The Qiaoqi Festival was in full swing.
After being called a “country bumpkin,” Yan Ling was displeased for a moment, but soon became carefree again and played wildly with Yan Yue.
The main street was packed with people. Night fell.
The two half-grown children, after playing all day, finally grew tired and sat listlessly on a stone bench by the long bridge, resting their chins on their hands as they watched people come and go.
Yan Hanque didn’t want to spend money on his son, yet he spent a fortune buying a mandarin duck hairpin. He held Lady Chao’s hand, lowered his eyes, and inserted the pin into her loose hair arrangement.
Yan Ling said cheerfully: “That hairpin looks really pretty.”
Yan Yue glanced at the gaudy mandarin duck hairpin and thought: How could that possibly look good?
Lady Chao’s lip corner twitched, thinking to herself: “It’s terribly ugly.”
But Yan Hanque’s perpetually ice-cold face showed a faint glimmer of anticipation. Lady Chao was silent for a long while before exaggerating her adjustment of the ugly hairstyle and skillfully humoring him: “Really pretty, I love it. Hanque’s eye for these things is truly impeccable, it really suits this hairstyle and pin.”
Yan Hanque, rarely praised, was delighted, a faint smile flickering in his eyes.
Yan Ling tilted his head and, imitating Lady Chao’s manner, said with deep feeling to Yan Yue: “Really pretty, I love it.”
Yan Yue smiled with pressed lips.
A faint sound of wooden wheels rolling across the ground reached their ears. Yan Ling thought there must be a food vendor cart and happily turned his head to look.
Instead, he saw a child in white robes pushing a wheelchair, saying something quietly, while the child in the wheelchair was brimming with helplessness.
Rang Chen said flatly: “What do you think that Xi family young master will awaken for his xiangwen?”
Heng Yudu shook his head: “It’s not good to gossip about others behind their backs.”
Rang Chen had no choice but to ask: “Your birthday is coming up soon too, so what xiangwen do you hope to awaken?”
“Anything is fine.” Heng Yudu smiled. “For someone useless like me, awakening any xiangwen probably won’t be of much use anyway. It would be better not to have one.”
Rang Chen frowned: “Don’t say that.”
Heng Yudu smiled: “Then what about you?”
Rang Chen thought for a moment: “I can’t think either. Mysterious or heavenly grade would be acceptable, but don’t even dream of spiritual grade.”
The two walked away chatting and laughing.
Yan Ling, seeing it wasn’t food, disappointedly turned his attention back.
Yan Hanque and Lady Chao were flirting with each other. After watching for a while with nothing to do, Yan Ling discovered that sitting by the roadside listening to the voices of various people seemed quite interesting.
The myriad forms of all things—from just a few moments of people passing by, one could see countless fragments of entire lifetimes.
This feeling was extraordinarily strange.
Yan Ling saw he couldn’t get home anytime soon, so he cheerfully rested his chin on his hand and watched the people passing by the roadside.
Among the crowd, a small child covered from head to toe in a black robe was frantically kicking his legs. Under the suspicious gaze of passersby, he wailed angrily with a crying tone: “I don’t want to sightsee! I want to go home—what’s so interesting about people anyway?! Ahhhhh Mother, please!”
Yan Ling had never seen anyone who didn’t want to come out and play, so he stared at him curiously.
Lezheng Jiu caught his gaze in the corner of his eye and roared: “What are you looking at?! Look any more and I’ll beat you, you little shrimp!”
Yan Ling: “…”
Before Yan Ling could get angry, Lady Le reached out and pinched Lezheng Jiu’s ear, dragging him away as he wailed pitifully.
Only then did Yan Ling’s annoyance fade.
Soon after, a child in a white robe with ghost character markings ran past from the side, excitedly calling out: “There’s someone confessing love here! Father! Come quick! Come learn from him!”
Yan Ling quickly craned his neck to look.
Confessing love? Where was the confession?!
Feng Yu’s father’s face darkened as he walked over and scooped him up by the waist, looking like he wanted to take him back and commit murder to silence him.
What an embarrassment!
Yan Ling found the spectacle hilarious.
“Master!” A young sword cultivator with a small wooden sword at his waist, full of righteousness, spoke up. “When are we heading back to the Southern Territory? Your disciple needs to practice swordplay!”
