Chapter 293: The Soldiers' Tomb Will Open
On July 20th, there was no divine decree for rain, and the weather gradually began to become hot again.

On Yujing Mountain, inside the Daming Taoist Palace's branch courtyard.

There was not a bit of the heat from the outside world here, and the aroma of burning orchids was fresh and pleasant. The hall was dark and empty, with only an old man and a young boy sitting opposite each other playing chess.

The chess skills of the Palace Master of Daming Taoist Palace are still superior to Zhou Tieyi, and the title of Four Great Masters is not undeserved.

But even he was not entirely focused on the chessboard today. From time to time he looked up at Zhou Tieyi, who was sitting opposite him and making moves with ease.

As soon as the word fell, it strangled Zhou Tieyi's dragon, and the Lord of Daming Palace said, "There is progress."

Zhou Tieyi put down the chess piece in his hand and asked with a smile, "Grandmaster, are you talking about my chess skills?"

The Lord of Daming Palace looked at Zhou Tieyi. In his eyes, Zhou Tieyi's figure had completely disappeared, leaving only the ethereal five-colored light, which was both ostentatious and restrained.

Zhang Yang was in the five-color gathering, which meant that Zhou Tieyi had already cultivated the first level of the [Five Emperors' Treasure Edict]. However, with his own eyesight, he did not see the images of the Five Emperors emerging behind Zhou Tieyi. If he did not know what Taoist scripture Zhou Tieyi was cultivating, he would have thought that this was just the manifestation of some kind of five-element technique.

When the Daming Palace Master saw the empty spirit, he thought for a moment and asked, "Did you use the 'lotus petal'?"

Zhou Tieyi thought for a moment, then stretched out his hand and covered the direction of the Lord of Daming Palace.

One dragon seal after another fell on his fingers, connecting the rules of heaven and earth, gathering the five qi around them, dividing the inner and outer world of the hall, making the hall appear even darker and more empty, as if it were out of this world.

Buddhism's [Buddha Kingdom in the Palm of Your Hand], is not entirely true, it has already escaped from the cage.

The Lord of Daming Palace made a judgment in his heart, and also stretched out his dry palm, turning it into a sword finger, pointing it at Zhou Tieyi's palm.

In Zhou Tieyi's eyes, if his [Five Finger Mountain] is the most complex and huge evolution, he wants to contain the heaven and earth in one palm.

Then the sword finger of the Lord of Daming Palace can be regarded as the simplest and smallest evolution. This finger of his can fall between his two connected dragon seals, causing a 'gap' to appear in a complete rule of heaven and earth, so that the dragon seal no longer constitutes a specific rule and is broken again.

If we use an analogy from our past lives, it is like directly smashing the nucleus of an atom and recreating matter.

The dragon seals that manifested through Zhou Tieyi's palms were directly broken, so that the inner and outer worlds divided by the Five Finger Mountain no longer existed, and the darkness and emptiness in the hall were once again blended with the bright sunshine outside the hall.

A palm and a finger touch and it's gone.

Zhou Tieyi retracted his hand and rubbed his palm, "Grandmaster, can't you just let me go?"

The Lord of Daming Palace looked at Zhou Tieyi, who looked like a child, and a smile appeared on his old face, "It would be meaningless if I gave in."

Then he thought about the palm strike Zhou Tieyi had just made and asked, "What is this palm strike called?"

Zhou Tieyi smiled and said, "How about Five Finger Mountain?"

The Daming Palace Master was dissatisfied and said, "Why give it such a simple name!"

Zhou Tieyi's palm strike has already become a new Taoist inheritance, and he will have the opportunity to establish a first-class Taoist school in the future.

Zhou Tieyi looked at the palm of the hand that the Daming Palace Master had just used as the sword finger, and complimented, "Grandmaster, the great way is simple."

The Lord of Daming Palace thought for a moment and said with a smile, "Okay."

