“Greetings, Immortal Lord.” Emperor Jing Hong and the Crown Prince saw the white-robed immortal lord’s expression was indifferent, but they didn’t find this strange at all. In ordinary people’s imaginations, immortals were inherently high and aloof, so when they appeared maintaining a proud bearing, no one would consider this offensive.

Even the emperor thought this way.

Huan Zong’s appearance made everyone’s speculation about “immortals” even more mysterious and even more awe-inspiring. When Lin Hu put away the jade boat and flew down, hardly anyone dared to look directly at him anymore. He silently followed behind Huan Zong, his gaze looking toward the southeast direction.

From that direction, resentful energy and malevolent energy seemed to be emanating. Could there be cultivators committing evil in the mortal realm?

But seeing that Young Master and Miss Kong Hou both said nothing, Lin Hu withdrew his gaze, acting as if he hadn’t discovered this matter.

“Xianzi, Immortal Lord, please walk this way.” The Crown Prince bent at the waist, making a gesture of invitation. As the heir of the Eastern Palace, he hadn’t bowed and scraped to anyone for many years. Yet he performed this series of movements smoothly and fluidly, as if he were filled with reverence for these three cultivators.

Kong Hou glanced at him. His features were proper and upright, his brows clear and eyes bright—the appearance of a benevolent and virtuous ruler. The Crown Prince was more than ten years older than her. When she had been a puppet princess in the harem, it had been very difficult to encounter the Crown Prince. Occasionally when they met at banquets, the Crown Prince would politely address her as “Princess” and had never deliberately made things difficult for her because of her status as a princess of the former dynasty.

Kong Hou didn’t intend to embarrass this benevolent and virtuous Crown Prince. She nodded and walked down from the sacrificial platform. The civil and military officials kneeling on the ground saw her approaching and all knelt while backing away, opening up a wide path for her.

The long hem of her skirt trailed sinuously past, like moonlight illuminating the bluestone by the riverside, carrying with it a cold beauty and supreme elevation.

Beneath Stargazing Tower, the moment the jade boat appeared, the guards couldn’t help but kneel down one after another. When they saw the Crown Prince truly bringing the immortals over, they wanted to steal glances but didn’t dare to, and only after the people had walked far away did they dare to quietly raise their heads for two looks.

“Did you see clearly?”

“I only saw the immortal’s shoes. The immortal’s shoes are truly beautiful—not only do they glow, they’re so clean they don’t have a single speck of dust.”

“That skirt hem is beautiful too. If the noble ladies in the palace saw it, they would surely be moved.”

“If it were anyone else it would be one thing, but this is an immortal maiden. Even the most favored consort wouldn’t dare be bold enough to imitate an immortal’s clothing.”

It had been seven years since she left this palace. Back then, she felt the imperial palace was vast and forbidding, that she would never be able to escape it for her entire life. Looking at this imperial palace again now, she discovered that some walls bore traces of rainwater erosion, floor tiles were occasionally cracked, and the tall city walls weren’t tall at all. When looking down from the sky, the palace buildings were like duckweed in water, so tiny they were almost invisible.

The main gate was wide open. The central path, it was said, could only be walked by the emperor. Even the empress could only have this honor on the day of her investiture ceremony. Yet today, the emperor, the Crown Prince, and even the civil and military officials respectfully welcomed her as she stepped onto this path.

Clearly she had long since stopped caring about the past, but when stepping onto this path, Kong Hou still felt in her heart a sensation of shackles breaking free. She stopped walking and raised her head to look at the plaque above the palace gate.

Seeing her suddenly stop, Huan Zong turned his head to look at her: “What’s wrong?”

“When I was six years old,” Kong Hou extended her finger and pointed at the palace gate, “I was protected by palace maids and escaped to behind this gate. Unfortunately my luck was bad—I was discovered by the patrol guards and brought back.”

This bronze gate, Huan Zong could destroy with a wave of his sleeve, but for Kong Hou who had been only six years old back then, this had been a gateway to freedom. Escape through it, and from then on the mountains would be high and the waters broad, living under a false name. Fail to escape, and all that awaited was death or confinement.

Now stated so lightly, it had been the despair of her youth.

Stepping here again, Kong Hou felt as if she were making amends, making amends to that frightened little girl from back then.

The Crown Prince standing beside them as a guide bent his waist even lower. He was afraid that if he spoke, it would trigger Kong Hou’s disgust.

Passing by the red bronze gate, the Crown Prince unconsciously wanted to walk faster, but the three immortals behind him seemed not to have detected his anxious heart. Not only did they walk slowly, they even chatted about matters from the past.

