Chapter 272: Can You Really Transform Into Human Form?
E Ji lowered her head to look at Yun Shuo in her arms, then raised her head to look at Wu Tong leaning against the door frame and said: “Young Master said, once we come, we live behind the Dragon God Hall, and nowhere else.”
Wu Tong nodded and turned to leave.
Lei Ming and the other children finished cooking the meal and set it on the table when Liu Changsheng arrived, sitting boldly at the main seat, waiting for E Ji and Zhang Min to serve him food.
Today time was tight, so Lei Ming and the others made a pot of stew soup, boiled some noodles, paired with some marinated wild vegetable, planning to makeshift this meal first.
Liu Changsheng ate very sweetly. He also ate very properly, and even after finishing, he took the two children from E Ji and Zhang Min’s hands, so that the two of them could eat without worry.
At this moment, Liu Changsheng was no longer the High Priest lying in the Dragon God Hall; he was merely an elder who liked children.
The two one-year-old children lay very quietly in Liu Changsheng’s arms, Yun Shuo was sleeping, while Yun Tui stared with eyes at Liu Changsheng right in front of him.
“He can’t see anything yet now.”
“Who said that?”
“My Young Master said, the child is still too young, the visual organs haven’t developed yet.”
1 “He’s right, the child is still too young, not fully developed, many hidden traits haven’t emerged yet due to being too powerful.
1 I was too hasty.”
1 E Ji held her rice bowl and said: “Just now Wu Tong told me, hoping I could host a palace banquet, I didn’t know who to invite, so I refused.”
1 Liu Changsheng said: “He wants to kill He Junnian.”
1 E Ji wasn’t surprised to hear this name and continued: “Husband said, Wu Tong is off, very off, the news he conveyed is inaccurate.”
1 Liu Changsheng said: “That’s right, they hope I can step in to help them kill He Junnian.”
1 E Ji continued: “Husband said, you wouldn’t summon us to Chang’an at this time.”
1 Liu Changsheng nodded and said: “Correct, my original words were to wait until the child is one year old.”
1 “Wu Tong and these people don’t take the High Priest seriously, arbitrarily changing your orders, aren’t you angry?”
1 Liu Changsheng sighed and said: “Now the world is in chaos, Shehuo is unstable, maintaining the normal operation of Shehuo has already consumed over ninety percent of my energy and time, they know I have no extra energy to manage these minor details.”
2 E Ji said: “So, Wu Tong deserves to die!”
2 Liu Changsheng said: “He doesn’t deserve to die, I do. Since you’ve come to Chang’an, then Yun Ce must have gone to Liang City to seize the Tiger Guards.
2 This is a big stratagem. He Tian was defeated in Lingzhou City, three thousand Tiger Guards became six thousand, exposing the secret that He Junnian isn’t dead, and Wu Tong found out through Panxing Tower that the Tiger Guards are related to the First Priest of the Gui Fang people, so they concluded that the mysterious First Priest Da Xuebeng of the Gui Fang people is He Junnian.”
2 E Ji said: “Now, is He Junnian in Chang’an, or in Liang City?”
2 Liu Changsheng said: “In Chang’an.”
2 E Ji patted her chest and said: “That’s good, that’s good, as long as not in Liang City. My Young Master has to flee without fighting when encountering the Fourth Priest of the Gui Fang people, Shen Tingyu; if he encounters the First Priest, he probably couldn’t escape.”
2 Liu Changsheng said: “So, your Young Master clearly knew Wu Tong was deceiving him, and took the chance to send all his most important people to this old man here?”
2 E Ji laughed loudly: “When I left, Young Master told me to definitely live in the Changsha King’s Mansion, definitely claim the title of Wife of the Crown Prince of Changsha, only then can we be safe.”
2 Liu Changsheng laughed along, then jostled the two children on his elbows and said: “He should know that Chang’an is far more dangerous than your Yun Clan Villa.”
2 E Ji laughed: “Young Master said, with the Ancestral Fire here, you are invincible under heaven.”
3 After hearing E Ji’s words, Liu Changsheng turned to Zhang Min, who was listening with a bewildered look, and said: “E Ji may not be as smart as you, but she is absolutely the best choice for Wife of the Crown Prince of Changsha. Zhang Min, firmly accept this point, you are far inferior to E Ji.”
3 Zhang Min stood up, curtsied, and said: “I’ve known this point for a long time.”
3 E Ji angrily said: “Since you know, why do you compete with me everywhere.”
3 Zhang Min pursed her lips and said: “Two women sharing one man, if I don’t compete, that man would think I don’t like him. I don’t believe you don’t understand this flaw in such men.”
3 Liu Changsheng very much enjoyed watching these two women argue, so after finishing the meal he didn’t leave, and even drank a few more cups of the strong liquor from the Mountain Villa that Lei Ming brought.
3 That night, Liu Changsheng snored like thunder.
3 Lei Ming quietly brought his younger siblings to the Divine Dragon Hall. At this time, the Divine Dragon Hall was empty, the Ancestral Fire was still burning fiercely, and the other five hundred Shehuo moved slowly along with the Ancestral Fire.
3 Lei Ming gritted his teeth, as if making a firm decision, and stretched his left hand into the fire pit. Strangely, his left hand was immediately burned red by the Ancestral Fire. In the dry Dragon God Hall, Lei Ming sweated profusely, but before the sweat could hit the ground, it was quickly evaporated.
