Two Realms: Don't call me evil!

Three days later!
The solemn war atmosphere of Dali City completely dissipated, leaving only the occasional mottled bloodstains at the base of the wall, proving that a brutal war had taken place here.

In just three short days, the people of Dali City were shocked and frightened.

The army from Guiling Palace broke into Dali City. It is likely that the Dali Dynasty has fallen, and Guiling Palace has replaced the Dali Dynasty and become the new master of this land.

Since ancient times, the change of dynasties has often been accompanied by massacres and deaths, and the lower-class people have been harvested like grass.

The people of Dali City were terrified, especially since Guiling Palace was a sect of the devil. In people's impression, there were no good people in the devil sect!
Three days passed like this, and some of the people in Dali City who had been hiding in their houses and shivering finally began to leave their homes.

There is no other way. The people have no surplus food at home, and they can’t just stay here and starve to death.

Old man Liu, who lives in Anxin Street, Guangfufang, Dali City, is one of the people who go out.

Anxin Street is located on the north side of Dali City. It is an area where poor people live. Old man Liu has excellent carpentry skills and relies on them to support his family of five.

At this time in Old Man Liu's house, in the dim and narrow room, the thin porridge with rice grains so thick that you could count them was divided into five small bowls.

The three skinny kids with dry yellow hair finished the drink in a few gulps, licked the bowls, and were reluctant to put down the broken bowls in their hands.

Old man Liu’s wife is forty years old this year. Due to the hard life and high-intensity labor, she looks like she is in her sixties and has a lot of white hair on her head.

Old Man Liu took a sip of the porridge in his hand, and then shared the rest with his three children. He said, "You stay at home. I'll go outside to find out what's going on."

"Boss, there's still chaos outside, are you trying to save your life?"

His wife Zhang quickly put down the bowl and tried to persuade her husband.

"From my perspective, the food at home is all gone. If we don't go out and find some work, our whole family will have to starve. Besides, we still have to repay the loan from Master Xu's family. If we can't repay it by then, Master Xu will blame us and we will all have to sell ourselves into slavery."

Old man Liu slammed the table, scaring the children.

The Master Xu he mentioned is the Minister of Works, Xu Qing. In the corrupt Dali Dynasty, Xu Qing, who is in charge of the Ministry of Works, would manipulate production orders after receiving them.

First, the production tasks were outsourced. If they could not be outsourced, inferior production materials were used as good ones to reduce costs as much as possible. The remaining money was then divided up by Xu Qing and became his own wealth.

Outsourcing these craftsmen would also face exploitation. Xu Qing would often find fault with them, saying that their products did not meet the standards, and that they had damaged equipment needed by the royal family and that they should be severely punished.

Those who cannot pay back the money can only borrow high-interest loans from Xu Qing to repay the fines.

As for suing the authorities?

Those who dared to do so had their bodies thrown into the moat outside the city and became fish food.

By making a living from both ends, Xu Qing became one of the loan sharks in Dali City. He was called Hutouzha, which meant that he was ruthless in lending money. The annual interest was greater than the principal, and many people lost their families because of him.

Old Man Liu was one of the craftsmen who borrowed from Xu Qing. Originally, he had a good life due to his superb skills, but now he can only eat coarse food and all the remaining money has to be used to repay the debt, and there is no end in sight.

"Just stay at home and don't go out. I'll be back soon."

Old man Liu gave repeated instructions, and under the worried gazes of his family, he carefully opened the door and walked out to the street.

In addition, the streets were very empty, with only a few civilians, and everyone was walking in a hurry, looking left and right, for fear of encountering a rebellious army.

Old man Liu has lived here for decades and is very familiar with the surrounding environment. After he came out, he asked his neighbors for news and inquired about the situation.

"The chaos was the most severe when the rebels first entered the city. There were cries of killing everywhere, and the windows of my house were spattered with blood."

"It seems that some rebels came to post notices two days ago. I didn't dare go out to see what they were about."

"You said the emperor has passed away. The new emperor is the leader of Guiling Palace, Su Jie. I heard that he is called Blood Demon Ancestor or something. Just hearing this name sounds fierce and cruel. Life will be even more difficult in the future."

After chatting with his neighbors, Old Man Liu turned around and walked to Anxin Street. He planned to buy some rice as he didn't have much food left at home.

He walked all the way to the nearest grain store, the door of which was open. The thing that Old Man Liu was most worried about did not happen. He was afraid that he would not even be able to buy food in the chaotic times.

Subconsciously tightening the copper coins in his arms, Old Man Liu couldn't help feeling a little worried, wondering whether the prices in the grain store would rise sharply.

Because every time there was a war in the past, the price of food in the city would rise accordingly. The people were already unable to make ends meet when buying food. If the price of food rose further, they really would not be able to afford it.

