Scripture of Days Past

Ding Zhize was a fifth-state martial artist and had once been a wujinshi, and the same was true for He Wenyan. Under normal circumstances, He Wenyan should've been assigned a much higher official position, but he had been sent down to Azure Sun County to serve as county magistrate in order to carry out a special objective.

Waves of scorching heat radiated from the bodies of the two fifth-state martial artists as they clashed again and again, forcing everyone nearby to retreat from the intense heat.

Ding Zhize was battling He Wenyan, while Chen Zhu was pursuing Li Changqing. All four of the most powerful cultivators present were occupied with their own opponents, while the guards and bailiffs were also locked in battle.

Ding Daoxiao had been joined by several of his uncles and brothers. He wanted to go and assist Ding Zhize, only to be stopped by one of his uncles.

"You need to get away, Daoxiao! You are the new leader of our Ding Clan. You can't die here!"

Ding Daoxiao gritted his teeth as he stood there for a moment, watching the grand and lavish Ding Manor being razed to the ground. Then he let loose a roar of fury and frustration before turning to leave.

"Where're you goin', Ding Daoxiao?" Chu Qiguang sneered at him from afar.

"Ignore him! He's provoking you!" Ding Daoxiao's uncle urged.

Ding Daoxiao was well aware that Chu Qiguang was goading him, but his burning fury and resentment were threatening to consume his rationality.

"Chu Qiguang, you cowardly piece of scum! I'm going to personally end your life! Mark my words!" he roared, then turned and fled the scene.

With both He Wenyan and Chen Zhu occupied, none of the bailiffs and guards were a match for him, and he was able to tear his way out of the encirclement unopposed.

Several hours later, everyone from the Ding Clan, including the servants and maidservants, had been captured and locked up in the county office's cells for interrogation.

Meanwhile, Wu Wei stood in the main hall of the Ding Manor, addressing the people.

"The Ding Clan has been colluding with both fiends and cults for so many years, so there must be demonic artifacts and scriptures in this manor! We have to find them all and destroy them so they don't fall into anyone else's hands and continue to poison the world!"

Everyone was quick to heed Wu Wei's call, and they began ordering their servants and guards to search the Ding Manor.

Before long, the entire manor was in shambles. All of the rooms had been forcibly broken into, and all kinds of valuables were haphazardly piled up together. Wu Wei, Hao Wen, and Chen Zhu began dividing the spoils, while all of the evidence of the Ding Clan's collusion with fiends, including account books, letters, and tokens, was being examined.

However, no one really cared about those pieces of evidence. The people sent to Plum Mountain had already discovered the living corpses of the Immortal Dao, so the Ding Clan was most certainly guilty of colluding with cults, not to mention all of the incriminating account books provided by Chu Qiguang.

At the moment, everyone's attention was focused on how the Ding Clan's wealth would be divided. Of course, a large part of it had to go to the imperial court and the Daoist temple, and only after that would the likes of Wu Wei, Hao Wen, He Wenyan, Chu Qiguang, and the others each receive a share of the spoils.

The pivotal role that Chu Qiguang had played in bringing down the Ding Clan left Wu Wei convinced that he had a bright future ahead of him, so he insisted on giving Chu Qiguang a cut of the spoils.

***

While Hao Wen, Wu Wei, Chen Zhu, and the others were plundering the Ding Manor, Chu Qiguang found an opportunity to slip away before making his way into the backyard.

There, he met Qiao Zhi and Big Head, and Qiao Zhi was beckoning to him with his front paw. With Big Head sniffing out Ding Daoxiao's scent, they quickly tracked down his room, where his scent was the strongest.

Once inside, Chu Qiguang tore the entire room apart, searching through every nook and cranny, but failed to find what he was looking for. All of a sudden, he noticed something a bit off.

This section of the wall feels a little strange... There might be a hidden compartment!

His suspicions were confirmed when Big Head reported, "The scent goes into the wall, Godfather."

Chu Qiguang and Qiao Zhi broke into the hidden compartment together, but there was nothing inside. After searching a while longer, Chu Qiguang was still unable to find the Sumeru King Scripture that he was looking for.

What a shame. Did Ding Daoxiao hide it somewhere else, or is he carrying it on him?

However, Chu Qiguang wasn't surprised by this outcome.

Given how opportunistic and unscrupulous Ding Daoxiao is, there's a very good chance that he'll defect to the Great Qian Empire and try to start over. If he chooses to go into hiding and bide his time, then it's going to be much more difficult for me to track him down. However, given his personality, I think that's very unlikely.

Right at that moment, they were approached by Lulu.

"What're you doing here?" Qiao Zhi yelled. "Didn't I tell you to hide? What if you get caught by the Daoist priests?"

"Ding Daoxiao has contacted White Rice," Lulu reported.

Chu Qiguang's eyes lit up at this news. "Go and find White Rice right away and carry out our original plan! I'll be there shortly!"

***

There was an abandoned village in Azure Sun County with large stretches of once-fertile farmland that had now become barren and overgrown with weeds.

This was once the Li Clan Village, but the tenant farmers in the village had suffered such severe exploitation that they were unable to get by, forcing them to flee.

After that, the prominent clans of the village were destroyed by the excessive tax burden placed upon them by the authorities, leading to the abandonment of the entire village.

Ding Daoxiao had fled all the way here with several others, all of whom were looking exhausted and disheveled.

Li Changqing was also with him. He was no match for Chen Zhu, who possessed supernatural powers granted to him by the talismans of the Heavenly Master Religion. However, he had taken a Heavenly Dragon Explosive Blood Pill that had drastically enhanced his physical prowess for a short time, allowing him to get away by the skin of his teeth.

Heavenly Dragon Explosive Blood Pills were refined by Dao Comprehension-state cultivators of the Heavenly Master Religion, and Li Changqing had received it from the Demon Vanquishing Envoy as a reward for a major contribution. Although it pained him greatly to use it here, he had been driven into a corner and had no choice.

Due to consuming too many pills in such a short amount of time, some pill poison had accumulated in Li Changqing's body. As a result, he looked very pale and weak, and he was nearing the limits of his stamina.

"Why did we come here?" he asked. "The Demon Vanquishing Department will surely send people to capture us soon. They have Eye Opening Pills, Nose Opening Pills, Heavenly Eye Pills, and Heavenly Breath Pills. There's no way we'll be able to get away from them!"

"That's why we need to find a backer," Ding Daoxiao replied.

"A backer?" Li Changqing asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm planning to defect to the Great Qian Empire," Ding Daoxiao sighed.

"Have you gone insane?" Li Changqing exclaimed.