Chapter 360: The power that is gradually out of control

“I thought the Xie family had been wiped out by the Patrol of Astronomy, but I didn’t expect there would be an orphan like you.”

Jingzhou, Changxi County, Tianyuan County.

In a large courtyard of a noble family, Zhao Guanxiang met the owner of the mansion.

Now he has put on the “human skin” made for him by Zhao Nishang, and his entire face has been transformed into a completely different one.

His current identity is the orphan of the Xie family, Xie Changan.

This Xie Chang’an was not fabricated out of thin air, but was a real member of the Xie family. However, this person has now been imprisoned in the dungeon of Tianyuan County.

Zhao Guanxiang personally took Zhao Nishang to the dungeon and “painted” a human skin based on Xie Changan’s appearance.

Now that he had put on this human skin, he looked 90% similar to Xie Changan. Plus, the two of them were about the same height and weight. If one was not close to them, it would be impossible to tell them apart.

I don’t know whether to say it’s lucky or unfortunate. Xie Changan is a playboy who was kicked out of the Xie family a few years ago. But because of this, he was not implicated in the collusion with the Salvation Church and luckily survived.

Although he did not know anything about the Salvation Church, he knew a lot about the Xie family, such as who were the old friends of the head of the Xie family, which families in Tianyuan County were close to the Xie family… He knew all these things very well.

Zhao Guanxiang got the information from him and visited several close families of the Xie family one by one.

But in the end, most of the noble families simply turned him away and were afraid of “Xie Chang’an” like the plague. Only the Changxi Li family was willing to meet him, and even the head of the Li family met him in person.

The head of the Li family was quite old and looked frail. He looked Zhao Guanxiang up and down and asked, “The head of the Xie family and I are close friends regardless of age difference. Now you are the only child of the Xie family. Logically, I should not stand idly by. But what are your plans for the future?”

Zhao Guanxiang replied: “I only hope that the Li family can take me in and give me a meal. The world is not peaceful nowadays.”

He acted hesitantly, as if he found it difficult to speak.

“It’s more than just unrest.” The head of the Li family laughed and shook his head, “Forget it, you just stay in this old mansion for now. I’ll give you a job in a few days, and you just stay here with peace of mind.”

Zhao Guanxiang immediately burst into tears of gratitude: “Thank you, Grandpa.”

“Amei!”

The head of the Li family called over a maid, then pointed at Zhao Guanxiang and said to the maid, “Please prepare a separate courtyard for Master Xie to stay in.”

Ah Mei lowered her eyebrows and replied docilely, “Yes, Master.”

He looked at Zhao Guanxiang again and said with a smile, “Come with me for some tea. I will take you to meet the people in this family at the dinner party later.”

……

A dinner party, without any incident.

Zhao Guanxiang drank some wine, pretended to be drunk, and followed the maid A Mei back to the small courtyard prepared for him by the Li family.

The courtyard is not big. Maybe it was used to store sundries before. Now there are still many broken or rarely used tables, chairs and benches in the yard. It seems that they have simply moved all the things in the house out and then swept it.

After A Mei brought him there, she handed the key to Zhao Guanxiang and turned away.

Zhao Guanxiang looked at the yard where there was nowhere to step, smiled bitterly, and could only pretend not to see it and walked towards the house.

Fortunately, the house had been cleaned up and there was a clean quilt on a small bed, so it could be considered a place to stay.

He lay down on the bed, listening to the creaking sound of the bed board beneath him. He thought of the Li family members he had just seen at the dinner party, and felt a little confused:
“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with this Li family.”

“Did I make this trip for nothing?”

Just now at the dinner, Zhao Guanxiang met the Li family. In addition to the head of the Li family, Li Yu, there was also a son at home, and the rest were the elderly, the weak, women and children.

However, judging from the number of women and children, the Li family should have more than one son.

During the dinner, Zhao Guanxiang also asked about this matter, but Li Yu, the head of the Li family, just said vaguely, “They all went out to work,” and that was it. He had no way to ask more details.

It seemed that nothing was gained today, so Zhao Guanxiang had no choice but to go to bed with his clothes on.

……

The moon is above the willows, it’s the third watch of the night.

In the darkness, Zhao Guanxiang suddenly opened his eyes.

He lay in bed in silence, just listening patiently.

His five senses were naturally sharp, and these abilities became even stronger after he entered the realm of celestial being. Just talking about his hearing, he could hear clearly the conversations of people half a mile away.

What just woke him up from his sleep was the noise outside the courtyard gate.

If there were other people present, they would only feel that the night was quiet and they would not hear any movement.

