Staring at Ji You's receding figure, the corridor, filled with well-wishers, was silent.
Not long after, Fang Ruoyao murmured, "Why?" which roused everyone from their shock. By then, Kuang Cheng had already finished re-reading the copy of "Xia Law Immortal Rules" in his hand.
It turned out the answer had always been in this book, but what he and Ji You saw was not the same.
"Junior Third Realm Completion before coming of age allows one to enter the Immortal Registry. Any of the seven great sects in the current era will admit such a person exceptionally. Because… such a person is bound to enter the Upper Five Realms in the future. And those who can truly determine the fate of a sect are these Upper Five Realms Disciples."
Kuang Cheng raised the corner of his mouth: "I asked him to beg Young Miss Fang, but he refused. Everyone thought he was timid and cowardly, but now it seems Young Miss Fang was probably never his choice from beginning to end."
This double entendre instantly changed Fang Ruoyao's expression: "It is a strict law of Great Xia that commoners who cultivate Immortality privately are to be beheaded."
"qingyun immortal rules have always been higher than the Great Xia Iron Law, from ancient times to the present."
Everyone fell silent upon hearing this, unsure what to say.
In the past few days, everyone had thought Fang Ruoyao was the key to breaking the deadlock, after all, she was the Tianshu Academy Disciple known throughout the county.
So, Old Qiu knelt before the county office for a whole day, Kuang Cheng also swallowed his pride to beg her, and Ji You, in everyone's minds, was a coward who didn't even dare to leave his door.
But now they understood that no matter how noisy or sarcastic the outside world was, he remained unmoving because he didn't need to beg anyone.
At this moment, Fang Ruoyao stared blankly in the direction Ji You had left, suddenly realizing that what Kuang Cheng said was true; that person, from arrival to departure, though less than an hour, had not once looked at her.
"I may not be worse than him after entering the academy."
"He… just started a bit earlier than I did."
Fang Ruoyao said with a pale Face, but still didn't let her Face drop.
Meanwhile, Dong Wei, standing to Kuang Cheng's right, began to feel his legs go weak, his lips trembling incessantly.
He suddenly remembered that just two days ago, he and Jia Sicong had ridiculed Ji You in a restaurant, and now he was an Immortal, able to grant life or death.
So he turned to look at Jia Sicong, only to find that the other party was not as terrified as he was.
"Brother Jia, why… why aren't you trembling?"
"I treated him to ten baskets of fresh dumplings, and you, my brother, you did not."
"???"
While everyone was still discussing, Ji You had already led Old Qiu and Qiu Ru to the county monument at the city gate. At this time, Yuyang County was windless for ten li, and the sky was clear.
It was here that Ji You, with a sallow Face, stopped: "Old Qiu, you should take Ru Ru home first."
Old Qiu looked up at the sound: "Young Master, what about you?"
"I need to return to… the Ji Residence…"
"Young Master?"
Ji You waved his hand, turning to leave before Old Qiu could speak again.
Seeing this, Old Qiu couldn't help but straighten his slightly hunched body of the past two years, watching him hurry away.
Qiu Ru also raised her head, glanced at Young Master, then at her father, her gaze then falling on her chubby little hands.
She had just thought it was raining, but as her gaze swept over, she realized it wasn't rainwater on the back of her hand, but a faint bloodstain.
Old Qiu didn't see this scene. He was still worried about his wife, who had fainted at home when he was taken away that morning, so he hurried back home with his daughter.
…………
The unconscious Li Shuping had woken up, but she remained lying on the bed, her empty eyes staring straight at the ceiling beam. She hadn't had a drop of water nor spoken a word.
Because Aunt Six next door had just gone out and said that the grain transport carts had already begun to depart from the city, which meant that the offerings had started to go up the mountain with the carts, and among them, there might be a naive little girl.
The people in the room didn't know what to say, because facing a mother who had lost her daughter, any words seemed pale and powerless.
At this thought, some couldn't help but curse that down-and-out Young Master a few more times in their hearts, thinking, "It's already come to this, and he still doesn't come to see?"
