Carrying a Hoe to Cultivate

At Gu Da Shi and Li Xiu Er’s graves, Jie Shang and Ciang Yi had the incense in their hands. They bowed three times in silence, then placed the incense at the incense burner in front of the cushion. Gu Wen Zhu flew the yellow paper into the bowl to burn one by one, recalling Mr. Wang’s words when he was doing so.

“Your dad found you when he was out to find wood. He said you were a gift from the Gods. He said there was a cloud of light in front of him. He waited until the light faded, then there was this baby on the ground. Naked, around two or three. We told him not to have it. It’s not good to raise some unknown baby. Your dad was about to place you back in the woods, but he was like people who had been enchanted at that time. He dashed into the mountains in the middle of the night with rain pouring and brought you back. Then he said he would never abandon you again, and that he was going to raise you. All the older people in the village know this, but no one dared to talk about it in front of you. If I didn’t see your biological fathers here today, I would have brought this with me to the grave.”

Xia Yi had too many questions on his mind. He saw Ciang Yi standing on one side, so he moved away a little. He hesitated whether to call him dad, or mom. But then he chose the safest one at last, “Leader. I still have one question. And I wish to ask you about it.”

Ciang Yi looked up and did not make a sound. But Xia Yi knew that he was allowing him to ask.

“Leader. I have my parents in my home world as well. But when I passed through the dimensional path and travelled to the cultivation world, I saw them at that side as well. And I found my toy in my home world in a room in that world.” Xia Yi expressed this with careful thoughts, with this sounding unbelievable though.

He did not expect Ciang Yi to make any shocked expressions, as if nothing weird happened, “It’s because the parents in different places you were seeing are the same flower fairies. They were the origin of you, your biological parents.”

Oh, it sounded so logical, but I totally don’t understand.

Ciang Yi turned to stare him in the eyes with his amber eyes, “Your name originally was Wang Lan. You were raised by flower fairies. After your spirit and your soul vanished, I took your spirit and let the rest heal in another dimension. Those flower fairies were there as well, begging to go there together.”

Xia Yi’s mouth opened and closed, closed and opened, I am really that Wang Lan they were talking about? My parents were flower fairies? It’s because my soul needed healing so they came with me to my home world? And, Ciang Yi can open a portal between dimensions?

Ciang Yi looked at him emotionlessly. He took in every response of his and continued, “Your spirit and your soul needs to be placed in different dimensions to trigger healing. Therefore I made an illusion to place your spirit inside, letting that part of you to be raised as the magistrate’s son. And those parents in your home world protected your soul, the Xia Yi you have been speaking of.”

Upon hearing this, Xia Yi felt like his brain had been frozen. He just stood stupefied. Gu Wen Zhu already stood up by his side, hugging his waist.

“Your spirit and your soul are always attracted to each other. According to my estimation, they would be fully healed after twenty something years. But we don’t know exactly what would happen at that time. Most possibly, the soul and the spirit will pull apart and break. From that time onwards, Wang Lan would no longer be.”

“Then, my, my parents. Did they really die in my home world?” Xia Yi murmured.

Ciang Yi shook his head, “That was only a chant I did. When it reached eighteen years, before your soul and spirits tear apart, they were transported back here and had their memories erased. They turned into a happy, normal couple who had never lost their son before. Who knew that after they went back, although their memories were erased, they still have this unmoving belief in them to find the illusion I built for your spirit, and they brought your spirit with them to live their lives.

“Wang Lan’s spirit and soul were about to be healed, but I could not exit the mountain due to my body being hurted when I was trying to forcefully open a portal. I could only let Tian Xuan take charge, letting him have you as his apprentice to bring your spirit back to Qi Shan. In the end, your spirit and soul did not break. During your transmigration some time before, they had fused together. After some days, when you remember, you will know everything.”

“So this is how it is…” Xia Yi looked at Gu Wen Zhu, “My parents didn’t really die. They are the ones in the cultivation world.”

“It’s like this. They are always around.” Gu Wen Zhu saw his pale face and tightened his arms around his waist.

“And that your soul and spirit were attracting each other and had tried fusing once with failure.” Ciang Yi continued, “That portal I opened before did not really close up. Around twenty years ago, I could sense that there were souls passing through and going into that illusion I made for your spirit.”

“Yes. That was me.” Xia Yi hurriedly said, “I lost my toy there.”

