Chapter 36 The Immortal's Daoist Lineage (Please read further and vote!)
Ouyang Rong was awakened by the disappointed looks in other people's eyes.
He lay on the table that served as a makeshift bed, opened his eyes, and stared blankly at the dark beams of the courtroom for a while.
Because of his poor foreign language skills, he ended up in an ordinary university, but Ouyang Rong was actually quite satisfied with it.
It has many outdoor basketball courts; there's a gap in the wall next to the dormitories that's even busier than the back gate; there's a row of ginkgo trees with fallen autumn leaves along the way to the classrooms, where you can ride a bike and fly through the leaves; the cafeteria lady's Parkinson's isn't in its late stages yet, and a bowl of rice only costs 50 cents, so you're guaranteed not to go broke; most importantly, the major in the School of Humanities has a lot of students, so sitting in the classroom is like having a harem, with many pretty girls, although none of them are as rich as the junior female students, they're much more generous...
Okay, I'll stop pretending. Actually, he was the most handsome guy in the class, so naturally I miss the empire he built, the girls who blushed when they talked to him, and the roommates who played games and ate barbecue with him.
However, his family and friends were not satisfied, feeling that his talent should have gone to a better place, but unfortunately he wasted it, lay down and gave up.
Ouyang Rong disagreed with their belittling remarks about his university years. Perhaps it was his strong sense of pride, or perhaps he had been hurt by a disappointed look in someone's eyes. He was determined to take the postgraduate entrance exam and get into a school that would make them all look bad.
It's just studying, nothing more than a simple life pattern.
Sometimes, people live just to prove themselves.
Now, the county magistrate Ouyang Rong, who is about to overturn the table and confiscate the property, is also fighting for a sense of justice.
These days he has noticed that the poor people who crowd around him in the disaster relief camps on the outskirts of the city look at him, the county magistrate, with completely different eyes than they did with his family and friends in his previous life.
This was a hopeful look in Ouyang Rong's eyes that he couldn't express.
They seemed to trust him a lot, this meddlesome county magistrate who spent all his time "wandering around and meddling" in disaster relief camps.
However, Ouyang Rong believed that he had not actually made their lives much better: the porridge and rice distributed each day were not enough to fully fill their stomachs, but only enough to keep them from being hungry; and the greenhouses he built only provided shelter from the wind and rain, not from the cold.
Their original houses, their original fields, and even their original relatives are all gone.
Having already lost so much, Ouyang Rong only gave them a little something to sustain them.
Why are they so grateful to him?
It seems that... finally a ruler has come to regard them as human beings.
Having figured out the ways of the world, Ouyang Rong felt a surge of anger rising in his chest, which he found difficult to quell.
In the pitch-black hall, Ouyang Rong couldn't sleep no matter what he did. He got up from the table, put on a light coat, and went to the east storeroom.
Tonight, the moon is a crescent, its light somewhat dim.
But the east warehouse was brightly lit by hundreds of torches.
Commandant Qin stood guard at the door, his hand on his sword. Armored soldiers stood guard on all sides, and elite soldiers were hidden not far away, holding powerful bows, ready to be on guard at any time.
Inside the east warehouse, Old Cui and his apprentices, the clerks, were working overtime.
Xie Lingjiang pulled out a wooden stool and placed it across the doorway. She sat upright, her small, white chin subconsciously tilted up slightly, holding her sword and looking straight ahead.
Both inside and outside are under tight control.
Apart from the clatter of the clerks' abacuses, the entire place was quiet, and everything seemed fine.
Ouyang Rong felt a little relieved, went to inspect the situation, greeted everyone, and inquired about the progress of the audit.
He also checked the buckets of well water prepared in the yard, in case someone was desperate and set the house on fire.
However, with so many account books in the East Warehouse, it was impossible to burn them all without being discovered by everyone; he had effectively blocked that path.
Ouyang Rong breathed a slight sigh of relief, glanced at the sky, and saw that it was still past midnight, meaning the night was more than halfway through. After thinking for a moment, he turned back to the nearby courthouse to continue resting, as he still had important business to attend to after checking the accounts tomorrow.
However, as soon as he returned, he ran into Banxi outside the courthouse.
The Silla maid, wearing a veiled hat and carrying small boxes in both hands, happily approached with small steps, saying, "My lord, my wife asked me to bring you some late-night snacks."
Ouyang Rong glanced at it and nodded:
"Thank you for your hard work. Is everything alright with your aunt?"
"It's not tiring at all. Meilu Garden is very nice. My wife is just a little worried about you."
"It's alright, I'm not hungry."
Ouyang Rong shook his head, opened the box, glanced at it, and then handed the late-night snack to the yamen runners who had brought the half-eaten snack.
"Send her back to the Deer Park. Also, send these foods to the East Warehouse for Old Cui and Junior Sister Xie to try. Tell them that it's okay to rest if they're tired, and there's no need to rush."
"Yes, sir."
The constables left with somewhat reluctant expressions, while Ouyang Rong first thanked the soldiers who were guarding the main hall, both openly and secretly, for their hard work, chatted for a few words, and then returned to the courtroom.
