Chapter 126: Tang Clan's Paper Flower (6)

The scene that first came to mind when Qing said she would participate in the strategy meeting was like this:

An impressively made model of a wide view of Tang Clan.

A complex blackboard and papers full of systematic operation plans with first, second, and third tier formations and rotations.

A serious and heavy atmosphere.

And at the end, even a cool speech to raise morale.

However, the reality was a mess.

It was a scene of all the Tang Clan elders gathered around a roughly drawn map, massaging their arms and legs while chatting idly.

What's this? Didn't they say it was a strategy meeting?

As Qing tilted her head in confusion, one of the elders looked at Tang Nanah with eyes that didn't hide at all how adorable he found her.

It was the kind of look often described as honey dripping from the eyes.

"Ah'er, did you not sleep well? Hoho. It seems you stayed up all night talking with your friend."

At this, Tang Nanah awkwardly avoided eye contact.

Somehow, the tips of her ears were bright red.

"Haha, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. Isn't it natural that when making a good friend, you should lie in the same bed and talk endlessly to become true friends?"

The elder seemed to have a different understanding of the reason.

"When this old man was young, I often lay together with friends. When we lay together and talked while looking at the stars, the hardships of sleeping outdoors didn't seem like much. Looking back, those times were truly beautiful."

"So Ah'er should also laugh, cry, argue, and lie down to talk a lot with friends in your youth. Just like Sun Ce and Zhou Yu did."

"Like the Liu Bei's Three Sworn Brothers did."

"How could we leave out Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi?"

"Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya also shared one bed."

"And Nuo Yao and Ma Li too."

"Hey now, weren't Nuo Yao and Ma Li made-up people?"

"Well, who knows? The names might be different, but it could be a true story heard and written down."

The elders' chatter continued amiably.

Qing took this opportunity to confirm her doubts again.

"So, friends sharing a bed is..."

"Of course. Wouldn't you say it's the first gateway to welcoming a true friend? One should..."

Tang Nanah hadn't lied, but she had been deceiving.

It was because of her cunning desire to try sleeping in the same bed with a friend just once, but it could be considered a mitigating circumstance.

In fact, the saying about lying in one bed and covering with the same blanket meant going through hard times together.

Because the family was poor, they lived sharing one bed and one blanket.

How could the bond formed by sticking together through hard times not be exceptionally strong?

Originally, friends who were well-off would use separate rooms even among siblings and not have to bump into each other.

The Tang Clan elders were well-off even as children, so they meant something else.

They were expressing in a roundabout way that the earth was their bed and the sky their blanket, referring to sleeping outdoors together while wandering in Murim.

Since the elders didn't know about Tang Nanah's vicious deception, their sincere words were ultimately a truly genuine attitude.

It was similar to that unique attitude of elders getting excited to answer when young people ask about something they know?

So Qing completely abandoned her doubts.

Instead, she reflected.

Jangmyeongie must have been very disappointed.

Should I sleep together with her when I go back this time?

But Jangmyeongie is a minor...

How could one share a bed with a minor when the national law was so strict?

It could even be a dangerous act of defying heaven and destroying the earth that might bring about a crisis for the world.

"But what about the strategy meeting?"

"Hoho. The strategy have been established long ago, don’t you think? We've always been prepared and on guard against dangers, so if we were to be busy making strategies now, we'd deserve to perish."

"So what we need to do for the time being is... Ahem."

Tang Touzhong coughed awkwardly.

"What is it?"

"...To endure without giving any pretext."

The plan was to continue the standoff as much as possible while identifying the locations of the artillery, then immediately remove the artillery when the battle starts and lure in the enemy to annihilate them.

However, the process of enduring would involve no small amount of humiliation.

They were in a situation where they couldn't make the first move against those who came looking for trouble on purpose.

Otherwise, they would have to answer for treason with immense compensation.

As in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, for the people of the Central Plains, justification was face, face was their honor, and honor was as important as life itself.

If one drew their sword suddenly saying they wanted to beat the shit out of someone, they would soon be treated as Public Enemy No. 1 of Murim, so one had to fight appropriately while watching for others’ reactions.

Although Murim was essentially just a group of thugs, it was also almost the only safety device that allowed history to continue without major conflicts.

Of course, there were some who wanted to fight right away.

The Demonic Cult bastards who invaded when the time came were like that.

Still, the Demonic Cult wasn't completely without justification.

Ancestral revenge was a well-received justification since ancient times.

Rather than them, the Blood Cult bastards were the worst.

As a group that gathered all the world's scum like madmen, sexual deviants, drug addicts, cannibals, and so on, all they wanted to do was dye the world red with blood, thus causing Blood Disasters. As such, whenever they ran rampant, it became a complete mess.

However, the government couldn't be like that.

Another word for justification was legitimacy.

The government's weakness was always legitimacy.

After all, there was a history of the continent being divided, such as the Rebellion of the Eight Kings1 and the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Five Barbarians2, when people rose up saying they should overthrow the imperial dynasty.

After hearing the situation, Qing thought.

Ah. So Murim wasn't just about “Let’s attack! Let’s defend!” and fighting life-and-death battles.

There are unexpectedly complicated aspects, huh.

----Qing's Righteous Karma score had now exceeded 3,000 Points.

The 1,000 Righteous Karma Points received as a reward for overcoming the First Crisis were instrumental in this amazing rise.

It was Righteous Karma given with the Mission Window making a huge fuss about how it was the Path of Harmony, the Greatest Hidden Achievement, and whatever.

One could say it was worth overcoming a Crisis.

So that meant three martial arts.

Qing took time to seriously consider again.

This was no time to be stingy with Righteous Karma exchanges when facing a potentially decisive battle.

First, the Yijin Cleansing Method. Isn't it a bit useless?

It was a martial art with great efficacy in building muscles and strengthening the dantian and meridians.

However, her physical abilities had already transcended human limits, and her dantian and meridians weren't just strong but completely invincible, remaining fine even with all sorts of Inner Qi flowing through them.

Learning it would only give her something to boast about to her Master.

Then, is there a need to learn a martial art that wouldn't have much effect...

Wait!

Master would like it, so how could I not learn this?

I have three martial arts to exchange, so let's count one as filial piety.

Qing immediately exchanged it, afraid she might regret it later.

With the feeling of her brain turning inside out, she unintentionally imitated a mute that lost their mind, gagging and retching.

The Daoism faction within her dantian cheered again.

As the Great Meditation Art happily extended a hand shape often adopted by the Buddha, the Yijin Cleansing Method also raised a hand in the same shape, and they high-fived each other.

"Ughhhh..."

Meanwhile, Qing just lay there for a while since her brain felt murky.

1. The War of the Eight Princes, Rebellion of the Eight Kings, or Rebellion of the Eight Princes was a series of coups and civil wars among kings/princes of the Chinese Western Jin dynasty from 291 to 306 AD.2. The Sixteen Kingdoms, less commonly the Sixteen States, was a chaotic period in Chinese history from AD 304 to 439 when northern China fragmented into a series of short-lived dynastic states.