The Japanese invaders' headquarters in Beiping City went up in flames. The commander-in-chief, Chiba Naozo, went missing, along with Chief of Staff Akutagawa Jiro, Deputy Commander Kishimoto Shigenan, and over thirty other colonels and lieutenant colonels. It was presumed they had all burned to death, their remains consumed by the fire.
When this exhilarating news broke, the morale of the Dragon Kingdom's resistance forces soared. Everyone fought with fearless heroism, and on the southern and central battlefields, the Japanese invaders were forced into a series of retreats.
The Japanese Special Higher Police and their four major intelligence agencies—plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum—flooded into Beiping City to investigate the cause of the blaze and hunt for the culprit.
Six Japanese divisions and six mixed brigades stationed in Beiping cordoned off the city, allowing people to enter but none to leave, determined to capture the arsonist and wash away their shame.
The Kuomintang’s bald-headed leader even issued a reward, promising the rank of Major General to the arsonist, though he had no idea who had done it and could find no one to claim the reward.
The leaders of the Sacred Land and Mr. Wu Hao also dispatched underground operatives to find this hero.
Liu Haidong, a leader of the guerrilla force outside Beiping City, caught wind of the news and immediately guessed that the young Taoist priest from Tianyun Taoist Temple was responsible. He specifically sought out Little Monk Xingshan, who was in the midst of strenuous martial arts training, to inquire.
"Little Master Xingshan, the headquarters building in Beiping City has burned down. All the Japanese officers inside, including the commander-in-chief, were consumed by the flames. Do you have any guess as to who did it?"
"No need to guess. It must have been that bull-nosed little Taoist. Anyone who can manifest sword qi has reached the realm of a Martial Grandmaster; killing those devils is easy for him. He’s pulled off another great feat—it seems I must train even harder."
Upon hearing the news, Little Monk Xingshan did not hesitate to name Luo Jiang. He had seen Luo Jiang kill Japanese soldiers; that sword qi, over half a meter long, could slice through steel. Moreover, Luo Jiang possessed the Wind-Riding Technique, allowing him to leave no tracks on snow, so infiltrating the heavily guarded Japanese headquarters would not have been difficult.
"Do you think we could find him if we went to Tianyun Taoist Temple? What do you think about getting him to join our ranks?" Captain Liu Haidong also wanted to recruit Luo Jiang, fearing that if he were snatched up by the Kuomintang Army, the loss would be immense.
"I don’t think he’ll join. He once told me his master left him to guard the temple. I’ve also heard from my own master that all the various Taoist sects of the Dragon Kingdom have joined forces and gone down the mountains to fight the Japanese; only young acolytes were left behind in the temples. As for our Buddhism, only my master and my uncles took the senior brothers down the mountain; I don't know about the others."
"If that’s the case, then never mind. You continue your training! Our troops need to practice as well."
Although Liu Haidong had inquired, he remained uncertain. The incident was simply too massive, and he found it hard to believe a young Taoist could have pulled it off, so he did not report it to his superiors.
Inside the quadrangle courtyard, Luo Jiang had to deal with groups of Japanese soldiers and puppet traitors coming for inspections every day. He had already handed out over a hundred ocean-dollar coins; if he didn't pay them, these treacherous puppet soldiers would find any excuse to extort money.
The Japanese were also fond of the silver coins. As long as he paid, they would chime, "Yosh! You are a good citizen. Pass, pass."
After dealing with the inspections by day, Luo Jiang would turn those same puppet soldiers into ash by night, while also seizing the money and valuables they had looted.
He was particularly ruthless with the traitors; he emptied their homes of valuable furniture, gold bars, antiques, silver coins, and grain—collecting almost anything he deemed useful.
Whenever Japanese soldiers came to inspect the house, Li Fucheng and his wife, Guo Yunxia, would have her smear soot on her face, and Li would go out with silver coins to appease the soldiers and traitors.
For seven or eight days, the search continued, but the Japanese remained clueless. They had arrested plenty of suspects, yet they could not find the real arsonist.
Luo Jiang spent these nights hunting traitors. He left the Japanese alone for the time being, brewing a much larger surprise for them.
Through his contact with Li Fucheng and his wife over these past few days, he had realized they were underground workers, though he did not know for which side.
He now frequently read the newspapers that arrived via small channels and knew that the Kuomintang and the Red Party had united to fight the Japanese, so he made a point not to harm any Kuomintang members. He believed that anyone fighting the Japanese was one of his own.
He wanted to find the Red Party to ask for news of his parents and brothers, but he had never seen anyone from the Red Party in Beiping City.
The guerrilla force he had seen previously he assumed were just local anti-Japanese insurgents, mainly because he knew the Red Party members wore gray uniforms with a red star on their peaked caps. Since those guerrillas didn't match that description, he didn't seek them out for information.
His intelligence was limited, and because he avoided contact with others—speaking only to Little Monk Xingshan—he remained isolated. If Little Monk Xingshan hadn't also been killing Japanese soldiers, Luo Jiang wouldn't have bothered talking to that little Buddhist monk at all; the things his senior brothers had said about Buddhism were already deeply ingrained in his heart.
"Little Brother Luo, come and eat." Guo Yunxia would call him over after she finished cooking.
Luo Jiang would also provide them with flour and rice; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to stomach the mixed-grain flour. The steamed buns made of mixed flour in his kitchen were merely a facade for the Japanese and traitors to see.
