Volume 2: A sudden change in the prison, a red-clothed man goes out to find a thief Chapter 156: So, when you run away, you should run away cleanly and efficiently.
Outside Chang'an, beside the lake, beside the green grass.
A pavilion stands alone in the countryside, and an old man sits alone in the pavilion.
The old man was thin, with white hair and beard, and wore loose robes. His eyes were slightly narrowed, which seemed to be kind, but also seemed to hide some other meaning. In his hand was a brocade box, which seemed a little out of place compared to his ordinary clothes. No one knew what was inside, but the old man kept playing with it in his hand, and he didn't want to let it go for a moment .
Besides, the old man seemed to be waiting for something, and occasionally he would glance outside the pavilion with a vague look.
Finally, when he looked outside the pavilion for the third time, a figure in ordinary clothes appeared in front of him, leaned over and half-knelt on the ground and said.
"Hall Master, the whereabouts of the Sect Master have been revealed."
"Really?" A satisfied smile appeared on the old man's face, and he waved his hand in a friendly manner.
"Tell me about it."
"Yes." The man who was half-kneeling in front of him lowered his head and continued speaking.
"According to the news, she went to Baihua Valley before, but left without staying for long. She is now on her way to the north. The last time, a spy said he saw her in Qinghe County."
"Okay." The old man took the brocade box and nodded with a smile.
"Then let's go to Qinghe County first."
After saying that, he stood up and walked out of the pavilion.
The person kneeling on the ground quickly stood up and followed.
Who is this old man?
If the confused Taoist was here at this moment, he would probably be able to recognize his identity.
He was Jiang Shengming, the only leader of the Eight Bitter Sect who escaped the imperial court’s pursuit.
Over the years, he has been leading the remnants of the Eight Bitter Sect to hide in the darkness of the martial arts world, slowly expanding his influence while waiting for another opportunity to start an uprising.
At the same time, he has been looking for something, something that can allow him to truly become the leader of the Eight Bitterness Sect, and that is He Lang's martial arts.
When the Eight Bitter Sect was at its peak, He Lang once said that just in case, he recorded his martial arts skills in a book and hid it in a forest in Dongjun. If he unfortunately died in the future, whoever learned his martial arts would be the next leader of the Eight Bitter Sect.
Jiang Shengming had always believed that the key to He Lang's success was his martial arts. So over the years, he had been searching around Dongjun, but he had searched almost every forest around Dongjun and still hadn't found any books left by He Lang.
Just when he was about to give up, the appearance of a person gave him hope again.
She was a little girl who was not well-known in the martial arts world. According to the information from the spies, they happened to see her use the swordsmanship that He Lang used back then. On this point, any disciple in the sect would definitely not make a mistake.
The reason why she is called a little girl is because when she is practicing, her qi is short and powerful. Because warriors in this world live a long time, the age of warriors is not judged by looking at their faces, but by observing their qi. This qi is not breathing, but a form of internal energy.
Except for those who have practiced special skills, ordinary warriors have different qi at different ages. The young ones have short and rapid breath, the middle-aged ones have deep and thick qi, and when they are old, the qi is deep and continuous.
After learning that a little girl had inherited He Lang's mantle, everyone in the Eight Bitter Sect was shocked for a long time.
Some people thought that with the return of the Sect Master, the Eight Bitter Sect would finally have a chance to recover. Others were worried whether such a young girl could be the Sect Master.
Of course Jiang Shengming was unwilling at first. How could he give up the power he had worked so hard to build up over the years?
But then, he thought that perhaps he could find the secret book left by He Lang through this little girl, and use it to cultivate magical powers.
At that time, with his mastery of the Eight Sufferings Sect, whether the little girl was dead or alive was just a matter of a word.
Thinking of this, he immediately started looking for the girl's whereabouts under the pretext of welcoming the sect leader back to the clan.
And now, he felt that he was very close.
It won’t be long before he can truly take the position of the leader of the Eight Bitterness Sect and then seek to rule the world.
Unfortunately, Jiang Shengming was not He Lang after all. He was far inferior to him in terms of cunning and intelligence. So he did not even pay attention to what level the girl's martial arts had reached.
The other party's age undoubtedly gave him a kind of blind self-confidence, but this kind of self-confidence was obviously undesirable.
…
After traveling for two days, Li Si and his party finally settled down in an inn in a small county town.
At night, Li Si and the confused Taoist sat together in the hall of the inn and drank wine. He was a patient, so theoretically it was better for him not to drink. But drinking less to warm up the body was not a problem.
Throwing a peanut into his mouth, Li Si looked at the confused Taoist and asked.
"Seriously, why did you think of coming to me first this time?"
Just like Hua Junjun said, there are many people in the martial arts world who can help this gang, and it is not necessary to come to him.
"You want me to tell the truth?" The confused Taoist raised his eyebrows, glanced at Li Si and asked.
"Tell me the truth, how can I be angry?" Li Si said with a smile after taking a sip of wine. Since he lived till now, there has not been anyone in this world who can make him angry.
"Then I will tell the truth." The confused Taoist nodded and said while shaking the wine glass in his hand.
"I am not young anymore. I have lived for a long time. I think I can see many things clearly and confusedly. But you, Mr. Li, are the only thing that makes me see things in a very confused way. I cannot see anything clearly. The reason is that you, Mr. Li, do not seem like a human being."
"I don't look like a human?" Li Si grinned, thinking that the Taoist's words were really interesting, so he asked again.
"How am I not human?"
"How can you look like a human being?" the confused Taoist asked with a wry smile.
"Everyone wants something. What about you? What do you want? At least in my opinion, you have no desires or requests. You are even more indifferent than the monks in Shaolin Temple, and even more peaceful and inactive than the Taoists in our temple. None of the trivial matters you used to care about had anything to do with you, but you took care of them one by one, just like looking for trouble for yourself. Why? No matter how I think about it, there is no reason. I am confused. And what you have been doing all the time seems to be entangled in worldly affairs, but you also seem to stay out of it all the time. You seem to care about everything, but you are indifferent to your own affairs. You don't even care about matters that are life-threatening. How can be called a person? Even if you are like a thing, you are just like a..."
At this time, the confused Taoist seemed to realize something and stopped talking.
Li Si lowered his eyes and drank the wine, then asked with a faint smile: "What does it look like?"
The confused Taoist raised his head and looked at him, hesitated for a moment, drank the wine in the glass in one gulp, and began to speak.
"It's like a lonely ghost, wandering in the world for unknown reasons, and can only play tricks on people."
Yes, in the eyes of the confused Taoist, Li Si was just making fun of the world. He had no place to go, so he wandered aimlessly in this world and meddled in worldly affairs, just because he had nothing to do.
The hall fell silent; neither the Confused Taoist nor Li Si spoke any more.
After a while, the confused Taoist picked up the wine jug, poured himself another glass of wine and said.
"So I think if I come to you, you will agree directly."
And the fact was just as he expected. Li Si agreed very readily, and even didn't care that he was seriously ill.
Li Si looked at the wine in his hand for a while, then chuckled and said.
"You're right, I do look like a wandering ghost, but I'm not kidding the world."
The confused Taoist was stunned for a moment and looked at Li Si again.
Li Si also turned to look at him, and spoke with an empty smile.
"I just can't get away."
…
The confused Taoist was stunned for a long time, shook his head, forced a smile and said.
"You must be joking. You are the fastest runner in the world. How can you not run away?"
"You don't understand." Li Si raised his wine glass, looked into the confused Taoist's eyes, and said softly.
"If you run away too slowly, you will owe more, and then you will naturally be unable to escape."
