Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 71: Mengxi Miscellaneous Talks

At that time, there was no way he could have been up on the mountain.

"Also, there’s this thing. I thought it was kind of weird, so I kept it!"

Li Nangua pulled something out from her clothes. It was a crystal-clear object, looking just like amber, with the shape of a wolf suspended inside it.

As Lu Chang’sheng touched the object, suddenly, his vision felt as if it were ripped apart. Pain shot through him, and all he could see was a pair of unique, blood-red eyes staring straight at him.

A force shoved him, and Lu Chang’sheng snapped out of it. He saw that, without him noticing, Wang Heihou, Niu Dazhuang, and the others were already standing nearby.

This thing is definitely strange!

Lu Chang’sheng hurriedly wrapped up the object, and only then did that unsettling feeling vanish.

"How did you guys get here?" he asked Wang Heihou and Niu Dazhuang.

"Something happened!" Wang Heihou said in a low voice, giving a glance at Li Nangua, who was lying on the bed.

"What happened?" Li Nangua asked with confusion.

"Last night, your family died!"

Li Nangua froze for a second, a look of disbelief on her face.

Even though she didn’t have much affection for her father or brother, they were still blood relatives. Even though she’d almost been killed herself, she’d never wished them dead.

"What happened exactly?" Lu Chang’sheng frowned.

"Rumor has it, someone saw a mountain wolf walking upright go through the Li Family’s door last night!"

Wang Heihou’s tone felt off somehow.

"A mountain wolf walking upright?" Lu Chang’sheng muttered to himself, feeling this whole thing grow infinitely stranger.

When they got to the Li Family house, the place reeked of blood. Two bodies, completely hollowed out, lay in pools of dried blood. The only thing left on the floor was a bloody paw print.

Scenes this horrific happening in the countryside scared everyone off—nobody dared help collect the bodies. The group watched for a long time, but couldn’t spot any trace of a person in disguise. Fighting their urge to vomit, they helped handle the aftermath anyway.

By sunset, the group stood before the graves.

Nobody cried.

As the Li Family’s only surviving bloodline, Li Nangua silently burned the family’s clothing at the graves.

Three new graves. Three family members, all dead within days.

Lu Chang’sheng looked at Li Nangua’s back, sighed, and turned to Zhao Hu: "Mr. Zhao, that time you talked about the human-faced wolf—did you really see it with your own eyes?"

Zhao Hu hesitated, then said, "I was just a kid then, so I can’t say for sure. But if you ask me, it probably really happened."

So many years had passed, and the memories from childhood were already fading.

Lu Chang’sheng made a note of it. Guess I’ll have to look into this when I get back to Black Mountain Prefecture!

"Are there really immortals in this world?"

He lifted his head, some hope flickering in his gaze.

Because of everything that happened, everyone postponed leaving for a few days.

On the third day, finally, the families packed up what little they needed and left the village.

Shortly after they left, word spread—about what happened five years ago between Zhao Hu and Zhao Deshui.

"We made out alright—in the end, even without Zhao Deshui, we would’ve figured out a way to get to Black Mountain Prefecture. The ones who really got screwed were Zhao Liang and his people!" Wang Heihou chuckled.

Zhao Liang’s folks actually came from good families. They didn’t really need to go to Black Mountain Prefecture. But because Zhao Deshui talked them into it, they ended up going anyway. Even when they came back later, several died, not to mention all the money they lost.

That year, some were chasing survival, some chasing a future.

For those after survival, it didn’t matter if they were tricked. For those chasing a future, though, it was a disaster.

"From now on, Zhao Deshui’s family is in for a hard life. If they tick off the wrong person, wouldn’t be surprised if someone chopped him to death one day!"

Lu Chang’sheng laughed too.

The journey back went smoothly. With their passage documents, the whole group—even as a crowd—traveled calmly and unhindered.

Once back at Black Mountain Prefecture, Lu Chang’sheng spent a few days with his family, then returned to the academy at Jixia.

"Scholar Lu!"

Du Meng walked over, a smile on his face.

Now, plenty of scholars had heard about the stories between him and Scholar Lu.

No one really knew when the tale started that Scholar Lu was ostracized at Jixia Academy, with Du Meng always encouraging him.

There were even scholars who called their friendship "The Bond of Lu and Du," as if it was the stuff of legends.

