novelraw Page 52
Page 52
In just a few breaths, multiple battalions of the Imperial Guards in Kaifeng were simultaneously awakened and all set off underground again!
"Imperial Guards of the Great Song Dynasty! A large number of rebels have emerged from beneath the palace! In the name of the Emperor Zhao! They have crossed the net tunnels and leaped into the underground! To wipe out the rebels!!!"
In an instant, a large number of Imperial Guards rushed into Guifanlou through the network system that connected the surface and underground Kaifeng, filling the entire Guifanlou with elite veterans clad in infantry armor.
Now, even the hooligans and ruffians in Kaifeng are in deep trouble. You've actually appeared in the Ghost Fanlou, who would believe you're a law-abiding citizen of the Song Dynasty?
Anyway, the superior's order was to kill Lin Chong and spare no accomplices. So, when they encountered these thugs, they just killed them. They figured the thugs were Lin Chong's accomplices, so they killed them all! In no time, the number of Imperial Guards underground reached eight thousand, and it was still rising! All the ruffians they encountered were ruthlessly crushed.
At this moment, Liu Hong was truly in despair. He never expected that so many Imperial Guards would cross the net and come to Ghost Fanlou in droves to kill people.
He only had two escape routes: either through the surface city of Kaifeng or through the underground river system of Tang Dynasty Kaifeng on the second basement level. However, both of these dimensions were now filled with imperial guards, and he had been forced into the Han Dynasty Kaifeng city on the second basement level! There were only a complex network of tunnels here, and there was no way to escape!
"By the way, leader, didn't you say you escaped from Kaifeng Prefecture before?"
One of the Liangshan leaders suddenly had a flash of inspiration and remembered what had happened before.
"Weren't you just arguing? You were saying that a hundred years ago, the pre-Qin Daliang City, located three levels below Kaifeng, was compacted by the Han, Tang, and Song cities above, but the leader escaped from the third level below! He even remembers the roads around here! This happened just seven years ago?"
"Ah, yes!"
Li Cunxiao tilted his head foolishly, then his eyes lit up, he clapped his hands, and came up with what he wanted to say.
In an instant, the memories of her birth spun through her mind like a revolving lantern, as she began to search for the path to her birth.
The others, as if grasping at a last straw, followed Li Cunxiao in their escape through the underground tunnel.
Gradually, the tunnel began to spiral downwards. When the third tinderbox burned out, Liu Hong felt the wall become damp and sticky. The smell of humus mingled with a rusty, sweet odor. Suddenly, Li Cunxiao's torch illuminated the path ahead—two broken stone tigers crouched at the fork in the road, their paws pressing down on half-broken bronze chains. These were tomb guardian beasts in the Warring States period style, but their heads displayed the auspicious shapes commonly seen in the Han Dynasty. Several architectural pillars, clearly in the style of the Warring States and Spring and Autumn periods, supported the flying eaves and corners of the Han Dynasty.
"It's spectacular, the strata are fighting."
Liu Hong's voice trembled. The earth, carrying relics from the Han Dynasty and the Warring States period, was slowly writhing. The upper half showed typical rammed earth construction marks from the Han Dynasty, while the lower half was covered with rhomboid rammed pits that only appeared in the Warring States period.
Deeper still, several triangular bronze arrowheads were stuck diagonally in the soil. The green patina on the arrowheads was slowly eroding the rammed earth from the Han Dynasty. Beneath a large number of Han Dynasty Wuzhu coins were Wei State Jinbu coins, which were so rusted that the original characters could no longer be seen, leaving only the metallic green color. Li Cunxiao stared at these coins with wide eyes and picked them all up with his small hands and put them into his bag.
When the tunnel turned into a vertical shaft, everyone saw the symbols. Among the interlacing rammed earth of the Han and Wei dynasties on the shaft walls, directional markings drawn alternately with cinnabar and ochre suddenly appeared—from the seal script character "巽" to Han dynasty numerals, eventually converging at the bottom of the shaft into the coiled dragon pattern found only on Warring States period bronzes.
Moreover, the crevices between the rock layers contain a large number of shells, conches, and fish bones.
"There really is a path down to the third basement level! Is this the ruins of Wei's Daliang City? The one that Qin general Wang Ben breached the Yellow River dike and flooded?"
Lu Zhisheng's hooligans were greatly surprised.
Taking advantage of their ability to fly, Liu Hong and Li Cunxiao took several waist knives and deeply embedded them into the rock wall of the vertical shaft, using them as steps so that everyone could step on the knife sheaths and climb down step by step.
After an unknown amount of time, the group arrived at the deepest part of the earth, a place that was like the placenta that gave birth to Pangu, a place of chaos where the sun and moon were obscured.
"Yes, yes, this is it! This is where I was born!"
