Chapter 640 – Five Hundred Years of Hindsight

The appointment …….. The old piker sniffed and narrowed his eyes, taking his gaze away from Xu Qi’an and looking out into the distance.

There was a twilight about him, and twilight is not a pejorative term, it’s just that people aspire to new life, so the term tends to be out of favor.

The twilight on the old piker was an aura precipitated by age, more than vicissitude.

He was the same age as his country, born at the end of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and witnessed the rise and fall of two dynasties.

He rose up in the midst of the chaos and led a righteous division to overthrow the tyranny, having experienced too many things and seen too many people.

Twilight naturally soaks into the bones.

Strangely enough, Xu Qi’an didn’t see such twilight in transcendent masters such as Supervisor Zheng, Deity Rohan, or even the two vajra.

Is it because he has been in the red dust ……… or is it because he is a coarse martial artist …… Xu Qi an thought to himself.

After a long interval, the old piker said slowly:

“When Emperor Wuzong rebelled and usurped the throne, I was not yet in seclusion. At that time, Emperor Dafeng was close to the traitorous officials and made a mess of the dynasty.

“Of course, a moment of political muddiness is nothing, nothing compared to the chaos at the end of the dynasty.

“Wu Zong was the grandson of Gao Zu, whose natural talent was not inferior to that of his grandfather, and whose character was the same, both being lords of great eloquence. Taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of the dynasty at that time with the fainting ruler and the treacherous ministers, he recruited troops and launched a rebellion under the name of purging the ruler’s side.

“That’s smart; if he had just uncovered the rebellion, he wouldn’t have won the hearts of the people, nor would he have gotten the help of knowledgeable people.

“At that time, he was only a third-ranked martial artist, and it was difficult as hell for him to rebel under the watchful eye of the first-generation Supervisor.

“So he was smart enough to get three helpers: the Confucians, the Buddhists, and the contemporary supervisors.”

Hearing this, Xu Qi’an had to interrupt, surprised:

“But I’ve heard that when Emperor Wuzong rebelled five hundred years ago, Confucianism stood by and watched from the beginning to the end.”

The old piker smirked:

“To stand by and watch is the greatest help. Otherwise, with the depth of Confucianism at that time, plus a Primordial Supervisor, could Wu Zong have succeeded? Unless the Buddha himself intervened.

“Confucianism had long been dissatisfied with the emperor of the time, only the Primordial Supervisor was in the midst of it checking and balancing, so that Confucianism could do nothing about it.”

He waited for a moment, and when Xu Qi’an didn’t question, he continued:

“At the beginning of Emperor Wuzong’s uprising, he didn’t have enough troops under his hand to fight against the entire Dafeng, so he turned his attention to the Martial Arts League.

“And the one who was responsible for lobbying me to send troops was the current supervisor.

“At first I did not agree, what benefits can I get if this matter comes to fruition? It’s unlikely that the Martial Sect will cede the Sword State to me. If it fails, the Martial Alliance that I’ve painstakingly managed for over a hundred years will likely be destroyed.

“You might as well guess how the superintendent, he convinced me.”

Xu Qi’an’s heart stirred, “Is it related to this engagement?”

The old piker nodded, then shook his head:

“A deal, to be precise.

“In the hundred years since I returned to the Sword State to found the Martial Alliance, I have long since risen to the peak of the Third Grade, yet I have never been able to merge with the Dao.

“The most frightening thing in the world is not difficulties and setbacks, it is not seeing hope. Surname Ji’s initial cultivation was similar to mine, and after claiming the title of emperor, his cultivation progressed by thousands of miles day by day, and finally stepped into the ranks of the first-grade martial artist.

“I wasn’t quite convinced in my heart, so I haven’t been unashamed to ask him for experience in the Harmonization Realm.”

Good one is not ashamed to ask, you old piker, the shoots of the Inuyong Mountain are all taken over by you ……… Xu Qi an spat silently in his heart.

“I didn’t know at the time the rule that those who gained qi may not live forever, and decades later, before I had time to convince myself of that, the surname Ji became a short-lived ghost, and actually died ………”

The old piker shook his head and snorted:

“I’m afraid that bitch in Hatsuneo is crying her eyes out, hahaha. I always suspected he was a rabbit. Ahem …….. Anyway, I’ve stopped at the peak of the third grade for many years, unable to break through and seeing no hope of doing so.

