One Dao Fruit a day, starting with the Dragon Taming Technique.

Chapter 69 Washing Away the Year, Chaos

at the same time.

in the city.

There is a custom in Shuocheng called "washing the year".

For elderly people celebrating their birthdays, they need to climb the Drum Tower in the city, light the New Year's fire, and throw the New Year's fire basin into the Shuohu Lake. If the New Year's paper in the basin can burn completely when it falls into the Shuohu Lake, then the New Year's cleansing is successful, and a long life of a hundred years is within reach.

The governor's New Year's Eve celebration was a major event, and the surrounding streets were closed to traffic early in the morning, with no pedestrians seen on seven or eight nearby streets.

Countless people gathered on the other side of Shuohu Lake, craning their necks to look at the Drum Tower on the opposite bank, hoping to share in the magistrate's birthday blessings.

Sun Yinglong climbed the Drum Tower, with the young man who was always by his side standing behind him, along with Han Chuo and Tang Qiuyao.

It is worth mentioning that, apart from the young man behind Sun Yinglong, no one else was leading troops. Before going upstairs, all of them had their weapons sheathed by the soldiers on both sides.

On the makeshift steps next to the Drum Tower, soldiers stood, their eyes scanning the surroundings intently.

Sun Yinglong glanced at it out of the corner of his eye, and a feeling of being in control of everything welled up inside him.

As the governor, how could he be completely unaware of Sun Ganxuan's decision to betray Shuocheng?

He even knew why Tang Qiuyao had come, but he was confident that the situation was under his control.

at last.

Climb up the Drum Tower.

To everyone's surprise, there was someone in the upper echelons.

Four tall figures stood with their backs to the crowd, each carrying a long sword on their back.

Tang Qiuyao's expression changed slightly when he saw the backs of these people.

Sun Yinglong chuckled lightly, "I didn't expect that you would all come to celebrate my birthday. This humble Drum Tower is truly honored."

The four turned around, revealing four extremely cold faces. The long swords behind them trembled slightly, as if to intimidate everyone.

"Greetings, Magistrate Sun. We have been ordered to come and offer our congratulations on your birthday."

Tang Qiuyao looked at the four people seriously and slowly uttered a few words.

"The Four Masters of the Heavenly Blade Sect".

Only three Daoist sects in Shuofang Prefecture have Daoist talisman lineages: Tianmen Sect, Tiandao Sect, and Wanfei Palace.

The Tianmen Sect is now defunct in name only due to Sun Ganxuan's meddling.

The remaining Heavenly Blade Sect is no less powerful than the Heavenly Gate Sect. The four renowned masters of the Heavenly Blade Sect are well-established martial arts experts who were already at the fifth level of the Core Formation Realm long ago.

Now that they have switched to cultivating the Dao of Talismans, even if they have not broken through to the Azure Talisman realm, they are still top experts at the third level of the White Talisman realm. Moreover, the four of them are skilled in combined attack techniques.

Back then, there was a record of a Fifth Realm Core Formation cultivator surrounding and killing a Sixth Realm Qi Cultivation cultivator.

It's probably even stronger now.

Han Chuo's pupils suddenly contracted; he knew nothing about Sun Yinglong's contact with the Heavenly Blade Sect.

If so—

It can be basically concluded that Sun Yinglong had long suspected him!

This conjecture sent a jolt through him, as if he had been struck by lightning.

The magistrate's cunning—

The four leaders of the Heavenly Blade Sect looked at Tang Qiuyao, seemingly surprised that the other party knew them.

Sun Yinglong introduced with a smile, "This is Tang Qiuyao. Hero Tang used to be the deputy head of the Tianmen Sect. Now he works under my cousin and is the famous Night Wind leader in Shuofang City."

The word "hero" was pronounced slightly heavily, as if it had a hidden meaning.

A cold glint flashed in Tang Qiuyao's eyes. He knew that Sun Yinglong was mocking his act of betraying his sect.

"My lord, this man has developed murderous intent towards you."

The four leaders of the Heavenly Blade Sect spoke.

Sun Yinglong smiled gently, took the New Year's paper, lit it, and exuded the composure of a Beijing official.

"It's alright. If they could kill me, they would have done it last night."

For a moment, the only sound on the top floor of the Drum Tower was the whooshing sound of burning paper money.

Then, from a street in the distance, a commotion arose, as if someone had made a move.

"Since you know this, then I will trouble you to die."

"7

Tang Qiuyao sighed.

Pfft!

The first to make a move were the four masters of the Heavenly Blade Sect, and the person they killed was Han Chuo.

