Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 642 A Chat in the Courtyard (Part 1)
Gray roof tiles, green moss.

A secluded courtyard nestled in the woods.

Less than a quarter of an hour after coming down from the mountain, Sun Huang and the Niu brothers arrived at the stronghold of the Youjia Gang.

The place was well-hidden and safe, and the gang members were known for their thoroughness and efficiency, so the four of them were able to catch their breath after arriving.

Of course, they won't be able to rest for long.

Boss Ding and Master Ling must have something to say about inviting them; they don't have much time to let them idle around.

Sure enough, the four of them had just sat down, had a couple of sips of tea, and eaten some pastries when Ding and Ling returned, bringing with them several of Shuang Xie's "acquaintances."

"Brother Sun, Brother Huang, it's been a long time." The first person to greet them after entering the house was Jiang Muchan.

After the Shaoshi Mountain incident, quite a few people went to cause trouble for Xiao Jiang.

Although these people didn't directly regard Jiang Muchan as a disciple of the Hunyuan Star Gate, but only as a "possible insider" hoping to extract something from him, everyone knew Jiang's personality... Back when he broke into the Lu Prince's mansion at night and was caught and "taught a lesson" by Eunuch Wei of the Eastern Depot (Volume 4, Chapter 17), even when facing an opponent he had no chance of defeating, he still stubbornly refused to admit it... So it was foreseeable that Jiang Muchan would definitely not give those who came to question him a pleasant look.

"Don't tell me I don't know. Even if I did know, I wouldn't betray my brothers."

"I don't know if they did it, but based on my understanding of the Hunyuan Star Gate, they are probably much more upright than some of the hypocrites in the martial arts world who seek fame and fortune."

Basically, he would say things like that, and then retort to anyone who came to ask him questions...

So tell me, if you encounter someone with a bad temper, or someone who's inherently malicious... can you forgive them?
Fortunately, the kid's martial arts skills improved greatly after the "Swords and Blades Slaying Demons" incident, and none of the people who came looking for him were particularly powerful masters, so he was safe and sound for the time being.

"Hey, isn't this Xiao Jiang!" The next second, Sun Yixie immediately greeted him warmly, and without waiting for him to speak first, he said, "Oh dear~ I've been causing you a lot of trouble lately, haven't I?"

"Oh, it's no big deal," Jiang Muchan replied readily, "I'm perfectly fine, aren't I?"

Just as they were saying those few words, two more people leisurely stepped into the room.

The two men were a swordsman dressed in white, with a cold and indifferent expression, and a member of the Imperial Guard wearing a flying fish robe and a brocade spring knife at his waist.

"Hey~ Lao Wang, Brother Yun, what are you doing here too?" Huang Donglai immediately got up to greet the two men.

However, the three-character king did not mince words with him and bluntly replied, "You're the one who caused this."

“Sigh…” Yun Shili sighed and said, “Alright, alright, let’s sit down and talk about it.”

Before he could finish speaking, the two bosses, Ding and Ling, followed him in.

To make a long story short, a moment later, the door was closed, and the introductions and pleasantries among the people were almost over.

At this moment, Boss Ding spoke first: "Gentlemen, I have already sent my men to guard the area around this courtyard. Now, everyone can close the door and speak frankly without any reservations."

“Alright, then I have something to ask first.” At this moment, Sun Yixie, who had been unable to contain himself any longer, immediately took over the conversation and looked at Ling Sheng’er, “Lord Ling, before discussing other matters, could you please explain how you performed this ‘great transformation’?”

Ling Sheng'er smiled slightly upon hearing this. She seemed to have already guessed that Sun Yixie would ask this question, so she simply took a sip of tea and replied, "Heh... easy to say. My technique is called 'Bone-Splitting Body Refinement,' a rare and unusual skill that few people know about and even fewer practice."

"Huh?" Sun Yixie was skeptical. "You can change yourself from 'that' to what you are now just by practicing martial arts? Don't try to fool me, I'm not that well-educated. This difference... even surgery wouldn't be enough, would it?"

"I don't know what 'surgery' is, but I really don't like the tone of your voice." Ling Sheng'er's eyes suddenly sharpened, and she asked a very frightening question, "What happened to me 'as I was' before?"

“So that’s why…” Sun Yixie drew out the last syllable, pausing for a moment before continuing, “…that was quite impressive.” He really managed to smooth things over, and as he said this, he glanced at Huang Donglai, “Back then, both Brother Huang and I were stunned, right, Brother Huang?”

"Huh?" Huang Donglai didn't expect this guy surnamed Sun to suddenly throw out such a sentence, but since it had already been thrown out, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and reply, "Uh... right, right, Master Ling looked very majestic back then, like a sect leader."

However, Ling Sheng'er seized on the flaw in Huang Donglai's words and retorted, "What? Am I not like that now? What's wrong with me being 'like this' now?"

