The author said: You should just treat it as a passing wind. Online writing is a haven for people to escape from reality, both for readers and authors. But some of my peers are relentless in plagiarism, vote-rigging, cheating and other activities. So what if they reach the top? Readers are not fools, editors are not fools either, there may be only one fool. Think about what you have done, isn't it the same as what the villain in your work does
The above is just my complaint out of jealousy.
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Each house in the main altar was built with large stones, and was not built in a perfunctory manner. Considering that Yuhuang Peak is connected to the foot of the mountain by only a one-person-wide path, and the transportation of stone materials is extremely inconvenient, it is clear that without great piety and a huge amount of funds, it would be impossible to build this stone city.
The rooms have different uses, some are for storing supplies, and some are for people to live in.
The stone houses for storing supplies were all located on the ground floor. Perhaps to prevent the food from getting moldy and the weapons from getting rusty, each room was built airtight to keep out the moisture from the mountain. In the room dedicated to storing food, a large amount of rice, flour, smoked meat, pickled fish, pickled vegetables, salt and other foods were piled up in different categories. A rough calculation showed that it was enough for more than a thousand people to eat for three to five years. In another room, a mountain spring was dug out, and clear water was bubbling out. Yizhi carefully scooped up some and drank it all. It was indeed very sweet and clear. If it was sold in Guangyang City, it would definitely fetch a good price.
"It's just that there are not enough fresh vegetables." Qiu Yizhi said to himself. As he said, fresh vegetables are extremely important to soldiers. If they are not replenished for a long time, the soldiers will not be fatal, but they will feel weak and dizzy, and then lose their combat effectiveness. The Youyan army learned from the nomadic peoples when marching and supplying. They drove cattle and sheep with them as food, but they would also buy supplementary fruits and vegetables on the spot, and at worst they would dig wild vegetables to eat.
"If it were me, I would tear down this square and open up a few vegetable plots. Wouldn't that be wonderful?" Qiu Yizi thought as he walked up to the second floor.
The houses above the second floor are mostly for living. Because they are built on the foundation of the houses on the ground floor, they are not restricted by terrain and are not afraid of being blocked by rocks. They can communicate with each other through internal door holes. The furnishings in the houses are similar to those of ordinary military camps, with only beds, bedding, tables, chairs and benches placed on them. However, there are arrow holes in the walls, which combine the soldiers' dormitories with fortifications. Once the enemy launches a surprise attack, the army does not need to assemble and listen to orders. The soldiers can organize defense on the spot in their respective rooms. In several stone houses that have not been cleaned up in time, there are still a few knives, bows and arrows scattered in them, all of which are used to resist attacks.
Yizhi saw this and could not help but sigh. The fact that the Yuhuangding altar was defended by a mob of evil cultists had already rendered the elite Youyan army helpless. If well-trained soldiers were stationed there to fight, who knows what the situation would be like.
The third floor of the main altar was quite different. Each door was sealed by the government army, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving at will. Qiu Yizi, who was confident of his special status, personally removed the seal of one of the rooms and pushed the door open. He saw that there was a large amount of gold and silver stored in this room, with an estimated amount of tens of thousands of taels of gold and silver. Fortunately, this room was built very solidly, otherwise it would have been crushed by these thousands of kilograms of heavy objects.
Qiu Yizhi didn't like money, but he saw a curved knife in the corner of the house. The knife was two feet long, but its appearance was very simple. Yizhi wondered how this ordinary sword could be placed in a room full of gold, silver and treasures, so he gently picked it up and pulled out the blade to examine it carefully. He saw that the blade was covered with layers of patterns, like floating clouds and flowing streams.
Qiu Yizhi stared at it for a long time, and was intoxicated. He smiled to himself, and put the knife back into the sheath. He was shocked to see that his palm holding the sheath had been cut open at some point, and blood was flowing out, but he didn't feel any pain. Yizhi was shocked to realize that the knife in his hand was a rare treasure. The strong wind when he returned the knife was so sharp that it could cut the skin without causing pain. So he found ten gold coins from his hand, dropped them neatly on the stone table, drew out the sword again and placed it on the first gold coin. With a light press, the stack of gold was cut in half like tofu.
"It is indeed a precious sword!" Qiu Yizi thought to himself, "It may save my life someday." So he tied the precious sword carefully around his waist, as if it were his own.
