Chapter 66

"Tian Zun wore a suit of black-gold armor, held the Heaven-Subduing Halberd in hand, stepped on an auspicious cloud, and behind him followed a fire-breathing giant dragon. Majestic and imposing, he charged straight to the Demon God's doorstep in one breath!" Elder Wen grew so excited that his voice rose as he spoke. Gesticulating wildly, he pulled out an ancient painting to show Lin Yu.

The atmosphere was thoroughly built up, so Lin Yu played along and asked, "And then...?"

"And then?" Elder Wen scratched his head. "Tian Zun and the Demon God talked in detail for seven days and seven nights. With his excellent eloquence, he persuaded the Demon God, and from then on, chaos was transformed into the mortal world. The Demon Tribe retreated underground and never interfered with the human realm again."

Lin Yu: ?

Seeing Lin Yu's utterly incredulous expression, Elder Wen grew even more delighted. "Are you shocked by Tian Zun's deeds? Ah, that's how I felt the first time I heard this story too."

Lin Yu asked, "Are you sure there wasn't any coercion, bribery, or outright fighting involved?"

She simply couldn't wrap her head around it. "The Demon God had already achieved dominion over the world. Why would he willingly let an unknown nobody rise to power and retreat underground himself? And as for Tian Zun, if he had that kind of strength, shouldn't he have fought the Demon God? Why not kill the Demon God to eliminate future trouble? What if the Demon God was deceiving him?"

Elder Wen glanced at her. "You're just a little girl—don't go thinking about fighting and killing all day. Tian Zun's approach is what we call scholarly integrity. This is how dignified people do things."

Elder Wen felt that Lin Yu must have been corrupted by those old fogies like the Xianzun, which was why she thought the only way to solve a problem was to kill the other party. He cleared his throat. "This is called vision. Little girl, your vision is too narrow. Who says killing is the only way out of a predicament? Reform through persuasion works just as well!"

Lin Yu: "...Fine."

"Ah, what a pity, though. That Demon God did go back on his word in the end. Thousands of years ago, he broke through the earth and brought disaster to the mortal world once more, causing a calamity so great that the entire Demon Tribe was slaughtered by the gods united. Tragic, truly tragic." Elder Wen suddenly grew melancholic.

Lin Yu roughly understood now—Elder Wen was a sentimental old man. No wonder he kept to himself. If he ever saw or participated in the deeds the Heaven's Mandate Tower carried out, he definitely wouldn't be able to accept it. Or perhaps he knew what others were doing, but couldn't bear to give up his status as an elder, so he sealed himself off in his little courtyard, isolated from the world.

"So how did Tian Zun become a god later?" Lin Yu promptly interrupted Elder Wen's melancholy. "Was he chosen from among countless ordinary mortals?"

Elder Wen's finger, which had been resting on a page for a long time, moved again. He flipped forward several pages, and his enthusiasm surged once more. "The story of how Tian Zun chose the gods is a long one..."

A day passed in a flash. By the time Lin Yu left, the sky had fallen completely dark.

As she walked out, she stretched her neck, stiff from a day of sitting. She tilted her head back and happened to see the stars twinkling across the sky. She watched for a while as thick clouds slowly drifted over, gradually obscuring the moon—it looked like rain was coming.

Lin Yu didn't return to her quarters. Instead, she changed direction and headed toward Zhanghe Hall.

Seeing Lin Yu, Fu Ming wasn't surprised. He had reorganized and recopied a whole cabinet full of books that Lin Yu couldn't possibly move all at once, and what the Xianzun had given her was too difficult to understand, so she was bound to come looking for him again.

Earlier that day, Fu Ming had ordered a new set of desk and chair to be placed beside the bookcase. Lin Yu spotted it at a glance. She raised an eyebrow but said nothing, walking straight over to sit down. The desk and chair were made of rosewood, a shade brighter than the ebony bookcase behind them. Lin Yu rarely saw any color other than black on Fu Ming.

