Chapter 479: Chapter 443: Impermanence
Moving house, handling various miscellaneous tasks, by the time Sang Que finished dealing with matters involving her mother, it was already the fifth day of the new year.
The Lishi Mountain Base was under construction while being used. Although half of the area was still a construction site, fortunately, the place itself was surrounded by beautiful mountains and clear waters. Sang Wan was arranged to stay in the area where the professors of the institute lived.
It was a small two-story villa halfway up the mountain, with the mountain at the back and the lake at the front. The scenery was beautiful and relatively quiet, with perfect infrastructure, and no issues concerning safety to worry about.
Sang Wan was very satisfied with it and even joked with Sang Que that she was now someone living in a large villa enjoying life, thanks to her daughter.
The Great General was also by Sang Wan’s side, along with the Little Ghost the family had previously raised. After reporting to the institute, Sang Que got permission to continue keeping the Little Ghost in the villa, as long as it didn’t leave the premises.
Once Sang Wan was settled here, Sang Que could go on her adventures without any worries.
On the morning of the sixth day, after Sang Que finished her morning exercises, she received a call from Professor Zhuo Wenli, who was in charge of biological and medical research, asking her to go over.
Sang Que arrived at the medical department, where Professor Zhuo, dressed in a white lab coat, handed her the Yin Child’s heart contained in the Ten Victory Stone Box and a thick book of scanned and analyzed data.
Sang Que opened it and glanced through it casually. She recognized every word, but when combined, they were all professional terms from the medical field that she didn’t understand.
Professor Zhuo was now familiar with Sang Que. He chuckled, took the data back from her hands, and directly turned to the most critical part, pointing it out to her.
"The dried heart you gave me, after comprehensive examination, shows no major issues with our current level of technology, except for this part."
Professor Zhuo was referring to an enlarged image of a section of the heart, with many small dots circled in red. He put on gloves, took the heart out of the box, and pointed out the parts circled in the image to Sang Que, one by one.
"These small dots are indeed hard to notice without careful inspection. They are tiny pinholes, but after we compiled these pinholes through 3D modeling and aligned them correctly, they turned into this."
Professor Zhuo turned a page of the report, and an image appeared before Sang Que. In the image, many tiny black dots formed two ancient characters.
"Are these the words ’Black and White Impermanence’?"
Having stayed in the Deceit Dynasty for a long period, Sang Que had a fair understanding of various ancient characters.
Professor Zhuo nodded, "Yes, these are the words ’Black and White Impermanence’, and this is the only discovery on this dried heart."
Sang Que’s expression turned solemn. Zuo Jinye harnessed the Black and White Impermanence, which these two words represented him for sure, signifying that there was indeed a problem with the Yin Child’s heart, and it couldn’t be used lightly.
After thanking Professor Zhuo, Sang Que headed into the mountains to ’recharge’ the Black Tai Sui, as a new batch of supplies was ready at the base and needed to be sent to the Deceit Dynasty that afternoon.
As she left, she happened to run into Ye Changqing.
"I came specifically to find you," Ye Changqing stated his purpose, "let’s take a walk together."
Sang Que followed Ye Changqing out of the Wu’s Ancient House, back to the normal world, and slowly walked down the mountain along the newly built road. She knew what Ye Changqing wanted to discuss with her, probably about her advancing.
Ye Changqing walked with his hands behind his back, "Your aunt was the most stubborn student I’ve ever taught. Once she set her mind on something, no one could change it, but it’s precisely her stubbornness that made her stand out among everyone, proving she was right with her strength."
"Although you two aren’t related by blood, you have many similarities. I know there’s no point in persuading you about advancing. What you said in the meeting earlier does make sense, and if you successfully advance, you can resolve all issues most simply. Personally, I support you."
Sang Que was a bit surprised because during the meeting before the new year, many people were opposed, even hitting the table, and the relatively rational professors, represented by Ye Changqing, were all silent.
Sang Que said, "Thank you, Professor Ye. I also understand your concerns; if I fail, those in the Otherworld won’t be able to return for at least twenty years. It’s indeed a bit selfish of me not to consider for them."
