Chapter 131

Now that the leader of the Five Mountains Alliance has changed, I wonder how this new leader compares to the previous one? The Eastern Depot will not let go of such a lucrative opportunity. The Three Mountains and Five Peaks have always been key to the flow of goods and are of paramount importance in land transportation.”

The Ming Dynasty officially banned maritime trade, and maritime transport was mainly concentrated in the southeastern coastal area, which was also a major area affected by Japanese pirates.

Of course, most of them were fake Japanese pirates; there weren’t many real Japanese pirates, and they didn’t dare to be too arrogant.

The invisible organization led by the old man is actually doing this kind of business, a real business with no capital investment. They even have connections with the Taiping Prince’s Mansion, and the Taiping Prince’s son, Gong Jiu, is his apprentice.

The red shoes are the distribution channel, and the members are all women who wear a pair of bright red embroidered shoes, like the kind brides wear, but instead of mandarin ducks, they are embroidered with an owl!

These members are all quite distinguished. Even the youngest sister, Xue Bing, is a descendant of Madam Xue, the “Divine Needle Master,” whose family owns the largest embroidery workshop in the country.

This shows that this is a distributor composed of core disciples and direct descendants of many aristocratic families and prestigious sects. They do not inquire about the origins of the products or services; they simply distribute them through their own channels and profit from them.

This also explains where some prestigious sects and martial arts families get the resources to cultivate generation after generation of core disciples.

The saying goes, “The poor study literature, the rich study martial arts.” To master true kung fu, money is essential; it requires a great deal of resources.

Why was the Huashan Sword Sect so powerful before, but under Ziyue Buqun it’s now reduced to just a handful of weaklings?

It’s important to know that the Huashan Sword Sect’s inherited martial arts techniques haven’t been lost. The main problem is that resources are insufficient. They can’t even guarantee the most basic medicinal diet, and they can’t even supply sect uniforms and standard weapons for training in a timely manner.

It’s important to know that martial arts training should start from childhood. Children’s height and strength cannot compare to adults. Sword training requires modifications and adjustments, and it needs to be specially made. The Huashan Sword Sect clearly does not have such conditions.

The reason why the Songshan Sect produces so many talented people is ultimately because it is rich and has the support of the Eastern Depot, which allows them to do all sorts of things, both legitimate and illegitimate.

They secretly supported many bandits and highwaymen, doing business with no capital. Dongfang Bai’s village was massacred by the Songshan Sect under the guise of the Sun Moon Sect. They had clearly done this kind of thing many times.

There are three interpretations of the Three Mountains and Five Sacred Mountains: (1) They refer to the three dragon veins in ancient Chinese mythology: the Himalayas (where Pangu created the world and Gonggong angrily struck Buzhou Mountain), the Kunlun Mountains (where the Jade Emperor resided at Yujing Mountain and Chang’e flew to the moon), and the Tianshan Mountains (where the Queen Mother of the West resided and Nuwa mended the sky with stones); (2) They refer to the three immortal mountains in Taoist legends: Penglai (Penghu).

Fangzhang Mountain (Fanghu), Yingzhou (Yinghu); (3) Three famous tourist mountains that people like today: Huangshan, Lushan and Yandang Mountain.

The Five Sacred Mountains refer to Mount Tai, Mount Hua, Mount Heng, Mount Song, and Mount Hengshan.

The “Three Mountains and Five Sacred Mountains” here naturally refer to Huangshan, Lushan, Yandangshan, Taishan, Huashan, Hengshan, Songshan, and Hengshan.

This almost encompassed the core hinterland of the Central Plains, and in ancient times it was a vital passage that was almost impossible to bypass.

As mentioned earlier, prestigious sects are righteous and honorable, and naturally they would not commit murder or robbery. However, they can plant their flag on a mountain and claim to be the masters of that mountain, and then that area, regardless of whether it is black or white, is under their control.

If they are willing to give face and make arrangements on their own turf, things will proceed smoothly. However, if someone accepts a gift and something goes wrong on their turf, then they will naturally have to take full responsibility.

This can be seen from the example in the original novel of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer where Lin Zhennan gave gifts to Yu Canghai. If he gave gifts and the other party accepted them, it meant that this path was viable and the business could be further expanded. If the gifts were not accepted and the other party refused, then this area could not be explored, and the business in this area could only be honestly turned down.

If even a security escort agency behaves this way, one can only imagine how the underworld, like the Sun Moon Cult, completely disregards the rules set by those righteous sects.

Those established business families don’t care if you’re from the underworld or the legitimate world. As long as you don’t cheat each other and you get things done after taking the money, I’ll naturally go to whoever charges the lowest price, is the most efficient, and provides the best service.

Therefore, most conflicts between good and evil ultimately boil down to conflicts of interest.

After all, in the world of martial arts, especially in the world of the unified kingdom, it is rare to find a pervert who kills indiscriminately and likes to commit inhuman acts. Even if there are such people, it is difficult for them to reach a scale of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.

In reality, most of these incidents only involve encroaching on the interests of those prestigious sects, which is why Shaolin and Wudang don’t get involved in such matters (their main advantage is that they have plenty of money).

Now that Yue Buqun has become the leader of the Five Mountains Alliance, and in such a forceful way at that, he will definitely have a lot of actions to take in the future.

The first to be attacked will definitely not be the Yihua Palace, but the Sun Moon Sect. We must make the Sun Moon Sect give back some of the benefits it has gained, at least the benefits in the Huashan area, otherwise how can the Huashan Sword Sect be revived?

“I should be asking you that. What are you thinking? If we really hit it off, Linghu Chong might not be so polite to you, the Great Master of the Eastern Sect.”

Since they were soaking in a hot spring, they naturally weren’t wearing clothes. Dongfang Bai felt he had already been very sincere, but Zhang Lingyu still deliberately mocked and teased him. What did he take him for?

“I just get along with him a bit, we’re friends, but not in that kind of relationship. If you don’t believe me, then I’ll kill him, is that alright?”

“Fine, go and kill him.”

Dongfang Bai looked at Zhang Weihao with great surprise. This guy was a disciple of the Huashan Sword Sect. Of course, he only went up the mountain to learn martial arts and paid money. He was different from a disciple like Linghu Chong.

“Alright, I’ll find time to go to Mount Hua myself and kill Linghu Chong. But what about the Yihua Palace?”

“That depends on what my master’s wife, my cheap mother-in-law, plans to do. They are two Grandmasters of the Innate Realm, the kind who are invincible when they join forces. It would be better to let my senior sister leave the Huashan Sect and sever ties with her parents. Believe me, my senior sister can definitely do it.”

It’s hard to say about other people, but Yue Lingshan… she’s absolutely capable of doing it.

On the surface, it’s clear that Zhang Weihao wouldn’t risk his own and the Zhang family’s feelings for Yaoyue, nor would he risk offending two Grandmasters of the Innate Realm for Yue Lingshan’s sake. People wouldn’t admire him; they would only laugh at his foolishness.

Moreover, it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that Yue Buqun brought this upon himself; he deserved it.

Do you really think the Grandmaster’s reputation is so worthless that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can jump out and steal the limelight? Publicly disrespecting a Grandmaster? Even Shaolin Temple remained silent; where did you get the courage?