Chapter 93
"I don't know... that kind of thing."
Although he had expected it to some extent, it was a disappointing answer.
But Jiang Ziya, who had heard Nezha's answer, did not show his disappointment.
This was because the time when he would have naively believed that the answer was the truth had been left behind in the Hermit's Valley.
"Then I'll have to check your pulse for a moment."
"I don't want to!"
Although he felt a little sorry to see Nezha, who was terrified and disliked it, there was clearly magic flowing from Nezha, so he could not just pretend not to know and to pass it by.
"I'm sorry to you, who dislikes it, but it's a very important matter to me. If you just confirm this, I won't bother you anymore."
Jiang Ziya, with Nezha in front of him, approached him carefully, as if he were soothing a wild beast.
Nezha, flinching, seemed to be contemplating whether to fight Jiang Ziya again right now or to run away from this place.
Jiang Ziya was extremely cautious. If Nezha were to run away and he were to lose him, a disaster could occur where he would have to search the outside of the mansion, which was teeming with poisonous things.
Jiang Ziya, who was approaching Nezha, stopped his steps and slowly put down Tonglin and the quiver, and then raised both hands.
"As you can see, I have put down my fishing rod and quiver. I have no intention of harming you."
Jiang Ziya, looking into Nezha's eyes, which were full of caution, smiled awkwardly.
Just as when he had been aiming for his prey in the Hermit's Valley, he tried to soothe Nezha's caution by slowly talking to him.
"Why are you hiding here alone?"
Although it was a place where a commoner's life would be in danger, judging by the surroundings of the mansion, which were somewhat organized, it was clear that it was this child's home or hiding place.
"I... I... if I go out of here... I'll be scolded."
"You'll be scolded? Who would scold you?"
"..."
Nezha shut his mouth like a clam again.
Although Jiang Ziya was a little frustrated, he chose his words slowly and continued to talk.
"I was also often scolded by my masters when I was young. I even suffered from a high fever after being punished under the guise of training. Is your master scolding you?"
"...No. I don't have a master."
"Then if he's scolding you and locking you up in a place like this, he must be a bad person, right?"
"No!"
Nezha, getting angry, jumped up again.
"Apologize!"
Jiang Ziya slowly stretched out his hand towards the excited Nezha, who was panting, and calmed him down.
"Whoa, whoa, you brat, I have to know who it is to apologize or not."
"M-my. Father."
"Father? Who on earth would dare to put a child in the forbidden zone of the Tang Clan..."
Jiang Ziya suddenly felt a flash of lightning pass through his head.
The long-cherished wish of the Tang Clan that the Butterfly Scholar had mentioned.
The Tang Clan, which was like a sealed gate despite the rapidly changing situation in the Sichuan martial world.
Even the strange behavior that Tang Yizheng had shown when he had tried to hand over the Butterfly Scholar's item...
"By any chance... is your father Tang Yizheng, the head of the Tang Clan?"
Nezha, as if he were startled by Jiang Ziya's words, covered his mouth with both hands and hurriedly shook his head.
'I was foolish... how can an ordinary human handle such a strong poison with his bare body!'
Poison was a scary weapon, but it was also a tricky weapon.
If it were handled carelessly or wrongly, it was poison that would make the user, not the enemy, pay a fatal price.
The Sichuan Tang Clan, which was famous for handling numerous poisonous things and hidden weapons, also had to go through a thorough preparation before handling poison.
But Nezha, without any such preparation, had only handled the artifact called the Heavenly Silk, but a strong poisonous qi had been transmitted to Jiang Ziya through the Heavenly Silk.
Since it seemed clear that Nezha had not learned martial arts, it meant that Nezha himself had a strange power to emit poison.
As Tang Yizheng's name came out, Nezha's anxiety grew even more.
His heart was pounding at the news that a person named Dao Weibu was dead, and he was so scared and frightened that he could not even breathe.
But now, not only had he broken the strict order not to show his face to people, but the man in front of him had even found out who his father was.
"N-no... my father is... Tang... Tang... Yishui."
Nezha hurriedly tried to make an excuse and brought out any name that was in his memory.
Jiang Ziya, at the sight of Nezha, who was pitifully struggling and trying to smooth things over, snorted.
It seemed that he was not a child who was good at lying.
If this appearance were also an act, he would have a great skill.
"If it's Tang Yishui, it's even better. I know him well."
"Ah... uh..."
As Jiang Ziya said that he knew Tang Yishui, Nezha's eyes widened.
Since Tang Yizheng had erased the records in the Tang Clan, the existence of Tang Yishui was unknown except for a very small number of blood relatives.
Nezha, who had heard the name from his mother before, could not help but be surprised at Jiang Ziya's answer that he knew his father's older brother.
"Y-you know my uncle?"
"Wasn't he your father?"
"Ah, father... that's right."
"You are a very mysterious person, the more I see you. You have two fathers, and one of them is also your uncle..."
Jiang Ziya, seeing Nezha, who was racking his brains to make an excuse, decided to stop joking.
This was because there was an urgent matter left, even if it weren't for this.
"I don't know if you'll believe me or not, but I am a person who has overcome life and death with the Butterfly... no, with Elder Tang Yishui. If you know him, don't you know that being rude to me is also being rude to Elder Tang Yishui?"
Since Jiang Ziya, who was an outsider, could not have known Tang Yishui, his words were likely to be true.
Although the fact that Nezha had called Tang Yishui his uncle would have made Tang Yizheng have a fit if he had known, for now, Jiang Ziya's words were not wrong.
