Make the Immortal Sect Great Again

[Youren Temple]

By now, Chen Haoyan had shed his official County Yamen uniform for a tight-fitting martial outfit. A black cloth masked his face, revealing only a pair of sharp, falcon-like eyes.

Figures flashed past with him at the center, bright and dazzling, reflecting a blinding golden light under the sun. These figures wielded various weapons—sabers, spears, and cudgels. As they shifted and moved, a rolling murderous aura surrounded Chen Haoyan.

"What a [Bronze Men Array]."

Chen Haoyan praised in a low voice, "I heard long ago that the guardian bronze men of Youren Temple were extraordinary. Once formed into an array, they can fight a hundred enemies at once, and even a Martial Master would find it difficult to break."

Whoosh!

Right at that moment, the wind suddenly picked up. Caught by the sunlight reflecting off the bronze men, Chen Haoyan's vision suddenly blurred, and his eyes subconsciously narrowed.

Yet in that exact instant, the previously motionless bronze men violently sprang into action. Their weapons struck with vicious ferocity, smashing toward Chen Haoyan from all directions. The force contained in their blows was in no way inferior to a martial artist at External Arts Perfection like Xie Shi, truly possessing the might to split monuments and shatter boulders.

Facing this assault, Chen Haoyan neither dodged nor evaded.

Boom!

The bronze men's weapons smashed into the blood-red energy, but it was like throwing eggs at a rock. They were sent flying backward on the spot, failing to harm a single hair on Chen Haoyan's head.

In the next second, Chen Haoyan unslung the giant bow from his back and grabbed nine arrows. In a flash of lightning, he fired nine consecutive shots in all directions!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

With every arrow fired, a visible white ripple exploded from the snap of the bowstring. As the nine arrows shot out together, the overlapping ripples stacked upon each other.

It looked as though a monstrous wave had been churned up from the flat ground. This was the shockwave born from the air barrier being torn apart, so intense that the naked eye could not even track the loosed arrows. By the time the explosive cracks of the arrows piercing the air could be heard, the shafts had already struck their chests!

In the blink of an eye, the [Bronze Men Array] was broken!

What terrifying divine strength Chen Haoyan possessed! Empowered by his Internal Force and using Black Iron Armor-Piercing Arrows, even though these bronze men each weighed over a thousand jin, they were still blasted backward.

Seizing this opportunity, Chen Haoyan immediately leaped forward and sprinted away.

'The bronze men are invulnerable to weapons. Although my nine arrows could force them back, they couldn't actually hurt them. Once they recover, they will immediately reform their array.'

When that happened, he would be surrounded once again.

As for those nine arrows, though he made it look effortless, he had actually gone all out. He couldn't sustain such explosive bursts of power for long.

"Now!"

Moving like lightning, Chen Haoyan dashed toward a predetermined direction, darting through the dazzling golden light without meeting a single bronze man to block him.

His line of sight cleared, and Chen Haoyan's spirit lifted:

'Just as I thought. I wasn't wrong. This [Bronze Men Array] is not flawless. It has a massive weakness—there are no bronze men guarding this position!'

After escaping the encirclement of the array, Chen Haoyan didn't dare drop his guard. He immediately looked around, observing the layout of Youren Temple before him.

"The elixir of immortality... where is it!"

It was public knowledge that the extraordinary person alchemists entrenched in various prefectures and counties were treated so well by the imperial court precisely because they could refine the elixir of immortality.

This was by no means an absurd rumor.

After all, the current Emperor was already over a hundred and twenty years old. Even for a martial arts myth, someone of that age would have long since reached their twilight years.

Yet the Emperor remained as robust as ever, capable of sleeping with ten women a night without collapsing.

This was the masterpiece of the extraordinary person alchemists. It was exactly their life-extending secret elixirs that allowed the current Emperor to continuously break past his mortal limits and live to this day.

This was exactly what Chen Haoyan had come for.

