The Company

Chapter 38: Jet Black Tripod

Dark clouds blotted out the sky as a sudden gale swept across the land, carrying with it a flurry of goose feather-like snow. Tang Yuan stepped off the bus and politely declined the kind auntie's invitation to wait out the storm in her home across the road. Tightening his small down jacket, he made sure the two candied hawthorn sticks and the package of pastries in his hands were secure before pulling his hat down and plunging headfirst into the blizzard.

"Oh dear! What kind of parent would be so heartless, letting such a young child wander outside alone..." The auntie's muttering gradually faded, carried away by the howling wind until it became inaudible. Tang Yuan wiped the slush from his face, his cheeks immediately turning as red as apples from the cold.

Every time he went to the city market, he would lament why he had to live in such a remote place. Tang Yuan harbored all sorts of grievances but dared not voice them - after all, he was the one who wanted to go out, unlike that ancestor at home who seemed completely detached from worldly affairs. Moreover, he wouldn't dare let that ancestor venture outside either!

Battling through the snowstorm along the mountain path for what felt like an eternity, the ten-year-old Tang Yuan showed no fear walking alone through the mountains. He was so familiar with the terrain that even when the snow nearly blinded him, he could easily avoid the collapsed pits on the road or the sharp rocks protruding from the ground. After running deeper into the forest for another ten-plus minutes and circling around a dense grove, Tang Yuan spotted the familiar corner of his small house's eaves peeking out from beneath an old locust tree.

The cottage was quite inconspicuous, resembling an ordinary farmer's white-walled, red-roofed tile house built in the mountains. Only because of its age had some of the paint on the roof tiles peeled off, and the white walls had taken on a dusty gray appearance, making it look as if no one had lived there for a long time.

Upon seeing the cottage, Tang Yuan didn't slow down but instead picked up speed. Just as he was about to crash into the fence outside the house, he reached out with his small hand, using the fence as support to execute a nimble front flip over the barrier, landing perfectly with a soft thud.

"Ten points!" Tang Yuan waved his little fist, puffing out his chest proudly.

Then came another thud. Looking down, his face immediately soured as he hurriedly picked up the candied hawthorn sticks that had fallen due to his overly enthusiastic movement. Fortunately, he had asked the shopkeeper to wrap an extra layer of kraft paper around them, preventing them from getting dirty.

Shaking the snow from his body and head, Tang Yuan finally pushed the door open and entered. The raging snowstorm was shut behind the wooden door, and warmth immediately enveloped him. As he walked through the house, he began removing layers - down jacket, outer coat, sweater, thermal underwear... By the time he reached the small courtyard at the back of the house, he was left wearing only a tank top and shorts.

Holding the two candied hawthorn sticks and the package of pastries, Tang Yuan swayed slightly as he walked deeper inside, admiring the scenery that never failed to amaze him no matter how many times he saw it.

Outside, it was the bitter cold of deep winter, yet the backyard remained as warm as spring. It was as if an invisible glass barrier hung in the air, blocking all the cold from entering. The garden was carpeted with lush green grass, with hundreds of flowers in full bloom - the scenery was truly no different from summer.This rear garden was completely mismatched with the tiled house outside, as if one had suddenly traveled from the Great Northern Wilderness to a Suzhou-style garden. With artificial hills and peculiar rocks, small bridges and flowing water, pavilions and towers, though the layout wasn't vast, it contained everything one could desire, revealing the master's ingenious design. Beneath the pavilion, there was even a hot spring bubbling with steam, creating an ethereal, fairyland-like atmosphere.

"Tang Yuan, you're back?" Just as Tang Yuan was watching a bee gathering nectar from a peony blossom, a pleasant voice immediately made him bristle.

"I'm not Tang Yuan! It's Tang Yuan! Tang Yuan! Call me Tang Yuan! Otherwise, I won't give you any candied hawthorn!" Tang Yuan stomped his feet, crossed the bridge over the stream, climbed the artificial hill, and saw a young man sitting with his back to him in the pavilion, playing Go. The man was dressed in an ancient crow-blue gauze Daoist robe with crossed collars and wide sleeves, trimmed with ultramarine edging. Upon closer inspection, the robe was embroidered with the eight trigrams of the I Ching, arranged in a mysterious pattern.

He had deep black hair that, up close, revealed a hint of dark blue. Most of his long hair was loosely tied up and casually secured with three ivory hairpins, cascading down his chest like smooth, lustrous silk. As Tang Yuan's footsteps drew nearer, he turned his head.

The young man possessed extraordinarily handsome features, as elegant and refined as an ink-wash painting. However, a fierce dark red scar between his eyebrows completely marred his appearance, evoking sighs of pity. Moreover, his eyes were always closed, clearly indicating impaired vision—he was blind.

"Tang Yuan, the candied hawthorn in your hand is about to melt," the man sighed regretfully.

