“The situation is exactly the same as that of the Great Chu.” Lou Mu replied with a stern face.
This further increased the suspicion surrounding Old Yang.
Tang Nian picked up a piece of pastry, put it in her mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and her eyes lit up.
"This pastry tastes good, where did you buy it?"
"I know you love this, so I brought it from Da Chu." Lou Mu thoughtfully poured Tang Nian a cup of tea and handed it to her.
"I knew it, these dry pastries are always awful."
Tang Nian subconsciously ignored the first half of the sentence, but wished she could bury her head in the plate, so she immediately picked up another piece and stuffed it into her mouth.
Suddenly, a soft moan was heard.
Tang Nian quickly swallowed the pastry in her mouth with tea and hurried to the bedside.
Ming Huan woke up.
"Minghuan, you're awake? How are you feeling?"
Tang Nian held Ming Huan's wrist and carefully took his pulse. Only after confirming that there was no serious problem did she release his hand with peace of mind.
Ming Huan forced a smile, his lips cracked from dryness.
"Have some tea to soothe your throat."
Lou Mu ordered a cup of hot water and handed it to Ming Huan.
Tang Nian quickly helped Ming Huan sit up straight.
After Minghuan finished drinking the water, Tang Nian finally asked, "What exactly happened to you these past few days?"
"Sister Tang, do you remember when I was in Lancheng, I went after a mysterious person?"
Tang Nian nodded: "You didn't start from back then...?"
"That's right."
Minghuan lowered his head, looking at the blanket covering him, lost in thought.
"I chased after them for a short distance when I suddenly felt dizzy and then passed out. When I woke up, I was already in Da Gan, no, I was sold to Da Gan."
"I vaguely heard people talking, trying to get me involved in the deal, and then I stayed in Da Gan."
Tang Nian and Lou Mu exchanged a glance, both seeing disbelief in each other's eyes.
The person who followed them later was not Ming Huan, so who was the one who could use Ming Huan's spiritual power before?
Tang Nian tentatively asked, "Ming Huan, if I remember correctly, you shouldn't know about the Rebirth Sutra."
"Sister Tang, why do you ask that? I've never liked Buddhist magic."
Tang Nian's expression was not good; she didn't believe that a puppet could recite a proper sutra for the deceased.
If it's not a puppet, then someone is impersonating Ming Huan.
What is his purpose?
Seeing that Tang Nian remained silent, Ming Huan continued to recall: "At first, someone secretly put me in a prisoner-of-war camp. I escaped and originally intended to find you, but I unexpectedly ran into the person who sold me."
"You mean?"
“It was what you saw that day, Sister Tang.” Ming Huan confirmed Tang Nian’s guess.
"Then why did you run away?"
Lou Mu stared straight at Ming Huan, but Ming Huan dared not meet his gaze and subtly looked away.
"Sister Tang's eyes were terrifying back then. I don't know what happened while I was away, and I was doing that kind of thing, so naturally I ran away," he explained in a low voice.
"Then how did you get into that secret room?"
Tang Nian was puzzled. When she saw Ming Huan, he hadn't suffered such serious injuries yet, and he could still use his spiritual power. He shouldn't have been captured again.
"After I escaped, I encountered that witch, and he ambushed me."
Ming Huan's voice was very flat, as if he were telling the story of someone who had nothing to do with him.
Lou Mu glanced at Tang Nian, who gently tucked Ming Huan's blanket in: "Rest well here for the next few days, and we'll go back to Da Chu once we've recovered a bit."
After Minghuan fell asleep again, Lou Mu called Tang Nian out of the room.
"Tang Nian, you..."
Seeing Tang Nian's confused look, Lou Mu changed his tone and asked sharply, "You're planning to go back to Great Chu. Where will you arrange for Ming Huan to stay?"
"In the inn."
Tang Nian turned her head to look at the room, and it seemed that she could see Ming Huan sleeping soundly through the doors and windows.
Even if Minghuan says so, I still don't feel comfortable putting him and Chu Roujia together. Chu Roujia can't be allowed to get into trouble.
"You felt it too?" Lou Mu asked tentatively.
Tang Nian blinked and gave a wry smile: "I know Ming Huan better than you do. How could I not know what kind of person he is? The way he is now, it's obvious that he's still hiding something from us."
"Although we don't know what it is, these are turbulent times, and we must not be careless."
In Tang Nian's mind, there was only one thought: to save Ming Huan.
She is protective of her own, but that doesn't mean she's blinded by emotions.
Since Ming Huan's life is no longer in danger, then we should do whatever we need to do.
"What I'm worried about right now is those soldiers who are practically turning into puppets. If Minghuan is brought back to Great Chu in his current state and Elder Yang manages to assassinate him again, all our efforts will have been in vain. But if we don't go back, what about those soldiers..."
Tang Nian hesitated, but Lou Mu sighed and said, "How about this, I'll stay here to take care of him, and you can go back."
Tang Nian didn't agree immediately. After thinking for a moment, she hesitated and said, "It's getting late today. Let's talk about it tomorrow."
But she had no intention of going back inside, so Lou Mu stood quietly beside her.
"Lou Mu, tell me, is Old Yang really Chu Wende, or is he working for him?"
Lou Mu didn't speak; he knew Tang Nian wasn't asking him for a reply.
Sure enough, Tang Nian continued, her expression somewhat forlorn: "Regardless of whether he is or not, I don't understand who Chu Wende is, why so many people are helping him, even if it means causing such unrest in the world."
What wrong did Xiang Liu do to deserve being imprisoned in this secret realm, never to be released?
"You're saying these things, could they be the work of Kunlun?"
Lou Mu looked down at the top of Tang Nian's head, thought for a moment, then raised his hand and gently rubbed Tang Nian's head.
He didn't reply to Tang Nian immediately, but instead asked another question softly.
"Have you accumulated enough merit?"
Tang Nian paused for a moment, then took out the merit bead from her sleeve.
When she looked, she was stunned. The bead was missing a corner, which was not noticeable unless you looked closely.
"Your spiritual power has been fully restored?"
Tang Nian hesitated for a moment, looked at Lou Mu, reached out her hand to try, and nodded gently.
"You said that Minghuan gave you a merit bead, and the merit inside would be just enough to fill your merit bead, is that right?"
Tang Nian nodded again.
"Now that your merits are not yet complete, the gods have returned all your power to you. What are your thoughts?"
After a long silence, Tang Nian said softly, somewhat uncertainly, "Could it be that the gods want me to save the world?"
After saying that, she laughed at herself.
How could that be?
She had heard of and witnessed that when chaos reigned in the human world, whether it was the work of mortals or the involvement of demons and immortals, the gods, or the Heavenly Way, would issue a divine decree to appoint a savior.
But isn't it ridiculous to ask a ferocious beast like her to do this?
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