The story begins with the bride marrying off her daughter, and the woman, at the age of one hundred,

I considered this possibility.

Chang Shou got up and went to the inner room. He opened the cabinet, took out various items, and arranged them on a table according to the order of the Eight Trigrams.

First, he laid out an animal hide, on which he wrote the eight trigrams and drew a diagram using special pigments. Then, he placed a water basin in the center of the diagram, raised his hand to summon and fill it with fresh water from the courtyard, and a small boat he had folded from leaves floated on the water.

My ancestral home is Zhanzhou in the south, and the south belongs to the element of fire.

Therefore, Changshou lit a candle on the Li trigram.

He also practices water magic, and the north is associated with water.

So he cut his finger with a knife and let a drop of bright red blood fall.

He then muttered incantations, took out a spirit tortoise shell, shook the copper coin inside, and began to calculate again.

"Heaven and earth possess spirits, the universe governs the way, all things are born and transformed, through cause and effect, the mysterious spirit of the North..."

Chang Shou served as the steward of the Sutra Repository in the Xieyue Sanxing Cave for three years, listening to the patriarch's twelve lectures. Although he was greedy and couldn't digest too much, he didn't practice too many spells before becoming an immortal, focusing instead on water magic. But it wasn't that he didn't learn any spells at all.

Divination is charlatanry...

Coughing is a cultivator's signature skill.

It can calculate the heavens, the earth, and people; it can be used to find objects, people, and immortals. Its uses are very wide-ranging, and it may come in handy one day when I travel the world after descending the mountain.

He practiced the Northern Mystic Spiritual Calculation Technique.

Heaven and earth are the five directions: east, west, south, north, and center.

The five elements of heaven and earth are metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

The Five Elements and Five Directions gave birth to the Five Spirit Gods.

The god of the north is Xuanwu, also known as the God of Wisdom and the God of Fate, who carries the mysteries of the stars.

The Black Tortoise of the North is most skilled in the principles of change.

Chang Shou's divination skills were among the best in the library.

He focused intently on shaking the tortoise shell, again and again.

The timing of each shake was exactly the same.

Each shake adds a touch of mystery to the frequency.

After the incantation was finished, Chang Shou shook the turtle nine times. He opened his eyes and poured the copper coin inside the turtle shell into the water basin.

The three copper coins fell into the water in an instant.

The bloodstains on the north side of the Kan position slowly rose, reformed into blood droplets, fell into the plate, and stained the clear water red.

The water in the basin rippled, and a whirlpool appeared.

The leaf-shaped boat swayed with the waves, never sinking. When the waves calmed and the water became clear again, Changshou put down the tortoise shell, took out the boat, and lit it on a candle flame. The black ash slowly drifted into the water basin.

The water in the dish boiled, releasing a large amount of white steam.

The swirling smoke formed a line of text:

Life and death are neighbors, fortune and misfortune are intertwined.

Besides this proverb, Chang Shou saw more through the divination, things that were in his bloodline, things that only he, as the source of his bloodline, could perceive.

"So it was that little girl."

If you think about it, it's definitely time for her to get married.

However, due to external interference, her marriage was unhappy, she became a widow at a young age, and died young—truly a life filled with many misfortunes!

If it were anyone else, Chang Shou would sympathize but wouldn't investigate further. But since it was his great-great-granddaughter who got into trouble.

Yes, not great-grandchildren, but great-great-grandchildren.

If the first generation is himself.

The second generation was his unfilial son who died young.

The third generation is his granddaughter.

The fourth generation consists of the children of three granddaughters.

The fifth generation refers to the grandchildren of three granddaughters.

Moreover, judging from blood relations, she should be the youngest granddaughter of Chang'an, the second granddaughter.

---

Thinking about this.

Chang Shou's eyes were glazed over, his face filled with reminiscence.

My second granddaughter, Chang'an, got married more than 50 years ago.

She married a family surnamed Jiang in the next county and had two sons and a daughter.

However, due to natural disasters and man-made calamities, her two sons died in battle one after another, leaving her daughter with a slightly happier life.

The pain of a white-haired person burying a black-haired person is something Chang Shou truly understands.

So, back then, he specially sent someone to deliver a message, asking his second granddaughter to send her two grandsons and two granddaughters back, and Changshou helped take care of them for a period of time.

At that time, his second granddaughter's little granddaughter was about the same age as his own, both were infants in swaddling clothes.