“Until that day, when the Contemporary Supervisor came to me, and he said that he would help me to be promoted to the second rank as long as I was willing to send out my troops to help the Wu Zong take over the throne.”

Xu Qi’an laughed out loud:

“I see, old-timer you’ve been punked by Supervisor Zheng. I didn’t realize that Supervisor Zheng is also an old politician in his old age.”

The old piker glanced at him with a smirk:

“I used to think the same thing, but now, I did get promoted to the second rank.”

Within the ten seconds or so after these words were said, the smile on Xu Qi’an’s face first remained unchanged, and then he seemed to have thought of something, and his smile stiffened a little, froze on his face, and finally slowly disappeared.

If there is a camera at the moment to capture the whole process, his “acting” is simply excellent.

……… Xu Qi an looked at the old piker with a dull gaze, his lips moved, and he spat out words with difficulty:

“You mean that the Nine-Colored Lotus Root, no, my help, is the Supervisor is making good on his original promise?”

The old piker let out a “hmmm”, “I can’t think of a better explanation than that.”

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Xu Qi’an retreated three steps in a row, staring at the old man in a daze, his face suddenly distorted, unable to tell whether it was surprise or fear.

Or, both.

Outsiders had no way of knowing his inner activities; underneath the dull face were tumbling emotions, an explosion of information boiling over.

What does it mean if things are as the old piker says?

“I remember that Xu Pingfeng said that the Heavenly Fate Master has the ability to spy on heavenly chances and can foretell the future to a certain extent, and because of this, the Supervisor cannot intervene in the things he foretells. He can only secretly lay out and influence it laterally.

“Prying into the heavens is already a matter against the heavens, and leaking the secrets of the heavens will directly suffer the wrath of the heavens. But this is still not the key, the key point is ……….

“Five hundred years ago, Supervisor Zheng wasn’t a Heavenly Fate Master, how could he possibly foretell the future, how could he!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Xu Qi’an’s face turned extremely ugly, as if his three views had collapsed.

“You seem to have thought of something?”

The old piker asked, frowning when he saw that his face looked very wrong.

Xu Qi’an didn’t reply, keeping his ugly face and taking a long time to calm down.

Then, based on this information, he derived three guesses and one doubt.

Speculation 1: It was not the Supervisor who foresaw the situation 500 years later in the first place, but the Primordial Supervisor.

If that’s the case, the secrecy involved is terrifying.

Speculation 2: There is a problem with the identity of the contemporary supervisor, who is probably the first generation supervisor. The disciple of the first generation may be the vestige of the first generation.

But in that case, why did Hatsune Miku go through all the trouble of staging a “suicide”, and what was the purpose of it?

In addition, the Bodhisattvas of the Buddhist Sect were involved in this matter, and each of them had the power to take over the creation of heaven and earth, and it was very difficult for the first generation to conceal the opening of the vestments from them.

Speculation 3: Both of the above are incorrect; the fact that the contemporary Supervisor is able to foretell what will happen 500 years from now is a problem in his own right.

As for doubt ………

Looking back on the warlock system today, there is actually a paradox in this curse of the apprentice backstabbing the master.

How horrible the contemporary supervisor is, how horrible the first generation is.

The current generation of Supervisor Zheng could foretell the future, so could the first generation, and he could have found a way to get rid of Emperor Wuzong before he revolted.

Even if the Heavenly Fate Master could not intervene in the future, Xu Qi’an believed that Emperor Wu Zong must have had countless nine-death situations in his military life.

The first Supervisor of the Emperor simply seized the opportunity to exert influence laterally, and Emperor Wuzong was dead in the water.

Don’t question it, the first superintendent can definitely do it.

There were many other similar methods, and the first Chancellor was fully capable of making Emperor Wuzong unable to find a chance to rebel.

This paradox, which at first glance seems to validate conjectures one and two, can actually validate conjecture three as well.

If there is a problem with the contemporary supervisors themselves, that would indeed break the paradox.

“Another explanation is that the Primordial Supervisor Zheng foresaw the contemporary’s back-stabbing but did not stop it, choosing to play against him. Just as the contemporary supervisor was to Xu Pingfeng.

