Ch41 - Lacking a Passion Root

Editor: Sahloknir

In the Nether Realm, there were many spirits on the path to reincarnation.

They often drifted in and out of consciousness, relying on invisible connections to lead them into the River Styx. There, the turning of the heavens would cleanse them of their sins, producing new souls with clean slates.

Only the souls that received another person’s protection could get the chance to reincarnate from here with their previous memories sealed.

Those that had reached enlightenment, those that still had lingering convictions, and those that were aware of their death were the most lucid of the ghost cultivators. They were often cultivators in their past life that had accumulated enough grudges and regrets to become vengeful ghosts.

Jiang Yinghe found a small tea shop that was a gathering place for said ghosts.

There was never any daylight in the Nether Realm. The sky was always the same dim, light green colour. Mindless spirits could be seen everywhere, and the ghost cultivators who had a strong presence often had twisted and frightening expressions.

The owner of the little tea shop was a female Raksha. She was the most beautiful person that Jiang Yinghe had seen on his way here. But since he had spent too much time with Chang Ye, he has become very resistant to beauty from either gender. He took a single casual glance and no more than that.

The tea was steeped with water from the River Styx. There were gems radiating miasma resting within the cup.

Jiang Yinghe had never seen such a variety before. After a tense moment of arguing with himself, he forced himself to drink some. As he poured another cup to hold in his hands, the strange-looking little ghost across from him struck up a conversation.

“A devil huh?” The little ghost poked at the back of his hands, “How’d you die?”

Jiang Yinghe quieted for a moment before shooting him a look. He lightly said, “…My disciples angered me to death.”

There were many ghosts in the tea shop, and all sorts of conversations as well. Jiang Yinghe’s voice wasn’t very loud. It was just enough for the little ghost that had shuffled closer to hear.

The little ghost had a head of green hair that was like a mess of seaweed. He rested his chin in his palm as his eyes, that were as big as bronze bells, lit up. “Wow what a coincidence. You’re a devil that had disciples. Have you seen the latest issue of the ‘Nether World Times’?”

Naturally, Jiang Yinghe concealed his confusion. He replied, “Of course.”

The green-haired ghost smacked his lips and started to gossip. “Our Patriarch…sigh. You’re already dead and you can’t be purified, so you’re one of us now. Our Patriarch is going nuts. He’s sent all eighteen lower layers of vengeful ghosts out to look for someone. Don’t you think the humans would be scared to death?”

Jiang Yinghe had heard something similar from Zhangmen-shixiong, but he didn’t understand at the time. The ghost in the tea shop filled in some blanks. “The Patriarch forbade them from harming the humans.”

Jiang Yinghe comforted himself. It seems that Qin Jun still had some restraint…clearly his teachings weren’t all for naught—from a certain perspective.

“Heh. Those ghosts aren’t right in the head. Orders are orders, but anything goes when they throw a fit.” The green-haired ghost poured a cup of river water. “The Patriarch had a bout with the Xuehe Demon Lord and severed the River Styx. Its flow has been disrupted for quite some time. If the Patriarch doesn’t fix it soon, not only the Nether Realm, but also the entire cultivation world’s going to have problems… Guess who came a few days ago?”

Jiang Yinghe didn’t play along. He asked, “The flow of the River Styx has been disrupted? Then the Human Realm…”

“They’re running on immortal fumes there. If the Patriarch doesn’t fix things soon, I’m guessing that the children born there will either be not right in the head from only having half a soul or just stillborn to begin with.”

The green-haired ghost chattered on and on, like the dead devil in front of him didn’t know a thing. He spared no details as he asked the proprietor for another pot of tea.

“Add more cremated ashes and three spoonfuls of ignorant hatred.” The ghost rattled off his usual order. He saw that the little devil before him was wearing a mask, so he reached forward to paw at it, “Come on, no matter how ugly you look, there’s bound to be someone uglier here.”

Jiang Yinghe caught his hand and pressed it onto the table. He continued to question him, “I just heard that recently…many devils have entered the Nether Realm?”

“Who told you that?” the little ghost frowned. “Other than their king, the other devils don’t dare to cause a ruckus here… The only reason our Patriarch hasn’t retaliated is because they were once disciple brothers.”