"Ah!" Tang Yuan immediately realized that the temperature in the rear garden was no different from summer, so the frozen candied hawthorn's sugar coating was naturally melting quickly, even sticking to the outer layer of parchment paper.

The young Daoist smiled faintly, as if he could truly see, and accurately picked up a candied hawthorn from Tang Yuan's hand, extending it beyond the pavilion.

The pavilion was situated at the very edge of the rear garden, where heavy snowflakes still fell outside. As the man moved the candied hawthorn, it seemed to pierce an invisible barrier, instantly exposing it to the sub-zero temperatures of over twenty degrees below zero.

Seeing this, Tang Yuan widened his eyes in amazement, hurriedly sat down on the other side of the stone table, placed his snacks aside, and imitated the young Daoist's action by extending his own candied hawthorn beyond the pavilion. After counting to ten, he retrieved it, peeled off the parchment wrapper, and found the candied hawthorn had indeed refrozen solid.

"This trick is amazing! You really are a connoisseur of food!" Tang Yuan bit into the top hawthorn berry, but it was too hard for his small mouth to chew, so he could only lick the sugar coating slowly. "Hey! Tell me a story? I'm so bored! We can't get any TV signal in this remote wilderness, and this blizzard is just too bizarre!"

The young Daoist was extremely tolerant of Tang Yuan, not minding his impudent behavior, and gently corrected him: "Tang Yuan, you should address me as Master."

Tang Yuan snorted angrily through his little nose: "No way! When you stop calling me Tang Yuan, then I'll call you Master!"The young Taoist smiled faintly. "When I found you, you were as fair and adorable as a glutinous rice ball—just like Tang Yuan!"

"But I've grown up now!" Tang Yuan bit into his candied hawthorn rebelliously, his hair practically bristling with indignation.

"Ah... Didn't you want to hear a story? Let me tell you about a disciple I once took..." The young Taoist retrieved his own candied hawthorn and began elegantly unwrapping the parchment paper. "Long, long ago, my first disciple was from the State of Zhao."

"State of Zhao? Nowadays there's only China!"

"Well... didn't I say it was long, long ago? The State of Zhao existed back then."

"State of Zhao? Do you think I'm uneducated? I've read all the books in your study that I could understand! The State of Zhao only existed among the Seven Warring States! That was ages ago!"

"Oh, actually, descendants of Zhao declared themselves kings again after Qin fell, but Han Xin wiped them out... Ah, I'm digressing again. Didn't you want to hear a story? How can I continue if you keep nitpicking?"

"Fine, fine, go on. My eldest senior brother was from Zhao, and then what?" Tang Yuan grumbled reluctantly, agreeing to listen further. Only then did he notice the sugar on his candied hawthorn was starting to melt again, so he extended it outside the pavilion. Snowflakes quickly covered the treat, the crimson hawthorn berries adorned with pristine snowflakes resembling a flawless work of art.

Hmph! This was the proper way to eat candied hawthorn! His previous methods were utterly pathetic!

The young Taoist ate his candied hawthorn with equal elegance. With two faint gestures of his fingernail over the frozen treat, the top hawthorn berry neatly split into four segments, hovering mid-air. He precisely picked up one quarter and placed it in his mouth, savoring it slowly as he continued, "Back when I was traveling through Zhao, your eldest senior brother was just a child. He offered me an osmanthus candy, and I thought this child showed great promise, so I took him as my first disciple."

Tang Yuan was speechless. That was enough to take on a disciple? A single osmanthus candy could secure such an amazing master? His eldest senior brother was truly fortunate! No, more like cunning! Tang Yuan took a bite of his candied hawthorn and urged, "And then?"

"And then? Then I discovered he had wicked intentions, so I stopped teaching him, left Zhao, and wandered to the State of Qin."

"Wow, it really was the Warring States period! Then what?" Keep making it up! Tang Yuan inwardly mocked, but didn't press further. It was just a story, after all!

"Then? I arrived in Qin, found a pitiful child, and took him as my second disciple."

"Oh, and then?"

"No more 'and then'!" The young Taoist said innocently. "Didn't I say I'd tell you about my former disciples? Well, I actually took many more disciples later, but I figured you, Tang Yuan, might not want to hear all the details."

Tang Yuan helplessly covered his face, realizing that asking this guy to tell stories had been a mistake. Who cared which states his senior brothers were from?

Seeing that Tang Yuan had finally stopped questioning him, the young Taoist contentedly relaxed his brow and began enjoying his candied hawthorn with pleasure.Tang Yuan wasn't particularly fond of such sour-sweet treats. After eating two berries, he lost interest and watched the young Taoist relish them with growing dissatisfaction. So when he noticed the young Taoist's expression shift after biting into a hawthorn berry, Tang Yuan immediately smirked mischievously and teased, "What's wrong? Did you bite into a worm?"

