Chapter 57: This Handsome Guy is Unusually Unlucky

Yan Nantian’s Wedding Gown Divine Art was the result of a unique fortuitous encounter. Over the past century, he was the only one who had practiced this supreme martial art and truly unlocked its profound mysteries.

Lin Bei was well aware of the correct method to cultivate the Wedding Gown Divine Art.

However, given the stubborn and capricious nature of the two mistresses of the Shihua Palace, there was zero chance they would ever hand the manual over to him. As for Yan Nantian, he was still languishing in the Evil Men’s Valley, and nobody knew when he would ever wake up.

Judging by his portrayal in that TV adaptation—where they practically killed off everyone except the title—even if he ever recovered, he would remain an absolute simpleton, only regaining his sanity shortly before his death.

Under such circumstances, trying to extract the secret manual of the Wedding Gown Divine Art from him was perhaps even harder than snatching it directly from the Shihua Palace.

Fortunately, the Moving Flowers and Grafting Trees technique belonged to that rare category of martial arts that could be practiced independently. Even without the foundational base of the first eight stages of the Wedding Gown Divine Art, one could still cultivate it, albeit falling short of absolute perfection.

In the Comprehensive Martial Arts world, after obtaining the manual from Jiang Yuyan, Lin Bei quickly mastered the basics.

Yet, the ensuing problem was that he had no idea whose internal energy he should absorb.

Jiang Yuyan’s actions drew little attention, allowing her to quietly hunt for targets and drain them completely.

Lin Bei, however, could not afford to do the same; the entire imperial court watched his every single move with microscopic scrutiny.

Even what he ate and how many times he chewed were monitored relentlessly.

His predicament in this world was far more precarious than that of Zhu Houzhao.

After all, aside from the existing Grand Secretariat and Prince Ning, Lin Bei also had to contend with the divine marquis Tie Dan, Cao Zhengchun, and their factions.

There were even assassins dispatched by foreign powers, waiting in the shadows for a chance to take his life, not to mention the conspirators plotting rebellion within the jianghu.

Describing his situation as being "ambushed from all sides" was a drastic understatement; it was more like being cornered by foes on every conceivable front.

In short, his misery knew no bounds. Until he attained overwhelming strength, Lin Bei had no intention of falling out with those people.

He would rather remain still, but the moment he made a move, he had to strike those good-for-nothings down so thoroughly that they could never rise again.

Otherwise, if he made a move yet lacked the strength to win, he might well become the first emperor in history to dissolve in water.

Regardless, having finally acquired a supreme divine art, he now possessed at least some rudimentary means of self-preservation.

Compared to the high-spirited Lin Bei of the Comprehensive Martial Arts world, the Hong Kong Comprehensive world’s Lin Bei had reaped the greatest harvest, having successfully obtained the Maoshan Sect’s cultivation manual from Uncle Feng.

Upon sharing these memories, the Black Myth world’s Lin Bei whooped and hollered with joy.

In a world teeming with immortals and buddhas, the Maoshan Sect’s techniques might not amount to much even when pushed to their absolute limits, yet they were still infinitely better than idling away one's days and waiting for death.

The ending for the Black Myth world was hardly auspicious. Although the destined monkey inherited the Great Sage’s title and power, he still remained powerless against the myriad deities and buddhas of the heavens.

Chances were high that he would repeat the tragic cycle, casting away his six roots of perception, and awaiting the emergence of the next destined monkey.

Should that destiny ever befall the Black Myth’s Lin Bei, he would be in for an unimaginably turbulent ride.

Be that as it may, the Lin Bei counterparts from the Comprehensive Martial Arts, Hong Kong Comprehensive, and Black Myth worlds had at least temporarily escaped immediate danger.

In contrast, the situations of the Mystic world’s Lin Bei and the Folk Horror world’s Lin Bei were considerably grim.

The Mystic world’s Lin Bei, too terrified to provoke those terrifying entities, spent his days hanging out with Zhang Wei, the ultimate lucky charm, simply waiting for his other-world selves to carry him to victory.

This was a consensus reached by everyone. The ghosts in the Mystic world operated on absolute rules, unlike those in other worlds that could be obliterated through various means.

Dragging those anomalous powers into their shared connection could very well result in a complete wiping out of the group. Under such circumstances, keeping a low profile for now was the wisest course of action.

As for the Folk Horror world’s Lin Bei, he had just accompanied Wong Fei-hung to the Lion King Competition and successfully seized the Lion King token.

