Chapter 972

Watching Zhou Zhiruo, who was usually calm and composed, now startled and flustered at every little thing.

Hearing that it would be three more months, she was so shocked her mouth couldn't close.

Abbess Extinction couldn't hold back and reached out to touch her.

At that touch, Abbess Extinction immediately sensed that Zhou Zhiruo's Qi was somewhat disordered.

"Zhiruo? What's wrong with you?"

Saying so, Abbess Extinction intended to channel a thread of true essence to probe the condition of Zhou Zhiruo's body.

Zhou Zhiruo immediately came to her senses, pushed Abbess Extinction's hand away, and gently shook her head at her.

Other matters, letting Shangguan Haitang know them wouldn't matter.

But the fact that she had suffered heavy injuries and was not yet healed was truly something she couldn't easily reveal even to Abbess Extinction.

"It's just a little strange, I've only been here a few days."

Zhou Zhiruo replied with a smile, then said to Shangguan Haitang,

"Shangguan Manor Lord, how long have we known each other?"

"Still calling me Shangguan Manor Lord? Just call me Haitang."

Shangguan Haitang immediately replied,

"Counting the time you were unconscious, it's only seven days."

"Seven days?"

Hearing this, Abbess Extinction stopped pressing about Zhou Zhiruo's physical condition.

Instead she exchanged a glance with Seeing Gu Hongzi, and both saw astonishment in the other's eyes.

They had clearly entered at the same time, so how could the time span differ so greatly?

Was it a problem with that door, or…?

Thinking of this, Abbess Extinction and Seeing Gu Hongzi felt a chill run down their spines.

"Alright, alright! A few days or a few months doesn't matter anymore."

Zhou Zhiruo had clearly long since figured out the key to it, yet she began to console the two,

"What matters is that we're reunited."

"Right, right, right!"

Seeing Gu Hongzi immediately nodded and said,

"The Heavenly Fragrance Cardamom, do you have any leads?"

"Yes!"

Zhou Zhiruo looked at Shangguan Haitang and said with a smile,

"This Miss Haitang is the manor lord of the Number One Manor Under Heaven.

She told me that there is a Heavenly Fragrance Cardamom, right inside the Damo Hall of Yunzhou Shaolin."

"Yunzhou Shaolin?"

Both Abbess Extinction and Seeing Gu Hongzi frowned.

Although the Shaolin of the Nine Provinces, even Yunzhou Shaolin, had already been gradually declining.

But a starved camel is, after all, still bigger than a horse.

Before the Qinglong Society emerged, Shaolin had always been the leader of the orthodox martial arts world.

Apart from Great Qin, the others—Great Yuan, Great Tang—all had traces of Shaolin within them.

One could say that Shaolin could crush the Great Ming Emei Sect with just a flick of a finger.

Of course, that was before Zhou Zhiruo, that unrivaled prodigy, had emerged.

Even so, since this world had Shaolin Temple, it was clearly not easy to deal with.

"Does this Shaolin have any powerful experts?"

Seeing Gu Hongzi was actually even more obsessed with the martial path than Extinction; back in the Nine Provinces he had always gone down the mountain to travel and challenge others, rather than sitting in the mountain in quiet cultivation.

"Haitang, can you tell us?"

Zhou Zhiruo actually vaguely knew a little, but her knowledge was clearly not as comprehensive as Shangguan Haitang's.

Earlier she hadn't avoided her, and had even risked her life to save her and Benefactor Guihai; trading for some intelligence wasn't excessive.

Shangguan Haitang didn't mind at all, and directly laid out the intelligence on Shaolin.

"Shaolin's foundation is actually the most terrifying of the Bada Sect of the martial world.

No one knows how many experts it has hidden.

The experts on the surface are led by the Three Divine Monks.

The first is Master Liaojie, who has been cultivating in quiet on the mountain all along and rarely moves about the martial world.

The abbot, Master Liaofan, whom you've met once.

And…"

At this point, Shangguan Haitang paused slightly.

The last one was naturally Master Liaokong, who had been killed by Guihai Yidao.

"And what?"

Seeing Gu Hongzi was puzzled and couldn't help but ask.

"Martial Aunt."

Zhou Zhiruo couldn't help but smile bitterly and said,

"That one doesn't matter anymore, because he's already dead."

"Dead?"

Seeing Gu Hongzi was utterly dumbfounded.

By all rights, since this monk was ranked among the three great divine monks, he should have had extraordinary martial arts — how could he have died just like that?

Zhou Zhiruo did not want to poke at Shangguan Haitang's wound either, so she brushed it off casually.

Instead, she brought up the battle in her mountain hollow.

What she emphasized in particular was the fight against Tiezhua Feiying and Master Yeyu.

"By your account, this Tiezhua Feiying and Master Yeyu are no weaker than me and my junior sister?"

Listening to Zhou Zhiruo's description, Seeing Gu Hongzi could not help but compare himself and Abbess Mie Jue against Tiezhua Feiying and Master Yeyu.

The result he arrived at, however, turned out to be roughly on par with himself and Abbess Mie Jue.

That result left Seeing Gu Hongzi, who was obsessed with the martial Dao, feeling rather deflated.

"Uh…"

Zhou Zhiruo was at a loss for how to respond.

With her master and senior martial uncle right in front of her, she couldn't very well say they were about the same as Tiezhua Feiying and Master Yeyu, could she?

She could only skip over it once more and bring up her fight against Cao Zhengchun.

She laid particular stress on Cao Zhengchun's Tiangang Child Art, and that matchless, overwhelming ocean of Primordial Tiangang true essence.

As for how she had actually won, she naturally spoke in vague, evasive terms.

She only said that relying on her Nine Yang and Nine Yin Divine Arts, she won by catching him off guard, and glossed over the part about the Heaven Sword.

"This Cao Zhengchun is that fearsome?"

Only now did Abbess Mie Jue suddenly realize that her own disciple had actually been wounded by a eunuch.

"Then how does he compare with Liaofan and Liao Jie?"

On the surface, this question was directed at Zhou Zhiruo, but in truth it was being asked of Shangguan Haitang.

Hearing this question, Shangguan Haitang was suddenly uncertain.

According to the intelligence, the three great divine monks were powerfully strong, but ultimately still beneath Zhuge Shenhou and Cao Zhengchun.

And on top of that, Liaofan, who held the lofty position of Yunzhou Shaolin's abbot, had actually led men to follow Cao Zhengchun in doing evil.

But in reality, in that battle on the wild mountain—

Guihai Yidao had unleashed a hidden blade technique of the Dominating the World — the Three Blades of the Avici Path.

Even amid that overwhelming surge of evil qi, he still had not truly defeated Liaokong.

If Liaokong had not willingly chosen to die in the end, it would have been as hard as ascending to heaven for Guihai Yidao to kill him.

Yet when Cao Zhengchun faced Guihai Yidao, he might not have been able to handle it with the same effortless ease as Liaokong had.

Weighing all these considerations truly left Shangguan Haitang at a loss.

After deliberating for a long while, Shangguan Haitang could only say with a bitter smile,