With a new realization, 179’s voice rang in his mind, “No wonder we can’t fix that bug. So that portal Ciang Yi opened years ago never completely shut. As soon as there are waves in the dimension, it will open up again. This is no bug, this is a trojan planted by Ciang Yi.” Then he lowered his voice, “The last time they came here, the technical system was on duty. We were playing some games of stealing veggies and we didn’t notice. Problems came up afterwards, but were quickly fixed by the technical system, so we did not report it. We only secretly saved the files.”

The technical system? Your technical system must be the most powerful trojan in your system world!

“Then, leader, what’s the time you first open up a portal?” Xia Yi asked.

“It surely is the time that he came with me.” Jie Shang quickly said, with a proud face, “We were fighting each other, and he did not want to fight any more and opened up a portal to go away. He did not know that I would make a move at the same time. With both of our powers, we opened up a portal to nowhere and fell into it. We stayed for some days here.” Seeing Jie Shang becoming more excited, Ciang Yi felt not right and gave him a cold glance. Jie Shang was stunned. He closed his mouth embarrassingly, “Those days, I–” 

Ciang Yi saw that no one was paying attention to him so his expression recovered to its natural state, he continued, “However, I had been harmed heavily because of this chant. My soul was unstable. I had Ze Yuan in me before fully recovering. So, he was weak when he was born, with an unstable soul.” When it came to this, he looked at Gu Wen Zhu with guilt, “And so, Jie Shang used his magic to plant two spirit protection marks. I was trying to manage my own health at that time, let alone you. So although I hated that, I just let him take you back to the demonic world to raise you.”

Jie Shang heard this and smiled bitterly, “Your mother–” As his words came out, he saw Ciang Yi’s eyes looked this way sharply like a cutting knife. He immediately said, “Your father was resting at Qi Shan. So we had our time together for more than a dozen years.”

The yellow papers were burning in the bowl with crackling sounds. Gu Wen Zhu stared in silence, letting those fire dance in his eyes.

Ciang Yi continued, “Because of the fragility of your soul, I lost half of my spirit and soul. So, your spirit, like Wang Lang’s, needed to be healed.” Then, Ciang Yi’s face turned a little red, “I was thinking, if I put you into a place where you were created, you would heal better. So I placed you here. Opening two portals made me lose almost all of my powers. When I was back to the sect, I made some arrangements and began cultivation in the mountain.”

“Father.” Gu Wen Zhu raised his head to face Ciang Yi, “How come I don’t remember a thing? Is Yi really Wang Lan? What’s my relationship with Wang Lan? And why did his spirit and soul fall apart in the first place?”

Xia Yi heard this and stood up from the stone chair, looking at Ciang Yi nervously. Ciang Yi turned to look, nodded, he confirmed, “Yes. He is Wang Lan. And concerning what had happened between you, I will let you remember on your own. Half of your spirit and soul are with Wang Lan. When you remember, he will remember.”

On their way back to the village, Xia Yi walked with a blank face with uneven pace. He almost tripped himself a few times. Gu Wen Zhu was alert and managed to hold him, making Ciang Yi and Jie Shang sweat.

When they arrived at home, he straightly went to bed and went into the blankets. After burying his head, he made Gu Wen Zhu go away with his mumbling voice, “Zhu. Don’t talk to me right now. Let me think.”

Gu Wen Zhu did not talk for a moment. Looking at him cocooning himself, he said gently, “You sleep first. I will leave you alone. I am making dinner and will inform you afterwards.”

He did not receive any response from Xia Yi and could only retreat from the room and closed the door carefully behind him.

So I am really that Wang Lan. And that my spirit and my soul has been destroyed. I must have died horribly. That flower fairy couple came with Wang Lan’s soul to that dimension.

No wonder when he was small, when he transmigrated to the cultivation world, his parents did not ask questions and just let him be. That’s because they knew it deep down.

My parents transmigrated for me. After that car crash, they did not leave me. Instead, they were by my side. So I was never alone.

Xia Yi could not tell if he was happy or sad. He felt bitterness. And a warm current rushed up to his eyes. At this moment, the baby in his belly sensed his emotion and moved with uneasiness. Xia Yi laughed caressing his belly, “Baby. You know that? Grandpa and grandma are with your father.“ 

Then he bit the pillow cloth to cry with his shoulder shivering.

“Host. Are you feeling better?” Xia Yi had been lying in bed for a long time. He laughed and cried. System did not have the guts to speak to him. When it was about the time for dinner, he finally reminded him about it in a careful tone. 179 was afraid of the baby being malnutritioned, “Gu Wen Zhu had come a couple of times, but he did not dare to come in. He was afraid he might interrupt you. Host. Go outside to eat. Even if you are not hungry, your baby is hungry.” 

