Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 254 Things from the Past
After glancing at the study behind him, the purple-haired man stood up and left.

After a while, Hu Jingnan breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that Gu Jingnian was still somewhat lost in thought, she asked, "He seemed to have glanced at you just now?"

Gu Jingnian didn't answer, but instead asked the boy, "Can't he really see what's in here?"

“I can’t see it,” the boy said. “When you look around from the hall, you can only see the walls.”

"Ah."

Everyone waited a while longer before the boy finally said, "Master has gone far away."

He then left the study first and called the others out.

"come over."

Back in the hall, Gu Jingnian turned around and still couldn't see any doors; all he could see was a red wall.

The boy patted his chest and said, "Right? Master definitely can't see us, otherwise I would be dead by now... Let's continue."

After saying that, he turned around and saw that Yan Da and A Meng, who were being helped out by Gu Jingnian, had woken up, but were still a little weak. He paused for a moment.

"Continue with what?" Gu Jingnian asked.

"Naturally, they were refined."

"Let it go," Gu Jingnian said, seemingly easygoing. "You saved us, so we're indebted to you. How about you take us away from here?"

The boy asked, "Are you going to cancel the deal?"

Let's just give up.

"Won't my wife be taken away too?"

"Since she didn't borrow your stove, she naturally doesn't count as your wife."

"You despicable scoundrel!"

Gu Jingnian said, "You wouldn't want your master to find out that you're using the furnace without permission, would you?"

The boy was initially annoyed, but also helpless. Finally, he said, "Alright then, I'll take you out."

"Thank you."

"Come with me."

The boy walked towards a wall, and the others followed. Just as they were about to reach the wall, a door appeared. They went inside, looked around, and saw that it was a passageway with prison cells on both sides, like they had entered a county jail.

"This is not the way we came."

“My master just left. I’ll take you out another way.”

As the boy spoke, he ran through the passage, pushed open the door at the end of the passage, and went inside.

That was the only place with light, and the only exit from the cell, so the group followed.

They went out of the passage, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.

"What about people?"

Suddenly, with a loud bang, a door in front of them was slammed shut, and the sound of a lock being put on echoed from outside. It was the boy who had quickly run away and locked the door.

When everyone turned around, the path they had come from was gone, leaving only the dark metal wall.

They had been brought into the furnace.

"Haha, you didn't expect that, did you?"

The boy's voice rang out from outside, tinged with smugness, and he continued, "Now that I've brought you to Master's study, how could I possibly let you go? Of course, I'm going to refine you all into pills."

Despite the danger, Gu Jingnian remained calm and asked, "Don't you want to marry Miss Hu anymore?"

"I do want to, but her heart isn't with me. There's nothing I can do. I'll refine her and gain strength. Once I'm out of this world, I'll be able to find an even more beautiful woman."

Gu Jingnian remained calm and asked, "Aren't you afraid your master will find out?"

"I'm afraid, which is why I can't keep you around."

"As I am about to die, I have some questions. Can you answer them?"

The sound of a boy pounding medicine came from outside; he must be preparing and refining the medicinal herbs they needed.

While grinding the medicine, he said, "Go ahead and ask. I'm quite bored in this world, so what's wrong with chatting with you for a bit?"

Gu Jingnian said, "How did you lead us into this furnace? You clearly said before that we couldn't use the teleportation technique in this hall."

“It’s not a teleportation,” the boy said. “It’s following the old path.”

"old road?"

"Well, it's a path that used to exist," the boy said. "Before, this hall wasn't this big. When we captured strange people, we would lock them up in the cell through that door and then put them in the furnace. That's the path you just walked. Later, the cell was demolished and this hall was built."

"What do you mean?" Gu Jingnian asked, puzzled at first. "Can you still walk on a path that once existed but no longer exists?"

"That's the idea. My master can use things that remain in time."

"So, that study room also existed for a while, but was later demolished?"

