Chapter 245: Death of Zhen Fa Neng

Although they were not summoned by Wu Zetian, their freedom was not restricted either, so Zhao Ji and Ruyan wandered around in Hanguang Temple.

Wu Zetian was just trying to cover up her mistake. By telling Di Renjie, wasn't that the same as telling Zhao Ji and Li Yuanfang?

Ruyan didn't see Li Yuanfang, and complained: "Why is this big stick still nowhere to be seen?"

Zhao Ji smiled slightly, he could already sense that Li Yuanfang was nearby.

As expected, Li Yuanfang appeared from behind Ruyan like a ghost: "Who is the big stick?"

"Ah!!!" Successfully startled Ruyan into screaming.

Zhao Ji smiled and said, "Yuan Fang, where have you been? I thought you would show up naturally after I called Jing Kong over. We were worried that you had fallen into a trap!"

"That's right!" Ruyan continued.

Li Yuanfang was in no mood to joke, so he asked directly, "Where's the master?"

Zhao Ji pointed to the side hall and whispered, "Your Majesty has arrived at Hanguang Temple. Your Excellency is with Your Majesty."

Li Yuanfang was shocked when he heard this and took a deep breath: "Look at this!"

As he spoke, Li Yuanfang handed the two tokens to Zhao Ji.

Zhao Ji took the token and looked at it. They were Wu Quanzhong, the palace guard of the Inner Guard Palace, and Wu Jinzhong, the cabinet leader of the Inner Guard Palace.

So he laughed. Wu Quanzhong seemed to be the name of the unlucky guy Faneng, who had the same name as someone in later generations. It was Director Qian’s bad taste.

The cabinet leader is Wu Jinzhong, could it be Jingkong... These internal guards should be given the surname Wu, and their names should also be loyal.

Li Yuanfang said seriously: "I found these two things in Jingkong's room, as well as these straw papers. I saw Jingkong burn these things with my own eyes!"

"It's a pity that he burned most of it, leaving only these remnants and one complete one."

He handed Zhao Ji a complete piece of straw paper and many burnt pieces of paper.

Ruyan didn't take the news brought by Li Yuanfang seriously. Instead, she laughed and said, "You are a step too slow. General Zhao, my uncle and I have already discovered that Jingkong is an inner guard. We also found the dungeon under Hanguang Temple..."

Zhao Ji took the paper and saw a cube drawn on it with some wavy lines.

He immediately understood that this was the sluice model drawn by Yuan Tiangang, the Great Zhou CAD.

"But why did Jingkong burn these pictures?" Zhao Ji muttered to himself, "If you want to destroy traces, why didn't they burn the papers in the dungeon together?"

At this moment, the abbot of Hanguang Temple slowly walked towards the three people.

"Amitabha, I wonder where Lord Di is?" This is another person looking for Di Renjie.

Zhao Ji could only explain again: "Di Gong is accompanying the emperor. If the abbot has anything to say, you can tell me and Yuan Fang the same thing!"

Upon hearing this, the abbot looked around, as if he was afraid of something: "Please follow me!"

Zhao Ji and Li Yuanfang looked at each other and had to follow the old abbot.

The abbot took Zhao Ji, Li Yuanfang and Ruyan to his meditation room and carefully closed the doors and windows.

Seeing this, Zhao Ji tried to appease him, "Abbot, you can speak frankly if you have anything to say. Yuan Fang and I are martial artists, and someone around us will find out."

The abbot nodded slightly, his face heavy, and said, "I'm afraid you all already know Jingkong's identity as an inner guard."

"That's right." Zhao Ji nodded. The abbot continued, "But you may not know that half of the people in my Hanguang Temple are internal guards. Hanguang Temple is actually a large prison built specifically for the mysterious figure in the temple!"

When these words were spoken, Li Yuanfang and Ruyan were indeed stunned.

The abbot sighed, "The emperor would come to the temple every year during the Yulan Festival, which is the fifteenth day of the seventh month. He would come to burn incense, but in fact he wanted to see that person and force him to tell a secret!"

But Zhao Ji already knew all this, so he asked again: "What else? What exactly does the master want to say?"

The abbot was not in a hurry and continued, "Jingkong is the leader of the inner guards of this temple. He, Fa Neng, Fa Yan, Fa Hua, and Fa Cheng are the core figures of the inner guards of the temple, and they are in charge of all matters concerning that mysterious figure."

Zhao Ji suddenly remembered the five iron gates of the secret passage, and he was afraid that each of them held a key.

The abbot continued, "The four of them, Fa Neng, usually stay at home and rarely go out. They take turns guarding in that side hall, calling it meditation!"

The abbot clasped his hands together and fell into memories.

It was a pitch-dark night. Faneng groped his way into the abbot's room and woke him up from his sleep.

"Abbot, Abbot! Wake up!" Faneng called in a low voice.

Fang Zheng was old and had a light sleep, so he woke up immediately.

He recognized Faneng's voice: "Faneng? What...what do you want?"

When the inner guards arrived, the abbot realized that the problem was unusual.

Fa Neng's voice was very anxious: "Abbot, Jingkong has been targeting me. These are the things I have collected over the past six months. Your Majesty will be at Hanguang Temple in a few days. Please find a way to deliver these things to Your Majesty."

"And Jingkong! I saw him meet a man in black with my own eyes. I'm afraid he can't be trusted!"

The abbot sighed again: "After this night, I felt that something was wrong with Fa Neng. On the day of the assassination, I found out that the real Fa Neng had been killed long ago, and was replaced by a fake one!"

"On the day that His Majesty came, I wanted to take the opportunity to report this matter to His Majesty, but unfortunately, the assassination happened and the emperor immediately returned to the palace, so I had no choice but to let it go."

Zhao Ji listened carefully and understood, "You saw me, Di Gong and Jing Kong in trouble today, so you dared to tell us about it?"

The abbot nodded silently.

Zhao Ji asked again: "What can the law give you?"

The abbot turned around, took out a stack of straw paper from the secret compartment in the room and handed it to Zhao Ji.

Zhao Ji and Li Yuanfang took them and looked through them one by one. They were similar to the drawings on the straw papers that Li Yuanfang had received.

"Chengyuan, can you understand what this is?" Li Yuanfang asked.

Zhao Ji said ambiguously: "It seems to be a sluice gate..."

His mind raced, "What a great Master Jingkong! He burned all these genuine things and left behind those fake ones to fill the gap! I'm afraid that Zhen Fa Neng discovered this and became suspicious of Master Jingkong."

"Then the Snake Spirit planned to assassinate the emperor and rescue people by making a feint to the east and attacking in the west. Someone else came to contact him, and that's when the True Dharmaneng got hold of the evidence. Dharmaneng no longer trusted the inner guards and turned to the abbot for help."

"But the real Fa Neng also exposed himself in the process and was harmed by Jing Kong. The fake Fa Neng sneaked into Hanguang Temple not for any mission."

"But he had no choice but to do this after Zhen Fa Neng died. He needed a replacement so that Fa Yan and Fa Hua wouldn't see through him!"

"With the protection of the inner guard leader Jingkong, the fake Dharma can naturally stay in the Hanguang Temple without being discovered..."

(End of this chapter)