She was just being argumentative, but Sun Huang really didn't know how to respond.

Fortunately, she was just joking with them, so she only paused for a moment before continuing, "Heh... I was just kidding with you guys, look how hard you've got it." She took another sip of tea before explaining seriously, "This 'Bone-Refining Body' is not so easy. To succeed, one not only needs martial arts training, but also the assistance of someone proficient in medicine and toxicology, and the whole process takes many years... Are you satisfied with this answer?"

That's where we should stop. Asking any further would involve the secrets of their martial arts. We're all people of the martial arts world, so we all understand that.

Of course, we can elaborate further here by using the implied meaning within the book...

First of all, the real age of this Ling Louzhu is actually over thirty-five. She started cultivating this "Bone-Dissolving and Body-Refining" divine skill when she was twelve years old.

The training process for this martial art is not only extremely long but also very dangerous. Furthermore, before the final "success," this martial art offers no positive benefits whatsoever, only side effects.

The side effect is that when a cultivator reaches a certain level of mastery, their appearance and physique will undergo drastic changes. These changes will hardly affect the internal organs and meridians, but the shape of the bones, muscles and fat will fluctuate violently, and these fluctuations will have a certain degree of randomness.

By now, many people probably realize that... such fluctuations can be fatal, and the probability is not low.

This is why this martial art has gradually become "little known" and "little practiced".

However, once one passes through the seven stages of "bone-refining and body-tempering," reaching the "success" stage, the cultivator can undergo a "transformation," obtaining a body that ages slowly and whose functions surpass those of ordinary people.

If that doesn't make sense, let's put it another way—once you've mastered "Bone-Refining Body," even without using any internal energy, your physique will be almost like someone who's been injected with super soldier serum.

But no matter how high the benefits are, it's all for naught if you can't master the skills.

Such "high-risk, late-return" martial arts techniques are likely to end in failure for most people, even if they dare to take the risk to practice them. Moreover, the price of this "failure" is either death or serious injury.

But Ling Sheng'er is an exception. She has enough wisdom, courage, and external resources to make the cultivation process relatively safe and controllable.

For example, when she was fifteen years old, when she first reached a critical point in her training, she sought help from Yue Qicheng, one of the three great physicians in the martial arts world, also known as the "Evil Doctor".

We've mentioned Yue Qicheng before (Volume 4, Chapter 9). Besides charging exorbitant consultation fees, he's also a bit of a "big man with a small fist" type, meaning he likes to put on a show of "testing human nature."

When he saw Ling Sheng'er, this little girl, so young and already a beauty, yet she wanted to practice this kind of martial arts... he proposed: "I can help you, but you will become fat and ugly from now on. Are you willing?"

Unexpectedly, Ling Sheng'er said, "I'd love to! I'm so annoyed by those vulgar people who only look at my appearance but ignore my wisdom."

Now Yue Qicheng was completely bewildered by her. He thought to himself, "How did my 'price' become a 'free gift'?" But since he had already said it and it was his own suggestion, he couldn't take it back, so he could only let it go.

Moreover, the condition set by Ren Yue was not entirely for the purpose of "testing human nature." In fact, such a huge size is also meaningful in the matter of "controlling mutations."

To put it simply, Doctor Yue had brought Ling Sheng'er's body to a stable state, one that was at its "maximum tolerance level," so that no matter what obstacles or changes she encountered later, her appearance would remain the same, because all those anomalies were digested "inside" this huge body.

Thus, Ling Sheng'er maintained this state for many years until... the summer of the twentieth year of Yongtai.

That year, Ling Sheng'er's "Bone-Refining Body" technique was finally nearing completion. However, when she was about to break through the final barrier, she did not seek out Yue Qicheng for "medical support" again. Instead, she went to another divine doctor, "Miraculous Hands Fairy" Hu Ning'er.

That's why you have to admit that Master Ling is clever. If she were to go to Yue Qicheng again this time, and he were to cause her some trouble, it wouldn't be a "gift" but a real "price." So, facing this "final hurdle," she went to Hu Ning'er, who was easier to talk to.

As for why she didn't go to Hu Ning'er from the beginning, it's very simple... When Ling Sheng'er was twelve years old, Hu Ning'er was still young. She hadn't even started practicing medicine yet, so where would she have gone to find her?

In short, Ling Sheng'er finally passed the seventh level without any major incidents, but then an unexpected situation occurred: Ling Sheng'er, who had just mastered her divine skills, was no longer the huge figure she had been transformed into, but she also did not become the person she should be at her current age; for some reason... she reverted to the appearance of a twelve or thirteen-year-old.

Hu Ning'er's "medical supervision" could not be stopped. Moreover, Hu Ning'er was quite responsible. She even took Ling Louzhu to the capital to search for medicinal herbs and medical books, hoping to find a solution. This is how the scene of their carriage encountering Shuang Xie outside the capital two years ago came about.

