Gu Shenwei felt overwhelmed. A new problem had already come to his door, when the old problem inside the room remained unsolved.
Surprisingly, under such pressure, his true potential was somehow unleashed. He suddenly thought of a plan to solve these problems.
He guessed that people just could not bring their potentialities into full play unless they were cornered. He reckoned that it was because of such potential outbursts that a coward could pluck up his courage to stand out at a crucial moment and a young mother could lift a very heavy thing to save her baby.
The quarrel between Shangguan Yushi and Meng Mingshi was not over yet.
Shangguan Yushi showed everyone the evidence that she had found in the brothel across the street: ten steel needles and some black clothes embroidered with white crescents. "Liu Yin'er must be a disciple of New Moon Hall. We found these things in Liu Yin'er's brothel, and we also found out that she knew kung fu," she told everyone.
"How can you prove that these things are hers? Who else can prove that she knows kung fu? She's dead now. You can say whatever you want," Meng Mingshi retorted.
Mister Guo and Fifth Young Master Meng were old friends, but they had to pretend to be unfamiliar with each other in front of everyone else. Given that, Mister Guo did not openly support Fifth Young Master Meng. He just condemned Shangguan Yushi for leaving the southeastern part of South City without permission.
Shangguan Yushi was not a little girl anymore. She did not fear Mister Guo now and contended that she and her assassins were just chasing a lead that they discovered in the southeastern area of South City.
Gu Shenwei knew Master Yu's true intention and decided to give her what she wanted. "Regardless of whether Liu Yin'er is a disciple of New Moon Hall or not, we should never condemn the Meng family. The Meng family is such a close ally of Golden Roc Fort, and its interests are aligned with that of the fort. Given that, Little Flag Battalion shouldn't assassinate Liu Yin'er without informing the Meng family beforehand. If you had told the Meng family what you had found about Liu Yin'er and let the Meng family take care of this thing, the family would've solved this problem better. Maybe they could've found out more disciples of New Moon Hall for us."
Meng Mingshi thought that Slave Huan was speaking for himself, so he echoed the slave boy's view without any hesitation. When Mister Guo noticed Slave Huan's trick, it was already too late to stop the young master.
Shangguan Yushi was furious and stormed out of the house while calling Slave Huan a traitor. Even Commander Guo could not stop her from leaving.
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After Shangguan Yushi's departure, Gu Shenwei went to Mister Guo. "Commander Guo, I want to talk with you, privately. I've something important to say." Just as he had expected, Mister Guo turned down his request at once. Despite that, he still whispered beside Mister Guo's ear. "The Barren Sect is going to climb all the way up to Golden Roc Fort with those pitons."
Mister Guo disliked the slave boy very much and was fed up with this piton thing, which he thought was absurd and groundless. He flared up and scolded the boy before leaving. This result also met Gu Shenwei's expectations.
After leaving the brothel, Meng Mingshi's servants reminded their young master that Slave Huan was not trustworthy. "That slave boy just pretended to speak for you, but in fact, he was implying that the Meng family did have something to do with New Moon Hall and the Barren Sect." Upon hearing that, Meng Mingshi gnashed his teeth in anger and hated the slave boy's guts.
Tie Hanfeng was confused. In his view, Slave Huan should stand aside quietly to avoid offending anyone instead of getting involved in the quarrel between Shangguan Yushi and Meng Mingshi.
Gu Shenwei did not have time to argue with his Master Shifu. He had to leave this place as soon as possible, but before that, he needed to meet the monks to get some information. He had asked Xu Xiaoyi to invite Lianhua and Lianye into the bedroom downstairs not long after he had spotted the monks in the street.
Xu Xiaoyi, who had never met any monk from Four Truths Temple before, was excited to meet Lianhua and Lianye. He had a good time with Monk Lianhua, who told him many interesting things about Buddhism and even taught him several paragraphs of Breaking Obsession .
When he concentrated himself on memorizing the incantation, Gu Shenwei suddenly came in and threw him out. The little boy was shocked and forgot most of the words he had just learned from the monk.
After throwing Xu Xiaoyi out, Gu Shenwei bowed deeply to the monks.
It was the first time Monk Lianhua had left Four Truths Temple during recent years. He came directly to Pleasure Alley, planning to persuade the two teenagers to continue to learn Breaking Obsession.
Monk Lianhua was a little pedantic but he was not stupid. He could tell that the teenager did not come to him for Breaking Obsession , but he still took this chance to tell the teenager the benefits of becoming a Buddhist.
Gu Shenwei patiently listened to the monk for some time, and then he began to ask questions about the origin of Tiger Monk's clay slab.
Unfortunately, Monk Lianhua did not know much about it except that it had something to do with the agreement between Golden Roc Fort and New Moon Hall.
Gu Shenwei asked a few more questions about the clay slab, but still failed to get any accurate answers. Right at this moment, Monk Lianye interrupted, "Brother Lianhua, this boy will die within a few days. You'd better not waste your time on him anymore."
Monk Lianhua was shocked to hear that and anxiously asked Lianye, "Is there anything wrong with this boy?"
Gu Shenwei was surprised that Lianye was able to sense his qigong deviation without feeling his pulse. "Monk Lianye must be a qigong master and might be able to cure my qigong deviation." With this thought in his mind, he knelt down in front of Monk Lianhua and said, "Monk Lianhua, Monk Lianye is right. I really wish to give up my saber to become a Buddhist, but I'm afraid that I won't get such a chance."
