Three days. For three whole days, the chanting on Ei Mountain never ceased.
By the Elephant Washing Pond, dozens of monks ford a circle. Wooden fish were struck continuously, accompanying the recitation of scriptures. In these three days, they had not touched a drop of water or a grain of rice. This was all for an ethereal dream—a dream the white-eyebrowed elder monk had seventy years ago!
Throughout these three days, since stripping off his clothes and jumping into the Elephant Washing Pond, Qin Fan had seed to be asleep, not opening his eyes even once. Lying peacefully in the pond, with the constant stream of chanting in his ears, he felt as if he had entered a brand-new world. The nearly depleted True Yuan within his body rebounded rapidly over these three days. In his Dantian, a True Qi even purer than before began to rise. Soaking in the water, his bones, ridians, and skin felt completely rejuvenated, as if cleansed of all mortal dust.
A profound sense of ease and comfort was the only sensation Qin Fan felt.
Is this the opportunity left in the threads of fate by that old man in the heavens?
As this thought crossed his mind, he suddenly opened his eyes. He looked at the assembled monks, who had all stopped chanting the mont he opened them, and said, "Thanks!"
Only he knew the true weight of that single word.
"Benefactor, this is the destiny of the Heavenly Dao," the white-eyebrowed elder monk said aningfully. "However, should a day of calamity befall this place, I hope you might lend your aid and protect us from disaster."
Qin Fan did not imdiately respond. He stood up from the water without any semblance of modesty and slowly put on the clothes lying nearby. Then, picking up a stone from the ground, he clenched it in his hand for three full breaths before handing it to the elder monk. "Shatter this stone, and I will appear!"
"Amitabha!" Clasping his hands together, the white-eyebrowed elder monk accepted the stone from Qin Fan without pretension.
Qin Fan departed, fully revitalized.
Watching the carefree figure disappear into the distance, the white-eyebrowed elder monk once again softly chanted, "Amitabha." In truth, as the one who had orchestrated all this, he did not understand its deeper aning, nor did he know what Qin Fan had experienced in the Elephant Washing Pond. He had acted solely on a dream—a dream entrusted to him by the True Buddha.
Now, his mission was complete. He was no longer burdened by it. Turning around leisurely, he addressed the monks, "From this day forth, all of you may freely enter the secular world! Amitabha!"
「Returning to Jiangzhou.」
Qin Fan ignored the hundreds of calls and text ssages on his phone, heading straight back to No.1 Villa.
"Mom, Dad, I'm back!" Qin Fan called out with a jovial laugh as he pushed open the main door.
"You rascal, where have you been off to this ti?" Wei Shuying shot up from the sofa and exclaid, her face a mixture of worry and dissatisfaction. "You're always disappearing without a trace, not answering calls, not replying to ssages, just vanishing for days on end! Can you please stop making your parents worry sick about you?"
It was only natural. Any parent with a son who vanished without a word from ti to ti would be worried.
"I'm back now, aren't I? It's fine, don't worry!" Qin Fan chuckled, grabbing a glass of water from the coffee table and gulping it down with a look of utter ease. "You can rest assured, even if the sky falls, nothing will happen to !"
"Dad, what's wrong? What happened to you?" Qin Fan asked with a frown, putting down the glass and noticing that Qin Chu's expression was off. At his question, Wei Shuying also fell silent.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Qin Chu exchanged a look with Wei Shuying before finally speaking to his son. "Xiao Fan, the old man might not make it. He had Qin Jie deliver a ssage. He wants to see the two of us, father and son, one last ti."
"I'm not going!" Qin Fan snorted, his refusal cold and decisive.
"Xiao Fan, no matter what, he's still your grandfather. Let bygones be bygones," Qin Chu pleaded, not surprised by the response but still trying.
Let bygones be bygones? Is any of this in the past? In my previous life, the Qin Family was thriving at this very mont! Now they rember the father and son they kicked out? Where the hell were they before?
Thinking of the mories from his past life—of calling out to a heaven that would not answer and an earth that would not listen—Qin Fan felt no stirring of compassion. "I'm not going!"
"Xiao Fan, we've co this far. Let's just let it go. Listen to your father and go see him. Bring things to a proper close," Wei Shuying gently persuaded.
"Every beginning needs an end, but every effect has its cause!" Qin Fan stood up, tossed out the words, and headed for the second floor.
In his past life, he had given up on any so-called blood ties with Old Man Qin. Completely and utterly.
"Shuying, do you think he can be persuaded?" Qin Chu sighed, watching Qin Fan's retreating back.
"You can't convince him. And honestly, Xiao Fan is right: every effect has its cause. Think about your mother. Think about what our family of three went through. Besides, the Qin Family still has Qin Jie; they don't need us. A sin is a sin. You can't just erase it," Wei Shuying said, shaking her head with a self-deprecating sigh. "As his mother, I shouldn't say this in front of him, but with you, I can and I must. Old Master Qin should say goodbye to this world filled with guilt and regret. Only by carrying that guilt and regret will he know how to face your mother on the other side. Kinship? He never treated you, , or Qin Fan as his kin. If Xiao Fan hadn't made sothing of himself, and if the Qin Family hadn't fallen so far, I guarantee that if you set one foot in the Qin residence, you'd be thrown out while he looked on with that sa cold indifference. Do you believe ?"
"He's my father," Qin Chu swallowed, forcing out the words with a bitter taste.
"But he never treated you as his son before this," Wei Shuying retorted.
"But I am still his son," Qin Chu insisted.
"Go on, then," Wei Shuying said with a faint smile and a slight nod.
"Thank you," Qin Chu breathed out, looking at her with profound gratitude. This thanks was for her tolerance and understanding.
Wei Shuying stood up noncommittally. Her gaze swept casually over the case of Spirit Water No. 1 on the coffee table before she walked silently into the kitchen.
Left alone on the sofa, Qin Chu rubbed his temples. He gave a bitter, self-mocking smile, then reached down and picked up the case of Spirit Water No. 1. He stood and walked out of the villa, his shoulders heavy with lancholy.
From the balcony of his second-floor bedroom, Qin Fan watched Qin Chu's retreating figure carrying the case of Spirit Water No. 1. His face was expressionless, and he made no move to stop him. His lips moved slightly, but in the end, no words ca out.
「anwhile, at the Ye Family mansion.」
A middle-aged man in a military uniform sat before Ye Congjun. "Dad, I heard Qin Fan is back?"
"Yes. Why? Are you looking for him?" Ye Congjun asked, looking quizzically at his eldest son, who had taken over his position and pursued a military career.
"It's not that I'm looking for him. It's that we need him." As Ye Jiguang spoke these words in front of the old patriarch, his face was a mask of helplessness, bitterness, and resentful unwillingness.
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