Chapter 58 Bad Guys

"Mr. Jiang, Mr. Jiang? What is wrong with you?"

Seeing Jiang Bai unresponsive for a long time, and noticing his expression was a bit off, Zhang Jianguo asked hurriedly.

"I am fine." Jiang Bai came back to his senses.

Immediately after, he seemed to have thought of something happy and chuckled.

This left Zhang Jianguo dumbfounded. Previously, this Mountain Lord had been quite normal, so why did he become so abnormal the moment he was asked about his Revered Master's name?

"It is nothing. This Daoist is now even more convinced that my Revered Master still exists in this world."

Otherwise, there would not be that eerie power preventing him from even speaking his Revered Master's name aloud.

"Do you have paper and a pen here?"

Although he did not know what was going on with Jiang Bai, Zhang Jianguo always complied with his requests.

Hearing this, he hurriedly replied, "Yes, yes, please wait a moment."

In less than a minute, Zhang Jianguo carefully found white paper and a ballpoint pen for Jiang Bai; he even had a brush pen.

He considered that Jiang Bai had lived from ancient times to the present and had only just awakened, so he might not be accustomed to using modern pens to write.

Jiang Bai picked up the brush pen, fiddled with it in the ink bottle, and wrote a traditional Chinese character for 'Jiang' on the paper, then attempted to write another character.

But just as he wrote a single dot, the memory of how to write that character in his mind was suddenly wiped away.

Subsequently, under Zhang Jianguo's look of shock and disbelief, the character "Jiang" on the white paper began to fade, and then completely disappeared!

Not a drop of ink, not a speck of black remained, not even a single trace.

It was as if this were a piece of white paper that had never been used.

"This, what is going on?" Zhang Jianguo asked in shock.

"My Revered Master's name cannot be spoken aloud. He now seems to have his Karma locked by some kind of rule, unable to manifest in the world."

Zhang Jianguo did not understand at all, but he felt it was incredibly awesome.

Being locked by Karma and rules, just hearing it made it sound like an existence that could glare him to death with a single glance.

"But precisely because of this, I am certain that my Revered Master must still be alive in this world!"

Zhang Jianguo could not imagine what kind of person could live from the Tang Dynasty until now.

If one day he were to manifest in the world, what attitude should China use to treat him, and what attitude would he take toward China?

These things could not be foreseen.

...

Jiang Chen opened his eyes; it was already dawn the next day.

He sat up from the bed, absorbed a thin wisp of Purple Qi, then got dressed, washed up, picked up his Dharma sword, and only then opened the door to leave.

Although it was just dawn, the rising sun was already unbearably scorching.

"Guest, are you leaving the inn?"

A waiter with a towel draped over his shoulder came up with a beaming smile and asked enthusiastically.

"Waiter, how far is this place from Chang'an City?"

"Guest, you asked the right person. Although our Weinan County is in a remote area of the Jingzhao Yin, it is still under the jurisdiction of the Jingzhao Yin, right? Strictly speaking, it counts as half of Chang'an."

This waiter was clearly a chatterbox. Jiang Chen only asked about the distance, but he went on and on, almost explaining the entire history of Weinan County.

Jiang Chen did not stop him, just quietly waiting for him to finish.

By the end, the waiter's mouth was parched.

"After leaving the city, follow the official road and head northwest for over a hundred li, and you will reach Chang'an City!"

"Many thanks."

"Alright, guest, that will be one hundred and twenty wen."

Jiang Chen did not even count; he directly took out one hundred and twenty copper coins from his pocket and handed them to the waiter.

Then he went downstairs.

As Jiang Chen walked out of the inn, several people dressed like wandering knights or outlaws noticed Jiang Chen's attire.

Jiang Chen also noticed them; these people were wearing either short outfits or tight-fitting garments.

They had one characteristic: their clothes were convenient for movement, suitable for martial artists who relied on their skills.

Moreover, everyone carried a Sharp Weapon; some even held long spears, and some wore armor underneath, yet no one was seen questioning them.

In this day and age, although the imperial court did not ban swords and blades, it strictly controlled items like repeating crossbows, long spears, and armor.

Especially armor; even the great clans and families had to manufacture it in secret.

These people had ruddy complexions, long-lasting Qi and blood, and protruding temples; they were clearly people of extraordinary skill.

Furthermore, they had a very obvious aura of True Qi, but it differed from Jiang Chen's; it was not merged into the Dantian, but rather seemed to be merged into their Qi, blood, and flesh.

Although he could not sense their specific cultivation level, the overly obvious diffusion of Qi and blood allowed Jiang Chen to perceive that their strength was roughly at the Middle Stage of the Qi Induction Stage.

This reminded Jiang Chen that the Tang Dynasty government had a Cultivation Technique called the Military Evil Method. According to Jiang Chen's understanding, it was entering the Dao through martial arts.

It did not require a Cultivation Technique or cultivation resources, only constant honing of the Physical Body, using the Evil Qi of military formations to temper oneself.

However, this method would shorten one's lifespan and was not suitable for large-scale promotion.

Later, someone derived the Martial Dao Method from the Military Evil Method.

It was similar to the Military Evil Method, but with higher efficiency and relatively fewer drawbacks.

However, this kind of technique could generally only be seen in the army, or among the great clans, aristocratic families, and official forces.

And on these few people, there were traces of having cultivated the Martial Dao Method.

These people just curiously glanced at Jiang Chen a few more times, and after finding nothing unusual, they hurried toward the city gate.

Jiang Chen followed them unhurriedly.

After these people left, someone handed them several horses.

Then, these people mounted their horses, glanced at Jiang Chen one more time, and galloped away in one direction.

Jiang Chen saw the direction they took.

It was the path he had come from.

"Are these the Imperial Agents of the Tang Dynasty?"

The Tang Dynasty's Imperial Agents were similar to the Ming Dynasty's Embroidered Uniform Guard, doing all sorts of jobs.

The difference from the Embroidered Uniform Guard was that the Guard had very obvious standard-issue Embroidered Spring Blades and Embroidered Spring uniforms.

Whereas the Imperial Agents were more like secret agents embedded among the common people, without unified clothing or weapons; they did whatever was comfortable for them.

The Imperial Agents took orders from the Commander of the Unsavory, while the Commander of the Unsavory was directly under the jurisdiction of the Emperor.

This was also a considerable force in the hands of the Emperor.

It was said that the Commander of the Unsavory of the Imperial Agents had been very mysterious since the Zhenguan era, rarely showing his face.

"It wouldn't still be Yuan Tiangang acting as the Commander of the Unsavory, would it?"

Yuan Tiangang was a figure from the same period as his Revered Master, Grand Master Sima Chengzhen.

However, his Revered Master's cultivation had reached the Primordial Spirit stage, so living for hundreds of years was merely a trivial matter.

But Yuan Tiangang, Jiang Chen thought, although he was said to be a Grandmaster of Astrology, the lifespan of the Director of the Hun Tian Jian was always short.

It was because they observed celestial phenomena all day and had to leak heavenly secrets, attracting divine retribution.

Jiang Chen thought about it only slightly before skipping over this line of thought; no matter what these Imperial Agents were investigating, it had nothing to do with him.

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