Chapter 378
Chapter 378
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 379
Chapter Title: Ghost Immortal
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With the death of Sect Leader Jinghong, the heavenly disaster vanished in an instant. Yulingzi awoke from his dazed stupor and let out a startled cry. He saw that he was stark naked, without a stitch of clothing.
He hurriedly covered his private parts and grabbed a nearby shed skin at random. He stripped the clothes from it and pulled them onto his body.
"Life in this world begins naked, and now we're naked again—what's there to be ashamed of?"
An elderly voice rang out. Yulingzi looked toward the source and saw that the speaker was Jingtai Daoist, one of the Taihua Four Elders.
The old Daoist was naked as well, standing high up in the sunlight without the slightest hint of shame.
He gazed toward the spot where Sect Leader Jinghong had died. There, flesh and blood covered the mountain, still writhing.
Yulingzi grabbed a Daoist's clothes at random, stripped them off, walked forward, and draped them over Jingtai Daoist.
"I don't like wearing clothes."
Jingtai Daoist blew out his beard and glared, shaking his shoulders to let the clothes fall off. He sneered,
"I'm so old— what's wrong with being naked? Can't I be naked? I was born naked to begin with!"
Yulingzi said, "Great-Granduncle is right. Clothes are for warding off cold and heat, and they serve as a matter of propriety. Going without them would be rather improper."
Before Jingtai Daoist could respond, another elderly voice came: "When humans are first born, where does propriety come from?"
Yulingzi turned and saw Jingyue Daoist, another of the Taihua Four Elders, striding over boldly, just as naked, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Jingtai Daoist.
Yulingzi's head spun. He quickly said, "Newborn infants cry without being taught, instinctively nurse from their mother's breast, and depend on their mother—that isn't propriety?"
"Nonsense—you don't know a damn thing!"
Jingdong Daoist, another of the Four Elders, walked over, bare-assed, and stood in line with the other two old Daoists. He asked, "Is the old Sect Leader dead?"
"He's dead."
Jingshan Daoist, the last of them, approached. The four old Daoists stood in a row, bare-assed.
"What a pity. We never got to verify if the old Sect Leader's path could truly lead to ascension and immortality."
Jingyue Daoist sighed wistfully, "I've always felt that the old Sect Leader's path might have been viable. But with Despair Slope's intervention, we never got the chance to try it."
The old Daoists each voiced their regret.
Yulingzi kept his distance from them, thinking to himself, "These four Great-Granduncles are willing to risk everything for ascension."
Cultivators of the Dao were detached from fame and fortune, with immortality as their foremost goal. The Taihua Four Elders had reached the limit of their physical lifespans, with only a few years left, so they were willing to take the risk.
Yulingzi even suspected that the four elders hadn't even lifted a finger before falling into fiendish transformation—perhaps they'd deliberately abandoned resistance.
Changying Daoist had also regained his senses. Dressed neatly, he was busy directing the awakening Daoists to care for their fellow sect members.
Yulingzi stepped forward to help. Changying Daoist glanced at him and whispered, "A lot of young Daoists died."
Yulingzi's heart sank. He asked, "How many junior brothers and sisters died?"
Changying Daoist bore the responsibility of Sect Leader and lacked the Four Elders' carefree attitude. He cared deeply about the sect's losses and had already ordered a count of the dead. But the mountain was littered with shed skins that looked eerily lifelike, making it hard to tally in short order.
"About thirty percent, at least. It's not that they died—they just shed their skins over and over until they vanished completely."
Changying Daoist said, "No fleshly bodies, no bones, no souls or nascent spirits to be found. They simply ceased to exist, as if turned to void."
Yulingzi fell silent and went to help the other Daoists—clearing away the shed skins, finding clothes, treating the wounded.
In Youzhou City, hundreds of li away, Fu Xiu also awoke. Having endured the cataclysm, he had grown far steadier. He first calmed the talisman masters of Red Mountain Hall's Youzhou branch, steadying their emotions, then led them to aid the city's common folk.
The disaster hadn't lasted long—barely an hour from start to finish—but its impact was immense. Many people and livestock shed their skins several times before vanishing into thin air, as if they'd never existed.
Others underwent several transformations, shrinking in stature and aging a dozen years in body, left frail and sickly.
Fu Xiu led Red Mountain Hall's talisman masters in drawing talismans everywhere to heal the sick, restore vitality to the masses.
They worked from dawn till dusk without time for meals or rest. Many other cultivators, inspired by them, came to help, swelling the ranks of talisman masters.
Fu Xiu dispatched teams to nearby villages and towns to treat the rural folk. Only in the dead of night did he return to the Youzhou prefectural yamen.
