I Just Won't Play by the Book - Chapter 124
Chapter 124 A Brief Moment of Peace
Guan Shi’an heaved a sigh of relief in his heart. He then turned to the sect masters and said, “Everyone, go and check if your disciples are injured.”
After the other sect masters had left, Lu Yinlong used his mystic energy to check Jiang Beiran’s body again. After finding that Jiang Beiran was fine, he said to Guan Shi’an, “Sect Master Guan, I’ll take him back to rest first.”
Although Sect Master Guan had some questions, he eventually nodded and said, “Okay, go ahead. Let me know if you need anything.” “Okay.”
After answering, Lu Yinlong disappeared from the arena with Jiang Beiran.
Only Yu Guishui, who was still in shock, was still sobbing
“Sister, are you okay?” “Are you hurt?”
At this moment, Yu Guimiao and Yu Guizhui immediately jumped onto the stage and asked Yu Guishui.
When the situation was chaotic, they only knew that their sister was protected by their senior brother. However, the sudden death of their senior brother still stunned them. They did not know how to accept this reality. Their mind was in complete mess.
After learning their senior brother was fine, their panicked hearts finally eased down a little.
Yu Guishui, whose heart was still beating wildly while hugging her two younger sisters, said, “I’m fine. Thanks to Brother Jiang’s protection, I’m not injured.”
“We were really scared to death just now.”
“Qiuyao was so scared that she fainted.”
“Ah?” Yu Guishui was shocked. “Qiuyao fainted?”
“Yes. Didn’t Brother Jiang’s aura disappear just now. Qiuyao fell to the ground in an instant. Now, Sister Zijin is taking care of her.”
Yu Guishui was about to say something when she suddenly felt a gaze locked on her. She turned around and saw Lin Yuyan.
This time, Lin Yuyan shone in the calligraphy competition. Unfortunately, she still lost to Mu Jiuri in the final. Everyone felt that it was a pity.
Seeing Yu Guishui looking at her, Lin Yuyan smiled and nodded at her.
When Jiang Beiran’s aura disappeared, she didn’t believe that her senior brother would die. Just like Wu Qingce, so she was also stunned. Only now did she come back to her senses. As for why she looked at Yu Guishui, it was purely out of envy. She regretted that she wasn’t standing behind her senior brother. Yu Guishui smiled back at Lin Yuyan. She stood up and said, “Let’s go and see Qiuyao.”
“Okay.” Yu Guimiao nodded. Then, she asked curiously, “But how did Brother Jiang come back to life?”
Yu Guishui shook her head. “Well… I don’t know.”
On the other side, in the sect master’s residence. Lu Yinlong put Jiang Beiran on the bed. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, “Do you want to tell me your secret?”
Jiang Beiran naturally understood what Lu Yinlong meant. He opened his mouth and answered, “Actually, it’s not really a secret. Before we set off, Order Master Shi lent me a black grade magic item, Immortal Feather Robe, which is why I was lucky enough to survive.”
“Oh…” Lu Yinlong could not help but stroke his chin and smiled. “I didn’t expect that your little disciple would be so secretive… to actually have a relationship with that crazy Shi Fenglan… No, I mean, to actually have a relationship with Order Master Shi?”
“Order Master Shi likes flowers, and I like to grow flowers. We got to know each other by chance.”
After sizing up Jiang Beiran seriously for a while, Lu Yinlong nodded. “It’s my fault for not doing my duty as a sect master. I didn’t know that we have such an interesting little disciple like you.”
Hearing Sect Master Lu’s interest in him, Jiang Beiran couldn’t help but sigh in his heart, “Sigh, the aftereffects are a little too serious.”
At this point, Jiang Beiran could basically confirm that the crisis of sect extermination had been resolved. He was sure that if he was not today, there was absolutely no second righteous sect disciple who could withstand a full-strength palm strike from the superior mystic practitioner.
Today’s crisis that seemed to have calmed down instantly would become a catastrophe that would engulf the entire Fengzhou.
The reason was very simple. If he did not “come back to life”, then the battle between the righteous section and the demonic cult would keep going on. Regardless of which side was defeated, the losing party would seek for revenge afterwards. At that time, the entire Fengzhou would be in total chaos, and the Sect of Returning Hearts would definitely not be able to stay out of it.
But now that he “came back to life”, then as long as no one died, there was still room for discussion. He should explain and compensate. “Next, I have to wait for them to find out the culprit.”
Thinking of this, Jiang Beiran could not help but think about the three choices that the system had made when he fell on the main stage.
