Ch157 - Finally… had he managed to find the Boundary Master? (2/2)
Xue Ling and Ying Sheng did not have any children of their own despite having been together for so many years, and had always raised the Crown Prince as their own child. Given the Crown Prince’s talent and intelligence, he had the makings of a good future Emperor, so the courtiers gradually adapted to the situation.
Currently, the imperial court was injected with quite a lot of new blood. The entire imperial court was now very vigorous, and the atmosphere during morning court was much different from how it had been previously.
They had already reached a point where Xue Ling could let them run the government by themselves while he spent his days lying in the Imperial Consort’s embrace and whiling the time away. After the Crown Prince grew older, he would be able to delegate his power to the Crown Prince, and then take Ying Sheng with him to travel around the world.
The more they looked forward to it, the more quickly time went by. Very soon, the Crown Prince had reached his coming of age ceremony. He asked Xue Ling to bestow him a marriage, and successfully brought the Left Prime Minister, Chen Jingzhen into his palace. The Crown Prince had been ecstatic before the wedding, but he had not expected that he would be given such bad news after the wedding celebrations…
His Royal Father had directly abdicated, and given him his position. He had taken the Imperial Consort with him and run away.
The Crown Prince was angry to the point of speechlessness. Was this how it felt to be given candy only to be punched in the head? He was caught off guard! He had only just emerged from the gentle countryside, and hadn’t even had a chance to bring his Princess to travel around the kingdom. Why was he the Emperor? His father was so despicable!
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Although he had a heart full of criticism, the Crown Prince ultimately had no other choice, and ascended the throne. During the grand ceremony to confirm his ascension to Emperor, Chen Jingzhen was promoted from Left Prime Minister to Empress.
Of course, being an Empress did not prevent him from attending court. After all, with the Zhennan King as an example, the courtiers would be able to accept it even if the pair of them were even more unconventional. Everyone wanted to express that the matter of the imperial family being capricious was not a recent matter; it was a small thing for the Empress to attend morning court. Hadn’t the current Right Prime Minister been an Empress back then?
Li Yuan: “???” How come he had been shot while lying down??? How was this related to him in any way!!!
Ten years passed. Xue Ling and Ying Sheng first went to Zhanjing, where Ying Sheng insisted on bringing him to enjoy another Lantern Festival where they first met.
“I thought back then that since the crowd had pushed you into my arms, it meant that you should be mine from that day on.”
“Come on, you really think I didn’t know that the people who pushed me that night were yours?”
“Baby, you agreed not to ruin the atmosphere today.”
“Fine.”
After that, they travelled all over Xue Kingdom. Other than sending a letter back every year, they never disclosed any other hints of their whereabouts.
Slowly, the Crown Prince had already been an Emperor for over ten years. He was accustomed to his position, and could be regarded as a wise ruler. Only then did his two fathers finish their travels and return to the Capital.
Xue Ling and Ying Sheng rested for a few years, then left again. They went to sea, and left Xue Kingdom in order to go further afield.
In this world, Xue Ling and Ying Sheng traveled far and wide. The two of them saw countless Lantern Festivals, but ultimately chose to settle down in Zhanjing, the place where they first met, and quietly waited for the separation that they had already experienced so many times before.
When death arrived, Xue Ling was in a trance as he once again attempted to enter the sea of his memories.
This attempt was different from the previous one. This time, he could already feel that the version of himself contained within his memories had begun to move.
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In his memory, it was a dark, moonless, and windy night. He had appeared alone in the middle of a dark forest, and it was an Elder of the clan that picked him up, brought him back, and gave him a name.
“His fur is so white, and he showed up in the snow. If my eyes weren’t so sharp, I’m afraid he would have frozen to death in the snow.” The Elder placed him in his palm, and lifted him up to look at him again. “Oh, you’re still breathing. I don’t know which family you belong to, so I’ll keep you for now.”
“This fur is so beautiful. Don’t mess around. It’ll be terrible when his family comes looking for him. Everyone will be disturbed by this matter by then.”
“Who cares. I picked it up, so it’s mine.” He was still a small little thing, and he was carried by the Elder as he wandered back to his shabby hut. The Elder placed him inside his warm furs, then stared at him for a while and said, “You’re so white. I’ll call you Xue Ling, then.”
Xue Ling was already no longer the little fox that had been frozen to the point of unconsciousness now. He let out a sigh of relief when he heard the Elder’s words, and could only be grateful that the Elder had not displayed one of his sudden fits of foolishness. At least, he had not said, “You’re so white. I’ll call you Little White.”
He really did not want to spend his entire life with a name like that.
Xue Ling knew what happened afterwards, because those were the memories of his childhood. But when he recalled them, he had no concept of time. Time had passed by so quickly it was as if it had flown away; he grew up all at once, and then foolishly fought with that Taoist Master.
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
Later, he incarnated into a child’s body, and that child transmigrated. He followed that child’s soul, and was brought into another world.
Xue Ling suddenly came to a realization. Indeed, he remembered the child was the reason why his spiritual body had been completed. He was then able to separate himself from the child and move independently, so he bid farewell to the child and set out on the path to find the Boundary Master.
Xue Ling’s thoughts stalled when he considered the Boundary Master.
Now, when he looked back, he discovered something very interesting. According to what he had learned during his time around the child, the world that the child had transmigrated into was also a fictional world. But, the rules of that world were perfect, and he had really managed to find the Boundary Master in that world.
Boundary Masters were a very special group of people. They had the ability to control the rules of the world and connect with people inside and outside of each world. In other words, they could allow others to transmigrate. In ordinary Boundary Master families, they would only have one Boundary Master inheritor every several hundred or thousands of years. If this person was able to live until their Year of Destiny, they would obtain the powerful abilities of Boundary Masters, and be able to travel through time and space – as well as send people away from the time and space they were currently in.
Like this, Xue Ling suddenly understood why he had appeared in the snow back then. He remembered that he had been looking for the Boundary Master in order to understand why he should have been left in that world, but was sent to another world instead. According to the memory he had obtained last time, the reason he had been able to transfer worlds was due to a Boundary Master’s power. The purpose was very simple – it had been done to keep him alive.
Then, there was the next question. Why would he have been unable to live on? Or, to ask another question, what exactly was he? As a Nine-Tailed Fox, Xue Ling began to doubt his own origins for the first time. He did not doubt his own identity, but he wanted to understand his birth, and how he had come to be in this world. He also wanted to know why that world did not allow him to exist, and why he was forced to change worlds in order to survive.
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Finally… had he managed to find the Boundary Master?