Changshou took great care of this great-great-granddaughter.

Even though they were later taken back.

Every time the second granddaughter comes back to visit relatives, these great-great-grandchildren will come back with her.

Changshou was fairly familiar with this great-great-granddaughter.

When he left home, his great-great-granddaughter, Jiang Hua, was only twelve years old. In an era when people could get engaged at fifteen, it was perfectly reasonable for Jiang Hua to get married after he had been away from home for ten years.

I never imagined she would have such a tragic fate—a widow who died young and had no children to care for her in her old age. She was truly pitiful.

But Changshou felt even more sorry for his second granddaughter.

"Once again, the white-haired bury the black-haired."

I wonder if this girl's body can handle it.

She was one of the girls he watched grow up and took care of himself. Even though their bond wasn't as deep as his granddaughter's, they were still blood relatives.

Thinking of this, Chang Shou's face immediately filled with heartache.

He flicked his sleeve to disperse the smoke and writing on the water basin, picked up his cane, stood up, walked to the window, looked up at the bright moon half-hidden by dark clouds, and made a decision in his heart.

"It seems we won't live to see the monkey master the supernatural powers of flying and escaping."

I need to find a way to contact my relatives as soon as possible.

Even if separated by thousands of mountains and rivers.

Even if they are hundreds of millions of miles apart.

Even if it means owing more favors.

As Changshou continued to gaze at the bright moon, he couldn't help but sigh.

Debts of money are easy to repay, but debts of gratitude are hard to repay.

He had thought about communicating with his family before, but he lacked the ability to do so, whether through dreams or letters.

He hasn't done this for the past three years because he doesn't want to owe any more favors.

But times change.

Plans can never keep up with changes.

Chang Shou pondered intently for a suitable candidate.

Among the immortals and disciples in the Slanting Moon Three Stars Cave, few were capable of helping him. After much thought, he realized that only Zhenli, Ruchang, Xingwu, and Guangzhi could assist him.

They have been cultivating for longer, their cultivation level is higher than mine, and their network of connections is also wider. Perhaps they have a way to help me.

However, they are still only Qi Refining cultivators at the Qi Refining stage, lacking the great supernatural power to traverse thousands of mountains and rivers, making it difficult for them to travel to the North Sea in the morning and Cangwu in the evening.

It's highly likely that favors will be exchanged based on personal connections.

In this way, you might end up owing even more favors.

One candidate was ruled out.

If immortals are not an option, then what about spirit birds?

The Crescent Moon and Three Stars Cave is home to many spiritual birds that have attained enlightenment: cranes, phoenixes, eagles...

They even have a round-faced, chubby chicken of their own.

This is the most skilled messenger and finder of directions among all the spirit birds. After Changshou accepted the round-faced fat chicken, he flipped through the scriptures and books in the library, trying to find out what was strange about this fat chicken.

The library houses a vast collection of scrolls, containing countless books recording rare and exotic animals.

He spent half a month researching and finally found the answer.

In ancient times, there was a ghostly bird that roamed the four seas. It had nine heads, flew swiftly, fed on souls, and loved to chase the darkness at night.

Later, the ghost chariot multiplied and gave birth to nine birds.

Each beast is nocturnal and has inherited one of the abilities of the Ghost Chariot.

The nine birds further branched into thirty-six categories, one of which was called the Soul-Chasing Bird or the Death-Announcer Bird. These birds preferred to live in places with abundant Yin energy. In addition to inheriting the talent of the Ghost Chariot to devour souls, their flight speed also far exceeded that of ordinary spirit birds.

The owl's ancestor was the soul-chasing bird.

This is also why the round-faced, chubby chicken has an unusually fast flight speed.

His bloodline reverted to its ancestral form, awakening a trace of the Soul-Chasing Bird bloodline. This is also why Fatty Chicken discovered the Longevity Yin God and followed him all along.

Part of it is curiosity.

On the other hand, it might be because he's greedy for him.

But Changshou quickly abandoned this plan.

The world of Journey to the West is fraught with danger.

Even if the spirit bird can travel ten thousand miles in a day, it will still take a long time to reach the southern continent of Zhanzhou.

Numerous unexpected events may occur during this period.

After much deliberation, Changshou realized that he only had one candidate left: the Patriarch.

"It seems we have no choice but to ask him for help."

Too many lice don't itch, too much debt doesn't worry.

I already owe the patriarch enough, so it doesn't matter if I owe him another favor.