However, they later realized that this phenomenon was probably normal...

After mastering the "Bone-Splitting and Body-Refining" technique, the practitioner's body will first return to the state it was in when they first started practicing. Then, it will rapidly reach adolescence at a rate of one year older every two to three months, and then the pace will slow down.

That's why they have Ling Sheng'er, who looks to be in her early twenties.

Getting back to the main topic...

"Satisfied, satisfied." Seeing that the other party had given him a way out, Sun Yixie quickly took it and then turned the conversation to Yun Shili, who was sitting closest to him, "Hey? Um... Brother Yun, I can more or less guess why the others in this room are sitting here, but why are you here too?"

"Heh..." Yun Shili sneered, answering his own question, "How else could it have come? It was sent by the Emperor."

"Oh?" Huang Donglai's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, because he knew without a doubt that something that could prompt the emperor to personally issue an order to "respond to the emergency" was probably not some江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the martial arts world) matter, but rather... "You wouldn't be here to ask us for the princess, would you?"

Upon hearing this, Boss Ding and Boss Ling remained relatively calm, as they were both well-informed and had already heard about the matter. However, the others present were in an uproar.

What do you want?

"Who?"

"What master?"

"Tsk... Don't panic..." Sun Yixie immediately waved his hand at them, "Let's listen to what Brother Yun has to say first."

"I don't have much to say either." Yun Shili pursed his lips and reluctantly replied, "I'm here to take care of two things. Finding the princess is the second, the less important one... But since you've brought it up yourselves, let me ask you this: do you have any news about the princess?"

"No," Huang Donglai replied immediately. "We only heard about it from Brother Shui not long ago, when we met him. He said she ran off with Xiao Lin?"

"You're asking me?" Yun Shili's eyes widened upon hearing this, and his voice instantly rose.

Actually, Huang Donglai's response, on its own, wasn't particularly infuriating; it was just common knowledge within the Embroidered Uniform Guard. However, his tone, which was half relaxed and half questioning, was incredibly irritating.

"Hey, Brother Yun, calm down." Sun Yixie stepped in to smooth things over. "We really didn't know anything about it. We weren't in the Central Plains for a while."

"Sigh..." Yun Shili sighed again, but his emotions had calmed down a bit. "I do know about this. You guys made great contributions on the battlefield with Brother Feng, right?"

"Huh?" Upon hearing this, Jiang Muchan's expression was even more surprised than when she heard that the princess had been abducted. "Lord Yun, is the Brother Feng you're talking about General Feng, who is stationed at the border?"

"Of course~" Before Yun Shili could reply, Huang Donglai interrupted, "There's only one Brother Feng in Da Ming, that's my older brother Feng Manlou!" For some reason, when he said this, he deliberately gave Sun Yixie a sarcastic look.

"Wow..." Jiang Muchan's eyes were now filled with admiration as she looked at Sun Huang. "I never imagined that you two could not only eliminate evil and uphold justice in the martial arts world, but also achieve great deeds and protect your country on the battlefield... I truly admire you! I admire you so much!"

"Ha! Absolutely! As the saying goes, the greatest heroes are..." The next second, to cover up his displeasure at being subtly mocked by Huang Donglai, Sun Yixie immediately stood up, patted his chest, and uttered a famous quote from elsewhere, "...uh cough...uh cough...for the country...cough...for the people...cough cough cough..."

Unfortunately, he slapped the camera too hard and accidentally choked on his own saliva, ruining what should have been a powerful line.

"Alright, alright, stop putting on airs." Yun Shili poured cold water on the situation. "Let me put it this way: after Brother Feng delivered the victory report, he wrote several secret letters, reporting every single thing you two did while you were with him to the Emperor. Then those secret letters passed through several hands and ended up with me, and I read them all..."

"Oh?" Upon hearing this, Huang Donglai turned his head guiltily and glanced at the other person, asking, "Then how detailed are you referring to, no matter how small?"

“I know so much about you that I’m ‘the mad dog of the scalper’ and he is ‘the lying dragon’,” Yun Shili replied.

"Huh? What 'Lying Dragon'? I don't know that?" Sun Yixie looked puzzled when he heard this.

"Oh dear~ Anyway, he knows things that even you don't know." Huang Donglai understood, so he turned to Sun Yixie and said.

"Hmm..." Sun Yixie naturally understood as well, "Then does he know a bit too much?"

"What do you mean, 'a lot'? Are you trying to kill me to silence me?" Yun Shili and Sun Huang were quite familiar with each other, so their conversation was rather witty. "You two, stop talking nonsense and think about it. I already know so much, so what is the most crucial thing?"

This question finally brought Sun and Huang back on track—yes, the most important information contained in Feng Manlou's secret letter, which was also the main target of Yun Shili's assigned mission, could only be "the illegitimate son".

(End of this chapter)