Douluo: Law of Heaven and Earth

Chapter 956: Lu Qibin's Past - Extra : Shocking Change! The Second One!
Xu Ming was not surprised by the mongrel's worry and fear. He just said, "Don't be so anxious. With your eye spirit, you have a vision far superior to that of ordinary people. You are also a good helper for stargazing."

The bastard was at a loss.

So Xu Ming changed the subject and said, "Let me give you a name."

"Really?"

The bastard was surprised, then reacted, "Thank you, sir."

“You have a thirst for knowledge, but you don’t know the reason, and you are full of doubts in your heart. So I’ll use ‘Huo’ as your surname and ‘Xing’ as your given name.” Xu Ming named the mongrel “Huoxing”.

Thanks, bastard.

However, Xu Ming thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "The 'Huo' in 'doubt' doesn't sound good. It doesn't sound like a surname. Change it to 'Huo' and it will be 'Huoxing'."

Then, Xu Ming wrote down the two characters "惑" (Huo) and "霍" (Huo) on a piece of paper and said to Gou Bastard, or Huo Xing, "Two different characters that seem to have no connection, but the pronunciation is the same."

"Amazing, right?"

"I just recently learned that in addition to cultivation, there are such wonderful things in the world. If I had discovered this when I was young, perhaps I would have achieved greater success in cultivation."

"If you can combine cultivation with your own interests, you can achieve greater results... Most of the soul masters in the world don't understand this principle. Even if they do, they may be similar to me. They are already so old that their bodies don't have much potential anymore."

The bastard couldn't understand, but he knew that from this day on, he had a name, Huo Xing, and his master, Xu Ming, seemed to no longer treat him as a servant.

On the second day, Huo Xing accompanied Xu Ming to Xingluo City to purchase paper, but saw Xu Ming looking at a girl with a scar on her left cheek selling food not far away, and he was a little confused: "Master, do you know that girl?"

"do not know."

Xu Ming shook his head, turned around and left, but he was absolutely certain in his heart that the girl was none other than the dead Li Yang.

She is actually alive!

As an elder of the Xingguan Sect, Xu Ming didn't think he was wrong, so -

After returning to the sect, he asked Huo Xing to prepare dinner while he flew down the mountain from a small path and went to Chaoyang Village, Li Yang's hometown. He found his grave, dug the soil, opened the coffin, and saw a rotten corpse.

Judging from the clothes, it seemed to be Li Yang, but Xu Ming keenly noticed that the cervical vertebrae of the corpse were broken, as if he had been hit hard before death.

"It's a substitute!"

Xu Ming realized that everyone in the sect had been deceived by Li Yang. After being stunned for a while, he laughed and said, "Li Yang, you are really amazing!"

After restoring the coffin, covering it with soil, and planting weeds, Xu Ming did not intend to dig into the matter. After all, confirming that Li Yang was still alive was like leaving him a way out.

As time went by, thanks to the Xingguan Sect's previous stargazing data, Xu Ming's research progress was very smooth.

However, there is no wall that is impenetrable.

Xu Ming's more regular schedule than before still attracted the attention of others - Lu Qibin.

Li Yang's suicide caused a slight change in his personality. He blamed Smith and himself, and as the sect began to strictly prohibit its disciples from studying the orbits of stars, he put the blame on the "stargazing".

Of course, this was also influenced by Mr. Li.

When Xu Ming went down the mountain to dig up Li Yang's grave, Lu Qibin noticed it and secretly followed him. Although he was not as fast as Xu Ming, he was able to roughly determine where Xu Ming was going and found Chaoyang Village, Li Yang's hometown.

When Lu Qibin arrived at Chaoyang Village, Xu Ming had already turned back, but he was still looking for possible clues in the village and finally found Li Yang's grave.

Then he discovered that part of the soil around Li Yang's grave was new.

There was actually no problem with Xu Ming's cover-up. He covered the grave with sand and planted weeds, so almost no one could tell that the grave had been tampered with.

But it was impossible for Lu Qibin to do nothing when he came to Li Yang's grave. Every time he came alone to pay his respects, he would help pull out the weeds. After all, this was the person he secretly loved.

But this weeding——

Xu Ming's cover-up was exposed.