Li Cunxiao happily rushed to a dilapidated mansion. The Taotie on the gate knocker was broken, but the unique wave-shaped city wall pattern of Daliang City could still be recognized among the mottled copper-green patterns.
Li Cunxiao pushed open the door, and a dull echo was mixed with the faint clanging of metal—the fragments of the chime bells that had been permanently sealed away when the palace of the Wei Kingdom was flooded by the Yellow River two thousand years ago were trembling in the darkness.
Upon pushing it open, a small teleportation portal came into view.
"You were born next to a portal to an underground world? I thought you found a passage after you were born!"
Liu Hong was greatly surprised.
"I was just born, and out of curiosity, I didn't trigger it immediately. I went out and circled around a few times before coming back."
Li Cunxiao blushed, refusing to admit that she hadn't touched it because she hadn't recognized it as a portal, and that she had returned because she was truly lost and couldn't find her way out.
Chapter 114: The Legacy of Emperor Taizu of Song Finally Appears
"The teleportation technology is very, very ancient. The principle behind it is to place two teleportation portals in different locations and use space folding technology to make the two anchored spatial points coincide—like folding two points on a map and touching them together. The space inside the portals actually shares the same void shrouded by the moon's shadow."
Then, by paying a heavy price, one can suddenly transport a person from one door to the location of another.
Lu Zhisheng stared at the teleportation portal, which was four meters long and five meters high, and muttered to himself.
"But who put this thing in such a hidden place?! Or is this portal a relic of the Wei Kingdom?!"
"I remember that the earliest teleportation technology can be traced back to the Warring States period. The Qin state developed a magical technology that allows one person to teleport long distances. When the Wei and Han allied forces faced the leaderless Qin soldiers at Yique, Bai Qi used a teleportation portal to instantly kill his way from Xianyang to Yique! He then rallied all the nearby Qin soldiers and utterly defeated the Han and Wei allied forces."
"And decades later at Changping, the Qin state used the same technique to instantly send Bai Qi from Xianyang to the Changping battlefield, where he could oversee the entire situation and annihilate the Zhao army."
"However, this teleportation technology is very new, at most three hundred years old. It couldn't possibly be something from the pre-Qin era. This thing doesn't belong to Daliang City; it seems more like something from the Tang Dynasty."
Lin Chong examined the portal with a solemn expression. She was an old resident of Tokyo, who would spend three thousand strings of cash on a knife without batting an eye. She was very knowledgeable and quickly sensed something was wrong.
"Sister, can you find out what the cost is for teleporting once?"
Liu Hong was also very nervous at this moment. There were still 92 soldiers from Liangshan, about 50 ruffians from Lu Zhisheng, and Lin Chong's family, making a total of 160 people. Could they all escape?
"An enormous amount of magic power, enough to drain the magic power of a level 12 spellcaster! And incredibly valuable sacrifices, all of which are priceless and unavailable! Teleportation technology used to work, but with the warp influence of the entire world becoming increasingly weak, and even after the highest level dropped to 12, these things are becoming increasingly difficult to find and use."
Lin Chong couldn't laugh anymore. He had thought there was a way out, but it turned out to be a terrifying teleportation portal that was like a gold-devouring beast.
"Never mind that, let's figure out a way to get started first. Let's get as many people as possible out of here! We might be able to fight our way out of the Imperial Guards! But my sister-in-law is defenseless and can't possibly fight her way out!"
After hearing this, Liu Hong also had a splitting headache, but he did not hesitate at all and made a decision immediately.
"I swear to follow my master to the death!"
The ruffians under her command even displayed a stronger fighting spirit than the Song army and the Liangshan army.
Lin Chong nodded gratefully to Liu Hong. She immediately began to study how to start this broken contraption. Although she was knowledgeable, she was, after all, a member of the Imperial Guard, not a scholar.
Liu Hong paced back and forth in the courtyard of Daliang City, carefully considering what other solutions he could come up with. Suddenly, a two-and-a-half-meter-long iron rod caught his eye.
The terrifying design of a dragon biting and devouring coils on both sides of the iron rod, each tiny dragon scale etched with cloud and thunder patterns to suppress evil spirits. The eyes of the steel dragon at the head of the rod are inlaid with blood jade, which will rise with two points of phosphorescent light like will-o'-the-wisps in the shadows. The hexagonal iron spikes extending from the wide-open mouth of the dragon still bear the fine dents left by scraping against bones.
The long staff has a coiled dragon with four red, blue, silver and green hues at the top, and a short staff that is 66 centimeters long. The two staffs are connected by iron rings, making them extremely sturdy, but they are covered with dust.
Liu Hong was somewhat surprised and immediately opened his eyes, staring intently with his Blazing Vision. This shape, could it be...?
【Panlong Staff】(Orange): +5 accuracy, 7~21 points of armor penetration damage.
