Chapter 30: Showdown

"No one in the coffin?"

"Truly no one," Jiao Tu said. "I opened it and saw no clothes, no burial items. Old Master Liu isn't dead; perhaps he's still at the Liu Manor right now."

The Liu Manor, located on Longmen Mountain south of Luocheng, spans hundreds of acres. It was often joked in Luocheng that if a woman from an ordinary family married into the Liu family's estate with its high walls and grey tiles, she would likely never leave, growing old and dying within its confines.

Jiao Tu pulled off Chen Ji's blindfold. The three of them sat on the ground at the top of Zhuangyuan Mountain. "Tell us, what do we do now?"

Yun Yang hesitated for a long time. "The Liu family actually dared to defy all common decency by using that old man's fake death to pressure the Secret Service? Doesn't that mean everyone in the Liu family, from top to bottom, is collaborating with the enemy, just like Liu Shiyu?"

Jiao Tu raised her arms and tied her hair into a bun. "The Liu family has controlled the Central Plains for a long time, holding eighty percent of the land and officials. Even the imperial court has to defer to them when collecting grain and taxes. For aristocratic families like the Liu, Xu, Hu, Chen, Qi, and Yang clans, they've long valued family interests above those of the state. It's not surprising for them to collude with the enemy."

"But His Majesty's Myriad Year Army is right on the border of Yuzhou. How dare they?" Yun Yang exclaimed in surprise.

Jiao Tu pondered for a moment. "What if Prince Jing's residence colluded with the Liu family? I'll send a message via carrier pigeon later to the Grand Chancellor. This matter is beyond our authority; we must call in troops!"

"Yes, we must immediately dispatch troops to surround the Liu family!"

Chen Ji interrupted, "My lords..."

Yun Yang's eyes lit up. "What, do you have a new idea? Quickly, tell us. You're full of ideas!"

Chen Ji said, "Please, my lords, could you settle the payment? Lady Jiao Tu's fifty taels from last time haven't been paid yet, so that makes a total of one hundred and fifty taels."

Jiao Tu's face darkened. "All you ever think about is money."

Chen Ji was currently in urgent need of money. He roughly estimated the ice currents within his body, realizing it would probably take over ten ginseng roots to resolve them this time. There were still many ice currents to collect in Luocheng's inner prison, and dealing with them all might cost over a thousand taels of silver.

His cultivation path was far too expensive!

He said with a smile, "My lords, simply discovering that the coffin was empty is an immense achievement, a top-tier merit. The Grand Chancellor will surely be delighted. Compared to that, what's a hundred taels of silver?"

Jiao Tu reluctantly took a zitan wood bracelet from her wrist. "Here, this is a Buddhist currency token. You can take it to Tuoluo Temple to retrieve one hundred taels of silver."

Chen Ji paused, startled. He examined the bracelet, noticing that each bead was covered with tiny, densely packed characters that made one dizzy to look at.

"This can be used to get money?" he asked curiously.

"Never seen a Buddhist currency token?" Jiao Tu explained. "The beads bear their own Buddhist cipher. Take it to their monastic kitchen, and someone will naturally give you money according to the cipher. They understand it."

Chen Ji grew even more curious. "So if I carved an identical bracelet myself, couldn't I also exchange it for money?"

Jiao Tu chuckled lightly. "I advise you to abandon that idea. Many people in the martial arts world have tried to scheme against the Buddhist sect, but in the end, they were all 'transcended.'"

Beside them, Yun Yang took out five small silver ingots. "Here."

Chen Ji's smile was sincere. "Thank you for your business. I've been out for too long today. Please, sirs, take me back first. As for how to handle the Liu family's affairs, that's beyond my involvement."

His savings now amounted to two hundred taels of silver and one hundred and seventy-three copper coins.

That's not counting the fifty taels of silver under his bed.

It wasn't until the early hours of Chou Shi that the carriage finally brought Chen Ji back to the entrance of Taiping Medical Hall.

Having just lost a sum of money, Yun Yang and Jiao Tu's joy at gaining merit was diluted. Without exchanging pleasantries, they drove off.

As the carriage drove away, Wuyun leaped from the carriage roof into his arms. "I've remembered the inner prison's location... Oh, you're so cold."

"I attracted too many ice currents in the inner prison," Chen Ji said, carrying copper coins in his left hand and holding Wuyun with his right as he walked towards the medical hall. "Did you see Jiao Tu's cultivation path?"

"Yes, I saw it!" Wuyun said. "A shadowy spirit drilled out from between her eyebrows—so powerful!"

Chen Ji pushed open the medical hall's front door. However, at the very moment he opened the door, at the third quarter of Chou Shi, the ice currents arrived as if on cue.

This seemed to be a special time. The dormant ice currents always surged at this hour, relentless and unending.

Chen Ji painstakingly walked towards the medicine cabinet. A medicine peddler had visited that morning, so his master should have restocked with new ginseng.

However, before he even reached the cabinet, he could barely move.

Chen Ji struggled to say, "Wuyun... ginseng."

Inside the medical hall, Wuyun jumped out of Chen Ji's arms. He skillfully jumped onto the medicine cabinet, pulled open a drawer, and brought back the new ginseng in his mouth, touching it to Chen Ji.

Clink, clank. The ginseng transformed into ten transparent beads that fell to the floor and bounced. Wuyun hopped and chased the beads, swallowing them one by one.

The molten flow fed back. In an instant, it ignited the left Taiyi acupoint and the right Taiyi acupoint outside his dantian!

