Immortal Travel of Longevity

"Even if you don't tell me, I'm going to look into it anyway. You know that with my status, investigating a few things is effortless."

Chen Changsheng looked at the King of Wei. "Is that really the case?"

Faced with Chen Changsheng's sudden question, Prince Wei lost a bit of his confidence.

He thought that perhaps it really was as Chen Changsheng said—he would never find out anything he wasn't meant to know.

Yet he remained intensely curious about such matters. It was an itch he couldn't quite scratch.

Prince Wei let out a soft sigh. "I am but a mortal after all..."

He seemed to have accepted this reality.

He looked up at Chen Changsheng and asked, "So, just like King Yu, you are also a cultivator? You also possess the means of an Immortal?"

Chen Changsheng smiled at him. "What do you think?"

Chen Changsheng paused in surprise at those words, then laughed helplessly. "You are even more shameless than This Chen. How do you have the nerve to say such a thing?"

Prince Wei snorted twice. "I'm much better than you."

"You're just being stubborn."

"Yes, yes, this king is stubborn. This king is stubborn."

Saying so, Prince Wei lowered his head and went back to his noodles.

Chen Changsheng glanced at him before adding, "This Chen just remembered something."

"What is it?"

"Why did Qingshan City stop holding its Temple Fair?"

Prince Wei paused at the question. "You actually pay attention to things like that?"

"Indeed. Many years ago, This Chen quite enjoyed wandering through the Temple Fair. It was lively. Now that it is suddenly gone, I cannot help but feel a bit nostalgic."

Prince Wei pondered for a moment. "The Temple Fair..."

He paused and looked at Chen Changsheng. "It isn't that I don't want to host it; my hands are simply tied. You know the state of the world today. In the early years, the Temple Fair in Qingshan City drew all sorts of characters. Now, Weidi is under strict regulation. Martial artists from the jianghu and individuals of unknown origin are barred from entering the city. With so few people allowed in, the Temple Fair simply cannot be held. It wastes both manpower and resources for very little purpose. So, I just stopped holding it altogether."

Prince Wei sighed. "Who wouldn't want things to be a bit livelier? We just have to wait. Wait until the world is a little more peaceful."

In truth, he felt rather helpless about the situation himself.

In the end, it all came down to the fact that he, as a prince, lacked the necessary strength.

If his military forces were abundant and his treasury full, why would he ever need to worry about such hidden dangers?

Chen Changsheng looked at the King of Wei. "Have you ever considered that a Temple Fair is not merely about the lively atmosphere?"

"Hmm?" Prince Wei looked at him.

"Qingshan City is fine as it is," Chen Changsheng said, "because you are here, and most of the residents in the city are locals. They inherently possess a sense of belonging to this place. But as far as This Chen knows, refugees from other provinces now make up more than half the population in Weidi. Those people have absolutely no sense of belonging here."

"Let This Chen ask you this." Chen Changsheng paused for a moment. "When war breaks out, what is the fundamental reason the commoners risk their lives for you?"

Prince Wei thought it over. "To survive."

"Too narrow."

Chen Changsheng shook his head. "Even if Weidi were to be annexed, they would still survive. It would simply mean answering to a different prince. Their lives might be slightly harder, but that does not mean they would perish."

"Then what do you say it is?"

"In part, it comes from a sense of belonging to the land."

"Just as an elderly man cannot bear to part with the soil beneath his feet," Chen Changsheng said, "they have long since accepted this place as their home. Beyond mere survival, there is something far more important driving them to help you—which is, in turn, helping themselves."

"The root cause of your struggle with conscription isn't that the refugees who fled to Weidi are afraid of dying. It's that they have no sense of belonging here. Even though you, the King of Wei, treat these commoners well, they only view this place as a temporary shelter. Once the war ends, they still intend to return to the lands where they have lived for generations."

Prince Wei fell deep into thought. He lost all appetite for his noodles, his fingers continuously tapping against the tabletop.

After a moment, he looked up, his brows furrowed tightly. "That is far too difficult..."

Changing such a mindset was truly a daunting task.

Chen Changsheng said, "Naturally. And it is impossible to accomplish entirely. If four or five people out of ten learn to view Weidi as their home, that would already be a remarkable achievement."

"What This Chen means is that, while this task is difficult, you cannot just do nothing. Furthermore, you have already laid a solid foundation. You possess something that none of those other princes have—the hearts of the people."

"We just spoke of the Temple Fair. Its fundamental purpose is not the lively atmosphere. In ancient times, Temple Fairs were held for sacrificial rites, to gather the masses. But they also served as a bridge for connection between people. Only by bringing people together can their relationships slowly solidify. It is through interaction that a sense of belonging is born."

Chen Changsheng looked at Prince Wei. "Do you know what the Temple Fairs in Qingshan City were like in the early years?"

Prince Wei paused. "I have never seen one."

"The mountain roads of the Yuanchuan Region are rugged, and its people live scattered across the land. But when they heard about the Temple Fair, they would set out early, walking dozens of li along mountain paths just to join the festivities. Children would look forward to it from morning till night, traversing the mountains the next day to enter the city before nightfall."

"When they returned, they would tell the people in their villages who hadn't gone just how lively and fun the Temple Fair was. The villagers would listen with eyes full of envy, and the following year, even more people would make the journey."

"That kind of feeling is difficult to describe. It is beyond words."

"People meeting and getting to know one another happened constantly at these Temple Fairs. Travelers came from all over, interacting and becoming friends. People believe in fate, and through these gatherings, those bonds of fate endured. The next year at the Temple Fair, they would meet again, chatting and drinking..."

Chen Changsheng smiled. "Many years ago, when This Chen was wandering through the Temple Fair, even I would occasionally fall into a daze and feel as though I were a local—as if I had always belonged here."

Listening to Chen Changsheng's words, the King of Wei seemed to finally find the crux of the matter.

"That's it..."

Prince Wei's gaze grew slightly dazed.

The noodles on the table had already grown cold, but he had long since lost any interest in them.

Chen Changsheng's words had laid bare the root of the problem.

Why hadn't Prince Wei thought of this? Why hadn't the strategists under his command thought of this? The fundamental reason was that they were not the common people.

They were the leaves, rather than the roots buried deep in the earth.

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