Where Immortals Once Walked

Chapter 622: Betraying One’s Master Is Original Sin

Ke Shouyi said from the side, “Anything that the imperial court has strictly forbidden for sale is something we, as law-abiding protectors of the law, would never dare touch. We only knew Qingfu Temple had flourishing incense offerings. Who would have thought there was so much filth behind it? We truly grieve for the monsterfolk who were harmed.”

Ke Yanjing’s expression turned solemn. “Your Highness, my Ke Family would also like to do what little we can for the murdered monsterfolk...”

Fushan Yue raised a hand and cut him off, “Debts have their debtors, and wrongs have their wrongdoers. How could this be allowed to fall on the Ke Family? A little compensation is something the State of Chiyan can still afford.”

He Lingchuan watched them steer the topic away in just a few sentences and thought, Impressive.

The Ke Family was closely connected to State Preceptor Qing Yang. How could they know nothing at all about the elixir of youth case? However, now that State Preceptor Qing Yang was under suspicion from the Heavenly Palace, the Ke Family probably wanted to draw a clear line between themselves and her.

The problem was that it was far from a simple ordeal to do so.

So He Lingchuan picked up the thread himself, “Lord Ke, I hear that Mount Xu’s guardian spirit has been exclusively receiving offerings from the Ke Family for over a century?”

“That’s right,” Ke Shouyi said with a smile. “Thanks to Lord Juju’s favor, its food and daily offerings are all provided by the Ke Family.”

He Lingchuan looked curious. “The Lord Guardian Spirit isn’t human, so I wonder what it usually eats and uses, and what its appetite is like.” What would something like a rock-fire aberrant creature even like to eat? Can it even taste anything?

Fushan Yue shot him a look. “Is that something you can just ask?” Inwardly, however, he wanted to know just as much.

Ke Shouyi said magnanimously, “Oh, there’s nothing about this that can’t be said. The Ke Family has made offerings to Lord Juju for many years. These things have long ceased to be secret. Everyone knows.”

Fushan Yue’s smile did not change, but inwardly he cursed.

In his early years, he had been squeezed out and excluded in Lingxu City. These details were things he genuinely did not know!

“Lord Juju enjoys eating unusual ores. The rarer, the better. If it is some strange metal refined from a meteorite from beyond the heavens, then to it, that is a first-rate delicacy,” Ke Yanjing explained on his father’s behalf. “If ores are its staple food, then aged spirit woods are snacks to Lord Juju. Aside from that, it also likes things such as the blood of mountain ranges and stone blood as condiments.”

“That sounds extremely difficult to collect.”

“So long as Lord Juju likes it, the Ke Family will travel to the ends of the earth to search for it.” Ke Shouyi sighed. “Take the blue spirit gold we purchased from the east ten years ago. Lord Juju ate it once and has never forgotten it, constantly instructing us to find more. But that was a treasure extracted from a meteorite. It can only be encountered by chance, not sought by effort. So many years have passed, and we have never found a second piece.”

He Lingchuan understood. The rock-fire aberrant creature’s tastes were difficult and exacting. Aside from the Ke Family, few others could find food that satisfied it.

That difficulty itself formed a moat, pushing other nobles out of the competition.

This was also one reason the Ke Family’s position in Lingxu City was so stable.

“For rare ores like frost-veined iron or white ru silver, several hundred kilograms must be offered at a time. If it’s ordinary ore, then several thousand kilograms are needed in one offering.”

He Lingchuan remained curious. “Then does Lord Juju not eat people?”

Many monsters retained the habit of eating humans, and the reason was simple.

Humans mostly had no fur, their skin was thin, and they were easy to eat.

The Ke father and son both laughed. “What benefit would human flesh have for Lord Juju?”

“Then Lord Juju must be very fond of Tianji Peak’s Dao-Seeking Tree, or maybe the Baoshu King?”

“That Dao-Seeking Tree is an old friend of Lord Juju’s, and their friendship runs deep. I hear it existed long before Lord Juju awakened intelligence.” Ke Yanjing continued, “When it comes to the Dao-Seeking Tree’s branches and leaves, Lord Juju stopped caring to eat them long ago.”

