The Fourth Financial Crisis

Huoyunzhou, Shenhuo City.

Tian Daxiao, who was wearing the attire of the head of the Shenhuo Sect, was playing chess with his proud disciple Tian Beixi, and was listening to Tian Beixi's report on the recent progress of Huoyun State's economic reform.

However, after hearing the bell ringing, the hands of this dignified Nascent Soul Stage monk shook violently, and he couldn't even catch the chess piece. The exquisite chess piece made of ceramics hit the chessboard hard with a "snap" It shattered into pieces with a sound.

Tian Beixi looked up at his master in shock, only to find that Tian Daxiao had lowered his head at some point, silently picked up the broken chess pieces, and then turned to look in the direction of Zhongzhou.

From the beginning to the end, Tian Daxiao never let Tian Beixi see his expression.

"Master..."

Hearing the voice of his apprentice, Tian Daxiao just raised his hand slightly and said in a toneless voice: "Old friends are dying one after another, like leaves falling in the wind... The young people who were high-spirited during the founding period of Lingshi Reserve Bank don't know what's left. We may have a chance to see you again in the future!"

Tian Beixi was a little confused and said: "Master, you and President Li have been fighting for hundreds of years. I thought..."

Tian Daxiao raised his hand and said feebly: "Why do I want to fight with Li Qingyang? We are just stewards guarding President Lu's legacy, but as long as the Lingshi Reserve Bank is attached to the existence of the Wuliang Sword Sect, sooner or later it will become the Wuliang Sword Sect. A vassal of the Lingshi Reserve Bank! Li Qingyang is in charge of the overall situation at the Lingshi Reserve Bank. Going long can only delay the time a little. This approach is absolutely unworkable!"

Seeing that his master was obviously in a bad mood, Tian Beixi wanted to step forward and say some words of comfort, but before he could speak, Tian Daxiao looked at him and said seriously: "Beixi, during this trip to the battlefield outside the territory, if there is a chance, If so, please help Li Qingning. The one thing my junior brother is worried about the most is his great-granddaughter. As the head of the Shenhuo Sect, I have no position to let my disciples take risks for the Zhongzhou monks, so I can only ask you in my personal capacity."

Upon hearing Tian Daxiao's instructions, Tian Beixi was stunned on the spot.

Although she had long known that her master often cared about Li Qingning's situation, she did not expect Tian Daxiao to be so concerned about Li Qingning's affairs. This made her shocked and also a little jealous.

She wanted to say that she had just been bullied by Li Qingning and Yang Lu in turn, so why should she be so shy as to go to the battlefield to help Li Qingning, but seeing the serious look in her master's eyes, she finally answered honestly: " I'll do my best!"

Tian Daxiao didn't know the competitive character of his apprentice, so he said helplessly: "Are you sure you are not trying to deal with me?"

Tian Beixi snorted and said reluctantly: "Since it is Master's request, I will naturally try my best to help her, but if I really save her on the battlefield outside the territory, I will have to humiliate her to make her angry. !”

"These are all trivial matters, so let's do what you want!" Tian Daxiao waved his hands helplessly, and then changed the topic, "Since you said so, it seems that there is a way to find Li Qingning on the battlefield outside the territory? "

Tian Beixi smiled and said: "Master, don't worry, although I haven't found a way to find Li Qingning, some guys must have a way to find Li Qingning! I just want them to take me to find Li Qingning, and I guess I have to use some extraordinary means. If things accidentally get too big, you may need to give me the right to take advantage of it!"

After Tian Daxiao thought for a moment, he understood what his disciple meant, so he could only nod helplessly and said: "As the leader of the Shenhuo Sect, I can still suppress the personal conflicts between the disciples in the Qi Refining Period. Even if Elder Lu and the others pursue them afterwards, Get up, all the responsibility can be borne by me alone!"

Tian Beixi smiled and said, "Thank you so much, Master!"

Tian Daxiao did not answer, but stood with his hands behind his hands again and looked in the direction of Zhongzhou, wondering what was going on in his mind.

Seeing that his master was in a bad mood and didn't seem to want to continue chatting, Tian Beixi took the initiative to leave and said: "Then I will go make arrangements for the battlefield outside the territory!"

Tian Daxiao waved his hands without looking back and said: "Go! Try to make the noise as quiet as possible. Elder Lu and his gang have long been unhappy with me. If you make the matter too big, both of us will lose face." It doesn’t look good!”

Tian Beixi hurriedly promised: "I will definitely keep things secret and promise not to leak the action!"

Tian Daxiao nodded and said nothing more.

