Taoist priest in the foggy capital

Yujing is the capital of the empire.

The city got this name because when a cultivator dug out twelve towering jade pillars from the ground when the city was built here.

As the capital of a vast empire, although it has been invaded and looted by foreign enemies, from the outside it still looks great and unshakable.

The turmoil caused by the Eight-Nation Alliance ended just a week ago, but there is no longer any suspicion of war here. People live and move around as usual, as if the war happened a hundred years ago.

The security at the city gate has been stepped up in recent days. Several officers who appear to be of high rank are standing at the gate, staring sharply at everyone passing by the city gate.

Even the trunks of passing horse-drawn carriages and the straw on ox-drawn carts had to be turned over and carefully inspected to prevent anyone from hiding in the straw or on the planks of the carriage.

Those weird tricks have become commonplace in the thousands of years of history and legend, like the hat magic that has been worn out by people, which only makes people yawn after watching it for a long time, and there is no sense of novelty or surprise at all.

However, the people have long been accustomed to this kind of scene. In Yujing, if you throw a brick at random, it will surely knock down a group of high-ranking officials.
Their lives continued in this tense atmosphere, just as before.

Yujing, this ancient and great city, is still immersed in its long-lasting dream.

In the past few days, the city gate guard Ruan Jinwu has picked out many dangerous people from the crowd.

As mentioned before, no matter how weird the tricks or gimmicks are, after being performed thousands of times, they will just seem boring and clumsy.

Even though Ruan Jinwu had never seen some tricks of stealing things and passing through city gates in disguise, these so-called tricks had been told about so many times by storytellers that even children on the street could recite a few tricks and methods.

In the past few days, he has caught a bandit who disguised himself as a farmer, a member of the White Lotus Sect who pretended to be a fortune teller, and a wanted criminal who disguised himself as an actor and mixed in with the theater troupe.

Speaking of the imperial prisoner who disguised himself as an actor, Ruan Jinwu still wants to laugh when he thinks about it now.

Because that guy was so stupid. His face was painted white, as if he had smeared some wall dust on it, but his hands were dark and rough. If a pair of hands like that were stretched out from his costume, wouldn't the children be scared to tears?

When Ruan Jinwu was laughing, his officers and soldiers hurriedly came forward to report: "Sir, there is something wrong with a group of people. We have stopped them."

"Something's wrong?"

Ruan Jinwu rubbed the corners of his eyes. No one could escape his sharp eyes.

He followed the soldiers to the city gate and saw that the people who were stopped were three men and one woman, all riding on horses.

The leader was arrogant, short, thin, and had a mean look on his face.

He was wearing a dark jacket with a gold watch chain on it. As if afraid that others might not notice, half of the dial of the golden pocket watch in his breast pocket was visible.

He also wore several rings on his fingers, red, green and gold, sparkling. This made people understand why he wore sunglasses, because he was afraid that he would flash if he raised his hand.

"dismount."

Ruan Jinwu stepped forward and signaled Liu Banxian to dismount.

He had seen many dignitaries and wealthy men, and he knew that these people were no different from ordinary people, so he was not afraid of these "big shots" who looked very impressive like ordinary people.

Liu Banxian ignored his instructions and turned to Yin Xiu unhappily, "How many years have I not been back?"

"Master Liu, seven years."

"That's no wonder."

Liu Banxian opened the fan with a snap. On it was a painting of a green water unicorn. Each scale of the unicorn was inlaid with gold powder, and its eyes were painted with emeralds, shining brightly in the sunlight.

"No wonder?" Ruan Jinwu said with a gloomy face.

"No wonder you don't recognize your Master Liu!"

Liu Banxian almost poked the fan into Ruan Jinwu's eyes.

Ruan Jinwu was neither humble nor arrogant, he just stepped on Liu Banxian and said, "I've never heard of you."

"It's ok!"

Liu Banxian put the fan back and touched his nose. "Your Master Liu doesn't recognize you either. Let's be even. Come to my house for a cup of tea when you have time, sir."

As Liu Banxian was about to leave with his horse, Ruan Jinwu still stopped them.

"Any other questions?" Liu Banxian frowned.

"According to regulations, we need to check."

"Check what!?"

Liu Banxian spread his hands, "We each brought nothing except a package, so what is there to check!"

