Chapter 221: A Mountain Suspended, A River Submerged (35)
Yan Shixun was not someone who dwelled on the past, but the day he was abandoned by his parents remained vividly etched in his memory.
That day, little Yan Shixun had split his only two candies in half.
It was also the same day when he thought he would have to survive alone from then on—but unexpectedly, he met Li Chengyun.
Li Chengyun took him away, raised him, taught him, and passed on his legacy.
As for that piece of candy, Yan Shixun remembered giving it to a man sitting at the edge of the market—covered in blood, with a cold and indifferent expression.
At the same time, he had also given that man half of his hope to keep living.
The man had looked like he was on the verge of tears, as if there was nothing in the world left worth clinging to.
But little Yan Shixun had stared at the man—whom everyone else avoided in fear—and had felt no fear at all. He simply thought… this person was just like him—utterly alone in the world.
So, in that moment, an impulse grew in little Yan Shixun’s heart.
He wanted that man to keep living—only by surviving could he have hope. No matter how painful it was, he had to keep going forward—even if all he had to hold onto was a single piece of candy.
With that thought, little Yan Shixun walked up to the man. Under the man’s stunned gaze, he earnestly and clearly tried to persuade him to stay in the human world.
And then, he made a promise with him.
He hoped that the next time they met, both of them would still be alive and well.
After all… they had shared a piece of candy. Yan Shixun didn’t want to see the man sink into despair again.
If he truly thought about it, that man he had encountered at the marketplace had been the first life Yan Shixun ever saved.
But Yan Shixun had never known that the first life he, an exorcist, had saved—
Was actually the last remaining ghost deity under Heaven’s Great Dao.
The only one still capable of upholding the balance of the Dao.
And yet for decades, that ghost deity had repeatedly turned his back on the Dao and stopped answering the human world’s calls.
Back then, when Ye Li had sat at the edge of the bustling marketplace, watching the noisy crowd with a cold eye, he had already become utterly disillusioned with the human world, left only with the numbness of a distant observer.
After that day, the world should have lost its last ghost deity. The gates of Fengdu were meant to be sealed forever, never to open again.
The underworld would collapse, the Yin officials would fall into corruption, and countless evil spirits would wreak havoc on the human world. The living would wail for help, and countless exorcists would die trying to stop them.
But—at that very moment, when the frail young boy walked up to Ye Li—
The fate of the world, which had been on the verge of collapse, suddenly shifted. Amid utter silence, vitality was reborn.
Ye Li, whose eyes had seen through countless souls, stared directly at the boy who stood before him, seriously trying to persuade him with every word. And to his surprise, he saw that the boy genuinely and wholeheartedly hoped he would continue to live—so pure, with not a single trace of deceit.
Ye Li accepted the candy that little Yan Shixun offered him.
And as a return of karmic fate, he reached out his hand and gave a sliver of his purest power to the small outstretched hand that held that piece of candy.
At the very instant the ghost deity’s power flowed into Yan Shixun’s meridians, his fate changed drastically.
The child who was born with an “Evil Spirit Bone Transformation” constitution—a fate that should have meant certain death—suddenly burst with new life because of the ghost deity’s favor.
And the Great Dao… finally saw a spark of the miracle it had long awaited.
Li Chengyun had never told Yan Shixun why he just happened to appear at the marketplace that day, or why he just happened to meet that sharp, aloof young boy—and why, despite being someone who preferred to live freely without attachments, he had suddenly felt the urge to take on a disciple.
It was because back then, Li Chengyun had already sensed that the Great Dao was collapsing. He had calculated that the hope to restore it—to save the lives of countless beings—was hidden in that unremarkable, tiny marketplace.
Amidst the bustling crowd, the small, cold boy seemed like a wounded wolf pup—his eyes still sharp, walking alone through the human world.
Surrounded by a sea of colorful decorations, he alone stood out as a blend of black and white.
He was the intersection of life and death, a child of yin and yang. At the lowest point of his fate, he suddenly soared, turning all his deathly aura into vibrant vitality.
Li Chengyun was deeply shocked. He quickly calculated a divination, only to be stunned by what he discovered: the boy who had seized all of his attention was born with the fate of an Evil Spirit Bone Transformation. By all logic, with ghostly energy exceeding human limits entering his body, he should have died today.
Yet somehow, within this seemingly inescapable death, a powerful surge of life force had been injected.
When things reached an extreme, they reversed. When decline reached its lowest, prosperity followed.
He had found life in death.
Li Chengyun stared fixedly at the boy through the crowd. He could even hear the slow, thunderous beat of his own heart, like in that moment, he was one with the great Dao, lowering his gaze together with it upon the boy.
After a long time, he let out a soft chuckle.
This child’s fate mirrored that of the heavens and earth.
Using life to replace death, he had accomplished his own miracle—and would also become… a miracle of the Dao itself.
Li Chengyun took long strides forward, squatted down in front of the boy, and smiled gently, his handsome face full of warmth.