"Which building is the alchemy room?"

Chen Haoyan's eyes gleamed as they swept rapidly across the many side rooms in Youren Temple. His nose twitched, and in the blink of an eye, he locked onto the room with the heaviest medicinal scent.

Bang!

Smashing open the doors, Chen Haoyan charged straight into the room. A massive alchemy furnace immediately greeted his eyes. Surrounding the furnace were rows upon rows of wooden shelves holding various porcelain bottles, each marked with small notes. The pungent aroma of medicine washed over his face.

Which one was the elixir of immortality?

"Doesn't matter... I'll take them all!"

Behind him, the guardian bronze men were reforming their array and giving chase. Chen Haoyan had no time to think. He immediately stripped off his martial outfit and swept all the porcelain bottles into it.

Right after, he vaulted into the air.

With a loud crash, he smashed right through the ceiling of the alchemy room. Riding a surge of his Internal Force, he stepped through the empty air as if walking on flat ground, right on the verge of escaping.

However, right at that moment.

"Pity my people, for their sorrows are truly many."

Chen Haoyan's pupils suddenly shrank, his focus having relaxed for a fraction of a second in the belief that he had succeeded. In his vision, all he saw was a lotus flower blooming right before his eyes.

'Not good!'

In the next second, Chen Haoyan's gaze suddenly grew dazed.

Lotus Descends to the World, Universal Salvation for All. Amid the scattering lotus petals, Chen Haoyan seemed to see a compassionate and holy woman walking toward him.

The rich scent of burning incense filled his nose.

This was something he had never experienced before, though he had read about it in the files of the Divine Constabulary in the Capital. At the time, he had only thought it was the delusional rambling of lower officials trying to shirk their duties.

Only at this moment did he understand.

'That wasn't some fabricated ghost or deity, but a real existence?'

'[Liansheng Bodhisattva]... is alive!?'

...

[Great Peace Mortuary].

Wang Ping's figure appeared once again. His gaze immediately fell on the towering tome before him, watching as the golden, gleaming book turned another page.

[Scroll Three: Empty]

[Awaiting Collection].

Seeing this, a look of joy surfaced on Wang Ping's face, but he soon noticed something wrong. Between the Lotus Blade and the Longxing County Seal, why had it only turned one page?

Or could it be...

The next second, the pages flipped backward, and a scene that greatly surprised Wang Ping suddenly emerged. The second page of the Taiping Sutra had actually changed.

On the previously blank page, countless words had strikingly materialized.

In a daze, Wang Ping seemed to see a vision.

It was a rural village, much like his old Front Village, though currently quite chaotic. Constables from the County Yamen were going from door to door, interrogating people about something.

He soon learned the answer.

These County Yamen constables were auditing households and measuring the farmland to collect taxes anew, claiming it was a massive boon that benefited both the state above and the commoners below.

Following that, he watched a constable being led by a peasant family to a rather modest field, roughly one mu in size. The head of this household was a white-haired old man, who accompanied him with an apologetic smile and said, "Good officer, this is the field distributed by the imperial court."

"It's about one and a half mu."

"One and a half mu?"

The constable glanced at the field before him, then shook his head. "That's wrong. The official register I have here says there should be eight mu of land in this spot."

"Ah? Eight mu?"

At these words, the old man stared blankly for a moment, then hurriedly asked, "Could there be a mistake? Good officer, you've seen it yourself. My family's field is only this big."

"That's not my problem."

The constable's tone was calm. "It's written in black and white in the official register, so there's absolutely no mistake. Your family must have secretly hidden some land, thinking you could fool us."

"How is that possible! Officer..."

The constable ignored the old man's wailing, his tone indifferent. "Enough. Hurry up and go fetch the grain. Remember, not a single cent can be missing from the autumn tax for eight mu of land!"

