Moonlight flowed like water, and the hazy shadows of the pagoda trees on the ground looked like weeds beneath its surface.
The old man before him looked like a river god emerging from the water, a jade token in his hand, as though he might ask that classic question at any moment: "Young man, did you drop this Cui Family jade token? Or this Cui Family jade token?"
Huh?
A jade token?
Wait!
Cui Jiuyang looked the old man over, taking in his sage-like bearing and kindly face, especially the jade token in his hand, then pulled his own ancestral jade token out from around his neck.
Hey, they were identical!
So the Cui Family ancestors had bought these jade tokens wholesale!
Why else would there be one here and another there?
Couldn't they have found something one of a kind for a Lineage heirloom?
Even a rock picked up beside a river would be more unique than this jade token!
Cui Jiuyang puffed out his cheeks and moved his lips, but he didn't know what to say. In the end, nothing came out.
Then the old man spoke, knocking Cui Jiuyang head over heels with another shock.
"Jiuyang, I am... Cui Chengshou."
Cui Jiuyang sprang up from the ground.
Although the old man looked broad-framed, his age was plain to see, and he stood somewhat stooped. Once Cui Jiuyang stood up, he was half a head taller.
Now Cui Jiuyang's stubborn temper could no longer hold back his anger. He opened his mouth and shouted, "What the fuck is wrong with you people?!"
"Every last one of you claims to be Cui Chengshou!"
"I'm telling you, I know Cui Chengshou! I've paid my respects at his grave!"
"Where the hell did you all crawl out from, pretending to be my Great-Grandfather?!"
"I'm done with this shit!"
"You think a lousy jade token makes you my ancestor?!"
"Where were you when my boss wanted to fuck my ancestors back when I was working?!"
After that torrent of curses, Cui Jiuyang felt much better.
The old man before him, on the other hand, remained perfectly composed, neither angry nor annoyed. Instead, he watched Cui Jiuyang with a smile, finally wiping the spittle off his face.
"This boy is exactly like I was when I was young. He really does take after his roots." The old man put away his jade token, took Cui Jiuyang by the hand, and drew him over to sit beneath the tree.
The old man's hand was warm and smooth as jade, his skin delicate, not rough like an ordinary elderly person's.
By the moonlight, Cui Jiuyang could clearly see that there wasn't a single wrinkle on the old man's hand. When he examined his face again, he realized there weren't really any wrinkles there either.
Only upon looking closely did he discover that the old man's features were more like those of a middle-aged man in his thirties.
Yet something about his manner and bearing made anyone who glanced at him feel that he had to be at least eighty.
It was a rather strange sensation, and Cui Jiuyang kept staring at the old man, somewhat lost in thought.
The old man waited with a smile until Cui Jiuyang had looked his fill before speaking. "What questions do you have? Ask away."
Cui Jiuyang spoke again. "Are you really Cui Chengshou?"
The old man nodded. "The genuine article."
Cui Jiuyang tilted his head and pointed with his chin in the direction he had come from. "Then the one back at the house...?"
The old man's expression said he had expected that question. He answered unhurriedly, "He is Cui Chengshou too."
Cui Jiuyang stared expressionlessly at the old man before him and began sucking at his teeth.
The old man laughed. "I am Cui Chengshou, and he is Cui Chengshou. There is no contradiction."
Cui Jiuyang sucked at his teeth even harder.
The old man sighed deeply. The smile faded from his face, replaced by wistfulness and regret. "Let me explain it slowly. Seventy years ago, I made a terrible mistake..."
"When I was born, azure light flowed throughout the courtyard, and a wondrous fragrance filled the air. The midwife said I was a reincarnated spirit child."
"As luck would have it, on the day I turned a hundred days old, a wandering Daoist passed our door and asked for a bowl of water. Your great-grandmother was sitting in the courtyard with me in her arms. The wandering Daoist invoked the Boundless Heavenly Venerable, drank a bowl of water, and left the Bagua Compass he carried as a toy for me."
"When I was seven, a strange omen appeared in the heavens: stars shone in broad daylight. Beneath their light, the Bagua Compass unlocked its own mechanism, and an ancient book fell out. Three large characters on its cover read 'The Eight Extremes.'"
"When I was seventeen, I had already mastered six extremes of the ancient book's eight extremes. I believed there was no cultivation method or divine ability in the world that I did not understand or command. I was arrogant beyond measure, convinced that every occult adept beneath heaven stood below me. Whenever I fought someone with magic, I would destroy my opponent until their soul scattered into nothing. Only then did I feel satisfied."
"When I was twenty, I mastered the seventh extreme. From then on, only the Western Extreme Lǘhé Gate remained unopened. Once the destined opportunity arrived and my cultivation was complete, that final gate between heaven and earth would open to me-I would ascend in broad daylight!"
"Even then, I had not fathomed the mysteries of that destined opportunity. But when I calculated upon my fingers, I learned that if I cultivated myself through virtuous deeds, the opportunity would come of its own accord."
"After that, I traveled the five lakes and four seas, subduing demons, capturing monsters, vanquishing evil, and cultivating myself. Yet I could never find where that opportunity lay."
"Three years later, I returned home. By a road in the mountains, I saw a drought ghost, and I knew my opportunity had come."
At this point, the old man suddenly stopped.
Cui Jiuyang raised his eyes to look at him.
