Chapter 24
THE FOUR HALLOWED ARTIFACTS, connected by the ancient text, began to orbit around Shen Wei. Every single person helping to stabilize the ritual could feel the link between the ancient texts that Shen Wei had placed within them and the Four Hallowed Artifacts. Without thought or volition, they all followed along, silently chanting words they were unable to understand or read.
The ancient words seemed to stir something in lao-Li, who still held the huge bone he’d brought along. He looked down at the fat cat beside him, who was somehow both funny and unspeakably solemn. Listening to the tinkle of the cat bell, lao-Li suddenly spoke, his voice very low. “Three hundred years ago, there was someone who fell ill with an incurable sickness in his bones. The pain was excruciating. Death did not come to claim him, but living was unbearable. These days, he’d probably know it was bone cancer. His family decided to burn incense and pray to the gods…”
A violent shudder passed through Daqing. He looked up in disbelief.
Lao-Li’s hair was snow white with age. He reached out a trembling hand to pet the black cat’s head, just as he had countless times before. But this time, the cat avoided his touch.
This elderly man who’d kept silent watch over the entrance at 4 Bright Avenue, who seemed to have a weird obsession with bones, appeared to age ten years in an instant. His lips trembled before he finally continued.
“In the end, no god answered. The only one who came was a black cat with a fondness for fried fish. The man was incurably ill. He couldn’t even go outside, so he was also extremely bored. The mere sight of any living thing was incredibly exciting for him. He saw the black cat as a blessing from the Heavens. It gave him a reason to live.”
Lao-Li’s eyes were damp, as if he was about to cry, but they were already too murky to shed a single tear. “Eventually, he realized his visitor was no ordinary cat but a divine creature, able to communicate between yin and yang, fly into the sky, and dive into the earth. Then one day, the cat accidentally entered the wine cellar and fell into a tub of alcohol. While drunk, the cat revealed the secret of the golden bell he wore around his neck. He said it was a gift from his old owner that held half of his spirit. It could regenerate flesh and bone, and even reverse the Reincarnation Cycle… That man was almost at the end of his life. His terror of death was driving him nearly out of his mind.”
Icily, Daqing said, “So you tricked me for my bell and taught me a valuable lesson. Until then, this stupid cat didn’t know to be wary of people. I heard you lived out your life and were eventually buried outside Shanhai Pass. You lived a few dozen extra years. How was it? How did it feel?”
“Like a lump in the throat,” lao-Li said softly. “Like maggots in the bones.
“Hmph.” Daqing turned away. “You poor thing. Why did you squirm your way into the Special Investigations Department? An accomplished scholar guarding our doors and doing random chores—isn’t that below your pay grade? Or did you hope to get something more from me?”
Lao-Li sank to his knees. Three hundred years later, he had been reincarnated, but he carried with him the poison buried in his bones from that other life. He stood at the door to 4 Bright Avenue as a nondescript guard, hoping for nothing more than to feed a few crispy fried fish to the ever-fatter black cat at the beginning and end of each workday. He’d expected to live out the rest of his life that way, and that his next life would be more of the same. But now, as the Merit Brush hung above his head, every single detail from the past flashed before his eyes, as fresh as if no time had passed at all.
Finally, lao-Li’s murky tears fell.
The Merit Brush, which had been silent and unmoving all this time, slowly started to stir, as if it had heard something. It began to rotate around the circle; halfway around, it revealed its black and red tip.
At the same moment, the other symbols responded as well.
Wood begets fire. The Soul-Guarding Lamp began to glow with a brilliant light.
Fire begets metal. Even without sunlight, the shadows on the Reincarnation Dial started to move slowly and independently.
Metal begets water. The lines decorating the Mountain-River Awl glistened and flowed like they were alive.
The earth shook mightily, and the three ancient seals of the Great Houtu Seal broke at last. Thousands of zhang of brutality surged up out of the ground, as though hoping to consume the whole world.
All the shining lights of every city, village, tall bridge, and street were extinguished. The lights of the Mortal Realm were like a delicate mirage; as the north wind swept past, they all disappeared without a trace.
An unhurried voice chanted the sealing spell. “With the Three-Life Rock, seal the white mountain to the West.”
Stone that is aged but not yet old.
Lin Jing and Shennong’s mortar simultaneously felt an emptiness in their chests. The ancient text from before, along with the gold seal from the descendants of Bodhidharma and the breath of the descendants of Shennong, entered the Reincarnation Dial together. The Reincarnation Dial quickly turned three times clockwise and then three times counter-clockwise before disappearing in midair.
A huge sound came from the west, as though a gargantuan nail had been driven thousands of kilometers into the ground, forcing a crack in the curtains of black mist that covered the great earth. Once the tempestuous black mist was scattered, much of it seemed to miraculously dissipate.
“With the spirits of the mountains and rivers, seal the black waters to the north.”
Water that is frozen but not yet cold.
“With the source of kindness and evil, seal the endless green to the east.”
Body that is dead but not yet born.
One by one, three of the Hallowed Artifacts disappeared on the Bagua. Only the Soul-Guarding Lamp remained.
“With the soul of a deity, seal the great fire to the south.”
Everything changed atop the Bagua. The Four Pillars had risen, and the Soul-Guarding Lamp moved to the very center.
Zhao Yunlan had no time to react before he felt the ancient text flow out of him; in that instant, his connection to the Soul-Guarding Lamp was severed. Arms slipped around him from behind. He turned to look and found Shen Wei standing there, already drawing him into a deep kiss.
The kiss was exquisitely tender at first, gentle and lingering. It wasn’t until Zhao Yunlan felt something stream out of his heart, quick as lightning, that he realized what was happening.
He began to struggle for all he was worth, but Shen Wei’s hands were like steel on the back of his head, impossible to escape. Zhao Yunlan’s heart turned to ice. Every moment between them—the day he’d met Shen Wei, all that time spent getting to know him, everything, right to this very moment—flared before his eyes like light reflected on water. It was the sensation of his own memories being mercilessly wiped away, one by one.
Shen Wei’s entire body burst into flames. As his long hair and robes ignited, he finally released his hold on Zhao Yunlan, who now lay unconscious. Shen Wei pushed him away through the air, and he landed in the arms of Shennong’s mortar, who stared at Shen Wei in shock from a distance.
Shen Wei took one final, deep look at Zhao Yunlan. Then the fire engulfed him utterly, and he vanished.
In the end, he himself pushed away the one he had struggled so hard to hold; it was he who broke their oath to die together, after all his meticulous scheming to extract that promise.
If one doesn’t die, doesn’t perish, then one cannot become a god… He had truly been born a fool. Only now, as his road came to its end, in this moment between life and death, did understanding arrive like a bolt of lightning.
Somehow, in that instant, peace flooded Shen Wei’s heart. At last, he felt worthy of the one he loved…
It was a shame that he would never see him again.