Walking by the Abyss on Thin Ice

Chapter 263 – Yuan Shuo National System

Su Yun looked into the distance and saw the gathering of bloodthirsty aura in the precious land of Da Qin, which appeared extremely fierce and evil, more like a demonic cave that devoured lives rather than a precious land.

But the scholars seemed to turn a blind eye and rushed towards it.

On the way, Su Yun and the others' carriages stopped and went, observing the customs and culture of Da Qin. Hu Fei Yu was anxious and urged him to hurry to the Cloud Capital of Da Qin, saying, "Lord Cang Jiu Hua is waiting for you at the Sword Pavilion."

"We have already spent more than two months on this journey. Since Lord Cang Jiu Hua has been waiting for more than two months, I don't mind waiting a few more days," Su Yun smiled.

Hu Fei Yu had no choice but to agree.

The two carriages only traveled on rural roads, and Su Yun saw that the rural roads in Da Qin were well-developed, although not as prosperous as the city, they were much better than the countryside in Yuan Shuo.

Su Yun carefully observed that these villagers were often literate and had a high level of education, which impressed him.

However, it was strange that every village had a temple, and every day, the villagers would go to the temple to worship.

The gods worshipped in the temples were the gods of Da Qin.

Some people prayed for wealth, some for marriage, some for safe travels, some for solace due to killing, and some even prayed for the afterlife, offering wealth and treasures to the gods.

Su Yun saw that the spiritualists of Da Qin also entered and exited these temples, praying for the gods to reside in their spiritual realms.

Su Yun carefully observed that this was different from the ancestral worship in Yuan Shuo.

The people of Yuan Shuo worshipped their ancestors as a way to express their longing and remembrance for their ancestors, and to seek their blessings, but it did not interfere with their daily lives.

In the customs of Da Qin, the gods in the temples invaded the real world.

"Are their gods spiritual beings?"

Su Yun suddenly thought of a key point. If these spiritual beings were thought of by sentient beings and cast into physical forms, wouldn't they be able to survive by relying on the thoughts of sentient beings?

In the next town, Su Yun and the others encountered the divine beings of the Western Heaven.

Those divine beings emerged from the temples and led the villagers and spiritualists of the town to battle against the divine beings of another town, resulting in a brutal battle.

Those two divine beings had powerful bodies and formidable strength, and they even devoured people. Fortunately, Su Yun and the others were just passing by and were not enemies of the town, so the two divine beings did not chase after them.

When they arrived at another village, there was an outbreak of the Grey Calamity. Someone accidentally absorbed the power of the Grey Calamity while cultivating and turned into a Grey Calamity monster. The divine being worshipped by the village appeared and killed the Grey Calamity monster.

"What are these divine beings?" Su Yun couldn't help but be curious.

Hu Fei Yu said, "Young Master Su, these are the gods of the Western Heaven."

Su Yun remembered that Lord Cang Jiu Hua had once displayed the divine images of the Heavenly Court in the Eastern Capital, creating a world where the gods resided. So he asked, "The gods of the Western Heaven, should I know them? Why are they fighting each other?"

"You are foreigners after all, and you don't know everything," Hu Fei Yu laughed. "All gods are one, but they have different manifestations due to the different thoughts of sentient beings. The gods you see are actually manifestations of the gods. There is only one true god! Our Western gods will fulfill the wishes of sentient beings, so there are countless manifestations of them distributed in different temples."

Ye Luo and the others were also unfamiliar with the customs and culture of the Western Heaven, so they asked, "Since all the gods are one, why did the gods worshipped by the two towns just now fight each other?"

"The gods are omnipotent. As long as people worship them, they will not refuse their wishes. If people want the gods to conquer neighboring towns, then the gods will lead them to conquer," Hu Fei Yu said. "The people of the two towns just now must have had a grudge, so they asked the gods to attack each other."

Su Yun and the others looked at each other, not knowing what kind of strange custom this was.

"I think this Western god is quite cunning," Li Zhu Xian laughed. "Fighting against oneself, there is no loss, but the people who believe in him suffer heavy casualties and are eaten by him. Yet, people will become more and more faithful to him because of this..."

"If you don't understand, then shut up!" Hu Fei Yu was so angry that he trembled and shouted.

Li Zhu Xian stuck out his tongue.

Su Yun secretly thought, "Who exactly is this Western god?"

Two days later, they were still wandering around, and the Cloud Capital of Da Qin was still far away. Hu Fei Yu's patience was exhausted, and he kept muttering "barbarians of Yuan Shuo".

