Chapter 180

Chapter 175

"I really admire you, being so confident in this situation."

"It's because I met you. If I met others, I wouldn't have this kind of certainty."

"Certainty about what?"

"Certainty that you don't dare to gamble."

"Hehehe..." Zhao Yi licked his teeth. "Do you know that what you're saying now is very dangerous? Aren't you afraid that if you keep provoking me, I'll lose my cool?"

"You're always very sober."

"Thank you."

"That's not a compliment."

"You're very weak, speak less."

Zhao Yi took the towel, walked back to the basin, cleaned the towel with hot water, wrung it dry, and then walked back to help the young man wipe his face.

"Actually, I really hoped you would die."

"The same goes for me towards you."

"Thank you."

"Do you belong to the parrot family?"

"Sigh." Zhao Yi casually threw the handkerchief back onto the rack and sat down beside the young man. "It would have been great if it wasn't me who came this time."

"I knew early on that if someone were to come, it would most likely be you."

The oath left on the Zhao Wuyong stone tablet was that when the old hag began another large-scale killing, a descendant of the Zhao family would come to suppress her.

Zhao Yi: "You saw the words on the stone tablet, right?"

Li Zhuoyuan: "I also took the things inside the stone tablet."

"Don't you feel like you've robbed me of something?"

"Do you feel that your family ancestor's oath on the tablet was specifically prepared for you?"

"I wouldn't necessarily say that."

"If it was really prepared for you, then I would have to look down on your family history's Dragon King."

"Don't, you can still look up to him. I know ancestor didn't do this to leave a legacy for future generations."

Li Zhuoyuan believed in the Dragon King's wisdom.

Perhaps ordinary people might suspect that Zhao Wuyong left the tablet and the tools to pave the way for his future descendants, even with a hint of self-aggrandizement.

But the problem is, the old hag is no ordinary cat or dog.

Who would leave behind jackals, tigers, and leopards to pave the way for their own descendants?

An oath is a kind of payment, and also a kind of responsibility.

Zhao Wuyong sincerely wanted to bear the mission of suppressing the old hag with his own family name.

"Ancestor's things, can I take a look?"

Li Zhuoyuan opened his right hand, and the copper coin sword slid out.

Zhao Yi reached out, picked it up, held it in front of him, gently touched the copper rust with his fingertip, and sighed:

"Good stuff, ah."

"Yes, ah, your ancestor gave it to me."

Zhao Yi continued to carefully hold the copper coin sword in his left hand, clenched his right hand into a fist, and slammed it forcefully on the floor.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Old Man Tian opened the door, peered around, thinking something had happened.

"Get out."

"Okay, young master."

Old Man Tian immediately closed the door and left.

Having vented, Zhao Yi continued to admire the copper coin sword, looking as if he were drunk and mesmerized:

"Ancestor's notes recorded this sword. Every copper coin on it was personally sacrificed and refined by ancestor, filled with the most yang and righteous energy, specifically to restrain yin evil."

The material of the copper coin sword is not where the big difference lies.

What truly determines the value of the copper coin sword is its previous user.

When Li Zhuoyuan faced that boy at the bottom of the lake, the boy's head immediately burned off a layer of skin upon touching this copper coin, which shows the sword's value.

"Let's discuss something. This is, after all, my family ancestor's thing. Can you be a bit magnanimous and return it to its original owner?"

"Dream on."

"This copper coin sword needs corresponding techniques to maximize its effect, otherwise it's like casting pearls before swine."

"You can teach me your family's set of techniques to avoid this tragedy."

"This..."

"I learn things very quickly."

Zhao Yi: "My point is, you have to leave me some benefit so I can persuade myself to believe the performance of that person downstairs."

From beginning to end, Zhao Yi only glanced at Xue Liangliang when he carried Li Zhuoyuan upstairs.

He didn't specifically go out to observe carefully because there was no need.

It's like flipping a coin; there are only two outcomes, heads or tails. As for the trajectory of the coin in the air, there's simply no point in observing it.

"No way."

"Do you really lack this one magic tool?"

"I lack it."

"No, aren't there any good things in the ancestral homes of your Qin and Liu families?"

"Can you still go to Jiujiang Zhao's old storehouse now and pick things out?"

