Who among the gangsters wants to fall in love?

Chapter 452 Seeking Immortals and Traces
On a clear, bright spring night at the end of February, a gentle breeze caressed my face, bringing a sense of tranquility and joy.

Hoof-tapping hoof-tapping...

The silver moon hung high, its cool light spilling across the boundless fields along the official road. Two horses galloped swiftly along the road, their movement creating a strong wind that caused the wheat sprouts on both sides to sway from side to side. The crooked puppets stood silently in the fields in the night.

Wrapped in a cloak, Zhao Wumian sat on his horse, gazing at the distant, continuous mountain range. He could see twinkling lights on the mountains, and with his eyesight, he could even vaguely make out the two characters "Gui Xuan" on the mountain gate.

Qin region, Guixuan Valley, three sects and six schools.

The place where Luo Chaoyan grew up was also Ji Zihuai's home... Her mother was an elder in the Guixuan Valley, with mediocre martial arts skills, but she was skilled in medicine and poison. It is unknown how she became acquainted with Ji Yingshi.

Although Guixuan Valley and Zhao Wumian have many connections, they have never had any interaction. However, a master in Guixuan Valley once developed a breeding method that could increase yield per acre, so he had a good impression of this low-key sect.

Luo Chaoyan was frail, only slightly better off than her older sister Luo Xiangzhu. Exhausted from the long journey, she leaned against Zhao Wumian and fell asleep with her head tilted to the side.

Despite the jolting of the horse, she slept soundly, feeling that being in her husband's arms was more comfortable than the imperial bed in the deep palace.

Despite spending most of her time outdoors in harsh conditions, her complexion was actually quite good over the past two weeks.

Ji Zihuai rode on another horse, and together with Zhao Wumian, they quickly rode to the gate of Guixuan Valley, where they dismounted.

The disciples guarding the mountain never imagined that Marquis Weiming and the current emperor would arrive in such a low-key manner, like ordinary people from the martial arts world. They didn't recognize them at first, but thought that the man and two women were quite handsome and didn't look like martial arts people, but rather like scions of a noble family.

But at such a young age, how come your hair is already white...?

But seeing his extraordinary bearing, they dared not be impolite and bowed respectfully with their hands clasped.
"May I ask who you all are...?"

Ji Zihuai tossed out the token, which the disciple caught. After glancing at it, his expression immediately tightened. "So it's Elder Ji. You are the current Imperial Tutor, so..."

The disciples glanced at Zhao Wumian and Luo Chaoyan, their expressions immediately turning apprehensive.

Zhao Wumian sat upright on his horse, first bowing to greet her, and then gently nudged Luo Chaoyan. The current empress rubbed her sleepy eyes, covered her face with her sleeve, yawned, and was helped off the horse by Zhao Wumian.

The three men led their horses up the stone steps to the mountain. The disciple looked at Luo Chaoyan, guessing that she was the current empress, but assumed she was a newlywed visiting her 'natal home'. He whispered, "..."
"Should we inform the Valley Master?"

Zhao Wumian waved his hand casually, "Just take a look around the valley. We'll leave tomorrow, no need to make a fuss."

Luo Chaoyan didn't say much, but nodded slightly, indicating that she would listen to Zhao Wumian.

The disciples glanced at Zhao Wumian, then at Luo Chaoyan, and retreated with their heads bowed, thinking to themselves... This is not the Emperor's consort, but the Prime Minister.

Look at the Empress's ladylike demeanor right now...

Guixuan Valley is a mountain range. The reason it is called this sect name is simply because the mountain is named "Guixuan". This goes back to a thousand years ago, when it was said that there were traces of immortals on this mountain, hence the name "Guixuan".

But whether there are any traces of immortality or not, Zhao Wumian could tell just by standing in front of the gate... There were definitely no traces of immortality, but the misty clouds and ethereal mountains and forests made for a truly beautiful scene, resembling a sacred place of immortals.

The environment shapes the people... No wonder Luo Chaoyan and Ji Zihuai, this master and apprentice pair, are so beautiful.

