ATEG Chapter 73.2

“I see,” Li Chi said. “You want the power in this river water?”

The thick mist engulfed the pale-faced evil god’s form. He hid among the mist and water ghosts, like a locust king hiding among a locust swarm.

The cold mist obscured the darkness, obscured the river water, obscured the water ghosts’ forms, and obscured the boat beneath their feet.

That mist was mixed with traces of the muddy yellow river water’s power. Just these traces were enough to devour most magical power. Any cultivator who fell into this mist would only exhaust their power and then be at his mercy.

The mist’s power surged up. Terrifying evil qi struck like waves from all directions.

Devour, devour. Like that muddy yellow river water, devouring everything that drew near.

“Quick!” A figure wearing a conical hat suddenly broke through the mist approaching. “The exit is…”

“No need to resist,” Li Chi said.

“What…” The conical-hatted person looked at him in astonishment, raising his head to reveal a face that had been hidden in shadow—the face from Chang Andu’s portrait.

Deep resentment was drawn away by the cold mist. Painful memories flashed before his eyes like a zoetrope.

…..

“Boatman! I want to cross the river——“

The middle-aged man with a beard called out.

The small boat on the river surface came toward him. The travel-worn middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank you, thank you! Please take me to Lu Kingdom!” He boarded the small boat, unable to help showing a trace of smile on his weary face. “Fortunately, fortunately. I thought I couldn’t get back.”

“You don’t look like a refugee,” the pale-faced boatman said slowly, punting the boat.

“Right. I’m from Lu, came to Liang for business. But I got delayed longer than expected. When I rushed here, I found the ferry crossing was already closed.” He smiled amiably. “Fortunate to meet you.”

“You’ve had it hard too. Is your family all in Lu Kingdom?” The boatman chatted with him intermittently.

“All to make a living. Going back and forth on this trip means several months without seeing family. And encountering these times…” He sighed. “Liang Kingdom is in terrible shape now. I’ll be fine if I can just get back safely.”

“Good to see your family,” the boatman said. “Did you go to Liang Kingdom alone?”

“Sometimes with my son. This time there was something at home before departure, so I didn’t bring him. That was fortunate too—otherwise he would have run this trip with me and suffered needlessly. Better to stay at home.” He smiled and gradually opened up. “In the future… I won’t go back and forth anymore. This trip was unlucky—first that rain, then drought… all kinds of demons and monsters came out. Not easy to get back.”

The small boat traveled against the current on the river, slowly leaving Liang Kingdom’s borders, entering the Daqing Mountain range, entering Lu Kingdom’s borders.

He saw Lu Kingdom’s ferry crossing in the distance. Though wild grass filled the banks and the crossing was desolate, he couldn’t help feeling joy. The fatigue of many days almost dissipated.

“Nearly there, nearly there!” He looked at the ferry crossing with his pack on his back, joy flashing in his eyes.

How wonderful—he was about to go home!

…..

Fear, despair, the coldness and pain of that last breath of air inhaled into the lungs before death… this was the source of an evil god’s divine power. No need for incense offerings or prayers—fear and despair were also a type of prayer. 

Thus this divine power possessed another characteristic—it fed on resentful evil, strengthening itself. The more resentful the souls who died unjustly, the more abundant the power they provided him. They died because of him and were controlled by him. They were his servants, his sustenance.

Those with strong resentment traveled with him; those with weak resentment carried his boat. When their resentment was exhausted, they sank into this muddy yellow river water.

…..

The bearded middle-aged man was submerged in the river water.

Despair was deepest when hope was about to be seen. Resentment was greatest when struggling in the cold only to sink deeper.

A hand roughly pulled him from the river water. He coughed and gasped in terror, looking at the boatman with both fear and doubt.

Why save him now after just pushing him into the water?

“From now on, you’ll be my servant,” the boatman said.

“You… what are you saying?” he asked in fear.

The boatman sneered and thrust with a boat pole. He instinctively dodged back, but the boat pole was too fast! Was he going to be knocked into the water again?!

The boat pole easily passed through his body.

No pain, no blood.

He looked down at his body. The fear remaining in his eyes gradually transformed into resentment.

He was… already dead!

…..

Resentment was the initial power of ghosts. This power was so strong it could give a soul who had never cultivated power that even immortals, deities, and demons feared. Though it affected the mind, pain, hatred, despair—which of these didn’t affect the mind?

