Chapter 64 Part 1

S City is famous for their waterways, and there are three large lakes and many other small lakes within the city. Jingdu Lake is located in the Industrial Park, and it’s one of the largest lakes there. In the past century, S City dug up the silt at the bottom of the lake and used it to build a man-made island at the center. This island became today’s Peach Blossom Island, which is also one of the tourist attractions in S City.

Ye Jingzhi and Cengxiu-zhenjun rushed to Jingdu Lake without stopping and met up with Xi Jia. When Cengxiu-zhenjun saw Ziying, he was shocked speechless. Xi Jia immediately realized and explained, “Ziying came to find me from Chang’an just yesterday. Senior Cengxiu, Ziying can’t stay outside for too long, he only wanted to take a look. I will accompany him the entire time.”

Ziying couldn’t leave the Mausoleum for too long. Moreover, Xi Jia would be with him the entire time which made Cengxiu-zhenjun feel much more at ease. In Cengxiu-zhenjun’s heart, Qin San Shi was after all not Qin Shi Huang. His strength was not as good as his father. Plus, half a year ago, Qin San Shi took the initiative to ask to return to the Mausoleum. This instance gave the Xuanxue world a wave of favorable impressions. Each time “Ghosts Know” posted about the Mausoleum, there would be a huge wave of positive criticism. From this, Ziying’s rating amongst the Celestial Masters of the Xuanxue world was pretty high.

——At least, it was higher than Papa First Emperor by several steps.

With Xi Jia’s a.s.surance, Cengxiu-zhenjun no longer paid any mind to the matter of Ziying leaving the Mausoleum.

The four took the speedboat to Peach Blossom Island. After arriving at the little island, Cengxiu-zhenjun took out a light azure luopan and started to survey the surroundings. The copper needle at the center of the compa.s.s trembled intensely. Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi followed behind Cengxiu-zhenjun, waiting for him to survey and sound out any abnormalities on this small island.

Some surrounding tourists noticed Cengxiu-zhenjun’s actions, and they all looked strangely over at them. Half an hour later, the four had already walked through the entire Peach Blossom Island. Cengxiu-zhenjun’s complexion was heavy as he set down his luopan. He lifted his head and looked at Xi Jia, “Young Daoist Xi, this poor daoist did not find anything abnormal about this island. Dare to ask Young Daoist Xi, what is so strange about this place?”

Cengxiu-zhenjun wasn’t familiar with Ziying. His words seemed to be asking Xi Jia when in fact he was asking Ziying.

Xi Jia turned his head to look at Ziying, and Ziying spoke, “This matter is difficult to describe. However, old gentleman, this island is somewhat similar to the seventh level of my Father Emperor’s Palace of Eternal Life.”

Cengxiu-zhenjun immediately said, “This island should have been built in the last century. At that time, a fellow daoist of the Xuanxue world was probably invited to survey the location and Fengshui. This island’s affinity is towards yang, the water dragon flows underground, yin and yang are compatible, and the elements are balanced. One island at the heart of the lake, the Water Dragon King dominates at the bottom of the lake. After this poor daoist had just used the luopan to calculate this island’s Fengshui and also used the Zi Wei Xing techniques to calculate the Big Dipper (Tian Gang) Principles of Yin and Yang, there isn’t any problem. Although it’s unlikely for the purple qi to rise in the east, it’s also not a bad treasured location and terrain, and it doesn’t resemble a place of yin affinity.”¹

Three hundred years ago, the Xuanxue world had discovered the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. Although no Celestial Master was able to enter the second level of the Mausoleum all these years, they had long found information from various historical texts. They knew Xu Fu and Li Si had laid down a river of mercury inside the Mausoleum to build the Palace of Eternal Life.

Ziying said that this island was similar to the Palace of Eternal Life. Cengxiu-zhenjun’s initial reaction was that the island was built according to the specifications of the Mausoleum. The yin energy was as rich as the palace of Eternal Life. However, this island was clearly an ordinary Fengshui tourist island. The yin energy wasn’t that prominent. On the contrary, because of the good Fengshui and it’s position leaning towards yang, the yang energy was sufficient.

Ziying didn’t know how to explain to Cengxiu-zhenjun for a while. He didn’t understand yin-yang and the eight trigrams. It was only because he had been to the Palace of Eternal Life before that he was able to sense the similarities between this island and the Palace of Eternal Life.

Since the matter couldn’t be resolved, Ziying once again insisted that the aura of this island was similar to the Palace of Eternal Life. Cengxiu-zhenjun naturally couldn’t let it go.