Zhao Wumian was thinking about all sorts of things when he followed Ji Zihuai up a mountain peak... Guixuan Valley was quite large, similar to Mount Emei. For an elder of Ji Zihuai's status, living alone on a peak was quite peaceful.

Zhao Wumian stood halfway up the mountain, his gaze passing through the branches and leaves of the forest to several neighboring peaks in the distance. The buildings stretched out in a continuous line, brightly lit, and bustling with people. Even at night, it was still lively, like some kind of market.

Luo Chaoyan glanced at it, sighed with a hint of helplessness, and explained:

“Guixuan Valley is unlike any other martial arts sect. It is home to all sorts of people, from old farmers and drunkards to gamblers and swindlers. As a whole, it can be called the ‘Ten Extraordinary Peaks’, and the peak master calls himself the ‘Ten Extraordinary People’. There is never a day when it is quiet, day and night, all year round.”

"Two years ago, someone wanted to join 'Wine Peak' and spent a thousand taels of silver to find connections, but in the end, he was tricked into going to 'Deception Peak' and became a disciple of the Deception Master..."

Luo Chaoyan shook her head slightly, then found it amusing. She covered her face with her sleeve, her eyebrows curved, and her laughter was clear and melodious.

Zhao Wumian found it amusing. "If I were also a disciple of Guixuan Valley, which mountain do you think would be most suitable for me?"

"It's a scam."

"Who did I lie to?"

"A woman's heart."

"..."

"Then which mountain are you from?" Zhao Wumian was speechless, then asked curiously.

“Poison Peak.” Ji Zihuai casually beckoned with his finger, and a bamboo viper emerged from the lush forest, hanging from a branch.

Little White Snake leaned out and rubbed her head against Bamboo Leaf Green's, like sisters...

From every corner, there was a rustling sound, the soft rustling of insects rubbing against the branches and leaves in the forest.

Ji Zihuai turned around and smiled, "Anyone who comes up to the top without my permission will be poisoned and die. Thanks to this, we've been able to have some peace and quiet all these years."

"So, you're a master of poisons?" Zhao Wumian hadn't expected his wife to have such a nickname in the martial arts world.

"The Poison Master is my mother. I've always kept a low profile, and people in the valley always call me 'Poison Girl'."

Zhao Wumian nodded knowingly, then looked at Luo Zhaoyan, "How did you end up becoming your master's disciple in the first place?"

Ji Zihuai recalled what Luo Chaoyan looked like when she was a child, ten years old, wearing a little dress, with a delicate and exquisite face, and only reaching her waist...

She couldn't help but smile and answered for Luo Chaoyan:

"The Emperor concealed his identity when he came to the valley to study medicine. He should have entered the 'Medical Peak', but I could tell at a glance that he was no ordinary person. He even took out a silver note to buy a candied hawthorn on the street... He was so rich, of course I had to recruit him to buy medicine for me."

"So they found a senior sister from the peak to pose as a guide and trick her into coming to the peak to perform the apprenticeship ceremony... When this little girl first saw Cai Cai, she cried for several days in a row and wanted to run away, but the mountains were full of poisonous insects, and she didn't even dare to leave the house, let alone go down the mountain..."

As she spoke, Ji Zihuai covered her face and chuckled. Luo Chaoyan stomped her foot, wanting to retort, but when she recalled the childhood memories, she only found them amusing and couldn't help but laugh along with her master.

The group chatted as they led their horses and soon reached the summit, where they found a clearing with a bamboo grove and a few houses nestled among the bamboo, neither luxurious nor shabby.

No one had set foot on Poison Peak for a long time. Zhao Wumian pushed open the door, and dust hit his nose. He couldn't help but cough a few times. He glanced to the side and saw that the furniture and furnishings were covered with a layer of fine dust, but there were no spider webs or small insects... Obviously, these ordinary insects had long become food for the Gu worms in the peak.

