Chapter 170: Father and Son

"Explaining it is a bit troublesome."

Li Miao pinched his chin and rubbed it back and forth.

"You don't understand witchcraft; because I have a foster daughter who plays with this stuff, I know a little bit."

"Let's put it this way."

Li Miao pointed at Yong Jie, then pointed in the direction of Shaolin.

"Ge Puqi is dead, and the Gu insect is now being raised in Master Yong Jie's heart."

"If the Gu insect dies, Ling'er dies."

"If the Gu insect doesn't die, in about seven or eight years, Ling'er will become the Miao King."

An Ziyang sighed.

"So that's it..."

There was still seven or eight years of time; as the Shaolin Abbot, Yong Jie had a pretty good chance of finding a way to crack it just within the Shaolin Temple.

Besides, Li Miao was only thirty-five now; in seven or eight years, he might even become an immortal, so why fear not being able to solve a small Gu insect?

So An Ziyang wasn't very worried, but instead let out a long sigh of relief.

Li Miao wasn't very worried about this either, and turned to look at An Ziyang.

"Master Yong Jie still needs to adjust his breath for a while; he used an evil path to raise his Wu Gong, the price was not small, and he was exhausted just now, so just leave him here to rest."

"Let's go out and find the people of the Twelve Sect Branches to chat."

The Miao King was dead, and the Gu insects stored in the Pupa Chamber were mostly destroyed; the inheritance of witchcraft was basically broken. Half of Li Miao's initial purpose for coming to the Miao region had been completed.

What remained was to find the Great Shamans of the Twelve Sect Branches, get the method to solve the hidden danger on Xiao Si, and then deal with these people, and the Miao region matter would be declared over.

An Ziyang, however, remembered something and said.

"Master, just now in the passage, I found a cavity. It seemed to be a secret room, deliberately hidden."

"Oh?"

Li Miao raised his eyebrows.

"Let's go, let's take a look."

So the two left Yong Jie behind and went straight into the passage, finding the mark An Ziyang had made.

Li Miao squatted down and imprinted a palm on the ground.

After a long while, he stood up.

"No mechanism, it's sealed inside."

"Rather than a secret room, it's more like a grave."

Having said that, he punched out, the force gathered, only creating a hole in the ground for one person to enter. He also punched a hole to the side, True Energy surged, and he poured air into it.

Until the air blowing out from the side hole no longer had a musty smell, Li Miao jumped down. An Ziyang lit a fire-starter and followed closely behind.

The two went down to the ground and looked around by the firelight.

Seeing this, An Ziyang lowered his voice and whispered to Li Miao.

"Master, there's someone behind you."

Li Miao turned his head to look and smiled.

"A dead person."

"A dead person?"

An Ziyang was surprised and turned to look carefully.

Only to see that person sitting cross-legged on a futon, dressed in hemp clothes, chest and bosom exposed. His shoulders were broad, and a pair of arms could almost hang to his knees. His frame was extremely majestic, just sitting there he was level with An Ziyang's chest, and even Li Miao looked scholarly compared to him.

His hair was disheveled, and below were thick eyebrows like ink, and prominent cheekbones. Although gaunt, he was as majestic as a sick tiger.

It was just that An Ziyang looked carefully, only to find that his whole body had already accumulated a thin layer of dust, his chest had no rise and fall, and his skin flashed with an abnormal oily sheen.

An Ziyang smelled it carefully: "Wax?"

"Is this, a wax figure?"

"No, it's a corpse sealed in wax oil."

"Who is this person? Why would he be in a position so close to the Miao Pupa Chamber? And who preserved his corpse here?"

Li Miao was currently looking at a wall, and hearing An Ziyang's question, turned back and smiled.

"You are young, and your family has no inheritance. He was already dead before you were born, so it's not surprising you don't know."

Li Miao reached out and pointed at that person.

"This person's name is Yang Lixuan."

"He is the Ming Sect leader before Ji Tianrui, and also the last Ming Sect leader surnamed 'Yang'."

"Him!?"

An Ziyang couldn't help but turn to look at this legendary figure.

If one were to argue about who was the most deserving of death in the Jianghu over the past fifty years, there would be much debate. But if one were to ask who was the most wanted to be killed, it was undoubtedly this Yang Lixuan.

When he was in the Jianghu back then, he confiscated more homes than the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

You know how much he deserved to die.

Back then, Master Xingchi took the lead, and the Five Great Sects joined forces to attack the Ming Sect. The faces of the experts from the five families were all lost, and they exhausted him for seven or eight rounds of wheel battles before finally killing him at the Ming Sect's main altar.

But shouldn't this person's corpse have long since turned to ash in the great fire at the Ming Sect's main altar? How could it appear here?

And who transported his corpse here?

Li Miao smiled.

"Who else could it be?"

"A few days ago, I killed a person surnamed Yang in Shaolin."

"He said that before the Five Great Sects attacked the Ming Sect, Yang Lixuan had already been poisoned by Ji Tianrui. That's why he didn't escape, and that's why he lost to the experts of the Five Great Sects."

"Then, what did Ji Tianrui rely on to poison Yang Lixuan?"

"Yang Lixuan was the Ming Sect leader; with so many people wanting to kill him in the Jianghu back then, how could he not guard against someone poisoning him on a daily basis? How close was the relationship between Ji Tianrui and Yang Lixuan back then to bypass Yang Lixuan's precautions?"

"Thirty years ago, Ji Tianrui first appeared with pure Ming Sect inheritance Wu Gong; who taught him this Wu Gong?"

"The Miao King before Yong Jie's wife gave birth to Ji Tianrui. With whom did she give birth to him?"

These words of Li Miao were not just asking An Ziyang, but also clearing up the clues.

After the questions were asked, the answer naturally emerged.

"Ji Tianrui's father... is Yang Lixuan!"

An Ziyang looked at Yang Lixuan's corpse and exclaimed.

Li Miao nodded.

"It should be correct; only this can explain all the previous questions."

"Where did Ji Tianrui's Ming Sect Wu Gong come from? It was taught to him by the leader Yang Lixuan."

"Ji Tianrui is the son of the Miao King; why would he appear in the Ming Sect and even become the leader? Because he was originally Yang Lixuan's son."

"It was precisely because of this that he could poison Yang Lixuan."

Li Miao also looked at that lifelike corpse.

"Before Ji Tianrui, the person who connected the Ming Sect and the Miao people was the Ming Sect leader, Yang Lixuan."

"Until his corpse appeared here, the root of the inheritance of Miao witchcraft, the Miao King's nest, I finally confirmed this point."

"The person who transported Yang Lixuan's corpse here and preserved it was either his mistress, the previous Miao King Ge Puduo, or the Ming Sect leader who was already dead, Ji Tianrui."

An Ziyang frowned and pondered for a moment, then asked again.

"But, why did Ji Tianrui want to kill Yang Lixuan?"

"And why did Yang Lixuan want to combine with the Miao King to give birth to a son who didn't share his surname, and even train him into such an expert?"

Li Miao smiled and scanned the secret room.

"Ji Tianrui led me here, naturally she had already prepared the clues."

"The answer is in this secret room."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 171 =====