Liu Kongyan rubbed his head: “Go enjoy yourself.”
Liu Tiaotiao had no choice but to try his best to have fun.
Yan Ling watched the two leave when suddenly a dark shadow flashed across his vision—it seemed another person had just passed by.
What was that?
Yan Ling didn’t think much of it and continued watching.
Just then, someone’s soft voice came from beside him: “Where are your parents?”
Yan Ling turned his head in confusion and saw a child in a blue shirt standing beside them, his eyes full of warmth and concern as he looked at them worriedly.
Yan Ling was bewildered: “Huh?”
“The Qiaoqi Festival is crowded. Did you get separated from your parents?” Sheng Jiao asked gently.
Yan Ling finally understood and quickly pointed to Yan Hanque and Lady Chao, who were still affectionate in the distance: “My parents are over there. We didn’t get lost.”
Sheng Jiao smiled: “That’s good then.”
He said this and turned to leave, but Yan Ling, acting on impulse, suddenly grabbed his sleeve.
Sheng Jiao turned back.
After grabbing it, Yan Ling himself was confused, staring blankly at Sheng Jiao with wide eyes. After a long moment, he awkwardly pulled his hand back.
“Sorry.”
Sheng Jiao looked at him questioningly, then thought for a moment and took out a piece of osmanthus cake from his pocket, offering it: “Want some?”
Yan Ling had eaten too much that day and felt too full to move, but catching the faint fragrance of osmanthus, he hesitated before obediently reaching out to take it: “Thank you.”
Sheng Jiao smiled and finally turned to leave.
Yan Ling held the osmanthus cake and watched the blue-robed child disappear into the crowd.
Yan Yue tugged on his arm and said softly: “Senior brother, it’s better not to eat things given by strangers.”
Yan Ling came back to his senses and sniffed the osmanthus cake, then grinned at Yan Yue, deliberately teasing him: “But what if I’m hungry now?”
Yan Yue said flatly: “I’ll, I’ll go buy you food.”
As he spoke, he was about to jump down from the bench to buy something.
Yan Ling laughed heartily and hugged Yan Yue by the waist: “Silly boy, I was just teasing you.”
Yan Yue, having heard who-knows-where about various cautionary tales, said aggrievedly: “Then don’t eat it.”
Worried about being poisoned.
The moment the words left his mouth, Yan Ling had already gone “ah-nom” and swallowed half the osmanthus cake in one bite, puffing out his cheeks like a squirrel as he grinned at Yan Yue.
Yan Yue: “…”
Yan Yue nearly burst into tears.
Yan Ling laughed so hard he doubled over.
Yan Hanque finally finished presenting his gift and hadn’t even had a chance to spend time alone with his wife when he heard Yan Yue’s aggrieved crying from behind.
Yan Hanque turned to look coldly at Yan Ling.
Yan Ling swallowed the osmanthus cake in a few quick bites and grinned cheerfully: “We were just playing around.”
With that, he nudged Yan Yue.
Yan Yue had a soft temperament and quickly wiped his tears, obediently saying: “Senior brother wasn’t bullying me, we were really just playing.”
Lady Chao watched them with an ambiguous smile.
Yan Hanque walked forward with a cold expression and scooped Yan Ling into his arms.
Yan Ling hastily flailed about, quickly trying to appease him: “Yan Hanque! Yan Immortal! Spare me, I’ll never do it again! Mother! Mother, help me!”
“What should we do?” Lady Chao said with a smile. “Yan Immortal won’t listen to me. Perhaps you should just endure it, Yan Little Immortal. After all, it’s just a beating, and your father means well. You can understand and forgive him, right?”
Yan Ling: “…”
Yan Ling looked at Lady Chao in disbelief.
Seeing his dumbfounded expression, Lady Chao couldn’t help but laugh.
Yan Hanque had lost interest in sightseeing and was eager to get home and beat his child, so he carried the wailing Yan Ling away.
Lady Chao held Yan Yue’s hand and laughed as she followed along.
The four of them—except for Yan Ling, who would soon be beaten—cheerfully boarded the river boat, which drifted like a lone leaf on a vast ocean beneath the brilliant fireworks, leisurely floating back to Yanwen Mountain.
The night grew deeper, and Central State City set off another grand display of fireworks, their brilliant light illuminating the sky as the Qiaoqi Festival finally came to an end.
