Wen Lingjiao glanced at the silver and smiled contemptuously, but then asked, "Seeing that you have such a large business, you must be highly valued in the church. Then let me ask you, why didn't you go to the Holy Religious Conference held at Baoqing Temple in Mingzhou a few days ago?"
The shopkeeper was stunned, thought about it, and subconsciously glanced at the empty second floor hall. Then he said, "Didn't you hear that the 'Yu Tanzhu' who convened the meeting was a fake? He was exposed by the Saint of the Holy Church and executed on the spot. The traitors also committed suicide out of fear of punishment. Later, the Saint summoned the divine fire and burned these people. At that time, a typhoon passed by, and the fire went straight to the heaven. I don't know how many believers and non-believers along the Yangtze River saw it with their own eyes!"
Wen Lingjiao was not satisfied with what she heard. Her eyebrows were raised and she opened her lips slightly: "Don't evade the important point. It was later that I exposed Yu Mei. I just asked you if you received the invitation? If you did, why didn't you show up? You have to answer truthfully. Don't think you can hide it from me. Didn't I expose Yu Mei, who is so shrewd and cunning,?"
The shopkeeper was sweating profusely after hearing these questions. A gust of cold wind blew over him and he shivered. He stammered, "Could it be, could it be, that you are the Saint?"
"Hmph!" Wen Lingjiao sneered, "In the church, we are all brothers and sisters, there is no distinction between high and low. Regardless of whether I am a saint or not, just this sentence and this heart of yours have violated the 'foolish' precepts. Aren't you afraid of going to hell after death?"
The shopkeeper didn't seem to buy it. After hearing Wen Lingjiao's ambiguous words, he snorted and said, "You just came here to ask for money? Why are you saying so much? Do you think what I give you is not enough? If you think it's too little, you can just not take it. Don't think that you can act big in front of me just because you have entered the Holy Church a few days earlier and memorized a few more scriptures. I'm telling you, something's going on here today, don't make yourself uncomfortable here..."
He suddenly realized he had said something wrong, and changed the subject, "Humph! You wouldn't understand even if I told you. It's my bad luck to have met you. I'll treat you to dinner today, and I've collected the money on the table. After you finish eating, get out of here. Just pretend that the incident of impersonating the saint never happened."
Wen Lingjiao was not angry when she heard the shopkeeper's impudent words. She smiled gently, reached out her hand and took out a bronze mirror from the purse hanging on Qiu Yizhi's waist, gently placed it on the table, smiled at the shopkeeper again, and said, "What is this object? Take a good look at it."
The shopkeeper picked up the bronze mirror and examined it for a long time, but could not figure out what was inside. However, seeing that the bronze mirror was very delicate and simple, and the patterns on it were quite in the style of Tianzun Sect, he knew that the owner of this item must be an important figure in the sect. Therefore, he finally put away his negligence and asked tentatively: "My eyes are short and I can't recognize such a treasure. But there happen to be several seniors from the sect in our shop. I wonder if I can get such a treasure and ask them to identify it?" His tone was much more polite.
Wen Lingjiao was not worried at all that the shopkeeper would take the bronze mirror and not return it. She waved her hand nonchalantly and said, "Okay, go down. Come back and tell me when you understand it."
The shopkeeper agreed, picked up the bronze mirror with both hands, turned around and trotted away to who knows where.
Qiu Yizi was sitting next to Wen Lingjiao. From what she said just now, he realized that she was very majestic and authoritative, without any of her usual gentleness. He wondered which one was the true face of Wen Lingjiao.
While he was sighing with emotion, he saw the shopkeeper leading two women and one man running up. The three of them were dressed differently, had different heights, and were of different sizes. Even their expressions and movements were different. If he didn't know that these three people were all followers of Tianzun, he would have never imagined what kind of connection there was between them.
The three men ran to the table where Qiu Yizi and the others were sitting, and without saying a word, they bowed deeply. One of the short and fat men said, "It turns out that the Saint has arrived. It's a pity that there are so many people here that we can't perform a grand ceremony. I hope the Saint will forgive me."
Wen Lingjiao shook her hand nonchalantly and said, "It's no big deal whether you salute or not. I didn't come here to see you salute me."
Wen Lingjiao pointed at Qiu Yizi beside her and said, "Let's get back to the point. My brother has issued a decree, asking me to bring this young master to meet him. Seeing that you are all altar masters, you all know about this, right?"
But the short fat man stood up straight, smiled at Qiu Yi, and said, "Your Highness Yi, how are you? Do you still recognize Wang?"
Qiu Yizi looked closely and found that it was the "Master Wang" Wang Tong in Guangyang City back then.
Qiu Yizhi smiled and said, "So it's Altar Master Wang. Of course I remember. I remember that the whole city of Guangyang was searching for believers of your religion and captured many people, but you, Altar Master Wang, escaped. It seems that Altar Master Wang is really powerful and actually made it to Jiangnan."
Wang Tong replied, "When it comes to supernatural powers, His Highness Yi is still the best. Let's not talk about him. I have been loyal to the Holy Church for many years, and it was only a few days ago that I saw the golden face of the leader for the first time. His Highness Yi is an outsider of the church, but he was invited by the leader himself. This face is greater than the sky!"
Under normal circumstances, when Qiu Yizi heard Wang Tong's words, he would definitely retort with a few sarcastic remarks. However, now he had important matters to attend to, and because of Wen Lingjiao's face, he could not get angry. He just smiled at Wang Tong as a consent, without saying a word.
