Two Years Flew By

"Fellow Daoist?"

Bandit Brother's face twitched. He lowered his head and smiled apologetically. "Hero, this old man only knows a little jargon. How could I be your equal...

You flatter this old man far too much..."

Bandit Brother wanted to pay his way out of trouble. He didn't want to reveal his identity.

"This Flying Thief has set his sights on me, so he must have scouted the place and knows I'm the proprietor of Yanhe Pavilion...

If I wait until he learns who I am, I still won't know who he is or where he is.

Then I'll be even more at his mercy, with no way out..."

Bandit Brother didn't want to speak. He turned around very slowly, proving he had no intention of resisting.

"Hero, this old man will get your money..."

"Not your equal?" Chen Guan heard him say this and believed him.

But all at once, he felt something strange—a deeper sense that something was off.

The feeling made Chen Guan think he wasn't telling the truth.

"If we're not equals, then there's no point talking."

To bluff him, and to figure out where this strange feeling came from,

Chen Guan suddenly seized the back of his neck with his big hand, then gradually tightened his grip, looking ready to kill him outright.

"Why did he suddenly want to kill me?"

Feeling his head grow dizzy and his breath choke off, Bandit Brother found himself caught between life and death. He no longer cared about what might happen later or what secrets could be used against him. Desperate to stay alive, he hurriedly begged:

"Hero... he... ro... we're... we're fellow Daoists..."

He managed to get the words out in fits and starts as he struggled to breathe.

"Fellow Daoists again?" Chen Guan didn't loosen his grip, but he didn't squeeze any harder either. He kept him under the pressure of life and death.

"How can I know you're not just lying to save your life?"

"No... no..." Bandit Brother hurriedly said, "My... name... is Wei Jiheng... more than twenty years ago... Lingzi Stronghold's... chief..."

"Wei Jiheng?" Chen Guan asked again. "I went to your restaurant a few months ago. I remember your surname was Sun, and this is Sun Mansion."

"No... no..." Bandit Brother explained. "I... I changed my name and surname. Around... eighteen years ago, Constable Yan was investigating me... I escaped from prison..."

"Escaped from prison?"

Chen Guan suddenly paused.

He had a feeling that the jailbreak, the bandit, and the pursuit eighteen years ago all pointed to one person.

It seemed to be none other than the "Bandit Brother" who had killed him.

At the same time, as he pieced these events together and figured out who this man was,

Chen Guan suddenly understood where that strange feeling came from.

Because at that very moment, the Scroll in his mind suddenly unfurled, revealing a scene from his first life.

It showed Bandit Brother killing him.

Now,

the Bandit Brother in the ink painting seemed to draw out a black thread, which wrapped around the Bandit Brother standing before him.

[You have found the "Karma of Killing Tribulation" from your first life]

[Note: When you kill the person with whom you forged this karmic bond, if his average "realm, physique, soul," and so on are below yours, you may choose one of his legacy talents as the fruit of this tribulation]

"So this is... sowing a cause of death and reaping its fruit?"

Chen Guan had cultivated Daoist arts for ten years now, and had read some theories on cultivation.

On top of that, his previous life had had plenty of films and shows about Daoism and Buddhism.

So he knew something about "karma."

To sum it up in one sentence, it was "sow a cause, reap a result."

But at that moment,

Chen Guan glanced at Bandit Brother, whom he had choked nearly breathless.

Then he gave a shake of his hand and knocked him unconscious.

He couldn't kill him yet.

He had to keep him around and see if he could "fish out" his grandson.

According to the "afterword" in the Scroll,

his grandson would return home in a little over two years at most, then investigate the murderer who had killed him in his first life.

Since he couldn't know his grandson's exact itinerary,

Bandit Brother was the "best point of contact" for reaching him.

The memories from his first life didn't contain the exact location of his home.

Otherwise, he could have stayed in the house from his first life and waited there like a rabbit by a stump.

For now, Bandit Brother was another kind of "fishing."

He'd see if he could draw his grandson out.

After all, his grandson was a proper cultivator with an established sect.

To be honest, Chen Guan also wanted to see if he could get some benefits from this, and strengthen his foundations.

Thinking it over,

Chen Guan glanced at the unconscious Bandit Brother, then tossed the two men off the bed. He took out the banknotes inside, leaped out the window in three strides, and vanished into the night.

The next evening.

A private room at Yanhe Pavilion.

"This is infuriating!"

Bandit Brother paced back and forth around the private room. Every now and then, he clenched his fists, fury in his eyes burning like flames.

But more than anything, he was worried and afraid.

"Damn that Flying Thief! He knows who I am now!

I have to find out where he is! I have to track him down!"

