Edited by Animeart

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  Chicken crow?

  Lin Shu: “.?.”

  There was a chicken crowing in his mind?

  Lin Shu thought it was an illusion and continued to put the feather into the mound.

  “Chiii –-!”

  Lin Shu: “.?.”

  This time he heard it clearly, it was a chicken crow or a chick crow.

  He took out the Phoenix feather and repeated the act of putting it into the grave.

  He put it in, took it out, put it in, took it out.

  The chick’s cry gradually became feeble from the frightened “Chii -“, gradually weakened and finally into a desperate “Chirp“.

  This “chirp” reminded Lin Shu of the fluffy, round chick in his dream last night.

  He stared at the feather and an outrageous guess came to his mind.

  Behind this feather was actually a chick.

  In other words, Xiao Shao left a chick behind in addition to Guiltless?

  He couldn’t accept this outrageous thought and didn’t want to accept it.

  He was only twenty-one years old and should not be a father of four children.

  Just thinking about it, the chick in his mind, chirped weakly again.

  All right.

  Lin Shu put the feather aside, took out Xiao Shao’s bamboo flute, buried it in the grave, and covered it with the soil.

  In a blink of an eye, he saw Guiltless viciously releasing a cloud of blood mist and wrapping it around the feather, as if trying to swallow it.

  As soon as he was about to stop it, he saw a golden red luster on the feather and it burned Guiltless.

  Guiltless resentfully withdrew his hand.

  That’s all right then.

  You two can try to hurt each other.

  Lin Shu took the feather back from Guiltless’ hands.

  He heard a flattering “chirp” come from his soul.

  Lin Shu studied this feather.

  It was a Phoenix feather. That’s right.

  But the thing he saw in his dream was really a genuine chick of a chicken without any signs of being a Phoenix.

  He put away the feather and decided to wait and see for any changes.

  After dealing with the feather, his focus shifted to Guiltless’ body.

  First he choked Yingying and then tried to strangle the feather, which showed his bad temperament.

  Guiltless looked back at him with a pair of evil eyes; some people were so stubborn that they refused to take any advice.

  Lin Shu was physically and mentally exhausted. He pressed the center of his eyebrows and planned to visit the naughty aunt in the market to learn the skills of reprimanding people.

  Finally, it was getting dark. Guiltless sat on the bed and rubbed his eyes.

  The child was still young, and Lin Shu didn’t care about what happened during the day. In his heart, he told himself that rivers and mountains were easy to change but one person’s innate nature was difficult to change. This bad character was not Guiltless’ fault. It should be traced back to Ou Yezi, the first craftsman in history.

  Lin Shu: “Go to sleep.”

  Guiltless rubbed his eyes again: “I can’t sleep.”

  Lin Shu: “Why?”

  Guiltless looked at him with a little provocation in his tone: “Usually, I sleep with the Phoenix.”

  That’s fine.

  Lin Shu took out Xiao Shao’s black feathered cloak and wrapped him with it.

  Guiltless was buried in the fur of the feathered cloak, he seemed to narrow his eyes, but then he smiled strangely: “I’m the Phoenix’s blade, and I can’t sleep yet. You don’t have your Taoist companion beside you but now you’re still in the mood to urge me to sleep. Sure enough, as expected, you’re fickle.”

  Lin Shu blew out the candle and said without expression, “Because I’m your father.”

  His words were harsh, but his ending was dumb. He felt the same pain as a blunt knife cutting his heart.

  He sat by the side of the bed without moving for a long time.

  A person’s mentality could collapse in an instant.

  After Xiao Shao left, he seemed to have become two people.

  One self seemed to feel that nothing had happened, empty and silent, as if everything was alive as usual. But when the memory of Xiao Shao flashed back in his mind, his whole world was torn apart in an instant, he felt as if he was soaked in his own blood and the cold wind blew directly into his internal organs, but he had nowhere to escape.

  He didn’t know how long it had passed when he felt Guiltless tugging at his sleeves.

  Lin Shu turned his head.

  He took off the feathered cloak covering his body, and then quietly drew himself into the quilt and lay down with his back to him.