Gu Shenwei knew that Lianye did not like him, so he only implored Monk Lianhua for mercy.
The merciful monk was moved and said to Lianye, "Brother Lianye, please help this poor boy."
Lianye felt reluctant to help the boy, but he could not deny Monk Lianhua's request. He turned to face west and repeatedly chanted, "Amitabha, to save a person is better than building a 7-story pagoda." After a while, he finally calmed himself down and went to treat the brown-belt assassin. He grabbed the teenager's wrist with his left hand to inject some cool energy into the boy, and in the meantime he sent out strands of Qi with his right hand to help the cool energy flowing inside the boy's meridians.
The hot Qi inside Gu Shenwei's Baihui, Xuanji and Yongquan acupoints felt threatened and started shivering.
Soon, with the help of the strands of Qi, the cool energy began to attack the hot Qi and drive it out of the boy's body.
Feeling that the hot Qi was defeated by the cool energy, Gu Shenwei was overwhelmed with joy, although this remedial process made him suffer a lot physically.
An hour later, Lianye was soaked in sweats and was too exhausted to continue the treatment. Gu Shenwei also felt tired and weak. The moment the monk released his wrist, he immediately fell to the ground.
Tie Hanfeng went to check out the situation inside the room. When he discovered that the monks were treating his apprentice, he decided to leave them alone and asked Xu Yanwei and Xu Xiaoyi to stay away from this room.
"How's he?" Lianhua asked solicitously. Breaking Obsession was the brainchild of him and his brother, so he really cared about this slave boy, who was one of the first learners of the incantation.
Lianye was panting heavily. He spent some time stabilizing his internal breath and then said, "I'm sorry. Brother Lianhua. My internal strength isn't strong enough to erase the evil force inside his body. I've tried my best but I'm afraid that I can only give him a few more days to live by doing that."
"That's probably the boy's fate. You've done your best. That's enough. You don't have to be sorry. Let's go to find the girl," said Monk Lianhua, decisively.
Now that the monks knew that the slave boy would die soon, they decided to find Maid Lotus, the other learner of Breaking Obsession .
Gu Shenwei was quite pleased to send the monks away now. "Goodbye, Monk Lianhua and Monk Lianye. The girl was taken away by someone else. I'll appreciate it very much, if you can find her."
Seeing the monks leave the house, Tie Hanfeng came to Slave Huan and said, "Shangguan Hongye came here. He asked me to tell you that the Eighth Young Mistress wants to see you. He said that it's something important."
Gu Shenwei had been waiting for this order from Luo Ningcha all this time. He had paid Shangguan Hongye an ingot of gold for this. He needed a reasonable excuse for his return to Golden Roc Fort.
"I see. I'll set out right away." With these words, Gu Shenwei staggered up and headed for the gate of the house.
Tie Hanfeng thought that Slave Huan behaved abnormally today, so he grabbed the boy and asked, "Do you know what you're doing?"
"Yes," Gu Shenwei nodded and replied assertively. Faced with so many tricky problems, he really wished that he was as confident as he sounded.
At night, after he returned to Golden Roc Fort, he went to report to Luo Ningcha. He told her how he had fawned over the Fifth Young Master Meng during the dinner.
Miss Luo quickly lost her patience and got tired of hearing the trivial details about the dinner. She felt a little disappointed, since Shangguan Hongye had told her that Slave Huan had something important to say. "Alright, that's enough. You don't have to report such a trivial matter to me. Now that you've come back, l give you another task. Go to have dinner tomorrow with Shangguan Hongye and his mother," she said to Slave Huan.
Luo Ningcha was much more prudent than before. Although Shangguan Hongye and Madam Yang had already accepted her money and promised to support her, she still doubted their loyalty. She decided to send her conspiracy teacher to feel them out.
Gu Shenwei's top priority now was to complete the task given by the tall woman from the Barren Sect. He did not want to waste his time on Shangguan Hongye and his mother, however, he had no choice but to accept Miss Luo's order. Before he left, he asked Miss Luo to do him a favour. "Miss Luo, please find a chance to go to Inner Residence to tell Shangguan Ru that I want to meet her."
Luo Ningcha refused to deliver the message for him in the beginning, since she hated Lady Meng and all the lady's children. Gu Shenwei told her the benefits of keeping a low profile and maintaining friendly relations with Lady Meng to persuade her, but she still insisted that Slave Huan should tell her the reason for this meeting.
"The twins are going to select their own killers on their birthday. Only Master Ru can make me a red-belt killer now," Gu Shenwei said to Miss Luo.
"If she makes you a red-belt killer, you'll become her and her mother's loyal servant, won't you?" Luo Ningcha asked suspiciously.
"Miss Luo, I'll never betray you and the Eighth Young Master. I've taken a blood oath to you and sworn to be your loyal servant forever. Now, all the other young masters have promised to send their best brown-belt assassins to the twins. If I get kicked out of the election, it'll be a disgrace to the Eighth Young Master."
After convincing Miss Luo to deliver the message for him, he hurriedly went back to Tie Hanfeng's yard in East Castle before curfew to read Death Scripture. He hoped that he could find some clues to his trouble in this scripture and read the book for hours. As a result, he only took a nap during the early hours of the morning.
When he woke up, he felt dizzy. Today, he had lots of things to do. He had to meet Shangguan Ru to carry out his plan and dine with Shangguan Hongye and his mother at noon on behalf of Luo Ningcha. He also needed to sneak into Firewood Yard to fasten the rope for the Barren Sect before midnight.
Today would be a very busy day.
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