Zhou Tieyi thought about it, and the innocent smile on his face faded. He asked seriously, "What is your Majesty's attitude towards the Western Paradise?"

The Daming Palace Master asked back, "You are so smart. When the emperor sent Su Xibi to visit you that day, didn't he already show his attitude?"

Zhou Tieyi sighed slightly, "It seems that His Majesty is not going to investigate this matter openly."

Even though the Huxin Academy case is making a lot of noise now, it is nothing compared to the Western Paradise.

Investigating the Western Paradise will really shake the foundation of the country!
In the current situation, the emperor wants to practice Taoism and suppress Confucianism. Originally, he wanted to rely on the Buddhism behind the Queen Mother, but now that the Western Paradise has appeared, it foreshadows the complete disintegration of the three pillars of Daxia.

Zhou Tieyi thought about it again and asked, "Is the huge Buddha statue above the twenty-four heavens the Buddha?"

Although he himself has confirmed this matter through the [Buddha Kingdom in the Palm] and the Buddha Flame and other evidence, after all, in such a long historical record, there has been no monk who has reached the level of Buddha, so it is easy to identify.

But this matter is of such importance that he still needs to confirm it again.

If the Buddha's Nirvana was just a change of way of life, and now that the saint has come to the world, he also wants to take this opportunity to return, and return as half Buddha and half god, that would be too scary.

"Yes."

The Lord of Daming Palace also had a serious expression on his face, but answered with great certainty.

Then he hesitated and said, "But I'm not sure whether someone is using his relics to practice Shintoism, or whether he himself wants to return in this way."

After hesitating for a moment, the Lord of Daming Palace suddenly laughed, "Actually, no matter which one it is, the result should be the same."

Zhou Tieyi continued to ask, "Why do you say that?"

The Lord of Daming Palace picked up a white piece in front of him and sighed softly, "You don't think that after the Buddha's Nirvana, he has no control over his relics, right? If he doesn't want to, who can use his relics to practice Shinto?"

Zhou Tieyi was silent for a long time. "So, there are problems with the four holy places of Buddhism?"

The Lord of Daming Palace shook his head. "Not necessarily. Perhaps the Buddhist sect itself cannot tell who has the problem among them. The only thing that is certain is that the Queen of Heaven has no problem with this matter."

"How can we be sure?"

"Because husband and wife are one, and the Queen still has the trust of the Holy Lord, then she will have no problem."

"It's a troubled time." Zhou Tieyi sighed, and suddenly laughed, "It's not easy for His Majesty either."

The Lord of Daming Palace nodded, "It is indeed not easy for Your Majesty."

After Zhou Tieyi left, the Lord of Daming Palace was the only one left in the deep and empty hall. He stood up and sat in Zhou Tieyi's seat, picking up the black piece that Zhou Tieyi had just used.

For a moment, although his old face did not resemble Zhou Tieyi at all, his expression and movements were 99% similar!
Suddenly, the Lord of Daming Palace stretched out his palm and pushed it as ordinary as Zhou Tieyi. The five qi of heaven and earth gathered in the hall, dividing the inner and outer world, showing the emptiness. However, at this step, he still felt that some key information was missing, so he suddenly retracted his palm and smiled, "Great progress."

······
On the carriage, Zhou Tieyi looked at his palms, looking thoughtful.

Today, through the Lord of Daming Palace, Zhou Tieyi once again confirmed the emperor's attitude, which was to appease himself and not to investigate Buddhism, at least not at this critical moment.

At the same time, in order to guard against Buddhism, the Emperor of Great Xia might make concessions to Confucianism. After all, when the time comes to take action against Buddhism and investigate the paradise composed of the twenty-four heavens, his current strength will definitely not be acceptable in the eyes of the Emperor of Great Xia. Only Confucianism and Taoism can help.

Even Taoism alone is not enough, so the Emperor of Daxia needs to win over Confucianism again.

