"Where is the Special Operations Camp?" Liu Yong asked.

"Twenty-five *li*. We have been changing our identities, advancing in teams of various sizes. So the distance has never been far," Zhou Rui replied.

"Do you know the location of that cavalry unit?" Liu Yong knew that the Special Operations Camp and the cavalry had always maintained good contact to coordinate their positions.

"If this humble general is not mistaken, they should be quietly following behind that Chunnan army right now. That's how they used carrier pigeons to notify us, and then I came to report," Zhou Rui said confidently.

"Well done." Liu Yong praised, "This time, we will record your meritorious service. Let's go, let's go see Ye Jinglue. In this situation, whatever we say doesn't count. Hehe."

When they arrived at the study, Ye Tao had just finished disassembling and reassembling the box provided by Wang Shi, and had also completed the first simulation of picking the lock. He was relieved, preparing to rest before starting to crack the Canglong Box. Although it was a simulation, Ye Tao, who was working seriously, was covered in sweat and was drinking cold tea in large gulps. After listening to Liu Yong's explanation of the situation, Ye Tao immediately moved to the room where Chen Kai was placed.

Without a loud announcement or a retinue of followers, Ye Tao walked into the room so inconspicuously. This scene couldn't help but make Chen Kai's heart flash with a trace of doubt.

"Are you Chen Kai? What do you want to say?" Ye Tao asked.

"Are you Ye Tao?" Chen Kai's question was quite rude, but it directly reflected his suspicion.

"Yes. I am," Ye Tao's answer was still simple and plain, yet it revealed a solid and substantial confidence.

"Lord Ye," Chen Kai reluctantly cupped his fist in salute; his current state made it difficult for him to even move. "Those who hunted me down killed my family. In order for me to escape, my last few subordinates also died last night. Those guys who hunted me down are definitely not some martial world gangs as they claim to be. They are a bunch of madmen, a bunch of hypocrites, a bunch of ungrateful thugs..." Chen Kai became agitated.

"You don't have to be agitated. Who exactly are you? And who are the people hunting you down?" Ye Tao asked calmly, stating the most basic and crucial question.

"I am the eleventh-generation descendant of Chen Jia, the last prime minister of the previous dynasty. You should be familiar with my ancestor, right? Lord Ye, if you hadn't created the so-called Great Historical School, and discovered the abnormalities of my ancestor through historical research methods, perhaps I wouldn't be in this situation now. Of course, it's only temporary," Chen Kai said in a self-deprecating tone, revealing an identity that surprised everyone. "And those who are hunting me down are naturally those who don't want the various pieces of evidence contained in that Canglong Box to be revealed to the world."

"Evidence? Evidence to prove what?" Ye Tao asked.

"To prove that my ancestor Chen Jia was not the root cause of the previous dynasty's demise. He was certainly not a loyal or upright minister, nor could he turn the tide, but he was not a great traitor who led to the downfall of the dynasty! To prove that the imperial family of the previous dynasty still has descendants living in the world! To prove that the Daoming Sect did not originate from divine bestowal but is composed of a group of ambitious people and hypocrites! To prove... to prove... to prove that the hope for the revitalization of the Central Plains Datang in those years was destroyed by a small group of people. Isn't that enough?" Chen Kai said eagerly.

Ye Tao, however, still maintained an unperturbed expression, only raising his eyebrows and saying, "It's still quiet outside, and not yet at war. Can you briefly tell me what you know? I'm very interested in these stories."

Chen Kai seemed completely oblivious to Ye Tao's deliberate belittling of the historically proven evidence as mere stories. He began to slowly narrate the events that started twenty or thirty years before the demise of the previous dynasty, Datang. Although it sounded simple, the various situations contained within were already deeply moving.

Chen Jia was indeed not a loyal or upright minister, but undoubtedly, he was the last capable minister before the fall of Datang. Chen Jia started his career as an ordinary scholar, and in the corrupt officialdom of the time, he had no better background than anyone else. However, Chen Jia started as a minor official supervising local tax revenue. While constantly delivering several times the performance of his colleagues, he also skillfully flattered his superiors, and soon entered the Ministry of Revenue. Before he was even forty years old, he became the Vice Minister of Revenue. Due to his outstanding performance and rich and thoughtful interpersonal skills, he thrived in the central government and was also highly regarded by Yang Yin, the last emperor of Datang. After more than ten years of political maneuvering, he finally became a prime minister. And he remained in this position until the day Datang fell.

In those years, Chen Jia's various insights and methods in financial management were unmatched. In particular, he had decades of experience in bribery and accepting bribes, and he was very experienced and creative in various methods of transferring assets. Yang Yin took a fancy to him and helped the imperial family transfer assets. At that time, Yang Yin had already realized that the demise of Datang was imminent, and it all depended on when the last straw that broke the dynasty's back would fall. Was it a natural disaster or a man-made disaster? Anything was possible. Yang Yin himself wanted to die with the dynasty, but he wanted his two sons to be able to live well, even as commoners.

