Where Immortals Once Walked

Hm, I still need to verify this, though, but that shouldn’t be hard.

He Lingchuan looked up. It was nearly dark.

He still needed to see one more person.

He left the family residence and headed toward the rear. Two streets away, tall silk floss trees lined both sides of the road. He stopped beneath one of them and knocked on the door of a nearby house.

Birds of a feather flocked together. Anyone who could afford to live in this neighborhood was comfortably well-off.

The man who opened the door froze when he saw He Lingchuan, then hurriedly stepped aside. “Good heavens, Young Master! What brings you here?”

The man was the owner of the house, Ding Zuodong.

He had once served as an old steward of Dunyu’s Shu Family. After He Lingchuan recruited him, Ding Zuodong had helped him purchase property in Dunyu, and he had always performed admirably.

He Lingchuan craned his neck to look into the courtyard and smiled. “Nice place. How long ago did you buy it?”

Naturally, an ordinary family home could not compare to the He Residence, but this little courtyard was a proper house and yard all to itself. Several fruit trees had already spread their branches wide. In summer, sitting beneath them to enjoy the shade and pluck fresh fruit would be quite pleasant.

“We only moved in about seven days ago. We haven’t finished getting everything in order yet.” Ding Zuodong stepped aside. “Please come in, Young Master.”

“No need.” He Lingchuan spotted a child peeking curiously out from inside the house. “Find somewhere private where we can talk.”

“Alright!” His employer would not have come personally without good reason. Ding Zuodong’s expression immediately grew serious. He called something into the house, shut the door behind him, and said, “There’s an abandoned residence nearby. It’s been empty for years. No one goes there.”

They had not walked even seventy meters before reaching it.

This place was right beside the bustling heart of the Yuan capital, yet there were still houses sitting abandoned. The local economy and people’s livelihoods truly were worse than they had been two years earlier.

He Lingchuan spread out his spiritual sense, then swept the surroundings with the mirror as well.

There really was no one nearby.

He went straight to the point. “There’s a problem with Shan Youjun.”

Ding Zuodong was shocked and hurriedly asked what had happened.

He and Shan Youjun were relatives. In fact, when Ding Zuodong first entered Young Master He’s service, Shan Youjun had been the one to introduce them.

He Lingchuan briefly recounted what Shan Youjun had done.

Ding Zuodong’s eyes widened. “Young Master, please judge this fairly! I knew nothing about what Shan Youjun was doing! In the last two weeks, he only came to my house once for a meal!”

Lord He was Lord He, and Young Master He was Young Master He. Though the two were father and son, servants like them absolutely could not afford to pledge their loyalty to the wrong person.

Young Master He had already returned, yet Shan Youjun had continued secretly working for Lord He behind his back. That amounted to deceiving his former master. No master could tolerate such a thing.

Ding Zuodong had spent more than ten years as a steward in a great household and knew perfectly well what those in power considered taboo. He immediately made every effort to distance himself from Shan Youjun.

He Lingchuan waved a hand. “I know. How could I blame you for that? But Shan Youjun has already chosen another master. What about you?”

Sweat instantly sprang out across Ding Zuodong’s forehead. “Naturally, I’ll follow you! I harbor absolutely no second thoughts!”

Seeing that he was about to raise a hand and swear to Heaven, He Lingchuan caught his arm. “Don’t rush to swear anything. There’s something I need to tell you first.” He paused before continuing, “Once this trip to Heishui City is over, I won’t remain in Yuan. You’re a native of Yuan with a family and property here. You should think carefully about what will become of all of you.”

Ding Zuodong was startled. “Where are you going, Young Master?”

“I plan to head east and establish something of my own. I haven’t decided exactly where yet, but leaving Yuan is already certain.” He Lingchuan added pointedly, “And I probably won’t be coming back afterward.”

When He Lingchuan had fallen into the river and disappeared, Ding Zuodong had had no choice but to enter He Chunhua’s service. Yet the instant He Lingchuan returned to Yuan, Ding Zuodong resigned from He Chunhua’s household and immediately came back to his former master.

Clearly, he was a man who valued old ties.

That was precisely why He Lingchuan had invited him along.

Ding Zuodong forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his heart. After thinking seriously for several breaths, he asked, “If you’re traveling so far away, do you truly still have need of someone like me?”