  After a while, Lin Shu heard him say, “I didn’t mean to.”

  Looking at the moonlight outside the window, Lin Shu folded the feathered cloak and put it on the bedside, at the head of Guiltless. “It’s all right.”

  Guiltless didn’t speak.

  Lin Shu laid down and looked at the small ball curled up on the edge of the bed. He sighed softly and finally leaned over and stretched out his hand to gently embrace the little thing.

  It took a long time for Guiltless’ body to relax.

  Lin Shu couldn’t sleep, or perhaps, subconsciously, he didn’t want to sleep.

  Awake in the middle of the night, a distant and strange sound suddenly could be heard in the distance, like waves slapping on his eardrum.

  \r \r \r

  He opened his eyes and looked out of the window. He felt the ground beneath him trembling slightly and fleetingly.

  Guiltless also opened his eyes.

  He looked at Lin Shu and said two words: “Spring flood.”

  Lin Shu: “Since when?”

  Guiltless grinned, his blood red eyes seemed to flow a glimmer of dark light: “On our way to the Yangtze River, wasn’t it raining?”

  Spring flood, rainstorm.

  Spring flood.

  Flood.

  Guiltless rubbed his eyes and seemed to want to sleep again, but again said to him, “The dam has collapsed, it’s too late.”

  Lin Shu frowned, “How do you know?”

  “I was buried in the south of the Yangtze River a thousand years ago,” he said.

  Lin Shu: “How to solve it?”

  He seemed to smile and said, “What do you want me to do?”

  Lin Shu looked at Guiltless’ profile.

  His body was very small, that of a six or seven years old.

  But Lin Shu finally found that he was not an ignorant child like Yingying.

  This ancient demon blade was tempered by the blood shed of the people of 14 states in the world. It was buried in mass graves for many years. It was unknown how much blood it had seen and how many lives it had killed. Its worldly outlook was indeed different from that of ordinary people.

  He was silent all night.

  He was right.

  The Yangtze River flood was the worst calamity that was unprecedented in a thousand years. It affected six prefectures, trapped hundreds of thousands of people, and the state was unstable.

  In the Royal Capital, Xiao Lingyang and Xiao Xuan were in panic.

  Xiao Lingyang was originally a duck that was caught on a shelf. The routine operation of amnesty and tax reduction and exemption would not show his cowardice. It would be difficult for him to properly provide disaster relief.

  And even though Xie Zishe had extraordinary strategic talents, she could not bear the deficit of the national treasury.

  After so many years of military warfare, the Southern Xia had become poor, and the Northern Xia was also short of money. Now that the two had merged, the country was even poorer.

  The continuous rain pattered down.

  The rainy season in Jiangnan was in April and May every year, but now it was only the beginning of March. The spring rain kept pouring, and it seemed that it would not be stopping anytime soon.

  Without adequate protection, all the grains in the warehouse had become moldy and had deteriorated due to moisture. However, the bodies of tens of thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of livestock which directly drowned along the river could not be disposed of correctly, and the plague came immediately.

  Nothing was worse than this.

  Jiangnan was in danger.

  All the peach blossoms on the mountain were blown off by the rain and wind overnight. The ground withered and turned red with mud and covered the mountain road.

  The waves were still rough, and the boats could not cross. The right prime minister and his party, who were responsible for disaster relief, couldn’t cross to the other bank. They had to go further up the cliff and pass the trestle bridge which took a long time.

  When the two younger brothers in the Royal Capital remembered that Lin Shu was in the south of Yangtze River, they sent a message with a dove and asked him to meet with the Dragon Guards dispatched by the Royal Capital and take the lead in checking the disaster on the south bank of the river.

  So Lin Shu left Peach Blossom Village with Guiltless and went to the four coastal prefectures.

  Someone in the Dragon Guards recognized him and saluted, “Young Master Lin.”

  Lin Shu saw them and went with them to the south of Yangtze River.

  After climbing the highest mountain here, he looked down below.

  The torrential rain had not stopped, and the fertile water towns of the past had turned into swamps. Whether it was pavilions, towers, or tiled cottages, they were all washed away by the flood.

