Immortality: Starting with a grave, I'm invincible when burying corpses.

"Sir, Wanshu regrets it. Can you pretend I never said anything before? I don't want you to be like this anymore. I don't want you to make the bet with them. I just want to live here with you."

"What do these villages have to do with us? Why are you doing this?"

"It hurts me so much to see you like this. You are the kindest person in the world, why do you have to bear these sins that don't belong to you..."

……

"Sir, I'm begging you, please don't die. We can still do those simple things like before."

"Wanshu, I really, really like you..."

……

"Sir, Wanshu has figured it out."

"I will no longer try to persuade you to give up. I will only support you silently. If you want to make a bet, Wanshu will bet with you. If you want to kill someone, Wanshu will kill someone with you."

"Whether you're an idealist or a realist, as long as it's the path you've chosen, Wanshu will walk it with you..."

"Even if you were to raise your sword against the gods, Wanshu would stand firmly behind you."

"If one day we are all gone, as long as Little Silver is still here, we can stay with it and see that beautiful world together..."

……

"call--"

Memories flooded his heart. Standing under the ginkgo tree, Zhuangzi recalled many past events.

The memories that had been somewhat vague became clear at this moment, and everything that had happened flashed through Zhuang Sheng's mind like a painting.

He stepped forward and gently stroked the rough stone tablet.

The evening breeze, under the setting sun, swept over the courtyard wall, through the gaps in the branches and leaves, and stirred Zhuangzi's robes.

Looking at the stone tablet beneath him and the tall ginkgo tree, Zhuang Sheng sat down beside the stone tablet and under the ginkgo tree.

The weathered-looking young man looked at the family of three a few meters away and asked this question.

Are you happy?

happiness?

The girl's mother was stunned. She looked at the boy, who seemed to have aged suddenly, and didn't know how to answer for a long time.

Adults always have to consider things that are exceptionally complex, and this is especially true for concepts like happiness, which are difficult to conclude easily.

Just as the woman instinctively began to think, the little girl in her arms stirred.

*Smack!*

Soft, sweet lips touched the woman's face, and before the woman could react, she heard her daughter's clear laughter.

"Hehehe!!! Mom! As long as I'm with Dad and Mom, I'm very happy!"

Seeing her daughter gesturing wildly, the woman couldn't help but laugh out loud.

This little kid is so precocious! How could he possibly know what happiness is?

Despite these thoughts, the woman smiled even more happily, gently kissing her daughter's forehead, which made the little girl giggle incessantly.

When she raised her head again, the woman's face was full of smiles. She looked at Zhuang Sheng under the tree and answered affirmatively.

"I am very happy now!"

……

"very nice!"

……

Summer of the 281st year of the Gregorian calendar.

Zhuang Sheng returned to the home where he and Wan Shu had once lived.

For a whole year, he didn't go anywhere. He just sat in the courtyard all day, watching people come and go on the street and the changing clouds in the sky.

When students from Datongdao came to visit, he would hold classes in the academy as before.

Patiently point out the students' problems and teach them the concept of the Great Harmony.

Occasionally, when it was quiet and undisturbed, Zhuang Sheng would pick up his paintbrush and paint in the courtyard.

He painted one picture after another, capturing Wan Shu from his memory on paper.

Throughout the year, Zhuang Sheng himself didn't know how many paintings he had made; he only knew that he had personally thrown them all into the fire.

No matter how lifelike the people in the painting may be, they are still different from those in my memory.

Memories of the deceased, through repeated embellishment, have become nearly perfect.

This perfection can never be captured by a paintbrush.

……

A year passed in a blur, and it wasn't until the summer of the following year that Zhuang Sheng finally stepped out of his hut.

It took Zhuang Sheng three whole years to rediscover this city he had left hundreds of years ago.

Over the past three years, Zhuang Sheng has been doing different things every day.

He played with children on spring mornings, played chess with old men on summer afternoons, chatted with merchants on autumn evenings, and walked alone on winter nights.

He had attended banquets hosted by high-ranking officials, participated in poetry gatherings among literati, drunk coarse tea favored by laborers, and eaten leftovers begged by beggars.

He once walked into magnificent palaces, into the former imperial palace of the Datong Empire, and drank heartily with a group of high-ranking officials. He also once sat in a farmer's hut, tasting the simple meals prepared for him by an old man.

Over the course of three years, Zhuang Sheng witnessed the full spectrum of human nature and gained a new understanding of the present-day Changzhou Prefecture and the Great Ling Empire.

……

285 in the Gregorian calendar.

Zhuang Sheng visited the imperial palace of the Great Ling Empire once again. In the palace, Zhuang Sheng had lunch with Mu Zhaoyang and expressed his wish to obtain an imperial edict.

In the past five years, due to the death of Marquis Longyue, the entire Yinji Domain has become much more stable, and all forces have restrained themselves and dare not act recklessly as before.

After discussing it, the major princes of the royal family immediately made a decision.

They stopped targeting ordinary people and turned their blades on their original targets: the local powers that controlled their own territories.

In just five years, these Mu-surname lords achieved tremendous results, eliminating hundreds of local forces and exerting a strong deterrent effect.

Thanks to the joint efforts of the Mu clan lords, the empire's control over the Yin Yin Domain increased dramatically, and the lives of the people returned to stability.

The people of Yin Yin Domain have had a much better life, but the court of the Great Ling Empire has suffered repeated losses.

For several consecutive years, Mu Zhaoyang dispatched more than ten imperial envoys to the Yinji Domain to investigate the crimes of various feudal lords.

Of the dozen or so imperial envoys, some died in accidents on the territory of local forces in the Yin-Yang Domain, while others were bribed by the Mu family lords of the Yin-Yang Domain. None of them managed to uncover any useful information.

Five years have passed, and all the evidence of the crimes has been erased. Ren Mu Zhaoyang has sent wave after wave of people, but he has not achieved any results.

Without evidence, even if Mu Zhaoyang is the emperor of the Great Ling Empire, he cannot directly take action against these members of the Mu clan.

What truly shook Mu Zhaoyang was the remedial measures taken by these Mu-surname vassal lords.

Decades later, Mu Zhaoyang finally saw the results, and saw the future of eliminating local warlords and bringing the Yin-Yang Domain completely under the control of the Mu family.

If these members of the Mu clan are held accountable now, his plans in the Yin-Yang Domain will be ruined.

The forces he painstakingly placed in the Yin Yin Domain will inevitably suffer heavy losses, and the Empire's control over the Yin Yin Domain will also decline rapidly.

Even though he knew that the royal family members had committed a series of despicable acts and killed countless people, Mu Zhaoyang was unwilling to actually hold them accountable.

Compared to those local warlords with whom he had no connection, Mu Zhaoyang trusted the members of his Mu family more.

The complex situation led Mu Zhaoyang to compromise, tacitly approving the actions of the Mu family royal family and allowing these feudal lords to make amends.

In Mu Zhaoyang's vision, as long as he could completely control the Yin Yin Domain and suppress the local warlords, any minor offenses could be ignored.

Ultimately, the disappearance of a few villages and the death of several thousand people are not significant matters in the Great Ling Empire.

As long as these feudal lords don't go too far in the future, he can turn a blind eye.

But at this very moment, Zhuang Sheng arrived at the palace and, with a very respectful attitude, asked him for an imperial edict.

The imperial edict to purge the feudal lords.