Following

Zhou Budo and several people put on a blue-black Taoist robe, wearing a Taoist crown, followed behind the old Taoist priest Mude, and the group passed the inspection of the guards at the city gate without danger and entered the city of Chengdu that was on guard.

When passing by an inn, the old Taoist priest Mude looked back at the street, and he didn't know what he was thinking about in his eyes, but after a while, he led everyone into the inn, took out some broken silver from his sleeve, threw it to the inn's junior two, and opened a private room on the second floor of the inn.

After walking in the group of people, he suddenly smiled and entered the private room, turned around and closed the door in a hurry, and then let out a long sigh of relief, let down the guard in his heart, and sat on the chair in the private room one after another.

Suddenly, he put down the dust in his hand and reached out to wipe his cheek, he was really frightened just now.

At the moment when he entered the gate of Chengdu, he clearly sensed a powerful sense of oppression coming towards him, and that sense of oppression could even make his legs tremble, and at that moment, his body was a little unstable.

At that time, he really understood that the background of the Eastern Xun Kingdom was not much worse than their southern separation, after all, just a guy who was on par with his own cultivation, he had seen no less than ten people one after another along the way, especially the young and unspoken face among those people, which made his pupils shrink sharply.

Although after the cultivation reaches a certain level, they will have some means to rejuvenate their faces, but the youthfulness and youthful vitality that those old monsters can't imitate when they face and the person exudes from the inside out.

Suddenly, he smiled and looked at Shen Baoxu's appearance, and knew that that person would definitely not be Shen Baoxu, so if he said this, that person had no less cultivation than his own at such an age, and he still couldn't rank as the first hidden dragon in Dongxun Kingdom, so it is conceivable that as the first hidden dragon of Shen Baoxu, his cultivation would be so strong.

Kumu, your trip is in danger.

The old Taoist priest Mude, who is nearly 100 years old, naturally saw the change in his expression and breath with a sudden smile, and then thought of the few people that this little guy had watched on the road just now, the old Taoist Mude smiled mysteriously, shook his head lightly with a smile, and handed the dust in his hand to the little Taoist priest standing aside, and the old Taoist Mude was sitting on the chair and said with a smile

"That guy, don't look at his young appearance, but his age is not much different from your little guy, so let's say, don't think that there is any hidden peerless genius in our young generation of Dongxun, at least that guy's talent is a little worse than your little guy and the two of you."

Suddenly, when he heard this, his expression froze, his head was raised stiffly, and he looked at the old Taoist Mude, and this feeling of being said completely by others made him suddenly feel a trace of fear in his heart for some reason.

The old Taoist priest Mude rubbed his fingers, no longer looked at it and smiled, just took a sip of tea by himself, and then continued to say by himself

"Not to mention, that guy is compared to your bitter wood in the south, heh, the fame of the little guy in the bitter wood, the old way has long heard of it, after all, it is a guy who even praises the old guy who is uneven, so ah, little guy, don't think about those who have it, no matter how I say it, it is also an empire, compared with those dynastic countries, little guy, you are still too whimsical, although there will be a gap between empires, but what you have in the south, I don't lack much in Dongxun."

Suddenly, he licked his lips awkwardly, reached out and touched his head, and was a little embarrassed to pick up a cup of tea on the table, and also pretended to drink a sip of tea.

Zhou Budo put his head on the table, raised his eyelids slightly, looked at the old Taoist priest Mude, and asked in a green tone

"Grandpa Mude, what is an empire, and what is a dynastic state?"

To be honest, Zhou Budo is indeed the first time he has heard these two words, in the past, his perception of mainland countries was only the words three major countries and five small countries, empire or something, no one has mentioned the meaning of this to him.

The old Taoist Mude looked at Zhou Budo, and a loving smile suddenly appeared on his face, his good impression of Zhou Dunyi's precious son was still good, so the old Taoist Mude explained to Zhou Budo very seriously.

After explaining a large number of words, Zhou Budo realized this.

It turns out that there are only eight countries on the mainland, three major countries and five small countries, and if the number of countries on the continent is to be counted, there are even nearly 100 countries.

It's just that these eight countries are strong in China, and there are some special reasons in it, so there are three major countries and five small countries that are said by word of mouth.

But this title is generally applied to the mouths of young people, and in the mouths of the older generation, this title is very sloppy.

Because according to the Feng family, which represented the right to speak of the Suiren clan after the liberation of the mainland by the Suiren clan, a set of national systems with perfect owners was formulated.

These three countries, such as Nanli, Beigen, and Dongxun, are the top countries in this system, and they are called empires, which can truly exist as a great power and survive for generations.

As for the second tier, it is the dynasties, these countries are the five small countries, although these countries are only one step away from the empire, but behind this is in the face of the specific gap with the empire's national strength, these five dynasties can be said to have been thrown by the three empires for more than eight streets.

