Chapter 64: The Fourth Refining of the Record

Hanzhou was not in the land of the five prefectures, but was biased towards the west, and bordered a large north-south desert with the Western Regions.

The territory of the imperial dynasty was vast. Above the townships, counties, and prefectures were the states, and above the states were the daos.

There were nine daos, and each dao included several states, and even dozens of states.

But because of the dragon qi, each place was actually self-governing, just under the unified control of the higher level.

But not every state had a great general in charge.

The fact that Hanzhou had the Great General Qin’s residence made it a little more special than other states.

And the Great General Qin’s residence had been around for eighty years, during which it had been repaired and rebuilt many times. The scenery and courtyards inside had both new and old characteristics.

This morning, a fast horse came from the south, carrying a young man into this majestic Great General’s residence that no one dared to approach on a normal day.

He waved the tiger tally to prove his identity, and the people of the Great General’s residence looked at each other in dismay, staring at the young man with their mouths agape, not knowing how to respond.

Fortunately, the mistress of the general’s residence came.

Although Madam Zhao had given birth to three daughters, she was well-maintained. In addition, she practiced martial arts and often worked outside. Her thighs were round and strong, and her body also exuded a kind of joyful and powerful beauty.

The beauty of a woman.

Ning Xuan sniffed the air.

He smelled the fragrance that Qin Yi’er had made that day.

No.

It was a level higher.

The fragrance came from Madam Zhao, and at this time, Madam Zhao was like a cloud.

Since the Son of Heaven said that Great General Qin had died from a demon assassination, then Madam Zhao had to wear mourning clothes.

Madam Zhao in a white mourning dress, coupled with the fragrance that stimulated people’s desires at this time, was like a begonia after a spring rain, moist everywhere, bright and moving.

“Still haven’t seen the new master?” Madam Zhao spoke, and then her beautiful eyes looked at Ning Xuan, and she said word by word, “General An Yuan, Ning Xuan, General Ning.”

The people of the Qin General’s residence all bowed and said, “Greetings, General Ning.”

Ning Xuan glanced at the mourning hall in the distance, and the clothes and crown placed in the coffin in the mourning hall. He had no intention of mourning. He followed Madam Zhao into the side hall.

Ning Xuan would not touch Madam Zhao. First, his constitution was 10, and Madam Zhao could not satisfy him; second, Xiao Jie had let him experience all kinds of tricks, and a person who had seen the world would always be more resistant to temptation; third, he looked for beauties to have fun for relaxation and happiness, not for trouble.

And Madam Zhao had trouble on her.

He could book the entire Chenxiang Pavilion for a whole day and night of debauchery, but he did not want to touch a single finger of the woman in front of him.

As for Madam Zhao, he knew.

Madam Zhao must have seen his indulgent side in the Chenxiang Pavilion, so she had some misunderstandings about him, and misunderstood that he was a man who could not control himself in front of women.

Madam Zhao was wrong.

After Ning Xuan came to the side hall, he said, “Although Madam is of my parents’ generation, you look young. To avoid being unfamiliar, I will call you Sister Zhao, is that alright?”

He had already known about Madam Zhao’s meritorious service before he came.

Madam Zhao and Great General Qin were not on good terms, and she had been imprisoned in a water prison before. Now, her whole body was injured. Previously, Madam Zhao had secretly collected a lot of death warrior lists. These death warriors were loyal to Qin Shan Jun and were lurking in many places. Fortunately, he had this list. Otherwise, once these death warriors were awakened by General Qin, the consequences would be endless.

In addition, the power of the Great General Qin’s residence needed Madam Zhao to appease, so… the imperial court would probably not touch Madam Zhao, but would only let Madam Zhao play the role of “smoothly handing over power,” and then let her live a good life in her old age.

But whether Madam Zhao could be sensible and live a peaceful life in her old age depended on her own ability.

Obviously, she had to find a new protective umbrella.