[ Option 1: Immediately show that you’re fine. Reward for completion: Green Frost True Art (low tier earth grade)]
[ Option 2: Show that you are seriously injured. Reward for completion: Four Zone Cauldron (middle tier black grade)]
[ Option 3: Enter a state of suspended animation. Reward for completion: Random basic skill points + 1]
At that time, Jiang Beiran didn’t think too much about it and directly chose option 3 and entered a state of suspended animation.
However, after passing through these three options, he thought of many things. First of all, the reason why the system wanted him to enter a state of suspended animation should be to trigger the subsequent events.
That was, the sect masters would go berserk, and the righteous sect disciples would fight with the demonic cult disciples.
As for why he had to do this, Jiang Beiran thought that it was the only way to alert the higher-ups of both the righteous sects and demonic cults to find out who the mastermind
was.
He would have to wait until they interrogated the superior mystic practitioner who attacked him.
Lu Yinlong looked at the Immortal Feather Robe that Jiang Beiran was wearing and said, “As expected of a black grade magical item. Even you couldn’t fully use it with your limited strength, it still protects you from a full-strength palm strike from a great mystic practitioner three realms higher than you. It’s impressive, but it doesn’t seem to be able to withstand the attack completely. Your aura has indeed disappeared for a while. What’s going on?”
“It was the soul baby fruit given to me by Order Master Shi that saved my life.”
“Soul baby fruit?!” Lu Yinlong was stunned again. “She really gave you a lot of stuff. But now I understand why your damaged body can recover so quickly. So, it’s the soul baby fruit…”
While he was talking, Lu Yinlong suddenly asked in surprise, “Hey, why are you wearing a mirror armor?”
“I’m afraid of death.”
After a moment of silence, Lu Yinlong said, “Indeed, you’re only at level five of the qi refining realm. You should be more cautious.”
After examining the two mirror armors on Jiang Beiran’s body, Lu Yinlong nodded and said, “You have quite a lot of treasures. Interesting.”
Without waiting for Jiang Beiran’s explanation, Lu Yinlong scrutinized him for a while and said, “But what did you do to Shi Fenglan… No, it should be what Shi Fenglan did to you that she lent you a black grade magical item…”
Looking at Lu Yinlong’s teasing gaze, Jiang Beiran replied, “It’s just supply and demand. I hang out with her, and she save my life.”
“Hahaha, it’s really easy to talk to you. Hang out with her… I can understand now that you put it that way.”
After laughing for a while, Lu Yinlong suddenly said with a serious expression, “You’re a smart person. Since you can borrow a black grade magical item from her, it means that you know a lot of things, right?”
Jiang Beiran immediately shook his head. “No, I don’t know anything.”
“That’s right. You are indeed a smart person. No wonder you can play Go so well. I have to thank Sect Master Guan for hosting such a youth gathering. You really let me discover a hero in the sect.”
“Sect Master Lu, you are flattering me. I am just an ordinary person.”
“Hahaha, don’t be nervous. I am very open-minded. I will not force you to do things that you don’t want to do. Alright, let’s not talk about this. You have made a great contribution this time. I will fight for more benefits for you. You should rest first.”
“Thank you, Sect Master.”
“Okay, lie down.” Lu Yinlong pushed the door open and walked out. “Sigh…”
Jiang Beiran let out a long sigh when he saw Lu Yinlong leave. He could already foresee that he wouldn’t live as comfortably as before when he went back to the sect.
But no matter what, the crisis was finally averted. As for the aftereffects, he could just spend some effort to deal with them. After all, it was better than the sect being destroyed.
“But if that’s the case… What’s going on with that Ren Qiuyan?”
Now that the crisis had been settled, all his doubts was resolved. Why did he have to wear the cloud-like mirror armor that Shi Fenglan had given him? Why did he have to get a mirror arrow that could dispel poison? Why did the system not give him any option to jump into the spotlight during the Go match…?
It was because he was preparing to end this crisis, but no matter how he looked at it, Ren Qiuyan’s option had nothing to do with this incident.
“An independent troublesome character… How troublesome.”
However, even if it was troublesome, he could only take it one step at a time. Jiang Beiran, who was finally able to relax, suddenly felt a little sleepy. He closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
While Jiang Beiran was sleeping peacefully, it was already a mess outside.
After such incident happened, the Gathering of Young Heroes would definitely cancel. The disciples of the demonic cult and the righteous sect had to be completely separated. Some of the friendships that had been built by fighting were also completely extinguished.
After settling Jiang Beiran down, Lu Yinlong saw Guan Shi’an in a courtyard guarded by several large arrays.
sa
10
“Is that kid alright?” Guan Shilan asked.
