"So you're Shi Jingang?"

Shen Cong cut Shi Jingang and the two young monks off and stepped out of the shadow of the trees, in gleaming black leathers and high boots that carried their own swagger, eyes burning, the Third Eye sweeping the ground around him.

Shi Jingang and the young monks all flinched when Shen Cong appeared out of nowhere.

But Shi Jingang was a formidable operator in his own right. A moment's alarm at Shen Cong's arrival and he had his feelings back under control and a smile on his face. "I am Shi Jingang. May I ask my friend's honorable surname?"

Shen Cong thought about it. "Why don't you say 'Amitabha' (TL Note: the stock greeting of monks in Chinese fiction and film, the name of a buddha used the way an American might say "bless you")? Why don't you call yourself 'this poor monk'?"

"Ah." Shi Jingang blinked, then laughed. "My friend may have the wrong idea about our Jingang Art. We have reformed Buddhism. We do not go in for all that empty ceremony. Everything follows the heart."

Then Shi Jingang put a question of his own. "May I ask where my friend has come from? My friend does not seem to be one of our Buddha-Land on Earth's faithful. From the Provisional Government, perhaps? I can feel that my friend's strength is very great. May I know what to call you? Let us get acquainted over a cup of poor wine, as friends."

His tone was gentle, and being spoken to by him was like standing in a spring breeze.

With the ornate robe to go with it, he really did have something of the enlightened master about him. But Shen Cong's particle-grade Activity waves could sense that this Shi Jingang's Talent had reached about 4H. He was an ultimate-grade jin person.

An ultimate-grade jin person. As far as Shen Cong knew, apart from the King of the Half-Beasts, he was the only one.

"No wonder he could pull a crowd of believers together. Not bad." That was the whole of Shen Cong's assessment…