Ye Changqing chuckled, "Don’t think of it that way. None of us old folks rested during these New Year days; we were arguing in meetings every day. I’m almost unable to bear it, but we’ve finally unified our opinions. When you initially revealed the secrets of the Otherworld to us, the higher-ups agreed that matters of the Otherworld would be led by you. Our cooperation with the Otherworld during this period has been very smooth, and that’s your achievement."
"You’ve shown the people of the Otherworld sincerity; we absolutely cannot hold you back at this critical moment, so do whatever you wish to do. The base has already decided to quickly select and cultivate a group of relevant personnel, preparing for at least a twenty-year-long stay in the Otherworld."
Sang Que nodded. Though she didn’t think there would be any issues with her advancement, it was good to be prepared in advance.
If anything happened to her, the Mountain Ghost Coin would return her corpse to the modern day. As long as the researchers obtained the Mountain Ghost Coin, they just needed to wait for the Black Tai Sui to ’spit’ out a person, and then quickly arrange for this person to birth a new Witch, raise her to sixteen years, and they could restart the Mountain Ghost Coin and reopen the Gate of Two Realms.
From the Warring States Period to now, the Mountain Ghost Coin and Witch have been continued in this manner.
"However," Sang Que suddenly transitioned, "the situation over there in the Otherworld isn’t looking good. If I can’t stop Zuo Jinye, in twenty years, I’m afraid he will find a way to open the passage between the two worlds."
Ye Changqing frowned in thought, "This is indeed a problem. We have considered this, and we’ve even drawn up a ’Decapitation Plan’ which can be executed at any time, but the success rate can’t be guaranteed because we know too little about this person."
Sang Que also rejected this plan, "You know, Professor Ye, in the Otherworld, once a Yin Walker reaches Ghost Level, they practically become immortal unless you separate the person from the ghost. At Ghost God Level, who knows what changes might occur."
Ye Changqing said, "That’s certainly the case, but it doesn’t mean there’s no way; didn’t you mention that incense is the foundation of Ghost Gods? Since this Zuo Jinye managed to sever the foundation of Witch Lady by destroying the Witch Temple, can’t we destroy Zuo Jinye’s foundation the same way and make him suffer a backlash from the Ghost Gods?"
Sang Que was momentarily surprised, but upon reconsideration, she thought this indeed might be a viable approach.
Zuo Jinye took nearly twenty years to reach his current position.
Achieving this isn’t difficult—overthrowing the Xuan Dynasty government and making the people stop believing in the Xuan Dynasty Prime Minister would suffice—but it would certainly take a lot of time, and Zuo Jinye wouldn’t just sit idly by.
The winter mountain air was damp and cold as Sang Que and Ye Changqing made their way down, discussing many future plans along the way.
After lunch that day, all the supplies were ready. Sang Que notified Sang Wan using the base’s internal network, then, together with Xia Chan, escorted the supplies back to the Deceit Dynasty, while the base officially began recruiting and training personnel for long-term stationing.
On the morning of the sixth day, snowflakes were falling on Bright Moon Mountain in the Deceit Dynasty, the whole world being white.
The snow was so heavy that the mountain’s residents all stayed in their homes, huddled for warmth. Before the year-end, Sang Que had brought lots of pork from the modern world; every household received ten pounds, allowing everyone a prosperous year.
No matter what these residents believed in before, this New Year, every household worshipped the Mysterious Lady Statue, which bore a striking resemblance to Sang Que, thanking Lady Xuan Nu for her blessings and Sang Que, the Big Boss of Bright Moon Mountain, for her generosity.
The construction site at the foot of the mountain never rested. Even during the New Year, shifts continued around the clock to expedite construction.
Sang Que initially thought there wouldn’t be much happening lately until she finished the meeting with Liu Tianyou and returned to the construction site at the foot of the mountain when Zhao Yunshu told her that on the third day of the year, the northwest edge of the site had been attacked once.
