Old Monk + Gong Jun: Save our lives!
On the roof of Liuhe Temple, Mo Li for the first time realized the benefits of eavesdropping.
—No, he shouldn’t think like that! His teacher would scold him if he knew!
Mo Li thought that Gong Jun must have spent a lot of time investigating this.
Especially since it involved craftsmen registered in official records, this task couldn’t be accomplished by anyone outside the government.
Even sneaking into a yamen to steal the records wouldn’t have been easy; the information was too fragmented and detailed, and checking each one would take until next year to complete.
Gong Jun not only clarified the doubts and timeline but also helped Mo Li and Meng Qi discover that the old monk of Liuhe Temple had colluded with Cangfeng Temple to excavate Emperor Li’s tomb.
Of course, saying ‘colluded’ might be imprecise; it was more like coercion.
Ten years ago, a wall in Liuhe Temple collapsed, and the monks happened to meet craftsmen working at Xianyue Temple. Was this a coincidence? Mo Li didn’t think so. For a martial arts master, it would be too easy to silently bring down a wall. Posing as a craftsman to subtly enter Liuhe Temple was likely a way to determine the location of the imperial tomb.
Taoist priests might not be able to summon wind and rain, but their ability to locate dragon veins and burial sites was solid.
Because what they call ‘dragon veins’ and ‘burial sites’ are related to Feng Shui. Those who learned it in the past chose tomb locations for emperors, and those who learned it now seek out tombs. If you know enough about it, isn’t it like finding a tomb every time?
From this point of view, a Taoist priest searching for a tomb is more reliable than following dragon veins.
For instance, Mo Li could recognize a spiritual site, but once it was deeply dug and used as a burial site, he could no longer sense it. This place wasn’t Qimao Mountain; how would he know what was under the ground? Even the local dragon vein wasn’t reliable – they might have ‘forgotten’!
“…”
Meng Qi turned his head, noticing that the doctor seemed to have glanced at him again.
Mo Li gestured to leave the roof.
Just as they were about to leave silently, a loud shout came from a distance.
“Ah!”
The novice monk’s broom fell to the ground as he stared in shock at the main hall’s roof.
The main hall’s roof was high, and one couldn’t see the top from below, so the Jinyiwei hadn’t discovered anyone up there.
The novice monk, worried about the abbot and seeing the Jinyiwei guarding the door, could only hide and watch from a distance. Now, with two Jinyiwei guards leaving to find a doctor, the novice thought he had a chance and quietly circled around, holding a broom as a disguise.
Before he could sneak in, he was spotted by other Jinyiwei guards. Just as the novice was about to speak, he suddenly saw movement on the main hall’s roof.
He shouted in fright, and as the Jinyiwei guards turned back, there was nothing on the roof.
They thought the novice was trying to deceive them, intending to escape, and coldly lifted him up.
“Boy, be honest…”
“There’s someone! On the roof…” the novice shouted.
The Jinyiwei guards didn’t think much of it, but Gong Jun inside the hall was startled and immediately thought of the ominous feeling he had earlier.
He instinctively drew his sword and slashed towards the roof.
The sword light was a bright green, and in an instant, Gong Jun had already retreated to a corner. His earlier strike pierced through the roof, scattering tiles.
The novice hadn’t finished shouting the word “person” when he suddenly saw the sword light piercing through the roof, his mouth agape, unable to make a sound.
After Gong Jun made his move, he immediately felt a gentle but powerful internal force neutralizing the momentum of his sword.
He steadied himself against the wall and without hesitation, rushed out the door.
“Where are you going?”
Gong Jun’s vision blurred, and he saw another person at the door.
The advantages of peak light-footed skills immediately became apparent, as Gong Jun managed to change direction without colliding with Meng Qi, even avoiding Meng Qi’s palm strike coming towards him.
“Ah?”
