The Immortal Path

Within Yanling.

The tomb passage was still swaying slightly, and dust that had not yet settled was falling from the ceiling from time to time.

Shen Gui walked through the collapsed stone gate. Most of the mechanisms on both sides were destroyed. Occasionally, a sword feather carrying a deadly poison would pop out and fall to the ground a few feet away from him.

Shen Gui continued walking inside.

Yanling was built after he left, and he was unfamiliar with the place.

Based on the country names carved on the wall, Shen Gui roughly determined that the outer layer contained the names of the emperors of the Li family throughout history.

Upon reaching the third floor, the walls are no longer just filled with text; instead, vibrant murals begin to appear.

In the mural, Li Wujiu, dressed in imperial robes, stands in front of the Golden Palace, with officials kneeling below the steps and rows of grain carts parked outside the palace gate.

Shen Gui watched for a while, then continued reading.

Upon reaching the middle level, the tomb becomes much smaller, and this is where Li Wujiu's coffin is located.

The door to the secret chamber had already been opened by Bai Hengyi. The coffin was placed in the center, and there were many shelves around it, with scrolls or gold and silver placed on them.

There was a box on the very center of the wooden frame, and the box was still open.

Shen Gui glanced around, then went to the shelf and opened "The Book of Crimes Against the Country".

The book begins with only one sentence.

[Your Majesty, I, the guilty subject Li Wujiu, bow a hundred times.]

The words at the end are written very small.

Shen Gui remembered that when Li Wujiu, this old minister, was following him, his memorials were always brief. He could explain in just a few words how much food the army was short of or where the general needed to be replaced.

But this book of sins in front of me is quite extensive.

The inscription above reads "Yan Kingdom, twelve years after Shen Gui left the capital."

The northern region first suffered a drought, followed by heavy snowfall that pressed down on the passes, causing refugees to make their way to Chengtian Prefecture...

The city had reserve grain, but without the Yan Ancestor's private seal, no one dared to open the granary at will.

Thus, Shen Gui saw that Li Wujiu wrote in his letter of guilt: "[On the first day, I requested the granary be opened, but no one in the government office affixed their seal. On the second day, I led troops to take the grain, and seventeen civilians who had been robbing the grain died in front of the granary gate.]"

Then, Li Wujiu opened the granaries in the name of the new emperor and replaced the general on charges of treason.

That night, all seven granaries in Chengtian Prefecture opened their doors to provide relief to the disaster victims.

Li Wujiu sat under the palace gate and waited all night.

He was waiting for Shen Gui to come back and kill him.

But Shen Gui didn't return by dawn.

Two pages of the book of sins were turned.

[Your subject dares not say that he had no choice, for he did the deed, the edict was forged by his subject, and the throne belongs to him. If one can be absolved of punishment by saying it was for the sake of the people, then every rebellious person in the world can find a way to survive.]

I feel deeply ashamed.

But if that day comes again, I will still open the granaries.

Shen Gui's fingers stopped at the edge of the paper.

Li Wujiu was only the regent back then and had no right to replace the commanders guarding the capital. He borrowed a fake imperial decree to save many people, but it made him live in fear for the rest of his life.

He often dreamed that Shen Gui returned and tore him apart with five horses, and then he would wake up in fright.

Shen Gui continued flipping through the pages.

""

[The Li family's acquisition of the country was not due to destiny or bloodline, but solely to their commitment to upholding the nation. If future generations abandon the people for the throne, any minister could seize it.]

Below that sentence was Li Wujiu's imperial seal.

Shen Gui turned to the last page.

This page is empty.

Shen Gui then understood that two hundred years ago, Li Wujiu had left the last page to him.

Next to the wooden shelf was an inkstone, the ink long since dried and covered in dust.

Shen Gui found a sealed jade pen at the bottom of the box.

He held the pen and gently touched the air, drawing out moisture from the air with his vital energy, which then fell into the inkstone.

The ink, which had been dry for two hundred years, gradually dissolved.

Shen Gui dipped the tip of his brush in ink.

The brush paused for a moment on the blank page.

Then he picked up his pen and wrote three words on the last page, which had been blank for two hundred years.

[Shen Gui, read.]

The ink settled.

