My Demonic Cult's Holy Maiden

He is Chang Qi, the current head of the Chang family.

Chang Qi picked up three black chess pieces and placed them on the sand table. That place was a key pass in the south of the Dayun Dynasty, called Qinglong Pass.

Once this pass is breached, it will be equivalent to opening the southern gate of the Dayun Dynasty, allowing the army of the Dading Dynasty to advance unimpeded and reach the heart of the Dayun Dynasty.

"Qinglong Pass is now handed over to the iron hooves of my Great Ding Dynasty! After the fall of the Great Yun Dynasty, the three southern prefectures will belong to my Great Ding Dynasty!" Chang Qi said calmly.

The Great Yun Dynasty was mostly situated on plains with numerous rivers, making it ideal for agricultural development.

Some rivers even extend into other countries, and the development of these countries is also inseparable from rivers.

The rivers within the territory of the Great Yun Dynasty were undoubtedly their lifeline.

The Great Ding Dynasty was such a country, whose throat was held by the Great Yun Dynasty because of the river.

The three prefectures that Chang Qi mentioned encompassed the important rivers of the Great Ding Dynasty.

The envoys from the other countries were also able to accept this, but it was still a matter of negotiation!

It's basically the same as bargaining at the farmers market!

Even if it's within an acceptable range, you should still try your best to bargain and get more benefits.

After much wrangling, the Great Ding Dynasty received the water areas of the three southern prefectures, giving up three wealthy cities that were not near the river.

Envoys from various countries also divided up the territory, and then they all argued and negotiated.

In the end, it became the Great Qing Dynasty.

The Great Qing Dynasty was located to the west of the Great Yun Dynasty, and in the west, there was a pass called Jialing Pass.

Once Jialing Pass fell, Qinghe County was immediately engulfed in war.

Lantian County was one of the three counties of Qinghe Commandery.

The envoy from the Daqing Dynasty was also a young man. He raised a flag and planted it in front of Duling Pass.

"My Great Qing Dynasty will naturally break through Duling Pass. My Great Qing Dynasty only needs Qinghe County!"

The envoys from the other six countries looked at each other in bewilderment, which was to be expected.

Eighty li west of Lantian County lies Duling Pass, and everyone knows that the hometown of the venerable Qi Yu is Lantian County.

If Lantian County were incorporated into the territory of the Great Qing Dynasty, it would be tantamount to indirectly bringing Qi Yu into their Great Qing Dynasty.

Qi Yu's importance far surpasses that of his territory or rivers.

If Qi Yu were willing to join their country, they would rather not take an inch of the Great Yun Dynasty's territory, and they would even be willing to cede territory to them!

Although the Great Qing Dynasty did not explicitly state that it wanted Qi Yu, it simply incorporated Qi Yu's hometown, Qinghe County, into its territory.

The benefits they gained far surpassed those of their other six nations.

The Great Qing Dynasty was the second most powerful country after the Great Yun Dynasty, and the Great Yun Dynasty had always been wary of the Great Qing Dynasty, resulting in constant friction between the two sides.

The Marquis of Guanyong, Qin Shuhuai, was most wary of the Daqing Dynasty, so the garrison at Duling Pass was the most elite Chilin Army of the Dayun Dynasty.

The Great Ding Dynasty was slightly weaker than the Great Qing Dynasty, so among the seven kingdoms present, the Great Qing Dynasty was the strongest.

When the Great Qing Dynasty said that Duling Pass was handed over to them, it was a way of telling them something.

The Great Qing Dynasty can deal with the Chilin Army; they only need to deal with the other soldiers.

The Great Qing Dynasty will tackle the toughest challenges!

All he wanted was Qinghe County!

This is clearly a loss, even a huge loss.

Exerting the most effort, bearing the greatest pressure, and acquiring the least land—it seems like a losing proposition no matter how you look at it.

Moreover, Qinghe County was a remote and impoverished county with virtually no value.

But because this is Qi Yu's hometown, and Qi Yu was born in Qinghe County, this remote corner of the land has become different.

Qinghe County has acquired a special significance!

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Chapter 155 Paving the Way

For the past two weeks, Qi Yu has been traveling and training with the leader, who teaches Qi Yu various unusual techniques every day.

The master then imparted all his knowledge to Qi Yu.

Qi Yu also studied very diligently, and he could learn many profound and difficult-to-understand techniques after just one reading.

Although he didn't master it all at once, he was able to perform it quite well after just one viewing, which satisfied the instructor.

