Yu Ziyu pressed her face against the window of the dining hall, peering through the crack in the window.
The matriarch was tidying up a bunch of white ponytails in front of the stove. She carefully sorted through them, picking out the parts that weren’t bright enough or long enough, and threw them into the fire, giving off a burnt smell of hair.
“Grandmaster, I’m hungry, what should I do…” Yu Ziyu whispered.
Ling Xuzi turned her head: “What should we do? Why don’t you go home and have a good meal before going up the mountain?”
Yu Ziyu walked around to the main entrance of the dining hall, picked up a small stool and obediently sat down next to Ling Xuzi, resting her chin on her hand: “I’ve already made up my mind to become a nun and sever all ties with my family. If I go back to eat, wouldn’t they laugh at me?”
”So you really plan to stay on this mountain forever?”
”Yes, I want to stay with you, Master, and never concern myself with worldly affairs again, focusing solely on cultivation.”
Yu Ziyu casually picked up the fire tongs and poked at the charcoal fire in the stove. The charcoal fire was burning very brightly, and when she poked it, flames shot out and burned the shimmering white ponytail in Ling Xuzi’s hand.
A sizzling sound rang out, and the straight, smooth tail end was burned and curled.
Ling Xuzi leaned back hastily, patted her scorched ponytail, clicked her tongue twice, and then slapped Yu Ziyu’s hand: “You really have a problem with your hand.”
Yu Ziyu hurriedly put down the fire tongs and looked down at the ponytail: “I didn’t mean to.”
”Never mind, bring the scissors over.” Ling Xuzi raised her chin and pointed to the bamboo basket on the ground.
Yu Ziyu took out scissors from the bamboo basket, handed them to Ling Xuzi, and then lifted her chin to watch Ling Xuzi carefully cut off the burned horsehair.
Ling Xuzi tidied up the ponytail, tied it up carefully, and put it in a bamboo basket before saying, “Go wash those two cabbages in the backyard. I’ll make dumplings for you later, with cabbage leaves stir-fried with meat filling.”
”Okay, I’m going right now!” Yu Ziyu said excitedly, ready to head out.
Ling Xuzi shook her head: “Forget it, you can’t wash them clean. Just draw two buckets of water from the well, and I’ll wash the vegetables myself.”
”Oh, okay.”
Yu Ziyu ran to the backyard, picked up a bucket to fetch water, and found that Li Jiyan was still there. She asked in an annoyed tone, “What are you doing here? Do you want to become a monk with me?”
Li Jiyan walked over and helped her lower the bucket into the well. “So, are you still going to exorcise ghosts?”
”Yes, but my cultivation is not yet sufficient. You should go home first, and I will naturally come down the mountain to find you once I have cultivated enough.”
”When will you be able to complete your cultivation?”
Yu Ziyu looked up at the densely clouded sky ahead: “I don’t know, maybe one or two months, or maybe three or five years.”
She then turned to look at Li Jiyan, “By the way, I’ve already seen your body, so you must remain chaste. Once I’ve returned to secular life, I’ll marry you.”
”It seems that Taoist priests don’t need to abstain from alcohol and sex. You can marry me and become a monk at the same time.”
Li Jiyan said, he rolled up his sleeves, his taut forearms with bulging veins, and powerfully pulled up the rope, steadily lifting up a bucket of cool well water.
“Once you become a monk, you can’t indulge in worldly desires,” Yu Ziyu corrected indignantly.
Li Jiyan followed Yu Ziyu and ate dumplings made by Ling Xuzi himself before descending the mountain.
Yu Ziyu’s sudden decision to become a nun disrupted his plans. He had originally intended to find a way to marry her within a month, but now that she had become a nun, he was at a loss for what to do.
Inside the Taoist temple’s living quarters.
Yu Ziyu sat on a small stool, watching her ancestral master make her bed. She pointed to the dark red Taoist robe placed at the head of the bed and asked, “Ancestral master, is that robe yours?”
Ling Xuzi straightened up, grabbed the Daoist robe and shook it. “Come here and try it on. I made it for you myself. See if it fits. If it doesn’t, I’ll have it trimmed again tomorrow.”
Yu Ziyu was overjoyed. She jumped up, took off her coat, and threw it on the bed: “Grandmaster, you can even make Taoist robes! You are truly a divine being reincarnated, capable of anything!”
She put on the dark red Taoist robe, beaming with joy: “Perfect, no need to tailor it.” As she spoke, she took out her money pouch, intending to offer it to Lingxuzi.
Ling Xuzi helped her straighten her collar and fasten her belt: “No need to pay, this is a gift from your master. You’ve been calling me ‘Grandmaster Mother’ for so long, I should give you something in return.”
”Grandmaster, you are too good to me. With our combined efforts, we will surely be able to ride the clouds and enter the immortal realm, and ascend to paradise as soon as possible.”
Ling Xuzi shook her head and said nothing.
After Yu Ziyu lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed), Ling Xuzi sat by the bed and tucked her in. Her expression became serious, and she finally said, “Ziyu, why don’t you stop cultivating immortality?”
”Why?” Yu Ziyu opened her eyes wide, unable to lie still any longer, and sat up after throwing off the covers.
