Yun Ye frantically searched the valley for an entire month. When the local winter snow began to fall, he had no choice but to despairingly end his mad behavior. The reason for Yun Ye’s madness was singular—Wang Cai had disappeared…

The horse herd had also vanished from the household warriors’ sight for a day. When the herd reappeared, only Wang Cai was missing…

Legend had it that when wild horses sensed they were about to die, they would go to a mysterious place. Only the wild horse herd itself knew of this place. Humans were a different tribe altogether, so it was impossible to reach that mysterious location…

This is what Na Rimu said. Her reasoning always came from magical legends. Yun Ye had only heard that elephants did this to protect their tusks—he never imagined wild horses could bury themselves too.

But the valley was an enclosed world and wasn’t particularly large. A horse herd with over a hundred wild horses in this small world was a very obvious target. Yet the battle-hardened Yun household warriors had actually lost track of such an obvious target. According to what the warrior himself said, he was standing on a small hillock and saw the horse herd from the left side of the mound. So he predicted the herd would circle around the hillock and appear on his right side. But when he adjusted his observation position, he waited and waited without seeing the herd emerge from the right. He patiently waited for the time it takes to burn an incense stick, but still saw no trace. So he searched in a semicircle from right to left, but no matter what, he couldn’t find where the horse herd was. He didn’t even discover any hoof prints or horse droppings on the ground.

He was a loyal old retainer of the Yun family, always known for his courage and meticulousness. He would absolutely never lie or deceive. Of this, Yun Ye was absolutely certain.

Yun Ye personally led people to search that small hillock but found nothing amiss. The hoof prints vanished without a trace on a small patch of rocky beach.

On the night of the full moon, the water column in the lake began to spout once more, appearing ghastly pale under the moonlight, like a column of mercury. This time the water column erupted more violently than any previous time. Yun Ye watched as a water column over ten zhang high and as thick as a water barrel shot up from the small island in the center of the lake. A strange notion stirred in his heart, but he quickly dismissed the idea. After all, the probability of such a miraculous coincidence appearing was too low.

The groom led young Wang Cai over. He had been kicked again, but his mood was extremely excited. What he most hoped for was that young Wang Cai could kick out his few remaining teeth. Only this way could he prove that Wang Cai had truly been reborn. It was precisely because he had his front teeth kicked out by Wang Cai years ago that he had been able to eat peacefully in the Yun household for a lifetime. He was a grateful person.

The young horse still liked following Yun Ye. Its moist large eyes quickly won over the affection of Xinyue, Na Rimu, Lingdang, and Xiao Miao. In their view, this was already the best possible outcome.

When Yun Ye rode away, he stood at that gap and looked back once at the valley, smiling very enigmatically.

Xinyue would never forget that smile, but she didn’t want to ask. Perhaps this was her husband’s last little secret. For a person like her husband to glimpse a bit of heavenly mystery—she wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

After the snow, the weather cleared. The Longxi climate was dry and cold. Yun Ye ignored Xinyue’s pleas and still rode a warhorse, breathing white mist from his mouth while loudly singing a strange ballad.

“Brother, you’re heading west through the pass, little sister really can’t bear to let you go…”

What song he sang wasn’t important. What mattered was that Yun Ye actually sang until his voice was hoarse and exhausted. Unable to catch his breath, he nearly fell off his horse. This wasn’t right.

Yun Ye was eventually captured by Xiao Miao and put into the carriage. Xinyue wrapped him tightly in furs. When Yun Ye wanted to struggle, Xinyue said, “Think of us,” and he abandoned the thought of continuing to ride.

Perhaps because he had exhausted himself too severely these past days, Yun Ye inevitably began to develop a fever. First it was a low fever, then immediately a high fever. When lucid, Yun Ye still smiled and told Xinyue this was the body purging toxins and killing bacteria—it was a good thing. But this good thing got out of hand. Barely making it to Qinzhou, Yun Ye had no choice but to accept treatment from an unknown old monk at Maiji Shan.

First he was cooked in a hot spring, then covered with seven or eight cotton quilts weighing six or seven jin each, then force-fed several bowls of medicine that was supposedly for cleansing the intestines and stomach. According to the old monk’s explanation, Yun Ye’s heart fire was too excessive and needed to be purged first. This purging left Yun Ye without even the strength to speak deliriously. Xinyue’s fury soared high. Xiao Miao had already taken up a knife, preparing to slaughter all the monks of Maiji Shan first and worry about consequences later. But the old monk calmly and unhurriedly persuaded Xiao Miao that it wouldn’t be too late to slaughter all the monks after Yun Ye couldn’t be cured and died.

Xinyue vowed ten thousand gold coins to Buddha. The old monk also cheerfully agreed that if Duke Chu unfortunately died at Maiji Shan, the monks of Maiji Shan would be buried with Duke Chu. However, they didn’t want ten thousand gold coins, but rather wanted the Duke of Chu’s household to agree to one thing—to become the Dharma protector guardian of Buddhism.

When Yun Ye regained consciousness and heard Xinyue say this, he struggled to shake his head before falling back asleep. The completely frantic Xinyue could only wait for Yun Shou to arrive. At this moment, it should be Yun Shou who made the decisions.

Yun Shou and Yun Huan rushed over from Chang’an without stopping day or night. Also coming were Li Chengqian’s special envoy and imperial physicians. Mr. Sun had entered the Qinling Mountains and couldn’t be found for the time being.