"Cough cough..." Ji Zihuai and Luo Chaoyan coughed a few times, then pushed Zhao Wumian out of the house, covered their faces with handkerchiefs, and began to clean.

Zhao Wumian paced around the house, searching for any remaining traces of Ji Yingshi.

Dried poisonous herbs hung on the wall, along with some cured meat and chili peppers. There was a well in front of the door, and a small wooden cart in the corner, presumably used for transporting medicine... It was an ordinary place no matter how you looked at it.

Zhao Wumian didn't notice anything unusual; he simply stood by the wall, staring at the string of cured meat.

"What are you looking at?" Ji Zihuai asked, turning back as she walked out of the house carrying a basin of dirty water, sprinkling it among the bamboo grove.

"Your family likes to eat cured meat?" Zhao Wumian looked at him curiously. "Back in Jin, when I first met you, you also had cured meat hanging on your roof..."

“My mother loved to eat it, and I had it at almost every meal when I was a child.”

Ji Zihuai answered casually and went to draw water from the well, and Zhao Wumian went over to help her.

Not long after they started working, they heard rustling footsteps coming from the bamboo forest. Zhao Wumian glanced to the side and saw a refined man in a scholar's robe standing in the forest, looking at Zhao Wumian from afar, holding a folding fan in his back hand, and bowing slightly.

"Is that the Valley Master of Guixuan Valley?"

Ji Zihuai glanced at the bamboo grove, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. "I told you not to cause trouble, but you still came..."

"It's our business if we don't want to make trouble, and it's his business whether he comes or not... It's good that he comes."

Zhao Wumian put down the bucket and walked towards the bamboo forest.

"Lord Marquis," the Valley Master smiled slightly, speaking impartially, "I have long heard of you, but have never met you... Lord Marquis, what brings you to the valley today?"

"Seeking immortality." Zhao Wumian did not hide anything, and glanced back at Ji Zihuai, who was carrying a basin of water into the house.

"Immortals?" The Valley Master asked with interest. "Our sect is named Guixuan because of immortal traces. Is this why you, Lord Marquis, have come?"

"This is for the season to respond to the season."

The Valley Master was slightly taken aback.

Zhao Wumian withdrew his gaze, tilted his head, and asked:
"You know about the Poison Master and Ji Yingshi?"

The Valley Master raised an eyebrow slightly, then looked at Zhao Wumian with a hint of surprise, not expecting him to know even such a secret.

He kept this a secret from Ji Zihuai for over twenty years.

Although the Valley Master and Zhao Wumian had no personal relationship, they shared the same stance and did not conceal anything, truthfully stating:

"The Poison Master is my junior sister... One day, she suddenly became pregnant, how could I, as her senior brother, not know?" *Whoosh*

A gentle evening breeze stirred, bamboo leaves scattered and danced, and dappled moonlight fell upon the two of them.

Zhao Wumian glanced back at the house, then untied the wine gourd from his waist, flicked it with his fingertips, and the scattered branches and leaves swept into his hand, turning into two wine cups made of bamboo leaves.

He poured a glass of wine and handed it to the valley master, saying, "Tell me in detail."

The Valley Master raised an eyebrow at this extraordinary skill... Controlling cranes and capturing dragons sounds easy, but forming a cup from branches and leaves must require spatial manipulation.

He suddenly smiled with relief.

He was one of the Ten Martial Champions. Upon hearing that Marquis Weiming had come, his first reaction as a martial artist was naturally to want to spar with him and see who was better... What was there to spar with now?

Zhao Wumian was no longer on the same level as ordinary martial artists.

The valley master took the wine cup, casually sat down on a rock, sipped the wine, pondered for a moment, and then said:
"How far is Lord Marquis from ascending to immortality?"

"A year's worth of knowledge, and the remaining nine cups."

This answer, so precise down to the exact time, left the Valley Master lost in thought for a moment.

After a short while, he slowly said, "Ji Yingshi cultivated diligently for a hundred years and was the national teacher of the Rong people in his early years. Through this channel, he also comprehended various kinds of the Nine Bells. Compared with you, Marquis, you only lack the foundation, or rather, the opportunity."

