"Is there no one in the coffin?"
"Truly, there's no one," said Jiao Tu.
"I opened the coffin and looked inside. There were no clothes, no burial items. Old Master Liu isn't dead. Perhaps he's still in the Liu family compound."
The Liu family compound was located on Longmen Mountain, south of Luocheng, covering hundreds of acres.
People in Luocheng often joked that if an ordinary woman married into the Liu family, she might never leave the high walls and gray tiles, living and dying within them.
Jiao Tu removed the blindfold from Chen Ji, and the three of them sat on the ground at the top of Zhuangyuan Mountain.
"Let's talk. What do we do now?"
Yun Yang hesitated for a long time.
"The Liu family dares to defy the world, using the old man's fake death to pressure the Secret Intelligence Bureau? Does that mean the entire Liu family, like Liu Shiyu, is colluding with the enemy?"
Jiao Tu raised her arms to tie her hair into a bun.
"The Liu family has been operating in the Central Plains for a long time, controlling eighty percent of the land and officials. Even the court has to consider their face when collecting grain and taxes. Families like the Lius, Xus, Hus, Chens, Qis, and Yangs have long placed their family interests above the nation. It's not surprising they would collude with the enemy."
"But the Emperor's Ever-Victorious Army is right next to Yuzhou. How dare they?" Yun Yang exclaimed in shock.
Jiao Tu pondered for a moment.
"What if the Jing Prince's Mansion is involved with the Liu family? I'll send a message via carrier pigeon to the Prime Minister. This matter is beyond our control. We must call in troops!"
"Yes, immediately surround the Liu family with troops!"
Chen Ji interrupted, "My lords..."
Yun Yang's eyes lit up.
"What? Do you have a new idea? Speak up, you're full of ideas!"
Chen Ji said, "Could you please settle the payment? Jiao Tu still owes me fifty taels from last time, totaling one hundred and fifty taels."
Jiao Tu's face darkened.
"Always thinking about money."
Chen Ji was in urgent need of money.
He roughly estimated the icy energy within his body and figured he would need over ten ginseng roots to resolve it.
There was still a lot of icy energy in the Luocheng prison that he hadn't collected.
The back-and-forth would likely cost over a thousand taels of silver.
This cultivation path was too expensive!
He smiled and said, "My lords, just discovering that the coffin is empty is already a monumental achievement. The Prime Minister will surely be very pleased. Compared to that, what's a hundred taels of silver?"
Jiao Tu reluctantly took off a sandalwood bracelet from her wrist.
"Here, a Buddhist treasure. You can exchange it for one hundred taels of silver at Tuoluo Temple."
Chen Ji was taken aback.
He examined the bracelet and saw that each bead was covered in tiny, densely packed characters, making it hard to read.
"This can be exchanged for money?" he asked curiously.
"Never seen a Buddhist treasure before?" Jiao Tu explained.
"The beads have their own secret codes. Take it to their kitchen, and someone will give you the money according to the codes. They can read them."
Chen Ji grew even more curious.
"So if I carved an identical bracelet, could I also exchange it for money?"
Jiao Tu chuckled lightly.
"I advise you to abandon that thought. Many in the martial world have tried to take advantage of the Buddhists, and they all ended up being 'liberated.'"
Meanwhile, Yun Yang took out five small silver ingots.
"Here."
Chen Ji smiled sincerely.
"Thank you for your patronage. I've been out for too long today. Could you please take me back? As for how to handle the Liu family matter, that's beyond my involvement."
His savings now amounted to two hundred taels of silver and one hundred and seventy-three copper coins.
Not counting the fifty taels under his bed.
...
It wasn't until midnight that the carriage finally brought Chen Ji back to the entrance of Taiping Medical Hall.
Yun Yang and Jiao Tu, having just lost a sum of money, were too disheartened by the loss to even feel the joy of their achievement.
Without a word of farewell, they drove off.
As the carriage disappeared into the distance, Wu Yun jumped from the roof into his arms.
"I've memorized the location of the prison... Oh, you're so cold."
"I attracted too much icy energy in the prison. Did you see Jiao Tu's cultivation method?" Chen Ji asked, holding the copper coins in his left hand and Wu Yun in his right as they walked towards the medical hall.
"Yes, a shadowy figure emerged from her forehead. It was intense!" Wu Yun said.
Chen Ji pushed open the door of the medical hall, but the moment he did, at the third watch of the night, the icy energy surged as expected.
It seemed to be a special moment, as the dormant icy energy always rose at this time, relentless and unyielding.
Chen Ji struggled towards the medicine cabinet.
Earlier that morning, a medicine peddler had come by, so his master must have replenished the ginseng.
However, before he could reach the cabinet, he could no longer move.
Chen Ji said with difficulty, "Wu Yun... the ginseng."
In the medical hall, Wu Yun jumped out of Chen Ji's arms, skillfully leaped onto the medicine cabinet, opened the drawer, and fetched the new ginseng, bringing it back to Chen Ji.
Ding ding dong dong, the ginseng turned into ten transparent beads that fell to the ground and bounced.
Wu Yun chased after the beads, swallowing them one by one.
