Chapter 8: The Young Master Is an Immortal

Gazing at Ji You’s retreating figure, the corridor filled with those seeing him off fell utterly silent.

Not long after, Fang Ruoyao murmured, “Why?”—awakening the crowd from their shock, by which time Xiang Kuangcheng had already reread the entire *Summer Law Immortal Code* in his hands.

The answer had been in the book all along; he and Ji You had simply read different parts.

“One who completes the Lower Three Realms before twenty may enroll directly in the Immortal Roster; any of the Seven Great Sects today will break protocol to recruit such a person. Because… such a person will inevitably reach the Upper Five Realms. And it is these Upper Five Realm disciples who truly determine the fate of the sect.”

Xiang Kuangcheng smiled faintly: “I asked him to beg Miss Fang for help—he refused. The world assumed he was timid and cowardly. But now it seems Miss Fang was never his choice from the start.”

This double meaning instantly darkened Fang Ruoyao’s face: “Private cultivation by commoners is punishable by death—it’s a strict law of Great Xia.”

“The Qingyun Immortal Code has always superseded the laws of Great Xia.”

The crowd fell silent, unsure what to say now.

For these past days, everyone had believed Fang Ruoyao was the key to breaking the deadlock—after all, she was the only Tian Shu Academy disciple known throughout the county.

So old Qiu knelt before the government office all day, and Xiang Kuangcheng humbled himself to beg her, while Ji You, in everyone’s eyes, was a coward who dared not even step outside his door.

But now they finally understood: no matter how loud the noise outside, how cruel the mockery, he remained unmoved because he needed nothing from anyone.

At this moment, Fang Ruoyao stared blankly at the direction Ji You had left, suddenly realizing Xiang Kuangcheng’s words were true—the man, from arrival to departure, had not once looked at her, though less than an hour had passed.

“After I enter the academy, I won’t be worse than him.”

“He… simply started earlier than I did.”

Fang Ruoyao spoke in a pale voice, yet still refused to lose face.

Meanwhile, Dong Wei, standing to Xiang Kuangcheng’s right, began trembling in his legs, his lips quivering uncontrollably.

He suddenly recalled that just two days ago, he and Jia Sicong had mocked Ji You at a restaurant—and now Ji You was an immortal, capable of granting life or death at will.

So he turned to look at Jia Sicong, only to find the man was not trembling as he was.

“Brother Jia, you… why aren’t you shaking?”

“I bought him ten baskets of fresh dumplings. You, my brother, did not.”

“???”

While the crowd was still murmuring, Ji You had already led the Qiu father and daughter to the county monument at the city gate. At that moment, the ten-li stretch around Yuyang County was windless, the sky clear and bright.

There, Ji You halted, his face sallow: “Old Qiu, take Ruru home first.”

Old Qiu looked up: “Young Master, what about you?”

“I must return to… the ancestral home…”

“Young Master?”

Ji You waved him off and turned away before he could speak again.

Seeing this, Old Qiu straightened his slightly hunched back—grown stiff over the past two years—and watched him hurry away.

Qiu Ru also lifted her head, glancing at the Young Master, then at her father, her gaze finally settling on her plump little hands.

She had thought it was rain—only now, as she looked closer, did she realize the marks on her hands were not raindrops, but faint traces of blood.

Old Qiu did not see this. He was still thinking of his wife, who had fainted at home that morning, so he hurriedly led his daughter back.

At this moment, Li Shuping, who had fainted, had awakened—but lay motionless on her bed, her hollow eyes fixed on the rafters, refusing food or water, saying nothing.

Because her sixth aunt had just returned and said the grain carts had begun departing from the city, meaning the tribute offerings were already ascending the mountain—and among them might be a confused little girl.

Those in the room did not know what to say, for to a mother who had lost her daughter, no words could ever be enough.

At this thought, someone couldn’t help cursing the fallen Young Master in his heart: Why hasn’t he come to see her yet, even now?

“Auntie, what’s wrong with my mother?”

“Ruru, play by yourself for a while—your mother is…”

The sixth aunt’s words broke off mid-sentence; her eyes froze, her neck stiffening as she turned around.

The five-year-old girl had just stepped over the threshold with a cheerful “Hey!” and now stared, bewildered, at all the faces around her filled with shock.

Li Shuping, seeing her daughter, let out a wail, crawled off the bed, and clutched her tightly, then saw her husband enter the room and burst into tears again.

“Are the immortals no longer taking Ruru to make medicine? Are they? I told you—how could Ruru have spiritual energy inside her…”

“It was the Young Master.”

Li Shuping lifted her tear-blurred eyes, hopeful: “They replaced Ruru with your Young Master?”

Several village women clapped their hands: “That Ji You is ungrateful—he didn’t even show up! He deserves to die!”

After a long silence, Old Qiu spoke as if still dreaming: “The Young Master… is an immortal.”

“W-what?”

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but the Young Master is an immortal. Once they knew, they dared not use Ruru for medicine.”

Hearing this, Li Shuping, seated on the floor, remained frozen for a long time, her mind filled with the image of the penniless Young Master who came daily to beg meals—her eyes full of confusion.

The village women exchanged glances, thinking they must have misheard.

That Ji Young Master, who had survived a deadly fall from the mountains, had always just begged meals—and when the Qiu family was targeted by Fengxian Mountain Villa, he didn’t even show his face—how could he now be an immortal?

“I’ve always wondered—did the immortals make a mistake? We’ve never had contact with cultivators. How could Ruru have… spiritual energy inside her?”

“But don’t you remember? When Ruru was two and a half, she had a hundred-day cough. Doctor Li said she wouldn’t survive the winter. Yet she recovered mysteriously—never ate meat, yet grew stronger and stronger.”

Old Qiu pressed his dry lips together and turned to his wife: “The Young Master is an immortal. I heard immortals can nurture the foundational bones of mortals…”

Li Shuping still stared at him, then lowered her head to look at her daughter in her arms, lost in thought for a long while.

So the penniless Young Master, though he came daily to beg meals, had never owed the Qiu family anything…

Yuyang County was never large, and within an hour after Old Qiu returned home, what had happened at the county office spread everywhere.

Many had seen Ji Young Master enter the government office, and later many more had seen the government office runners, bruised and swollen, being helped to the clinic.

Then someone saw Ji Young Master lead the Qiu father and daughter out of the office, and others saw him return to the Ji residence with a grim, godlike aura.

Ji Young Master is an immortal—he stormed the county office, drove off Fengxian Mountain Villa, and silenced the Tian Shu Academy immortal. This story, though its origin was unclear, began spreading mouth to mouth among the crowd.

“But if Ji You is truly an immortal, why didn’t he act when the Ji family was destroyed?”

“He hadn’t yet completed the Lower Three Realms then.”

“What does ‘completed the Lower Three Realms’ mean?”

“Don’t you know? Ji Young Master hadn’t reached the Lower Three Realms yet—revealing his cultivation would have meant execution. So he had to endure in silence!”

Someone stood on a stool in the restaurant, tapping his folding fan against the table with sharp cracks.

Among them, many had mocked Ji Young Master—his family’s downfall, the Fang family’s broken engagement, the Qiu family’s troubles—mocking had become routine.

Yet no one had imagined Ji Young Master was a hidden immortal.

Rumors are always half-true, half-false—but enough to leave the crowd stunned into silence.

(I revised part of the earlier text today to smooth the logic—please keep reading!)

(End of Chapter)