Chapter 333: The Thousand-Year Old Man

Gao Anyu was not the only one astonished by the strange situation on Cao Hanyan's side.

He thought his glance back was hidden, but to old Jianghu hands like Hua Zhiqiu and the Kongming Sect elders, his thoughts were no different from being written on his face.

When he looked back, Hua Zhiqiu secretly found it funny.

"You only have two paths to take: either force your way out or take a hostage. Do you really think I wouldn't notice?"

He had seen Cao Hanyan's Wu Gong clearly and felt that there was no way Cao Hanyan could succeed. Luo Mincheng had left most of the garrison troops by his side precisely to guard against this move.

When Gao Anyu's face showed shock and astonishment, Hua Zhiqiu realized something was wrong, turned his head immediately, and his mouth dropped open.

"This... what evil art is this!?"

How could he not see that Cao Hanyan was acting?

Or rather, Cao Hanyan's acting was too poor! His face was red, his moves were not as smooth as before, and his hands and feet were stiff, as if he were a child being forced by his master to perform on stage.

Yet, these awkward and funny movements brought a sense of indescribable, chilling coldness to Hua Zhiqiu's heart.

Human lives were passing away in a way he couldn't understand.

There was no struggle, no wailing, no screaming, no blood, no wounds. Every time Cao Hanyan slashed his saber, the person in front of him would suddenly stop moving, the light in their eyes would vanish, and then they would be slashed to the ground.

It was as if those people had died on their own the moment they saw who Cao Hanyan was about to slash.

It was like a ghost or god at work in a storybook! Hua Zhiqiu had been mixing in the Jianghu until now, and even counting that profound Heaven-Man state, there was absolutely no Wu Gong that could do such a thing!

"It's him!"

Hua Zhiqiu shifted his gaze to Li Miao.

From the beginning, he knew Li Miao was not right. Gao and Cao were both rare prodigies in the Jianghu, but they were clearly led by this person, so he definitely wasn't simple.

In the end, a person who didn't know Wu Gong standing in this occasion had always seemed very discordant. It was just that with the Heaven-Man Inheritance in front of him, Hua Zhiqiu couldn't give up for an uncertain factor.

Li Miao seemed to notice his gaze and suddenly turned his head to smile at him.

Hua Zhiqiu gritted his teeth: "No!"

"With life and death at stake, I cannot hesitate!"

"This person's methods are strange; even if I go over, it might not help, and I might even get myself involved. The only plan now is to take this brat down first and hold the Heaven-Man Inheritance in my hand!"

"Even if this bird official dies, he died in public at the hands of these people. As long as I find an opportunity to escape the Great Ming before the Embroidered Uniform Guard discovers the truth, everything today will be worth it!"

With his mind racing, Hua Zhiqiu had a plan and raised his sword to kill Gao Anyu again.

"Beast!"

Seeing that he ignored him after one glance, Prefect Luo couldn't help but curse in his heart.

He didn't know Wu Gong and couldn't see the trickery in it. But it was an undeniable fact that Cao Hanyan was getting closer and closer to him.

At this rate, in another twenty or thirty breaths, Cao Hanyan would be in front of him!

With life and death at stake, Prefect Luo first signaled for the surrounding garrison troops to step forward and block Cao Hanyan, then retreated several steps and said in a loud voice.

"Young hero, I just looked, and this Embroidered Uniform Guard Platoon Leader Xue died outside the main hall of the Kongming Sect, quite far from you; this matter seems a bit strange."

"Why don't you stop now? After I investigate, if you have any grievances, I will definitely uphold justice for you, how about that?"

As expected of someone from the capital and an old fox from the Ministry of Personnel, his waist was as soft as noodles. His face also carried a kind smile, completely different from the coldness of a moment ago.

But Cao Hanyan turned a deaf ear and just kept charging at him.

Prefect Luo retreated again, swallowed his saliva, and his expression changed again.

"Madman! Do you know who I am? I am the Prefect of Guangxin Prefecture, a former Vice Director of the Ministry of Personnel!"

"If something happens to me, it will definitely reach the Emperor's ears! You are having fun today, but aren't you afraid that the Embroidered Uniform Guard will come to your door later and implicate your relatives, friends, wife, and children?"

"Why not leave now and don't make mistake upon mistake! If you are short on money, I can decide to raise some for you from the wealthy families in the area!"

Cao Hanyan was only five zhang away from him.

Prefect Luo's hands inside his sleeves clenched.

Running would only lead to a faster death.

He didn't know what the Kongming Sect's plan was, but they clearly put his life aside and wouldn't come to protect him. The military formation couldn't be taken with him; stepping out of the formation to flee was handing his life to the other party, and he wouldn't make such a stupid choice.

There was no time to regret getting involved with the Kongming Sect; Prefect Luo had to find a way to survive.

"What to do, what to do..."

With his mind racing, Prefect Luo suddenly remembered something.

He didn't understand the Jianghu, didn't understand Jianghu affairs, and didn't know what these people were fighting for. But there was one thing he had handled that Jianghu people would definitely be interested in!

"Young hero, do you know the Ming Sect?"

Cao Hanyan paused, his eyes widening.

"There's another expert!?"

"Stop talking, stop courting death!"

"Enough people have died today! Do you really have to get your family wiped out to be happy!?"