And resentment could help them take revenge… at least it once did.

“Resent then, suffer then, refuse to accept then, while your mind is still clear.” The evil god disguised as a boatman said. “The deeper your resentment, the longer you can remain by my side. When I’ve devoured nearly all your resentment, I’ll refine you into a water ghost in the sinister cold mist. If you don’t want to lose consciousness like them, then resent.”

“Why…” he asked.

“When you slaughter pigs and eat meat, do you explain why to them?”

…..

“Boatman, I want to make a trip to Liang Kingdom. Name your price.”

Chang Andu, Chang Andu…

“I really have urgent business. I’m not here to investigate smuggling. Please help me! I’ll repay you later!”

You can’t board this boat! Why did you come? Why did you come looking for him…

“Boatman, when you were ferrying in Liang Kingdom, did you see this person?”

His… son!

The middle-aged man who had become a water ghost trembled, pleading in a voice no one could hear.

O deity… please save him! I am already dead, but he still lives…

…..

Two strands of prayer wishes entwined around the deity’s fingertips—one originating from father, one from son. One entangled with desperate resentful evil, one holding weary hope.

“Let that resentment return to the cause that birthed it,” the white-robed deity said.

Those cold eyes seemed even colder than the surrounding sinister mist.

Splash.

What was that sound? The wronged soul wearing the conical hat was confused for a moment.

This was… the sound of river water?

But how could there be the sound of water here?

The muddy yellow river water suddenly ceased being silent. It raised waves, revealing profound might, devouring the mist floating on the river surface. Soon, the river surface was revealed, the small boat was revealed, the water ghosts were revealed, and the pale-faced evil god disguised as a boatman was also revealed.

The river water’s might pressed down on them. The pale-faced evil god could no longer move, and even the resentful evil he had absorbed and controlled was fixed in mid-air, like bubbles and insects frozen in amber. That face was fixed in a fierce and violent expression, but his eyes had already changed to fear.

The small boat pressing on countless wronged souls suddenly shattered. The fragments were silently devoured by the river water.

The deity’s foot fell on the river water. That robe reflected on the muddy yellow river surface—impossible to tell if it was black or white.

“You want the power of this river water?” The deity walked on the river. Under the influence of a majestic and vast aura, all the wronged souls moved aside.

This was the deity’s power, and also the muddy yellow river water’s power. Dead souls must bow to this, for this power would carry them back into reincarnation.

“The power of the Yellow Springs exists only in the Yellow Springs. Only when guiding dead souls into reincarnation does its power fluctuate.” The deity walked step by step toward the pale-faced evil god hiding behind. “Creating vengeful ghosts, absorbing their resentful evil, and when that resentment is exhausted, throwing them into the Yellow Springs to cause the river water to fluctuate, in order to absorb the power of the Yellow Springs.”

“But not just anyone can absorb the power of the Yellow Springs. I’m very curious—where did you get that cultivation technique for manipulation and devouring?”

Countless karmic threads were entangled on the pale-faced evil god, but none of them were the one the deity sought. Someone had “created” him, obscured the karma on him, just like creating that locust king.

“Impossible… impossible!” the pale-faced evil god cried out in terror. “How could you—how can you! How can you control this river water’s power!”

The power of this muddy yellow spring water was so strange yet so terrifying. No object could contain it, no living being could touch it. That power lay dormant in the river water like the river’s silence—like gold dropped in a fire, making him want to take it yet not dare to take it.

He didn’t know how much effort he had expended, how much time he had spent, before finally finding a way to make this river water’s power fluctuate. Only when souls without deep resentment were devoured by the river water did that strange power produce slight fluctuations.

He didn’t know how many souls he had sacrificed to this river water before finally being able to merge traces of the river water’s power into his sinister cold mist. He thought it was sacrifice, but it turned out to be merely guiding them into reincarnation?

How did this deity know? Why could he control this river water’s power? By what right could he do so!

Impossible… impossible! Except for him, no one had ever been able to control this muddy yellow river. No one!

“Long ago, I already traversed all nine paths of the Yellow Springs.” The Yellow Springs reflected the deity’s sleeves, their color seeming black yet white. “Your power felt familiar to me. Who guided you to enter here? Who told you to absorb the Yellow Springs?”

