Zhang San, please behave yourself!
Chapter 494 - 462: The Town Martial Office’s Plan Involving the Heavenly Punishment Sect!

Chapter 494: Chapter 462: The Town Martial Office’s Plan Involving the Heavenly Punishment Sect!

Zhang San returned to the military camp at night and stayed in his own tent for a while before he left, riding the Black Chi Horse straight to the north.

The soldiers were now accustomed to Zhang San suddenly going out.

But this time, Zhang San wasn’t heading north to raid the Tujue; instead, he arrived at a very secluded place to meet an old granny.

"Granny, have you been waiting long? It’s my fault for being late."

The person Zhang San came to see was none other than Pockmarked Granny of the Heavenly Punishment Sect.

Upon seeing Zhang San, Pockmarked Granny smiled faintly and said, "Saint Heir, it’s no trouble at all, I just arrived myself."

As she spoke, Pockmarked Granny took out a stack of papers from her Storage Ring, each end pressed down by a wooden board.

"These are all the documents you requested, Saint Heir. They contain information on all the martial factions of the northern region of the Longyun Path. Those that are colluding with the Tujue or are somewhat unusual, including the intelligence about Wind Divine Hall that you specifically asked for, are all on top."

Zhang San immediately opened this important intelligence document and while looking through it, he listened to Pockmarked Granny recount the complex relations between the various martial factions of the Longyun Path.

After a moment, Zhang San selected three sets of documents and handed them to Pockmarked Granny, asking, "Granny, are these three factions ours, or do we have people among them?"

Pockmarked Granny glanced at them and said, "Saint Heir should know about the situation of the Wind Divine Hall since White Cloud is there. But this target you’ve noticed indeed has issues."

"As for the other two, they have no connection with us."

Zhang San was then relieved. Although he planned to make a move on certain martial factions, he also needed to avoid harming his own people from the Heavenly Punishment Sect.

"It’s just... Saint Heir, you want to take action against them as soon as you arrive; what is it you’re planning?"

Zhang San said with a smile, "Granny, since you’ve watched over me since I was little, I’ll tell you the truth. I have already applied to the Town Martial Office and Principal Officer Xuanwu has agreed to let me establish a branch of the Town Martial Office in the northern part of the Longyun Path. Then, I plan to take the opportunity to slowly integrate our people in."

Hearing this bold plan, Pockmarked Granny’s eyes lit up.

"Do you need our people to support anything?"

After thinking for a moment, Zhang San said, "I need to take action against these three factions. Aside from keeping it low-key with Wind Divine Hall, we need to make a big commotion with the other two, especially this one. So, after I arrive at Spring Breeze Town, have our people pretend to track me and then deliberately spread the news. That way, everyone will know what Zhang San has done, and it will be easier for me to sit down and talk with them."

Pockmarked Granny nodded and smiled, "Saint Heir, don’t worry, I will instruct them to do so as soon as I return."

Zhang San immediately smiled at Pockmarked Granny and said, "Then I must trouble you, Granny. After all, since I am within the Longyun Path, I’m wary of being noticed by others, so I could only ask you to come to such a place late at night to meet. Thank you for your efforts."

"It’s no trouble at all. Saint Heir, you’re the one I watched grow up from a small child. Back then, I worried about how to handle your mischievousness. Especially when as a child, Saint Heir, you always fantasized about an old man coming to your doorstep to pass on peerless skills to you, hahaha... In those days, that little rascal grew up to be the towering Saint Heir of our Heavenly Punishment Sect. It’s wonderful."

Zhang San was momentarily stunned, never having imagined that his predecessor had dreamt of an old man coming to his door to teach him skills as a child.

Wait a minute!

Could this have something to do with his Golden Finger?

But Zhang San still chuckled and chatted with Pockmarked Granny for a bit before bidding her farewell.

After parting ways, Zhang San began to ponder over the matter of his Golden Finger.

Previously, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhang San felt that there was a period when his body seemed to have lost its memory, and now, hearing what Pockmarked Granny said, it seemed that his Golden Finger might be related to his predecessor’s childhood experiences.

Could it be that his predecessor hadn’t died, or at least not completely?

This matter might be related to the Soul Cleansing Technique of the Town Martial Office.

But for now, he was unable to get involved with that project unless he could distinguish himself in the north and then be ennobled by Kaihuang.

At that point, even if he declared himself to be from the Heavenly Punishment Sect, it would not matter, and he could investigate the Soul Cleansing matter within the Town Martial Office.

But for now, he had to focus on the present.

With this in mind, Zhang San looked up at the starry sky above the grassland and listened to the night wind howling in his ears.

He felt that merely going back like this would make it hard to explain why he was out so late at night.

Yet to go and raid the Tujue for cattle and sheep, Zhang San knew it would be difficult to sell stolen livestock in the short term; it would be better to visit Prince Ying Jun of the Ying Zhao clan first.

Thus, Zhang San arrived in the vicinity of Stone Mouth Mountain.

Since the Ying Zhao clan focused their defenses to the north, he encountered almost none of them on this southern route.

But when Zhang San arrived near the encampment of the Ying Zhao clan, he discovered that within the tribe, a strange and eerie ritual was taking place.

The ritual resembled an altar, and at its center lay nine members of the Ying Zhao clan, now collapsed upon it, their blood slowly flowing across the altar, traveling along its engraved lines towards the edges.

Around the altar were over a hundred War Horses, all tied up, with hemp ropes smeared with various unknown herbs on them, and Runes carved into the ground around them.

As the Ying Zhao chanted something in the distance, the blood flowing from the altar turned into drops of crimson beads upon leaving the altar, falling into the mouths of these horses.

Some horses, after swallowing the bloody beads, began to neigh and roar, shaking violently, and after a while, the bodies that convulsed relentlessly finally stopped moving, lying on the ground motionless.

But there were also horses that, after ingesting the bloody beads, roared continuously, their bodies splitting open, even developing markings resembling tiger stripes, and their heads transforming dramatically, eventually taking the form of the Ying Zhao.

At that moment, Zhang San finally understood why Prince Ying Jun had been so keen on acquiring horses.

It turned out that the Ying Zhao clan possessed a Secret Technique that could turn these horses into their own clan members.

Since he had witnessed the secrets of the Ying Zhao clan, it would not be quite right to leave stealthily, so Zhang San took Hei with him, then had Hei transform into a Chi Dragon, and rode it boldly from the south, flying over.

"Prince Ying Jun, I’ve come to drink with you!"