Chapter 312

In the courtyard of the Sihe Academy, Tan Wenbin held a bowl of some nameless soup, sipping it with a spoon while circling around to admire his favorite lotus vat.

Lin Shu also went to ladle a bowl, thinking to ask if the others wanted any, but when he looked up, Runsheng was sitting motionless in the shadowed corner, while Brother Xiaoyuan sat on a stool by the water channel, eyes closed in deep thought.

A-You had no choice but to carry his bowl and walk over to Tan Wenbin's side.

"Brother Bin, since you like this vat so much, let's get one at Old Man Li's place too."

"That would require Old Man Li to agree to have the dam leveled, the house torn down, the foundation dug ten meters deep to lay a formation, and then have it repaired and maintained every year."

"If it's like that, then it's impossible. Brother Bin, you really know so much."

"Mm, you can be like me and read more books on formations in your spare time."

Li Zhuiyuan was currently retracing his own memories.

The first node was the Three Incense Sticks incident on the way to Fengdou last time; at the time, Zhao Yi had managed to save his life, but in reality, he had gained benefits from the first two sticks.

The second node was when Zhao Yi was sent by him to Su Luo's place to resolve the Bodhisattva's contingency; Zhao Yi had utilized the Black Leather Book secret art he had left inside the tomb owner Su Luo, which brought side effects upon himself.

But setting aside the side effects, the experience of being able to use the Black Leather Book secret art was inherently extremely precious; even if he wouldn't go on to learn it, it would inevitably lead to great progress in his own puppetry.

On Ghost Street, facing the horde of ghosts controlled by the Bodhisattva rushing the gates, he had to secretly change the lock on the Ghost Gate Pass, prematurely draining Zhao Yi's energy, which resulted in Zhao Yi failing to die in a grand, spectacular fashion.

The memory image froze here; Li Zhuiyuan stood on Ghost Street, and before him was Zhao Yi at the very last moment before death.

Lin Shu had died earlier, dying quite tragically, which was very much in line with A-You's state of mind, whereas Zhao Yi's death was truly a bit sloppy.

In the memory image, the youth's hand waved gently forward, and Zhao Yi died; waving backward, Zhao Yi lived again.

After repeating this many times, and after Zhao Yi had died and come back to life many times, the youth finally let go of this image.

Next was the gift from the Great Emperor.

The early stage was indeed a gift, but the later stage was "retaliation"; Su Luo, who was originally just an initial side effect, was endowed with higher activity by the Great Emperor.

No matter what Zhao Yi was doing, Su Luo could wake up very naturally and take over this body, which meant that in terms of strength comparison, Su Luo was actually on par with Zhao Yi.

In the new memory image, Li Zhuiyuan stood on the hood of the truck, looking at the person in the driver's cab through the front windshield.

Inside, besides Zhao Yi, he himself was also sitting in the passenger seat.

The memory image moved forward, backward, then forward again, then backward; Su Luo appeared very naturally every time, controlling Zhao Yi.

Subsequently, it was he himself in the passenger seat who stepped on the brakes in time, only then avoiding the truck from plunging down the slope.

In the next memory image, Zhao Yi was hung up and whipped inside the peach grove, whipped until his spirit and flesh were almost falling apart, and then it was Qing'an who stripped "Su Luo" onto a peach tree, though in reality, it was transferred onto Qing'an himself.

Li Zhuiyuan stood under the peach tree, side-by-side with that version of himself in the memory image, both witnessing the process of Su Luo "walking out" from the tree.

Immediately, Li Zhuiyuan turned his attention back to Qing'an.

Given Qing'an's personality, it either wouldn't help, but if it did, it wouldn't care about the cost, because it was already seeking death itself; there was nothing it was reluctant to lose.

Therefore, it was impossible for Qing'an to still covet that bit of "Su Luo's" power; it should have only stripped the "Su Luo" personality onto itself, while "Su Luo's" power all remained inside Zhao Yi's body.

