Chapter 324
Chapter 324
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 324
Chapter Title: Chapter 324 Invasion of the Underworld
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Chen Shi's heart was filled with unease, fearing he might say the wrong thing.
Lady Lingsu saw this and smiled. "The affairs of the older generation have nothing to do with you. You needn't worry. Back then, my feelings for Chen Yindu grew so deep that we nearly had a child together. But in the end, fate brought us together only to tear us apart, so we parted ways. Later, I heard he had a son, though I never learned who the mother was."
She looked Chen Shi up and down. "You're fortunate not to have inherited your grandpa's flaws. He was a real philanderer, charming women wherever he went."
Chen Shi thought for a moment. "Grandpa was always honest back in the village."
Lady Lingsu let out a cold laugh.
Chen Shi wanted to defend his grandpa but held his tongue, since she was the one wronged.
Lady Lingsu continued, "When you died, he came looking for me, hoping I'd help out. But by then I was too old to move. So he sought someone else. After I died, I gained some standing in the underworld. I thought it would be decades before I saw him again, but then he up and died too. Strange—he should've had years left in him. How did he go?"
Chen Shi replied, "Grandpa avenged me by massacring the western capital and got badly wounded. Later, to save me, he made several trips to the underworld, and his injuries only worsened. One day he told me his time was up and the ghost messengers were coming for him, so he faked his death to escape. But he couldn't withstand the moonlight, and that finished him."
Lady Lingsu laughed. "No wonder. I even thought that if anyone from our generation could achieve immortality, it would be him. If anyone could ascend to godhood, it'd be him too! Good riddance, good riddance!"
Curious, Chen Shi asked, "Lady Lingsu, what kind of man was my grandpa?"
Lady Lingsu thought back. "Smart—brilliantly smart. I've never met anyone like him. He'd grasp any Daoist art at a glance and master it with a bit of study. Puzzles others couldn't crack? A breeze for him. The year I met him, I'd been stuck on a cultivation bottleneck for years, unable to achieve the Return to Void stage. I told him about it, and with one offhand pointer, I broke through. From then on, I admired him endlessly."
Lost in memories, she sighed deeply. "That's why I fell for him and wanted to be with him forever. But he was too dangerous. He had no taboos, no regard for rules. Ancestral techniques? He'd tweak them on a whim. Family spells? He'd alter them beyond recognition. Ancestral precepts? He ignored them outright. He stirred up trouble everywhere, offending major powers left and right—always someone hunting him down. He could drop dead any day. Eventually, my master gave me an ultimatum: the sect or him. Choose the sect, lose him. Choose him, lose the sect. So I broke it off."
Chen Shi asked, "Lady Lingsu's sect—was it Taihua Qing Palace?"
He'd heard Jade Spirit Child mention that one of Taihua Qing Palace's ancestors had been grandpa's lover. Hearing her bring up her sect, he guessed that's where she came from.
A flush of green anger crossed Lady Lingsu's face. She sneered, "You think I'm some floozy from Taihua Qing Palace like Qiongyang? Hmph! Does the Celestial Master Mansion, where I hail from, fall short of Qiongyang's Taihua Qing Palace?"
Chen Shi paled, thinking, *I'll never guess where grandpa's old flames come from again.*
Lady Lingsu burst out laughing. "I'm long dead—what do I care about jealousy now? Don't mind me, Chen Shi. But never mention Qiongyang again."
Her expression darkened once more. Chen Shi nodded hurriedly.
Though Lady Lingsu had passed on, her primal soul remained as youthful as a girl of sixteen, so chatting with her in the carriage felt anything but dull.
When cultivators die of old age, their flesh withers, but their primal souls retain their younger form.
Lady Lingsu's primal soul frozen at sweet sixteen showed her extraordinary talent—she'd formed her soul no later than that.
The bone dragon palanquin raced through Immortal Capital at blinding speed, covering untold thousands of li before slowing. Along the way, Chen Shi glimpsed mighty primal souls dominating regions, warding off ghosts and gods alike—who knew what great figures they were?
The palanquin halted before a Yuan Chen Palace. Lady Lingsu stepped out and knocked. To Chen Shi, she said, "In Immortal Capital, you can't enter another's Yuan Chen Palace without the owner's leave—unless you're one of the managing ghost messengers."
Chen Shi heard footsteps from within, his heart pounding wildly.
Finally, he could see grandpa! He missed him terribly.
He longed for the days in Huangpo Village: setting out in the wooden cart together, celebrating the Moon Festival, drawing talismans side by side. He missed grandpa's herbal brews, his home-cooked meals, the toys grandpa carved by hand, the clothes he bought.
