Chapter 92

Chapter 92

Over the past two days, Liu Junyan had suddenly changed.

He had become unbelievably clingy.

In the past, he never would have called himself my husband. But after Fake Ah Li appeared, the one whose emotions had become more sensitive was actually him.

He had to make a point of showing off his status in every little thing.

Still, I refused him. “There will be plenty of chances in the future. I just got my driver’s license, so I want to buy a simple car first and practice with it.”

Liu Junyan didn’t argue with me. The car sped along, and before long, we arrived at Jin Wuya’s house.

Jin Wuya lived in a small three-story building.

We knocked on the door. After quite a while, Jin Wuya finally opened it.

He looked exhausted, utterly listless. His exposed arms and neck were covered in scratch marks.

He greeted me, then looked up and saw Liu Junyan behind me. He froze, then quickly reacted. “This is… Liu… Lord Liu the Snake Immortal?”

Liu Junyan nodded at him in acknowledgment.

Jin Wuya immediately perked up. He invited us in, poured tea, and sat down.

I pointed at the scratches on his body and asked, “What happened?”

“I can’t control that Cat Fiend,” Jin Wuya said. “Every night, it comes out and causes trouble. It controls me, makes me scratch myself all over, ram into doors, and run around outside. It doesn’t stop until daybreak.”

I frowned.

But Liu Junyan said, “And yet I don’t see any fiendish aura on you.”

Jin Wuya froze.

I hurriedly asked, “How exactly did you get mixed up with this Cat Fiend? Can you tell us?”

“That day, after I finished talking to you, I made an appointment with Master Hui Quan. I took that Cat Bone over and asked him to take a look,” Jin Wuya said. “Master Hui Quan couldn’t tell whether it was really a Cat Bone either, but he did recognize the scripture stuck inside the bone. He said it was a page from the Lotus Sutra.”

“Master Hui Quan told me the Lotus Sutra is the king of all sutras, regarded as the highest realm of Buddhist cultivation. The moment I heard that, I was overjoyed. Something that valuable, if I modified it with my own hands and sold it to those old matriarchs from prominent families, I’d make a fortune for sure.

“Who would have thought that after nearly thirty years as a Guijiang, I’d stumble on this thing? I didn’t manage to modify it. Instead, I got possessed by that Cat Fiend. These past two nights have tormented me so badly I wanted to die.

“Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, do you know where I woke up this morning? Laugh if you want, but I woke up in a garbage bin two streets away.”

At this point, Jin Wuya looked like he was about to cry.

Before I could say anything, Jin Wuya’s eyes suddenly went blank. Immediately afterward, his gaze changed-even his Facial Features changed.

He bared his teeth at me and hissed, looking especially fierce.

Then, with a little hop, he actually climbed onto the table, knocking over the teacups.

His entire body arched as he assumed the defensive posture of a startled cat. In the next instant, he sprang up and pounced straight down at my head.

Jin Wuya wasn’t short. If he slammed down on me like that, he could knock me out cold.

The next moment, my body was yanked back hard. Liu Junyan shielded me behind him, his right hand already forming a Sword Finger and pressing it to the center of Jin Wuya’s brow.

A shrill cat’s cry came from Jin Wuya’s mouth. Then his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed stiffly to the floor.

The whole thing was fast, accurate, and ruthless.

Still shaken, I said, “That’s… that’s it? It’s solved? Liu Junyan, I didn’t know you were this strong.”

Liu Junyan smiled and rubbed my head. “It’s not that I’m strong enough. It’s that the other party isn’t a Cat Fiend. It tormented Boss Jin, but its original intention wasn’t to hurt him.”
As he spoke, he pinched Jin Wuya’s philtrum and woke him up.

Jin Wuya was dazed for a moment at first, then came back to himself and said agitatedly, “You all saw that just now, right? I was controlled by the Cat Fiend again. I really can’t go on living like this.”

