Chapter 44

Lin Yu nodded politely at him. "Alright."

The priest who had delivered the message seemed to have other matters to attend to, and he left in a hurry. Lin Yu watched him head toward the dormitory for disciples. He was almost fleeing, and the hem of his robes was stained with mud.

Lin Yu sensed that something was off. She patted Chen Lu's shoulder. "Chen Lu, follow him and see where he's going. If you can't keep up or lose him, that's fine—just don't let him catch you."

"Okay!" With that, Chen Lu scampered off after the priest, leaving soon after him.

Lin Yu walked alone up the winding, rugged stone steps toward the Bushou Hall at the mountain's summit.

The halls at the peak were all of great importance, and ordinary disciples were forbidden from approaching. As Lin Yu walked, the path gradually emptied of people until only the cries of cranes and wild birds broke the silence, making it feel all the more tranquil.

"Xianzun."

When Lin Yu entered the Bushou Hall, the Xianzun was lounging casually on a soft couch in his nightclothes, lying on his side.

A flicker of surprise crossed Lin Yu's eyes, but she quickly lowered her gaze. His hair had turned mostly white, with only a few strands of black mixed in among the silver. He hadn't bothered to arrange his hair into a bun; it cascaded past his waist, spilling over his chest and back, trailing onto the couch beside him.

His snow-white locks wound across the fox-fur couch, almost blending into it completely.

The Xianzun looked up. "You're here. Sit."

Lin Yu glanced around the room but didn't sit down. She remained where she stood. "May I ask what urgent matter you sought me for at this late hour?"

"Fu Zheng is dead." The Xianzun spoke slowly, his gaze measuring Lin Yu's expression without any visible change.

Fu Zheng was Prince Dai. Lin Yu said, "I heard about it on the way back."

The Xianzun sat up straight on the fox-fur couch, one hand resting on his knee and the other pressed to his forehead. He didn't look at Lin Yu as he said, "Do you know how he died?"

Lin Yu was taken aback, then quickly shook her head. "I don't know."

The Xianzun let out a sudden laugh, his words dripping with contempt. "He was a mere mortal who craved immortality and suffered the backlash of the Heavenly Dao."

Lin Yu said nothing. If what the Xianzun said was true, then Prince Dai had simply been struck down by divine retribution, dying miserably in his own residence. But because Zhou Yuan had been by his side, and people needed a culprit for his gruesome death, she'd been saddled with the charge of murdering her husband.

Lin Yu couldn't quite gauge the Xianzun's intentions in bringing this up, so she probed, "Then what is your wish?"

The Xianzun said, "That prince's consort has a knack for immortality. I want her brought into the Tower of Heaven's Mandate."

The Feixian Ling that the whole world had been searching for had been with Zhou Yuan for years, granting her profound blessings of cultivation. It made sense that Zhou Yuan had an affinity for immortality. But... what did the Xianzun want with Zhou Yuan in the tower?

A menial disciple? A formal disciple? A priest? A high priestess? Or... the next sacrifice?

Lin Yu casually followed his lead. "Right, the Spring Sacrifice is approaching, and the tower doesn't have many female priests. It's about time we sought out some new ones."

Unexpectedly, the Xianzun frowned at her words. "A priestess? She's not worthy."

A vague sense of dread crept over Lin Yu. "Then what do you intend for her to do in the tower?"

"Serve as your bone feeder."

Lin Yu's pupils suddenly contracted. A bone feeder—it had been a long time since she'd heard that unfamiliar term.

Once bound to a cultivator, a bone feeder's purpose was to provide blood, limbs, organs, cultivation, and even life force to the cultivator when they were injured.

The cultivator's wounds would be directly transferred to the bone feeder, keeping the cultivator in optimal condition, while the bone feeder's hard-earned cultivation and techniques would all belong to the cultivator. In essence, they were finding a scapegoat to die in their place.

Over a decade ago, most wealthy cultivators would buy themselves a bone feeder, and the trade had once been a lucrative industry. Later, too many bone feeders, unable to bear the oppression, sought death by any means possible.

