The Great Martial Arts World: Hot Topics and Great Heroes

Chapter 1031 Discussion

After sitting down, Qiao Feng didn't immediately bring up the important matter. Instead, he drank and ate meat to welcome the people of Chu.

After they finished eating the four lambs and all the wine jars were empty, Qiao Feng finally got down to business.

"Second brother, you mentioned the Dragon Vein True Essence in your letter, so I won't beat around the bush... Tell me the truth, what do you plan to do after absorbing the Dragon Vein True Essence?" Qiao Feng's expression turned serious.

The true essence of the dragon vein can only exert its strongest effect when it is located in the territory, and the area outside the pass is the ancestral land of the Manchus, so Qiao Feng naturally had to find out the answer first.

"It's inconvenient to write this letter, so I haven't told my elder brother yet. Actually, it's not that I want to absorb the dragon vein's true essence. If everything goes smoothly, I plan to let my elder brother absorb it."

Qiao Feng was taken aback by these words and was about to say something when Chu Luren countered, "In that case, elder brother should be able to command the Manchu Eight Banners, right?"

"This..." Qiao Feng hesitated for a moment upon hearing this.

Qiao Feng knew perfectly well what "commanding the Eight Banners" meant—given the culture and system of the Manchus, "commanding the Eight Banners" certainly did not represent a Grand General or Grand Marshal, but only a "leader," who was even more revered than the current emperor.

Whether he was capable of it or not was not something Qiao Feng was hesitant about; what left him speechless was the thought of the young emperor…

Although this "elder nephew" was scheming and had repeatedly promoted him in name only, and now that both of his white flags had been sent back to their ancestral home, Qiao Feng was unwilling to pay him any attention. However, Qiao Feng still hesitated when it came to the idea of ​​him taking the "elder nephew's" position.

“If you can’t do that, you can leave it to my Divine Dragon Sect! Although my Divine Dragon Sect is located overseas, it has been operating in the border region for a long time. Even if there is some backlash, we can suppress it!” Long’er said immediately.

Murong Jiu glared at her and said, "Is it your turn? My Murong clan originated from here, and the Manchus... might even be descendants of my Zhuyan clan!"

Chu Luren noticed that Murong Jiu had made some progress; she even knew how to force connections now…

Hearing what the Divine Dragon Sect and Murong Nan said, Qiao Feng steeled his heart and said, "Second brother, rest assured, leave this matter to me!"

As he spoke, Qiao Feng was somewhat embarrassed: "It's said to be 'handed over to your brother,' but actually I'm the one who got the biggest advantage, hahaha..." After a few silly laughs, he drank another bowl by himself.

"Commanding the Eight Banners is only a prerequisite; the key is what comes next," Dongfang Bubai reminded him from the side.

Qiao Feng waved his hand and said, "This is easy. Once you're ready, I'll restrain the Eight Banners troops and send them back to the border! I also went out of the border... especially after seeing so many Han people go out of the border and start cultivating the land, I realized that the area outside the border is also a good place. If cultivated properly, it's no worse than the Central Plains."

Chu Luren didn't mean it that way. He added, "I think there are quite a few Han people outside the pass right now, so there's no need to keep making trouble. When the Central Plains are unified in the future, I think we won't need to distinguish so clearly between inside and outside the pass. Han people can go out of the pass, and Manchus can go in... But these are things for later, and not for us roughnecks to think about. The key thing is something else..."

Upon hearing Chu Luren refer to himself as a "roughneck," Murong Jiu, Dongfang Bubai, and Long'er all showed disdain and subtly moved further away, clearly indicating that they did not see themselves that way.

Seeing Qiao Feng's eager expression, Chu Luren revealed his idea.

We hope all parties will support the Righteous Alliance to make it easier to "serve martial arts practitioners"—that is, to designate special areas for martial arts practitioners in major cities, covering everything from clothing, food, housing, and transportation to dining, drinking, gambling, and prostitution...

The Righteous Alliance is responsible for operating and maintaining order, and naturally this "order" tends to be "the rules of the martial arts world".

Outside the designated area, the law can be disregarded and the people of the martial arts world can be enforced. If people of the martial arts world do not "visit" the designated area, that is fine. However, if they cause trouble in other places, the Righteous Alliance will be responsible for hunting them down!

Afterwards, the Righteous Alliance will have the function of maintaining "isolationism," ignoring vendettas and Robin Hood-style strife, and only responsible for maintaining the security of the "isolation zone"... no, "service area," as well as apprehending those "notorious" evil sect members who indiscriminately kill innocent people.