The young Taoist slowly swallowed the hawthorn berry, his closed eyelids trembling slightly as he murmured, "The wind is rising..."

Wind rising? But there was no wind within this barrier! Puzzled, Tang Yuan glanced outside the pavilion and was startled to discover the snowstorm had intensified, completely obscuring the forest across the way...

II

The Doctor cautiously peeked out from the Boss's trench coat pocket. The fierce winds atop Mount Yi whipped his ears about wildly, forcing him to keep most of his body tucked inside lest he be blown away.

Watching the Boss ascend leisurely along Mount Yi's ancient imperial path—known locally as the Royal Road Ridge—the Doctor grew increasingly anxious. For the past month, he had repeatedly tried to dissuade the Boss from using the Red Dragon Robe as the final imperial artifact to anchor the Cosmos Formation. Yet throughout these thirty-plus days, the Boss had failed to find a suitable replacement.

The Red Dragon Robe, personally painted by Emperor Huizong of Song Zhao Ji, was a miraculous garment that preserved its wearer's body from decay. If the Boss removed this robe, he would rapidly decompose and die...

"That bastard hasn't even returned my body to me yet! How could I let you die so easily?" the Doctor muttered under his breath.

"Don't worry, I'll find a way to make him return your body," the Boss replied gently with a smile.

That's not the point at all! Fuming inwardly, the Doctor suddenly realized they had entered a cave—otherwise, the Boss wouldn't have heard his grumbling over the howling wind outside. Shaking his dust-covered long ears, the Doctor surveyed the narrow, fissure-riddled cavern and asked, "Where have we arrived?"

"This is the Progenitor Dragon Cave, named after Qin Shi Huang's ascent through it during his visit to Mount Yi," the Boss explained calmly as he moved slowly through the tunnel.

The Doctor's heart sank. He knew exactly where the Boss was heading—he'd secretly researched it online these past few days. The Boss had located the first eleven burial sites for imperial artifacts. The missing one was the summit of Mount Yi, where Qin Shi Huang had erected his first stone tablet.

Mount Yi, a famous peak near the homeland of Confucius and Mencius, was referenced in Mencius' Jinxin I: "When Confucius ascended the Eastern Mountain, the State of Lu seemed small; when he ascended Mount Tai, the world seemed small." The Eastern Mountain mentioned here precisely refers to Mount Yi. Qin Shi Huang chose this location for his first stone tablet due to its exceptional geographical significance.

Over two millennia later, Mount Yi still stood firm, though now converted into a national 4A-level scenic park. The bitter winter cold and fierce winds left the mountain devoid of other visitors. Passing through the narrow Progenitor Dragon Cave, the Boss emerged at the northeastern exit to find a Peace Tree—legendarily formed from a dropped calligraphy brush of Han Xiangzi, one of the Eight Immortals. This spot was known as the Jade Well to Heaven, barely large enough for a single person to stand.Continuing forward, they reached Mount Yi's main peak, Five Splendors Peak, which was once said to grant "ascension to heaven in a single step." The mountain body was formed by five massive boulders embracing each other, with the tallest and most perilous one called the Sky-Piercing Stone, its summit narrow as a blade's edge. Boss gazed upward for a long while but ultimately did not attempt the climb. Instead, he chose a sheltered spot, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes.

The Doctor knew he was likely waiting for Fusu to appear and fell silent as well, clinging to Boss's pocket while staring unblinkingly at the entrance of the Progenitor Dragon Cave.

After an indeterminate amount of time, the wind atop Mount Yi suddenly grew wild and fierce. Boss's hair whipped about as he slowly opened his eyes and sighed softly, "The wind has risen..."

Tang Yuan propped his chin on one hand, watching the wind and snow outside the pavilion. After staring for so long, it no longer seemed unusual—after all, it couldn't reach him now.

When he finally looked away, Tang Yuan noticed the young Taoist's expression had turned grave, losing its earlier leisurely ease. He had even forgotten about the candied hawthorn he'd specifically requested to eat today.

Suppressing his unease, Tang Yuan chuckled and said, "Hey! Are you still eating this candied hawthorn or not? If not, I'll have it!"

The young Taoist seemed startled, as if jolted from a meditative state, but reflexively parted his lips the next moment. A segment of hawthorn berry obediently floated into his mouth.

Such a glutton! Tang Yuan sweatdropped internally. Looking down at the Go board on the table, he wondered how the blind young Taoist managed to play against himself. Though the board was carved into the smooth stone table and the Taoist could feel the intersecting grooves, with black and white stones differentiated by shape, how mentally exhausting must it be to play this way? As Tang Yuan examined the board, he realized some pieces had been displaced by the snacks he'd casually placed on the table earlier. Tilting his head, he tried to restore the board to its exact original state.

The young Taoist didn't interfere with Tang Yuan's fiddling—in fact, he seemed completely unconcerned about the disrupted board.