After neutralizing the sword strike, Mo Li leaped into the room through the hole in the roof, just in time to see Gong Jun’s superb evasive maneuvers. Surprised, he couldn’t help but admire.
Not only was the evasion clever, but the position chosen for counterattack was also excellent.
Just as Mo Li had anticipated, Gong Jun’s figure flickered, and he swiftly unleashed five slashes.
Each slash was more ferocious than the last, with blue sword glows filling the room. The fierce aura was contained yet unexpressed, leaving several marks on the walls from the pressure, while other objects in the room remained intact.
“Good swordsmanship,” Mo Li couldn’t help but say.
He had learned swordsmanship, but it was very different from the common styles seen in the martial world.
Gong Jun’s swordsmanship was essentially the epitome of a “killing sword.”
The strikes were so fast that only shadows could be seen, with no superfluous movements, aiming directly at vital points. The extreme offense naturally meant no defense, but Gong Jun compensated with his speed. His subsequent slashes not only sealed the opponent’s escape routes but also prevented the enemy from countering.
Despite being a sword, the speed was comparable to an arrow shot from a bow.
And like an arrow, it surprisingly achieved the effect of striking first despite being released later. Ordinary martial artists couldn’t even discern the trajectory of the swordsmanship, and even top-level experts could only choose to dismantle or redirect the strikes, giving Gong Jun a chance to breathe.
This allowed him to handle both combat and escape situations comfortably.
The edgeless sword and such a killing sword were completely opposite in style, but martial arts at their extreme always converge in some ways. At this moment, it was the person who was mastering the sword, not being controlled by the fierce swordsmanship, so Mo Li naturally had to admire it.
And knowing Meng Qi’s strength, he watched the swordplay with ease, without worrying about Meng Qi.
Meng Qi also didn’t miss Mo Li’s expression.
He felt annoyed, knowing it would be like this!
Although Gong Jun wasn’t handsome and not the type chased eagerly by people in Taijing, the doctor looked at “people” without regard to appearance. Gong Jun was not even fifty years old and had exceptional martial skills.
Meng Qi had only mentioned Gong Jun’s light-footed skills before and highlighted his weakness of being timid, mentioning his swordsmanship only in passing, foreseeing this possible scene.
Meng Qi noticed that the doctor’s gaze was following the sword, and he suddenly stepped forward, dispersing the killing move with overwhelming internal strength.
If there was any flaw in Gong Jun’s swordsmanship, it was that his internal strength was much inferior to that of top-level masters.
A person with exceptional light-footed skills and who had rigorously trained in swordsmanship would naturally have internal strength as their weak point.
Gong Jun didn’t have the luck of Ning Changyuan, who had a unique talent and made twice the progress with half the effort in cultivating internal strength. Despite being twenty years younger, Ning Changyuan could compete in internal strength against older predecessors.
Strictly speaking, Gong Jun’s martial arts were top-notch in the martial world, but the problem lay in his internal strength.
Seeing his moves neutralized, Gong Jun instinctively panicked and pressed himself against the wall, only then seeing Meng Qi’s face.
“…!!”
The world’s fastest attack sometimes brought trouble.
Like attacking vigorously before clearly seeing who the enemy was, and whether they should be provoked.
Gong Jun was immensely shocked, now caring less about the Imperial Seal and more about his own life.
Why would Meng Qi let Gong Jun escape again under his watch? Meng Qi transformed his palm into a sword, the sword intent vast like an endless river, a powerful aura rushing forth.
The force of a single sword strike carried the weight of the heavens and the earth.
Gong Jun ducked and rolled, his clothes instantly shredded by the sword qi into countless strips of cloth.
The air currents shook everything in the room, and the residual force of the sword strike shot out through the hole in the roof. With a whoosh, all the tiles on the roof were lifted, falling in a circular pattern in all directions.
These events, although described slowly, happened in just a few breaths from the novice monk’s shout to the Jinyiwei guards frantically breaking the tiles. It was almost immediately after Mo Li complimented the swordsmanship that Meng Qi aggressively dismantled the roof.