Neither Tian Daxiao nor Tian Beixi realized how large a storm would be surrounding Li Qingning, the core of the conflict, in this extraterritorial battlefield trial.

The headquarters of Yufeng Sect, Jinfeng Tower.

As one of the seven major sects in Kyushu, the Yufeng Sect, the overlord of Borneo, is headquartered at the top of Borneo's Lingxiao, which is known as the "highest peak in Kyushu cultivation world". The altitude is tens of thousands of meters high. According to common sense, The climate environment at this altitude should be extremely harsh, but under the protection of the Yufeng Sect's mountain protection formation, the environment of the entire Yufeng Sect headquarters remains spring-like all year round.

The Golden Wind Tower is the highest building in the Yufeng Sect's headquarters. It is not only the meeting hall of the Yufeng Sect, but it is also a very powerful magic weapon for refining Taoism. It can automatically collect wind-attributed auras floating between heaven and earth, and use them as their own. The essence is removed, and the dross is removed, and the ordinary wind-attributed aura is slowly refined into the priceless wind-attributed top-grade weapon refining material [Innate Wind].

It's just that the entire refining process is very long. It takes almost thirty years for Jinfeng Tower to extract a wisp of innate wind that can be used. Li Qingning's natal magic weapon Xunfeng is refined with this extremely rare wind attribute material. Made from.

As the highest building in the world of cultivation in Kyushu, several Nascent Soul stage monks from the Yufeng Sect like to come to the top of the Jinfeng Tower to see the most prosperous and densely populated place in Borneo when they talk about things. The area has a panoramic view.

Just when the death knell was ringing, two supreme elders of Yufeng Sect, Zhang Huaqing, a fourth-level Yuanying monk dressed as a middle-aged scholar, and Xiao Nan, a handsome young man-looking second-level Yuanying monk, were listening to Lin Musen's speech in Jinfeng Tower. Report on the situation of the Zhongzhou Sword Discussion Conference.

Lin Musen was ordered to participate in the Zhongzhou Sword Discussion Conference in order to win the Nine Heavenly Gangfeng Essence as the prize.

After hearing that Lin Musen failed to complete the mission goal, Zhang Huaqing's brows suddenly furrowed into the word "Chuan" and he sternly reprimanded: "In order to exchange for a place in the competition from Arctic Cold Palace, I paid nearly 100 yuan out of my own pocket through personal relationships. For the price of ten thousand spirit stone coins, in the end, you only brought me a Qi refining magic weapon worth less than half a million spirit stone coins?!"

Faced with the reprimand of his ancestor, Lin Musen had no choice but to kneel on the ground and apologize: "To inform my ancestors, Wuliang Sword Sect did not hold the top eight finals as usual, but directly divided the eight winning prizes privately through insider connections. Even if the disciple has the confidence and strength to defeat the masters of other vassal sects in Zhongzhou, but the other party did not give me this opportunity, there is really nothing I can do!"

Although the reasons given by Lin Musen were reasonable, Zhang Huaqing was still a little angry.

The Nine Heavenly Gang Wind Essence is very suitable for use by low-level wind attribute spiritual root monks. Originally, Zhang Huaqing planned to use it as a gift to the leader of the Wind Sect, Yi Fangda, to bring together Zhang Qian, the first disciple of Yi Fangda's leader, and his own family. Great-great-granddaughter Zhang Yajun became a Taoist couple.

Precisely because the attempt to seize the Nine Heavenly Gangfeng Essence was a private matter, this time Zhang Huaqing went to Arctic Han Palace to discuss the quota for the Sword Discussion Conference. He did so entirely out of his own pocket, using his personal connections, and did not misappropriate any stitches from the sect.

Although one million spirit stone coins is only a small amount for a Yuanying stage monk, it is not something that can be easily obtained. What's more, Zhang Huaqing has also shouldered a huge debt of favor for this. The price has exceeded The value of the essence of Jiutian Gangfeng itself.

The reason why Zhang Huaqing chose a super sect like Arctic Cold Palace to ask for a place in the competition, instead of going to a small sect like Penglai Pavilion to ask for a place like Tian Beixi, was mainly because the Arctic Cold Palace had a big enough reputation, even if the Infinite Sword Sect Even if he saw that there was something wrong with Musen's identity, he would not fall out with him on the spot because of this trivial matter.

Since disciples from the seven major sects were not allowed to participate in the Sword Discussion Conference, Zhang Huaqing thought that Lin Musen's victory would not be a big problem, but to his surprise, he ended up with nothing!

