Chapter 17: Seven Luminate Divine Jade

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YanDan looked at the restraining bracelet on her wrist and looked at Tang Zhou, who was standing in front of her calmly. She didn’t want to say “you weren’t even affected by the drug, so why did you pretend to be poisoned in front of Shen Yijun. Was it because you knew that I would show up?” so she said instead, “You’re unaffected by all poisons?”

Tang Zhou replied simply, “My blood is able to dissolve hundreds of poisons, so when Miss Shen came, I just bit the tip of my tongue.”

YanDan looked at him blankly, “So back at the tavern when you fell asleep from the Mongolian sweat medicine, you were just pretending, and quickly woke up from it, right?”

Tang Zhou nodded without any shame.

 YanDan was hit hard and stepped backward, “So that’s how it is.”

“Well, this time you missed a little, so if you didn’t come, I still would’ve been alive…”

YanDan staggered back to the guest room, found a bright red apple, and threw it at Tang Zhou. He easily dodged and said a little awkwardly, “You can’t use your magic right now and you’re just like an ordinary human girl, so the apple wouldn’t harm me anyway.”

YanDan slowly looked at him and repeated slowly, “No magic…like an ordinary human girl…”

“This talisman sealed all of your magic.” Tang Zhou felt a little embarrassed, “It was the only talisman I had left.”

YanDan angrily threw another apple, “Who said I was going to harm you? I’m just going to throw this apple at you until you die.”

Tang Zhou walked forward and grabbed her wrist, smiling and saying, “Apples could kill people? Stop causing trouble.”

“Even if it can’t kill you I’m still going to throw it at you!”

“You… wait, I can see your shoulders, pull your clothes up. Did you take these clothes from Maid Hu?”

…she did take it from Maid Hu. YanDan froze in place, unwilling to move forward or backward. 

Tang Zhou pushed her shoulder lightly, “Go change your clothes first, and then we can leave this place.”

There was nothing YanDan could do other than go back to the guest room, take out a green dress, and slowly change into it. She suddenly thought of something she’d never thought of before. She’d never lost all of her powers before and fallen to the level of ordinary mortals. How many trips can a mortal woman make in a day, how much energy will she need, and how much does she need to eat during each meal? Oh well, no matter what it is, her life will surely be miserable in the future. 

To make things worse, she slapped Tang Zhou in the face before. Although that was something she’d always dreamt of, she didn’t have any of her magic tricks anymore. What should she do? Pretend to forget that it happened before? Or cry and say that she was forced to do it? YanDan thought about it as she finished changing and then trudged out of the room gloomily. 

Tang Zhou stood outside with his arms crossed impatiently and said lightly, “When you slapped me earlier…”

This is a misfortune, not a blessing. It’s a misfortune that can’t be avoided. With a sad face, YanDan said quietly, “If you’re angry, then you can just hit me back.” She closed her eyes and said to herself “I was being sarcastic when I said that so please don’t hit me too hard and if you’re going to hit me please don’t hit my face”. But after a while and not feeling anything, she slowly opened her eyes only to see Tang Zhou reaching his hand out. She couldn’t help thinking that the person in front of her is absolutely despicable, choosing to hit her when she couldn’t defend herself at all. 

Tang Zhou patted her head lightly, “Let’s go.”

YanDan was upset, “I have more experience than you and I’m also older than you. How could you pat my head?”

This time when they entered the tomb, they entered from the cave behind the graves. Tang Zhou walked forward and destroyed the stone wall mechanism easily. YanDan felt a bit of pity because once the mechanism is broken, the broken dragon stone mechanisms wouldn’t work anymore and it must’ve taken a really long time to create both mechanisms. 

When the two of them walked into the fork of the tunnel, there was a giant dragon stone in the path. Tang Zhou opened the mechanism but saw no one there. YanDan couldn’t help but wonder, “Is it possible that Tao Ziqi already left?”

“If she didn’t leave, then she would’ve died here already.” Tang Zhou reasoned.

YanDan randomly waved her hands around, “Heaven is jealous of beauty.”

Tang Zhou side-eyed her and said with an even tone, “None of us know what Miss Tao’s intentions are, but that’s not the urgent matter right now. 

