Chapter 315
Chapter 315
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [TBD]
Chapter Title: The Ghost Wall of the Immortal Capital
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Blackie Pot led Boat Lady through the door, then turned back and barked, "Woof. Woof woof."
Boat Lady looked astonished. "Chen Jieyuan placed first in the palace exams? Then we truly can't call him Jieyuan Lord anymore—we have to address him as Top Scholar Lord. When will Your Excellency return to the underworld? You are a sacred entity of the underworld, after all, and lingering too long in the mortal realm is hardly proper."
"Woof woof. Woof woof woof."
"That's true enough. Top Scholar Lord can't manage without you."
Chen Shi approached from ahead, and Boat Lady hurried forward to pay her respects. But Chen Shi was burning with anxiety. He waved off the courtesy and asked, "Miss, have you successfully rescued my mother's soul?"
Boat Lady hesitated for a moment. "We rescued it, but... not entirely." Chen Shi looked baffled.
She explained, "After my father and I descended to the underworld, we traveled tens of thousands of li at once and found the Yuanchen Palace where your mother's soul was imprisoned. The guards there weren't especially formidable. We slipped inside, injured a few infernal bailiffs, and freed your mother's soul. My father and I knew escape from the underworld itself was impossible, so we brought her soul back to the mortal realm right away and raced toward Western Capital."
Chen Shi's eyes lit up. "Clever!"
"Once we reached the mortal realm with your mother's soul," Boat Lady continued, "we figured three days at most to reach Western Capital. But trouble struck the very first night. I realized something was tracking us. Whatever it was had emerged from the underworld and lurked in the shadows, watching us from the darkness. Then infernal bailiffs began operating at night and intercepted us at the Northern Border."
Chen Shi's heart stirred. The Northern Border was a frozen wasteland of ice and snow, where sunlight and moonlight were comparatively dim.
The sun in the sky was the True God's twin eyes, fixed eternally in the void, unchanging. Thus, every place enjoyed the same seasons and climate, without variation.
The Northern Border received less sunlight, making it bitterly cold—a renowned land of harsh frigidity.
"Can infernal bailiffs operate in the mortal realm?" Chen Shi asked, puzzled.
From what he knew, underworld ghosts and gods rarely ventured into the mortal world. The yin and yang realms each had their rules: underworld beings couldn't enter the mortal realm in the flesh, and infernal bailiffs typically possessed physical bodies.
Boat Lady and Boatman could roam the mortal realm because they had borrowed corpses to return to life, abandoning their original bodies to possess a drowned father and daughter.
Boat Lady replied, "Infernal bailiffs are among the weaker ghost gods. We can enter the mortal realm at night when yin energy peaks, to guide lost souls back to the underworld. At such times, the yin-yang divide blurs, making soul collection straightforward. Those bailiffs pursued us during that window. We broke through their encirclement the first night, though. We planned to cross the Northern Border at dawn, but... dawn never came."
Chen Shi frowned.
Blackie Pot couldn't hold back from the side. "Woof?" "Exactly, Your Excellency. The sky never lightened."
Boat Lady went on, "It stayed night the whole time. My father and I trudged through ice and snow in endless darkness, with infernal bailiffs tracking us now and then. After several battles, we'd fled millions of li. Still night. In the end, we spotted the Immortal Capital of the underworld."
Chen Shi's heart stirred again. "Immortal Capital? What's that?" "The great city formed by the Yuanchen Palaces."
"Your Yuanchen Palace," Boat Lady explained, "is where souls reside. Everyone has one, housing their soul. These palaces together form the Immortal Capital. When a person dies, it's like a lamp extinguished—their Yuanchen Palace vanishes. Inside your own, you'll see your three corpse gods, also called the three corpse spirits, dwelling in its three chambers. That's how we infiltrated the Immortal Capital, located your mother's palace, and freed her soul. Back then, Top Scholar Lord himself was suppressed by my father and me in his own Yuanchen Palace within the Immortal Capital."
Mentioning this lightened her sorrow a bit, bringing a faint smile to her face.
Chen Shi asked dubiously, "You escaped the Immortal Capital, traveled millions of li through the mortal realm, and ended up back there? Did you get lost?"
Boat Lady sighed. "My father and I thought so at first. Later, we realized that wasn't it."
Chen Shi grew even more perplexed.
Blackie Pot barked, "Woof woof?"
Terror flickered across Boat Lady's face. "Yes, Your Excellency. We hit a ghost wall. That first night, we were already affected—dragged back into the underworld. Some unfathomable, terrifying entity warped our minds and perceptions, making us believe we were still in the mortal realm. When we saw the Immortal Capital, we knew we were doomed. My father sent me back to the mortal realm, covering my escape and helping me fight free."
