Chongming Xianzong

Chapter 117: The County Lieutenant Inspects the Troops

Feng Buxing carefully attached the hidden spirit talisman and hid on a treetop outside Linghe Market, with a look of impatience on his face.

Because of the opening of Chongming Market in the past two years and the turbulent times, his evil cultivation business was not doing well. Not only did he not meet any foolish men, but even decent peddlers were hard to come by. He watched for almost a whole afternoon but did not see anyone wearing robes.

"Damn, they are all poor bastards! Poor is fine, but they are also arrogant. There are fewer and fewer characters who know how to pay for their passage."

Thinking of this, he sighed in his heart again: "This knife-edge rice is not so delicious!"

Sleeping in the open and covered in wounds are common. Nowadays, there are more and more villains who are willing to pretend to be a pig and eat the tiger. As long as you are a little careless and make a wrong move, it is not impossible to be killed by others.

Even if you win, the magic tools and talismans in your hand will be damaged to some extent. After completing a transaction, you have to split it with the other two partners according to their contributions. Before the division is completed, it is difficult to tell whether it is a profit or a loss.

After a year, I didn't get that many spirit stones.

Fortunately, there are no disciples from large sects in Pingrong County who have nothing better to do than to go out and gain experience. As long as they are careful in what they do and abide by the principle of “cheating the good and fearing the evil”, they can at least escape unscathed most of the time.

He and two other accomplices had been doing no-cost business for more than ten years. In their spare time, they swallowed some medicinal pills and occupied a small mortal town to amuse themselves for a while. They lived a pretty enjoyable life and were doing just fine.

Just as Feng Buxing was thinking this, he suddenly saw a dense net covering his head.

"What a fast magic weapon." Feng Buxing exclaimed inwardly. He was clearly on alert, but he didn't have time to notice it at all.

He had no time to dodge, and put his right hand on the knife handle at his waist. With a "clang", several sharp white sword beams slashed towards the net bag. The net bag was covered as usual, and the sword beams scattered, but the net bag was unharmed.

Four soldiers from the Demon-Snatching Department under the treetops each held one end, easily covering Feng Buxing tightly and also binding his magic power.

"The Demon-Recovering Division? What have I done wrong? How come they have time to care about me? Did those other two guys do something bad?" Before he could complain, two more soldiers holding iron bars came up to him, and without asking any questions, they raised their hands and hit Feng Buxing on the head.

"Puff." After just a few iron bars, a huge blood bubble appeared on the bandit's head. He felt nauseous inside his head and vomited a pool of muddy water.

"General, please spare my life, spare my life. You cannot beat me. I have some savings, and I'd like to give them to you as wine money." Feng Buxing curled up and begged for mercy. He really couldn't think of what serious crime he had committed to attract the Demon Correction Bureau, and he didn't dare to ask. He felt very aggrieved.

"Keep fighting!"

Upon hearing this, the soldier increased his strength, and soon he beat the man so hard that he could not stand the wind, his bones were broken, and his body was covered with blood.

The beating lasted another quarter of an hour, and then the guards put down the blood-stained iron bars.

Feng Buxing curled up motionless for a long time before he mustered up the courage to stick his head out a little and opened his swollen eyes. He saw clearly the familiar man in official robes in front of him. His wide-open eyes suddenly narrowed and an expression of shame and anger appeared on his face.

"Kang-Da-Bao! I'm going to take you away!"

Feng Buxing was so scared by the raised iron ruler that he swallowed back his curse words halfway through his mouth.

He subconsciously shrank his head, but the iron bar hit him hard on the back, and blood oozed out of his scarred back again, one, two, three times.
Feng Buxing stuffed the blood-soaked robe into his mouth and bit it, groaning a few times and almost fainting from the pain.

"Master Kang, County Magistrate Kang, I was blind in the past! Please be merciful and spare my life. I will serve you like a slave." Feng Buxing no longer dared to lose his temper. He gathered his strength, moved his body little by little, and knelt on the ground, begging for mercy.

"Puff!" Kang Dabao frowned and hit his face with an iron ruler. Feng Wuxing couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of broken teeth.

