BXBX NOVEL Chapter 98 The Monk
Chapter 98 The Monk
In the small courtyard, Li Ye asked people to loosen the tie for Liu Zhiyan. When Shangguan Qingcheng served the tea, Li Ye handed a cup of tea to Liu Zhiyan. The woman who was relaxing her shoulders looked at the tea in front of her, stunning for a while.
She looked at Li Ye with a confused and puzzled look and finally was sure that this cup of tea was indeed for her. She quickly picked up with both hands. “Thanks a lot, Your Highness!”
“Give me a Little Spiritual Pill.” Li Ye said to Shangguan Qingcheng who then took out one and handed it to Li Ye. And Li Ye handed it to Liu Zhiyan. “Here you are. You are seriously injured, this Dan Pill can alleviate your injury. ”
Liu Zhiyan was drinking tea when Li Ye gave her the Little Spiritual Pill. When she heard what Li Ye said, she was so surprised that she was choked and kept coughing. At the moment, she was in a muddle and embarrassed.
This wasn’t her fault. The Little Spiritual Pill wasn’t precious for Li Ye. But for Liu Zhiyan, who relied on the Wei River to make a living, she had not seen many magic tools, let alone the Dan Pill. In the Changhe Gang, only the Ugly Man and she were cultivators.
Liu Zhiyan quickly knelt down, saying, “I haven’t done anything for you, how can I accept your reward?”
Li Ye flipped the Dan Pill and Liu Zhiyan quickly caught it. He said, “Since you have decided to be my dependent, I will not take you as an outsider. Tell me about the Changhe Gang.”
Liu Zhiyan took the Dan Pill and couldn’t return it. Otherwise, she would let Li Ye lose face. She looked at Li Ye and quickly lowered her head. This privileged Grand Prince personally handed tea to her and gave a Dan Pill to her, which was greatly out of Liu Zhiyan’s expectations.
“I attacked him last night, doesn’t he hate me?” Liu Zhiyan asked herself in mind. She wanted to stare at Li Ye for a while to look him carefully, so she would know what Li Ye was going to do. But she couldn’t because it was impolite.
“There are twenty-four gangs along Wei River, and Changhe Gang ranked in the middle. We have more than 100 members, over 20 cultivators, and three practitioners of Qi techniques. My father is the first master of Changhe Gang. But after he was attacked by the Heijiao Gang, our strength has been weakened a lot.”
Liu Zhiyan clasped her hands and put the Little Spiritual Pill in it. When she was talking, her voice wasn’t excited, but it inevitably showed sentimentality.
She continued, “We, the Changhe Gang, make a living by freight transport on Wei River. When the world was peaceful, our force was incompact and most of our members were local people. In recent years, the government has been exploiting the freighters more and more greatly and collecting more and more taxes. It has made it difficult for many gangs to survive. Besides, more and more bandits ran wild and the safety of cargo ships couldn’t be guaranteed. So many gangs determined to change their way.”
Liu Zhiyan looked up and peeked at Li Ye. Seeing that his face looked as usual, she continued. “Many gangs began to work for the government and became their running dogs. Some gangs acted like bandits, occasionally robbing other cargo ships. And other gangs occupied a part of the river with taking the toll... The situation is chaotic, so the river gangs are also chaotic. Many cultivators found that some river gangs had made a great fortune, so they joined them. Then big gangs appeared... All kinds of interest struggles have become bloodier.”
Li Ye was silent. That the chaos was coming was by no means a joke. The consequences of the corrupt court were that perverts and bandits everywhere, officials fighting for authority, and people becoming the biggest victims.
Along the Wei River, the original order was broken and the court law became words on a page. Whoever had the strength and colluded with the government, he or she was the lord. Under this circumstance, one could imagine how disorder and miserable here was. Every penny was bloody.
Li Ye looked at Liu Zhiyan who restrained her emotions and behavior and whose every move was cautious. Because she, like a little nail, was afraid of making others unpleasant.
Li Ye wondered whether he could win people’s heart and gather their luck if he stabilized the Wei River region.
However, it was early to think about that.
When Li Ye and Liu Zhiyan were talking, Wang Li came in and said that someone wanted to see Li Ye.
Li Ye came to the courtyard door and looked to the left side. He saw that two people were stopped not far away.
A tall and muscular man with a boy who was less than ten years old. Both of them were very dark, darker than the ordinary farmers, especially the boy who was almost as dark as a piece of coal.
Song Jiao leaned against the door frame, clasping her arms. She snorted in Li Ye’s ear. “It’s Liu Dazheng; how did he come?”
But immediately she thought of something and realized the reason.
Li Ye saw Liu Dazheng and had the same question as Song Jiao’s.
Li Ye had seen all of Li Xian’s trusted subordinates. But he seldom saw Song Jiao before, because Song Jiao always handled secret affairs in Jianghu and seldom went to Prince An’s Manor. Liu Dazheng was Li Xiao’s bodyguard, so Li Ye was familiar with him.
However, Liu Dazheng did not come back after the Battle of Bagong Mountain. Unexpectedly, he appeared today with a little boy.
