I became the tyrant's only belief.

Chapter 408 Destined Person

Gu Banxian's given name was Qing. He seemed to have foreseen that he would be arrested tonight, so he secretly hid in his neighbor's cellar, which Xiao Dayi searched for quite a while.

The old man was stubborn, and Xiao Da couldn't persuade him no matter what he tried, so he had no choice but to tie him up and bring him back to report first.

But he returned too late; Xiao Jingfan and his group had already left in pursuit of the Shadow Chasing Insects.

Xiao Da originally intended to lock Gu Qing up first, but when Gu Qing heard that the person who wanted to see him was the emperor, his expression changed drastically, but it didn't seem like simple fear and panic.

After a brief thought, Xiao Dalü decided to take him along to catch up with the others. They hurried along and finally caught up. However, Gu Qing was quite shaken by the horse; as soon as he was untied, he collapsed to the ground, dizzy and unable to get up.

Feng Jing stood to the side with his arms crossed, glancing at him sideways: "Do you still remember me, sir?"

Gu Qing ignored him, trying to get away with feigning death, completely lacking the aura of a hermit master that Feng Jinggang had shown him when they first met.

Chen Xing smacked his lips: "Dr. Feng, all those years you've spent traveling the martial arts world, and you've actually been fooled by such a lousy old man."

"I never lie." Gu Qing raised his head angrily and glared at the disrespectful young girl. "In matters of the Xuanmen, it's all about mutual consent and a fair exchange of money and goods. How can you call that lying?"

Everyone: "..."

Shameless!
So shameless!
Feng Jing started taking out medicinal powder, clearly intending to teach the old man a lesson, when Lü Fei quickly grabbed him and pulled him aside.

Lu Fei said in a low voice, "His Majesty hasn't asked any questions yet. It's not too late to take revenge after he has."

Feng Jing snorted, but out of respect for the emperor, he reluctantly took the powder back.

Xiao Jingfan gestured for Chen Xing to help the old man up, and said in a very gentle tone, "Old sir, don't be afraid. I ordered someone to invite you here not to harm you, but simply to ask you to answer my questions."

Upon hearing the self-reference "朕" (Zhen, meaning "I, the Imperial Emperor"), Gu Qing's legs went weak. Had Chen Xing not been holding him tightly, he would have already sat back down. He pointed a trembling finger at the young man on horseback, his voice shaking, "You...you are the Emperor?"

"Insolence!" Zhou Yuande shouted, glaring angrily at his hand. "Don't be rude!"

The old man was so startled that he quickly withdrew his hand, grinned at Xiao Jingfan with a dry smile, his chubby round face resembling the surface of a pond ruffled by the wind, looking inexplicably pitiful.

Xiao Jingfan sighed softly. This so-called demigod was far from what he had imagined, and he was inevitably disappointed.

"Who gave this to you, sir?" He took out the red brocade pouch and showed it to the old man.

Gu Qing stared at him for a long time, her lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.

Seeing his dawdling, Feng Jing couldn't help but interject, "You've already forgotten what you gave me?"

"I haven't forgotten, I haven't forgotten." Gu Qing waved his hands repeatedly, his eyes darting around. "It was a young man who gave it to me. He also gave me a hundred taels of silver and asked me to pass it on to someone who is destined to receive it."

Xiao Jingfan: "What kind of destined person?"

Gu Qing: "The young man didn't say anything, he just told me to wait at Baxian Bridge."

"Didn't they say anything?" Feng Jing looked at him suspiciously. "What if they gave it to the wrong person?"

“I won’t give it to the wrong person.” Gu Qing glanced at him. “That young man said that someone destined to meet me would come to me for fortune telling, and that I should give the brocade pouch to the one who looks the most simple-minded. He also said that someone destined to meet me would help me avert a calamity.”

Feng Jing took the initiative to have his fortune told; he had a simple and honest air about him and even saved his life—every single thing about him seemed to fit perfectly.

Chen Xing stared at him: "Are you the fortune teller or is that young man the fortune teller?" Why does the young man the old man is talking about sound more like a charlatan than the old man himself?
Others shared this sentiment.

Xiao Jingfan asked, "What did he look like when he was young?"