Nezha nodded his head without realizing it.
"As a matter of fact, I was looking for you at the request of that elder, and by a coincidence, I have met you like this."
"M-me?"
As soon as he heard Tang Yishui's name and that Jiang Ziya had gone through life and death with him, Nezha could completely let down his guard against Jiang Ziya.
Jiang Ziya had approached Nezha's side without Nezha noticing.
"Then, if you help me, I will give you a gift."
"A gi... ft?"
A vitality arose in Nezha's dead eyes.
He had a chance to receive a gift for the first time in several years.
But if he received a flower, the flower would wither, and if he received clothes, the clothes would wear out after a while, and if he received a sword, the edge of the sword would become dull, so it was useless to receive a material gift.
But if he were to learn martial arts, the energy in his body would run wild and he would not be able to handle it, so in the end, everyone would have given up on him.
In the end, the only gift he had properly received since he was born was the mysterious Heavenly Silk that his mother had given him.
"Yes."
"H-how?"
"You just have to let me check your pulse and to examine your body for a very short time."
"N... no."
Jiang Ziya, seeing Nezha, who was hugging the Heavenly Silk and was raising his guard again, took out a small wooden plaque from his pocket.
"This is an item that your uncle, Elder Tang Yishui, asked me to give to you. He said that if you don't receive it, I can have it. Is that alright?"
Nezha looked at the wooden plaque that was held in Jiang Ziya's hand with curious eyes.
Since his mother had said that he was a person who had received the experiment of a poison man before him, if it were a gift for him, perhaps it was a way to solve this cursed body.
"Th-that, if I have that... can I go outside? Like an ordinary person?"
Jiang Ziya, seeing Nezha, whose two eyes were shining with anticipation, felt a sense of guilt for a moment.
There was clearly no lie in Nezha's two eyes.
And it was a gaze that showed nakedly what kind of life Nezha had lived until now.
'Aren't they people who have committed a crime that will enrage both heaven and man?'
Jiang Ziya felt as if his stomach were boiling with anger.
No matter how much it was the long-cherished wish of the family, it was difficult to easily control his anger when he thought of the Sichuan Tang Clan, who had done such a terrible thing to such a young child, and Tang Yizheng, who was so heartless despite being his own child.
"N-no. I'll stay here... if I can just be like an ordinary person... I don't have to go outside."
As Jiang Ziya made a scary expression for a moment, the startled Nezha, thinking that he had said something wrong, hurriedly waved his hands.
Jiang Ziya, at the sudden surge of emotion, put strength into the hand that was holding the wooden plaque.
He felt endlessly ashamed of himself for having tried to make a deal with such a child, shaking a bait.
"I was wrong... please accept my apology and to receive this."
As Jiang Ziya suddenly apologized to him and handed him Tang Yishui's wooden plaque, Nezha was bewildered and carefully received the plaque.
Sizzle!
"N-no!"
But as soon as Nezha received the wooden plaque, smoke began to rise from the wooden plaque.
The startled Nezha dropped the wooden plaque on the ground and made a sad face, looking at the blackened wooden plaque.
"No! No!"
This time, it was too fast.
Just like the things that had come into his hands until now, the wooden plaque was burning black and smoke was rising.
The desperate Nezha was letting out a groan that was close to a wail.
But he was afraid that the wooden plaque would be completely broken if he were to pick it up again, so he could not dare to pick up the wooden plaque that had fallen on the ground and was just trembling and fidgeting.
Jiang Ziya was also surprised.
It was a wooden plaque that had been fine even when he had gone through all sorts of hardships while keeping it in his pocket until now.
Although he had once been curious and had tried to investigate the wooden plaque, he had been fed up with the wooden plaque, which was harder than a stone and did not burn or rot.
"Hic..."
Jiang Ziya, seeing the crying Nezha, carefully stretched out his hand towards the wooden plaque that had fallen on the ground.
This was because he had found a part that was reflecting some light in the part that was blackened and was emitting smoke.
"Stop. Look at this."
The part of the wooden plaque that Nezha had held was burning black and was rotting.
And in that part, a smooth leather that looked like a snake's scales was revealed, and Jiang Ziya carefully broke the wooden plaque completely and took out the leather.
"This is..."
The bundle of leather that had come out from inside the wooden plaque was as thin and transparent as paper, and on its surface, numerous characters and clumsy drawings were written small and densely.
The ultimate divine art of the Butterfly Scholar, Tang Yishui.
The number one fist of the world, which had been forgotten in the martial world with his seclusion, was contained in this small wooden plaque.
It was a kind of scroll secret manual made of the leather of a beast from the Hermit's Valley.
The wooden plaque was also surely made of a special tree from the Hermit's Valley.
Tang Yishui had left a secret manual using the leather of a beast that was strong against poison, and had made a plaque with a wood that was weak against poison and had hidden the secret manual inside it.
"Take it, this is yours."
As Jiang Ziya handed Nezha the secret manual of the Heaven and Earth Fist, Nezha shook his head.
Perhaps he was afraid that he would ruin it again.
"It's an item that was arranged for you. Don't worry and to receive it."
As Jiang Ziya offered it again, Nezha carefully received the secret manual of the Heaven and Earth Fist.
As Jiang Ziya had said, the secret manual of the Heaven and Earth Fist was maintaining its shape in Nezha's grasp.
Nezha read out the five characters that were written in a rough brushstroke on the surface.
Invincible Heaven and Earth Fist.
(End of Chapter)