But Tang Yuan grew troubled by this unusual silence. Fishing for conversation, he asked, "Hey! When the snow stops, will you teach me how to create such an awesome barrier?"

The young Taoist curled his lip and complained, "Tang Yuan, you won't even call me Master, yet you expect me to teach you?" The Taoist felt deeply aggrieved—all his previous disciples had treated him with utmost respect. How had times changed so much that no one understood "honoring teachers and respecting their teachings" anymore? "We agreed on equal exchange! If you stop calling me Tang Yuan, I'll call you Master! What more do you want? I always keep my word!" Tang Yuan slammed the table. He was the one who should be complaining! Thankfully, besides him and the Taoist, there was no one else in these remote mountains, or the name "Tang Yuan" would have spread. He had to correct this before it became a lifelong stain!

"Keeping one's word..." The young Taoist seemed moved by these words. After eating another hawthorn segment, he sighed and said, "Tang Yuan, do you know what a ding actually is?"

"A ding?" Tang Yuan blinked, easily distracted by the new topic. "Aren't dings just bronze vessels? Those huge things with three legs, really heavy." He gestured with his hands, indicating something large enough to easily contain his entire body."Oh? Then do you know what it was used for?" The young Taoist asked with interest while eating hawthorn berries one by one.

"It probably has some symbolic meaning, right? Like an important national treasure or something." Tang Yuan tilted his head, recalling what he had read in books, answering somewhat uncertainly.

The young Taoist finally found a sense of being a master. Sitting upright, he actually carried a somewhat solemn air. He spoke slowly: "The ding, actually in its earliest days, was used for cooking food."

Tang Yuan's round face darkened - he knew this foodie couldn't go three sentences without mentioning eating. Seeing that the young Taoist had almost finished his candied hawthorn skewer, Tang Yuan handed over his own, stuffing it into the other's hand.

The young Taoist didn't mind at all, taking it and continuing to eat while speaking clearly: "You should know that during the Bronze Age, it was truly an era where food was the paramount necessity of the people. All members of a clan or tribe ate together, which is why dings were so large. But only the clan leader had the authority to distribute food, so over time, the ding became a symbol of power."

"Hey, is this how foodies conquer the world?" Tang Yuan sighed helplessly. Having been out for so long, he was feeling thirsty. He casually picked a lotus leaf, folded it into a dipper shape, bent over and scooped some water from the steaming hot spring pool.

"But the ding wasn't just for these two purposes - it was also an instrument of punishment." The young Taoist seemed tired of eating the hawthorn berries one by one, and started eating them whole, his cheeks bulging, completely ruining the transcendent master image he had just projected.

"Instrument of punishment?" Tang Yuan blinked, holding the lotus leaf, completely forgetting to drink. The water in the leaf all leaked onto him.

"Yes, an instrument for boiling people alive." The young Taoist spoke very calmly, as if commenting on the weather, chewing the frozen-hard hawthorn berries with crisp cracking sounds. "Those in supreme positions enjoy granting the hope of life, and also enjoy taking away the right to live. The power over life and death - this phrase sums it up quite well. So the ding is also a very contradictory existence - both a vessel for cooking food and an instrument for executing people. Such objects that are connected to both life and death are indeed rare."

"Indeed..." Tang Yuan became interested in the young Taoist's words and urged: "Come on, tell me more about the ding."

"Well, later the ding became the symbol of the realm. All rulers would expend the nation's resources to cast larger and more exquisite dings to display their power. In the early years of the Xia Dynasty, Yu the Great divided the realm into nine provinces and cast nine dings, engraving the famous mountains, great rivers, and strange creatures of each province on them - one ding symbolizing one province. He gathered all nine dings in the capital of the Xia Dynasty, representing the unification of the nine provinces. Thus, the nine dings became ritual vessels used by emperors of each dynasty for worshiping heaven."

"Wow, that sounds amazing! Go on! What happened to these nine dings later?"

"Later, the Xia Dynasty was destroyed by the Zhou. The Zhou Dynasty took possession of the nine dings and continued to hold them. By the end of the Zhou Dynasty - well, I forget exactly which year it was, but it was during the time of King Wu of Qin - that fellow King Wu of Qin insisted on seeing what these nine dings looked like. So he appointed Gan Mao as general to attack Han, heading straight for Luoyang, and destroyed the Zhou Dynasty.""Huh? Wasn't he supposed to be a formidable figure? Wait, I remember it was Qin Shi Huang who unified the six states, not King Wu of Qin!"

"Exactly. This King Wu of Qin was brave and combative, thinking himself invincible. When he saw the Nine Tripod Cauldrons, he asked the strongmen accompanying him if they could lift one. One of them actually managed to lift it. Driven by competitiveness, King Wu decided to try it himself. That attempt proved disastrous—he was a king, not a strongman, and how heavy were those bronze cauldrons! Alas, with a loud clang, it fell on him, and he died that very night." The young Taoist spoke as if he had witnessed it himself, shaking his head with profound regret.