Left cheek, right cheek, left cheek, right cheek.
He was hit dozens of times with the iron bar, and there was not a single piece of good flesh on his face. But he still begged for mercy. He crawled close to Kang Dabao's trouser legs and raised his head. He had almost no strength to open his mouth, and his mouth was drooling with a line of blood-red saliva: "Kang Kang...Kang County Kang...County Lieutenant, spare me."

With a "bang", a headless body fell heavily to the ground.

Two people nearby saw this scene and knelt down, bowed their heads to the ground, and dared not say another word.

Kang Dabao took the storage bag from the ground with an expressionless face, took a quick look at it, and handed it to the soldier beside him, asking his men to divide it together.

"You are the Three Evils of the Feng Family. You have such a great reputation, but why don't you show any loyalty at this time?" Kang Dabao took the red iron ruler and poked the two men's hair buns, leaving several bloody marks on their scalps. Blood flowed down from their foreheads, staining most of their faces with blood.

"These are all rumors, County Lieutenant. My brother and I only have a casual acquaintance with this villain. This villain may not have the surname Feng. He always likes to shamelessly get close to us brothers and take advantage of us. He has tarnished our reputation, and the villagers have spread rumors and given us this bad reputation." The eldest brother of the Feng family said in a low voice with his head down.

"You two have been in perfect harmony when it comes to cleaning up the village these years." Kang Dabao said in a bad tone.

"I am willing to serve the county lieutenant at his whim." After hearing what Kang Dabao said, Ersha stopped making excuses.

They were too lazy to cover up the evil things they did over the years, so it was enough to just make up a lie to show their attitude in front of Kang Dabao.

This Kang guy killed all the chickens, so he should have kept the monkeys, right? Otherwise, what's the point of performing this play?
Damn it, I received a lot of gifts from this guy in the past few years, but now I have encountered that stupid thing! Forget it, just consider it as my father helping his son!

"Yeah." Kang Dabao nodded. These two brothers were already considered good people in the list he had drawn up, so he shouldn't treat them too harshly.

He went to Yuanyang Hall with his helpless head and captured Han Lu and his wife, but he didn't expect that they were playing with each other here.

This kind of behavior is jaw-dropping no matter which small world it is in.

It was night time when the arrest took place, and Yuanyang Hall was doing a booming business, which frightened all the brothel-hunters to death.

The deputy head of Yuanyang Hall, wearing a green turban, came up to try to make friends, but was scared away by the words of Kang Da, the head of the sect, "Do you want to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country together?"

The process of capturing Han Lu and his wife was much smoother than Kang Dabao had imagined. You have to know that the couple were not easy to deal with. Many years ago, they broke out from the siege of dozens of Iron Sword Sect disciples and defeated four or five of them, which made Ren Qiong very angry at the time.

The head of the Kang family treated the couple with much more caution. He still beat them half to death. This time, a team of guards was on guard to let the second evil of the Feng family take action.
Finally, he kidnapped the Shao brothers and sisters from a mortal's house and subdued them with the same method.

Feng Buxing was killed like a chicken. There were still two people missing out of ten. Kang Dabao counted on his fingers and thought about his enemies, Guixiang, Hong Qin and the like. They were either not caught now or had not been found yet.

So he was thinking whether he should go to Linghe Market and capture an old fellow like Dai Yuanjiang to make up the number. That old fellow was also a famous fighter in the Qi training period, so capturing him to fight would definitely not be enough.

But with only ten soldiers from the Demon Suppression Division, they might not be able to capture him. But if he is really pushed to the limit, can the Taoist send troops to bury the entire Linghe Market?
Master Kang dismissed the idea in an instant. Linghe Market was not even on the tax list of the county government, and the state court was probably still concerned about the Yue family's reputation.

The provincial court still has concerns, so what is there for a mere official like me to do?
Finally, Master Kang thought for a long time, went into the Pingrong County prison and looked through the files, and found out that there were two unlucky guys who were imprisoned because they had offended Xie Fu. Their cultivation was pretty good, they were already at the fourth level of Qi training, which was just enough.

In the prison, all six people were put in large spiritual shackles, and were only given medicine for their wounds, no water or rice, and were kept under strict guard.

After all the monks who were serving in the military had gathered together, Kang Dabao stepped into the prison. Under the guidance of the prison boss, he saw several vicious bandits who had been tortured beyond recognition.

"Brother Feng, you have killed merchants and mortals. According to David's Law, you should be beheaded."