The island wasn’t large. Cengxiu-zhenjun took the luopan and continued to search for abnormalities on the island. Ziying tried his best to recall all the things he had seen in the Palace of Eternal Life in order to find a point that was similar to this island.

Since such a thing suddenly happened, Xi Jia was no longer able to catch today’s high-speed rail, much less go to Hainan Island for vacation. Wu Xiang Mountain was proficient in ghost hunting and expelling devils. In regards to differentiating Fengshui points and Zi Wei Xing techniques, Ye Jingzhi didn’t have a deep understanding. He could do nothing about this so he and Xi Jia strolled around the island without deliberately looking for the abnormality.

Xi Jia’s luggage had been placed inside the Qiankun bag by Ye Jingzhi. He turned his hand and saw Ziying carefully examining the island and Cengxiu-zhejun endlessly running about with the luopan. He said ruefully in a low voice, “Senior Cengxiu really is a reliable person.”

Ye Jingzhi didn’t hear it clearly, “What?”

Xi Jia shook his head, “Nothing. Originally, I planned on taking Ziying to see this world. Sadly, this kind of thing suddenly happened. It’s probably not possible to go this time and can only wait until Ziying comes out of the Mausoleum next time. Before, I merely wanted to tell you guys about this before Ziying and I left for the high-speed rail. I didn’t expect Ziying to be unwilling to leave.”

Ye Jingzhi asked in surprise, “Qin San Shi is not willing to leave?”

Xi Jia nodded, “Yes. Ziying said that this might be related to the Palace of Eternal Life so he couldn’t leave.”

In the Xuanxue world, why was Ziying’s popularity higher than Papa First Emperor, and why didn’t Cengxiu-zhenjun have any huge reaction to Ziying leaving the Mausoleum?

Because Ziying was just that righteous!

If it was Papa First Emperor, who would care if your Xuanxue world died or not? So what about the people of S City in the future? This island’s a bit like the Palace of Eternal Life? How dare your tiny island be similar to Our Palace of Eternal Life? Papa will split you to pieces with a palm!

The travel plan was already ruined. Xi Jia wasn’t upset. Just that it was a pity Ziying couldn’t see the world this time. Ye Jingzhi and he strolled around the rockery on the island and came to another small pavilion.

The surrounding tourists endlessly took pictures on Peach Blossom Island. From this island, you could see the high-rise buildings on both sides of the lake. Many of S City’s landmarks were along the sh.o.r.es of Jingdu Lake, and many tourists didn’t come to Peach Blossom Island to see the island but to see the modern city.

Xi Jia took out his phone and took a few photos of the Qiuku building. He turned his head and saw Ye Jingzhi silently looking up at the plaque hanging on the pavilion.

Xi Jia said with a smile, “What, you’re interested in this pavilion? It doesn’t feel that special, it’s quite ordinary.”

Peach Blossom Island was a man-made tourist attraction. The pavilions on it are only a couple decades old. They’re an imitation of ancient buildings and definitely not as famous as the Zuiweng Pavilion and Taoran Pavilion.

Hearing Xi Jia speak, Ye Jingzhi immediately returned to his senses. He happened to stand beside Xi Jia and went to hold his hand without thinking. There were too many tourists around, and Xi Jia subconsciously stepped aside. Ye Jingzhi was stunned, blankly looking at Xi Jia.

Seeing Master Ye’s wronged and not understanding look, Xi Jia’s heart went soft. He inwardly sighed and took the initiative to hold hands.

Only then did Ye Jingzhi feel satisfied and started to explain, “Just now, Senior Cengxiu and I discovered a very strange crazy person in the ancient district. The crazy person was a woman around 50 years old, and she has been crazy for 30 years. When she saw Senior Cengxiu, she actually took a knife and attacked him, saying he’s a ghost. I naturally know that Senior Cengxiu is not a ghost, so I wanted to see if there are any special circ.u.mstances that this woman had. Then, we noticed that she simply became insane. It’s neither a ghost possessing her nor an evil spirit causing trouble. Later, we heard from the woman’s family that she was found in a garden. At that time, she had already become crazy, hiding under the lotus pond. There’s a pavilion there, and I heard it’s a very famous pavilion.”

Xi Jia blurted, “Canglang Pavilion?”

Ye Jingzhi, “It seems to be called that.”

Xi Jia smiled helplessly, “Of course that pavilion is famous. It’s a very important tourist attraction in S City. The garden you went to before isn’t famous. Every person in S City never mentions the name of the garden and would only say the Canglang Pavilion. There is actually someone who went crazy there 30 years ago?”