"Ouch..." Tang Yuan winced as if he were the one who had been struck—just hearing about it was painful enough. "What happened next? Since the tripod killed King Wu of Qin, it must have been smashed to atone for the crime, right?"

The young Taoist placed the finished candied hawthorn stick on the table and said with exasperation, "How could that be? That was one of the revered Nine Tripods! King Wu of Qin brought his death upon himself with his recklessness. At the time, rumors spread that this was retribution for challenging the Mandate of Heaven by destroying Zhou. Instead, the blame fell on the strongmen accompanying King Wu of Qin and Gan Mao, who was accused of urging the king to visit Zhou to see the tripods. Gan Mao caught wind of this and fled to another state instead of returning to Qin, ultimately losing his noble title."

"Gan Mao?" Tang Yuan noticed the Taoist mentioning this name for the second time and paid closer attention.

"Oh, that's not the main point." The young Taoist waved his hand dismissively, opened a bag of pastries on the table, and picked one up to eat. "After King Wu of Qin, his younger brother King Zhaoxiang of Qin ascended the throne, completely eradicated Eastern Zhou, and transported the Nine Tripods back to Xianyang. However, one of the tripods fell into the Si River while passing through Pengcheng. Later, when Qin Shi Huang unified the six states, he sent people to retrieve it during an inspection of the Si River, but they found nothing."

"Wait—you're not going to tell me it's a coincidence that the lost tripod was the very one that killed King Wu of Qin, are you? How could it be such a coincidence?" Tang Yuan suddenly felt he had stumbled upon something.

The young Taoist nodded. "Exactly. What I just described is the official story. Since that tripod had killed a Qin king, the Qin royal family couldn't allow its existence. Discreetly making it disappear was a kind of unspoken agreement."

"Oh, politics is so hypocritical. They clearly wanted to destroy it but didn't dare, so they made up an excuse to lose it." Tang Yuan snorted, somewhat disdainful of such political artifice. "So, is that tripod still in the Si River now?"

The young Taoist shook his head casually. "No! Back then, I saw that no one wanted it, so I picked it up, refined it, melted down the bronze, took a small portion, and added jet black gold to recast it into a small medicine tripod for alchemy."

"..." Tang Yuan opened his mouth but found himself at a loss for criticism. Could his master be mentally unstable? Was it too late to run away now?

However, Tang Yuan glanced back at the courtyard blooming with flowers in all seasons and the bizarre phenomenon of a raging blizzard just beyond the pavilion. He thought that with such transcendent abilities, living for thousands of years wouldn't be difficult.

At this realization, Tang Yuan grew restless. Sensing that his whimsical master wouldn't mention the Jet Black Tripod without reason, he pressed curiously, "So where is that Jet Black Tripod now?"

The young Taoist paused with the pastry in his hand, thought hard for a long time, and finally said blankly, "I lost it ages ago..."

"..."

The Doctor had no idea how long the Boss had been sitting at this mountain peak. Over these days, he had noticed the Boss occasionally slipping into a sleep-like state. If this happened to anyone else, he would suspect a neurological disorder, but the problem was—the Boss was clearly no ordinary person!So even though he knew worrying was useless, the unease in his heart still surged uncontrollably like a rising tide. When he saw two people emerge from the Progenitor Dragon Cave one after another, this anxious feeling immediately escalated to its peak.

The Boss opened his eyes, calmly watching Fusu who walked at the front, saying nothing.

"I knew you'd be here." Fusu still wore his gentle smile as he spoke. His gaze shifted to the rabbit plushie in the Boss's pocket before he smiled faintly at the Boss again. "Can we talk? Alone."

The Boss nodded and stood up, ignoring the Doctor's various struggles, handing the rabbit plushie to Huhai who stood behind Fusu.

"Damn it! Boss! Are you crazy! If you give me to this guy, he'll throw me down the mountain in no time!" The Doctor was furious. Everyone knew this Young Master Hu was a brother-con! He'd be more than happy to see his soul dissipate so Fusu could continue occupying his body to live on.

Hearing this, Huhai's body stiffened. The words of refusal he intended to speak stuck in his throat, and he could only numbly take the rabbit plushie, even deliberately choosing an angle to shield the plushie in his arms from the wind. The little red bird perched on Huhai's shoulder started in surprise, fluttering its wings a few times, somewhat suspecting its young master had something wrong with him.

Huh? So obedient? The Doctor suddenly remembered that the Boss had once used the Dragon Pattern Bell on Huhai - presumably commands of this level could still be controlled. But was it really okay to do this right in front of his brother?

