The so-called descendants of immortals

On the journey south, Meng Yuan never again ate any food Chen Yuyin offered him, nor did he sleep beside her.

In truth, Meng Yuan had studied medical texts extensively in his previous life, but he had treated few patients. That hardly counted as hands-on practice, much less made him a master physician. Thus, even if he was not particularly afraid of Chen Yuyin poisoning him, he still had to take precautions.

The closer he came to success, the more careful he had to be.

When Chen Yuyin turned ruthless, she was truly ruthless.

Now that their great undertaking was complete and the immortals' secrets were about to be revealed, Meng Yuan feared she would go mad.

The southern tour did not go smoothly. Only three months in, he encountered an assassination attempt: a bandit hurled a great stone hammer at his carriage.

But Meng Yuan had many carriages, and the stone hammer struck a secondary carriage by mistake.

Meng Yuan personally captured the assassin. Under questioning, the man claimed to be a former retainer of King Zhang.

"I have already made Zhang Yiqiong's youngest son a marquis. I have shown every possible kindness and fulfilled every obligation." Rather than kill the assassin, Meng Yuan sent him back to the capital. "Heaven's mandate does not rest with the Zhang family. Go back and serve your young lord. Let this fulfill your loyalty and righteousness."

Upon reaching his old home in Huai'an Prefecture, Meng Yuan once again stayed with the Cheng Household.

Pan Shi was only two or three years older than Chen Yuyin. But with daily, lavish dousings of rain and dew, as well as her practice of internal cultivation, Chen Yuyin looked barely thirty, while Pan Shi was already showing signs of age.

"She was such a luscious woman back then." Thinking of how Chen Yuyin was like a dead pig, Meng Yuan actually felt a little nostalgic for Pan Shi's abandon.

After sleeping with her once, Meng Yuan found it rather dull.

It turned out that he missed not only the pleasures of their illicit affair back then, but also the days of his youth.

He had intended to look up Widow Cao as well, but Chen Yuyin, who had been eavesdropping outside, sent someone to administer medicine to Pan Shi.

Meng Yuan lost interest too. He bestowed an official post upon the Cheng Household's youngest son and, without lingering, continued south to Tiannan Province at the southernmost end of the realm.

Tiannan Province was a remote place. In ancient times, the Han Shi had risen to prominence here, and it had been one of the Eighty-One Kingdoms.

Mountains abounded here; there had never been even three mu of level ground together.

To the east lay boundless seas, to the south thousands of li of mountains, and to the west countless more mountains barred the way.

This was land military strategists would not defend. The mountains were also rife with miasma and fierce beasts; even bandits were unwilling to hide there.

Meng Yuan and the empress took up residence at the local Clear Wind Temple.

Clear Wind Temple was an ancient Daoist temple over a thousand years old, occupying several mountaintops. Many pines grew behind it, each towering into the sky. Legend had it that the oldest was already two thousand years old.

They had waited at Clear Wind Temple for over a month. That morning, Meng Yuan and Chen Yuyin wore everyday clothes. The couple showed not the slightest sign of affection: one read Daoist scriptures beneath a pine, while the other stared blankly into space.

Before noon, Yang Dayong came to find them.

"Your Majesty. Two people outside are carrying a letter from the empress. They say they have come to keep an appointment." Yang Dayong had been Meng Yuan's trusted confidant since childhood, and no one enjoyed greater trust from him.

After briefly asking about the visitors' appearances and ages, Meng Yuan said, "Invite our honored guests over. You need not accompany them."

Chen Yuyin added, "They are people of the wilds. If they carry weapons, leave them be."

With that, she glanced at Meng Yuan, as though asking whether he was afraid.

"My wife, we have been married for years and have long since become one. In life we share a bed; in death we shall share a grave." Meng Yuan lightly patted the back of Chen Yuyin's hand, looking every bit the doting husband.

"Yes." Seeing Meng Yuan nod, Yang Dayong withdrew.

Before long, a man and a woman arrived in the pine grove.

The man appeared to be in his forties, fair and slender, with delicate, feminine good looks and a sword at his waist.

The woman was an old crone of seventy or eighty. Her left leg was missing, one eye was blind, and she supported herself on a crutch tucked under her arm.

Judging by their bearing, Meng Yuan thought both were probably experts in internal martial arts.

"So you're His Majesty the emperor? How young!" The old woman smiled, looking almost innocent. She chuckled without the slightest hostility, nor any reverence for worldly power.

The man, meanwhile, paid Meng Yuan no attention at all. He kept staring at Chen Yuyin.

"Yuyin..." His eyes reddened, grief on his face, as though he had a thousand things to say.

Was this Chen Yuyin's lover? Could a woman like Chen Yuyin fall for a man? Did she like these old pretty boys with their delicate skin? Meng Yuan planned to sleep with Chen Yuyin that night and see whether this man would come eavesdrop to spice things up.

As Meng Yuan was thinking this, the man said, "Have Yucheng's two children come? Your letter said Huaiyuan resembles Yucheng. Is that true? Could you let me see him?"

"Absolutely not!" Chen Yuyin was always composed, but now she jerked in fright as though a venomous snake had crawled onto her foot. Not only did she refuse sternly, but her voice even trembled.

Fuck, so he wasn't Chen Yuyin's lover-he was her brother's lover!

You descendants of immortals certainly have plenty of tricks!

"Yuyin handles things prudently!" The old woman was still smiling. "We can't let Shuang'er have the father and then the son! Otherwise, that old bastard Chen Qingyuan would be so furious he'd come back to life!"

Chen Yuyin glared at the old woman, who chuckled, while the man's face filled with sorrow.

Was this everyday life for your three great families of High Antiquity? Why didn't you look remotely like lofty masters?