"Of course not. I'm already walking the river now. Unless I light the lamp for the second time and admit defeat, I can't have too deep a karmic connection with home."

"Same reason."

"But before walking the river, who doesn't first get things prepared by their home?"

"Me, ah."

Zhao Yi: "......"

The river water is harsh on Li Zhuoyuan, not limited to his age.

This sudden self-immolation, the start of walking the river, directly interrupted the karmic link between Li Zhuoyuan and the inheritance of the Qin and Liu families.

According to the normal process, after Grandma Liu took him in, she would definitely give him the best things in the ancestral home. As long as he could use them smoothly, Liu Yumei would definitely not be stingy.

But she really didn't expect that there was actually such a strange matter in the world, a scene she had never heard of, which she encountered.

After starting to walk the river, he brought his own karma. Those overly good things simply couldn't be given.

A Li giving him the ancestral tablet to make a tool, on the contrary, exploited a loophole because the ancestors of the Qin and Liu families had no spirits. If there were no spirits, their tablets were naturally not involved in karma.

Under normal interaction, it was no problem to freeload food and drink at Liu's house, and it was very reasonable for elders to make some clothes for juniors to wear.

But he knew Grandma Liu was very rich, yet his small pickup truck was still bought with money scraped together by Yin Meng selling ancient books.

There is a degree involved here. Getting too involved makes it easy for the family members to suffer backlash.

Money transactions still have to avoid large amounts, let alone ancestral home magic tools that involve deeper karmic entanglement.

Uncle Qin taught Runsheng martial arts, but at that time, Uncle Qin had returned with serious injuries.

Aunt Liu taught Yin Meng poison techniques, and she was almost poisoned to death by Yin Meng. Was this really just because Meng Meng had outstanding talent in poison techniques?

Runsheng and Yin Meng, this is still just worshipping the Dragon King, the karmic backlash is much lighter than his.

Initially, the old lady truly felt guilty, and couldn't bear to watch, so she searched for a large set of basic books and gave them to him.

Just this, the old lady was afraid she continuously vomited several mouthfuls of blood behind the scenes.

The young man was equivalent to coming from a wealthy family, yet came out to struggle empty-handed.

Therefore, Li Zhuoyuan was unwilling to give up this copper coin sword.

He couldn't use the good things at home, so anything he picked up outside had to be cherished extra.

"Stingy."

Zhao Yi put the copper coin sword back into the young man's hand.

Li Zhuoyuan: "Young Master Zhao, you haven't experienced hard times."

"Heh, being properly called Young Master by the Dragon King family has made my bones a bit soft."

"However, you ate the whole pot of rice yourself. At least leave a little bit from your fingers. You can't really let me come here for nothing. If I miss this wave, I'll definitely come very urgently next time. I'll lose a lot."

"I don't owe you anything."

"I could have eaten at least half of this pot of rice."

"If I delay another day and wait for you and your people to arrive, even if we reach cooperation, do you think it will be with you as the leader? Search your heart, do you dare?"

Zhao Yi bit his lips tightly.

He raised both fists again and ruthlessly pounded the floor.

Old Man Tian opened the door again.

"Get lost!"

"Okay, young master."

Zhao Yi looked at his red fists and said:

"When you saw that stone tablet, you should have known that I might come. At that time, you were ahead. I believe, with your intelligence and talent, you could have set a trap for me in advance and waited for me to jump."

"I did think about it."

"But you ultimately didn't do that, so, I'll reciprocate..."

"Don't make yourself sound so noble. You just don't dare to gamble."

"Pa!"

Zhao Yi fiercely slapped himself.

"Pa!"

One wasn't enough, so he slapped himself again, seeking symmetry.

This time, Old Man Tian didn't push the door open to check the situation again.

Zhao Yi, with a red face on both sides, lowered his head and stared fixedly at the young man lying in front of him.

Li Zhuoyuan no longer made eye contact with him, but closed his eyes. The medicine in his body was warm, and he was sleepy.

Zhao Yi: "I'll ask you one last time, do you regret not setting a trap to kill me and letting yourself fall into this state?"

"What state?"

"Just now."

"A tiger falling into Pingyang being bullied by a dog?"

