Ze Tian Ji

Edited by: Michyrr

The Willow Lodge was Hanqiu City’s finest inn. It was adjacent to the most beautiful lake within the city and was surrounded by a forest of ancient willows. It was a most beautiful and secluded place in the spring and summer, but in midwinter, when the lake was frozen and the willows were bare, one might feel rather somber and mournful when looking out the window and viewing the scenery under the starlight.

Hanqiu City at night was incredibly tranquil, so quiet it almost seemed like a graveyard. Wang Po was still in the south and had not returned to Tianliang County, but in the view of the Zhu clan, many changes in the world happened very abruptly, catching people somewhat unprepared, just like their current hard-pressed state.

Nanke’s voice roused Chen Changsheng from his thoughts. He turned around and sat on the bed.

Nanke took off his shoes and then placed his feet in a basin. Lowering her head, she began to very seriously wash them.

The temperature of the water in the basin was just right: not scalding, but also not so cool that it might start to feel cold after a while. She had probably tested it herself just a few moments ago, just as she had done in those nights at Sloping Cliff Horse Farm.

When Chen Changsheng was unconscious, and also in that period when it was still difficult for him to move, Nanke had been the one that fed and washed him.

He had tried many times to refuse her, but he had failed to convince her each time, just like tonight.

"I’ve almost completely recovered. Wouldn’t it be okay if I do these things myself in the future?"

"Not okay."

Nanke did not even raise her head.

She currently remembered nothing, only that Chen Changsheng was the most important person in the world to her.

So she should serve him well, ensuring his health and survival so that he could recover as quickly as possible.

Chen Changsheng thought, then very sincerely said, "I’m not sure... if I can cure your illness."

"But only you can cure it, right?"

Nanke raised her head and stared into his eyes.

Because the divine soul had broken out of her body, she no longer had that wide space between her eyes, but her eyes were still somewhat dull.

When she focused her gaze on a person or thing, it was truthfully rather frightening.

But Chen Changsheng was already used to it.

After washing him, Nanke very naturally opened the luggage and laid bedding on the floor. She did not sleep, however, but very naturally took off her upper garment and sat down in front of Chen Changsheng.

In the last few nights before they left Sloping Cliff Horse Farm, Chen Changsheng had begun attempting to cure her.

Even as an imbecilic girl, Nanke still vaguely felt that baring her naked body in front of a man was not good.

But she was already used to it.

Chen Changsheng’s finger flitted past the stone pearl, his spiritual sense entering the garden to remove his dagger.

Immediately after, he extracted a metal needle from the Vault Sheath.

True essence poured in and the tip of the needle began to vibrate. It then pierced into Nanke’s seemingly tender, but actually incredibly sturdy skin, probing into her meridians.

In these past few years, he had cured Luoluo’s illness, cured Xuanyuan Po’s injuries, and treated Zhexiu for an extended period of time. His ability to detect the smallest details through the true essence he poured into his needle was now far stronger than it had been when he first entered the capital, but he was still not confident that he could cure Nanke’s illness.

Because Nanke was not of the Demi-human race, but of the Demon race.

Through his treatments over the last few nights, Chen Changsheng had developed a deeper understanding of the demon body, and the more he understood, the more incredulous he was.

On the surface, the bodies of the demons did not differ much from the bodies of humans, especially for someone like Nanke, who was from the Imperial clan. However, there were several aspects in which they were as different as night and day.

These differences mostly rested in the meridians, Ethereal Palace, Qi openings, and sea of consciousness.

Demons had meridians, but not Qi openings, and certainly no Ethereal Palace.

Most importantly, a demon’s sea of consciousness, unlike humans and demi-humans, was not a sea formed from thoughts, but a fog of light.

The question was this: was the light in this fog made from shards of thought, or a sort of objective existence?

Chen Changsheng was very curious about this light, which seemed barely discernible yet also existing in every time and place. For some vague reason, he felt like he had seen it before.

Regretfully, although Nanke had opened her mind as much as possible, Chen Changsheng was currently still unable to enter the depths of her mind, as he was concerned that his intrusion might render Nanke a complete imbecile or just kill her. Thus, he was not able to see the true appearance of that light.

......

......

Zhu Ye’s remains had already been secretly transported to Hanqiu City, but they had not been buried. The Zhu clan and the Emotion-Severing Sect did not know how to handle them, as his remains were in a terrible state, seemingly gnawed on by some wild beast. However, the cold and cheerless Hanqiu City was already on the verge of becoming a graveyard.

Even if the venerable Daoist master and the Prince of Xiang would continue protecting the Zhu clan for the sake of the friendship they had with Zhu Luo, how could any noble clan without a true expert last forever in this vicious world? And everyone knew that a day would come in which Wang Po would return to Hanqiu City and demand what he had lost.

The Myriad Willows Garden outside Hanqiu City seemed to have known of today’s situation ahead of time. It had already been burned several years ago, burning some paper money for itself in advance.

Not far from the Myriad Willows Garden was the ancestral tomb of the Zhu clan. Only the heads of the Zhu clan and elders who had made extraordinary contributions had the right to be buried here.

The starlight tonight was brilliant, revealing the tombs and gravestones with startling clarity. If one carefully read the words on these gravestones, one would be able to understand the entire history of the Zhu clan and the Emotion-Severing Sect.

A thin and small figure hunched over as it used its two hands to dig, its mouth constantly muttering something.

Starlight fell on its face. Its crooked eyes, mouth and nose were even more horrifying than all the gravestones added together.

The saliva coming from its mouth gave off an unbearable stench, even more putrid than the corpse fluids from all the excavated tombs.

Yes, this small and hunchbacked man was digging up tombs, his long and slender fingers caked with mud and decayed flesh. For some reason, they were razor-sharp, swiftly digging up tomb after tomb. In just one hour, the seventeen tombs of the Zhu clan ancestral tomb were completely excavated.

Whether the result was a rotten corpse or white bones, they were the finest of harvests to the hunchbacked man.

His eyes glowed and even more saliva dripped down as a most vague and incomprehensible voice came out of his mouth. Only through the most attentive listening could one understand the general meaning.

"Your Zhu clan is about to perish.

"So give your grudges and souls to me; I will help you kill your foes."

The hunchbacked man suddenly crossed his legs and sat down in a lotus position, his palms facing the stars as he closed his eyes in meditation.

He was clearly using the most traditional Daoist technique of the Orthodoxy. Under the starlight, he appeared dignified, even somewhat divine.

But his mouth and nose were askew, his eyes unable to completely close, making him seem very ugly.

The most traditional divine art of the Orthodoxy, the most beautiful starlight, and an ugly hunchbacked man.

This sort of stark contrast imbued the scene with a comical and absurd feeling, but also an inexplicable horror.