"We have been together during this time to discuss how to rescue the man, but we have absolutely no intention of involving the people in the city."
The middle-aged Taoist argued, "Of course, I don't rule out that some people's ideas may be extreme, but at least I haven't thought about it that way."
Qingchen glanced at Lu Jing and then at his junior brother, with a somewhat tangled look on his face.
He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could speak, he felt a chill on the back of his neck.
Qingchen was startled and quickly moved his head, but the chill did not disappear. No matter where he turned his head, he could not get rid of the sense of crisis that followed him.
"It's my flying sword," Lu Jing said, "Just stand still and you'll be fine."
There was a hint of bitterness in Qingchen's eyes, "Si Tianjian, he really deserves his reputation."
"Your Qixia Temple is quite extraordinary. It's only one street away from Si Tianjian. I didn't expect that there are two practitioners hiding there. No wonder I couldn't find the person who played chess with you tonight. It turned out to be Taoist priest in the temple."
"I am a practitioner." Qingchen corrected, "I'm just an ordinary person."
As he spoke, he let go of his hand and let the talisman slip from his fingertips. At the same time, he smiled bitterly and said, "To be honest, I don't actually know how to use this thing. I just wanted to pick it up to scare you away."
When the middle-aged Taoist saw Qingchen being restrained, his face suddenly turned pale, and he said to Lu Jing, "Si Tianjian wants to arrest someone, just arrest me. My senior brother and other Taoist priests in the temple don't know anything."
Lu Jing was noncommittal upon hearing this, and did not take back the flying sword hanging behind Qingchen's neck.
After a pause, he asked the middle-aged Taoist, "I was very curious when I saw you last time in the palace. You have never entered the academy. Where did your secret power come from?"
"I practiced it myself."
Seeing that Lu Jing seemed a little unconvinced, the middle-aged Taoist added, "When I was a child, Qixia Temple was undergoing major renovations and the stone bricks on the ground were also replaced. As a result, a heavy box was dug out from underneath.
"At that time, the master thought it was filled with gold and silver, and he deliberately sent all the irrelevant people away before opening the box. It turned out that the box was full of stone carvings."
"The things engraved on the stone carvings look like internal skills and mental methods, but the routes of performing the exercises are completely different from the internal skills and mental methods. In addition, some stone carvings record some magical spells."
"Did you start practicing at that time?"
"Yes, the master, senior brother and I all tried to practice according to the method recorded on the stone tablet. After a month, the master and senior brother gave up one after another because they could not feel any changes. Only I cultivated the secret power, and later learned I learned a spell from above." The middle-aged Taoist said.
"How did you, a cultivator, get together with Mr. Ji and his bunch of strange things?" Lu Jing frowned.
The middle-aged Taoist's eyes flashed, "This is a long story."
"Try to make it simple..." After Lu Jing finished speaking, he suddenly bent his fingers and flicked towards Qingchen beside him.
Qingchen's body went limp after being hit by Lu Jing's finger, and he fainted on the ground.
"You'd better not lie, because after you finish speaking, I will ask your senior brother to verify it." Lu Jing warned, "When we first met, the impression we left on each other was not very good. So I advise you not to give me any more reasons to kill you."
The middle-aged Taoist's face was gloomy and uncertain.
This time he was silent for a long time before he continued, "After I mastered the spell, I was so proud that I thought about how to show off my skills in front of others. As a result, I turned stones into silver and bought them for the first time. I was caught with my clothes on, and that was also the first time I met Mr. Ji."
"He told me a lot of things, including Si Tianjian's true responsibilities, and advised me to keep a low profile, because once Si Tianjian finds out that I know magic, he will definitely come to visit me. Mr. Ji also said that my intentions are evil and that I am probably exaggerating. I couldn't pass the admission test to enter the academy, so the final result was that the stone carvings were taken away by Si Tianjian, and I would also forget what I had practiced.
"However, I didn't believe him at the time. Although I agreed on the surface, I didn't really take it seriously. But later, my mind was attracted by another thing."
"What's up?"
"I fell in love with a woman, her name is Xiaoru," the middle-aged Taoist said and fell into memories, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, "I know that for us cultivators, we should not be lewd, arrogant, and evil. Aura, but I have been frivolous since I was young and didn’t take rules and regulations too seriously.
"And you can't control this kind of thing, especially when you meet that person, you can't help yourself and have nowhere to escape.
"I could feel that Xiaoru also had a good impression of me, so we got together not long after. I planned to find a suitable opportunity to go to her house to propose marriage, and also talked to Master about returning to secular life.
"I didn't expect that just when I was busy preparing the betrothal gift, something unexpected happened to her... That day Xiaoru was doing laundry alone by the river and met a group of yamen. Those guys were all descendants of powerful people, and one of them was a clan relative. I heard later that they all drank a lot.
"Many people were so drunk that they could hardly stand up. When they saw Xiaoru, someone made fun of her with a frivolous tone, but she was slapped in the face by Xiaoru.
"The man was furious and kicked Xiaoru in the abdomen. Xiaoru couldn't stand firm and fell from the bank into the river. At that time, she was not far from the bank, only less than two feet, and the river water was also Not in a hurry.
"But Xiaoru doesn't know how to swim, so she can't swim ashore by herself, and the government officials don't allow other people on the river to get close to the boat to save people.
"They just stood by the river, watching Xiaoru struggling in the water with cold eyes, for half a cup of tea, until Xiaoru drank several large mouthfuls of water and almost drowned, and then they left talking and laughing.
"Then a kind-hearted boatman rowed over and rescued Xiaoru, but it was the twelfth lunar month of winter. Xiaoru was soaked in the ice water for a long time. Although he was rescued at that time, the cold air entered his body and injured his organs. , I took good care of her for a month, and she passed away a month later.
"I was so distraught at that time that I first went to the government to file a lawsuit against those yamen. However, the governor of Lintian Mansion was probably afraid of the power behind those people and did not accept my complaint at all.
"So I begged Master to take me to see Censor Tu, who was known for his uprightness. After Censor Tu heard my cry, he did get a copy of the backers behind the yamen in front of the officials.
"About half a month later, the case was sent to the Yushitai, and a fire of hope was ignited in my heart. I looked forward to the Yushitai being able to deliver justice and give Xiaoru and I a belated justice, so that those who did evil that day could be punished. The yamen also received the punishment they deserved.
"However, I waited and waited. After waiting for two full months, I finally received the verdict from the Yushitai, but it was just a small and innocuous punishment such as giving their backers a half-year salary and being demoted to the first rank. .As for those who killed Xiaoru, they were only banned from home for a few months.
"Furthermore, Xiaoru's parents found me not long after the incident and begged me not to sue again. They had already accepted the money that the group had given them as compensation and decided to settle the matter. Master was also worried about my safety, so he expressed it in a subtle way. Similar ideas.”
