Chapter 281: It’s All About Exchanges
When the child returned to Liu Changsheng’s arms, the two children simultaneously peed. Two glistening streams of water spurted out from their little peckers, arcing beautifully before finally landing on the ground of the Divine Dragon Hall.
Zhang Min, who had just regained the ability to move, awkwardly wiped the urine-soaked ground with her own sleeve. E Ji quickly took her son from Liu Changsheng, checking him over thoroughly, fiddling with the child’s little pecker, and even spreading his buttocks to inspect, before finally breathing a sigh of relief. She said to Liu Changsheng, who seemed to have aged ten years, “What did you just do?”
Liu Changsheng seemed too lazy to say even a word to E Ji. After handing Yun Tui back to Zhang Min, he waved his sleeve, signaling that they could leave.
E Ji wanted to speak, but seeing the priestesses and Taoist Priests glaring at her viciously, she instinctively felt like she had taken a huge advantage from the old master, though she didn’t know what advantage. She still opened her legs and hurriedly left the Divine Dragon Hall.
Just as she exited the hall door, she heard someone inside shouting: “High Priest…”
E Ji paused for a moment, wanting to go back and see, but feeling that going in now would likely get her beaten. So she went back to the Changsha King’s Mansion with Zhang Min, carrying the child. She instructed Lei Ming, whose skin was covered in cracks, to close the door securely, then hurriedly entered the bedroom.
Although they had clearly checked the child’s body earlier, the two still swapped the children and cross-examined them to avoid missing anything.
The child seemed to have grown a bit larger in an instant. Previously, he still had some features of a newborn, but after Liu Changsheng’s procedure, the child had grown at least half again as large, like a balloon inflated.
Not only had his skin become fairer, but his facial features had fully developed. The buttocks, previously marked with birthmarks, were now not only white and tender but filled with soft, watery fat underneath the skin.
“What exactly did that old guy do to these two?”
1 E Ji didn’t notice any changes in her own child besides getting fatter and a bit larger. At least, the child’s arms were strong—for an infant. It wasn’t like the legends where an infant could run around the mountains carrying a wild boar.
1 The two discussed for a long time but came to no conclusion. Plus, they had expended a lot of energy climbing in the Dragon God Hall today. After feeding the two children milk, they held them and fell asleep.
1 The two of them slept, but tonight in Chang’an City, no one could sleep.
1 Everyone in Chang’an had seen the heavenly phenomenon caused by the Dragon God Hall, especially Grand Marshal Zhou Bo, who was sleepless all night.
1 Before contending with the Emperor, Zhou Bo’s position was Grand Commandant, overseeing the world’s troops, on par with the Grand Marshal as one of the Three Dukes. After defeating Emperor Liu Chang, he advanced to Grand Marshal, but the Grand Commandant’s Office remained under his control.
1 Now, with the heavenly phenomenon gone, Grand Marshal Zhou Bo still had no intention of resting. Instead, he stood under the bright moon, staring fixedly at the elevated Divine Dragon Hall.
1 Wind and rain, thunder and lightning, the ground, and that small sun—these were things Zhou Bo could see but not attain.
1 Only by being acknowledged by these things could one truly possess this land and sky.
1 The Blessing Sacrifice was no secret in the Great Han; those who should know did. It was said that since humans coexisted with Shehuo, no more than five High Priests had the ability to perform the Blessing Sacrifice.
1 But only three High Priests had actually performed the Blessing Sacrifice, meaning that over the long years, it had been performed a total of three times.
2 The first time was during the Yellow Emperor’s era. The Yellow Emperor wanted to revive his young son You Xia and asked Priest You Feng to perform the Blessing Sacrifice. In the end, You Xia was revived, but not completely—his body revived, but his brain did not return. Eventually, his body wandered off, was captured by the Gui Fang people, and became the first foundation for the Gui Fang people’s gene reform.
2 The second time was by the ninth Yellow Emperor. His wife was in difficult labor and seemed about to die. The Yellow Emperor asked High Priest Gui Tuo to intervene with the Blessing Sacrifice. In the end, the Yellow Emperor’s wife successfully gave birth to the child, but she died.
2 The third time, Huo Qubing asked High Priest Li Changchun to pray for blessings for the then-Emperor Liu Zheng, hoping to use the Blessing Sacrifice to gain recognition from Shehuo, heaven and earth, wind and rain, thunder and lightning for Liu Zheng, a collateral branch of the Great Han Liu imperial family, so he could have the true ability to lead the Great Han.
2 As a result, Liu Zheng reigned for 160 years, transforming the Great Han from a primitive gathering and hunting society into an efficient commercial society, thereby laying the foundation for the Great Han’s prosperity for over a thousand years.
2 Now, this was the fourth time.
2 Of the first three Blessing Sacrifices, two could not be considered successful, and one was extremely so. Many speculated this had much to do with the High Priest’s own cultivation level. The High Priest Li Changchun back then had the highest cultivation of any in history, so that good outcome was no surprise.
2 Having been friends with Liu Changsheng for decades, Zhou Bo knew clearly that the current High Priest Liu Changsheng’s understanding of Ancestral Fire and Shehuo likely surpassed that of Li Changchun.
2 He had once hoped Liu Changsheng would give him this opportunity for the Blessing Sacrifice. Now, he had given it to someone else.