Guo Yunxia’s cooking was delicious—certainly better than his own. The couple were underground operatives with ample funding, so they rarely ate the mixed flour. He had seen Li Fucheng going to the black market in the middle of the night to buy real flour, but since he was still young, he simply pretended not to notice.Li Fucheng and his wife, believing Luo Jiang to be nothing more than a child—and with his uncle away from home—often shared meals with him. Besides, Luo Jiang was generous, frequently bringing over several pounds of flour and rice, sometimes even a pound or more of pork; he wasn't eating for free.
"Little brother Luo Jiang, why aren't you going to school? At your age, you should be learning. Only by acquiring knowledge can you achieve great things," Li Fucheng said while eating.
"I don't want to learn the devils' language. Teacher Li, why don't you teach me when you're free? I can pay you tuition, or we could just deduct it from the rent."
Luo Jiang had studied under his master and knew many characters; he could even write calligraphy. But his learning was limited. Furthermore, he had learned to draw talismans from his Uncle Xuan’an, and his Uncle Xuanhe had taught him to identify various medicinal herbs, familiarizing him with their properties and how to concoct remedies like golden sore ointment.
"That’s fine! But the rent still needs to be paid. The school is currently in a semi-suspended state, so I have plenty of spare time. Let’s start tomorrow."
Li Fucheng agreed immediately. His teaching position at Qingshui University was merely a front, and he rarely had classes. With the Japanese forces conducting strict inspections lately, he seldom left the house.
With Li Fucheng and his wife in the quadrangle courtyard, Luo Jiang couldn't leave too early when he went out, lest they need him for something and grow suspicious upon finding him gone. After all, both of them were underground operatives with highly developed vigilance—they were not like ordinary people.
Well past midnight, Luo Jiang employed his Wind-Riding Technique, alighting silently upon the roof before vanishing into the night with a few bounds.
In the east wing, Li Fucheng and his wife, seeing it was the middle of the night, got up, moved their bed aside, and began digging a hole beneath it. One dug while the other shoveled the dirt into sacks.
Li Fucheng soon dug a hole over half a meter deep. Guo Yunxia brought over an iron box a little over a foot high, placed it into the pit, covered it with an oilcloth, laid a wooden board over it, and topped it with bricks. The couple then returned the bed to its original position.
Unaware that the couple was burying items, Luo Jiang had already arrived outside the Japanese barracks in the city. The searchlight from the guard tower swept across the camp, and by its light, he spotted not only a wall but also high barbed wire fences.
Sparks occasionally flickered along the wire. He didn't know why, but thinking he would never touch it anyway, he paid it no mind.
He swept the camp with his Divine Sense and saw, about half a meter from the wall, some round iron balls over half a foot in diameter buried underground. They looked like some kind of weapon; he didn't know they were landmines, but he figured as long as he didn't step on them, he would be fine.
Clear of danger, he used his Wind-Riding Technique to glide over the wire fence, landing like a feather in front of the rows of barracks. He pushed a door open and stepped inside, closing it behind him.
Inside, the sound of snoring filled the room. He saw many Japanese soldiers sleeping on wooden bunks. Against the wall stood their weapon racks, and in the corner, wooden crates of ammunition and grenades were stacked neatly.
He first cleared away the weapons and ammunition, then drew his spiritual short sword and began slitting the throats of the Japanese soldiers, one by one.
Within minutes, every soldier in that barrack had their throat cut by his spiritual short sword; the thick, cloying scent of blood rushed toward him.
After finishing the first row, Luo Jiang moved to the second, first clearing the weapons and ammunition, then starting the throat-slitting.
He moved through the rows like this for over an hour, until almost every soldier of the combined brigade was dead.
During the process, some soldiers woke up, but fortunately, he had his Divine Sense. Before entering each room, he would scout ahead; if he detected anyone awake, he would dispatch them immediately to prevent them from shouting or calling out.
Now, only the sentries in the guard towers and the row of officers' quarters at the front remained. He decided to eliminate the brigade commander and the officers first, then take out the sentries.
There were treasures in the officers' rooms—gold, silver, jewelry, jade, antiques, calligraphy, paintings, watches, sabers, pistols, and leather briefcases—all looted and collected, destined to be shipped back to their homeland.
Moreover, there was only one person per room, making detection less likely.
Once inside the officers' quarters, he began his sweep. Gold bars, silver dollars, jewelry, jade, antiques, calligraphy, paintings, watches, sabers, pistols, and leather briefcases—aside from the corpses, uniforms, and miscellaneous junk, he took everything useful into his storage ring.
In one officer's room, he found two women acting as companions. He didn't know if they were Japanese themselves, but he slit their throats anyway.
After killing the officers, he discovered the armory. It was filled with light and heavy machine guns, mortars, infantry guns, bullets, grenades, canned goods, and medical supplies.
Additionally, there were sixteen motorcycles with sidecars, fifty-five trucks, four black sedans, and over five hundred drums full of gasoline.
Seeing such a massive haul, Luo Jiang was overjoyed. He checked the space inside his storage ring, which still appeared bottomless.
Because his Divine Sense had a limited range, he still didn't know exactly how large the space inside the ring was; he only knew it felt vast.
After checking the space, he exerted his Divine Sense to envelop the supplies. With just a few waves of his hand, the entire stockpile vanished into his storage ring.