Chapter 245: I Owe a Favor

Beheading was no joke. If you wanted to cut off this “opportunity for a destiny,” you couldn’t just use illusion techniques to fool people. After all, illusions could only fool people, gods, demons, and sentient beings, but you cannot fool the heavens — and more importantly, you couldn’t fool yourself.

The old beggar said “it’s not worth it” with a sigh, and subconsciously reached out and touched his neck.

“I really just showed Mr. Ji a joke. With your level of Taoism and state of mind, you can naturally understand the original intention of an old beggar beggar like me. How should I put it? In common terms, it would be a ‘thankless task.’”

Ji Yuan smiled. With the movements of his fingers, the character “fate” rose from the table.

“Then why don’t you just reluctantly accept the old emperor? Why directly provoke him to kill you?”

The old beggar looked at the young beggar, who curiously stretched out his hand to touch the word “fate”.

“Oh, Mr. Ji, you didn’t even want to give him a mooncake. That’s all just talk. Besides, even though I, an old beggar, wanted him to kill me, he couldn’t!”

Ji Yuan felt a little wronged.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to give him a mooncake, it’s just that he really couldn’t catch it.”

The old beggar took a leisurely sip of tea and glanced at Ji Yuan.

“A flower in the mirror, moon on the water, how can one catch them…”

The young beggar’s finger just happened to touch the word “fate” in the air, which turned into water vapor and disappeared into nothingness upon contact.

When Ji Yuan heard the old beggar’s sigh, his heart suddenly moved, and he said another sentence in a joking tone.

“Oh, to be honest, I thought it was Mr. Lu who had done something wrong. It seems that the old emperor is really unlucky.”

“Um…haha… bad luck, indeed, he really is unlucky!”

The old beggar gave a forced smile, lowered his head, and did not dare to look at Ji Yuan.

“Knock knock knock…”

There was a sudden knock at the door of the private room, which relieved the old beggar of his embarrassment in the moment. The tea specialist’s voice sounded from the outside.

“Dear guests, the shopkeeper has brought a few trays of refreshments to this table.”

“Come in.”

The tea specialist pushed open the door, tray in hand, walked carefully into the private room, closed the door again, and placed the tray of snacks on the table.

“Mr. Lu and Mr. Ji, the shopkeeper asked me to come and let you know that the people in the city are looking for an old beggar surnamed Lu, saying that the emperor wants to invite him into the palace…”

As the tea specialist spoke, he looked carefully at the old beggar, particularly the area around the old beggar’s neck, and found that although there was a lot of old mud, the flesh was still connected.

“Oh, I see. If I find them, I’ll do what I need to!”

The old beggar said something nonchalantly, while Ji Yuan looked at the tea specialist and asked with a smile.

“Young man, you keep looking at Mr. Lu’s neck; did you hear something?”

The tea specialist was a little impatient, so when he heard Ji Yuan’s question, he stopped pretending and spoke with great curiosity.

“We are just one block away from Yongning Street. Before noon, there were guests who said that the emperor sent the Imperial Guard to execute an old beggar on Yongning Street this morning, and then…”

Dr. Cha glanced at the old beggar next to him, and then at Ji Yuan.

“Then the old beggar got his head chopped off, stood up again, pressed his head back down on his neck, and walked away chatting and laughing with a gentleman. Are you that gentleman?”

“Yes, yes, can there be a second unlucky person like me in this world? The refreshments have been delivered, so you should go do your own thing.”

The old beggar replied angrily, feeling that Mr. Ji had specifically found someone to tease him again.

“Hey, hey, then I’ll take my leave. Please feel free to tell me if you have anything you need.”

The tea specialist opened the door and walked out, then called something back to the inside once he had stepped out.

“I’m at the stairs, just tell me if you need anything!”

“Okay, thank you…”

Ji Yuan nodded and waved his hands behind his back, and the enthusiastic tea specialist closed the door.

However, the tea specialist did not leave immediately. Instead, he put his ear to the door and listened for a while; when he heard nothing, he tiptoed away a few steps and left.

After the tea specialist left, Ji Yuan used the previous topic to segue into asking the old beggar some questions, and also told him the story of catching the Ghost Mother and her demonic power, mentioning that the Ghost Mother was also able to be resurrected after being beheaded.

However, Ji Yuan understood by now that this method of breaking off karmic entanglement was definitely different from the old beggar’s.

Sometimes immortal cultivators didn’t always behave mysteriously while chatting. Most of the time, they gossiped like ordinary people; so too did Ji Yuan and the old beggar.

He was concerned about what was going to happen to the demons and monsters that had been taken away previously; they talked about what interesting things the two beggars had encountered while begging for food along their journey; they also speculated on what kind of turmoil the old beggar’s failure to recruit a disciple would cause in Dazhen’s imperial court. At the very least, the old emperor would definitely have a big mental breakdown.

It wasn’t until the afternoon, when Ji Yuan saw that it was almost time for him to leave, that he stood up and bowed to the old beggar.