“Spare me, spare me and I’ll tell you!” the pale-faced evil god cried. “I can also give you other…”

“No need,” the deity’s eyes were deep and cold. He had already found that karmic thread. “I’ve already seen it.”

The power of the Yellow Springs suddenly receded. The aura suppressing the evil god and water ghosts disappeared.

The pale-faced evil god revealed a joyful expression. The resentful evil that had been shocked into submission under the Yellow Springs’ power gathered toward him. He circulated his divine power, preparing to devour them, manipulate them, and transform them into his own power as he had in the past.

But that resentful evil seemed to have become hard stone. He could no longer devour it with his divine power, could only allow that resentful evil to layer upon layer wrap around him, forming a thick shell.

“No! No! What’s happening?! Save me, save——” He pleaded like every person he had submerged in the river water, and despaired like every person he had submerged in the river water.

That resentful evil he had craved, that power he had craved, became a hard and heavy prison, freezing him, carrying him to sink to the bottom of the Yellow Springs.

Only after thousands or tens of thousands of years, when this resentful evil had worn away and been repaid, would he be able to emerge from it. Like every dead soul, he would be carried by the Yellow Springs back into reincarnation.

As the resentful evil left their bodies, the murkiness faded from the water ghosts’ eyes. Their greenish-white faces gradually became peaceful. Once all painful obsessions returned to the targets they should compensate, they could no longer float on the Yellow Springs.

They gave the deity a final bow and sank beneath the river surface to disappear. The Yellow Springs received them, and under the pull of karma, they would return to reincarnation.

One after another, water ghosts whose resentment had dissipated sank into the Yellow Springs. The soul wearing the conical hat floated on the river surface. The resentment on him was also drifting away, toward the evil god sinking to the bottom of the Yellow Springs.

“You… you…” He looked toward the deity and suddenly bowed. “Grateful for the deity’s grace, I wish to offer everything with my faint and humble self, praying the deity will protect my son and let him return home safely.”

“I have received both your prayer wishes.” The deity’s two strands of prayer wound around his fingertips. “He prayed to find his father—he has already seen him. He prayed for his father’s safety—you have been freed. You wanted him to get off the boat safely—he is already safe. You wanted to take revenge on the evil god—the evil god has been punished.”

“Now, you still want your son to be able to return safely from Liang Kingdom to Lu Kingdom. What else do you have that can move me?”

The soul wearing the conical hat was silent for a long time.

The people of Lu Kingdom were accustomed to making prayer wishes to deities whenever they had requests, thinking that the relationship between mortals and deities should naturally be thus. But he traveled between Lu and Liang Kingdoms, had seen the deities of Liang Kingdom, and so better understood how hard-won Lu Kingdom’s situation was.

Most deities in Lu Kingdom came from the Divine Court, accepting incense offerings from mortals while also protecting mortals from calamity. But most deities in Liang Kingdom… whatever they wanted from mortals, they simply took. Just as people treated their livestock—when they wanted meat, they slaughtered and cooked.

If one removed the habitual thinking created by those customary offering rituals, deities were beings far more powerful than mortals, cultivators with their own needs, living beings whose characters varied and could be divided into good and evil…

He had nothing left. Any earnest pleading now was merely demanding.

But how could he just watch his son stranded in Liang Kingdom?

“Because he had that thought of kindness to save me from the boat, he can have safety. Because you had that thought of kindness to endure suffering with gratitude and wish to save me from leaving, you can leave suffering.” The deity’s gaze was calm and deep. “Go to reincarnation.”

Safety… even if he couldn’t return to Lu Kingdom for a time, being safe was enough.

The soul wearing the conical hat bowed deeply. The resentment on him completely dissipated, and he sank into the Yellow Springs to disappear.

…..

Zhou Family Village.

Chang Andu spent considerable effort finally making Da Zhou and the villagers believe he was a living person—the Chang Andu they knew.

He went from house to house in the village, asking if anyone knew which boat his father had taken, if anyone knew that ferryman?

Half of Zhou Family Village was already empty. He walked for a long time, exhausted, and sat down by a large stone, preparing to rest a while before continuing.

…..

“…Wake up! Wake up!”

Chang Andu opened his eyes in confusion. The sky had already begun to darken.

Da Zhou was pushing him. “Don’t sleep here. Why are you crying?”

Chang Andu wiped his face. “…I dreamed of my father. He said… he’s dead.”