bullyxtreme Chapter 1151 The war ends, two years later
Chapter 1151 The war ends, two years later
When Lu Ci heard Lu Jin say that he wanted her to help him cultivate, he was taken aback and punched him away.
“Help you cultivate? That’s impossible! I’ll just beat you up!” Lu Ci said, shaking his wrist.
He couldn't bring himself to use Lu Jin as a punching bag. But if he were to use Lu Jin as a punching bag during a fight, he could not only do it, but he would also find it very interesting.
Lu Jin rolled twice on the gravel-strewn ground before getting up, looking rather disheveled. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, laughing angrily, "You little brat."
White Qi surged around him, and Lu Jin, in full Reverse Life mode, charged towards Lü Ci.
The two immediately started fighting in the open space.
The fists and palms collided, producing a dull sound.
During the fight, Lu Jin's reverse-life state, composed of Qi, was repeatedly torn apart by Lü Ci.
The white Qi flowed out in the air like a tattered cloth, but was then forcibly gathered by Lu Jin and quickly rebuilt.
During this process, Lu Jin inevitably suffered injuries and coughed up large amounts of blood.
Lu Jin's wife, Lin Yu, felt distressed and immediately went to ask Duanmu Ying for treatment.
Duanmu Ying naturally wouldn't refuse. Such an external injury was nothing more than a piece of cake for her. A red light emanated from her palm and covered Lu Jin's wound, causing the damaged muscles to heal quickly.
After recovering, Lu Jin charged at Lü Ci again, and the two began a fierce battle.
During this process, Lü Ci inevitably suffered injuries, and Duanmu Ying quickly treated Lü Ci's wounds.
The two would fight several matches every day, and through repeated tearing and rebuilding, Lu Jin could feel that his control over Qi was becoming more and more refined, and the speed of reconstructing his body was also getting faster and faster. His cultivation of the Reverse Life Triple Realm was steadily improving under the tempering of actual combat.
Lu Ci's skills were also improving, and his life cultivation was extremely high, but he was still lacking in the finesse of his skills and could not perfectly reach the level that Senior Brother Zhang had described to him.
In the intense confrontation with Lu Jin, his mastery of the Ruyi Zhenjin technique became increasingly refined.
It is said that for those who cultivate themselves, the most important things are wealth, companions, Dharma, and environment.
The two became Daoist partners and fought each other every day. In the process of fighting, they both improved.
The two also realized their own improvement, so they fought with increasing enthusiasm.
At first, Duanmu Ying was a little worried when she saw that they looked like they wanted to beat someone to a pulp, fearing that they might accidentally kill someone.
But gradually, she relaxed. She realized that although the two men were ruthless, they were both measured in their actions.
"Spare the rod and spoil the child"—this saying might not be entirely appropriate for them, but these two are indeed practically like brothers.
Not long after, a message spread throughout the land.
The news came from the radio.
That afternoon, the announcer's voice trembled, and it took three repetitions to finish reading.
Some people on the street heard this and froze in place. Others rushed into the alley, banging on every door and shouting, "The Japanese pirates have surrendered!"
The newspaper editors dropped their manuscripts and rushed into the streets. Some jumped onto tables and shouted, some hunched over typewriters and typed furiously, and some didn't even bother to clean up the spilled ink bottles, just kept writing.
Immediately afterwards, the newspaper's machines ran at full speed, and the urgently printed "Extra Edition" was scattered all over the streets and alleys like snowflakes.
"The Japanese invaders have surrendered! The War of Resistance has been won!" These bold, large characters occupied the entire page.
Newsboys waved newspapers, running and shouting through the streets, their voices hoarse but full of energy.
People flocked to the streets, beating drums and gongs, performing lion and dragon dances, and setting off deafening firecrackers.
Strangers embraced on the street, laughing and saying, "We won, we won!"
Someone was crying, squatting in the corner, covering their face and sobbing.
The humiliation and fear that had been suppressed for eight years were finally released at this moment.
