Martial Arts Crossover: My Wife is the Top Scholar

Chapter 13 Lu Xiaofeng, let me explain...

The people taking care of the patient were not monks from the temple, but an old woman and two young girls.

A young girl named Xia'er was the daughter of Qian Laoda, the head manager of the Luzhou branch of Datong Money Shop. She was tall and beautiful, and had been an old acquaintance of Hua Manlou.

Her mother had contracted leprosy and had been living in Yunjian Temple. Xia'er came to take care of her mother herself.

A young girl named Xiao Ai was a poor woman whose parents were bitten by a rabid dog and died of illness. As a result, the surrounding people shunned her, and she could only live in Yunjian Temple.

The old woman, who called herself "Madam Tang," possessed remarkable medical skills. She was in her fifties and had burn marks on her face, which was covered with ugly scars.

On weekdays, Madam Tang is in charge of diagnosing patients and preparing medicine, Xia'er is a nurse, and the most diligent one is Xiao Ai, who can do all the dirty and tiring work, such as chopping wood, carrying water, sweeping the floor and cleaning the latrines.

Outside this "isolation residence," there are hundreds of urns containing ashes. It is said that these people died of the plague and were cremated and enshrined in the Yakushi-do Hall.

Behind the Pharmacist Hall is a bamboo forest, where dense, green bamboos meander like a stream. The bamboo forest is shrouded in a mist all year round, making it easy to lose one's way.

Therefore, it is called the "Bamboo Forest of a Hundred Demons".

Xiao Ai's parents are buried deep in the bamboo forest.

To make it easier to worship her parents, Xiao Ai built a bamboo house in the bamboo forest as a temporary residence.

Based solely on what I saw and heard, aside from the greed, ruthlessness, and murderous intent revealed by the guest monk, Yunjian Temple is undoubtedly a pure land, very suitable for devoted Buddhist practice.

Li Zhaoting chatted with Hua Manlou for a few minutes, and then Xia'er came out carrying several scrolls of Buddhist scriptures. When she saw Hua Manlou, her face lit up with joy: "Young Master Hua, you've come."

Hua Manlou smiled and said, "Xia'er, I've come to deliver the Hundred Flowers Powder. How is your aunt's health?"

Upon hearing this, Xia'er's face showed bitterness: "My mother's illness is still the same, recurring day and night. Fortunately, she has the Hundred Flowers Powder, which allows her to get a good night's sleep."

Hua Manlou sighed.

As I said before, in this era, curing leprosy can only rely on luck and fate.

Power, wealth, and martial prowess all seem pale and powerless in the face of a bone-deep disease.

Xia'er invited the two to rest in the pavilion and brought them tea. This was mugwort tea made by Madam Tang, which is good for clearing the mind and eyes, removing heart fire, relieving cough and moisturizing the lungs.

What is Madam Tang's background?
Mentioning the surname "Tang" immediately brings to mind the Tang Clan of Sichuan, a group known for their expertise in poisons and hidden weapons. Those skilled in using poison are often also skilled in medicine.

The Tang Clan suffers from severe internal strife. During fights, they throw poisoned weapons at each other. When the poison gets on their faces, it corrodes their skin, making them look very similar to burns.

On second thought, I realized it was a pipe dream.

Does that mean all people with the surname Li are descendants of the Tang Dynasty?
Are all people with the surname Liu relatives of the Han imperial family?
Perhaps Mrs. Tang was just an ordinary doctor who suffered a fire when she was young. Why bother to get to the bottom of it?

Overthinking can easily lead to getting stuck in a rut.

Besides, with Hua Manlou here, of course, one would chat with Hua Manlou about everything under the sun, including Buddhist and Taoist topics.

Li Zhaoting asked, "Brother Hua, I heard you are skilled in Wudang's Flowing Cloud Flying Sleeves. Are you a Wudang disciple?"

"A lay disciple of Wudang."

"The Wudang Sect does not abstain from marriage. The Seven Heroes of Wudang are all married. What is the difference between being a monk and a layperson?"

“Brother Li, not all of the Seven Heroes of Wudang are married; only the eldest brother has children.”

"Hehe! Hehe! Hehe!"

Li Zhaoting chuckled three times.

Hua Manlou was filled with questions.

What's so funny about that?

Are the Seven Heroes of Wudang about to face a love tribulation?

