Opening the Spiritual Apertures

"Xiaochuan?"

Song Yiren's expression shifted slightly at these words. He noticed the youth rolling and throwing a tantrum in the courtyard and let out a soft sigh.

"Regardless, Steward Lu, you... you had best coax him away first. It is truly inappropriate for him to be out here today."

"Yes!"

Lu Liang's eyes were reddened. He hung his head, his face etched with shame, and turned to leave upon hearing the command.

"Wait!"

Jiang Ziya stepped forward, calling out. After observing the youth in the courtyard, he asked, "Brother, Steward Lu, what is the matter with that young man?"

Steward Lu froze for a moment, then let out a long, weary sigh. "Alas, Elder Jiang, it is a sin—all of it is a sin I have committed in this life. To have sired such a wretched creature, I..."

His face twisted with pain and distress.

He suddenly turned his back, his shoulders trembling slightly, unable to continue.

"Good Brother, that youth is the son of Steward Lu, named Lu Chuan. He was born three months after Yu'er, but he has been mentally deficient since birth."

Song Yiren said, "As he has grown older, his intelligence has failed to develop. Though he possesses the body of a sixteen-year-old, his mind is not even that of a three-year-old child. You see..."

He finished with another heavy sigh.

"Mentally deficient, mentally deficient..."

Jiang Ziya lowered his head, pondering for a moment. He stared at the youth for a long while before suddenly smiling. "I have spent these years on the mountain studying the Dao. Though I have yet to achieve immortality, I have gained some small insight. Would you two permit me to take a look and diagnose him?"

Song Yiren's eyes lit up. He urged, "Oh? Could it be that you have a way to treat this condition, Brother? If there is truly a cure, I beg you not to withhold your hand and help Steward Lu."

Lu Liang also looked at Jiang Ziya with desperate eyes, like a drowning man clutching at a straw.

Jiang Ziya smiled faintly. "I dare not promise a cure, but I can certainly examine him."

With that, he descended the steps and walked slowly to the side of the tantrum-throwing youth. Song Yiren, Steward Lu, and several guests quickly gathered around to watch.

Jiang Ziya crouched beside the youth and said kindly, "Xiaochuan, Xiaochuan..."

"Meat, meat, baby wants to eat meat..."

The simple-minded youth continued to roll on the ground, chanting only about wanting meat. He glanced at Jiang Ziya once but otherwise ignored him completely.

Lu Liang said anxiously, "Elder Jiang, look at this..."

"It is no matter."

After a moment of thought, Jiang Ziya smiled. He stood up, parted the crowd, broke a golden-brown chicken leg from a banquet table, and crouched back down to offer it. "Xiaochuan, look, what is this?"

As soon as the golden chicken leg appeared, "Lu Chuan" stopped his crying and flailing.

He scrambled up, snatched the chicken leg, and sat quietly on the ground, devouring it in large bites. Every few mouthfuls, he would look up and give the crowd a silly, vacant grin, leaving everyone present feeling both amused and pained.

Then, all eyes fixed on Jiang Ziya, eager to see what he was capable of.

Jiang Ziya smiled, reached out his left hand to stroke the now-quiet youth's head, and began to perform calculations with his right.

A moment later, Jiang Ziya stood up, looked at the youth on the ground, and nodded. "So that is how it is."

Lu Liang asked nervously, "Elder Jiang, how is it? Is there still hope for my son?"

Jiang Ziya did not answer the question. Instead, he frowned and pondered the youth for a while before suddenly saying to the crowd, "Everyone, please step back."

The crowd quickly retreated a few paces, clearing the space until only Jiang Ziya and the simple-minded Lu Chuan remained.

Jiang Ziya then formed a sword-finger with his right hand, secretly channeling the spiritual energy within his body. He traced rapidly in the air above Lu Chuan's head, quickly outlining the silhouette of a spiritual talisman that glowed with golden light.

Once drawn, the talisman shone brilliantly, leaving the onlookers stunned and whispering in amazement.

"Go!"

Jiang Ziya pointed at the youth eating on the ground. With a "whoosh," the talisman transformed into a streak of light and vanished into the youth's crown.

"Begone!"

Jiang Ziya immediately formed a Daoist seal with his right hand, chanted a series of incantations, and finally shouted, "By the decree of the Supreme Primordial, I open the spiritual apertures that have remained sealed since your birth! If you do not awaken now, when will you?"

The shout sounded like a thunderclap directly above their heads. It stung the onlookers' eardrums, leaving their minds blank and deafening them for a long moment.

Yet, they could still see.

They watched as, following that shout, the simple-minded "Lu Chuan," who had been buried in his chicken, suddenly froze and slowly lifted his head.

His face was initially blank. He looked up at the crowd, and a spark of intelligence appeared in his previously dull, vacant eyes. He did not even notice the half-eaten chicken leg falling from his hand to the ground.

"He's well, he's well... my son is well..."

Seeing the glimmer of spirit gathering in his son's eyes, Lu Liang shouted in excitement. He had never been this happy in his entire life.

"Where am I?"

"Lu Chuan" stood up from the ground, his eyes now sharp and clear. He looked at the surrounding crowd and asked in a dazed, bewildered tone, "Who are you people?"

Indeed, he did not recognize these people.

Not a single one.

Waking up to find himself surrounded by so many strangers, he felt a bit confused, uncomfortable, and repulsed, his skin crawling with goosebumps.

"Worthy brother, is Little Chuan truly recovered?"

Song Yiren looked toward Jiang Ziya and said, "What... what dialect was that? Why can we not understand a word of it?"

The sentence Lu Chuan had just uttered sounded like complete gibberish to them; they could not make out a single character.

"Hmm?"

Hearing the other party speak, Lu Chuan's expression shifted abruptly. What was this old man saying?

A dialect? A foreign language?

It didn't sound like either!

Something was wrong!

Something was very, very wrong!

Lu Chuan looked around suspiciously. He had been staying up late rewatching a childhood mythological drama, so how did he wake up to this...

Wait, these buildings, and the style of the clothes they were wearing—they were far too ancient, even older than the costumes seen in the historical dramas on television.

Damn it, I didn't transmigrate, did I?

Lu Chuan gave a start and blinked his eyes, then suddenly squeezed them shut and fell straight down, stiff as a board.

Either this was a dream, or...

Thud!

The moment the pain from hitting the floor registered, Lu Chuan knew this was no dream!

If it wasn't a dream, then fainting was even more necessary. Under such circumstances, losing consciousness was absolutely the best choice; it would give him time to figure out what was going on.

However...

He hadn't landed on his face, so why did his face hurt so much?

"This..."

Jiang Ziya was also stunned to see Lu Chuan collapse. His fingers moved rapidly in a calculation as he muttered, "That's not right. Once the spiritual aperture is opened, there shouldn't be any issues. How could..."

"My son!"

Lu Liang could not help but rush forward, shaking the unconscious Lu Chuan and crying out, "Wake up! What is wrong with you?"

Mister, stop wailing, my ears hurt!

Lu Chuan discovered that sometimes pretending to be unconscious was not easy; for instance, he was failing miserably this time.

A middle-aged man was shaking him and howling, spouting words in a language he couldn't understand, all while shaking him until he was dizzy and his head was banging against the floor...

In the end, he truly lost consciousness.

His final thought before passing out was that Mandarin had yet to be popularized in this world.