Martial Arts and Longevity: Starting from the Spiritual Beast Picture

Chapter 170
The person who sent the letter was Gao Yuan, the elder brother of Liuhemen.

Zhao Lin was shocked, why did the elder brother write to himself?
With master Zhu Huaishan around, Gao Yuan shouldn't contact him alone, unless there is something particularly serious, even the master has to hide it.

Besides, I just received Master's letter a few days ago, and this letter followed me back and forth.

No matter how you look at it, you feel that there is an unusual meaning in it.

Zhao Lin grabbed the letter paper, his fingers turned slightly white, and for some reason, he didn't want to open the letter.

"Is the letter sent by mistake?" Seeing that Zhao Lin was in a daze, the servant asked aloud.

"Yes, it's mine. Thank you for your hard work."

Zhao Lin smiled, dismissed the servants, turned around and walked into the yard, sat down in front of the steps, and slowly opened the letter paper.

The first sentence that came into view made his heart tighten: "Junior Brother Zhao, Master died of a sudden illness yesterday..."

Master is dead!

Zhao Lin couldn't believe his eyes, staring at the first few words without blinking.

Master said a few days ago that he was in good health and would come to Yanzhou next year, why did he suddenly die suddenly?
There was chaos in his mind, and after a while, he picked up the envelope on the ground, and it was signed: Qinghe County, Liuhemen, Gaoyuan...

That's right, it's Big Brother.

Zhao Lin rubbed his temples, and turned his gaze to the letter again.

There is not much content in the letter, only a few words, Gao Yuan said that the master died of a sudden illness, and the brothers are taking care of the funeral.

Let Zhao Lin's sorrow change, don't rush back, it's important to practice in Xingyun.

Zhao Lin read the letter over and over several times, feeling extremely confused.

Although the master is old, he is a martial arts practitioner after all, and his body is also strong. It is reasonable to say that if he lives another ten or eight years, it will not be a big problem.

Could it be that Master is lying to himself that his life is in danger and he doesn't want to distract himself?
Thinking of this, Zhao Lin went back to the room, took out the letter that Master wrote to him last time, and read it carefully.

I want to read between the lines to find out about the deathbed trust, or the confession of the last words.

But there were no such words.

"No, Master doesn't need to lie to me."

Zhao Lin frowned as he looked at the senior brother's name on the inscription.

Eldest brother is honest, mature, and considerate. Is it possible that he deliberately did not tell the truth in order to make himself feel at ease while practicing in the Xingyun sect?

If Master did not die of illness, who could be the murderer?

The remnants of the Diamond Mountain Leopard gang?

Zhao Lin shook his head.

The bandits' leaders were all dead, and the rest were just ordinary people. With the master's cultivation level, he couldn't even get close to him.

Conflict with other sects?

It's also unlikely, the master has a calm temperament and won't go to battle in person when encountering such a thing.

Besides, the sect has its own rules, even if it is a boxing match, it will not attack an old man.

Everyone gets old one day.

Zhao Lin thought about it and thought about several possibilities, but he still couldn't accept the reason of sudden illness.

The sun was shining, and his body was warm, but he felt gloomy in his heart, and Master's voice and smile flashed in his mind.

"No, I have to go back and figure this out!"

"If Master was really sick and died, that's all. If someone killed him..."

Zhao Lin gritted his teeth, got up suddenly, and strode out the door.

……

Water mirror department, retreat room.

"What? Are you taking leave?"

Elder Shui Jing was stunned, and he was stunned for a while before he said, "Where are you going? How long?"

"Responding to the state, the shortest is one month, and the longest...should not exceed two months."

Zhao Lin said in a deep voice.

"It will be Dabi in two days. Why do you want to leave at this time? I remember that your family has been brought to Yanzhou. What else can you do?"

Elder Shui Jing was a little speechless. He originally expected Zhao Lin to compete for a place in the Shui Jing Department when he was in the Grand Competition.

"My master has passed away." Zhao Lin said with a sad face.

"Ah, this..."

Elder Shui Jing fell silent, he didn't know what to say for a moment, and after a while he said: "My condolences."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and patted Zhao Lin's shoulder as a sign of comfort.

"My generation of warriors doesn't care about trifles. Let's not mention Chunbi for the time being. It's okay to miss it in the first year, but now you have one foot on the threshold of the third level of aura."

"Cultivation is at a critical juncture. The old man suggested that you can delay the funeral. It will not be too late to go back after you reach the third level of the Qi state. I believe that your master has a spirit in the sky, and he will not blame you."

"Besides, aren't there other senior brothers in your sect?"

Shui Jing persuaded earnestly.

"Elder, the disciple must go back."

Zhao Lin's voice was not loud, but his tone was extremely firm.