With a gentle pull, the grass roots fell off the grave mound! If it was just one grass, it would be fine, but the grave mound and the surrounding weeds were all like this.

The first thing Lu Qibin thought of was that Li Yang’s grave had been dug up, and it was just before he came to pay his respects!

Ordinary people don't have such fast hand speed, there is only one answer -

Xu Ming!

At this moment, Lu Qibin clenched his fists and wanted to seek justice for Li Yang! Even if Li Yang was wrong first, she was already dead, so why disturb her eternal sleep?
Rushing back to the sect, Lu Qibin told Li Gong about this matter...

···
"The relationship between Elder Li Gong and Elder Xu Ming is not as good as it seems."

Lu Qibin took another sip of tea, his throat slightly hoarse. Seeing that Zhou Qing had restored 99% of the pattern on the metal ball, and only needed one last turn to completely restore it, he stopped and wondered, "Why didn't you turn it one last time?"

"I want to hear Mr. Lu finish his story."

Zhou Qing smiled slightly and put the metal ball down. "Although I only heard part of it, I was also touched... The information stored in this ball may be able to quickly increase the progress of our research, but I think your past story is more important."

After taking a deep look at Zhou Qing, Lu Qibin smiled, as if he saw the figures of Li Yang and Xu Ming in him, but they were different.

Zhou Qing has the same thirst for knowledge as them, and everything he does is also for self-satisfaction, but his thinking is more flexible and full of compassion.

Li Yang and Xu Ming, in pursuit of knowledge and truth, do not care about other people's lives, not even their own lives.

And Zhou Qing——

Lu Qibin could see that he cared about his own life, because he knew that only by living and taking action could he touch the hearts of others.

Moreover, he cares about other people's lives.

But he is not pedantic and will use others when necessary without any concealment.

Trade-offs?

Zhou Qing would do the same, but he would never make the choice of sacrificing a small number of people to save the majority. Lu Qibin believed that if someone dared to give him such a choice, he would directly lead the Red Society to declare war on that person...
···
After learning that Xu Ming had dug up Li Yang's grave, Engineer Li thought that Li Yang had handed a small metal ball to Xu Ming before his death. Although he had also seen the small metal ball and was sure that it was not a soul guide device, what if it was some special key?

Perhaps, Li Yang had reached some kind of deal with Xu Ming before his death!

Or maybe Xu Ming was the real mastermind behind the whole thing! After all, some of the Xingguan Sect's direct disciples were also studying the laws of the stars' movement!
Once suspicion arises, the person suspected will be smeared even if he is innocent, not to mention that the relationship between Mr. Li and Xu Ming is not as friendly as it seems, and Xu Ming himself is indeed not innocent in this matter.

Furthermore, when Li Gong killed Smith, he actually hesitated and wanted to let him go, but he knew that Xu Ming was watching in secret and he could not be partial to him... But now, he learned from his new disciple that Xu Ming had a high probability of digging up Li Yang's grave and was very likely the mastermind behind the whole thing -

He was extremely angry!

Finally, under Li Gong's deliberate nitpicking, he joined forces with other non-direct elders to report Xu Ming to the sect leader for a thorough investigation.

As the conflict between the direct descendants and the non-descending descendants within the sect became increasingly intensified due to the "stargazing" incident, the other non-descending elders also wanted to take the opportunity to seize a certain degree of voice and supported Li Gong of the Criminal Law Hall.

The sect leader had no choice but to order someone to call Xu Ming in for questioning.

Upon learning that the sect leader was looking for him, Xu Ming immediately called Huo Xing, gave him a map, and asked him to find the address marked on the map.

After learning that Li Yang was still alive, Xu Ming also found an opportunity to find out her current address.

"Go to this place and find a person with a scar on her left cheek. Follow her from now on. Don't come back to Xingguan Sect. There will be no place for you here anymore." Xu Ming patted Huo Xing on the shoulder and said very seriously, "I will definitely die if I go there. They don't care about a servant like you." "Then let's run away together, master!" Huo Xing said hurriedly.

"No, you have to go."

Xu Ming shook his head and said coldly, "This is an order! Leave now! Otherwise, I will kill you now!"

