The Lame Daoist Priest

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TLDP 0080: Interspatial Ring?

The deadlock lasted for half a minute. I calmed my surging mood and spoke, "Everyone, we"re all from the same village, there"s no need for us to lower ourselves and put ourselves too high and escalate the troubles for everyone. As for your damaged land problem, I will compensate you according to the normal price, agreed? But in the case your appet.i.tes are too big, I"m fine with accompanying you to play and take your arms immediately."

Some of those people discussed a bit and then Zhao Erhu spoke, "Fine, but our medical expenses should be counted in!”

“Huh? Hahaha." I laughed, “Uncle, with an armed hand, you"re trespa.s.sing on other"s private home. I can call this as justifiable defense. Not even once have I said that it will include medical expenses, but you want me to give you medical expenses instead."

Zhao Erhu outstretched his thumb and replied, “Fine then! You"re really from the true line of Old Li! This Zhao Erhu admits defeat! 4 families" lands were damaged, and we want 10,000 yuan in compensation, we don"t ask too much, right?"

Auntie shouted form above, “B******t! The lands that had been damaged are not that many! At most it only 2,000 yuan! Otherwise, you can speak b******t with my big nephew!" The weakened and frightened Auntie"s legs a moment ago seemed to have been replaced with such powerful energy right now.

I didn"t respond to my aunt but instead spoke to Zhao Erhu, "Fine, 10,000 you want then 10,000 you"ll get! Just consider the rest of the money for your medical expenses. But first, we"ll have to have an agreement that everything will end here. Should you start to make any troubles again later, I"ll be gladly accompany you to play! What say you?"

“OK!” Zhao Erhu replied in simple word.

I went upstairs to take out 10,000 yuan in cash and tossed it to Zhao Erhu, saying, “Check it first, in case you find some fake money!"

Then I walked toward those villagers whose joints were dislocated and helped to reposition them again. Waiting for me to treat those villagers, Zhao Erhu also completed checking and then spoke, "No problem, the amount is correct." He gave me a thumb out and spoke, "You kid are really good! We"ll leave!"

Zhao Erhu with those people then left.

I closed the door and then leaned on the door while lightly rubbing my left shoulder where it had been hit by one of those villagers" hammer. It was quite painful and seemingly hurt my bones. Dad and the others rushed downstairs and the ones who were the most surprised were Dad and Mom. They had never known that I had such a good skills, but for Mom, there wasn"t enough time for her to be surprised as she asked with a concerned expression, "Son, where are your wounds? Let mom have a look!"

Big uncle praised, “Wow, Xiaolong, you actually are a kung-fu expert, I thought I could only see those moves in movies, so I didn"t expect that I could see it in reality today, it"s really powerful!"

I comforted Mom, saying, “Mom, don"t worry, it’s only small injuries and not serious."

Grandma praises, “Xiaolong, you"re really good and a kind child! When you were young, I thought you"ll live in the countryside for a lifetime. Never thought you have turned into a rich man with such good abilities… Wonderful, wonderful, our Old Li Family"s descendants really outstanding…"

****

Afterwards……

I had become famous amongst my relatives, even jumped over to become G.o.d"s medium, later on, it was even said that I have inherited the 18 Xiaolong Subduing Palms, causing me to sweat profusely.

My older female cousin had been pestering me the whole day ever since, saying that she wanted to learn martial arts from me. It was too excessive as it even irked and bored me to death, so I exposed the lead bars on my arms and spoke, "If you can be like me to carry these 140 pounds lead bars casually, I"ll teach you how to do it."

She finally gave up and no longer mentioning about kung-fu things, but her att.i.tude toward me changed greatly as she saw me in a new light and also didn"t have her usual arrogant att.i.tude in front of me again.

The day before the New Year when I was chatting with my family, my cell phone suddenly rang. As I pulled out to see it, it was a call from Xu Xiaoling, “Hey, Xiaolong, are you free to have some chat now? Dad wants to talk to you."

The Xu Family"s head? Could it be that the matter between me and the Phantasm Rain Pavilion had been exposed? My complexion turned solemn and hurriedly went outside and spoke, "It"s OK, what"s up, tell me."

Then, the Xu Family head"s voice transmitted, "Li Xiaolong?"

“It’s me.”

“Well,” The Xu Family"s head lowered his voice and tone, "For what means did you give the ring to Ningrou?"

I was a little relieved; it turned out that they haven"t found anything about the Phantasm Rain Pavilion. But… the ring? The ring at best could be regarded as an antique, but for someone like the Xu Family Head, it shouldn"t make him that surprised. Could it be that the ring was an extraordinary precious antique? So I ambiguously asked, "What would you like to ask? Just ask directly."

“I want to ask about this interspatial ring. Is it that you want to give this interspatial ring as the gift from the bridegroom family to the bride family?"

Interspatial ring?

Wasn"t it something that only existed in the novel? Had the Xu Family"s head been reading too much cultivation novels and become schizophrenic?

But, the memory that Old Swindler able to take out something out of thin air for a few times suddenly erupted inside my head and really made me hesitated for a while. This kind of thing really existed? I must take back the ring to study it first! So I replied in an indifferent tone, "Please wait until the wedding. I naturally would prepare a much better gift for the Xu Family. The ring is not too valuable, and I give that to Big Sis Xiaoling in regards to my feelings for her."