The world of supernatural beings was also immersed in revelry.
The small inns and taverns in various places were bustling with activity.
"The Japanese devils have surrendered! Cheers!" A man with a full beard raised his wine bowl and drank it all in one gulp.
"Those sons of bitches, they've finally gone back to their wretched island!" someone nearby chimed in.
"Hahaha, I knew it! I knew those little devils wouldn't last long!" An old man dressed as a Taoist priest slammed his fist on the table and shouted.
"Come on, just a few months ago you were saying the Japanese were going to invade Chongqing, and you packed all your belongings." A middle-aged man next to him exposed his weakness.
"Is that me? That's Old Wang from next door! Don't try to pin this on me!" the old Taoist priest glared.
"Alright, alright, everyone, say less." A fat monk holding a wine bowl said with a smile, "We're happy today, let's drink."
"Yes, let's drink!" someone stood up and raised their bowl, "For our brothers who died!"
"For our fallen brothers!" Everyone stood up, their wine bowls clinking together.
After a bowl of wine, he started talking non-stop.
"Let me tell you, two years ago when I was fighting as a guerrilla in North China, I ran into a strange squad of Japanese soldiers, and they were incredibly difficult to deal with..."
"Difficult to deal with? That's because you haven't met your match yet. Let me tell you, when I was in Changjun..."
"Come on, what you've seen is nothing compared to what I've been to Changbai Mountain with the Little Celestial Master. That was truly an eye-opening experience..."
Everyone perked up at the mention of the Little Celestial Master.
Some say the Little Celestial Master single-handedly destroyed the Japanese railway company; others say he revived hundreds of wounded soldiers on the battlefield, bringing the dead back to life; still others say he left behind a talisman before going into seclusion, which suppressed the entire Tiantong Cathedral, preventing the Japanese from entering.
"When will the Little Celestial Master emerge from seclusion?" someone asked.
"I don't know. Little Celestial Master has been in seclusion for many years now, and we haven't heard from him at all. Could something have happened to him?"
"What nonsense are you spouting? Even if something happens to you, the Little Celestial Master will be fine."
"Yes, yes, the Little Celestial Master is incredibly powerful, he'll definitely be fine. Once he comes out, our world of supernatural beings will be lively again." "Isn't it lively now? Look, isn't it lively enough?!"
Amidst the cheers and jubilation, Wang Ai, as the leader of the Tiantong Chamber of Commerce, sensed the undercurrents hidden behind the revelry.
He sat at his desk, flipping through account books from various locations, his brow furrowed.
Prices are still rising. In the past few years of fighting, prices in Chongqing have increased by almost two thousand times.
The situation in Shanghai is even more exaggerated, with prices increasing tens of thousands of times.
Before the war, one hundred French currency coins could buy more than a cow.
Now, I can barely afford to buy two eggs.
As a businessman, Wang Ai was extremely sensitive to numbers, and he secretly investigated the amount of currency printed over the years.
When the legal tender was first introduced, the issuance was 1.4 billion. Now, it's almost 600 billion, more than doubled. The foundation of the economy has long since crumbled.
Although the war was won and many cities were recovered, what remained was a devastated mess.
The factory equipment was moved away, destroyed, and transportation lines were cut off. Everything was in ruins and needed to be rebuilt. To get back on track, the first thing needed was money and food.
Where will the money come from? Unless we can get huge war reparations from the Japanese pirates.
But Wang Ai thought this was unrealistic. The Japanese pirates' side was also a mess, a dilapidated place with nothing, and they couldn't possibly compensate for it.
Moreover, even if compensation is to be paid, it will be prioritized to those major powers, and China will probably not even get a share.
There's no money, and no food either. The war over the years has drained the rural areas of their savings over eight years, leaving them unable to supply anything.
However, the cities that were taken back needed to be taken over, and the huge civil service workforce required salaries, which suddenly increased the burden many times over.
It is foreseeable that the authorities will continue to print money, and prices will continue to inflate.
