Flower Stealing Master

Chapter 4: The unknown Holy Monk

Hufff! This chapter was not easy to translate. It contained a ton of historical information, names and terms. I think I may have become an expert at Mongolian history. Yah~ This was a good old info dump chapter, but trust me this chapter is important. This chapter is important for world building.

Now…enjoy!

It turned out that this was not the world of ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber’ that Song Qingshu originally thought, but a strange world.

Hearing Zhou Zhiruo mention Guo Jing and his wife Huang Rong who guarded Xiangyang, as well as the Undefeated East Dongfang Bubai, and the great king of Khitan Nanyuan who once set off a bloody storm in the Central Plains martial arts…Song Qingshuʼs face showed clear bewilderment.

After a number of beating around the bush, Song Qingshu finally confirmed with a strange expression that this is a world jointly framed by Jin Yongʼs 14 novels.

In this world, Song and Liao competed for more than a hundred years, at war with each other. As a result, two Jurchen tribes emerged in the rear of the Liao Kingdom, one Heishui Jurchen tribe, and the Jianzhou Jurchen tribe. Heishui Jurchen established the Jin State. After the battle, it directly invaded the hinterland of the Liao State, and the Liao State was almost destroyed. Fortunately, another nomadic Mongolian race on the grassland rose up and began to attack the rear of the Jin State. Only then did the Jin State stop its attack on the Liao and turn its main force against Mongolia.

Now that the two countries are in the Yellow River Basin and Chang’an Tongguan is on the front line, the Liao Kingdom has the opportunity to take a breather and be trapped between Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. The Mongolian alliance gradually showed signs of revival.

Jianzhou Jurchen established the Manchu Kingdom, defeated the Great Ming Kingdom, which had internal and external troubles, and occupied the vast land of Liaodong, Hebei, Shandong, and Yangzhou.

Currently, the only country established by the Han people is the Song Kingdom south of the Yangtze River, which relies on natural obstacles to resist the nomadic cavalry from going south.

At present, Mongolia is the strongest, but the battle to unify the various divisions of Mongolia is extremely fierce. All of the great Khan Temujin died in battle, and all there’s left are a few generals of the same generation and nephews.

Fortunately, the third generation of grandchildren are extremely competent. One of the Six Emperors, Xuliewu followed the great Khan Temujin, and led the main force of Mongolia to march west. They divided into two troops, one attacking Khwarazmo and the Eastern European Federation, and the other attacking the powerful Persia and Arab countries.

Before Temuzhen’s Western Expedition, he left behind the Prince of Ruyang, Chaghan Temür; the son of his late brother Muhuali. Prince of Ruyang was Zhao Min’s father who led an army through the Western Regions, suppressed Ming Cult and Hui tribes, and appropriately contained Xixia so that Xixia had no time to expand.

Another one of the four Emperors, Kublai, led an army to attack the Kingdom of Jin on the front line of Tongguan, Chang’an. The emperor Sun Meng Ge led an army to attack the southern Song Kingdom from Sichuan. After the death of Meng Ge, Kublai took his troops.

Now Nanyang Wancheng first attacked the Jin State of Changʼan Luoyang in the north and Xiangyang in the Song Dynasty in the south. It was similar to the Mongolian kings.

The Seventh Emperor’s grandson Ariq B?ke left his army to stay on the Mongolian prairie and put his eyes towards the Manchus. However, Kangxi, the young Emperor of the Manchus, was also a talented strategist. He guarded Yanjing himself.

His subordinate Prince of Pingxi, Wu Sangui guarded Shanhai Pass and Prince of Bao Hongli guarded Shanhaiguan. Shengjing formed an alliance with Heishui Jurchen of Jin Country, forming a horn-cutting trend, and that momentum even faintly overwhelmed the coalition forces of Ariq B?ke and Liao.

Of course, Tubo and the small frontier countries of the Duan clan in Dali are just grasping for breath in Goʼan, so there’s no need to make a detailed list.

After digesting all this in shock, Song Qingshu wondered whether this was still a fusion of the world of Jin Yongʼs 14 novels. He suddenly remembered that there was a person in the Shaolin Temple who would definitely be able to help him.