Smiling, he reached out a hand to little Yan Shixun. Because of this stubborn yet endearing child, his heart melted, and he made up his mind—to teach the boy everything he knew.
And beyond the crowd, Ye Li, who had always watched coldly and unblinking, finally relaxed upon seeing that little Yan Shixun had found someone who would take him in.
The ghost deity himself hadn’t realized that his attention toward this boy had already surpassed any emotion he had held for humans in the past thousands of years. He even worried about the boy’s future.
Ye Li merely lowered the brim of his conical hat again to cover his face, then turned and vanished at the edge of the market.
Little Yan Shixun, who was being led forward by Li Chengyun, seemed to sense something. He looked back toward where Ye Li had been.
But all that remained was empty air. Ye Li’s figure had disappeared.
Over a dozen years passed, and that memory had long been sealed away in Yan Shixun’s mind. Even the face of that man he had met once back then had grown blurry.
But now, as Yan Shixun stood at the forked road of Nan Village and looked toward the tall figure walking slowly toward him from afar, that old scene resurfaced in his mind once again.
Only, the man now looked different from the one he had met at the market back then.
The man he had once seen had been covered in blood and dirt, looking disheveled, but carried the fierce presence of someone who had just walked off a battlefield.
The man who now appeared in Nan Village wore a conical hat with the brim pulled low, hiding his face. But his black robe—styled in the fashion of days long past—exuded an overwhelming presence. He was intimidating even without anger, making people instinctively afraid and hesitant to offend.
With each step the man took, the grass and trees along his path trembled and drooped their branches, silent yet reverent.
Even the entire mountain forest had gone quiet. Not a soul dared disturb him.
A ghost deity walking the mortal world, judging sin.
Yan Shixun stared straight at the scene unfolding before him, as if witnessing the past replay. After a long while, he finally snapped out of it, his eyes complex as he lifted his gaze to look at Ye Li beside him.
“You…”
His throat moved slightly. The question had already reached his lips but was rolled over between his teeth a few times before he finally asked it aloud.
He heard himself ask Ye Li—
“Back then, the man I met at the market… was it you?”
Ye Li, who had been gazing into the distance, slowly withdrew his gaze. After a brief moment of surprise, he looked at Yan Shixun with a gentle, smiling expression in his eyes.
Under Yan Shixun’s serious stare, Ye Li gave a light nod, confirming his guess.
“Shixun, our first meeting wasn’t at Wild Wolf Peak—but over a decade ago, at that market.”
In the slightly lowered gaze of Ye Li, there lingered endless tenderness and affection, with no trace of the cold sternness from just moments before.
The ghost deity was not devoid of emotions toward the mortal world. It was just that all of his emotions had been given to the young boy who once held his hand and placed a piece of candy in his palm.
“But actually, at that time, I didn’t know either—that you were the one who, over a decade ago, gave me a piece of candy and told me to keep on living.”
Ye Li carefully traced Yan Shixun’s face and features with his eyes. Even his usually deep, subdued voice now carried a hint of a smile.
At the beginning, Ye Li had merely noticed that a living soul had entered Fengdu, and had witnessed the judgment of Xi Shuang.
Yet the central gates of Fengdu had been sealed for many years, never once opening to the mortal realm. So how had a living soul been able to find the precise location of Fengdu, even managing to enter it without his knowledge?
Ye Li originally guessed this was another attempt by the Great Dao to save itself—perhaps it had relaxed the restrictions on ghost deity divination, allowing mortal exorcists to enter Fengdu in hopes of persuading him to shoulder the Dao once more.
Or perhaps, chaos in the mortal world had erupted again—disruptions so severe they had begun to affect even Fengdu.
Either possibility meant the mortal world was on the verge of becoming a hell infested with vengeful spirits, with living beings wailing in despair and dying in agony.
Ye Li had initially intended to close his eyes and turn away from it all.
But for reasons he couldn’t explain, because of that living soul who had entered Fengdu without permission, a memory unexpectedly surfaced in his mind—his brief encounter with a young boy in the mortal realm.
The Lord of Fengdu, once disillusioned with the mortal world, ultimately stepped down from his divine pedestal. Because of a single, fleeting moment of softness, he returned to the human world once more.
At the time, Zhang Wubing happened to be recruiting a director’s assistant. Ye Li was inexplicably drawn to it, and through that, noticed Yan Shixun.
Ye Li realized that this exorcist named Yan Shixun was the very same living soul who had previously broken into Fengdu.
And Xi Shuang’s soul had also been saved by Yan Shixun. He had rescued her from what should have been a doomed fate—either annihilated by other exorcists until her soul scattered to nothingness, or trapped forever on Ghost Mountain, turned into a wrathful spirit unable to reincarnate—and personally sent her to reincarnation.
The judgment given by Yan Shixun had astonishingly mirrored Ye Li’s own.
That surprised Ye Li.