She gripped the broken half of her bamboo pole tightly. "Top Scholar Lord, my father and I did all we could."
Chen Shi frowned. What horrifying entity could subtly influence Boat Lady and her father without their awareness, dragging them into the underworld unbeknownst to themselves?
He glanced at Blackie Pot. The ability sounded much like Blackie Pot's. Did the underworld have others of his kind?
Chen Shi told her to rest and recover first. Boat Lady hesitated, then said, "If Top Scholar Lord goes to the Immortal Capital to save her, please take me along. My father's trapped there. As his daughter, I can't abandon him."
After seeing Boat Lady off, Chen Shi pondered. Only then did he notice Chen Tang standing nearby, pushing a wheelchair with Chen Shi's mother in it.
"You heard all that?" Chen Shi asked. Chen Tang nodded lightly.
Chen Shi stepped up, took the wheelchair handles from him, and said, "These maids aren't reliable. One of us needs to stay and look after Mother—either you or me. You've revealed your strength, and Western Capital's on high alert against you now. If the Thirteen Great Houses get a chance to take you out, they will. Even if they can't, they'll exploit your weakness."
Chen Shi's mother was Chen Tang's weakness.
As they walked the corridor together, Chen Tang gazed reluctantly at the Chen manor under repair. "You go to the underworld. I'll stay. Take Blackie Pot. Once you're gone, I'll take your mother and leave Western Capital immediately. We've been away from Qianyang Mountain too long—never gone back all these years. She must miss Huangpo Village... and Old Lady Wuzhu."
Chen Shi turned to look at him. "You can part with Western Capital's wealth and glory? With your post as Grand Physician of Merit and Grace?"
"What's there to regret?"
Chen Tang shook his head. "Back then, I came to Western Capital because I knew my strength was lacking. Practicing in the countryside, I'd never find your mother's killer—or avenge her even if I did. To gather intelligence and build power, I had to enter officialdom. Eleven years, and I reached this point."
A thousand emotions swirled in his heart, words of confession on his tongue—yet he smiled faintly. "But now you're back. What do Western Capital's riches mean to me? Besides, I'm feeling a bit homesick."
Father and son halted.
Chen Shi said, "The Western Capital court might not want you leaving. Here, you're a dragon forced to coil. Outside, you're a flood dragon in the sea—they'll worry."
Chen Tang replied leisurely, "I have my sword, my chest. Who dares block me? You, though—off to the underworld without me. Can you manage?"
Chen Shi snorted. "I managed fine before without you."
Chen Tang sounded displeased. "Chen Shi, I am your birth father, after all. Show some respect when you speak to me."
"Fine, got it. Just take good care of Mother."
Chen Shi instructed, "Without these maids and servants, I'm worried you can't handle it. And don't skimp—spend what needs spending. If you're short, I'll provide."
Chen Tang looked around for a handy stick.
As the old saying went, filial sons came from the stick. An unfilial son just hadn't been beaten enough.
Seeing this, Chen Shi quickly stowed the black iron rod and hid it in his little temple.
That afternoon, Chen Shi visited the Red Mountain Hall branch in High Mountain County, seeking Granny Sha. He learned she and her son had gone to the countryside. Tracking them down, he found Granny Sha and Xiang Tianyu performing a soul-calling ritual for a local family. Spotting Chen Shi, Xiang Tianyu rushed up with a grin. "Little Ten Brother!"
"Don't call me brother—you call me Little Ten little brother!"
Granny Sha chuckled, then turned to Chen Shi, her face clouding over. "Call me Auntie!"
Chen Shi called her Auntie and examined Xiang Tianyu, startled to see the boy now had a body—not a ghost anymore.
But it wasn't flesh and blood.
Granny Sha smiled. "Tianyu, go play with Blackie Pot. Little Ten and I need to talk."
Xiang Tianyu took Blackie Pot and ran off.
Chen Shi watched Xiang Tianyu from afar, where Blackie Pot was teaching him to fly a kite. He still had a child's temperament, utterly enchanted by toys like pinwheels and kites.
"Auntie, Tianyu was trapped in a Buddhist hell for thirty years, never interacting with others, so his mindset remains childish. But he won't stay that way forever."
Chen Shi glanced at Granny Sha. "He'll grow up eventually. Keeping his body at eight or nine years old forever isn't good."
Granny Sha fell silent a moment, then said, "I can't bear to let him go. We've been separated thirty years, mother and son. I'll find a way to make his body grow."
A voice from the little temple—Lady Shigu—sneered, "I know a fellow whose master crafted him a lotus-root body after death. The kid never grew up his whole life!"
Ignoring Lady Shigu, Granny Sha asked, "Little Ten, what brings you to me?"
