Chapter 147 – The Arts of Alchemy (1/2)
“I’m your father!” The chubby man called out as blood spurted out from his mouth.
“You have a daughter?” Qian Rongzhi was taken aback. She thought about it seriously. “Oh, you did. However, didn’t you sell her off already? Afterwards, you used the money to take a few concubines!”
The chubby man said with difficulty, “I did all of that for… for your sake so that you would… would have a good future. You should be… be thanking me.”
“Everything I possess right now came from my desperate and painful struggles! Stop trying to claim credit for yourself!” Qian Rongzhi suddenly lost her temper and kicked his hand away.
The chubby man opened his mouth, but he said nothing. Hatred and despair filled his face. He finally passed away.
“You derived fortune from my misfortune, and now, you’re suffering misfortune because of my fortune. It’s very fair, isn’t it?” Qian Rongzhi muttered to herself. She made her way out of the estate, throwing everything behind her.
All of her memories had been eliminated now.
Qian Rongzhi held a grand funeral in Shangguan town. She undertook the most noble and tedious ceremony, throwing joss paper into the air.
She knelt before the memorial tablets, almost crying to a point where she fainted as she held the coffins. Eventually, she forced her up, thanking every single person who had come to mourn in anguish.
“Rongzhi was just under the order of the government. Who would’ve thought that it would lead to such a disaster.”
“Sigh, to think that a girl as good as Rongzhi would suffer a fate like this. The people of the Qian family really have no conscience at all.”
Night descended. Everyone dispersed, and the gate was firmly shut. A pair of white lanterns before the gate swayed in the wind.
After turning down the neighbours who wanted to help watch over the coffins, Qian Rongzhi leaned against the coffins of her entire family in her white, mourning apparel. She took out a jar of wine from her third uncle Qian Haode’s hundred treasures pouch and took a cup from the altar. She poured away the wine that was offered to the dead and filled it up again. She toasted to the memorial tablets before drinking all of it.
The next day, the coffins were buried, and she had already become a great, filial daughter in utter sorrow.
Just like the customs, she mourned for seven days. By the seventh night, over a dozen alcohol jars were scattered on the floor. Suddenly, she felt a chill and opened her eyes in a daze. Over a dozen figures stood before her. They all had extremely familiar faces, staring at her coldly. The chubby man cursed and scolded her loudly in anger.
She let out a drunken laugh, pulled out the Water-splitting barb, and swept out with it. The chilling wind dispersed, and the shadows screamed.
Bang! A jar of alcohol was thrown onto the memorial tablets, and the tablets scattered on the ground. The alcohol splashed everywhere. She held a candle and gently let go. The fire spread rapidly, swallowing the names on the tablets and spreading throughout the entire ancestral hall.
She made her way out of the blazing ancestral hall, disappearing into the darkness without even looking back. Behind her, the fire spread across the entire estate.
Another person swore the oath to never return home again.
The flute resounded through the dusk, lasting for a very long time.
Li Qingshan placed down the jade flute. He felt like it really did have a better tone compared to the reed flute he used in the past.
He began a quiet lifestyle. Everyday, he would cultivate, read and play the flute. During his leisure, he would stroll through the city and eat something new. Life was very peaceful.
Plop! There was a splash in the water tank. A carp waved its huge tail.
“Stop messing around!” Li Qingshan said, “I’ll give you a larger pond in a few days!”
The water tank immediately fell quiet.
A few days ago, he crushed a Qi Gathering pill of very poor quality and scattered it in the water tank. The next day, the carp grew larger, and on the day after that, it grew larger once again; then today arrived. The water tank had already become cramped. It could no longer swim around freely.
Li Qingshan looked at the huge, red carp in the water tank. “I might as well just have you cooked.”
With a swish, the carp swam to the bottom of the tank.
“It’s just a pity that my culinary ability is only so-so!” Li Qingshan laughed. He reached towards the water take, and his daemon core revolved. The water in the tank surged out, constantly changing shape in the air as the carp swam through it.
Li Qingshan took the carp and made his way towards the Qian estate. There was a large pond in the Qian estate that could hold this bastard.
Leaping over the wall, the large estate was empty. It had gone from being lively and bustling to deserted and quiet. It had only been ten days since someone tended to the place, and weeds had already begun growing on the pathways with dodders climbing up the beams. Within the vitality was a feeling of decay, while the stone steps were even worse. The dried traces of blood that could not be cleaned off gave off an even more ominous feeling.
So many days had passed already. Not a single person in this city was bold enough to approach this place. They would only look from afar and sigh.
Although he had made the district magistrate auction off the estate as well, Li Qingshan knew without even thinking that no one would buy it. Before long, it would fall into disuse completely and become a ghost house.
The lotus flowers had already wilted and fallen away in the pond, but the lily pads remained verdant.
“No one will eat you here.”
With a splash, Li Qingshan threw the carp into the lotus pond. The carp raised its head and bobbed up and down, as if it was thanking him before opening its mouth.