Broadly speaking, Zhao Yi's gains in that wave at Fengdou had two main aspects:

First, the Life-Death Gate crack crossed a major threshold, producing a qualitative change; second, it annexed Su Luo's strength, equivalent to swallowing another version of himself.

The secondary improvements were one, puppetry; the other might be related to Su Luo's own characteristic of being easily possessed; after all, Zhao Yi had once entered Su Luo's body, and Su Luo had later entered his body—under such deep and thorough communication, if he hadn't been able to comprehend and leave something behind, then he wouldn't be Zhao Yi.

Comparatively speaking, purely quantifiable strength increases were not the key, such as strength annexation and puppetry progress.

Instead, it was the effect after the qualitative change of the Life-Death Gate crack and the mastery of Su Luo's characteristics... which could not be specifically estimated.

The final segment of the memory image was the killing of Zhao Yanglin and his group on a rainy night a while ago.

Zhao Yi had clearly held back his strength; after all, their side had the advantage in numbers and was in total control.

The memory image vanished, and Li Zhuiyuan slowly opened his eyes.

This meant that Zhao Yi had been constantly harvesting and accumulating recently, yet had never truly displayed his specific strength as it stood now.

It wasn't that Zhao Yi was deliberately hiding it from him, but rather that for people like them, restraint was an instinct.

Lin Shu longed to find someone to fight immediately after every improvement, but Zhao Yi would not.

Li Zhuiyuan stood up.

This made Lin Shu, opposite him, feel a bit awkward; he was holding the jar, scraping the last bit of soup into his bowl.

"Brother Xiaoyuan, are you eating?"

"You eat."

"Oh, okay." Lin Shu said while eating, "Three-Eyes was truly majestic at the dinner table during the day."

Tan Wenbin: "You can be even more majestic when you return to your hometown next time, if you can cast aside the constraints of ethics and morality."

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Lin Shu was choked by the soup.

Tan Wenbin: "I'm not lying to you; in the temple in your home, there aren't many left who can successfully perform spirit possession now, right?"

Lin Shu: "I don't know; when I was in Nantong, I called home, but Master and Grandfather didn't tell me."

Upon hearing this, Tan Wenbin smiled and nodded.

Placing the bowl and chopsticks on the stone table, Tan Wenbin began:

"Beforehand, I only had a guess, but when I saw Zhao Yi truly return to the Zhao family under his own identity, I instead felt that my previous worries didn't seem to count for much. Originally, the enemy being in the dark while we were in the light was a disadvantage, but if we know where the enemy in the dark is, then standing in the light instead becomes an advantage."

Lin Shu put down his bowl and spoon and said: "They don't even dare to reveal their identities in front of Three-Eyes; it's their turn to start feeling uneasy, suspicious, and restless."

Tan Wenbin: "This is Jiujiang, the Zhao family's territory. Zhao Yi has the natural home-field advantage here. We are setting out from the outer residence tomorrow morning to go into the mountains to the ancestral residence to pay respects to the ancestors. I think Zhao Yi should be moving against them very soon."

Li Zhuiyuan said: "Them—who are they?"

Tan Wenbin was stunned, then his eyes revealed deep thought.

Lin Shu: "It's that group of people sitting at the table during the family banquet today."

Li Zhuiyuan: "You two, weren't you also sitting at the table?"

Lin Shu: "But how could Three-Eyes possibly..."

Tan Wenbin: "Brother Xiaoyuan, do you mean that Zhao Yi might treat us all the same?"

Lin Shu: "But, it was Three-Eyes who invited us to Jiujiang to help him..."

"I don't think Zhao Yi would do that, but the current Zhao Yi has the motive to do so." Li Zhuiyuan walked to the lotus vat, placed his hand into the water surface, and the white cold air began to retract. The youth continued, "He intends to ignite the Zhao family with his own hands; while burning the Zhao family, he will also burn to death this group of people who have infiltrated the Zhao family."

