This was a young waiter with delicate features, yet the look in his eyes as he stared at Zhang Yuanqing was tinged with madness, hatred, and the distinctive rashness of a lunatic.
"Yo, so it's Grandmaster! You graced us with your presence—why didn't you let me know in advance so I could roll out the Italian cannon to welcome you?" Zhang Yuanqing recognized the "small fry's" true identity at a glance.
"Grandmaster?" Sect Master Chunyang scrutinized Zhang Yuanqing, a mad grin tugging at the corners of his lips. "That traitorous disciple took you as her student? Excellent, very good. I was hesitating over whether to use the killing move I've spent a millennium preparing on her. But since you've become her disciple, there's no need to worry about the order."
*A killing move accumulated over a thousand years? Holy crap, did the old crone take me as an apprentice just to take a hit for her?* Zhang Yuanqing raised an eyebrow. "You snuck into the banquet just to spout nonsense?"
He could tell that the Sect Master Chunyang before him was not his true body, but merely a low-level spirit servant possessing the waiter. Thus, he was in no rush to dispatch it, hoping to coax out some information.
Precisely because it was small fry, neither his uncle nor the Grand Marshal had given any warning.
"No, this is a death notice. Yuanshi Tianzun, in seven days, I will take your life." Sect Master Chunyang laughed wildly. "You are destined to become a stepping stone for my return to my peak. Once I seize your spiritual essence, I shall enter the Spirit Realm and take my revenge on that traitorous disciple."
With that, he raised a hand and slammed it toward his own forehead.
Zhang Yuanqing gave a cold snort. The low-level spirit servant possessing the waiter instantly turned to ash.
Struck as if by lightning, Sect Master Chunyang stiffened. Before his palm could touch his forehead, he went limp and collapsed to the floor.
Zhang Yuanqing walked over to the urinal, unzipped his pants, and pulled out his Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. As he emptied his bladder, he pondered:
*A death notice? Sect Master Chunyang absorbed the Third Elder's primordial spirit and thinks he's hot stuff again?*
*If he really wanted to kill me, holding a secret killing move up his sleeve, a sneak ambush would suffice. Wouldn't making a scene today just be startling the snake, overly theatrical?*
*But if he doesn't intend to kill me and this was just a feint, what's his purpose?*
Zhang Yuanqing couldn't figure out Sect Master Chunyang's objective no matter how he looked at it. His grandmaster was completely deranged and unbound by Morality Points, so doing something irrational didn't seem all that surprising.
Yet standing behind him was the Lord of Taiyin. Ling Tuo had just mended part of Sect Master Chunyang's primordial spirit, and now the man had turned right around to pull a stunt like this.
To claim there was no reason behind it felt too far-fetched.
"I'll try stargazing tonight and see..." Zhang Yuanqing gave his Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea a shake and walked out of the public restroom.
After the banquet concluded, Zhang Yuanqing sat on the rooftop and conducted a half-hour stargazing session. The astrological signs showed everything was normal.
He had divined not only for himself, but also for those around him, and found no indication that anyone would face a crisis in the near future.
Thus, he snapped his fingers and arrived at the training room, where he found Money Prince practicing slashes day in and day out.
If Stargazing couldn't provide answers, he would rely on logical deduction.
Fu Qingyang stood in a lunge with sword in hand. Every slash let out a piercing shriek through the air, and every swing caused the muscles beneath his loose training robe to ripple.
"Boss, made any breakthroughs in your Skill Nigh unto the Dao?" Zhang Yuanqing asked curiously.
"No," Fu Qingyang said indifferently. "Swordsmanship requires years of accumulation, or sudden enlightenment between life and death."
He had only advanced to Dominator six months ago. In those six months, his Skill Nigh unto the Dao had already seen a leap forward; another breakthrough in the short term was impossible.
*Xiao Fu, you'd better work harder! Little Zhang next door is about to overtake you!* Zhang Yuanqing felt a sneaky thrill of delight.
Fu Qingyang glanced at him, his expression turning cold. "If you have nothing to say, get lost. Don't disturb me."
Zhang Yuanqing hurriedly tucked away his amusement and recounted the events of the banquet to Fu Qingyang. "I feel like something's off, but I don't have a clue."
Fu Qingyang said coldly, "If you're about to overtake me, why haven't you grown at all since before?"
Zhang Yuanqing bowed deferentially. "Boss is peerlessly brilliant and sees through everything. I was getting ahead of myself just now."