Ye Jingzhi gently nodded.

Just as Xi Jia wanted to say something, he heard a faint voice not far away transmit over, “Gay? Those two guys are holding hands, hey.”

“No way, there really are two gays?”

“Look look, they’re really holding hands.”

Xi Jia slightly wrinkled his brows. Turning his eyes to look at where the voices were coming from, he saw a few men and women around thirty years old pointing fingers at them. With an indifferent expression, Xi Jia pulled Ye Jingzhi around and left. Ye Jingzhi left, being lead by Xi Jia. The two quickly winded into the rockery. Randomly walking around, they disappeared into the rockery.

After the commenting voices of those men and women faded away, Xi Jia released a sigh, and a low voice softly sounded, “Jia Jia, you don’t like them?”

Xi Jia didn’t know how to explain.

He had once talked to Ye Jingzhi about this kind of problem, but Master Ye always lived secluded and rarely came out. Even when going out, he would only ghost hunt and simply didn’t understand this sort of thing.

For example, in the past, Ye Jingzhi had booked a 5-star hotel for him to stay at in Chang’an. But later, Xi Jia learned that Ye Jingzhi would go out by himself and most of the time wasn’t spent in the hotel. He didn’t need to rest. Sometimes, he would spend the entire night ghost hunting. If he wasn’t ghost hunting, then he would sit at the park and cultivate. Cultivation made Celestial Masters more energetic than sleeping. There were very few places where someone like Ye Jingzhi would spend money at. He also never thought about enjoying these pleasures. Life was very simple.

If he wasn’t cultivating, then he was hunting ghosts.

It was only after meeting Xi Jia that his life had gained many other things.

Ye Jingzhi hardly communicated with people outside of the Xuanxue world. For ghost hunting, he would always go catch it whenever he saw one. He wouldn’t deliberately go for malicious ghosts with high points. Those rich people who would request him to ghost hunt with high pay had requested him because they had all heard the name “h.e.l.l King Ye.” Even so, what he did was catch ghosts and get paid. After getting paid, the bulk of it was donated to a charity that Yi Lingzi had frequently donated to when he was alive. The remainder was placed in the bank, and he rarely used it.

Such a Ye Jingzhi, if you wanted him to understand that “most people in China still discriminated against h.o.m.os.e.xuality and felt that it was a disease,” Xi Jia simply couldn’t explain it clearly. After all, the Xuanxue world Celestial Masters never thought that it was a disease. On the contrary, there were many Celestial Masters who would spend the rest of their lives with other same s.e.x Celestial Masters.

The Celestial Masters focused on integration of Man and Heaven. s.e.x in their eyes were merely the principles of Yin and Yang.

Thinking up to here, Xi Jia said, “En, I don’t really like them.”

Ye Jingzhi asked in surprise, “Why?”

Xi Jia confidently opened his eyes and blindly said, “They are ugly!”

Ye Jingzhi, “……”

He never knew that his wife would judge people by their appearances, but Master Ye said without the slightest hesitation, “En, they’re ugly.”

Not lowering themselves to the level of those ugly people, Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi started to walk around in the rockery. They quickly followed along a path going down and pa.s.sed through a rock garden before everything suddenly opened up wide. Xi Jia stood beside a huge lotus pond, gazing at the pond full of dried leaves. He said with regret, “When I was little, I also went to Canglang Pavilion to see the lotus pond over there. The lotuses there were really beautiful when they were all in bloom. What a pity, these lotuses have wilted.”

Ye Jingzhi remembered the things he just saw, “Canglang Pavilion is also like this, only withered yellowed lotus leaves are left.”

The two started walking along the pond, and Xi Jia talked about his childhood. At that time, he had just gotten the Mt. Tai stone so he could go out and play as often as a normal child. It was a pity that he hadn’t communicated with his peers for a long time so he couldn’t play along with those kids. Everyday was tough. His father would then carry him to visit various tourist spots in S City.

During his childhood, he didn’t have any good friends, only his father.

Xi Jia thought, “It’s early September, maybe the staff will clean up the dead leaves in the pond in October. By the way, Jingzhi, the red maples of Tianping Mountain will appear soon. When the time comes, let’s go see it. I remember that there is also a lotus pond in Tianping Mountain, but it’s probably also withered.”

Ye Jingzhi naturally obliged.

The two strolled for a while and went back to the original path together.

Translator’s Addition:

Mirror: He is holding my hand! He is holding my hand! He is holding my hand! *is happy*

Translator’s Notes:

¹ A bunch of Fengshui stuff, translated literally. ↵