Chapter 269: But I Managed to Memorize It

“Granddaughter-in-law, are you pregnant?”

Lu Yibei, “???”

What kind of bizarre question is this?

If I answer no, will it trigger some kind of twisted plot?

Lu Yibei thought to herself, subtly moving back a bit to put some distance between her and Qing Ji, and asked, “No, why did you suddenly ask that question?”

Noticing Lu Yibei’s wariness and estrangement, Qing Ji scratched the back of his head and chuckled awkwardly, “Ha, haha, my apologies, my apologies, asking such a question out of the blue was indeed abrupt.”

“You needn’t be alarmed. You should know, the Lu Family are all good people.”

Lu Yibei, “…”

All good people? Why do I find that so hard to believe?

I don’t know much about my father and grandfather, but whether I’m a good person, I have a pretty clear self-awareness.

The answer is obvious, I’m not. Lu Yibei thought.

“Seeing you like this, it seems you don’t have a posthumous child. I do have a secret method, if you’re willing to bear a child for the Lu Family, it might be worth a try…”

“!!!”

Lu Yibei was secretly pondering when suddenly Qing Ji’s words rang in her ears, and her expression changed dramatically.

She looked at Qing Ji with alarm, then glanced down at her own abdomen, hurriedly covering it, and backed away several meters.

What is this!?

People usually get tricked by their fathers or ancestors, but why am I the one being tricked by my ancestors?

Lu Yibei, while using her small feet to push against the ground to retreat, putting more distance between herself and Qing Ji, was about to risk being hit to confess her lie, but hearing Qing Ji’s next words, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

“But such a thing would be too unfair to a young lady like you. Having a child and raising it would make it difficult for you to remarry in the future, and I wouldn’t want that.”

“Besides, I’m just a remnant image left by psychic energy fluctuation, it’s quite difficult to operate.”

Lu Yibei, “…”

Oh my ancestor, could you please stop with the suspense?

It’s really… too nerve-wracking.

“Now that things have come to this, I have no other requests, I only ask that you pass on my Shifu’s skills, I hope you agree.”

Qing Ji said, standing up with both hands, about to bow deeply to Lu Yibei, offering a grand gesture, Lu Yibei quickly stood up, took a step forward, and supported him.

How could this be allowed?

If I were to be bowed to by my own ancestor, that would be a disaster!

In this rapidly developing city, with high-rise buildings everywhere equipped with lightning rods, there’s no worry about being struck by lightning.

But I’m worried my father might turn into a haunting, sneak into my house at night and hang me up for a beating!

It might be worse than when I was in elementary school, introducing my father to the single female homeroom teacher, and getting beaten badly.

Lu Yibei pondered, and said seriously, “I can agree to your request, but I’ve never heard Lu Yibei mention that besides cooking, there’s any other ancestral skill in their family, what do you think…”

“Cooking…” Qing Ji paused for a moment, rubbing his head and muttering, “Cooking is indeed considered an ancestral skill, but that’s the Lu Family’s ancestral skill, not my Shifu’s ancestral skill!”

“Could it be that my son Yuebo didn’t pass down the ancestral skills? Why is that…”

“Lu Family’s ancestral skill?” Lu Yibei listened, feeling puzzled, and couldn’t help but ask, “I don’t quite understand, could you please enlighten me, ancestor?”

“Of course!” Qing Ji responded, slightly tilting his head to look up at the sky, as if recalling, after a moment of contemplation, he said, “Well, this is a long story…”

“No problem, take your time, I’m not in a hurry.” Lu Yibei said.

Obedient.jpg

Qing Ji responded, and began to narrate, “Alright, then let me start from the beginning…”

“In the land of southern Shanxi (a region in northern China), there is a renowned place called Pure Temple, founded in the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), destroyed by fire, and rebuilt later renamed Great Pure Palace.”

“Ah… Are you a disciple of Pure Temple? Then you must know Taiji Sword Intent, Heaven and Earth Infinity, Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Sect, right?” Lu Yibei couldn’t help but ask.

Upon hearing this, Qing Ji tilted his head to look at Lu Yibei, with a puzzled expression as if asking, “What are you talking about?”

“Uh…” Lu Yibei waved her hand, “It’s just a large fashion social networking app, don’t mind it, please continue!”

Qing Ji gave Lu Yibei a strange look, although he still didn’t understand what a fashion social networking app meant, he suppressed his curiosity and continued to speak.