Shen Gui did not refer to himself as "朕" (the imperial "I"), nor did he comment on whether Li Wujiu was right or wrong; he simply wrote the word "阅" (read).

He put the pen back on the inkstone, waited for the writing to dry, and then closed the book of crimes, putting it back into the box and sealing it.

When Bai Heng threw this scroll over, he wanted to see if Yan Zu would personally overthrow Li Shi. If not, he wanted to see if Yan Zu would cover up his old sins.

Shen Gui didn't choose any of them.

It was even quieter outside the secret room.

Shen Gui continued walking, bypassing the Li imperial tombs, when a fork in the road appeared ahead, leading to the right.

Three characters are carved on the stone wall.

[Yanzu Tomb].

The tomb passage is gourd-shaped and has no special mechanisms. The walls are carved with many auspicious beasts suitable for a tomb. There is nothing inside the tomb except for a stone coffin at the end.

The coffin was made of black gold stone, which is only found in the northern border of Yan Kingdom. A set of imperial robes was draped in front of the coffin, and the robes were embroidered with twelve dragon patterns.

Shen Gui glanced down at it.

The black cloth shoes Zhaoyue bought were soaked with snow water, and there was a loose thread on the upper, but they were more comfortable to wear than the gold-threaded boots.

"It's better that he's dead."

Shen Gui glanced at it, then turned and left.

He walked along, looking at the murals on the wall.

I remember two hundred years ago, when I set off from Chengtian Prefecture, I took the old road westward in front of the mausoleum. At that time, there were no stone beasts by the roadside, but there was a thatched shed selling tea at the foot of the mountain.

Li Wujiu and several other ministers escorted Shen Gui outside the city, prostrating themselves on the ground and asking when he would return.

Shen Gui did not answer at the time.

At that time, he believed it wouldn't matter when he came back.

The Yan Kingdom is now stable, with Li Wujiu in the court and capable generals on the border.

He had also left An Rushan and many rare and precious materials behind. If the Yan Kingdom would collapse without him, then there was no need for the country to exist.

In short, the sky won't fall if Shen Gui is gone.

The sky did not collapse.

However, some forged the imperial edict, some ascended the throne, and seventeen people died in front of the granary.

Shen Gui walked out of the tomb passage.

The sunlight fell on his gray robes as he stood before Yanling, gazing towards the imperial city along the imperial road.

Xuanyuan leaned against the stone beast, placed his sword across his lap, and sat quietly to regulate his breathing.

Shen Gui's gaze passed over him, looking towards the pine forest, towards the sky, and towards the empire he had built.

The official road to the west, as I remember it, still exists.

Two hundred years ago, Shen Gui left Chengtian Prefecture along the same road. He traveled for two hundred years, visiting too many places, and the lives of people in the world changed generation after generation.

Today, Shen Gui stands on this road again.

However, compared to back then, the perspective on this world has completely changed.

As a result, Shen Gui felt that the two hundred years he had spent seeking immortality were not memorable, and it was as if he had just drifted through the years in a daze.

And now, he remembers everything that happened along the way.

At the entrance of Guhuai Village, Chen Ayue stood in the dust, stepping out of her cage.

At the former site of the Third Battalion of the Northern Army, military plaques are neatly arranged, a testament to the countless years that former generals have waited for them.

In front of the small temple in Huaidu, Cheng Shou'an has guarded the temple gate his whole life. The plaque on the gate still bears the same four characters: "Those who come will find a place to rest."

There's also Mingyu City, and Yujia Village...

None of the people I met during this period were waiting for Yan Zu to save their lives; they simply did what they could when fate pressed down on them.

Shen Gui used to always watch the ending.

People will die, nations will perish, and what is saved today will also go bad in the future.

In that case, there's not much difference between doing it and not doing it.

But along the way, he saw people who only had three years left to live, yet still planned their days in an orderly fashion; and people who guarded a dilapidated temple until their last breath, still thinking of a clay statue and caring about passersby before they died.

The ending remains the same.

But Shen Gui had already memorized the people on the road, just like a thousand years ago, finding every inch of the world fresh and interesting.

Shen Gui took a step forward.

Step from the shadows of the tomb into the sunlight.

At this moment, he finally rediscovered the mindset of a "human being".

