jdhmnovel Chapter 160 The Undeserved Misfortune of the Taoist Priest
Chapter 160 The Undeserved Misfortune of the Taoist Priest
Chapter 160 The Undeserved Misfortune of the Taoist Priest
The father and brothers certainly wouldn't believe Xiao Er's words when he suddenly appeared and said these things. Although these people surrendered quickly and efficiently when Liu Qingyuan and the others broke through the formation, it was only because they knew that the capable people had gone elsewhere to do other things. In their minds, Yi Yang would come back.
"Silly girl, what nonsense are you talking about?"
Moreover, Zhao Wang had only recently joined the White Lotus Sect with his family and was gradually improving thanks to Yi Yang's kindness. He was grateful for Yi Yang's kindness and was looking forward to the future, so he didn't understand what his daughter was trying to express.
Moreover, he had just returned, and his son hadn't even been able to explain why so many people were missing from the cult. Now, his daughter had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and said the cult was finished. It's fair to say that Zhao Wang was truly out of the loop.
"Uncle Zhao, Xiao Er is right."
He also arrived on a kite, but it seemed no one noticed him. Ding Ziming took the initiative to speak up for Xiao Er.
"The Asura King never intended to interfere with the White Lotus Sect. In fact, the title 'Asura King' wasn't even his real name. He was actually a member of the Taoist sect, and his name was... uh, Mr. Shu Long. What was his name again?"
Ding Ziming turned around awkwardly. He had arrived in such a hurry that he hadn't even seen the face of the legendary Asura King, and he had only heard his real name once, without remembering it.
"The Taoist constellation is a wonder, or it is called the 'collecting of myriad tribulations'."
"Yes, take away all calamities."
Reminded, Ding Ziming turned around again.
"Uncle Zhao, that guy is not an Asura from the Buddhist scriptures at all. Yi Yang and his people are not even comparable to him. The White Lotus Sect is a gathering place for bandits. Don't be so stubborn!"
In the territory of the White Lotus Sect, calling them bandits in front of so many White Lotus Sect members wouldn't last long. If anyone else had insulted them like that, the surrounding people would probably have already started a fight.
However, the people around dared not make a move. The reason was simple: they still recognized Shu Longqinxin, one of the three who had broken the protective array earlier. After seeing him and Ding Ziming appear together, everyone else hid far away, leaving only the Zhao family father and son being persuaded in the center.
"You...you're Old Ding's son, what are you doing here?"
When the waiter came over, Zhao Wang naturally didn't say anything since it was his beloved daughter. But when Ding Zimo also came over and started talking, Zhao Wang was puzzled. The person opposite him addressed him as "Uncle," which made it seem like they knew him. He looked closely and realized that it was actually the son of his friend who had passed the imperial examination and become a scholar.
That's strange. Why isn't this kid staying home and studying? Why is he here? Wait, wasn't he just riding a kite back with his daughter? And that guy in all white next to him, that person seems to have really appeared out of thin air.
It didn't appear out of thin air; it's just that Zhao Wang's attention was drawn to the waiter, and he didn't see the light in the Transformation Lightness Skill.
"I have come for you. This place is a den of dragons and tigers, and we cannot stay here any longer."
Actually, Ding Ziming initially only wanted to persuade Xiao Er to leave, but now that he was facing his future father-in-law and brother-in-law, he certainly couldn't say that he had run away from home specifically to take Xiao Er away.
"The White Lotus sect has been rampant in various places these days, and the imperial court can no longer stand by and watch. It won't be long before they send troops to suppress them. Uncle Zhao, turn back before it's too late!"
Even now, Ding Ziming still doesn't understand what Zhao Wang was planning. The contrast between his transformation from a "good person" who ate vegetarian food and chanted Buddhist scriptures to a bandit who associated with a cult is just too great.
“Master Yi Yang is a divine being. I have risen to prominence thanks to his kindness. How could he possibly be wrong?”
From Zhao Wang's perspective, after he and his family joined the sect, he obtained the status of a nominal disciple, allowing him to learn wondrous magic from others. His son received a minor official position, and his daughter was directly trained as a personal disciple. No matter how you look at it, his family only benefited. He didn't believe that a crisis was about to arrive.
Yi Yang was quite adept at manipulating Zhao Wang, but that was because he didn't really intend to be a cult leader. He was just looking for a quick buck and a getaway, so he could give out benefits as he pleased, since he didn't have to pay for them himself.
"Besides, after saying all this, where is the Asura King? Where is Master Yi Yang?"
"This……"
This question really hit the nail on the head. When Liu Qingyuan was fighting Yi Yang and the others, Xiao Er was trapped in the Intercepting Spirit Formation. By the time someone came to rescue him, he had already been imprisoned by Liu Qingyuan. Xiao Er only knew that Yi Yang had lost, but he really didn't know where Yi Yang had gone.
