Chapter 2569: Chang'e returns to Luoyang, Zhu Di takes the blame
Chapter 2569: Chang'e returns to Luoyang, Zhu Di takes the blame
When Dugu Qiubei saw that Xuanzang had knocked down Zhu Tianpeng with just one blow, even though he had taken advantage of a sneak attack, he was still surprised. After all, he knew how difficult Zhu Tianpeng was through previous fights.
Xuanzang's Qi Gate was broken and he practiced San Gong again, but he could still possess such strength. Even Dugu Qiubai was amazed by it.
As soon as Zhu Tianpeng fell to the ground, he immediately used the secret method to heal his injuries. His face suddenly turned green and red, and after spitting out a large mouthful of blood, he managed to suppress the injury.
But when Zhu Tianpeng was about to get up, Xuanzang fell from the sky in a cross-legged posture, like a mountain, pressing directly on Zhu Tianpeng's back, making it impossible for him to get up.
"You bald donkey, get out of here."
After Zhu Tianpeng roared angrily, he was ready to push Xuanzang away, but the strength in his body disappeared quickly inexplicably. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't get up, and he couldn't even hold the weapon in his hand.
Zhu Tianpeng was completely panicked and roared: "Bald Donkey, what kind of magic did you cast?"
Xuanzang looked at Zhu Tianpeng under him and said with a smile: "This move is called Fudo Mingwang Sitting. Unless the benefactor and the poor monk are in the same realm, they will not be able to break free, so the benefactor should not struggle."
"Bald Donkey, you attacked me secretly and won without using force. If you have the guts, take action and fight me one on one."
Hearing Zhu Tianpeng's words, Xuanzang asked back: "The poor monk can get out of the way and fight you one-on-one with King Qi, but what should you do if King Qi is captured by the poor monk again?"
Hearing this, Zhu Tianpeng's eyes showed a cunning look, and he pretended to be sincere and said: "If I am captured again, I will be convinced and leave you alone, ah no, I will let you handle me, Master."
"A gentleman's words."
"It's hard to chase a horse."
"Okay, this poor monk will trust you, King Qi."
With that said, Xuanzang got up from Zhu Tianpeng's back, and as soon as he left, Zhu Tianpeng's strength returned.
Zhu Tianpeng breathed a sigh of relief. He thought that Xuanzang had used some evil power on him, but now it seemed that it was a secret method that had similar effects but would not cause permanent harm.
Looking at the handsome but weird monk in front of him, Zhu Tianpeng was extremely fearful and thought to himself: Fortunately, this person has a bad mind, otherwise I would have been doomed this time.
If he were in his prime, Zhu Tianpeng might have kept his promise and faced Xuanzang one-on-one, but now that he was seriously injured, he was naturally not prepared to keep his promise. What he said before was just an excuse to deceive Xuanzang.
Looking at Xuanzang who was smiling across from him, Zhu Tianpeng put on a posture to fight and shouted: "Master, take the attack."
Zhu Tianpeng used all his strength to attack, but Xuanzang easily dispersed him. However, when he turned around and looked again, he saw that Zhu Tianpeng had already run back to his own formation, and under the cover of his guards, fled southward.
Xuanzang chuckled when he saw this, as if he had guessed it a long time ago and was not surprised at all.
Dugu Qiubei ran over at this time and was about to chase Zhu Tianpeng, but was stopped by Xuanzang.
"Mr. Dugu, go and help others. Leave Qi King Zhu Tianpeng to the poor monk."
Seeing that Dugu Qiubai was a little hesitant, Xuanzang smiled and said: "Don't worry, sir, I will give you a living Zhu Tianpeng for this poor monk."
If it were Zhu Tianpeng in his heyday, Xuanzang would naturally not dare to boast about this. But now that Zhu Tianpeng has been injured, and Xuanzang has not consumed much, it is naturally impossible for Zhu Tianpeng to run away.
When Dugu Qiubei saw what Xuanzang had said, he immediately nodded and agreed. After all, this battle would not only capture Zhu Tianpeng alive, but also kill all the five hundred guards without leaving anyone behind, so he couldn't delay it too long, otherwise he would retreat.
It's easy for things to get messy on the road.