Lu Yinlong nodded. “Yes, he’s asleep.”
“He seems to have a lot of secrets.”
“Who doesn’t have secrets if they want to survive in this chaotic world? Have you interrogated the demonic cult disciple who injured him?”
Seeing that Lu Yinlong had changed the topic, Guan Shi’an didn’t continue asking and answered, “Not yet. You came at the right time. Let’s go in together.”
“That’s great. I’d like to hear what the demonic cult is up to.”
Walking into the interrogation room, Lu Yinlong found that the man was tied to a pillar and had two talismans stuck to his body. What was interesting was that the two talismans were not to increase his pain, but to save his life.
Nodding at Lu Yinlong who walked in, Yin Jianghong said, “It was my poor supervision that caused this to happen. I’m sorry to cause trouble to you.”
Without answering, Lu Yinlong looked at the man tied to the pillar and said, “So you’re trying to say that what he did had nothing to do with you?”
Yin Jianghong answered, “If I had really ordered him to kill your disciples, the ending wouldn’t have been like this.”
Lu Yinlong nodded after hearing that, which meant that he agreed with him.
Seeing Lu Yinlong nodded, Yin Jianghong continued, “This person’s name is Yu Yangrong. He was a flower official who was recruited into Broken Star Cult three years ago. Because he was meticulous, he was brought here by his cult master. I didn’t expect this to happen.”
After hearing that, the cult master of Broken Star Cult, Hao Yan, stood up and cupped his hands to Lu Yinlong. “I’ve sent people to investigate his past. We’ll have the results tomorrow.”
Yin Jianghong said, “Tomorrow? I’m afraid they can’t wait any longer. Let me interrogate him first.”
In the next hour, Lu Yinlong understood why that person had two life-saving talismans on him. Yin Jianghong was indeed ruthless.
Although Yu Yangrong was very stubborn at the beginning and kept saying that no one had instructed him, he couldn’t take it anymore. He revealed that he was a member of the Purple Star Cult. He came here to stir up a dispute between the demonic cult and the righteous sect in Fengzhou.
The Purple Star Cult was affiliated to Yongzhou, which was next to Fengzhou. It was also a large-scale demonic cult.
According to Yu Yangrong, the Purple Star Cult had always wanted to develop to Fengzhou, so they had sent many disciples to the various demonic cult in Fengzhou. As long as they found an opportunity, they would destroy the balance between the righteous sect and the demonic cult in Fengzhou.
Yu Yangrong’s words sounded somewhat reasonable, but there were also many loopholes. First of all, he couldn’t tell where his other companions were. He explained that they didn’t know each other.
In addition, he could not tell what the Purple Star Cult’s specific plan was. He just insisted that he only carried out his duty, and he did not know anything else. However, since he insisted on his identity and answer, Yin Jianghong could not do anything about him. He could only wait until tomorrow to find out his specific background before he could continue to interrogate Yu Yangrong.
Late at night, beside a round table, Yin Jianghong drank a glass of wine and said to Guan Shi’an, “Do you know the real purpose of my visit to you this time?”
“I don’t know.” Guan Shi’an was not even interested in guessing.
“Sigh.” Yin Jianghong poured himself another glass of wine and continued, “We are both mystic masters now. Don’t you think it’s boring to stay in Fengzhou?” Guan Shi’an frowned and asked, “What do you want to do?”
“I want to join hands with you and expand our influence on other states.”
“Join hands?” Guan Shi’an seemed to have heard a joke. “How can I join hands with the demonic cult?”
“Sigh, it’s too narrow.” “What’s too narrow?”
“Your mind is too narrow! You’re shortsighted!”
Yin Jianghong finished the wine in her glass, “What demonic cult? Isn’t it just a name?” I’m here to show you that my disciples of the demonic cult are not weaker than your righteous sect, or even stronger! Do you still want to classify us simply by using good and evil? Are you sure the righteous sect didn’t do any dirty things?” “Nonsense! Our disciples of the righteous sect are naturally more honest than your demonic cult!”
“Oh? Is that so? Why do I hear that your internal strife is also quite fierce? Otherwise, why would there be so many crooked people at this gathering?” Guan Shilan went silent after hearing that. For a moment, he could not find any words to refute Yin Jianghong. Seeing that Guan Shi’an did not speak, Yin Jianghong continued, “Instead of using the demonic cult and the righteous sect to distinguish us, why don’t we properly classify the disciples that we have taken in? Currently, the large and reputable families in Fengzhou are all gathered under your righteous sect, and the number of poor children that far surpasses these large families have all joined our demonic cult. Therefore, only when we join forces will we be the entire strength of Fengzhou!”