But in Zhao Guanxiang’s ears, the door outside the courtyard had been opened at this moment, and gentle footsteps walked into the courtyard, approaching the house little by little…

“Squeak~”

The door opened.

Zhao Guanxiang closed his eyes and pretended to be unaware of what was happening.

But inside the quilt, his hand had already reached into his arms and grasped a jade token.

As soon as he felt something was wrong, he would immediately crush the Tuowu card and run away.

While Zhao Guanxiang was lying on the bed pretending to be asleep, a figure came in from the door and stood at the head of his bed.

He just felt a pair of eyes fixed on his face, which made the hairs on his body stand up.

“Thank you, Master. Thank you, Master…”

The person standing at the head of the bed suddenly called out softly a few times.

This voice… is it Xiaomei, the maid of the Li family?
Zhao Guanxiang did not relax just because he recognized the voice. Instead, he became more alert.

After a few soft calls, the voice stopped.

The next moment, rustling sounds were heard in the house.

When Zhao Guanxiang heard this, his expression became strange.

This sound… sounds like the sound of taking off clothes.

What on earth does this woman want to do?
After the rustling sound of stripping stopped, Xiaomei did not take the next step for a long time.

Zhao Guanxiang couldn’t help but secretly narrowed one eye and glanced towards the head of the bed.

Just this one glance made him open his eyes wide.

With the moonlight coming through the window, at the head of the bed in the room, the woman named Xiaomei was peeling her own skin with her hands.

Half of her skin had been “shedded”, and her upper body was bloody and without skin. The human skin was hanging around her waist, and she was peeling off the skin below her waist.

Suddenly, she seemed to sense Zhao Guanxiang’s gaze, raised her head and looked at him, grinning with her teeth showing, and asked in a soft voice:

“Sir, am I beautiful?”

……

“Dad, it’s obviously my turn, why did you let a stranger take my place!”

The lights in the Li family’s lobby were bright.

Li Jue looked at his youngest son who was furious in front of him and said, “Wen Zhong, the Saint Lady has called us, and our Li family naturally dares not disobey. But now your three brothers have been called by the Saint Lady and entered the underground palace. How can I let you go?”

“So what?”

Li Wenzhong shouted loudly: “Only if I obey the arrangements of the church can I have the opportunity to be baptized in the holy pool. This is my chance to ascend to the Pure Land!” Li Jue directly picked up the crutch in his hand and smashed it on Li Wenzhong’s face, leaving a mark on Li Wenzhong’s face.

“Confused!”

Li Jue cursed, “You think it’s a good idea to go to the Pure Land alone. But have you ever thought about the rest of our Li family? There are so many people. Will a natural disaster come and let them die in this sinful land and not be able to enter the Pure Land?”

He knocked the floor with his cane and sighed, “Dad is old and useless. You have to think about the family. How can you only care about yourself?”

Li Wenzhong was scolded so much that he dared not breathe. After a long while, he said in a stammering voice, “Dad, I was wrong. I was too selfish.”

He hesitated again and said, “But Dad, the church is recruiting people now. If you let that Xie replace us… can we trust him? None of us has ever seen this Xie Changan. What if he is an impostor? If this delays the ‘Birth of the Heavenly Child’, the church will probably blame us…”

Li Jue stroked his beard and said calmly, “Whether I believe him or not, what does it matter? In front of the Blood Bodhisattva, even if he is a government official, after tonight he will be the most loyal member of my church.”

Li Wenzhong was surprised and asked, “Dad, did you send the Blood Bodhisattva?”

“Caution is the boat.”

Li Jue calculated the time, stood up and said, “According to the time, the Xie family kid should have been controlled by the Blood Bodhisattva. Come on, follow me to take a look.”

……

At the same time, in the Li family’s backyard.

“boom!”

“boom!”

“boom!”

Zhao Guanxiang stood on the bed, the light in his eyes gradually faded, and he looked at the skinless woman kneeling on the ground, kowtowing to him with an uncertain look.

With each kowtow, the forehead, without the protection of the skin, smashed into the ground, splashing blood and flesh, which was extremely horrifying.

“Is this… the Blood Bodhisattva?”

Zhao Guanxiang quickly recognized the origins of the skinless woman.

The Blood Bodhisattva of the Salvation Church, he had seen this thing before.

At the beginning, Princess Yuzhen borrowed a blood Bodhisattva from the followers of the Salvation Church in order to harm her adoptive father, but was smashed to pieces by a punch from some strong man beside her adoptive father. The blood Bodhisattva was later sent to the Worship Hall by her third sister for the worshippers to study, and she had also been to the Worship Hall to see it, so she had some impression of it.