So, even though he hadn’t made it in the imperial exam, he’d still become well-known. Even advanced scholars would smilingly greet him as "Du Tongsheng."

But in his moment of pride, Du Meng still felt he owed Lu Chang’sheng a debt. He thought, Well, nothing I can do to help him now—maybe I can at least deal with his bachelor status.

To Du Meng, his brother was excellent in every way except when it came to women. To be blunt, the guy was thick as a brick.

As his friend, of course he had to step up and help fix this issue.

"Lu, you’re a man of great talent. Ordinary girls aren’t good enough for you. At the very least, you need someone from a worthy family—and she’s got to look great, too!" Abruptly, an idea seemed to strike him and his eyes lit up.

"Lu, have you ever studied numerology?" Du Meng suddenly asked.

"A bit," Lu Chang’sheng replied.

Numerology had its uses. It could even sort of be counted as part of scholarly studies. So sometimes, when he got bored, Lu Chang’sheng would crack open a book or two on the subject.

And the numbers and theory in this world weren’t much different from his last life. The only real barrier was understanding the characters. With his foundation, he could solve most problems easily.

"Why do you ask?"

Numerology wasn’t on the imperial examination anyway—just useful for broadening one’s studies. So he was curious why Du Meng brought it up.

"Just a hobby... just a hobby!"

Seeing how distracted Lu Chang’sheng was, Du Meng turned and left.

Lu Chang’sheng started looking through the academy’s library. Before long, he found the book he was searching for.

"Mengxi Miscellaneous Talks"

"In the Yu Kingdom there is a village, Dawang Village. There lived a farmer, Wang Xiaoer, from a family of generations of farmers. One day..."

Lu Chang’sheng read with growing interest.

The story told of a farmer named Wang Xiaoer—dirt poor, left to care for his sick mother. One day, while chopping wood, he saw a centipede and a toad locked in a death struggle. The centipede was about to kill the toad, so Wang Xiaoer smashed the centipede with a rock, saving the wounded toad. Unexpectedly, the toad followed him home, settling on the beam above his bed. From then on, Wang Xiaoer’s life got better by the day. Within just three years, he became the richest man for miles around.

If he’d read something like this before, he’d probably just laugh it off as mealtime entertainment. But after everything that happened in Zhao Family Village, Lu Chang’sheng suddenly felt that the world might not be as simple as he’d thought.

"Yu Kingdom—that’s that little country next to Great Yuan. Only big as a single prefecture in Yuan. But thanks to the wretched land, Yuan just ignored it, and it slowly turned into a haven for outlaws."

And since the book never mentioned specific places, Lu Chang’sheng had no way to check things out, even if he wanted to.

Mengxi Miscellaneous Talks was full of these kinds of tales—but rarely did it mention any exact locations. It all seemed like the wild musings of a storyteller.

Even Lu Chang’sheng found some of the stories hard to believe.

Until he reached the last story in the book—

"Human-faced Wolf"

"In the Dafeng Kingdom, there was a prefecture called Shao Yuan Prefecture, and under it a village named Zhao Family Village. This year, a farmer came home from work to see a mountain wolf carrying meat in its jaws, which it dropped outside his door. Mrs. Zhao was startled and rushed from the courtyard with a knife, wanting to battle the wolf. But the wolf turned and ran, leaving just that fresh meat at the door! Mrs. Zhao was overjoyed. It was a time of terrible drought, crops had all failed, and it was nearly impossible to find food—much less a piece of meat!"

"Mrs. Zhao picked up the meat and went home. After a few days, all the meat was gone. Just as she was fretting, the wolf showed up again, carrying more meat to her door. For months, the mountain wolf never missed a single day. Unnoticed, Mrs. Zhao had come to see the mountain wolf as a savior. But one day, the wolf was missing for half a month, and Mrs. Zhao grew anxious. She grabbed a knife and entered the mountains, where she came upon a famished mountain wolf, who spoke in human language: ’I’ve been waiting for you a long time!’ The moment it finished, it leapt on Mrs. Zhao and swallowed her whole. Then, the wolf’s face slowly turned into Mrs. Zhao’s face. Draped in Mrs. Zhao’s clothes, it stepped, one foot after another, toward Zhao Family Village!"

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