"Consider it... yes."

"Regret."

"But it's not just this one thing I regret. Not setting a trap to kill you in advance is secondary. I shouldn't have actively gone into that evil nest. That thing's secret method has site use limitations."

"I should have let that evil be born naturally, waited for it to come out of the nest, and then made my move."

"Or, let that evil start killing people first, and then I would summarize the rules from the killing samples, plan and prepare the prey in advance, and wait for it to take the bait."

"Anyway, the Heavenly Way only recognizes the result. Some oversights and falls, as long as they don't cause a major disaster, under the offset of merit and demerit, I should still come out ahead."

"Then why didn't you do that?"

A pained expression appeared on Li Zhuoyuan's face.

Zhao Yi panicked and quickly said: "Hey, the soup I gave you might not have poison in it!"

He could feel that the young man wasn't pretending. In the depths of the opposite party's soul, it seemed to bear some intense pain.

Li Zhuoyuan opened his eyes, which gradually became covered with bloodshot lines: "Because, I acted foolishly!"

He could reduce the risk, of course. The risk didn't disappear out of thin air, it just transferred.

If his own risk was small, the ordinary people in the surrounding villages would bear that risk.

He clearly knew that when making decisions, he avoided some things.

When facing the Zhao Wuyong stone tablet and the gift, he felt it was meaningless to scheme against Zhao Yi in that situation.

Going to the bottom of that lake early was to prevent the old hag from starting the blood sacrifice. He knew very well how that lake bottom could have enough living people for the old hag to blood sacrifice, and she didn't want just anyone; she was very picky about who she killed.

It can only be said that under the general tomb, the collective bow of the ancestors of the four old Heaven Gate families to him, and the scene of them lining up and stepping into the big array to extinguish themselves...

Chiseled a breach in his heart.

Since returning from Zhangjiajie, every time he went to Grandma Liu's house to see A Li, he would specifically go to the shrine on the third floor and stand in front of the tablet for a while.

You can't enjoy the prestige of the Dragon King family and let already dead people die once more for your river-walking, while also escaping the duties of the Dragon King family.

People can't just enjoy rights without bearing obligations.

Actually, someone like himself should walk the path of Wei Zhengdao. History books would not record him, and even if there were traces of him in the Jianghu, no one would know who he was.

No one knowing naturally meant no ties, and acting would be even more without scruples.

But the problem is, he has already walked this path.

Looking at it this way, at the entry ceremony of the Qin and Liu families, the self-immolation, I'm afraid, also had this layer of meaning, fearing that he would regret taking the magical tools given to him by the Dragon King family after entering, and locking himself up in advance.

Even without the specific memories from his dreams, Li Zhuoyuan couldn't help but suspect:

Why is the Heavenly Way so deliberately targeting him? Is it not because it was scared by Wei Zhengdao before?

Finally, Li Zhuoyuan's expression calmed down.

"Are you alright?"

"Mm."

Zhao Yi washed the towel again, came over to help the young man wipe his face, and asked while wiping: "Are you sick?"

"Yes."

"Can it be cured?"

"Trying."

"It's normal for someone like you to be a little sick. If you were too healthy, it would be a bit unnatural."

"You talk too much, it's annoying. Let's bet."

After wiping, Zhao Yi tied the towel around his neck and pulled forcefully.

"Ah..."

He was really using force. His face turned red at first, and only when it turned purple did he loosen the towel.

He stood up and walked out of the room.

Old Man Tian looked at his young master's embarrassed face and couldn't help but wonder if the two of them had fought inside earlier.

That young man was so weak, yet he could still beat his young master into this state. This injury was indeed fake!

Zhao Yi stood at the railing. Below, Xue Liangliang was talking knee-to-knee with the two Corpse Gu Sect people.

Xue Liangliang was sharing his experiences.

The Bai family, in order to give birth and ensure their deformed inheritance, actually put in a lot of effort behind the scenes, which was equivalent to a secret method.

Xue Liangliang naturally didn't know these things.

Fortunately, he didn't know, so he could enlighten these two people from a mysterious and profound angle.

If he actually talked about specific practical details, it would be easy to expose himself.