The Doctor subconsciously glanced at Fusu, just in time to meet the latter's somewhat icy gaze, and couldn't help shivering. When he looked again, he found the other had already withdrawn his gaze and was walking with the Boss toward the Sky-Piercing Stone at Wuhua Peak.

Before he could lament not being able to eavesdrop, the Doctor was horrified to find himself being lifted out by his long ears by a cold, pale hand. Looking down, he saw mountain streams covered by layers of mist below, bottomless.

Damn! The Boss had entrusted him to the wrong person! The Doctor didn't even dare struggle now, let alone cry for help, afraid of provoking this rather ill-tempered Young Master Hu. If his hand slipped, he'd never see the Boss again. Well... though it seemed like a plush toy probably wouldn't die from falling anyway?

The little red bird curiously flew up. For it, this violent mountain wind meant nothing - it could still fly steadily. The Doctor angrily raised his yarn eyebrows, really wanting to swat away this stupid bird that was watching him.

Fortunately, this nerve-wracking process didn't last long. Huhai narrowed his red eyes and hesitated for a moment before pulling the Doctor back and tossing him to the super curious little red bird.

"Play with him, just don't break him," Huhai said casually.

Bullshit! What did he mean by "just don't break him"? The Doctor was furious, but a plush toy was clearly no match for the little red bird. The latter, as if having obtained a new toy, began flying everywhere while holding the Doctor by his long ears.

Well... actually, once you got used to this rollercoaster-like dizziness, the experience was quite thrilling... The Doctor finally lay flat on the little red bird's back, feeling like the male lead in a fantasy world who could ride a flying mount.

The Doctor looked down, trying to identify the two figures intermittently visible through the mountain mist standing at the mountain peak. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear at all what those two below were saying.Confirming that the Doctor was now being well "cared for," the Boss withdrew his gaze and returned his attention to Fusu, speaking lightly, "Have you made up your mind?"

Fusu gave a slight bitter smile. "After all these years, Bi Zhi, you still understand me so well." Fusu glanced at Huhai standing not far away and chuckled softly, "Did you control Huhai to report all my actions during this time to you?"

"No. Although I wasn't certain at first, thanks to you, those details buried deep in my memory that I had almost forgotten were gradually brought to light, allowing me to confirm it." The Boss spoke calmly, but his eyes were filled with tenderness.

"Oh?" Fusu smiled, his handsome face showing no trace of embarrassment. He hadn't expected his little trick of lighting Moon Scale incense to escape the Boss's notice.

"I remember you used to secretly read the Huangdi Neijing back then." A smile appeared at the corner of the Boss's lips. Those memories were precious to him. Precisely because they were too cherished, he was reluctant to revisit them, like beautiful yet fragile soap bubbles in the sunlight that would vanish at the slightest touch.

"Treat disease before it arises, govern chaos before it occurs." Fusu quoted one of the most important principles from the Huangdi Neijing and sighed. "You must have read it too, otherwise why wouldn't you worry that I truly intend to overthrow the world?"

The Boss didn't answer his question. Instead, he reached out to stroke the Crimson Dragon on his right shoulder and said calmly, "People often claim they have no choice, but in truth, they simply don't want to give up what they've already gained or let go of what they hope to obtain. This might be what is called greed."

Fusu understood his meaning and said self-deprecatingly, "Bi Zhi, are you so confident? Aren't you afraid of my greed?"

"When persuasion fails, one can only wait for them to realize it themselves. This past year, I believe it was enough for you to see clearly." The Boss withdrew his hand, revealing a cut on his fingertip from a sharp thread. He didn't waste the drop of blood, smearing it directly onto the Crimson Dragon. The dragon's vivid eyes flashed with a gleam of light before dimming again.

Fusu didn't notice this detail. Instead, he leaned on the mountain rocks and looked downward. The mountain mist had partially cleared, blown away by the fierce wind, revealing the majestic and magnificent scenery below. After gazing for a long time, Fusu murmured, "Back then, Father must have stood here and seen this very sight... Back then... Over two thousand years have passed, and I am truly free now."

The Boss's anxious heart finally settled back into place.

He had finally won his bet.

Although this outcome was within his expectations, why did facing this moment feel even more painful than he had imagined?

Fusu took out a small tripod from his chest. The Boss looked closely and realized it looked very familiar—it was the Jet Black Tripod he had once exchanged for three antiques with the Curator, which he later couldn't find no matter how hard he searched. The Boss didn't question how the tripod had ended up in Fusu's hands. With Huhai possessing the Baize Brush, entering and leaving his Dumb Shop was effortless. "This tripod is..."

"Since the Cosmos formation has already suppressed eleven Formation Eyes, let's seal this one as well." Fusu paused, then took a deep breath before continuing, "Before I change my mind."Boss took the Jet Black Tripod, his lowered eyelids concealing the complex emotions in his eyes.

