Chapter 7: The Legend of Young Master Ji
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation
As Ji You’s figure disappeared into the distance, silence engulfed the corridor filled with those who had come to see him off. The air was heavy with unspoken thoughts.
After a long pause, Fang Ruo Yao’s faint murmur of “Why?” shattered the stillness, pulling everyone back from their stunned reverie. At the same time, Kuang Cheng had finished re-reading the Great Xia Immortal Edicts in his hands. The answer had been there all along, though he and Ji You had interpreted it in vastly different ways.
“Achieving perfection in the Lower Three Stages before coming of age grants automatic entry into the Immortal Registry. Any of the Seven Great Sects will welcome such a person without hesitation, as they are destined to reach the Upper Five Stages in the future. And it is these Upper Five Stage disciples who truly determine a sect’s fate.”
Kuang Cheng smirked. “I asked him to come to you, Miss Fang, but he refused. Everyone believed it was because he was cowardly and weak. But now it seems that Miss Fang was never his choice to begin with.”
This double-edged remark caused Fang Ruo Yao’s expression to shift drastically. “Commoners secretly practicing cultivation face execution! That is the unyielding Iron Law of Great Xia!”
“The Azure Clouds Immortal Edicts have always held supremacy over the Iron Law of Great Xia,” Kuang Cheng retorted.
The crowd fell into a deeper silence, uncertain of what to say. Until now, they had all thought Fang Ruo Yao was the key to resolving this situation. She was, after all, a renowned disciple of the Heavenly Script Academy.
Old Qiu had knelt in front of the County Magistrate’s Hall for an entire day; Kuang Cheng had humbled himself to beg her assistance. Meanwhile, Ji You had been ridiculed as a coward who didn’t dare step out of his own house.
Yet, the truth was now laid bare. No matter how chaotic or mocking the outside world had been, Ji You had remained unmoved because he had no need to seek anyone’s help.
Fang Ruo Yao stared blankly in the direction Ji You had departed. Slowly, she realized the truth in Kuang Cheng’s words. During Ji You’s brief appearance, lasting less than an hour, he hadn’t even looked at her once.
“Once I join the Academy, I won’t necessarily be worse than him. He just… started earlier than I did.”
Her pale face betrayed her inner turmoil, but she refused to let her pride falter.
Meanwhile, Dong Wei, who stood to Kuang Cheng’s right, began to tremble. His legs wobbled, and his lips quivered uncontrollably. He suddenly recalled how, just two days earlier, he and Jia Si Cong had mocked Ji You at a tavern. Now, that very Ji You had become an immortal, with the power to grant life or death at a whim. Turning his head toward Jia Si Cong, Dong Wei was surprised to find his companion unfazed.
“Brother Jia, why… why aren’t you shaking?”
Jia Si Cong smirked. “I treated him to ten baskets of fresh dumplings. But you, my dear brother, did not.”
“???”
As the crowd continued their murmured discussions, Ji You had already reached the County Stele at the city gate, accompanied by Old Qiu and Qiu Ru. The skies over Yuyang County were calm and clear, with no wind for miles.
Stopping abruptly, Ji You’s face appeared pallid as he spoke. “Old Qiu, take Ru Ru home first.”
Old Qiu looked up, startled. “Young Master, what about you?”
“I need to return to… the ancestral mansion…”
“Young Master?”
Ji You waved his hand, cutting off any further questions, and turned to leave.
Seeing this, Old Qiu instinctively straightened his back, which had grown slightly hunched over the past two years, and watched Ji You’s hurried departure. Qiu Ru also looked up, glancing between her father and the departing figure of her young master, before her gaze fell to her small, chubby hands.
She had thought it was raining earlier, but as her eyes swept over her hands, she noticed faint traces of blood, not raindrops.
Old Qiu, however, was unaware of this. His thoughts were preoccupied with his wife, who had fainted at home that morning when he was taken away. He quickly ushered his daughter back toward their home in a panic.
…
Back at the Qiu residence, Madam Qiu, Li Shu Ping, had regained consciousness but remained lying on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. She hadn’t eaten or drunk a drop of water, and she refused to speak.
The room was filled with an oppressive silence, broken only by the occasional murmur from neighbors. The news had just come in that the grain carts were starting to leave the city for the mountains, signaling the beginning of the Ritual of Offerings. Among the offerings might very well be a bewildered little girl.
