Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 155 Li Renshun is not Li Renshun
"Not urgent."

As Zhang Chengdao spoke, he grabbed Chang Ping'an and then used the Six Jia Yang Fire to set the entire courtyard ablaze.

To prevent that thing from having some unpredictable means of self-preservation, we still have to implement the truth of annihilating entire families from the novels by Diaoniang.

Soon, both the palace maids and eunuchs who had long since turned into corpses, and the imperial guards who stood upright outside the courtyard with their heads severed, were all burned to ashes.

There wasn't even any ash left.

After confirming that everything inside the bamboo fence surrounding the courtyard had been burned, Zhang Chengdao retrieved the flame of the Six Jia Yang Fire and carried Chang Ping'an to the outside of Daxing Temple.

Ye Shuyun, who had been anxiously waiting outside the temple, was overjoyed upon seeing this. She went up to him, cupped her hands in greeting, and was about to call out "Master" when Zhang Chengdao waved his hand to stop her from speaking.

Then, his master once again used his spiritual power to speak loudly:

"Thank you all for lending me your swords! The situation was critical just now, and I took your precious swords without informing you. It was truly unavoidable. Please, fellow Daoists who lost your swords, come to the White Stone Immortal Sect to retrieve them. Our sect has prepared a small gift to express our gratitude and offer our apologies. We hope you will forgive us—"

The sound reverberated from outside Daxing Temple, penetrating the capital prefecture and echoing for hundreds of miles before finally subsiding.

The Taiyue Sword Sect members, who were hurrying towards Jingzhao Prefecture, were taken aback upon hearing this.

"Master, that Immortal Baishi said we need to go to the Baishi Immortal Sect to retrieve the sword..."

"I heard you!"

Qu Zhiweng, his face dark, said irritably, "No matter what, let's go and finish the new National Preceptor's martial arts tournament first!"

As he spoke, he added with a snort, "He wouldn't dare do anything to my Taiyue Sword!"

Qu Zhiweng was not the only one who breathed a sigh of relief; the other warriors whose swords had been taken away also breathed a sigh of relief.

Although the White Stone Immortal Sect has only been famous in the martial arts world for a short time, its reputation has been excellent since the Immortal Fate Conference—have you not heard that just one Immortal Fate Banquet has allowed countless martial artists to break through their cultivation levels on the spot!
That was truly a "fate-enhancing" banquet!
On the other side, Zhang Chengdao spoke three times before taking out several doses of medicine from his backpack and distributing them to his two apprentices.

The status bars on both characters' character cards still show "poisoned" and "minor injury"!

"Thank you Master!"

Chang Ping'an and Ye Shuyun thanked them in unison, then took the [Kudzu Root Soup] and drank it all in one gulp, and then poured the whole bottle of [Die Da San] into their mouths.

After doing all this, Zhang Chengdao turned slightly to look at the Zhou emperor, who exuded a faint aura of death.

He looked the emperor up and down and asked, "Are you Emperor Li Renshun of Zhou?"

Li Renshun did not answer Zhang Chengdao's question, but instead sighed, "Since it is the White Stone Immortal who has appeared, then the Imperial Preceptor must have already been killed!"

Li Renshun's voice was muffled, as if he were speaking with a mouthful of water. Zhang Chengdao then noticed that this monarch, who should have been enjoying the wealth and resources of the entire nation, was breathing heavily like a broken bellows, and his eyes were cloudy, making him look nothing like someone in his fifties. Zhang Chengdao asked again, "Who exactly is this Imperial Preceptor? Where is the original Grand Master Li?"

Even if this Grand Master Mingjing doesn't seem like a martial artist, surely a grandmaster shouldn't be killed without any chance to fight back?
Unexpectedly, Li Renshun shook his head with a wry smile and replied, "I... cough cough, I am Li Jing'an, the former Grand Preceptor of the Zhou Kingdom."

"?"

Zhang Chengdao looked at "Li Renshun" with a face full of doubt.

Li Renshun coughed a few more times and continued, "The Grand Preceptor Mingjing... in order to control the court, he stripped the emperor's soul out, but because he could not enter the emperor's body, he had to force me to enter the emperor's body."

Chang Ping'an had read some manuals explaining the concept of souls and had a general understanding of "body possession." Hearing Li Jing'an's words, he scratched his head in confusion and asked, "Then why didn't he go in himself?"

After all, according to Li Jing'an, if the goal was to control the government, wouldn't it be better for the Grand Preceptor Mingjing to simply possess the emperor himself? Why go through all that trouble?
Li Jing'an sighed and said, "I don't know either. I only vaguely heard him mention it, it seems to be because of some kind of 'imperial purple aura'."

Zhang Chengdao vaguely understood.

The reason why the Zhou Kingdom was able to maintain its precarious position with only one Grandmaster was not only because the gap between a Grandmaster and a Great Grandmaster was not that large, but also because this Grandmaster Li Jing'an of the Zhou Kingdom was born into the royal family!

In other words, if the Zhou Kingdom were attacked, Li Jing'an would absolutely be willing to fight to the death for it!

Therefore, both the Xiao and Chu states, though coveting the Jin territory occupied by the Zhou state, maintained maximum restraint and did not rashly start a war—if they could not quickly swallow up the Zhou state, they would face the other side taking advantage of their misfortune.

Although the concept of "imperial purple aura" sounds fantastical and illogical, Zhang Chengdao had actually read about it more than once in the various classic texts of the Academy.

In general, this thing is a bit like the incense offerings and merits of a local deity, carrying the "wish power" of the people of a country. Even an emperor like Li Longji, who did really do nothing in his later years, still had a bunch of loyal fans following him. So as long as someone is an emperor, sitting in the emperor's position, he naturally enjoys the "wish power" brought about by the people's perception of him as the "ruler and father".

This kind of "willpower" cannot be transformed into any spiritual power, but from a certain perspective, it is a kind of righteous power that can drive away evil and deter villains. Therefore, in the imperial city, evil spirits are the hardest to find a place to live.

Therefore, the Imperial Preceptor Mingjing could not directly possess Li Renshun's body, but could only let Li Jing'an do it, because Li Jing'an was also of royal lineage and could, to a certain extent, "convert the fake from the real" and pretend to be Li Renshun, thus avoiding being driven away by the emperor's purple aura.

After Zhang Chengdao explained the situation to Chang Ping'an and Ye Shuyun in a few words, Chang Ping'an, still unwilling to give up, asked again: "Then why doesn't he just coerce the Zhou emperor directly?"

"Although my emperor has not achieved any great feats or can be considered a capable ruler, he still possesses the integrity expected of an emperor!"

Li Jing'an looked increasingly weak, and he was even breathing heavily when he spoke.

Chang Ping'an was a little anxious: "Master, why don't we give him a bowl of kudzu root soup?"

Zhang Chengdao shook his head: "It's no use. His weakness is not due to a pathological condition, but rather to the incompatibility between his soul and body. If I am not mistaken, it must have been the Mingjing National Preceptor who was helping him maintain the harmony between his soul and body. Now that the Mingjing National Preceptor is dead, his soul can no longer remain in another person's body."

Chang Ping'an asked with sympathy, "Then what should we do?"

(End of this chapter)