Chapter 30 Showdown
"No one in the coffin?"

"There really is no one there," Jiaotu said, "I opened the coffin and saw that there was no clothing or burial objects inside. Old Master Liu is not dead, and he may still be in the Liu family compound."

The Liu Family Compound is located on the Longmen Mountain in the south of Luocheng, covering an area of ​​hundreds of acres. People in Luocheng often joke that if a girl from an ordinary family marries into the Liu Family's high walls and gray tiles, she will probably never be able to get out and will die of old age inside.

Jiaotu pulled off Chen Ji's blindfold, and the three of them sat on the ground on the top of Zhuangyuan Mountain: "Tell me, what should we do now."

Yun Yang hesitated for a long time: "How dare the Liu family defy the world and use the old man's fake death to put pressure on the Secret Service? Doesn't that mean that the Liu family, from top to bottom, are all collaborating with the enemy, just like Liu Shiyu?"

Jiaotu raised her arms and tied her hair into a bun. "The Liu family has been managing the Central Plains for a long time. They control 80% of the farmland and officials. Even the imperial court has to look to them for grain and tax collection. For example, the Liu, Xu, Hu, Chen, Qi, and Yang families have long regarded family interests as higher than the country. It is not surprising that they collaborate with the enemy."

"But your majesty's Long Live Army is right on the border of Yuzhou. How dare they?" Yun Yang was surprised.

Jiaotu pondered for a moment: "What if the Prince Jing's Mansion is in collusion with the Liu family? I will send a pigeon to pass the news to the Minister of Internal Affairs later. This matter is not up to you and me to decide. We must mobilize troops!"

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

Chen Ji interrupted: "My Lords..."

Yun Yang's eyes lit up: "Why, do you have any new ideas? Tell me quickly, you have a lot of ideas!"

Chen Ji said, "Please settle the remuneration between the two adults. I haven't paid the fifty taels from Master Jiaotu last time. The total is one hundred and fifty taels."

Jiaotu's face darkened: "All I care about is money, money, money."

Chen Ji was in urgent need of money. He roughly estimated the ice flow in his body and thought that he would need more than ten ginsengs to solve it. There were still many ice flows in the prison in Luocheng that had not been collected. It would probably cost more than a thousand taels of silver to stop it.

My own way of practicing is too expensive!

He smiled and said, "My Lords, just finding out that there is no one in the coffin is already a great achievement. I'm sure the Minister will be very happy. Compared to this, what is a hundred taels of silver?"

Jiaotu reluctantly took off a red sandalwood bracelet from her wrist and said, "Here, Buddhist Tongbao, you can go to Tuoluo Temple to get one hundred taels of silver."

Chen Ji was stunned for a moment. He looked at the bracelet and saw that each bead was covered with densely packed words, which made him dizzy.

"Can this be used to withdraw money?" he asked curiously.

"You've never seen Buddhist Tongbao?" Jiaotu explained, "This bead has their own secret code. If you give it to their kitchen, someone will naturally give you money according to the secret code. They can understand it."

Chen Ji became even more curious: "If I carve an identical bracelet myself, can't I also exchange it for money?"

Jiaotu chuckled: "I advise you to give up this idea. There are many people in the martial arts world who have their eyes on Buddhism, but they were all saved in the end."

On the side, Yun Yang took out five small silver ingots and said, "Here."

Chen Ji smiled sincerely: "Thank you for your patronage. I have been out for too long today. Please take me back first. As for how to deal with the Liu family's affairs, it is not my place to participate."

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

Not counting the fifty taels of silver under the bed.

……

……

It was not until midnight that the carriage brought Chen Ji back to the entrance of Taiping Medical Clinic.

Yunyang and Jiaotu had just lost a sum of money, and even the joy of their achievement was diluted. They drove away without saying a word.

The carriage drove away, and Wu Yun jumped from the roof into his arms: "I have memorized the location of the inner prison...ah, you are so cold."

"Too many ice flows have been attracted to the inner prison. Have you seen Jiaotu's way of cultivation?" Chen Ji walked towards the clinic holding the copper coin in his left hand and Wuyun in his right hand.

"I saw it. A Yin spirit emerged from between her eyebrows, very fierce!" said Wuyun.

Chen Ji pushed open the door of the clinic, but at the moment he pushed the door, at three quarters past midnight, the ice flow arrived as expected.

This seems to be a special moment, when the dormant ice flow always surges up and fights to the death.

Chen Ji walked towards the medicine cabinet with difficulty. A medicine dealer came to the door this morning, and the master should have replenished the cabinet with new ginseng.

However, before he even reached the medicine cabinet, he was already unable to move.

Chen Ji said with difficulty: "Dark cloud... ginseng."

In the clinic, Wuyun jumped out of Chen Ji's arms, jumped onto the medicine cabinet with ease, opened the drawer, took out the new ginseng and brought it back to touch Chen Ji.

Ding ding dang dang, the ginseng turned into ten transparent beads that fell to the ground and bounced up again. The dark clouds ran and jumped after the beads and swallowed them one by one into their mouths.

The molten flow fed back and instantly ignited the left and right Taiyi points outside the Dantian!