He arrived at the yamen, intending to raise his Ten Thousand Souls Banner and hang it in the sky to ward off evil spirits from entering the city. That's when he spotted Youzhou Prefect Xia Fenghua sitting lost on the yamen's stone steps.
Xia Fenghua rested his elbows on his knees, looking decades older, his eyes vacant. Fu Xiu called to him several times before he snapped back, staring blankly at Fu Xiu.
"It's Commissioner Fu. You've returned?"
The prefect lowered his head again.
"Sir, didn't you flee with your whole family?"
Fu Xiu was somewhat angry, his words laced with sarcasm. "Now that the disaster's over, you've come back to be prefect again?"
Prefect Xia slowly shook his head. "No more. No more. I've lost everything—I'm done with it all—"
Fu Xiu was stunned.
Prefect Xia gave a miserable laugh. "I tried flying my wife, children, and elders out of the disaster's range. Midway, I was corrupted by evil and fell from the sky. Commissioner Fu, I've lost everything—my wife, my kids, my whole family—gone!"
He clutched his head and wept bitterly.
A God Descent Realm expert like him suffered no harm from a fall from the sky, but his wife, children, and elders were in the midst of shedding. They were smashed into pulp.
Dazed and stumbling, he rose unsteadily to find the disaster over and himself restored. But around him, for li in every direction,
the ground was littered with the corpses of his family.
Xia Fenghua nearly went mad. He wailed and raged in that place, tore at his hair, cursed heaven and earth, clutched his loved ones' bodies and begged the heavens—but it was all in vain.
He didn't know how he'd made it back to the yamen or how long he'd sat there. His mind was a blank.
Fu Xiu saw that Prefect Xia was finished and couldn't hope for him to govern Youzhou or aid the people.
Fu Xiu entered the yamen and raised the Ten Thousand Souls Banner. He offered incense to it, bowed deeply, and said, "Elders of the banner, in life you were bandits who robbed and killed without mercy, but in death, entering the banner, you shelter the common folk—a great merit. I beseech you elders to protect Youdu, bar outer evils, and guard the lives of the myriad people! This banner holds great merit. In future, I will petition on your behalf to rename the Ten Thousand Souls Banner the Banner of the Myriad People!"
The banner fluttered lightly. The ghost gods within were highly pleased with him.
Fu Xiu exited the yamen and said to Prefect Xia, "Sir, where is Youdu's local register? To save the common folk, we can't be without it!"
Prefect Xia said nothing. Fu Xiu, enraged, shoved him to the ground and searched forcibly. At last, in a small storage pouch, he found the local register. "Since the prefect is useless, from now on, I'll act in his stead!"
Fu Xiu lifted the hefty local register and activated the registers for Youzhou's sixty-two counties. The pages rose into the air, turning into streaks of golden light that flew off.
These golden pages would guard county seats and villages, mobilizing the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and the godmothers of each village to suppress the evil spirits and prevent them from wreaking havoc amid the chaos.
With these matters settled, Fu Xiu suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded. Only then did he realize he hadn't eaten or rested.
At a street corner, Red Mountain Hall talisman masters had set up a porridge stall for relief. He drank a bowl and felt better.
"The heavenly disaster was hard to endure, but at least it's over."
He murmured to himself, "Things will gradually get better."
Yan Xizhi and Xia Canghai received word of the disaster's end as they reached Youdu's border. The two cabinet grandees exchanged a glance. Xia Canghai said, "A guest from Despair Slope."
Yan Xizhi nodded lightly. "Who could it be?"
Despair Slope's power sent a chill through them.
The speed at which Despair Slope quelled this disaster was simply too fast—over before they even arrived!
"By rights, Despair Slope doesn't intervene lightly."
Xia Canghai's heart stirred. He said, "Over the past several thousand years, fiend transformations were handled either by our court or the true gods from beyond the heavens. Heavenly disasters too. Our Western Capital court handles them first; if we fail, the true gods beyond condense their gaze to slay the disaster. Despair Slope rarely deals with such matters. Why so proactive this time?"
"Despair Slope's eagerness to enter the world is no good thing."
Yan Xizhi said, "Their urgency likely stems from the celestial changes too. Nights grow longer, days shorter—the true gods beyond have undergone unknown shifts, spurring Despair Slope to haste."
When the two arrived in Youdu, they found it already orderly, the countryside stabilized, with no major upheavals from the disaster.
Not just Youdu—even the other counties of Guxing Province were stable.
Yan Xizhi's eyes lit up. He smiled, "Youdu's prefect is a great talent! Congratulations, Minister Xia—your clan gains another capable man!"
