Immortalis

Yin Residence 6

Afterward, the three of them smoothly settled in the Xue residence, largely thanks to Yang Wujian's fabricated story.

Seeing how assertive the One-Eyed Daoist was, Yang Wujian immediately seized the opportunity, repeatedly praising the One-Eyed Daoist's profound mastery of the Dao. They dared not show off their meager skills before an expert, but with saving lives being urgent, why not let them stay as well? For the next seven days, they could assist the One-Eyed Daoist in his rituals.

Upon hearing this, Xue Mingchang, who had long been desperate enough to try anything, naturally couldn't refuse. He promptly allowed the three to stay, treating them to fine wine and food, hoping they could save his life.

However, from the moment Yang Wujian first laid eyes on the One-Eyed Immortal, he knew that if Xue Mingchang was truly haunted by a vengeful spirit, probably no one here could save him.

"So, all these years I haven't seen you, you've become a Daoist?"

Just after dusk, in a secluded corner of Jingyang City, Yang Wujian emerged from the darkness, having already reverted to his male form.

Not far away, the One-Eyed Daoist waved two jars of wine in his hands and laughed, "That's a long story."

The two found a rooftop, away from the bustling streets and crowds, and opened the wine jars under the moonlight, finally beginning to catch up properly.

The One-Eyed Daoist sighed with emotion, "Wu Jian, I never expected that after all these years apart, your Bone Shrinking skill has become so masterful. If you wore a mask over your face, I might not even recognize you."

"Baihe, you sound like my father saying that."

Yang Wujian took a sip of wine, and the two laughed together.

If one were to rank the Ten Elders of Longevity by seniority, without a doubt, Yang Wujian would be the youngest among them.

He was only five or six years old when Gu Yun found and brought him back, and by then, Baihe was already twenty years old.

From the first day Yang Wujian knew him, Baihe had already been Elder Baihe. Due to his solid martial arts foundation, he often stayed by the Old Palace Master's side and was the Old Palace Master's most trusted confidant.

Fifteen years ago, when Guanri stirred up a storm of bloodshed in the martial world, Baihe also carried out many tasks for the Old Palace Master. In fact, quite a few Flesh Conduits were personally thrown into the Alchemy Furnace by Baihe.

"How long has it been since we last met? Fifteen years? Fourteen years?"

Baihe smiled nostalgically.

He even remembered how Yang Wujian, as a child, would toddle after him begging for food. But in the blink of an eye, Yang Wujian had grown as tall as him.

He smiled wryly, "Is everything at Longevity Palace alright? How are Gu Yun and Mingshan doing now?"

Yang Wujian shrugged, "Not great, not terrible. We've been lying low all these years, staying out of the martial world, so it's been relatively peaceful. But, as you know, Blood Deficiency Syndrome is troublesome. Gu Yun has been refining medicines, and Mingshan has his hands full with a lot of matters. No choice, they had to send me out to search for medicinal herbs."

Baihe recalled what he saw during the day, "Are you following those two people now to find herbs too?"

"Of course not, but after all, I'm still an elder. When it concerns Longevity Palace, I have to take charge."

Yang Wujian briefly explained the recent situation, and Baihe's expression grew increasingly grave, "The Boundless Sword Manor is reorganizing the Four Seas Alliance mainly to target Longevity Palace?"

Yang Wujian sneered coldly. Without those girlish hair accessories, his profile looked much less soft.

"They're just looking for an excuse to reorganize. Who knows, they might still be after the Longevity Heart Sutra. If you ask me, those old fogies seem more and more eager for immortality with each passing day."

Yang Wujian took another big gulp of wine.Though he hailed from Longevity Palace, Yang Wujian had always felt deep down that the Longevity Heart Sutra was an Evil Entity.

He thought, if not for practicing the rumored fourth chapter said to grant immortality, Guanri wouldn't have succumbed to qi deviation, ultimately bringing such calamity upon Longevity Palace.

That person had been perfectly normal before—even Yang Wujian's Bone Shrinking and voice modulation techniques were taught by the Old Palace Master.

Baihe detected the displeasure in his tone and asked, "Wu Jian, after practicing the Longevity Heart Sutra for so long, don't you desire immortality?"

"What's there to crave about such elusive fantasies?"

Yang Wujian hadn't drunk alcohol in ages, and coupled with his injuries, his tolerance was low. He soon felt lightheaded.

He recalled when he first practiced the Longevity Heart Sutra as a child—Gu Yun had told him then that although the sutra held immense power, it drained one's vitality. In other words, every use came at the cost of burning one's lifespan.

Yet Yang Wujian couldn't care less. Before entering Longevity Palace, he couldn't even eat his fill. His parents had handed him over to someone else, who turned out to be so starving they intended to eat him. Yang Wujian barely escaped with his life, begging on the streets until he nearly starved to death—only then was he picked up by Gu Yun.

Having endured such days, what was wrong with trading his life for a dignified existence?

Yang Wujian laughed. "I've never practiced the Longevity Heart Sutra for immortality—only so I'd never have to beg humbly for a meal again. Besides, from Crimson Gold to Northern Xiang to Datong, emperors have come and gone. The righteous martial sects preach about vanquishing evil and upholding justice, yet people still starve and suffer injustice. Baihe, in such a world, why would I want to live so long?"

Hearing this, Baihe stared at him blankly for a long moment before smiling wryly. "They say once you practice the Longevity Heart Sutra, there's no turning back. Wu Jian, you're the youngest, yet you see things clearer than any of us."

"What about you? Do you truly crave immortality?"

Emboldened by drink, Yang Wujian voiced the question he'd held back for years.

"Didn't you leave back then precisely because you believed the Old Palace Master's efforts were futile? Trading countless lives for elusive immortality—was it ever worth it?"

