Chapter 898: Fengdu
At night.
Yun Songzi stood there for a long time.
That young man and woman had relied on nothing but the sentence “evening comes, and snow falls from the heaven” to get an audience with the owner of the smithy. This thought left Yun Songzi rueful.
Divine Snow City really isn’t simple!
……
The courtyard behind the blacksmith’s workshop.
A lantern hung up high, its light swaying amidst the darkness.
When he saw a young man in blue saunter leisurely into the courtyard, the man in simple robes was stunned. The look in his eyes turned a bit strange.
However, the sight of You Xue accompanying Su Yi didn’t particularly interest him.
“This place is the same as ever: suffocated, stifling, and dull,” said Su Yi as he swept his gaze across the area.
A rare, unprecedented hint of a smile appeared on the simply-dressed man’s taciturn face. “Consistency in the face of an ever-changing world is always better than simply going with the flow.”
He then gestured to the table. “Sit.”
Su Yi naturally sat across from him.
You Xue, however, stood to his side. The icy and aloof young woman seemed unusually reserved. From the moment she first stepped into the run-down courtyard, she felt an indescribable sense of oppression.
It wouldn’t go away, no matter what she did.
And the source of this formless sense of oppression was the simply-dressed man!
He was thin, and his posture was perfectly straight. His disposition was as firm as iron, and he seemed umovable and unaffected by the passage of time.
.
When someone first looked at him, it was as if they weren’t looking at a man at all, but rather an ancient, solitary mountain watching the passage of time with indifference, unafraid of the ups and downs of worldly affairs.
You Xue was a treasure spirit; she was most sensitive to aura. Thus, she realized at a glance that the simply-dressed man was an extremely terrifying figure!
Su Yi tapped the wooden table. “Where’s the wine?”
When he saw how rude Su Yi was being, the stalwart young man, who’d followed him into the courtyard, couldn’t help but say, “My master never drinks. How could he possibly have wine around?”
But the man in simple cloth robes waved this away. “A’Cheng, you’re wrong. It’s just that I only drink with those worthy of my attention.”
With that, he flipped his hand, retrieved a jug of wine, and filled two cups. “Do you remember this wine?”
Su Yi smiled, a look of remembrance on his face. “So, you’ve held onto it all this time.”
Years ago, when he returned from his expedition into the City of the Wrongfully Dead, he and the man in front of him celebrated with a night of drinking. At the time, they’d lamented that life was like a journey, and proclaimed that they ought to drink to their hearts content, draining a thousand cups!
It was Su Yi who’d left this particular jug here.
The simply-dressed man undid the stopper for the first time in countless years, then poured them each a cup. “I knew you’d come back one day, so I held onto it.”
With that, he raised his cup and drained it.
Su Yi smiled at did the same.
Their conversation and drinking were calm and casual. Watching them, they looked like old friends reunited after a long separation. Their time apart hadn’t affected their bond in the least.
You Xue watched in a daze, increasingly curious as to just who this person capable of sitting with Su Xuanjun as an equal was.
And the tall, stalwart young man was rooted to the spot.
He couldn’t even imagine how someone so young could be his master’s old friend. Even more unbelievably, although his master seemed as taciturn as ever, his delight would have been obvious to anyone!
“I remember you saying that you’d never accept a disciple. Why did you go back on your word?” asked Su Yi.
The stalwart young man’s heart clenched.
However, the simply-dressed man said, “It was probably destiny. Over the course of my many years in Snowy Skies City, I’ve seen too many geniuses of all stripes to count, but only A’Cheng had the type of spirit root needed to inherit my legacy.”
He paused, then added, “If that were all, it wouldn’t have been enough to tempt me into accepting an apprentice. The crux of the matter is that A’cheng, that kid, is much like I was at his age.”
Su Yi re-evaluated the tall, stalwart A’Cheng and frowned. “How so?”
A’Cheng scratched his head, a bit uncomfortable.
The simply-dressed man said, “Don’t you think he’s a simple, honest sort?”
Honest? Simple? Su Yi was stunned, and he couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “Are you saying that you were simple and honest in your youth?”
A’Cheng’s face flushed red. “Sir, what’s so funny?”
But the simply-dressed man thought nothing of it. “I was referring to his cultivation. Great skill requires no flourishes, and the wisest often appear foolish. Only someone like him can inherit my mantle.”
Su Yi nodded. The moment he laid eyes on A’Cheng, he could tell that although the young man looked simple and earnest, he was steady, with foundations in the Grand Dao far beyond any ordinary person.
Then, he asked casually, “Right, who was that yao monk just now?”