Xia Canghai felt his face light up too. He laughed, "Youdu's prefect is Xia Fenghua, originally a mediocre sort. Who'd have thought, coming to Youdu, he'd reveal such talent. He's earned great merit; I'll report it truthfully to the clan head for proper promotion."
Yan Xizhi smiled, "The court will promote him handsomely too. Such talent, stuck in Youdu—such a pity."
The two reached the Youdu yamen, only to find Xia Fenghua hadn't handled a single duty, looking half-dead. The one who had brought Youdu and Guxing Province into order was a commissioner named Fu Xiu.
Yan Xizhi and Xia Canghai each shook their heads, summoned Fu Xiu, and offered encouragement. Yan Xizhi said, "You're wasted as commissioner. We'll promote you to registrar—a rise of two ranks."
Xia Canghai reminded Fu Xiu with a smile, "Registrar is a proper eighth-rank post. Thank Prime Minister Yan!"
Fu Xiu bowed in thanks. "My lords, I have many trifling matters to attend. I take my leave."
Yan Xizhi waved him off to his duties. Once he was gone, Yan said, "Still promoting Xia Fenghua?"
Xia Canghai gave a wry smile. "Prime Minister jests. Xia Fenghua is unfit for prefect any longer. I'll report to the clan head to send a replacement. As for Fu Xiu, he truly has talent and virtue—the registrar post is too small."
Yan Xizhi said, "He's Top Scholar Chen's disciple."
Xia Canghai sobered and nodded lightly. "Top Scholar Chen's disciple—indeed, not to be heavily employed. Top Scholar Chen harbors disloyal thoughts."
Yan Xizhi asked, "He's in Youdu too?"
Xia Canghai said, "He's a guest at Taihua Mountain. Heard he came to return their immortal sword to Taihua. Then the disaster struck, trapping him here."
Yan Xizhi's expression grew odd. "Did he cause the disaster?"
Xia Canghai shook his head. "No. I inquired—it's Taihua Azure Palace's old Sect Leader Jinghong, who faked death to cultivate an evil art, triggering the cataclysm."
"What a pity. Could've pinned treason on Top Scholar Chen."
Yan Xizhi sighed regretfully, then perked up. "Time to give Taihua Azure Palace a dressing-down. Have them hand over Jinghong's corpse and the evil art he cultivated. Handle it thus."
Xia Canghai hesitated. "And Taihua Azure Palace's immortal sword—"
"Let them keep it."
Yan Xizhi smiled. "Can't push too far. Taihua Azure Palace has some foundation, after all—their sect leaders are no fools. My Yan clan's ancestors said Taihua's Three Saints may yet live, hidden in the shadows, awaiting their moment. Taking their immortal sword would be unwise."
Xia Canghai assented. "Then, for Taihua Azure Palace's immortal sword return celebration—shall we attend?"
Yan Xizhi said in surprise, "They've got the face to hold a celebration?"
"The mountain Daoists say invitations are already out—they'll proceed as planned." Xia Canghai shrugged helplessly.
Yan Xizhi sighed helplessly. "If they have no shame, then we'll attend."
On Taihua Mountain, Qingyang had been swaddled like a rice dumpling by the Daoists. The mountain's Daoists urged their ancestral master to rest well, lest his wounds reopen.
But Qingyang couldn't help getting up and moving about, his gaze repeatedly flicking warily toward the smiling "Chen Shi."
"My stubborn temper matches my parents'?"
He couldn't resist approaching "Chen Shi." "You've met my parents?"
"Chen Shi" grinned. "Of course. You were little then."
Qingyang shivered, more curious than ever about this disaster. "You're no disaster—what are you really?"
Changying led some Daoists in transporting old Daoist Jinghong's corpse from another peak to Taihua's main peak. Many Daoists crowded around to view it. "Chen Shi" squeezed in too, eyeing the massive corpse with keen interest.
Niangniang Shiji stood by the corpse, on utmost alert lest it transform again.
But she was even more wary of "Chen Shi" and unwilling to return to his little shrine.
Old Daoist Jinghong had fully fiendified; his corpse was enormous, over ten zhang long, with fleshly tendrils stretching hundreds, even thousands of zhang—terrifying.
The Daoists showed great respect to "Chen Shi" and Qingyang. After all, these two had fought to the death to save them. They hurriedly cleared a path for close inspection.
"Chen Shi" examined the corpse while chuckling, "You and others dug up my grave, took the Golden Cicada Shedding Heaven Immortal Diagram I left behind, and now ask who I am—Jinghong botched the refinement, didn't he?"
He shook his head.
Qingyang's heart jolted; he nearly cried out.
"You're the seventy-eighth generation Sect Leader, Dan Chengzi! You faked your death to escape and cultivated into a ghost immortal!"