"The old lady’s already much better."

"Oh."

"The old lady herself thinks some of the things she did after getting young again were just for fun."

"So looks like she’s not planning to keep fighting?" 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"I talked her down. I don’t want you two fighting anymore. In the end I’m the one taking all the losses."

"She is. I’m not."

"If we really tally it up, you’ve helped me more."

"Have I?"

"You have. Without you, I wouldn’t have gotten Wei Zhengdao’s Black Skin Book."

"Back then I just wanted you to train yourself into madness and end up as miserable as me. I wasn’t trying to do you any favors."

"We judge by deeds, not motives."

"It’s only because you’re still young now, still relatively weak, that I can stomach a few soft words from you. Once you really grow up, when you face me again, won’t it just be a matter of giving one ’Dragon King’s Order’?"

"You’re joking, but you’re not wrong."

"That’s at least honest. But I’m someone on the verge of death, someone who’s begging for death. Even if you really grow up, what can you do to me?"

"I can let you live forever."

"..."

Li Zhiyuan blinked, then went on, "Of course, I can also help you get free a bit earlier."

"Alright, I’ve got the gist. You can go back now."

"There’s one more thing."

"I knew it. If there was nothing, you wouldn’t be chatting this long with me."

"When there’s nothing, I don’t dare disturb your peace and quiet."

"Say it."

"In a bit I need to set up an Array outside. The yard isn’t big enough; I’ll have to take up a bit of land on the edge of the Peach Forest."

"Go on."

"This Array is a little hard to control. I might have to draw on some of the Feng Shui and atmospheric Power from the Peach Forest here to suppress it. It’ll probably bother you. Please don’t mind, just bear with it for a while. I’ll finish as fast as I can."

"Kid."

"I’m here."

"In your eyes, maybe I’ve helped you a few times, but not once did I truly want to help you for your sake."

"I know. You only help when you feel like it."

"Then what makes you think this time I’ll feel like it too?"

"Because what I’m setting up is the ’Five Senses Sealing Map’. Back then, Wei Zhengdao once used this Array to Seal himself and kill himself, though he failed in the end."

"Next time you can just say the key point directly."

"I still wanted a bit of buildup, to stock up on some goodwill. Otherwise, if there’s no fun next time and I really need something, it’ll be hard to open my mouth with you."

"Hearing a word like ’goodwill’ out of your mouth feels really weird."

"Then I’ll get busy."

"Go. I’ll be watching."

Li Zhiyuan turned and walked out of the Peach Forest.

As long as you can see clearly what it really is at its core, and then stroke it the right way, you’ll find: Qing’an is actually easy enough to get along with.

Of course, only Li Zhiyuan has the standing to have that thought.

Because he’s reaping the benefits Wei Zhengdao left behind.

Someone who ruined it, yet is still the person it cherishes most.

As long as you can produce even a trace or a bit of news about that man, you can make it happy, willing to help out.

That is Wei Zhengdao’s personal charm.

While Li Zhiyuan was sighing inwardly, a young master surnamed Zhao in Jiujiang was playing cat’s cradle by himself, sighing as well:

"How the hell did that Li guy do it, to get that whole bunch of subordinates all willing to form contracts with him?"

Li Zhiyuan walked out of the Peach Forest. The Array was already set up.

On the yard, three rings of altars were arranged. At the head position lay a Heaven and Earth Table crosswise, with no offerings, only incense and candles.

Below the yard, there were five sub-Arrays within the Array—five small circles, each with a small offering table inside.

In a bit, Li Zhiyuan would stand in front of the Heaven and Earth Table on the yard. He was the Array’s guide. During the upcoming specific time, he would be the "Heaven" here; the five people below would all have to offer up to him.

It could have been less complicated. Even if you took Li Zhiyuan out of the equation, as long as the Array was set up properly, Tan Wenbin could Seal the Five Senses Diagram onto himself during its operation.

But then, Tan Wenbin and those four spirit beasts would be equal in status.

Sometimes absolute equality is not necessarily a good thing. Maybe at the beginning the four of them would behave, but as time went on, who knew what might happen.

So they needed to bring in this external force, Li Zhiyuan, to forcibly assign the seating order for the ’Five Senses Diagram’.

Everyone was waiting. When Li Zhiyuan stepped onto the yard, Tan Wenbin was still spinning circles in his wheelchair.

The two kids knew they were about to leave, so they were giving their godfather one last push around in the wheelchair.

Tan Wenbin kept a kindly smile on his face while suppressing the nausea from getting carsick.

Behind the second-floor window, Xiong Shan and Lihua peered through the crack at what was happening below.

Human curiosity is impossible to suppress, even though Xiong Shan had just suffered for it last time.

But he also understood: the old lady is the old lady; sneaking a peek at Brother Xiao Yuan’s place here isn’t a big problem. If there was really a need to shut them out, he could have given advance word and had the two of them and Xiao Yingying leave Big Beard’s house first... oh right, and their own son.

Lihua: "Are they starting?"

Xiong Shan: "No rush. They have to send those two kids off to reincarnate first, empty the bodies out so they’re ready to hold the new ones."

One big reason the yard wasn’t big enough was that most of the area near the gate was taken up by two rows of paper lotus lamps.

On both sides hung mourning decorations like Buddhist canopies and Daoist pall covers—all the stuff used for funerals. These were all ready-made, just carried over directly from Grandpa’s house.

They... really didn’t have much use. They were set out just to make things look a bit better.

Enough sense of ritual can dilute the sorrow of parting.

Li Zhiyuan walked up to Tan Wenbin, and the wheelchair stopped spinning.

Tan Wenbin looked left, looked right, really taking one last look each time. Even if he could see them in photos later, it just wouldn’t feel the same.