"Looks like a human being." Gu Qing muttered, then suddenly remembered that the one who asked her the question was the emperor, and hurriedly added, "Around twenty years old, fair-skinned, with a scholarly air, he should be a scholar."

This description matched Xiao Jingfan's memory of the scholar perfectly, so he quickly asked, "What else did he say to you?"

Gu Qing's eyes flickered, but before he could utter a lie, a chill ran down his neck as a gleaming steel knife was pressed against it. Lü Fei's face was cold and dark: "You must not conceal anything from His Majesty, or you will be punished for deceiving the Emperor." "N-no, I wouldn't dare." Gu Qing trembled, carefully pushing the knife away, then bent down to take off his boots and pulled a stack of papers from inside.

The air was immediately filled with the sour smell of feet.

Chen Xing covered her nose in disgust and glared at the old man: "Hurry up and put it on!"

Gu Qing felt very wronged by her yelling, but seeing that she looked like she was about to hit someone, she had no choice but to put the stack of papers on the ground and bend down to put on her boots.

Xiao Jingfan gave his chief eunuch a wink.

Zhou Yuande immediately went over, wrapped his hands in his sleeve, picked up the stack of papers, and shook them to disperse the smell. He also pinched his nose with his other hand and turned his head away to avoid being overwhelmed by the fumes.

Everyone took a step back in unison and held their breath.

Xiao Jingfan could see ink marks on the paper and asked the old man, "What's written on the paper?"

Gu Qing shook his head: "I don't know."

Feng Jing didn't believe it: "You stepped right into my shoe, and you didn't even glance at it?"

Gu Qing's face twitched. Under everyone's gaze, he had to admit that as a demigod, he couldn't understand the contents of the paper. To save face, he hastily added, "It should have something to do with the Five Elements and the Eight Trigrams."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Jingfan had a guess in his mind and ordered Zhou Yuande to bring the paper over.

Zhou Yuande despised these papers. How could His Majesty, with his precious body, possibly come into contact with such filthy things?

He couldn't help but glare at the old man several times.

Why hide it in the sole of your shoe? Don't you know you have athlete's foot?

Gu Qing was completely wronged.

As people get older, they become more forgetful. He's just worried about losing it somewhere he might put it down.

He was a man of his word and couldn't betray that hundred taels of silver.

Zhou Yuande carried the stack of papers to Xiao Jingfan. Xiao Jingfan glanced at the old man's feet, twitched his hand holding the reins, hesitated for a long time, and finally decided not to reach out to take them, feeling that his hand would rot.

So, Zhou Gonggong, who was not afraid of hardship, fatigue, or dirt, dutifully held up the papers one by one for his emperor to see.

Xiao Jingfan tilted his head to look at the contents of the paper, while Huang Qian took the soldier's torch and lit it for him.

Although everyone was disgusted by the old man's smelly feet, they couldn't resist their curiosity and all crowded around, covering their noses to take a look. Chen Xing held a precious pearl in his hand, which emitted a shimmering light, making the contents of the paper even clearer for everyone.

There are ten sheets of paper in total, and each sheet is a diagram of an array, with each part linked to the next.

The person who drew the diagram was very meticulous. He not only marked the key points of the formation with cinnabar, but also wrote down the way to break the formation next to them. He even clearly marked where the mechanisms were.

Huang Qian stared at the first array diagram and exclaimed in surprise, "This array seems to be the one on the mountainside of Thousand-Foot Cliff. Even the mechanisms set up inside are exactly the same."

"As expected." Xiao Jingfan's eyes curved into a smile, his eyelashes fluttering like fans. That scholar was indeed helping them.

While everyone was focused on studying the array diagram, Xiao Da was responsible for keeping an eye on Gu Qing.

Seeing the old man's terrified and frightened expression, Xiao Da worried that the old man might develop a mental problem from the fright. What if the master still needed the old man?

He struck up a conversation with Gu Qing: "Why did you hide in the vegetable cellar?"

Perhaps knowing she couldn't escape, Gu Qing abandoned her previous uncooperative attitude and answered truthfully, "Someone wants to kill me."

(End of this chapter)