"Not a shred of a Dominator's dignity." Fu Qingyang turned back to continue his slashes, ignoring him.
Zhang Yuanqing sat cross-legged to the side and waited patiently.
About a quarter of an hour later, Fu Qingyang, still lunging and slashing, suddenly said, "He wants to scare you!"
"Scare me?" Zhang Yuanqing grew thoughtful.
Fu Qingyang continued his slashes as he spoke:
"If his target were really you, there would be no need to startle the snake. Since he said it to your face, he must have another objective.
"You just took advantage of Ling Tuo, so you're naturally afraid of retaliation. Meanwhile, Sect Master Chunyang was a beneficiary of the last hunt; he just swallowed the Third Elder's primordial spirit, and now he dares to infiltrate enemy camp to deliver you a death notice. Under normal circumstances, what would you do?"
Zhang Yuanqing answered without hesitation, "To show proper respect to the Lord of Taiyin, I would hide—either duck into a guild dungeon, or have my backers monitor and protect me at all times."
Fu Qingyang nodded. "That is likely their objective. However, I haven't figured out the significance of doing so."
Pausing for a moment, he continued:
"Ling Tuo is the Lord of Taiyin; he may have observed something in the river of the future, which cannot be analyzed through deduction and Insight alone. Hmm... the time frame is seven days, which means it isn't far off. Yuanshi, what do you plan to do recently?"
*What I want to do most recently is have a baby with your cousin!* Zhang Yuanqing grumbled internally. Furrowing his brows, he said, "So whatever I'm about to do recently might infringe upon Ling Tuo's interests. But he can't get rid of me right away, so he deliberately arranged for Sect Master Chunyang to show up and scare me, hoping to make me paranoid enough to hide in a guild dungeon or stay home under the President's protection... Something I want to do recently that touches on Ling Tuo..."
Zhang Yuanqing's eyes narrowed sharply. "I think I know what it is. If nothing goes wrong, I'm heading to the Capital City tomorrow to question Elder Zhao about the Same Boat Society."
Fu Qingyang stopped slashing and looked over.
Their eyes met, both of their expressions turning grave.
The next day.
A taxi pulled up at the entrance of an old hutong. After paying the fare, a young man wearing sunglasses and a mask stood by the roadside, gazing into the alleyway rich with historical flavor.
To say it was steeped in ancient history would be an exaggeration; the atmosphere of the nineteen-sixties and seventies was far more pronounced.
Zhang Yuanqing walked into the old hutong of a kind he had only seen in television dramas: grey brick walls, black tiles, mottled double wooden doors, and even primitive manual hand pumps remaining outside several courtyards. It felt as though he were strolling through the Capital City of the previous century.
He had only taken a few steps when a solemn-faced Xiao Zhao emerged from the corner ahead.
The solemn young man waved to him.
Zhang Yuanqing hurried forward, pulled him into a corner, glanced left and right, and whispered, "Are you sure you want to see Elder Zhao with me? If he really is a traitor and I expose him, this body of mine is just an avatar—if it dies, it dies—but you might be in real danger."
"What proof do you have that my great-grandpa is a traitor?" Xiao Zhao countered, unconvinced.
"No proof, but something happened to me yesterday." Zhang Yuanqing relayed Sect Master Chunyang's intimidation attempt to Zhao Chenghuang.
Xiao Zhao's expression turned even grimmer. "If Great-Grandpa truly is a traitor, now that you've seen through it, there would be no point in killing me anyway—it wouldn't silence anyone."
*Fair point...* Zhang Yuanqing sighed. "I understand that you want to see it for yourself. Let's go together then."
Zhao Chenghuang led the way, saying:
"Great-Grandpa has been handling affairs outside these past few days, but when I called him just now and said you wanted to see him, he agreed immediately. I think he was worried I'd take you down to the basement and the guardian spirit servant wouldn't be able to handle you, so he decided to deal with it personally."
A few minutes later, Zhao Chenghuang brought him before the gate of a siheyuan courtyard house and rapped twice on the beast-head door knocker.
"Great-Grandpa, Yuanshi Tianzun has arrived."
*Creak—* The rust-stained wooden door swung open on its own.
Zhao Chenghuang led Zhang Yuanqing inside. The courtyard covered over a hundred square meters, featuring a locust tree, a water well, and three blue-brick buildings with ridge roofs.
Beneath the locust tree stood a tea table and wooden stools.