Ding Ziming was even more confused. He hadn't participated at all; he stayed behind to watch over Shang Chen and Shang Li. Yue Wuque and Shu Longqinxin suddenly returned. Yue Wuque stayed behind, while Shu Longqinxin took him to see Xiao Er, and then they came here together.
The only person here who might know Yi Yang's whereabouts is probably Shu Longqinxin. So after a brief silence, the two of them turned their heads together and cast pleading glances at Shu Longqinxin.
It has to be said that these two are incredibly synchronized. I wonder if it's the tacit understanding they developed as childhood sweethearts, or if they're just naturally alike.
“Yi Yang and his accomplices have been captured by our fellow Daoists. They do not belong here and are all vicious and wicked people who have committed many evil deeds. Your daughter almost became a victim of Yi Yang’s chaos.”
To make it easier to explain, Shu Longqin took a few steps forward. As a result, this action caused Zhao Changchun, who had been silent until now, to take a few steps back, looking very frightened.
...After all, they had just broken through the enemy's protective array, so it was understandable.
“Yi Yang will not be coming back. Asura King and Qingyangzi did it for Yi Yang and the others. The White Lotus Sect is indeed not a good place to go. You had better make other plans.”
These words were not only spoken to Zhao Wang and Zhao Changqing, but also to the people around them. Shu Longqin did not care why they joined the White Lotus Sect; she only cared about their final choices.
After Shu Longqin finished speaking, the surroundings fell silent. Regardless of his previous experience of attacking and his own image, in the minds of those around him, his deterrent power was much stronger than that of Xiao Erding Zimo.
Taking advantage of the quiet, Ding Ziming reconsidered what had happened before he came. He remembered Yi Yang's accomplices, and there was also a guy in human skin who was the source of Shang Chen and Shang Li's contact and travel with him.
"Yi Yang... Oh right, and there's also Lan Ying. Does Lan Ying still have the skin of the Shang family woman on her body?"
"Don't worry about that, Jianzi Xianji has already gone to the underworld to handle this matter."
"...The underworld?"
Ding Ziming: Could it be the place he's thinking of?
"Yes, the underworld."
Shu Longqin: Yes, it's the place you're thinking of.
“We also have connections in the underworld, and Jianzi Xianji is a frequent visitor to the Netherworld, so there’s no need to worry about the merchants.”
Meanwhile, on Shang Chen and Shang Li's side...
"You just knocked him out like that, is it really okay?"
Meng Danqing looked at the unconscious Shang brothers. The premise for Shang Sanguan to appear in their dreams was that the two of them had to fall asleep first, but Yue Wuque thought that was too troublesome, so he simply knocked them unconscious.
"The left and right sides are about the same, and the beauty didn't use too much force."
Given the brothers' current mindset, it would be difficult to get them to lie down and sleep peacefully. Besides, getting someone to fall asleep would take time, so it would be simpler to just knock them out, according to Yue Wuque.
"But are we just going to leave them lying there like that?"
Seeing the two of them slumped on the table after fainting, Meng Danqing was a little worried that they might roll over and fall to the ground. Given the relationship between the three siblings, this dream would probably take a long time. Should she move them to the bed?
"That'll be fine."
Yue Wuque didn't care; lying down for a while wouldn't cause him to get a stiff neck.
"call--"
Just then, a gust of wind blew in through the open window, carrying a chill. The two people still awake inside saw a boy pass through the wall, holding a rein in his hand. As he entered, the other end of the rein also passed through the wall and into the room—a paper donkey, the same size as a normal donkey.
A young woman sat quietly on the donkey. Judging by her features alone, she looked exactly like Lan Ying from before, but her clothing was in the style of this world, and her temperament was very different from Lan Ying's.
Needless to say, this woman was Shang Sanguan. The boy leading the donkey bowed to Yue Wuque and Meng Danqing, and then walked towards the two who had fainted. When he got close, it was as if he had passed through an invisible wall and disappeared little by little.
Shang Sanguan, sitting on the paper donkey, naturally disappeared along with it. They entered the two brothers' dream, and at this moment, the three siblings should already be reunited in their dream.
……
"Immortal Sword Master is not here? It's been several days, and he hasn't returned yet?"
The Taoist priest had come up the mountain on business, but the person he was looking for was not there. He also couldn't get any information from the little fox spirit he often saw.
"The immortal said he went to the south to help people, but he hasn't returned yet."
Xiao Cui watched as the Taoist priest suddenly ran into the mountains. He looked anxious and paced back and forth. This man was quite skilled and belonged to the same sect as the powerful beggar in the city. There shouldn't be anyone in the town who would bother him.
“Southern…Master Uncle did mention a few days ago that something big was happening in the South.”
The Taoist priest stopped pacing and put his hands on his hips, pondering the bits of information he had overheard.
