291: Chapter 71 The Schemer, the Hypocritical Monk

One stick of incense later, Murong Bo left the dense forest and went away alone.

Meng Li watched the direction he left in and sighed.

This old man had returned specifically after hearing about what happened at Canhe Village.

As the previous head of the Murong Family, Murong Bo knew his own situation better than anyone. Huanshi Shuige did indeed house many Martial Arts, and he had personally acquired quite a few of them, but he had absolutely no impression of the Raging Dragon Palm, Azure Sea Rising Tide Melody, Swift Steps, or Finger Flickering Technique.

Additionally, Murong Bo had practiced Shifting Stars and Mixed Finger Technique, so he knew how difficult those two family secret arts were to master.

Yet, the level of mastery Meng Li displayed in these two secret arts clearly surpassed his own.

Putting it all together, Murong Bo was extremely curious, and even more pleasantly surprised.

He had originally been dissatisfied seeing Meng Li not making a name for himself in Jianghu, but he couldn't show himself to reprimand him, so he had to cause trouble behind the scenes, making people come to challenge him.

That's right, those Jianghu figures coming to demand an explanation had an element of Murong Bo's deliberate guidance.

At the very beginning, this old man had indeed been forced to reveal Shifting Stars, but later, seeing Meng Li not active in Jianghu, he hated that his son would not improve, so he thought of a roundabout way to pressure him. When dealing with some small-fry, he deliberately used Shifting Stars to guide their friends and relatives to come looking for trouble, forcing Meng Li to come out and be active.

However, Murong Bo never expected that while Meng Li seemed to be doing nothing, he was actually developing quietly.

Facing those Jianghu people coming to demand an explanation, he not only set up a ring to turn passive into active, but also shocked everyone with his first appearance.

Feng Boe and Bao Butong's Martial Arts had greatly improved, and they had defeated the heroes.

The maids by his side also performed extraordinarily.

He himself appeared and defeated the famous Beggars Sect Leader "Heroic Beggar" Qiao Feng with one move.

This made Murong Bo inwardly overjoyed, thinking that his son had grown up and had the bearing to accomplish great things.

But upon hearing Meng Li's title of "Amorous Young Master," Murong Bo became worried again. As a descendant of the Yan Emperor royal family, he didn't reject the idea of his son having many wives and concubines; on the contrary, he hoped this only descendant of the Murong Family could carry on the family line.

However, Meng Li had no elders around to restrain him, and he was young and vigorous. Murong Bo was afraid that he would go too far, indulge in the comforts of women, and erode his ambition to restore the country.

This was something Murong Bo could not accept.

Therefore, after learning the full story, he hurriedly rushed back to Suzhou from Shaolin Monastery, snuck into Canhe Village, and wanted to find Meng Li alone to have a showdown, to persuade and guide him, and to conspire together on the grand plan of restoring the country. He didn't expect to be discovered by A Zi when passing by Listening Fragrance Pavilion.

A Zi had her period these past two days. At night, her position in the threesome with A Zhu and Meng Li had been replaced by A Bi, leaving her depressed and tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

Hearing movement outside, she immediately went out to check. Seeing someone sneaking in, she attacked directly with Finger Flickering Technique.

As soon as the two exchanged blows, Mu Wanqing, Zhu Jian, and Mei Jian were alerted one after another.

Very quickly, Murong Bo fell into a one-versus-four situation and was at a disadvantage.

Had Meng Li not appeared in time, he might have been defeated on the spot.

Arriving at the dense forest, Murong Bo had a showdown, persuading Meng Li according to his plan, intending to conspire with him on the grand plan.

Meng Li had long since stopped wanting to restore the country and did not agree, instead persuading him to let go of this ethereal obsession.

To this end, he presented facts and reasoned with him.

But Murong Bo's obsession was deep; he couldn't listen at all and even flew into a rage, reprimanding Meng Li.

Meng Li had no choice but to imitate the Sweeping Monk and use abnormal means like the Mi Xin Great Technique to "convert" him, letting him go to Lingjiu Palace to live in seclusion and retire.

The reason he didn't let Murong Bo stay in the Murong Family was because Meng Li vaguely remembered that the other party's faked death had flaws.

One of them was that there was no corpse in the coffin in the tomb.

In the original story, Ba Tianshi, one of the Three Dukes of Dali, was suspicious of Murong Bo's death. When Murong Fu was away and A Bi was managing the Murong Family, he came to visit, wanting to take the opportunity of paying respects to Murong Bo to investigate the truth. A Bi, having learned from Jiumozhi's lesson, refused.

Ba Tianshi didn't give up, snuck in secretly, and discovered that Murong Bo's coffin was empty. Later, he rushed to Leigu Mountain and told this to Duan Yu.

The second was Shaolin Monastery Abbot Xuan Ci.