He paused, about to rush forward to stop Prefect Luo's words. But his figure stopped suddenly.

An invisible true energy came from behind, stopping his movements.

And seeing him stop, Prefect Luo thought the other party was moved by his words, a smile appeared on his face, and he spread his hands and talked eloquently.

"Do you know about the destruction of the Ming Sect? This matter happened in Shuntian Prefecture!"

"After the Ming Sect thieves were wiped out, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, together with local garrisons, confiscated the strongholds, property, and personnel left behind by the Ming Sect. Nearly a hundred such strongholds were found throughout the world."

"A few months ago, I was still a Vice Director of the Ministry of Personnel. It just so happened that a Embroidered Uniform Guard Battalion Commander had a relative who wanted a promotion and wanted to use my path, but was suffering from having nothing to offer—so he secretly kept one of the strongholds and gave it to me."

As Prefect Luo spoke, he saw Cao Hanyan's expression becoming more and more strange; the look in his eyes not only lacked hostility but was full of pity.

It was as if he were watching a pig gorging itself during the holidays, desperately fattening itself.

Prefect Luo didn't understand, but seeing that Cao Hanyan really didn't charge at him anymore, he continued.

"I know that you Jianghu people might not care much about money, but you are crazy about Wu Gong."

"That Embroidered Uniform Guard Battalion Commander thought there was only some money in the stronghold, so he dared to hand it to me with peace of mind. But later, when I went to get things, I accidentally discovered a secret room in the stronghold."

"In the secret room was a woman's boudoir."

"And on the desk in this boudoir, there were several Wu Gong secret manuals, and a handbook recording some things that looked like Jianghu secrets."

"I wonder if these can move you, young hero?"

As soon as his words fell, a voice came from behind Cao Hanyan. Li Miao, who had been watching the show since entering the door, spoke for the first time.

"Was that boudoir as messy as a pigsty?"

Prefect Luo's eyes lit up; this was someone who knew the details! He quickly smiled.

"Exactly."

"Was the writing in the handbook written like a dog crawling?"

"Exactly."

"Did the handbook only have some broken words, like a heavenly book, as if it were deliberately trying not to let people understand?"

"Exactly!"

Li Miao nodded.

He knew who the owner of this boudoir was.

His short-lived rebel companion, the demoness who had calculated him to death. The Miao medicine person who recognized no relatives, had no father or mother, and was the only woman in the world younger than him and with a higher realm than him. She was also the only opponent he felt a toothache fighting.

The Ming Sect leader who went missing at sea—Ji Tianrui.

"You've read the handbook, right? Do you remember any words? Say a few, and we'll confirm the truth, how about that, Prefect?"

Li Miao said.

Prefect Luo quickly recalled. He was a Jinshi scholar, and in terms of memory, he was likely among the best in the entire Great Ming. Trying his best to recall now, he immediately remembered quite a bit of content.

He deliberated and picked out three words from those broken words, categorized by location, person, and unknown nouns, and said in a loud voice.

"I only flipped through it, I don't remember much now, listen."

"He Shang."

"Xuan Lan."

"Zheng Anqi Sheng."

He didn't know what these three words meant; they were just three big words at the top of those pages, so he picked them out.

After speaking, he carefully observed Li Miao's reaction. If Li Miao didn't know what they meant either, he would continue to find other content from the handbook to say, and he would always be able to move him.

But he didn't expect that after Li Miao heard these three words, his brows furrowed, his arms crossed, and his fingers twisted unconsciously, as if he had fallen into deep thought.

It wasn't until a cup of tea later that he slowly lowered his hands, a playful smile appeared on his face, and he shook his head and laughed.

"Leader Ji, oh Leader Ji, I really don't know how your brain grew, how you always walk ahead of me... just how much have you investigated in these fifteen years."

"Next time we meet, I must capture you alive and interrogate you thoroughly."

The three words Prefect Luo said, "He Shang," had no clues to support a guess for now, so they could be put aside.

The key was the remaining two words.

"Xuan Lan."

In the handbook left by Xue Bangzhu, Li Miao learned that the foundation of Yingzhou's inheritance was "Xuan Lan"—the "Intent Realm" among the three realms of "Heart, Spirit, and Intent" in Nature Cultivation.

There were hundreds of other names of Zheng-surnamed historical figures from a thousand years ago to the present, but Li Miao couldn't draw a conclusion from them at the time.

If Prefect Luo had only said this one "Xuan Lan," Li Miao wouldn't be sure that the information left by Ji Tianrui was related to Yingzhou. But adding the name behind it, it was different.

Zheng Anqi Sheng.

The "Biographies of Eminent Scholars" records: "Zheng Anqi Sheng was a man from Langya, studied under He Shang Zhangren, sold medicine by the sea, grew old without serving as an official, and people of the time called him the Thousand-Year Old Man. The First Emperor traveled east and asked to speak with him for three days and three nights, bestowing gold and jade worth tens of millions."

The "Sheng" in "Zheng Anqi Sheng" is just like the "Zi" in "Confucius," just an honorific, not part of the name.

Among other titles for Zheng Anqi Sheng, one is "Zheng Xian," using his original surname as his name and honoring him as an immortal. In other words, this legendary figure's original surname was Zheng.

Zheng, Zheng Anqi.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 334 =====