With white hair and a stern countenance, Elder Zhao sat with a ramrod-straight back by the tea table, brewing tea.
Zhang Yuanqing strode forward. Looking at the face that bore a thirty-to-forty percent resemblance to Zhao Chenghuang, he bowed in greeting. "Elder Zhao."
"Sit." Elder Zhao nodded slightly.
The two took their seats.
Elder Zhao arranged the scalded teacups, lifted the teapot, and poured deep-brown tea liquor. "You came just in time. Have a taste."
Zhang Yuanqing cupped the bowl, took a small sip, and praised, "Clear in liquor, pure in taste, subtly bitter without astringency, and sweet upon swallowing. Good tea, truly good tea."
Elder Zhao nodded in satisfaction. "You understand tea as well?"
"Not at all. I was just talking nonsense," Zhang Yuanqing said honestly.
Elder Zhao understood his underlying meaning and spoke at an unhurried pace:
"You instigated Chenghuang to enter my basement. By my usual temper, I ought to beat you out of here today. However, he has received much care from you, and I remember that favor. Ask whatever you wish, though I may not necessarily answer."
"Elder Zhao, are you a member of the Same Boat Society?" Zhang Yuanqing asked point-blank.
"The Same Boat Society..." Elder Zhao was visibly startled. He glanced at Zhao Chenghuang, then came to a realization. "You came for that?"
In that instant, Zhang Yuanqing clearly sensed emotions of consternation and surprise from Old Zhao. Probing, he asked, "What did you think we came for, Elder Zhao?"
Elder Zhao did not answer, saying instead, "What do you want to know about the Same Boat Society?"
Zhang Yuanqing held nothing back and told Elder Zhao the whole story of his investigation into the Same Boat Society, then asked:
"Who do you think attacked Huo Zhengkui back then? Aside from the three Alliance Chiefs, do you know anyone else who originated from the Same Boat Society? I heard from Gang Leader Jiang that a certain branch of the Same Boat Society suffered an internal schism and all its members died. Do you know anything about that?"
He laid out all his questions in one breath.
Elder Zhao lifted his teacup, took a sip, and a hint of reminiscence appeared on his stern, rigid face as he spoke steadily:
"It's been nearly a hundred years. If you hadn't mentioned it, I might have forgotten the Same Boat Society ever existed. The Same Boat Society was actually a very loose organization, and very covert. We had to keep ourselves hidden constantly, carrying out assassinations while preventing ourselves from being wiped out in one fell swoop by spirit realm walkers of the evil faction.
"I joined the Same Boat Society simply because back then there was no official organization in the homeland. The land was torn by continuous war, and spirit realm walkers were like scattered sand. The Same Boat Society rallied talented individuals in the name of patriotism and possessed abundant funds, so it quickly took root, sprouted, and expanded across the entire country.
"Communications were underdeveloped back then. Aside from the Same Boat Society headquarters, no one knew the exact roster, let alone how many branches existed nationwide.
"Large branches had many experts, so their reputations spread a bit, while small branches appeared and dissolved in total silence. The Same Boat Society members I knew have almost all died out; the rest you already know about."
*Sigh, so much time has passed, communications were poor, and the Same Boat Society likely concealed itself intentionally—even demigods don't know much about this organization...* Zhang Yuanqing said in a heavy voice:
"I checked the Five Elements Alliance's database. The earliest killing trial promotion list recorded was in 1956, and you became a Dominator before that. In other words, you were capable of attacking Huo Zhengkui."
Elder Zhao set down his teacup and fixed him with a piercing gaze. "The number of Dominators back then was indeed very small. But by your logic, every living demigod is a suspect, including the demigods of the spirit realm clans."
"Yet only you are a member of the Same Boat Society."
"How do you know they weren't members of the Same Boat Society?"
Zhang Yuanqing carefully sensed Elder Zhao's emotions. There was no obvious flaw, but his counterpart was a high-level Dominator and a Day Wanderer with immense spiritual power. The absence of a flaw did not equate to innocence.
Seeing his great-grandpa and Yuanshi Tianzun locked in confrontation, Zhao Chenghuang chimed in: "Great-Grandpa, there's one last question."
Elder Zhao withdrew his gaze, picked up the kettle, and poured tea liquor into the emptied cups. "As for that last matter, I actually know it quite well. The branch that fell apart due to internal conflict was the North China Branch. An internal schism was merely a rumor; the truth was nothing like that."
Chapter 830