Chapter 92: Years Turn, May The Path Of Divinity Be Smooth
“Brother, where did you go? You missed the thunder fire golden whip just now…”
Seeing Chen Shun’an walk out of the alley entrance unhurriedly, Wan Niang couldn’t help but complain a couple of times.
What she had in mind wasn’t the fireworks, but who she was watching the fireworks with.
Wan Niang also noticed Chen Shun’an wasn’t holding his pipe, and casually asked,
“Brother, weren’t you going back to get your tobacco pipe?”
“Quit.”
Chen Shun’an suddenly smiled, “My pipe also broke. From now on, I’m quitting smoking!”
Chen Shun’an swore that he would be at odds with gambling and drugs!
As soon as he said this, San Dezi and Scarred Liu looked over in surprise.
Their expressions were even more astonished than if they had seen Chen Shun’an break through to the Second-rate Realm.
San Dezi said in amazement, “Brother Chen, after smoking for so many years, you’re just going to quit?”
Chen Shun’an said, “Why can’t I quit? This thing harms the body and the wallet, it’s just a troublesome nuisance. Who knows if it’ll cause trouble in the future. Better to cut it off cleanly and completely.”
Upon hearing this, Scarred Liu’s expression was unpredictable, sometimes hesitant, sometimes fierce, and finally he gritted his teeth and said,
“I’ll quit too!”
Scarred Liu had thought it through anyway; Brother Chen did everything with a deeper meaning.
Following him was definitely the right move!
The womenfolk naturally couldn’t chime in on the men’s conversation, but Scarred Liu’s wife did show a few more smiles on her face.
Chen Shun’an walked to Wan Niang’s side, held her hand, and looked up at the last afterglow of the fireworks filling the sky.
Wan Niang’s earlobes turned slightly red, but she didn’t pull her hand away.
Time passed slowly, and everyone remained silent.
Until the fireworks grew cold, and a corner of the jade plate (moon) reappeared from behind the thick smoke, pouring down ten thousand feet of moonlight.
It seemed to announce the end of this year’s Lingguan’s Birthday.
The people on the street returned home one after another, the vendors carrying their wares stopped their shouts, and the neighborhood watch began sweeping the ground, cleaning up the scattered paper scraps.
San Dezi, Scarred Liu, and the others also returned to their rooms to sleep.
In the courtyard, Chen Shun’an stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the bright white moon.
In the Divine Palace, the ball of thunder fire had disappeared.
It had transformed into the ‘Thunder Fire Golden Whip’ that had exploded in the sky just now.
This could be considered…
The old man’s romance.
Chen Shun’an’s gaze was distant, and suddenly a myriad of thoughts swirled in his mind, various ideas flooding in.
Visiting the Sacred Dynasty of Qianning Country, smuggling Hibiscus Paste Fire, the Pounding House at the Water Station, the secrets of the Path of Divinity, the Immortal Path, and the Martial Path.
Scholar Ma, who was noble and unwilling to enter officialdom; the Li Family, who dared to fight but were betrayed by acquaintances; Zhao Guangxi, burdened by debt solely for a promotion at the wellhead; Bai Manlou, who killed to stop killing and pleaded for the people of the world, and others…
Chen Shun’an had a premonition.
The unprecedented changes in the Changbai Sacred Dynasty, which had not occurred in a thousand years, seemed to be slowly unfolding before his eyes.
For now, they had merely won a temporary peace.
In the end, no one was left in the courtyard, only a sigh remained,
“The wheel of time turns, all phenomena are like dreams, illusions, and bubbles. May the Path of Divinity be smooth… to protect the common people.”
…
“Hong Lao Wu, you are too much of a bully!!”
Tian Xuan Saint broke several towering trees and flew to the ground. With every step back, her Qi and Blood churned more fiercely. In the end, her mouth was filled with the taste of rust, and she almost spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
By now, Tian Xuan Saint looked nothing like an immortal.
Her hair was disheveled, her Daoist robe was tattered, and her sunken chest did not rise for a long time.
It was as if she had been pulled down from her pedestal and stripped of her holy attire. The more lofty she had been before, the more she was now cast down to the dust.
And in this stark contrast, there was a hint of depravity and eeriness.
Red Fifth Master was also not in any better condition.
His body was covered in bloodstains, and his newly mended jacket was as if chewed by a dog.
Red Fifth Master said in a low voice,
“I said, wherever you are, I will be. Unless you go back to Yue Shan Daoist Academy.”
Tian Xuan Saint heard this and was furious, almost driven mad.
What kind of persistent plaster was this? Couldn’t be kicked away, couldn’t be killed, just kept sticking to her!
