The Sage Who Transcended Samsara
chapter-322

Six Fan School's prison there had a total of three floors. The deeper they went, the colder it got, and the more dangerous the criminals behind bars were. There was no lack of notorious robbers and bloodthirsty evil spirits.

When Meng Qi, Qi Zhengyan, Duan Rui, arrester Wang and the jailer stepped into the third floor, they immediately felt countless gazes being shot at them. Their gazes felt like there was actual substance to them, speaking volumes of the criminals' strength.

"Hey Wang, I f*cked your mother! If you've got the guts let me out of here and fight me fair and square! Ambushing me doesn't mean sh*t about you!" Someone with a gruff voice called out. The words were full of rage interspersed with expletives. The steel chains around his limbs were noisily rattled until the bars of the cell themselves shook.

Arrester Wang's expression did not change. Turning to the jailer, he instructed, "Starve him for three days."

The he turned to introduce the felon to Meng Qi. "This is The Lone Robber Yuchi Gong. His kung fu is very powerful. We spent a painstaking amount of effort to finally trip him up here, and intend to send him to the prison in the capital later on in the year."

He was a little proud of this accomplishment. Being able to arrest a serial robber who had always managed to evade capture proved his capability. As for the method he had employed to arrest him, it did not matter. He had never heard of arresters caring about the way in which they captured criminals!

Yuchi Gong's voice was very loud and shook up the entire third floor, causing dust to fall everywhere. He was over two metres tall and had rippling muscles. Even with his scapulas pierced, the tendons on his hands and feet cut and his acupoints sealed, he was still as wild and vicious as ever. "Oi Wang you handicap! If you don't let me out, I'll kill your entire family and f*ck your mother!"

Arrester Wang did not even spare him a glance. He instructed the jailer once more, "Three days isn't enough. Starve him until he can't speak. If he's still like this, give him 80 planks."

Yuchi Gong's roars covered the sound from the other prisoners, as if he were the prison bully on that floor.

The jailer agreed to all of Arrester Wang's instructions. After reaching an empty prison cell, he fished out a key and opened the metal door. Then he locked steel chains around Duan Rui's hands and feet.

"In about six hours he needs some more acupinning," reminded Meng Qi.

Arrester Wang did not want to stay in a dark, damp and noisy environment, so he left by himself after acknowledging Meng Qi's words. The jailer bowed and said, "Master Su, I shall not distrub your interrogation. If you require anything, I'll be at the entrance of the third floor. You can also shout for me."

Seeing that Arrester Wang and the jailer had left, Yuchi Gong changed his targets. He pointed at Meng Qi and Qi Zhengyan and swore, "You scrubs still reek of your mother's milk yet you're pretending to interrogate others? From the looks of it, you guys are either disciples from an aristocratic family or Sect Disciples. You must have taken advantage of your ancestor's prestige to curry that handicap's favor."

"Actually, heh, you guys are sloppy as hell with your kung fu. If I wasn't trapped here and had met y'all on the streets, I would've definitely beaten y'all to a pulp! And if you have women with you, then I'd help myself to them too! If I say I'll f*ck your mother, then I'll really f*ck her!"

He spewed a ton of vulgarities in an attempt to agitate Meng Qi and Qi Zhengyan into doing something irrational like opening his cell to beat him up. Then he could seize the chance to escape.

Meng Qi smiled at him and said nothing. He simply watched the prisoner in silence.

All of a sudden, Yuchi Gong, who had been cursing and swearing all this while, heard the sound of a heart palpitating.

"Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump!" It had a strange rhythm to it, like it was coming from the depths of one's soul and creating resonance.

"What the hell are you straing at? If you've got the guts then come at me!" Yuchi Gong continued to holler.

"Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump!" The sound of the heartbeat was getting clearer and clearer. Yuchi Gong felt like his own heart was beginning to follow the rhythm of the heartbeat, while Meng Qi stood opposite him with a smile.

"Cowardly, dandy... I can tell with one glance that you're one of those useless fellas who sells their body..." "Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump!" His heart was beating faster and faster. Yuchi Gong felt like blood was rushing to his head and could not go on further.

"Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump!" His heartbeat exceeded his body's acceptable range. The world around Yuchi Gong began to madly spin and blood filled his vision. The only thing he could feel was that his heart was about to explode any second.

He stumbled back a few steps and heavily dropped to the floor. His face was flushed with blood and he was desperately panting. It was an unusually embarrassing situation for him, and he looked like he would drop dead anytime.