*With grandpa helping me break her out, we can surely rescue Mother's soul!*
Chen Yindu's Yuan Chen Palace was vast, spanning over ten li around—smaller than the Young Lord's estate, but impressive still.
Footsteps approached from inside. The palace doors swung open, and a beautiful woman poked her head out, smiling. "Who are you looking for?"
Behind her stood hundreds more beauties frolicking in the courtyard, singing and dancing amid a sea of dark tresses.
Lady Lingsu's face turned iron-gray. She sneered, "That old thief Chen sure knows how to live it up! Others hide one mistress; he's got hundreds!"
Chen Shi's heart skipped. These beauties looked just like the paper figures he'd burned for grandpa.
*I didn't burn that many. Did Dad and Fifth Uncle burn extras too?* He tried entering the palace but was rebuffed by an invisible force.
Lady Lingsu explained, "Without the owner's permission, you can't get in. Only useless ghosts like little yaksas can come and go."
Chen Shi called out, "Grandpa, it's Little Ten! I've come to see you!"
No reply from within—only the paper-turned-beauties turning to look.
One said, "The master of this place has never returned. If you have business..."
Lady Lingsu produced a sealing talisman and slapped it on the door, striding inside.
Chen Shi eyed the talisman: beyond the incantations, it bore a ghostly seal script.
In ghost-god form, even he found the ghost script a dizzying blur—he couldn't read it.
He followed Blackie Pot inside. The palace brimmed with girls everywhere. Knowing they were paper figures didn't stop it from being a dazzling sight.
Some kindly old ladies among them greeted him warmly. Chen Shi thought, *These must be ones I burned too.* Grandpa's treasure tree already bore golden ingots—clearly Chen Shi, Chen Tang, and Chen Wu had all burned plenty of paper money.
The palace's pavilions and towers were also burn-offerings from them, materialized here as real structures.
Lady Lingsu surveyed the sea of beauties—young, middle-aged, elderly—and fumed. "Chen Shi, did you burn all these for him?"
Chen Shi said, "Dad burned some too, and Fifth Uncle a bunch. It's not all from me..."
"You all just spoil him!" Lady Lingsu approached the treasure tree and inspected it closely. "He hasn't come back. The paper money shows no signs of being used. Where the hell did that ghost wander off to?"
Disappointment crept in. She'd hoped for a ghostly reunion, but here she was, alone again. Chen Shi murmured, "Why hasn't Grandpa returned to his Yuan Chen Palace?"
Worry gnawed at him. Grandpa was old, with countless enemies—had he run into trouble down here?
His heart burned with anxiety. All the trouble grandpa stirred up in his youth... down here, the ghost gods might be taking turns tormenting him, beating him senseless.
Maybe the old man was locked up somewhere right now, strung up and lashed!
"Chen Shi, head back. The underworld's too perilous, and you're a living soul—not fit to linger."
Lady Lingsu, failing to find Chen Yindu, sighed. "The Young Lord knows you're in Immortal Capital. He's laid his traps. Push ahead blindly, and he'll catch you."
Chen Shi shook his head. "Mother's trapped—how can I, her child, stand by? Even if it kills me, I have to try!"
Lady Lingsu frowned slightly. "You don't grasp the Young Lord's power. Charging in is suicide."
Chen Shi pleaded, "Lady Lingsu, can you tell me about the Young Lord's background?"
She hesitated, then said, "Fine, if it'll make you give up. The Young Lord is Wei Yue, son of Wei Ling—a high-ranking judge in the underworld."
"Wei Ling's the incense-fire god, barren of heirs. Once, a Yan clan female cultivator strayed into the underworld and ran into peril. Wei Ling happened by on patrol and saved her. They fell in love and consummated their bond."
"But she was mortal, unable to endure the underworld, so they parted. Back in the yang world, she bore a son: Wei Yue."
"As a ghost god's child, Wei Yue shuttles freely between realms. He wields real power here as a yin master, and with his father's pull, everyone calls him Young Lord."
Chen Shi's eyes widened. "The Young Lord's mother is Yan clan? Connected to the Thirteen Great Houses' Yan family?"
Lady Lingsu chuckled. "Plenty of people are named Yan—not every one ties to the Yan House. But yes, there are rumors his mother came from there."
Chen Shi's heart stirred. "Could her 'peril,' the 'chance' meeting with Judge Wei Ling, and their romance all have been the Yan clan's setup? Could their goal have been to forge ties with Judge Wei Ling and make Wei Yue a yin master?"
Lady Lingsu said, "You're overcomplicating it! Why would the Yan clan scheme like that? The underworld isn't the yang world—what's in it for them?"
