Chen Tang stepped down from the carriage, showing a look of admiration, and praised, "The great clan's foundation is truly extraordinary. Tang is deeply impressed."
Yan Xianzhi looked at his face, as if carefully checking whether the admiration was genuine.
Chen Tang did indeed show admiration, which pleased him.
Yan Xianzhi smiled, "Lord Chen Tang, this strange phenonon in the sky can only be seen by you. Ten years to sharpen a sword, the frosted blade has yet to be tried. Today I show it to you so that Lord Chen Tang can see the sword of the Thirteen Great Clans is still sharp. Your late father once saw this sword; now you should see it too."
Chen Tang felt sincere reverence rise, and said, "The Thirteen Great Clans have profound roots and vast ambitions."
Yan Xianzhi looked at him deeply, smiling, "After you see it, do not tell outsiders."
He clapped his hands, and several clerks flew over with wine service.
Yan Xianzhi poured wine, "After all, you served in court for many years, and the court never treated you unfairly. Leaving without a word made many friends feel cold."
"It was my fault."
Chen Tang bowed all the way to the ground, "If you want to punish , do as you please."
Yan Xianzhi lifted the cup and presented it to him, smiling, "Punishnt is unnecessary. After all, we served together for years. Though not intimates, you perford diligently as Deputy Minister of Revenue, keeping the court's operations smooth and without incident. Xianzhi admires your talent, though we cannot appoint you again. For the years we served together, I toast you."
Chen Tang took the cup, "Thank you, Lord!"
Yan Xianzhi raised another cup, and the two drank it down.
Yan Xianzhi put down his cup and said with a smile, "When you return to Xinxiang, live quietly on Qianyang Mountain. Your official position will be reserved by the court; your monthly stipend will be sent to your household by Xinxiang County. Little Chen will remain in the Western Capital as before, so do not worry about him."
Chen Tang nodded silently.
Yan Xianzhi's eyes reddened, "When you leave, I do not know when we will et again. This makes sowhat sad."
Chen Tang sighed and bade him farewell.
Yan Xianzhi watched him go, still waving from afar.
Chen Tang sat in the carriage, looked back, and could still see the sky filled with deities — the ancestral spirits of the Thirteen Great Clans. Six thousand years of unbroken incense offerings had made their divine power unimaginably great!
The wooden cart traveled a thousand li, yet the celestial phenonon of deities still lingered; whenever he looked back, he could see the sky full of gods, basking in endless incense.
At night the cart grew tired and stopped to rest.
Chen Tang hung lanterns to guard against evil spirits under the moonlight.
He took out spirit beast at, fed the cart, lit a campfire, cooked a al, and fed Chen Shi's mother. It took him a long ti to finish his chores.
Night deepened, moonlight hazy.
When Chen Tang looked back, what t his eyes was not moonlight but brilliant divine radiance.
He could still see the sky full of deities.
Two days later they crossed the great desert and reached Great West Lake. Chen Tang looked back and saw the sky full of gods.
Another day later he arrived at Xinxiang and returned to Qianyang Mountain after a long absence.
This trip had been dusty and exhausting by carriage and boat. He did not worry about himself so much as whether Chen Shi's mother could bear it.
As night fell, he reached Huangpo Village, pausing at the village entrance and unconsciously slowing his steps.
"Little Tang… it's Little Tang back!"
Grandma Yuzhu was at the village entrance sifting soybeans with a winnowing basket, tossing out shriveled ones. With her dim old eyes she watched the wooden cart and Chen Tang approach. After a mont she recognized him, quickly set down the basket and exclaid, "Chen Tang, you have aged so much! You left many years ago! Your father is dead!"
Chen Tang's anxious heart steadied instantly. His expression softened as he smiled, "Madam, I'm back. How is your health?"
Grandma Yuzhu grabbed his hand and chattered on, "…When you were little you could read. I rember your father was penniless and couldn't afford a teacher, so you took books to the dirt slope outside the village and read out loud. You were very smart; everyone praised you. Later you passed the exams, married, and had a child. Your wife was virtuous and very kind… where is your wife?"
Chen Tang smiled but his deanor dimd, "She's in the carriage, madam. She has been ill and unconscious for many years."
Grandma Yuzhu lanted, "Yes, I recall. Your wife went insane and then was paralyzed. When your son died she refused to believe it and went mad from grief. Later she beca paralyzed. You took her to the Western Capital for treatnt; it's been over ten years — hasn't she recovered? Also, you forgot to tell — your son is alive! Your father revived him, it was terrifying. We thought the returned Little Ten was an evil spirit. Have you seen him?"
Chen Tang listened with a smile and occasionally interjected, "Yes, madam, I have seen Little Ten."
"Don't mistreat Little Ten, he suffered much."
"Yes, madam, I will not mistreat him."