“He was once an elder at Sangharama Temple, but he’s now the grand libationer of the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court. You could consider him a disciple of the God of the Netherworld.”
Su Yi was stunned. “What changed him so drastically?”
He was well aware that, long ago, Sangharama Temple was a peak orthodoxy of the Netherworld River Territory, and they considered ridding the world of yao and heretics their mission in the name of protecting the masses.
And rumor had it that the strange power that had destroyed Sangharama Temple originated from the City of the Wrongfully Dead!
Yet now, one of their elders had become a worshiper of the Netherworld King. This change was far too drastic!
You Xue’s heart shook.
According to the simply-dressed man, the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court really was connected to the Netherworld King trapped in the Netherworld!
This confirmed Su Yi’s earlier hypothesis: the heretical faction that had recently risen to prominence really was backed by the Netherworld King!
“Long story short, he betrayed the temple,” the simply-dressed man said flatly. “Back then, before Sangharama Temple fell, a group of Imperial Realm Buddhist masters joined forces and fought their way into the City of the Wrongfully Dead. Not one returned to the tmple. Some fought to the death and perished, their primordial spirits refined into sinful ghost monks.
“But a portion of them chose to betray their temple and become adherents of the Netherworld King.
“That monk we saw earlier once had the Buddhist Title ‘Bitter Willow.’ However, he’s now the grand libationer of the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court, ‘Malevolent Release.’”
Su Yi couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that. “Making an iron-willed Buddhist cultivator betray their temple is extremely difficult. Is the Netherworld King really that capable?”
The simply-dressed man shook his head. “I’m not sure, but I’d guess that the Wheel of Destiny was inextricably involved in this.”
The Wheel of Destiny!
Su Yi was vaguely starting to understand.
Rumor had it that in ancient times, the Netherworld King wielded nine taboo divine artifacts, the Netherworld King’s Nine Taboos.
One of these treasures was shaped like a divine wheel carved with the six paths. Inside, it was emblazoned with a vision of the Nine Serenities. They called it the Wheel of Destiny.
Apparently, this treasure could predict the future and shatter past karmic ties. It could also neutralize present disasters. It was both mysterious and powerful.
Back in Ziluo City, when Su Yi drew upon the cultivation base of his past life to defeat the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow, the bird used the power of the Wheel of Destiny to escape.
Su Yi thought for a moment, then asked, “What did that yao monk come looking for you for?”
The simply-dressed man picked up a jug of wine and poured them each a cup before saying, “The Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court is planning something big. They’re attempting to free the imprisoned Netherworld King from the City of the Wrongfully Dead.”
Su Yi instantly understood. “They want you to move that tombstone?”
The simply-dressed man nodded. “That’s right. So long as that tombstone remains before the gates of the City of the Wrongfully Dead, it will be almost impossible for the terrifying entities trapped within the city to escape.”
He paused, then added, “And they know I’m capable of moving the tombstone.”
Suddenly, the simply-dressed man seemed to recall something. “Not long ago, on the night of the Lantern Festival, someone defeated the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow in Ziluo City. That was you, wasn’t it, Fellow Daoist?”
Su Yi smiled, but he didn’t deny it.
The simply-dressed man said, “The little crow tried to steal the Cui Family’s core treasure, the Netherworld Judge’s Writing Brush. It hoped to use it to change the Laws of the City of the Wrongfully Dead and help the Netherworld King escape confinement. Alas, this plan fell apart in its final stages.”
“So that’s why they set their sights on you,” said Su Yi. “And why they want you to move the tombstone.”
The simply-dressed man said, “I didn’t agree.”
Su Yi said thoughtfully, “They most likely won’t give up so easily.”
“They won’t.” The simply-dressed man nodded, and his handsome but unsmiling face frowned. “However, they already know why I’ve always kept watch over this city.”
Su Yi’s eyes narrowed. “Did they use your vow to threaten you?”
The simply-dressed man said calmly, “They still wouldn’t dare. That’s because they know how dire the consequences will be if they provoke me. But in the future… Well, it’s hard to say.”
Su Yi couldn’t help but sigh.
Although almost no one in the modern era knew it, in ancient times, Snowy Skies City had a different name: Fengdu!
One of the most important territories of the Infernal Palace!
And the owner of the smithy had yet another identity: Fengdu’s Night Watchman!
Although the massive entity that was the Infernal Palace had fallen in ancient times, and although Fengdu had since become the bustling, prosperous Snowy Skies City, the simply-dressed man’s lineage had always watched over it in silence.
It was no exaggeration to say that, without him here to keep watch over it, Snowy Skies City would long since have been wiped from the face of the Netherworld.
According to the rules of the Night Watchmen, each generation’s Night Watchma
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