  The corpses were mired in the mud, or floating on water surfaces, where it could be seen. Everywhere they looked, they could see suffering and grief.

  That night, the number of dead and injured people was at least a hundred thousand. Jiangnan was also greatly weakened. They had no idea when they could recover. After the merger of Northern and Southern Xia, the peaceful atmosphere that only appeared after years of war and unrest, instantly disappeared at this time.

  Behind him, the Dragon Guards were illustrating the disaster situation of various prefectures and counties into a letter.

  Lin Shu stood with an umbrella in the wind. Suddenly, a Dragon Guard, who was talking, said, “People can stop killing people, but heaven can’t stop killing people.”

  Then they were silent.

  The wind suddenly rose.

  A broken plank floated on the surface of the river; it was washed down by the water. On the broken plank, there was a man with his upper body naked, clutching something with difficulty and trying to lean to the shore.

  There are thousands of people like him on this land, struggling to survive like ants. Some of them survived and some didn’t.

  Man made disasters could be pacified, natural disasters were difficult to prevent, but the will of heavens was like a knife, just like this.

  In silence, Lin Shu suddenly thought.

  Xiao Shao was dead.

  What he had done had made the whole world gradually get better.

  But overnight, like a dream, the situation became serious and bad.

  People seek survival, the court seeks governance, and cultivators seek immortality. No one was not struggling.

  However, the world was ruthless after all.

  Human beings lived for a lifetime, plants and trees fell, and the world was impermanent. It was true that people in this world tried to do their best, but achieved only a little effect.

  Life was accidental, but death was inevitable. After all, new life was short, and all things would become extinct.

  He suddenly remembered a phrase.

  Heaven was always constant, not for Yaoto survive…… Not for Jieto perish.

  His memory suddenly became clear, and he remembered that the title page of 《Everlasting Yearning》, which had long been vague in his memory, had such a passage written.

  Heavens were always constant, not for the Yao to survive, not for Jie to perish. To not comprehend such matters, would not understand a Sage’s indifference to sentiments.

  He then remembered the “Overwhelming Sadness of Parting” that he had realized under the frustration of all thoughts that day.

  The last form of 《Everlasting Yearning》 ends here, what will it be after “Overwhelming Sadness of Parting”?

  After realizing the impermanence of the world, all things would eventually disappear, the seven emotions would be wiped out, and then everything would be completely silent and empty?

  ——Was this the case of so-called “The Sage’s indifference to sentiments”?

  Suddenly in a trance, he seemed to have a clear understanding.

  On the other side, the Dragon Guards had already understood the general situation. The rest was to work together with the officers and soldiers of all prefectures and counties and try their best to save people.

  However, it seemed to be a dead end. People had been saved but couldn’t survive.

  The people who lost their houses should eat, live, dress and heal.

  Where could they get the money and food that they needed?

  Lin Shu walked among the refugees.

  In hunger, countless people stretched out their thin hands towards him.

  In the streets and alleys, the cries of the children came first, then the women, and finally the sobbing of men.

  Wisps of black and red auras emitting from their bodies, escaping from them.

  This was resentment and grief. Lin Shu was very familiar with it.

  For thousands of years, the resentment and grievances of the people had accumulated in this way, becoming stronger and deeper.

  He watched the grievances escaping, but found that most of them were flowing in one direction.

  The body of Guiltless.

  His voice was a little cold again: “What are you doing?”

  Guiltless: “Can’t I eat?”

  Lin Shu: “Do you eat it?”

  The tip of his red tongue licked his lips, and the bloody color in his eyes became thicker: “I feed on it. If you want to blame someone, blame Ou Yezi.”

  Ou Yezi had long since passed away, and Lin Shu naturally was unable to pursue it.

  He said, “Do not do this again in the future.”

  Guiltless showed lack of interest: “Oh.”

  “We will report to the Imperial Court the situation and everything that happened here. Young Master Lin, it’s getting late. Please go back.” the leader of the Dragon Guards said to Lin Shu.

  Lin Shu had watched them all day. Because the Imperial court’s orders were so vague, they were rushing here and there like headless chickens — if Xiao Shao was still there, the situation might be different.

