Chapter 531 - 263: Diplomacy Between Two Countries

Chapter 531: Chapter 263: Diplomacy Between Two Countries

When Zheng Xiu saw Jun Buxiao fooling around, he immediately put on a stern face and scolded, "Stop! Let go of that Divine Doctor!"

Jun Buxiao replied aggrievedly, "Boss, I’m just practicing my Miracle Technique."

Zheng Xiu was stunned.

"You see, this Elder Divine Doctor is out for a month or two every time he gets hurt. We can’t just let our skills get rusty, can we? You’re the one who always says it: in our line of work, it’s like rowing upstream—if you don’t advance, you fall behind. You said we have to practice diligently, work to improve our professional skills, and strive to make the Disaster Prevention Bureau bigger and stronger."

Fuck?

Zheng Xiu was dumbfounded. Those were indeed words he had spoken at a regular Disaster Prevention Bureau meeting.

’You’re only supposed to believe about a third of what a leader says, but you, Jun Buxiao, took it all in, one hundred percent. Are you trying to rebel? Do you even want to survive in this workplace?’

"Murder! He’s trying to kill me! Red King, save me! One of these days, I’m going to die at the hands of this son of a bitch!"

The Elder Divine Doctor, the target, was wailing.

"Don’t do this next time."

Zheng Xiu advised.

’This act of shamelessly fleecing others for the sake of advancing one’s Path...’

’The Red King could understand.’

’How else was one supposed to grind for experience?’

Still, the Red King wasn’t entirely at ease, so he added a warning: "Be careful. Just don’t get anyone killed."

"You got it!" Jun Buxiao agreed cheerfully and, with a SWOOSH, threw all five Flying Sabers.

The five Flying Sabers scraped precariously past the skin on the Elder Divine Doctor’s face before sinking into the wall behind him.

As if he still hadn’t had enough, Jun Buxiao then took out a black cloth, intending to blindfold himself.

It seemed he was getting addicted to the practice.

Zheng Xiu couldn’t watch any longer and rescued the Elder Divine Doctor.

The Elder Divine Doctor immediately wept with gratitude, pledging his loyalty to the Red King. He swore that no matter what difficult cases the Bureau faced in the future, he would be there. He was even willing to forgo a pay raise and all his vacation time. The Elder Divine Doctor had only one, tiny condition—that he would never, ever be partnered with Jun Buxiao again.

Seeing that the Elder Divine Doctor was in good spirits, Zheng Xiu felt relieved. He left the compensation money and walked out of the clinic.

’A healer who cannot heal himself? Could that be his Restriction?’

As he left, Zheng Xiu mulled over Situ Yong’s "Restriction" as a Physician. It was common knowledge that while rules were a prerequisite for advancing on a Path, a Restriction was not. It was just that a "Restriction" was something that could amplify a Miracle Technique to its greatest possible extent.

Take Zheng Xiu’s Surprise Cage, for example. Like shaking a lottery box, he couldn’t control what technique would come out, but it was always a powerful one. All he had to do was use it.

The Restriction of "randomness" resulted in a boundless amplification of the Miracle Technique.

Gu Qiutang’s injuries had been far more severe than Situ Yong’s; Zheng Xiu knew this for a fact, as he was the one who had inflicted them. Yet Gu Qiutang had been up and about after just a few days, while Situ Yong, injured as he was, could only suffer through a slow recovery. There was no other explanation for this disparity besides a "Restriction."

’Interesting.’

Later, Zheng Xiu heard that Situ Yong had added a fourth rule to his "Three Refusals." The new rule was: No treating Actors.

In the year since becoming a Prisoner, Zheng Xiu had seen all kinds of people and Path rules, and he was long past the point of being surprised by any of it.

’Another year has passed just like that.’

The sun was dipping low in the west, bathing everything in a brilliant golden light. Riding in his carriage, with the CLIP-CLOP of hooves in his ears and the cool breeze on his face, Zheng Xiu watched the ordinary crowds bustling on the street and couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

One autumn a year ago, he had been imprisoned. There, he had inexplicably glimpsed the Path of the Prisoner, and from that day forward, his life had never been the same.

He had wondered more than once, ’If not for that disastrous imprisonment, would I still be living in blissful ignorance of the true nature of the world? Would I still be just that simple, unpretentious Richest Person?’

Inside the carriage.

Zheng Xiu closed his eyes and centered his mind, entering the Heart Prison in an instant.

He spread his fingers. On the Game Table before him, a miniature world seemed to coalesce. Lifelike Post Stations drifted slowly across its surface.

In and out he went, killing time.

’Looks like Eternal Purgatory has become something of a folk legend. It’s getting more and more stable.’

Though Zheng Xiu was now a hands-off Shopkeeper, with the Brotherhood assigning him no other regular tasks, they continued their own work. On the first and fifteenth of every month, they would randomly select a lucky soul and invite them for a tour of Eternal Purgatory.

The experiences of these "lucky" souls within Eternal Purgatory would then spread by word of mouth. This not only encouraged wrongdoers to mend their ways, but also solidified the legend of "Eternal Purgatory"—killing two birds with one stone.

Zheng Xiu didn’t need to check on the Brotherhood’s work. He could gauge their effectiveness simply by trying to enter his Heart Prison from time to time while he was out in the world.

"Master, we’re here."

Qing Shisan’s flippant, devil-may-care tone broke through Zheng Xiu’s contemplation.

"You," Zheng Xiu said, looking up as he stepped out of the carriage. His eyes fell on the tobacco pipe tucked into Qing Shisan’s belt, and he suddenly realized he hadn’t seen him smoke it in a while. "Quit smoking?" he asked.

"Quit? Not a chance." Qing Shisan said, stroking the pipe at his waist wistfully. He pulled it free, rubbing it in his hands for a moment before continuing with a helpless sigh, "That damn door... I can’t push it open anymore. So I figured I’d have to try a different way, make things a little harder on myself."

Qing Shisan grinned. "This little pipe... I can only take a couple of hard puffs when the time is right. The rest of the time, I just have to hold back."

Zheng Xiu laughed. "Just don’t hold it in so long you cause yourself problems."

Qing Shisan shook his head. "Heh! It’s like they say: find life in the face of death. If I don’t force something out of myself through this, how can I have the face to stay in the Zheng Family? And Master, you know it better than anyone. The Zheng Clan is crawling with Mystics these days. It’s getting harder and harder for us mere mortals to get by."

As he said this, Qing Shisan gave Zheng Xiu a knowing look and winked.