In particular, the owner of this grain store is a difficult person to talk to. He is always harsh to people like Old Man Liu. He often maliciously raises grain prices and often mixes sand into the grain he sells.

But the grain business is not something that ordinary people can run. They all have their own backstage supporters, and it’s useless to sue the officials.

However, when he got closer, Old Man Liu was surprised to see that the fat body of the grain store owner was now a corpse.

The body of the grain store owner was hanging on a crooked tree by the roadside. Flies were buzzing and maggots were crawling on the body, but Old Man Liu would never make a mistake.

The size of this thing, weighing more than 300 kilograms, is something that ordinary people cannot afford.

On ordinary days, people don’t even eat much meat, and there is not enough oil and water. Let alone becoming fat, those who can avoid being skinny and just skin and bones are considered to be well-off families.

"The shopkeeper was hanged?"

Old man Liu was filled with surprise. The owner of a grain store who was a local bully and bully in Anxin Street was actually hanged to death on a crooked tree.

However, his family’s stomach was more important at the moment, so Old Man Liu just took a few glances and went into the grain store.

Old man Liu discovered that many of the clerks in the grain store were replaced by unfamiliar faces, and all the clerks who used to follow the grain store owner to bully the market had disappeared.

When he looked at the prices of food in the store again, Old Man Liu's eyes suddenly bulged.

Because instead of rising, food prices are only one-fifth of what they were before, which is five times cheaper.

"How can it be so cheap? It must be fake."

Old Man Liu could hardly believe his eyes. He had never seen such cheap food prices since he could remember. He suspected that he had read the numbers wrong.

"How can it be fake? This is because Master Guiling Palace is kind-hearted. In order to curb profiteers from hoarding rare goods, he opened the warehouses and released grain. The profiteers who dare not cooperate will suffer the same fate as the shopkeeper hanging from the crooked tree outside."

A shop assistant spoke up, having seen too many people like Old Man Liu who were incredulous.

They are used to living a hard life on weekdays, so when good days come, the first thing they do is doubt, and they can't believe that pie will fall from the sky.

"Yes, yes, thank you, masters of Guiling Palace." Old man Liu was dizzy and didn't come to his senses until he left the grain store with a bag full of grain. He was ecstatic and convinced that he had really bought grain at a low price.

Old Man Liu couldn't help but develop a sense of trust towards the rebel group from Guiling Palace, whom he had never met before.

If we can keep food prices stable, then the other side can't be that bad.

Originally, Old Man Liu was planning to go home, but before leaving the grain store, the clerk told him that Guiling Palace was posting notices in Guangfufang to provide free porridge to the public.

The former was none of his business, but since the latter offered food, he had to go.

Guangfufang is different from Anxin Street. It is a gathering place for dignitaries. Various luxurious mansions are connected to each other. Those who live here are all people of prominent family backgrounds, such as Xu Qing, the Minister of Works.

As soon as he entered Guangfufang, Old Man Liu saw two spider main battle mechas that were more than ten meters tall and made entirely of metal.

This huge puppet machine, with its densely packed gun barrels, can make one realize at the first sight that it is a powerful weapon on the battlefield, even if it is the first time one sees it.

Old Man Liu felt weak in the knees and was about to back out, but his stomach started to growl.

He just drank a sip of rice soup before going out this morning, and he couldn't hold on any longer.

In order to get food for the porridge, Old Man Liu suppressed his inner fear and walked into Guangfufang.

Here, Old Man Liu was surprised to see that the doors of the once luxurious mansion were now wide open, and cries of grief and shouting could be heard coming from inside.

A large number of Guiling Palace monks were constantly coming in and out, and among them were arrested high-ranking officials and dignitaries, as well as their descendants and family members.

Including the luxurious mansion where Xu Qing lived, which covered an area of ​​hundreds of acres, was also completely occupied by the monks of Guiling Palace.

In the past, Old Man Liu did not dare to look up at the noble ladies dressed in gold and silver, the arrogant young masters, and the pampered and unruly young ladies. Now they have all become prisoners. They were brought out in shackles by the monks of Guiling Palace. Any resistance they showed would be whipped severely, leaving their skin and flesh exposed.

Inside the mansion, screams of agony were heard everywhere. The monks from Guiling Palace took out instruments of torture that made people shudder. They tortured the important figures on them and forced them to reveal the whereabouts of the money.

As a demonic sect, Guiling Palace is naturally very skilled in the art of torture. Even the righteous monks cannot withstand such torture, let alone these pampered dignitaries.

Old man Liu saw with his own eyes that the Minister of Works Xu Qing was dragged out of his own mansion like a dead dog, and then was placed on a red-hot copper pillar by the monks of Guiling Palace. When his skin and flesh touched the copper pillar, a smell of burnt meat wafted out, and his skin and flesh stuck to the copper pillar.