He seemed to be very interested in this topic. “Did you hear? The Patriarch, the Demon Lord and the Devil King all studied under the same Xianjun after reincarnating. That Xianjun’s the reason for the recent upset as well!”

Jiang Yinghe, the one responsible, had a complicated expression as he looked at the deeply curious face of the little ghost. He coughed and replied neutrally, “That’s quite an accomplishment.”

“Right?” the green-haired devil tilted his head in thought as he spoke, “It looks more like they’re fighting over a cultivation partner rather than a furnace though…”

Before he finished speaking, the entire tea shop became dead silent in the twinkling of an eye. Jiang Yinghe followed the gazes of the ghost cultivators skyward. An emerald light flashed there as an ear-piercing roar echoed throughout the entirety of the Nether Realm.

Jiang Yinghe was still recovering when he heard the little ghost beside him speak in an awed tone, “Your king came again so soon ah. He’s been visiting so often. That’s one hell of a grudge he’s holding against that heavenly demon.”

Chang Ye? Chang Ye came to find Qin Jun?

Jiang Yinghe gathered himself and sat up straighter. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t know?” The green-haired little ghost looked at him, astonished. “We’ve been allied for quite some time ah. Since these two Half-step Golden Immortals have joined forces, that heavenly demon could only wait to get hit.”

No wonder Li Huanhan’s state has deteriorated recently. Their alliance has increased their strength not just additively, but exponentially.

Jiang Yinghe nodded slightly. He was still thinking about the impact of the broken River Styx on the various realms. He paused before tentatively asking, “What do you think would happen…to that person when the Patriarch finds him?”

“They’ll get married, of course.” The little ghost said matter-of-factly, “But I kind of don’t want him to find that person.”

His words had merit. The current triangle formation was the most stable. If one side gained an advantage, the other two would work together to beat them back down.

Jiang Yinghe touched his mask absentmindedly. These three were deploying military tactics like flanking their enemies and attacking on multiple fronts…but he’s never taught them this stuff? They just had to all be bigshots as well. Take Qin Jun for example. He was the only one in the world who could reconnect the River Styx.

But Jun-er probably has other things weighing on his mind right now.

Jiang Yinghe didn’t notice how he slipped into old habits just now and used the nickname he had swore off.

The conversations of the ghost cultivators were loud and messy. Jiang Yinghe thought for a bit before asking, “Then how should the issue of the river be solved? You can’t be suggesting that those three share the Xianjun, right?”

His voice was too quiet. The green-haired ghost didn’t catch his words. He came closer and asked, “What did you say?”

Jiang Yinghe repeated himself. The little devil let out a smile that could almost be described as warm. “Kill that guy and let his soul return to nature. Then the leaders can find a substitute. Just think about what our Patriarch can do with his paper person technique…tut tut tut. Golden Immortals have their own ways of amusing themselves.”

Jiang Yinghe blinked. “…That method is way too cruel.”

His back went cold while listening to that. Even his hands that were thumbing the teacup had stopped.

The green-haired little ghost didn’t elaborate further. He carefully sniffed around the other person. His head seemed to be filled with question marks. “Little devil, were you a really kind person in life? Why do you smell so nice?”

Was this the soul of a god? It was only after getting closer that he smelled that divine scent. The green-haired ghost was already feeling dizzy after just two whiffs. He clung onto his hand and moved his way.

Jiang Yinghe took his hand away and adjusted his collar. He hurried to say, “I’ll be going first. Let’s talk another day.”

He was wearing a tattered red shirt that was altered by an artifact to make him appear more like a vengeful ghost. The cloth was stained all over to various degrees with droplets of blood. Some had already congealed while others were still wet. The torn parts revealed his flawlessly white skin and the sculpted edge of his collarbone.

There was a rip originating from his back. Without the cover of his usual daoist robes, the narrow side profile of his waist was revealed. Even through sight alone, it was apparent how light Jiang Yinghe was, as if a single arm could encircle his waist.

The green-haired ghost only realized how attractive this little devil appeared from watching his departing back. He wiped the saliva leaking from his mouth. He was about to call out to Jiang Yinghe when the dark sky rumbled deafeningly once again.