“Ziyu, cultivating immortality is going against the heavens. There are many dangers on the road, and failing to transcend tribulations is the norm. Very few people can ascend. I am worried that you will not be able to accept it if you fail in the future.”
Yu Ziyu gripped Ling Xuzi’s thin hand tightly, her expression tense: “Grandmaster, I’m not afraid of hardship. Failure is the mother of success; if I fail, I can start again. Grandmaster, why do you say this? Don’t you believe in immortals?”
Ling Xuzi sighed softly, “Go to sleep. You didn’t sleep a wink last night, and you’ve been up all day. If you don’t get some rest, you might just go straight to see the immortals.”
Yu Ziyu held her hand tightly, her eyes wary: “Grandmaster, then tell me first, are there any immortals in this world?”
“Yes, as long as we believe, then it exists.” After saying this, Ling Xuzi went out.
She chuckled to herself twice. She had grown up in a Taoist temple since childhood and had believed in gods and immortals for over twenty years. But later, she and her fellow disciples survived war, plague, and famine, and everyone in the temple died.
From then on, she no longer believed in gods.
……
Li Jiyan returned to the general’s mansion and pondered what he should do.
He was especially eager to know what had happened between Li Feng and Yu Ziyu. Li Feng kissed Yu Ziyu and licked her hand, while Yu Ziyu kept calling Li Feng a lecherous scoundrel.
All of this forced him to ponder deeply: what kind of person was Li Feng? Was Li Feng and himself one and the same?
Li Jiyan thought for a long time, recalling the circumstances under which Li Feng appeared each time.
The first time was when he accompanied Li Fanglian back to the capital from beyond the Great Wall, and that’s when he first met Yu Ziyu.
With just one glance, he became wildly infatuated with Yu Ziyu, experiencing a kind of out-of-body sensation. At that moment, Li Feng also appeared, inexplicably taking control of his body and following Yu Ziyu like a walking corpse.
Li Fanglian pulled him back and scolded him for being unable to walk past pretty girls, saying he was making a fool of himself.
Later, Li Feng appeared for a relatively long time when he was chasing the Xiongnu in the borderlands. He was pierced in the arm by a poisoned arrow and bit his lip in pain.
He thought he was going to die that time, but Li Feng appeared again. Li Feng dragged his bloodied body back to the camp.
After that, Li Feng’s appearances were always fleeting. Li Jiyan couldn’t quite remember when he had appeared.
What he remembers most clearly recently is the day Yu Ziyu slapped him in the cemetery, and yesterday when he saw Xiao Jin giving Yu Ziyu a hairpin in the alley, he got jealous, and then Li Feng appeared.
Combining these findings, Li Jiyan analyzed the pattern of Li Feng’s appearance.
One possibility is that it’s related to Yu Ziyu. He is deeply in love with Yu Ziyu, too obsessed with her, or perhaps jealous, which could lead to Li Feng appearing.
Secondly, it is related to physical pain. Li Feng may also emerge when his body is in pain.
After summarizing the situation, Li Jiyan decided to try it himself and see if it was possible to force Li Feng out by applying external pressure.
He sat on the edge of the bed, rolled up his left sleeve, revealing his muscular forearm. He drew his dagger, carefully making a cut, avoiding a blood vessel. The blade was sharp; the slightest cut drew blood.
The stinging sensation immediately spread, but Li Feng showed no sign of appearing.
He could sense Li Feng’s presence every time he appeared. He couldn’t control his consciousness; his mind was forcibly suppressed, giving him a slight feeling of suffocation.
Isn’t it painful enough?
Li Jiyan put down the dagger, his fingernails digging into the wound, pressing and stimulating it as much as possible. The pain came in waves, but he still didn’t feel suffocated, and Li Feng didn’t appear.
He found some medicinal powder, sprinkled it on the wound, and pressed hard, hoping to increase the pain while treating the injury. However, it was still to no avail.
Lying in bed, he kept touching the wound on his arm, still pondering how to find a balance with Li Feng. Or perhaps, how could he kill Li Feng and take over this body for himself?
He thought about it until dawn.
He got up to change his clothes, preparing to go to the military camp. He had to be on duty at the camp during the day, and only in the afternoon would he have time to go up the mountain to find Yu Ziyu.
As he reached for the leather belt, he knocked over the oil lamp. The lamp tipped over, and the oil in the saucer spilled onto his left arm, instantly igniting. Li Jiyan quickly patted it out and extinguished the fire.
Half of his sleeve was charred and stuck to his forearm. The knife wound he’d inflicted last night was burning with pain. The burn and knife wound were mixed together, causing him to sweat profusely from the pain.
He hurriedly found the first-aid kit and was preparing to apply the medicine when it suddenly dawned on him—perhaps he could take this opportunity to try what he hadn’t finished last night.
He got up and went to the kitchen to find salt, then dissolved some in it. Gritting his teeth, he poured the salt water onto the burning wound on my arm.
This sudden attack intensified the pain, and he became delirious.
Li Jiyan felt that familiar suffocating sensation, and white light appeared before his eyes, as if someone was choking him and he couldn’t breathe.
Something was trying to break free from his body.