Anyway, the most intense period of conflict between him and Confucianism had passed, and he had successfully begun to practice Taoism. All that was left was to watch for the birth of a Confucian saint.

On the contrary, when it comes to suppressing Buddhism, the interests of the Great Xia Emperor and Confucianism are consistent, so they can naturally unite again.

Sure enough, when Zhou Tieyi arrived at the Zhushen Division and started to cancel his sick leave and return to work, a eunuch came to the palace to deliver imperial decrees.

The content of this decree was roughly that the emperor had heard about the Lake Heart Academy case reported by Prince Ning's Mansion, and the people of Tianjing were also discussing it. This matter was of great importance, so he ordered one person each from the Si Lu Mansion, the Simin Mansion, and the Zhushen Mansion to jointly investigate the case.

This imperial edict already has a subtle tendency towards Confucianism.

Zhou Tieyi took the imperial edict, thought for a moment, and said to the eunuch who delivered the edict, "Please go to the palace and report to His Majesty that I want to open the soldiers' tomb a few days in advance. Once the matter of the soldiers' tomb is over, I can devote myself to investigating this case."

Zhou Tieyi did not "make a fuss" about this matter, which made the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict feel slightly relieved. He was most afraid that Zhou Tieyi would refuse to accept the imperial edict and go to the palace to meet the emperor.

After all, ever since Zhou Tieyi invited people from the Ning Wang Mansion to cruise on the Luo River and see the new type of ship together, everyone knew that Zhou Tieyi was going to support the Ning Wang Mansion.

And now Zhou Tieyi is only delaying for a few days, which is already the best outcome for all parties.

So the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict said meaningfully, "Lord Zhou is loyal to the country. Your Majesty will understand Lord Zhou's difficulties."

Zhou Tieyi nodded slightly.

Up to now, I have been helping the Ning Palace with the Lakeside Academy case. In the eyes of outsiders, it seems that I am implementing the decision of the Great Xia Emperor to suppress Confucianism.

And now in the imperial edict, the Emperor of Daxia has softened his stance towards Confucianism, which of course puts Zhou Tieyi in a difficult position as he is caught between a rock and a hard place.

But since the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict said so, it means that even if the case of Huxin Academy is not investigated in the end, the blame will mainly fall on the Ningwang Mansion and the Tangzhou Prefecture Local Governor, and Zhou Tieyi will not bear the blame. Zhou Tieyi thought to himself, "But I don't want to bear any blame at all."

After the eunuch who delivered the decree left, he knocked on the table and instructed a clerk beside him, "Go and inform the small flags in the God-Slaying Division and the general flags to assemble. Those who have passed the assessment should prepare in the next two days and enter the military tomb."

The clerk looked envious and bowed, saying, "Yes."

This kind of opportunity to enter the Soldiers' Tomb is a great opportunity for anyone. Didn't you see how many noble families were crammed in this time?
Zhou Tieyi looked at the clerk's leaving back and smiled slightly.

He was injured during this period and of course had no way to take into account the assessment of the God-Slaying Division.

Since he was not present in the Zhushen Division, the commander Wei Shaoan was naturally as happy as Rujia. During this period of time, he had received countless gifts from local wealthy families and stuffed countless people.

Anyway, the assessment process just needs to follow the rules set by Zhou Tieyi. Since Zhou Tieyi is not there, there is naturally no way to clear out those who are taking advantage of the situation.

It can be seen from the current expansion of the Zhushen Division's team that the original combat force, which had less than a thousand people after its own cleanup, has now suddenly expanded to four thousand people in the name of "further study"! And they have all passed the end-of-month assessment!

For the eldest son of a local aristocratic family, this opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

In the past, if you wanted to enter the Soldiers’ Cemetery, you had to be a front-line combat unit and have made great contributions!

This can be difficult to do.

And this time, the God-Slaying Division's advance into the tomb might be the only chance to enter without having to make any meritorious contributions.

