Chapter 671 Freedom

The second those rotten corpses appeared, the government confirmed instantly that it was done by the hands of the White Lotus Society. The Imperial Capital city walls were covered in wanted portraits. The bounty on these people kept increasing. For whoever provided the bureaucracy intel on these terrorists, he or she would be rewarded with ten thousand taels of silver. This kind of reward would be ridiculously high even for the Han Empire. As for the law enforcers, if they were able to catch one of them, they would be rewarded with a n.o.ble t.i.tle.

Within a moment, all of the authorities all jumped in the hunt for White Lotus Society members in order to stop the pestilence. Some of them were local citizens volunteering to join the task force. Within the past couple days, all of the dead bodies were no longer allowed to be buried in the ground; instead, they would be cremated under the supervision of the law enforcers to make sure there would be no dead bodies lying around. Seeing the imperial court and all of the local authorities going all-in on this, the whole atmosphere within the city became very intense. Everyone was scared — no one knew when it would turn into a life-threatening epidemic. Yan Liqiang also did not hold back — he put in the orders and asked the north to push even harder, copying the travel pa.s.ses on a bigger scale and a faster speed…

The imperial court had given Yan Liqiang five thousand travel pa.s.ses each month, and he asked Fang Beidou to make more than fifty thousand travel pa.s.ses within only half a month. Besides Yan Liqiang’s group themselves, others would be able to use these travel pa.s.ses. The rest of the travel pa.s.ses had been delegated through different channels. Before he knew it, Yan Liqiang had become the first person in the history of the Great Han Empire to make fake pa.s.ses.

Under this kind of situation, Fang Beidou who was in charge of making the fake travel pa.s.ses would no longer dare to stay within the Imperial Capital. Instead, he traveled to Hui Province and changed his appearance and name to live a quieter life while using pigeons to communicate with Yan Liqiang preparing to run at any time…

The fake travel pa.s.ses could fool anyone’s eyes. Managed by Fang Beidou, all of the talented craftsmen and their families had been moved out with the network left from the newspaper office and reputation, in addition to some taels of silvers. They followed behind the commerce team and the security team — some of them got on boats while some others got on carriages — they were like cargo on a production line, following the route Yan Liqiang had thought out before heading to Gan Province and Qiyun County.

The Imperial Capital was in complete chaos, but while the capital was in this crisis, all of the carriage services, poultry trading, and escort services had become extra busy in the nearby provinces. The shabby-looking four-wheel carriage, the expensive horses, or even the normal donkeys that were hard to sell normally at this time of year were actually out of stock. The owners of these businesses, including the craftsmen making the carriages, started collecting parts and worked overtime to meet the demand. The endless taels of silver from the northwestern monetary house helped provide these residents of the Imperial Capital a chance in life.

Right now, a four-wheeled carriage would be the only hope for a lot of families wanting to leave the city.

Yan Liqiang was still in the city. Right now, he was so sure that the killing weapon Hua Ruxue had told him about would be this epidemic that they were trying to create within the capital. He was angry that the White Lotus Society would even think about using bioweapons. So before Fang Beidou managed to move out all the people and before the arrival of the Heavenly Tribulation, he would not and could not let the White Lotus Society ruin the city.

…

Late at night, the whole land was shrouded in darkness, the clouds covered the sky, and most of the stars were like fireflies hidden within the thick mist. The loudness of the day had disappeared completely, pure evil appeared along with the darkness…

Yan Liqiang was like a nail on atree branch — his body stood straight on the peak of the highest mountain inside Deer Vila. His clothes danced in the wind as he looked down from the top, watching the empty ground outside Deer Villa quietly. In the distance, the flame around Imperial Capital city walls connected into a line in the darkness, bouncing extra brightly tonight. In his eyes, those jumping flames became dots of deep cold light.

The night breeze blew up his hair, and touched his cheeks. Although it was still a bit cold at night, he could feel the hint of warmth from the coming spring.

He stood on the highest mountain peaks, but above him, a ma.s.sive Fiery-Eyed Golden Falcon hid within the dark sky. It flew in between the clouds like a scout plane. Its sharp eyes scanned the land inch by inch.

It had been a week since Yan Liqiang started doing this.

Ever since he had called back the Fiery-Eyed Golden Falcon, he would come here every night for the past couple of days, waiting for something to happen.

The wider spread of the pestilence had not happened yet. So the White Lotus Society would definitely continue their mission until they reached their goal. Although they seemed to quiet down now given the law enforcers patrolling the streets, Yan Liqiang believed that they would not stop — they were bound to make a move. This kind of evil business would definitely not be conducted during the day; it was only possible at night. He knew that even if he did not sleep at all, with his power alone, there still would be blind spots that he could not cover. It would be impossible to track their movements like this, but with the Fiery-Eyed Golden Falcon, everything was different.

The wind had brought up Yan Liqiang’s dark hair. He reached out with his hand, feeling the wind brush through his fingers and palm…

“I see, perhaps this is the feeling of being free…” He looked at his own fingers and smiled gently. The kind of joyful, out-of-the-world calmness in his heart would not be something that everyone could understand.

Ever since half a month ago when he decided to hold nothing back and asked Fang Beidou to forge travel pa.s.ses with the worst-case scenarios thought out, he could feel that invisible chain that had been restraining him suddenly shatter and disappear completely. He felt like he finally managed to walk out from a clay vessel as if he was just reborn.

Sometimes, when you decide to break out from limitations and face your fear head-on or fight something you have been too terrified to confront, the first reward you would receive would be the sense of freedom which would arise from the bottom of your heart. Fate would decide where you would appear, while power would tell you the rules that you needed to follow. But they could never stop you from chasing after your own freedom unless you chose to conform to authorities and stop listening to that voice deep inside your heart. It would be like a bird flapping its own wings.

Tonight, the wind that blew through the mountains was great, and the clouds in the sky were huge. Yan Liqiang was just waiting quietly like he did for the previous couple nights.

The clock had just ticked through one in the morning. The falcon had sent a message to him. A bright light flashed past his eyes, and his body disappeared into the wind within a second and turned into a wave of heavy gust, shooting towards the southwest direction of Deer Vila.