Chapter 244: Dead Man
Seeing that Miss Su had no reaction to his words, Lu Yun felt snubbed. His clothing was still not fully dry, so he tossed out a sentence: “I’ll check out the situation ahead.” Then he climbed to his feet and quickly moved forward along the damp and slippery riverbank, fleeing as if escaping.
This stretch of waterway was rugged and winding, much longer than the previous section. After advancing several li, Lu Yun saw the space gradually narrowing. He focused his gaze ahead and sure enough, spotted a boulder blocking the way ahead, with the river turning into an underground river again.
Lu Yun was about to go over for a look when he suddenly heard dense footsteps from behind. Turning back, he saw Miss Su had indeed followed, looking at him with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.
“Miss Su…” Lu Yun instinctively avoided Miss Su’s gaze like a thief caught in the act.
“Bad man, I let you kiss me, I let you hold me, and now you want to just ditch me and run off?” Miss Su snapped back to her senses, turning once more into the shameless Taiping Dao demoness Lu Yun knew.
“I already said it was a matter of expediency,” Lu Yun retorted, his old face flushing red. “Wasn’t it to save your life at the time?”
“Life and death are minor matters; loss of chastity is a major one.” Miss Su, however, wore a look of indignation and grief.
“Uh…” Lu Yun nearly choked. This kind of talk from hundreds of years ago wasn’t taken seriously even by very conservative women, yet Miss Su was using it against him. She was truly shameless.
“In any case, you have to take responsibility for me, be good to me…” Miss Su reached out and grabbed Lu Yun’s clothing corner, her gem-like eyes brimming with tears as she said: “Otherwise, I, I just won’t live anymore.”
“Miss Su, stop acting.” Lu Yun couldn’t help but call out Miss Su’s bluff, but compared to his previous righteous tone, he seemed a bit guilty and short of breath this time. “I’m not falling for your trick.” With that, he pulled his clothing corner free.
“You’re heartless, you’re unrighteous, are you even human?” Miss Su’s tears immediately flowed like a torrent, sobbing with a tear-streaked face: “You just did those improper things to me, how can you turn around and deny it?”
“So you’re just latching onto me?” Lu Yun was truly exasperated.
“Good that you know.” Miss Su instantly broke into a smile through her tears, reaching out to take Lu Yun’s arm.
But Lu Yun dodged aside, tossing back a cold laugh: “Dream on!” With that, he put a zhang of distance between himself and Miss Su.
Miss Su looked at Lu Yun’s back, a sly smile flashing across her face, then she hurried after him: “Husband, wait for me…”
Lu Yun’s foot slipped, and he nearly tumbled headfirst into the water.
Miss Su hurried forward to support him, but saw Lu Yun frozen in place, his gaze fixed straight ahead.
Following Lu Yun’s gaze, Miss Su saw at the end of the waterway, in a stone niche, a dark shadowy figure sitting upright, just like a Buddha statue in a shrine.
“How is there a Buddha statue here?” Miss Su exclaimed in shock.
“Look closely.” Lu Yun said softly.
Miss Su then channeled internal energy to her eyes. Once her vision cleared to a hazy brightness, she focused on the stone niche—and realized it wasn’t a Buddha statue at all, but a highly decayed corpse!
“Ah!” Miss Su seemed to receive a great shock and screamed as she threw herself into Lu Yun’s arms, her two arms wrapping around his waist, as if truly taking him as her mental pillar.
Lu Yun stood there calmly, letting Miss Su throw herself at him. As her arms wrapped around his waist, he suddenly struck like lightning, seizing both of Miss Su’s hands.
“It hurts!” Miss Su hurriedly tried to pull back, but her hands were clamped like in iron pliers—how could she possibly withdraw them?
Lu Yun held Miss Su’s hands and slowly raised them between the two of them, revealing in those flawless slender jade hands a thin silver needle as fine as a cow’s hair in each. It was exactly the kind Miss Su had shot at Lu Yun the moment they clashed.
