Chapter 98 - Visiting Nan Luo
Nan Hua looked at the meat in front of her before glancing to the tree nearby. "Clean up the rest. I'm going to Luo."
"Yes."
Swish!
Nan Hua packed everything into the wooden place that Xiao Yun prepared for her before she disappeared once more. There was no need to be a genius to know that she was surely infiltrating the main premise in order to meet with Nan Luo and passed the food to eat together.
Tep.
From the tree, Hou Lin jumped down. He was tasked by Old Master Nan to carefully watched the two children. All this time, he had been doing his job and monitored them from the darkness without interfering since Hou Liang could clean up this little mess they created.
But now that he was being ordered directly, Hou Lin could only sigh and did his work as told. The mess that Nan Hua left behind were quickly cleared up until there was no sign that someone barbequed meat here.
'…Does she really need protection, Old Master?'
Sometimes, Hou Lin was doubting his life. When he saw how fast he could lose Nan Hua if not for Nan Luo's presence near her, he would have long doubted his life. While Nan Hua's overall strength was low, in terms of concealed weapon and hiding her presence… she was much better than all assassins he had met in his life.
The problem was…
That girl was ******** only 9 years old!
To be able to become an exceptional assassin at such tender age, Hou Lin had long doubted his own skill. How come he always failed to detect Nan Hua even though he was the one who was supposed to be an expert at covert activities?
Hou Lin sighed and swiftly disappeared to watch over the two children once more.
This time, he had to enter the main premise of the temple.
Swish!
Nan Hua was being very careful. As she entered the main temple, her movement halted for a moment as her gaze landed on the main hall. There were many people who often said that monks were weak because they only chanted and copied scripture all the time.
But it was wrong.
History recorded that temple was also one of the places where martial arts would develop. What originally started as a method to increase their health soon turned them into powerful martial arts who were capable of holding on their own against many others.
This was why stories regarding martial arts from temples began to spread.*
And right now, Nan Hua clearly sensed the presence of a powerful martial artist from the main temple. That person was hiding his strength but her keen senses still could detect him.
Nan Hua carefully waited.
She had to make sure that the powerful expert didn't interfere as she slipped into the side hall. The other monks were not that powerful as many of them didn't learn martial arts that much. Only a handful of them were genuinely powerful.
Screech!
Pushing the door to the side, Nan Hua entered the side hall. Similar to the main hall, the side hall was also at a considerable size and there was a Buddha statue at the center. There were several tables for praying along some other smaller ones for copying scriptures.
Nan Luo was sitting behind one of them.
"Luo."
"Hua'er?" Nan Luo was stunned and quickly turned his body. His face lit up almost immediately when he saw Nan Hua walked closer to him, but he failed to stand up since his legs were in kneeling position.
It couldn't be helped as the tables were low.
"What are you doing here?" Nan Luo asked worriedly. "If they found out, they'll punish you along with me."
"They won't find me." Nan Hua pushed the food contained that she carried. "Let's eat."
Nan Luo then realized he hadn't eaten anything since morning. Because their activity was halted in the middle during their hunt, there was no time for them to cook and eat the meat.
He hugged Nan Hua, who was staying beside him. "Hua'er is the best! I know you love your twin brother the most!"
Nan Hua didn't say anything and let Nan Luo hugged her. Her eyes landed on the scripture before Nan Luo as she realized that Nan Luo took an extremely long time to copy everything down. He only wrote very little compared to the actual amount he had to copy.
"Let's eat!" Nan Luo said excitedly. When he noticed the large amount of meat, he was stunned. "Hua'er, did you hunt again?"
"There's a boar nearby when I pick the rabbit meat." Nan Hua passed a look at Nan Luo. "Eat a lot."
"Of course I'll eat a lot. Hua'er, you too should eat."
"Mhm."
The twins ate the food. Nan Luo actually felt very full but he still stuffed himself with more food. Since Nan Hua was the one to prepare it, he would not waste even the slightest bit! On the other hand, Nan Hua began to wonder whether it was actually too much to hunt a rabbit and a boar at once.
The amount of food was a bit too much.
After it was done, Nan Hua cleaned up the container while Nan Luo continued to copy. "I'll bring some tea."
"Be careful."
"Mhm."
Bang!
The door was suddenly opened and Nan Luo furrowed his eyebrows. He turned his head around only to see the monk from before appearing before him. He sneered and crossed his arms. "What is it? I'm not done yet."
"You're slow." The monk was looking around but found nothing. He swore that he heard the sound of Nan Luo talking and thought that there was someone else inside. But when he pushed the door open, there was no one but Nan Luo inside the temple.
This made him confused.
Nan Luo snorted. He looked at the incense stick by his side and silently lit it up. The smell of food was mixed with the smell of incense, but he knew that experts would be able to differentiate them.
Thankfully, this one monk didn't seem to be that good at martial arts.
"I'm different from you who have copied so many scriptures, Monk."
The monk clicked his tongue. After making sure that there was really no one inside the room, he got out once more.
Nan Luo turned his body around and saw Nan Hua appearing from behind the statue. He smiled wryly. "That's a close one. Careful, Hua'er."
"En."
With that, Nan Hua disappeared and only came back later on to bring tea for Nan Luo. After that, she helped him to copy the scripture. Copying his handwriting was not difficult and with her help, they could finish much faster.
Nan Luo felt a bit bad, though. Nan Hua herself didn't mind since this was coincidentally a scripture that she herself wanted to copy.
Thus, it was harmonious within the side temple.
…
Western Courtyard.
But the same thing couldn't be said for the Western Courtyard, specifically the location of Nan Family members.
Prang!
"You're saying that Aunt Mo is beaten to death?" Concubine Qu's body quivered in anger. She had personally instructed Aunt Mo to keep the two brats in place but the news she got actually her maidservants' death.
"Y…yes…" the servant was trembling in fear.
"Useless!" Concubine Qu spat out angrily. "Just how hard is it to take care two brats? You can't even control the situation and let her die? Why don't you also got beaten to death, instead?"
Prang!
Another porcelain was thrown to the ground in Concubine Qu's anger. Aunt Mo had been following her ever since she was young and helped her many times in Nan Family Residence. How come she failed to deal with two snot nosed brats?
The servant trembled and tried her best to speak, "This… Commander Hou is attacking Aunt Mo from the very beginning and didn't let her to argue much. Because of that, Aunt Mo failed to deal with the two brats…."
…
(A/N)
The fact that there are martial arts in temples (for example Shaolin Temple) actually start around 464 AD. At that time, Bodhidharma came from Southern India and taught martial arts in order to increase the health of the monk. This was why there are a lot of martial art experts coming from temples, named as Kung Fu. There were many different styles in accordance to the area of China and this is the reason there are many martial arts story that start from temple.
I myself read some of them :p
These temples had a lot of influence until Boxer Rebellions during Qing Dynasty (the last dynasty). At that time, most of the temples in the main area (Shaolin Temples are the one who got the most brunt) were burned and ransacked. They only continued again many years later to preserve the legacy.
For more details, you can search for it by yourself in the internet.