"Then you have brought the package?"

"Ah!"

Liu Banxian sneered, "We've already shown you that we're carrying packages, do you think it's necessary to check? Or are we afraid of you checking?"

Ruan Jinwu shouted, "If you are not afraid of my inspection, why don't you dismount and accept it?"

Liu Banxian also raised his voice, "If they were afraid of your inspection, would they still be here without fear of your inspection?"

"If you are not afraid of my inspection, why are you afraid of my inspection?"

"Since I..."

Seeing that Liu Banxian and the officer were going to argue for who knows how long, Ren Qi interrupted him and said mysteriously, "Master Liu, your banquet with Elder Jinhuan is almost over. If you miss it, it will be difficult to explain to him."

Hearing this name, Ruan Jinwu and the soldiers' faces changed slightly.

The Old Man with Golden Ring is actually an elegant name for Dongmen Beile.

Because Dongmen Beile offended the emperor, he was not called a prince like others, but was a Beile for his entire life.

However, he didn't care much about it and just played with his antiques all day long, so he gave himself the nickname of Old Man Golden Ring.

He seemed like a hermit living in Yujing, or like one of the legendary ghosts that only appeared at night. Although he was a royal relative, few people could remember his name.

He is the kind of person who often starts with "Have you heard of him?" and by the end others have almost scratched their heads before they can remember him.

Precisely because he is little known but quite legendary, when Ren Qi mentioned this name, people did not think he was mentioning it in vain, but instead believed that this Mr. Liu was indeed a wealthy man.

Because Old Man Jinhuan would hold several banquets every month, and would invite all the prominent figures.

"Or we can just let them go..."

A soldier whispered to Ruan Jinwu for instructions.

However, Ruan Jinwu was not the kind of person who would turn a blind eye. He could not tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes and would never look down on anyone.

Of course he let Liu Banxian go, but he became suspicious of Ren Qi.

"Nine feet tall, with six swords on your back, and from the north, you look a lot like the wanted criminal, Ren Qi."

Liu Banxian immediately felt a tightness on his back, and Ma Xiaoyu and Yin Xiu also put their hands into her skirt.

"You touched the wrong place." Ma Xiaoyu whispered.

"is it?"

Yin Xiu rubbed his hand and said, "Should I take it back?"

Ma Xiaoyu glanced at him and said, "If a man took his hand out of a girl's skirt in public and someone saw it, wouldn't that girl be very embarrassed?"

"Then I understand."

So Yin Xiu kept his hands down. They were all making preparations, but Ren Qi, the protagonist at the center of the storm, was very calm and composed.

Not only did he not defend himself, he asked Ruan Jinwu instead: "What about you? What would you do if you were wanted?"

"I'm not wanted."

"I mean, what if, what if you were wanted? Would you stay home or run away?"

"Of course I'll run away! If I don't run away, I'll die."

A soldier immediately answered, which earned him an angry look from Ruan Jinwu.

"Even if he runs away, so what?"

"You know how to run away. If even you know how to run away, why would Ren Qi come to Yujing again? And if I were Ren Qi, I should have run away long ago."

Ruan Jinwu felt that this made sense, but he was unwilling to admit his mistake, so he continued to grab Ren Qi's clothes.

"But I know that the traitor Ren Qi is carrying six swords, and you also carry six swords."

"So how many legs does your dad have?"

Ruan Jinwu stretched out two fingers blankly.

Ren Qi hesitated to speak, and finally gave a cold smile.

Ruan Jinwu's face turned from white to red and he was about to explode when someone finally came to rescue him.

"Sir, in my opinion, he is indeed not like Ren Qi. After all, Ren Qi is a person who is very good at running away and hiding. A person like him would be busy hiding here and there, so why would he come here to die?"

What he said certainly made sense, so even though Ruan Jinwu was very angry, he could only nod his head to show his agreement.

You know, he can still reason here, but in the deep palace of Yujing Palace, reasoning is a very luxurious thing.

So he waved his hand, signaling Yin Xiu and his group to hurry over.

After all, as common sense would surmise, how could a wanted criminal walk into the city gate so brazenly without any disguise?
Such a person is either a fool or a madman.

