215 Behind the Curtains
"Come, little friend. You must be Mao Miaomiao, right? Unfortunately, we've never gotten the chance to talk when we were in Siren City as you've remained in closed-door training. This monk is glad to finally enjoy a conversation face-to-face."
Cao Mao nodded. He also had a lot to talk about with this monk.
As Cao Mao was entering the room, his eyes glanced at a cheeky boy with a familiar face. He recognized this person right away.
'Oh… isn't he that beggar boy? He's grown a lot stronger since then.'
Xiao Xin's eyes met with Cao Mao's. The boy scoffed, "What are you looking at?"
Cao Mao found the boy funny. He seemed arrogant, but he was still na?ve.
"That's not the way to talk to a stranger, especially one stronger than you, boy."
"Stronger? Pfft, you're just older than me! Within 5 or 6 years, I'll be stronger than you!"
"Hohoh? That's some confidence you have."
Seeing how the boy might offend Cao Mao, the monk flickered his finger. Then, an invisible hand smacked the back of Xiao Xin's head.
"Mind your manner, Xiao Xin. Being strong doesn't mean you have to act tough all the time."
Xiao Xin grumbled and stepped back. Yet, he still glared at Cao Mao as if he had done something wrong to him.
"What's wrong with him?" Cao Mao snickered, "Did I kill his father or something?"
"Haiz. It's his old habit. He grew up in a slum, so he is always on edge whenever he meets a stranger."
"Ah, I see. It's okay. Well, let's get to business, shall we?"
"Amitabha. Indeed, there are many things to discuss. First off, this monk is curious, what are you planning to do with your orc children?"
The monk seemed to know a lot after he had stayed in Siren City for a few days.
Despite the identities of his sons being discovered by the monk, Cao Mao was unperturbed. In fact, he got used to being interrogated about his secrets. Since nearly nothing about his life could be hidden from the other senior cultivators, he no longer felt bothered by it.
"Senior Ma Ping has promised me that he will educate them about morals or whatsoever he wants to do with them."
"Oh! That's nice. That's very nice. This monk had thought that he would have had to adopt them if you had decided to raise them yourself. If someone like Ma Ping is in charge, this monk is relieved."
Cao Mao's face twitched. Zhao Bao had indirectly scolded him as a bad father.
"Alright, it's my turn. Who are you? I know that you're from the Huangjin Monastery, but I want to hear your own explanation about your temple's background. What are you doing with these children? Why is everybody calling you a demon worshiper despite being a monk?"
"Hohoho! That's a lot of questions. Well, where should this monk start?"
…
Xu Lanying, Zhang Junyi, and Sun Wentai had stopped bidding once the price had passed 15,000 essence cores. On the other hand, Niu Fu and Liu Bian had continued to compete for the item.
After reaching the 25,000 mark, Niu Fu had conceded, yet he and his mentor had shared a cunning smile.
"Going thrice, the time-and-space mural goes to the crown prince for 25,000 essence cores! Congratulations, your highness!"
Liu Bian's expression darkened. He had spent 90% of his budget for this one item, although there were other items that he wanted to bid on in the afternoon session.
Sun Wentai, Zhang Junyi, and the demon group also sneered as if they had succeeded in conning someone, and they were laughing at the misfortune of Liu Bian.
None of them protested that Tang Deming had erected a hypnosis array in their VIP box. Instead, they chose to keep quiet as they hadn't really lost anything in this session. On the contrary, Tang Deming and his conspirer owed them some of the shares of this item's profit.
As thus, the morning session was over. The afternoon session would start in the next two hours.
…
After Tang Deming finished handling the last item, he rushed to Gong Qi, who had been standing behind the stage.
Next to Gong Qi, Qiang Han and his elders were also there, grinning from ear to ear.
"Senior Gong, Senior Qiang, I almost had a heart attack! This scheme is bad for my heart. Please don't do this again!"
Qiang Han and Gong Qi laughed while they cast a sound barrier, so no one could hear their conversation.
Qiang Han patted Tang Deming's shoulders, "Relax. We've already sent our men to apologize to those nascent soul experts and pay them for the trouble. They've already informed us that they didn't mind it since we had been targeting Liu Bian."
Gong Qi also consoled his employer, "We've managed to isolate Liu Bian in this event. Everything is going according to our plan."
After Qiang Sui's blunder, Qiang Han had become the lord of his clan. However, he never forgot the clan's priority – Eliminate the Liu Clan from the continent!
The imperial clan was like a thorn in Qiang Han's eyes. Even if they had signed a peace treaty, he had never stopped scheming against the royal clan.
Then, before the event, Qiang Han got the tipoff from the Poison Pavilion and Dong Zhongying. They had told Qiang Han that Liu Bian had poisoned his father to steal the throne.
A golden opportunity arose. Qiang Han couldn't miss this chance to weaken the imperial clan further. If they could either sabotage the Liu Clan's treasury or kill the prince, the imperial clan would be crippled, and they might be destroyed from the inside as many cunning snakes were hiding in there.
Thus, Qiang Han had coordinated with Gong Qi and Tang Deming to isolate the crown prince. He had also contacted Xu Lanying, Zhang Junyi, and Sun Wentai, telling them that they would use a strong hypnosis array to cover the entire building. Of course, they hadn't told it to Zhao Bao or Cao Mao, as they hadn't fully trusted either of them.