Ice crystals condensed on the vat surface, and the youth moved his palm upward; the ice crystals moved upward along with it, condensing into an ice lotus flower.

Li Zhuiyuan: "We didn't just come to Jiujiang to help him. All along, Zhao Yi and I have been taking what we each need, including coming to Jiujiang this time, which is also because I have my eye on the Zhao family treasury.

If the rotten firewood that is the Zhao family still has a large amount of combustible parts left after burning that group of guys to death, if you stood in Zhao Yi's shoes, you would also be unable to resist thinking about whether or not to take the opportunity to burn our group along with them."

In the dark corner, Runsheng's eyes flashed with a green light, which then faded away.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Lin Shu: "On Mount Qingcheng, you beat up Xu Ming. Your purpose was to give Zhao Yi a warning in advance in hopes of better achieving the subsequent cooperation.

I don't want to sow discord in your relationship; Zhao Yi and we have been together for so long, and we are all so familiar with each other, so it's normal to develop feelings and trust.

But this is on the river; we are currently experiencing a wave, and any cooperative relationship must be constantly re-evaluated according to the changing situation.

From this moment on,

Walk this wave seriously; don't treat the Zhao family treasury as our primary goal.

And don't feel that we are helping Zhao Yi, or that we are bestowing favors upon him from above.

Keep an appropriate distance, maintain a sense of propriety, treat Zhao Yi as another team in this wave, re-align, seek common ground while reserving differences, and strive for cooperation."

"Understood!"

"Understood."

Li Zhuiyuan took one last look at Tan Wenbin, then went back to his room to rest, with Runsheng following him as he left.

Lin Shu bit his lip with his teeth, frowning from time to time, looking melancholy.

Tan Wenbin reached out and hugged Lin Shu's shoulder, patting it gently.

Lin Shu: "Brother Bin, will Three-Eyes really set a fire to burn us?"

Tan Wenbin: "Your understanding of Brother Xiaoyuan's words is superficial. Didn't you hear Brother Xiaoyuan say that even Brother Xiaoyuan himself believes Zhao Yi won't take action against us."

Lin Shu: "Then..."

Tan Wenbin: "What Zhao Yi originally thought was to prune the Zhao family himself, to make it convenient for him to master its resurgence later. Now that things have blown up, the nature has changed; the entire Zhao family may cease to exist, and Zhao Yi has changed from someone who wanted to protect a broken jar into someone who wants to smash the jar with his own hands.

What Brother Xiaoyuan just talked about is actually a kind of interpersonal relationship. Childhood friends who wore split-crotch pants and played in the mud together—with the change in each other's status and position, you can't just throw mud at him the next time you meet, right?

At this time, the adjustment and change in the mode of interaction is not for the sake of active alienation, but precisely to better maintain the relationship the two had in the beginning."

Lin Shu: "I understand."

Tan Wenbin: "Do you really understand?"

Lin Shu said with a firm gaze: "If Three-Eyes dares to take action against us, my golden mace will smash his eyeballs."

Tan Wenbin: "Sigh, next time you have a question like this, you should go communicate with Runsheng."

After leaving these words, Tan Wenbin also went back to his room to sleep.

Lin Shu stood where he was, looking up at the moon above the courtyard.

He was originally the person who hated Three-Eyes the most, but upon hearing Brother Xiaoyuan say that Three-Eyes might also take action against them, his heart was also the most conflicted.

"Master Tongzi, Three-Eyes' Old Tian is still living in Nantong..."

"That is the reason why he likes you so much; the more a person lacks something, the more they crave it."

"Clatter!"

Lin Shu turned his head to look at the lotus vat.

On the surface of the vat, the ice lotus flower that Brother Xiaoyuan had casually crafted earlier shattered and fell apart.

Zhao Yi moved back into his own small courtyard.

At this moment, he stood at the entrance of the small courtyard, and standing outside were Zhao Heming and Chen Cuier.

Choosing the Third Branch to replace them was originally the simplest choice.

