RAD Chapter 41

Hearing the sound, Luo Xiao and Ye Lan both turned their heads to look towards the doorway. There, they saw two white-haired old men strolling in one after the other.

“You Old Man Ouyang, why did you have to bring this guy along too?” Mr. Huo grumbled unhappily, “I don’t know why, but I’ve had this ominous feeling all day. It turns out because of this.”

Before Old Man Ouyang could even open his mouth, the other old man directly walked in and sat down in a chair, casually pouring himself a cup of tea. “What’s wrong, you old fox, you can’t even let people come in the door?”

“Hmph, you’ve already barged in, and you’re still showing odf. What are you showing off at your age? Can you not be so thick-faced for once?” Mr. Huo rolled his eyes. “Alright, spit it out, what business do you want to ask me for this time?”

“Hey, you old fox, do we really need to use the word ‘ask’ between us?” he glared at Mr. Huo. “I’ve come to bring you a gift this time!”

“A gift? Come on, we’ve known each other for over 40 years, and you’ve never even given me a gift, not even on holidays, not to mention on ordinary  days. You’re really just a stingy person!” Mr. Huo expressed his deep doubt. With this stingy person’s personality, who would believe him?

“Alright, alright, you two are both so old. Wy are you still acting like children!” Old Man Ouyang came forward to mediate calmly.

The truth is, these two have been at odds with each other since the first time they met, as if they were destined to be rivals. They jist disliked each other for no particular reason, bickering and quarreling for over 40 years. But regardless, to the eyes of outsider who didn’t know the situation, these two would certainly appear to be sworn enemies, with many people trying to exploit their relationship and scheme to get rid of the other.

However, no matter how much they can’t see eye to eye, they have never actually done anything to seriously wrong the other. In fact, they have secretly helped each other in private. Of course, without the other party’s knowledge.

But nothing in this world is absolute.

The two of them both know this, they just haven’t openly acknowledged it yet.

“Alright, just hurry up and say it, you iron rooster, what have you come for.” Mr. Huo put down his teacup and raised an eyebrow. “Oh right, you just said you brought a gift. First let’s take care of my disciple’s welcoming gift. And don’t forget about the gift for this Ye family kid as well.”

“I knew you’d say that.” The old man twitched his mouth. Sure enough, he is the old fox, never wanting to take the short end of the stick.

He waved to Luo Xiao and Ye Lan and readily pulled two items out of his pocket. “Here, these are your welcoming gifts.”

Seeing what he had taken out, Mr. Huo’s eyes immediately lit up. “Xiao Xiao, Ye kid, quick and take the gifts. And by the way, you can now thank this iron…no, I mean, thank Grandpa Yu.”

Yu? Luo Xiao remembered that when he went to Tongjia Village last time, Grandpa Ouyang mentioned the two words “Old Yu”. Could it be?

“En, thank you Grandpa Yu.” Luo Xiao and Ye Lan stepped forward respectfully to take the gifts, which turned out to be two jade tablets with different patterns carved on it. One could clearly see the spiritual energy circulating around them. Combined with their master’s earlier attitude, these were clearly no ordinary jade tablets.

Sure enough, Old Man Ouyang then teased, “Ah, Old Yu, what’s with you today? Actually being so generous to give out these two jade tablets? I remember when I asked you for one before, you pushed and shoved for the longest time before begrudgingly handing one over.”

“Hmph, I feel like doing it, what is it to you?” Old Man Yu raised his head, then immediately turned on the flattery mode as he looked at Mr. Huo, “Hehe, no, I mean, Great Master Huo, how about I give you your gift as well?”

Seeing his fawning expression, Mr. Huo couldn’t help but twitch his mouth. Why did he have a bad feeling about this?

With a slight nod, he saw an object being directly thrown at him by Old Yu. It landed accurately in Mr. Huo’s lap.

Picking it up, Mr. Huo examined it carefully. Oh, so that’s why this iron rooster was being so generous in handing out the two jade tablets. After all, there are only eight of these jade tablets in Jinmen, and it’s usually the sect leader who gives them out. Whoever holds a jade tablet can request a favor from the owner of the token, as long as it’s not unreasonable or unethical…

Without damaging their Jinmen interests, they will do their utmost to make it happen, even if it is very difficult.

Mreover, so far, only five of the eight jade tablets have been sent out, and two of them were just given to Luo Xiao and Ye Lan.

“You dead chicken, how did you end up with this thing?” Mr. Huo frowned and said hoarsely.

“This is also the reason why I brought him here to find you,” said Old Man Ouyang solemnly.

Luo Xiao and Ye Lan looked over at the business. They saw that Mr. Huo was holding a wooden puppet of some unknown material, with an unrecognizable pattern painted on it.