Is this a case of a rabbit not eating the grass beside its own burrow?

“As for the Baoshu King’s branches and leaves, we truly did go ask for them.” Ke Yanjing smiled. “The Baoshu King was generous and really did give some.”

He Lingchuan asked again, “Does Lord Ke make the offerings at home, or bring them to Star-Plucking Tower?”

A trace of anger flashed across Ke Shouyi’s face. Clearly, his skill at self-restraint was not as refined as State Preceptor Qing Yang’s, and he let something show.

Ke Yanjing answered instead, “He Xiao jests. The Heavenly Palace has always required us to go to Star-Plucking Tower to offer to Lord Juju. How would my family dare overstep even half a step?”

Fushan Yue gave a light cough. “He Xiao comes from another state and doesn’t know all these Lingxu City rules.”

“The Heavenly Palace is built on Mount Xu. Lord Juju is both Mount Xu’s guardian spirit and the Heavenly Palace’s guardian, so its status is extremely special,” explained Ke Yanjing. “That is why the Heavenly Palace assigned my family to specially manage Lord Juju’s food and offerings.”

“So that’s how it is.” He Lingchuan looked disappointed. “I’ve been to Star-Plucking Tower, but I didn’t see Lord Juju appear.”

“It often sleeps deep within Mount Xu. It only appears when consuming offerings.”

He Lingchuan sighed. “Can we only see it at the lava pool? Is there any chance of waiting elsewhere?”

Ke Shouyi laughed. “Lord Juju does not like dealing with humans. Usually, it will not show itself before people.” More precisely, the guardian spirit did not care about ordinary people at all and was too lazy even to come out and glance at them.

Ke Yanjing added, “There is a legend that Tianji Peak has a cave abode leading straight to the lava caves under the mountain. Perhaps...” He shrugged. “But for these past few centuries, everyone has searched around Tianji Peak thoroughly. Whether it be soil pits, ponds, or stone cracks, nothing was overlooked, yet nothing was found.”

Fushan Yue made a sound of realization. “Right, there are hot springs inside the tree hollow on Tianji Peak.”

Hot springs were formed by geothermal heat.

In truth, He Lingchuan understood clearly that the Heavenly Palace did not want the rock-fire aberrant creature to have too much contact with the outside world, lest outsiders find an opening. Juju was already full of schemes, unlike ordinary elemental aberrant creatures with their simple honesty. If it joined hands with others to plot against the Heavenly Palace, Lingxu City would have quite a headache.

But this sort of thing could not be completely guarded against. Fortunately, the Heavenly Palace had the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array, so Juju could not just outrightly overturn the heavens.

Ke Yanjing did not want to keep extending this topic, so he said to Fushan Yue, “Our family and Chiyan may have many opportunities to cooperate in the future. Shall we discuss them?”

Fushan Yue happily agreed.

By the time they left the Ke Residence, the sky was already dark.

Fushan Yue sat in the carriage, secretly circulating true energy to expel the smell of wine. His face quickly stopped being red, but the carriage compartment filled with a strong scent of alcohol.

He Lingchuan pulled open the curtain, letting the evening wind carry the smell away.

“So the Ke Family wants to marry a daughter to you.” Earlier in the Plum Garden, the two of them had “happened upon” four or five Ke Family daughters. All were young ladies of sixteen or seventeen, carefully made up, lovely and charming. Whenever they saw Fushan Yue, they smiled before speaking, shy and bashful in a way that made one feel protective.

Later, Ke Shouyi had hinted at that he wanted to become in-laws with the future ruler of Chiyan.

Fushan Yue was already the crown prince. Barring accidents, he would inherit the throne, and the Ke Family’s position in Lingxu City would then become even more secure.

“That’s not impossible, but they’ll have to bring the Ke Family’s money as dowry.” Fushan Yue laughed. “I can make room for a consort position.”

By rights, with the Ke Family’s wealth ranking among the very highest in Lingxu City, and with the gods’ favor upon them, they ought to wield great authority. However, that was not actually the case. Lingxu City’s old nobles still looked down on the Ke Family from the marrow of their bones.