(Fire Dragon): Deals an additional 1~6 points of fire damage.
(Ice Dragon): Adds 1~6 points of frost damage.
(Thunder Dragon): Adds 1~6 points of thunder damage.
(Earth Dragon): Adds 1~6 points of acid corrosion damage.
(Elemental Burst) Whenever you deal fire/ice/lightning/acid damage, apply an [Elemental Mark] of the corresponding element type to the target. When the marked target takes damage of other elements, it will deal an additional 2 to 12 damage. The mark lasts for 60 seconds.
Liu Hong's hand trembled slightly. Magical equipment was already priceless and hard to find. Its quality ranged from low to high as green, blue, purple, and orange. His best piece of equipment was only a purple intelligence turban with +6 intelligence.
The best I've seen so far is Lin Chong's luxurious belt, which has +6 to all attributes and is orange in color.
And now, he actually found another orange-tier piece of equipment underground? And it was a staff, which he was good at!
Wait, the Panlong Staff—isn't that something belonging to Emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao Kuangyin? Is this teleportation portal his? Then why was Li Cunxiao born here?
"I'm all set here!"
After Lin Chong's efforts, the star-shaped runes on the bronze door frame began to breathe. Lin Chong's fair fingers slid across the mithril rings, and the silvery-white metal moved automatically as if alive, carving the shape of the Big Dipper at the four corners of the door frame. The previously empty space inside the door suddenly rippled, as if someone had thrown fragments of stars into a dark pond.
Above the bronze gate, two illusory images, suspended above the compass, are slowly merging. One is the projection of the waning moon overhead in Kaifeng, and the other is the waning moon over the outskirts of the city. It seems the other gate is not far away.
In the bronze Taotie pattern, the silver light bursting from the beast's eyes surges along the door frame pattern, casting the star trail runes into a flowing liquid galaxy.
As the mithril rings snapped shut with a final, crisp click, the void within the door began to collapse into a silver vortex. The moon's shadow on the compass, representing the capital, shifted. Lin Chong slammed his fist on the Kang constellation rune on the east side of the doorframe, and the entire bronze door trembled with a roar like a giant whale. The still-unsolidified mithril, like molten tin, rearranged itself on the doorframe surface into a corrected array of the Twenty-Eight Mansions. When the two moon shadows finally overlapped perfectly in the center of the compass, the vortex mirror suddenly reflected a field of another folded space.
"Let those who can't fight go first! Sister, how many people can go in total?!"
Liu Hong wiped the dust off the Panlong Staff, picked it up and swung it around a few times. It weighed sixty-six jin, which was a bit heavy, but it was still usable. He wielded it so skillfully that he felt a sense of perfect harmony with it as soon as he held it.
"Oh my God."
Lin Chong's voice trembled slightly.
"Someone fed this portal a large amount of resources. Even though most of them have been used up, it can still allow at least one hundred people, no, two hundred people to leave! We can all evacuate through this portal!!!"
"what?"
Everyone was shocked upon hearing this.
"I don't know what happened either. Who put a teleportation portal underground in Kaifeng and accumulated such a huge amount of energy? This thing has teleported at least 800 people from the other side to underground in Kaifeng, and there is still energy left for more than 200 people. We can all leave!"
Lin Chong immediately covered his wife's retreat. The moment she leaped into the silver mirror, a large amount of mercury-like substance seeped from the bronze door frame. This liquid spatial tax enveloped the transmigrators, forming a shimmering phosphorescent film on their skin. The transmigrators instantly vanished from their original spots and reappeared in the distant wilderness.
After realizing that everyone could leave, Liu Hong breathed a sigh of relief. He, Lin Chong, Lu Zhisheng, and Wu Song personally covered the rear, letting the others go first. At this moment, the Kaifeng Imperial Guards were already in hot pursuit!
When everyone had left and only four people remained, Li Cunshen finally arrived late with everyone.
The four exchanged a glance, didn't fight, and jumped into the portal to escape. Li Cunshen had no idea there was a portal here. He angrily opened his mouth wide, and at the last moment before the four jumped into the portal, a terrifying thunderstorm completely destroyed it.
When Liu Hong opened his eyes, he suddenly understood why the portal was here.
Because on the sign in the distance, three words were clearly written.
Chenqiao Post Station.
It was through this very gate that Zhao Kuangyin donned the yellow robe, led eight hundred elite troops, and instantly stormed back to Kaifeng!
Chapter 115: Liu Xianzhong Regains His Strength
"Cough! Cough!"
Liu Hong coughed twice, and walking through the portal was as easy as walking normally, without any discomfort. It was just that the burnt smell of the old dragon thunderstorm was too unpleasant.