Of course, Zhou Tieyi himself also stuffed a lot of people in there, at least the 300 personal guards in the Zhou Mansion, this time Zhou Tieyi was prepared to cram all of them in at once.

Since he is so crowded, there is naturally no reason for him to point fingers at others.

In the God-Slaying Division, other people turned a blind eye to Zhou Tieyi cramming more than 300 people into the place. How could they dare to cram in more people if Lord Zhou didn't?

“But when I said assessment, then you really have to take the assessment. Otherwise, if your strength is not up to standard and you die in there, then life and death are determined by fate.”

Zhou Tieyi said silently in his heart.

The news that he was about to enter the Soldiers' Tomb quickly spread throughout the God-Slaying Division.

In a barracks, several young men were rubbing their hands in anticipation, surrounding Uncle Qing, a captain of the God-Slaying Division, and talking and laughing, "Uncle Qing, what good things are there in this soldier's tomb? You should tell us about it now, right?"

Although the Soldiers' Tomb is one of Da Xia's top secrets, any secret will slowly leak out as long as it is exposed to the world for a long enough time.

The same is true for the Soldiers' Tomb. Over the past three hundred years, people who have made military achievements have continuously entered the Soldiers' Tomb. Many of these people even established their own families, so in the records left behind, there are only a few words mentioning some of the news in the Soldiers' Tomb.

For example, everyone knows about the iron sinking in the soldier's tomb.

The iron from the soldiers' tomb was originally a secret of Daxia, but gradually it became public, and finally everyone knew that this spiritual treasure came from the soldiers' tomb.

Uncle Qing shrugged and scolded with a smile, "I told you, I know almost as much as you do! Apart from those noble families with military honors, who knows what good things are in the soldiers' tomb? During this period of time, I asked you to follow those noble families to find out some information. How have you been doing?"

One of the young men said dissatisfiedly, "Those noble families are very tight-lipped. Moreover, during this period of time at the headquarters of the God-Slaying Division, I found that the management here is even stricter than that of the Pacification Envoy. Not only do we have to check our attendance every day, but we are also strictly prohibited from drinking and having fun privately. We have narrowed the distance a little bit in the fighting field..."

At this point, the young man looked somewhat dissatisfied, "Gongshu Jin and Gongshu Yin, the two brothers have become close friends, but they have forgotten about us old friends and didn't even reveal any information."

When Zhou Tieyi was selecting the people, he specially formed an engineering team, which was a preliminary attempt. Among Qing Shu's group of people, the two brothers of Gongshu were directly recruited by Zhou Tieyi.

Because the engineering troops were newly established and were almost directly under Zhou Tieyi's command, they did not train with everyone on weekdays. Outsiders did not know what was going on inside.

Having said this, the young man looked at the most outstanding person among the crowd, "By the way, Shaobai, you are close to Lord Zhou's personal guards, have you got any information?"

Mu Shaobai came back to his senses. He was the young man who had some luck in gold, so he was recruited by Zhou Tieyi as usual. However, Zhou Tieyi now has a foundation and is not like before when he recruits anyone he sees. So even if he wants to recruit him, he needs to be assessed by Ada and others.

One is to gain the recognition of Ada and others, and the second is to facilitate Ada's management.

Mu Shaobai smiled bitterly, "I haven't really passed the assessment yet, I'm just in the stage of waiting to pass."

"You haven't passed the test yet?"

Uncle Qing was also a little shocked. He knew that Mu Shaobai had often trained with Zhou Tieyi's personal guards during this period. In his opinion, this was basically a foregone conclusion.

In their Zhenfu Division, although the genius Mu Shaobai was only born in a small family, he had a record of a seventh-rank warrior fighting against a sixth-rank warrior. Now that he had almost collected all the internal energy, it was estimated that he would be able to break through to the sixth rank within the next six months.