Otherwise, a great general must have had enemies for so many years. Without a protective umbrella, it was not certain that some former enemy would suddenly make a move and find a way to capture the great general’s wife and daughter for rape and pleasure, to vent their past hatred.

At this time, when Madam Zhao heard this, she was not reconciled. She secretly bit her silver teeth and wanted to talk about the old relationship between the two of them who had almost become “mother-in-law and son-in-law,” to see if it was possible to continue.

But when the words came to her mouth, she was still speechless.

She couldn’t talk about Qin Jin’er, because at that time, Ning Xuan was not yet a general. To bring up an illegitimate daughter’s old matter was purely a humiliation; she couldn’t talk about Qin Yi’er either. If the marriage had been successful at that time, then today, with Great General Qin colluding with the demons, this General Ning would not be able to wash himself clean so easily.

Madam Zhao was not stupid. At this time, since she had failed to seduce him, she put aside the matter of “seduction” and sighed softly, “If the General has the heart, you should still call me Aunt Zhao.”

Ning Xuan said, “Aunt Zhao, don’t worry. We almost became mother-in-law and son-in-law.”

There was a smile in his eyes, “Twice.”

Madam Zhao also smiled and sighed, “Fortunately, we were fated but not destined, and did not delay the General’s future.”

Ning Xuan said, “But Aunt Zhao and I still came together. This is still fate.”

Madam Zhao was silent.

Ning Xuan thought for a moment and suddenly said, “How about this? When this place is stable, Aunt Zhao and I will jointly write a memorial to His Majesty to explain the situation here.

After that, if Aunt Zhao is tired, you might as well go to my hometown and burn incense and worship the Buddha with my mother.

As for Jin’er, Yi’er, and these girls, Aunt Zhao can let them call me big brother. I will agree to it both in public and in private, is that alright?”

Madam Zhao looked at Ning Xuan deeply and said, “In that case, I am willing to help the General control the General’s residence.”

Ning Xuan said, “Aunt Zhao, don’t be so polite. From now on, we will be a family.”

After speaking, he said again, “Sometimes, not being allied is better than being allied. What do you think, Aunt Zhao?”

Madam Zhao thought for a moment and nodded.

Ning Xuan said, “Aunt Zhao, I have been ordered by the Son of Heaven to temporarily take charge of the Qin General’s residence, and I will send troops to the Frozen Hell in a few days… What do you think I should do?”

Madam Zhao was stunned and said, “Then… then… then you naturally need to mix the troops and train them before they can be used.”

The troops she was talking about were naturally demonic plague martial artists.

In the past six months or so, the number of demons that had appeared was comparable to the past few years or even decades. The number of demonic plague martial artists and Heavenly Masters had also naturally begun to increase like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

Great General Qin had occupied such a large territory. Even if he had sent out all his elite troops, there were still many demonic plague martial artists.

Ning Xuan sighed, “Aunt Zhao, it’s not that troublesome. Previously, Great General Qin sent many people to be Taoist boys and to be at His Majesty’s disposal. Then you can find a way to find all the remaining ones, transfer them out, and let them obey my orders and go on an expedition with me.”

Madam Zhao was stunned. She looked up at the young man in front of her.

Although he was lying lazily on the big chair, he really had the posture of a tiger and a wolf.

The meaning of this young general was actually the meaning of His Majesty, or rather… it had always been like this.

It had always been like this, so it should be like this.

A great general who had colluded with the demons, his elite troops would either be broken up and divided into various places to be retrained; or they would go to the front line to die with dignity.

But in this era, it was not like before. The elite soldiers of this era were all demonic plague martial artists, and their numbers were not large. There was one for each. How could they be broken up?

What’s more, Great General Qin was not actually dead. If he were to raise his arms and shout again, would these remaining elite troops gather and respond?

So, there was only one way left.

That was to die with dignity.

Ning Xuan said, “I’ll have to trouble Aunt Zhao to spend more money and energy to appease them, and to settle their families, so that they don’t have other thoughts. Otherwise, it will involve many, many people.”