Faced with the pursuit of hundreds of Black Ice Platform masters, five grandmaster killers, and two grand masters, Zhu Tianpeng's five hundred guards and two grandmaster guards were of no use at all. It would only take time for the entire army to be annihilated.
Just a problem.
Zhu Tianpeng also knew that his men could not protect him, and that he would be more likely to escape alone, so he abandoned his men and fled alone.
Seeing that Xuanzang was the only one in the killer group chasing after him, Zhu Tianpeng was relieved. After all, it was easier to face Xuanzang alone than hundreds of people.
But what Zhu Tianpeng never expected was that whether he was escaping into the woods or into the mountains, Xuanzang's voice would always sound behind him, and he still could not get rid of it even after running for three days.
"Bald Donkey, come out to me, I will fight with you."
Zhu Tianpeng looked around at the dense forest and roared to the sky, while Xuanzang's extremely ethereal voice came from all directions again.
"Donor, you lose."
When Zhu Tianpeng heard this, he collapsed completely. He raised his weapon and vented his anger indiscriminately until he was exhausted and passed out. Little did he know that he had already fallen into Xuanzang's secret technique.
The escape he experienced in the past three days was just the fear and fantasy in his heart. The reality only passed by a stick of incense, and Xuanzang was always ten meters in front of him, with a touch of purple energy flashing in his eyes from time to time.
.
Chang'e witnessed with her own eyes that Zhu Tianpeng was just glanced at by Xuanzang, then stood there, muttering to himself, and frantically attacking the air. She was so shocked that she was speechless.
She knew how strong Zhu Tianpeng was. Even if his master was alone, it would take a lot of effort to defeat him, but when facing Xuanzang, he was like a child.
Seeing Zhu Tianpeng fainted, Chang'e came over and asked: "Master, what exactly did you do to my sworn brother?"
Xuanzang smiled indifferently, the purple meaning in his eyes disappeared, and said with a smile: "The inner demons of the poor monk can arouse the fear in people's hearts, and thus fall into an illusion.
That is to say, Donor Zhu was seriously injured and his willpower was weakened, so he fell into the trap. Otherwise, it would be a demon in his heart, and it would be difficult to shake the will of a veteran like them on the battlefield."
Chang'e was relieved when she heard that Zhu Tianpeng was fine, and became curious about Xuanzang, a monk who was more beautiful than a woman. His methods were indeed a bit too weird.
"Master, can I learn this inner demon guide?" Chang'e asked.
Xuanzang showed a look of surprise, and then discovered that Chang'e's internal power fluctuations had reached a super-class level. He couldn't help but smile and said: "As long as the adults are willing to learn and do not do evil, the poor monk is willing to teach it.
However, attracting inner demons is not an ordinary secret method. It requires a high level of willpower and cannot be learned in a short time."
"Thank you, Master."
While talking, Dugu Qiubai arrived with five masters and many masters of Black Ice Platform.
Looking at the beautiful and fragrant Chang'e, who was the most beautiful woman in the country, everyone present except Dugu Qiubai and Xuanzang showed their astonishment. No one expected that the Tianzi No. 1 secret agent could be such a beautiful woman from all over the world.
"See my lord."
Except for Dugu Qiubai and Xuanzang, everyone present half-knelt down to salute Chang'e, who was of a higher rank than them.
"You don't have to be polite, how are you doing over there?" Chang'e asked.
Ren Qianxinghui reported: "Your Majesty, Zhu Tianpeng's 500 guards have all been killed, and no one has escaped, while 16 of our troops have been killed..."
Zhu Tianpeng's 500 guards were elite urban men. One hundred Black Ice Platform swordsmen were able to annihilate them all in a one-on-five situation, and only sixteen people died. This result was quite impressive.
Of course, the ones who contributed the most were Dugu Qiufei and the five Grandmasters, otherwise the number of casualties would have been doubled.
As for Zhu Tianpeng's two grandmaster guards, one is Tang Baichuan, the elder of the Tang Sect in Central Sichuan, and the other is Woxing, the director of the Sun Moon Sect.
The former was killed by Dugu Qiubai's sword, while the latter died under Ye Gucheng's flying immortal.
"Your Majesty, although the remaining guards of King Qi have been wiped out, Zhu Tianpeng sent many people to break out in advance to ask for help. These people were not killed by us." Ye Guchenghui reported.
