In the royal court’s rear hall, there clearly wasn’t any infant about to be born. Therefore, the seventeenth generation Living Buddha’s successor would be of the soul possession type.

In Khuzhuo doctrine, Living Buddha soul possession reincarnation mostly occurred in young children. While busying themselves with attending to Dama’s dharma body, everyone sent word to Huyin Temple, requesting the Dharma Protector Great Lamas to come prepare ceremonies and perform Dama’s cremation.

Huyin Temple wasn’t far from the royal court—half a day’s journey by fast horse. In the meantime, everyone waited anxiously while frequently glancing toward the royal court’s rear hall.

“Go find Brother Gu.” Feng Zhiwei signaled to Chunyu Meng, looking somewhat worriedly in the direction where Gu Nanyi had disappeared. She added, “That Kele is somewhat sinister. Take more people and be careful.”

Chunyu Meng nodded and left. Heilian Zheng sat beside Feng Zhiwei, glancing at her left and right. Feng Zhiwei smiled and tilted her head toward him. “What?”

Heilian Zheng remained silent for a long while, his eyelashes lowering to cover the rainbow-flowing light in his eyes.

He had a bellyful of questions he wanted to ask—like how Dama died, like that somewhat awkward gesture at Dama’s end… Yet the words reached his lips and were swallowed back down.

What need was there to ask? She always meant well for him. He believed that.

Her eyes were veiled in clouds and mist—no one could see her true thoughts clearly. Yet behind those clouds and mist, he knew there was a grassland that belonged to him.

Even if her hands overturned heaven and earth in bloody rain and foul wind, manipulating the chess game of this world with unmatched schemes, he only wished to be a foolishly devoted man, not probing into the chilling truths behind those machinations.

To love her, to fulfill her wishes—heaven and earth were vast, all for her.

Commotion came from ahead. The four Great Dharma Protector Lamas from Huyin Temple had arrived. On the road, the four must have already heard about today’s events—their expressions were all rather ugly.

“Where did the Living Buddha point before entering nirvana?” The lead Great Lama asked upon arrival.

Everyone silently pointed toward the royal court.

All four froze, exchanging glances.

Before leaving Huyin Temple, Living Buddha Dama had said he might go and not return, leaving final words requiring the Dharma Protector Lamas to search for the next Living Buddha according to his final posture. Now these words had come true at the royal court.

The Living Buddha’s reincarnation, reborn in such a close location—truly a first in many years.

Yet Dama’s finger pointed so firmly in that direction. Under everyone’s gaze, no one could alter it.

The four Great Dharma Protector Lamas, leading their disciples and carrying Dama’s living ritual implements, rushed toward the royal court’s rear hall.

That direction of the rear hall was precisely where Heilian Zheng and Feng Zhiwei lived—a spacious large courtyard where all their close associates resided in scattered dwellings.

There were only two young children: Chamutou and Gu Zhixiao.

Liu Mudan had followed all the way to the rear hall, joy flashing in her eyes—if the Living Buddha’s reincarnation soul possessed Chamutou, then the problem that had always troubled her regarding Heilian Zheng’s overly harsh fate would also be resolved.

The door opened. In the wet nurse’s arms, the one-year-old Gu Zhixiao and half-year-old Chamutou were sleeping sweetly. Suddenly awakened by voices, opening their eyes to see so many stern-faced strange adults, Chamutou was immediately frightened and burst into loud crying.

Gu Zhixiao didn’t cry. Her bright, bead-like eyes turned round and round. Her little nose sniffed and sniffed. At such a young age, she actually showed an expression somewhat like contemplation.

The Chief Dharma Protector Lama knelt solemnly at the door, gently placing before him the string of sandalwood prayer beads Living Buddha Dama had most commonly used during his life, along with that copper-coated black gold ritual implement.

Felt blankets were rolled up. The lamas from Huyin Temple and the chiefs knelt on the steps. Everyone held their breath in concentration. All around was silent without human voice.