The novice monk stood there dumbfounded, unable to move.
“Don’t come over!” Gong Jun shouted, stopping his subordinates from rushing over to their deaths.
His official robe had turned into rags, and his official hat had been sliced off, along with his hair, including a few white-tinged locks at the temples, all looking as if they had been gnawed by a dog, uneven and messy.
His back and arms bore dozens of shallow cuts, resembling whip marks.
However, these were only superficial wounds and looked worse than they were.
Gong Jun got up, surprised to find that Meng Qi seemed to have stopped his frenzy; otherwise, he would have been more seriously injured.
“Master Meng?”
Gong Jun called out cautiously, his gaze shifting to Mo Li, clearly unsure of this man who appeared alongside Meng Qi.
Mo Li finally saw the full view of Gong Jun’s sword.
The blade was thin and long, slightly curved at the front, and entirely blue, both light and thin.
The sword did not match the sheath at Gong Jun’s waist, prompting Mo Li to take a few extra glances, which darkened Meng Qi’s expression even more.
“Who are you?” Gong Jun asked warily.
Mo Li glanced at the Jinyiwei rushing over, then turned to the unconscious old monk on the bed, suddenly finding an excuse. He put down his baggage and quickly took out silver needles.
“I am but a humble doctor.”
Gong Jun was dumbfounded and incredulously turned to Meng Qi.
“Oh, this gentleman is also my patient. I have been practicing medicine for more than ten years and consider myself quite proficient, especially in difficult and complex diseases,” Mo Li said earnestly. He quickly diagnosed the old monk and, before Gong Jun could react, took out a flint and started burning moxa, heating the silver needles over the flame.
“Wait a minute…”
Gong Jun began, but before he could finish, he saw the old monk, who had been pricked by Mo Li’s needles, slowly open his eyes.
Gong Jun swallowed the rest of his words.
He had seen many so-called miracle doctors who claimed to cure diseases instantly, but none were as fast as the one before him.
“Lord Gong!”
“I said back off! No one is allowed within three yards of this house!”
Gong Jun shouted at his subordinates, scrambling up from the ground in disarray.
Raising his hand, he saw his sleeve torn to shreds, with contents from inside scattered on the ground.
Meng Qi picked up the booklet Gong Jun had shown the old monk and leisurely began to read it.
Despite being in a cramped room, he seemed as if sitting alone before a vast sea of clouds, leisurely flipping through the pages.
The old monk, just awake, was still dazed and stared blankly at Meng Qi for a while, then suddenly realized something, his expression twisting.
He tried to get up, his face pale, opening his mouth to scream.
Mo Li quickly silenced him by pressing his mute point.
The old monk collapsed onto the bed, panting heavily. When he became a bit more lucid and looked at Meng Qi again, his eyes were filled with surprise and a hint of luck
— even if Master Meng was still alive, he wouldn’t be this age.
Gong Jun, unlike the old monk, had no such illusions, because the Meng Qi he saw three years ago was young.
He secretly gathered his strength, ready to flee at any moment.
“What is this?” Meng Qi finally asked after flipping through the booklet for a while.
It contained records of Liuhe Temple’s maintenance expenses and the list of craftsmen over ten years. Gong Jun had written it very vaguely, perhaps to avoid attention. Only Mo Li had overheard the conversation, so Meng Qi was somewhat puzzled by this booklet that resembled a ledger.
Old Monk: …
Gong Jun: …
How could someone look so clueless yet flip through it as if they had everything figured out and already knew it all?
Mo Li coughed lightly, indicating, “This Lord Gong is here to search for the Imperial Seal.”
Then he turned to the trembling old monk, speaking gently, “But actually, there is no Imperial Seal in Liuhe Temple, only Emperor Li’s tomb.”
The old monk’s smile froze on his face.
Gong Jun blurted out in shock, “What?”
