The Spirit World

Chapter 406: Unintentional Fragments

[The chains creaked, he lowered his head and watched all this, wet moss attached to the chain that passed through his elbow joint, the place was like a deep hole dug out in the darkness, in addition to the darkness, there was also the cold that was constantly corroding his flesh and blood.

It was a long dragon-like shackle, with the links of his hands and feet as nodes, crisscrossing and imprisoning him. The chain passed through his arms and connected to his wrists, where there was also an iron nail like a lone tree that was hard to support, fiercely chiseled into the high wall behind him. Then his collarbone, his chest, his waist, his thighs, his knees, and his ankles were all like this, fiercely chiseled into the high wall with crimson iron nails.

It seemed as if he could still escape. The iron ring that fixed his neck would tighten tightly as soon as his head moved, and would not loosen until there was no breath flowing in his neck. However, he still did not stop struggling. The creaking of the chains was first a dull rattling sound, deafening in this medium-sized space, and then there was a loud bang of impact, and the chains were pulled like a mad bull. Those rattling chains that were impossible to break free of sounded like crackling thunder, and finally there was silence again, like a silent... deathly silence.

There is no light here...

Of course there is no light here...】

[Principality, June 2023, , Bailing Mountain]

"Tan Mingqiu has deserted his post without permission. His Majesty considers you an important official and demotes you to a commoner immediately. You are not allowed to set foot in Bailing Mountain again in your life! So decree!" A man in a red official uniform rolled up the emperor's edict and waited for someone to take it.

That person was naturally the bewildered Tan Mingqiu. He looked at Xiao Qingshan, who was also kneeling beside him to listen to the imperial edict. Xiao Qingshan was trying to hold back a smile and was a little embarrassed to look at him. His gloating expression was already evident in his words.

"You are... already old... and still..." Tan Mingqiu sighed, shook his head, touched his beard and pointed at Xiao Qingshan, wanting to say something but stopping himself. Finally, he had no choice but to take the imperial edict.

"Hahahahahahaha..." Xiao Qingshan finally laughed wildly. His beard trembled with laughter. He also stood up and began to pat his old friend who was extremely depressed, as if to comfort him.

“Senior Tan…” The man in official uniform also bowed quickly to apologize: “The emperor only dismissed you from your post. He did not dismiss you from your post and investigated you. This is already a favor from the emperor. I am sorry for wronging you…”

“Oh...you said I...I’m already old...I just played a game of chess with an old friend and this happened...it’s really hard...the ups and downs of life...I can’t believe...I can experience it at my age..." Tan Mingqiu touched his waist, as if he was really old, but in fact his waist was straight, and he was even as energetic as a young man.

He looked relaxed, but he frowned and squinted at Xiao Qingshan, sighing like a nagging woman.

"Hahahaha, fortunately, fortunately... To be honest, your chess character is really bad! Hahahaha..." Xiao Qingshan touched his mustache, and when he waved the feather fan, a light breeze blew his temples: "It's really difficult... If you played better... you wouldn't lose both the wife and the army, hahahaha, is that right? Mingqiu?"

"Senior Tan, Prime Minister Xiao, although we don't know what happened, the emperor's decree is enough. There is still room for maneuver..." The official stood aside respectfully, not knowing what to say, but still said this.

"Yes... demoted to a commoner... isn't this what you've always dreamed of? Mingqiu? Now that you've got what you wanted, you should be happy... haha, but, Chen Huan, you're still a little late. Our young master of Bailing Mountain has already been in seclusion for cultivation... it's not good that you came after the matter has been settled... next time, as soon as you hear any movement, send troops to surround the entire Bailing Mountain. Don't let the thieves run away, understand?" Xiao Qingshan began to get serious, watching Tan Mingqiu next to him who was reading the imperial edict over and over again with interest: "Mingqiu, you don't need to be so sad... you're already a commoner... why do you care about so many rules of the emperor? There's no punishment written on it, right? If the emperor doesn't investigate, you can live in the room next to me. If the emperor comes to investigate, you can live in my room, play chess with me, drink tea, what's wrong with that?"

"You, as the Prime Minister, are so casual..." Tan Mingqiu sighed and stuffed the imperial edict into his arms.

"In order to celebrate Manager Tan being demoted to a commoner and finally becoming a tea farmer as he wished, I decided to go to the kitchen and make you one of my specialty dishes!" Xiao Qingshan pushed Tan Mingqiu's shoulder and motioned him to go upstairs.

In Tan Mingqiu's eyes, this thousand-foot staircase seemed perhaps too long... the kind of long that once you climbed up, you couldn't come down... long...