After Ruan Jinwu let the group of people pass, he immediately took a few quick steps, picked out a bandit dressed as a woman from the crowd, and stomped on the man's face hard on the ground, not letting the man scream in pain and not letting go.

"Don't look back."

Ren Qi suppressed Liu Banxian's curiosity.

Liu Banxian wiped the sweat from his head and let out a long sigh.

"Oh, I'm scared to death, Brother Yin. If ten people hear your idea, eleven of them will call you crazy."

He still patted his chest, "How could someone who is wanted walk in like this?"

"But didn't you just answer him fluently?"

"That's because Uncle has a quick mind! If it were someone else, he would have been caught and whipped by now."

As he spoke, Liu Banxian couldn't help but admire himself again, "I am really an amazing and smart person. Even if someone else, such as the Prime Minister or the Daotai, could have reacted half as well as I did just now, he would already be considered a genius."

"Yes Yes Yes."

Yin Xiu nodded perfunctorily and asked Ren Qi: "Where do we live?"

Ren Qi already had a plan.

Nowadays, if you stay in an inn, there will be too many people and too many eyes.

You have to know that restaurants and inns are places where information circulates. Many heroes may stay in a certain place this afternoon, and in the evening an invitation will be delivered to their room to invite them to a banquet.

On the one hand, the local tyrants wanted to show their respect for this hero, and on the other hand, it was also a subtle warning to the other party that whatever they did was under the eyes of others and could not be concealed.

Therefore, we cannot stay in inns or restaurants now, so as not to be noticed.

There was only one suitable location left in the city—the Ren family mansion.

"Ren family mansion?"

Not to mention Liu Banxian who was frightened and broke out in a cold sweat, even Yin Xiu looked strange.

"What, what's the problem?"

Ren Qi said coldly: "When I was still in Yujing, that place was already quieter than a haunted house. Even rats and cockroaches didn't go there."

"Are there zombies in the Ren family mansion?" Liu Banxian asked cautiously.

"Do you think everyone with the last name Ren will become a zombie?"

Ren Qi glared at him fiercely, "It's not my house where two massacres took place."

His expression was calm when he said this, as if the tragic family massacre that affected the rest of his life had nothing to do with him.

“That’s my grandfather’s house. People here call him Old Master Ren, so the house is also called Grandfather Ren’s Mansion.

But because a series of unlucky things happened later, people nearby regarded it as a haunted house, so they just called it Ren Family Mansion. "

"So, this is a vacant house?" Liu Banxian thought.

“It can’t be called an empty house, anyway, it’s fully furnished. Even when the family was divided, my father and several uncles didn’t dare to take anything from there, for fear of being contaminated by bad luck.

Later, I heard that the Buddhist masters in Yujing went there to visit several times, but all of them died in accidents. From then on, even the people living near the house moved away one after another.

So I think it should be safe there, enough for us to rest.”

For some reason, the words "death zone" came to Yin Xiu's mind.

However, if it is true as Ren Qi said, then the Ren family mansion is indeed the most suitable place for them.

So they followed Ren's twists and turns, from the bustling urban area, gradually turning into a dilapidated area that was almost deserted.

The Ren family mansion is located among these dilapidated buildings, appearing complete and solemn.

Liu Banxian adjusted his sunglasses and said, "Oh, the Ten Evils."

Yin Xiu was curious, "I've only heard of the Three Evil Positions, what are the Ten Evil Positions?"

"It's similar to the Three Evils, except there are seven more."

Liu Banxian explained: "Generally speaking, if we say a house has bad feng shui, it is in conflict with Tai Sui and sits in the position of Sansha, which means it has offended Jiesha, Zaisha and Suisha.

Normally in this kind of house, the Yang people are restless and the Yin people are restless. If all ten evil spirits gather together, it will be even more terrible. Am I right, Master Brother?"

Ren Qi nodded, feeling no attachment to the house where he had spent his precious childhood.

"My father married six wives here, and five of them died."

"That's really unfortunate."

Liu Banxian said with a sigh, "The remaining wife must be very lucky and can withstand this situation. According to the physiognomy book, things will turn into opposites when they reach their extremes, and yin will give birth to yang. The child she gives birth to will definitely be a good person."

Ren Qi glanced at him and said, "That woman is my mother."

"I'll tear up the photo album when I get back." (End of this chapter)