Chen Shi pondered. "With the Young Lord's status, the Yan clan could build their own power base here. Their experts, upon death, could band together with their own territory..."
Lady Lingsu laughed. "Even without him, Yan clan experts remain powerhouses in the underworld after death. Why need the Young Lord's title? The Thirteen Great Houses are titans in the yang world—and here too! Countless from their ranks form primal souls. No need to scheme for a mere 'Young Lord' label."
Chen Shi mulled it over. She had a point.
Still, a mortal woman braving the underworld, romancing a judge, birthing his son—it was too storybook perfect, suspiciously so.
Chen Shi set it aside for now and smiled. "Then what’s Lady Lingsu's position in the underworld?"
She seemed about to speak, then sighed. "I hold some rank in the Celestial Master Mansion. After death, my divinity granted me high status—even ghost gods show respect. But I can't help you with this, Chen Shi. Go home soon."
She left the palace and boarded the bone dragon palanquin. With a knock on the side, it sped away. Once it was gone, Boat Granny materialized by the door to see her off.
Boat Granny glanced at the sealing talisman on the door and whistled. "Even treasures like that—she lives up to being the Celestial Master's lady!"
Chen Shi gasped. "Celestial Master's lady? Isn't she Lady Lingsu?"
Boat Granny entered Chen Yindu's Yuan Chen Palace. "Her name's Lingsu—former lady of the Celestial Master Mansion from the last generation. Celestial Masters are emperor-anointed, true earthly seals. Even without the earthly realm now, they still get court mandates, born with divinity. In the underworld, every generation commands ghost-god reverence. Their ladies hold transcendent status too, shielded by divine power after death. I only remembered seeing her once after fleeing to the yang world, so I came back..."
Chen Shi shot her a glare. "When you fled to the yang world, it didn't occur to you to think of me and bring me along? Lucky Lady Lingsu wasn't a stranger."
Boat Granny mumbled, "I'm used to running solo. Next time, I'll definitely bring you."
Chen Shi circulated his magic, peeled off the sealing talisman, and shut the doors. "Lady Lingsu said to go home, but she left me this talisman. It lets us in and out of Yuan Chen Palaces. We'll stay here in grandpa's palace for a few days."
His eyes gleamed. "I'll cast a spell—project our souls into little yakshas at the Young Lord's estate to scout!"
Boat Granny asked, "How's soul projection work?"
"Simple. I'll lock onto the Young Lord's Yuan Chen Palace soon. You just pick a little yaksha working there."
Chen Shi was about to sit and cast when knocking sounded outside. He opened the door to an old man who sized him up, disappointed. "I thought Yindu had returned, so I came to check."
"Elder, who are you?"
"Your neighbor from Huangpo Village—Jiang Tong. My wife's Cheng Wuzhu. I just wanted to ask when she'll come down to join me." The old man said.
"Old Lady Wuzhu?" Chen Shi said. "She's hale and hearty still."
The old man shook his head in disappointment and left, muttering, "It's been twenty-six years since I died. Why won't she hurry up and die? Driving me mad."
Chen Shi peeked out and saw Old Man Jiang sitting alone on his Yuan Chen Palace's doorstep, lost in thought, utterly forlorn.
Glancing around, Chen Shi spotted a dozen more Yuan Chen Palaces nearby—likely those of Huangpo Village's departed villagers. Ones with incense lingered; those without had probably dissolved into the void.
Chen Shi returned inside, shut the doors, and joined Boat Granny to prepare the spell.
His mind stirred. Countless talismans swirled into being, orbiting him, her, and Blackie Pot. Chen Shi pointed, and dark springs bubbled from the ground.
From the springs rose verdant lotuses, blooming ethereally until radiant霞光 pierced forth.
Staring at the divine technique, Chen Shi murmured in awe, "Granny Sha was incredible—creating even a heaven-defying spell like this."
Suddenly, light erupted, yanking their primal souls from their bodies into the springs! Their souls plunged, white light whirling past, until they halted—each now in a new form!
Chen Shi examined himself: a green-skinned little yaksha, over two feet tall, pointed ears, oversized head, fangs bared.
Relieved, he looked around. He was in a grand courtyard of ornate, gilded buildings. Little yaksas bustled about, tidying grounds and sweeping halls.
"Yippee, I'm not a dog anymore! I can talk!" Not far off, a little yaksha cried in joy. "I can speak ghost tongue! Oh gods, oh gods!"
"Blackie Pot, hush!" Chen Shi rushed over, whispering urgently. "Get up! Quick—get up! No crawling on all fours. You're not Blackie Pot now—you're a little yaksha!"