“Bang!”
“Thud!”
“Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!”
“Stop, stop, stop! I concede!” Guangyue exclaimed.
“Refreshing!” Lu Zheng replied.
“Amitabha!” Guangyue stepped back two paces, chanting a Buddhist phrase, wincing at the faint pain on his head. He stretched the corners of his eyes, flexing his facial muscles, which only made his head ache more.
“Why is Brother Dao so fixated on striking my head?” Guangyue couldn’t help but ask.
Lu Zheng shrugged. “Don’t you think you resemble the Buddha like this?”
“That’s the Buddha’s ushnisha, one of the thirty-two marks,” Guangyue explained.
“Then yours is a monk’s swollen bump, a budget version,” Lu Zheng nodded.
Guangyue touched the swollen lump on his head from Lu Zheng’s strikes, momentarily speechless. When Lu Zheng struck, he left a trace of Baiyun true qi in the bump, which would take some effort to dispel.
Meanwhile, Liu Qingquan had finished recounting the story of Lu Zheng and Guangyue. The onlookers gazed at Guangyue with astonishment. They had just witnessed their duel, and though Guangyue was far from weak, Lu Zheng still dominated him.
How could you be so confident as to want to take Lu Zheng travelling? Are you set on being his neighbour, coming over daily to be schooled? Does this monk have some peculiar hobby?
“Come, sit and rest. It’s all vegetarian, suitable for you,” Lu Zheng beckoned Guangyue to join them.
“Amitabha, thank you for the hospitality.”
Guangyue didn’t stand on ceremony, following Lu Zheng to greet everyone again. With his upright posture, dignified appearance, and composed demeanour, Guangyue indeed carried the air of a high monk. The only jarring note was the layers of purplish-green bumps on his head.
The women stifled their laughter, returning his greetings politely, and invited him to sit. The Peach Blossom celestial maidens brought him tea and snacks, which Guangyue accepted with thanks.
The sparring between Lu Zheng and Guangyue was a minor interlude. After learning of their multiple battles fought side by side, the group understood their bond and welcomed Guangyue. Lu Zheng and Zhu Yushan resumed their chess game, with Guangyue silently observing.
When the game ended, Zhu Yushan began discussing Buddhist teachings with Guangyue. Unlike Lu Zheng, who knew nothing of Buddhist doctrine, Zhu Yushan had read many sutras. Their conversation, focused purely on theory rather than cultivation, grew deeper, leaving Lu Zheng dizzy and overwhelmed.
…
As the sun set and dusk fell, the River God’s wife was the first to take her leave, followed by the women from Wuxiu Manor heading east. Guangyue chanted a Buddhist phrase and departed gracefully.
“Brother-in-law, let’s go back together!” Liu Qingquan tugged at Lu Zheng, refusing to let go.
“Alright, alright!” Lu Zheng gave Shen Ying a knowing glance, gesturing toward the city, then accompanied the Liu sisters back to Tonglin County.
As expected, after seeing the Liu sisters to their doorstep next door, Lu Zheng returned home to find Shen Ying already brewing tea under the persimmon tree in the backyard, waiting for him.
“My dear Lu!” Shen Ying threw herself into his arms, their lips meeting in a passionate embrace.
After a while, she pulled back with a radiant smile, leading Lu Zheng to sit under the tree and handing him a cup of fragrant tea.
“Was your trip to Baiyun Temple and the Jinhua Sect smooth?” Shen Ying asked with concern.
“Fairly smooth,” Lu Zheng nodded. “I encountered two incidents and met Miss Yan.”
“Hongxia?” Liu Qingyan’s voice came from over the wall, followed by her figure in greenish-blue gliding over.
“Yes, Yan Hongxia,” Lu Zheng confirmed. “I met her in Huizhou. I invited her to visit us, but she said she has a letter to deliver east. She’ll come by after returning from the East Sea.”
“Alright,” Liu Qingyan nodded, slightly disappointed, as she missed Yan Hongxia.
“No matter,” Shen Ying said, holding Liu Qingyan’s hand with a smile. “We have plenty of time ahead. Once we can ride clouds and travel a thousand miles in a day, we can visit Dengyun Mountain periodically.”
Liu Qingyan smiled at this. With the ‘Nine Transformations of Heavenly Demon Blood Refining’ and the ‘Moon Illumination Sutra’, her path to longevity was promising.
“What’s Baiyun Temple like? And the Jinhua Sect? What happened?” Shen Ying poured Liu Qingyan a cup of tea, then turned to Lu Zheng with curiosity.
“Baiyun Temple…” Lu Zheng rubbed his chin, took a sip of tea, and began recounting his journey to the two women.
“What? Trading wine for spells? You learned invisibility, dream-entering, puppetry, and spirit-attachment spells? A painted wall world where one day outside equals ten inside? Such a secret technique, but no one inherited it?”
“What? The Jinhua Sect was so generous, giving you the ‘Taiyuan Mysterious Book’ for inheritance and the ‘Golden Palace Mystical Art’ specifically for you?”
“What? Disciples of the Huajian Caiyun Sect and the Goddess Sect? You stumbled into a ghost king’s lair who sneaked into the mortal realm?”
“What? You turned the two and the ghost against each other, then brought Huizhou’s anomaly suppression team to clean up?”
The women were stunned that Lu Zheng, in less than a month, had experienced so much. Not only did he acquire several unique techniques, but he also obtained a clearly extraordinary bronze mirror.
Lu Zheng patted his gourd, and a bronze mirror exuding eerie ghostly qi flew out, landing in his hand.
“This is it,” Lu Zheng said, handling the mirror. “Without this mirror, the ghost king wouldn’t have been a match for the four of us. But with it, had I not sacrificed my puppet avatar, we might all have been trapped.”
“That powerful?” Shen Ying took the mirror, channeling her true qi into it, but it showed no reaction.
Lu Zheng shrugged. “It’s been refined by the ghost king for who knows how long. To cleanse and reforge it into a mysterious treasure won’t be easy.”
Shen Ying returned the mirror, nodding. “Indeed, it’s not simple. I can’t tell its full power, but you’ll find out once you refine it.”
“From what I know, it can scan surroundings and dispel spells,” Lu Zheng explained, recounting the battle with the ghost king before putting the mirror away. “The ghost king said he refined it for years. I don’t know how long it’ll take me.”
Shen Ying covered her mouth with her sleeve, chuckling softly. “No rush, we’ll cleanse it slowly.”
“Indeed,” Lu Zheng smiled.
With his journey recounted, moonlight bathed the courtyard, a cool breeze stirred, and the atmosphere grew subtly intimate.
And so…