The tragedy from fifteen years remained vivid in his mind.

After Guanri went on a deranged killing spree for days, five of the Ten Elders of Longevity had fallen in battle. Baihe lost an eye and lay unconscious from severe injuries, while Gu Yun and Mingshan—both under twenty at the time—were powerless against Guanri.

It was during this chaos that Yang Wujian secretly infiltrated the Alchemy Room.

He'd been inside a few times before, only to find corpses. Refusing to give up, he clung to the hope of saving someone. Even though each visit left him too terrified to sleep, he kept returning.

He never imagined he'd actually find a living person there.

Inside the Black Iron Cage, a young girl merely stared back at him silently, not even begging for release. Yet it was her utterly lifeless eyes that compelled Yang Wujian to reach for the lock.

He freed her from the cage. The child was emaciated, much like he had been when he first arrived at Longevity Palace. Because of her size, she alone could squeeze through the narrow crevice in the rocks.

"Hurry, follow this path to escape..."Yang Wujian struggled to lift her up, unsure where his courage came from, but in that moment, he felt no regret about saving this child.

He didn't want any more children like him to become souls lost to this furnace.

"Whatever you do, don't look back."

Yang Wujian had released the most promising Flesh Conduit for becoming a Cicada Molt. As expected, Guanri flew into a rage afterward, wanting to tear him limb from limb on the spot, but was stopped by Mingshan and Gu Yun.

The two exhausted all efforts to save Yang Wujian's life from the Old Palace Master. In the end, Guanri was expelled from Longevity Palace, and by the time Baihe woke up, the new palace master had become the haggard-looking Elder Mingshan.

Six months later, Baihe followed the Old Palace Master and left Longevity Palace, vanishing without a trace ever since. Yang Wujian never saw him again either.

Seeing Baihe remain silent, Yang Wujian drained the wine from the jar and gazed at the moon in the sky.

"When we were young, Gu Yun said that most people in Longevity Palace have Northern Desert bloodlines. It's because we couldn't hold our heads high in Datong that we came together. I don't have Northern Desert blood, but I still consider you all my family. After all, I have nowhere else to go in this world. I chose longevity not because I desire immortality, but because Longevity Palace is my home."

The rooftop fell silent, leaving only the bright moon shining upon the two of them.

Baihe remained quiet for a long time before finally saying, "Whether it's me, Mingshan, Gu Yun, or those brothers and sisters who have passed away - we all knew the Old Palace Master long before. Just as you said, we shared the same origin. That's why we were willing to go that far for him back then."

Yang Wujian asked again, "Then all these years, haven't you regretted helping him kill so many people?"

Baihe smiled faintly, "Many things in this world don't allow for regret. Just like one's origin, it's determined from the start. No matter what choices you make, you'll end up letting someone down."

The drunken Yang Wujian couldn't quite understand, but Baihe continued speaking.

"All these years, whenever I close my eyes at night, I remember the furnace fires in the Alchemy Room. Wu Jian, don't laugh at me, but I've actually asked myself many times - was it worth it? I can't find the answer to that question. So I can only keep running around, originally just to earn some money to survive. But later, I found that I often couldn't stand the ways of this world either. So I ended up picking up people here and there to raise."

"Picking up people?"

Yang Wujian was startled, "You mean those daoist children you have with you? The ones missing arms and legs?"

Baihe smiled bitterly, "Yes. When I picked them up, they were about the same age as those Flesh Conduits. I couldn't just leave them be, so I brought them along, finding ways to earn money to support them. Anyway, I'm missing an eye, they're missing arms and legs - we make a perfect troupe."

Only then did Yang Wujian realize he was talking about Xue Mingchang. He chuckled, "Baihe, be honest with me - it wasn't you pretending to be a ghost to scare him, was it? I saw the talismans you drew in that suburban house. And Xue Mingchang really is a fat sheep - even I'd want to fleece him."

He said this half-jokingly to probe Baihe's intentions, but immediately made the other man laugh.

"What are you thinking, Wu Jian? I'm just a wandering martial artist now. Getting involved with these officials brings me no benefit at all. Besides, the little ones I'm raising are all living people with tongues that can speak."Baihe said helplessly, "I was just passing through this area and came after hearing about the hauntings in his house. I looked into it earlier—that suburban residence was the site of a jianghu tragedy ten years ago, and there have long been rumors of the Tongueless Ghost. To make Xue Mingchang trust me, I had to visit the house first, putting on a show of performing some rituals. But I never expected that house would actually have some peculiarities."

"So it seems you also noticed someone repairing that building..."

Yang Wujian frowned.

Seeing Baihe's completely bewildered expression, he recounted the old events that had occurred in that haunted house. Just as expected, Baihe immediately said the same thing as Shen Qingshi.

"Impossible. The Old Palace Master only wants living Flesh Conduits. Moreover, you should know that a Flesh Conduit isn't simply captured and thrown into the Alchemy Furnace—there are many preparations to be made beforehand."

"Indeed."

Yang Wujian recalled the young girl he had let go. If that was Shen Qingshi, he wouldn't be surprised at all that she had now become a ruthless imperial agent.

After all, that was what Longevity Palace had taught her.

They were the ones who taught her how to slice open another living creature's throat with a blade.

Yang Wujian's expression darkened. "Did Xue Mingchang reveal anything to you before?"

"He's very tight-lipped. I tried probing earlier, but up to now, Xue Mingchang has only told me that the previous four victims might be connected. The Tongueless Ghost hoped the county magistrate would investigate and bring him justice, but that didn't happen. So eventually, the Tongueless Ghost set his sights on him."

After pondering for a moment, Baihe added, "Wu Jian, if you want to investigate this case, perhaps over the next few days I can find a way to pressure him. We might scare him into revealing something."