What a fuck...Xiao Qingshan.

"Come on, come on! Chen Huan, this is not your first time to Bailing Mountain... I'll prepare some wine and food to welcome you!" Xiao Qingshan gently patted Chen Huan's waist with his feather fan, motioning him to go up as well.

"So, are there any other arrangements? Should we hand in the token of Wutong Division? Chen Huan, what rank of minister are you now? I always remember that you were a little boy... and you were learning martial arts from your father." Tan Mingqiu felt a little better and not so depressed, and followed Xiao Qingshan.

"Senior Tan, Chen Huan is already twenty-six years old... He is no longer a little boy..." Chen Huan and Tan Mingqiu stood side by side, and nodded to Tan Mingqiu very seriously: "Chen Huan has reached the fourth level of Spirit Bird, and is a fourth-level minister."

"Great, young and promising! The empire has a bright future!" Xiao Qingshan was overjoyed.

"I remember that when I left Bailing Mountain, I was only a first-level Feiyu. It was indeed a young and promising person..." Tan Mingqiu also touched his beard, not knowing what he was thinking. He lowered his head, as if looking at the road, or as if looking at an empty place.

“Hahaha… If you tell the younger generation about your embarrassing experiences back then, you will be too ashamed to face the young talents. Hahaha!” Xiao Qingshan laughed again. His voice was very hearty. In his eyes, being demoted was a very happy thing. He could no longer hide his gloating over the demotion of his old friend…

His smile was a little stiff, and he even touched it.

“I don’t deserve it, I don’t deserve it. I am naturally grateful for the praise from my seniors. As for other things, I can only speak based on my position. I don’t dare to have too many thoughts.” Chen Huan also walked respectfully, without any swagger. He had the feeling of a well-behaved child following an old man.

"Yes, yes, that's enough. There's no need to think about anything else. It's best if you repair the matter of the Questioning Road Marriage Array thoroughly. The instructors here at the Mountain Guarding Array have almost finished repairing it. You just need to be more careful and check the activation patterns of the array. There are also many lost spirit beasts. Get them back if you can... It's not really that bad. The power of the array must be strengthened in an all-round way." Xiao Qingshan gently pointed at everything around him with his feather fan.

"Don't worry, Prime Minister. Chen Huan will do his best." Chen Huan saluted and slowly followed.

"Oh, by the way, Chen Huan, the instructors' jade pendants must be checked carefully to prevent others from impersonating them, or taking advantage of the chaos to sneak into Bailing Mountain in the past two days. This must be strictly controlled. Bring the unregistered disciples to Wutong Division. If possible, check the background of all the current disciples and put them on my desk. I need to check them one by one." The prime minister turned around and pointed his feather fan at Chen Huan.

"Yes, Prime Minister."

"Qingshan, there is one thing I don't understand... What on earth happened three days ago? I have no idea why even such powerful formations as the one that asks for directions and marriage and the one that guards the mountain would be destroyed... They just said that there was a strange snowfall, and I have no idea what happened. What are you hiding from me?" It seemed that Tan Mingqiu still couldn't get around the question, and his sudden question made the feather fan shake even slower.

"Also... the casualty reports at the foot of the mountain are not a small number. If they are just ordinary thieves, this number of casualties is normal. After all, the strength of the Justice Department is limited. But if they are powerful thieves, then this number, plus the casualties of the Justice Department... is too abnormal... Your Majesty doesn't know the truth. It's okay to say that I'm deserting my post, but you should at least tell me what happened..." "Ming Qiu... what about some things? People can live well without understanding. Look, you are so leisurely now, isn't it good? Why do you need to know so much? There is no need at all... What about the snow... what about the formation, it's all in the past... There is no need to care at all... Let the past be buried in the past... Right? Chen Huan?" Xiao Qingshan stepped up the mountain, his steady steps making a loud sound.

"The Prime Minister is right." Chen Huan glanced at Tan Mingqiu and nodded seriously.

"You are wearing the same pants... Hey..." Tan Mingqiu touched his head and looked up at the sky above the top of Bailing Mountain which was clear again.

"Mingqiu, this is good... believe me... for the elderly... the most important thing is to enjoy their old age... instead of running around here and there, waiting for others to attend their funeral. It is also something that requires enough patience. People cannot refuse to accept their old age. When they are old, they will become confused..." Xiao Qingshan said some very strange words, but Tan Mingqiu didn't care much and only heard the last sentence.

"You are also very old. Aren't you afraid that you will become confused as well?"