“I told you, it isn’t the Cat Fiend,” Liu Junyan said flatly. “If I’m not mistaken, that piece of Cat Bone in your hand should be one fragment of the Du’e Maotan.”

Du’e Maotan? What was that?

Jin Wuya looked just as confused. “Lord Liu the Snake Immortal, may I ask what the Du’e Maotan is?”

Liu Junyan said, “Legend has it that the Buddhist sect once suffered a great calamity. Every scripture in the Temple was destroyed, but the king of all scriptures, the Lotus Sutra, was hidden inside its bones by an entirely pitch-black Black Cat and carried out. Because of this, the Black Cat lost all its fur, its flesh and bones were scorched dry, and after enduring countless torments, it died. After death, it transformed into the Du’e Tan Envoy, was enshrined and worshipped by the Temple, and came to be revered as the Cat Tan Bodhisattva.”

After hearing this, Jin Wuya immediately pressed his palms together and apologized repeatedly. “So it’s the Cat Tan Bodhisattva. I was disrespectful. How could my Small Temple possibly be worthy of enshrining a Bodhisattva? Please don’t blame me, please don’t blame me.”

But Liu Junyan continued, “Later, however, years of warfare threw the world into chaos. The body of the Cat Tan Bodhisattva that had been enshrined before the Buddha was stolen, and all nine Cat Bones were lost. Where did you get this piece?”

“The Ghost Market,” Jin Wuya said. “A great lama traded it to me. I knew at a glance that it was something good, and he seemed eager to get rid of it too, so I exchanged an antique with an estimated market value of around ten thousand for it.”

I said at once, “Boss Jin, you may have gotten yourself into trouble.”

Jin Wuya was startled, then he realized it too. “Back then, the body of the Cat Bone Bodhisattva was broken into nine pieces, and this is one of them. You mean I’ve been targeted?”

“Very likely,” Liu Junyan said. “The Du’e Maotan was bathed in Buddhist teachings and endured the trials of the karmic sea and purgatory. It shouldn’t be this violent. The piece in your hand is only one-ninth of it. Perhaps someone wants to gather them all.”

Jin Wuya slapped his thigh and said indignantly, “No wonder that great lama was in such a hurry to get rid of it. So he’d already been targeted, and he used me to take the disaster in his place!”

Then he asked, “So what should I do now? Send it to a Temple and have it enshrined?”

Liu Junyan said nothing, but subtly shot me a look.

I understood at once. “Boss Jin, perhaps we can do a bit of business.”

Jin Wuya’s mind worked quickly. I didn’t need to spell it out for him; he immediately understood what I meant.

After a brief hesitation, he smiled and said, “I know the rules of your Pawnshop. I pawn the Cat Bone to the Pawnshop, and Lord Liu the Snake Immortal helps me drive out the Cat Fiend… Oh, no, no, not that. The Cat Tan Bodhisattva. Right?”

I nodded. “Of course. I won’t let you take a loss. You traded an antique worth the equivalent of ten thousand for this Cat Bone. I’ll buy it for fifty thousand.”

Jin Wuya waved his hands again and again. “Why be so polite with me, Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu? Leaving aside our previous friendship, if I keep this Cat Bone, first, I can’t subdue it and can’t afford to enshrine it. Second, I’ll be watched by people with ulterior motives at all times. Maybe one day I’ll lose my life because of this Cat Bone. If you’re willing to take it, I’ll be grateful enough. How could I take your money?”

As he spoke, he stood up. “I’ll pack up right now and go with you to the Pawnshop to handle the paperwork.”

By the time we returned to the Pawnshop, dawn was already breaking.

To my surprise, this time Jin Wuya actually walked straight into the Southern Study.

I was writing up the Pawn Ticket when Li Qingying stood off to the side and said in a deliberately sarcastic tone, “Well, well, Boss Jin. Why are you willing to set foot in our Pawnshop today? Aren’t you afraid you’ll get tangled up in karma again and suffer retribution?”