And the two Corpse Gu Sect people, with their preconceived notions, plus knowing that this matter was difficult, believed Xue Liangliang's mysterious and profound words even more.

They looked at Xue Liangliang with the same gaze as when they looked at the manifested totem spirit, a benefactor specially sent to bestow blessings upon them.

Even so, Zhao Yi, standing on the second floor, still thought Xue Liangliang was pretending.

The emperor's new clothes are actually not difficult to point out.

He just needed to say a few words, or pretend to accidentally do a few things, and then those two "conquered" Corpse Gu Sect people, upon discovering they were deceived, would be even more angry and madly seek revenge on Xue Liangliang and the injured people in the house.

However, as Li Zhuoyuan said, he didn't dare to gamble.

Even with 99% certainty, he still didn't dare to gamble on that 1% risk.

Earlier at the Zhao family's stone table, he stood on the roof, and the young man stood below.

The young man looked up at him and said: "I'm just standing on the river, do you dare to come down?"

That scene left a psychological shadow on Zhao Yi.

He was truly afraid that as soon as he made a move, the young man would immediately stand up and say to him: Thank you for giving me a reasonable reason to kill you, there's no need to give that ancestor face.

Zhao Yi's "accidents" and "explanations" could only be right, but from the young man's perspective, his behavior had already constituted a karmic cause for revenge.

All members are seriously injured, leaving one ordinary person here to play the role of an expert.

This is simply using a straight hook to fish!

It's better when both sides are healthy, teaming up to solve the evil. Then he can scheme with him. This way, his heart can be much steadier.

Zhao Yi hardened his heart, turned around, and with a "Bang!" pushed open the door and walked back into the room.

The young man lay on the bed mat, sighing helplessly.

Zhao Yi: "There's a sentence you need to cooperate and say. You should know what words they are."

"I know, but I won't say them."

"Consider it a plea from me!"

"It's useless."

"On the path of walking the river, a hundred boats compete for flow, yet we also uphold the righteous path. We are opponents, yet also guardians of the Heavenly Way. I, Zhao Yi, will not take advantage of your misfortune!"

"Still cowardly."

"Hahahahaha!"

Zhao Yi wanted to go crazy.

This guy actually wasn't even willing to cooperate a little to help his heart be stable!

Li Zhuoyuan reluctantly raised his head and looked at Zhao Yi standing at the door, saying: "Let's take it one wave at a time. Accumulate as much merit as you can. When we reach the end, the road will be narrow. When you truly meet me, just know to step aside."

Zhao Yi completely calmed down. He opened his mouth and said: "Ancestor's notes once recorded a similar scene. There was a person with astonishing talent and nature who stood in front of ancestor, making ancestor dare not raise his head."

Ancestor used words to describe it, saying he was like a mountain blocking in front of him.

Later, he died, and that mountain also collapsed.

Do you know what ancestor felt at that time?"

Li Zhuoyuan could casually treat Zhao Yi, but he could not be disrespectful to Zhao Wuyong.

Nor could he say something like "your ancestor was also cowardly" again, as he did earlier.

Li Zhuoyuan: "Your ancestor should have been very sad."

Zhao Yi's figure swayed when he heard the words, almost unable to stand steady.

The notes of every generation's Dragon King are taboo things. Even within the family, not many people are qualified to see them, and even fewer dare to see them.

So, the young man absolutely didn't peek at the notes.

Zhao Yi leaned on the door frame: "You understand my ancestor better than I do."

Li Zhuoyuan no longer spoke.

Zhao Yi continued: "Sometimes, having a mountain in front of you that you have to admire is not necessarily a bad thing."

"But the one who laughs last, that's the one who laughs best."

"Li Zhuoyuan,"

"If I hear the news of your death one day, I will also be sad."

"Hypocritical."

Zhao Yi shrugged, turned around and walked out the door, pointing at the two Corpse Gu Sect disciples below and saying: "Either follow the agreement and continue to lead the way to the next dangerous place recorded by your sect."

"Or, we start a war right here and now, and I'll kill you on the spot!"

The faces of the two Corpse Gu Sect disciples turned cold. They turned their heads and glanced at Zhao Yi standing on the second floor.

Immediately, they stood up and bowed respectfully to Xue Liangliang sitting there.