Shui Jing sighed helplessly, it is not good to persuade him anymore, after all he is also half of Zhao Lin's teacher, if he continues to persuade him, it is equivalent to telling Zhao Lin not to respect his teacher.

"Okay, about Chunbi, I will explain it to you."

"You leave the sect temporarily, try not to delay your practice, I will ask the Medicine Pavilion to send over the daily practice medicine, and you can take it on the way."

"However, you can only prepare a month's worth of medicine at most. You should try to get back quickly."

Zhao Lin nodded his head heavily, and said gratefully, "Thank you, elder, for your fulfillment."

Elder Shui Jing nodded slightly and asked, "When are you going to leave?"

"It's not too late, the disciple will leave tomorrow."

"Then go early and return early, don't worry about the Zongmen."

……

In the early morning of the next day, Zhao Lin left Yongning City with his burden on his back.

He went home yesterday afternoon and told his parents that he was going away, but he didn't mention the news of his master's death, he only said that he was doing business for the sect and he would not come back in about a month.

When I came to the chariot and horse dealer in the south of the city, I bought a yellow puma for 50 taels of silver.

Yanzhou is located in the frontier, and the horses are relatively cheap, but what he bought was not a rough horse for pulling a cart, but a retired stage horse that is good at running, and the price was two or three times more expensive.

Yingzhou was in the southwest of Yanzhou, and Zhao Lin rode his horse all the way. The horse was too tired to run, so he found a place to sell it cheaply, and then bought a new one to go on the road.

In order to hurry, you can no longer worry about money.

The smell left on a person's body can generally be kept for three to five days, and under special circumstances it can be kept for more than ten days or even longer.

Zhao Lin is not sure about the cause of Master's death. If he wants to track down the murderer, he may have to use his sense of smell. The sooner he can get to the scene, the better.

In mid-March, warblers fly in the grass outside Qinghe County.

Walking along the official road leading to the west gate was a tall young man with a dusty look on his face.

"Unexpectedly, after more than half a year, I came back here again."

Looking at the familiar city gate, Zhao Lin sighed and said to himself.

At the beginning, I walked from Yingzhou to Yanzhou for a month, but it only took ten days to come back. Apart from eating and sleeping, I spent most of the time on the road, which can be described as day and night.

Hurrying back in such a hurry, Zhao Lin didn't go directly to Liuhemen, but bought a pair of coarse clothes and a white sweat towel at a tailor.

Then he bought dark bead powder from a gouache shop and applied it on his face to make his face dark, before heading to Qingchun Street where Liuhemen is located.

After changing his clothes, the sweat towel was draped over his shoulders. When ordinary people saw him, they would only think that he was a man from the pier.

Zhao Lin didn't want others to know that he was back, at least until the truth was found out.

Today's Liuhemen is much more deserted than in the past, only a few apprentices are listlessly practicing in the yard.

Standing not far across the street, Zhao Lin, who was secretly observing, frowned slightly.

With his current hearing ability, he could hear the sound of the entire street.

After listening for a while just now, I found that there were very few people in Liuhemen, and none of the seniors were there.

I was a little worried, maybe something happened to the brothers, right?
"Xiaofan, don't you think I am using both sides of the bow, why does it always feel awkward?"

"Brother Huang, I started later than you, why do you still ask me?"

"Isn't it because the senior brothers have all left the city to hang their filial piety? Who else can I ask..."

Zhao Lin heaved a sigh of relief, it seemed that he had thought too much, so he waited for the return of his seniors with peace of mind.

Near noon, three men and a woman walked quickly along the street.

These four people were all dressed in sackcloth, with white cloth wrapped around their heads, with solemn expressions, just walking with their heads bowed.

The leader is senior brother Gao Yuan, followed by second senior brother Fu Guangming, fourth senior sister Zhang Ying, and sixth senior brother Qian Chengfei.

"Why aren't third senior brother Yuan Cheng and fifth senior brother Chu Liu here?"

Zhao Lin was puzzled, but he didn't go up to question them directly, watching them pass by.

No one can get away with it until the truth is found out.

"Eldest brother, is there any news from Senior Brother Yuan over there?"

Qian Chengfei suddenly asked.

Before Gao Yuan could answer, Fu Guangming's face darkened, and he said coldly, "What fifth senior brother? That bastard Chu Liu is also worthy..."

Gao Yuan turned around and stopped, "Let's talk about it when we go back, don't let others hear the joke."

"Yes."

Fu Guangming and Qian Chengfei responded at the same time.

The four of them hurried into the Liuhe Gate, and the gate closed with a bang.

Zhao Lin was stunned for a long time without moving.

The information revealed in just a few sentences has already given him a rough guess.

Master's death has something to do with Fifth Senior Brother... Bah, Chu Liu!
A wave of anger rose in Zhao Lin's heart.

Master treats Chu Liu with utmost benevolence and righteousness, no matter what mistakes he makes, he is not willing to give up.