“Let’s stop here today. I still needs to go to the underworld. I have already paid for the tea. Let us meet again some other day, if we are fortunate.”

“Okay, see you another day!”

The old beggar also stood up and returned Ji Yuan’s formal bow, muttering, “what a pity for those thousand taels of gold, what a pity.”

Ji Yuan stared at him silently for a while, making the old beggar feel a little embarrassed and even nervous. Then he smiled and turned away.

As soon as Ji Yuan left, the young beggar tugged at the old beggar’s sleeve.

“Grandpa Lu, there are still a lot of pastries, can I take them away?”

Including when they first arrived, the people in the Qingye Building had served the group refreshments three times in total, so there were still a lot of pastries and dried fruits on the table.

The old beggar looked at the table before opening his mouth, but the young beggar spoke before he could.

“I understand, whoever wouldn’t grab them to take them away is a fool!”

“You, kid…”

​​…

Yan Chang was released from prison. Not only was his official position restored, but he also received some rewards from the emperor. However, the anxiety in Yan Chang’s heart did not subside much.

He was leading a group of people to check on Yongning Street in person, and saw the bloodstain that had dried up, but still presented a shocking sight.

Seeing that the blood was still a bright crimson, Yan Chang looked at the officers accompanying him and asked.

“You said the blood can’t be washed away?”

The officer beside him replied respectfully.

“It is as you say, Sir. Normally, if a condemned prisoner were to be beheaded here, the blood would be washed away with a few buckets of water. But today, the blood could not be washed away no matter how hard we tried.”

Another officer added.

“Some people used brushes to scrub at it, but it didn’t lighten much, and the water left by the scrub turned bright red, which was a bit scary, so no one dared to continue scrubbing.”

Yan Chang nodded solemnly, thinking that if the emperor knew about this, he would probably feel very uncomfortable.

At this time, pedestrians were coming and going down Yongning Street, but most of them avoided the center of the street, not only due to the presence of officials, but also because of this pool of blood.

When Yan Chang looked up and glanced around in thought, he suddenly found someone walking towards him, not too far away. After taking a closer look to confirm who it was, his heartbeat quickened.

The visitor was dressed in a green robe, with a jade hairpin inserted through his bun. He walked briskly. His expression was normal, but his pale eyes were half-open. It was Ji Yuan, who had just left the Qingye Building. After having left the teahouse, he overheard the rumor of “the bloodstains that wouldn’t go away,” so he I hurried over to take a look.

“What a coincidence, Master Yan is here too?”

“Mr. Ji!”

Yan Chang hurriedly bowed and greeted. The officials next to him, who had no idea what was going on, also bowed along with him.

Ji Yuan returned the greeting and approached them in a few steps.

“Mr. Ji, did you come here to find me?”

Yan Chang asked with a hint of hope, but Ji Yuan shook his head and pointed to the blood on the ground.

“I came here for this.”

“The blood?”

Ji Yuan nodded. The old beggar had already died once, so naturally it was impossible that he had wanted to create a pool of blood to scare people.

But after all, the old beggar was close to being a True Immortal, and his Taoism was unfathomable. Especially now, this time, he was involved in quite an important matter, and the cause and effect were not so simple: he had been killed, but the emperor was obsessed with him. This pool of blood belonged to both the old beggar and the old emperor.

“Although this blood was left by the Taoist master, it already carries evil. If it is not removed, there may be trouble in the future!”

After inspecting it on the spot, Ji Yuan could see that the blood’s spiritual energy was vaguely tied to the imperial city.

Seeing Ji Yuan speaking so seriously, Yan Chang was frightened.

“Then what should be done? Mr. Ji, do you have a solution?”

“Let me try something.”

Ji Yuan replied. He inhaled slightly, then opened his mouth and blew out a breath.

“Hoooh…”

Yan Chang and the surrounding officers only felt a gust of heat rush through their bodies, and couldn’t help but take a couple steps back. When they looked back at the ground, the pool of blood had turned to ashes.

He spoke so seriously, but seeing Ji Yuan blow away the bloodstains with a single breath, Yan Chang felt a little ridiculous.

But when he looked up again, he found that there was no one around him. Several officers were looking around in astonishment. Seeing their expressions, Yan Chang could confirm that what he had just seen was definitely not his own hallucination.

He was just thinking of asking a few more questions. From Yan Chang’s perspective, there was an 80% chance that the beggar, who had been beheaded by the emperor, would not return; but if he could invite Mr. Ji back, it would be the same, not to mention that he would get a promotion. Yes it would definitely be fine.

“Hey… Mr. Ji, you didn’t even give me a chance to speak!”

In a certain corner of the city, the old beggar and the young beggar had just left Qingye Building, their ragged pockets stuffed full of pastries and dried fruits.

The very moment Ji Yuan’s breath containing the True Fire of Samadhi burnt away the pool of blood, the old beggar’s heart moved. He stretched out his hand, pinched his fingers in divination, and immediately understood the cause and effect of the pool of blood.

“I was actually blinded by the fate of the dynasty, and almost left a hidden danger… I owe him a favor now…”