According to research on the worship of the “Blood Bodhisattva”, this “Blood Bodhisattva” is no longer a person, but an “instrument”, an “evil instrument” refined by evil methods.

The only function of the Blood Bodhisattva is to confuse people.

Even if it is a celestial warrior, he can forcibly control his mind and make him obey his orders.

The youngest’s master was harmed by this thing. He had dealt with the old Taoist priest from Baiyun Temple many times, and to be honest, he could not see any signs of being controlled, which was enough to show how powerful the Blood Bodhisattva was.

Zhao Guanxiang stared at the Blood Bodhisattva who was kowtowing to him for a while and shouted, “Stop!”

The Blood Bodhisattva stopped immediately.

“stand up.”

The Blood Bodhisattva obeyed the command and stood up from his original kneeling position.

Zhao Guanxiang gave another order: “Put the skin back on.”

The Blood Bodhisattva did as he was told and put the human skin back on his body.

She turned back into the appearance of the maid Xiaomei, except that there was a dent on her forehead, with blood oozing out, forming a red spot.

After several attempts, Zhao Guanxiang was finally able to confirm that he seemed to be able to control this thing.

He didn’t know how he did it, he only knew that the power of the Lord of Wuwang in his body suddenly awakened spontaneously and instantly broke the illusion of the Blood Bodhisattva. Then he had a telepathic connection with the Blood Bodhisattva and seemed to be able to control the other’s every move.

“Is this a good thing… or a bad thing?”

Zhao Guanxiang felt mixed emotions at this moment.

The good news is that he has this ability. Those evil creatures in the Savior Church may not only be unable to harm him, but may also become his helpers, which is extremely beneficial to his next actions.

But the worrying thing is… the power of the Lord of Unforeseen is out of control.

He did not actively use this power at all, but the power of the Lord of Wuwang in his body was running on its own.

The warning from the national teacher was still ringing in his ears. If he continued to indulge himself like this, he would be possessed by the Lord Wuwang sooner or later.

“Should I return to Kyoto City immediately to seek help from my foster father or the Imperial Master?”

He was already alert, and a voice in his mind urged him to put down everything in Jingzhou and return to Kyoto City immediately without wasting a moment.

Just at this moment, footsteps were heard again outside the courtyard gate.

One in front and one behind, clearly two people.

……

“boom!”

The door was pushed open rudely and Li Wenzhong walked in holding a lantern.

After he entered the house, he picked up the lantern and looked at it. He couldn’t help but smile at Li Yu behind him and said, “Dad, look at what I said. This kid from the Xie family is just a scoundrel. How can he resist the power of the Blood Bodhisattva? Look.”

Li Yu walked into the room, and as Li Wenzhong carried the lantern to the bedside, she immediately saw Xiaomei and “Xie Changan” who was standing behind her and looked extremely docile.

His expression suddenly relaxed, and he asked, “Xiaomei, how is Mr. Xie?”

Xiaomei replied expressionlessly: “It’s successful, Master.”

“Ah.”

Li Yu walked towards the two of them, then stood in front of Zhao Guanxiang, looked up at him, and said, “Forget that you were controlled by Xiaomei. From now on, the Li family is your main family. As the holder of the Li family badge, you must obey unconditionally no matter what, even if it means you have to die.”

Zhao Guanxiang looked dull, like a puppet, and answered mechanically, “Yes.”

Li Wenzhong said dissatisfiedly: “Dad, why don’t you let him just believe in the ‘Seven Sufferings’?”

Li Yu shook his head and said, “As for religious matters, there are people in the religion who will guide you. If you don’t see the statue of the god, it means your heart is not sincere. We should not interfere.”

After explaining this, he nodded slightly to Xiaomei: “Let him wake up.”

Xiaomei lowered her head and accepted the order, then turned around and breathed a sigh of relief towards Zhao Guanxiang.

Zhao Guanxiang couldn’t help but shudder, and his eyes gradually became clear.

He looked at Li Yu and his son, and saluted quickly as if startled, and asked: “Master, Young Master, why are you two here so late at night?”

He looked around in confusion again and muttered, “Wasn’t I sleeping just now? What happened?”

Li Yu and his son looked at each other and nodded tacitly.

Li Yu patted Zhao Guanxiang’s shoulder and smiled kindly: “Nothing, you can continue to sleep.”

“I will see the master off.”

“No, stay.”

Zhao Guanxiang saw the two of them out of the yard and returned to the house. His complexion had returned to normal.

Acting is so tiring.

(End of this chapter)