He looked around Chenqiao Post Station in surprise. The teleportation portal was hidden very well. It was embedded in a pile of bricks and tiles, among the rows of houses in the post station, disguised as an ordinary courtyard gate, with a kind of hidden-in-the-city style.
However, at this moment, the ripples in the portal completely disappeared, indicating that the other portal had been destroyed by Li Cunshen's thunderous dragon breath, or at least damaged to the point of being unusable.
"Who is it! Making such a racket in the middle of the night?!"
At that moment, the owner of the house was also awakened by the commotion. Two sleepy soldiers, carrying torches and wearing their coats, came out to check. They were terrified to find a large group of about a hundred people standing there with weapons. They were about to sound the alarm!
"The instructor of the 800,000 Imperial Guards in Tokyo has received orders from the Grand Commandant to come here on a mission. Do not make a sound!"
Lin Chong reacted quickly, calling out his name and showing off his badge as an instructor of the Imperial Guards. The two men were so frightened that they hurriedly hid back in the house, not daring to ask which Imperial Guard instructor she was.
"Has everyone been teleported over? Line up, roll call!"
Liu Hong breathed a sigh of relief and began to investigate. Lin Niangzi, Jin'er, and all the brothers had successfully teleported back, but Lu Zhisheng and Wu Song were nowhere to be seen.
Liu Hong was horrified. Had the two of them not teleported over?!
"Don't panic, little brother."
Lin Chong smashed the bricks with a punch, revealing the bronze patterns encasing them, and carefully examined the transmission records.
"Look, it's recorded. They teleported successfully, but at the last moment, Li Cunshen's thunderous dragon breath, which was extremely volatile in subspace, severely interfered with the teleportation array. As a result, only the two of us did not deviate from the flight path, while the other two suffered some setbacks."
Lin Chong frowned.
Where are the two of them now?
Liu Hong was also a little nervous.
“I don’t know. One direction is slightly south, and the other is slightly east… I only have some understanding of teleportation, and I’m not an expert in Confucianism. We need a very, very skilled Confucian scholar who is proficient in teleportation to decipher the teleportation coordinates.”
"But brother, don't worry. They are both highly skilled in martial arts. Even a cunning old fox like Li Cunshen would suffer at their hands. Not to mention the others, they are unlikely to be in any danger. As long as we go back and find a good Confucian scholar to help us decipher their secrets, we will surely be able to find them."
Lin Chong was also a little anxious, but he quickly calmed himself down and gave his younger brother a confident smile, which eased Liu Hong's anxiety somewhat.
"Give me a hand! Take this gate down and bring it back... Little brother, where's your hideout?"
"Liangshan! Let's go, find some boats and get back to Liangshan right now!"
Liu Hong understood that there was no use in being anxious at this moment. Lu Zhisheng and Wu Song were both superhuman. As long as they escaped Kaifeng, the local militia could not pose any threat to them.
But now, the most dangerous one is himself—Chenqiaoyi is too close to Feng, only about thirty or forty miles away, and he must escape immediately.
Having made up their minds, the group quickly retreated. Lin Chong didn't explain why he came, but simply put down the sign for the 800,000 Imperial Guards and boarded several boats at Chenqiao Post Station, heading directly into the Ji River and back to Liangshan Marsh.
On the first day, Lin Chong comforted his father-in-law, wife, family, and everyone else, and they were all quite optimistic. They had all witnessed the shamelessness of Gao Qiu and Gao Yanei. Compared to the destruction of their families, being able to take a lot of gold, silver, jewelry, and other family assets to Liangshan to live was already quite good.
Liu Hong also offered some words of comfort, assuring Lin Chong's family that although life on Liangshan was not as prosperous as in Tokyo, everything would be alright. Yuncheng County had been completely infiltrated, and now it was as easy for Liangshan soldiers to enter Yuncheng to do business as to go home.
Afterwards, he went to comfort the fifty ruffians under Lu Zhisheng's command, telling them not to worry, that their master would be found sooner or later, and that they should stay in Liangshan for now, where everyone would be assigned a position.
Immediately afterwards, he went to comfort his Liangshan soldiers, saying, "You've done quite well to defeat so many Imperial Guards and capture fifty infantry armor sets. Casualties are inevitable in the first battle. Go back and reward your merits! The Second Leader is just temporarily missing; we will definitely find him again."
Finally, Liu Hong went to comfort Li Cunxiao. The little girl was sitting blankly by the ship's side, overwhelmed by the amount of information. Her little brain had completely shut down. She didn't know who her parents were, let alone how she escaped from Kaifeng.
Today, having learned all the information, she is even more confused.
Why was I born next to the portal to the Chenqiao Mutiny of Emperor Taizu of Song? Beside me stands the dragon-patterned staff that accompanied Emperor Taizu throughout his life of battles. And why does his wife, Empress Dowager Song, give me such a complicated look?