“I truly do!” He Lingchuan nodded. “I’ll be starting over in a new place. Naturally, I’ll need someone to acquire property and manage affairs for me again. People suitable for that sort of work are actually difficult to find.”

First and foremost, it had to be someone he trusted.

How could some newly hired stranger possibly possess that foundation of mutual trust?

“But you already have children and grandchildren. Think it through carefully.” For an ordinary person, following him really did mean leaving one’s native land behind. After death, Ding Zuodong might not even be buried in his ancestral homeland.

Ding Zuodong drew a deep breath. “There’s nothing to think about. I’m going with you.”

He Chunhua was undeniably capable as well. If Ding Zuodong stayed, he could probably live a comfortable and peaceful life.

However, he had far greater expectations for Young Master He!

More importantly, his employer had just said that this time, he was going out to establish something of his own.

If He Lingchuan were starting from nothing, then an old subordinate like Ding Zuodong, who followed him from the very beginning and built everything alongside him, would inevitably become one of the people He Lingchuan trusted and relied upon most.

Perhaps Ding Zuodong himself might even rise with the wind.

He, Ding Zuodong, had no intention of spending the rest of his life as nothing more than a comfortably prosperous commoner!

He Lingchuan was not surprised. “And your family? What will you do with them?”

A man as energetic and driven as Ding Zuodong usually had a fire smoldering somewhere inside him.

Ding Zuodong answered without hesitation, “They’ll listen to me.”

He Lingchuan smiled with satisfaction and patted him on the shoulder. “Good. Excellent.”

A man nearing fifty rarely possessed such an appetite for adventure.

“Then take your family south to the port at White Sand Bay. Within three months, I’ll meet you there.” He Lingchuan reminded him, “Keep all of this to yourself. Don’t spread a word.”

“Yes!”

Ding Zuodong saluted him, then hurried home.

He Lingchuan’s proposal had come without warning. He needed to figure out how he was going to explain it to his family.

Only after He Lingchuan himself started walking back did the Soul-Stealing Mirror inside his robes ask, “Hey, are you seriously planning to leave?”

“Mm.”

Yuan was already a complete mess, rotting almost all the way down to the roots. Worse, He Lingchuan had a feeling that the state’s troubles were far from over.

As a transmigrator, he did not have any particularly deep attachment to this state in the first place. So why stay?

A transplanted tree might die, but a person could thrive by moving elsewhere.

The world outside was vast beyond measure. What was the point of confining himself to this tiny patch of Yuan and struggling desperately to build something here? Starting from nothing in some better land was still preferable to remaining here and starting from a deficit.

“Why don’t you go back to Rongshan?” the mirror asked. “It’s easier to enjoy the shade beneath a great tree.”

From what it had seen, Rongshan was an excellent place. Not only was it prosperous, but its people also seemed to share its master’s ideals.

He Lingchuan recalled a famous line from his former world and could not help but laugh. “How can a true man remain beneath another for long?”

If one enjoyed the benefits of living within a system, one also had to tolerate the rules that came with that system.

Unfortunately, someone as freewheeling and unconventional as He Lingchuan hated being constrained by rules and had never particularly enjoyed walking the ordinary road.

That left only one choice. He would have to build something from scratch.

Better to create a system of his own and use it to constrain everyone else.

The mirror grew curious. “Then where do you want to go?”

He Lingchuan had been considering that question as well.

There was no rush. He still had plenty of time. “We’ll know when the time comes.”

* * *

The night dew hung heavy, and a gentle evening breeze stirred through the darkness.

A great chorus of frogs croaked from the pond, making such a racket that Madame Ying tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Whoosh!

The window suddenly blew open. A gust swept into the room and extinguished the eternal lamp.

The dressing mirror on the table toppled over with a clatter. Scraps of paper went flying everywhere.

“Little Lan!”

Madame Ying’s chief personal maid usually slept in the outer room. If anything happened inside, she would immediately rush in.

Yet no matter how many times Madame Ying called tonight, Little Lan never came.

Madame Ying had no choice but to climb out of bed and close the window herself.

She set the mirror upright again and had barely shifted it into place when she suddenly saw another figure reflected in its surface!

A woman dressed all in white.