Meng Yuan coughed twice. "Might I ask your honored names?"

"This old woman is called Pei Huasheng," the old woman said with a smile.

"I am Bai Xingshuang," said the man.

The tenth-month breeze was cool, the rustling pines fragrant.

"Please, sit." Meng Yuan invited the two descendants of immortals to take their seats.

Chen Yuyin was so accustomed to being a virtuous wife that she could not shake the bad habit at once. She fetched water and brewed tea, serving them without deference.

"I hear you love beauties rather than your realm. Such a splendid realm, handed over with both hands!" Pei Huasheng settled herself on her one leg, her dim old eyes continually sizing Meng Yuan up with great curiosity. "I also hear Yuyin hasn't borne you so much as half a child, yet you haven't taken a single concubine! I thought you were the same sort as Yucheng, but now that I've seen you in person, I know you aren't!"

She sighed with feeling. "You certainly count as an extraordinary man!"

"I never intended to pursue this great undertaking. I only wished to wander freely among the mountains and wilds. Had my beloved wife not wished it, I would now be as carefree as you two, roaming at leisure through the wilderness," Meng Yuan said with a smile.

"Great-aunt, you actually believe he's faithful? Who knows how many women he has secretly slept with behind my back!" Chen Yuyin said irritably. "I already told you in my letter. He was scheming against me from the very beginning! Against all three of our families!"

"That's only because you watch me too closely. Whenever I favor a woman, you have to eavesdrop outside, then immediately send medicine afterward, terrified I might have a son or daughter!" Meng Yuan was equally irritable.

"You're clearly waiting for me to come listen! If I don't come, you won't start!" Chen Yuyin was furious too.

"Enough, enough!" Seeing their argument grow increasingly unseemly, the feminine-looking Bai Xingshuang actually stepped in to mediate.

"You are husband and wife, after all. Don't make such an unseemly scene," Pei Huasheng advised as well.

Meng Yuan had merely used the opportunity to vent and test his visitors' temperaments. Seeing that they were respectable people, he put his smile back on.

Chen Yuyin also lowered her head without another word.

"Yuyin, you knew he was scheming against you, yet willingly stepped into his trap? There was mutual scheming, yes, but to me it looks more like a wolf and a jackal working hand in glove." Pei Huasheng looked at Chen Yuyin.

"There truly was no scheming. I was merely sincere." Meng Yuan was utterly serious. "My virtuous wife has always kept her birth family in her heart. How could I not help? If you three joined forces to kill me now, even if I had a contingency in place, this realm would still belong to the Chen Household. All the more so since I have no contingency whatsoever, only a sincere heart."

Chen Yuyin sneered. She did not believe a word from the man who shared her bed and was certain he had something hidden up his sleeve.

"Actually, after all that scheming back and forth, the realm has gone to the Chen Household, fulfilling Uncle Chen's and Yucheng's last wishes. For the Chen Household, that truly is a great gift." Bai Xingshuang took a sip of Pine Needle Tea and smiled at Chen Yuyin. "He is, at least, more handsome than Lü Yinglong, and more to your taste."

Chen Yuyin was silent for a long time before saying, "Apart from his martial talent being far inferior to Lü Yinglong's, he surpasses Lü Yinglong in every other respect."

What kind of remark was that? Meng Yuan refused to accept it. He had spun the wheel for an entire lifetime just to obtain the talent of a martial prodigy. How was he inferior to Lü Yinglong?

"My wife, you mustn't favor one over the other. Just how was Brother Lü so much better than me?" Meng Yuan truly refused to accept it.

"After committing an offense, Lü Yinglong fled all the way here. Just as he was about to hide in the mountains, my father took him in. He was a heaven-sent genius. Whether saber or sword techniques, he could learn them after seeing them once." Chen Yuyin glanced sidelong at Meng Yuan. "How did Lü Yinglong die? Did the Black Serpent kill him, or did you?"

Without waiting for Meng Yuan to answer, Chen Yuyin continued, "Father once said he would teach Lü Yinglong the Pure Yang Art before he died. Lü Yinglong was always lazy. Without someone behind him forcing him, he would never practice an extra round! You must have fought Lü Yinglong. How was he? And how were you?"

"..." Meng Yuan was momentarily speechless. When he faced Lü Yinglong, he had already practiced the Pure Yang Art for two years, training diligently without cease.

Yet if Lü Yinglong had only learned the Pure Yang Art just before Chen Qingyuan's death, he could have practiced for no more than two or three months.

Not to mention that Lü Yinglong had also had to care for Chen Qingyuan and arrange his funeral during that time.

Back then, Meng Yuan had exchanged palm strikes with the gravely wounded Lü Yinglong and only barely gained a slight advantage. This made Lü Yinglong's exceptional ability all the clearer.

Chen Yuyin had no reason to lie now. Evidently, Lü Yinglong truly had possessed extraordinary gifts.

As realization sank in, Meng Yuan found himself silenced by his virtuous wife for the first time.

"Great-aunt, why didn't Liuguang come? Why trouble you to come in person?" Having subdued Meng Yuan, Chen Yuyin turned to Pei Huasheng.

"Liuguang is dead." Grief appeared on Pei Huasheng's face. "Two and a half years after you returned, she went in again. Sure enough, she fell victim to it."

"Why wasn't it mentioned in your letters?" Rare sorrow came over Chen Yuyin.

"All mortals must die. Mentioning it or not makes no difference." Pei Huasheng smiled. "Your father said that humans are humans, and immortals are immortals. For mortals to attempt to pry into immortals' secrets-how could willow catkins withstand the battering wind?"

Chen Yuyin and Bai Xingshuang both fell silent.