“Eh? He’s an old Taoist priest.” Old Zhang was very surprised.
Old Zheng immediately said disdainfully, “Are you blind? He’s not an old Taoist priest. He is a young Taoist priest, okay?”
The old men looked at the young Taoist priest from head to toe curiously.
This young Taoist priest was greatly different from those so-called “Jianghu heroes” they had seen before. He was very good-looking, resembled a beautiful woman and gave off a feminine vibe.
“This brat is so skinny. I reckon he can’t even take a punch from me.” Old Wang shook his head, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He decided not to take action for fear of killing the young Taoist priest by accident.
The other old men were also sizing the young Taoist priest up with curious eyes.
“This donkey is really nice. It looks amazing.” Old Zheng stared at the small black donkey, almost drooling. “It’s a good donkey. The most delicious meats are dragon meat in heaven and donkey meat on earth. It must taste good.”
The old faker eyed Old Zheng grumpily and said, “You’d better eat less donkey meat in the future. Your stomach is almost bleeding because of that… To tell you the truth, you can’t eat this donkey, but it might eat you instead. You have to be my understudy for another 20 years before you can eat it.”
“Is it that powerful?”
“Can we afford to offend it?”
“You should have told us earlier.”
“I’m backing off.”
After hearing the old faker’s words, all the other old men were taken aback. They stepped back to make way for him.
“Damn it.”
The old faker was speechless.
“Why have these old fellas of Randengsi Village changed so much?”
The young Taoist priest riding the donkey did not pay any attention to these old men. He looked at the old faker, bowed slightly, and said, “My master ordered me to come here to take back the Pure Yang Sword. I wonder if you are willing to return the sword.”
The old faker laughed. “You were asked to come here for the sword… It seems that your master thinks very highly of you. He wants you to come here and singly take the sword back.”
“I’m the best in the Pure Yang Sect,” the young Taoist priest said with a smile, “A worthy disciple surpasses his master.”
The old faker nodded slightly and said, “Well, you claim to be the future leader of the Pure Yang Sect just because you are wearing a Taoist robe with the Tai Chi Yin and Yang symbol and the Eight Trigrams and you’re carrying two swords on your back. To be honest, you’re indeed much better than your master in bragging. You deserve to be called a disciple that surpasses his master in that regard.”
It was hard to tell whether it was sarcasm or a compliment.
When the young Taoist priest heard that, he was not annoyed at all. Instead, he smiled. “Thank you for your compliment, Senior Yu. I don’t know where your successor is. Is he is in the temple? Please tell him to show up and fight with me so that the agreement that we made back then can be fulfilled and I can take back the Pure Yang Sword.”
“My successor?” The old faker rubbed his chin, thought carefully for a moment, and then did the math with his fingers. After a while, he said, “He should be coming to Baoji City soon. You may have to wait a little longer. After all, you’ve been waiting for thousands of years. One or two more days won’t make a difference.”
The young Taoist priest nodded seriously and said, “Okay.”
The old faker observed the young Taoist priest very carefully. Suddenly, he hit upon an idea. He pointed at the table in front of him and said, “Since you’re here, why don’t you play a few rounds with us?”
The young Taoist priest said seriously, “Okay.”
He jumped off the donkey, tied it to the pole at the gate of Randeng Temple, grabbed some hay and threw it to the donkey. Then, he slowly walked to the table and took a seat opposite the old faker, saying, “Please.”
“Hey? You’re really going to play. I was just being polite just now,” said the old faker.
The young Taoist priest raised his head and looked at the old faker without saying anything, with a calm look in his eyes.
The old faker chuckled. “Now that you want to play, let’s play a game with big stakes this time.” The old faker sat down with a smile, raised his hand and waved to the others, “Old Zhang, Old Wang, come on. Come and play with us.”
An hour later.
Swish.
The old faker swept the cards on the table to the ground.
He stood up and said angrily, “I’m done with it. Damn it. Why is it that I’m always losing and you win every time?”
“What the f*ck.” Old Zhang and Old Wang were bewildered. “How can he be so shameless?”
The young Taoist priest stood up and said calmly, “Thank you for letting me win. I have won one million. Senior Yu, please send the money to Jintai Temple within three days.”
The old faker said shamelessly, “You’re a Taoist monk. What do you need that money for? It’s useless. Why don’t you just give it up?”
The young Taoist priest said, “Er… Senior Yu, do you know that there are five billion years left for the sun?”
The old faker was confused. “What do you mean? That has nothing to do with me.”
The young Taoist priest nodded and said, “So, what do I need money for? Does that have anything to do with you?”
The old faker was rendered speechless.
“I see.” The old faker stayed silent for a long time. Then, as if he had found a new continent, he said, “Your master ordered you to come here to take back the sword with such haste. The reason might not be that he believes you can take back the Pure Yang Sword, but probably because he can’t stand your big mouth.”
The young Taoist priest smiled smugly and said, “I think so.”