The bloodstains on the wall had long since been scrubbed clean. Kong Hou remembered that night, many people had died, and the splattered blood had stained the palace walls red. In fact, when hearing countless pleas for help, she had still been hesitating over whether or not to come to the mortal realm. Later she received a flying message talisman from Pavilion Master Sun.

Pavilion Master Sun said he had once cast a divination for her, and she carried karmic obstacles on her body.

This karmic obstacle hadn’t come about because of her, but because of her father emperor, the deposed Emperor Ji.

The deposed Emperor Ji had been muddled and incompetent, greedy for pleasure. Throughout the court and countryside, selling official posts and noble titles became the prevailing practice. Part of the people’s fat and blood that the treacherous ministers scraped together went into their own pockets, but more of it went into the deposed Emperor Ji’s private treasury. As the deposed Emperor Ji’s daughter, Kong Hou had enjoyed the treatment of a princess. She too had enjoyed those things the deposed Emperor Ji had scraped together. Regardless of whether she had known or not known, she was one of the beneficiaries.

If this karmic connection wasn’t severed, if Kong Hou wished to enter the Nascent Soul realm in the future, it would likely be harder than ascending to heaven.

Because of this letter from Pavilion Master Sun, plus the fact that Kong Hou herself harbored some guilt toward the common people of the mortal realm, in the end she still decided to detour to the mortal realm to have a look. After this matter was concluded, she and the mortal realm would have severed all former connections, without cause or effect.

Following the Crown Prince all the way to Phoenix Hall—Phoenix Hall was the place where the empress dowager of the Ji imperial dynasty had resided. When Emperor Jing Hong seized the imperial throne, his birth mother had already passed away, so Phoenix Hall had been sealed off.

This palace building had good symbolism, and its former mistresses had all held very noble status, so the Crown Prince had specifically arranged for Kong Hou to reside here.

“As for the two immortal lords…”

“Thank you, Your Highness, but there’s no need to arrange other palace buildings for them. They can just stay in the side halls.” Kong Hou interrupted the Crown Prince’s words. “If Your Highness doesn’t mind, you could tell me about what has happened in the mortal realm.”

“Yes.” The Crown Prince hadn’t expected the immortals to be so informal, that men and women could reside in the same palace building. But seeing that all three immortals didn’t seem to care much, he didn’t dare say more and instead took the opportunity to speak about the epidemic.

“Medicine and herbs have no effect. Even if the sick are isolated in one place, there’s still the possibility of infection. Even the wind is a helper in transmission…” Kong Hou frowned. If there was a chance of transmission with the wind, forget neighboring cities—with the passage of time, it was possible the entire country could be shrouded by this epidemic.

How could there be such a formidable epidemic in the mortal realm?

“Where are the places where the epidemic is most severe?” Kong Hou asked.

“In several cities to the southeast.” Seeing that Kong Hou seemed to plan to intervene in this matter, the Crown Prince was immediately overjoyed beyond expectation. “If Xianzi requires any medicinal materials, we will certainly cooperate with all our strength.”

“The southeast…” Kong Hou turned to look at Lin Hu. “Senior Lin, I must trouble you to go have a look for me.”

“Xianzi, Father Emperor has prepared a banquet in Xuanwu Hall. We respectfully request that the three immortals honor us with your presence.”

“There’s still nearly most of an hour until the hour of wu—we’ll make it in time.” Lin Hu glanced at the sky outside, transformed into a streak of flowing light and flew out, quickly disappearing at the edge of the sky.

The Crown Prince hadn’t had time to say please let the immortals rest first, and could only watch a beam of light disappear at the edge of the sky. His mouth hung open, and only after a long while did he stammer: “Truly the methods of the immortal family.”

Kong Hou paid him no attention. At this moment with no civil and military officials present, she was too lazy to help the Crown Prince save face. She reached into her storage ring and fumbled around, then found a bottle of spirit liquid and poured several drops onto the ground.

“This is…” Seeing Kong Hou ignore him, the Crown Prince wasn’t discouraged either. In any case, he had already knelt—other small matters were insignificant.

“Spirit liquid.” Kong Hou said. “Your body is fragile. Senior Lin went to the epidemic outbreak areas, so when he returns, his body will definitely carry some things from those places. What if you get infected?”

“Thank you, Xianzi.” The Crown Prince was somewhat moved. He hadn’t expected Kong Hou to think so thoroughly, even paying attention to such small matters.