"Han Lu, Dan Xia, you used dozens of living people to make medicine. According to the "Immortal and Mortal Code", you should abandon your cultivation and be exiled to the Desolate State."

"Shao Wei and Shao Meng colluded with bandits to harass the market. According to the Yunjiaozhou Law, they should be flogged 300 times and sentenced to hard labor for 60 years." Kang Dabao sat outside the prison cell with a big mouth. He found a clerk with many years of experience and flipped through several large volumes of laws, picking out the most severe punishments to read out.

"Please, County Lieutenant, spare me." Shao Meng's body softened, and he leaned against the fence wearing the shackles, outlining his body as wide and narrow as possible.

I don't know what means she used, but even though she had lost all her spiritual power, she was able to restore her beautiful face to a large extent.

At this moment, the two big eyes on Shao Meng's silver-plate face looked like the water in a star lake, sparkling and moving, and his voice of begging for mercy was like a yellow oriole singing out of a valley, so melodious that it made people feel pity for him.

"Madam Shao, stop pretending. Last time, I had the honor of seeing you dismembering people for fun outside Linghe Market. I still remember it clearly." Kang Dabao laughed out loud when he saw this and exposed Shao Meng's true face in one sentence. Even things like this were not even considered bad deeds by this pretty lady.

Master Kang himself had been blackmailed for spirit stones by this seemingly delicate and evil woman many times in the past, so how could he be soft-hearted because of her little trick?
"I am willing to die for you, sir." The Feng brothers, who had remained unscathed so far, felt quite out of place in the prison, so they had to rush to the front of the crowd to show their loyalty.

"My wife and I are willing to serve you at our utmost." Han Lu helped his wife stand up and responded tactfully.

"I, Kang, will not hide the truth from you all. I have been assigned a life-threatening task. I have to ask all my old acquaintances for a favor. Go to Wang County to fight. It would not be a loss if I die. If I survive, I can also change my skin and live again. It depends on what you think about which one you choose."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a dead silence in the prison. Everyone was thinking in their hearts: "Why would it be okay if I died?"

But no one will have a second choice.

He returned a team of very handy soldiers from the Demon-Snatching Division to the county. Both sides felt reluctant to part. These soldiers had made a small fortune following Kang Dabao in the past few days.

Luo Heng's injury had not yet healed and he did not show up, so there was no news about Sun Bingdou at all.

Zhi Tiexishan said goodbye to Kang Dabao in a formal manner in the county government office. The latter led 44 local soldiers and six prisoners in shackles to the military station in Wang County.

Thanks to two years of taxation, Pingrong County finally had some public funds to use.

A small flying boat that Xie Fu bought from the state at a low price years ago had been hidden in Luo Heng's hands. Now it fell into the hands of Sect Leader Kang. It carried a team of fifty people from Pingrong County and arrived at the military camp of Wang County in half a day. It was very quick and convenient.

The tall Sima Fei stood outside the military camp, watching Kang Dabao and his troops coming to pay a visit.

It was rare to see such a team in the capital.

In Kang Dabao's eyes, these fifty were already quite good elite soldiers, but in Fei Sima's eyes, they were weak soldiers with uneven skills, strange weapons, and extremely low morale.

Sima Fei looked at Kang Dabao again. This leader was just as the news from the Demon-Recovery Bureau said, he was only at the sixth level of Qi training, nothing special.

"Nearly half of the militia from the thirteen counties have arrived, and County Magistrate Kang is the first to recruit criminals." Sima Fei flicked his moustache and looked at Han Lu and his wife and others who were in a very embarrassed state in the team. There seemed to be deep meaning in his words.

However, conscripting prisoners' sons-in-law into the army has always been a common practice in the Immortal Dynasty, so he has no right to blame too much.

"Don't worry, Sima. These are all fugitives who are used to fighting and have the lowest level of cultivation at the fifth level of Qi training. After being tortured, the bandit spirit will dissipate. Then, with some water and rice, they can become good knives after some training." Kang Dabao said neither humbly nor arrogantly.

"Oh? Interesting." Fei Sima glanced at those people wearing spiritual shackles, and the dissatisfaction on his face faded a little.

The murderous aura of these people is not false. If used properly, it will be much more useful than those kind-hearted monks recruited from other counties.