The Seven Heroes of Wudang might not need it, but Hua Manlou definitely does. Li Zhaoting is good at storytelling, and Hua Manlou is good at listening. The more they talked, the more they clicked.

On a whim, Hua Manlou asked Xia'er to find a guqin, and Li Zhaoting bought a bamboo xiao. They played a duet of guqin and xiao together, and the music drifted in the mountain breeze.

Illness, depression, malice, and cunning all seemed to be dispelled by the music, and the evil thoughts, resentment, and sorrow in one's heart drifted away with the mountain breeze.

The Pure Heart and Universal Benevolence Mantra.

A piece of music composed by Zen Master Pu'an during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period.

May it bring peace to all directions, drive away insects and ants, eliminate disasters and misfortunes, ward off evil spirits and ensure a safe pregnancy, expel evil and purify the body, and turn misfortune into good fortune.

To put it simply, it's a "mind-calming mantra".

Many troubles arise from a cluttered mind; a calm and clear mind can reduce a lot of problems.

Xia'er, Xiao Ai, Madam Tang, and the patients in each of the small rooms stopped what they were doing, listened quietly to the music, and then fell into a deep sleep.

The patients at Yunjian Temple can finally get a good night's sleep.

Lu Xiaofeng was not so lucky.

After several days of intense travel, Lu Xiaofeng was exhausted and wanted to get a good night's sleep.

I had just fallen asleep when I heard a commotion coming from the inn.

At some point, the inn's lobby transformed from a tavern and restaurant into a casino, with dozens of gamblers shouting and laughing. Lu Xiaofeng, who had grown up in the streets, could hardly tolerate it.
Go downstairs, place your bet, leopard (three of a kind), win it all.

Lu Xiaofeng won all his money in one move. When he went out for a stroll with the money, he was caught in a sting operation by the constables, who said that he was using counterfeit banknotes and that he needed to come with them.

The two constables, the fat one named Luo Ma, was skilled in swordsmanship, and the thin one named Jiang Long, was skilled in light footwork. The two were quite famous and were known as Flying Dragon Iron Horse.

Left with no other choice, Lu Xiaofeng followed the two constables, Feilong and Tiema, to the prison, where he met Zhu Ting. Making silver notes requires three steps.

Engraving printing plates, mixing inks, and special paper.

Making counterfeit banknotes also involves these three steps.

The printing plates for Datong Money Shop's banknotes were all carved by Zhu Ting, the "Master Boss" and a descendant of the Lu Ban Divine Axe School. After the counterfeit banknotes were discovered, Zhu Ting was imprisoned.

Zhu Ting: "I want to see Lu Xiaofeng."

Loma: "They're here, confess!"

What followed was a lot of wrangling.

Lu Xiaofeng was "forced" to participate in the case, and at the same time revealed a clue given by Zhu Ting: he had a highly skilled senior brother named Yue Qing, who died of plague seven years ago, and his daughter was still alive. The successors of the Lu Ban Divine Axe School would have an axe mark tattooed on their chests.

To prevent Lu Xiaofeng from running away, Luo Ma poisoned Lu Xiaofeng's food with "Three-Day Heart-Destroying Powder," a concoction personally prepared by Hua Manlou, the seventh young master of the Hua family.

Lu Xiaofeng: ┓(`)┏

……

Evening, cemetery.

Li Zhaoting changed into a black and gold splendid outfit and wore a Yaksha mask, waiting for Lu Xiaofeng at the graveyard.

In terms of clothing style, Li Zhaoting prefers sea blue and rarely wears black clothes. The Yaksha mask on his face was bought from a stall outside Yunjian Temple.

Yakshas are one of the "Eight Legions of Warriors". They have a pair of wings under their ribs, enabling them to fly, and they are ugly in appearance.

The mask of a yaksha with a blue face and fangs, and the eerie mass grave, send a chill down one's spine.

Fortunately, Hua Manlou couldn't see it, but he could feel the chilling aura emanating from Li Zhaoting.

This is the "Yin Attribute" Longevity Technique. From the perspective of combining movement and stillness, it belongs to the "movement" exercise, which mainly uses Yin Attribute True Qi and will make the mind more active.

The energy of Hua Manlou flows like water and flies like flowers, full of vitality, clearly of pure Yang nature.

