Immortal Travel of Longevity

"Not eating your noodles?"

Pulled from his daze by Chen Changsheng's voice, Prince Wei snapped back to his senses.

He lowered his head, picked up his chopsticks, and began to eat.

He ate quickly, barely tasting the noodles.

His mind was still spinning with what Chen Changsheng had just said.

Those words seemed to strike at the root of the problems currently plaguing Weidi.

Chen Changsheng said, "You need to think this over carefully. There are actually many more issues; this is merely one worth bringing up."

Prince Wei paused. He looked up, a strange expression in his eyes. "You..."

"What?" Chen Changsheng glanced at him.

"Strange?"

"Yeah."

Prince Wei stared at him. "Why are you helping me?"

"Why do you think?"

"I think..."

Prince Wei voiced his guess. As hard to believe as it was, it felt correct.

"You just want to trick me into hosting a Temple Fair."

Chen Changsheng blanked for a moment. "What normal person would think that?"

Prince Wei hesitated. "Was I wrong?"

He frowned slightly. If he had to dig any deeper, he couldn't come up with a single other reason.

Chen Changsheng smiled. "You guessed right."

With that, Chen Changsheng put down his chopsticks and placed a piece of Broken Silver on the table.

"This Chen is paying for today's noodles."

Chen Changsheng stood up and left the noodle stall with a faint smile.

Prince Wei stared blankly after him.

Without realizing it, he stood up.

He wondered how someone like this could exist in the world.

It was entirely incomprehensible.

"Is this what everyone in Cultivation is like...?"

Prince Wei suddenly found himself questioning everything he knew.

In his view, absolutely no one in this world could escape the pull of personal gain.

But Chen Changsheng was so pure.

That only made him harder to understand.

A faint smile touched the corners of Prince Wei's mouth, and a sudden sense of unburdened elation swelled in his chest.

"Marvelous, simply marvelous..."

Prince Wei sat back down and began devouring the cold noodles in large bites.

The old man running the stall watched him laugh while eating and couldn't help but ask, "What's got you so happy?"

Prince Wei just waved a hand with a smile, offering no explanation.

"I'll be back tomorrow."

After finishing his bowl, he left those words behind and departed.

The old man stepped up to look. The noodles and the broth had been slurped completely clean.

He figured the man must have been starving.

Normally, people at least left a little soup behind.

.

.

Chen Changsheng walked toward an alley in Qingshan City.

There was a small courtyard inside the alley.

A few flowers and plants grew in the yard next to a small wooden cart. Several Lanterns hung from it, though the cart looked a bit old and the wood was starting to mold. Written on the largest Lantern, the one hanging the highest, were five characters: 'smoke locks pond willows'.

Chen Changsheng glanced into the courtyard.

The morning sun spilled into the yard, and right where the light was brightest grew a single stalk of green bamboo.

Chen Changsheng looked at it and said softly, "Mister Zhu? The sun is high in the sky."

The green bamboo slowly turned ethereal. After a burst of white mist, it transformed into a scholar wearing a long pale green gown.

Zhu Sheng paused for a moment before cupping his hands. "Zhu Sheng greets Mister Chen."

Chen Changsheng smiled. "On my way here, This Chen was wondering if you might have already left Qingshan City."

"How could I?" Zhu Sheng laughed. "The mountains and waters are lovely; how could I bear to leave? Please, take a seat, sir. Come, sit."

Zhu Sheng ushered Chen Changsheng to a seat in the courtyard.

Then he went to brew some tea and brought out a plate of pastries.

Chen Changsheng glanced at the wooden cart. "Haven't been running the Lantern riddle business lately?"

Zhu Sheng replied, "There's no Temple Fair, so I haven't been setting up much."

"Speaking of which, that couplet you left behind last time has really made me suffer. Over the years, I've spent who knows how much time thinking about it, and I've asked who knows how many people, but no one can match it."

Zhu Sheng sounded a bit exasperated. The riddle had practically become a lingering sickness in his mind.

Chen Changsheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "If you really can't figure it out, just stop thinking about it. Why obsess over it?"

Zhu Sheng gave a helpless smile. "You aren't a scholar of this path, sir, so of course you can say that lightly. Sigh..."

His tone carried a hint of complaint. It seemed that 'smoke locks pond willows' truly had caused him no small amount of trouble.

Chen Changsheng chuckled helplessly. "It can't be that absolutely no one has been able to match it."

"Well, there have been some, but they always fall just a bit short."

There was never a standard answer when it came to matching couplets. Or rather, if there was a standard, then the match would have to be extraordinarily perfect.

But a match nearing perfection had simply never appeared.

Abstract and concrete reality, tonal patterns, the Five Elements—adding all of these constraints together made it incredibly difficult.

Chen Changsheng nodded. "To this day, This Chen doesn't know which line matches it perfectly either."

Zhu Sheng froze upon hearing that. He blinked. "You really don't know?"

"I really don't."

"You aren't joking?"

"I'm not."

Zhu Sheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Then why on earth did you give it to me, sir!"

Chen Changsheng threw his hands up. "You can't blame This Chen for that."

Zhu Sheng laughed helplessly, shaking his head over and over.

He sighed. "Sir, let's talk about something else. Let's drop the subject; it's just depressing..."

Chen Changsheng nodded with a smile before saying, "Actually, This Chen came this time to ask a few things regarding Yan Ruchu."

Zhu Sheng paused. "Didn't he pass away a few years ago?"

"Yes."

Chen Changsheng nodded. "But he arranged some things before his death. After thinking it over, This Chen felt he might have sought you out, so This Chen came to ask."

Zhu Sheng looked surprised, then shook his head. "He never sought me out while he was alive."

"Be that as it may," Chen Changsheng said. "But it's possible you were in his arrangements, and that someday, someone might come knocking at your door for help."

Zhu Sheng was taken aback. "What was he trying to do?"

"It sounds a bit absurd to say out loud."

Chen Changsheng sighed, then explained a few things.

Hearing this, Zhu Sheng frowned deeply. He couldn't help but lower his head in thought.

He pursed his lips and said, "I'm afraid I might not be able to help him with this."

The very concept was completely different.

Back when Yan Ruchu was in Qingshan City, he was answering to the righteous cause of the Old Capital, and he hadn't defied the Heavenly Dao. But what he was doing now was highly unusual; it was risking universal condemnation.

Chen Changsheng said, "He calculated all of this long ago. Now, it's just a matter of seeing the results. He's even more stubborn than Mister Zhulan."

After so many years, Zhu Sheng still felt an immense sense of fondness upon hearing the name Zhulan again.

He couldn't help but sigh. Speaking of his former teacher, he suddenly understood a bit better why Yan Ruchu would do such a thing.

Back in the day, wasn't Mister Zhulan doing the exact same thing?

Chen Changsheng had only come to ask around.

Looking at it this way, Yan Ruchu hadn't made any arrangements involving Zhu Sheng.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!