Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 61

After that, Jiang Baiyu became more sensible. He no longer picked at his food, no longer spent time playing, and began to practice cultivation diligently.

About a month passed this way, and the entire Huayang Sect began preparing for his tenth birthday.

A birthday was also a day when a mother suffered in childbirth. In previous years, Jiang Baiyu had always received birthday gifts prepared by his parents. This year, he wanted to give his mother a gift.

Qin Ranqing was extremely fond of kingfisher calls, but she had a compassionate heart and didn’t like keeping birds in cages.

Jiang Baiyu therefore wanted to collect some kingfisher calls to give his mother a “surprise.”

The inspiration for this came when he discovered that stones struck by lightning sometimes became sound-recording stones. These stones could preserve sounds and reproduce them under certain conditions.

If he could turn a sound-recording stone into a magic artifact, recite an incantation to record sound, then recite another incantation to play it back, wouldn’t his mother be able to hear kingfisher calls every day?

Just thinking about his mother’s delight and joy at hearing kingfisher calls every day made Jiang Baiyu excited, and he decided to act immediately.

Since it was a “surprise” for his mother, he didn’t want anyone to leak the news, so he kept it from everyone and began running all around Huayang Mountain again. On the surface he appeared idle, but in reality, he was searching for suitable sound-recording stones.

His playmates and servants didn’t notice anything unusual, since this young master was famously fond of play.

And Jiang Binghe, since the boy had formed his core, hadn’t checked his studies again until now.

After finding suitable sound-recording stones, Jiang Baiyu secretly spent several days making a magic artifact behind everyone’s back.

At that time, he didn’t know what it meant that a ten-year-old child, after seriously cultivating for just one month, could independently craft a magic artifact, despite how simple and crude it was.

He named this magical artifact “Heaven-Long Earth-Lasting Stone,” symbolizing that the three members of his family would be together forever.

Then, under the pretext of going out to play, he secretly hid the Heaven-Long Earth-Lasting Stone near a kingfisher’s nest.

This stone made him anticipate for seven days.

Seven days later, his birthday arrived.

****

His birthday that day was as magnificent as in previous years. Jiang Baiyu accepted congratulations from throughout the Huayang Sect, and some children of similar age from noble families sent gifts.

Qin Ranqing was busy receiving gifts and arranging return gifts, keeping busy for three days, but still remembered to personally make a bowl of longevity noodles for Jiang Baiyu on his birthday.

Thinking that her son would soon be growing taller, she made extra, and Jiang Baiyu ate it all, becoming very full.

After eating, Jiang Baiyu ran to Huayang Mountain to enjoy himself, secretly retrieving his Heaven-Long Earth-Lasting Stone.

Because the stone was small enough to be held in a child’s palm, when he climbed trees, the servants following him didn’t notice the stone and just thought he was picking at birds’ nests.

Jiang Baiyu clutched the Heaven-Long Earth-Lasting Stone and excitedly ran back to his room, closed the door, planning to check the results first.

After reciting the incantation toward the stone, he waited for quite a while, but the stone showed no reaction.

“It doesn’t work?” He was extremely disappointed, his little face falling as he grabbed the stone and was about to smash it to the ground.

Suddenly, the stone emitted a pleasant bird call.

Jiang Baiyu immediately understood. The bird had arrived late. The recording stone didn’t recognize bird calls, it just recorded sounds. The period before the kingfisher appeared had no sound, so of course it was blank.

He smiled.

Jiang Baiyu gently placed the Heaven-Long Earth-Lasting Stone back on the table and rested his chin on his hands as he listened to the bird calls for a while.

Just as he decided to recite the incantation to stop the sound, he heard human voices coming from the stone.

This voice, he couldn’t have been more familiar with it.

“The view is open here, certainly no one can eavesdrop. I chose a random place, so it’s impossible for anyone to have placed sound-recording artifacts in advance. Can you speak now?”

——Isn’t that Mother?

“Not so fast. Has Madam had any worries lately?”

——That’s Father.

“What worries could I have?”

“Madam, are you concerned about Baiyu?”

“I—”

“You’re just soft-hearted. He’s not even our biological child.”

It was as if thunder struck in Jiang Baiyu’s mind.

Not biological, not biological…?

He wasn’t his father and mother’s biological child?!

He stared with widened eyes, tightly clenching his fists, sitting motionless.

And the words that followed struck him dizzy.

“Madam, don’t forget our purpose. He’s just a bastard, how could he be more important than the Golden Frost Jade Dew Lotus? Don’t you want to ascend to immortality?”

“Ascend to immortality, ascend to immortality, you make it sound so easy. Since Huayang Zi, the mortal world hasn’t seen the celestial phenomena of ascension for over a hundred years.

The world’s spiritual energy is becoming increasingly scarce, and ascending will only become more difficult in the future. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s that we were born too late. You ignore the present life, thinking about ascension every day, isn’t this putting the cart before the horse?”

“Does Madam think I’m not as good as Master? Or not as good as Senior Brother?”

“Jiang Binghe, what do you mean?!”

“Alright, alright, Madam, I was wrong, please calm down… Rest assured, as long as we obtain the Golden Frost Jade Dew Lotus, with our talents, ascending to immortality is just a matter of time.”

“I don’t have your aptitude, you can just ascend by yourself!”