Xue Liangliang encouraged them: "Keep it up, where there is a will, there is a way."

The two people cast grateful glances, each leaving a package of things in front of Xue Liangliang, then turned around and walked out of the tulou.

Xue Liangliang didn't know what was in these two packages. He felt guilty receiving them.

Because he knew very well that he couldn't give them any actual help, he was just providing emotional value.

Zhao Yi: "We'll follow."

After a pause, Zhao Yi opened his mouth and shouted loudly: "I won't let them come back. If they come back, it's because I deliberately released them!"

"If anything happens to you, Li Zhuoyuan, in the next ten days, it's all because of me."

"Hey, I'm telling you, don't deliberately commit suicide to harm me!"

Li Zhuoyuan in the house heard the words and rolled his eyes.

After saying these words, Zhao Yi and his people also left this tulou.

Li Zhuoyuan knew that essentially, Zhao Yi still didn't dare to gamble.

But Zhao Yi could retreat and seek second best, imitating his ancestor's state of mind. It was a case of losing a corner but gaining a whole mulberry and elm.

Jiujiang Zhao family was established because of Zhao Wuyong. That year, Zhao Wuyong was afraid and almost started from scratch like Xiong Shan, but he could walk to the end and become a Dragon King. Such a person is truly extraordinary.

Xiong Shan just didn't have this heart, so he was doomed to fail and couldn't go far.

Xue Liangliang went upstairs, pushed open the door, and softly asked: "Xiao Yuan, do you still need to continue acting?"

"No need to act, it was hard for you, Brother Liangliang."

"It's not hard, this is what I should do. So now..."

"Let me sleep for a while first."

"Okay, also, they left some pills in the next room. They're categorized, with a bottle placed by each person's head, different colors."

"Feed them to Runsheng and the others."

Since Zhao Yi decided not to gamble, he would naturally do a favor conveniently. It's an instinct for smart people not to take risks, and maximizing benefits is also an instinct.

Besides, when this guy walked the river, he definitely brought enough good stuff. Jiujiang Zhao family's spirit pills and wonder drugs, it's a shame not to eat them.

"Okay, then you get some good rest."

Li Zhuoyuan closed his eyes and slept for a whole night. After waking up, Li Zhuoyuan let Xue Liangliang melt the remaining medicine from that pill and heat it again, then brought it to him to drink. After drinking, he slept again.

That pill melted into three bowls, and Li Zhuoyuan took three naps.

After waking up, although he was still weak, he was no longer completely powerless.

He went to the next room to visit his companions.

Runsheng and Lin Shuyou were both awake, but couldn't get out of bed. This was a normal phenomenon.

They would always be like this after using their trump cards, and they should have woken up much earlier than usual because they ate the pills left by Zhao Yi.

Yin Meng and Tan Wenbin were still in a coma.

It seemed that the pills left by Zhao Yi had no effect on Yin Meng's poison.

This... also didn't surprise people.

Li Zhuoyuan took some medicine bottles with antidote labels from Yin Meng's bag, opened them one by one and smelled them carefully, selecting the one with the mildest medicinal properties, and let Xue Liangliang mix it with hot water and feed it to her.

Even with this, the young man didn't dare to mix things up randomly.

But not long after drinking it, Yin Meng started to vomit, throwing up a lot of black water.

Seeing that it was effective, Li Zhuoyuan told Xue Liangliang to feed her one bottle cap mixed with water three times a day, continuously.

That Gu insect was still being held in Yin Meng's hand.

This seemed to have become her obsession.

Those two long black whiskers reminded Li Zhuoyuan of a southern cockroach.

The young man touched the black whiskers a few times with his hand. This time, the black whiskers had no reaction.

He hoped its vitality would be as stubborn as a cockroach.

In contrast, Tan Wenbin's eye sockets were sunken, his face haggard, and he was still not awake. It was a bit strange.

Li Zhuoyuan recalled the murals filled with children's graffiti. He suspected that the reason Tan Wenbin hadn't woken up was that the two resentful infants had swallowed too much resentment from the murals.

Originally, Tan Wenbin carrying two resentful infants on his shoulders had already affected his life. This time, the resentful infants ate too much and fell into a deep sleep, making Tan Wenbin's burden too heavy to wake up.