“I know you’re going to backstab me, but I’m not going to stop it, let’s duke it out the warlock way.

“In Xu Pingfeng’s words, this is the curse of the warlock system, it cannot be avoided, unless one wants the warlock system to be severed in this way, as long as one still wants to pass on the legacy, one must take on an apprentice, and then accept the apprentice’s back-stabbing.

“Commonly known as – the rules of the road!”

In addition to the above three guesses and one doubt, in Xu Qi’an’s heart, there was another reasoning that was in line with reality.

This reasoning is not so much a conspiracy theory, the truth is that the supervisor is indeed an old politician who is purely fooling old pikers.

As we all know, politicians under the sky are all about bargaining beforehand and whoring for nothing afterward.

Anyway, by the time the supervisor is successfully promoted to the first rank, he is afraid of retaliation from a vulgar martial artist?

As for the old piker really relying on the Nine-colored Lotus Root to promote to the Second Grade after 500 years, it might be that after many years, the Supervisor Zheng realized that he could make good on his promise with the help of the Nine-colored Lotus Root and made the arrangement.

Essentially, there’s really no such thing as 500 years of foreknowledge.

In all fairness, Xu Qi’an felt that this was the truth.

The reason was simple, to accurately foretell an event five hundred years from now, such an ability could not possibly be achieved by a First Grade Cultivator.

Not even if it’s a superlative.

He wasn’t a rookie for the first time nowadays, he had killed a second-ranked Jeanne d’Arc and fought a first-ranked Phantasm, and even if he hadn’t touched a super-ranked product, he still had a bit of a concept in his heart.

Gathering his scattered thoughts, Xu Qi’an asked:

“How does Senior judge that the promise the Supervisor is talking about is me?”

The old piker sighed:

“That old man explained one thing at first: live well, the day you merge with the Tao is the day the people of the Central Plains need you.

“Sure, maybe it’s just a pretext, warlocks are always godly. But since I managed to advance, let’s consider it a promise he kept.”

……… Xu Qi an s scalp was numb.

At that moment, someone swept up to the top of the cliff in the air and stopped at a distance, arching his hand:

“Old Ancestor, junior Wen Chengbi.”

The old piker’s face was slightly confused.

Xu Qi’an helped with the introduction:

“This is the Vice-Alliance Leader of your Martial Arts Alliance.”

The old piker nodded indistinctly and asked, “What is it?”

Wen Chengbi spoke of the troubles facing the Martial Arts Alliance and tried:

“If we expand with the military town as the core of the headquarters, we can indeed save a lot of manpower and resources. Alliance Master Cao hesitated and ordered me to seek your opinion, Old Ancestor.”

The core problem is insufficient funding ……… Xu Qi’an made a summary.

In the era of underdeveloped equipment, large-scale construction was very costly and labor-intensive, and Xu Qi’an was familiar with the history of not a few examples of countries that had fallen because of large-scale construction.

Sui and Qin are examples of this, although the fall of a dynasty cannot be for this reason alone, there are bound to be other factors, but it is possible to be crowned with this reason by later generations.

It is enough to illustrate how laborious the infrastructure projects are.

The old piker mused:

“There is no harm in the matter of the silver, those buried under the mountain, the old man will be responsible for searching them out. The headquarters is still built on the mountain, this point cannot be questioned.”

Xu Qi’an understood what he meant, a great chaos was coming, and the headquarters of the Martial Arts Alliance was like a dangerous pass that could be defended in retreat and attacked in advance.

If it was built in a military town with flat terrain, then when the enemy cavalry came, it would instantly collapse.

Wen Chengbi said in a deep voice:

“But in this way, I am afraid that the alliance’s many years of savings ……… will be just in exchange for weekdays, at most, the brothers will be frugal. But now the disaster is everywhere, without silver relief, I’m afraid the situation in Jianzhou is also going to be chaotic.”

The old piker said at once, “Then let the brothers of the alliance and the soldiers do it together.”

Wen Chengbi shook his head, “There’s still not enough manpower.”

The old piker frowned and thought for a moment before turning to Xu Qi’an and saying:

“What do you think?”

Xu Qi’an didn’t have the good sense to say:

“How simple it is, to work for food is not enough, gather the victims, build the headquarters, do not give silver only give food. Both can solve the victims’ food and clothing, but also can save silver.”