"But I can't go to the south either. Oh well, if I can't find it, I can't find it. Fellow Daoist Xiao Cui, please allow me to hide in the mountains these days. I'm getting so annoyed."
"No demons dare to cause trouble in the city anymore. With all your supernatural powers, what could you possibly be worried about?"
First, a white-haired immortal appeared in the world, capturing the painted skin and saving the scholar. Then, lightning struck down from the sky, striking the lecherous man in the dead of night. All sorts of strange things happened in the city. The incense in front of the Ten Kings Hall was still burning brightly. In this environment, no little demon caused any trouble. What could the Taoist priest possibly have to worry about?
"The monsters are gone, but there's still human-caused trouble! It's really strange, why do I always seem to be bothered by people?"
The Taoist priest was annoyed, not so much because of the strange and supernatural things, but because he was annoyed by people.
Although the Taoist priest often performs on the street, this is not his only job. When he gets tired of performing various magic tricks, he will occasionally set up a stall and a flag to tell fortunes for passersby, returning to his original profession.
The problem lies in this fortune telling; he shouldn't have set up a fortune telling stall in the first place!
"About two or three months ago, a scoundrel came to me for fortune telling, asking if I knew how he would eventually die..."
That scoundrel, accompanied by a group of cronies, was clearly looking for trouble. Even when it comes to matters of life and death, one would try to be as tactful as possible. But since the other side was obviously up to no good, the Taoist priest didn't tolerate him and bluntly said that the other side would eventually hang himself.
The rogue certainly wouldn't believe that he would hang himself. Just as he was about to lead his men to attack, the Taoist priest took the items first and left immediately, giving the rogue no chance.
That matter should have been over, but recently, that scoundrel suddenly died, and trouble has come knocking.
"...Hanged?"
"Yes, hanged."
The Taoist priest's words came true. Those local thugs gathered at the village entrance and saw a beautiful woman riding by on horseback. The rogue insisted on going up to seduce her, betting with his friends that he could make the woman laugh.
Just then, there were some wild sorghum stalks behind the wall. This guy unbuckled his belt, hung it on a sorghum stalk, stuck his neck in, and pretended to hang himself, shouting, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die!" The woman passed by and, sure enough, laughed.
After the woman left, her companion noticed that the rogue was still hanging there silently. Feeling something was wrong, they went over to check and found that he was indeed dead, with his tongue sticking out and his eyes closed, looking like he had been hanged.
The fortune teller was right; the rogue was hanged, and a perfectly healthy person was hanged on a sorghum stalk. Such a bizarre event naturally attracted a lot of attention.
Then, the bizarre thing happened. The scoundrel's cronies all agreed that it was the Taoist priest who had cursed him because they had caused him trouble, and he had cursed them out of resentment. Otherwise, how could a person hang himself from a sorghum stalk with both feet on the ground the whole time?
Taoist priest: Are you sick in the head? If you guys are mentally ill, go get some medicine. What does it have to do with me?!
"Fellow Daoist, do you think those guys got kicked in the head by a donkey?"
It's true. The more Daoist Shan thought about it, the angrier he got. Now that he's telling Xiao Cui about it again, he's even angrier.
"In a time like this, instead of suspecting that woman, they suspect me... I'm a proper Taoist practitioner, a disciple of Laoshan, a righteous gentleman. These scoundrels say I cursed him to hang himself. What did I do to deserve this?!"
He had once been relentlessly pursued by a rich young master who wanted to teach him invisibility, but he simply assumed the young master was just being spoiled and left without getting involved. However, this time, he genuinely felt that these guys were out of their minds.
The Taoist priest started spinning in circles again, but this time he was much faster, and it seemed more like he was simply angry than anxious.
"Why don't they think about this? A beautiful woman appears alone at the entrance of a remote village, riding not a donkey, but a horse that ordinary families can't afford. Something's wrong with her. Can't they think about it properly?"
After concluding the absurdity that Taoist Shan was the one who harmed people, these scoundrels frequently came to cause trouble for him, either by verbally threatening and scaring away the audience, or by extorting money from him, and by spreading rumors that he was using curses to harm people.
Because of these guys, Taoist Shan could no longer perform his magic tricks. Unfortunately, these scoundrels were completely mortals, and it was unreasonable for him, a cultivator, to attack them. But this scapegoating came out of nowhere, and he couldn't just sit idly by.
The Taoist priest was thoroughly fed up. Seeking peace and quiet, he ventured into the southwest mountains, a place inhabited by immortals and haunted by ghosts, a place that ordinary people usually wouldn't want to come to.
He went into the mountains intending to visit Liu Qingyuan and ask if she had any solutions, but all he found was Xiao Cui. He only met Xiao Cui by chance, and she herself was not in a state of sudden enlightenment.
"I'm furious."
No, he couldn't swallow this insult; he had to find a way to salvage his reputation.