Chen Shi laid out his purpose. "I want to enter the underworld and head to the Immortal Capital to retrieve my mother's soul. Auntie, I'm a wanted fugitive there myself. Any way to evade the manhunt?"
Granny Sha smiled. "I have a method to transform you into a yin spirit for underworld entry."
Chen Shi relaxed slightly, then asked, "Any way to bypass the underworld's ghost gods and go straight to the Immortal Capital's Yuanchen Palaces?"
Granny Sha shook her head. "Yuanchen Palaces are also called Fate Palaces. Altering their layout changes one's fate. But entering isn't easy—only the owner's soul can. If anyone could waltz in, saving you back then wouldn't have been such a chore."
Chen Shi's heart stirred. "Can one's primordial spirit enter?"
"If you've cultivated to Body Fusion Realm, where spirit and soul fuse solidly—yes, your primordial spirit could."
She shook her head. "You're at Incarnation Realm now; your primordial spirit isn't that robust... Hold on. Manifest your primordial spirit. Let me see."
Chen Shi summoned his primordial spirit, now grown to about a zhang tall, radiating brilliant divine light that illuminated all around.
Granny Sha said, "When you manifest it, it looks like you're drawing it from your flesh body—but really, you're summoning it from your Yuanchen Palace... Wait. Your primordial spirit feels off!"
She reached out ethereally, trying to extract Chen Shi's soul from the spirit. Instead, the entire primordial spirit flew toward her.
Granny Sha gave a soft exclamation. Her palm tapped lightly on its chest. Chen Shi's soul shuddered, briefly separating from the spirit before reintegrating.
In that instant, Granny Sha glimpsed a zhang-tall soul emitting pure white light, solid as if carved from a single block of jade. She gasped in shock.
"Your soul is seriously off!"
She circled Chen Shi's primordial spirit a few times, puzzled. "It's too strong. With a soul this powerful, your three corpse gods must be terrifyingly mighty. You'll suffer when you try to sever them!"
She looked at him with pity. "Cultivators get stuck severing the three corpses because of too many sins, too much killing—making the corpse gods too strong to cut. You've forged yours this strong already at Incarnation Realm. Come time, they'll sever you instead."
Chen Shi laughed. "I'm far from Three Corpses Realm... Wait! Auntie Sha, are there cases where a Yuanchen Palace's owner dies, but the palace lingers in the world?"
Granny Sha replied, "Death extinguishes like a lamp—the Yuanchen Palace dissolves, leaving the soul homeless to become a wild ghost. But I've heard immortals' palaces persist after death. Have you seen one?"
Chen Shi nodded slightly.
Granny Sha cried out in surprise. "You really have? Where? Does that mean immortals truly exist in this world?"
Chen Shi's expression turned odd. "Blackie Pot has a few ghost books. It fetched them from a Yuanchen Palace. Back in Gongzhou, after I formed my golden core, I saw it burrow under the stove into the underworld and enter a palace for them..."
Granny Sha wondered, "Could it have been Blackie Pot's own Yuanchen Palace?"
Chen Shi shook his head. "Why would Blackie Pot's palace have ghost books?"
Granny Sha mused, "Maybe someone else's? The pup raiding a Yuanchen Palace for ghost books?"
"If there were a primordial spirit inside, would it let Blackie Pot steal them? Clearly, it was ownerless."
Chen Shi said, "So I suspect the owner died, leaving those ghost books behind."
Granny Sha eyed the dog playing with Xiang Tianyu, her gaze flickering. "Back when your grandfather brought that dog from the underworld, I thought it strange. It was only palm-sized then, and he raised it from a pup—no issues. But now... maybe it bewitched him into taking it home? Influencing his mind all along?"
Blackie Pot's ears twitched. It turned, baring its teeth in an innocent, pure smile.
Granny Sha said, "It's trying to influence me, twist my thoughts. That said, Little Ten, you raised Blackie Pot from small. What bad intentions could it have?"
Chen Shi asked dubiously, "Auntie, is that really what you think?"
"Of course it's my real thought!" Granny Sha affirmed confidently.
Chen Shi shot Blackie Pot a fierce glare, certain it was meddling. "Blackie Pot, come back! Auntie Sha, we need to head out!"
Blackie Pot handed the kite string to Xiang Tianyu and trotted over. Granny Sha took Xiang Tianyu's hand and waved mechanically in farewell.
Chen Shi left High Mountain County for Western Capital, thinking, *Blackie Pot's abilities are growing stronger. But whatever ensnared Boatman and his daughter—warping ghost gods' minds, pulling them into the underworld undetected—is even more powerful. To save Mother, I must deal with another 'Blackie Pot'... I need Blackie Pot to power up fast!*