It was a summer year in 381 A.D., and it was the time of the seventh month when the fire was flowing and the summer was hot. On this day, the star promotion competition of middle and lower level masters in the rivers and lakes held every 6 years is about to kick off in the capital of the Eastern Jin Kingdom, Jiankang City.

This Jianghu middle and lower masters star promotion competition includes 10 levels of masters such as against the sky, supreme, peerless, top, super, special, first-class, excellent, meritorious, famous, etc., jointly sponsored by the imperial court and the Tianshen Temple, the first big gang in the rivers and lakes, and its main purpose is to recruit outstanding Jianghu talents for the imperial court and naturally for the Tianshen Temple. Being able to be favored by the two most powerful forces in the world is equivalent to the blessing that this person has cultivated for a lifetime, and with such a strong temptation, of course, it will attract countless people in the world to sign up for participation.

But how do they know that for most of them, this competition is actually a road of no return without return, because some people have planned it early, and this time they will kill all the people involved, regardless of strength or weakness, regardless of gangs, so as to prevent future troubles.

And the person who formulated such a vicious plan was the clan relatives of the imperial court, Sima Zilong, who was the hussar general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Of course, with his level, he has not yet reached the qualification of directing the country and strategizing, and he transferred his poisonous plan to his brother, Sima Yu, the general of the Heavenly King who is below one person and above 10,000 people in the military circle of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

It stands to reason that Sima Yu would not have agreed to such a thankless poisonous plan that harmed others and was not beneficial to himself. The imperial court is in a shortage of talents at the moment, and urgently needs a large number of masters to fill all parts of the country, in order to support the somewhat precarious Eastern Jin Dynasty.

This Sima Zilong's thinking is indeed different from that of normal people. In his opinion, these talents on the rivers and lakes, the imperial court and the heavenly temple can be shared at the same time, although the imperial court has indeed been strengthened and promoted, but the heavenly temple has also been equally strengthened and promoted, and one day, their wings are hard, and if they don't do it well, they will override the imperial court, and if they don't do it well, they will change the dynasty again, and let the world become his surname, then it will be completely over.

This kind of unfounded worry and mediocre self-disturbing idea was actually adopted by Sima Yu, who was smart and confused for a while. He recently happened to have a bit of a conflict with Shangguan Yingyang, the high priest of the Heavenly God Temple, a 4-star master of Jianghu Transformation. Because several vassal states outside the southwest region have not listened to the orders of the imperial court for a long time, and even harassed the border areas of Yizhou County from time to time, the local state capital was unbearable, and reported to the imperial court many times, asking for military assistance.

Sima Yu knew that although the strength of those small southwestern countries was not good, the terrain there was complex and the terrain was harsh, even if a large army was sent to fight for it, it would not necessarily be able to return triumphantly, and it might be possible to plant it in that place.

Eventually, he thought of the Temple of the Heavenly God. Although there is still a slight gap between the strength of this Heavenly Temple and the imperial court, it is not far away, if they replace the imperial court to go to the southwest border, they can not only extinguish the prestige of those small countries, but also weaken the strength of the Heavenly God Temple, which can be described as a good thing to kill two birds with one stone!

But Sima Yu never thought that the boss of the temple that day, the high priest Shangguan Yingyang, actually rejected his proposal, saying that he was only in a cooperative relationship with the imperial court, but he had no obligation to go on an expedition for the imperial court, so stop this matter! In fact, Shangguan Yingyang saw Sima Yu's careful thinking at a glance, and of course he would not buy his account.

This time Sima Yu was so angry that he really wanted to send Shangguan Yingyang to the morgue all at once... Oh! There were no morgues at that time! But it doesn't matter, the place to which you lead anyway is the same, and the final destination is the Hades Palace.

However, Sima Yu also knew very well that Shangguan Yingyang was not only very strong personally, but also had an organization behind him that required a lot of effort to get it, so it was better not to move him until it was absolutely necessary. However, Sima Yu's estrangement between Shangguan Yingyang and the Heavenly God Temple has already arisen, and as long as there is a reason, endless sparks will burst out.

And Sima Zilong's poisonous plan happened to completely ignite the anger in Sima Yu's heart. Originally, he still had some concerns, after all, the strength of the Heavenly God Temple was there, and if it was not done well, it might put the entire Sima family into it, wouldn't it be impossible to steal chickens and lose rice.

Sima Zilong excitedly told him that this time a group of masters and 20,000 wilderness dragon soldiers were seconded from the former Qin State, as long as Shangguan Yingyang and those high-level leaders of the Heavenly God Temple entered the ambush circle set up, with the two forces of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the former Qin, they would definitely be able to kill them all, and there would be no armor left. As for Qianqin's side, there has been a famine recently, and it has reached the point of killing war horses to satisfy hunger. Therefore, when the matter is settled, all they need to do is provide them with 1,500,000 stone of grain and 4,000,000 taels of silver.

After weighing the pros and cons, Sima Yu felt that this deal should not be a loss, so he agreed to this disastrous proposal. Absolutely! In order not to arouse the vigilance of the Heavenly God Temple, this year's Star Ascension Contest was still held as usual, that is, when everyone's attention was focused on the tense event, there was an excellent time to start, so as to have a one-pot effect.

The consistent style of the imperial court is that co-optation and attack coexist. First of all, take a co-optation posture, and you have a brother and two good, five leaders, six six; Once you see that you continue to grow and seem to have a tendency to be on an equal footing with yourself, then I will no longer tell you about any brotherhood, that absolute face turning is faster than turning a book, and you will directly settle accounts with your own brother, and what you ate at the beginning must be doubled to Lao Tzu to spit it out. If you want to talk about friendship with the imperial court, talk about love, hehe! Then you are too naïve and naïve.

Isn't it? Shangguan Yingyang, the boss of the Heavenly God Temple, trusted the imperial court too much, and without the slightest defense, he brought a group of elites in the gang to the Jingshi like this, and what awaited them would be a bloody killing.

The No. 2 person in the temple that day, the chief priest Yuwen Chenghuang finally left a heart, he asked the green dragon in the gang to sacrifice Liu Daqiu, and the white tiger to sacrifice Jiao Pengyang 2 people led the main force of the gang, 10,000 fast cavalry army, 15,000 light cavalry army and 20,000 state soldiers were secretly stationed outside the south gate and west gate of Jiankang City, once they found that there was a change in the city, they immediately entered it.

Fortunately, with Yuwen Chenghuang's arrangement, Shangguan Yingyang and at least half of the elites of the Heavenly God Temple were able to escape, so that the imperial court's plan to kill the Heavenly God Temple could not be realized, but it left a lot of hidden dangers.