Chen Ji leaned against the counter tiredly and touched Wu Yun's head: "Thank you."

Wuyun raised his head: "You don't have to thank me anymore... What if your master finds out that the ginseng is missing?"

Chen Ji was embarrassed: "I have to buy a new one before Master finds out."

Wu Yun thought for a moment and said, "How about I go beat up that fat white cat and settle the score for you?" Chen Ji was in awe and said, "...Good idea!"

At this moment, the indifferent voice of Old Man Yao came from behind him: "I asked you to deliver some medicine, but you delivered it from morning to evening."

Chen Ji subconsciously turned around and blocked the medicine cabinet drawer behind him, which had not yet been closed: "Master? How come you walk without making any sound?"

Not to mention Chen Ji, even Wu Yun didn't notice the other party approaching!
Old man Yao stood in the main hall of the clinic with his hands behind his back, his face full of sarcasm: "You still remember to come back? What are you standing there for? Come here!"

Chen Ji didn't dare to move because the drawer of the medicine cabinet behind him was not closed yet!

Just as he was thinking quickly about how to deal with the situation, he saw Wuyun jump out of his arms, run to Old Man Yao and leap up.

Old man Yao was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously reached out to catch the dark cloud. The furry little black cat meowed in his hands and blinked its golden vertical eyes.

But old man Yao was silent for a long time, and finally took Wuyun into his arms, stroked its furry head, and sneered at Chen Ji: "It is much more sensible than you... Come on, Wuyun, grandpa will take you to have some snacks."

Chen Ji: Ah?

Because of the commotion caused by Wu Yun, Old Man Yao actually forgot to scold himself.

While Old Man Yao turned around, Chen Ji quickly closed the medicine cabinet.

Just as I closed it, I heard the light voice of old man Yao: "What else are you hiding? Go buy me one tomorrow and make it up for me. Keep an eye on the account book, and don't lose a single whisker."

Chen Ji awkwardly followed him to the backyard and changed the subject, "Master, where are the two brothers?"

Old man Yao said indifferently, "She Dengke's third brother is holding a party for a wealthy family. She Dengke took Liu Quxing to watch the opera and will be back tomorrow morning. He was going to take you with him, but you didn't come back."

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

Wuyun hadn't eaten for a day, so his mouth was filled to the brim.

Chen Ji just took a look into the drawer and was glared at by Old Man Yao.

"If you want to eat, go to the kitchen and cook for yourself," Old Man Yao said coldly.

"Oh."

Chen Ji took a multi-grain pancake from the kitchen and asked while chewing it, "Master, is there any special meaning to the time of 12:30 pm?"

As Old Man Yao fed Wuyun some snacks in his hands, he frowned and thought, "Three quarters of an hour at Chou... is the time you were born."

"Huh?" Chen Ji was surprised. The ice flow always surged at this time. Was it because the third quarter of the first hour of the lunar calendar was his birthday?
Strange, does it mean that the great consciousness in the battlefield must wait until the moment of my birthday to take over my body?
Chen Ji hesitated for a long time, and finally asked frankly: "Master, what is a Xingguan?"

Old Man Yao glanced at him and said, "Why should I tell you? You can sell intelligence for money, but you want to get free information from me?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Wuyun stopped eating the snacks and just used its furry head to nudge the palm of Old Man Yao's hand.

When Old Man Yao saw this, he immediately said unhappily, "You look cute, little thing, but you have so many tricks up your sleeve."

He said slowly: "Xingguan is a general term for people who practice cultivation. There are many different ways of practicing cultivation, and they do all kinds of things."

Chen Ji wondered: "Why don't the people know about their existence?"

Old Man Yao touched Wuyun's head and said, "It's just that most people don't know that most officials have to hide their own cultivation methods, otherwise they will be coveted by people of the same path."

"why?"

"Because the path that every cultivation path seeks is like a bowl of water. There is only so much water in the bowl, and if you share it with more people, each person will get less to drink. And if you want to embark on the final path to heaven, you need to drink this bowl of water alone, and you can't share it with more people."

Chen Ji was stunned. Law of conservation of energy?
Only then did he realize why Yun Yang said that there was only life and death on the path of cultivation. Under such a heavenly law, people who practiced the same path were natural enemies.

Chen Ji asked calmly: "Then Master, are you an official..."

Old man Yao smiled and waved towards the sky, but suddenly in the dark night there was a sound of flapping wings, and a huge crow landed!
Chen Ji stood up suddenly, it turned out that this crow belonged to his master!
When I was attacked by the ice flow and went to Liu Shiyu's house to investigate the case, the other party was there!

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

"I know how, and so what if I don't know," Old Man Yao gently stroked the crow's wings, and the crow looked at Chen Ji, opening its mouth and smiling silently, as if mocking his ignorance of the world.

Master, this crow, is just as mean as the master.

At this time, the crow looked at the dark cloud that was showing off its food with its head down, then looked at Old Man Yao, and made a cackling sound with its mouth.

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

The next second, Crow looked at Chen Ji, and then at Old Man Yao.

Old Man Yao continued patiently: "This is not it yet."

Chen Ji: "..."

(End of this chapter)