Finishing his words, he cast a glance at the old man, as well as the young man and boy standing behind him, and continued, "Also, according to the imperial court's orders, from now on a single household can only consist of a father and son. You're already three generations under one roof, aren't you? Your grandson will have to be split off separately as a new household."

Hearing this, the old man was still somewhat bewildered. "Wh-what does that mean?"

In the next second, the constable rested his hand on the Oxtail Saber at his waist and said softly, "It means that for this autumn tax, you must hand over the money for two households."

"What!?"

"Officer! Have mercy, officer..."

"This is the last little bit we have, you can't take it away!"

The scene abruptly cut off. When Wang Ping looked again, he saw cart after cart, packed to the brim with grain, being transported into Longxing County.

Right after, the vision shifted once more.

This time, Wang Ping finally arrived at a familiar place. It was the inner courtyard of the County Yamen, where two people sat facing each other, drinking tea and conversing.

One of them was none other than Chen Haoyan.

And right now, he was respectfully bowing to the other person, speaking in a low voice, "To answer Your Excellency, this autumn tax collection was a massive success, exceeding all expectations!"

"Oh? Truly?"

Hearing this, the other man was somewhat pleasantly surprised. He raised his head, and only then did Wang Ping get a clear look at his face. It was a middle-aged man with a refined, scholarly aura.

"How successful was it? Tell me."

Chen Haoyan immediately rattled off the details as if enumerating his family treasures, "This time, we personally went down to the villages. We discovered 100,000 mu of hidden land and over 3,800 unregistered households. They have all been newly recorded in the registers."

As his voice fell, Chen Haoyan looked rather smug.

"As a result, this year's autumn tax has multiplied several times over. To tell Your Excellency the truth, we almost ran out of room for the grain carts transported into the county city. All the storehouses are packed to the brim. This subordinate even had to mobilize the constables to quickly build a few temporary granaries just to barely fit it all in."

"Good, good, good! Excellent work!"

Upon hearing this, the refined man immediately clapped his hands and laughed. "I was right to entrust this matter to you, Haoyan. With this, I can easily report my success to the imperial court."

"However..."

Pausing here, the refined man seemed to think of something and frowned. "The autumn tax is certainly important, but we cannot pressure the upstanding citizens in the city too heavily."

"Rest assured, Your Excellency."

Chen Haoyan hastily explained, "The Lin Family, the Chen family, the Liu family... I've already negotiated with the seventeen upstanding citizen families in the city. They only need to pay taxes on ten percent of their land."

"At the end of the day, most of our County Yamen constables hail from these upstanding families anyway. How could we push things too far? We just turn a blind eye to many things and let them pass. There is plenty of land outside the city. Doing this doesn't violate any laws either. It's mutual concealment among relatives, after all; according to the law, it is not a crime!"

The refined man finally beamed. "That is for the best."

"You must understand that only when everything prioritizes the people can the world remain stable."

"Moreover, most of these upstanding citizens have practiced martial arts for generations and possess some real skill. If they were to cause any trouble, it would only damage the harmony within the county city."

"In contrast, the black-headed commoners outside the city don't know martial arts and don't need to eat so much grain either. Leaving it with them is just a waste. Besides, they can't make any waves anyway."

"Let them suffer a little more."

Chen Haoyan immediately nodded. "Your Excellency speaks truly. This subordinate will definitely instruct the men well to absolutely refrain from any acts that would brutalize or harm the people, which would tarnish Your Excellency's upright reputation."

The refined man smiled and nodded:

"I am always at ease when you handle matters... By coincidence, a position has opened up at the Divine Constabulary in the Capital, and I have already recommended you to fill it."

Chen Haoyan was instantly overjoyed. "Thank you, County Magistrate!"

At this point, the vision shattered completely.

Wang Ping opened his eyes, only to find himself back inside the internal space of the Taiping Sutra. On the towering tome before him, every single word glowed with a blood-red hue.

"The County Magistrate... so that's how it is."