2 From the moment the winds and clouds surged in Chang’an, Zhou Bo had been watching from outside until the rain stopped and the clouds cleared, with the moon emerging again. He felt his heart had turned ice-cold.
2 Wu Tong had watched the whole scene from Panxing Tower. He knew a bit more than Zhou Bo: this Blessing Sacrifice had likely been given to Yun Ce’s eldest son Yun Shuo.
3 The effect of the Blessing Sacrifice was not immediate but lifelong. As the saying goes, when luck comes, heaven and earth aid it; when luck goes, even heroes have no freedom. That was the power of the Blessing Sacrifice.
3 Even if it was just a little luck each day, accumulated over time, small luck would eventually become great luck.
3 Now, with the Blessing Sacrifice given to Yun Shuo, a new family would appear from the horizon like a comet in a very short time.
3 Heng Ji stood by the bedroom window with her arms crossed, watching the heavenly phenomenon from start to finish without speaking. Actually, there was nothing to say. When she had fled Chuyun Prefecture with her child and established her first connection in Chang’an, she had hoped Liu Changsheng would give this Blessing Sacrifice to Huo Qubing’s son.
3 She had never received it. Later, Huo Qubing’s son died, and she had also killed Huo Qubing’s daughter. Now the Blessing Sacrifice had appeared and gone to Yun Ce’s eldest son Yun Shuo.
3 Grand Marshal Zhou Bo knew Yun Ce came from the Ancestral Land, Wu Tong knew Yun Ce came from the Ancestral Land, but Heng Ji did not. She now utterly hated Yun Ce, believing that from the beginning, Yun Ce had deliberately stripped away what belonged to Huo Qubing’s son.
3 Hate it or regret it or be beyond remorse, it was all too late now. Liu Changsheng had chosen the weak Yun Ce, chosen to play the long game for a big fish, so everyone in the world could only watch.
3 The child, just a full moon old, not only could roll over but could even crawl a couple of steps on his own, and was extremely active. Thus, within one day, Yun Shuo fell off the bed four times.
3 The first time, he landed on Doggy, unscathed.
3 The second time, he landed feet-first, then sat on his buttocks on the ground, still unscathed.
4 The third time, seeing the black feathered eagle perched on the window, he reached for it. He first pushed off a pillow, then did a headfirst tumble onto the soft pillow.
4 The fourth time, the child wriggled out from E Ji’s arms. On such a large bed, he rolled and flipped until E Ji opened her eyes, then he plunged headfirst off the bed, only to be grabbed by the leg mid-fall by E Ji.
4 Soon, E Ji discovered that Yun Shuo seemed to thrive without deliberate care. This reminded her of some widely circulated Great Han stories, like a child abandoned in the wilderness being raised by Doggy or other beasts.
4 There were also stories of children abandoned by family after birth, placed in a wooden basin and floated downstream, eventually fished out by kind people and growing up to become heroes.
4 She thought since Yun Shuo was like this, Yun Tui should be the same, but contrary to expectations, Yun Tui seemed to have no good luck clinging to him.
4 Zhang Min had tested it many times: the child would choke while drinking milk, get hurt falling from the bed, and even when held by Zhang Min to sunbathe, bird droppings from a flock flying overhead would land on Yun Tui’s head.
4 Considering that at birth, this child had come out buttocks-first in a near-death maneuver, Zhang Min felt it was pretty good—at least the problems now were non-fatal minor ones.
4 E Ji looked at the scar on Yun Tui’s nose and reached to stroke it. The child suddenly twisted his head, and E Ji’s fingertip gouged open the just-scabbed wound.
4 Looking at Yun Tui wailing loudly, E Ji sighed and said, “Let him stay closer to his brother from now on.”
4 Zhang Min nodded, using the ever-ready Yi Tree Gauze to dab away the bead of blood seeping from the child’s face.
5 It took Liu Changsheng a full five days to emerge from the Dragon God Hall. Originally, he had a lock of black hair on his head; now it was all white, even his beard completely so.
5 “It’s not that miraculous; it was just a chance event. If the Blessing Sacrifice were that useful, this old man would have used it on himself first—no reason to give such a huge benefit to others.”
5 Liu Changsheng had completely fallen in love with saizi noodles, eating a big bowl almost every day. The first meal after leaving the Dragon God Hall was saizi noodles.
5 “Old Master, how about saizi noodles for the palace banquet?”
5 Liu Changsheng set down his rice bowl, wiped his mouth and beard, nodded and said, “Good. From now on, saizi noodles will be the main dish at the Changsha King’s Mansion’s fundamental family banquets.”
5 E Ji smiled: “It can also be paired with six small cold dishes, pickled vegetables, and pickles—that way it looks better.”
5 Liu Changsheng said, “Good, very good. Meat and vegetables all mixed together—satisfying to eat and filling.”
5 E Ji added, “Wu Tong said a lot of people will come. Should we set some threshold? I don’t want any Tom, Dick, or Harry attending the Changsha King’s Mansion’s palace banquet.”
5 “Who don’t you want to let in?”
5 “Grand Marshal, Heng Ji.”
6 Liu Changsheng sighed: “Still let them come. My body is severely depleted now; it won’t recover to its peak without three to five years.”
6 E Ji looked at Liu Changsheng in shock: “So, within three to five years, my young master won’t be able to rely on the High Priest’s power? That’s the real reason you desperately performed the Blessing Sacrifice for the two children?”