The ghost cultivators all startled. They looked to the sky to see the originally dark clouds being ripped apart by vividly red lines. Li Huanhan’s voice pierced through the clouds and assaulted their senses.

“Qin Jun—”

His voice was devoid of his usual warmth. There was only an endless cold contained within.

“Get out here.”

In the next moment, the once quiet Nether Realm began to tremble. The River Styx urgently reversed its flow. Far away, Qin Jun and Chang Ye shifted into existence in midair. The vivid and blood-like light retreated. Li Huanhan stood before the two of them with chilling eyes.

This was the first time the three had not started fighting after their identities were exposed.

Jiang Yinghe wanted to leave, but this scene made him stiffen. He was hesitant to walk away. He turned to see that all the ghost cultivators in the tea shop were as quiet as crickets in winter as they saluted in Qin Jun’s direction.

“You still have the face to come out.” Qin Jun’s gray eyes were icy. He opened his hand to accept the silvery-gray sword that appeared from his personal dimension. “Li Huanhan. You sure have a lot of Blood Ponds to revive you.”

In the past while, he’s broken no less than ten of those things. Chang Ye helped him destroy an equal amount. But Li Huanhan was just too hard to kill. This heavenly demon set down Blood Ponds everywhere. It would probably take something on the level of heavenly lightning to completely end him.

Chang Ye stood by his side in the air. His lips still had a trace of mirth, but his eyes were freezing. They were filled with an impatient rage as they glanced at Li Huanhan.

“Shizun left.” Li Huanhan got to the point, “I can sense his presence not far from here. I’ve searched through the Human Realm. This is the only place left.

Qin Jun glared at him momentarily. His words were violent and irritated, “What? You lost the person you were hiding?”

Li Huanhan looked back with a blank face. “En.”

Qin Jun hated his stoic and indifferent attitude the most. He also couldn’t stand the way this heavenly demon pretended to be kind in front of Shizun. His fingers tightened. The edge of his sword began to ring. It thirsted for blood.

Just as Zhanyun prepared to strike, an emerald green flute tapped against it. Chang Ye’s voice came from the side.

“Let’s find Shizun first.” He paused, “With our Li-shixiong’s personality, he wouldn’t lie to us like this, even if all the Blood Pools had been ruined and the Tian Muo School was decimated, right?”

Chang Ye smiled freely, but his eyes remained dark. “If Shizun is hurt in the slightest, I’ll cremate all your sect members.”

From what they knew of him, although Jiang Yinghe was slow when it came to emotions, he has been cultivating for a very long time. It was not really a surprise to anyone that he managed to escape from Li Huanhan’s clutches. If Chang Ye hadn’t preemptively taken Jiang Yinghe away from the Nether Realm, Qin Jun wouldn’t have been able to keep him forever either.

The most important thing to consider was that many methods of restriction would harm the one they were used on. In Chang Ye’s first face-to-face discussion with Qin Jun, they had considered the possibility that Shizun could escape if Li Huanhan hadn’t gone completely insane… As long as a solution existed, Jiang Yinghe could figure it out at his level of cultivation. Whether they were curses, formations, dimensional arrays wasn’t important.

It was just a matter of having the right tools and enough time. Overwhelming firepower was not always the best solution.

Qin Jun spoke up right after Chang Ye. His gaze swept over the vast section of the Nether Realm that bordered human territory. “What are you guys planning when we find him?”

Li Huanhan remained silent. Chang Ye rapped on his flute. “We’ll sit down and have a civil conversation, of course.”

“And what if we don’t find him?”

Their little Chang Ye-shidi smiled again. His pure demeanour was dyed pitch black with fevered possessiveness. “We will.”

Qin Jun sneered at him. “You really are two-faced.”

Chang Ye laughed. “You’re no different.”

He turned to look at Li Huanhan. His tone became even more mocking, “While we’re on this topic, I’m a mere amateur compared to a certain someone that could appear kind, restrained and harmless all while being consumed by internal demons. Right, Li-shixiong?”

Li Huanhan glared at him in return. “Your tail’s puffed up.”

—-

From the perspectives of the Nether Realm’s ghost cultivators, the three leaders actually didn’t fight after they met. That was miracle number one. Miracle number two was they actually had a decently civil conversation. Miracle number three—they headed into the Patriarch’s palace together.