In the original story, at the Heroes Assembly at Shaolin Monastery, Murong Bo appeared to stop Murong Fu from committing suicide, but his identity was not actively exposed; rather, it was called out by Abbot Xuan Ci. Abbot Xuan Ci said he knew his identity only after hearing Murong Bo's persuasion to Murong Fu.

But in Meng Li's view, Abbot Xuan Ci should have long suspected Murong Bo's death, and might have even guessed that the other party was active near Shaolin Monastery.

Although Murong Bo's Martial Arts were high, Abbot Xuan Ci was not necessarily worse than him.

After all, the heritage of Shaolin Monastery made even Murong Bo covet it. As an outsider, he had to steal Shaolin secret arts, but Abbot Xuan Ci didn't need to. Moreover, without sufficient strength, it would be impossible for Abbot Xuan Ci to stand out and become the Abbot, let alone make the heroes bow their heads and become the leading brother of the Yanmen Pass incident.

In addition, Shaolin Monastery was Abbot Xuan Ci's home turf, and Murong Bo visited frequently.

Combining these situations, Meng Li did not believe at all that Abbot Xuan Ci had been completely unaware of someone sneaking into the Scripture Pavilion for so many years.

It was just that, perhaps because he was unsure, coupled with other considerations, he played dumb while knowing the truth.

This also fit Abbot Xuan Ci's hypocritical, sanctimonious persona.

The reason why Meng Li felt Abbot Xuan Ci was sanctimonious and hypocritical:

First, the ill-fated relationship between him and Ye Erniang.

At the very beginning, Abbot Xuan Ci broke the precepts, which could be said to be due to being hot-blooded, unable to control his emotions, and a momentary lapse in judgment.

But later, he still had a secret rendezvous with Ye Erniang and had a child with her; this could no longer be explained by a momentary lapse in judgment.

More importantly, Ye Erniang later went mad with longing after her son was snatched away by Xiao Yuanshan, going everywhere to snatch other people's children to play with and kill. This deed was known to everyone, yet Abbot Xuan Ci turned a blind eye and a deaf ear; let alone stopping her, he hadn't even offered a word of persuasion.

This was undoubtedly a form of silent shielding and indulgence.

And the source of this evil debt lay entirely with Abbot Xuan Ci.

The child was born to him and Ye Erniang; Xiao Yuanshan snatched the child to take revenge on him.

Ye Erniang's Martial Arts were nine times out of ten also derived from Abbot Xuan Ci.

Because she had no master to teach her, as a woman, it was almost impossible for her to practice Martial Arts far superior to Crane in the Clouds and the Crocodile God of the South Sea.

The second point of Abbot Xuan Ci's hypocrisy was related to the Yanmen Pass incident.

After the plot officially began, Qiao Feng investigated the identity of the leading brother. The survivors who participated in the Yanmen Pass incident back then, in order to maintain Abbot Xuan Ci's reputation, refused to speak, and were killed one by one by Xiao Yuanshan, who was taking revenge in secret. During this period, Abbot Xuan Ci had no intention of stepping forward at all.

It wasn't until the Heroes Convention at Shaolin Monastery, seeing that it could no longer be hidden, that he admitted it, hypocritically saying he would pay with his life today and asking Xiao Yuanshan if it was too late.

Qiao Feng said he deserved to die, but respected him as a generation of eminent monks, and proposed a duel to the death.

As a result, Abbot Xuan Ci not only refused, but turned around and exposed Murong Bo's identity, starting to shift the blame, revealing the foundation and schemes of the Murong Family, and dragging the other party into the water.

Once this blame was shifted, Qiao Feng and Xiao Yuanshan immediately went after Murong Bo.

Then, regarding Ye Erniang's matter, Abbot Xuan Ci did not initially propose to set an example and accept the punishment of the staff.

It was Bao Butong and Feng Boe who saw that the situation was not good and wanted to help Murong Bo and his son, but were stopped by the Shaolin Monastery Disciples. Bao Butong made sarcastic remarks in public, saying that Shaolin Monastery was a feng shui treasure land for raising illegitimate children, and only then did Abbot Xuan Ci say he should be punished.

His later rhetoric was also to maintain the reputation of Shaolin Monastery.

This was enough to show that he didn't really want to admit this mistake, but had no other choice.

With a persona like Abbot Xuan Ci, if things developed as they did in the original story, he would 100% shift the blame to Murong Bo.

At that time, Qiao Feng, his father, and the people from Shaolin Monastery would very likely come to the Murong Family for a visit.

If Murong Bo stayed, once his identity was exposed, the blame would easily be pinned on him.

If he was not there, no matter how much Abbot Xuan Ci said, there would be no proof of death.

As for Abbot Xuan Ci and the others going to Lingjiu Palace to find someone?