The air became quiet for a moment.

Ning Xuan said, “His Majesty did not execute the nine clans, and did not kill people until their heads rolled. It was already for the sake of the overall situation. His Majesty called me here, just hoping that I would wipe this place clean. Of course, His Majesty would not say it, but I am not stupid. How could I not know?”

“Words from the heart.”

“Aunt Zhao, are we on the same side?”

Madam Zhao was silent for a long time, and then said with a bitter smile, “Why aren’t you my son-in-law?”

Ning Xuan smiled and said, “After Aunt Zhao has settled down and retired with my mother, there will be plenty of opportunities to talk about these things with my mother. My mother is soft-hearted. If she hears it too much, she will definitely want me to marry some Qin family sister. Then it will be fine.”

Madam Zhao laughed.

The more she looked at this young man, the more satisfied she was.

Suddenly, a look of hesitation flashed in her eyes. She glanced around, walked to the side, ground the ink and picked up the brush, and wrote a line of words: Qin Shan Jun has something for you. I was originally going to destroy it. But since you and I are a family, I am worried that destroying it privately will cause trouble. The General should still take a look.

Ning Xuan was stunned for a moment.

But he knew that he had not touched Madam Zhao, and had not forcibly taken over the Qin General’s residence… the reward had come.

The thing that Qin Shan Jun had left behind was a pigeon-egg-sized metal pill.

Ning Xuan tried his hand slightly. When he adjusted his strength to a constitution of 10, the metal pill broke open, revealing a crumpled piece of paper inside.

Madam Zhao glanced at it and hurriedly excused herself.

She wouldn’t look at it.

She wouldn’t look at it even if it was given to her.

If you want to live a long life, you have to be less curious.

The less you know, the better you live.

Ning Xuan rubbed his fingers again, completely crushing the metal pill, and carefully spread out the crumpled paper inside.

There were two pieces of paper inside.

A letter.

A map.

The letter was not polite at all, and only had a few simple sentences: Hundreds of years ago, there was no dragon qi on this land, only prosperous martial arts. Later, the Zixia Demon Sect came from outside the heavens, and the Zixia Temple was born. After the historical archives stored in the imperial palace were burned down by a heavenly fire, not many people knew about it anymore.

I know you don’t believe it. The map is a map of the Frozen Hell. There are a few hidden observation points on it. You have a chance to stand there and see from another angle how the Heavenly Masters of the third grade and above kill people, and you will understand everything. Don’t be lucky. The things you cultivate are different from the Zixia Demon Sect. You can’t join them. No one can join them!

The last eight words were written very heavily.

Ning Xuan was happy in his heart. He had just been thinking, “If the Zixia Temple is the Zixia Demon Sect, then I’ll just join it.”

The map was a map of the Frozen Hell, and it was drawn in great detail, but all the mountains were divided into two colors.

One black, one white.

Even the same mountain peak had two colors.

And the “hidden observation points” that Qin Shan Jun had mentioned were the white-colored locations.

Ning Xuan held the letter.

With a move of his five fingers, he destroyed both the letter and the map.

He had already memorized all the content.

In the quiet secret room, only the miserable red candlelight flickered, and the candle tears crackled and exploded.

When Ning Xuan walked out of the secret room, Madam Zhao was guarding the courtyard outside to prevent anyone from approaching.

When Madam Zhao saw Ning Xuan walk out, she did not ask anything, but Ning Xuan stopped her and said, “Aunt Zhao, can I know how you and Qin Shan Jun met and how you became husband and wife?”

Madam Zhao nodded.

The two of them sat down in the courtyard.

As Madam Zhao spoke, and as Ning Xuan asked carefully, the past slowly emerged.

Madam Zhao was originally the young miss of a force in the martial world called the “Spider Hall.” The weapons used by the Spider Hall were very special. They were needles and threads. A single needle and a single red thread were woven together, killing people without a trace, which was very domineering… but these were all legends.

