Chapter 304: Ascending Mount Liang

The streaking incident had caused such a commotion that news of it spread throughout the entire Imperial Capital in just one day. The next day in Deer Villa, Yan Liqiang heard someone talking about it. This rumor had a number of versions to it. One of the versions was that an expert cultivating in the mountains had fallen into Qi deviation, thus leading to streaking in madness. Another version said that the person in question had lost his senses because of love, resulting in frantic streaking. However, the third version, which was the most widely circulated in the public, was a combination of the first and second version. The third version was that the streaking man was indeed an expert who fell in love with a woman named Cui Hua at the same time. The day he lost his senses and went streaking was he heard news of Cui Hua marrying someone else. During his cultivation, he fell into Qi deviation, thus leading to that horrific episode.

In any case, Fang Beidou’s performance yesterday had caused quite a stir in the Imperial Capital city.

The only thing that gave Yan Liqiang some relief was that Fang Beidou wasn’t caught even after running around the Imperial Capital in his naked state. Simultaneously, no one knew that the streaking man was Fang Beidou himself despite the fact that the rumor was heavily discussed.

However, Yan Liqiang was still unable to derive any joy from the event because of the dubious nature of the words that Fang Beidou told him the other day. He was a bit skeptical and wouldn’t dare to believe his words entirely. If a stranger suddenly came out and told you that you were a savior of the world and wanted to save the world with you, that sort of thing might’ve still been able to deceive quite a number of people in this era. But for Yan Liqiang who had lived two lives and had seen numerous tricksters and swindlers, he wasn’t burning with righteous indignation, nor did he develop any noble thoughts in his head. More importantly, Yan Liqiang knew what would happen after four years. At this moment, he had no clue how much he could change the world with his own power, or how many people he could save. During these few days, he was vexed from thinking about this issue almost every day. The only way to take his mind off from that was to use cultivation to occupy himself. Yan Liqiang did not have the confidence to bear the heavy responsibility of saving the nation and its people. He particularly did not like being taken hostage by morality. Wasn’t this sort of thing that an Emperor, a Grand Chancellor, or all those historical relics and peerless heroes would do? What about a nameless nobody like him who had just advanced to Supreme Martial Warrior with no power or authority?

Initially, the reason why Yan Liqiang said those things to Fang Beidou was to make him quiet after learning how difficult it would be. After all, Tang Niu from Stephen Chow’s movie didn’t really go in front of everyone in the elevator to defecate.

However, what surprised Yan Liqiang was that Fang Beidou really stripped himself naked and ran around the Imperial Capital in broad daylight with such flawlessness, resolution, and determination, leaving everything behind him…

It wasn’t until this moment that Yan Liqiang felt that he had done a foolish thing. He dug a pit in an attempt to intimidate Fang Beidou, but he didn’t expect that this person would actually have the courage to jump into the pit. At that point, Yan Liqiang realized that he had been dragged into the pit as well. He couldn’t keep himself out of the business anymore and remain indifferent toward the matter.

Three days later, taking advantage of his afternoon break, Yan Liqiang came to Mount Xiaoyun once again.

The difference between this visit and three days ago was that Yan Liqiang felt that he wasn’t going up Mount Xiaoyun this time, but Mount Liang.

“How can you be this stupid and make him run around naked? You should have made him do more difficult things, like comparing strength with him, or make him collect all seven dragon balls, or make him build a railgun. Any of those is better than having him streak through the city. This is just great, you have dug yourself a pit…” Yan Liqiang sighed while walking on the trail behind Mount Xiaoyun.

The sunlight today was bright. Birds were chirping endlessly in the mountain forest. Wild flowers were blossoming everywhere and the scenery was great. Even so, Yan Liqiang was not in the mood to go for an outing at this moment.

This path was the same one he had trekked three days ago, so he was basically familiar with the trail. Yan Liqiang kept on walking and quickly arrived at the dilapidated White Dragon Temple.

The gate to the White Dragon Temple was tightly shut. Yan Liqiang approached the gate and gently knocked on it a few times. After a while, he heard subtle footsteps coming from the temple toward the gate. This was followed by a pair of eyes that peeked through the crack on the door as they peered outside with caution. When the other person realized it was Yan Liqiang, he then opened the gate with a clack.

The person who appeared in front of Yan Liqiang was none other than Fang Beidou. However, compared to the Fang Beidou from several days ago, this Fang Beidou was in a completely different disguise.

The clothing that Fang Beidou was wearing wasn’t a robe but a long normal gown. The daoist bun hairstyle on his head had also been unraveled, which turned into a normal hairstyle. Even Fang Beidou’s long beard was gone as a bushy beard had taken its place.