Xia Yi was now calm. He sat up, “Yes. Eat. I am going to give birth to a healthy baby and let it see my father and mother.”

Outside, Gu Wen Zhu had already prepared the table, the bowls and the chopsticks. He was sitting with Ciang Yi and Jie Shang beside the table. Kirin and its dog dad were lying in the dog house in the corner of the yard, with different food bowls in front of them. Kirin was eating ferociously. His dog dad was looking at it lovingly, and it licked it from time to time.

Although Ciang Yi and Jie Shang did not say anything, seeing Xia Yi come out, they sighed in relief. They picked up the chopsticks, “Eat.”

After dinner, it was time for his daily walk. Xia Yi did not let Gu Wen Zhu walk with him considerately. He intended to let the three of them have a chance to talk. So he only brought Kirin and its dog dad with him.

Just when he arrived at the door, he saw two individuals walking in a line.

The one in front who was angry was Qi Zhou. The tall one who was following closely was Er Niu, trying hard to explain.

What’s this? Xia Yi stopped out of curiosity.

Qi Zhou spotted him. He quickened his steps to walk this way. He pushed Er Niu and yelled, “Don’t follow me.”

After that, he walked to Xia Yi’s side in anger, “Let’s go.”

“What’s with that? You are being mean. Er Niu is a good guy. He is honest and let you command him around. But you are treating him like this.” Xia Yi looked back to see Er Niu standing there, looking sad. That tall figure looked pathetic.

Out of expectations, that triggered Qi Zhou, he almost jumped, “He is honest? Honest my ass.”

Without even noticing, he swore.

When Xia Yi heard someone like Qi Zhou begin to swear, that someone must be really angry. So he could not help but ask, “What happened? What made you so mad?”

Unexpectedly, Qi Zhou began to equivocate with his eyes looking to his side.

Seeing him this way, Xia Yi had a guess. He had not been seeing Qi Zhou and Er Niu for days. What if… the two of them were locked in the same room going through the heat? But didn’t he hand the herbs to Qi Zhou some days before?

Aiya. Does he not know how to take it? Oh no. Oh no.

A breeze of wind swept this way, blowing Qi Zhou’s hair up. Xia Yi tilted his head unconsciously and saw the side of his neck. Oh my. There were spots of purple and blue here and there. They did not look like bruises, but they did look like marks created by people sucking on his skin.

As someone who had experienced this before, Xia Yi immediately understood. This Er Niu seemed quiet usually, but he had already devoured Qi Zhou whole. You really could not judge a book by its cover. Yo dawg.

Qi Zhou realized that Xia Yi was looking at the side of his neck and immediately responded. He quickly put his hair back down with a weird facial expression.

“Are you eh… are you…” Xia Yi testingly asked.

Knowing that he could no longer hide it, Qi Zhou nodded and raised his head. He spoke behind his teeth with his reddened face, “I am going to slice him into a million pieces and feed the dog.”

“Didn’t I give you the Herba Aqua Effugio? Why didn’t you use it?” Xia Yi could not resist a glance at Qi Zhou’s neck. He could not help but wonder, isn’t this a little too intense?

And after using him, you are now going to slice him into pieces and feed him to the dog?

Speaking of Herba Aqua Effugio, Qi Zhou’s face became more fierce, “I let him see this at first and I asked him if it was a rare item. He said it was, and it would be helpful for the heat.”

“He didn’t tell it wrongly and he didn’t hide the truth from you. Why are you gritting your teeth?” Xia Yi did not understand.

Maybe you are the one who was taking advantage of Er Niu.

Qi Zhou stopped walking furiously and turned to face Xia Yi, talking in a lowered voice as if those words were squeezing through the gaps among his teeth, “He said that this kind of rare herb had to be kept in a good condition in order to help me through my heat. But the village had not been peaceful recently, three police officers had become thieves and they constantly tried to steal from the villagers. If they found out about this, they would try to steal it too. To safeguard the herbs, he found this wooden box. A larger box enveloped the smaller box. There was a lock on every box. He even pulled me up in the middle of the night to sneak into the mountains, letting me see how he hid it in a pit behind a big stone. But, but when heat hit me, how was I supposed to walk all the way up to the mountain to dig it up? Let alone all those boxes were locked, one after one…”

Qi Zhou almost sobbed when he came to this part. He kicked a big willow on the side of the road, eyes red, one kick after the other, as if that tree was Gu Bei Cheng.