It was common for the Han army to embezzle spoils of war, and it was not surprising. Seeing that the adopted son of the King of Youyan was no exception, several officers behind Yizhi looked at each other and smiled.
Qiu Yizi caught a glimpse of everyone's expressions out of the corner of his eye, and smiled knowingly. He grabbed the gold that had just been chopped into pieces and threw it at them, as both a way of silencing them and a reward.
Several bodyguards hurriedly picked it up from the ground, feeling it was a little heavy in their palms. They knew that they would not be able to accumulate such a fortune even if they served as soldiers for a few more years, so they bowed their heads in thanks.
Yizhi saw them, waved his hand casually, and led them out of the room. He then checked several houses in a row, which were either the residences of some high-ranking officials in the Tianzun Sect, or were also filled with mountains of gold and pearls.
Qiu Yizhi felt a little disappointed and was about to go downstairs. But he saw an officer holding a torch, running towards him at a great speed, and yelled from a distance: "Where did you come from, little thief? Didn't you see the seal on the door? You actually stole the treasure, are you looking for death?"
When the officer ran closer, he took a closer look and recognized Qiu Yizi. He bowed and said, "I didn't know that Your Highness, the adopted son, was here. I spoke without restraint. Please forgive me, Your Highness!"
Yizhi smiled and didn't help him. He said, "Whose subordinate are you? It must be your duty to look after the finances. You are so dedicated. It's OK if you don't get any reward. Why should you apologize?" Then he pointed to the precious sword at his waist and said, "I took this sword privately. Do you want to keep it in the warehouse?"
The man looked up at the sword and saw that there were no gemstones on the hilt or sheath, which looked plain and simple. He said hurriedly, "I am a captain under the Second Prince. Since Your Highness likes this sword, please do as you please. I will just say hello to the Second Prince later."
"Well! You speak very appropriately. Get up!" Yizhi was in a very good mood today, so he asked him a few more questions, "What are you going to do with a torch in broad daylight?"
The centurion stood up and said, "We searched the cult's headquarters and found a library here. The two princes said that these books were used by the Tianzun cult to deceive people, so we should just burn them. So I was ordered to come and burn the books."
Qiu Yizhi's eyes lit up when he heard this. He hurried up the mountain and carefully checked the main altar. It was these books that he was looking for. Fortunately, he stopped the centurion who was ordered to burn the books, otherwise, once the fire was lit, it would be too late to regret. Thinking of this, Qiu Yizhi snatched the torch from the centurion's hand, swung it hard, and threw it directly down the cliff outside the stone city.
The centurion was startled, and before he could open his mouth, he heard Qiu Yizi's order: "These books are useful to me, and I will discuss it with my elder and second brothers. You don't have to worry about it anymore, just leave!" The centurion didn't know how he had offended the adopted son of King Youyan, and was afraid of being punished for no reason, so he couldn't wait to leave. Hearing what Yizi said, he bowed quickly and ran away quickly.
Seeing that the captain had run away, Qiu Yizi turned around and told a few followers around him, "Hurry down the mountain and call all my 300 personal soldiers. I want to move the books." These people were all Yizi's confidants. Without hesitation, they said "yes" and turned to leave.
Yizhi breathed a sigh of relief, followed the direction where the hundred households were running, checked each room, and finally stood in front of an unsealed wooden door. Yizhi smiled bitterly and shook his head, knowing that in the eyes of ordinary people, the value of this room full of books was far less than a few ingots of gold, and they were not even willing to stick a seal on it.
Pushing open the wooden door, I saw a rather large library.
This library was built in a sunny location, and the corners of the walls were evenly sprinkled with lime. Therefore, although it was on the top of a mountain surrounded by clouds and mist all year round, there was no smell of mold and decay. Yizhi saw it and couldn't help but laugh, muttering: "This Tianzun Sect is quite careful in doing things, but it's a pity that they are a little stupid." He looked around the entire library and saw about seven or eight rows of bookshelves. Except for one that showed signs of being rummaged through, the various books on the other bookshelves were neatly arranged, and the total number of books was about three to five thousand.
Yizhi found the messy bookshelf strange. He walked forward and pulled out a book. After checking it carefully, he found that it was the account book of Tianzun Sect. He couldn't help but smile and thought to himself, "It must be some impatient and greedy guy in the cult who came here to look through the records so that he can steal the treasures in the main temple. He never thought that he would be captured by the government troops after running a few steps. He just served as a porter for the government troops." Thinking of this, he threw the account book aside and started to read it again from the beginning.