Therefore, after Lin Musen gave a reasonable explanation, Zhang Huaqing still persisted and said: "Didn't I give you a lot of funds for activities? Since the cultivators in Zhongzhou can mix things up privately and do black-box operations, why can't you go to them to make things up privately?"

This accusation was so outrageous that even Xiao Nan, another Supreme Elder who happened to be visiting Zhang Huaqing, couldn't stand it anymore and quickly tried to persuade him: "Senior Brother Zhang, your Lin Musen is actually an imposter of the Arctic Cold Palace monk. , it’s hard to even reveal his true identity, and it’s really hard to participate in the behind-the-scenes transactions among Zhongzhou cultivators! Furthermore, he has at least defeated countless Zhongzhou cultivators and reached the top eight, which is considered to be his duty. separated."

In fact, it is no coincidence that Lin Musen chose this time to report.

He knew that his ancestor was narrow-minded, so he specially picked an opportunity when another Yuanying boss came to visit to report on his work.

Now it seems that this choice has really worked wonders.

Hearing that Xiao Nan, the supreme elder who was in charge of the sect's work, took the initiative to speak for Lin Musen, Zhang Huaqing could not continue to anger the disciples, so he could only snort and said: "Is it something to be proud of when the disciples of the seven major sects defeated the disciples of the vassal sect in Zhongzhou? What happened? Junior Brother Xiao, when we were on the battlefield outside the territory, who hadn’t killed a few ordinary sect disciples?”

As the saying goes, it is difficult for an upright official to deal with household affairs.

Hearing that Zhang Huaqing had no intention of reasoning with his disciples, Xiao Nan could only smile bitterly and said: "Lin Musen is not a direct disciple of our Yufeng Sect. It is already very good to reach the top eight..."

Zhang Huaqing originally wanted to vent his anger by scolding Lin Musen.

However, at this moment, the melodious bells suddenly rang out from the Yufeng Sect headquarters, one after another. As the death knell rang, the two Nascent Soul stage monks fell silent.

Especially Xiao Nan, who came as a guest, his smiling face suddenly turned extremely ugly.

Everyone present knew that Elder Xiao and President Li Qingyang were colleagues of the Lingshi Reserve Bank in their early years and had a close relationship. Even Li Qingning's various powerful killing moves were personally taught by Xiao Nan as a registered master. Even the ones who created Xunfeng Xiao Nan also came forward to ask for the innate wind from Yi Fangda, the head of Yufeng Sect.

Now that he heard the news of Li Qingyang's death, it was strange that Elder Xiao had a good face. Even Zhang Huaqing looked at Xiao Nan with some worry, fearing that the other party would do something irrational.

He even forgot to continue reprimanding Lin Musen!

After a long silence, Zhang Huaqing took the initiative and said, "Junior brother Xiao, please forgive me and accept the change!"

Xiao Nan took a deep breath, finally calmed down, and then slowly said: "It doesn't matter, I have been mentally prepared for this matter. It's just that the days when Li Qingyang and I listened together in front of President Lu, it seemed like I can still remember it as vividly as yesterday, but it’s a pity that my youth has faded away. But in the blink of an eye, I never thought that it was already 500 years ago..."

Xiao Nan spoke very slowly, as if he couldn't control his emotions if he spoke too fast.

Zhang Huaqing didn't feel Xiao Nan's feelings deeply, so he could only comfort him calmly: "Junior Brother Xiao, none of our cultivators have ever seen the separation of life and death. As long as we fail to achieve the path of the Immortal Family, then only the way of heaven will always be there, going back and forth." The cycle never changes, so don’t let this kind of thing distract you from your pursuit of the Tao.”

Hearing Zhang Huaqing's very perfunctory tone, Xiao Nan knew that his lament about the impermanence of life was a chicken-and-duck talk.

So he had to smile bitterly, turned to look at Lin Musen and said, "You just mentioned that Li Qingning also participated in the Zhongzhou Sword Conference. What do you think of her strength?"

"Very strong!" Lin Musen did not expect Elder Xiao to suddenly ask him a question, but his answer was decisive without any hesitation, "In my opinion, Li Qingning's strength is probably no less than that of Senior Brother Zhang Qian, and far better than Zhongzhou. The other contestants in the Sword Discussion Conference, even the disciple of the Mountain Eagle Sect who has practiced the forbidden art Gengjin Body Transformation Technique, are definitely no match for her!"

Xiao Nan suddenly raised his eyebrows and said: "Is Li Qingning already that strong? I remember that although that girl has good talent, when it comes to training, she always spends three days fishing and two days drying nets..."