In their eyes, the Ke Family was nothing but a clan of upstarts who had betrayed their old master. Even after being steeped in Lingxu City for more than a hundred years, that had not changed.

Their wealth and honor had come from selling out their master and their state. The root was crooked.

That was called original sin.

The noble elegance cultivated over six hundred years in Lingxu City was something even the Ke Family could not fully enter.

Therefore, forming a marriage alliance with a vassal monster king would significantly raise the Ke Family’s status.

This was the classic union of power and money.

Fushan Yue then teased him by saying, “Earlier in the Plum Garden, I noticed Ke Yanjing’s little sister kept sneaking glances at you. Are you interested?”

Wealthy households could reproduce more prolifically than pigs. The Ke Family had originally been an aristocratic family in the State of Yuān, and later preserved its strength in Lingxu City. After more than a century of prosperity, it had grown into a great family of nearly three thousand people, not even counting distant collateral branches.

With so many young, beautiful maidens in their budding years, the spring-flowered garden seemed all the more dazzling. It truly stirred the heart.

Those Ke Family daughters had also seen two young men before them. Both were equally tall, handsome, and spirited, but Fushan Yue was the Crown Prince of Chiyan, so he naturally received more attention.

He Lingchuan shook his head and said, “Too high for me to climb.”

“I can reluctantly help arrange it.”

“There’s truly no need.” Perhaps because of the old affairs of the State of Yuān, He Lingchuan had no natural fondness for the Ke Family. “Daughters of wealth and nobility are hard to serve. With the little money I earn, they wouldn’t look at me.” He then immediately asked Fushan Yue, “When I asked about the offerings earlier, why did the Ke father and son look so unhappy?”

“For all these years, Lingxu City has always had a rumor that the Ke Family privately makes offerings to Mount Xu’s guardian spirit,” Fushan Yue said with a smile. “The Ke Family has come out to clarify several times and even invited the Heavenly Palace to send people to search their home, proving their innocence. Despite all that, the rumor still lingers faintly to this day. The moment you brought it up, the Ke Family naturally felt annoyed.”

Refuting rumors could make a person run until their legs broke. “So does their family privately offer to Juju or not?”

The two looked at each other and burst into laughter.

“I don’t think they need to. Isn’t obediently going up Mount Xu to make offerings good enough? Only by wholeheartedly obeying the gods can the Ke Family preserve its foundation for the long term.” Fushan Yue rinsed his mouth with tea. “It’s just that they’re too rich and have made quite a few enemies in Lingxu City, so gossip is inevitable. Why are you so concerned about Mount Xu’s guardian spirit?”

“I just can’t help but be curious.” He Lingchuan’s tone was leisurely. “Lingxu City has enjoyed fair winds and timely rains for several centuries, yet there was suddenly a major earthquake more than ten years ago. I hear it had something to do with this guardian spirit of Mount Xu.”

“Mm-hm.” Fushan Yue nodded. “I was in Lingxu City then. I remember the Lord Emperor was furious. The Ke Family was severely reprimanded, and the mining rights to their profound crystal vein were almost taken back. It was only thanks to the gods stepping in to mediate that it didn’t happen. From then on, the family’s days have been less carefree than before.”

“This was a major matter. How could the Ke Family be so careless?”

“Who knows?” Fushan Yue shrugged. “Because of that incident, several of the Ke Family’s suppliers were imprisoned and executed.”

That night, there were stars but no moon.

In his own courtyard, He Lingchuan practiced the saber for an hour. By the time he stopped, four horizontal lines had appeared on the trunk of the peach tree.

The mirror asked curiously, “What does that mean?”

“The four things I have to do.” Fleeting Thoughts Manor now had other people’s eyes and ears, so he did not say it aloud.

When he had first arrived in Lingxu City, the city’s dazzling complexity had nearly overwhelmed him. But after going through so many twists and turns, the tasks He Lingchuan needed to handle next had gradually become clear.

His first task, and the most important one, was to take the Generous Pot’s lid from Star-Plucking Tower.