Yizhi came to the bookshelf closest to the door, took down the first book on the right side of the top shelf, flipped through it, and saw countless densely packed tadpole characters, twists and turns, none of which he recognized. Yizhi was shocked to see that the Tianzun Sect was indeed spread from the Western Regions, and the classics were all written in Western Regions. To know what was written in the book, he had to find someone who was proficient in Western Regions. Shaking his head, he put the book back and took down the second book, which was written in Chinese. It turned out to be the Chinese translation of the previous book. Yizhi was relieved. It turned out that the predecessors of the sect had translated the Western Regions into Chinese. Otherwise, how could the Tianzun teachings be spread over the past hundreds of years
So Qiu Yizi calmed down and started reading the books one by one.
Unexpectedly, the books in the Tianzun Sect were also classified into "classics, history, philosophy, and collections". The "classics" section was the sayings of Tianzun and his predecessors, with the least number of books, only five in total; the "history" section was the history of the Tianzun Sect after its founding, including the account books and catalogs that had just been flipped through, and the number was the most complicated, occupying most of the space in the library; the "philosophy" section was the works of the leaders of all generations, and also filled two or three bookshelves; the "collection" section was the Western Region technical books that Qiu Yizi wanted to find, and was placed at the bottom of the bookshelf. I think the Tianzun Sect members valued these books the least.
Yizhi took out one of the books and flipped through a few pages. It turned out to be a book about farming and tree planting in the Western Regions. In addition to the text introduction, there were also pictures. Yizhi didn't know much about farming and couldn't figure out what it was about. He changed another book and was about to flip through it when he heard the wooden door creak open. He turned around and saw his two brothers standing at the door. He was about to go up to greet them when he heard Zheng Sen say, "I said Yizhi is a smart man. Others are staring at gold and silver treasures, but he stays here like a bookworm. He looks like a man who will do great things."
Qiu Yizi hurriedly smiled and said, "Second brother, please forgive me for making fun of you. I just think that although these books are absurd, it would be a pity to burn them without even reading them. Maybe they can be used after leaving them for inspection."
Zheng Sen was not stupid. He thought it made sense and nodded heavily, saying, "I am just a rough man who likes fighting. I don't understand Yizhi's thoughts. But I am finally convinced by your clever plan these days. If you say it is useful, then it must be useful."
Yizhi smiled and said, "If you talk about rough people, I am no exception." Then he took off the precious sword from his waist and handed it to Zheng Sen, saying, "I just found a precious sword here, second brother, please appreciate it and give it to me out of personal favor!"
Zheng Sen loved swords very much. He took the sword and played with it carefully, then exclaimed: "My dear brother, your taste is really different. I have seen at least a thousand swords, most of which are not worthy of their reputations. Only this sword is really... amazing. Compared with this sword, the few swords collected in my house are no different from the kitchen knives in the hands of a cook." After that, he handed the sword to Zheng Xin.
Zheng Xin didn't know much about swords, but he knew at a glance that this knife was a sharp blade that could cut iron like mud, so he handed it to Yizhi and said, "After the treasure house of the Yuhuangding cult headquarters is returned to the court, who knows how much will be embezzled. Yizhi just wants a knife, which is not a big deal. This matter is all up to me, brother." He paused and said, "My dear brother, what you just said may be useful for the books here. I wonder if you have found anything?"
Yizhi took the sword and tied it around his waist as usual. He bit his lip and said, "I just flipped through a few pages. The Tianzun Sect is very meticulous in its work. They keep detailed records of all matters, big or small. There are some good points. Perhaps we can find out the whereabouts of the Tianzun Sect Master from it." Seeing Zheng Xin nod, he continued, "It's just that I can't see clearly in such a hurry. I hope that big brother will allow me to transport these books back to Guangyang, and I will conduct a detailed investigation with Mr. Zhongli."
After hearing this, Zheng Xin was fully aware of the importance of these books, and hurriedly said, "I have the same idea, and I would like to read them together with Mr. Zhongli and my brother!"
Zheng Sen, who was listening, said, "I don't have the time to sit still in the study, so please don't force me to go there when the time comes!"
The three of them laughed out loud. (To be continued)