Sun Yinglong was still fiddling with the paper in his hand when he heard shouts of battle coming from afar, and paused slightly.

This was an unexpected turn of events.

It stirred up ripples in his heart.

"Brother Han, I trust you so much."

Han Chuo stared in disbelief at the long sword piercing his chest.

"you--"

The next moment, the four masters of the Heavenly Blade Sect attacked Tang Qiuyao at the same time, and wisps of air mist spread outwards as the experts, who were at least at the fifth level, clashed.

That feeling of being in control of everything resurfaced in Sun Yinglong's mind.

He knew that Tang Qiuyao was Sun Yinglong's confidant and the leader of Yefeng. With Tang Qiuyao dead, his plan with the governor of Yuncheng would be half successful.

only--

His vision has not yet been fully realized.

I felt a sharp pain in my back.

He stared wide-eyed, slowly turned around, and looked at the young man he trusted most. His name was Sun Zhen, nominally his distant nephew, but actually his illegitimate son.

He trusted him implicitly.

only--

Sun Zhen looked at Sun Yinglong quietly, his eyes slowly changing, becoming both unfamiliar and familiar to Sun Yinglong.

He finally remembered the owner of that gaze.

"Has Your Excellency been looking for me all this time?"

"Wu Daoren—"

"The Four Lords of the Heavenly Blade Sect attempted to assassinate the Governor, who is now in imminent danger. Seal the city gates!"

"Suppress the traitors of the Heavenly Blade Sect!"

"Order the imperial guards to seal off the city gates."

"Officers of the four streets, listen to my command! The Li family has colluded with assassins from the Tianmen Sect to assassinate the magistrate and has besieged the Li residence."

"Do not easily trust treacherous people. The magistrate was killed by Tang Qiuyao. Do not be deceived by villains!"

For a moment, the entire city was stunned. News spread like wildfire: the magistrate had been assassinated, but no one knew who the assassin was.

Nobody cared.

Past grievances seemed to find a legitimate outlet at this moment.

Those who had a grudge against the Li family stormed the Li family's residence, while those who had a grudge against the constables drew their swords.

Sun Yinglong was too confident; he was so confident that he never considered contingency plans for what would happen if he encountered an unexpected situation.

The entire city seemed to be caught up in the killing.

A post station thirty miles outside the city.

The few men left behind at the post station were starting a fire, while several soldiers were cooking nearby.

Inside the room.

The atmosphere was very somber.

Du Changwei paced back and forth, occasionally glancing towards Shuocheng through the open window.

Thirty miles away, one could faintly hear sounds coming from the city, and bursts of firelight illuminated half the night sky.

"Stop spinning, sit down."

-

Du Zhong's somewhat somber voice came through.

Du Changwei dared not disobey his father, so he could only sit down resentfully.

After Du Changwei sat down, the team leader and the officer sitting in the room finally spoke.

"Captain, what's going on? In the city—"

"I heard that Governor Sun Yinglong is dead. Was it one of our men who did it?"

"Should we contact General Qian?"

They all have families in the city, and now that chaos has clearly broken out there, they are naturally at a loss.

Fortunately, the leader, Du Zhong, remained calm and composed, showing no change in expression even when faced with a collapsing mountain.

The crowd finally managed to calm down.

After calming everyone down, Du Zhong finally spoke, "Do you know where Xiao Guang went?"

Du Changwei shook his head. "He said he's reached a critical moment in his cultivation and needs to go outside the city to break through."

Du Zhong fell silent.

"Father, what about Mother and my little sister—"

Du Zhong fell silent, quietly picking up his pipe. He had been suppressing his emotions throughout the meeting.

"Three days—once the city has calmed down a bit, you will take the best soldiers in the army to take a trip through the city."

Du Changwei hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping himself; he couldn't wait a moment longer.

in the cave.

A series of dragon roars resounded.

Xu Guang knelt in the cave, with only the remains of a few spirit fruits in front of him. His skin was peeling off continuously, as if he were molting.

The skin underneath is transforming into a crystalline state.

Reaching the fifth level of external martial arts training is actually considered the limit, and at least in the current martial arts world, no one has deduced any subsequent techniques.

Before the emergence of the Dao of Records and Laws, in the eyes of those martial arts prodigies, masters of internal energy cultivation always looked down on external cultivation. In their view, external cultivation was a skill practiced only by peasants.

Xu Guang also did not know what the changes in the six realms of horizontal training were.

Until today, as his entire body underwent continuous transformation, he finally understood the changes, and his physical body began to truly transcend the ordinary—