After all, even if there were ten Chu Lu people, they couldn't manage everything if they were completely bound by the law. Moreover, the Righteous Alliance itself couldn't do it, and even the Chu Lu people themselves couldn't do it—how could they not punish corrupt officials and gentry?

It can only be a relative "isolation," a case of the first bird to stick its head out.

Of course, since we helped the imperial court solve such a big problem, it's only right that the court should provide some subsidies, right?

Qiao Feng not only agreed with Chu Luren's idea, but also offered many additional suggestions. The details could be finalized later. Chu Luren and Qiao Feng couldn't figure out anything, but they wanted to settle things in principle first.

Chu Luren didn't think his ideas were particularly brilliant; he was simply making a small contribution because he felt that "martial arts" were having an increasingly significant impact on the world as the Heavenly Gate gradually opened.

Moreover, this means that the Righteous Alliance is no longer limited to Han Chinese—there are now quite a few people from surrounding ethnic groups in the Righteous Alliance. There are many foreigners in the Thirty-Six Caves and Seventy-Two Islands, and the furthest Ming Cult even has people from the Western Regions and Persians...

As for how to maintain order?

Chu Luren felt that with the "Dragon Vein True Essence," things were quite stable. The next question was whether the inheritance of the Dragon Vein True Essence could be sustained.

The true essence of the dragon vein in the northeast is just the beginning!

Sister Dongfang has been very busy lately, partly because after the Sun Moon Cult and the Shinkage-ryu of Japan cooperated, they discovered traces of the "Kun Fish," the dragon vein of the East China Sea.

However, as Long'er said before, the Kun fish is in the ocean and is difficult to locate.

It has never been hunted since the pre-Qin period.

Afterwards, Duan Yu will also actively search for the southwest dragon vein in Dali and the surrounding area. It is only known that the west dragon vein was killed by Guiguzi once, so a new dragon vein beast must have been born. It may not be "Da Ao". Chu Luren has always felt that the one in Lingyun Cave is very suspicious. However, judging from the location of "Da Ao" in the world, it is quite possible that it is further west.

These are things for later; the first target is "Shenlong," which has the clearest and easiest objective to find.

After the business was settled, Chu Luren and Qiao Feng started drinking again.

Seeing that there was nothing important to do, Dongfang Bubai began to bully the Holy Maiden of the Divine Dragon Sect, trying to force her to back down and clean up the leftovers of food and wine.

Later, Murong Jiu shifted the topic to the Holy Maiden's name, subtly implying that not knowing her name was a sign of poor manners...

Long'er's martial arts skills were greatly damaged, and she still needed to ask Chu Taisui for help. Helpless, she could only humble herself and report: "I was adopted by my master, and I only know that my surname should be Su."

"No name? Then let's give you one now!" Murong Jiu's bullying interest grew even stronger.

“That’s right, Long’er would be too similar to the name of the leader of the Ancient Tomb Sect,” Dongfang Bubai said casually from the side.

Long'er was quite helpless—it's fine if it's a collision, is it necessary to change the name? And why should you give me this name?

"Su Daji?" Murong Jiu took one first.

"Wouldn't Su Daji bump into people?" Long'er said through gritted teeth.

Upon hearing what was happening, Chu Luren offered a helping hand: "Then let's call her Su Quan!" Chu Luren was thinking of a character from the original work.

Upon hearing this, Long'er's eyes lit up, while Dongfang Bubai said meaningfully, "Su 'Quan'..."

Murong Jiu kept glaring at Chu Luren!

Chu Luren then realized that the character "Quan" could be broken down into "Renwang" (人王), which had other meanings. It was usually used as a name during uprisings. Considering what everyone had just said, those who didn't know might think that Chu Luren had some other intention. So he explained, "I meant Quan with the '艹' radical added!"

Long'er: ? ? ?

Are you implying something?

Dongfang and Murong Jiu looked even closer at Chu Luren, and even Yaoyue, who was far away, looked over from afar...

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 1032 Mount Luding

After settling all the matters outside Fengtian, Qiao Feng generously welcomed everyone into the city.

At this time, Qiao Feng himself did not move directly into the Shengjing Imperial Palace, but built a separate palace. He only handled matters in the Shengjing Imperial Palace.

The commanders of the two White Banners did not overreact when their own banner lord, a prince, brought a group of "outsiders" to the palace to entertain them—they were already used to it.

Especially after everyone came to the border, they became even more "united" and there was no reason for them to hold onto their own banner lords and princes. Qiao Feng's existence made it easy for Kangxi to assign the two White Banners back to the border, which was indeed "convenient". After all, no matter what, the two White Banners would not stab each other in the back or perish together. Moreover, in this way, Kangxi could deal with Wu Sangui more calmly without worrying about the Russian Kingdom. However... it may not be a good move.

