The venerable monk Chenya stood outside the shop and politely asked the large dog who was cleaning, "Excuse me, are you the one with the most sensitive nose?"
His tone was kind and without any hostility.
But the large dog tensed all its muscles in an instant. As it stepped back, its steel-spiked gloves slid out from its sleeve and were slipped onto its hands. The movement was extremely fast, but the large dog knew that if the person outside wanted to kill it, it probably wouldn't be able to react at all. He leaned against the stairwell, shouting upstairs without turning around, "Hurry up, don't come down."
Chen Ya shook his head slightly and smiled, "The Great Sui Dynasty is known as a land of etiquette; how can we not welcome guests? Since I'm already here, the host should naturally treat me with courtesy. Besides… forgive my bluntness, but with your cultivation level, you can't protect your companions. I sincerely advise you, if you and your companions join forces, you might be able to hold out until reinforcements arrive. But you're letting them go; aren't you afraid of dying yourself?"
Just as he finished speaking, Mu Xiaoyao appeared at the corner of the second floor, supporting Shen Qingshan.
"I'm going down."
Mu Xiaoyao said three words and prepared to go downstairs.
Shen Qingshan shook her head, her face pale and heartbreaking.
"Sword, come."
She said two words, and then the sheathless longsword seemed to fly up from the table as if it possessed a spirit, landing in Shen Qingshan's hand. She stood at the top of the stairs, glanced at the large dog, and said, "You come up too."
The large dog was about to refuse when it heard Shen Qingshan's arrogant and haughty voice: "Even if I'm injured, it won't be your turn to fight when we encounter enemies. It's been like this for the past twelve years, and it will be like this until I die."
Even severely injured, Shen Qingshan remained proud.
"Foolish."
Chen Ya said regretfully from the doorway, "With your talent, you could have achieved great things, but you were too foolish and chose the wrong path. I thought you were the smartest among these people, but now it seems I overestimated you. If you forcefully circulate your inner energy today, you will surely die without me even needing to kill you."
Shen Qingshan's expression changed, as if she had gleaned something from the man's words.
"You are foolish too."
Just then, a clear, cold voice came from the depths of the darkness.
"Someone has entered the capital of the Great Sui Dynasty but disregards its rules. I thought it was some great sage, but it turns out he's just a little devil who dares not act openly and only comes out at night. Do you really think that because of your considerable cultivation, no one in the Great Sui capital can subdue you?"
The voice grew closer, reaching the other side of the street in an instant.
Chen Ya slowly turned around, his expression gradually becoming serious as he looked at the man opposite him.
"So you set a trap for me."
He remained silent for a moment, then his expression softened. Looking at the middle-aged man standing with his hands behind his back, Chen Ya's gaze lingered for a moment on the flying fish robe on the man's body. He had long heard that the Imperial Guard of the Great Sui Dynasty was filled with experts, a terrifying department in the capital.
"Are you surnamed Luo or Hou?"
He asked. Luo Weiran chuckled and said, "You seem to know quite a bit... Are you going to come over here yourself, or should I go and capture you?"
"This scheme is really not clever."
Chen Ya smiled and said, "So the Imperial Guards are nothing special after all. Unable to find me on their own, they're prepared to lure me out by sacrificing a few lives. It reeks of disgust. And even if I walk into this trap you set, you still haven't won."
He slightly raised his chin and said, "I can come whenever I want. I can go whenever I want... I stand before you, yet you don't know my face. I could turn and leave now, and tomorrow, standing face to face with you, you still wouldn't recognize me. Come to think of it... don't you feel like a failure?"
Luo Weiran indeed couldn't see the white-clad man's face clearly.
"It's alright."
He took a step forward, looking at Chenya and said, "I'll see your face clearly; I just need to break through your disguise."
"Where's the disguise?"
Chenya said calmly, "It's just how it is. What can you possibly see through?"
After saying this, he slowly raised his hands. One pointed at Luo Weiran, the other at the large dog inside the room, who was on high alert: "The people of the Great Sui Dynasty all possess a repulsive arrogance. If you hadn't been so self-reliant and brought hundreds of flying fish robes to surround this place, perhaps I really wouldn't have been able to win. But you believed in your cultivation, so you came yourself… Confidence is a good thing, but too much confidence often leads to a painful fall."
"Sword."
He uttered a single word.
Almost instantly, two sword beams, visible to the naked eye and almost tangible, shot out from his left and right hands respectively. These two sword beams were faster than imagined; the air around his palms rippled with the sword energy, then violently radiated outwards. The next second, the two sword beams were simultaneously in front of the large dog and Luo Weiran. With a crisp clang, the sword light that had shot towards Luo Weiran was caught between his right index and middle fingers. The sound of his fingers clashing against the sword light was like weapons clashing. Within his fingers, the bound sword light seemed unwilling to submit, struggling like a living creature. It looked like a venomous little snake writhing and coiling between his fingers.
Luo Weiran's expression changed slightly, and his fingers suddenly turned a pale gold.
With a snap, the sword light was severed by his two fingers.
Looking again, the white-robed man had already drifted far away like a white cloud. Luo Weiran snorted coldly and chased after him.
Inside the shop.
The large dog slowly looked down at its chest, its face paling, and then its body slowly collapsed.
...
...
Fang Jie stood by the bed, panting heavily. He had exhausted himself on his journey back. Large beads of sweat dripped incessantly from his forehead, soaking his clothes. His lips trembled slightly, and the anger he had been suppressing slowly crept into his eyes.
"It's alright... I won't die."
Lying on the bed, Da Quan struggled to sit up, but Fang Jie supported him.
The wound ran through him, the sword light piercing his chest and exiting through his back. The wound on his chest was narrow, but his back looked as if it had been blown open by gunpowder, a large chunk of flesh missing. Even though it was bandaged, the blood still flowed uncontrollably from such a massive injury. The thick gauze wrapped around his back had turned completely red, the blood washing away the medicinal powder.
The instant the sword light appeared before Da Quan, Chen Qing drew her sword. But she was too badly injured to unleash her full power, so instead of directly clashing her sword light with her own sword energy, she threw her own longsword. At the critical moment, her longsword blocked Chen Ya's sword light. But she hadn't expected the white-robed man's cultivation to be so terrifyingly powerful. After the sword beam pierced her steel longsword, it was only slightly deflected before continuing its attack on the large dog. Only then did the large dog react, trying to dodge to the side. But the sword beam seemed to carry an irresistible force, locking his body in place, rendering him completely immobile. It was as if hundreds of chains had suddenly appeared in the air, binding him and pinning him to the ground.
He couldn't move, but there was Mu Xiaoyao.
Although Shen Qingshan's longsword only blocked the sword beam for a moment, it was enough for Mu Xiaoyao to act. Her red ribbon flew down from the second floor like a giant python, wrapping around the large dog's waist. She only managed to move him slightly to the side before the sword beam pierced his body.
Fortunately, it was this slight movement that allowed the large dog to escape death. The sword beam deviated slightly, avoiding his heart.
Mr. Zhuo walked to the bedside, examined the large dog's injuries, and then took out a bottle of medicine from his sleeve, handing it to Fang Jie, saying, "While it's not some miraculous cure-all, it's still better than your medicine."
Fang Jie quickly took it, unwrapped the gauze from the large dog's body, and applied the medicine.
The moment the gauze was removed, even Mr. Zhuo couldn't help but frown slightly. A large chunk of flesh, the size of two palms, had been blown away from the large dog's back, revealing white bone beneath the bloody wound. Among the shredded flesh were fragments of bone. Two vertebrae were almost completely exposed, a chilling sight. The large chunk of flesh missing from the large dog's already emaciated back almost gave the impression that a dead tree had been bitten off by some monster.
"Such a bizarre method."