This time, he didn't lie down to rest. Instead, he turned off the engine, sat alone in a chair, lowered his head, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose to rest.
In fact, this courthouse, which was not far from the East Warehouse, was also heavily guarded. There were many traps set up in the courtyard, and people were on guard on the roof, just waiting for someone to take the risk.
Even a cornered dog will jump over a wall.
Sitting alone in the darkness, Ouyang Rong felt a little sleepy. Just then, he suddenly heard several clear wooden fish sounds.
He was slightly taken aback.
How could I suddenly accumulate merit in the middle of the night?
The young magistrate was somewhat puzzled, but no matter how he thought about it, accumulating merit should be a good thing.
He nodded and closed his eyes to rest in the darkness.
...
Xie Lingjiang glanced at the late-night snacks her senior brother had sent, then turned to look at Commandant Qin outside the door. The latter nodded slightly, indicating that someone had already checked the food and it was fine.
Xie Lingjiang turned around and continued to sit upright.
He stared into the warehouse without eating anything.
"The magistrate has treated us well." Old Cui distributed the midnight snack to his apprentices, glanced at the sky, and said, "After you finish eating, you can only rest for a quarter of an hour. Those who go to relieve themselves should not go too far and should come back early."
Everyone nodded, got up one after another, stretched and relaxed, and went out to relieve themselves. However, they were all searched by Commandant Qin and others before leaving.
Only Old Cui remained unmoved, continuing to sit in his original spot organizing the account books. He even reached for the account books on the other clerks' desks, bending down to examine them. The others were already used to this.
Only Xie Lingjiang and Old Cui remained in the east warehouse.
Xie Lingjiang said, "Sir, you should rest too. I'll take care of things here."
Old Cui shook his head and muttered, "It's almost dawn."
"Have you found the Liu family's accounts?"
Old Cui sighed, pointing to the stack of confidential ledgers on the table: "No wonder they get rich every year despite the floods. It's like they've foreseen everything..."
Xie Lingjiang frowned, got up and went to check. Just then, she suddenly smelled a pungent odor different from the late-night snack. She immediately held her breath, and as if by telepathy, she suddenly looked up:
On the warehouse ceiling, there was a large black gecko... no, not a black gecko, but a person dressed in a black robe and wearing a bronze beast mask, whose whole body was pressed against the stone bricks of the ceiling.
I don't know when they sneaked in!
Xie Lingjiang acted decisively, grabbing several calligraphy brushes from the table and throwing them like flying knives.
The beast-faced demon dodged three times in quick succession, and at the same time, with a wave of his sleeve, he threw something down.
Xie Lingjiang below had already raised his longbow, the bow curved like a crescent moon. Before the string could be seen moving, an arrow was already released, and with a "whoosh," it pinned the object thrown down by the beast-faced demon firmly to the ceiling.
With a loud "bang," a ball of flame three meters in diameter exploded at the spot where the arrow was driven in, sending sparks flying everywhere.
Fortunately, a table was kicked up from below and caught most of the falling flames.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
The beast-faced demon seemed wary, and like a gecko, it climbed up the cliff towards the only narrow skylight on the top of the warehouse.
"Trying to run?"
Xie Lingjiang's eyebrows furrowed, and the next second she stepped on the edge of the table, soaring like an eagle spreading its wings to the sky, lightly leaping onto the roof beam, drawing her sword to stop him.
Without turning his head, the beast-faced demon threw another object, which was bounced ten meters away by Xie Lingjiang's sword and fell down, but this time it did not explode.
Xie Lingjiang ignored it and took the opportunity to get closer. With a flash of sword light, the beast-faced demon was cut in half.
But the next second, something strange happened. The severed lower half fell lightly down, revealing an empty black robe; the "upper half" continued to climb out of the skylight, which was about the size of a human head.
"Sorcery! The lineage of a sorcerer or magician?"
Xie Lingjiang gritted her teeth, landed swiftly, and rushed out the door without saying a word. She left behind a message for Qin Duwei and the others who had gathered outside, telling them to "lock the doors and windows and not allow anyone to enter," before chasing after the sorcerer.
In just a few breaths, the two Qi cultivators exchanged blows, which greatly surprised the soldiers. After checking the room, they found that Old Cui, who was in charge of the audit, was not injured, so they all withdrew and closed the doors and windows.
What Qin Duwei and his men, who were guarding the area outside the door and strengthening their vigilance, did not notice was that in the east warehouse behind them, Old Cui, who was sitting alone, silently bent down and picked up the cylindrical object called the Burning Sky Thunder from the ground. It was the last thing that the demon had thrown but failed to explode.
Old Cui calmly turned the small tube open and slowly poured the liquid mixture of ointment and black powder onto the stack of ledgers on the table, then poured some onto his gray hair and body.
Having done all this without anyone noticing, the quiet old man reached out and picked up the oil lamp from the next table.
But the next second, a familiar male voice rang out from outside the door:
What are you going to do?
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com