Pure Yang Limitless Skill originates from Nine Yang Divine Skill and combines the Taoist concepts of heaven, earth, and humanity. It cultivates both internal and external aspects, internally cultivating a breath of pure Yang true energy and externally developing a body of immortal skin and jade bones.

The Seven Heroes of Wudang were masters of this technique.

Instead of enjoying the clear breeze and bright moon at Yunjian Temple, the two changed their clothes and strolled through the cemetery in the middle of the night, because Hua Manlou had found a clue that the fake silver notes were related to Jilelou.

The Pleasure Pavilion has become the most famous den of iniquity in Luzhou in the last two years, offering everything from beautiful women and fine wine to gourmet food and beautiful concubines, providing endless pleasure.

The entrance to the Paradise Tower is in the mass grave.

The mass grave was filled with empty coffins. All guests who wanted to go to the Paradise Tower had to lie inside a coffin and light an incense stick at one end of the coffin.

Not long after, four strong Kunlun slaves arrived carrying the coffin lid, closed it, and carried the guest to the Blissful Pavilion, returning the same way at dawn.

They traveled in coffins to and from the palace, giving people the feeling of ascending to heaven, hence the name Paradise Tower.

Some people attempt to find the location of the Blissful Palace by marking it on the coffin. Such people either lose everything inside the Blissful Palace or are thrown off a cliff thousands of feet high.

To this day, many ghostly legends about the Paradise Tower have emerged in Luzhou. Some say that the Paradise Tower is a heavenly palace floating in the sky and is one of the twelve towers in the five cities.

Coincidentally, there was a swordsman in the martial arts world named Bai Yujing, whose martial arts skills were superb and whose swordsmanship was divine.

The white jade capital in the sky has five cities on the twelfth floor.

Immortals caress my head, knotting my hair and receiving immortality.

Therefore, many people suspect that Bai Yujing is the mastermind behind the Paradise Tower. Many swordsmen come here hoping to challenge Bai Yujing to a duel, but they always leave disappointed.

On the way from Yunjian Temple to the mass grave, Hua Manlou told Li Zhaoting about these clues. Li Zhaoting shrugged helplessly, thinking to himself, "Is this some kind of scam?"
Did Bai Yujing know about this?
Baiyujing...

When Li Zhaoting returned to the Central Plains from Dali, his father and master each assigned him a task.

The old man told Li Zhaoting to buy back the ancestral home.

Li Zhaoting's master asked him to go to the capital to find a swordsman named Bai Yujing to duel. The master did not explain the specific reason, and Li Zhaoting did not ask.

Asking won't help!

I'll go crazy if you ask again!
He'll hit people when he gets crazy!
Perhaps influenced by the Longevity Formula, or perhaps thinking of his master's orders, Li Zhaoting's thoughts wandered, from Bai Yujing to Hu Bayi and Old Master Ren!
The Kunlun slaves of the Blissful Pavilion were highly trained, and their skills in carrying the coffin were no less than those in carrying a sedan chair. The journey was smooth and stable without any bumps, and they arrived at the Blissful Pavilion in no time.

With a creaking sound, the coffin lid was pried open, revealing a dazzling array of jewels.

The manager of the Blissful Pavilion, dressed in a golden brocade robe and wearing a mask of the God of Wealth, greeted us at the entrance with his maids, uttering the Blissful Pavilion's "standard welcome speech" with a smile.

"May you two distinguished guests be promoted and prosper!"

"It's all thanks to the manager's good fortune."

To enter the Blissful Pavilion, one must wear a mask to conceal one's identity, so that one can act with complete impunity. Wearing a mask is actually removing one's disguise.

Li Zhaoting and Hua Manlou were already wearing yaksha masks with blue faces and fangs. The manager of the Pleasure Pavilion cupped his hands and made way for them, exuding an atmosphere of debauchery.

A gate separates two worlds.

Outside was a ghostly realm devoid of starlight and moonlight.

Inside was a decadent den of intoxicating wine, sweet cosmetics, and debauchery; in an instant, the two entered a world of extravagance and debauchery.

Swipe left and right!
Hey!
Lu Xiaofeng has arrived too!

Li Zhaoting instinctively wanted to run away!
Lu Xiaofeng roared as he charged toward Li Zhaoting!
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(End of this chapter)