Mother and daughter were reunited — a moment that moved the heart to its depths.
Lang Jiuchuan gave Wen Yue space and time, letting her hold the child and release the long-accumulated grief, regret, and grievance that had built up inside her. Meanwhile, she stepped to one side and questioned Wen Ze about Lu Ruiting’s situation.
The shroud of ill fortune they carried unsettled her. Within the foulness, she could detect a faint trace of corpse-qi — which could only come from contact with a corpse or corpse-poison.
Lang Jiuchuan exchanged a meaningful glance with Fuqi. “Notify Gong Qi and have the Surveillance Division send people to investigate.”
Fuqi’s brow furrowed. “What are you thinking?”
“Corpse-qi clinging to a person like this cannot come from simple, brief contact with a single body. If a corpse has developed corpse-poison, and someone infected unknowingly passes it on to others through contact — it can spread from person to person, and even kill. If it becomes a plague, the consequences will be far more severe.” Lang Jiuchuan said. “This is not our responsibility, and whether or not a hypocrite like Lu Ruiting lives or dies is of no consequence — but if others come to harm because of him, those are living, breathing lives. Notifying the Surveillance Division to take precautionary measures is the right thing to do.”
And besides — she had a feeling that what lay ahead for the nation of Da Dan would not be peaceful. She had no evidence, only intuition, and intuition was a terrifying thing. Especially now, since learning that the National Preceptor was Tantai Wuji — she felt more and more that he was growing impatient.
Fuqi gave a nod.
Wen Ze and Lang Caining, seeing how grave her expression had become, exchanged a glance between themselves with a creeping sense of dread, and involuntarily sniffed at themselves again. Whether from psychological suggestion or not, they both seemed to detect a faint, indescribable unpleasant smell.
Seeing this, Lang Jiuchuan said, “You two are fine. If you’re still worried about the ill fortune, just pick some pomelo leaves and mugwort when you get home, boil them together into water, and bathe in it. Keep the jade talismans on your persons at all times.”
She had barely finished speaking — Wen Ze had not yet said a word — when Wen Yue came over holding the bundled infant, and dropped to her knees before Lang Jiuchuan with a resounding thud, pressing her forehead to the ground. “Heavenly Master Little Sister, thank you for your tremendous kindness and grace, thank you…”
Her words came out in a tangled rush, dissolving into sobs.
Lang Caining stepped forward to help her up, then reached for the bundled infant in her arms — but Wen Yue clutched the baby tightly to her chest, her expression turning almost guarded.
“Elder Sister, you are still weak yourself — what if you fall? You’re holding her too tightly; she’s so red in the face she can barely breathe. Let us look at her — nothing will happen.” Lang Caining said gently.
Only then did Wen Yue look down at the child — sure enough, the tiny face had gone bright red. She loosened her arms at once and passed the baby over, though her eyes never once left the child, filled with tender, overflowing love.
The ailment of the heart requires the medicine of the heart to cure it, and this child was precisely Wen Yue’s remedy. Now that what was lost had been found again, it seemed as though half of her illness had lifted in an instant — yet she had been sick for half a year, and her body was far too frail to recover all at once.
Lang Caining looked down at the child, and Wen Ze stepped over to have a look as well. The baby’s complexion was rosy and healthy, and in her features she resembled Wen Yue more than anyone. The pull of blood recognizing blood rose within him naturally — and he, as an uncle, felt his heart soften with tenderness toward this little girl whose fate had been so ill-starred from the very start. He reached out and touched her cheek.
Lang Jiuchuan invited them all into the private room and, in a few brief words, laid out the cause and effect: the child had been taken away entirely because of her fate-pattern. As for what it was intended to be used for, she did not say in full — nor was it something they could have prevented.
“This child was born with the noble fate-pattern of a phoenix. After she was taken, a pact of shared life and death was placed upon her — that pact, I have already dissolved. What remains within her body is a strength I have opened up through her meridians and channels. Put plainly: if she were to enter the Dao and cultivate, her comprehension would be stronger than most. But I suspect that is not what you want.” Lang Jiuchuan looked at Wen Yue and explained slowly and carefully. “And furthermore — she has already been marked by someone. Even though I have recovered her for now, as long as she continues to carry this fate-pattern, she will be schemed against again and again…”
This heaven-born phoenix’s noble fate-pattern was both a gift of fortune and a curse that hastened her death. The National Preceptor had already set his sights on her — and had even used her to pry open the child’s meridians and channels, infusing them with pure Daoist essence, which was tantamount to personally refining this child’s phoenix-fated body for his own ends. Would he release this child now?
He would not.
Unless this fate-pattern is broken — there will never be peace or rest.
Wen Yue let out a sharp cry. “Who — who could be so utterly heartless and vicious?”
“Someone you cannot afford to provoke. Neither can a duke’s household — nor could many noble families combined.” Lang Jiuchuan toyed with the bone bell at her waist. “His schemes are so vast that even I have not yet seen their full extent.”
Wen Ze’s expression shifted. “A cultivator of the Dao?”
Lang Jiuchuan gave a small nod.
A look of gravity fell over everyone’s faces. If it was someone from the Daoist sect — then truly, they had no means to resist.