Old Monk + Gong Jun: Save our lives!
On the roof of Liuhe Temple, Mo Li for the first time realized the benefits of eavesdropping.
—No, he shouldn’t think like that! His teacher would scold him if he knew!
Mo Li thought that Gong Jun must have spent a lot of time investigating this.
Especially since it involved craftsmen registered in official records, this task couldn’t be accomplished by anyone outside the government.
Even sneaking into a yamen to steal the records wouldn’t have been easy; the information was too fragmented and detailed, and checking each one would take until next year to complete.
Gong Jun not only clarified the doubts and timeline but also helped Mo Li and Meng Qi discover that the old monk of Liuhe Temple had colluded with Cangfeng Temple to excavate Emperor Li’s tomb.
Of course, saying ‘colluded’ might be imprecise; it was more like coercion.
Ten years ago, a wall in Liuhe Temple collapsed, and the monks happened to meet craftsmen working at Xianyue Temple. Was this a coincidence? Mo Li didn’t think so. For a martial arts master, it would be too easy to silently bring down a wall. Posing as a craftsman to subtly enter Liuhe Temple was likely a way to determine the location of the imperial tomb.
Taoist priests might not be able to summon wind and rain, but their ability to locate dragon veins and burial sites was solid.
Because what they call ‘dragon veins’ and ‘burial sites’ are related to Feng Shui. Those who learned it in the past chose tomb locations for emperors, and those who learned it now seek out tombs. If you know enough about it, isn’t it like finding a tomb every time?
From this point of view, a Taoist priest searching for a tomb is more reliable than following dragon veins.
For instance, Mo Li could recognize a spiritual site, but once it was deeply dug and used as a burial site, he could no longer sense it. This place wasn’t Qimao Mountain; how would he know what was under the ground? Even the local dragon vein wasn’t reliable – they might have ‘forgotten’!
“…”
Meng Qi turned his head, noticing that the doctor seemed to have glanced at him again.
Mo Li gestured to leave the roof.
Just as they were about to leave silently, a loud shout came from a distance.
“Ah!”
The novice monk’s broom fell to the ground as he stared in shock at the main hall’s roof.
The main hall’s roof was high, and one couldn’t see the top from below, so the Jinyiwei hadn’t discovered anyone up there.
The novice monk, worried about the abbot and seeing the Jinyiwei guarding the door, could only hide and watch from a distance. Now, with two Jinyiwei guards leaving to find a doctor, the novice thought he had a chance and quietly circled around, holding a broom as a disguise.
Before he could sneak in, he was spotted by other Jinyiwei guards. Just as the novice was about to speak, he suddenly saw movement on the main hall’s roof.
He shouted in fright, and as the Jinyiwei guards turned back, there was nothing on the roof.
They thought the novice was trying to deceive them, intending to escape, and coldly lifted him up.
“Boy, be honest…”
“There’s someone! On the roof…” the novice shouted.
The Jinyiwei guards didn’t think much of it, but Gong Jun inside the hall was startled and immediately thought of the ominous feeling he had earlier.
He instinctively drew his sword and slashed towards the roof.
The sword light was a bright green, and in an instant, Gong Jun had already retreated to a corner. His earlier strike pierced through the roof, scattering tiles.
The novice hadn’t finished shouting the word “person” when he suddenly saw the sword light piercing through the roof, his mouth agape, unable to make a sound.
After Gong Jun made his move, he immediately felt a gentle but powerful internal force neutralizing the momentum of his sword.
He steadied himself against the wall and without hesitation, rushed out the door.
“Where are you going?”
Gong Jun’s vision blurred, and he saw another person at the door.
The advantages of peak light-footed skills immediately became apparent, as Gong Jun managed to change direction without colliding with Meng Qi, even avoiding Meng Qi’s palm strike coming towards him.
“Ah?”