“No need to thank me.” Kong Hou’s tone was indifferent. “You will be a good emperor in the future. I just don’t want you to die and add trouble to countless common people.”

This statement was extremely impolite. The smile on the Crown Prince’s face stiffened slightly, but he quickly became relieved. For Kong Hou Xianzi to speak such words clearly indicated she didn’t mind the matter of the Ji imperial dynasty’s downfall back then. People within the imperial family inevitably thought more deeply—he even heard several parts threat in Kong Hou’s words.

Because he would be a good emperor in the future, she was willing to intervene. But what if he weren’t?

Some words weren’t suitable to be spoken too clearly, and also weren’t appropriate to ask too explicitly. The Crown Prince cupped his hands: “Please let Xianzi wait and see.”

Kong Hou raised her eyebrows and didn’t say more.

She and Huan Zong sat at the table. The Crown Prince sat in attendance at one side, and the atmosphere gradually became awkward. The Crown Prince tried to open his mouth to make the atmosphere better, but unfortunately one person fundamentally wasn’t willing to speak, and the other occasionally responded with a few sentences, with obvious perfunctoriness in their attitude. The Crown Prince thought, if he continued speaking, these two might find him noisy.

But if he didn’t speak, with the three of them sitting in silence like this, wouldn’t it be even more awkward?

Just at this moment, a palace attendant came to report, saying the banquet was prepared, and His Majesty and the empress were already in the hall respectfully awaiting the three immortals.

“Please ask Father Emperor and Mother Empress to wait a brief moment. We’ll come shortly.” The Crown Prince breathed a sigh of relief. This silent and wordless awkwardness was finally going to end.

“His Majesty and Her Majesty need not be so polite. After this matter is concluded, cause and effect between myself and the mortal realm will all be eliminated. I won’t appear lightly in the future.” Kong Hou was afraid her appearance would make these common people and officials develop a sense of dependence, so that in the future whenever they encountered hardship, they would only know to pray to gods and worship Buddha, not seeking to make themselves strong. “So regardless of whether you’re enthusiastic or not enthusiastic, I will help with this matter. Life and death in heaven and earth have their natural cycles. Future matters will have to rely on you yourselves.”

The Crown Prince smiled bitterly: “I understand.”

If praying to gods and worshipping Buddha were useful, why had there been no immortals manifesting their divine presence during all these days, no matter whether they sacrificed to heaven or worshipped the gods?

Kong Hou Xianzi was willing to appear because she had once been a person of this country and still had feelings for the common people here.

However, immortals and mortals ultimately were different. Kong Hou Xianzi couldn’t always come to help them. This would violate the laws of heaven and earth, and would also easily cause the common people to develop the habit of only knowing to pray to the gods when encountering problems.

This was also good. The Crown Prince smiled with relief. Born as humans, they always had to strive to rely on themselves.

The sound of wind came. The Crown Prince suddenly turned his head and saw Senior Lin, mentioned by Ji Kong Hou, appear before his eyes in the blink of an eye. He opened his mouth: “The immortal’s divine powers are truly formidable.”

Lin Hu said indifferently: “A small matter only.”

From the capital to the epidemic outbreak areas was separated by more than a thousand kilometers. If traveling by horse carriage day and night without rest, it would still take nearly half a month to arrive. But immortals… only needed half an hour.

“Senior Lin, change your clothes first, and we’ll go to the banquet.” Kong Hou saw there were still many palace attendants standing guard outside and said to Lin Hu, “We can discuss the epidemic matter after the banquet.”

“Mm.” Lin Hu nodded, glanced at the Crown Prince, then went to the inner hall to change clothes.

“Please walk this way, immortals.” The Crown Prince led the way in front. Red carpets had already been laid beneath their feet, and serving maids held pots, wielded fans, and carried incense—even an emperor’s treatment would be no more than this.

In the great hall, civil and military officials and imperial clan members sat upright and proper, all gazing toward outside the hall.

Hearing the Crown Prince’s voice speaking, everyone unconsciously bowed their heads to show their respect for the immortals’ arrival.

Treading on golden bricks piece by piece, Kong Hou entered the great hall, looking at these ministers who didn’t even dare raise their heads. Her smile was faint—one couldn’t tell joy or anger from it.

With a sweep of her gaze, she saw the Eldest Princess sitting in a corner, shrinking her head down.

“We haven’t seen each other for many years. Eldest Princess, are you well?” Kong Hou asked.

Her voice was like jade beads—extremely pleasant to hear.

But everyone thought of seven years ago, when the Eldest Princess had forced Xianzi to play the kong hou piece in front of everyone.