Ji Yuan’s words stunned the old beggar for a moment. He looked from the old emperor’s body on the bed to Ji Yuan’s departing figure, a rare complex expression on his face.
The old beggar sighed and turned to leave.
Cries filled the palace, both inside the building and around it. News of the emperor’s death spread. Everyone in the palace, from the servants to the guards, all knelt facing the bedchamber. The news of Emperor Yuan De’s death would soon be known throughout the entire nation.
The old beggar walked out the palace walls in a few steps, and watched the ghost messengers depart from a distance.
The emperor’s soul had just left his body. The shade of an umbrella shielded his soul from the sun, and it remained unharmed. His soul had not yet suffered any punishments or the touch of the underworld, and his aura remained. Essentially, he was not yet a ghost.
With a sudden resolve, the old beggar summoned his spiritual energy and, in a few strides, he chased after the ghost messengers. As he passed by them, he pulled a thin, long red string from the pocket of his tattered shirt and swung it towards the old emperor’s soul.
Unnoticed by the ghost messengers and the old emperor, the red string wrapped itself directly around the old emperor’s waist.
After completing this series of actions, the old beggar clapped his hands and departed in the other direction.
The streets were teeming with lively merchants and ordinary people, many of whom had come from all over the land. Even learning the news of the emperor’s death solicited nothing more than a casual “oh” or exclamation from these people.
“Mr. Ji, please wait! Mr. Ji, wait!”
The old beggar’s voice came from behind him. Ji Yuan stopped and turned around, watching the man rush towards him.
When the old beggar arrived, the two of them resumed walking together.
“Mr. Ji, are you headed back to Ji Province?”
“I’ll head back there first, and then go out for a walk after a while.”
Hearing Ji Yuan’s answer, the old beggar murmured “oh,” and then seemingly had nothing else to say. The two of them walked towards the Land God Temple.
Because they were currently traveling at an ordinary walking pace, the old beggar suddenly suddenly asked another question when they had arrived outside of the Land God Temple.
“Mr. Ji, if the old emperor had caught your moon cake, would you have come out to warn him?”
Sometimes, Ji Yuan felt a little helpless. These skilled people with profound cultivation were prone to overthinking. However, in his view, things were as simple as one plus one equals two, nothing more.
The old beggar was probably wondering why he had suddenly become interested in the old emperor. Or perhaps he thought that Ji Yuan had always been interested in him, but that he had only been moved to act today on impulse.
“Mr. Lu, if he had caught it, then he would have caught it. I didn’t even think much about it. It was just a mooncake.”
“Didn’t you give it to him on purpose?”
The old beggar asked again. Ji Yuan was about to respond “you’re overthinking it,” but suddenly lost interest in further conversation.1
“At this point, Mr. Lu, why bother dwelling on this anymore?”
The old beggar smiled.
“Mr. Ji, do you find it boring to talk to this old beggar? Indeed, in terms of cultivation and state of mind, this old beggar many steps behind you. In his final moments, Yang Zong was indeed worthy of being my disciple. It was I who disappointed you.
“Whether it’s a dying apprentice or not, the difference between life and death holds different meaning for Yang Zong than it does for me. There is a saying: death is like the extinguishing of a lamp, the person whose body and soul are divided is no longer whole…”2
Hearing the old beggar’s words, Ji Yuan subconsciously turned to look at him. There seemed to be a deeper meaning behind them.
“What? Mr. Lu, you wish to accept that Yang Zong as your disciple now? But you also said that death is like the extinguishing of a lamp. Since you cared about the integrity of the body and soul before, why have you changed your mind now?”
The two of them had already arrived at the Land God Temple, and the young beggar had already run out from inside the temple. His arrival temporarily stopped their conversation.
Because Ji Yuan and the old beggar were both visible and had not cast any illusions, the Land God did not appear.
Xiao You came running over, the pockets in his beggar robes bulging. These were most likely offerings from the altar, but considering the little beggar’s character, he definitely had not stolen them.
When he arrived in front of them, the young beggar first bowed to Ji Yuan, before moving closer to the old beggar, showing him the food in his pocket as if he were offering a treasure.
“Let’s go. Even though it was given to you by the Land God, if a temple steward sees it, he would probably chase you out with a broom!”
Ji Yuan joked, making the little beggar’s complexion change drastically. He hurriedly dragged the old beggar away.
The three of them simply bowed with cupped hands in the direction of the Land God Temple and turned to leave. After a while, Ji Yuan and the old beggar resumed their earlier conversation.
The old beggar finally confessed something to Ji Yuan.
“Mr. Ji, you saw me being beheaded that day. Didn’t you find it a bit strange?”3
How could he have forgotten that incident? Ji Yuan nodded and spoke bluntly.
“Elder, your head was truly severed that day. You did not avoid it with any tricks or techniques. The blood that splattered was real, and it was indeed miraculous. Under normal circumstances, even for an immortal cultivator with all of their supernatural techniques and a strong body to protect them, being beheaded would still put his life at stake.”
The old beggar couldn’t help but chuckle, thinking to himself, finally, Ji Yuan admires me for something he cannot see through.
“I am ready to take Yang Zong as my disciple. After he has been punished in the underworld, I will go to the underworld of the Capital Prefecture to claim him. You don’t need to bother going with me, sir, but please, I must ask you to leave me a letter of decree.4 The Capital Prefecture will show me more respect on your behalf.”