At this juncture, far-sighted leaders will certainly quickly digest the assets acquired after the victory, restore production, and do their utmost to salvage the economy.
But what Wang Ai saw was not "receiving," but "seizing."
A large amount of assets that should have been used for the benefit of the people and for restoring production were swallowed up by bureaucratic capital. Some people took the opportunity to make a fortune, arbitrarily labeling others and forcibly seizing even normal civilian assets as "enemy property." They were caught up in a money-making frenzy.
A wave of bankruptcies is spreading, factories are shutting down, and workers are losing their jobs. The economy is not improving at all; in fact, it is deteriorating rapidly.
In other words, if we are facing a situation where we have no money, then we can only continue to print money. Just think about how prices have increased tens of thousands of times and will continue to increase.
Wang Ai couldn't help but cover his head. He felt that those people in charge of economics were being too kind; they were nothing but a bunch of stupid pigs and donkeys.
"There's no hope in their hands. Those idiots can't get anything done. I need to make plans soon."
"If anyone dares to lay a finger on me... I'll make an example of them."
"Killing one person might not be enough to deter others!"
"Anyone who dares to mess with me, I'll make sure their entire family dies a violent death!"
With a weapon at his disposal, the urge to kill arose spontaneously; Wang Ai has certainly made something of himself now.
Over the past year, Wang Ai has used the channels of the Tiantong Church to collect a large amount of spiritual materials.
All of these spirits were absorbed by the vice-leader's artistic puppet.
After absorbing so much spiritual energy, the vice sect leader's pictorial puppet was already quite powerful, surrounded by swirling black energy, resembling a demon god, and possessing earth-shattering power with every move it made.
Wang Ai was even confident that even if Hedgehog and Lu Mang came, they might not be able to defeat his artistic puppet.
Of course, this is all on the premise that these two people uphold martial ethics and only fight the puppets, not him personally. If these two people ignore the puppets and attack his real body directly, he will still have a hard time defending himself.
However, Wang Ai was not without a strategy. He had a world of painting, and if all else failed, he could open a door and enter that world.
Once an opponent follows him in and enters his territory, they are at his mercy. In the art world, he is the absolute ruler.
At this point, Wang Ai can be considered to have truly joined the ranks of the top people in the world of supernatural beings, possessing both offensive and defensive capabilities and having no weaknesses.
Wang Ai's achievements delighted her father, who exclaimed, "Everyone looked down on you when you were little, but you turned out to be the most promising one. I knew I hadn't misjudged our precious child."
Subsequently, the head of the Wang family abdicated and passed the position to Wang Ai.
Therefore, Wang Ai now has both influence and strength.
However, with great success comes great scrutiny, and he naturally attracted a lot of attention. There were quite a few people who coveted the Chamber of Commerce's assets, and he faced constant attacks, both overt and covert.
But Wang Ai resolved all these troubles with extremely ruthless methods.
An official attempted to seize the Chamber of Commerce's warehouse under the pretext of "confiscating enemy property." The next day, various pieces of evidence of the official's corruption appeared in the newspaper, and the entire family, ashamed, committed suicide.
A gang attempted to extort money during the chaos, and that night, a number of high-ranking gang members died mysteriously and in a gruesome manner.
If this kind of thing happens a few more times, no one will dare to have bad intentions.
After the war ended, Lü Ci, Lu Jin, Tian Jinzhong and other extraordinary individuals who participated in the resistance against Japan left one after another, took off their military uniforms and returned to the mountains to cultivate.
With the external enemy eliminated, the subsequent worldly disputes are no longer their concern.
They are people outside the secular world, and they will eventually return to where they belong.
Of course, some extraordinary individuals choose to stay and create a better future through their interactions and collaborations.
Then, they actually collided.
A new era has arrived.
On this day, the whole country celebrated, and red flags waved.
This day also marked the approaching end of Zhang Zhiwei's twelve-year period of nurturing the sacred embryo. (End of Chapter)