Tang Yuan scooped some hot spring water with a lotus leaf, drank a few sips, and casually wiped the droplets from his lips with the back of his hand. Only then did he notice his foodie master’s unusually grave expression.

“What’s wrong? Is something off?” Tang Yuan’s heart raced with dread, fearing his master might say he hadn’t eaten enough tanghulu and send him to buy two more skewers.

The young Taoist frowned, stretched his hand beyond the barrier to sense the outside aura, then calculated with his fingers and sighed. “The Cosmos formation has changed.”

“Cosmos formation? What’s that? Sounds impressive!” Tang Yuan’s eyes lit up, but the next moment they widened into saucers. Behind the Taoist, the ethereal hot spring mist had unexpectedly coalesced into a slender, feminine figure. The translucent mist grew denser, soon revealing an exquisitely beautiful man—his form shrouded in snow-like white fog, features delicate and hazy as an ink wash painting, thin lips curved in a mocking smile. His pale eyes, though vacant and unfocused, radiated an indescribable allure.

Though young, Tang Yuan knew that if supernatural beings existed, this was undoubtedly one. Staring at the clearly visible, graceful snake tail where the figure’s lower body should be, he was struck speechless, throat emitting hoarse sounds as his mind went blank.

The figure extended jade-white hands, resting them on his foodie master’s shoulders, then leaned intimately close to his neck.

Blushing furiously, Tang Yuan instinctively wanted to look away, but the scene held him spellbound. He watched helplessly as the enchantingly beautiful figure suddenly bared two sharp fangs and sank them into his master’s neck.

Tang Yuan jolted upright, intending to rush to his master’s rescue, but found himself paralyzed, strength draining from his limbs.

Contrary to expectations, there was no bloodshed. His foodie master remained motionless, expression serene, allowing the figure to devour his spiritual energy. Meanwhile, the materialized serpent tail wreaked havoc in the garden, reducing the meticulously arranged landscape to chaos in moments.

Whether a long time or mere seconds passed, the snake spirit finally withdrew sated, dissipating back into the hot spring mist. Tang Yuan finally found his voice, stammering, “Wh-what… what was that?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just a medicinal snake I once raised. It’s cultivating again but hasn’t fully regained its senses.”

The young Taoist’s face was slightly pale, but he paid it no mind. With a casual wave, the trampled flowers and plants in the garden bloomed anew, and the disordered rockery reassembled itself as if nothing had happened.

A medicinal snake? Then why did it have the upper body of a stunning beauty? Tang Yuan’s legs felt weak—he was just a normal ten-year-old! Such dramatic twists were too much for him! Leaning on the stone table to sit back down, he seriously began considering whether he should try attending elementary school, even though he’d finished those textbooks years ago."Ah, where was I? Right, the Cosmos formation. Do you know why Qin Shi Huang traveled across the land back then? Because there was an imperial aura in the southeast, so I set up the Cosmos formation. Had the Formation been completed, the entire Central Plains would have fallen under Qin Shi Huang's control, and the Qin Empire would have stood firm for ten thousand generations without collapsing." The young Taoist sighed wistfully, reminiscing about those long-gone youthful days! He too had once been so fervent.

"This boast is so exaggerated it's practically bursting..." Tang Yuan nitpicked, "Didn't the Qin Dynasty collapse after just two generations? And you claim it would stand for ten thousand generations?"

"Well, Qin Shi Huang died before he could finish erecting the Jieshi! At first, I also felt it was a pity the Cosmos formation wasn't completed. But later, I discovered my eldest disciple had ulterior motives. I mean, it's understandable for a Zhao native to infiltrate Qin and plot its downfall, but did he have to make the whole world suffer?" The young Taoist shook his head in strong disapproval, brushed the crumbs from his hands, and said helplessly, "But his cultivation was already advanced. Even I couldn't be sure of killing him at the time. So later, I modified the Cosmos formation, using the remaining eight Nine Provinces Cauldrons to transform it into a Sealing God formation to imprison him. I lured him to the Formation's death gate, and finally... peace was restored to the world."

Seeing the relieved expression on the young Taoist's face, Tang Yuan felt goosebumps all over. This method of cleaning house was truly ruthless! To make someone endure over two thousand years of torment, unable to live or die? Tang Yuan suddenly felt that acknowledging this man as his master was an enormous risk. Licking his dry lips from nervousness, Tang Yuan uneasily pressed further, "Then what did you mean earlier when you said the Cosmos formation has changed...?"

The young Taoist furrowed his brows, the scar between them looking even more sinister. "It's strange... To break the Sealing God formation, one must gather twelve top-tier imperial antiques to suppress the Formation Eye. Those twelve imperial antiques are incredibly hard to find! Who on earth..."

The Taoist's words cut off abruptly. Tang Yuan immediately sensed something and looked outside the pavilion. The blizzard and thick dark clouds from earlier had vanished as if snatched away by the heavens, completely ceasing. Only the pristine white snow on the ground and the brilliant sunlight streaming from the sky remained.

