Chapter 52.1: Corpse Nurturing Ground
Chapter 52 Part 1
D Province was located in Southern Huaxia, bordering Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi took an airplane from Hongqiao Airport and landed in Changshui Airport in D Province three hours later.
This was Xi Jia’s first time visiting D Province. When he graduated from college, the class had planned a graduation trip to Dali. At that time, there was a trending phrase that said, “Let’s go to Dali.” It seemed that if the hipster youths didn’t go to this place in their life, then they would have wasted their life.
At that time, because his yin energy was too strong, Xi Jia didn’t go traveling with these classmates. However, Chen Tao had sent plenty of blue skies and white clouds type of pictures for him to see, properly showing Brother Jia. Now that Xi Jia had come to D Province himself, the first thing he did was to turn on his phone, take a picture, and send it to Chen Tao.
【 Chen Tao: Wow, today’s weather in S City is that great? 】
【 Xi Jia: D Province ^_^ 】
【 Chen Tao: …… 】How many years have gone by, you still remember?!!!
After arriving in D Province, the three men took a bus towards the ancient tomb.
It had already been 19 years since Qishan-daoren had come to D Province. There was such a tragic incident that happened then, and the four Celestial Masters that died were all Qishan-daoren’s best friends. Even if the always unreliable Qishan-daoren returned to D Province, even he would seem somewhat sad and not make jokes that he usually would.
The bus swayed as it pulled out of the city and entered the forested mountains.
Approximately 10 hours later, Xi Jia got off the bus. The three of them changed buses and continued into the depths of the forests.
An entire day later, Xi Jia stepped off the bus. Looking around, he could only see peaks after peaks of never-ending mountain forests. The lush forests were an endless green, covering the earth. Qishan-daoren took them towards the mountains on foot.
For many years, Xi Jia often exercised so his physical fitness wasn’t bad. Ye Jingzhi and Qishan-daoren were both Celestial masters. Not mentioning Ye Jingzhi, Qishan-daoren was 96 years old this year and yet his body wasn’t any worse than young people. They walked for three hours, but the end of the mountain road in front of them couldn’t be seen.
Ye Jingzhi walked forward. He walked at the end of the line. Qishan-daoren was at the front leading the way, and Xi Jia was in the middle.
Slowly, Xi Jia slowed down until he walked beside Ye Jingzhi and slightly coughed. Ye Jingzhi turned his head to look at him. Xi Jia said with some guilt, “If it isn’t for me, you guys would have already arrived, right?”
Ye Jingzhi and Qishan-daoren could both fly. If Xi Jia wasn’t afraid of heights, they would have directly flew over right after leaving the Chuncheng Airport.1
Ye Jingzhi’s heart tightened. He somewhat wanted to reach out and hold Xi Jia’s hand. After thinking for a long time, Master Ye deeply thought that “holding hands should be okay” before he courageously reached out and held Xi Jia’s hand. He said, “Senior Qishan also wants to go slowly.”
Xi Jia somewhat didn’t understand.
Ye Jingzhi raised his head and looked ahead. Qishan-daoren was currently walking up the mountain in large strides. The figure seen from behind was unwavering and firm.
Thinking for a moment, Ye Jingzhi explained, “My Master and I only knew each other for about two years, but Senior Qishan and Master had been friends for more than 60 years. At this moment, I can still bear it, but I’m afraid Senior Qishan is feeling very bad in his heart.”
After listening to this, Xi Jia also had the same feeling to some extent. He gradually slowed down and slowly walked behind with Ye Jingzhi while holding his hand. They left Qishan-daoren walking in the front alone, letting him be in quiet solitude.
At the front, Qishan-daoren who had heard this, “……”
Then, you guys are still holding hands and giving this old man a bowl dog food?!
After passing one mountain, Qishan-daoren suddenly turned around and stopped walking. Once Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi came to him, the old man glared and became angry, “Why are you walking so far behind, are you not afraid of getting lost?”
Ye Jingzhi said, “Won’t get lost, I can sense Senior’s location.”
Qishan-daoren, “Was I talking about this?”
Ye Jingzhi looked at Xi Jia with a lost look. Xi Jia thought for a bit and cautiously asked, “We thought Senior Qishan wanted to walk by himself?”
Qishan-daoren, “You really regard this old man as a weak person, crying and wailing like a little girl? Isn’t it just coming to see Yi Lingzi that old fella? What’s the big deal about that. Hurry, if we don’t arrive by tonight, Lian Chen’s disciple would be waiting anxiously.”
After passing through another mountain, Xi Jia saw small village in the distance. After entering the village, Qishan-daoren directly took them and headed west. After walking more than 100 meters, they saw an agritourism place. A young man with glasses stood at the entrance to the agritourism. When he saw Xi Jia’s party of three, he quickly walked forward and nodded, “Senior Qishan, Fellow Daoist Ye. This ought to be Fellow Daoist Xi.”