"Opportunity?"

The valley master downed the wine in his cup in one gulp.

“I don’t know either. After all, my level is far below yours. But Ji Yingshi is almost obsessed with martial arts... or rather, cultivation. He has tried all sorts of methods, including the legendary ‘severing the three corpses’ method from Wugong Mountain.”

Zhao Wumian frowned slightly.

The Three Corpses are three evil spirits in the human heart, roughly equivalent to the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance that young nuns often use for self-reflection.

“Wugong Mountain believes that to become an immortal, one must possess both martial arts skills and moral character, as they are inseparable… Ji Yingshi believes that his martial arts skills are already up to par, but he lacks only moral character?” Zhao Wumian guessed.

The Valley Master nodded slightly and continued:
"Ordinary cultivation methods to eliminate the three corpses involve nothing more than meditation, fasting, and self-cultivation, but these only suppress the problem and cannot eradicate it completely..."

My junior sister told me that Ji Yingshi's obsession with becoming an immortal runs too deep; this is a manifestation of greed, anger, and ignorance. Therefore, let alone eradicating it, even suppressing it is difficult.
So he studied magical methods to seal his memories and return to his childhood... After all, only a child's mind is purest, and it is the least likely to give rise to the Three Corpses.

Zhao Wumian suddenly remembered that back then, the Prince of Yan's father-in-law had been defeated and beaten by a young man surnamed Ji, who was very young, which led to the shattering of his Dao heart.

He said softly, "Even if his memories are sealed and he returns to his childhood, Ji Yingshi is still Ji Yingshi. He is combative, enjoys honing his skills, and seeks out masters from all over the world to spar with... The so-called 'severing the three corpses' is just a futile effort for him."

"It was exactly as planned, but along the way, he met his junior sister, and they even secretly got married in a dilapidated temple..."

This wouldn't normally be a big deal; people of the martial world are unconventional. But after Ji Yingshi regained his memories, he completely forgot about his junior sister and the child in her womb, focusing all his attention on his so-called 'path to immortality.' He didn't even show up when his junior sister died!

The Valley Master's voice suddenly turned cold, and he crushed the wine cup in his hand into pieces, the wine spilling out from between his fingers.

Zhao Wumian had long known that Ji Yingshi was a scumbag who abandoned his wife and daughter, so he was not surprised. From a martial arts perspective, he could even understand it.

"He has endured countless trials and tribulations, experiencing both joy and sorrow, and facing death countless times on his path to immortality. How could he possibly care about matters of the heart or romance?"

Upon hearing this, the Valley Master suddenly smiled, "Is the Marquis the same?"

"Bullshit." Zhao Wumian poured himself a cup of wine and drank it alone. "I would rather be an ordinary person in the mortal world and live for hundreds of years than abandon my wife and become an immortal alone."

These words were a bit Versailles-esque, and the Valley Master stared at him expressionlessly.

So it turns out you can become an immortal whenever you want, and stay in the mortal world whenever you want.

So the ordinary people the Marquis was talking about could live for hundreds of years...

Both are martial arts champions, and the Valley Master is even several generations older than Zhao Wumian, so why is there such a big difference between them?

Hey……

That was all the Valley Master knew. The Poison Master obviously couldn't say more about the rest, since it was a family matter.

Zhao Wumian lowered his head and pondered. According to the Valley Master, Ji Yingshi was clearly not yet an immortal when he married the Poison Master... If that's the case, Ji Zihuai should not be an immortal.

But Ji Zihuai does indeed possess an ethereal aura... It's truly strange.

The Valley Master also took out a wine gourd from his waist, sipped his wine, and chatted with Zhao Wumian about the affairs of the Western Liang border.

Xiliang is not far from Qin. If Xiliang falls, Qin will certainly not escape the flames of war. Therefore, the Valley Master of Guixuan Valley is also concerned.

