“Then I was ignorant?”
Li Miao said with a smile.
“You… you know that’s good.”
Zhu Zai said, panting heavily.
“Alright, alright, you should speak less.”
“When you speak, the cut on your arm is oozing blood, don’t spray it on my face.”
Li Miao didn’t give Zhu Zai any face at all.
Zhu Zai snorted coldly and no longer argued with Li Miao, only calming his mind to regulate his breathing.
He was, after all, a peerless expert with considerable martial arts attainments. Coupled with the true qi transferred from Li Miao, he recovered in just a moment.
He pushed on his knees with both hands and straightened up, but remained silent for a moment.
After a long while, Zhu Zai brought his hand to his face, clenched it, then touched his own face, and suddenly turned to look at Li Miao.
“This skill of yours… not only can heal injuries, but also extend life!?”
This was because after his injuries were healed, he felt his body lighten considerably out of nowhere, and the skin on his hands and face also seemed to tighten a bit.
He was already sixty-one years old this year, an age where he was half a foot in the grave. Coupled with the old injuries accumulated from years of life-or-death struggles, if not for his deep internal cultivation over many years, he would have died long ago.
His body was heavy, his skin sagged, and his joints often ached faintly.
But now, he felt as if he had returned to his state in his forties or fifties!
If he were to fight Bu Lei again now, he would have a ninety percent chance of winning!
In his shock, Zhu Zai almost grabbed Li Miao by the collar, demanding him to confess honestly.
“It’s not that miraculous.”
Li Miao said, “It was just a side effect of treating your old hidden injuries.”
“For example, when you were born, you could probably live to about ninety. With these hidden injuries accumulated, you could only live to seventy-something.”
“But now that they’re healed, you can still live to over ninety.”
“How about it, aren’t you especially glad that you picked me up back then?”
Zhu Zai, however, was not in the mood to bicker with Li Miao. He merely pondered for a moment, then said coldly.
“Where did this skill come from?”
“It was deduced from a partial manuscript, so I guess it’s self-created.”
“Who has seen it? Tell me their names.”
Li Miao knew exactly what Zhu Zai was going to do. He looked at him with narrowed eyes and said.
“Going to silence them?”
“Nonsense!” Zhu Zai roared.
“If His Majesty knew about this, what you and I would face is the entire imperial court!”
“Everything we discussed before was based on one premise—you and I are still His Majesty’s subjects, and we haven’t done anything out of line. His Majesty might not be willing to pay too high a price to get rid of us.”
“If His Majesty doesn’t speak, then the imperial court is a group of people, and I can mediate, bargain, and divide them.”
“If His Majesty speaks, then the imperial court is a unified weapon!”
“Do you really think that you, a Celestial Human, and I, a third-rank Commander, can contend with the imperial court?”
“His Majesty’s mausoleum has already been built, but is he willing to lie in it? And the imperial court surely conceals many more Celestial Human Realm experts like the one today!”
Zhu Zai was exasperated for a moment.
Because this matter was too dangerous, ten times more sensitive than the Ming Cult or rebellion!
You, Li Miao, are you like an onion?
Peeling layer after layer, how many things have you hidden right under his nose!
It’s fine if you hide things, but can you hide something less life-threatening!?
Li Miao, however, chuckled softly: “Don’t be nervous, Commander.”
“I know what I’m doing; I’m not a reckless person who can’t keep secrets.”
“I’ve used this skill, but the method for healing old injuries has only been used on you.”
Li Miao looked into Zhu Zai’s eyes, his smile fading.
“I didn’t use it carelessly.”
“This is the bargaining chip I’m giving you.”
Zhu Zai shouldn’t have gotten involved in Li Miao’s affairs. Li Miao wasn’t Zhu Zai’s son; he really didn’t need to.
But since Zhu Zai had already made a choice for Li Miao, Li Miao naturally had to leave a way out for Zhu Zai.
“According to your plan, I’ll be in the Jianghu, and you’ll be in the imperial court.”
“If something goes wrong on your side someday, and you get caught by the Emperor, you can use this news to make a deal with the Emperor.”
“I’ve left a trace of true qi in your heart meridian. At that time, let the imperial court’s Celestial Human examine it, and they can naturally verify its authenticity.”
Zhu Zai was silent for a moment, then looked at Li Miao.
“What kind of deal?”
Li Miao smiled: “It’s up to you to decide.”
“It’s best if it can get you out. If not, then have the Emperor release news, letting me go to Shuntian Prefecture to exchange for you.”
“Then, you just wait for me.”
“I’ll come pick you up.”
Zhu Zai was silent for a moment, clenching and unclenching his hand.
After a long while, he snorted coldly: “Does this old man still need you to save him?”
“Boasting shamelessly!”
In the one-to-one, no-mistake version!
With that, he shook off Li Miao’s hand and walked by himself to Bu Lei’s corpse, reached out and grabbed the corpse, then used his lightness skill to head towards the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) camp.
Li Miao shook his head with a smile on the spot.
“Stubborn old man, so hard-mouthed.”
He also followed.
Upon reaching the camp, Zhu Zai suddenly stopped.
This was because after the battle between Li Miao and Wan Tianzong, the place had completely changed its appearance.
The camp was set up on a flat ground outside Shaolin Temple, with some twenty to thirty scattered tents, and some bonfires and cooking stoves around.
Now, all of them had turned into fragments, scattered across the deeply trenched ground.
Zhu Zai suddenly turned his head and looked at Li Miao, who had followed him: “How many people did you kill?”
Li Miao raised an eyebrow: “Just one, that Wan Tianzong.”
With that, he looked at the battlefield and smiled.
“Oh, you mean these.”
“They’re all his.”
Li Miao said lightly.
“You don’t know, his Heavenly Silkworm Skill is really quite powerful.”
“Nine revolutions complete, endless vitality. He can tear off two or three jin of flesh, and it grows back in an instant.”
“Moreover, he’s also a ‘Xumi’, with an inexhaustible supply of true qi.”
“He was quite pleased with himself, saying something like, it was my bad luck to encounter him. Others might not be able to defeat me, but he could drag it out until my Celestial Human Five Declines erupted.”
“So, I let him try whether he could really drag me out.”
Li Miao casually pointed to his feet.
“Here, I tore off half his arm.”
“And guess what, he snatched that half arm back and reattached it himself, and it still worked.”
“So, I could only tear a little, mash it into minced meat, then tear a little more, and mash it into minced meat again.”
“After tearing him like this for about half an hour, he couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to run.”
Li Miao walked a few more steps to a deep pit, large enough for a person to embrace, and pointed with his hand.
“Then, I caught him here.”
“And crushed him inside here.”
Li Miao spoke lightly, but Zhu Zai could imagine the brutality of the scene at the time.
He couldn’t help but glance at the corpse of Bu Lei, still wide-eyed, that he was carrying, and sighed in his heart.
“It was right to change the battle location.”
“If we had stayed here and gotten caught in it, I’m afraid we would have turned into a pile of minced meat too.”
“Celestial Human… Celestial Human.”