For three consecutive days, Yun Ye spent mornings wandering Yushan with Lingdang. Sometimes they’d look for little rabbits in the grass, sometimes they’d go down to the riverbank to pick up the most beautifully patterned stones. In the afternoons, the two would lie on reclining chairs on the balcony, drinking tea while Yun Ye told her all kinds of strange and wonderful stories. Little Lingdang was always the best listener—sometimes blessing the happiness of lovers, sometimes shedding tears for the tragic fate of the heroine, always tense when hearing about knights battling villains.
A twenty-year-old woman would still be flower-like in later generations, but in the Great Tang, any maiden over eighteen who hadn’t married would be categorized as a problem girl. Little Lingdang rarely maintained such a childlike mentality. If it weren’t for always encountering good people, with her submissive personality, who knows how much suffering she would have endured.
Toward weak women, men always showed more tender affection. Whenever he saw Little Lingdang’s bashful appearance, Yun Ye would always wickedly think of that large bed in the small building. On it, Lingdang always displayed a pitiful appearance of being at others’ mercy. Tigers never show mercy to rabbits, so Yun Ye’s every night was always spent in wild abandon.
The happy story of the prince and princess never lacked a witch, much less when the Yun family now had two beautiful witches. Early in the morning, they brazenly charged into the bedroom. Amid Little Lingdang’s screams, the quilt had already been ruthlessly thrown off, and a pair of bare-bottomed lovers were caught in bed.
Little Lingdang helplessly hugged her chest, being groped up and down by two wickedly laughing women, wanting to cry but having no tears.
“Husband truly has good fortune! Look at Lingdang’s breasts—so firm and perky, ridiculously white, her waist is slim too, her buttocks shaped like a gourd. No wonder she can make husband linger and forget to return. Shouyang, we who’ve given birth can’t compare. After we finish giving birth, should we learn a few tricks from the Heavenly Demoness to win back husband’s heart?”
Xinyue roughly pulled away Little Lingdang’s hands to carefully examine her chest, her mouth continuously exclaiming in admiration. Li Anlan giggled and slapped Lingdang’s buttocks, then even put her hand to her nose to smell, pouting and shaking her head, indicating the scent wasn’t good.
Now Lingdang truly couldn’t survive—she wanted to bury her head in the bed seams. Yun Ye snatched the quilt back and covered Lingdang with it. Seeing her wrap herself tightly, he shamelessly stood up bare-bottomed, letting Xinyue help him dress.
When Li Anlan came out of the room, she discovered Yun Ye was still disheveled, and Xinyue’s hairpins were also in disarray. She couldn’t help but laugh and scold, “Don’t mess around! If you want it, go to the inner room—there’s a fresh one there who hasn’t even dressed yet. Pregnant women can’t act recklessly. Such a grown man, still with no restraint.”
When Li Anlan was stripped half-naked by both Yun Ye and Xinyue, she could only grit her teeth and let Yun Ye’s hands roam over her body, only firmly protecting her belly, not letting him touch there. Turning her head, she saw Little Lingdang staring at her with wide eyes. Rarely feeling a bit shy, she wanted to cry out, but saw Yun Ye stand up, laughing heartily as he straightened his clothes, casually rubbed his face a couple times, rinsed his mouth—almost completed simultaneously—waved to his wives and concubines, and strode away with hands clasped behind his back. Today was Sun Simiao’s investiture ceremony—arriving late would be disrespectful.
Last time, Old Sun hadn’t accepted His Majesty the Emperor’s reward and had fled with his medicine men into the wilderness for nearly half a year. After returning, His Majesty the Emperor didn’t mention it, and Old Sun was happy to forget about it. But Yuan Tiangang wouldn’t stand for it. Risking his old face, he entered the palace three times before making His Majesty the Emperor change his mind and newly confer upon Old Sun the Daoist title of Miaoying Xuanhua True Person.
Yushan originally wasn’t supposed to have temples or Daoist temples appear, but that damn Yuan Tiangang somehow persuaded Sun Simiao and forcibly converted the medicine hut into the Medicine Hut Temple. The Three Pure Ones statues were dispatched overnight from the Laojun Temple. By the time Yun Ye found out, the Medicine Hut Temple had already existed for seven or eight days. He had to accept it while holding his nose.
When Old Sun saw Yun Ye, he still felt somewhat guilty. Honest people were honest people—most adept at making sacrifices based on emotional proximity. This was simply a paradox. Over these years, Yun Ye and Old Sun had gotten along like family. It could be said their relationship was the closest—calling it a life-and-death friendship wouldn’t be excessive. So the tragedy occurred: under identical conditions, if both Yun Ye and another person fell gravely ill and simultaneously needed Old Sun’s rescue, Yun Ye believed Old Sun would definitely choose to save the other person, watch Yun Ye die with his own eyes, then commit suicide in atonement. After carefully weighing Old Sun’s character, Yun Ye once again confirmed the existence of this possibility. In the future, he would never let such a difficult choice appear before Old Sun—being friends was truly exhausting.
With Xinyue, it was a completely different picture. Forget choosing—if he told her to immediately dig out another living person’s heart on the spot to save her husband, she would act immediately without delay.
Yuan Tiangang was blooming with joy in his heart. Daoist sanctuaries were continuously being established. The Longhu Mountain Ganying Temple, Jiushan Dizang Bodhisattva Sanctuary, the Arctic Great Emperor Sanctuary by the Great Marsh were successively beginning new construction. The entire Daoist sect presented a thriving and prosperous momentum. Now establishing a Daoist temple on Yushan was simply a stroke of genius.