When Yun Shou and Yun Huan hurriedly entered the meditation room, they saw their father leaning against the bed drinking porridge under their mother’s attendance. His complexion was pale but his spirits were fairly good, and his mouth kept muttering about losses, about losses.

Seeing his sons enter, Yun Ye smiled and beckoned them over. But Yun Shou and Yun Huan collapsed at their father’s bedside, wailing and crying. When the dire news reached Chang’an, the Yun family’s sky immediately collapsed. Not only did the Yun family panic, but Li Chengqian was also greatly shocked. He immediately dispatched special envoys and imperial physicians to rush thousands of li alongside the Yun family brothers. Li Tai was too fat to ride horses, so he rode in a carriage speeding toward Qinzhou. He would probably arrive at Maiji Shan by dawn the day after tomorrow.

“Why are you crying? I won’t die. I’d actually like to die—that old monk swindled quite a bit of money and grain from our family. Just a fever, yet your mother actually spent ten thousand gold coins. What a loss!”

“It’s not a loss, Father, not a loss at all! As long as you’re well, even selling the entire Yun household wouldn’t be a problem. Ten thousand gold coins is a small matter. Your son only asks that you live to a hundred years.”

“Bah! Stop saying inauspicious words. Among the people your father knows, more than one has lived past a hundred. Are you cursing me to die early?” Yun Ye laughingly scolded Yun Shou. This child had never known how to say flattering words since young—who knows whose temperament he inherited.

Once his condition improved somewhat, Yun Ye went to pay respects at the bone pagoda of Old Monk Tanyin. This eminent monk who had served as abbot of Shaolin Temple had already passed away six years ago at Maiji Shan. He seemed to have very deep feelings for this mountain cliff.

The so-called fallen leaves returning to their roots—Tanyin chose his final resting place at Maiji Shan. On the cliff of Maiji Shan covered with scaffolding, there was a Buddha statue carved in Tanyin’s likeness, riding a black tiger—very imposing indeed.

Thinking about it was ridiculous. Among his friends, those who became gods became gods, those who became saints became saints, those who were reborn were reborn—seemingly not one of them went to hell after dying.

Wu She appeared with a greenish-gray face and protruding fangs. His entire person had become skeletal thin, his complexion a greenish-gray color. Standing together with the round and plump Li Tai, they created quite a comedic effect.

Originally somber-faced, Li Tai saw Yun Ye diligently practicing walking and immediately burst into hearty laughter, tears coming out as he pointed at Yun Ye and said, “I knew you were faking illness.”

“I wasn’t faking. I really almost died—not from illness, but nearly treated to death by the old monks of Maiji Shan.”

“Forget it. Master Kuzhu is an enlightened eminent monk. His medical skills are no less than Daoist Sun’s. It’s just that in earlier years he traveled on foot through Jiangnan, so you haven’t heard his name. In Jiangnan, Master Kuzhu is also a famously renowned living Buddha of ten thousand households.”

Seeing Yun Ye was fine, Li Tai immediately turned his gaze to Wang Cai following behind Yun Ye, exclaiming loudly, “How did you make him young again? Try this method on me too—I’ve long wanted to be rid of this body full of fat.”

Yun Ye irritably glared at Li Tai. This fellow’s ability to say flattering words was approaching his own from years ago.

This trip out had taken another four months. Yun Ye had no interest in attending to court politics, nor did he want to inquire about them. Yesterday Yun Shou said that Li Xiang, under the pretext of mourning his mother, was now residing in Chang’an and refusing to return to his fiefdom for a long time, vowing to observe three years of mourning. This excuse left Li Chengqian without any grounds to refuse. Years ago, Li You had been able to avoid disaster precisely because of filial piety—observing three years of mourning for the Grand Ancestor Emperor had earned praise from all the civil and military officials.

Yun Ye knew that Li Xiang’s thoughts weren’t on his mother now. He was betting that his father wouldn’t live past three years!

The Li family was like this. As long as it concerned the throne, they always had red eyebrows and green eyes. No matter what excessive things they did, nothing was too much. Li Chengqian had learned lessons from himself and would absolutely never establish an older crown prince. In that case, he himself would very likely have to help Li Xiang mount the horse and see him off. Li Chengqian had waited a full forty years for the throne—how could he easily hand it over to another person, even if that person was his own son?

This was a vicious cycle. Yun Ye previously thought that family affection might perhaps shake this malformed emotion. Later he discovered that he was really too wishfully thinking. Desire could sometimes exceed reason, strangling away a person’s final humanity, causing them to do cruel things beyond their own capacity. Yun Ye had never asked Li Chengqian whether he had ever had thoughts of eliminating his own father. The reason he didn’t ask was because Yun Ye worried that Li Chengqian’s answer would be affirmative.

To live a few more years, one must stay far from disputes over imperial power. This kind of struggle would affect everyone standing around the Emperor without any exceptions. Although Li Chengqian was his good friend, he didn’t have Li Er’s fearless courage, nor did he have Li Er’s broad mind. Words like “helping someone mount the horse and seeing them off” could be said to Li Er, but even if you beat Yun Ye to death, he wouldn’t go say such things to Li Chengqian. If he said them, he worried that the two of them wouldn’t even remain friends…