…
After parting with Grandma Yuzhu, Chen Tang entered the village, greeting every villager he t with a smile and stopping to talk. Listening to their ramblings about the past, he saw many unfamiliar faces — so children born after he left, so once-familiar people now aged.
Many familiar faces were missing, likely gone.
Old Lady Wuzhu walked over — her eyes sharp from years guarding lon fields and catching thieves. She was surprised, "Chen Tang, how did you age so much in half a year? I saw you just last year and you looked robust!"
"Madam, the one you saw was my brother Chen Wu."
"Nonsense! I heard Little Ten call him father. If it were your brother Little Five, he would have eaten alive!"
"Madam, it really is my brother Chen Wu," Chen Tang explained.
Old Lady Wuzhu turned deathly pale, trembling as she returned ho. She lay in her coffin for a mont, then burned two incense sticks and only after a long while recovered her senses.
"Great fortune, great fate!"
It took Chen Tang a long ti to walk the hundred or so steps to the old Chen ho. Although the house had been vacant for months, talismans like the Dust-Clearing Talisman had been posted, so it remained quite clean.
Sumr talismans were hung inside, keeping everything dry; the bedding had no moldy sll.
Chen Tang settled his wife, arranged Chen Yindu's spirit tablet, and offered incense at the tablet.
With all the worldly noise removed, he finally quieted down.
Night deepened.
He looked back and saw the sky full of divine light, great tripods, incense, and celestial gods standing in the air.
Every subsequent day, whenever he looked back, he saw that sky full of deities.
This was the Thirteen Great Clans' intimidation of him!
"Father, did you see this scene back then?" he whispered.
Back then, after Chen Yindu left the Western Capital, whenever he turned his head he could see those towering gods looking down at him.
It was trendous pressure and intimidation, like a warning: do not cross the line, do not make a move, do not attempt to overturn heaven!
"Not enough, thirty-seven talisman gods Tianji are far from sufficient!"
Chen Tang murmured, "Little Ten, you must hang on in the Western Capital!"
Yan Xianzhi returned to the Western Capital. Though not the clan head of the Yan family, his skillful hand was exceedingly effective. Even shouldering fifty provinces in the Western Ox New Continent, he maintained steadiness.
He returned to the Yan mansion and into his study, brooding over the evening's events.
His newly acquired thirteenth concubine was a young woman with boundless demands, leaving him unsettled.
"Even a stubborn donkey can rest after grinding the mill for long. Poor old bones of mine cannot even rest."
He thought to himself, "I hope tonight passes safely."
At that mont, a Yan family informant reported, "Reporting, my lord, Chen Shi is wandering in the city and there is no abnormality."
Yan Xianzhi waved him away, "Keep constant watch on Chen Shi. Also order the Directorate of Astronomy to monitor the underworld, beware of Chen Shi escaping from the underworld."
He sighed with relief and said in a low voice, "Chen Shi was usually so well-behaved, either at ho or at the Hanlin Academy. Today he walks around so that more people will see he hasn't left, and they won't chase Chen Tang. That boy does understand advance and retreat."
Not long after, another report ca, "Reporting, my lord, there is a woman with Chen Shi. She is currently playing at Qixia Taoist Temple."
Yan Xianzhi was initially unconcerned, but when he heard "woman" he straightened and asked, "What woman?"
"Unknown."
"From where?"
"Unknown. She appeared suddenly."
Yan Xianzhi's interest piqued, "If you are useless, I'll look myself."
He reached out and brushed the air. The air on his desk beca like a mirror, showing the scene at Qixia Taoist Temple.
Yan Xianzhi focused, the image drew closer, and he found Chen Shi.
Beside Chen Shi was indeed a woman in white, graceful in bearing.
"Little Chen is already thirteen, old enough to marry and set up a household."
Yan Xianzhi chuckled, "A fair and virtuous woman makes a fine match. He has not been near beauty before, but soon he will be; this will give him a soft spot."
At that mont the white-clad woman seed to sense sothing, turned her head skyward, and her face ca into his view.
Yan Xianzhi felt a strange familiarity and suddenly rembered sothing. His face went pale and he shivered.
Bang!
He shoved aside his desk chair and stumbled back, knocking over a vase in the corner.
Yan Xianzhi stared at the white-clad woman in the mirror as if at a ghost, nearly running in panic!
At the sa ti, the other great clan elders monitoring Chen Shi's movents also saw the white-clad woman. They were struck by naless terror, nearly leaping from their seats.
They were not unfamiliar with this woman in white, for after the Moon-Embracing Hall collapsed she had appeared at the end of the Bluestone Path. When the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land collided with Qixia Taoist Temple in the underworld, she had slipped from Qixia Temple's mysterious ti-space into the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land, attempting to cross the immortal bridge for resurrection and return to the living world!
