Chapter 128

"So that's my fault for being ignorant?"

Li Miao laughed.

"You... it's good that you know."

Zhu Zai said, gasping for breath.

"Fine, fine, fine, you'd better say less."

"Every time you talk, the wound on your arm spurts blood; don't spray it on my face."

Li Miao didn't give Zhu Zai any face at all.

Zhu Zai snorted coldly and didn't argue with Li Miao anymore, just settled his mind to regulate his breathing.

He was, after all, a peak expert with profound martial arts attainments. Coupled with Li Miao's true energy being channeled into him, he recovered in just a moment.

He supported his knees with both hands and stood up, but fell into a momentary silence.

After a long while, Zhu Zai brought his hands in front of him, clenched them, touched his own face, and turned his head abruptly to look at Li Miao.

"This technique of yours... it doesn't just heal wounds, it can also extend life!?"

It was because just after his injuries were healed, he felt his body become much lighter out of nowhere, and the skin on his hands and face seemed to have tightened as well.

He was sixty-one years old this year, an age where half of him was already in the grave. Coupled with the hidden injuries left by years of life-and-death struggles, he would have died long ago if not for his foundation of internal energy cultivated over many years.

His body was heavy, his skin was sagging, and his joints often ached faintly.

But now, he felt as if he had returned to the state of his forties or fifties!

If he were to fight Bu Lei again now, he would have a ninety percent chance of winning!

In shock, Zhu Zai almost grabbed Li Miao by the collar to make him confess honestly.

"It's not that miraculous."

Li Miao said: "It's just that I treated the accumulated hidden injuries in your body along the way."

"For example, you might have lived to be ninety when you were born, but with these hidden injuries accumulated, you would only live to be seventy."

"But now that they are healed, you can still live to be over ninety."

"How about it, aren't you especially glad you picked me up back then?"

Zhu Zai, however, was in no mood to bicker with Li Miao; he just pondered intently for a moment and said coldly.

"Where did this technique come from?"

"Derived from a remnant copy, I suppose you could call it self-created."

"Who has seen it? Tell me the names."

Li Miao knew all too well what Zhu Zai wanted to do; he squinted at him and said.

"Want to silence them?"

"Nonsense!" Zhu Zai shouted angrily.

"If this thing becomes known to the Emperor, then what you and I will have to face is the entire imperial court!"

"Everything said before was based on one foundation—that you and I are still the Emperor's subjects and haven't done anything out of line; perhaps the Emperor wouldn't be willing to pay too high a price to get rid of us."

"If the Emperor doesn't speak, then the court is just a group of people; I can mediate, trade, and divide them."

"If the Emperor speaks, then the court becomes a single, unified weapon!"

"Do you really think that you, a Heaven-Man, and I, a Grade Three Commander, can resist the imperial court?"

"The Emperor's mausoleum is already built; is he willing to lie in it? And as for Heaven-Man Realm experts like today's, who knows how many the imperial court has hidden!"

Zhu Zai was momentarily furious.

Because this matter was too dangerous, ten times more sensitive than the Bright Sect or treason!

You damn Li Miao, are you like an onion?

Peeling back one layer after another, how many things have you hidden under my nose!

If you hide them, fine, but can you come up with something less fatal!?

Li Miao laughed softly: "Don't be nervous, Commander."

"I know what I'm doing; I'm not some reckless fool who can't keep things hidden."

"I have used this technique, but the method for healing hidden injuries has only been used on you."

Li Miao looked into Zhu Zai's eyes, his smile fading.

"I'm not using it recklessly."

"This is a bargaining chip I'm giving you."

Zhu Zai shouldn't have gotten involved in Li Miao's business. Li Miao wasn't Zhu Zai's son; he really didn't have to.

But since Zhu Zai had already made his choice for Li Miao, Li Miao naturally had to leave a way out for Zhu Zai.

"According to your plan, I am in the Ordinary Jianghu, and you are in the court."

"If one day something goes wrong on your side and you are caught by the Emperor, you can use this information to make a deal with the Emperor."

"I have left a wisp of true energy in your heart meridian; when the time comes, let the court's Heaven-Man experts examine it, and they can naturally verify its authenticity."

Zhu Zai was silent for a moment, looking at Li Miao.

"What kind of deal?"

Li Miao smiled: "Whatever you want to make of it."

"It would be best if you could trade for your release; if not, let the Emperor release the news and let me go to Shuntian Prefecture to trade for you."

"Then, you just wait for me."

"I will come to get you."

Zhu Zai was silent for a moment, his hands clenching and unclenching.

After a long while, he snorted coldly: "Do I need you to save me?"

"Shameless boasting!"

Having said that, he shook off Li Miao's hand, walked to Bu Lei's corpse on his own, reached out to grab the body, and used his light-body technique to head toward the Embroidered Uniform Guard camp.

Li Miao stood on the spot, shaking his head with a smile.

"Stinky old man, such a hard mouth."

He also followed.

When they reached the camp, Zhu Zai stopped for a moment.

Because after the struggle between Li Miao and Wan Tianzong, this place had completely changed its appearance.

This camp was set up on a flat ground outside the Shaolin Temple, with twenty or thirty tents scattered around, and some campfires and pots nearby.

At this moment, they had all turned into fragments, scattered on the ground crisscrossed with gullies.

And even more terrifying was the flesh and blood all over the ground.

It was as if a dozen people had been finely minced into meat sauce and then spread evenly across this open space.

Zhu Zai turned his head abruptly to look at Li Miao who had followed: "How many people did you kill?"

Li Miao raised his eyebrows: "Just one, that Wan Tianzong."

Having said that, he looked at the battlefield and smiled.

"Oh, you mean these."

"They are all from him alone."

Li Miao said nonchalantly.

"You don't know, his Heaven-Silkworm Art is really quite powerful."

"Nine turns of the art, endless vitality; tear off two or three pounds of flesh, and in the blink of an eye, it grows back on its own."

"And he happens to be a 'Sumeru' expert, with endless true energy."

"He was quite smug, saying something like, it's my bad luck to run into him. Others might not be able to beat me, but he could drag it out until my Five Decays of Heaven and Man erupted."

"So I just let him try to see if he could really drag it out."

Li Miao pointed casually at his feet.

"Right here, I tore off half his arm."

"Guess what happened? He snatched that half-arm back, stuck it back on himself, and it still worked."

"So, I could only tear a little, beat it into meat paste, then tear a little more, and beat it into meat paste again."

"After tearing for half an hour like this, he couldn't take it anymore and wanted to run."

Li Miao walked a few more steps to a bottomless pit the size of a man's embrace and pointed at it.

"Then, I caught him right here."

"And smashed him into pieces right inside."

Li Miao spoke nonchalantly, but Zhu Zai could imagine the brutality of the scene at that time.

He couldn't help but glance at the corpse of Bu Lei he was holding, who still hadn't closed his eyes, and sighed in his heart.

"Changing the place to fight was the right thing to do."

"If we had stayed here and gotten caught up in it, I'm afraid we would have turned into a pile of meat sauce too."

"Heaven-Man... Heaven-Man indeed."

(End of chapter)