For hundreds of years, he had watched mortal exorcists slay all ghosts and demons, sheltering all humans—asking not whether something was good or evil, only whose side it was on.
He had long lost hope in mortal exorcists.
But Yan Shixun, amid all this, stood out as entirely different.
Even if there was only one soul among thousands of evil ghosts that harbored unjust suffering, Yan Shixun would still lower himself, searching through the chaos to uncover the truth, and return justice to the wronged spirit.
“Though he understands the grand scheme of Heaven and Earth, he still cherishes the green of grass and trees.”
Ye Li quietly observed everything Yan Shixun did, while a storm of emotions churned in his heart.
He had never imagined that the ideal exorcist he had searched for across centuries without success would appear only after he had completely given up hope.
Like a gentle spring breeze brushing over a barren wasteland, fresh green sprouts broke through the soil once more.
The more he watched Yan Shixun, the more Ye Li found himself drawn in—unable to look away.
Even the mortal world he had once loathed began to regain its vibrant hues because of Yan Shixun’s presence. It became a place worth longing for again.
Now that he had found such a rare treasure, how could he allow anyone else to take him away?
Ye Li didn’t want to bring Yan Shixun back to Fengdu. That would only dim the brilliance of this dazzling exorcist.
The human world, which Yan Shixun loved so deeply, was the destined place for his cultivation.
So even after confirming that chaos in the mortal world was about to erupt, Ye Li still did not return to Fengdu.
—Even though he knew full well that even if the entire mortal realm fell into hell and the Dao collapsed, it would never affect Fengdu, which stood apart from the world in seclusion.
The sealed gates of Fengdu had never depended on the mortal world. Thus, it bore no karma with it and would not be dragged down by its fate.
But Ye Li wanted to stay by Yan Shixun’s side. To guard this precious exorcist. To shield Yan Shixun’s light from being diminished.
However, the more he watched Yan Shixun, the more he was astonished and captivated by him—until eventually, he could no longer look away.
That was… a radiance so brilliant it could even attract a ghost deity of Fengdu.
And Ye Li finally discovered—Yan Shixun was the very same little boy at the market who had shared a piece of apple-flavored candy with him all those years ago.
Was there any better fate than this?
This realization filled Ye Li with overwhelming joy.
He had never expected that the young boy he once saved, merely to repay the karma of a single piece of candy, would one day become the exorcist he cherished with all his heart.
Before Ye Li even realized it, he had already personally saved the one he loved.
And beyond the ties of fate, Ye Li created yet another thread between himself and Yan Shixun.
He bound them together through countless, untraceable threads of karma, holding his treasured one tightly in his arms.
And now, Yan Shixun finally realized that Ye Li was the man he had once given hope to at the market over a decade ago.
Yan Shixun slowly widened his eyes, staring at Ye Li in disbelief, needing a moment to come back to himself.
“This is really…”
He shook his head with a laugh and a sigh. Even though he frequently dealt with heaven and earth and understood how unpredictable fate and destiny could be, he still found it remarkable how intricately everything had turned out.
The man to whom he had once shared a piece of candy, thinking he was alone in the world, was now standing by his side, walking the same path with him.
It was as if that piece of candy he had given away had made its way back into his hands—hope and life reuniting as one.
The person he had been searching for over ten years, the very first person he had ever saved as a ghost exorcist, turned out to be the last remaining god in the entire world.
And back then, he had even earnestly encouraged that person to keep living.
For a moment, Yan Shixun was surprised by the actions of his younger self.
Ye Li reached out gently, brushing aside a loose strand of hair from Yan Shixun’s face and tucking it behind his ear. Leaning forward slightly to meet his gaze, he spoke with a smile, enunciating each word with care: “That candy you gave me—it was the only gift I’ve received in all these centuries.”
“But now, I’ve become a little greedier.”
Ye Li’s voice, usually deep and solemn, softened as he said, “I want you, Shixun—the gift I want to receive from your hands—is you.”
“Shixun, in the human world, people use love to express their joy. I, a god, offer you my name and the Dao. Let heaven and earth bear witness…”
“I love you.”
It was like the thawing of snowy mountains into spring waters, like buds blooming on a once lifeless plain—clusters of flowers bursting into vibrant, thriving life.
Ye Li completely filled Yan Shixun’s view, leaving no room for anything else. In his ears, only Ye Li’s voice remained.
Looking at the face so close to his own, Yan Shixun found himself unconsciously holding his breath.
His heartstrings trembled.
One thought echoed in his mind:
Ah… So what Lan Ze had said before was true—it wasn’t a misunderstanding.
Ye Li truly liked him.
Not as a friend, nor as a companion on the same path, but with the affection between lovers.
Yan Shixun’s lips parted slightly. Before he could speak, he was already smiling.
If you love what Ciacia is doing, then consider showing your support by supporting a cup of tea for her at Kofi. If you can’t wait for the next release chapter, subscribe to advanced chapters membership on her Kofi to get access to up to 10 chapters!
