil sects, and the world will jointly eliminate them." He reminded Xie Fengzi that Lihuo Jiao was listed as an evil sect because it participated in the struggle for hegemony in the world, using Taoist methods to kill countless soldiers.

  Zhang Chenglong said: "In the Righteous Devil Alliance's treaty, it is stipulated that we can counterattack. If there are any troops who dare to besiege and burn our Magic Mountain, I will definitely take action to protect our sect."

  Xie Fengzi said, "That's the reason. Look at Qingping Gate, it retreated without a fight. Moreover, rumor has it that Qingpingshan sheltered two women and provoked the emperor's anger. If Qingping Gate had done nothing wrong, why would it be so weak?"

  There have been precedents for the Xiu Zhen Men sect being besieged by troops, and Lei Shan Sect is one of them. The Lei Shan Sect did not retreat, and its five masters kidnapped the emperor, flattened a mountain in front of him to warn him, and after the emperor was sent back, immediately withdrew the surrounding troops.

  Lin Fan said: "Qingping Gate retreated like this, it just shows that they are clean and self-disciplined, not bullying others with force. What the white-robed man said is probably untrue."

  Xie Fengzi said: "What that man in white clothes said was all correct, he could even tell the names of every blade of grass and tree on Qingping Mountain."

  Lin Fan said: "You've lived on Flame Mountain for so many years, then tell me about the grass and trees of Flame Mountain."

  "......" Slanting Wind was furious, "Don't you know that there are no trees on Fire Flame Mountain?"

  Zhang Chenglong stopped the two men from arguing: "Let's find the people of Qingping Gate first, and then ask questions."

  Lin Fan said, "With a large army surrounding the mountain, there must be young children inside Qingping Gate, as well as those with low cultivation levels. Moreover, there are two ordinary women. To fly up to the clouds without being discovered by the scouts of the large army is somewhat difficult..."

  Xie Fengzi sneered and asked: "How did you know that the scout didn't discover anything?"

  Lin Fan scorned: "Have you found a group of people flying in the sky? They're still burning with such enthusiasm?"

  Xie Fengzi thought for a moment and seemed to think it made sense... She hummed and didn't say anything.

  Lin Fan said, "I think with so many people, to cover up and retreat, there must be a secret passage. This Qingping Mountain is only about 50 zhang high, halfway up the mountain there is a patch of pine forest that has not been burned, I think there should be a restriction set up there, the entrance to the secret passage is likely in that pine forest."

  "Go take a look!"

  Zhang Chenglong led the way, arriving at the pine forest on the mountain. The outer ring of pine trees had already started burning, clearly the seal had lost its effect. In the center of the pine forest, there was a small stream, and beside it stood a winged house, as well as a small temple. After searching around, they indeed found a secret passage inside the small temple.

  Zhang Chenglong said: "It is rumored that Hu Yue Mountain was once occupied by the insurgent army for as long as ten years. It seems that this secret path was built by them."

  Xie Fengzi coldly said: "This narrow path is only the retreat for the wives, concubines, and daughters of the bandit leader, it has nothing to do with the other bandits."

  Everyone acknowledged that what Xiāo Fēng Zǐ said was true. After all the peasant uprising armies rose up, their goal was to become emperors, and they had little to do with the peasants; it was just a change of rulers, and the amount of taxes to be paid remained the same. Xiāo Fēng Zǐ said: "I'll go check." With that, he entered the underground tunnel.

  So proactive? Lin Feng sank into thought for a moment, then Lei Zhenzi said: "We'll follow them up."

  Lin Fan stopped him: "The tunnel is definitely not long, the people of Qingping Gate have already left Qingpingshan, no need to drill once."

  Lei Zhenzi nodded: "Makes sense, but why didn't you stop Xie Fengzi?"

  Lin Fan smiled and didn't answer, saying: "The east side of Qingping Gate is a river, the west side is a big road, which is conducive to the gathering of troops. The south side is behind the mountain, and if you want to dig a tunnel to the south, you need to pass through the mountain. And this tunnel is only about one zhang deep from the ground surface, I think the exit of the tunnel should be on the north side."

  "Lei Zhenzi admired: 'Lin Fan Shidi, wise and bright-eyed, admirable, admirable.'"

  Four people went north in search of it, all the way through the grasslands, without seeing the entrance to the underground tunnel, not even a single person. The four of them searched back and forth for an hour, but gained nothing. At this time, Xie Fengzi stepped on a flame and arrived: "What are you doing here?"

  "Play!" Lin said with embarrassment.

  "The people of Qingping Gate are in the east, leaving a few disciples to report." Xie Fengzi looked at Lin Fan and sneered: "Playing?"

  No, this is the most beneficial analysis based on the rebel's mountain stronghold. How could they have gone to the east? Lin was puzzled and thought for a moment before suddenly realizing that the rebels were not trying to escape, but rather after the imperial army surrounded the mountain, elite soldiers would march through tunnels to the east, create chaos, and attack from both sides. That makes sense! The rebels are on the mountain, digging tunnels to prepare their escape route, so where is their morale? If the leader is preparing to flee, shouldn't the followers have fled earlier?

  Lin was embarrassed and ashamed, but Lei Zhenzi comforted him instead: "It's rare to be confused for a moment."

  Zhang Chenglong smiled and said: "Lin Fan, your analysis is very reasonable. If I were a rebel, I would definitely dig the tunnel northward."

  "Don't laugh at me anymore." Lin was sweating profusely, thinking he was clever, but ended up falling flat on his face.

  Meng Wan didn't care about this kind of thing at all, and she didn't even have a half-hearted interest in who killed Liu Li Zhenren. She just had no choice but to come on this trip.