After neutralizing the sword strike, Mo Li leaped into the room through the hole in the roof, just in time to see Gong Jun’s superb evasive maneuvers. Surprised, he couldn’t help but admire.
Not only was the evasion clever, but the position chosen for counterattack was also excellent.
Just as Mo Li had anticipated, Gong Jun’s figure flickered, and he swiftly unleashed five slashes.
Each slash was more ferocious than the last, with blue sword glows filling the room. The fierce aura was contained yet unexpressed, leaving several marks on the walls from the pressure, while other objects in the room remained intact.
“Good swordsmanship,” Mo Li couldn’t help but say.
He had learned swordsmanship, but it was very different from the common styles seen in the martial world.
Gong Jun’s swordsmanship was essentially the epitome of a “killing sword.”
The strikes were so fast that only shadows could be seen, with no superfluous movements, aiming directly at vital points. The extreme offense naturally meant no defense, but Gong Jun compensated with his speed. His subsequent slashes not only sealed the opponent’s escape routes but also prevented the enemy from countering.
Despite being a sword, the speed was comparable to an arrow shot from a bow.
And like an arrow, it surprisingly achieved the effect of striking first despite being released later. Ordinary martial artists couldn’t even discern the trajectory of the swordsmanship, and even top-level experts could only choose to dismantle or redirect the strikes, giving Gong Jun a chance to breathe.
This allowed him to handle both combat and escape situations comfortably.
The edgeless sword and such a killing sword were completely opposite in style, but martial arts at their extreme always converge in some ways. At this moment, it was the person who was mastering the sword, not being controlled by the fierce swordsmanship, so Mo Li naturally had to admire it.
And knowing Meng Qi’s strength, he watched the swordplay with ease, without worrying about Meng Qi.
Meng Qi also didn’t miss Mo Li’s expression.
He felt annoyed, knowing it would be like this!
Although Gong Jun wasn’t handsome and not the type chased eagerly by people in Taijing, the doctor looked at “people” without regard to appearance. Gong Jun was not even fifty years old and had exceptional martial skills.
Meng Qi had only mentioned Gong Jun’s light-footed skills before and highlighted his weakness of being timid, mentioning his swordsmanship only in passing, foreseeing this possible scene.
Meng Qi noticed that the doctor’s gaze was following the sword, and he suddenly stepped forward, dispersing the killing move with overwhelming internal strength.
If there was any flaw in Gong Jun’s swordsmanship, it was that his internal strength was much inferior to that of top-level masters.
A person with exceptional light-footed skills and who had rigorously trained in swordsmanship would naturally have internal strength as their weak point.
Gong Jun didn’t have the luck of Ning Changyuan, who had a unique talent and made twice the progress with half the effort in cultivating internal strength. Despite being twenty years younger, Ning Changyuan could compete in internal strength against older predecessors.
Strictly speaking, Gong Jun’s martial arts were top-notch in the martial world, but the problem lay in his internal strength.
Seeing his moves neutralized, Gong Jun instinctively panicked and pressed himself against the wall, only then seeing Meng Qi’s face.
“…!!”
The world’s fastest attack sometimes brought trouble.
Like attacking vigorously before clearly seeing who the enemy was, and whether they should be provoked.
Gong Jun was immensely shocked, now caring less about the Imperial Seal and more about his own life.
Why would Meng Qi let Gong Jun escape again under his watch? Meng Qi transformed his palm into a sword, the sword intent vast like an endless river, a powerful aura rushing forth.
The force of a single sword strike carried the weight of the heavens and the earth.
Gong Jun ducked and rolled, his clothes instantly shredded by the sword qi into countless strips of cloth.
The air currents shook everything in the room, and the residual force of the sword strike shot out through the hole in the roof. With a whoosh, all the tiles on the roof were lifted, falling in a circular pattern in all directions.
These events, although described slowly, happened in just a few breaths from the novice monk’s shout to the Jinyiwei guards frantically breaking the tiles. It was almost immediately after Mo Li complimented the swordsmanship that Meng Qi aggressively dismantled the roof.
