Longzang

Chapter 1116 A Fleeting Moment
The layout of the Western Jin palace remained unchanged, as if time had stood still. Wei Yuan thought to himself, it had been almost ten years since his last visit.

As his cultivation level increased, Wei Yuan noticed that time was passing faster and faster. Sometimes, just a short meditation session, refining a tiny bit of magical power, would take several days or even half a month to pass.

With affairs in both Qingming and Yizhou keeping him busy, Wei Yuan was unable to engage in seclusion for extended periods of time; otherwise, a period of seclusion could have lasted for several years or even hundreds of years.

At this moment, Wei Yuan was enfeoffed as the King of Wei in the State of Jin, bestowed with the Nine Bestowments, and possessed all the honors. He was also the military governor of Qingyang and the Grand Councilor of the Southern Army, wielding immense power. By this time, the former Left and Right Chancellors had both retired to their hometowns, and their former associates and students had scattered like birds and beasts. Now, there was not a single one of his former adversaries to be seen in the court or among the people.

Given Wei Yuan's current status, he could freely enter and leave the palace without anyone daring to stop him or disturb him. Only Zhao Tong rushed over upon hearing the news. Seeing Wei Yuan strolling along, seemingly lost in thought, Zhao Tong dared not say anything, simply keeping a distance of two zhang behind, taking small, quick steps, and not daring to make a sound.

To outsiders, the palace looked exactly the same, but to Wei Yuan, subtle signs of decay could be seen. Moss had grown on many corners, fallen leaves had accumulated on the ground, and there were fine cracks in the walls, indicating that it needed to be repainted.

Wei Yuan suddenly stopped, and a yellow leaf slowly drifted down in front of him, landing on the ground. Wei Yuan looked up and saw a sycamore tree, which was half green and half yellow.

So, autumn has arrived again.

For some reason, Wei Yuan always felt that this was a melancholy season.

After pausing for a moment, Wei Yuan continued forward, crushing the fallen leaf under his foot. In the autumn of the fifteenth year of Hongjing, Wei Yuan crushed the first autumn leaf in the palace.

The place where they met Prince Jin was neither the main hall nor the imperial study, but a warm pavilion next to the study. The pavilion was enchanted, making it warm and cozy. The palace maids and eunuchs were flushed from the heat. Prince Jin, however, was wrapped in a thick fur coat, huddled in a chair, basking in the warm autumn sun, staring blankly at the dust motes dancing in the sunlight, motionless for a long time.

When Wei Yuan entered the room, the Prince of Jin's cloudy eyes flickered for a moment, and he lightly raised his finger, gesturing towards the warm chair beside him. Wei Yuan then walked over and sat down, his posture relaxed and natural.

The Prince of Jin took a deep breath, a hoarse sound emanating from his chest, like a lump of mud rolling around. He sighed and said, "In this past year, I have finally come to understand what it means to be nearing my end. Now I can actually sit there calmly for an entire day, like this, from sunrise to the full moon. Is this what it means to wait for death?"

Wei Yuan said, "Your Majesty is in the prime of life and still has opportunities. There is no need to be so melancholic."

A glint flashed in the Prince of Jin's eyes, which he then concealed, and he said with a wry smile, "There's nothing to hide from you. In fact, I know very well that the longevity medicines you presented on both occasions were derived from the same main ingredient, which should be a remnant of ancient phoenix blood. This is already a rare and precious longevity medicine. I took it twice, and the second one was even a masterpiece made by a master alchemist."

Even if there were a third chance, the medicine would be far less effective, lasting at most three or four years. Besides, with every day like this, ending in twilight, there's not much point in living.

Wei Yuan said, “In recent years, Your Majesty has entrusted the south to me, while you have been reforming the administration in the north, allowing the people to rest and recuperate. The northern border troops have also been equipped with new weapons, greatly increasing their combat strength. It is now difficult for the Liao people to break through the pass and advance south. All of these are virtuous and benevolent policies, which must have resulted in a large number of people being transported. But why has Your Majesty become so weak?”

The Prince of Jin chuckled self-deprecatingly and said, "In order to fight against Lü Changhe and not want to become a puppet manipulated by him, I turned to practicing evil magic in my middle age, with... as its core. In this way, I naturally received the assistance of powerful beings. So I followed the law, relaxed the administration of officials, ignored natural disasters, and the north and west were plagued by war. Sure enough, my cultivation level rose steadily, and my lifespan also increased. Over the decades, this method has penetrated my soul and spirit. With the addition of luck, it has caused my cultivation level to regress and my lifespan to pass away more quickly."

Wei Yuan then understood why the Prince of Jin, who should have been full of vigor, had become so old and sluggish. The Prince of Jin had only uttered one word when he suddenly fell silent, and Wei Yuan did not hear it, immediately forgetting about the missing word.

However, Wei Yuan was blessed with great fortune at this time, and the prosperity of all realms would back up everything they saw and heard, and then back up the backup again. This was like a pebble falling into a pond, creating ripples that spread endlessly, layer upon layer.

Just as Wei Yuan forgot the missing word in the King of Jin's words, his memory was overwritten again. He forgot it again and it was overwritten again. This repeated several times until the bustling world of all realms realized that they had encountered a cause-and-effect erasure event. So they focused on constantly copying and backing up this segment.

In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan forgot thousands of times, finally surviving the time it took for the cause-and-effect erasure to take effect, and completely remembered that the Prince of Jin was missing a paragraph when he spoke.

The whole process was actually just a fleeting moment; ordinary people might not even realize that time had passed. But Wei Yuan clearly remembered each backup overwrite, thus overcoming the causal erasure.

What Wei Yuan didn't know was that deep within the heavens, someone exclaimed "Eh!" and then a gaze fell upon him, revealing Wei Yuan. But what he saw was a vast, boundless sea of ​​azure fortune, so he withdrew his gaze.

Throughout the entire process, Wei Yuan remained completely unaware.

Looking at the Prince of Jin, Wei Yuan knew what was going on. Given the Prince of Jin's status and the fact that he could utter words about being erased by cause and effect, it was obvious that it was related to the Martial Ancestor's scheme.

But since the cause and effect have been erased, how did the Prince of Jin come to say it?

Having reached this level, Wei Yuan naturally understands that there is no such thing as chance or luck in this world. Every coincidence is manipulated behind the scenes by countless threads.

After listening to the latter part of the King of Jin's words, Wei Yuan realized that the cultivation method the King of Jin was practicing seemed to be aimed at weakening the nation's fortunes and causing the people to be displaced in order to achieve some benefit. It sounded similar to the idea of ​​the State of Ji, and it seemed that both were being pushed by someone behind the scenes who wanted to break the deadlock.

Having said that, Wei Yuan understood the principle behind the Jin King's cultivation method: by weakening the power of the Western Jin Dynasty, it indirectly undermined the Martial Ancestor's plans, thereby gaining the support of many behind-the-scenes immortals. With this support, Lü Changhe dared not act rashly and could only secretly engage in shady dealings such as switching bloodlines.

But in his later years, for reasons unknown, the Prince of Jin suddenly had a change of heart, stopped practicing this method, compromised with Wei Yuan, and then peacefully awaited his death. The Prince of Jin's decision to let the people rest was tantamount to hastening his own suicide.

However, the King of Jin did not expect that Wei Yuan would present him with the elixir of longevity twice. Wei Yuan also did not expect that after the King of Jin handed over the south to him, he would take what he needed and then bide his time, attributing the good governance to the King of Jin and bestowing the good fortune upon him, which almost led to the King of Jin's death.

(End of this chapter)