Of course, there are exceptions among the five major dynasties, such as the Xikun Kingdom, although the level of the Xikun Kingdom is inferior to the other four dynasties in many places, but his military strength is the best among the five major dynasties, even if the Dongxun Kingdom is one of the three major empires, compared with the Xikun Kingdom in terms of military strength, it is somewhat inferior, even so, the Dongxun Kingdom, one of the three major empires, is not based on a strong army.

As for the remaining dozens of countries? Then they can only become vassals of these eight countries, because no matter how strong they are, it is difficult to resist this pattern that has been formed for a hundred years.

Originally, the Feng family's judgment of the empire was a powerful country acting as the shepherd of the Heavenly Realm, but the world is unpredictable, and this judgment is currently only achieved by the Beigen Kingdom.

Of the three northern kingdoms, there are only two major dynasties left except for the Beikun Kingdom, and the military strength of those two dynasties cannot be compared with the Xikun Dynasty that is also the Xikun Kingdom, so even if the Beigen Kingdom is constantly fighting for power and profit internally, it still has the spare strength to command the north, and no one dares to anger its tiger whiskers.

And what about the remaining two empires?

Due to geographical reasons, there are only two neighbors next to the Eastern Xun Kingdom, one is the northern barbarians, and the other is the southern departure country.

And if you leave the country in the south, if the timeline is pushed forward for a thousand years, even if the country of Nanli at that time is Beigen, it does not have the courage to provoke, and the right to speak on the entire continent is really controlled by one country, even if it is not pushed forward for a thousand years, even if it is pushed for two or three hundred years, the neighbor next to it has not yet Dongxun, and the neighbor on the other side, Xikun State, has not enough troops at that time, and the only one who can compete with Nanli at that time is only the rising empire Beigenguo.

It's a pity that it's not a thousand years ago, let alone a few hundred years ago, and now Nanli, and the neighbors next to him are not soft persimmons that can be bullied and can be manipulated by themselves, so Nanli is also like Dongxun, leaving only the residual power from the empire.

In fact, according to the real situation, the Beigen Kingdom has not had the glorious moments of the past in the past hundred years, after all, the domestic authority is held back and forth by those major families, and the struggle for power and profit makes the national strength of the Beigen Kingdom worse than a year, if it were not for the foundation left by the previous generations of male lords of the Beigen Kingdom, the Beigen Kingdom has been fought for power and profit by those major families in the past hundred years, and the national strength has long been reduced to compared with the dynasty, how to talk about the imperial prestige on the face now?

Fortunately, after the Feng family formulated this series of rules, they also set up a stone canal meeting by the way.

The original intention of the establishment of the Shiqu Conference was to let those countries that have obtained the first and second tiers determine the next direction of their respective countries, and jointly support those weak and barren countries and localities.

However, in the following thousand years of development, the so-called Shiqu Conference has long been monopolized by the eight major countries headed by the three empires and followed by the five dynasties in modern times.

What kind of policy to support development has long since become a gossip talk for everyone to go up and talk about it.

Even if one of the new monarchs of these eight countries was willing to help those weak countries, it was still useless in the overwhelming wind, and it didn't take long for him to become like those people, only caring about reaping benefits for his own country, and making jokes along with it.

Moreover, as the old Taoist priest Mude said, the pattern of the formation and composition of these eight countries has not changed for a hundred years now.

In previous accounts, many dynasties flourished for one or two generations, only to be defeated by their successors in a few decades, and eventually the country collapsed, and there have even been cases of empires falling apart within seven years due to the fall of the founding monarch.

However, the strange thing is that a hundred years have passed, and since the founding of the Eastern Xun Kingdom, the pattern of these eight countries has never changed.

The old Taoist priest Mude said that there must be some connections in it that he has not noticed yet.

And Zhou Budo has digested so many things, it would be good for his current small brain to be able to remember the three empires and the five dynasties clearly, as for the causal relationship in this, it is not yet that he can understand things, these things will be handed over to old fellows like Mude Old Daoist to do.

Anyway, in Zhou Budo's eyes, these old guys are generally cultivated as cattle and then idle all day long with nothing to do, so they will be cranky and notice these trivial things.

It's just the number of a few countries, what difference can there be, is it possible that these eight countries can be on the gossip?

Zhou Budo pursed his lips, and couldn't help but flicker this thought in his heart, and then, Zhou Budo's expression suddenly changed.

I just now, it seems that I thought of gossip?

And so on, according to the gossip, then the subordinate of the hexagram is due south, that is to say, the south is away from the south, doesn't it mean to leave the hexagram?

Then Zhou Budo calculated them one by one according to the countries he had just learned, and his expression couldn't help but become serious, as if he really knew some great secret.

The old Taoist priest Mude on the side clearly captured the change in Zhou Budo's expression, and with a slightly mysterious smile, he continued to pick up a cup of tea, covered his face and drank it happily.

Hehehe.

The wind is uneven, Zhou Dunyi, you guys, you guys, you don't blame Lao Dao for telling Xiao Budo about these things so early, right?

Hahaha