"I'm scared... So, before I get confused, I'll finish what I want to do first. When I'm done... I'll accompany you to plant tea trees in Bailing Mountain and Erhai Lake. It's so delicious..." Xiao Qingshan's feather fan was gently waving, and a light breeze blew over, blowing up their clothes.

"Okay, since you old man don't want to tell me, I won't ask... I am indeed old... I can't compare with young people anymore... The young are really to be feared..." Tan Mingqiu also said some confusing words, but after looking at Chen Huan, he nodded happily.

"It's good to know, but I can't cook... The older you get, the better you can control the heat. Look, I'll cook two side dishes today, buy some good wine, drink and recite poetry, and live a happy life! Hahahaha!" Xiao Qingshan laughed again, and this laugh echoed along the thousand-foot steps, with a faint echo that lasted for a long time.

"I want to eat braised pork... Although my teeth are not very good, if you make the braised pork, I will break the toothpick to make it because you make it." Tan Mingqiu took a breath and seized this opportunity, following Xiao Qingshan like a child begging for food.

"Okay, okay, do you want to eat sweet and sour fish? Go kill a grass carp from Mingli Lake and make sweet and sour fish!" Xiao Qingshan also turned around and suddenly looked at Tan Mingqiu excitedly, his eyes shining: "Do you want to eat it? Do you want to eat it?"

"Eat, eat, eat! Eat, eat, eat!" Tan Mingqiu's eyes also lit up. Delicious food is something that everyone enjoys. Not to mention any emotional resonance, as long as you can invite a few good friends over, even peanuts and wine can be enjoyed to perfection.

"Then...young man, let me go down the mountain to buy some good wine?" Chen Huan responded from the side, standing on the steps, ready to go down the mountain as if he was following an order.

They had just reached the front of the mountain, so if they went down now, it would still be in time.

"The foot of the mountain is still under reconstruction... It will probably be difficult to buy anything, so you don't have to go... I have good wine in my room... I'll take it out and give it to you guys to drink..." Xiao Qingshan tried to persuade Chen Huan, but Chen Huan gave up, nodded, and followed respectfully.

"Did you know that this day would come? If there was good wine... you would have drunk it with me a long time ago... why would you save it for today?" Tan Mingqiu said again in a bad mood, his eyes wide open in disbelief.

"Hey! What you said... I'm not Liu Banxian, how can I calculate it... If I could really calculate it, would I have demoted you?" The wind from Xiao Qingshan's feather fan blew on his clothes, and his clothes moved slightly. He looked at the traces of broken pieces here. The front end of the rock here was cut by sword energy and was extremely smooth, while the back half seemed to be shattered by a heavy object. No one knew how it was formed, but the heavy and mottled appearance told of the fierce fight that may have occurred at that time.

"Heh..." Tan Mingqiu stopped talking. He moved closer to the rocks and touched the bloodstains on them. Those spots looked like blood splashed by a heavy object that had flown over and hit the ground.

“If there are any disciples who protected this place and fought against that thief… we must reward them well.” Tan Mingqiu looked at the deep pit on the thousand-foot steps. There was just enough space for a person to lie down there. They walked around the deep pit and saw a slight trace of blood inside. If it was caused by someone else, it would be tragic enough… But this little bit of blood is obviously not normal. It can only be said that the thief was not that powerful and only caused that person some superficial injuries. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a small amount of blood…

"Mingqiu, you are no longer the chief steward... Who are you commanding? Hahahahahaha..." Xiao Qingshan's words woke the dreamer up, and Tan Mingqiu shrugged indifferently.

"Nothing... I'm just... used to it... If the thief uses some unorthodox methods to destroy the formation, then the disciples who stopped them can be considered to have made contributions... They are indeed worthy of reward."

"Well, the thief should not be strong..." Xiao Qingshan looked at the hole that was neither big nor small, and nodded affirmatively.

"If that's the case, then I think I should really make the chess set better... I feel like I'm about to win..." Tan Mingqiu smiled pretending to be very annoyed.

"No, no, it's obvious that you were about to lose. How come you are going to win again now?" Xiao Qingshan ignored the hole and continued walking forward.

Mountains and seas cannot be leveled.

Thanks a lot……

No matter what you do...

"Qingshan, how long will Young Master Bai Lingshan stay in seclusion? One year? Two years? Or?"

"I don't know...it shouldn't be as long as five years...but it's not impossible..."

"That's really bad... If he comes out, he will marry the eldest princess... Then the good days will be over..."

“Hahahahaha… If that’s the case, I don’t know if we’ll survive until then…”

I deleted some nonsense...

I really want to explain to you why it is written like this, but that way the reading pleasure will be too little. This is probably what it means that "literature likes to see mountains, not plains".

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(End of this chapter)