The wet nurse, startled by this solemn atmosphere, set down the two children. At the far end of the long felt mat, Chamutou cried for a while. Seeing no one paying attention, he could only slowly crawl up on the mat himself.

Chamutou had been sturdy since infancy. At only half a year old, his legs and feet were already strong. Crawling slowly like this, he actually headed directly toward Dama’s relics.

Everyone showed joyful expressions.

Feng Zhiwei stood far away at the courtyard entrance, hands behind her back. She didn’t even glance this way, only frowning as she wondered why Little Fool hadn’t returned yet. At such an important moment—

Chamutou crawled to the two relics and grabbed the prayer beads with one grasp.

The Dharma Protector Great Lama’s lips trembled. He joyfully opened his arms to receive him.

Chamutou’s small fist loosened. The prayer beads fell, striking his toes painfully. With a wail, he burst into tears again, raising his foot to stomp on the beads.

The Great Lama hurriedly snatched the beads from under his feet, disappointment showing on his face.

At this point, it was basically certain it wasn’t Chamutou. The Great Lama still held out hope, passing the ritual implement toward Chamutou. But Chamutou had already thrown himself into the arms of the approaching wet nurse, crying loudly as he pushed away the implement, his little face completely crumpled.

Everyone sighed in disappointment.

The Chief Lama looked hesitantly at the implement in his hand. His gaze met the eyes of the three Dharma Protectors beside him, quickly reaching unanimous agreement. Then he lowered his eyelids and swiftly put away the implement and prayer beads.

Several chiefs’ gazes all flashed, yet none spoke.

Very obviously, the lamas from Huyin Temple didn’t want Gu Zhixiao to contact Dama’s relics. Though this child’s origins were unknown, she had been adopted by the Great Consort. Once recognized as the Living Buddha, in the future on the grassland, this unfathomable Great Consort would have no more constraints.

Though rare throughout history for male Living Buddhas to reincarnate or possess female Living Buddhas, it wasn’t unheard of. No one dared take that risk.

The relics were about to be put away.

The wet nurse, receiving a signal, came over to pick up Gu Zhixiao, attempting to carry her away.

Feng Zhiwei stood far away with hands behind her back, a trace of a smile in her eyes.

Gu Zhixiao, who had been staring at those two items all along, her little nose sniffing and sniffing, suddenly giggled.

Then she struggled and twisted in the wet nurse’s arms, leaning forward, reaching toward the Great Lama’s direction, signaling the wet nurse to carry her over. The wet nurse hesitated. Gu Zhixiao immediately raised her hand to pull her hair.

Under everyone’s gaze, this action showing willingness to approach the Living Buddha’s relics immediately caused a commotion. The Great Lama could no longer play deaf and dumb. With a stiff face, he slowly placed the two relics on the ground.

Gu Zhixiao kicked at the wet nurse, forcing her to carry her before the relics. Giggling, she pressed her fine-skinned little face against that lustrous, mellow implement.

She closed her eyes, her expression intoxicated. Behind her, smoke rose in wisps from the incense burner. In the pale white smoke, her palm-sized little face suddenly took on some solemn, serene air—like a sacred lotus flower blooming above the clouds, in the ninth heaven.

The Chief Great Lama proclaimed a Buddhist invocation loudly.

Sanskrit chanting arose.

Everyone silently prostrated themselves.

Gu Zhixiao giggled, intoxicated by the scent on those prayer beads, completely unaware that in this moment, one action had decided the grassland’s fortune for decades to come.

In the distance, Feng Zhiwei revealed a calm, knowing smile in the shadows. Yet that smile, no matter how you looked at it, seemed somewhat ill-intentioned.

Last night when she went to Dama’s place, while lighting the oil lamp, she had soundlessly switched Dama’s ritual implement. Inside that implement, she had placed a type of fragrance powder Zong Chen had developed himself. The scent was somewhat walnut-like—this was most familiar to Gu Zhixiao, one of the scents belonging to Gu Nanyi. Seeing Gu Zhixiao so attached to Gu Nanyi, Feng Zhiwei had consciously arranged for Zong Chen to create it, so in future if Gu Nanyi wasn’t around, she could bring it out to coax Gu Zhixiao. This little girl had always had a keen nose and was particularly sensitive to the scent of Gu Nanyi, who she lived with day and night. Today when the implement was brought out, she immediately caught that faint walnut fragrance.