Lin Musen quickly lowered his head and replied: "Disciple is not exaggerating in the slightest. Even in terms of combat skills alone, Li Qingning is definitely at the top level at the Zhongzhou Sword Discussion Conference."

Although Lin Musen already spoke highly of Li Qingning, the two Nascent Soul ancestors of Yufeng Sect did not know that Lin Musen only told half the truth.

Lin Musen had personally watched Li Qingning's six consecutive attacks at the Zhongzhou Sword Discussion Conference, and had also watched Zhang Qian's attacks many times. He had already collected enough combat data to input the Monte Carlo Flying Sword's [Evolution] Tianji] magic circle.

According to the calculation results of the Monte Carlo Flying Sword in his hand, if Zhang Qian faced Li Qingning in a duel, the winning rate would be only 38.32%. He said that the two of them would have a 50-50 result in a duel, but he was actually deliberately trying to save face for Zhang Qian.

However, Zhang Huaqing did not know the existence of Monte Carlo Flying Sword. When he heard the shocking conclusion given by Lin Musen, he sneered on the spot: "Lin Musen, you are not very good at doing things, but you speak in such a loud tone! How dare you comment now? Your senior brother Zhang Qian is here!"

Seeing Zhang Huaqing's expression, Lin Musen also knew that what he had just done was a bit hasty, and he quickly bowed his head and apologized: "The ancestor taught me that it was the disciple who went crazy!"

However, Xiao Nan did not show the slightest hint of ridicule, but said seriously: "Lin Musen, I have a merciless request this time."

"Grandmaster Xiao, just ask!"

Xiao Nan nodded and said: "If you happen to encounter Li Qingning in danger on the battlefield outside the territory, try your best to help her. It can be regarded as doing your best for me."

Lin Musen was shocked and said: "Ancestor, do you want me to help Li Qingning? I, Lin Musen, am just an inner disciple, so how can I interfere in such a thing!"

Xiao Nan frowned slightly and said, "Why, you don't want to?"

Lin Musen is a disciple of Zhang Huaqing. Xiao Nan obviously overstepped his authority when assigning tasks to Lin Musen.

However, Zhang Huaqing devoted almost all his energy to training his junior Zhang Yajun. His overall impression of brothers Lin Musen and Lin Muhu was that they were just two useful tools in the Qi refining period, and he never took Lin Musen's thoughts to heart.

Therefore, after hearing Xiao Nan's request, he just waved his hand indifferently and said: "Lin Musen, since Elder Xiao Nan has already given instructions. Then you should do as he wants!"

Xiao Nan asked Lin Sen to help take care of Li Qingning, which was certainly not done casually.

On the one hand, Xiao Nan's sect does not have any strong Qi-refining period direct disciples to participate in this extraterritorial battlefield trial. If a weak guy is sent to take care of Li Qingning, it will only cause trouble;

On the other hand, Xiao Nan has a much better eye for people than Zhang Huaqing. He has actually seen for a long time that the Lin Musen brothers are secretive masters who pretend to be pigs and eat tigers.

You must know that the Lin Musen brothers have been sent by Zhang Huaqing to perform various dangerous tasks in recent years, including ultra-difficult tasks such as outlying islands, deep spirals, and the Zhongzhou Sword Competition. However, these two brothers miraculously go smoothly every time. Completing the task is difficult to explain simply by luck.

As one of the earliest founders of Lingshi Reserve Bank, Xiao Nan was responsible for the training of new members of Lingshi Reserve Bank, and in the Yufeng Sect, he had also hosted several meetings for the leader Yi Fangda, who had been in seclusion for many years. After a hundred years of sect management, what kind of young people have he not seen who pretend to be pigs and eat tigers?

Although Lin Musen has tried his best to conceal his trump card, it will inevitably arouse suspicion. He can only fool the sect monks like Zhang Huaqing.

Of course, it’s not that Zhang Huaqing is not smart, it’s just that ordinary Qi-training stage disciples are nothing more than consumables in the eyes of Nascent Soul stage monks. How can humans care about what ants think?

Let alone Zhang Huaqing, even if Xiao Nan saw that Lin Musen was hiding something, he was not interested in knowing what Lin Musen's trump card was. After all, no matter how strong the trump card of a monk in the Qi training stage was, it was just a joke in front of a monk in the Nascent Soul stage. He It is enough to know that Lin Musen's strength is by no means as simple as that of ordinary inner disciples of the Wind Control Sect.

Seeing Xiao Nan's meaningful gaze, even if the city is as deep as Lin Musen, he can't help but feel a panic of being seen through.

He quickly lowered his head and agreed honestly: "I will obey the decrees of the two ancestors, and my disciples must go all out!"