“This thing was found by my people at the designated location according to the clues you provided before.” Old Man Yu in a deep voice, “My people said that they only saw a person who had just died not long ago, and this wooden puppet, at the place they managed to find with great difficulty. After testing, the blood of that person has also been confirmed to be the blood of the fourth person.”

“And I have also summoned that person’s soul through necromancy and questioned him carefully,” Old Man Ouyang continued. “He, like the three family members, did not know whose blood the fifth person belonged to. But I also noticed a very strange thing.”

“A strange thing?” Mr. Huo raised an eyebrow.

“Yes.” Old Man Ouyang stroked his beard. “You all remember that the deceased male head of the household was born in 1964, right? But that person said he had known the head of the household for nearly twenty years. But the problem is, at that time, the male head of the household hadn’t even been born yet.”

“Nearly twenty years of time difference? How is that possible?” Mr. Huo was also greatly shocked after hearing this.

“Yes, I was also incredibly incredulous when I heard it. So I summoned the male head of the household’s soul as well, but the result was the same. I also confirmed through secret methods that they were both telling the truth.”

“I see.” Mr. Huo and the others all fell into deep thought.

In fact, Luo Xiao’s first reaction after hearing this was: Could it be that the male head of the household was also reborn? But this thought only flashed through his mind and he didn’t dwell on it. After all, rebirth these days is not as simple as buying something in the market.

“Master, this wooden puppet?” Luo Xiao felt very uncomfortable looking at this puppet with the strange pattern.

Mr. Huo placed the puppet on a side table and slowly began to speak: “Three hundred years ago, a sect calling itself the Holy Teachings suddenly rose up in the Western Frontier. It was composed entirely of young women in their twenties, and they were most adept at all kinds of witchcraft and curses. At that time, the entire country was in turmoil because of them, and many outstanding disciples of various sects met their demise.”

“In the end, it was only through the joint efforts of the major sects that this sect was exterminated. Unfortunately, the heavy blows suffered by the major sects have not been fully recovered even to this day.” Old Man Ouyang continued solemnly.

“But I remember very clearly that there should not have been any survivors at that time, right?” Old Man Yu frowned. “After all, according to the information that has been passed down, they burned it down thoroughly at the time and used various spells repeatedly to confirm that there was no omission.”

“But this wooden puppet’s craftsmanship is obviously from that sect, isn’t it?” Mr. Huo said with great confusion. After all, his own founding ancestor died because of the schemes of that sect. He could not possibly have remembered it wrong.

Old Man Ouyang’s face became serious, “Could it be that the extermination back then was not thorough enough, and someone must have used some method to successfully escape the search, leaving behind this stray fish that slipped through the net.”

“If that’s the case, I’m afraid the tragedy of that year may be reenacted again.” Old Man Yu took a deep breath. Given that even the major sects at the peak of their power were unable to completely eliminate them back then, how could the weaker ones now possibly completely defeat the other side? Moreover, some sects have already vanished into the long river of history!

“Oh right, you dead fox, can you divine with this wooden puppet?” Old Man Yu pointed to the puppet on the table.

Mr. Huo looked at it and said uncertainly, “I’ll give it a try.”

Mr. Huo took out his ancient copper coins and began the divination. Luo Xiao felt the changes in the spiritual energy in the air, and suddenly he sensed a sudden riot of spiritual power. Master!

“You dead fox, are you alright?” Old Man Yu rushed forward the moment he sensed something was wrong, just in time to support Mr. Huo as a mouthful of fresh blood spurted out.

“Master!”

“Old Man Huo!”

“Grandpa Huo!”

Mr. Huo waved his hand, taking the handkerchief Luo Xiao handed him to calmly wipe the blood at the corner of his mouth: “I’m fine, don’t worry. Alright, let me tell you the results of my divination. Through the divination just now, I couldn’t fully divine who the practitioner behind this is. Because in addition to feeling a very obvious obstructing force, there was also a trace of anti-tracking power.”

“Ah? There’s such a thing?” Old Man Ouyang couldn’t help but furrow his brow, “Then what information did you divine?”

“A woman dressed in red.” Mr. Huo spoke slowly, “And there was a strong aura of bloodshed around her. As for anything else, there really wasn’t anything else.”

“I see, okay, I understand.” Old Man Yu already had an idea in his heart. “I’ll have my people be more careful.”

Afterwards, the three old masters started discussing some other matters. Luo Xiao and Ye Lan saw that they didn’t have anything else, so the two of them went to the study to continue their studies. After all, their current identity was that of students, and the most important thing was to study hard and make progress every day!