The molten energy returned, instantly igniting the Taiyi acupoints on both sides of his dantian!
Chen Ji leaned tiredly against the counter, patting Wu Yun's head.
"Thank you."
Wu Yun lifted his head.
"You don't need to thank me... What if your master finds out the ginseng is missing?"
Chen Ji frowned.
"I need to replace it before he notices."
Wu Yun thought for a moment.
"How about I go beat up that fat white cat again to settle the account?" Chen Ji looked at him with respect. "... Good idea!"
At that moment, Old Man Yao's indifferent voice came from behind.
"I sent you to deliver medicine in the morning, and you only return at night."
Chen Ji instinctively turned around, blocking the still-open drawer of the medicine cabinet.
"Master? How come you walk so silently?"
Not only Chen Ji, but even Wu Yun hadn't noticed his approach!
Old Man Yao stood in the main hall of the medical hall with his hands behind his back, a look of mockery on his face.
"You still remember to come back? Why are you standing there? Come here!"
Chen Ji didn't dare to move because the drawer of the medicine cabinet behind him was still open!
As he frantically tried to think of a solution, Wu Yun jumped out of his arms and ran towards Old Man Yao, leaping up.
Old Man Yao was momentarily stunned and instinctively reached out to catch Wu Yun.
The fluffy little black cat meowed in his hands, blinking its golden vertical pupils.
After a long silence, Old Man Yao finally cradled Wu Yun in his arms, stroking its fluffy head, and sneered at Chen Ji.
"It's much more sensible than you... Come, Wu Yun, Grandpa will take you for some snacks."
Chen Ji: Huh?
With Wu Yun's antics, Old Man Yao had forgotten to scold him.
As Old Man Yao turned around, Chen Ji quickly and quietly closed the medicine cabinet.
Just as he closed it, Old Man Yao's light voice floated over.
"What are you hiding? Go buy a new one tomorrow and make sure the accounts are correct. Not a single root can be missing."
Chen Ji awkwardly followed him to the backyard, changing the subject.
"Master, where are my senior brothers?"
Old Man Yao said indifferently, "She Dengke's third brother is hosting a banquet for a wealthy family. She Dengke took Liu Quxing to listen to the opera. They'll be back tomorrow morning. They were going to take you too, but you were late."
He brought out the purple wooden box again.
The first drawer contained snacks, and the second had preserved fruits.
Wu Yun, who hadn't eaten all day, stuffed his mouth full.
Chen Ji just glanced at the drawer and was immediately glared at by Old Man Yao.
"If you're hungry, go cook in the kitchen," Old Man Yao said coldly.
"Okay."
Chen Ji took a multigrain pancake from the kitchen and nibbled on it as he asked, "Master, is there any special significance to the third watch of the night?"
Old Man Yao frowned as he fed Wu Yun snacks.
"The third watch of the night... is the time you were born."
"Huh?" Chen Ji was shocked.
Was the icy energy surging at this time because it was his birth hour?
Strange, did the grand consciousness in the battlefield need to wait for this moment to possess him?
After a long hesitation, Chen Ji finally asked honestly, "Master, what is a Xinguan?"
Old Man Yao glanced at him.
"Why should I tell you? You can sell information for money, but you want free information from me?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Wu Yun stopped eating snacks and just nuzzled Old Man Yao's palm with its fluffy head.
Seeing this, Old Man Yao couldn't help but say, "You look cute, but you're full of tricks."
He slowly explained, "A Xinguan is a general term for cultivators. There are countless cultivation methods, and they do all sorts of things."
Chen Ji was puzzled.
"Why don't ordinary people know about them?"
Old Man Yao stroked Wu Yun's head.
"Most people don't know. Most Xinguan have to hide their cultivation methods, or else they'll be coveted by others."
"Why?"
"Because the path each cultivation method seeks is like a bowl of water. There's only so much water in the bowl. The more people share it, the less each person gets. To walk the final path to heaven, you need to drink that bowl of water alone. Even one more person sharing it is too much."
Chen Ji was stunned.
The conservation of energy?
Only then did he realize why Yun Yang said that on the path of cultivation, there was only life and death.
Under such heavenly laws, those who followed the same cultivation path were natural enemies.
Chen Ji asked calmly, "Master, are you a Xinguan..."
Old Man Yao smiled and waved towards the sky.
Suddenly, the sound of flapping wings echoed in the night, and a large crow descended!
Chen Ji stood up abruptly.
So this crow was his master's!
It had been there when he was troubled by the icy energy, when he went to investigate Liu Shiyu's house!
"Master, you knew all along," Chen Ji said hesitantly.
"Knowing or not knowing, what does it matter?" Old Man Yao gently stroked the crow's feathers, and the crow looked at Chen Ji, opening its beak in a silent laugh, as if mocking his ignorance of the world.
The crow, like its master, was sharp-tongued.
At that moment, the crow looked at Wu Yun, who was busy eating, then at Old Man Yao, and let out a series of caws.
Old Man Yao patiently said to it, "Meet our new friend."
The next second, the crow looked at Chen Ji, then at Old Man Yao.
Old Man Yao continued patiently, "This one isn't yet."
Chen Ji: "..."
(End of Chapter)