Chapter 1634 - 297_5

Li Zhiyuan: "I have a way that can give us the best of both worlds."

"That is excellent. I hereby thank the Dragon…"

Su Luo had seen Zhao Yi's memories, and knew that the Zhao family's biggest expectation for Zhao Yi was that he would one day become the Dragon King.

He didn't know there was only one Dragon King in each generation, so he just used the "title" the way people toss around "may you get rich."

Zhao Yi, facing Li Zhiyuan, bent down halfway into a bow and then froze.

Li Zhiyuan knew this meant the real Zhao Yi was back.

Zhao Yi: "Holy crap, I almost broke character!"

I'm still in the middle of competing On the River and you just went ahead and surrendered for me, what's that supposed to be?

Right after, Zhao Yi frowned and said, "I didn't think I was this bad too?"

Zhao Yi had checked everyone in the back compartment earlier, so of course he'd noticed the problem.

But he hadn't expected his own problem to be this severe.

The car was driving along and then, with no warning at all, it just switched to another person—who can stand that?

Li Zhiyuan: "We'll talk about your problem when we're back. Tell everyone to get off, we're having a meeting."

Everyone was called off the vehicle by Zhao Yi, including the Liang Sisters, who still hadn't snapped out of their daze.

Li Zhiyuan walked over to Tan Wenbin first. Tan Wenbin had just started to smile and was about to call him Brother Xiao Yuan, when he suddenly squatted down again, body leaning as if he was about to vomit.

The four spirit beasts had been massively powered up, and their teamwork rhythm had gone out of sync, which caused a distortion in Tan Wenbin's perception.

Li Zhiyuan gathered blood on his right hand and began to draw a curse on Tan Wenbin's face. When he finished, the young man snapped his fingers.

"Snap!"

The red mark on his face faded. Tan Wenbin hissed in pain through his teeth, but once he got through that jolt, he realized the world in front of his eyes was finally back to normal.

Only, the world now looked blurry, and the sounds were a bit "buzzing." He had gotten used to having a sharp, crystal-clear perception of the world; now that the amplification was suddenly taken away, Tan Wenbin really wasn't used to it.

"Brother Xiao Yuan, did you Seal those four?"

"Temporary Seal. They also need to sleep and readjust themselves for a while. Once we're back, we'll look for a real solution."

"Mm, okay."

What Li Zhiyuan had applied was not a Seal. When drawing the curse he hadn't used any ink paste, but his own blood. It was essentially a deterrent, forcing the four spirit beasts to quiet down and lie low for the time being.

Zhao Yi was squatting in front of Lin Shuyou, giving Ah You acupuncture.

As the needles went in, red and black blood flowed out nonstop. The alternating chills and fever in Lin Shuyou's body finally eased, and he let out a breath.

Li Zhiyuan walked up to Run Sheng.

Before the young man could do anything, Run Sheng raised his own fist and slammed it into his chest. A blocked Qi Gate was smashed open a crack, and the raging ghost energy inside him vented off a bit.

The ghost energy in his body was too strong; it had suppressed the Evil Qi and resentment, so Run Sheng just vented himself.

Li Zhiyuan took out a Sealing Talisman and handed it to Run Sheng, then turned to Zhao Yi and said, "Help Run Sheng pin this in."

"On it."

Using a special technique, Zhao Yi drove the Sealing Talisman into Run Sheng's acupoint with silver needles, suppressing his ghost energy as much as possible and limiting its rampage in his body.

Li Zhiyuan walked past the Liang Sisters, took a look at them, did nothing, and walked back again.

Zhao Yi didn't comment on this.

After giving everyone's issues a simple preliminary treatment, Li Zhiyuan began recounting what had happened after they died.

Only then did everyone learn that Yin Meng had been left in the Underworld.

Tan Wenbin: "We'll go with what Brother Xiao Yuan said. In the future, we'll go bring Meng Meng back together."

Lin Shuyou: "Even if we have to snatch her, we're snatching her back!"

Run Sheng: "Mm."

Run Sheng's reaction was the calmest.

Li Zhiyuan gestured for everyone to rest where they were, drink some water and eat something. Then Zhao Yi pulled him off to a corner.

"Li, did you edit anything out of that account?"

"No."

"I still feel like you're hiding something from me. If it's not the incident itself… then it's your own analysis that you left out, right?"

"You want to hear it?"

"Of course. If I don't, you'll just hit me with a 'you never asked' later."

"Better not hear it."

"Why?"

"We just wrapped up the dog-lazy incident; you really want to go through that again later?"

"How much later?"

"Quite a while."

"I really am still traumatized by dog-lazy right now. How about this, I won't ask for now and leave it to the future me to ask."

"Come on, let's head back to the guesthouse. We'll wrap up the last bits of business and then we can go… home."

They weren't all there; someone was missing. Even the word "home" didn't taste the way it used to.

Back at the guesthouse, from far away on the first-floor tearoom Li Zhiyuan saw Xue Liangliang talking with a few people.

Xue Liangliang stood up and waved at Li Zhiyuan and the others.

The rest went back to their rooms to settle in. Li Zhiyuan brought Lin Shuyou and Tan Wenbin over to sit down.

Xue Liangliang did the introductions. The three middle-aged men were Xu Deng, Zhou Kuisheng, and Chen Xu, all mainstays of the field. Usually they worked scattered all over Di Bei and Tian Nan, and they'd only managed to gather this time because of the conference.

"Right, Xiao Yuan, you and Brother Chen are sort of half from the same hometown. He's from Suzhou."

Chen Xu: "Yeah, fellow townsman."

Zhou Kuisheng: "Heh, since you're from the same place, Old Chen, you and Xiao Yuan should each greet the other in your dialect. No need to force yourselves to speak standard Mandarin to accommodate us."

Chen Xu pointed at Zhou Kuisheng: "Trying to sow discord, huh."

Zhou Kuisheng shook his head: "Your region doesn't have that vibe. Real hometown bonds, you gotta look at us in the Northeast. Once you're out past the pass, doesn't matter what province, everyone's a fellow townsman."

Xue Liangliang asked Li Zhiyuan, "Xiao Yuan, how are you planning to get back?"