“Get lost.” The old faker looked depressed as if he had been defeated. He said, “It’s true that a dead pig is not afraid of boiling water. How can you laugh so happily? Hurry up and go away. When my successor arrives, I will ask him to blow your head off and tear up your mouth right away.”
“I’m taking my leave.”
The young Taoist priest bowed very gracefully, turned around, and walked toward the gate of Randeng Temple.
The old faker stared at the back of the young Taoist priest and suddenly asked, “Boy, what is your Taoist title?”
“Amitayus, my Taoist title is ‘Indestructible’.”
“Ugh, it’s brave of your master to give you such a Taoist title.”
“I chose it myself.”
“Your master is really careless.”
“My master is indeed broad-minded.”
“Your master is so shameless. You’ve really learned a lot from him. ‘Indestructible’, don’t blame me for not reminding you that Jintai Temple is not as simple as it seems. Mind your ass when you break into the temple.”
“Thank you, Senior Yu. I know that. No matter what, please don’t forget the one million.”
“Get out!”
The conversation came to an end.
The young Taoist priest bowed outside the temple, got on the donkey, and disappeared into darkness on the mountain road amidst the tinkling sounds of the bell.
The old faker stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“I never expected that there would be such an extraordinary junior in the Pure Yang Sect. It’s quite interesting.
“Li Mu, you little bastard, you should stop fooling around out there and come back to Baoji City.
“You are going to meet a match this time.”
“Master Li, your first name is Ming and your last name is Li. Why did that young Taoist priest address you as Senior Yu?” Old Zhang asked curiously.
“Oh, I once used a nickname. The nickname is ‘Yu’,” the old faker said casually.
Old Wang said thoughtfully, “Given your current status, you don’t need to use that nickname anymore, right?”
Early morning.
Mist lingered around the streets and alleyways.
“Who are you?”
Wang Shiwu held the fried dough sticks, bean-curd, and pickled vegetables he had just bought in his hand and looked warily at a white man with blond hair who was blocking his way.
He sensed undisguised hostility from the white man.
He heard footsteps from the narrow alley behind him.
“Am I being besieged from the front and back?”
There were strange energy waves in the air.
These signs made Wang Shiwu realize that the white men in front of him and behind him were probably there to ambush him. It was not the first time that he had encountered such a situation, but it was the first time that he had come across foreign ambushers.
“We are the people who were sent to kill you.”
The lips of the white man blocking Wang Shiwu’s way curled into a beast-like smile. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared. When he reappeared, he was already standing behind Wang Shiwu with a dagger flickering with white flames in his hand. He stabbed at Wang Shiwu’s Tianchi acupoint with the dagger.
Wang Shiwu didn’t even look back when a streak of sword light appeared behind him.
Clink!
Sparks flew.
The white-flame dagger in the white man’s hand broke into pieces. Bone-deep sword cuts appeared in his arms and legs. He lost the ability to move and collapsed to the ground.
At the same time, the other two white men took out their spiritual energy rifles and fired at Wang Shiwu.
“You’re courting death!”
Wang Shiwu looked angry.
“Spiritual Energy Guns are extremely powerful and could easily hurt innocent people. Those foreign practitioners use spiritual energy weapons so randomly. Obviously, they don’t care about the lives of ordinary people at all… Such people deserve to die.”
Countless beams of sword light appeared around Wang Shiwu’s body, which resembled a peacock spreading its tail. The sword light blocked and cut all the spiritual energy beams into pieces.
“Go to hell!”
He moved swiftly.
The heads of two white men flew into the air.
At some point in time, a long sword appeared in Wang Shiwu’s hand.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Applause rang out in the alley.
A slender young white man wearing gold-rimmed glasses walked out of the alley and said, “No wonder it’s the sword of the Zither and Sword Couple. You have great power and advanced combat skills that are not from the Earth. Have you inherited something extraterrestrial?”
Wang Shiwu had a serious look on his face.
He sensed a trace of threatening aura from this white man that he had never felt before.
“Who the hell are you?” He asked.
“Who are we? No, you are mistaken. It’s not us. I’m here alone.” The young white man adjusted his glasses with his right hand and said, “I’m a god.”
“It turns out that this place is called the Hidden-dragon Bay. According to myths and legends of the Hero Country, dragons seem to be auspicious spiritual beasts.”
A white man with long blond hair and a pair of wings invisible to the eyes of ordinary people stood at the top of the Hidden-dragon Bay, where he could get a bird’s eye view of Baoji City.
Below the Hidden-dragon Bay was a huge man-made reservoir with rippling blue water through which the Wei River flowed.
The white man took out a green apple with a bite mark on it. A faint fragrance wafted out of the exposed pulp. He closed his eyes, sniffed it an intoxicated manner, and then threw the apple into the reservoir below.
“Grow! Grow! Germinate quickly! Grow into towering trees! The lord of glory will descend! The eternal paradise will reappear in the world! Ha-ha-ha!”
The white man with blond hair looked expectant and joyful.
Everything went smoothly.
Baoji City was indeed a blessed place.