Suddenly, both of them seemed to sense something and stopped fighting simultaneously, looking towards Wuqing County.
Feeling the successive tremors, Tian Xuan Saint’s expression changed drastically, and she said sternly,
“Divine Might Purple Thunder Cannon? You actually dared to bring this thing into the capital? Wait…”
Tian Xuan Saint seemed to realize something, and her voice became extremely cold.
“You found Zheng Shicheng? You are humiliating me like this; you don’t know what this means… Looking up at the immortal’s trace, as if on Mount Gushè, how dare you mortals not respect immortals?”
Red Fifth Master grinned, sticky blood seeping from between his teeth,
“What kind of damn Zheng Shicheng, a fallen immortal! Don’t we all have a head on our shoulders? Who is nobler than whom?”
With that, the intense combat resumed, fierce winds swirling and breaking large swathes of forest.
Tian Xuan Saint did not want to prolong the fight, and with a dark expression, she was about to charge into the distance.
Red Fifth Master sneered and strode after her.
I said, wherever Saint you go, I will go!
And behind them, in the vast night sky.
Suddenly, golden stars and purple light, and a fiery tree with silver flowers exploded, making the moonlight dim, and the bright silver disc turned into hazy gray.
It also illuminated the figures of the two on the ground, flickering in and out of sight, their whereabouts uncertain.
…
Silver Ingot Bridge, large courtyard.
The courtyard was quiet; almost all the residents had gone to the street to watch the fireworks and set off firecrackers.
Scholar Ma sat alone by the window, dipped his brush in ink, and wrote on Ribbed Paper.
He muttered to himself,
“This is the seventh translated version that has been sent back. Today, Instructor Shen said that after the review by the various lords, they still preferred the first version and asked me to perfect it on that basis…
But in the first version, the Sovereign of Qianning Country, Qiao Jin Xuan, was accompanied by many honorific titles. Weren’t the lords most displeased with that…”
Brilliant fireworks suddenly bloomed in the sky outside the window.
But Scholar Ma was completely unaware, deaf to the outside world, and continued to rack his brains until his head buzzed, his expression haggard.
‘Creak…’
The door hinges rotated, and a night breeze blew in.
“Old man, I got you a miraculous pill. They say if you burn it and smell it, you’ll be full of energy, and your mind will be clear…”
Ma Shi lifted the room’s curtain, holding a small, ornate Snuff Bottle.
Inside was not tobacco or spice powder, but a thumb-sized piece of… Fragrant Heart Clearing Paste.
Full of energy?
Scholar Ma heard this, took it curiously, removed the stopper, and gently smelled it…
“Gag, gag, gag!!!”
Scholar Ma’s expression changed drastically, his body convulsed uncontrollably, and he immediately felt nauseous, even vomiting yellow bile.
“Take it away! Take it away!”
Scholar Ma felt an instinctive aversion, even hatred, for this Fragrant Heart Clearing Paste.
Only after Ma Shi hastily threw the Snuff Bottle out of the courtyard and fanned the room with a straw fan to disperse the fragrance did Scholar Ma barely recover.
“This thing…”
Scholar Ma’s face was pale, his gaze solemn. After questioning Ma Shi about a few things and learning about the reactions of the customers at Ju Xing Zhai who burned and consumed the Fragrant Heart Clearing Paste,
he vaguely understood something.
“Among the harmful things in the world, none are more potent than this. It harms life and wastes wealth, ruins endeavors and damages ambition, with all sorts of detrimental effects, too numerous to speak of. It is… a tumor that destroys the nation!”
As Scholar Ma had this thought, he seemed to see a remnant of the future and couldn’t help but weep bitterly and wail.
Ma Shi tried to comfort him, not knowing what to do.
As his wife of hardship, she only knew about firewood, rice, oil, and salt, and knew nothing of romantic affairs.
She was not interested in Scholar Ma’s unusual thoughts and ideas.
But Scholar Ma could not leave her.
Suddenly, Scholar Ma remembered something, his hunched body trembled violently, and he immediately got up, his eyes gleaming.
He had thought of a brilliant idea!
Perhaps it could eliminate this tumor and prevent the ship of the Sacred Dynasty from sinking too quickly, allowing it to dock as smoothly as possible!
That was to tamper with the Imperial Edict of Qianning Country and, in the name of Qianning Country, to admonish and prevent the circulation of Fragrant Heart Clearing Paste in the Sacred Dynasty!
He could even try to connect with Qianning Country and ask this foreign land to reshape the Universe of the Sacred Dynasty and restore its former glory!
