Chapter 91: The Three Immortals of Yun Ridge

The surging waters of the Han River, the humble men upon its waves.

Ning Zhe agreed to accompany Lan Shiwen on this journey into Chuyun Mountain to ask him to use his rule of foreseeing the future—to foresee a specific event in Ning Zhe’s own future. But what was Lan Shiwen risking himself for?

“It can’t possibly be to save the countless lives of Yun Capital, can it?” Ning Zhe muttered half-jokingly.

“Why not?”

Lan Shiwen turned the steering wheel sharply around the bridge’s bend: “I grew up in Yun Capital. This is my home. My family is here. My friends are here. In my twenty-two years of life, I’ve never left my hometown.”

“Yun Capital is where I was born. How could I stand by while a ghost slaughters people I know on the land I live on? How could I watch my city—where I’ve lived for twenty-two years—be dragged into hell by a mad old man?”

“Take it easy—it’s 220 kilometers per hour. Don’t end up dead from a steering wheel instead of the ghost’s hands.” Ning Zhe skillfully lit a cigarette, then extinguished it with a complex expression, not having taken a single puff.

Ning Zhe was a model youth who avoided tobacco and alcohol entirely. Zhang Yangxu was not. That Li security guard smoked at least two packs a day.

“Tell me what’s really going on,” Ning Zhe said, crushing the unsmoked cigarette into the ashtray and rolling down the window for air. “You said Ji Baichang wants to drag Yun Capital down with him. Why?”

“Literally.” Lan Shiwen kept his eyes on the road as he answered. “You know, the price of life is one of the universal currencies on the Ascension Network. These copper coins come from Ji Baichang’s control of the God of Wealth, Wu Tong.”

“With enough price of life, even if you die in a strange event, you can buy back your own life. It’s not just Ascenders who need this—ordinary nobles chase after it desperately. But this thing can’t be traded openly. It needs a seemingly subjective commodity as a front to launder money… So Ji Baichang became a famous calligrapher and painter in Yun Capital. His calligraphy and paintings always fetch astronomical prices, and every time one is auctioned off, the buyer receives a copper coin as a gift.”

“No wonder,” Ning Zhe realized. “I always wondered how someone who writes like that dares call himself a calligrapher and gets worshipped by thousands—it’s an affront to heaven.”

The wealthy merchants and tycoons weren’t buying calligraphy or paintings at all—they were buying lives.

“I only found out later…” Lan Shiwen sighed. “But as we discussed before, the price of life increases exponentially with each transaction. The first life costs one copper coin, the second two, the third four.”

“Meanwhile, the price of selling a life keeps plummeting—from one life for one coin, to two lives for one coin, then four lives for one coin…”

To outsiders unaware of the truth, this seemed like a purchase limit: the God of Wealth, Ji Baichang, never sold more than three lives to the same person. But only he knew the real reason: from the fourth life onward, the cost became unbearable…

“The rule is fair. Others pay more to buy life, and so does Ji Baichang himself.”

Lan Shiwen eased off the accelerator, slowing the car as they neared Chuyun Mountain Villa. “I don’t know how Ji Baichang squandered all the lives he sold, but I’m certain he died many times—until he could no longer afford even one life, forced to watch himself die of sickness and old age.”

“The despair of approaching death drove him mad. For someone who had traded lives, this was unbearable. Ji Baichang lost all human morality. In his madness, he planned his own funeral, inviting Ascenders he believed ‘could never break the Wu Tong rule.’”

“At his own funeral, Ji Baichang orchestrated a massive strange event with at least ten rules going out of control. He intended to drag the entire city of Yun Capital into hell to die with him.”

“That immortal madman…” Lan Shiwen spoke through gritted teeth. He was one of the rare Ascenders with a sense of duty. Not many, but enough to drive him to risk his life to crush this brewing catastrophe.

“Get out. The rest is mountain path—we can’t drive further.” Lan Shiwen unbuckled his seatbelt. “That haunted mansion lies deep in Chuyun Mountain. We must get there quickly. We must seize Ji Baichang’s hidden money before the God of Wealth kills other Ascenders and rolls his assets into a snowball.”

Otherwise, all is lost.

“Understood.” Ning Zhe also got out of the car.

Ning Zhe handed Lan Shiwen the bracelet threaded with all fourteen copper coins. Instantly, his pure black wool coat transformed into a coat of gray-brown fur.

A tall, powerful brown bear appeared before Lan Shiwen. “Climb onto my back. I’ll take you into the mountains.”

“I’ll ride?” Lan Shiwen froze. He’d checked Ye Yao’s profile on the Ascension Network—his rule was clearly tied to light and shadow. How had he become a Druid?

…Then again, which Ascender doesn’t hide a secret trump card? Otherwise, they wouldn’t be Ascenders at all.

Lan Shiwen climbed onto Ning Zhe’s back, gripping his neck tightly. The massive, well-fed brown bear, fattened by zoo rations, let out a low growl and charged headlong into the forest.

“Bears have poor eyesight. You guide me.” Ning Zhe’s voice came from below.

“Got it.” Lan Shiwen nodded.

=9+Book bar

“Our destination is an ancient mansion called Juxian Garden. In ancient times, it was a Daoist temple dedicated to the local faith of the Three Immortals of Yun Ridge. Later, during a dynastic change, the new court favored Buddhism and suppressed Daoism. The temple was seized by an official surnamed Yin, converted into a summer villa, and became what we now call Juxian Garden. Today, it’s a key cultural heritage site in Yunzhou.”

“The Three Immortals of Yun Ridge?” Ning Zhe thought, vaguely recalling: “I think I read somewhere about the original beliefs of the Yunmeng Marsh system—the Three Immortals of Yun Ridge. Are they Fu, Lu, and Shou?”

“Didn’t expect an Yongzhou native like you to know anything about Yunzhou’s cultural heritage,” Lan Shiwen smiled.

Correct. Their full titles are: Purple Star Celestial Lord of Boundless Blessings, Eternal Lord of Sustenance, Wenchang Emperor, and Immortal of Infinite Longevity, Southern Pole Elder. When it was still a temple, Juxian Garden enshrined these three. Even after officials converted it into a summer villa, their statues remained, and they still receive incense offerings to this day.

“Hmm… that’s interesting…” Ning Zhe narrowed his eyes. He remembered something.

Something that had puzzled him the moment he first entered Chuyun Mountain Villa last night.

(End of Chapter)