Just because of Chu Liu's frivolous and lustful temperament, which never changes after repeated admonitions, he can't stay in any sect.

"The master is above, the disciple is incompetent, so far that thief Chu Liu has not been caught..."

Gao Yuan came to Zhu Huaishan's study alone, offered a stick of incense, and bowed to the tablet.

"It seems that the murderer is Chu Liu, and it has nothing to do with senior brother."

Zhao Lin knew it well, called a child playing on the street, took out a few copper coins from his arms, and said gently: "Little brother, give me something, this money is for you..."

The child happily took the money, ran to the gate of Liuhe and knocked hard on the door.

"Who are you looking for?"

The apprentice opened the door and saw a ten-year-old child, thought it was a prank, and said impatiently.

"Give this to Brother Gao."

The child hands up a letter.

The apprentice took it over and took a look, only to see four words written on the envelope: Invited by Gao Yuan.

"Who gave it to you?"

The apprentice opened his mouth to ask, but found that the child had gone to nowhere.

"strangeness……"

The apprentice muttered, and walked to the backyard, just in time to meet Gao Yuan coming out of the study, and handed the letter over, "Eldest brother, there is a letter for you outside."

"who is it?"

Gao Yuan took the letter and asked casually.

"A child who ran away after delivering the letter."

Gao Yuan opened the letter, glanced at it, and his face changed instantly.

……

In a tea shop on Qingchun Street, Gao Yuan and Zhao Lin sat opposite each other.

"When did you break through to the second level of Qi?"

Gao Yuan couldn't hide his shock.

He didn't know that Zhao Lin had been hiding his strength back then. He only remembered that when he left, Zhao Lin was still in the strength state, and he was at the same level as himself in just over half a year. The speed was beyond his imagination.

"Now is not the time to discuss this."

Zhao Lin waved his hand, stared at Gao Yuan and said, "Master is not suffering from a sudden illness, why didn't you tell me the truth?"

Gao Yuan sighed, "Yanzhou is thousands of miles away. It is not easy for you to practice in Xingyunzong. I want to tell you the truth after the matter is settled."

Zhao Lin grabbed the teacup and took a sip, "Tell me, how did Master die?"

Gao Yuan lowered his eyes and said, "Since you left, Chu Liu has been asking me about your whereabouts."

There was a hint of regret on his face as he said, "It's my fault that I couldn't hold it back. I couldn't be pestered by him, so I told you about Master sending you to Xingyunzong. I think it was from that time that he started to hold a grudge against Master."

"I originally thought that when Master came back, he would definitely make a big fuss, but he acted as if he didn't know about it. After a long time, I was relieved..."

Zhao Lin turned the empty cup in his hand, and silently listened to Gao Yuan's story.

It turned out that on the second day of February, Zhu Huaishan called Chu Liu to the study to reprimand him for some reason.

"Have you ever worked hard? Not to mention comparing with a few seniors, the apprentices in the front yard are all harder than you!"

"With your little talent, you can rank first in Qinghe County. Looking at Yingzhou, how old are you?"

"In the future, if there is such a broken thing again, don't come..."

After a while, Chu Liu's voice also came from inside.

"Why don't you work hard? I already know what you taught, it's obviously your partiality!"

"Why are you so nice to that mud-legged Zhao? I'm already at the second level of aura. Why don't you send me to Xing Qu Zong?"

"Where did I not meet your wishes, why didn't you give me a chance..."

The two had a big quarrel. Gao Yuan and Yuan Cheng didn't expect Chu Liu to dare to talk back to the master, and they were both stunned. They hurried into the study to persuade the master to calm down, while scolding Chu Liu.

"Acknowledge your mistake to Master!"

Chu Liu didn't listen at all, and walked out directly, threatening that he would never stay in Liuhemen any longer.

Zhu Huaishan was so angry that he was trembling all over, and he wanted to rebuild the "family tree" on the spot and remove Chu Liu from the family.

Unexpectedly, Chu Liu came back in the afternoon, not only voluntarily admitted his mistake, but also knelt outside the study and couldn't get up.

He knelt for the whole afternoon, Zhu Huaishan finally softened his heart and let him in.

Chu Liu entered the study, and came out with a happy face after a while.

Gao Yuan thought that the master and apprentice had reconciled, so he stepped forward and asked, "Old Wu, did Master forgive you?"

Chu Liu smiled and said "um", and said, "Don't worry, Master is a little tired, please don't disturb him." After finishing speaking, he went out on his own.

A few disciples believed it was true, and continued to practice in the backyard, but they waited until it was almost dark, and still did not see Zhu Huaishan coming out of it.

Now they felt something was wrong, walked into the study together, and found that Zhu Huaishan had been dead for a long time, with a sharp knife in his heart.

(End of this chapter)