The prayer beads Dama held in his hands daily naturally couldn’t be tampered with, but the heavy implement not commonly used, usually held by small lamas, could be.

Gu Zhixiao hugged that implement, giggling, and was picked up by the Chief Great Lama with trembling hands. The lamas in the courtyard prostrated themselves like grass, all murmuring sutras in unison. The low, rapid sound waves, like a gust of wind, swept across thousands of miles of grassland.

What should come would come. What should go would go. The old was swept away. The new was brought forth.

The eighteenth generation Khuktu Living Buddha was born.

By the time Gu Nanyi returned from pursuing Kele, his Gu Zhixiao had already changed identities.

Gu Nanyi listened to Feng Zhiwei explain about Living Buddha matters for a long time, never committing one way or the other. At the moment Feng Zhiwei finally finished explaining, he hit the nail on the head: “Sold out.”

Feng Zhiwei remained silent, thinking: Who says Young Master is slow? This is what you call sharp.

Gu Zhixiao, oblivious and ignorant, curled in Gu Nanyi’s arms, treating that sacred implement as a toy to sniff here and there. Dama’s prayer beads were grasped in her hands and kneaded without care. If the Chief Dharma Protector Great Lama saw this scene, this “spirit child” would probably be exposed.

Originally, Gu Zhixiao should have been immediately sent to Huyin Temple, but when the Great Lama tried to carry her away, Gu Zhixiao cried non-stop. Finally, Heilian Zheng intervened to keep her, saying the spirit child was still young and might as well be fostered at the royal court. Moreover, the true enthronement ceremony still required the court to send envoys to participate. At that time, they could decide whether to go to Huyin Temple—not too late. The lamas had no choice but to let go, first going to preside over arrangements for Dama’s funeral, with Heilian Zheng sending fast horses to report the spirit child to the court for approval.

The throne succession ceremony ultimately wasn’t completed. The cream cheese was poisoned. The Living Buddha had entered nirvana. The spirit child was young and unable to preside. Heilian Zheng himself ascended the high platform. With a clear laugh, he said, “The Zhadalan throne is commanded by heaven. In my heart is great brightness. With this anointing, I become complete of my own accord.” Then he crowned himself, jumped down from the platform, and went to direct the royal army in surrounding Jiade’s rebel forces.

Before turning, he looked deeply at Feng Zhiwei once, yet ultimately said nothing.

Feng Zhiwei recalled Heilian Zheng’s gaze, sighing inwardly that he too was a clever man, yet let her overturn heaven and earth on the grassland, giving her supreme trust that ordinary people could hardly give.

This was a man whose heart was more vast than heaven and earth. When you were weak, he loved and protected you with all his heart. When you were strong, he fulfilled all your wishes.

“Kele escaped?” After contemplating for a long while, Feng Zhiwei withdrew her thoughts and asked Gu Nanyi.

Young Master Gu didn’t speak, seeming very unhappy. Zong Chen pushed the door open and entered. “Kele indeed comes from an evil sect. I’ve heard before of a Humojiao sect on Mount Gedamu Snow Mountain. It’s said to trace back hundreds of years to some theocratic sect—this is one of its branches that gradually turned to evil paths. Their martial arts are strange and mixed, particularly skilled in phantom illusion maze techniques. Today’s black fog was their deception technique. Kele came from low origins. In his youth, he was exiled to the snow mountains—probably entered this sect then.”

“Even Brother Gu couldn’t keep up?” Feng Zhiwei was very surprised. Zong Chen said, “I rushed to pull him back midway. Border region strange sects have some tricks that Central Plains martial artists can’t master. Moreover… so I couldn’t let him venture alone into danger.”