“Can someone who cultivates the Dao simply do whatever they please?” Wen Yue’s eyes turned red with fury.
Lang Jiuchuan’s voice went cold and sharp. “They cannot. Only a person without any bottom line or humanity would act like this. Such a person is what the world calls a wicked cultivator. And he — is the most ancient and unscrupulous monster of all.”
“You know who it is?” Wen Yue immediately seized on the heart of the matter.
“The National Preceptor of this dynasty.” Lang Jiuchuan did not conceal it. The more people felt revulsion toward him, the better — accumulated one by one, it would count for something.
Everyone’s face showed shock and horror. “The National Preceptor — you are saying the one behind all of this is the National Preceptor?”
The National Preceptor was like a guardian deity of Da Dan — how could he have committed such a vile act of tearing mother and child apart? What did he intend to do?
“The National Preceptor’s cultivation is unfathomable, and he is a deep and calculating schemer. Do not provoke him — simply carry this knowledge in your hearts, so that you do not bring calamity down upon your households. To destroy a duke’s family would be as easy as breathing for him. The imperial family — the Tantai clan — cannot be trusted, and must not be trusted!” Lang Jiuchuan said. “What you can do is within the scope of your own ability — in times of great disaster and calamity, shelter and protect as many common people as you can. Keep good intent in your hearts, and that itself is accumulating blessings and doing good.”
Wen Ze straightened with a slight start.
Wen Yue seemed to understand something in her expression.
Lang Jiuchuan dismissed them. Though Wen Yue was desperately reluctant, she steeled herself and left the child behind — but not before begging Lang Jiuchuan to give the baby a name.
“Since I hope she grows up full of vitality and carries kindness in her heart — let her name be Shanxu. Xu xu ruo sheng — vivid and alive, brimming with life. That suits her well.” Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes softened with warmth.
Wen Yue left, pausing to glance back at every third step. She needed to hurry back and cut all ties with Lu Ruiting completely — leave that pit of fire cleanly and without a trace. Only then could she bring the child back to her side. As for whether the Lu Family would suspect anything — hmph. That child had been forcibly taken by them and placed in a small coffin, not even given a grave marker before being buried, hadn’t she? So this child was hers and hers alone. She would be called: Wen Shanxu.
Once Wen Yue and the others left, Fuqi returned — and with him came Shen Qinghe, his face haggard and worn. As they soon learned, Gong Qi had returned to his clan these past two days, and nearly all the affairs of the Surveillance Division had been pushed onto Shen Qinghe’s shoulders.
Lang Jiuchuan felt a slight pang of guilt. Gong Qi’s sudden return to his clan was likely because of the matter involving the ancient monster — a great clan like that, even while joining her to save the world and its people, still needed to preserve a flame for themselves.
Was that human selfishness?
No — it was the preservation of hope.
Shen Qinghe poured two large gulps of cold tea and said, “Something serious has happened. This New Year, we can forget about celebrating in peace.”
“What is it?”
Shen Qinghe’s voice dropped low. “In Guanjiang Village, within the Yangchun Prefecture — corpse-wraiths have appeared, biting people and draining their blood. Those who are bitten initially present symptoms resembling a common chill, then their vitality and spirit gradually wither away, their flesh and blood progressively stiffens into something corpse-like, dark patches spread across their skin, and they become consumed by an insatiable craving for blood — like the living dead. And then they begin infecting others. Most critically of all, this person-to-person spread moves with terrifying speed: within three days, those infected cannot restrain themselves from biting others in their blood-frenzy. By now, the entire population of Guanjiang Village has been afflicted without exception. The village has been sealed off and surrounded. The new Emperor has issued an order — to burn and exterminate all of these living dead. That village shares borders with three other villages and hamlets; the nearest are barely ten li apart, and some sit on the same mountain. Those too have been surrounded and blockaded for fear of spread. And if living dead appear there as well…”
He did not finish the sentence, but the meaning was plain: regardless of whether those people had become living dead or not, in order to prevent further spread, everyone would be burned and killed on the spot.
Lang Jiuchuan’s heart sank.
“This matter is currently known only to the Surveillance Division and has not been made public, for fear of causing mass panic among the people. The Daoist priests of the Surveillance Division have already gone to track down the original source corpse-wraith — the greatest fear is that it has already bitten a great many people and that the person-to-person chain of infection has already taken hold. If that is the case, it would mean an apocalyptic catastrophe for the entirety of Da Dan.” Shen Qinghe said. “You had Shopkeeper Fu come and seek out Gong Qi to report this — I sensed something was wrong and came to you at once. What frightens me most is this: if Lu Ruiting has already been infected by the corpse-poison and become one of the living dead — then how did he come into contact with it? Where is the source? Are there others within Wu Jing who have been infected? Has it already spread there? If so — Wu Jing is in grave danger!”
“This is bad.” Lang Jiuchuan rose to her feet and turned to Fuqi. “Wen Yue and the others have gone back, and they will certainly seek out Lu Ruiting about a separation. Go and stop her at once — keep her away from that man surnamed Lu. I will follow right behind you.”
Fuqi vanished in an instant.