The dark red furniture sat oddly harmoniously within the hall filled with ebony furnishings. The window beside the bookcase was open, and wind blew into the room. The cool night breeze casually lifted the pages of a book on the desk, rustling softly.

"What did you study today?" Fu Ming's voice came from across the room.

A screen separated the two of them. Fu Ming's figure flickered behind it, only a silhouette visible. Lin Yu guessed he was reading those memorials of his that seemed never-ending.

"Heard a story from Elder Wen."

"Since when did he tell stories?"

"About Tian Zun negotiating with the Demon God, using his eloquence to make the Demon God willingly lay down his blade." A faint breeze brushed Lin Yu's face, tickling slightly. She stood up and closed the window.

She vaguely thought she heard Fu Ming let out a soft laugh, so light that Lin Yu assumed it was her imagination. She lifted her gaze toward the figure behind the screen—the blurry silhouette was writing something.

Fu Ming didn't respond further. Lin Yu picked up the pages the wind had ruffled and began reading. The two of them fell into a quiet silence, each absorbed in their own business.

It wasn't that Lin Yu genuinely wanted to learn about these records of gods and ghosts. What she wanted was to learn spells, how to use divine artifacts, and the basics of cultivation, to lay a foundation for the future and avoid mistakes down the road. But to learn those things, she first had to understand those bizarre legends.

And those old fogies who wrote the books had deliberately made them so difficult. Without Elder Wen explaining passage by passage, Lin Yu couldn't understand a thing. She even wanted to skip all of it and jump straight to the later parts.

They were legends anyway—true or false, anyone could make them up. Lin Yu didn't understand the point of learning them; it was just a waste of time. Fortunately, the content Fu Ming had rewritten was easy to understand, and Lin Yu read through it as if it were picture books.

After about an hour or two, Lin Yu skimmed through most of a book. She looked up at Fu Ming, who was still seriously writing his memorials. She tested, "Your Majesty?"

"Speak." Fu Ming's tone was indifferent. "And no need to call me 'Your Majesty.'"

Lin Yu gave a soft "Oh." "What do you think the Xianzun will do about the Ghost King?"

"Once he's done investigating, he'll send his people to suppress the Ghost King. There's no way he'd let a Ghost Tribe member who dared to impersonate an immortal go free, even if it's the Ghost King himself."

Lin Yu couldn't help but doubt that. "With the level of people in the Heaven's Mandate Tower, they're going to suppress the Ghost King?"

"The Xianzun has a group of personally trained closed-door disciples," Fu Ming said, setting down his brush. "These disciples rarely appear in public; they only focus on cultivation and obey the Xianzun's orders alone. There are about a hundred of them. Otherwise, with just the current members in the tower, the Heaven's Mandate Tower would have been toppled long ago."

The Divine Mountain was vast, and disciples rarely roamed most of its grounds. It was perfectly normal for a few hundred specially trained closed-door disciples to hide somewhere on the mountain without notice. The Xianzun understood that the disciples currently visible in the tower were hardly up to the task, so having a backup plan wasn't strange.

Lin Yu didn't ask more. After a while, Fu Ming suddenly spoke. "This matter might let you reap a huge windfall."

Lin Yu's interest was piqued. "Tell me more?"

"You'll know when the time comes. For now, focus on your reading." Fu Ming opened a new memorial and read it carefully. He said as he read, "You're the Divine Maiden I chose. At the very least, you should be a cut above those spoiled brats in the Heaven's Mandate Tower, so you don't embarrass me."

"But you never mentioned any assessments back then..."

Lin Yu had been staring at Fu Ming's figure. Before she could react, Fu Ming suddenly looked up and glanced her way. Noticing this, she quickly lowered her head and kept flipping through her book. Their gazes crossed, and Fu Ming didn't catch Lin Yu's lingering stare.

...