Li Mu Ge and the others were dissatisfied and challenged him, but they were all defeated by him one by one. Even Ye Luo, who was known as the Young Master, was defeated by Hu Fei Yu.

Hu Fei Yu was also from the Sword Pavilion of Da Qin and had extraordinary strength and profound divine abilities far surpassing Ye Luo and the others.

This comparison made many of the geniuses of the Heavenly Dao Academy feel the gap between the divine abilities of the two countries.

In the end, Wu Tong activated his demonic power, causing Hu Fei Yu to go berserk. He cut off one of his own arms, and only then did Hu Fei Yu calm down and no longer dare to be reckless.

On this day, Su Yun looked into the distance and saw a raging fire, with flames burning the sky. In the midst of the flames, there was a huge city. He asked, "Lord Hu, is that the City of Grey Calamity?"Hu Feiyu only had his left arm left. He glanced at Su Yun's right arm, which was gradually growing back. He said respectfully, "That place used to be our Great Qin's Ghost City. There is a mine of calamity ash below the city, and later the calamity fire ignited, resurrecting the Calamity Ash God King inside. He occupied the Ghost City. The Holy Emperor attacked several times, but the calamity fire was too dangerous and couldn't be captured. Later, the calamity ash disease spread, and many spiritualists turned into calamity ash monsters and were thrown into these calamity ash cities to live or die on their own."

Su Yun looked at the Calamity Ash City from afar and asked after a moment, "Mr. Hu, how many cities in Great Qin have turned into Calamity Ash Cities?"

Hu Feiyu replied, "There are six. And not long ago, another city was ignited by the calamity fire."

Su Yun's eyes flickered and he said, "Let's go to Cloud Capital!"

Hu Feiyu was a bit confused, but Su Yun finally wanted to go to Cloud Capital, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

The next day, the Phoenix Carriage and Dragon Carriage drove onto the long street leading to Cloud Capital in the sky. One end of this long street was on the ground, and the other end connected to the floating continent in the sky. The entire street was dozens of miles long.

The street was like a floating ribbon, hanging in the air.

Buildings lined both sides of the street, with tall buildings standing high in the sky, like magnificent palaces.

Cloud bridges crisscrossed between the streets, bustling with carriages and horses, and people coming and going. It was extremely prosperous and occupied nearly half of the population of Great Qin!

When Su Yun saw this scene, he suddenly remembered the architectural divine ability and the earth and wood divine ability that Lou Ban had shown him before he left. The magnificent scene displayed by Lou Ban's divine abilities was exactly the same as the current Great Qin Sky Street!

"Yuanshuo, indeed, Great Qin is far behind, but it is not impossible to catch up."

The Phoenix Carriage and Dragon Carriage carried everyone and drove towards Cloud Capital at the end of the Sky Street. Cloud Capital was built on the land in the sky, which was a fragment of an extraterrestrial planet called Yinghuo.

"There are strange stars outside the sky called Yinghuo, but I don't know why it broke."

Hu Feiyu pointed to the sky and said, "Cloud Capital is built on the closest piece of land to the ground. There are other large and small pieces of land elsewhere."

Everyone looked over and saw the fragments of the Yinghuo star floating in the air above the ground. Vaguely, they could still see that it was a planet.

Strangely, those broken fragments of Yinghuo star were still lush with greenery, and there were mountains, water, and air on them. They could even see white clouds floating!

"Mr. Hu, are there people up there?" Li Zhuxian asked.

Hu Feiyu said, "I don't know about that. I haven't been there. But in recent years, the Sword Pavilion has been studying how to go there and is preparing to send some scholars to explore and experience. Since you all came to study in the Sword Pavilion, you might have this opportunity."

"Mr. Hu, how did the Yinghuo star break?" Su Yun asked curiously.

Hu Feiyu glanced at her and said, "I don't know either. But some people in the Sword Pavilion speculate that Yinghuo was mostly shattered when Tian Shi Yuan fell, but no one knows if it's true or not. Some people have other speculations, saying that it was shattered during the ancient battle between gods and demons."

The Phoenix Carriage and Dragon Carriage arrived at the gate of Cloud Capital. Su Yun couldn't help but take a few more glances. He saw that the city gate was extremely tall and somewhat similar to the Heavenly Gate in Tianmen Town.

Su Yun was puzzled and asked the carriage to stop so he could carefully observe.

He saw that the patterns on the gate of Cloud Capital were also the patterns of Yinglong and Taotie. From the carvings, they should be very ancient.

Suddenly, he saw a diamond-shaped pattern of a wooden box on this gate, and couldn't help but feel a slight movement in his heart: "This gate was built by the Tongtian Pavilion!"