Not long after that, rumors spread that forming a bond with a bone feeder was a demonic cultivator's method, and the practice vanished.

Lin Yu was about to refuse. "This..."

The Xianzun cut her off, staring at the mark on her brow as he said flatly, "For a woman on death's door to serve as your bone feeder is her honor."

"She's to be buried with Fu Zheng in a few days. I've already arranged it—someone will help her fake her death and escape. Then she'll be given a new identity and brought into the tower."

Lin Yu's fingers curled and trembled slightly. There it was again—that lofty, arrogant tone that treated people as less than human. It was a tone she knew all too well.

But now, Lin Yu's position had changed. She was no longer that destitute, orphaned girl at everyone's mercy, shut away as a sacrificial offering. She had become the revered Divine Maiden. But so what?

Now that she stood at the top, those beneath her had to die for her, to forfeit their lives in her place.

This world always stayed the same.

After a long silence, Lin Yu's heartbeat gradually steadied. She found her voice and didn't refuse him again. "Then I thank the Xianzun."

"But... your disciple has one request."

The Xianzun's mood improved slightly. "Speak."

"The consort and I were acquaintances. She and I have a grudge," Lin Yu said, watching the Xianzun's expression. "Before she's brought into the tower, I'd like to see for myself how far she's fallen, to ease the hatred in my heart."

The Xianzun didn't even lift his gaze, his tone carrying a hint of displeasure. "I once asked you about all your past enemies. I could have dealt with them for you, yet you never mentioned her."

Lin Yu said, "Because she was of noble birth. I didn't want to cause you any displeasure..."

"Lin Yu." The Xianzun suddenly called her name with emphasis. "You need to understand that apart from the gods of the Nine Heavens, no one in this world is more honored than you."

Lin Yu lowered her head, her heart leaping at his words. She instinctively glanced at the Xianzun as he continued. "Let alone a mere consort—even if the emperor himself were your enemy, I would find ways to deal with him for you."

A faint breeze slipped into the room, startling the flame on the candlestick into a flicker.

With that, the Xianzun raised his hand and drew a talisman in the air. With a point of his finger, the talisman flew into Lin Yu's arms.

"Go. Repay hatred with hatred, and vengeance with vengeance. If you kill her, it doesn't matter—I'll find you a new bone feeder."

Lin Yu gave him a nod and quickly left the Bushou Hall. She didn't notice that after she left, the Xianzun's gaze followed her for a long, long time—a gaze laced with scrutiny.

...

The jailer led Lin Yu eagerly, his tone ingratiating. "Divine Maiden, it's right here!" He deftly unlocked the door, and the iron bars of the cell swung open. Zhou Yuan sat on the ground. When she saw Lin Yu, her gaze froze for a moment before a smile quickly surfaced on her face.

Lin Yu nodded politely at the jailer. "Thank you. Please go about your business."

The jailer caught the implication that he should leave and not disturb them, so he wisely excused himself, cheerfully telling Lin Yu before he went that he'd be waiting just outside if she needed anything.

Once the jailer was gone, Lin Yu stepped into the cell and crouched down in front of Zhou Yuan, bringing herself eye-level with her. Without any pleasantries, she stated her purpose directly. "How did Prince Dai die?"

It was nearly midnight, and Lin Yu seemed to be in a hurry. Visits were usually short anyway. Zhou Yuan's expression immediately grew serious, but she quickly deflated. "I... I don't know either..."

Lin Yu asked, "Weren't you at his side?"

Zhou Yuan nodded, but then quickly shook her head. "I was with him, but I didn't see anything..."

Zhou Yuan struggled to organize her thoughts, her mind somewhat muddled. "He was sitting in front of me, and suddenly he aged decades in an instant. I was terrified, my vision went black, and then... then he just fell over..."

Lin Yu asked, "Dead?"

"Dead," Zhou Yuan said.