"Not bad, there's something even more unexpected, hahaha."

"Oh? Why not tell me about it?"

The boy asked, "Guess how old I am?"

"fourteen."

Forty-four.

"Is it fourteen?" "It's forty-four."

"I really couldn't tell."

“I am already an adult, but my master prefers my childhood appearance, so he took out my past appearance and gave it to me to use.”

"So, your master can live forever?"

"Immortality is not guaranteed, but he can remain as he was at a certain moment in the past."

"I see," Gu Jingnian said. "Is this also a superpower?"

"nonsense."

"Then if you become his apprentice, you can learn from him too?"

“Of course not,” the boy said. “It’s just that my master showed me those things from the past, and I memorized them. I believe they exist, so I can use them.”

"Oh."

"I have to say, my master is the strongest in the entire Central Continent, and even in the entire realm," the boy said. "Alright, enough of this small talk, you guys take your medicine."

As soon as he finished speaking, steam began to fill the stove.

Gu Jingnian and the others had just emerged from the viper's poison when they found themselves in the same predicament.

Gu Jingnian remained calm and said, "Hold me tight."

He pulled on the tassel and felt the other three people grabbing his clothes, so he walked outside.

--------

Inside the vast hall, a middle-aged man was lying on a huge furnace, injecting medicine into it through a small hole.

Suddenly, someone called his name.

"Cassia branch".

"Who?!"

The middle-aged man was startled and turned around, only to find Gu Jingnian and four others standing there. He was extremely surprised.

"You? What are you doing here?!"

Before Gu Jingnian could answer, Yingyao became suspicious and asked, "Are you the boy from earlier?"

The middle-aged man was dressed as a medicine boy, with his hair styled in a child's topknot, which was indeed the attire of a child, but it looked rather incongruous.

"Otherwise, who else could I be?"

Guizhi responded, then suddenly realized something, looked down, touched her large waist with both hands, and exclaimed in surprise, "Me? How did I turn back?!"

"Isn't this exactly how you are?"

"but I……"

“But you’re really ugly,” Ying said. “Didn’t you tell Miss Hu that you would be handsome when you grew up? You even said you would be more handsome than the young master.”

Thinking of what Tong Zi had said earlier, and looking at his face, she felt ashamed for Gu Jingnian and was furious.

Guizhi had no time to pay attention to any of this. She looked at herself, then at Gu Jingnian, and asked, "What happened? Why were you able to get out?"

"Can you still find a way to escape?" Gu Jingnian asked.

"What does this mean?!"

Despite asking the question, Guizhi realized something was wrong, jumped off the stove, and fled towards the exit.

That was the direction of the door he remembered.

However, with a "bang," he crashed heavily into the red wall, his head bleeding profusely.

"Why?" Guizhi looked up blankly and murmured, "The door was always here."

"Because your master knows everything."

Upon hearing this, Guizhi trembled, fear showing on her ugly and fat face. She asked in surprise, "You...you spoke with Master?"

"Yes."

Gu Jingnian recalled the glance he had exchanged with Zi Cang just now.

As soon as they made eye contact, he felt someone pat his shoulder. Turning around, he found Zi Cang standing behind him, holding a file. Zi Cang looked much younger, only in his early twenties.

"Can you see me?"

"I'm in the study, of course I can see you..."

No one else saw or heard his conversation with Zi Cang, because that was a Zi Cang who had actually existed.

"Master, what did Master say to you?" Guizhi asked, trying to escape, but not knowing where to run.

He said he would give you as his first reward.

"what?"

Gui Zhi was still in shock when Gu Jingnian lifted her up and pushed her directly into the furnace.

"Oh!"

The furnace door was closed.

Gu Jingnian took a deep breath. He stopped thinking about how much the deal with Zi Cang had changed him. He only knew that from now on, he would become stronger, until he was strong enough to protect everything he wanted to protect.

(End of this chapter)