Chu Luren waited for Yan Nantian for two more days, and just when he was about to give up, he heard that Tianlongmen had been attacked...

Just before midnight that night, Yan Nantian arrived!

Yan Nantian did arrive on May 21st, just as promised on May 20th...

"I ran into a bunch of thugs on the way, luckily I wasn't late, hahaha." Yan Nantian greeted Chu Luren as soon as he came in.

It's still like a boiled egg; it seems it can't be fixed...

"Great Hero Yan, I've long admired your name!" Qiao Feng looked at the boiled egg and clasped his hands in a respectful gesture.

"Brother Qiao, I have also come to admire your name these past few months," Yan Nantian returned the greeting.

"I dare not accept such praise," Qiao Feng said somewhat embarrassedly. If it weren't for the lack of a teasing tone and the fact that the visitor was Yan Nantian, he would have probably thought it was sarcasm.

After all, Qiao Feng's reputation in the martial arts world of China...

It's nothing special!

Although many misunderstandings were cleared up, and during the years when Qiao Feng was in charge of the Imperial City Guard, the relationship between the Qing court and the martial arts world improved somewhat, Qiao Feng's status was still there, and no matter what they did, things couldn't get much better.

"Haha, Brother Qiao, there's no need to be modest..." Yan Nantian's tone didn't seem fake. He then explained, "Back when I was traveling the martial world, my fellow martial artists bragged about me, saying that even those who had a grudge against me couldn't say anything bad about me... Well, that's definitely just flattery. When have there ever been fewer people with sharp tongues?"

"Indeed, even though I hunted down and punished many villains back then, my reputation was never bad, even among the evil factions of the underworld. Brother Qiao, as a Manchu banner prince, still has a good reputation in the martial arts world of the Central Plains. This shows that he must also be a great man and a true hero!" Yan Nantian said with a carefree attitude.

Qiao Feng was somewhat moved upon hearing this. After all, Yan Nantian was his "idol" back then. He never expected that the great hero Yan, who had never met him, could give such a fair evaluation. His heart warmed.

“That’s right. My Righteous Alliance has offended quite a few people, but I’ve rarely heard anyone say anything bad about me. I suppose it’s the same reason,” Chu Luren said with deep feeling.

"Second brother, you asked me to leave Master Lingzhi at Tianlong Temple to guide him, and I did just that..."

"We, the second-best in the world, are speaking, what right do you have to interrupt!"

Now that Yan Nantian had arrived, Qiao Feng began to inquire about the location of the treasure map—he didn't inquire beforehand to prevent leaks.

……

"Can you identify which place is marked on this map?"

Qiao Feng summoned some key commanders of the two White Banners, most of whom he had gotten along well with.

The map was copied, not the original, and it looked just as hastily done.

However, these people had lived outside the Great Wall for generations, and after examining them closely, they did recognize them!

"This should be the Huma River..."

"That's right, this is the Emur River!"

"Then this must be Mount Luding..."

"Isn't this way of marking somewhat similar to the secret codes used by the princes back in the day?"

"Then this mark must mean the southwest side of Mount Luding!"

After examining it closely, everyone looked at the flag bearer with puzzlement, wondering where this map came from, how it could be so blurry, and... the way it was marked was also quite intriguing.

"To be honest, I have something big to do..."

Qiao Feng did not try to hide anything, lest even the people of the Two White Flags have doubts afterward. Instead, he openly and frankly told them everything about the Dragon Vein and his "conspiracy" with the Righteous Alliance!

Anyway, once they find out the location, they will set off immediately. Although it is much further north, with everyone's martial arts skills, they can arrive in two or three days. Even if someone goes to Manjing to report them, it will definitely be too late.

Moreover, upon learning of this, the captains of the two white flags were first stunned, then incredulous, and after accepting the fact, they were all overjoyed, almost to the point of celebrating their victory...

This was much more satisfying than what Qiao Feng experienced before!

Some of the more outspoken and straightforward individuals have even "fast-forwarded" to the point of wanting to enter the pass to seek revenge on the Two Yellow Banners and reclaim the status that originally belonged to them, wishing that Qiao Feng would ascend the throne tomorrow.

Even those who didn't quite believe in the Dragon Vein True Essence theory still thought about that treasure, feeling that even just obtaining those treasures would give them a significant advantage in challenging the two Yellow Banners within the pass!

Qiao Feng then briefly explained the agreement between him and the Righteous Alliance...

Then everyone fell silent. If they really succeeded, they would be reluctant to retreat to their ancestral land. However, considering the current situation of the two white flags, they felt that it was acceptable. Most people would think, "Better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix."