Peace Order
Chapter 382 - 164: Carry the Banner for the Young Master!!!

Chapter 382: Chapter 164: Carry the Banner for the Young Master!!!

Li Guan Yi turned and looked at the monk. Zhi Ge Monk’s gaze was calm as he looked at the scroll in his hands, taking it over. He skimmed through the text, his eyes as tranquil as a still lake, never to ripple again.

Li Guan Yi’s expression remained unchanged, and he simply smiled, saying,

"I am just very interested in the secret history from before."

"Is the master also interested?"

The monk looked at the scroll, gently touching it, and hummed softly with a calm tone, "Before I became a monk, my Buddhist name being Zhi Ge, I was a general under Taiping Duke and went through life and death, slaughtering many innocents. After the Duke perished, I fell into spiritual blindness, and madness took me like a demon."

"The world was so chaotic, I once felt heroes should wield power to dominate the world."

"In my youth, I roamed around challenging dojos, made a name on Martial World. Only later, when I met Taiping Duke and served under him, carrying the Big Banner in the world’s conflicts, did I still believe in the presence of other kinds of people, knowing that there was justice in this world."

"But later... after that incident, I only felt that such a good man as Taiping Duke didn’t receive good rewards, and the world was in chaos, no one was beyond killing. So, I went on a killing spree, spiraled into madness, until my master subdued me, watched over me for three months, before he could suppress my fierce nature."

"Only then did I have a great enlightenment and turned to the Buddhist Sect."

"Now looking at this scroll again, all those past events seem like fleeting clouds, already a decade ago... The world never stops changing, lament is beyond words."

Zhi Ge Monk pressed his hand on the scroll, his demeanor serene. The old abbot, before his disciple left the mountain, gazed at him for a long time and only sighed gently in the end, handing him a thick piece of bamboo, saying he practised the heart method of the Buddhist Sect, not killing or lying, for ten years.

He went through eighty calamities but still faced the last calamity of the heart.

’This descent from the mountain, to rescue Yue Pengwu, is your final trial.’

The aged monk whispered softly, ’If you get through it, you can come back to be my final disciple, but if you don’t...’

’Then, you will no longer be my disciple, and I, no longer your master.’

Zhi Ge Monk picked up the scroll, intending to put it down, but stopped short.

He sensed that when Li Guan Yi handed him the scroll, something else was mixed in.

It was a Tiger Talisman, with a pattern that belonged to Yue Qianfeng. Monk Zhi Ge’s eyes flashed with a sharp glint, yet his face showed no change, just calmly watching the young man before him.

Yue Qianfeng’s nature, rough yet meticulous; Zhi Ge believed he wouldn’t hand the Tiger Talisman to someone he didn’t trust.

Monk Zhi Ge’s heart stirred slightly, and he said gently, "Since you like reading these historical scrolls, there are many more such scrolls here. Today, capturing you as our hostage allows you to read more about Chen Country’s secrets, understanding that we came here because a true man should act this way."

He clasped Li Guan Yi’s hand.

Then, he strolled towards where the scrolls were kept.

Zhi Ge Monk was esteemed within Martial World, a disciple of a great Buddhist master and also a once renowned general. People respected him, and for a time, no one thought much of it as Zhi Ge Monk led him to a blind spot, turned around. His lips moved, but a voice rose in Li Guan Yi’s heart.

’Who are you, and why do you have Yue Qianfeng’s Tiger Talisman?’

He was Yue Qianfeng’s close brother.

Li Guan Yi wanted to claim that, but beyond Zhi Ge, he could not trust anyone else. To utter such words, once discovered by spies other than the Luzhou Sword Immortal, could jeopardize everything in critical moments, requiring extraordinary measures.

This identity was still not trustworthy enough.

In that moment, there was a network laid down by Tantai Xianming and Emperor Chen Dingye outside, with Hidden Guards and internal spies, and he had to gain the absolute trust of this famed general before him. The young man felt like he was standing on a chessboard; every move had to be decisive, once stepped.

There could be no turning back.

All heroes in the world are gamblers.

Zhi Ge watched as the young man raised his right hand, his war robe falling to cover it.

With one hand, he wrote in Inner Qi a unique pattern in the air.

It looked like a Big Banner, with marks of clashing swords, transformed into a bird, rays spreading, reflected in Zhi Ge Monk’s eyes, turning into brilliant radiance. Zhi Ge Monk’s body stiffened, and in a trance, not knowing where his body was, as if he could still see that man, smiling at him:

"Use secret communication, with cryptic text, the secret being secret known only to you and me."

’Ha ha ha, remember, the name of this pattern is—’

"Big Banner unending, passing the torch, glorious and vast, sharing the robe with you..."

Voices interweaved, Zhi Ge Monk’s throat squeezed out the sound almost instinctively, as if echoing with the memory of that Great General. Li Guan Yi’s Inner Qi gradually dispersed, Zhi Ge Monk’s body remained rigid for a long time, his palm trembling slightly.

Slowly raising it, he took a deep breath.

And then, he couldn’t contain himself any longer, seizing Li Guan Yi’s wrist abruptly, a tremendous sound shaking, collapsing the surrounding scrolls. The terrifying swell of Inner Qi roared like a massive beast, alerting others. The Luzhou Sword Immortal, holding a sword, turned his eyes, while other Martial Artists quickly exclaimed:

"Master, what’s wrong!?"

"Master!"

At that moment, on edge like startled birds, they raised their swords to see, but saw Master Zhi Ge gripping the young military officer’s arm tightly, his eyes bloodshot, apparently enraged, causing the few Martial Artists ahead to freeze in fear when he turned back.