Xu Qing's facial features were distorted due to the pain, and he let out screams that were not like human voices, and he felt like dying.

The monks from Guiling Palace did not stop and used various tortures one after another. After each torture, they would feed Xu Qing pills, making him unable to live or die, and his wailing sounds lingered over Guangfufang.

Under such torture, Xu Qing wanted to die and told everyone where he had hidden his money.

Soon, the monks of Guiling Palace seized a large amount of money from various places. They used spiritual stones to build walls, and there were also countless gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, spiritual materials and precious medicines. As for copper coins and the like, the ropes that strung the coins had rotted due to their age.

Thousands of boxes containing these riches were picked out and piled up like a mountain at the gate of the mansion. A simple estimate of the value, not including shops, land deeds, mines and other real estate, was already more than 50 million spirit stones, which was jaw-dropping.

In addition, the monks of Guiling Palace also obtained various IOUs from Xu Qing’s mansion, which were stacked higher than a person.

"This is evidence of Xu Qing's corruption and wanton behavior. Our Guiling Palace does not recognize any of the debts he has released."

In front of everyone, the monks from Guiling Palace burned all the loan shark debts.

Seeing this, the people around who were waiting for porridge and food cheered with joy.

"Long live Guiling Palace."

Old man Liu knelt on the ground excitedly. His family was finally freed from the high-interest loan owed to Xu Qing. He no longer had to worry about being unable to pay back the money and becoming a slave.

"Long live Guiling Palace!"

A group of poor people who gathered around also shouted that each of them had more or less suffered from the harm caused by dignitaries like Xu Qing, and that the other side was a group of vampires who sucked the fat of the people.

Now that I see them being executed and punished by the ruthless Guiling Palace, the excitement in my heart of having my hatred avenged is simply beyond words, and I feel extremely relieved and happy.

Looking at Xu Qing, who was finally burned to death, his body was hung on the street, next to his pile of wealth, Old Man Liu spat fiercely and said with gritted teeth: "Well done, this profiteer should have died long ago."

If the monks from Guiling Palace had not been present, he would have rushed over and bit off a piece of flesh from Xu Qing's body.

Similar scenes continued to occur in Guangfufang. The wealth extracted through torture piled up like a mountain. The former princes, nobles, relatives of the emperor and other nobles were either imprisoned or their bodies were hung on both sides of the road. The ground was filled with the wails and cries for mercy of these dignitaries.

It can be said that the streets are full of the bones of nobles, and the gates are full of the heads of the powerful and wealthy.

Previously, the Dali Emperor Wei Sheng asked these dignitaries to donate money, but they refused to do so. Now, all the money has gone to the Guiling Palace. The wealth of the dignitaries in the entire Dali City is likely to easily exceed 10 billion.

"Guiling Palace is a thing of the past. You should call us by our new name, the Great Xia Dynasty. This is the name of our country."

Amid the cheers of the people, the leading elder of Guiling Palace spoke up and corrected the people's way of addressing them.

Old Man Liu asked excitedly, "Sir, what is the emperor's title?"

"Xingyuan Emperor, this is the title of our current emperor, you all must remember it clearly."

The elder of Guiling Palace explained loudly, and asked people to bring buckets of thick rice porridge, as well as roast ducks and roast pigs, and said to the people present:
"Tomorrow is the coronation ceremony of Emperor Xingyuan. In order to celebrate with the people, Emperor Xingyuan personally ordered that porridge and grain be distributed for seven days. From today on, all taxes for the people across the country will be reduced. The land tax will be reduced to one-twenty. Various exorbitant taxes will be cancelled, and land will be distributed to the landless people. This is the emperor's holy heart and kindness. We are different from the past Dali Dynasty."

After the words fell, the whole audience was silent for a few seconds, and then all the people's faces flushed and they shouted excitedly.

"Xingyuan Emperor!"

"Xingyuan Emperor!"

"Xingyuan Emperor!"

Old man Liu shouted until he was hoarse. He had previously thought that Guiling Palace was a rebel army, but that was not right. Now it should be called the Great Xia Dynasty. It turned out that they were the army of justice, and Xingyuan Emperor Su Jie was a true emperor worthy of the support of the people of the world.

As for the Dali Dynasty? What is that? I am not familiar with it. If it collapses, then so be it. Old Man Liu hopes that it will die completely.

It is much better to be treated like a human being under the rule of the Daxia Dynasty than to be treated like a human being.

At this moment, Old Man Liu and countless common people had an unprecedentedly high recognition for Guiling Palace. They accepted the Great Xia Dynasty and the rule of Emperor Xingyuan from the bottom of their hearts.

(End of this chapter)