He had been confused earlier as to why the Taiping Sutra, which supposedly only settled and produced a scripture scroll upon collecting a corpse, had suddenly started operating.

"The answer is simple. It did indeed collect a 'corpse'."

It was just that this time, the corpse wasn't a single person, but the entirety of Longxing County.

That Longxing County Seal, the heavy imperial treasure that Shouchong claimed contained the incense of tens of thousands of commoners both inside and outside the entire county city, was the very corpse of Longxing County.

And what it calculated and produced was [the event that caused the death of Longxing County].

The seals of the officials were forged from the blood of the masses.

Inside the city, singing and dancing celebrated an era of peace; outside the city, corpses littered the fields. The so-called Longxing County had already died during that autumn tax collection, it just hadn't breathed its last gasp yet.

For a moment, Wang Ping suddenly recalled his life before the previous one.

Back then, he had just transmigrated and was still an infant. His family's life savings spanning more than half a lifetime weren't even enough to buy polished rice, and he had almost been abandoned.

Why was it like this?

The village was clearly surrounded by farmland everywhere, and the fields were full of crops. Whenever harvest season arrived, a vast, striking sea of golden yellow met the eye. So why would there still be a shortage of grain?

Why couldn't they even afford rice? When starved to the extreme, they could only dig up some wild vegetables to eat, or perhaps scrounge up a bit of coarse brown rice. And even that had to be stretched over three days as porridge, even mixing in a bit of sand and gravel, just because it made it easier to feel full... to feel full, not to actually be full.

Why was it like this?

Walking up to the Taiping Sutra, Wang Ping gently brushed his palm across the page, carefully tracing every bloody character, before heaving a deep sigh.

[Scroll Two: Perish Together with the Sun]

[No matter how loud the voices of the weeds may be, they can never shake the sun in the sky. Oaths of mutual destruction are nothing but a final wail before death.]

So this was the reason.

The effect of the second scripture scroll, Perish Together with the Sun, was very simple. In a word, it meant sacrificing a thousand of one's own to inflict eight hundred damage on the enemy—similar to a cursing art.

"When I fight a target, all the injuries inflicted on me by that target can be recorded using Perish Together with the Sun. Once I feel it's enough, I can enter the Taiping Sutra space, activate Perish Together with the Sun, and unleash retribution upon them based on the severity of those injuries."

"The strength of the retribution will be scaled according to the gap in power between me and the target."

"If we are at the same level, the retaliatory damage is equal. If I am stronger, then my light injuries will yield a heavy retribution. If I am weaker, then my heavy injuries will only yield a light retribution."

In the next second, the world spun.

The refinement ended. Wang Ping stepped out of the Great Peace Mortuary. After a moment of silence, he resolutely grabbed the Black Hornless Dragon Bow and Oxtail Saber beside him.

Tonight, there was another torrential downpour.

Wang Ping stood up and silently left the carriage. His figure vanished into the rain, but his eyes were fixed entirely on the distant Youren Temple.

"That hateful Chen Haoyan actually forced me into such a miserable death..."

But since he had survived, he might as well do something about it. Besides, since this was a life he had long decided to expend anyway, he could now act entirely as he pleased.

'...Consider it returning the favor.'

Wang Ping lowered his eyelids, his gaze lingering on the scripture scroll record of Perish Together with the Sun for a moment. Then he slowly straightened his back and exhaled deeply.

Judging by its effects, the future potential of this scripture scroll was highly anticipated. It could even serve as a decisive trump card; he had truly struck it big this time.

Therefore, as a return for receiving this scripture scroll...

And to vent his pent-up fury while he was at it...

'Chen Haoyan, one of the suns of Longxing County. Using this life... I will shoot him down for you all!'

Rumble!

Under the veil of night, Wang Ping's figure faintly merged with the flashing lightning. Tearing through the torrential rain with the booming roar of thunder, he swiftly vanished into the distance.

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