On the sixteenth day, the toxins in Qi Yu's body had been cleared, and the qi vortex in his body had stabilized.

He is only one step away from becoming a grandmaster!

The leader did not take Qi Yu out to train, but instead sent Qi Yu home, and he himself returned to the Changsheng Temple.

He has taught Qi Yu everything he could in the past two weeks. How much Qi Yu can learn depends on Qi Yu himself.

The master leads you through the door, but the rest is up to you to cultivate yourself.

Qi Yu's performance is perfectly suited for the position of head coach.

Because Qi Yu was a very laid-back person, he didn't have any lofty ideals or ambitions, which was in line with the Taoist principles of 'non-action' and 'naturalness'.

Moreover, although Qi Yu can be a bit lewd and shameless at times, he is a good person at heart and has goodwill towards the world.

Qi Yu was very principled, and he always knew what he wanted.

He won't be confused; he's perfectly suited to take over his position.

In the past two weeks, he not only trained Qi Yu and helped him break through to the Grandmaster level, but also made a final confirmation.

Let's see if Qi Yu is suitable to be the head coach.

The answer is yes, Qi Yu is very suitable!

Because he is talented, intelligent, unambitious, and a good person.

He was going back to prepare for the coronation ceremony of the new head of church.

And after he went into seclusion, he made some preparations to ensure that Qi Yu could control Taoism.

After all, besides him, there was another person in Taoism of similar status.

Sun Guyuan!

Sun Guyuan is his junior brother, or you could say he isn't.

Because Sun Guyuan only possessed his master's inheritance token, and did not actually become his disciple.

However, the previous head coach had already died by then, so he could only accept Sun Guyuan, this newly emerged junior brother, without being able to verify his authenticity.

Taoism was basically under his control, except for Sun Guyuan.

Sun Guyuan was not a martial artist; he simply enjoyed playing chess and was known as a chess prodigy.

Along with the great Confucian scholar Wei Zhong, the chess master Li Chun, and Li Muchen, they were known as the pillars of the Dayun Dynasty.

After joining Taoism, Sun Guyuan showed no talent in cultivation and did not do anything special.

He acted very normally, but it was this very normalcy that surprised the coach.

Sun Guyuan's status in Taoism was second only to his own. If anything were to happen to him, Sun Guyuan would become the person of the highest seniority.

Given their seniority, it would be difficult to prevent Sun Guyuan from doing anything he wanted.

Therefore, he had to pave the way for Qi Yu so that even after his death, Qi Yu could walk on a smooth path.

……

After parting ways with the leader, Qi Yu returned to Jiangzhou City.

Even after the plague subsided, few people ventured out onto the streets; the few pedestrians that did appear were rather deserted.

I wanted to buy some chestnut pastries to apologize to Su Yue and ask for her forgiveness, but the pastry shop was closed today.

With the plague causing widespread panic, who would have the mind to buy pastries?

Apart from a few essential rice and oil shops, most others were closed.

After buying some salt and rice, Qi Yu left Jiangzhou City.

He knows how to make salt, and there are several salt mines within the Jiangzhou city area, so getting salt is actually very easy for him.

However, in the Great Yun Dynasty, there were explicit laws stipulating that privately producing and selling salt was a serious crime, punishable by death.

When Qi Yu arrived here, he was just a weak scholar. Even though he knew how to make salt, he didn't dare to break the law!

So he had no choice but to obediently buy salt from the government, even though it was really expensive.

……

Back in the courtyard, Qi Yu stood in front of the gate, somewhat hesitant.

Upon learning of the plague, he immediately sent Su Yue back to Tongyun City.

Su Yue still holds a grudge against me for this, and she might still remember it to this day!

The reason she couldn't act up a few days ago was simply because she was poisoned.

Now that she's cured of the poison, she's definitely going to get angry.

I originally wanted to buy some things to appease them, but many shops in Jiangzhou City are closed, which is really upsetting.

How can I get Su Yue's forgiveness?

He really wanted to pretend to be sick again, to say that his poison was not actually cured and that he was still poisoned.

But lying to Su Yue like this seems a bit inappropriate!

Moreover, this self-deceptive approach is easily exposed, and Su Yue might become even angrier, which would undoubtedly add fuel to the fire.

If that's the case, then it seems the only option is to unleash your ultimate move!

As the saying goes, arguments at the head of the bed are resolved at the foot of the bed; there's no conflict that can't be resolved by sleeping it off.

If there is a solution, it's to sleep more!