Huo Xing was frightened and turned around and ran out of the house without packing his luggage. He just turned back to look at Xu Ming one last time, then ran down the mountain along the path without looking back.

The disciples on the road had not received any news from the sect yet, and they knew that he was Elder Xu Ming's servant, and often helped him go down the mountain to purchase things, so they did not stop him...

In the Criminal Law Hall, the leader of the Xingguan Sect sat in the main seat, Li Gong sat in the deputy seat, and the other elders sat in order.

After Xu Ming arrived, he knelt down without relying on his position as the sect master's elder. Without waiting for the sect master to speak, he said, "Sect Master, Xingguan Sect needs to change, otherwise the plans of our ancestors will be in vain."

In this interrogation, the Xingguan Sect Master actually just wanted to go through the motions. After all, Elder Xu Ming was still his cousin, and at most he would ask him to reflect on his mistakes behind closed doors and hand over relevant information... He didn't have to hand over all of it, just some unimportant information to give an explanation to the non-family elders in the sect, and then seal it up.

So, this matter is over.

If the elders from other families still hold on to it, it would mean they are petty-minded.

But Xu Ming knelt down as soon as he arrived and said such words, which completely disrupted the arrangement of the Star Crown Sect Master, and his face became slightly gloomy for a moment.

"So, you admit that you disobeyed the order that I and the elders discussed together?"

"Because this order is wrong!"

Xu Ming didn't care about the gloomy face of the Xingguan Sect Master at all. After all, he was unmarried and had no children. He had devoted his whole life to the "grand plan" of the sect. Moreover, he was old now and didn't need to care about other people's eyes at all. He looked directly at the other party, "People are moving, the empire is running, the stars are rotating... the earth is also moving! This is the truth! If the Xingguan Sect wants to successfully create gods, it must change and admit the theory of the earth and stars. The direct descendants of Xingguan are also the stars in the sky. They must 'move'! Instead of sitting high on the mountain, treating the Xingguan Sect headquarters as the center of the world, and treating themselves as the object of everyone's admiration! How can we gather faith in this way?"

"madman!"

The Xingguan Sect Master's face was as black as charcoal. He defined Xu Ming and stopped questioning him, lest he say anything more shocking. He directly ordered, "Where is the Criminal Law Elder?"

"exist!"

Mr. Li, as well as several other elders from other families and direct elders stepped out.

"Xu Nian is old and confused. Send him to the confinement room to reflect on his mistakes. He will not be allowed to leave until he repents!" The leader of the Xingguan Sect turned away.

Xu Ming stood up and followed Li Gong and others to the confinement room without them watching over him.

Afterwards, Li Gong ordered Lu Qibin to lead the other disciples of the Criminal Law Hall to search Xu Ming's house. They discovered an underground secret room and found a large number of books and materials on the study of the movement of stars, as well as research results drawn by Xu Ming himself.

"Xu Ming, why do you have to go to this extent?"

Mr. Li's eyes were filled with resentment.

His son and daughter-in-law ran away, and his disciple was killed by him personally.

But what about Xu Ming?

I watched him secretly kill and bury his disciples with my own hands, and then jumped out to make sarcastic remarks afterwards...but he was actually doing this kind of research himself!
What made Li Gong even more unwilling was that because Xu Ming's martial soul was the Star Crown, and he was a direct descendant of the Star Crown Sect, the greatest punishment was actually confinement, and the time was uncertain. That is, as long as Xu Ming admitted his mistake, he could be released, and as long as his research was not exposed in the future, he, as an elder of the Criminal Law Hall, could no longer go and cause trouble for no reason -

How could he remain calm?
Obviously, he was also doing this for the future of the Xingguan Sect!
The other elders patted Engineer Li on the shoulders, sighed, and left the confinement room. Looking at Engineer Li's nearly hysterical expression, Xu Ming guessed the general cause and effect, but his eyes were still calm, giving Engineer Li the feeling that he was just like his disciple Smith and Li Yang who committed suicide by taking poison.

"Crazy! You're crazy too!"

Mr. Li's eyes trembled and he took a step back unconsciously.

The eyes of Smith, Li Yang, and now Xu Ming were all calm without a trace of ripples, but to Li Gong, they were more intimidating than the pressure from a Titled Douluo.