After these overlords had learned about the interesting ploy, they had played their parts. Since the prince was rumored to dip his hands in necromancy, everyone planned to destroy him before he could create an undead army. If possible, they wanted to steal Liu Bian's dark art as well.
When the promised counterfeit mural showed up, everyone had pretended to be excited and had raised the price, acting as if they had come here for this mural all along. They even got Niu Fu to play along with their schemes, so they could stay out of the radar in the aftermath.
In the end, Qiang Han managed to con 25,000 essence cores from Liu Bian. Still, he would have to share some of them with his conspirer colleagues.
"What's next? Should we call the others, so we can surround and kill Liu Bian?" Gong Qi suggested, looking forward to destroying the rumored evil art user.
Qiang Han shook his head, "Not yet. We will not provoke him, but we will manipulate him to offend everybody here."
"Oh? How are you going to do it?"
Qiang Han laughed, "That brat will eventually realize that he has just purchased a fake mural. When he returns to find trouble with us, we'll have a legitimate reason to request help from the others. You see, we can't simply break the cease-fire treaty because of that dao oath, but we can void it if the other party attacks us first!"
Everyone behind the curtain chuckled. These cunning snakes were already plotting their next move against the prince.
…
Meanwhile, Niu Fu and Dong Bai also had a meeting in the former's VIP room. As Niu Fu had shown off his wealth, the niece wanted to borrow some of his money.
"Brother Niu! You're so rich! How come you have over 10,000 essence cores while I only have 150! Give your little sister some pocket money, please."
Niu Fu, who just had sex with his concubines, was still horny. He ogled his niece's underdeveloped body, "If you bed me, I'll give you 1,000 essence cores, how about it?"
Dong Bai widened her eyes in shock. Then, she kicked Niu Fu's crotch.
Niu Fu neither dodged nor blocked the kick. He welcomed it with open legs.
Poek
"OUCHIE!!"
Dong Bai crouched and held her leg. She felt like she had kicked a steel wall.
"Too bad, my niece. My dick is stronger than steel. If I dick-slap your face, you might even die."
Dong Bai screamed in anger and stomped away. She didn't forget to throw a poison grenade at Niu Fu to pay him back for the humiliation.
Niu Fu sneered as he took off his pants. Then, white semen came out of his peeing hole and covered the poison bomb.
The bomb dissolved into green water. Surprisingly, the fluid could melt metal and poison liquid.
Looking at how his disciple used his power, the white-masked elder nodded in approval and even looked proud, "Your technique is getting better."
"That's because I have such a good mentor, master!"
"Hahaha! That's right. My techniques are strongest in the Aves Continent! Well, if only we can find some orcs or incubi to extract their bloodlines, our techniques would become perfect!"
Niu Fu nodded. Then, he gazed at the direction of Xu Lanying, "Master, should we ask Xu Lanying if they can share some of her kin's blood? She's a succubus queen, right? She should have a bloodline core of an incubus."
The white-masked old man nodded, "True. Well, since she's here, let's pay her a visit. We'll also have to claim the payment from Tang Deming and Qiang Han for our troubles."
…
Back to Zhao Bao's VIP room
Talking with Zhao Bao soothed Cao Mao's heart. The latter found out that the monk and his colleagues simply wanted to help war victims and unfortunate children around the continent.
The Huangjin Sect, aka the Huangjin Monastery, was similar to a modern Buddhist temple. Most members were monks while other non-monk cultivators served as their assistants.
The monks in the modern world worshiped Buddha and followed his teaching, believing in the laws of cause and effect. On the other hand, the monks in this world worshiped Buddha, a Dao God who was also an ogre.
Despite the Huangjin Monastery monks and their followers being righteous and upright, all cultivators called everyone from the Huangjin Monastery as demon worshipers because their god was not a human cultivator.
"You have it rough. The discrimination is real."
"Hahaha! We've gotten used to it. It doesn't matter what they call us, as long as we keep doing the right thing for the weak and the helpless people. Well, since this is a fateful meeting, this monk shall give you this scripture. We hope that you and your orc children can become powerful allies that others can depend on."
Zhao Bao also gave Cao Mao a Buddhist scripture as a gift.
Cao Mao received the scripture scroll and read it right away, thinking that the elder wanted to teach him a secret technique. However, to his disappointment, it was just a record of Buddhist philosophy and its precepts.
"Umm, thank you, senior. What's this?"
Zhao Bao laughed, "The Way of Peace!"
"… Way of what?"
The scripture name was similar to a famous warlord's scripture in the ancient time in Cao Mao's world.
Historically, the owner of this item had been Zhang Jue, leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in ancient China. He had also been a Daoist as well as a physician, who had worked for the people. Similarly, his Yellow Turban force had been nicknamed Huangjin.
"Remember, junior. If you follow the scripture's teaching, you will never get stressed, sad, or despaired. Your mind will be as serene as calm water, but your mental strength will be as solid as a mountain."
Cao Mao was bemused. He wasn't fond of the monk's way of life in the modern world, and he didn't understand what Zhao Bao was talking about.
Seeing how confused Cao Mao was, Zhao Bao explained further.
"This monk has sensed anguish, anxiety, great lust, and anger deep within your heart. You need something to rely on, else you will fall into the loop of abyss. You must use the force to guide your way."
Cao Mao retained his poker face when he heard the corny lines, "… Excuse me, are you a Jedi Master?"
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