Qishan-daoren laughed, patted the man’s back, and introduced, “He is Fellow Daoist Lian Chen’s disciple and the current sect head of Qishan Sect with the dao name, Yang Ze. Truly, the student surpasses the master. At this age, Young Daoist Yang Ze can undo the seal that your master had left that year. The future is limitless!”
Yang Ze said modestly, “Senior has overpraised.”
Xi Jia carefully looked at Fellow Daoist Yang Ze. He seemed to have heard of this Qianshan Sect somewhere before. But since he couldn’t think of where after thinking about it, he didn’t bother with it any longer.
Yang Ze seemed to be different from the other Celestial Masters. In Xi Jia’s impression, the Celestial Masters of the Xuanxue world were all quite……En, unique. Take the younger generation for example, Master Ye was very unique. In Brother Jia’s heart, his family’s Master Ye was naturally a great man that no one else can compare with. They must have individuality.
Let’s talk about those that are worse than Master Ye. Taking Nan Yi for example, Nan Yi was still considered handsome and bright, and his character wasn’t that strange, but he would always do things in a regular pattern, didn’t seem to be easy to talk to, and lacked in some popularity. As for Hu Die, he was even more of a wonder. He looked glamorous and stood out, had a flamboyant and bossy personality, and would fight if one sentence didn’t agree with him.
As for Charlatan Pei, Brother Jia didn’t want to evaluate. He had never seen a Celestial Master that was so afraid!
There were also the Jiang brother and sister as well as others. The young Celestial Masters of the Xuanxue world, each and every one of them gives people more of a cause for worry compared to the last——Except for Brother Jia’s family’s Master Ye.
However, this Yang Ze seemed very much like an ordinary white-collar worker. In his thirties, he was dressed not much different from a normal white-collared businessmen. His manner of speech and bearing was completely normal. If he was placed elsewhere, there wouldn’t be anything wrong. However, placed in such a unique place like the Xuanxue world, he was as eye-catching as a firefly in the night.
As if sensing Xi Jia’s gaze, Yang Ze turned his head and asked while smiling, “Fellow Daoist Xi, is something the matter?”
Xi Jia immediately shook his head and looked away.
Yang Ze laughed and continued to take them inside the agritourism area. He said, “Tonight, we will spend the night here. Tomorrow morning, we will set off to Heibu Village. We should be able to head down to the tomb in the afternoon.”
This was Xi Jia’s first time coming to a genuine agritourism place in a mountainous region. At 8 o’clock in the evening, everyone went to bed. What made Brother Jia completely unprepared was that Yang Ze had gotten one room for him and Ye Jingzhi. When he gave them the key, Yang Ze said as if it was expected, “Eh, I thought ‘Ghosts Know’ said that Fellow Daoist Ye and Fellow Daoist Xi are already engaged. Could it be that I have read it wrong?”
Seeing the key in Yang Ze’s hand, Brother Jia’s face flushed, and he didn’t respond. Master Ye was even more red, and he didn’t talk.
Seeing that no one took the key, Yang Ze slightly smiled and brought the key to Ye Jingzhi, “Fellow Daoist Ye?”
Ye Jingzhi, “!”
Seeing his family’s Master Ye’s ears were already red and his face was nearly about to turn red, Brother Jia coughed and took the initiative to take the key, and pulled Ye Jingzhi away with him.
He himself being embarrassed was one thing. He absolutely couldn’t let outsiders see him lose face. Even more, he couldn’t let outsiders see Master Ye’s embarrassed appearance!
Imagination was beautiful, but reality was a bit cruel. In this kind of poor agritourism area, the bed was pitifully small. With only a width of 1.5 meters, two grown men must be crammed together to sleep on it. Furthermore, this bed only had one blanket. It was cold in the mountains, and one shouldn’t sleep without a blanket. Xi Jia made enough mental preparations before climbing on the bed.
The two of them were lying down on the bed. Both of them stared at the ceiling. With arms pressing against arms, they were both self-conscious.
Xi Jia, “……”
Ye Jingzhi, “……”
5 minutes later.
Xi Jia, “……”
Ye Jingzhi, “……”
Another 5 minutes passed, and Xi Jia couldn’t help but ask, “Master Ye, are you asleep?……”
After a long time, there was no response. Xi Jia was shocked in his heart since he didn’t expect Master Ye to actually fall asleep. However, right when he was about to close his eyes and sleep, a quiet voice came from beside his ear, “En……”
“En, I’m also not asleep.”
“En……”
Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi, “……”
Another awkward conversation!
Translator’s Addition:
C+: ……
Mirror: ……
C+: ……
Mirror: ……
Repeat conversation x1032572938759283759
Translator’s Notes:
1 Chuncheng Airport, I think is refering to the Kunming Wujiaba airport. The Changshui airport replaced the Wujiaba airport. Chuncheng or Spring City is another name for Kunming. ↵