Thinking this, Bandit Brother looked toward Zhennan.

"Once I find that Flying Thief, I'll also have to find a chance to ask Young Hero Chen to help me get rid of him.

That Flying Thief must be skilled.

But if Young Hero Chen helps me, that man won't escape his fate!"

Bandit Brother was furious, but he didn't waste any time. He contacted people and told them to buy some manuals.

He'd heard that the Zhao Family was collecting manuals, apparently because Young Hero Chen needed them.

That was the perfect opportunity to send a gift.

Bandit Brother also sought out a few people. Besides having them search for the Flying Thief, he sent them to other towns to see if they could get in touch with Ruyi Star.

Ruyi Star had many connections and plenty of ideas; he was an expert at finding people.

But...

Winter gave way to autumn.

Ruyi Star seemed to have vanished. He hadn't shown his face in any of the nearby counties and towns.

He was still avoiding Chen Guan.

The Flying Thief Bandit Brother was looking for seemed to have left town as well.

No matter how Bandit Brother asked around, he couldn't find a trace of the Flying Thief.

And so, with the fear that the Flying Thief might expose him at any moment,

Bandit Brother spent the next two years in constant anxiety, growing thinner without even realizing it.

The only good thing

was that he sent more than a dozen manuals to the Zhao Family and built a good relationship with Young Hero Chen.

That was the only thing he felt grateful for.

As for Chen Guan, over those two years, he used his family's wealth to practice steadily at home and grind his skill proficiency.

He aimed to reach Post-Heaven Perfection as soon as possible.

Over those same two years,

perhaps thanks to his own strength, Chen Guan also came to feel the warmth of family.

He learned what it was like to be pampered, to have his clothes handed to him and his meals served.

But the interesting thing was,

thanks to Bandit Brother's network of connections and the thousands of taels in banknotes he'd handed over for free that night,

the Zhao Family bought up some of the Liu Family's shops over those two years and opened another small restaurant.

The Zhao Family now had a place in town.

They were no longer just an ordinary rice merchant, but had begun venturing into other businesses.

However, Constable Yan and the others probably felt that Chen Guan hadn't "caused trouble again" in recent years, so they didn't make a point of contacting him.

Instead, whenever business was good at the Zhao Family's small restaurant,

Constable Yan might send his men to look after things now and then, hoping to win over this expert. But they always paid, unlike at places like Yanhe Pavilion, where they ate and drank for free.

It was autumn, two years later.

One morning,

Chen Guan stepped out of a spacious room and looked at the six servants sweeping the courtyard.

The Zhao Family was no longer the small manor it had once been. Its residence now rivaled Bandit Brother's grand estate.

"Good morning, Young Master..."

When the six saw him come out, they greeted him almost in unison.

"Fifth Young Master!" Two burly guards by the courtyard gate also greeted Chen Guan.

They were the very guards who had once blocked the courtyard wall.

Chen Guan had taught them a few tricks in his spare time and made sure they had plenty of meat and good food.

Now the two were stout and strong. They could easily handle four or five burly men.

"Mm."

Chen Guan nodded slightly to everyone. He liked this.

This was more like how a young master of a lineage should live.

He'd spent the past few years this way.

Chen Guan was quite satisfied with it. At least someone was there to wash his feet and warm his bed at night, so he wasn't much worse off than Bandit Brother.

"Guan'er!"

Just as Chen Guan was enjoying the feeling of being a young master,

a voice called from outside the courtyard. Patriarch Zhao, his hair even whiter now, came in with a smile and said to Chen Guan:

"Your Sixth Brother was recommended by Mr. Qi, the teacher at the town school. He'll be able to sit the provincial exam next year."

When Patriarch Zhao smiled, the wrinkles on his face had grown quite pronounced.

"Tell me, what should I, as his father, and you, as his elder brother, prepare for him?"

Patriarch Zhao now liked to ask Chen Guan's opinion on many things.

After all that had happened over the past few years, everyone in the Zhao Family had come to regard Chen Guan as their backbone.

But his grandson, Chen Changhong, was getting closer and closer to the time of his "arrival."

And if he truly got involved in this sort of cultivation involving spirits and gods,

Chen Guan felt that the world was full of change, and it was hard to guarantee his own safety completely.

It was entirely possible he might die, then be reborn as a baby—or as an insect or beast.

And if the distance between lives was too great,

this parting might last many years before he could return home.

So when he heard his father's question,

Chen Guan looked at his father's graying hair and thought of the carefree life his family had given him over the past two years. He fell silent for several breaths before speaking:

"Father, your son may be going on a long journey before long.

From now on, you should... you... make the decisions.

And if I don't come back, Father, please prepare a gift from me for Sixth Brother as well."