Of course, Fang Beidou could not have grown that much facial hair in just three days. Because of that, Yan Liqiang could instantly tell that the beard on Fang Beidou’s face was fake. It had been attached to his face.

Three days ago, Fang Beidou was being pretentious to Yan Liqiang with his sage-like behavior under the pine tree. He didn’t expect that he would appear like a wanted fugitive three days later after looking at him.

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Yan Liqiang, who was previously gloomy, wanted to laugh after looking at Fang Beidou’s change in appearance. However, he forced himself to hold back his laughter and said his first words in an indifferent tone, “Cough… cough… I didn’t expect you to change your look. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“My lord, I have already completed your first order. Is there something else you want me to do?” Fang Beidou looked at Yan Liqiang with a piercing gaze as he spoke vehemently.

“Well… let’s talk inside!” Yan Liqiang entered the daoist temple as Fang Beidou locked the gate behind him.

Under the same pine tree and the same table, Yan Liqiang sat down and took out a stack of silver promissory notes from his chest and slammed them on the table.

These silver promissory notes were the ones from the Datong Monetary House. Each note had the face value of 10,000. Altogether, there were ten notes. They were a part of the silver promissory notes that Yan Liqiang had previously raked in from the Shatu people in Pingxi City, which was 490,000 in total. Hence, these silver promissory notes were only a part of that.

100,000 in silver promissory notes was already a stupendous amount that could make one go crazy. Even in a place like the Imperial Capital, these notes would be enough to buy a large piece of good cropland and a mansion to live in, allowing one to live a lavish life where one would never worry about food or clothes.

“Here’s your 100,000 silver promissory notes. Take them!” Yan Liqiang said as he pushed a stack of silver promissory notes toward Fang Beidou.

“What do you mean by this?”

“You have two choices. The first is to take these 100,000 silver promissory notes as my compensation for your emotional suffering. Once you take these silver promissory notes, we can treat it as if nothing had happened. You will go your own way while I will continue toward my difficult path. Also, you can’t give me those speeches about saving the nation and its people anymore…” The moment Yan Liqiang finished this sentence, Fang Beidou rose to his feet instantaneously. Due to his rage, his face immediately flushed red. His fists were already tightly clenched together as he furiously glared at Yan Liqiang. He almost couldn’t contain himself from punching Yan Liqiang’s face.

“What’s the second choice?” Fang Beidou asked after he took a deep breath.

Yan Liqiang looked at him emotionlessly and said, “The second choice is that I will truly become your lord from now onward. You will become my retainer and do whatever I ask you to do. I will not explain or give my reasons in telling you to do these things, but I can guarantee that whatever I ask you to do, it is for the sake of saving people in the end. I cannot guarantee that I will definitely prevent all the calamities and tragedies from happening in the future, but I can assure you that I will do my very best. As for the outcome of that, I will leave it to the will of the heavens. If you choose the second choice, then take this money anyway because the next thing I’m going to ask you to do is to spend a lot of money!”

“Fang Beidou respectfully greets my lord!” Fang Beidou groveled before Yan Liqiang without hesitation.

This time, however, Yan Liqiang didn’t jump up or hide from the sight of this gesture. Instead, he straightened his posture and sat on the stone stool, accepting the salutations from Fang Beidou solemnly and calmly.

Watching Fang Beidou grovel at his feet, Yan Liqiang had a strange feeling inside his heart. He never thought that one day he would be called a lord after setting foot into this world.

“Alright, sit down!”

Fang Beidou took a deep breath and sat down on the stone stool beside him again.

“Once you take a step out from this daoist temple, you don’t have to behave this way in front of others anymore. Only we should know about the relationship between us two. My name is Yan Liqiang, so just call me Liqiang. On the other hand, I will address you as Brother Fang. We have only been acquainted since yesterday at Mount Xiaoyun. I went for a stroll yesterday and mistakenly entered the path behind Mount Xiaoyun. After stumbling upon the White Dragon Temple, I met you and had a conversation over tea. We had quite a congenial conversation and became friends as we realized we understood each other. This is the process of how we met each other. Remember that!”

“Don’t worry, my lord. I know what I should do now!” Fang Beidou said as he returned to his normal self. Looking at the 100,000 taels of silver on the table, he inquired, “Can you tell me what you intend on having me use these silver promissory notes for?”

Yan Liqiang smiled. A peculiar luster flashed in his eyes before he asked Fang Beidou a question, “Do you know about the court bulletin that the imperial court publishes?”