…

The Great Pure Palace is indeed a powerful existence, it has always been a gathering place for practitioners, even now, it’s a stable source of operators for The Midnight Watchers Society.

However, Qing Ji’s background has no direct connection with the Great Pure Palace, the reason for mentioning it is because his Shifu’s place can barely be considered on the same mountain, a typical “illegal construction” leeching off incense.

This small Daoist temple leeching off incense doesn’t have a specific name, along a quiet winding path a hundred meters in front of the Great Pure Palace’s mountain gate, walking two or three miles, you can see two or three desolate Daoist temples with sparse incense.

There are many such Daoist temples on the surrounding mountains, often there are devout men and women going to the Great Pure Palace who accidentally enter the depths of the empty mountain and get a glimpse.

But among the numerous small Daoist temples, only Qing Ji’s Shifu’s place is particularly special.

In the Great Pure Palace, everyone practices the same technique, and the other sects on the mountain are the same, but in this small Daoist temple, the few people practice all sorts of things, yet none are proficient, often mocked by Taoists from other mountain heads for not even leeching incense properly.

Such a poor Daoist temple, always on the verge of running out of food, welcomed a breath of fresh air one winter morning after heavy snow-a nearly frozen male infant.

The temple was filled with elderly people who had long forgotten their secular names, so the infant didn’t have a secular surname either.

Qing Ji is just Qing Ji, with a name but no surname.

Qing Ji’s appearance made the already impoverished Daoist temple even worse, initially they could still eat white bread with greens, but later they could only have coarse grain buns with pickles.

The temple wasn’t bustling with people, a group of elderly Taoists were nearing the end of their lives, suddenly adopting a child, naturally they imparted all their knowledge, hoping to pass on their legacy.

The things taught by the elderly Taoists, many they themselves only half understood, truly learning them would be difficult even for the geniuses of the Great Pure Palace.

Plus, Qing Ji’s cultivation aptitude wasn’t great, the Taoists didn’t expect him to achieve much, only hoping the incense would continue.

Qing Ji was a good disciple, grateful for the kindness of his Shifu, he was single-minded, never considering whether the spell formations and talismans still in the theoretical stage had side effects.

As long as the Shifu dared to teach, he dared to learn!

He started learning from his Shifu at the age of three, within two years he had already begun to grasp the basics.

By the fifth year, he had made some progress.

By the ninth year, he had learned everything his Shifu knew.

To keep Qing Ji from being lured away by the Great Pure Palace, the temple used all sorts of tricks to deceive him, when they couldn’t teach anything, they followed the records in the books and made things up.

Even the spiritual patterns were randomly drawn, using whatever materials were available, with only one principle, not to poison anyone!

The elderly Taoists were reluctant to let Qing Ji go, hoping he would discover the truth later, and stay with them a while longer.

But unexpectedly.

In the thirteenth year, this adopted foolish disciple actually… really learned everything, and even condensed a spiritual pattern no one had seen before, [Primal Harmony of Taiji]!

Thus, at the age of eighteen, Qing Ji began to wreak havoc around.

Lu Yibei couldn’t help but ask, “Ah? Why eighteen? Didn’t you learn everything by sixteen?”

Could it be that during those two years, you spent time learning bad things? Lu Yibei thought.

“This…” Qing Ji scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, “The things I learned, although taught according to ancient records, many were incomplete, made up by them, practicing inevitably led to mistakes.”

“At first, when not deeply practicing, it was fine, but after a few more years, the problems became significant.”

“So… during those two years, I practiced to the point of going mad, mostly spent lying on a sickbed.”

Lu Yibei, “…”

The tradition of elders tricking juniors, turns out it started back then?

During those years, Qing Ji had plenty to do each day.

Today, he’d sneak a peek at the female Taoists of the Great Pure Palace practicing swordplay, pretending to be a worldly expert, giving random guidance, annoyingly, later the Taoists of the Great Pure Palace found he was actually right!

Tomorrow, he’d deceive a group of pilgrims to walk miles to his temple, which didn’t even have two decent deity statues, and wouldn’t let them leave without offering incense money, of course, he’d also give them a few talismans with absurdly good effects.

Tomorrow, he’d steal the rooster from the neighboring temple, make chicken soup for his Shifu, while he gnawed on a drumstick, sneaking into the Great Pure Palace to steal the headmaster’s adult novels, leaving a greasy handprint, causing the headmaster, whose secret was discovered, sleepless nights.