By the time Lin Yu had gone through the entire book and roughly memorized its contents, she realized it was already very late. At some point it had started raining, and the sound of raindrops pattering came from outside the window.

The rain must have been falling for a while now. The ground was soaked, and accumulated rainwater carried fallen leaves silently in the same direction. Lin Yu cracked open a corner of the window and let out a long breath, breathing in the damp air mixed with rain.

Fu Ming ordered two palace attendants to escort Lin Yu back. One attendant held an oil-paper umbrella, waiting by the door. Only then did Lin Yu notice that there were actually people outside the seemingly empty hall.

The rain was pouring hard. If she didn't leave soon, even the stone steps at the foot of the Divine Mountain would be flooded. She stepped under the attendant's umbrella, said goodbye to Fu Ming, and left.

After Lin Yu departed, several gold-armored guards wearing straw rain capes appeared in Zhanghe Hall like specters.

No one saw how they entered. Rainwater dripped from their capes, falling drop by drop onto the floor. They were drenched through, as if they'd just been dredged up from the water.

Zhang Wu took off his hat and the face mask that covered his face. He bowed respectfully. "Your Majesty, everything is in place. This time, we will strike a fatal blow."

Fu Ming didn't look up. He only said calmly, "He wouldn't have lived much longer anyway. You may all withdraw."

The men acknowledged and left, their light footsteps quickly fading away. Fu Ming closed the memorial in his hand, neatly stacked a dozen or so memorials together, then sat silently for a moment. No one knew what he was thinking. After about as long as it takes to brew a cup of tea, he extinguished the candle by the desk and left. Zhanghe Hall was plunged into deathly darkness.

...

The next day, the rain still hadn't stopped. A steady patter sounded outside the window, and slanting raindrops struck the birds, startling a whole tree full of spring color.

Rhythmic chanting surrounded Lin Yu. She propped her chin on her hand, leaning against the desk, and continued listening to Elder Wen speak. He prattled on about those ancient myths, and whenever he got excited, he'd stand up and gesture animatedly.

Last night Lin Yu had already finished an entire book of myths, so today she could keep up with Elder Wen's pace and answer many things. When students can understand, teaching goes much faster—in just one day, they'd gone through most of an ancient text.

Elder Wen patted Lin Yu on the shoulder approvingly and praised her. "Ah, I've been a teacher for so many years, and at this age I never thought I'd meet such a bright student. It seems within half a year, you'll have mastered all kinds of secret manuals and techniques."

Lin Yu forced a bitter smile. She didn't have that kind of time at all, but she humbly replied, "Elder, you flatter me. It's getting late, so I'll head back. Thank you for your hard work today."

"Oh, right, girl. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. Per usual, there'll be three days off. You don't need to come tomorrow—come back in three days." Before she left, Elder Wen specially reminded her.

"New Year's Eve?" Lin Yu was stunned for a moment. "Alright, thank you for the reminder, Elder."

She had been living in such a daze. If Elder Wen hadn't kindly reminded her, she wouldn't have known what day or year it was. In past New Year's Eves, Lin Zhao would take leave from the Heaven's Mandate Tower and come home. She and the pharmacy staff would prepare a meal together and wait for Lin Zhao to return.

But this year, everything was gone. Her sister was dead, the pharmacy was burned down, and the staff were burned to death too. Lin Yu was left all alone.

When she returned to her quarters, she unexpectedly heard the laughter of a young woman by the door. The moment she heard it, Lin Yu's back went rigid. That laughter was so familiar—it sounded like Lin Zhao.

She felt a dazed disbelief. She stood outside the door for a long time before pushing it open.

"You're back?" She saw a woman's back view. The woman sat side by side with Chen Lu. Chen Lu was holding a kite, and the woman was carefully painting a pattern of birds onto it with pigment. When she didn't hear Lin Yu's response, she turned around to look at the newcomer.

"What are you spacing out for? Tomorrow's your birthday. I brought you a birthday gift."