Li Zhuoyuan picked up the bottle of pills Zhao Yi left for Tan Wenbin, poured a few pills into his palm, then placed them in front of his nose to smell: Dihuang Pills?

"Brother Liangliang, keep feeding Binbin this."

"Okay."

"This doesn't need to be one pill at a time. You can give him many pills at once. Let's say, a handful at a time."

"Ah, then I fed him too little before."

Cui Hao and Li Ren were still hiding inside the Zhao Jun Temple.

Li Zhuoyuan was too lazy to care about those two guys.

However, after he regained his mobility, Xue Liangliang would spare time every other day to go to the Zhao Jun Temple and give them some supplies.

After a few more days, Lin Shuyou could get out of bed and move around, which was still much faster than usual.

Besides the reason for the medicine left by Zhao Yi, it was probably also because A You's body had already adapted to the impact of the symbolic needles. Of course, it was more likely that the child was the first to adapt to the impact.

The next person to get out of bed was Runsheng.

Although the two of them couldn't do heavy physical labor, at least they could share the pressure of caring for people.

Ran Dacheng drank too much alcohol in Miao village last time and had a hangover for a night. The next day, he couldn't find the tractor and thought it was stolen. He walked back to the village with tears in his eyes, and after finding the tractor, he cried tears of joy.

Xue Liangliang apologized to him and promised to help him arrange for him to continue to be responsible for logistics and procurement after the construction team came back.

The construction team did want to come back. They resumed work much later after the New Year because they wanted to re-recruit workers in a nearby county.

The main reason was that there were too many accidents at the construction site last year, leading many workers to not dare to come back to this construction site after taking their salaries and going home for the New Year.

Yin Meng woke up.

The first thing she did after waking up was to look at the Gu insect she had been holding for so long.

Seeing that the Gu insect didn't move, she let out a sharp scream, thinking that this poison, which she had selected from a group of ten thousand insects and which hadn't died, was now crushed to death by her.

But when Yin Meng poured some poison to stimulate it a little, this guy immediately became alert again out of fear.

Yin Meng was angry: "You were actually pretending to be dead!"

Xue Liangliang was given two small packages by the two Corpse Gu Sect people, containing black things similar to turtle jelly.

After Yin Meng checked, this was top-quality Gu insect feed.

For a Gu master, this was indeed the most suitable gift. After all, you couldn't give Xue Liangliang two Gu insects, right?

Xue Liangliang naturally gave these two packages of things to Yin Meng.

He would also occasionally sigh a little, wondering if that pair would be successful.

The true situation was that those two people were being used as tools to find clues by Zhao Yi. It was hard to say whether they could survive from Zhao Yi's hands.

But this is just fate.

The night before the construction team arrived, Tan Wenbin finally woke up.

After waking up, Tan Wenbin raised his head, his eyes unfocused, staring blankly at the ceiling, and said: "I had a very, very long dream. In the dream, I was always eating. I'm worried that I'll develop anorexia because of it."

Lin Shuyou: "Thank heavens, thank earth, Brother Bin, you're finally awake. Otherwise, if I brought you back in a coma, I really wouldn't know how to explain it to sister-in-law."

Runsheng: "Immediately."

After Tan Wenbin woke up, that night, Li Zhuoyuan sat with him and recounted the previous events, including the things about Zhao Yi.

This was the preferential treatment that the second brain of the team should have.

After listening, Tan Wenbin asked doubtfully: "Brother Xiao Yuan, you said that boy forgot his Gu child brother because you covered it up, which is understandable."

"But his mother, that old hag, didn't she just die beside him? Why didn't he use that mirror secret technique to temporarily 'revive' his mother?"

"Although he personally killed his mother, I feel that if he really 'revived' his mother, his mother would most likely still help him deal with you, Brother Xiao Yuan."

Li Zhuoyuan poured out all the remaining Dihuang Pills in the bottle and handed them to Tan Wenbin's mouth.

Tan Wenbin opened his mouth and ate them all as if chewing candy beans.

After putting down the bottle, Li Zhuoyuan replied: "Because he is the same as Zhao Yi, he doesn't dare to gamble."

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