"Grandma, what's wrong with my mother?"
"Ru Ru, you go play by yourself for a while. Your mother is currently…"
Aunt Six's words were cut short as her eyes suddenly froze, and she craned her neck to look back.
The five-year-old girl had just stepped over the threshold with a "hey-ya" sound, and now, seeing everyone in the room with astonished expressions, she looked a little bewildered.
And Li Shuping on the bed, seeing her daughter, cried out in pain, tumbling from the bed to the floor, hugging her tightly. Then she saw her husband also enter the room, and tears flowed like a spring.
"Did those Immortals not take our Ru Ru for alchemy? Is that it? I said, how could Ru Ru have Spiritual Qi in her body…"
"It's Young Master."
Li Shuping raised her tear-filled eyes, somewhat delighted: "They replaced the medicinal ingredients with your Young Master?"
The surrounding farm women also clapped: "That ungrateful Ji You, who didn't even come, deserves to die!"
Old Qiu remained silent for a long time, then spoke as if still in a dream: "Young Master… turns out he's an Immortal."
"Wh… what?"
"I don't know exactly what happened, but Young Master is actually an Immortal. When those people found out, they didn't dare to use Ru Ru for alchemy anymore."
Hearing this, Li Shuping, sitting on the ground, was stunned for a long time. The image of the down-and-out Young Master who came to freeload meals every day couldn't help but appear in her mind, her eyes full of bewilderment.
And the surrounding village women exchanged glances, thinking they had misheard.
That Young Master Ji, who had narrowly escaped death from the mountain, usually only freeloaded meals. When he heard that Qiu Ru was targeted by Fengxian Villa, he didn't even dare to show his Face. How could he now be an Immortal?
"I was thinking before, maybe the Immortal Lord made a mistake. Our family has never had contact with cultivators, how could Ru Ru have… what Spiritual Qi."
"But do you remember, when Ru Ru was two and a half, she got whooping cough, and Doctor Li said she wouldn't survive that winter, but then she inexplicably recovered on her own. Although she never ate any meat, she grew stronger and stronger."
Old Qiu pursed his dry lips, turned to his wife, and said: "Young Master is an Immortal. I heard that Immortals can nourish the Mortal's root bones…"
Li Shuping still stared at him blankly, then lowered her head to look at her daughter in her arms, lost in thought for a long time.
It turned out that although the down-and-out Young Master came to freeload meals every day, he had never owed the Qiu Family anything from beginning to end…
Yuyang County was not large, and about an hour after Old Qiu returned home, what happened at the Yuyang County office had already spread.
Because many people had seen Young Master Ji go to the county office, and then many more saw the constables helping each other, bruised and swollen, heading to the medical hall.
Then some saw Young Master Ji leading Old Qiu and Qiu Ru out of the county office, and even more saw him, with a Divine Might-like grim Face, return to the Ji Residence.
Young Master Ji was actually an Immortal, who broke into the county office, drove away Fengxian Villa, and scared the Tianshu Academy Immortals into silence. This story, whose origin was unknown, began to spread by word of mouth among the crowd.
"But if that Ji You was really an Immortal, why didn't he act when the Ji Family suffered misfortune that day?"
"At that time, he had not yet reached Junior Third Realm Perfection."
"What is Junior Third Realm Perfection?"
"You don't even know this? Young Master Ji had not yet reached Junior Third Realm Perfection that day. Revealing his cultivation would be a capital offense, so he could only endure!"
Someone stood on a restaurant stool, his folding fan slapping the tabletop with a sharp sound.
Among them, not a few had laughed at Young Master Ji. The Ji Family's misfortune, the Fang Residence's broken engagement, the Qiu Family's troubles, gossiping had become a habit.
But no one expected that Young Master Ji was an Immortal in seclusion.
Such were the rumors, half-true and half-false, but enough to deeply shock everyone into silence.
(Some parts of the previous text were revised. I smoothed out the later logic today. Please keep reading!)