She was the white-clad fairy trapped at the end of the Bluestone Path's strange realm, the one who had inflicted grievous wounds on Li Yiran and dozens of other ancestors — the white-clad fairy who forced the Western Capital to mobilize the Nine Halls of the True King and blast the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land, causing it to fall into the underworld!
Although this fairy's havoc had not been huge, she was regarded as an 'E' level calamity—an "eerie" class forbidden thing in the Western Capital!
Old tales warned that if she ever returned to the world, she would bring forth catastrophe at the 'eerie' level!
After the Immortal Bridge incident she vanished. Yan Xianzhi had believed the Nine Halls of the True King had blasted and destroyed her. Now to see this white-clad woman beside Chen Shi astonished him.
Chen Shi had even brought her back to Qixia Taoist Temple for a visit!
Did he not know that the ergence of such an eerie-level evil thing could annihilate half the Western Ox New Continent?
Soon, in Wenyuan Pavilion, the thirteen cabinet ministers assembled, faces ashen. Yan Xianzhi's hand trembled and he could not hold his teacup steady; lids and cups clattered loudly.
But it was not only his tea set clattering — the other twelve sets rang as well.
"Chen Shi has beco an accomplice of the tiger, a henchman to that eerie-level evil!" Xia Canghai's voice cracked like a eunuch's, shouting, "Blast them! Imdiately mobilize the Nine Halls of the True King to annihilate the evil and its accomplice!"
Fei Zhong shook his head, "This is the Western Capital. The power of the Nine Halls of the True King would level the Western Capital as well!"
Xia Canghai said, "Wait until he leaves the capital and then blast him!"
Gu Yanshan asked, "What if he does not leave the capital? What if that evil senses our hostility and acts within the city?"
Xia Canghai clenched his fist, face dark as iron, and fell silent.
The cabinet was hushed.
In the True King era, supernatural abominations resembling fairy realms appeared beyond demons and disasters — called eerie creatures, prehistoric remnants of immortal corpses. These were the highest-grade evil spirits.
Evil spirits targeting one or a few people were weak; a low-level qi cultivator could kill them. Brain Worms, for instance, could be plucked out. Stronger evils could affect Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators, approaching unimaginable strength.
Spirits like the Ghost Bride could maraud a region, kill guardian deities, consu a village, and threaten towns. Their power could match Nascent Soul or even Spirit Transformation cultivators. So powerful spirits had almost demonic capabilities, albeit over smaller ranges.
Demons created corrupted zones stretching a hundred li; even a Sever the Three Corpses cultivator might not defeat them. After fully maturing, demons could threaten Great Ascension cultivators.
Disasters covered a thousand li and are once-in-a-century catastrophes.
Eerie-level creatures, the highest class, left nothing alive in their wake for thousands of li. The Nine Halls of the True King were left to suppress such entities.
The Nine Halls were ant to suppress and blast such evils before they fully matured. If an eerie-level evil reached full maturity, even the Nine Halls might fail!
The prehistoric immortal corpses are all eerie-level evils!
The white-clad fairy was such an impending eerie entity, always poised to break through into the mortal world.
Now, this eerie is wandering through the Western Capital with Chen Shi!
The cabinet's atmosphere was stifling.
Leaving Chen Shi as a hostage had backfired in a big way.
Yan Xianzhi steadied himself and began, "I thought this matter—"
At that mont a Directorate of Astronomy clerk reported, "Reporting, my lord, Chen Shi and the white-clad woman have left Qixia Taoist Temple and are heading toward the inner city!"
Yan Xianzhi shuddered and could barely speak; his throat was dry and hoarse.
Chen Shi had taken the white-clad fairy out of Qixia Temple. Earlier, to lessen the Thirteen Great Clans' hostility and reassure them, he had wandered around the city so more people would see he had not left and thus spare Chen Tang. Unknowingly he had co to Qixia Temple. The white-clad girl who had been recovering at his small temple shrine had for so reason run out, babbling and wanting to follow him into Qixia Temple.
Chen Shi could not understand her words, but Black Pot understood and solemnly told Chen Shi that the girl felt an inexplicable familiarity with the place.
"Abba," the girl happily patted the dog's head.
Chen Shi took her for a walk around Qixia Temple, hoping she might rember sothing, but she recalled nothing and kept clutching her head, babbling about pain.
So Chen Shi took her out of the temple and headed toward the inner city, murmuring, "I'll go near the Nine Halls so they can see . If I appear outside the Nine Halls of the True King, the Thirteen Great Clans will know I'm the hostage Chen Tang left and will be completely at ease."
In the cabinet, Yan Xianzhi and the other ministers wore terrified expressions. Gao Quan's voice trembled, "He has entered the inner city, heading for the Nine Halls of the True King!"
His voice shrieked, seized by fear, "He is threatening us, threatening the Thirteen Great Clans! He uses the white-clad fairy to threaten us, demanding we spare Chen Tang and let him return ho!"
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