Chapter 24: Like a Ghost, Like a Buddha
“Oh?”
Yan Qing glanced at Xue Yan and the group of ‘strange NPCs’ he had seen in the ga, but he didn’t pay them any mind.
The content of his conversation with An Wu wasn’t important—what mattered was that An Wu could accurately identify the account ‘Yan Qing’ and respond correctly according to the plan Yan Qing had previously set up in ‘Automatic Evolution’.
According to his settings, only when he personally appeared and said the secret phrase “An Wu, I’m here” would An Wu report the current progress of the plan—if even one condition was missing, the feedback program wouldn’t execute.
If An Wu failed to recognize him, then Yan Qing would suffer a huge embarrassnt in front of Black Wolf and the others.
Fortunately, the test result was very satisfying—identity recognition, voice recognition, and secret phrase recognition all worked, which ant that even without the ga console, Yan Qing could trigger the ‘backdoor’ of his alternate character via the secret phrase and then control it through voice commands.
Although Yan Qing didn’t care about what An Wu said, dicine Master Wen certainly didn’t ignore it: “What were they complaining about?”
Naturally, An Wu didn’t have a response program for dicine Master Wen’s questions, so Yan Qing explained on his behalf: “An Wu rescued them, but they still complained he ca too late. Maybe they were even upset that An Wu didn’t give them the Healing Pill sooner.”
Healing Pill!
Yan Qing spoke casually—after all, he truly didn’t care about Healing Pills. Who cared about the lowest-tier red potion in a ga?
But for those like dicine Master Wen, who were in the know, a raging storm brewed in their hearts.
It was important to know that the Healing Pill had a folk nickna: the Immortality Pill!
aning that as long as one took this pill, no matter how severe the injuries, they could be saved—even if the heart was pierced, it could still forcefully sustain life!
Even with the statuses of dicine Master Wen, Ying Ru Shi, and Shang Xinlei, the number of Healing Pills they could obtain each month could be counted on one hand—and they even needed to apply for them.
One of the reasons dicine Master Wen had been able to establish the Embroidered Guard was because she could obtain a certain amount of Healing Pills from her father as startup resources.
Such a precious pill, yet Yan Qing had used it to save strangers—it was simply… too extravagant!
dicine Master Wen followed the trail of fire oil and blood on the ground, all the way to the giant iron door in the inner hall that led underground.
Combined with the previous rumors of human trafficking at Anguo Temple, she had already deduced most of the truth.
She glanced at Xue Yan’s group—she had even t a few of them before. They were all descendants of mid-to-upper-level officials and noble families in the court.
However, dicine Master Wen felt no sympathy for them.
Although they were victims, from their appearances alone it was clear they were nothing but parasites born into noble clans.
dicine Master Wen even felt that saving this group would only result in them eating more of Chang’an’s fine rice.
“You… what are you doing?”
“I’m the nephew of Grand Minister of Agriculture Su Ling—if you save , the Su family will surely reward you handsoly!”
Seeing dicine Master Wen, whose vital energy was fierce and murderous intent chilling, walk toward them, many were so frightened they fell to the ground, either begging for rcy or making threats—but not a single one dared to resist or escape.
Witnessing such an ugly scene, dicine Master Wen felt even more disgusted.
Just as she raised her spear, a tiny young girl mustered her courage, stepped forward, and shouted, “Not everyone was complaining! I’m really grateful he saved us!”
Terrified by dicine Master Wen’s murderous aura, Xue Yan finally ca to his senses and quickly spoke up, “Yes—yes! To repay An Wu and An Liu for saving my life, I’m willing to do anything!”
Yan Qing didn’t care about these strangers, so he hadn’t intervened when Black Wolf wanted to act.
But hearing Xue Yan’s words sparked a bit of interest in him: “You said you’re willing to do anything?”
Xue Yan instantly understood what Yan Qing ant and turned to the others, saying, “I’m willing—aren’t you all willing too?”
“Yes—we’re willing!”
“I’ll pay any amount of money—my father is Wang Yuanhai!”
“We can’t repay such a lifesaving grace—whatever you ask, we will fulfill it!”
The others, understanding the situation, quickly voiced agreent under Xue Yan’s prompting.
That terrifying man in the Black Wolf mask already had his spear raised—if they didn’t bow their heads now, they’d be dead!
“Black Wolf, they might still be of so use—let them go,” Yan Qing said with a smile.
What kind of tone was that? Are you treating like your subordinate!?
dicine Master Wen really wanted to kill this entire group and slap Yellow Dog in the face, but since Yellow Dog said they had value, she chose reason over rage.
She glared at Xue Yan and the others, then let out a cold snort and returned to Yan Qing’s group.
“There are over ten jars of fire oil here. Later, An Wu and the others will splash fire oil over every exit of Anguo Temple. If you want to help, pick up the fire oil and follow them to help splash it around. But they’ll be blocking all exits to the temple, so if you plan to escape, you’ll have to return to the main gate and leave with us.”
The nobles all agreed repeatedly, many of their thoughts wavering — reaching the exit ant they could leave directly, as for An Wu and the others guarding the doors — with a temple gate as large as Anguo Temple's, how could they possibly block it?