Who cared what Du Ruhui actually recited? As long as the title of Miaoying Xuanhua True Person was settled and the True Person’s residence on Yushan was confirmed, it was a great victory for the Daoist sect. Although Buddhism had restarted the carving of the Longmen Great Buddha, it was time-consuming and labor-intensive. Though there was great vow power, without a hundred and eighty years of effort, it wouldn’t have great effect.
“You’re stingy, boy! This old man merely asked you for a secret formula. If you won’t give it, fine, but then you went home and immediately took a concubine overnight. Looks like you ate up all the miraculous elixir, not sympathizing at all with this old man’s painstaking desire to hold more grandchildren. It’s all fate! Old Sun is usually generous and magnanimous, but these days he’s also become petty. This old man specially paid to help him renovate the temple, yet he’s ungrateful. Today this old man came to congratulate him, and he’s still scowling and yelling at me.”
Yun Ye’s eyes had already rolled back until only the whites showed. Expecting Old Yuchi to do anything satisfactory was harder than a sow climbing a tree. Sun Simiao had been vexed about the temple matter these days. Now that he’d found the mastermind behind it all, it would be strange if he had a good expression. This situation would make anyone lose their temper.
The Yun family had many secret formulas. This was just a method for soaking wine—virility-strengthening cistanche and epimedium, blood-and-qi-supplementing goji berries and ginseng, all soaked in strong liquor. One cup daily had miraculous effects. It was said that even if eunuchs drank it, they would have desires. To have many children and much fortune, apart from diligent plowing, there was no other method. He’d originally learned this formula from an old prison guard at the adjacent post. The formula’s origin was supposedly strange—an old criminal about to be executed couldn’t bear to let this secret formula be lost to history. Seeing the old prison guard add two extra pieces of meat to his last meal, he passed down the formula and forced him to swear not to spread it all over the world. Yun Ye had spent a full three jin of premium Liaodong tobacco dregs to exchange for this secret formula. After drinking a few sips in the wilderness, his nosebleed flowed terribly long, drawing severe criticism from the old prison guard.
Married men all needed maintenance—this was a principle everyone understood. So in order to prevent Yuchi Gong from bothering him again, he took Old Yuchi’s favorite short blade. This blade was originally a long sword wielded by an enemy general, exceptionally sharp, having slain countless Tang soldiers. Later, the enemy general was unscrupulously killed by Li Jing using treachery. The sword was presented to the Prince of Qin, who couldn’t bear to see this murderous weapon that had injured hundreds of his subordinates and ordered military blacksmiths to break it with a great iron hammer. This treasured sword lived up to expectations. Later, on the anvil, it resisted eighty-three strikes of the great iron hammer before helplessly shattering into two sections. One section was transformed by Yuchi Gong into a short blade. The other section was reportedly in Li Jing’s hands, usually regarded as a treasure, never easily shown to others.
“Boy, are you certain this thing works? If it doesn’t work, this old man will have suffered a huge loss.” Yuchi Gong suspiciously examined the handkerchief in his hand, on which Yun Ye had recorded the formula.
“Rest assured. Uncle should also drink some—perhaps next year Auntie can give this nephew another little brother.”
Yuchi Gong embarrassedly slapped Yun Ye on the back of his head, slapping back out a vegetable ball he’d just swallowed. Afterward, he begged pardon from the old brothers at the banquet and ran, half-stumbling, into the Medicine Hut Temple, having the medicine-making acolytes help him pick out all these medicines to take home.
“What did Yuchi trade that short blade with you for? Something he usually values as much as his life he could also give up—it must be an extraordinary treasure. Tell us, why did he hit you?”
Li Jing had coveted this blade for a long time. Now discovering the treasured blade had actually changed owners, he naturally wanted to inquire clearly.
“This nephew merely said Auntie Yuchi would have a precious child in her old age, and got slapped for it. I traded the short blade for a secret formula.”
“You deserved the beating! At such a young age, joking about elders—beating you to death wouldn’t be excessive. However, is this formula truly efficacious?” Cheng Yaojin leaned his head over and asked quietly.
Seeing Yun Ye close his mouth without speaking, Cheng Yaojin exchanged glances with Liu Hongji. The two quietly left their seats and also walked toward the temple. By the time Yun Ye finished eating a basin of rice, he discovered that at the enormous table, only he remained alone. The rest had all entered the Daoist temple. Even Qin Qiong, whose vital energy and blood were both deficient, had also gone in.
Picking up his wine bowl, he came before Sun Simiao to congratulate the old Daoist on being invested as a True Person, no longer a True Person in name only. The old Daoist smiled bitterly repeatedly, waving his hands and saying, “This old Daoist originally planned that this life would only need to delve into medical arts, letting the people of the world suffer less from illness and pain. Who would have thought that such trifling achievements would actually receive such generous bestowal? This old Daoist is ashamed!”
“Daoist Master’s words are mistaken. The higher your status, the more easily you can promote new medicine. For the sake of your life’s painstaking efforts, minor differences in personal status count for nothing.”
“Marquis Yun speaks extremely correctly. If the Daoist Master wishes to promote your new medicine throughout the world, our Daoist sect will naturally help without shirking responsibility. Wherever the Daoist sect can still be of use, please speak directly, Daoist Master.”
This was exactly what he wanted from Yuan Tiangang—such vast resources sitting idle and unused would indeed be wasteful.