The Third Branch had a transcendent status; one only knew how to affect elegance, while the other spent all day mourning the spring and lamenting the autumn.

But he never expected that, as they were acting, "his own" son would return.

If it were an ordinary third-generation child from another branch, then they could be kneaded at will; killing, burying, or replacing them would be the simplest thing.

But it just had to be this one before them; you didn't dare to take action at will, and even when probing, you had to be extremely cautious.

"I've said before, my courtyard doesn't welcome you; please return."

Zhao Yi sent them away without mercy.

Zhao Heming and Chen Cuier looked at each other and turned to leave; the father let out a long sigh, while the mother looked back every three steps.

Zhao Yi ignored them, returned to his room, and lay down on the small bed.

Old Tian's bed was originally set up temporarily; others had maids to accompany them to sleep, while he had an old man to accompany him.

After an adult's weight lay on it, if one moved even slightly, it would emit a "creak, creak" sound from below.

When he was a child, he and Old Tian slept together on this small bed; it was the wind fanned by the cattail-leaf fan mixed with the sound of the bed shaking that accompanied him to sleep.

Zhao Yi's eyelids slowly lowered, his vision first blurring, then flickering with firelight.

What the fire burned was not just this bed or this room; the entire Zhao residence was engulfed in a great fire, and his ears were filled with the shrill screams of the Zhao family.

Zhao Yi's expression was calm; this level of mental clutter could not have a substantial impact on him.

If the Zhao family was destined to go to hell, then this Ghost Gate should also be pushed open by him, Zhao Yi, personally.

Those hands that attempted to reach over,

will all be severed by him!

In the early hours of the next day, the sky was still far from bright, but the residence was already bustling.

The auspicious time for paying respects to the ancestors was very early, which meant the time to set out from the outer residence would be even earlier; moreover, after returning from paying respects, they still had to entertain the guests arriving today.

The Zhao family's attire today was relatively retro, with the main color tone leaning toward blue; the team carrying the sacrificial offerings was ready, waiting only for the arrival of the family head and the Fourth Branch personnel.

Zhao Shanan arrived, standing on the steps.

The other four branches had also arrived.

The First Branch couple brought their two sons; the two people from the Third Branch stood there; the Fourth Branch's Fourth Master looked quite young, the woman beside him already had wrinkles climbing on her face, and beside them stood a pair of very young fraternal twins.

Zhao Shanan's gaze lingered a bit longer on the Second Branch; the Second Branch had also brought that illegitimate son along.

It was a bit absurd; after all, he had just been brought home from outside and they hadn't even had time to hold the homecoming ceremony, but the Second Branch had always been absurd.

Zhao Yi was the focus of the entire scene; after he arrived, he nodded to Zhao Shanan, then walked down along one side, passing in front of the Fourth Branch people.

In front of the four people of the First Branch, Zhao Yi remained indifferent throughout.

Zhao Shanan nodded slightly; the First Branch was confirmed to have been replaced, because the contrast in behavior before and after was too obvious.

Of course, it was understandable; replacing a person was easy, but managing the operation of a family at the same time as replacing a person was truly too high a requirement.

When he walked to the Second Branch, Zhao Yi stopped his steps.

Zhao Yi: "Second Uncle, still vigorous in old age."

Tan Wenbin: "I'm old, I can't compare to you, Brother Yi."

Zhao Yi: "Second Uncle isn't old, and you still play quite wildly; be careful not to play yourself to death."

Tan Wenbin's face revealed embarrassment, his gaze wandering, as if he had been poked in some filthy secret, and he immediately stepped forward to Zhao Yi, lowering his voice:

"Brother Yi, your Second Uncle also has unspeakable difficulties, really."

The voice was lowered, but for the people here, it could still be heard clearly.

Zhao Yi pushed away "Second Master Zhao" with some disgust, and even wiped his hand on Second Master Zhao's clothes.

Subsequently, Zhao Yi looked at his own... Second Aunt.