Chen Jia accepted this challenge as prime minister. Although he was indeed not a model minister, although his efforts to maintain his image on the surface were almost equal to his efforts to manage things privately, he did have a hope, an expectation, and a love for Datang. And after serving as prime minister, when he saw enough and deeply enough, when he realized that he could not change the disintegration of a huge unified country no matter what, he naturally became more and more depraved. However, when Yang Yin made such a request, Chen Jia followed it to the letter, perhaps for the only time, he followed the imperial decree without any discount, but rather somewhat exceeded it.

In order to achieve this, Chen Jia even forged the empire's last glow of glory. Small military victories, increased agricultural production, rectification of officialdom, and even auspicious omens from the heavens, as if the hope of revitalization was at hand. And at that time, Chen Jia's glorious image, before those abnormalities were revealed, was also the general impression in everyone's mind: Chen Jia was a capable minister. In fact, Chen Jia was using various extreme methods to overdraft the power of the entire empire for many years to come. At that time, the tax squeeze on ordinary people, the various exploitations of landlords and wealthy households without backgrounds, and the severity of the punishments and the grim situation were such that it was really Chen Jia's skill that no large-scale rebellions were provoked. A large amount of money, in addition to being used to maintain the empire's huge expenses, was used in various ways to buy time for the empire for Chen Jia to make deployments, and was transferred by Chen Jia in various ways. In fact, the various means of misappropriation and transfer of assets that Chen Jia had tried at that time were simply a wonderful tutorial.

Chen Jia, in coordination with the national teacher Wuchenzi, formed a loyal army with the sole goal of protecting the imperial family's descendants. They also bought many assets in various forms and entrusted them to suitable families to operate, so that the imperial family's descendants could use the dividends every year to ensure sufficient expenses. Some arrangements existed hundreds of years ago, and are still constantly reflected in the well-run commercial firms today.

Naturally, Chen Jia would not do these things without rewards. Many relatives and friends of the Chen family received some benefits more or less. As for the wealth Chen Jia left for his own family, although it was indeed a little less than the part that the imperial family's descendants could enjoy, the difference was not particularly surprising. After all of Chen Jia's arrangements were implemented one by one, the Datang Empire died as a matter of course.

Because it was surrounded by mountains, Xiling at that time could be regarded as a paradise. Most of Chen Jia's arrangements were in Xiling. After arriving in Xiling, the Chen family went into hiding, wanting to preserve the secret generation after generation, until everyone had almost completely erased the memory of the previous dynasty. However, it seemed that the situation was not that simple.

The national teacher Wuchenzi and the Chen family were old friends. Wuchenzi worked diligently and put a lot of effort into taking care of the imperial family's descendants, and he didn't allow any mistakes in any aspect. Although this national teacher was not a smart person, he was not a treacherous villain. He was still very kind. But one of Wuchenzi's disciples was completely different. After learning Wuchenzi's Taoism and martial arts, that disciple named Qianjun had other ideas.

For Wuchenzi, who had no children, Qianjun was like his own child. Qianjun inherited Wuchenzi's position without any obstacles or suspense. On the point of jointly protecting the imperial family's descendants, Qianjun was also unswerving, because for him, there was indeed nothing more beneficial to himself than doing this well, and nothing that could leave more of an aftertaste. But Qianjun had been tirelessly doing one thing for more than ten or dozens of years after the demise of Datang: summoning the soul of the fallen country.

Qianjun tried various methods: secret societies, assassinations, intimidation, spreading mysterious ideas, and so on. Because the last few years of Datang's demise had left a bad impression in the minds of the people, Qianjun had not achieved any real results. But both he and his disciples slowly realized the strange bewitching power of secret societies and mysticism. Therefore, while the imperial family's descendants were hidden deeper and deeper, and were even gradually not informed of their true identities, but were only treated as a reclusive family with a very big background, generation after generation, this system was expanded and completed, and eventually became the prototype of the Daoming Sect.

When the power of the Daoming Sect began to accumulate to a certain level, there was indeed the gradual accumulation of skills and experience of Wuchenzi, Qianjun and other professional swindlers, but more importantly, it was the continuous war and annexation of vassal states that occurred in almost the entire territory of the divided unified empire that made many ordinary people realize that although the last years of Datang were indeed not good, at least many people could still have a way to survive. But in this war between the vassal states, even wanting to survive was not so simple. After the world was divided into four parts, forming a relatively stable situation, the situation was greatly improved due to the recuperation of various countries, which only intermittently attacked each other after their strength had accumulated to a certain level, and the war became more and more limited to the scope of strictly trained professional soldiers, but at this time, the Daoming Sect had actually formed a climate. Even if, at that time, the Daoming Sect was not even called the Daoming Sect, and had not yet finally realized its own power.