sinovels #398 - Relieved
#398 - Relieved
“Then I can rest assured.” Old Hu’s face indeed showed a hint of relief upon hearing this.
However, he seemed somewhat guilty for almost accidentally injuring Lu Jing earlier, so he paused and added, “I saw you staring at that hitching post earlier, were you perhaps trying to learn my martial art?”
Lu Jing was startled upon hearing this. It wasn’t that he didn’t already have enough to practice, but even the most powerful martial art wasn’t worth gambling his little brother on. So he quickly waved his hand and said, “No, no, I was looking at that hitching post mainly because I just ran into a group of people who were using this skill.”
“You encountered people from the Purified Word Guard?” Old Hu’s expression turned stern.
“Yes, but I’ve already dealt with them.”
Old Hu breathed a slight sigh of relief upon hearing this, “Not bad, I can see that you are also in the first-rate realm. With your skills, ordinary Purified Word Guard members would probably have a hard time hurting you, but there are also formidable experts within the Purified Word Guard.”
As Old Hu said this, he thought of something and suddenly went back into the house. After a moment, he came out again and handed Lu Jing an iron牌 (pái, plaque/badge).
“This is…” Lu Jing took the iron 牌, feeling its considerable weight in his hand. However, aside from the character 驭 (yù, control/command) engraved on the back, it didn’t seem to have anything special about it. It looked quite ordinary.
“The Purified Word Guard has twelve commanders, and each commander has a waist牌,” Old Hu said unhurriedly.
Lu Jing was astonished, “This is a Purified Word Guard commander’s waist牌? Wait, could it be that you…”
Old Hu shook his head, “I’m not. This belongs to someone else, no, to be precise, it’s a counterfeit made to look like that person’s waist牌. But even though it’s a counterfeit, it’s no different from the real thing, because the most crucial aspect of the Purified Word Guard’s waist牌 is its weight. Only a few people in this world know the formula for forging the waist牌, and I happen to be one of them.
“So next time you encounter someone from the Purified Word Guard, just let them examine this 牌, and they’ll definitely not be able to tell the difference.”
“The 牌 might be indistinguishable, but people can recognize each other,” Lu Jing said, puzzled. According to Old Hu, the Purified Word Guard was under the command of those twelve people.
And as everyone knows, when you work for a company, the big boss might not recognize you, but it’s impossible for you not to recognize the big boss.
Old Hu patiently explained, “The Purified Word Guard operates in secrecy, especially the twelve great commanders, many of whom are rarely seen. Hehe, of course, it can’t be ruled out that some of them are deliberately creating an air of mystery, but it’s indeed difficult for those below to recognize them all.
“So keep this thing with you, it might come in handy in the future, and it’s not just useful against the Purified Word Guard.”
Seeing that Old Hu’s tone was quite firm, Lu Jing didn’t decline any further and put the iron 牌 into his pocket. It was just that the thought that this thing originally belonged to an eunuch made him feel a little strange.
Oh well, at worst, he just wouldn’t take it out.
Lu Jing then took out a hundred-tael silver note that he had exchanged from the Taiping Bank and handed it to Old Hu as instructed by Han Shan Ke, but the latter waved his hand, “Thank you for your kindness, but this old man is not short of silver.”
“Then you go to sell calligraphy…”
“Selling calligraphy is just a disguise, just like me living here,” Old Hu said plainly.
Lu Jing really wanted to ask Old Hu what he was trying to do by living here, but after thinking about it, he held back. He had never intended to get involved in this matter from the beginning, otherwise he wouldn’t have interrupted Princess Fu’an’s words and prevented her from issuing a task.
Seeing that he was about to become a second palace cultivator, Lu Jing decided to focus his attention on cultivation.
After saying goodbye to Old Hu, Lu Jing retrieved the two sacks of silver notes and carried them back to the academy.
Then he went straight to Mirror Lake Valley, found Han Shan Ke again, and threw the two sacks in front of him, saying to him, “I’ve completed everything I promised you.”
Han Shan Ke was sitting in front of the pill furnace, flipping through ancient books and thinking about concocting poison for Lu Jing. When he saw the two sacks, he didn’t react for a moment and looked up, “What is this, a local specialty you brought back for me from outside?”
“No, it’s the three million eight hundred thousand taels of silver you deposited in the Taiping Bank.”
“Is that all that’s left?” Han Shan Ke scratched his head.
After all, the two sacks didn’t look like they could hold much silver.
Fortunately, Lu Jing then opened one of the sacks for him to see, “The silver you deposited in the bank was somehow targeted by the current emperor, so this time he instructed the Taiping Bank to do it, with the aim of luring you out.
But you don’t have to worry, those guys are all dead, and I haven’t told anyone about your whereabouts. Finally, in order to prevent all the silver you deposited in the bank from going to waste, I took the liberty of exchanging it all for small silver notes, you can count them yourself.”
Perhaps there was too much information in Lu Jing’s words, and it took Han Shan Ke a while to digest it. Then a wry smile appeared on his face, “He’s looking for me? But why, I’ve been gone for so long… does he still remember me so fondly?”
Han Shan Ke seemed unable to figure it out, so he simply didn’t bother thinking about it anymore.
On the other hand, after Lu Jing told him about Old Hu’s reaction to the jade pendant, Han Shan Ke couldn’t help but sigh, “Old Hu has been with me for most of my life, and is probably the closest person to me in this world. It’s a pity that he’s been taking care of me most of the time, but I haven’t been able to give him much in return. Even in his old age, he still has to sell calligraphy.
“Alas, I hope he can wait until the day I refine the elixir of immortality, I will definitely give him one too.”
Lu Jing almost couldn’t help but complain upon hearing this. Good heavens, you’re drawing a bigger pie than the CEO of a startup company. At least they give some stock options to fool young people, but you’re directly stepping into the ultimate ideal of mankind.
But when he thought about how this guy had been doing only this one thing for the past forty years, and that he could only do this one thing, Lu Jing couldn’t really blame him for anything.
After sighing for a while, Han Shan Ke finally didn’t forget to thank Lu Jing for helping him get his money back. He also knew what Lu Jing was thinking and took the initiative to say, “I haven’t been idle during the time you’ve been gone. I’ve found some pill formulas that promote cultivation and have been researching them. I’ve finally got some ideas. I plan to find the medicinal properties of the herbs used in them and try to find their opposites.
“But it definitely won’t be easy to refine them, after all, I have to consider the harmony of the medicinal properties, but… well, it shouldn’t be a big problem if I try a few more times.”
Han Shan Ke’s words made Lu Jing’s spirit tremble. This could be said to be the best news he had received recently.
Of course, the preparatory work that needed to be done afterwards still had to be done. He wouldn’t put all his eggs in Han Shan Ke’s basket, but in any case, Han Shan Ke’s words had relaxed Lu Jing’s tense nerves a lot.
What Lu Jing didn’t know was that after he left Han Shan Ke’s residence, Han Shan Ke also stood up from the ground and muttered to himself as he looked in the direction he had left.
“This is Lu Jing, who is as famous as that Yan Yun? As expected of his reputation, seven members of the Purified Word Guard plus Li Feilong couldn’t take him down. But in that case, I can only find something else for the academy to do.”