Interspatial ring, even the Xu Family"s head"s complexion should have changed greatly, since I had said that it was only a worthless thing and would even send a better gift for the future bride"s family. The Xu Family"s head even said "Great" 3 times and then asked me, "Ah, Xiaolong, when you"re free, come to the Xu house and have a chat."

It was really a fast change in att.i.tude!! But I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and let out a forced light laughter, and faintly tried speaking in a more familiar manner, “Good uncle, if I have the opportunity I"ll visit there certainly!"

After having some chats with Xu Xiaoling for a while, I hung up the phone and then thought deeply about what kind of thing this interspatial ring was…

Even though I racked my brain for a long time, but nothing came up, so I secretly sigh. There really were too many inconceivable things in this world, such as the Innate Force….

Speaking about Innate Force, my progress in these 3 months was really significant. And according to the Old Swindler notes, this Innate Force was divided into 9 levels and each level was divided into 9 stages.

The basic and lowest level was 9th level and 9th stage, while the most powerful one was the 1st level and 1st stage.

There was a line in the Old Swindler"s notes, "In case the Innate Force breaks through the 8th level, and one achieved the 7th, you would be able to fly."

And according to the Old Swindler"s notes, I should now be in the 9th level 3rd stage!

My arms now could be completely be enveloped by flame and I could even throw out a fireball just like the Old Swindler. Moreover, I could also spray fire just like a flamethrower! The blazing flame could reach 4 meters away right now! But this technique was also quite taxing and consumed a lot of Innate Force, as I could only hold this technique for 40 seconds.

But in case I only set my arms ablaze, I could last for about 13 minutes.

However, since recently I had no chance to use my Innate Force, I didn"t know how powerful my Innate Force was…

****

The next day…

It was Chinese New Year"s day so everyone got up early in the morning and pasted on stickers" couplet, set off firecrackers, and every household was busy decorating their house with lanterns and colored streamers.

After breakfast when I was drinking tea, I suddenly received a text message. I took out my phone and it was a text sent by Jiannan: "I couldn"t help myself to feel helpless since I know you"ve taken my soul,

But I admit that I"m restless since I realized that I could only give you my soul… Happy New Year Honey~~!" [1]

“Puff!!” Having read his entire text, the tea in my mouth was sprayed out!

When I just wanted to call Jiannan and scolded him, a short text from him came: "I"m really sorry Big Brother, I just sent you the wrong text for someone else."

I firmly hit Jiannan"s number, strongly criticizing him and pointed out, "Hey! Your text to your girlfriend is way too exaggerated! It"s unbearably disgusting!"

Having hung up the phone, I thought for a long time, and then forwarded Jiannan"s text to Xu Xiaoling…

In short, this year was very happy, although I still hadn"t figured out why my Aunt would pay for our ancestral house"s reconstruction…

The fifth day after the New Year’s Eve, we all prepared to leave. My Aunt"s family took the plane to go back while we took the train. We had bought all the tickets and the vehicle used to send us back was still that very same van. But my older female cousin didn"t shout again that this van was broken. We sent them first to the airport as she then spoke to me, "Xiaolong, if you"re free later, come visit me there, I"ll take you out to play."

“No problem! Auntie, Uncle, Cousin, G.o.dspeed!"

In fact, I also wanted to book a plane ticket since there was a direct flight to Qiling City. However, Mom had acrophobia. She firmly opposed to flying, so we discarded that option.

After we had come back home, I found the bleeding sister had been waiting at home. I asked her in a surprise expression, “Big Sister, didn"t I give a full month off? How come you’ve already come back?"

“I want to ask a favor from you ~~~” the Big Sister spoke gloomily.

“Tell me.”

“I want to borrow 100,000 yuan.”

“Why?” I asked, “Although I shouldn"t ask, but I"m very curious as to whom you send the money to after I give you money every time. Anyways, 100,000 is not a problem, but if you have any difficulties, you can tell me. I might be able to help you."

The bleeding Big Sister was silent for a while, and then finally told her life story…

Originally, the reason why the Big Sister"s stomach was bleeding was because at the same time she had a Caesarian Section to bear her child, she got excessive bleeding and died. It didn"t take long for the husband to find new woman to live together, whereas their daughter was then sent to the bleeding sister"s parents. However, since her parents were not a well-off family, while her father also had diabetes, they had to spend a lot of money to buy the necessary insulin every year. The bleeding sister"s child was now at the kindergarten age but they delayed her child"s education, since they couldn"t afford the school"s tuition. Their house also had been extremely dilapidated, so the bleeding sister wanted to borrow money to repair the house as well as admit her child to school.

What a pitiful heart in the parent world! I had never thought that the bleeding Big Sister"s family was this pitiful and had such a difficult life! No wonder that she had that big appet.i.te toward money each time we got customers. Although I had given her more than 10,000 yuan a while back, however, in the last 3 months, we basically had no jobs, so I didn"t give her any money. Only now did she open her mouth and ask for my help. Then, I immediately spoke, "Okay Big Sister. So be it! Anyways, since we have no jobs recently, I"ll help you build your house and handle all the things need for your child to go to school!!"

Notes

[1] I took the liberty to change the order in Jiannan"s poem as to make its rhyme, feeling and nuances could be easier to understand in English.