Song Qingshu said that he would go for a walk, Zhou Zhiruo nodded indifferently. Song Qingshu smiled at the fact and spoke to himself while on the road: ”This womanʼs feelings for her husband are really weak. It seems that only Zhang Wuji can cause her emotions to fluctuate…”

After a long time, he remembered that now his first priority was to heal his meridians, and then to survive in this chaotic world instead of feeling unfounded jealousy towards Zhang Wuji.

After reaching the Buddhist Scriptures Pavilion of Shaolin Temple, he expressed his intention to the scholarly monk. The other party knew that Song Qingshu was the husband of Emeiʼs head, so he didnʼt dare to neglect. Seeing that he just wanted to read the Buddhist scriptures, Song Qingshu was led in after registration: ”Young Hero Song, this temple always welcomes people with predestined to read Buddhist scriptures. The first floor contains various versions of the scriptures, and Young Hero Song can read them at will. However, the second floor of the Buddhist Scripture Pavilion is where the martial arts classics of this temple are located. Please, donʼt make the little monk embarrassed.”

”I’m grateful for Sir’s considerations, please rest assured.” Song Qingshu knew that the Monk was already very polite. The second floor of the Buddhist scriptures pavilion was a forbidden area of the ??Shaolin Temple. He naturally can’t go up there.

Song Qingshu aimlessly flipped through the scriptures, he didnʼt intend to read anything at all. While casually flipping, he was looking for a person somewhere around here.

After looking around for a long time, he didnʼt find the person he was looking for. Song Qingshu couldnʼt hide his disappointment, wondering if he had guessed wrong.

”Huh!” Suddenly, he glanced at a dark corner and saw the two words ”Langa Sutra”. Thinking that ”Nine Suns True Scripture” was hidden in it, Song Qingshu stretched out his hand excitedly and opened it.

Although he knew that Zhang Wuji had learned the Nine Yang Scriptures, which proved that the scriptures may not be the Buddhist Scripture Pavilion anymore, he still held a trace of anticipation. As expected, it was empty inside. Song Qingshu sighed in disappointment.

”Amitabha Buddha!” ??Song Qingshu was taken aback by the sound of the Buddhaʼs name behind him. He turned around and found that unknown to him a monk in grey clothes quietly stood behind him.

The other party was wearing the lowest-level attire of Shaolin Temple and holding a tattered broom. His body was thin and dry. He could be described as haggard and sparse and his long beards were completely white. In the eyes of anyone, he was just an old man who was about to die, but to Song Qingshu he was different.

The Sweeping Monk! Song Qingshu did not expect that this unknown monk really existed.

”This junior Song Qingshu has seen the respected master.” Song Qingshu respectfully bowed.

”Huh?” Old Monk didnʼt expect Song Qingshu to be so respectful to him, and he was curious, ”This old monk is not a master, but I saw Young Hero Song walking around the Buddhist Scripture Pavilion, and he just scanned the other scriptures roughly until he saw this ”Langa Sutra.” However, Young Hero Song did not hesitate to take it up, and after seeing the contents clearly, he looked disappointed. This old monk appeared to meet you out of curiosity.”

”This junior was just trying my luck, but found out that it was just a dream, so I seemed a little disappointed.” Song Qingshu hesitated for a while and politely spoke.

”Old monk has been in the Buddhist Scripture Pavilion for more than forty years. If I remember correctly, this ”Langa Sutra” used to have a copy of ”Nine Yang Scripture” in it, but it was later taken away. I dare to ask Young Hero Song what he was looking for. Is that it?” The Old Monk was indeed very curious. Song Qingshu was young, how could he know of the secrets in here, and he seemed to know it quite well.

When he said that, Song Qingshu was also a little embarrassed: ”I donʼt want to hide it from the master, I really wanted to see if the ”Nine Yang Scripture” is still there.”

”Oh!” The Old Monk laughed heartily and did not ask him why he knew such secrets. Instead, he asked with concern, ”If Old monk is not wrong, Young Hero Song has all his meridians broken now, even if you find the Nine Yang Scripture cultivation method, will it be useful?”

”I also hope that the master will help.” When he thought that this person may be the only person in the world who could save him, Song Qingshu felt a little gloomy.

”Young Hero Songʼs life is fine now, why do I need to save him?” The Old Monk helped him up, ”If you want to resume martial arts, please forgive this old monk’s bluntness, Young Hero Songʼs meridian is completely broken, it is no longer under human power to restore it, and this old monk can also do nothing.”

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