“Haha, what are you saying, Madam? In my eyes, you’ve always been an immortal. Besides, even if your aptitude isn’t enough, with the Golden Frost Jade Dew Lotus, you can maintain an undying body, and then we’ll still be together forever, won’t we?”

“But, do you really have to pretend to be sick? What if Baiyu is unwilling to give you the Golden Frost Jade Dew Lotus, what will you do then?”

“After doting on him for so many years, he should have some conscience. Besides, even if he doesn’t give it to me, don’t I have other methods? I’m just considering the feelings we’ve built over these years and don’t want to be too ruthless. If he has no conscience, then he can’t blame me for being cruel.”

“What methods do you have? Jiang Binghe, what are you planning to do?”

“That’s what I wanted to tell you today. You’re my wife, of course I won’t hide it from you… Madam, have you heard of puppet techniques?”

“Of course I’ve heard of them… Wait, you want to turn him into a puppet? Jiang Binghe, have you lost your mind? To make him into a puppet, you’d need to kill him first, but he has an undying body. How would you kill him?

Moreover, didn’t you say yourself that the Golden Frost Jade Dew Lotus is a very special innate magic artifact that needs to be voluntarily passed on by its owner? What use would it be to turn him into a mindless puppet? How would you drive his thoughts to transfer the artifact to you?”

“Madam is right, which is why I want to turn him into a living puppet.”

“A living puppet? What’s that?”

“Heh, after becoming my living puppet, he’ll still be alive, with his perception, consciousness, and thoughts all intact and normal. However, he’ll be under my control, doing things I command him to do while fully conscious.

Even if he doesn’t understand why, he’ll definitely obey, and afterward, he’ll find reasons to explain his actions to himself. If he can’t explain it, he’ll simply forget.”

“That’s… that’s too terrifying…”

“To ensure success, we need to become even closer to Baiyu in the future.”

“Even closer?”

“Madam may not know, but the art of living puppets requires hypnosis every three days while he sleeps, and it takes at least ten years at the fastest. But since this isn’t my main cultivation technique, it might take twice the effort for half the result.

The closer he is to me, the less guard he has, the better the effect of my hypnosis, and naturally, the faster we can get the Golden Frost Jade Dew Lotus. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Not your main cultivation technique? That’s right, such a devious thing couldn’t possibly be a technique of the Way of Longevity. The Way of Longevity has always been upright and honorable… If not the Way of Longevity, then which way does it belong to?”

“That’s something you don’t need to know.”

…..

Jiang Baiyu was drenched in sweat, his hands and feet numb and cold, his heart pounding like dense drumbeats.

False, everything was false. His noble birth, his loving parents, his life of luxury—all of it was an elaborately woven, enormous lie.

This lie had only one purpose: they wanted to raise a child with a conscience, then let this child be driven by conscience to sacrifice himself voluntarily.

Everything, absolutely everything, was set up for this sacrifice.

It turned out he had been living in a carefully crafted dream.

Fortunately, the dream had awakened early.

Jiang Baiyu stared with wide eyes, moved his hand, and trembled as he reached for the stone. Just as his fingertips touched it, he suddenly felt nauseous.

It was as if a snake was coiled in his stomach, desperately pushing upward, instantly reaching his mouth. He quickly turned away, supporting himself on the edge of the table, and vomited on the floor.

All the longevity noodles he had eaten at noon came up, mixed with sticky gastric juices, making him even more nauseous when he smelled it.

He had to continue vomiting, tears and mucus flowing profusely. His body was in extreme pain, but his spirit suffered even more.

Knock, knock, knock. Someone knocked on the door, then tentatively called out, “Young Master?”

Before Jiang Baiyu could speak, the person pushed the door open and entered.

At the moment the door was pushed open, Jiang Baiyu painfully reached for the stone on the table and used all his cultivation power to destroy it.

****

Jiang Baiyu fell seriously ill.

He was listless, couldn’t eat, and when his stomach ached with hunger, he would drink water, swallow pills, and even preferred medicinal soups to rice porridge.

His “father and mother” appeared very anxious, always coming to accompany him at meals, urging him to drink at least a sip of soup in voices softer than water.

He silently watched them perform, and the feeling of nausea in his stomach grew more severe.

Deep in the night, Jiang Baiyu stared at the canopy of his bed, raising his hand to touch his chest.

He began to reconsider the origin of this lotus flower.

First, he knew some basic knowledge about innate magic artifacts. An innate magic artifact was connected to its master’s mind, requiring no incantation to use, and to seize such an artifact, one had to kill its master.

The Golden Frost Jade Dew Lotus gave people an undying body, so it couldn’t be obtained by killing its owner to take it.

Therefore, Jiang Binghe could only go to great lengths to make him voluntarily give it up.

So this lotus flower couldn’t possibly have been given to him by Jiang Binghe.

If not Jiang Binghe, then who?

Was it Huayang Zi?

Or Tuishan Zi?

Or perhaps Hanlu Zi?

And why would this person give such an important treasure to him? Why him?

Who was he, after all?

Ten-year-old Jiang Baiyu, lying in the darkness, pondered the eternal question.

Who am I?

Creeeeak—

Someone pushed open the door. Then, a figure walked in.

In the darkness, the black figure tiptoed to his bedside and looked down at him.

Jiang Baiyu felt as if he saw a wolf in human form.