After Li Miao and Xing Chi agreed on a time to meet again, he stood up to bid farewell.
He had entered Shaolin at the second watch, and his discussion with Xing Chi had taken a bit longer than expected.
It was now nearly the third watch, not far from the time he had agreed upon with Zhu Zai.
Li Miao first climbed onto the roof of Shaolin’s Grand Hall, looking down at the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) encampment outside the temple.
The Commander’s tent was naturally different in style from ordinary Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) tents, so Li Miao easily found Zhu Zai’s location.
Earlier, Li Miao had asked Yin Minjun to deliver a message to Zhu Zai: if the Celestial Human Realm expert from the imperial court was present during the day, he should hang one lantern outside the tent; if he was not, he should hang two.
Li Miao looked out, and indeed, two lanterns were hanging outside that tent.
It seemed that the person was not there, which allowed Li Miao to relax a little.
Li Miao stepped into the air, performing a Quanzhen sect's “Ascending Ladder” technique, rising several feet into the void, then used a Wudang sect's “Cloud Ladder Ascent,” taking three consecutive steps in the air, and had already flown a considerable distance.
Then, he utilized the Ming Cult’s “Flying Catkin Smoke Skill,” and his entire body, like a wisp of cloud drifting in the night, lightly descended towards the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) encampment.
At this moment, inside the tent, Zhu Zai sat on a chair with his eyes closed, as if napping.
But in secret, he was listening intently to the sounds around him.
It was precisely the third watch.
He heard the tent flap open, and Li Miao slowly walked in, looking at the closed-eyed Zhu Zai, and let out a soft chuckle.
“Commander, resting, are we?”
“Rest your leg!!!”
Zhu Zai suddenly opened his eyes, roared, and flung the embroidered spring blade from his waist over.
Li Miao easily caught it and held it in his hand.
The familiar feeling returned.
When they were in Shuntian Prefecture, Zhu Zai would do this every now and then.
Having been out of the capital for these past few months, Li Miao actually missed this feeling.
So, he skillfully dragged a chair over, sat down, rested his face on his hand, squinted at Zhu Zai, and lazily said,
“Commander, didn’t Wang Hai tell you about my martial arts?”
“Before, you thought I was a Peak Master, so you threw me with the strength of a First-Rate expert. Now you know I am a Celestial Human, so you throw me with the strength of a Peak Master.”
“But even if you threw every embroidered spring blade in the entire Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) at me, one by one, you wouldn’t hit me. Why bother wasting the effort?”
“Don’t get angry. You’re getting older; anger harms the liver.”
Li Miao was clearly teasing the old man.
As expected, Zhu Zai became even more exasperated upon hearing Li Miao say this.
“If you were afraid of making me angry, you should have been honest with me earlier!”
“You kept it hidden when we were in Shuntian Prefecture, and now that you’ve done something outside the capital, do you know how difficult it is to clean up this mess you’ve made?!”
“If that person saw you during the day and knew your realm, both of us would be in big trouble!”
With that, Zhu Zai stood up, quickly paced a few circles on the spot, managed to calm his emotions, and then suddenly turned to look at Li Miao.
“How many paths have you cultivated now?”
“Three paths,” Li Miao said casually.
“How many paths have you cultivated to completion?” Zhu Zai continued to ask.
“One path. If I push myself, I can barely manage two paths, but I’d have to retreat afterward.”
After Li Miao said this, Zhu Zai was momentarily stunned.
“Retreat… afterward? Retreat from what?” Zhu Zai asked hesitantly.
“My realm, of course. Don’t you die after cultivating it to completion? So, I just complete it during a fight, and then drop it afterward.”
“???”
Zhu Zai was silent for a long while, then spoke with difficulty.
“If I hadn’t personally picked you up and brought you into the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) back then, and personally guided you in laying your foundation, I would suspect you’re a monster that crawled out of some grave.”
“With your understanding back then, which was only slightly better than a dog’s piss stain, how did you quietly cultivate all of this?”
“I have natural divine strength.”
“Nonsense!”
“I have extraordinary talent.”
“Nonsense!”
“I am Damo reincarnated.”
“…Really?”
“No—” Li Miao could barely keep a straight face.
“Are you getting a bit muddled, old man? You don’t believe in natural divine strength or extraordinary talent, but you believe in reincarnation?”
“Nonsense,” Zhu Zai said. “If the Celestial Human Realm could be achieved just by having good talent, there wouldn’t be so few of them in the world.”
“It’s true that your bone structure is exceptionally good, but if you only had bone structure, at most you’d be a Peak Master.”
“Most of the martial arts collected by the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) are incomplete texts. For you to cultivate them on your own, what other possibility is there besides a divine person reincarnated?”
Li Miao could only laugh helplessly: “Alright, alright, just assume I’m reincarnated and suddenly awakened past life wisdom.”
This explanation was not wrong.
Reincarnated indeed, just from another world.
In one-by-one, no-mistake version!
Zhu Zai was silent for a moment, then looked at Li Miao: “So, you’re going to become a monk?”
“No wonder you haven’t taken a wife even at thirty-something, and refused all the introductions. So this is the root of it.”
“Did you just come from Shaolin? Is Xing Chi going to die, and you’re taking over as the Shaolin Abbot?”
His words carried a hint of resentment, clearly sounding like an old man who had finally managed to send his son to university, thought he could finally enjoy a life of doting on grandchildren, only to find out the acceptance letter was from a Buddhist academy.
“Hey, hey! You old man, you’re getting carried away. I’ll accuse you of slandering an imperial official!” Li Miao couldn’t help but say.
“I don’t take a wife because I don’t like being controlled. I have quite a few confidantes, seven or eight of them!”
“There are a few I wouldn’t even dare to tell you about. If you met them, you’d have to bow to them.”
Zhu Zai listened to this, pondered for a moment, and looked at Li Miao with suspicion.
“You’re really not becoming a monk?”
“Really not… you old man.”
“Sigh… Actually, if you really were Damo reincarnated, it would save a lot of trouble.”
Zhu Zai slumped onto the chair, rubbing his temples.
Li Miao also put away his lazy expression and looked at Zhu Zai seriously.
“What trouble?”
“What trouble?” Zhu Zai scoffed, “A knight uses martial arts to violate prohibitions, let alone a Celestial Human?”
“Eternal youth, indestructible divine body—who wouldn’t want that? Doesn’t His Majesty want it?”
“Three paths united, with no signs of the Celestial Human Five Declines at all—who wouldn’t want to explore its secrets? Doesn’t the one who came in the sedan chair during the day want to?”
“You’re not surnamed Zhu, nor are you an eunuch, and you have no family—will His Majesty trust you?”
“Why did Ji Tianrui have to die? Why do inheritances like Shaolin and Wudang not have Celestial Human Realm experts?”
“Some things, I don’t know either. But these principles, one can understand with a little thought.”
Zhu Zai concluded with a single statement.
“Whether you are a rebel or not depends not on whether you want to be, but on whether you can be.”
Li Miao was silent for a moment, then looked at Zhu Zai.
“That’s why I didn’t tell you about my martial arts.”
“If I had told you the truth back then, you might not have even let me continue cultivating.”
“I’m not a martial arts fanatic; practicing martial arts is not my goal, but it is my only means.”
Zhu Zai looked at Li Miao and asked, “What do you want?”
“Liberation,” Li Miao said. “Speaking of which, I’ve died twice.”
“Once was the day you found me; I thought I had just died, but then I inexplicably came back to life. The other was fifteen years ago, during that incident with the Ming Cult.”
“Only between life and death can one truly see their true nature.”
“What I seek are mountains and seas, not a cage.”