Zhuo Buyi turned and walked out, saying, "I'm going to check the situation. The commander personally went after him. Even if that person's cultivation is astounding, escaping won't be so easy. I've arranged for men to guard outside; I'll be back soon… From today onwards, none of you should go out lightly."
Fang Jie nodded and thanked him.
Zhuo Buyi shook his head, a vague unease rising in his heart. After leaving Fang Jie's shop, he didn't return to the Imperial Guards but instead went to the Qingxu Temple in Chang'an.
After arriving in Chang'an, Master Xiao of Qingle Mountain stayed at the Qingxu Temple. He was the leader of the Daoist sect of the Great Sui Dynasty, and Daoist temples everywhere revered him. From the moment they learned that Master Xiao was coming to Chang'an, the Daoists of Qingxu Temple began preparing to welcome their sect leader. Master Xiao was appointed National Preceptor by the Emperor of the Great Sui Dynasty; his glory was the glory of the entire Daoist sect.
In a meticulously arranged courtyard deep within the Qingxu Temple, Master Xiao, the leader of the Daoist sect, was engaging in a rather uncouth exchange of insults.
"Xiang Qingniu! If you dare to go out today, I will... I will... I will immediately cripple your cultivation!"
The fat Daoist Xiang Qingniu, standing opposite him with his hands on his hips, sneered, "Old ox-nose, can't you stop bragging? Cripple my cultivation? Even my second senior brother wouldn't dare do that! Have you forgotten what Master said back then? Master said that the great prosperity of the Daoist sect would begin with Qingniu. If you cripple my cultivation, you will ruin the future of the Daoist sect!"
"You..."
Master Xiao choked, then angrily retorted, "When has Master ever been reliable? He said you have the highest comprehension, a genius among geniuses, but..." "Of the four of us, aren't you the dumbest?"
"Xiao Yijiu!"
Xiang Qingniu pointed at Xiao Zhenren's nose and cursed, "After I achieve enlightenment, I'll pluck all the beard off your face!"
Xiao Zhenren was about to explode in anger when his expression softened. He said, "We have a guest, so I won't stoop to your level."
"You see your guest, I'm going out to see who's so arrogant and domineering. That guy is clearly using the Buddhist Wuxiang Gong, but you're just a coward pretending to be a turtle! The leader of the Daoist sect, I spit on you!"
...
...
The Imperial Guards.
Hou Wenji looked at Luo Weiran with disbelief, having not seen such surprise on his face for many years: "He actually managed to escape from you?"
Luo Weiran nodded, his face showing not disappointment, but worry: "Having stayed in the capital for years and rarely fought anyone, my experience has diminished considerably. I couldn't discern that person's origins, but… I suspect he used Buddhist techniques. His face always seemed shrouded in mist; I never clearly saw his features. Furthermore, using internal energy to transform into a sword was clearly not his strongest method, but rather a deliberate act to confuse us."
"Before he attacked, he quickly formed a hand seal."
He gestured with his hand and said, "Buyi has already gone to Qingxu Temple. After consulting with Master Xiao, they should have a conclusion. If it really is someone from the Buddhist sect who has arrived in the capital, then we can let him…" "Killing people would make us lose all face. Fang Jie's plan to use himself as bait only attracted a few small fish; the big fish escaped from my grasp."
"If it really is someone from the Buddhist sect..."
Hou Wenji lowered his head, remained silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled: "The Ministry of War's case is settled. At this convenient time, people from the Buddhist sect have delivered themselves to our doorstep, providing an explanation to His Majesty and the people."
Luo Weiran rolled her eyes at him: "How can you still laugh? I wouldn't know how to answer if His Majesty asked!"
"It's not our place to give the answer."
Hou Wenji said: "Didn't His Majesty want the Daoist sect to demonstrate its strength? If the Daoist sect captures this person and then publicizes it widely, it would be a great thing for the Qing Le Mountain Yi Qi Temple, a great thing for the entire Daoist sect, and an even greater thing for His Majesty's western expedition."