Seeing that Qiu Yizi did not answer, Wang Tong thought he had the upper hand and felt even more proud. He called out to the two people beside him and said, "Come on, since you are the one sent by the leader, we will not be polite. You two should stop standing there and get to work!"
The two women beside Wang Tong agreed, took out the black cloth, ropes and other things, and placed them on the table. One of the women, who was slightly older and about thirty years old, said, "Sir, are you going to do it yourself? Or do you want us to help you?"
Qiu Yi guessed at a glance that this was used to tie herself up and mask herself - the Tianzun Sect acted in a strange and secretive way, so this was also what was meant by the title.
Qiu Yizi looked at the two objects placed prominently on the table, and then looked at Yuchi Jiming who was sitting opposite him. When he saw her pursed her lips and nodded to him, he knew that with Yuchi Jiming's martial arts skills, he was confident that he would not be at a disadvantage even when he was masked and tied up.
Qiu Yizhi had a clue in his mind, so he smiled at Wang Tong and said, "Master Wang, when I visited the main temple of Guangyang Guijiao, there was no such rule!"
Wang Tong also smiled: "The leader is the reincarnation of the Heavenly Lord, so of course he is different."
"Okay!" Qiu Yizi replied, "The guest should follow the host's wishes. I will give your master some face!"
After saying that, Qiu Yizi stretched out his hand and was about to take the black cloth.
Qiu Yizi was about to put it on herself when she heard Wen Lingjiao beside her say, "You are so arrogant. Mr. Qiu is a guest invited by my brother. How dare you be so rude? Whose influence are you relying on?"
Wang Tong's heart tightened when he heard this, and he quickly explained: "This... This is what the leader meant... He said that the Jiangnan Holy Church is not powerful enough, and was previously messed up by Yu Mei, so he is afraid that the enemy will sneak in and ruin things. Therefore, those who want to see the leader these days are all using this method."
Wen Lingjiao's face darkened: "Since it is my brother's order, I can't make it difficult for you. How many black cloths and ropes do you have here? What are they for? Why don't you get more and cover my eyes too!"
Wang Tong heard Wen Lingjiao was angry, and quickly smiled and said: "Saint, you are the sister of the leader, there is no reason to tie you up!"
"It's good that you know! Mr. Qiu is exempt from this set of rules. If my brother asks, you can just push the responsibility onto me!" Wen Lingjiao said without hesitation.
Although the teachings of the Tianzun Sect claim that everyone is equal and all are brothers and sisters, in fact the rules of hierarchy are stricter than anywhere else - usually the leader of an altar can give orders to his subordinates and take whatever they want, let alone the saint who is second only to the emperor in the sect.
So Wang Tong made up his mind and said, "Since the saint has spoken, I dare not disobey." This was considered as a prior statement.
Wen Lingjiao of course understood the implication of Wang's conversation and said directly, "I see. You are not responsible for this matter. Where is my brother? You have been talking so much. Hurry up and lead the way!"
"Okay, okay, okay." Wang Tong agreed repeatedly, turned sideways, raised his right arm and made a "please" gesture.
Seeing this, Wen Lingjiao winked at Qiu Yizi, then stood up and walked forward. Qiu Yizi, He'er, and Yuchi Jiming, who was dressed as a man, also stood up one by one and followed Wen Lingjiao forward.
Wang Tong saw that among the group of people, apart from Wen Lingjiao and Qiu Yizi, He'er was someone he knew, but Yuchi Jiming was someone he had never met before. He was about to speak out to stop them, but then he changed his mind and thought that since Wen Lingjiao would take the responsibility for him anyway, there was no need to go through the trouble of being a bad guy. He swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth, and quickly quickened his pace, walked to the front and led the way for everyone.
Qiu Yizhi originally thought that according to the style of the Tianzun Sect, there must be a tunnel behind the restaurant, and through the tunnel there should be a secret room, and the leader of the Tianzun Sect should be in this secret room. But he didn't expect that Wang Tong led everyone down to the ground floor first, then went out from the back door, walked through the streets and alleys for a long time, and turned to a pier on the Yangtze River.
But the pier was deserted, facing the empty and white Yangtze River.
While Qiu Yizi was wondering, he saw a black-sailed boat of about two or three meters long slowly approaching the dock from the center of the Yangtze River. The two boatmen on the boat skillfully brought the boat closer, tied the ropes, propped it up with bamboo poles, and finally put out a gangway for people on the shore to get on board.
A man walked out from the black sail on the boat, bowed to Wen Lingjiao and said, "The young lady is here..." He then bowed to Qiu Yizi and said, "His Highness Yi is here too. The leader is waiting in the boat, please get on board."
Wen Lingjiao listened without returning the greeting and said calmly: "I didn't expect you to come too. It seems my brother is indeed on the boat." After that, she gently lifted her silk skirt, stepped onto the gangway and boarded the boat.
Qiu Yizi saw the person who was speaking on the boat. He was wrapped in a very wide dark blue cloak and a huge hat on his head. One could only guess from her voice that she was a woman of some age, but he could not see her appearance at all. There seemed to be an unsettling sense of danger around her.
Qiu Yizi felt a little guilty when she saw this, and she was calculating quickly in her mind:
Since the leader of the Tianzun Sect intended to meet with me and decided to hold the meeting on the ship, the ship must be fully prepared. Under this circumstance, if I rashly board the ship, it would be equivalent to being controlled by others, and the risks involved are self-evident.
But if he backed down, not only would he miss the chance to deal with this mysterious Tianzun leader, but he might not be able to escape unscathed. (To be continued)