3 Seeing Lei Ming in unbearable pain, the second oldest among the thirty-six children, Chen Lu, also stretched her left hand into the Shehuo. Soon, her left hand was also burned red by the Ancestral Fire. Chen Lu couldn’t help wanting to cry out, but Lei Ming covered her mouth with his right hand, stifling the scream before it could emerge.
3 Huang Tieniu solemnly placed his left hand into the flames of the Ancestral Fire to roast; his hand didn’t turn red, but dark red, the whole hand like a piece of meteorite iron that could never be burned red.
4 When the thirty-six children sat around the fire pit, each stretching their left hand into the fire pit and taking turns being roasted by the Ancestral Fire, a faint sigh seemed to echo in the main hall.
4 When An Ji brought two bowls of sugar water, night had fallen deep. Lei Ming and the others hadn’t returned, so E Ji and Zhang Min hadn’t slept. The two children in the cradle slept very sweetly, heads together.
4 On the other side of the courtyard were many water buckets filled with water, reflecting the sky full of stars.
4 Zhang Min stirred the sugar water with a spoon and said to E Ji: “Are we being too rude doing this?”
4 E Ji took a light sip of sugar water and said: “Put away those worthless thoughts of yours. Young Master said, once we arrive at the Changsha King’s Mansion, we are the masters.”
4 Zhang Min said somewhat aggrieved: “I don’t know many things.”
4 E Ji angrily said: “What does a concubine want to know?”
4 Zhang Min sighed and said: “If I knew being a concubine was like this, I wouldn’t have become one.”
4 When the Crescent Moon appeared in the sky, the myriad stars showed no reaction, unlike when the Full Moon comes out, when the stars vanish without a trace.
4 When Lei Ming came out of the Dragon God Hall, he was like a dry corpse parched for years in the desert, stumbling into the courtyard and plunging headfirst into a wooden bucket full of water.
5 E Ji could hear the sizzling sound of their bodies absorbing water. As the water in the large wooden bucket rapidly decreased, Lei Ming and the others’ bodies slowly went from withered to plump.
5 Zhang Min stood up, pulled Lei Ming’s body out of the wooden bucket. An Ji and the others quickly refilled the wooden bucket with water, and Zhang Min put Lei Ming back in to continue soaking.
5 This was a very complicated task, and it continued until dawn.
5 “It looks like the Ancestral Fire only tempered them, didn’t attack them.”
5 Zhang Min quietly said to E Ji.
5 E Ji whispered back: “Young Master said, he was attacked by Yongzhou Shehuo, the consequences were very serious, he nearly died. Look at them, the problem doesn’t seem too severe.
5 Continue burning tomorrow night. Husband said the source of all internal breath in the world is Shehuo; accepting the Ancestral Fire’s tempering is a process of recasting the body.
5 Why don’t you go burn too tomorrow night.”
5 Zhang Min glanced at these water-soaked mummies, patted her smooth cheek, and said: “No, I’m not that eager for martial art improvement.”
5 Lei Ming, soaked full of water, climbed out of the wooden bucket, his dazed gaze fixed on the sun about to rise vigorously, and he shouted while throwing a punch…
6 North of the Great Wall, snow fell again, and it was extremely heavy.
6 When the Red Date Horse leaped down from a mountaintop, it instantly carried Yun Ce plunging into a snow pit—or rather, this wasn’t a snow pit at all, but a valley filled with snow.
6 After plunging into this snow pit, the Red Date Horse lay motionless, pretending to be dead.
6 Yun Ce sighed, took out a shovel from the Dragon Pearl to dig snow, preparing to first dig the Red Date Horse out of the snow pit.
6 Luckily the snow wasn’t too deep, just over a zhang, and he dug to the ground.
6 The Red Date Horse he dug out had its mouth crooked, tongue lolling, pretending to be a sculpture, refusing to move no matter what.
6 Seeing this, Yun Ce knew they couldn’t leave tonight.
6 The snow here was packed very solidly. Yun Ce dug a large cave along the snow wall, set up the tent in the snow cave. Once the wood stove was burning, the Red Date Horse no longer pretended to be a sculpture; it shook its fur, shook off all the snow, then burrowed into the tent, lay in the warmest spot, watching Yun Ce boil water.
6 Yun Ce now had no way to deal with the scoundrel Red Date Horse. Beat it and it runs, chase it and it plays dead; if you really want to punish it, it cries loudly like a child, and at worst, it rolls on the ground.
6 Yun Ce felt that horses by nature couldn’t drink scalding hot boiling water, like tea.
7 Until the Red Date Horse puckered its furry big mouth imitating him sipping tea, Yun Ce was certain: his family’s Red Date Horse didn’t want to become a bird, but a person.
7 Seeing the Red Date Horse drinking tea so properly, even knowing to spit out the tea leaves, Doggy eagerly said: “This is typical behavior of biological evolution, I have to record it.”
7 Yun Ce helped the Red Date Horse change to a large bowl filled with tea water; his tea cup couldn’t hold the Red Date Horse’s big mouth.
7 After comfortably drinking five or six bowls of tea water in a row, the Red Date Horse lay on the blanket like a severe tea addict fully satisfied, used its front hoof to nudge Yun Ce’s back, signaling to cover it with the blanket.
7 Yun Ce obliged, covered the Red Date Horse with the blanket, then stroked its long face and said: “Can you really transform into human form?”