Originally, according to the plan, he was supposed to rendezvous with Wang Wu and the others to sneak into the imperial palace and assassinate the old witch.

However, an unexpected twist occurred. A traitor within their ranks leaked the plan to the authorities, forcing Lin Bei to abandon the assassination attempt.

Had he not consistently kept his face masked, concealed his true identity, and utilized the internal energy and sword techniques shared from the Comprehensive Martial Arts world during the operation, he would undoubtedly have ended up a wanted criminal alongside Wang Wu and the others.

Even Wong Fei-hung, acting as his master, could not escape being implicated.

Following this incident, Lin Bei realized that the path of assassination was a dead end. After returning to Guangzhou with Wong Fei-hung, he traveled to Hong Kong alone.

That was where the Qing imperial court’s grip was weakest, and only there could one properly plot a grand rebellion.

On the ship heading to Hong Kong, Lin Bei crossed paths with a big-nosed fellow named Kwok Chun-wah.

At first, he merely found the guy vaguely familiar, but after watching him fall right into a malicious scam at the docks, Lin Bei realized he had stumbled straight into the plot of Miracles.

Leveraging his prior familiarity with the storyline, Lin Bei successfully intercepted the destiny originally meant for Kwok Chun-wah and established himself as a prominent triad boss.

With his martial prowess, suppressing those street punks and hooligans was effortless.

To compensate Kwok Chun-wah, Lin Bei offered him a job as a bodyguard, thereby successfully acquiring a highly capable fighter.

Although the triad left behind by Boss Bai was a mixed bag of individuals whose hands were stained with all sorts of heinous deeds, even a used piece of toilet paper had its own unique value.

Before long, relying entirely on his personal martial might, Lin Bei first eradicated the unruly elements within the syndicate, and subsequently swallowed up Boss Duan’s faction, firmly establishing his foothold in Hong Kong.

Yet, this inevitably attracted the attention of the green-uniforms—the police officers of that era.

To make matters worse, the officer leading the investigation team was Ma Kwun-lung, who had just been cast ashore following the disbandment of the marine police.

This fellow was as stubborn as a mule; once he set his mind on something, not even nine oxen could pull him back.

Nevertheless, he did possess one driving obsession—fighting pirates.

Ma Kwun-lung’s greatest aspiration was to sail out to sea and wipe out Lo Sam-pau’s gang entirely.

Lin Bei was well aware of this weakness and capitalized on it to strike a deal with Ma Kwun-lung, preemptively switching out the batch of smuggled firearms that Ma and Cheuk Yick-flying had intercepted.

With that matter settled, he had money, he had guns, and the grand enterprise of rebellion could officially commence.

Just as things looked up, the tragic tale of Bodyguards and Assassins kicked off.

The Qing court dispatched Yan Xiaoguo to lead the pursuit and execution of Sun Yat-sen, and as it happened, Yan Xiaoguo had crossed paths with Lin Bei before, knowing full well that he was Wong Fei-hung’s disciple.

Seeing him turn up in Hong Kong at this precise juncture, Yan immediately lumped him in as a member of the revolutionary party.

This stroke of terrible luck meant that just as Lin Bei’s rebellion was taking its very first step, he had to face the encircling suppression of the Manchu forces—truly a streak of misfortune.

Upon absorbing his memories, the rest of the Lin Bei variants looked at this ill-fated guy with profound sympathy.

Though none of them enjoyed particularly smooth sailing, the Folk Horror world’s Lin Bei seemed uniquely cursed with abysmal luck.

As for the Fighting world’s Lin Bei and the Japanese Horror world’s Lin Bei, the former was busy practicing drunken boxing with Chin Gentsai, occasionally sparring with his martial sister Athena Asamiya, and spending his nights comforting the lonely hearts of neighboring elder sisters or female schoolmates.

The latter, meanwhile, was struggling to cope with an escalating, chaotic romantic entanglement. Tomie and Tomie were hardly on harmonious terms; aside from joining forces to deal with Lin Bei when sleeping at night, they desperately wished to tear each other apart at any other moment.

To make matters worse, the Japanese Horror world’s Lin Bei had been receiving bizarre phone calls for several days running. Each time, the phone would ring endlessly, but the moment he picked it up, apart from a chilling static hiss, there was absolute silence on the other end.

He strongly suspected that he had stumbled into yet another supernatural haunting.