The novice monk stood there dumbfounded, unable to move.
“Don’t come over!” Gong Jun shouted, stopping his subordinates from rushing over to their deaths.
His official robe had turned into rags, and his official hat had been sliced off, along with his hair, including a few white-tinged locks at the temples, all looking as if they had been gnawed by a dog, uneven and messy.
His back and arms bore dozens of shallow cuts, resembling whip marks.
However, these were only superficial wounds and looked worse than they were.
Gong Jun got up, surprised to find that Meng Qi seemed to have stopped his frenzy; otherwise, he would have been more seriously injured.
“Master Meng?”
Gong Jun called out cautiously, his gaze shifting to Mo Li, clearly unsure of this man who appeared alongside Meng Qi.
Mo Li finally saw the full view of Gong Jun’s sword.
The blade was thin and long, slightly curved at the front, and entirely blue, both light and thin.
The sword did not match the sheath at Gong Jun’s waist, prompting Mo Li to take a few extra glances, which darkened Meng Qi’s expression even more.
“Who are you?” Gong Jun asked warily.
Mo Li glanced at the Jinyiwei rushing over, then turned to the unconscious old monk on the bed, suddenly finding an excuse. He put down his baggage and quickly took out silver needles.
“I am but a humble doctor.”
Gong Jun was dumbfounded and incredulously turned to Meng Qi.
“Oh, this gentleman is also my patient. I have been practicing medicine for more than ten years and consider myself quite proficient, especially in difficult and complex diseases,” Mo Li said earnestly. He quickly diagnosed the old monk and, before Gong Jun could react, took out a flint and started burning moxa, heating the silver needles over the flame.
“Wait a minute…”
Gong Jun began, but before he could finish, he saw the old monk, who had been pricked by Mo Li’s needles, slowly open his eyes.
Gong Jun swallowed the rest of his words.
He had seen many so-called miracle doctors who claimed to cure diseases instantly, but none were as fast as the one before him.
“Lord Gong!”
“I said back off! No one is allowed within three yards of this house!”
Gong Jun shouted at his subordinates, scrambling up from the ground in disarray.
Raising his hand, he saw his sleeve torn to shreds, with contents from inside scattered on the ground.
Meng Qi picked up the booklet Gong Jun had shown the old monk and leisurely began to read it.
Despite being in a cramped room, he seemed as if sitting alone before a vast sea of clouds, leisurely flipping through the pages.
The old monk, just awake, was still dazed and stared blankly at Meng Qi for a while, then suddenly realized something, his expression twisting.
He tried to get up, his face pale, opening his mouth to scream.
Mo Li quickly silenced him by pressing his mute point.
The old monk collapsed onto the bed, panting heavily. When he became a bit more lucid and looked at Meng Qi again, his eyes were filled with surprise and a hint of luck
— even if Master Meng was still alive, he wouldn’t be this age.
Gong Jun, unlike the old monk, had no such illusions, because the Meng Qi he saw three years ago was young.
He secretly gathered his strength, ready to flee at any moment.
“What is this?” Meng Qi finally asked after flipping through the booklet for a while.
It contained records of Liuhe Temple’s maintenance expenses and the list of craftsmen over ten years. Gong Jun had written it very vaguely, perhaps to avoid attention. Only Mo Li had overheard the conversation, so Meng Qi was somewhat puzzled by this booklet that resembled a ledger.
Old Monk: …
Gong Jun: …
How could someone look so clueless yet flip through it as if they had everything figured out and already knew it all?
Mo Li coughed lightly, indicating, “This Lord Gong is here to search for the Imperial Seal.”
Then he turned to the trembling old monk, speaking gently, “But actually, there is no Imperial Seal in Liuhe Temple, only Emperor Li’s tomb.”
The old monk’s smile froze on his face.
Gong Jun blurted out in shock, “What?”