In those one or two years, it was the most difficult time around the Great Pure Palace, with temples big and small tormented by him.

The foolish disciple suddenly opened up, becoming a little devil, the elderly Taoists of the nameless temple had headaches, they beat him, scolded him, none worked, he’d just smile and take it.

Even the whisk of the ancestor invited from the Great Pure Palace, when drawn across him, only left shallow blood marks.

“…”

Hearing this, Lu Yibei opened her mouth, hesitated to speak.

Noticing Lu Yibei’s small movements, Qing Ji asked curiously, “What’s wrong? Any questions? It’s embarrassing to say, those were just foolish things done in youth.”

“Nothing!” Lu Yibei shook her head.

Unexpectedly, this is also a family tradition, a traditional skill?

I, the Tormentor of Hua City, am willing to call you the Tormentor of Southern Shanxi. Lu Yibei thought.

Years later, under the joint request of temples big and small on the mountain, Qing Ji was eventually driven down the mountain.

The reason for driving him away was easy to find, because that year, the world was in turmoil, with war everywhere.

Since ancient times, during times of war and natural disasters, there were always many hauntings, it’s unclear whether the hauntings bewitched people into chaos, or the world was corrupt leading to the growth of hauntings.

The Taoists used the excuse that Qing Ji’s talents shouldn’t be confined to one place, there was a wider world outside waiting for him to wreak, uh, explore, encouraging him to go down the mountain to slay demons.

Qing Ji was so flattered by their praise that he left the mountain that night with a few treasures given by his Shifu.

After leaving the mountain, he discovered he was invincible.

“But, since you were invincible, why are you…” Lu Yibei looked Qing Ji up and down, seeing only a remnant image sustained by psychic energy, hesitated to speak.

“It’s different!” Qing Ji waved his hand, “I could fight against bayonets, dodge bullets, but that time, there were not only sorcerers, but also hundreds of guns, dozens of cannons firing, no one could withstand that!”

Lu Yibei nodded, “Indeed, times have changed, with artillery bombardment, anyone would be finished!”

“But, those guys, I did kill most of them, so it wasn’t too much of a loss.” Qing Ji smacked his lips.

Lu Yibei, “…”

You’re impressive!

Such feats, as an unworthy descendant, I can’t achieve. Lu Yibei thought.

After going down the mountain, Qing Ji slayed demons along the way, using his Shifu’s treasures to seal many hauntings that plagued the land.

Later, he clashed with local warlords to protect an ancient temple from being plundered.

That day, beneath the mountain gate of the ancient temple, a waterfall that had flowed for countless years was cut by a sword, countless water droplets, under the guidance of sword intent, connected into lines, gathered into a sword, the sky filled with water wrapped in sword energy exploded, barely matching the bullets and shells fired from all directions.

After that, the warlords retreated, the waterfall dried up, Qing Ji was severely injured, nearly exhausted, carrying only the Pure Lotus Sword, he left alone, to find the little cook he met during his travels, Lu Yanzhi.

When he reached the outskirts of Hua City, he heard of hauntings harming people, unable to hold back, he intervened to help.

However, by then Qing Ji’s strength had greatly diminished, he nearly died at the hands of hauntings formed by the grievances of actors and children.

Fortunately, in the moment of crisis, he had a flash of inspiration, played the suona, disturbed their minds, took the opportunity to break the Pure Lotus Sword, replacing the sword body with the haunting, using the hilt to suppress it.

As for the sword blade, it was later taken by Lu Yanzhi to forge into five kitchen utensils, opening a restaurant near Hua City.

Though no longer invincible, the ending was good, at least lovers became a pair, living a happy and fulfilling life, making people quite envious…

Thinking to herself, Lu Yibei looked at Qing Ji and asked, “So, my, uh, my husband’s surname is actually your wife’s surname?”

“Exactly, that’s right.” Qing Ji said.

“And Xingfu Community, uh…” Lu Yibei pointed to the ancient sword in Qing Ji’s hand, “Is the haunting sealed with this ancient sword the last haunting you defeated?”

“Not entirely…” Qing Ji waved his hand and laughed, “I’m clumsy, couldn’t learn Yanzhi’s cooking skills, so sometimes I helped with funerals, played suona, drove away evil spirits, earning some reward money to supplement the household.”