Chen Ji leaned tiredly against the counter. He stroked Wuyun's head. "Thank you."

Wuyun tilted his head up. "You don't need to thank me in the future... What if your master finds the ginseng missing?"

Chen Ji looked troubled. "I'll have to quickly buy a new one to replace it before Master notices."

Wuyun thought for a moment. "How about I go beat up that fat white cat again to balance your accounts?"

Chen Ji looked solemn with respect. "...Good idea!"

At this moment, Old Man Yao's flat voice came from behind him. "I sent you to deliver medicine, and you were gone from morning until night."

Chen Ji instinctively turned around, blocking the medicine cabinet drawer that he hadn't yet closed behind him. "Master? How did you walk without making a sound?"

Not only Chen Ji, but even Wuyun hadn't noticed his approach!

Old Man Yao stood in the main hall of the medical hall with his hands clasped behind his back. His face was filled with a mocking expression. "You still know how to come back? Why are you standing there doing nothing? Come here!"

Chen Ji dared not move because the medicine cabinet drawer behind him was still open!

Just as he was rapidly thinking of a countermeasure, Wuyun jumped out of his arms, ran to Old Man Yao, and leaped up.

Old Man Yao paused, surprised. He instinctively reached out and caught Wuyun. The furry little black cat meowed in his hands, blinking its golden vertical pupils.

Old Man Yao remained silent for a long time. Finally, he held Wuyun in his arms, stroking its furry head, and sneered at Chen Ji. "It's much more sensible than you are... Come on, Wuyun, Grandpa will take you for some snacks."

Chen Ji: "Huh?"

With Wuyun's antics, Old Man Yao had actually forgotten to scold him.

As Old Man Yao turned, Chen Ji quickly and quietly closed the medicine cabinet.

No sooner had he closed it than Old Man Yao's airy voice floated over. "What are you still hiding? Tomorrow, go buy a new one yourself to replace it for me. Check the accounts carefully; not a single root hair must be missing."

Chen Ji awkwardly followed him to the backyard. He changed the subject, "Master, where are the two elder disciples?"

Old Man Yao said indifferently, "She Dengke's third brother is hosting a gathering for a prominent family. She Dengke took Liu Quxing and snuck in to watch the opera. They'll be back tomorrow morning. They were originally going to take you too, but you took so long to return."

He brought out the purple wooden box from the house again. The first drawer contained snacks, and the second contained candied fruits.

Wuyun hadn't eaten all day and stuffed his mouth full.

Chen Ji merely glanced at the drawer and was met with a glare from Old Man Yao.

"If you want to eat, go make your own food in the kitchen," Old Man Yao said coldly.

"Oh."

Chen Ji took a coarse grain pancake from the kitchen. As he nibbled on it, he asked, "Master, does the time of Chou Shi San Ke have any special meaning?"

Old Man Yao, while holding a snack in his hand to feed Wuyun, frowned in thought. "Chou Shi San Ke... that's the hour you were born."

"Hmm?" Chen Ji was astonished. The ice currents surge at this exact time—is it also because Chou Shi San Ke is his birth hour?

Strange. Did that grand consciousness on the battlefield, which wants to take over his body, have to wait until this moment of his birth?

Chen Ji hesitated for a long time. Finally, he asked honestly, "Master, what is a Xingguan?"

Old Man Yao glanced at him. "Why should I tell you? You can sell information for money, yet you expect free information from me?"

No sooner had he finished speaking, Wuyun stopped eating his snack. He simply nudged Old Man Yao's palm with his furry head.

Seeing this, Old Man Yao immediately snapped, "You look obedient, you little thing, but you're full of tricks."

He slowly said, "Xingguan is a general term for cultivators. There are all sorts of cultivation paths, and practitioners do all sorts of things."

Chen Ji was puzzled. "Why don't ordinary people know of their existence?"

Old Man Yao stroked Wuyun's head and said, "Most people don't know, that's all. Most Xingguan have to hide their cultivation paths, otherwise they will be coveted by others in the same path."

"Why?"

"Because the 'Dao' that each cultivation path seeks is like a bowl of water," Old Man Yao explained. "There's only so much water in the bowl. If too many people share it, each person gets less. And to reach the final Grand Dao that leads to heaven, you need to drink this bowl of water alone. Not one extra person can share it."

Chen Ji was stunned. Conservation of energy?

Only then did he realize why Yun Yang had said that on the path of cultivation, there was only life or death. Under such a heavenly 'Dao,' those who cultivate the same path are natural enemies.

Chen Ji asked calmly, "Then Master, are you a Xingguan...?"

Old Man Yao smiled. He actually waved his hand towards the sky, and suddenly, in the darkness, the sound of flapping wings echoed as a huge crow descended!

Chen Ji abruptly stood up. So this crow belonged to his master!

When he was attacked by the ice currents, and when he went to Liu Shiyu's house to investigate the case—the crow was present both times!

"Master, you knew everything," Chen Ji said hesitantly.

"What difference does it make whether I knew or not?" Old Man Yao said, gently stroking the crow's wings. The crow looked at Chen Ji, its mouth opening in a silent laugh, as if mocking his ignorance of this world.

His master's crow was as sharp-tongued as his master.

At this moment, the crow looked at Wuyun, who was greedily gobbling down food, then at Old Man Yao, and let out cawing sounds.

Old Man Yao said patiently to it, "Meet him, this is a new friend."

The next second, the crow looked at Chen Ji, then back at Old Man Yao.

Old Man Yao continued patiently, "Not this one yet."

Chen Ji: "..."