The aura of a Titled Douluo is just the oppression of power, which makes people feel awe; but this look of courage to die can touch the soul.

"Are you crazy?" Xu Ming smiled like a devil and said to Li Gong, "You did nothing when you were young. If you don't go crazy when you are old, your life will be wasted."

Mr. Li turned and left, unwilling to listen to Xu Ming's "instigation".

the next day.

Li Gong was teaching Lu Qibin how to practice, when suddenly a disciple came running to report in a panic, saying, "Oh no! Elder Xu Ming has passed away!"

"what?"

Li Gong was shocked and did not bother to teach Lu Qibin. He hurried to the confinement room with the other elders of the Criminal Law Hall. After checking, he found that Xu Ming had cut off the circulation of his soul power and died of anger.

It's suicide!

This is the second one after Li Yang!
After the Star Crown Sect Master learned of this, he issued another order. In order to prevent such a thing from happening again, all observation records and research results related to the movement of stars in the Star Crown Sect were destroyed, and only the astrological position maps corresponding to various types of martial spirits were retained.

In the past, only the non-disciples had problems, but now it has affected the direct descendants! The death of Elder Xu Ming is a loss to Xingguan Sect, but it is not particularly serious. After all, Xu Ming is already over 90 years old and will not live long. However, the Xingguan Sect Master cannot imagine that if someone is allowed to secretly study the movement of the stars, will the other disciples also fall into the vortex of "suicide"?

He couldn't understand it!
Therefore, destroying all relevant information is the best option!

In addition, all the servants in Xu Ming's house were also executed. It was not just to prevent any accidents, after all, most of the servants were illiterate, but since their master Xu Ming was dead, how could these slaves live? Naturally, they had to be buried with Xu Ming!
The department handling this matter is still the Criminal Law Hall, but Engineer Li received information from his subordinates that a newly recruited servant of Elder Xu Ming had gone down the mountain yesterday and never returned.

"A servant?"

Li Gong attached great importance to it and felt that Xu Ming was like Li Yang. Even if he died, he still had a backup plan! The servant himself was not important. What was important was that the servant must have passed the news to someone who had done a lot of research on stargazing.

But this matter is not easy to handle.

It's fine that they don't allow disciples to do this within the Xingguan Sect, but they can't stop the soul masters from other forces, the nobles of the Xingluo Empire, and even the people related to the Wuhun Hall from studying the trajectory of the stars! They can't stop them! Otherwise, they will be suspected of meddling too much!

Although some of the Xingguan Sect's direct disciples served as officials in the Xingluo Empire, the Xingguan Sect itself was in a state similar to seclusion from the world, so it was impossible to start from the emperor. Moreover, the Xingluo Emperor issued such an order to the entire empire for such a thing -

That's a bit ridiculous.

Therefore, they are left to deal with it themselves.

When the leader of the Xingguan Sect learned about this, he asked Li Gong and his disciple Lu Qibin to go down the mountain to secretly search for the whereabouts of the servant who ran away.

Mr. Li also understands this.

After all, Xu Ming was dead, and he, the guy who found out Xu Ming, was not a direct descendant, which offended the Star Crown Sect Master. Moreover, Xu Ming died in the confinement room, and he, as the elder of the Criminal Law Hall, was also responsible. However, he was a Soul Emperor after all, so he could only deal with him with the "out of sight, out of mind" approach.

But even though he understood, he still felt bad. He was clearly following the orders of the clan leader! Why did he have to be excluded immediately when a problem arose?
Just because he is not a direct descendant?

Mr. Li didn't want to think too much, nor did he dare to think too much, and could only blame it all on the theory of "Earth and Star Theory".

When going down the mountain.

In addition to Lu Qibin, the person who followed Mr. Li was his granddaughter, Li Ming, which also had a name that sounded quite masculine.

"Grandpa, are we going down the mountain?" Li Ming is about the same age as Lu Qibin and is quite studious. In the past, apart from practicing, he spent most of his time in the sect's library.

"Yes."

Li Gong sighed, "But as long as we catch the servant who escaped, we can come back."

"Oh."

However, Li Ming was just asking casually. She didn't care whether she could return to the sect. On the contrary, she hoped to see more of the outside world...
(End of this chapter)