  If Xiao Shao was still there……

  Suddenly he was a little lost.

  The leader of the Dragon Guards said, “Young Master, what is the matter?”

  “It’s nothing.” Lin Shu replied.

  After a while, he said, “You…… Come with me.”

  The Dragon Guard didn’t know why, but he followed him.

  Lin Shu remembered that the steward of Phoenix Mountain Villa in this city was living in a cloth villa.

  The villa claimed to be the descendant of the Phoenix and liked to live in high places, so Chuang Tzu has not been greatly damaged.

  The steward said, “Young Master Lin.”

  Then he saw Lin Shu walking in the street in the rain, with stains on his clothes: “Young Master, do you want to change clothes? Chuang Tzu has a lot of clothes according to your size.”

  ——Although they came here not for this, it seemed that he should change.

  Xiao Shao liked him to wear white clothes. The lighter the material, the better, and the more ethereal the shape, the better. He said he looked best when the wind was blowing, that he looked like an immortal who moved like flowing clouds in the sky.

  Such clothes were not suitable for the current situation, and no one liked to see them no matter how white and immortal looking they were.

  Lin Shu didn’t choose that again. He took a smoky green robe at random, with a very simple style.

  “The speech of the gentleman is as gentle as jade.” The steward smiled and held a simple peach wood hairpin: “Young Master Lin had changed into green clothes, now he looks and has become even more gentle and his humane nature shines even more.”

  Lin Shu also changed into it.

  After that, they got down to business.

  Lin Shu’s intention was very simple.

  There is no money, food, cloth or medicine in the National Treasury.

  Phoenix Mountain Villa had all of the above.

  Being rich and invincible was not a false reputation.

  He asked the cloth villa to open its warehouse and help the victims and work with the government.

  The steward hesitated at first, but then fully accepted the order after seeing the Order of the Phoenix.

  After the fireworks for communication were lit, all the businesses of the Phoenix Mountain Villa opened their warehouses to provide relief to the victims.

  The Dragon Guard said, “Thank you, Young Master, for your compassion!”

  Lin Shu didn’t speak.

  He looked at the people struggling at the foot of the mountain.

  He may or may not have felt compassion.

  He only knew that if Xiao Shao were here, he would do so.

  Since the day Xiao Shao disappeared, this body has not belonged to him. Sometimes he had to live for Xiao Shao.

  He couldn’t forget his feelings after all.

  He couldn’t be silent.

  He just wanted a full moon night with warm curtains and red candle lights.

  Between the pavilions, between the rustling silk of the dancers dancing and the music from the bamboo pipes, everytime he turned his head, he would see Ling Fengxiao, in a bright red Chinese dress, covered with peonies, coming out from the splendor of a peaceful and prosperous age, and gently curling his lips and smiling.

  He stayed away from the crowd all his life. He loved peace and quiet. He wore white clothes and used an ancient sword. Indifferent and boring. The prosperous and glamorous things that he had seen and thought about in his life, all of it seemed to be here.

  But he was dead, without even a trace to be found. If we meet in the Yellow Springs in the future, we can tell him the auspicious times on earth. Thinking about that scene seems to be enough to comfort his solitary life.

  As he was thinking, the Dragon Guard on the other side received another order from the Capital City, which contradicted the previous order due to the lack of knowledge on the local situation. This gave the Dragon Guard a huge headache.

  Lin Shu saw that the other party was scratching his head in dilemma and seemed to have a huge headache with such contradicting orders. He couldn’t help but laugh at the picture.

  In fact, the arrangement of various matters was not actually too difficult.

  He had seen a lot of Xiao Shao’s responses when he was in danger. On the other hand, he was consciously organized.

  The Order of the Phoenix in his hand flowed with vermilion luster.

  For the followers of Phoenix Villa, seeing the order is like seeing the leader of the Phoenix Mountain Villa. To the dynasty, it was similar to a personal visit from the Emperor.

  Patter.

  He placed the token on the table, gently pressed it with his fingertips and turned it towards the leader of the Dragon Guards.

  He lowered his eyes slightly, looked at the phoenix pattern on the token, and whispered,

  “Dragon Guard listen to this order.”