The fellow before him was too strange!

He was literally like an evil spirit or ghost!

What kind of Kung Fu was that?

"Senior Brother Qi, please help me to watch the door." Meng Qi calmed the heartbeat down to its usual pace, still leisurely smiling.

He had read a martial arts novel before on how a devil could use his own heart rate to control others' heartbeats, causing them to die without a proper cause. It was really cool, so during their three-month training period, he had asked Ruan Yushu for advice on its technique. The first time Ruan Yushu had displayed her strength was when she had used her zither music to control others' heartbeats. Hence, Meng Qi had long thought of asking for her help. However, he had previously never been able to either because of a lack of strength or a lack of time.

Without involving anything about the actual zither music, Ruan Yushu had very generously shared the technique and Dharma Access with Meng Qi. On top of that, since Meng Qi was practicing the Eight Nine Mysteries, he was extremely adept at controlling every part of his body, including his heart. Thus, he was able to eventually develop a similar Dharma Access. It was not a particularly powerful move, but it was useful in assassinations or frightening others. The main point of it was still for him to relax and enjoy himself.

Qi Zhengyan's poker face was still going strong. "Sure."

Holding the Dragon Stripe Golden Sword, he kept an eye on the surrounding prison cells.

The surrounding prisoners all quietened down. Yuchi Gong was one of the most powerful and obstinate inmates among them, and yet he had been driven into a corner by them. These men who had not even moved an inch but had merely quietly watched them. It was better for them to keep a low profile!

What kind of strange tricks were they using?

They had dealt with Yuchi Gong without speaking or moving!

Amidst the silence, Meng Qi stepped into the jail cell. He stood before Duan Rui and said, "To cure you of your Soul-dissociating Syndrome, I must first understand everything that had happened."

Taoist Primogenitor of Buddhism, please forgive me for lying to a child. I'll send for a doctor to come treat him!

"Master Su, please ask me anything." Duan Rui's voice was full of expectation.

Meng Qi began with asking other questions. "When was the first time you had felt signs of the Soul-dissociating Syndrome?"

Duan Rui carefully thought about it. "It should've been not too long after my adoptive father went mad and left. When I first became a beggar, it wasn't that severe. But because I was bullied a lot, I developed that 'Demonic Revenge'."

"Who is your adoptive father?" Meng Qi asked.

Duan Rui blankly answered, "My adoptive father is just my adoptive father."

"When did you meet your adoptive father?" Meng Qi decided to cut straight to the chase.

Only then did Duan Rui understand what Meng Qi meant. "About ten days before the monster lost control. I found an injured old man in a discreet location outside the village. I helped him bandage his wounds and stop his bleeding. After he regained consciousness, he refused to meet any outsiders and hid in a nearby cave. I often brought him medicine from the mountains and listened to him talk about Jianghu stories. I really enjoyed my time there. After that, when he had fully recovered, he thanked me for saving his life and adopted me as his son. He taught me a kind of skill that strengthened my body and he was always very nice to me, treating me like his own son."

"Hm, Duan Rui really didn't have the strength to enter the depths of the back mountain. If he learned the 'Muscle-bone Strengthening Scripture', then someone would've had to bring it out. Could it be that his adoptive father is The Giant Expert who practices poisonous kung fu in the poison lake at the back mountain? It seems the monster's losing control isn't as simple either..." Meng Qi appeared calm and continued. "What kind of unique characteristics your adoptive father has?"

"My adoptive father's eyebrows are very sparse, and his face is skinny. He's around 40 or 50 years old, and his hair is very messy..." Duan Rui gave a detailed description.

With no obvious traits and only a verbal description, Meng Qi was completely unable to picture an image in his head or guess the man's identity. He changed his question instead, asking, "Other than that, did your adoptive father teach you any other kung fu or give you any special object?"

"No." Duan Rui replied with certainty.

Meng Qi's brows were now knitted together. "That body-strengthening skill you mentioned, did your adoptive father ever practice it?"

"Yes, every evening." Duan Rui replied with certainty again.

Meng Qi lightly sucked in his breath. "Did your adoptive father go mad as well after that?"

Duan Rui's gaze froze, his expression being one of shock. His adoptive father who had practiced that body-strengthening skill had gone mad, and now he had the Soul-dissociating Syndrome too and was on the verge of going mad. Could it be that that was the reason behind it?