Lu Yun sneered: “Miss Su, you flip faces faster than turning a page?” If he hadn’t remained vigilant all along, he’d probably be collapsed on the ground by now.
“Who told you to be so heartless and unrighteous to me?” The panic in Miss Su’s eyes was quickly replaced by a face full of smiles. She simply withdrew all her true qi, offering no resistance as she cooed to Lu Yun: “I just wanted to give a little punishment to you, this heartless man who starts but doesn’t finish. Don’t worry, how could I bear to hurt my husband? I’d only let you sleep sweetly for a bit…”
But Lu Yun had completely lost interest in bandying words with her, saying coldly: “Have you recognized the identity of this corpse?”
“Hehe…” Miss Su’s mouth twitched slightly, muttering softly: “Talking to smart people is no fun.”
“Indeed.” Lu Yun nodded. With one hand gripping both of Miss Su’s hands, he pointed with the fingers of his other hand, sealing several of Miss Su’s key acupoints. Miss Su immediately couldn’t move, only able to watch wide-eyed as Lu Yun walked step by step toward the corpse.
Now Miss Su had no need to act anymore, furiously cursing from behind Lu Yun: “Stinky Lu Yun, rotten Lu Yun, bad Lu Yun who only knows how to bully women. Isn’t it just because you practiced the Supreme Profound Insight Scripture? Otherwise, I wouldn’t step on you underfoot, rub and rub hard, then spit in your face!”
Lu Yun couldn’t stand listening anymore and flicked a small stone to strike Miss Su’s mute acupoint, instantly silencing her.
‘Hoo…’ Lu Yun breathed a sigh of relief, ignoring Miss Su whose nose was crooked with anger, and muttered to himself: “Should’ve done this long ago.”
.
The world was finally quiet.
Lu Yun walked up to the corpse, first bowed in respect, and apologized: “Pardon the disturbance.” Only then did he raise his head to examine its appearance carefully.
The corpse was nearly naked, its tattered clothes barely covering the vital area at his crotch. The body had rotted with little flesh left, but it was still clear at a glance that this was an elderly man. Because it had graying whiskers…
On the lap of this gray-haired, disheveled corpse lay a curved cane that was neither bamboo nor jade. Lu Yun picked up the cane and felt its extraordinary weight upon touching it—even surpassing gold!
Counting them, the cane had exactly nine sections, and a name suddenly popped into Lu Yun’s mind—the Nine-Section Staff!
The Great Teacher of Benevolence’s sacred object, the Nine-Section Staff, renowned alongside the Taiping Token!
At this thought, Lu Yun jolted. Now he understood why Miss Su had suddenly tried to ambush him—she must have seen this item and developed a desire to monopolize it!
Glancing back at the Taiping Dao Saintess with wide almond eyes glaring as if to devour him, Lu Yun grew even more certain of his suspicions.
Hadn’t the Taiping Dao sacred object Nine-Section Staff been stored in Gaozu’s Treasure Vault? Why was it here in this underground river? Who exactly was this corpse, and why had he died in this place unreachable by ordinary people?!
Lu Yun knew that the answers to his many questions could only be found on this corpse.
So he bent down and searched the corpse meticulously, indeed finding beneath it a piece of yellow silk. Dark red writing on the yellow silk, eroded by the years, was quite faded, yet still conveyed clearly the indelible spirit of the writer and the resentment etched into his bones!
Lu Yun focused on the writing, straining to make it out.
‘I, the forty-first Sect Leader of Taiping Dao, Kou Xianzhi, write this on the road to the Yellow Springs. Though I know this is a desolate place where no one will see it, with heaven-shaking hatred filling my chest and bone-deep enmity engraved in my heart, how can I willingly drink Lady Meng’s soup without letting later generations know of Huangfu Lie’s despicable treachery and betrayal of my Taiping Dao?!’
Reading these opening lines, Lu Yun couldn’t help exclaiming: “Kou Xianzhi? It’s actually Kou Xianzhi!”