The stone pendant on his chest did not shine or make a sound; the final crack closed silently at this step.

All four old marks were gone, and the entire mark was now emitting a soft glow.

Before, the stone pendant looked like an ordinary stone. Apart from the slight luster at the crack, its texture was no different from that of ordinary stones.

Now that the stone pendant is intact, the Northern Tripod Dao Mark has truly opened up to him.

As soon as Shen Guicai focused his attention on the stone pendant, his mind was immediately drawn in and captivated by it.

Shen Gui saw its interior clearly; inside was a vast landscape of mountains and rivers.

This is a smaller version of Tridacna gigas.

It is the core formed from the solidification of that continent, a trace left in the world by the earth's veins and all living beings.

Shen Gui's gaze fell upon the sky, as if the heavens were looking down upon the mountains and rivers.

He could see clouds rising and gathering, rivers flowing into the sea, and cities nestled on the continent...

A wisp of thought fell into Shen Gui's heart.

With a simple nod, the Dao traces of Beichizhou will merge with Shen Gui.

The rise and fall of the Northern Tripod's ley lines and the ebb and flow of its fortune will all be intertwined with his future.

Bai Heng's statement that "one prospers, all prosper" is indeed true. If Yizhou comes to an end, Shen Gui will also suffer the backlash.

Shen Gui held the stone pendant, not thinking for too long.

He clasped his five fingers together: "We've found the path, so why wouldn't we take it?"

The next moment!

The stone pendant melted in the palm of the hand.

It transformed into a wisp of five-colored energy that flowed into his flesh through his fingers. The four healed lines paused for a moment on the back of his hand, and then swam freely within Shen Gui's body like four divine dragons.

Xuanyuan suddenly looked up, his hand gripping the sword tightening instantly.

The realm of mountains and seas borrows the power of heaven and earth; the higher the realm, the deeper the connection with that realm.

This moment.

The mountains and rivers that Xuanyuan sensed had not disappeared, but there was now an additional one in the world, positioned further forward.

The Mountain and Sea Realm, having benefited from the power of many years, seems to have found a master.

Xuanyuan wanted to look again, but he felt a great terror was about to happen in his heart. The gray-clad figure was clearly just standing there without moving, but a halo surrounded him.

Xuanyuan's shoes slid back half a foot. He stuck his sword into the snow to try and steady himself. The moment the sword touched the ground, the entire blade emitted a low hum.

One retreat, then another.

Xuanyuan retreated from the Western Hills along the imperial road in front of the mausoleum, only stopping in front of the west gate of the imperial city.

With each step back, he tried to reconnect his sword intent with the heavens and earth.

The first time he only managed to get a gust of wind, the second time he stirred up the snow piled up beside the imperial road, and when he reached the city gate, he finally let the sword energy in his sword ripple out.

Xuanyuan Fugui looked towards Yanling.

"Did he become an immortal?"

"Is this what it means to be above the mountains and seas?"

...

South of the Yangtze River, seeking the root of the tree.

The millions of roots underground moved at the same time, and some of them crossed the layers of soil and rocks, turning northward in unison.

Cang Jun placed his palm on the tree trunk.

"What happened over there that made you raise your crown to greet them?"

...

Inside an ancient Buddhist temple in Xifanzhou.

All the adult monks stood in the hall; only one monk, who looked about seven or eight years old, sat in front of the Buddha copying scriptures.

The bronze bell, silent for many years, rang out half a note on its own.

The old monk asked, "Holy Buddha, what's wrong?"

The young monk didn't stop writing: "The Qi of Beichezhou was just disrupted, and the incense offerings were blocked as a result. Send someone to check it out."

"Should we inform the Buddha Kingdom?"

"Those who can hear have already heard; those who cannot hear, it's useless to tell them."

...

In the eastern part of South China Sea, a giant city that has been constantly migrating is passing by the waters of the marshland.

A middle-aged scholar was sitting under the long corridor reviewing articles when he suddenly turned his head to look north.

After looking at it for a long time, the Confucian scholar wrote the four characters "天地大同" (Great Harmony of Heaven and Earth) on the paper.

Then he gave the following instructions to those outside:

"Bring us a landscape map of Beichezhou from three hundred years ago."