Although Yan Qing didn’t know what they were thinking, asking them for help was just a spur-of-the-mont move; even if it was entirely useless, he wouldn’t mind, and if it worked, then saving them wouldn’t have been in vain.
Passing by An Wu and the others, Yan Qing said, “As planned.”
“Yes.”
An Wu lifted a can of fire oil with one hand and walked out of the inner hall without looking back.
An Liu and the others followed closely behind.
Seeing this, the nobles hurried after them, but at a cold snort from dicine Master Wen, their hearts skipped a beat and they obediently helped Xue Yan carry the fire oil cans.
Miss Yang San didn’t rush out.
She saw Yan Qing draw his blade and slash off the lock on the treasury door inside Anguo Temple, and instinctively wanted to say sothing, but the next mont she was dragged away by Xue Yan.
“Haven’t you heard? ‘Do not look at what is improper, do not listen to what is improper, do not speak of what is improper!’”
Xue Yan shoved a fire oil can into her arms.
“Just don’t concern yourself with a filthy place like Anguo Temple!”
Miss Yang San said, “But the treasury holds the belongings of various families—”
“Do you really think they’re good people?
After we pour the fire oil, let’s get out fast.
With a cri this huge, not even your father would dare touch it!”
Carrying the fire oil can, Xue Yan ran outside and at first glance saw the corpses on the ground — their deaths grueso, blood pooling everywhere — and the sight nearly made him vomit.
If his stomach hadn’t been empty, he probably really would have.
As he looked up, his expression changed instantly.
“Not good!”
He saw several monks gathered at the main gate, just about to open it and flee.
These monks weren’t fools; seeing Yan Qing and his group of killers enter the inner hall and not co out for a while, they naturally sought an opportunity to escape this place of disaster.
An Wu’s mission was to block the main gate and prevent anyone from leaving.
He hurled the fire oil can toward the gate, then drew his blade and unleashed Moonring Slash!
The armor-breaking, stone-splitting Moonring Slash landed on the monks, but had no effect at all.
Clearly, the rule of bypassing the main city's protection only applied between “thieves” and “non-thieves,” and since An Wu and the monks were both “non-thieves,” they still abided by the city’s laws and could not harm each other.
An Wu wasn’t surprised and charged toward the monks with large strides.
At such a life-and-death mont, even a rabbit would bite, let alone the warrior monks raised by Anguo Temple?
Seeing An Wu charge at them, they roared and tried to block him.
But the next second, they scread in terror and fled like they had seen a ghost!
Because An Wu had caught fire.
He had only one usable left arm left, now drenched in fire oil and transford into a torch, illuminating this dim Anguo Temple with its shut windows and doors even in broad daylight.
Any warrior monk splashed with fire oil would ignite instantly if even slightly brushed by An Wu’s flas, and even rolling on the ground couldn’t extinguish it.
A small gap had opened in Anguo Temple’s main gate.
An Wu walked over and stood in front of it.
The ground beneath him was soaked in fire oil, and though his hands were crippled, not a single monk dared to approach!
At the side and back doors of Anguo Temple, the sa scene played out.
An Liu, An Qi, An Ba, and An Jiu all had their hands soaked in fire oil, their bodies used as fuel to ignite ghostly flas, blocking every exit.
Even the monks’ eloquence and flowery words couldn’t shake them the slightest.
The monks couldn’t get out, and the nobles were naturally trapped too.
So monks, noticing they were the “goods” who escaped from the dungeon, tried to capture them, forcing them to fight back.
As they fled, they splashed fire oil on the monks.
Before long, fire oil covered everything in Anguo Temple, from the ground to the beams.
Xue Yan and Miss Yang San poured a circle of fire oil around the gate, scaring the monks even further back, not daring to approach.
Looking at An Wu blocking the entrance, Xue Yan swallowed hard and trembled as he said, “An, An Wu, could you move aside a bit so we can go out?”
An Wu showed no expression.
He didn’t respond or even look at them.
“Alright then, we’ll wait for your boss to co out and leave together.”
Miss Yang San suddenly said, “You can stop now, right?
If you keep burning, even your left hand will be gone.
Doesn’t it hurt?”
An Wu, who had remained unmoved by everything before, suddenly looked at Miss Yang San, startling Xue Yan into pulling the girl behind him.
But before Xue Yan could apologize, he saw a smile appear on An Wu’s face.
“If soone still cares, then it’s not too bad.”
He muttered to himself, then said to them, “It doesn’t hurt.”
“I don’t feel a thing.”
Xue Yan looked at the boy before him, who wasn’t much older than himself, whose face had been burned beyond recognition, whose hands had turned to charcoal, and suddenly felt a strong sense of déjà vu, as if he had seen soone like him before.
But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t recall it.
Suddenly, a ray of sunlight pierced his eyes.
Xue Yan looked up and saw that a small hole had been broken in the high wall of Anguo Temple at so point.
Around the hole was a mural of a mighty and majestic Dragon-Subduing Arhat holding a vajra and a rope, surrounded by fiery clouds, embodying both compassion and majesty.
The hole happened to be in the Arhat’s left eye, and sunlight passed through the gap, shining into the dark ancient temple that had stood for a century.
As if the Dragon-Subduing Arhat were gazing upon the world.
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