Good man! Just like my father, this is probably the only good gene in my family, right? Lu Yibei silently gave a thumbs up in her heart.

“Then this sword…” Lu Yibei pointed to the Pure Lotus Sword in Qing Ji’s hand, “Can it not return to its previous form? Those kitchen knives, I had already gotten used to using them.”

“This…” Qing Ji looked down at the ancient sword in his hand, then seriously looked at Lu Yibei, and said earnestly, “This is actually not a sword.”

“When Shifu gave it to me, this Pure Lotus Sword was neither a knife nor a sword, not yet sharpened, resembling a steel mace or iron ruler, it follows its master, after using it for a long time, it transformed into a long sword.”

“Mm…”

Lu Yibei held her chin with both hands, staring at the Pure Lotus Sword in silence, after a moment of contemplation, she looked up at Qing Ji, and asked seriously, “So, if I use it, over time, is there a chance it could become a shield, chainmail, or some kind of armor?”

“If not, actually a helmet or breastplate would work too.” Lu Yibei added.

“???”

With such a cowardly wife, how did my great-grandson named Lu Yibei end up dying?

Could it be that in a crisis, she fled, leaving Lu Yibei behind?

Qing Ji was momentarily stunned by Lu Yibei’s question, his mouth twitched, after a long pause he responded, “Perhaps, but transforming from a weapon to armor is quite a leap, I can’t guarantee it.”

“Oh…”

Lu Yibei didn’t realize she almost angered her ancestor into cleaning house, she asked, “Then the skill inheritance you mentioned, I haven’t seen it! Are you going to teach me here?”

“Exactly!” Qing Ji said, “But, the remnant image has limited memory, I can probably only teach you ‘The Diagram of the Gentleman Sword of Taihe’ and a few simple spell formations.”

“Then let’s start!”

Upon hearing there were powerful skills to learn, Lu Yibei immediately became excited, like a fly rubbing its hands.

“But…” Qing Ji paused to explain, “‘The Diagram of the Gentleman Sword of Taihe’ is not simple, to learn it, you might have to start from the most basic sword techniques.”

Lu Yibei was confident, patting her chest, “No problem, you go ahead, this way we all save time.”

“…”

Young people these days really don’t know the heights of the sky and the depths of the earth, my comprehensive ‘The Diagram of the Gentleman Sword of Taihe’ isn’t so easy to learn?

Well! I’ll let her see, and also knock some sense into her, to prevent her from being too arrogant and getting taught a lesson by others when she goes out.

Qing Ji thought, tapping his toes on the ground, his figure like a crane spreading its wings, gracefully rising, the long sword in his hand gently twirled a sword flower, stirring up a gust.

A lament.

As Qing Ji thrust the first sword, Lu Yibei heard a tragic lament.

It was as if ancient memories were awakened, rising from the soil, sharp screams echoed, sweeping in from all directions.

Chaotic dark clouds danced in this world, violently spreading, as if the lament of thousands of people, in an instant transformed into a solemn hymn, gathered into substance, forming a hundred-foot tidal wave in the sky, stirring the wind and clouds.

Following that, Lu Yibei’s eyes began to burn intensely, after a series of blurry light and shadows flashed by, she saw through the swirling, grand clouds, seeing Qing Ji’s figure moving within.

The dark clouds, pale fog, howling wind, surrounded him, merged into one, naturally formed.

Suddenly, thunder erupted from the depths of the sky, with the violent fluctuation of air pressure, Qing Ji, while dancing his sword, began to sing loudly.

“Primal Harmony of Taiji, as soon as one speaks, separating kindness and righteousness. To fragment the pure, the great way has been abandoned…

…all things reveal their clear advances and retreats, the divine furnace is silent and securely sealed. To obtain a fire, to refine a diamond, transcending heaven and earth!”

After a long while.

After finishing a complete set of ‘The Diagram of the Gentleman Sword of Taihe’, Qing Ji lightly descended from the sky, landing beside Lu Yibei, his chin slightly raised, coldly said, “Did you learn it?”

“No.”

Lu Yibei blinked her bloodshot, dry, itchy eyes, rubbing her head that was aching from information overload, shook her head, “No.”

“Hmph, I knew it, rushing for success only backfires, you should follow me slowly…”

“But I managed to memorize it, if you could demonstrate it again, let me fill in the gaps, I should be able to memorize it completely, and understand it slowly, I should be able to learn it.”

Qing Ji, “???”