If he could break through to the sixth level of martial arts before the age of thirty, he would be considered a genius.

"Yes."

Mu Shaobai recalled Ada and the other five. The initial condition for passing was very simple. He just had to fight with one of the five people. If he could beat him, he would pass the assessment directly.

Compared with the five people of Ada who were carefully trained by Zhou Tieyi, Mu Shaobai's strength is naturally a little bit worse.

But he clearly felt that he was not far behind. In fact, in this kind of competition, as long as he was slightly distracted, he would have a chance of winning.

However, the longer he stayed in the God-Slaying Division, the more competitions he had with Ada and the other four.

He finally understood that what made Ada and his five companions so powerful was not their strength, but their terrifying talent!

From the beginning, Mu Shaobai felt that he had a 40:60 chance of winning with the others except for the chief of the personal guards, but twenty days ago, things changed rapidly.

Every time he fought with Ada and his five companions, he could clearly feel the improvement in their strength. It was the kind of all-round improvement that was visible to the naked eye, and it was a terrifying talent that was hard for others to reach.

Not only the pure strength, but also the understanding of swordsmanship and the control of one's own strength are rapidly transforming.

Mu Shaobai even vaguely sensed that several people were also rapidly "refining the inner energy", but the inner energy they had adopted had never been revealed to him.

Uncle Qing asked, "Is there still a chance?"

Mu Shaobai nodded and said, "They said there is still a chance. We will have a chance after we pass the Soldiers' Tomb this time."

Uncle Qing asked seriously, "They said 'through' the soldiers' grave?"

Mu Shaobai didn't react for a moment, "Yeah, what's wrong?"

Uncle Qing sighed, "Since it was Lord Zhou who recruited you, then the words of his personal guards are Lord Zhou's words. I was thinking before that Lord Zhou lost some control over the affairs of the God-Slaying Division due to his injury some time ago..."

He remembered that when he came to report on his work, he saw the performances of Wei Shaoan and Zhou Tieyi respectively. It was obvious that Zhou Tieyi had formed a situation of competition with Wei Shaoan in the God-Slaying Division.

How could such a strong man allow himself to abandon the reform of the God-Slaying Bureau halfway?

If they could easily squeeze in several thousand people, wouldn't that make it exactly the same as the previous God-Slaying Division? It might even be worse than the previous God-Slaying Division!

Mu Shaobai's words today pointed out the mystery, "It seems that this military tomb is not only an opportunity, but also a real 'test'. You should be more careful!"

"Yes."

······
In the Huwei Weaponry, after noon, the scorching heat combined with the high temperature of the charcoal fire was unbearable even for the practitioners, so the factory now took a break most of the day and started working in the evening when the weather cooled down.

Of course, it is also thanks to the sub-array of the ground vein array that the Mo family has set up in the Huwei Military Camp during this period, which allows the Huwei Military Camp to use almost free ground lamps.

Lying in the shade, Wang Mingyi's friend Chen Daxing used to like reading novels in newspapers the most. Nowadays, there are more types of newspapers in Beijing, and naturally there are more serialized novels in the newspapers.

But recently Wang Mingyi found him some basic Mohist classics and asked him to start practicing. Chen Daxing naturally knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. However, even with Wang Mingyi's explanation, Chen Daxing still fell asleep while reading the Mohist classics in such hot weather.

"Brother Yi, do you think there are really sleepyheads in this world?"

This is a short story by a novelist of the strange story school that was published in a newspaper some time ago. It tells the story of a sleepyheaded bug which is born in spring and dies in autumn, but can grow from the laziness of mortals. Once it lands on a person, even a third-grade practitioner will be bewitched and fall into a deep sleep.

Chu Huanhuan, who was also studying nearby, heard this and burst out laughing, "This is not a sleepyhead, this is a lazyhead!"

Wang Mingyi laughed and said, "This is what a novelist said, don't take it seriously."

(End of this chapter)