Li Ye allowed Liu Dazheng to come in and the two met in front of the door.
“Your Highness.” Liu Dazheng saluted with the boy.
“General Liu, how do you do?” Li Ye cupped his hands. Liu Dazheng was the chief of Li Xian’s personal army in the past, that was, the chief General of Eight Hundred Guards of the manor.
At this time, a group of people appeared on the east side of the village, standing under an old tree and looking at the village.
It was a group of four headed by Li Keyong, beside whom there was a monk holding a Magic Wand. This monk was handsome. His lips were red and skin was smooth and one couldn’t tell his age, which made people feel particularly strange.
“The man I’m looking for is in this village.” Li Keyong looked at the cottage, clasping his hands behind his back.
“What do you want?” asked the monk.
“I want him to die.” Li Keyong said faintly.
“As you wish.” The monk put his palms together devoutly and was going to start.
“Master Huiming, wait a minute.” Li Keyong stopped him suddenly.
Monk Huiming stopped and asked him, “You changed your mind?”
“Of course not.” Li Keyong said, “But there are twenty police. We just go there?”
“If I can’t come and go freely, how could Commissioner ask me to follow you to Chang’an?” Huiming said, with a kind and pleasant countenance. His words and tone were not sharp, but what he said made people believe him.
An old man behind Li Keyong laughed and said, “Master Huiming is the first monk of Juexiao Temple in Yin Mountain. He only has one step before Kong Kim Realm of Buddhist Sect. The practitioners in the world whose cultivation are under Level 8 Qi-refining can’t withstand Master Huiming’s one blow. General, don’t worry.”
Li Keyong said in a deep voice, “What I want is to leave no traces, not to be noticed by others!”
Huiming said with a smile, “It’s easy.”
Then he waved to the cottage, a golden light flying to the cottage. He put one palm before his chest and silently recited the incantation. The golden light over the cottage formed a light curtain and covered the whole cottage.
“To see a world in a wild flower, and a bodhi is a leaf.” After reciting the incantation, Huiming flicked his fingers, a flower, and a leaf flew out from his fingertips one after the other, falling into the golden light curtain. The golden light shield rippled for a while, and then the flower and leaf disappeared. In front of everyone, there was a quiet and peaceful village, in which people came and went orderly. It was a small world.
The old man behind Li Keyong saw this scene and could not help praising. “The Flower-and-leaf Enchantment of Buddhism is indeed extraordinary!”
Huiming didn’t take it seriously. He said to Li Keyong with a gesture of invitation, “Even the cottage is in chaos, no one outside it can detect that. Please.”
Li Keyong nodded and then walked into the enchantment with his hands clasping behind his back.
In the cottage courtyard, Li Ye was talking to Liu Dazheng. Suddenly, they all looked up.
The golden light that covered the whole village was looked at by all. And they took back their sight until a golden flower and a golden leaf flew in succession and disappeared in mid-air.
Song Jiao still leaned against the door of the courtyard. She did not move at all, not putting down her arms. She just sneered and said, “It’s the Flower-and-leaf Enchantment of Buddhism. It seems that a real master is coming.”
Wang Li’s look changed, and his eyes were filled with fear. “The Flower-and-leaf Enchantment of Buddhism? That’s not a usual method. The comers must have excellent cultivation!”
He quickly turned to Li Ye, saying, “Vice Magistrate, please leave quickly. I’ll go after you with the yamen runners!”
Li Ye laughed and said, “When a visitor comes, there’s no reason to avoid?”
Liu Dazheng stood up and saluted Li Ye. “Your Highness, I’m willing to escort you!”
Li Ye nodded. He also wanted to see which level of Qi-refining Liu Dazheng had reached and whether he was stronger than Song Jiao.
The boy pulled Liu Dazheng’s sleeve, looking up and asking with worry, “Liu Dazheng... Can you do it? They say that’s a master, you... you’re a master too?”
The boy still couldn’t imagine what strength this big man who adopted him in the past few years had. Maybe the boy didn’t know what strength was. After all, in the years they were together, the boy never saw Liu Dazheng showed any extraordinary abilities. He forged iron and smoked all day long. In addition, he went fishing with the boy occasionally... By the way, the boy admired Liu Dazheng’s high fishing skill.
The boy didn’t see anything of Liu Dazheng’s confrontation with the Taoist this morning. The leaping onto roofs and vaulting over walls in his imagination didn’t happen at all. Liu Dazheng and the Taoists just confronted each other for a while. Then the Taoist wield his sword and Liu Dazheng punched, and after that... the house collapsed. And the boy scampered off like a frightened rat. But he didn’t know that even if he did not dodge, the broken flying woods wouldn’t hurt him.
Liu Dazheng touched the boy’s head and answered him in a gentle voice, “Yeah, maybe I’m a master.”
The boy’s face suddenly was full of worry. In his mind, the word “maybe” was obviously not powerful.
Liu Dazheng came to the door of the courtyard and stood in front of Song Jiao.
Song Jiao squinted at him and asked, “Where is your knife?”
“My knife? Here.” Saying that, Liu Dazheng took a... kitchen knife from his waist and then stepped out of the courtyard.