“That’s no difficult task, but now I’m curious. From what you’ve said, it seems that you can restore Yang Zong’s body and soul to wholeness?”
Ghost cultivation was difficult, and even the path of divinity was fraught with difficulties, primarily because their bodies were imperfect. Ghosts and gods cultivated their Dharma bodies as a way to move closer to perfection, but the old beggar did not want his disciple to follow the path of divinity.
It was rare to see Ji Yuan curious, and the old beggar suddenly felt a surge of accomplishment in his heart.
“This old beggar, has a unique technique that I have been studying for a long time. My beheading was merely a manifestation of one of these skills. A hundred years ago, I cultivated a few Jade Lotuses. Now there are three to five flowers and a dozen sections of lotus root. This is a very rare plant, and like several other immortal plants in the world it is capable of nurturing souls that have left their bodies. First, I can help Yang Zong’s soul avoid the path of ghost cultivation. Then, Mr. Ji, can you guess what I want to do?”
When the old beggar mentioned the Jade Lotus, an image popped up in Ji Yuan’s mind: a chubby child, wearing a red bellyband, clutching a red silk ribbon and balancing on a ring of fire.
“Mr. Lu, are you trying to tell me that you are planning to use the Jade Lotus’s roots to reshape a true body for Yang Zong?”
The old beggar was expecting Ji Yuan to say “I really don’t know,” and then he could reveal the surprising answer. When he heard Ji Yuan’s words, he was dumbfounded and blurted out.
“You can guess this too!?”
Do I even need to guess?
Ji Yuan’s mouth twitched involuntarily, and another image emerged in his mind. It was that of the old emperor Yang Zong, with his withered and spotted figure, still imposing but not angry. The image of the old emperor gradually overlapped with that of Nezha beside him.5
He couldn’t keep imagining this horrifying picture.
“Uh, Mr. Ji, what’s wrong?”
“Mr. Lu, when you reshape Yang Zong’s body, are you going to create it as a child, or will you keep the original appearance?”
The old beggar’s confusion deepened. Ji Yuan was not surprised at all, not even the slightest bit, and was instead concerned about some strange issues.
“Naturally, I will maintain the original appearance. Is there any benefit to creating a child?”
Ji Yuan’s reaction made the old beggar consider this.
“No, no, no, just keep the original appearance, a child would not be good!”
Ji Yuan waved his hand, drawing a suspicious glance from the old beggar. For the old beggar, Ji Yuan was known to be mysterious, and he had no idea what he was thinking. He simply asked for the letter and then took Xiao You with him to the underworld.
Unfortunately, Ji Yuan would not be able to see any outcome for a while. Yang Zong’s punishment in the underworld would last for quite some time, and watching people be tortured was not his cup of tea.
The old beggar’s Jade Lotus was kept elsewhere, and the old beggar was always reluctant to reveal his true origins. After all, this was a unique supernatural technique, and would definitely not be open for outsiders to view.
After several indirect attempts to figure out what he was thinking, the old beggar just played dumb. Ji Yuan guessed that he would be able to witness the process of creating a body in the future, so he finally bid farewell and left.
The death of the old emperor was indeed a big event for Dazhen, but it didn’t seem to be that big of a deal — at least, it had no impact on ordinary people.
Apart from the heated discussions those first few days after hearing the news, people simply continued to live their lives as they always had.
In the blink of an eye, it was the last day of the year of Dinghai.
On New Year’s Eve, every household in Ji Province had put up window decorations and red couplets, and those who could afford it had hung up red lanterns. The wealthy families had already prepared firecrackers and other items, not to mention the New Year’s Eve dinners that each household had to carefully prepare. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ n0velfire.net
In the Wei family’s mansion in Desheng Prefecture, a woman sat in the hall, staring absentmindedly out the door.
“It’s New Year’s Eve again…”
After a while, it started to snow outside.
“Madam, it’s cold, do you want me to close the door?”
The maid beside her asked, noticing the wind and snow.
“No need, it’s nice to look at the snow.”
At this moment, four people were approaching the gates of the Wei family residence. The two in the lead walked hurriedly, looking impatient.
“Stop, who are you? What brings you to the gates of the Wei Family Mansion?”
Wei Wuwei pulled down the hood of his cloak, revealing a chubby face.
The gatekeepers and servants nearby suddenly cried out excitedly. Wei Yuansheng, already impatient, ran straight into the mansion, shouting all the way to the inner chambers.
“Mother…I’m back…Mother, Yuansheng is back…!”
His voice was so loud and penetrating that it carried far into the depths of the inner rooms.
The woman sitting in the hall immediately leapt to her feet.
“Xiao Cui, did you hear that?”
“It seems that the young master has returned?”
As she spoke, Wei Yuansheng, who was striding as swiftly as the wind, had already reached his mother’s room, remembering the path clearly.
Madam Mu looked at the seven or eight year old child in front of her. Although he had grown considerably, she still recognized Wei Yuansheng at a glance.
Wei Yuansheng threw himself directly into Madam Mu’s arms, restraining his strength so as not to knock her down.
“Why haven’t you come back to see your mother for so long? Why haven’t you come home for so long… I couldn’t even imagine that I would ever see you again…”
These five years of waiting were too long. Madam Mu couldn’t hold back her cries and burst into tears.