After hearing this, Chang'e said: "There were eight people sent by Zhu Tianpeng to ask for help, but they all died at the hands of my own officers."
Everyone understood after hearing this, but when they thought about it, Tianzi No. 1 had been lurking for so many years, and now it was finally time to close the net. How could these little pawns be allowed to do bad things?
Next, Chang'e ordered all the corpses to be gathered together, treated with corpse powder, destroyed the corpses to eliminate traces, and then directed everyone to erase the traces of the battle.
After handling everything neatly, Chang'e and others took Zhu Tianpeng and headed east to the coastal area, where there were ships to pick them up and return to Qingbei.
The next day, when the Prince of Qi's Mansion in Linzi saw that Zhu Tianpeng had not returned, he immediately sent a message to the navy and asked if the Prince of Qi had left, but received a reply that the Prince of Qi had left.
According to time calculation, King Qi should have returned to Linzi long ago after reviewing the army, but he did not return and lost contact with him.
Anyone with a brain can tell that something must have happened to King Qi, otherwise he would have lost contact in the country without saying a word, so he quickly sent people to search.
But after searching for two days, there was still no trace of King Qi, not even the five hundred guards.
More than 500 living people just disappeared out of thin air, with neither alive nor dead bodies visible. This caused an explosion among the top officials of Qi and Ming.
Many radicals among those who opposed the merger of the two countries believed that Zhu Di secretly murdered the King of Qi. After all, there were five thousand Ming troops stationed in Qi County, commanded by General Fu Youde.
Fu Youde was fully capable of setting an ambush on the King of Qi's return journey, and then destroying the body to eliminate traces without revealing his true identity.
But there are also many calm people who feel that Zhu Di's doing this will do more harm than good, and it is unlikely that Zhu Di sent someone to do it.
Just when the two sides were arguing out of control, the grumpy Wang Yantong led an army of 10,000 to surround Fu Youde, demanding that Fu Youde prove his innocence.
It was a false story, so how could Fu Youde prove his innocence? Did he perform a dissection to see how many bowls of powder were inside?
Fu Youde is not that stupid, so naturally he cannot be captured without hesitation.
The conflict between the two sides intensified, and there was even a tendency to start a direct war. At the critical moment, Wang Yanzhang arrived in time and stopped Wang Yantong, which resolved a civil war.
Wang Yantong was persuaded to retreat by Wang Yanzhang, and although Fu Youde gave him some relief, neither he nor Zhu Ming would be able to prove their intelligence unless traces of Zhu Tianpeng were found.
While the Qi State was quarreling internally, the Ming State in Xuzhou also exploded.
After discussing with Fan Zeng, Zhu Di was originally prepared to give up the military power of all the generals and only take back the political power. However, he did not expect that Zhu Tianpeng disappeared at such a critical moment.
The contradiction between the two factions of Qi and Ming was already great. Now that the leader Zhu Tianpeng has disappeared, many people in the Qi faction have suspected Zhu Di, which made Zhu Di cry out that he was wronged.
Zhu Tianpeng is the biggest pusher for the merger of the two countries. No matter how stupid Zhu Di is, he can't touch Zhu Tianpeng, otherwise he will cut off his own arm, right?
Zhu Di knew this, as did Fan Zeng and other Zhu Ming senior officials, but Qi senior officials may not know this, or they might deliberately pretend not to know.
All in all, for Zhu Di and the Ming Dynasty, the top priority is to stabilize the top management of Qi State, otherwise the merger of the two countries is likely to be completely blown.
After discussing with his advisers, Zhu Di decided to go to Linzi alone to negotiate with the senior officials of Qi State. In this way, he could prove his innocence and also show his sincerity.
Zhu Di's move was quite risky. He would probably be detained or directly killed by Qi Jun who had lost his mind. However, no matter how great the risk was, he would still give it a try.
Qi and Ming must not engage in internal strife, otherwise once the Qin army moves south, both countries will be destroyed by Qin.
Therefore, no matter how great the risk is, Zhu Di must give it a try.
Just when Zhu Di entered Linzi alone in order to appease the senior officials of Qi State, and started a verbal battle with the civil and military officials of Qi State, Chang'e had already returned to Luoyang with Zhu Tianpeng, and was received by Liu Mu as soon as she returned.