I Can Devour Spirits

The next morning, just before dawn, three carriages slowly headed away along the official road outside the East City Gate of Xianggu County...

Xiao Zongting and Ximen Yong stood under the city wall, watching the carriages depart.

The chilly morning breeze stirred their temples, and for a moment, they seemed to have aged considerably.

The three carriages had already turned into three black dots in the distance. Ximen Yong turned to Xiao Zongting and said, ”Children have their own fortune. Brother Xiao, I have been presumptuous! May I invite Brother Xiao to my humble abode for a drink?”

Xiao Zongting replied, ”I was just thinking of having a drink with you to relieve the frustration in my chest. But you brought it up first!”

As Xiao Zongting spoke, he laughed heartily twice.

Ximen Yong also laughed and said, ”Brother Xiao, please!”

”Please!”

Xiao Zongting and Ximen Yong together got onto the carriage heading to West Gate Mansion. Shi Kang drove the carriage, heading to West Gate Mansion with a rumbling sound.

A thousand miles away, deep within the Changling Mountain Range, in a certain secluded valley.

The narrow valley here is surrounded by steep cliffs, extremely perilous, even the climbing monkeys find it difficult to cross this gorge.

Yet the bottom of the gorge is lush with vegetation, verdant and serene, indeed a rather tranquil place.

On a stone table covered with dried moss at the valley’s bottom, an old man with white hair and beard sits in front of the stone table, contemplating the black and white endgame on the table.

This old man is Lv Yinlin, the ancestor of the Taiyi Sect, a formidable figure in the Nascent Soul Realm.

Although having lived over a thousand years, with white hair and beard, his complexion still showed a faint hint of redness, without any signs of decline.

While he was pondering the chess endgame, footsteps rustled near the secluded valley.

Lv Yinlin didn’t lift his head, still staring at the chess game on the stone table, only when a figure emerged from behind a dead tree did he look up and say, ”Qingzhu, where have you been these months? Why haven’t you visited your old father?”

Lv Qingzhu, upon seeing the old man, smiled and walked over, saying, ”Father, I went down the mountain to experience the world.”

”Is that so?” Lv Yinlin looked at Lv Qingzhu with interest and asked, ”What insights have you gained from this experience?”

Lv Qingzhu’s expression was cold, ”Not much insight. Just felt that the bustling world is nothing but a fleeting dream.”

Lv Yinlin was taken aback.

Lv Qingzhu inherently aloof, this, he had seen long ago.

When Lv Qingzhu was thirteen, he created the Cold Plum Sword Technique for her, hoping to nurture her aloof nature through this sword technique.

In Lv Yinlin’s view, only by being cold and aloof could one discard worldly trivialities and wholeheartedly pursue the Dao!

This was his expectation for Lv Qingzhu!

Though Lv Qingzhu was a girl, Lv Yinlin hoped she could have a heart as steadfast as steel!

Someday, she could inherit his legacy!

”Qingzhu, your realization comforts my heart!” Lv Yinlin stroked his beard, nodding slightly. ”The world is a fleeting dream, just the creations of those trapped within it, unable to see their self-imposed confinements.”

”Qingzhu, remember your father’s words. There’s nothing one can do except cultivate. Under the great Dao, worldly matters are all decay. I’ve cultivated for over a thousand years. Many companions have turned to bones, past events as fleeting smoke.”

Lv Qingzhu crouched by Lv Yinlin’s side, smiling coquettishly, ”Father, Qingzhu has always wanted to ask you a question. Despite a thousand years of cultivation, father, are you happy?”

”Happy...?” Lv Yinlin’s eyes flickered, this question seemed to prick him.

It seems he hasn’t heard this word in a long time. It seems he has forgotten what happiness is.

Lv Qingzhu looked at Lv Yinlin’s dazed expression, suddenly flipped her hand, handing something over to Lv Yinlin.

Lv Yinlin lowered his gaze, it was a smooth polished ocarina.

Lv Qingzhu smiled, ”Father, could you play a tune for Qingzhu?”

Lv Yinlin took the ocarina and asked, ”Did you buy it down the mountain?”

”Yes,” Lv Qingzhu replied, ”At an antique shop in a remote place.”

”There are still such old things in this world!” Lv Yinlin sighed and gently held the ocarina with both hands, placing it against his lips.

A simple and elegant melody began to sound in this serene valley.

Lv Qingzhu lay on Lv Yinlin’s legs, gradually closing her eyes.

The ocarina, only when father plays it, carries that rich and unadorned atmosphere...

While Lv Yinlin played, the question Lv Qingzhu asked earlier floated in his mind.

Was he happy during a thousand years of cultivation?

He remembered, he should have been happy once, but that seemed to be a very remote thing...

In a dead silent darkness, a sudden cough echoed, followed by the sound of labored breathing.

Yang Zhen’s head throbbed, feeling like it was about to split.

He gasped for a while in the darkness, his chest heaving violently.

Memories slowly returned to him.

”Did you, not kill me?”

Yang Zhen stood in the darkness, as if asking the void, or perhaps himself. He touched his chest, where a wound had scarred over.

Yang Zhen’s eyes gradually adapted to the darkness, he could vaguely discern this was a small chamber.

His heart stirred and he began searching his clothes, soon pulling out a flint from the inner pocket.

Yang Zhen flicked the flint, gently blowing out a flame.

In the light of the flame, he suddenly felt the earthen-walled chamber seemed familiar.

”This is...”

Yang Zhen suddenly recalled, this was the underground chamber where Jie Lei and Xu Ruhu died.

Yang Zhen suddenly shouted, ”Duan Rong!”

But the surroundings were silent, no sound answered him.