That diamond-shaped pattern was exactly the symbol of the Tongtian Pavilion!

Two giant figures with the heads of sheep and the bodies of humans stood under the city gate, reaching dozens of zhang in height. They held staffs and spears, with a circular ring on the spearhead, resembling a scepter.

These two giant figures with sheep heads had huge curved horns on their foreheads and unique textures on their bodies.

"It looks like a Pan Sheep... Strange, can Pan Sheep also cultivate Chengren?" Su Yun's face changed slightly, as if he had eaten a Pan Sheep before.

Hu Feiyu pointed the way and led them to the embassy, saying, "Rest first, I will inform Lord Cang."

In the Sword Pavilion, Hu Feiyu told Cang Jiuhua about Su Yun's experiences along the way, saying, "This person is extremely meticulous. He wants to see everything and ask about every custom. He delayed for four days before arriving in Cloud Capital."

Cang Jiuhua had been listening without interrupting. When he heard this, his face became serious and he said, "Seeing the small things can reveal the big picture. This Su Shao Shi has already seen some clues."

Hu Feiyu was surprised and asked, "What clues did he see, Lord?"

"The clues he saw are that our Great Qin currently lacks the ability to wage war against Yuanshuo."

Cang Jiuhua sighed and said, "The so-called Ge Wu can observe all things in the world, as well as a country. The reason he delayed so long on the road is to observe the wind and fortune of our Great Qin."

Hu Feiyu asked for guidance, "Please enlighten me, Lord."

"The customs of the people represent the national customs. By observing the customs, one can understand the national customs. And the fortune of a country, he is looking at how our Great Qin deals with the calamity ash monsters."

Cang Jiuhua shook his head and said, "You told him that another city was burned by the calamity fire and turned into a calamity ash city. He knows that our Great Qin still cannot deal with the calamity ash disease, and that there are internal troubles in Great Qin. And because of the calamity ash disease, Great Qin is in conflict with Da Xia and faces external threats. Therefore, he sees the fortune of our Great Qin and knows that we are unable to wage war against Yuanshuo."

Hu Feiyu exclaimed, "In just a few days, he can see so much?"Cang Jiu Hua said indifferently, "I landed in Yuan Shuo's Donghai County and arrived in Yuan Shuo's Eastern Capital a few days later. Along the way, I observed the local customs and realized that Yuan Shuo was weak. The master of Yuan Shuo's Tongtian Pavilion must have such means. It's time to determine who the rightful successor of Tongtian Pavilion is..."

He raised his head and said solemnly, "Inform the Pavilion Master that the fake Tongtian Pavilion Master of Yuan Shuo has arrived in Da Qin. Please make a decision!"

Da Qin's envoy residence.

The former Deputy Historian of Yuan Shuo's Foreign Affairs Office was an old man with white hair. He had already packed his bags and was waiting for Su Yun to take over.

Su Yun checked the account books and saw that the Foreign Affairs Office of Yuan Shuo was extremely poor. There was no money left in the account, and there were many IOUs, amounting to more than a thousand Qinghong coins!

What was even more outrageous was that Yuan Shuo's foreign affairs had been in decline for three years, and the salaries of the Deputy Historians had not been paid. All the other Deputy Historians had already left, leaving only this old man with white hair!

"I am thirty-two years old this year!"

The white-haired old man held up three fingers, his mouth leaking air, and said shakily, "I was ordered to come to Da Qin as a Deputy Historian at the age of twenty-two. I was beaten and insulted, and in just a few years, I became like this! Sir Su, were you also offended someone in the Eastern Capital and sent here?"

Su Yun thought for a moment and said, "You could say that I offended someone."

The thirty-two-year-old old man asked curiously, "Who did you offend?"

"The Emperor of Yuan Shuo."

Su Yun closed the account book and said to Ye Luo and the others, "Although we have some money on us, we can't just sit and eat away our savings. So, I have a great Saint Spirit Weapon on me..."

Ye Luo was shocked and lost his color, "Eldest Senior Brother, you can't possibly sell the great Saint Spirit Weapon!"

"I would be crazy to sell it."

Su Yun smiled and said, "I mean, you guys should find a treasure land, bury the great Saint Spirit Weapon, create some anomalies, and wait for those noble young masters to come looking for treasure. We'll kill them and make some money from the Da Qin nobles to subsidize the Foreign Affairs Office and pay off the debts. We represent the dignity of Yuan Shuo, and we cannot lose the national identity of Yuan Shuo."