Martial Cultivator

Perhaps the news sent back from the Northern Frontier was fast enough, and with the Divine Capital continuously promoting it vigorously, therefore the people of the Great Liang prefectures and regions southward, including Changping Prefecture, had been relatively optimistic about the war in the north these days.

Although the imperial court had levied taxes once more some days ago, the greater part was still on those wealthy households, the lives of ordinary common people had not been affected by anything.

Just from this point alone, the Great Liang Dynasty was different from the imperial courts of all previous dynasties, the treasuries of the imperial courts of all previous dynasties were empty, either they set their sights on merchants, or they set their sights on the common people. But judging from the actions of the current imperial court, whether merchants or common people, the imperial court had no intention of exploiting them much.

Actually, this could also be considered giving the common people reassurance. If at this moment the imperial court were to put on an appearance of a dog backed into a corner, then to them, it would be no different from clearly telling them, the great building was about to collapse, this dynasty of more than two hundred years was about to become history.

However, the common people were still nervous for a period of time, and that was during the time when the demon race began knocking at the passes. Although not many messages were passed down, scattered bits and pieces of them, when listened to, were all unfavorable messages for the imperial court.

Quite a few common people, hearing these messages, were going to head north. Fortunately, after the local officials appeased them, these hot-blooded common people temporarily gave up this idea.

But in reality, whether the local officials, or those other common people and cultivators who were closely watching the news from the north, all had their hearts in their throats. Afterwardm it was the news that the Northern Frontier had been held that came back, only then did the officials and common people breathe a sigh of relief.

Although there had been great battles with the demon race from time to time, in these more than two hundred years there had also never been an incident of the demon race army breaking through the Northern Frontier Great Wall. But this victory still caused quite a few common people in many places to celebrate.

Qingshan Prefecture had many daoist temples, along with this, the customs of the common people here were also closer to Daoism. Apart from those traditional festivals, the common people here also had some extended festivals, before the Mid-Autumn Festival, there was a Kuchai Festival, legend had it that Dao Ancestor was born back then in a mountain named Kuchai, and afterward, after he established the Daoist sect, the daoist cultivators set Dao Ancestor’s birthday as an extremely important day in Daoism. At first it was only within Daoism, and afterward it gradually spread out. Throughout Qingshan Prefecture, the common people all began celebrating this Kuchai Festival.

The dynasties of all previous generations were extremely respectful toward Daoism, which had always flourished without decline, therefore they also did not dare say anything, by the time of the Great Jin Dynasty, the imperial court had even specially issued an official document, establishing the Kuchai Festival as a festival equally important as the Mid-Autumn Festival and other festivals. But after the Great Liang Dynasty, the imperial court canceled such a thing, but also did not forbid the common people from celebrating such a festival.

Just as the news from the north reached Qingshan Prefecture, it happened to coincide with the Kuchai Festival, originally the scale of the Kuchai Festival had actually not been large these past few years, now there happened to be such news, many common people regarded it as Dao Ancestor’s protection, therefore this year’s Kuchai Festival was considerably more grand than in previous years.

Danxiao Commandery was especially so.

Just by hearing this name, it was actually enough to know that this commandery city had a deep and extensive connection with Daoism, in reality it was indeed so, this prefectural city was originally the place where a great daoist sage cultivated. Although that great daoist sage originated from the Longevity Dao, he greatly admired the Great Peace Daolineage, and at one point wanted to leave the Longevity Dao and join the Great Peace Dao.

It should be known that such a great daoist sage, not only was his cultivation realm sufficiently high, his prestige in Daoism was also not low, the Longevity Dao lineage naturally could not allow such a thing to happen. This was not merely a matter of one person leaving the Longevity Dao, but rather it would damage the image of the Longevity Dao. But the other party was already a great daoist sage, ordinary methods were also not easy to use. In the end, under the mediation of Infatuation Daoist Temple, they finally reached some kind of agreement, allowing that great daoist sage to find a place to devote himself to studying the Daoist teachings and lineage of the Great Peace Dao, but he could not say that he wanted to withdraw from the Longevity Dao.

Thus that great daoist sage established this Danxiao Commandery.

However, after that great daoist sage later passed away, the Longevity Dao lineage at one point wanted to destroy this commandery city. But in the end, after negotiations, some things could not be agreed upon, in the end everyone turned a blind eye and let the common people of the secular world move into this city, no one cared. Afterward, the dynasties of successive generations began expanding it, and thus it came to have its current scale.

However, since it was initially built by a great daoist sage, the Daoism atmosphere here was actually extremely dense, from the daoist talismans drawn on the buildings in the city, together with the fact that most of the common people in the city were daoist believers, it could be said that although this city was nominally under the jurisdiction of Great Liang now, in reality... it was only afraid that the words of that young temple master of Infatuation Daoist Temple were much more effective here than those of His Highness the Crown Prince of the current dynasty.

......

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The Kuchai Festival lasted a total of three days, and on the final night there was a lantern festival, therefore tonight the common people in the commandery city ate their meals early and gathered at the center of the commandery city, and over there, it had long been brilliantly illuminated by lanterns.

Countless lanterns were hung on those tall buildings, and on dozens of streets, above everyone’s heads were all kinds of paper lanterns.

“Senior Sister Liang, who are the people drawn on those paper lanterns?”

Among the crowd that had come to watch the lantern festival, there were several people who stood out of place, their attire was roughly the same, all dressed in snow-white, only the bearing on their bodies, at a glance, made it clear that they were not ordinary women.

However, the surrounding common people did not seem particularly afraid, by this point in time, toward cultivators from the foreign lands, the common people had long since stopped keeping their distance and being extremely fearful.

One had to know that in the whole of last year alone, there had been more than twenty cases of cultivators from the foreign lands bullying the common people of Great Liang that had been concluded, most of them had been compensated and apologized for by the sects. A small number, because the matters were serious, the Warden’s Office over at the Divine Capital had sent people to deal with them. It was said that there was a medium-sized sect, in the end, because the matter had become completely irreconcilable, most of the sect had been smashed apart by the officials of the warden faction of the imperial court.

Once these matters spread, they were undoubtedly a reassurance for the common people, with such an imperial court, such officials, and such a way of handling things, then there was completely no need to be afraid of those cultivators from the foreign lands anymore, as long as they did not take the initiative to cause trouble.

At this moment, there were even some common people who looked at those several women, whose bearing was unusual, and took a few more glances.

Those women also did not show any emotions, but even they were probably somewhat curious about the changes in the world now.

It was simply too fast.

How many years had it been?

The Great Liang Dynasty had only been established for more than two hundred years, that Emperor had only ascended the throne for more than ten years, and that young martial artist had only become Lord Warden Commander for several years.

The world had become like this?

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