Daoist Master of Qing Xuan

The snow never stopped, what happened that day too, did not stop.

An Renjie yelled at Steward Wu. “Old man Wu, the inn’s door should be spruced up, why are you saving this little money for your Young Master Shen?”

“Young Master An, this door has been around for a hundred years and it was made using leftover scraps of the Jianglong wood. Its price that is worth a thousand gold pieces cannot be overemphasized, but this is our inn’s signature,” Steward Wu replied proudly. Of course, this door was not left behind a long time ago. It was a gift from Old Master Shen because the inn was impressively operated.

To say that it was worth thousands of gold pieces was an exaggeration but it was definitely expensive.

This type of wood grow slowly, the quality of the wood was tough and tensile, the surface was smooth and fine, it was also not easily broken. When bent with a strong force, each side would bounce back like blades, its edges were razor sharp.

What made it rare was that this wood was able to emit a light fragrance which had the ability to repel poisonous insects. With this door being here when guests enter this inn, most of the harmful insects, if there were any, would be chased away.

An Renjie was ignorant and incompetent, that was precisely why he did not know about the Jianglong wood. But he also knew that Steward Wu was not an impractical man. By looking at the material of this door, it was definitely worth some money.

“Since this door is that precious, there is no need to fear of being stolen by others by putting it outside,” An Renjie sarcastically remarked.

“You are joking again, Young Master An, who in the State Capital of Qing would dare to steal the inn’s items?”

“That’s enough you two, stop bickering. There’s someone unconscious outside the door. Uncle Wu, go and send two people to lift him in.”

Shen Lian’s brows crinkled lightly. Trouble sure knew how to pick its timing.

He smelled a whiff of the bloody scent.

Steward Wu was rather used to Shen Lian’s supernatural knowledge of the things around him without directly seeing or hearing. He sent out two workers to open the door and sure enough, there was someone lying down not far away.

The two workers lifted the person in, it was a man in a junior officer uniform, he looked around twenty years old with his eyes tightly shut, and it was obvious that he had passed out.

He was hardly scratched from top to toe, it was just his snow stained clothes that were slightly wet. Once he was laid flat on the floor, Shen Lian had the others to bring a basin of hot water.

He gently touched the person’s forehead, it was burning hot.

His gaze fell onto the bottom part of his abdomen, there were three inconspicuous needle marks on his clothes.

The bloody scent came from there.

“What a brilliant display of skill with hidden weapons, each needle landed on the acupuncture point without a miss, if this was done in one shot, that person is truly remarkable.”

To be able to hit and recognize acupuncture points seemed like ordinary abilities for the masters in Jianghu, but to be able to hit acupuncture points using hidden weapons and to be this accurate, there was definitely talent and hard work put into it.

There was also a flow of malicious Qi inside his body. It was uncontrollable and it circulated about aimlessly. It was also because of this malicious Qi, which was scorching hot, that caused him to not freeze to death in the cold snowy weather.

In this weather, it was hard even for the masters of Jianghu, who had the essential Qi to protect their body, to walk far. Not everyone was as formidable as Xin Shisiniang, what more was that she was neither human nor an ordinary creature.

“Young master, here is the hot water.”

There were still many customers in the great hall. There was not any kind of entertainment in this weather, plus there was a brief appearance and disappearance of Xin Shisiniang.

Everyone surrounded the both of them, waiting for a good show.

“My friends, I do not like to be stared at while saving lives, kindly disperse, all of you.”

“Young Master Shen, we’re just here to look, and we won’t disturb you.”

“That’s right. Earlier, we’ve heard that Young Master Shen’s medical skills are brilliant so we would like to have a glimpse of it.”

Shen Lian simply smiled and did not look annoyed. His body moved like a gust of wind, his speed was so quick that all the people could see was a blurry shadow.

The shadow circled around the surrounding bystanders and headed back to its original position. Now, everyone, including the few who spoke just now, were dumbfounded and they could not move at all.

It was only now that the customers remembered that Young Master Shen was not a walkover.

“I have this shortcoming of mine when people don’t listen to me, I get physical. Please forgive me for offending you all,” Shen Lian clapped his hands while he unhurriedly said, still being polite.

“If everyone had heard what I’ve said and is willing to conform, then blink your eyes, I’ll unlock your acupoints.” Shen Lian followed.

Once this was said, everyone blinked their eyes.

“Very good, I also have one more thing to say.”

The surrounding bystanders were afraid that Shen Lian might use some other tricks on them. However, now, they could not say or do anything. They have the intention to admit their mistakes, but they were completely helpless.

“If anyone is still dissatisfied after I unlocked their acupoints, I would like to ask everyone to join him in this blame so that he can repent in guilt. I think you all would not oppose to that.”

Once that was said, Shen Lian did what he promised. He unlocked their acupoints.

There two people who were dissatisfied. But in fear of drawing ire of the crowd, they did not react.

Each and everyone went on their way. Some among them witnessed just how formidable Shen Lian was, and had the intention to curry favors with him. They ordered the best dishes and liquors, and sat at their own table far away, hoping that Shen Lian could notice and leave a good impression on them.

Fundamentally, it was human’s nature to mistreat those who were kind and fear those who were severe. It is an unhealthy inferiority to be afraid of power and might, and not appreciative when being treated fairly.

Shen Lian had a great kind heart, therefore his methods were harsh.

He was not a bad person, but he was also not a spineless goody two shoes either. Even though Bodhisattva was merciful, but she was not always benevolent, kind, and followed the path of Manju ¹ . Bodhisattva had murdered 100,000 of the demon army but that did not undermine her merciful nature.

As for offending some of the customers that may be a loss to the inn’s business, that was not in Shen Lian’s consideration. He was in the secular mortal world and did not really care about riches and fame, there was no need for him to take it to heart.

Shen Lian focused his attention again back to the man in the junior officer uniform. He had an unruly stubble that suggested that he had not groom in a while, as from the other marks found on his body, it showed that he was a getaway fugitive.

There were thick calluses on the area between the right thumb and index finger, which meant either he practiced with a knife or a sword. But there was no weapon on him, it was probably that he had lost it some time ago. Besides the three needlepoints on his clothes, there were no other wounds on him. It was an easy guess that this person made his immediate escape after being wounded by the hidden weapon.

The most likely reason that his weapon was lost was either that it was not available at the point of incident, or it was thrust at the attacker to end the fight. This was enough to prove just how quick his opponent was and the decisive nature of this man in the junior officer uniform.

It also seemed that this could be categorized as a vendetta of Jianghu, and this man chose to come to this inn instead of other places was probably because of Shen Lian.

After all, the Shen Lian now was considered to have some sort of a title in Jianghu.

All of these were Shen Lian’s personal speculation which may not be accurate. He would also not let the man be in mortal danger and not lift a finger to help him.

He pursued Dao and his humanity had not vanished. If he remained aloof and just watched a life expire before his very eyes, he knew it was hard for him to do so.

Perhaps he would embark on the path of the pitiless sage, but now he was at least still human, a humane human.

After a short period of time, the man was lifted slightly, faced towards the basin of hot water and he vomited. The item being spewed up was a frozen blood clot, its color was purplish black which meant that it had poison in it.

It fell into the warm water and melted away, but there was still a whiff of the bloody scent.

Shen Lian was a little frustrated when he smelled it.

If the warm water had not melted the blood clot, the scent would be more intense, which would make it more uncomfortable for anyone who smelled it.