"A knife that is too sharp may bite you." Sima Fei was too lazy to care about the affairs of the Qigong cultivators. Being able to take the time to meet Kang Dabao in person was already a reflection of the Immortal Dynasty's care and condescension.

Before leaving, he just gave a brief reminder and turned back to the commander's tent.

Kang Dabao heaved a sigh of relief only after Fei Sima left. The experience of standing in front of a stranger who had to answer questions twice in a row was really not a pleasant one.

After finding the handover officer at the military station and choosing a place to set up camp, Kang Dabao put the six prisoners together with Qian Liu and the two unfortunate people who were wrongly accused, and removed the shackles from them one by one.

He didn't expect these people to collude and escape. This was a military camp built by the state court Sima. There was more than one foundation-building master in charge here. How could they be caught by the Taoist priest if they had the ability to do so?
However, to prevent any accidents, the head of Kangda Sect still has to remind you: "If one person escapes, the whole group will be implicated. You must all look out for each other. Even if you are blood relatives or bedmates, you must consider your importance in other people's hearts."

Several people even said they didn't dare, but Kang Dabao didn't care whether their words were true or not. He sent a servant to bring food. After several people ate quickly, he gathered the team and started practicing the formation and the drums and bugles.

Zhang Zushi of the Chongming Sect came from a military background. He experienced no less than a hundred battles of varying sizes during the campaign to pacify the barbarians. His military heritage had long been summarized and passed on to future generations.

The reason why the Chongming Sect was able to maintain its status as the number one sect in Pingrong County when it was passed on to Master Kang Dabao after several generations of continuous decline was closely related to the fact that the successive sect leaders had studied the art of military strategy.

The monks still have rules when fighting.

Kang Dabao has picked up this skill for some time. Although he cannot be said to have mastered the art of war, he can at least be considered to have a basic understanding of it.

Compared with those cultivators with military heritage, Kang Dabao's two tricks are naturally not worth mentioning, but if it is to deal with those wild cultivators without inheritance, Master Kang still has some confidence.

According to David's military system, five people form a squad, twenty-five form a fire squad, and five fire squads form a team.

Kang Dabao appointed himself as the captain, and the deputy captain was a bald-browed, bitter-faced man, also the leader of Jiahuohuo. This man was born in Hemu Dao, and was somewhat related to Tiexishan. He was the brother-in-law of Tie Liuyun's brother-in-law.

Yihuo Huozhang is a mute old man who has reached the sixth level of Qi training. He is a manager of the Luo family who is not from the Luo family. He has a high status in the Luo family and was therefore implicated by Luo Heng.

Binghuo Huochang is a deacon named Cai from the Grass Witch Cult. His cultivation level is not high, he is only at the fifth level of Qi training, and he looks miserable. It seems that he was chosen because he was ostracized.

Ding Huohuochang is a disciple of the Tongxiu Association. He is very young and has only reached the third level of Qi training. He is just a figurehead. The real boss of this group of people is the six-fingered old man, the former leader of the Qingzhu Gang, Taishan.

Ever since Qin Sufu focused on looking for an opportunity to build his foundation and stopped caring about much, the way the Yushan Cultivator Association eats has become a little ugly.

His home borders the territory of the Green Bamboo Gang, so he probably used some tricks to force the old cultivator to come. Most of the people sent by the Fellow Cultivators Association are also disciples of the Green Bamboo Gang. They did this probably in the hope that the current leader of the Green Bamboo Gang and this group of backbones would all die here, so that it would be easier for the Fellow Cultivators Association to wipe out the Green Bamboo Gang.

The two unlucky guys who were rescued by Kang Dabao cried and screamed but couldn't escape. In the end, they could only be classified as Wu Fire together with a group of fugitives captured by Kang Dabao.

This fireman Kang Dabao was prepared to break through the enemy's formation. With their abilities, the chances of them surviving were not high.
After a month of rough training, this team of "sharp soldiers" could barely use the training methods and understand the battle formations. In his spare time, Kang Dabao secretly compared his team with other local soldiers and felt that they were elite, which gave him some confidence.

An order also came from the general's tent: hurry to Butai Mountain and capture Wuxiang Gate.

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　　(I wrote this while slacking off at work. I didn’t expect to be able to write nearly 5,000 words in one go)
　　
　
(End of this chapter)