Zhao Yi: "Second Aunt has actually become younger."

Lin Shu was a bit awkward and didn't know how to respond; mainly because Brother Xiaoyuan wasn't reminding him in his heart, so he could only be at a loss.

But this reaction was just right.

Zhao Yi glanced at Zhao Yong.

When he lowered his head to look at Li Zhuiyuan, Zhao Yi's eyes revealed a hint of softness.

Zhao Yi: "I don't remember the Second Branch having you."

Zhao Shanan said: "Your Second Uncle just brought him back from outside the day before yesterday."

"Oh, just brought back from outside?"

Zhao Yi bent down, looking at Li Zhuiyuan, a smile appearing on the corners of his mouth.

This was the first time since returning home that the Young Master of the Zhao family had revealed such an expression.

His hands cupped the youth's face before him, his gaze revealing a hint of profound meaning.

"Brought back from outside, huh..."

Zhao Yi's hand rubbed Li Zhuiyuan's face, and as he withdrew his hand, he even pinched it gently.

Zhao Shanan saw all of this in his eyes, and the gazes of the other branches were the same.

Ignoring the First Branch, having contact even with the most disgusting Second Master Zhao of the Second Branch, and showing even more enthusiasm for the youth just brought back from outside.

If Zhao Yi really knew something, then it could be explained that the Second Branch... had not been replaced.

Next, Zhao Yi walked to his "parents."

"Father, you look haggard."

"It's you who have been working hard outside."

"Mother, you must take care of your health."

"My son, are you going out again this time?"

Zhao Yi didn't answer, left his "parents," and walked directly past the front of the Fourth Branch.

Being overly gentle to his parents instead proved that his parents were fake.

It could be said that through this series of actions by Zhao Yi, the First, Third, and Fourth Branches all understood each other's identities; it was no longer the cloud-shrouded fog of before.

Zhao Shanan's fingers behind his back rubbed gently; he felt that this seemed too simple.

Zhao Yi walked to the front of the sacrificial team and waved his hand toward the back: "We can set out."

Zhao Shanan: "Set out, pay respects to the ancestors."

There were six large sedan chairs; the one at the very front was Zhao Shanan's, the second was Zhao Yi's, and the remaining four were for the four branches.

The chairs were lifted, and they left the residence.

At the front, middle, and back of the team, there were suona horns and gongs and drums, jumping as they moved forward.

Their existence formed a special kind of isolation.

Lin Shu, sitting in the sedan chair, reached out to lift the curtain; although it was still dark outside, cars drove past from time to time, yet not a single car felt that there was anything wrong with a team of this style on the road at this hour.

Lowering his head to look at the sedan bearers under the chair, he could only see the hands and shoulders carrying the poles and the legs walking below; he couldn't see the heads or the middle bodies of the bearers.

Lin Shu lowered the curtain and asked: "Brother Bin, what kind of technique is this?"

Tan Wenbin: "Qimen Dunjia."

When answering, Tan Wenbin also glanced at Brother Xiaoyuan sitting opposite him; Brother Xiaoyuan didn't reply, which meant his answer was correct.

Lin Shu: "How interesting."

Tan Wenbin: "Master Tongzi doesn't know?"

Lin Shu: "They don't have spirits; they aren't living things or ghost souls, so it's not the same path as the one Master Tongzi knows."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Brother Binbin, listen and see if there are any other teams following on the periphery."

Tan Wenbin listened carefully with his ear tilted and replied: "Brother Xiaoyuan, I didn't hear any."

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes.

The eerie team traveled through the city between light and dark; the woods on both sides became denser and denser, and the slope of the advance became steeper and steeper, but sitting in the sedan chair, one couldn't feel a single bump.

When the sky finally turned dim, the team completely entered the mountains; everything around was very primitive, but soon, fog rose, completely obscuring the view.

"Lower the chairs!"

All the sedan chairs landed. ===== CHAPTER 313 =====