"That formation... it really was broken..."

Tang Yuan was dumbstruck. Didn't this mean some killing god, imprisoned for over two thousand years, had now been released?

Boss and Fusu stood side by side atop Mount Yi's peak, watching as the mountain fog dispersed and the fierce winds abruptly ceased, replaced by a scene of serene tranquility. In the distance, an incredibly magnificent rainbow appeared.

Fusu closed his eyes briefly. As someone who should have been accustomed to heights, he found himself slightly dizzy gazing at this majestic landscape. After a moment, he reopened his eyes, stared for a long time, and finally sighed softly, "Bi Zhi, now that this matter is settled, no matter how unwilling I am, I should return this body to its original owner."

Boss's body trembled slightly. He wanted to say something but only parted his lips.Fusu smiled self-deprecatingly and said, "I'm not afraid of being laughed at by Bi Zhi, but truth be told, I abandoned the idea of using the Cosmos formation as soon as I understood how this era operates. However, delaying for this past year was actually because I grew attached to the worldly pleasures." He paused, then continued with difficulty, "But what doesn't belong to me will never be mine... Please apologize to him for me..."

Seeing that Fusu intended to leave immediately after speaking, the Boss instinctively grabbed his sleeve. "Your Highness..."

"Bi Zhi, you finally call me 'Your Highness' again..." Fusu didn't turn around, sighing with nostalgia. Since he woke up, the Boss had always distantly addressed him as "Your Majesty."

The Boss was momentarily stunned before speaking softly, "This subject can find you another compatible body."

Fusu's body stiffened, but he merely replied indifferently, "Don't try to comfort me. My soul is unstable. If there's even the slightest incompatibility during another soul transfer, I'll immediately dissipate..."

The Boss lowered his gaze and whispered, "This subject's body is compatible."

Fusu slowly turned around, his handsome face completely expressionless. He stared intently at the Boss for a long time before uttering two words: "Is that true?"

The Boss smiled again and nodded solemnly. "This subject has lived for over two thousand years. That's enough."

This time, Fusu remained silent.

He didn't consent.

But of course, he didn't refuse either.

The Doctor opened his eyes, somewhat confused as he stared at the plain white ceiling. Wasn't he just happily flying through the sky on the little red bird? He even wanted to tug its feathers to make it fly lower, hoping to secretly eavesdrop on what Fusu and the Boss were discussing. How did he suddenly change locations in the blink of an eye?

The next second, the Doctor suddenly sat up from the bed, staring at his hands in shock.

They were human hands—no longer the soft, undivided paws of a doll. Moreover, there was an old callus on his right index finger, exactly the mark left from frequent use of surgical scalpels.

These were his hands!

Realizing this, the Doctor quickly looked around and discovered he was actually in his own home. He rushed to the bathroom and confirmed that he had indeed returned to his own body, immediately breaking into a grin. However, this joy lasted only three seconds. How did he suddenly return to his body without knowing anything about it? Where was the Boss?

Grabbing his clothes, he hurried out the door. When he saw the Dumb Shop in the distance, his unease grew stronger. Stumbling, he pushed open the heavy carved door and breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the situation inside.

The furnishings in the Dumb Shop remained completely unchanged: the colorful terracotta warriors at the entrance, the ever-burning Changxin Palace Lantern, the gilded soaring Dragon Bo Shan incense burner that perpetually emitted rare agarwood scent... Everything was in its place, with not even the slightest alteration in positioning. The Doctor had run too frantically and could only collapse onto the chicken-wing wood recliner, gasping for breath. It took him a while to notice something was wrong.

In the past, the Boss would have definitely sensed his arrival and come out from the inner room, no matter how busy he was. The Doctor straightened up and called out loudly, "Boss? Boss! Where are you?"

Apart from his own echo, the Dumb Shop remained completely silent.The doctor was nearly driven mad by the unease in his heart. Just as he was about to turn past the jade screen to search for someone in the inner room, he heard the carved door creak open. The doctor immediately turned around.

"Boss, you... Huh? Why is it you?" The doctor stared in surprise at Lu Zigang, who was walking in from outside carrying a suitcase.

Lu Zigang unwrapped the scarf from his neck and smiled faintly. "The boss sent me a letter, saying he wanted me to look after the shop for him."

The doctor stood frozen in shock for a long moment, as if struck by lightning, before finally forcing out through gritted teeth, "Then... did he say... for how long?"

Lu Zigang shrugged. "He didn’t say, so I quit my job at the National Museum."

The doctor’s heart sank like a stone into icy waters.

Deep within an unknown underground realm, in a lavishly decorated burial chamber where the air had remained still for over two thousand years, movement suddenly stirred from the massive coffin enshrined at its center...

(End of Chapter)