Lin Yu recalled what the Xianzun had said about Prince Dai suffering divine retribution for seeking immortality, and she asked Zhou Yuan, "Did he do anything before he died?"

She'd already answered this question many times during the day. All kinds of people had interrogated her. Zhou Yuan took a deep breath and repeated herself. "A few days ago, he suddenly bought a lot of trees and planted them in the backyard flower beds. There were fruits on those trees."

"The fruits were really creepy-looking, shaped like a doll. The doll was laughing with its mouth wide open, bright green..."

"I always thought those fruits were unsettling, like their eyes were alive. I told the prince not to plant them, to dig them out and throw them away, but he wouldn't listen. He even forced me to eat those strange fruits with him."

Zhou Yuan rambled, and Lin Yu quickly latched onto the key point. "Did you eat them?"

Zhou Yuan waved her hands frantically. "Those fruits were too strange. I spat them all out, but..."

"The prince ate a lot of them, no matter how much I tried to persuade him."

Lin Yu thought for a moment. "Are those trees still in the prince's residence?"

Zhou Yuan said, "They should be. The Dali Temple people wanted to take the trees back as evidence, but somehow it didn't work out."

Lin Yu nodded, then looked Zhou Yuan up and down. It was the dead of winter, and her clothes were thin. "Take care of yourself. I'll come see you again tomorrow."

With that, Lin Yu got up to leave, but she shrugged off her cloak and draped it over Zhou Yuan's shoulders.

Zhou Yuan started, suddenly feeling a warmth at her neck and shoulders, a faint, barely-there fragrance enveloping her. She gently touched the cloak that still carried Lin Yu's warmth, and her nose tingled. "But..."

She couldn't finish the sentence. But now everyone wanted her to confess to killing her husband and be buried with him.

From what Zhou Yuan had observed over the past two days, all the evidence and anomalies pointed to gods and ghosts. Once you invoked spirits, it was hard to keep investigating—you didn't want to offend them.

The Dali Temple had already given up on investigating Prince Dai's cause of death, so their guard over Zhou Yuan, the 'murderer,' had relaxed considerably.

But he was the emperor's own brother. Dying so undignified was something that couldn't be explained to the world, so they had to fabricate a cause of death and have his consort buried with him.

Zhou Yuan knew her death was near.

Lin Yu could guess what Zhou Yuan was thinking. She spoke softly. "Zhou Yuan."

Zhou Yuan looked up abruptly. No one had called her that since she'd married the prince.

"Trust me, and trust yourself. We'll find a way."

As long as they could uncover which god or ghost was involved in the prince's death, they could clear Zhou Yuan's name and win back her freedom, sparing her from being buried with the prince. And if Lin Yu intervened, the Xianzun's plan to have Zhou Yuan fake her death and become a bone feeder would be hard to carry out.

Zhou Yuan was silent for a long time. Then her voice came out dry and trembling as she nodded firmly at Lin Yu. "Alright. We'll find a way..."

...

In the prince's residence's backyard, Lin Yu stood before a cluster of flower pots, each about waist-high. In the pots were the strange saplings Zhou Yuan had mentioned.

All was silent, save for the sound of wind and leaves rustling against each other. Spring hadn't come yet, but the saplings had already sprouted new branches, with fresh leaves hanging from the tips. Beneath the green branches and leaves were neatly arranged green fruits.

Suddenly, a faint rustling sound caught Lin Yu's attention. She turned toward the source—it was a misshapen fruit, crooked and twisted. A doll's face was deeply imprinted on its surface, radiating an indescribable eeriness.

Lin Yu's fingertip lightly touched the edge of the fruit. In a daze, the doll's face in her hand suddenly came to life. It split its mouth open and grinned at Lin Yu...

A childish voice rose from her palm. "Are you going to eat me?"

TL Note:

Xianzun (仙尊) means "Venerable Immortal," a title for a powerful cultivator.

Feixian Ling (飞仙令) is a legendary token that grants immortality and profound cultivation blessings.

Dali Temple (大理寺) is the imperial supreme court in ancient China, responsible for legal investigations.