Zhao Wumian knew that although the war in Xiliang was tense, it was not yet the entire territory had fallen. Jiang Ronggao, the garrison commander of Ningwu Pass, had already sent troops to reinforce the area, which relieved him.

Holding out for at least a few more months shouldn't be a problem... That should be enough for Zhao Wumian to deal with the Western Regions Holy Sect and Uudam.

After chatting for a while, Ji Zihuai poked his head out of the house and shouted, "Still drinking? If you drink any more, you'll reek of alcohol again! You'll be sleeping in the bamboo forest tonight!"

Zhao Wumian smiled helplessly, bowed slightly to the Valley Master, and the two parted ways.

The Valley Master actually disliked Gu worms, finding these little gadgets rather frightening, and would not linger unless absolutely necessary... He went to the market on the neighboring mountain peak, drinking, eating meat, gambling, and watching dances, living a carefree life.

Before midnight, he was kicked out of the gambling den wearing only his underwear... How could someone who could become the master of Guixuan Valley be a decent person?

The Valley Master comes from a gambling background and always loses at gambling, yet he never tires of it.

Zhao Wumian got up and went back to the house, only to find that a table of food had been prepared inside. It wasn't lavish, and the vegetables were even freshly picked from the vegetable garden in the backyard.

The only meat dish was the cured pork on the wall.

Luo Chaoyan, wearing an apron, came out of the kitchen, filled Zhao Wumian's bowl with rice, and buried a few eggs in it. Then she asked softly:
"It's a bit rudimentary. Should I go to the next mountain peak and buy some meat?"

"It's so late, don't bother." Zhao Wumian shoveled rice into his mouth, stuffing a few slices of cured meat into his mouth and chewing. "I'm just a江湖人 (jianghu person, a person of the martial arts world), not from a noble family, I don't care about such things... This cured meat is really good, you even have this skill?"

He looked at Ji Zihuai.

Ji Zihuai was holding her rice bowl, lost in thought, when she heard this and suddenly came back to her senses, letting out a soft hum.

"Grandma, Mother, I have passed down this skill of curing bacon from generation to generation, and I will pass it on to my daughter in the future."

Luo Chaoyan blinked and said softly, "Then why did Master pass it on to me..."

The two women paused, their pretty faces blushing slightly. Luo Chaoyan had been with Ji Zihuai since childhood, and they were like mother and daughter... But they couldn't say that, or Zhao Wumian would get excited again.

Ji Zihuai changed the subject, raising her head and saying, "This cured meat is quite particular. My mother's favorite is pork belly from Butcher Zhang's family in Xianyang, while I prefer beef, especially from a young, strong yellow ox, the meat is firm and chewy..."

“Killing a cow is illegal,” Luo Chaoyan reminded her.

Oxen can be used for plowing, but according to the Law of Tsarevich, one may only eat oxen that have died of old age or accident, and one may not kill oxen.

To discuss this matter in front of the Emperor of Dali is clearly a sign that the Empress is not being treated as an emperor.

Ji Zihuai retorted, sticking her neck out: "The ox was stupid enough to run into the mountains and get bitten to death by poisonous insects. What does that have to do with me? Didn't you eat it?"

Zhao Wumian laughed heartily, "This cured meat is made from beef?"

"uh-huh……"

Whispers continued inside the house. After dinner, the group went to a cliff behind the courtyard, where a monument stood, marking the tomb of the woman in purple.

The three of them bowed respectfully and burned yellow paper.

Ji Zihuai tugged at Zhao Wumian's sleeve and talked on and on.

The most common complaint was that Zhao Wumian was unlike Ji Yingshi.

My mother had a hard life and never met a good man, but she was different... Even if Zhao Wumian truly ascended to immortality, he would not abandon her. If you know this in the afterlife, you can rest assured.

Ji Zihuai had obviously overheard Zhao Wumian and the Valley Master's conversation and now fully understood her background.

While sleeping, she held her husband and sobbed softly.

Zhao Wumian never knew... that his wife was a crybaby.

She cries all the time since she got married...

(End of this chapter)