Reminiscence lingered on the old man's face. After a long while, he finally let out a melancholy sigh.
"There have always been two ways to deal with a drought ghost. One is to kill it outright. The other is to deliver it from suffering and send it down the road to the Yellow Springs."
"For me, killing a drought ghost was as easy as turning over my hand. But that would inevitably unleash its resentment in a tremendous eruption. A thousand miles of land would be scorched barren, all my accumulated merit would vanish, and everything I had done toward ascension would come to nothing."
The old man paused, his voice sinking low. "But... delivering a drought ghost from suffering is no easy matter."
"A drought ghost can only arise through a convergence of coincidences: an extreme fate in life, death from hunger and thirst, and the gathering of earthly qi."
"Once a drought ghost appears, it inevitably brings drought to the surrounding land. When that becomes a disaster, who knows how many lives it will claim? The resentment of everyone who dies in that great drought is absorbed by the drought ghost..."
"With resentment like that, deliverance is simply out of the question!"
"So..."
The old man hesitated, his gaze wandering over Cui Jiuyang's face.
Cui Jiuyang tentatively finished his sentence. "So you summoned me?"
The old man nodded. "So... so I needed someone whose fate was supremely yang, whose flesh could temporarily serve as a seal for the drought ghost. Once the drought ghost was sealed inside that body, the drought would naturally end. Then my merit would be complete, and I could ascend in broad daylight."
Cui Jiuyang nodded. He had heard of this routine before; it was also documented in cartoons a hundred years later.
But Uzumaki Jiuyang then raised a question. "Once you ascended and left, what would happen to me with a drought ghost inside me?"
The old man shook his head. "Back then... I was still too young. I thought that with the powers of an ascended immortal, sending the drought ghost inside you into reincarnation would require no more than lifting a hand. But I miscalculated..."
Chapter 9: Ascension
"After the drought ghost was sealed inside your body, my merit was indeed complete. But I underestimated the upheaval ascension would cause."
"At that moment, I had attained the eight extremes. The mountains in all eight directions were like dirt piled by ants, and the gates in all eight directions were like unlocked brushwood doors.
"The ends of the earth were within arm's reach; the azure heavens and the Yellow Springs were only a thought away.
"Heaven and earth were nothing but a cramped hollow to me. All I felt was that this realm was unbearably confined and could no longer contain me."
"With a thought, I tore open a sliver of a heavenly gate between heaven and earth..."
"As soon as the heavenly gate opened, thunder shook all eight directions, and ghosts and gods alike were startled. The seal on your body could not withstand the astral winds blowing from beyond the heavens. It held for only three breaths before those winds ripped it open."
"The drought ghost broke free, let out a piercing howl, and charged straight toward the heavenly gate... I struck immediately afterward, but I only managed to sever half its ghostly body before it entered the gate."
"That drought ghost was already among the most evil and powerful of ghosts, only a step away from becoming a ghost king. Even a judge of the Underworld Office would have needed considerable effort to subdue it. Once it entered the heavenly gate and was nourished by creation qi, it became a Ghost Immortal."
"And I had yet to pass through the heavenly gate."
"The Ghost Immortal was ferocious beyond measure. From within the heavenly gate, it unleashed sinister ghostly qi like the surging tide of an ocean..."
"But I possessed a Golden Body of perfected merit. Even if I had not entered the heavenly gate, how could a Ghost Immortal with a mutilated body defeat me?!"
"After the great battle, the Ghost Immortal's soul scattered into nothing. But my eight extremes were shattered as well, leaving me with no hope of ever ascending."
Cui Jiuyang sucked at his teeth again. "That's quite a fantasy novel. But... what about me?"
The old man pressed his lips together and said, "The astral winds tore your body apart, and the Ghost Immortal's boundless ghostly qi swallowed your soul. Your... soul scattered into nothing."
By this point, Cui Jiuyang more or less understood the situation he faced, but he still needed to sort it out. "So you're the old Cui Chengshou, and the one lying asleep back at the house is the young Cui Chengshou."
"The younger you summoned me from a hundred years in the future, and I died without a trace left."
"Then, many years later, the older you used some method or other to travel back to the younger you, hoping to change everything?"
The old man shook his head. "That is broadly correct, but one thing is not as you imagine. I cannot come here in the flesh. What is speaking to you now is merely a wisp of my divine consciousness that has entered your dream. If my mysterious firmament qi-venerable dharma body still existed, bringing my flesh here would be difficult, but not impossible."
"But the Ghost Immortal stole my opportunity to ascend. As for traveling a hundred years in the flesh as you described, that is absolutely..."
Cui Jiuyang cut him off. "So you're saying I can't cooperate with the younger you tomorrow to send off the drought ghost?"
The elderly Cui Chengshou nodded. "Exactly."
Cui Jiuyang asked another question. "Were you behind those two thick fogs earlier?"
"He made the first. I made the second."
"Who were those faces in the fog?"
"The wronged souls that make up the drought ghost's resentment."
"He spoke the first time, and you spoke the second?"
"Yes."
"You two old bastards nearly scared me to death!"
"Don't put it that way. If I'm a bastard, what does that make you?"
Cui Jiuyang steadied himself and asked his final question. "How am I supposed to trust you? Aside from that lousy jade token?"
The elderly Cui Chengshou remained silent for a long time.
"Child, I don't know either."
"You're only an ordinary person. You should never have been dragged into my affairs."
Before you continue