No one dared speak much. What words could console a mother who had lost her daughter? The futility of their sympathy made them resent the fallen young master even more. Some silently cursed Ji You, wondering why he hadn’t visited them even now.
“Auntie, what’s wrong with my mother?”
“Ru Ru, why don’t you go play by yourself for a while? Your mother is currently…”
Sixth Aunt’s words trailed off midway as her gaze suddenly froze. Her neck stiffened as she turned to look behind her.
A five-year-old girl had just stepped over the threshold with a delighted “hee-ya,” only to find herself the center of the room’s astonished stares. She blinked in confusion.
Li Shu Ping, who lay on the bed, wailed upon seeing her daughter. She scrambled off the bed, collapsing to the ground, and clutched the girl tightly to her chest. When her husband entered the room shortly afterward, her tears flowed even more freely.
“Does this mean those immortals won’t take our Ru Ru to refine medicine? Is it true? I told you, how could Ru Ru have any spiritual energy in her body…”
“It’s the Young Master,” Old Qiu muttered.
Li Shu Ping’s tear-filled eyes lit up. “They replaced the medicinal ingredient with your Young Master?”
The surrounding village women clapped their hands in unison. “That Ji You is so ungrateful! He didn’t even show his face. Serves him right if he’s dead!”
Old Qiu remained silent for a long time before speaking, as if waking from a dream. “The Young Master… he… he was an immortal all along.”
“W-What?”
“I don’t know exactly what happened. But the Young Master turned out to be an immortal, and when those people discovered it, they didn’t dare to take Ru Ru to refine medicine.”
Li Shu Ping, sitting on the ground, stared blankly for a long moment. Images of the impoverished Young Master, who visited daily to scavenge meals, surfaced in her mind. Her confusion deepened.
The village women exchanged glances, believing they had misheard.
“That Young Master Ji, who barely survived escaping from the mountains, only ever scrounged food. When word spread that Ru Ru had been targeted by the Immortal Worship Mountain Manor, he didn’t even dare show up. And now you say he’s an immortal?”
“I thought about it before,” Old Qiu said. “Perhaps the immortals made a mistake. Our family has never had contact with cultivators. How could Ru Ru have… any spiritual energy?”
“But don’t you remember? When Ru Ru was two and a half, she caught whooping cough. Physician Chen said she wouldn’t survive the winter, yet somehow she recovered without explanation. She’s never eaten meat, yet she’s grown stronger and healthier by the day.”
Old Qiu pursed his parched lips and turned to his wife. “The Young Master is an immortal. I’ve heard that immortals can nurture the roots and bones of mortals…”
Li Shu Ping stared blankly at him, then lowered her gaze to her daughter, lost in thought.
So the impoverished Young Master, who begged for food every day, had never truly owed the Qiu family anything.
Yuyang County was a small place, and within an hour of Old Qiu’s return home, word of what had transpired at the County Magistrate’s Hall spread like wildfire.
Many had seen Young Master Ji enter the hall. Soon after, constables emerged, battered and bruised, stumbling toward the medical clinic. Then, others saw Ji You escorting the Qiu family’s father and daughter out of the magistrate’s hall. They spoke of how he returned to the Ji Clan’s ancestral mansion, his face grim, exuding an aura of unmatched authority.
Rumors that Ji You was an immortal, who had stormed the County Magistrate’s Hall, driven away the Immortal Worship Mountain Manor, and silenced the Celestial Masters of the Heavenly Script Academy, began to circulate. No one knew where the story originated, but it spread from mouth to mouth.
“But if Ji You really is an immortal, why didn’t he act when the Ji family faced calamity?”
“Because back then, he had yet to reach the pinnacle of the Lower Three Stages.”
“What does that mean?”
“You don’t understand? At that time, revealing his cultivation would have meant execution. He had no choice but to endure silently!”
Someone stood on a restaurant stool, slapping a folded fan on the table for emphasis.
Many of those who mocked Ji You in the past had joined the crowd—they ridiculed him when the Ji family fell, when Fang Manor annulled the engagement, and when the Qiu family faced trouble. Gossiping about him had become second nature.
Yet none could have predicted that Ji You was a hidden immortal.
Though the rumors were half-truths at best, they were shocking enough to leave the townsfolk speechless.