Feng Zhiwei nodded. “Did Nata leave together with Kele?”

“No.” Zong Chen said, “At that time I was rushing to chase back Nanyi. I only felt someone sweep from my side toward Nata. It should be that Hongjile always had people mixed in the crowd. Taking advantage of that fog, they seized the opportunity to rescue his daughter.”

“Rescuing her is also good.” Feng Zhiwei smiled. “Nata now hates Kele to the bone. Hongjile should also have come around. Presumably, Kele originally discussed this matter of passing off a child as royal offspring with him, promising to split the grassland afterward. But with Kele’s vicious nature, where would his good outcome be in the future? The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Let the Golden Peng tribe and Fire Fox tribe go at each other like dogs.”

The two discussed there. Over there, Gu Zhixiao ingratiatingly lunged toward Gu Nanyi, stuffing those prayer beads into her father’s hands. Where would Young Master Gu want other people’s dirty things? With one release, he tossed away his Gu Zhixiao’s goodwill. Gu Zhixiao immediately held back tears, her misty eyes gazing at her father.

Her father remained unmoved, eating walnuts on his own. Gu Zhixiao had long coveted this mysterious food called walnuts. Again she reached out to her father for them. Her father handed her a shell…

The Gu family baby persisted relentlessly. Grabbing those prayer beads, she stuffed them to Feng Zhiwei, pushing her hand toward Gu Nanyi. Feng Zhiwei held back laughter, not using force as Gu Zhixiao pushed her over. Gu Nanyi turned his head aside, hesitated, then used his fingers to pinch up the beads—a look that said, “Actually I really find this disgusting but I’m giving you face by taking it for a moment.”

Zong Chen watched with a smile all along. Light flickered behind his ebony mask. After a long while, he said, “Nanyi treats you differently. Even Zhixiao can sense it.”

Feng Zhiwei stiffened, withdrew her fingers, and smiled. “Perhaps I appear relatively gentle.”

Zong Chen smiled, shook his head, and said lightly, “I practically watched him grow up. Even people he’s been around for over ten years, he’s not necessarily willing to approach.”

Feng Zhiwei remained silently speechless, changing the subject. “Zhixiao is also over a year old now. Why hasn’t she started speaking yet?”

“If a person’s entire life remains ignorantly unaware, that’s not without being a kind of happiness. What’s most to be feared is being awakened, then encountering rejection.” Zong Chen wouldn’t let her evade, stubbornly pulling the topic back.

Feng Zhiwei lowered her eyes, gazing at her own fingers. If these hands insisted on opening that person’s calm, sealed world, would what she ultimately opened for him not be a colorful new life, but another kind of suffering and hardship?

Beside her, Gu Nanyi sat peacefully. Gu Zhixiao sprawled on his knee. Behind the white veil, one could seemingly see that person’s eyes like stars, while at his lips curved a faint crescent moon.

Such serene beauty—even the indifferent Zong Chen couldn’t help but try to protect it.

Feng Zhiwei straightened her back, slightly shifting backward a bit in distance. Gu Nanyi beside her immediately noticed, looked up at her, and quite naturally moved closer.

Feng Zhiwei’s back was somewhat stiff. She didn’t move. She vaguely heard Zong Chen sigh and silently exit.

The sound of the door being pulled open was somewhat sharp, stabbing at one’s heart making it tighten…

In the somewhat awkward silence, sudden shrill shouting was heard outside the door.

“I won’t leave—I won’t leave—even if I die, I’ll die here—”

Meiduo’s voice.

Feng Zhiwei let out a breath of relief, quickly stood and walked out. Sure enough, she saw Meiduo disheveled with loose hair running from the front hall, followed by a group of guards covered in sweat.

One could see that over the years, Meiduo’s status at the royal court had been like that of an empress dowager. Her residual authority remained. The guards were hamstrung by caution, allowing her to rampage through the royal court all the way to her destination.