It was only after they had left and the pressure and weather returned to normal that the ghost cultivators resumed their noisy chatter.

“Did you see that? Did you see that?! What an unexpected turn of events! This is definitely going on tomorrow’s issue of the ‘Nether Realm Times’!” a nearby ghost cultivator slapped his own thigh out of excitement and shouted, “Landlady, another two pounds of white candles!”

The landlady responded and hurried off.

In the clamour around him, Jiang Yinghe uneasily pulled at his thin collar. Even a fool could see that Huanhan had come over to call for a temporary ceasefire with the other two bastards after searching everywhere.

Now that he was thinking about it, it was the same last time in Wanyao City. He was always able to find Jiang Yinghe…no matter what choice he made or what obscure place he hid. It was like he put a tracking charm on him or something…

A thought quickly flew through Jiang Yinghe’s mind at that. It was almost too quick to catch.

He stopped walking and unexpectedly recalled the sword pendant on Wangchen… It was gifted to him a long time ago by Li Huanhan. It has made contact with his injuries and soaked in the blood of two people.

As Jiang Yinghe pondered this, he was filled with unease and more importantly, a sense of disappointment. He sighed. Just when he was looking for a place to rest so he could take off the sword pendant, he was stopped by the enchanting and languid voice of a female.

He lifted his eyes and met the gaze of the tea shop owner. She asked, “You still have regrets after dying?”

Jiang Yinghe replied, “If I didn’t have regrets, would I be barred from entering the River Styx and the cycle of reincarnation?”

The female proprietor felt his words made sense. She served one last pot of tea before lighting up her pipe in front of Jiang Yinghe. While smoking an unknown blend of grasses, she scooped into the very bottom of the wooden tea barrel. “I think your regrets are weighing heavily upon you. You barely drank any of your tea from before. Here, I’ll get you something new.”

She sent a flirtatious wink Jiang Yinghe’s way, as if she was interested in him. Then she mixed together half a bowl of assorted emotions and several extra spoonfuls of love. Pouring the mixture into a teacup, she presented it to the little devil with a pleasing profile.

He might have been a devil in life, but now he could only be a ghost cultivator. The landlady thought this as she tapped her ladle.

Jiang Yinghe accepted the cup because it didn’t feel right to refuse. He glanced at the rainbow coloured water that bubbled by itself.

But the landlady’s stare was too obvious. He considered it for a moment before deciding to not forsake her goodwill. He lifted the cup to sample it.

For those that have cultivated long enough, their bodies were automatically able to break down these unnecessary materials. The waste products would then be expelled from the body when they circulated their spiritual energy. Jiang Yinghe wasn’t worried about this affecting his cultivation, but the taste threw him for a loop.

It tasted like an overturned bottle of five spice powder… There were all kinds of flavours.

Jiang Yinghe wanted to hurl after just one mouthful. He rubbed at his chest and swallowed back his nausea, when he remembered that he was in the Nether Realm.

He raised his head and was about to ask the landlady about the most popular resting places for ghost cultivators when he saw the astonished look on her face.

The landlady was very beautiful, but her eyes were completely pitch black. She looked Jiang Yinghe up and down. After she didn’t find any abnormalities, she asked, “You…why aren’t you reacting?”

Jiang Yinghe was taken aback. He responded with a question, “How am I supposed to react?”

The landlady was even more surprised, “Happiness, anger, sadness, fear, love, wickedness, desire. I put all those in along with the five senses, and added a lot of additional love as well. You…are you completely numb?”

“Numb?”

The landlady’s face was changing colours. She urgently said, “You’re numb? Then tell me, what does this tea taste like? Is it sweet?”

Jiang Yinghe hesitated before telling the truth. “It’s sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, astringent and fresh. None of the flavours particularly stand out.”

The landlady was stunned. She dully said, “Could it be that…you don’t have a passion root?”

Author’s Corner

The author’s note was just an advertisement for another novel this time so it was omitted.

Rain

Our oblivious Shizun is finally about to find out!

Sahl

Jiang Yinghe: “My disciples angered me to death.”

Demon Lord, Patriarch, Devil King: *sneeze* ‘…’