YanDan walked around the tomb, dark and stuffy, but when she came back, she muttered, “Strange, I feel like my body has no strength at all and it doesn’t even want to move.”

“You’re probably hungry.”

YanDan slowly turned her head towards him and the rattling of her stiff neck could almost be heard, “Hungry…?”

Tang Zhou nodded, “It’s almost dinner time anyway, so being hungry isn’t strange.” 

YanDan was extremely hurt and dejected, “I’ve saved you twice, but this is how you treat me? Why did you have to seal my demon magic?” She paused, thinking of what she would say next. She thought of a good idea for a play. The girl is about to jump off into the raging river, but right before that, she looks back and says, “Don’t try to persuade me again… I have no choice”.Then the man in the play will wake up and feel really sorrowful about her death. YanDan looked around, but there were only sloping hills, no rivers whatsoever. If she did that, she would probably hurt her feet at most. 

Tang Zhou had a reasonable expression, “What’s bad about being a mortal? The demon aura surrounding you is gone too, so isn’t that also good?”

YanDan tiredly shook her finger, “First, I’ve never had a demon aura; second, I did not want to become a mortal; third, I don’t even want to be a god so why would I be willing to become a mortal?”

Tang Zhou declined to comment, “Let’s go to a tavern in QingShi Town since I don’t think we’ll be able to get to the next town in time.”

YanDan could only agree with him, but the last time she walked into the restaurant, the waiter looked at her strangely as if she was going to tear down the entire restaurant. YanDan was extremely hungry so when she saw a plate of food being placed on the table, she immediately picked up her chopsticks. Tang Zhou tapped his chopsticks on the table and said slowly, “In the future, you’re going to need to learn good manners. How could the guest start eating before the host says something?”

YanDan sighed, “What’s the matter now? You never used to care about these things.”

“I’m going to Qixiang next.”

She looked at him, eyes full of hope, “If you’re going back to your hometown, could you please not bring me? I would definitely scare your family.”

“Which is why I need to teach you some manners. You’re this smart and is quick at picking things up, right?”

“…flattery won’t work on me. I’m too lazy to bother with these things.”

Tang Zhou looked at her, “Let’s start slowly. Remember that girls can’t raise their head like that and directly look at others speaking.”

YanDan slowly tilted her head down, “Got it.”

Tang Zhou was really pleased, “The dishes are almost cold, so you can start eating now.”

She immediately picked up her chopstick, to see Tang Zhou put his chopsticks down again. He said, “Can’t you tell that I said that out of politeness? You should first say something back to me, and then start eating.”

YanDan immediately retorted, “Mortals are so annoying.”

The meal made her even more depressed. After dinner, the two of them went to an inn to rest. The moment her head touched the pillow, she fell asleep but since she slept so early, YanDan woke up in the middle of the night. 

She saw that Tang Zhou’s room was still bright and the candles were lit, although he wasn’t doing anything. Tang Zhou probably had an ulterior motive for coming to QingShi town, but what is it?

YanDan raised her wrist, looked at the talisman on there, and sighed: seems like she can’t escape this time. It’s said that a mortal’s lifespan is pretty short, so she could wait. Looking at Tang Zhou, he could probably live until he’s about a hundred and eighty years old, which means that she will be bullied by him for a good fifty to sixty years. 

Time is sometimes very cruel. 

After awaking from a small nap, she tried to put together the fragments of her dream: first, she was at a pond feeding the fish, when there was a faint scent of agarwood. Then, she was in a cloud of mist and watched as someone came out of the mist. The man was wearing flowy robes covered with icy armor, looking extremely proud and noble. 

In a flash, the mist dissipated and she was looking at a patriarch’s bald head, which symbolized wisdom, and couldn’t stop herself from chuckling. When she looked up, there was a pair of dark, dark eyes in front of her. That was the first time she met Yu Mo. She saw that he was a very graceful and handsome man and there was a sort of vivid handsomeness when he smiled. While staring into his eyes, she saw in her peripheral vision that his teacup broke in half and she wondered what it would be like if they were enemies. 

Not long after she woke up, there was a loud banging of pots and pans outside. There was a sound of footsteps outside and someone yelled, “Fire, fire!”

YanDan immediately got out of bed, put on her outer robes, and opened the door to check what was happening. 