Madam Zhao had heard that her ancestors were very, very powerful, but she had only heard about it.

By the time the master of the Spider Hall died and Madam Zhao took over the force, the Spider Hall had already been reduced to a third-rate force in the martial world.

And at this time, Qin Shan Jun appeared.

At that time, Madam Zhao naturally did not know that Qin Shan Jun was the Great General Qin, and Qin Shan Jun did not say.

After he appeared, he just helped Madam Zhao to eliminate the enemies of the Spider Hall one by one.

Madam Zhao’s feelings grew secretly. After she accidentally learned that his identity was actually a great general, she was instantly captivated.

Qin Shan Jun did not refuse, and the two of them got married.

But after they got married, Madam Zhao was in pain.

The two of them had almost never enjoyed a married life. Even the birth of their children was done in a way of transmission, and Qin Shan Jun was no longer the same as before. He just treated her as a simple reproductive tool.

Later, Madam Zhao learned that Qin Shan Jun had had a wife before. After investigation, she found that the Qin family had no obvious enemies outside, but those wives and children had all disappeared without a trace. She began to feel fear.

Later, she was ordered to find incense for Qin Shan Jun to calm his mind, and then she took a fancy to Ning Xuan.

Ning Xuan asked, “Aunt Zhao, did your ancestors call themselves a sect?”

Madam Zhao said, “Yes, yes, yes. They said they were from some sect, but the name was lost as it was passed down. It must have been made up by the ancestors to make themselves look good.”

Madam Zhao was very efficient. She quickly organized fourteen teams of a total of four hundred and twenty well-equipped, and even equipped with simple magic weapons, demonic plague martial artists, and five thousand elite soldiers to be at Ning Xuan’s disposal.

These were all the last of the Great General Qin’s forces that Madam Zhao knew of.

In order to protect herself, Madam Zhao spent countless money. In a short period of time, she gave the descendants of those demonic plague martial artists enough money, and then told these martial artists, “This time, we must wash the demons with blood and avenge the Great General Qin”!

These soldiers and the troops gathered from the five prefectures gathered together and advanced in the direction of the Frozen Hell.

The first stop was a large number of military camps.

Because of the human-headed demons, ordinary soldiers were actually not suitable to enter, so they stopped outside to play the role of surrounding, supporting, and providing necessary support.

The ordinary soldiers that Ning Xuan had brought stopped here, which was considered to be strengthening the number of soldiers here.

The second stop was a place where human-headed demons were active.

Those who could enter here were all elites such as Heavenly Masters and demonic plague martial artists.

The elites here were fixed to come here to clean up the human-headed demons, and the demons that appeared around the Frozen Hell. And if they were extremely tired, they would retreat to the first stop to treat their injuries and recover.

But Ning Xuan still could not stop here, because Immortal Aunt Yaozhen kept urging him to continue forward.

The measures taken before were passive defense and passive cleaning, but this time, the matter of Great General Qin had really touched the wrath of heaven, causing the Son of Heaven to be furious, so passive defense would soon become active offense.

That Tianyouzi was responsible for helping the Son of Heaven to solve his worries.

But Tianyouzi did not have many troops at his disposal.

He was waiting for the elite troops that Ning Xuan had brought after he had taken over the Great General Qin’s residence.

The third stop…

It was right here.

The eerie Frozen Hell was right in front of them. They could even see the corpses nailed to the long ice pillars, and the gloomy corpse shadows in the mountain.

The leader of the Qin residence’s demonic plague martial artists was a demonic plague martial artist who was extremely close to the second grade, named Gao Guangdou.

Gao Guangdou and his two deputies were the only three among this group of people who knew the “mission.”

Their “mission” was to lead the remnants of General Qin to die on the battlefield…

If they did not die, they were remnants.

The rest of the Qin General’s residence could not live, and their families could not live either.

If they died, they were brave warriors.

If they died while killing demons and eliminating evil, the pension would not be small, and their families would live very well.