The hour of midnight was approaching, yet the Xi family mansion remained brightly lit.
Xi Jue was tiredly sprawled across a cushion, yawning repeatedly. He tried several times to go back to sleep but was forcibly held in place by Lady Xi.
“Be good, Jue’er.” Lady Xi was domineering in public, but toward her only son she was tender and affectionate. She gently pulled up the limp Xi Jue and made him kneel up straight. “Hold on a bit longer. Once you awaken your xiangwen, I’ll send you back to sleep.”
Xi Jue pouted, clearly not believing those words.
Turning twelve was the most troublesome. After awakening one’s xiangwen, there were still ancestral sacrifices and worship of Tianyan—a mess of things that could keep one busy in fits and starts until dawn. After that, the Xi family would announce the xiangwen name to other families, inevitably bringing another round of social pleasantries and greetings.
By tomorrow evening, he probably wouldn’t even have time for a decent night’s sleep.
Xi Jue said listlessly: “Once I awaken my xiangwen, do I still have to go to Tianyan Academy for four years of study? I heard it’s incredibly boring. I don’t like it. Can I skip it?”
Lady Xi was rarely stern with her son: “No, you must go to Tianyan Academy. The Xi family has already spoken with Protector Wen, the director of the academy. You’ll enter the Zhuxing Zhai in early autumn next year—that’s the finest study dormitory in all thirteen states.”
Xi Jue wheedled, Xi Jue threw tantrums, but Lady Xi still wouldn’t let him skip.
Xi Jue had no choice but to reluctantly agree, yawning continuously as he said: “Mother, I’m hungry.”
Ordinary people couldn’t enter the Tianyan Shrine. Lady Xi said: “I’ll go get you something to eat. Be good and stay here without wandering around, and don’t fall asleep.”
Xi Jue drew out his words, whining: “I know.”
Outside the Tianyan Shrine, the Xi family head and elders were waiting.
Xi Jue was arguably the child with the highest spiritual root talent in recent decades—nine times out of ten, he would awaken a heavenly-grade xiangwen. The Xi family head, Xi Ze, naturally held great expectations for him.
Tianyan spiritual veins were depleted with each use and didn’t replenish like ordinary spiritual veins supplied by heaven and earth.
Because seven of the previous eight spiritual-grade xiangwen had ascended to immortality, Tianyan had been depleted excessively. The remaining amount in the thirteen states was meager, let alone what was distributed among other families—it was stretched thin.
For several hundred years, no spiritual-grade xiangwen had appeared in the thirteen states. A heavenly-grade xiangwen was already considered a prodigy of heaven.
Lady Xi personally attended to matters. She had just returned to the Tianyan Shrine carrying Xi Jue’s favorite delicate pastries when she saw a golden light beam shoot straight into the sky, then vanish in an instant.
A dense wave of Tianyan spiritual force spread out violently, breaking through the shrine’s barrier and radiating outward.
Everyone froze.
A single wisp of Tianyan spiritual vein was rare and precious. At the earth vein site, layers upon layers of barriers were set up so that not even a trace of Tianyan spiritual force would leak out.
Xi Ze’s face darkened as he rushed into the Tianyan Shrine, initially thinking the barrier at the Tianyan earth vein had broken.
Upon entering, he suddenly froze.
Candles glowed brightly throughout. Xi Jue knelt on a cushion with a bewildered expression covering his face. Candlelight came from all directions, casting his several shadows as if blooming orchids.
Xi Jue turned back in confusion, golden spiritual force seeping out from the meridians throughout his body. He looked startled: “Father?”
Xi Ze sensed the strange, intense Tianyan spiritual force emanating from Xi Jue’s body, and his face abruptly changed.
The Xi family elders, entering a few steps behind, also froze upon seeing this.
The entire shrine fell into a deadly silence. Only the sound of burning candles remained faint, yet in this moment it seemed like deafening thunder striking the Tianyan Shrine.
The xiangwen aura from Xi Jue’s body was not mysterious-grade or heavenly-grade, but a type no one present had ever witnessed before…
In an instant, four characters flashed unbidden through the minds of all those present.
Spiritual-grade xiangwen.
Though Xi Jue didn’t know what had happened, from the way these elders gazed at him, he dimly sensed…
Perhaps something had become different from before.
***
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152