Wen Chengbi’s eyes steeply lit up in surprise:

“Xu Yinluo’s high opinion, worthy of being Xu Yinluo, to come up with such a brilliant plan.”

Where is this a wonderful plan, this is a traditional …… Xu Qi an nodded haughtily.

“Out of order!”

The old piker frowned.

These days there is no precedent for food for work, and the victims are content to drink the porridge given by the court or large families, waiting for the disaster to end and the earth to warm up.

Even if there are occasional small-scale food-for-work incidents, they can hardly become mainstream.

“Old Ancestor, this is a wonderful plan.” Wen Chengbi hurriedly said, “In extraordinary times, one should act in extraordinary ways. Please ask for Old Ancestor’s approval.”

The old piker then waved his hand, not bothering with such trivialities:

“Go on.”

Seeing Wen Chengbi off, Xu Qi’an said:

“Elder senior, I am now at the third rank, and the next step is to merge with the Dao. But so far, the true meaning of Harmonization is unknown.”

The old pipsqueak knows what he’s talking about:

“Harmonization is the metamorphosis of Yi, which I call the completion of one’s own martial arts path. Every Fourth Grade Martial Artist can only comprehend one type of Yi, and it is the Martial Way of his or her own choosing.

“Intent, the prototype of the Tao.

“Perfecting the path one walks is the true meaning of the Second Grade Harmonization. But yeah, it’s easier said than done, and harder to sit down.

“Throughout my life, I have practiced sword techniques diligently, combining the strengths of various sword techniques and melting them into a single furnace. But in the end, it was still stuck at the peak of the third grade, and nearly died in a failed attempt to merge with the Dao.”

Xu Qi’an hurriedly pursued, “How did senior merge with the Dao?”

“There are thousands of blade paths, and one can merge them by realizing the True Meaning. But there are countless paths to true intent, and during my seclusion, my body transformed into pieces of flesh, no piece of flesh, representing a different blade path. They have their own ideas, and they all think they are right.”

“The nine-colored lotus root can help people to merge?”

“The nine-colored lotus seed can transform all things, so naturally the lotus root can do the same, or even better. Its role in this is to transform the thousands of “I’s” that are caught in the mire, and to identify the dominant “I”. The lotus seed was not powerful enough to achieve this effect, but the nine-colored lotus root could. This is also the reason why Qing Yang wanted to take the nine-colored lotus root for me in the first place.”

The nine-colored lotus root is equivalent to a stabilizer, acting as a catalyst and stabilizer ………. Xu Qi’an largely understood.

I still have a tiny piece of the nine-colored lotus root to keep, well, let the Southern Gardenia continue to cultivate the lotus root for me, in that case, when I step into the second grade, I might not need to take away her spiritual embodiment.

Before Xu Qi’an handed over the Nine-Colored Lotus Root, he chopped off a small section and left it by his side, just like the section of the Nine-Colored Lotus Root in the beginning.

Such a heavenly treasure should definitely be made sustainable.

Saying goodbye to the old piker and returning to the military town, Xu Qi’an searched for a courtyard and invited out Mu Nanjian and Chai Xing’er, the latter because of the long term imprisonment within the Floating Pagoda, resulting in a weak qi, Xu Qi’an intended to release them to raise for a while.

She still had a use for the large tomb guarded by the ancestors of the Chai family, and to be noticed by Xu Pingfeng, the owner of the tomb was by no means unusual.

Mu Nanjian was wearing a plum-colored cotton jacket and a plain pleated long skirt, highlighting the temperament of a child Wenqing and a rich wife.

Even with her mediocre posture, it’s hard to hide her unique flavor.

The little white fox took advantage of Xu Qi’an walking away and busily said:

“Auntie, I need to pee.”

Without saying a word, he leapt out of Mu Nanjia’s arms and ran away as if he was scattering.

It executed its innate divine ability and transformed into a white shadow, and with a few flashes in the military town, it moved away from the complex before plunging headlong into the forested Inuyasha Mountain Range.

In a matter of tea, Bai Ji dived into the deep forest, far away from the main peak of Inuyasha Mountain.

It swept around and picked a high rock to leap onto.

The Queen’s descent has to be rehearsed.

………

PS: Brain ache, I went back through the front today to find some of the forgotten potholes