Tang Zhou came out of one of the rooms and when he saw her, he said softly, “Guess where the fire is.”

YanDan rolled her eyes and replied, “Shen Mansion?”

Tang Zhou nodded and told her in a low voice, “The fire started yesterday night, but before someone noticed, the fire had already burned through a lot of the mansion.”

“Maybe they felt like they were exposed, so they decided to burn everything.”

Tang Zhou replied, “That’s also possible. Let’s go and see what’s going on.”

The house had already been burnt to ruins and there was only rubble left.

Among the scorched fields, the flower hall and side wings were already burnt beyond recognition. The water in the lotus pond had already dried up, with only a couple of drops of water remaining.

YanDan looked at the bottom of the lotus pond and furrowed her brows, “This…”

Along with the dead fish, there was the body of a woman at the bottom of the pond. Tang Zhou found a wooden stick and turned over the body. The woman’s face was completely unrecognizable, but judging from the clothing and jewelry, this person was definitely Shen Yijun!”

YanDan raised her hands and said, “I only meant to scare her yesterday, I didn’t mean to kill her.”

Tang Zhou looked at her, “She doesn’t look like she suffered any injuries, so she probably drowned.”

“How deep is this lotus pond? If it could drown people, then there was no need to throw me into the abandoned well, she could’ve just brought me here.”

He shook his head, “Maybe she met some certain person and her death isn’t as simple as drowning. That’s my guess.”

YanDan saw something shiny under one of the rocks in the pond, so she went and dug it up. Two pieces of jade. She held the jade pieces together until they aligned, showing that it was originally one piece of jade that was split into two. The jade was only the size of half a thumb, it had a dull color, and was unpolished. 

Tang Zhou looked at the two pieces and wondered, “This is… Seven Luminate Divine Jade.”

YanDan looked at him suspiciously, “The Seven luminate divine jades are one of the most legendary ancient artifacts, so why does it look dull and grey?”

Tang Zhou reached out and took the two halves, slowly putting them together. There was a faint glimmer of light and the piece of jade returned to its original, unbroken state. 

YanDan was stunned and wondered, “I’ve heard that the divine jade could purify the soul, and maybe, since your soul is very pure, it went back to its original state. If it’s not used for good purposes, it will inhale the soul of a mortal and it’s a pity that such an artifact fell into the hands of the Shen family.”

The death of those people seemed like they were drained of blood, which was probably because of the divine jade. 

Tang Zhou was a little bit confused, “Miss Shen once told me that my soul was very pure, so was it because of the seven spirits six souls?” ***(I’ll explain this at the bottom)

“Of course. Every soul passes through reincarnation and if part of their seventh or sixth souls are missing, then they can’t reincarnate as a human unless they find it. In every reincarnation, you don’t remember the events of your last life but those memories haven’t disappeared, they’ve only been sealed.” YanDan thought some more, “For example, you cultivators if you go crazy, you might accidentally unlock memories from a previous life. If you accidentally open memories of a previous life, you’ll be confused as to which life you’re currently in which is why the memories are sealed. After reincarnation, you become a new person and have nothing to do with your past life. However, if someone injured their soul in a previous life, then they will also have injuries in their future life because the soul doesn’t change.”

Tang Zhou nodded, “So you’re saying that my soul is pure because my previous lives have all passed without any regrets?”

YanDan tilted her head and pondered, “It’s also possible that in your past life, you had no desires whatsoever, which is why your soul is so pure.”

Tang Zhou listened to her tone, sounding as if she was discussing the signature dishes at a famous restaurant, and couldn’t help but smile bitterly, “Now I understand why Master accepted me as a disciple.”

YanDan rolled her eyes and smiled, “Let’s leave quickly so that the townspeople don’t get suspicious and think we were the ones who set fire to the house.” But Tang Zhou first stepped forward to pick up a silk handkerchief that fell out of Shen Yijun’s sleeve. On the handkerchief, there was a line of words written in blood, but some of the words had already washed away, unreadable. 

…kill me, I will kill him. 

After looking more closely, Shen Yijun’s swollen face seemed to have a smug grin. Is it possible that she knew she would land into some misfortunes, so she wrote a bloodletter?