“To save the Great King, I lost everything. You can’t treat me like this!” Meiduo ran over like a madwoman, charging directly at Feng Zhiwei. “Feng Zhiwei, you bitch, was it you? Was it your ghost tricks? You might as well kill me, kill me—”

“Done!” Feng Zhiwei stood on the steps with hands behind her back, not even looking at her, cutting off sharply, “Want to die? Easy!”

She waved her hand. Hua Qiong emerged with a cold laugh, tossing down three items with a slap.

A dagger, white silk, a medicine bottle.

“In our Central Plains, to make someone die, we have these three items.” Feng Zhiwei smiled. “One is called ‘quick death,’ one is called ‘tight death,’ one is called ‘rotting liver and intestines death.’ At the same time, these are items prepared only for people with status, preserving your noble intact corpse. I think this also repays the sacrifices you made for the Great King. Choose for yourself.”

Meiduo stared blankly at the three items on the ground. For a moment, she seemed unable to comprehend that Feng Zhiwei had actually truly prepared suicide items. She froze there motionless.

“Please, please.” Hua Qiong sneered coldly, kicking the three items toward her. Meiduo’s whole body trembled. Instinctively, she stepped backward.

“The merit of saving the Great King back then,” Feng Zhiwei looked down at her from above, her eyes indifferent, “over all these years, the royal court has already repaid you with the most honorable treatment. Even if you feel it hasn’t been fully repaid, yesterday when you poisoned me, it was already completely erased. Others show you favor—if you don’t know your limits, you’re seeking your own death. You should know you have no life-saving grace toward me, yet you have the enmity of poisoning. If I want to kill you, who can stop me?”

Meiduo looked at the three items on the ground, then looked up at her. The woman on the steps had deep eyes, so cold and indifferent, making one believe there was nothing she dared not do, nothing she could not do.

“Azha—” After a moment of stunned silence, she began screaming heart-wrenchingly. “Come save me, come save me. I raised you all these years. You can’t let this mother wolf randomly marry me off to the interior, marry me to those fat-brained old men!”

“The horse ranch owner in Dezhou in the interior, forty years old, with three sons and one daughter, an honest man with abundant family property.” Feng Zhiwei calmly rolled up her sleeves. “This ranch owner who is not fat-brained was selected by me from a list of over ten people and personally approved by the Great King.”

Hearing the last sentence, Meiduo was thunderstruck, standing there stupefied.

“The Great King, mindful of your past kindness, gives you an opportunity. If you don’t want it, very good—I, the Great Consort, actually prefer that you don’t want it.” Feng Zhiwei extended her hand in invitation. “Choose one of three. Quickly.”

Meiduo collapsed before the dagger. After a long while, trembling, she reached out toward the dagger. Feng Zhiwei watched coldly, her eyes not wavering a trace.

After dawdling for a long time, Meiduo suddenly gritted her teeth, viciously grabbed the dagger, gripping it tightly. Then she raised her eyes to stare directly at Feng Zhiwei. Feng Zhiwei still didn’t move, wearing a slight smile with an expectant expression as she watched her.

The two competed with their gazes. All around held breath in silence.

After a long while, “Clang!”

The dagger fell into the dust. Also falling was Meiduo. She covered her face, crying heart-wrenchingly on the ground.

Feng Zhiwei waved her hand.

Immediately someone carried over a red sedan chair. In three moves and five motions, they changed Meiduo into a red robe. Two burly matchmaker women, clutching hemp rope, stuffed her inside. They themselves also followed in, sitting like door gods left and right. The sedan bearers immediately swiftly lifted the sedan and turned. A man rushed over, raising his hand to fire a firecracker with a “bang.”

“Congratulations on Aunt Mei’s wedding departure.” Feng Zhiwei waved her hand. “Send one thousand people for the dowry escort!”

The dowry escort procession wound out from the Potala Second Palace, carrying Meiduo who cried until heaven and earth darkened, traveling toward the distant Central Plains.

At the same time, on the nearby Tiansheng and Da Yue battlefield, news also arrived that the war situation had changed again.