Although there were only two cases and it was not enough to make a judgment, Meng Qi went along with the flow. "So it seems that the Soul-dissociating Syndrome is linked to this body-strengthening skill. You should stop doing it for a while and see if it affects anything."

"Okay, I'll do that," came Duan Rui's hurried response. Finding the source of the problem made him heave a sigh of relief.

Meng Qi contemplated the issue for a moment. Then he said, "If you want to cure your Soul-dissociating Syndrome, we'll probably have to start from this set of skills. Why don't you perform it once so I can see if there's any problem with it?"

He was very curious about this. Was it not the Muscle-bone Strengthening Scripture? Countless monks had been training in the Muscle-bone Strengthening Scripture ever since Shaolin Temple was established, but he had never heard of anyone going mad.

Duan Rui was in a hurry to cure himself, and since the body-strengthening skill was a normal type of kung fu, he did not keep it a secret. He lay down and curled into a ball. Then he placed both hands on his lower abdomen with his legs pressed against his chest in a strange position. His breathing slowly became calm and slow.

Meng Qi projected his will outwards. His soul was clear and vaguely reflected the traces of Duan Rui's flow of genuine Qi. He watched its changes and attempted to find the core of it.

"Looks like a Buddhist Zen Method..." Meng Qi tried his best to remember the way the genuine Qi traveled and the speed at which it flowed. It seemed like Duan Rui had no intention of hiding anything.

After completing his first pose, Duan Rui changed his gesture. Eventually, he made a total of nine different postures, all of which were strange. Moreover, Meng Qi felt that every posture was weirder than the previous one. It felt like they were becoming increasingly incomplete, and increasingly sinister.

"Huff..." Duan Rui exhaled as he anxiously stared at Meng Qi. "Master Su, my adoptive father said that the sequence can't be wrong, otherwise I'll suffer from Qi-deviancy Derangement. Could it be that the sequence he had always thought was correct is actually wrong?"

"There's that possibility. Describe the how the Qi flows in these postures for me." Meng Qi wanted to verify what he had just seen. Also, this would help him tell if Duan Rui was lying or not.

Duan Rui truthfully answered, giving Meng Qi a description that matched the flow of genuine Qi he had reflected.

Meng Qi tried to probe further from time to time, but Duan Rui smoothly answered everything. Duan Rui's responses were in line with his practices. It did not seem like Duan Rui was lying.

Meng Qi burned the image of the nine postures into the back of his mind. "When looked at one by one, these nine postures are bizarre, but when performed together they feel incomplete and insidious. So it really could be a problem with the sequence. You should stop practicing it for now and forget it. I'll send for a doctor to give you acupuncture to cure your Soul-dissociating Syndrome. Once the 'evil spirit' has been removed from its roots, it shouldn't be hard to contain."

"Thank you, Master Su." Meng Qi spoke in the same manner his adoptive father had, and so Duan Rui had complete faith in his words.

Afterward, Meng Qi and Qi Zhengyan left. They sincerely searched for a doctor to cure Duan Rui's Soul-dissociating Syndrome.

When night fell and it was time for Duan Rui's additional acupinning, the jailer pulled open the metal door to his cell.

"Soul-dissociating Syndrome, huh... Really can't tell..." The jailer was also an expert, so he casually muttered to himself while kneeling down to perform the acupinning.

Right at that moment, Duan Rui's head snapped up. His eyes were deep and dark and looked totally black from a distance. Then he opened his mouth and spat, spraying spittle onto the jailer's face.

"Damn you..." The jailer had barely begun cursing when a blood-curdling cry escaped him and he collapsed on the ground. There was a sizzling sound coming from his face. In two or three breaths, his vitality had completely disappeared. His entire body had turned black and his face was covered in traces of rotting and decay.

Duan Rui pulled the jailer over to himself and searched out the key. He unlocked the chains around his limbs and stretched his muscles as he walked out of his cell. "How dare they try to kill 'me'! You should die!"

"Our brother, we're all in the same boat over here. Quick, come and help us remove our chains too! You'll definitely be handsomely rewarded!" Yuchi Gong was overjoyed at this turn of events.

Duan Rui cast a cold gaze at the man and then slowly walked over. There was not a shred of emotion in his almost completely black eyes.

Yuchi Gong first froze. Then his hairs stood on end and a foreboding sense of danger overcame him. He screamed in a frenzy,

"Don't, don't come over here!"

"Help!"

...