So after arriving at the third stop, Gao Guangdou began to “mobilize.” In a short while, the demonic plague martial artist legions became enthusiastic. One by one, their eyes were red, and they waved their sabers and swords and shouted excitedly, “Avenge the General, avenge the General”!

There were also demonic plague martial artists who ran to the sedan chair not far away and shouted excitedly, “Heavenly Master, please give the order. It has always been the demons who have invaded us. Now that we can counter-invade the demons through this Frozen Hell, the brothers are already impatient!”

The sedan chair was tightly closed, and the Heavenly Master’s face could not be seen.

Only a chuckling sound came from inside.

But there was no talking.

Instead, a Taoist boy from the sedan chair said, “Please be patient, please be patient…”

The demonic plague martial artist then retreated.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “Senior Brother, I and General Ning will also go in together! These demons have brought disaster to the human world, and we hate them to the bone!”

After speaking, she moved closer and said in a low voice, “Senior Brother Tianyouzi, please help me. If Ning Xuan can go in together and return victorious, it will be a great achievement, and his position as a divine general will definitely be stable.”

When he heard Immortal Aunt Yaozhen’s voice, the tightly closed curtain of the sedan chair was lifted. The middle-aged man with a purple face looked at her strangely, and a look of difficulty appeared on his face. But he did not speak, but waved his hands, and rejected her request in the simplest way.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was not reconciled and continued, “Senior Brother, you don’t have a general partner. What’s the harm in giving some of the credit to Ning Xuan?”

Tianyouzi had an unimaginable patience for this junior sister. He did not even show any impatience, but continued to wave his hand and refuse again. At the same time, he began to transmit a message in the “whisper chain.”

“Junior Sister, it’s too dangerous in there. You can’t go in. As for the credit, you can take it if you want.”

“This…”

“You don’t want you and Ning Xuan to die in there, do you?”

“Alright then.”

“You take your general partner and stand far away. I’m going in soon.”

After a short conversation.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen looked at Ning Xuan and muttered a few words, then grabbed him and left.

On the way, Ning Xuan looked at a “hidden observation point recorded on Qin Shan Jun’s map,” raised his hand slightly, and a drop of essence and blood seeped out from his fingertip, and then quietly fell there through the air.

A second-grade nature-attribute demon, besides being able to freely shape an incense fire body, could also manifest itself from a super long distance. And the premise of manifesting was not troublesome. It only needed the existence of its own essence and blood with a strong aura.

The drop of essence and blood that Ning Xuan had shot out was a medium that could allow him to manifest an incense fire body.

When they reached a quiet and secluded cliff.

He and Immortal Aunt Yaozhen sat down.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen poked her head out, wanting to watch the battle, but she couldn’t see.

He carried the Beast-Slaying Saber, but his real weapon was the Ruyi Saber at his waist.

With a thought, he released a little incense fire, and the incense fire body immediately rose from the distant blood drop, and then condensed and turned into a seven-foot-tall white-haired old man.

A white-haired old man with a hunched back, a meat hump like a peak, wearing a wind-dried yak skin, holding a wooden crutch with a copper bell, and his eyes were full of divine indifference.

Anyone could be the Hunchbacked Mountain Duke.

A demon could be, and so could he, Ning Xuan.

As soon as Ning Xuan appeared, he carefully squatted down and peeked into the distance.

At this sight, he was stunned for a moment.

Because the super-large-scale Frozen Hell that he had imagined did not appear. There was only a black iceberg, an iceberg that was much smaller than the Frozen Hell. The rest were green mountains and clear waters, and there was a large village not far away.

Around that black iceberg, there were four monks with their brows tightly furrowed, closing their eyes and chanting scriptures, as if they were maintaining some kind of formation…

Ning Xuan was sighing that this perspective was really good.

Suddenly…

He felt that something was wrong.

He found that he, not the Hunchbacked Mountain Duke’s golden body, was standing at a very strange perspective.

He did not know when he had stood in the distant village.

The village was empty, only him, and the pale white sun hanging high above his head.