Although this matter was extremely risky, and if it were leaked, he would lose his head.
But…
Even a group of Guo Lu robed brothers and Greenwood heroes had such courage.
Why would I, Ma Mou, begrudge my life?
Divorce and separation!
Tampering with the Imperial Edict!
The lamp wick flickered.
Scholar Ma found a small brush for calligraphy, and on draft paper, he carefully and repeatedly copied the Imperial Edict of Qianning Country.
He organized his thoughts, clarified his logic, and scrutinized every word.
Finally, he picked up his brush and wrote on the original Imperial Edict of Qianning Country.
Lines of text were written, the ink wetting the paper.
Scholar Ma held it up to the candlelight to dry.
And if one looked closely.
It would be discovered that the characters, the habits of word combination, and even the idioms used in this Imperial Edict of Qianning Country.
Were as different from the characters of the Sacred Dynasty as if they were twins born of the same mother, from the same root and source.
Qianning, Qianning.
Qian represents Heaven, and Heaven is clear by One; Earth is tranquil by One.
The two characters “Qian Ning” themselves were a concept from Daoist metaphysics.
How could they be the name of a foreign land or a translated word?
However, between Heaven and Earth, an unnamed great power lay across the heads of all living beings, obscuring and hindering them.
Mortals could not perceive it.
…
Bewitching Bay.
The flames gradually died down, and green smoke curled upwards.
The tattered deck drifted with the waves, with large masses of dead fish and shrimp clustered together.
Bewitching Bay’s landscape had been completely altered, and the original Jindu Port was nowhere to be found, its original site lost.
A blackened hand suddenly reached out from the water.
Young Master Lu, with all his might, finally hugged a piece of driftwood and barely crawled ashore.
“Huff, huff, huff…”
Young Master Lu lay on the ground, gasping for breath, his chest heaving like a windlass, a look of relief after surviving a disaster on his face.
Fortunately, he carried a mysterious item from the South Sea with him, a Water-Suppressing Bead, which could control the breath of rivers and protect his body, allowing him to breathe underwater for extended periods.
It was a family heirloom of their Lu family.
When he sensed danger, Young Master Lu plunged into the water, thus escaping death.
Brilliant fireworks flashed in the sky.
They illuminated the deep malice and unwillingness in Young Master Lu’s reddened pupils.
He gritted his teeth and said,
“Damn rebels, what kind of crap is the capital’s security so bad!! Guo Lu Society? You dare to ruin the good deeds of my Lu family and the Nanhai Twelve Guilds! You wait, if this revenge isn’t taken, my Lu family…”
“What does your Lu family want to do?!”
A sudden voice came.
Young Master Lu stiffened and tilted his neck up, only to see a burly man, masked with a Black Scarf, squatting above him.
That enormous shadow swallowed the moonlight, casting down and completely engulfing Young Master Lu.
The Yi Zi Hall Master said with a grin,
“It was worth my while to deliberately turn back and wait here for a while. I finally caught a straggler…”
“Spare me—”
*Crack!*
The Yi Zi Hall Master raised a Black Iron Hammer high and smashed it down fiercely.
Young Master Lu’s head instantly exploded like a watermelon, white and red splattering everywhere.
It was likely he couldn’t survive.
The Yi Zi Hall Master swung the hammer a few more times, then frowned slightly, thinking this new Black Iron Hammer felt a bit off, too light.
He sighed and said,
“My Caltrop Iron Hammer was lost at Kui Xing Tower, and I don’t know who picked it up. Sigh, I’ve even lost my weapons. I’m getting old… Huh, this bead seems to be some mysterious item? Hahaha, not a loss, not a loss…”
With that, the Yi Zi Hall Master, his face beaming with joy, flickered and disappeared.
Moonlight poured down, waves glistened, and a fishy smell slowly spread.
Whoosh!
The Yi Zi Hall Master returned, arriving back at Bewitching Bay. He searched all around and, finding no fish that had slipped through the net, disappeared once more.
After an unknown amount of time.
Whoosh!
“Hmm? It seems they’re truly all dead… Let’s go, let’s go.”
From afar, figures were already rowing boats, approaching this place with uncertainty.
Shouts of alarm soon came.
……
Zheng Shicheng bowed his head, and the news of him being blown to pieces quickly reached Lin Shou Zhuo and the others who were patrolling.
Lin Shou Zhuo secretly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling he no longer had to put on an act.
But it was torture for his old bones; while he would readily fight and kill, tasks like slacking off and feigning diligence were truly tormenting him.
He’d better go pick up his grandson from Old Chen.
