Ordered to Marry by the High King - Chapter 4

The old lady had just turned into a ghost and honestly didn’t know how to distinguish her kind. She looked up and down and, seeing this beautiful girl also floating, was tricked into thinking they were the same. But after hesitating for a while, she asked in confusion, “Why are you looking for me?”

“To ask for directions,” Zhuoxue repeated.

“Ask what deer?” The old lady tilted her ear.

Zhuoxue had never met anyone more hard of hearing than herself. She cleared her throat. “Ask for directions!”

The old lady suddenly understood and shook her head, muttering, “What’s the point of asking directions? When people die, the Black and White Impermanence comes to lead the way. Don’t go wandering around.”

“What sausage? Plain sausage?” Zhuoxue listened to the old lady’s mumbling for a long time and genuinely didn’t think she’d heard wrong. Lead the way, right? Using the smell of food to lure someone—doesn’t that count as leading?

The old lady stared in shock and muttered, “Such a young girl, yet more deaf than this old crone.”

Zhuoxue felt indignant, but she still needed this old lady’s help to find the road, so she held her temper and said, “What do you know? Great wisdom comes with great cost. The brain may be sharp, but other parts may fall short—that’s perfectly reasonable.”

The old lady had lived ninety years and was the longest-lived person in town, yet she had never heard of “great wisdom” causing this kind of harm.

“So what road are you looking for?” she asked.

Zhuoxue pointed at the ground. “The road to the Underworld.”

“Ah.” The old lady sighed briefly, her clouded eyes full of reluctance. “I don’t want to go.”

“Then do you know the way?” Zhuoxue asked anxiously.

“Nope.” The old lady waved her hand. “Just wait for the Impermanence to come.”

“Who?”

“The Impermanence immortal,” the old lady repeated.

Zhuoxue finally heard clearly. So it wasn’t “plain sausage.”

“What, they haven’t come to take you?” The old lady lowered her voice in alarm. “I heard that once the seven-day period is up, you have to go, whether you want to or not.”

Zhuoxue made up a lie. “Maybe they neglected their duties.”

“They should have their pay docked,” the old lady pondered.

“Exactly! I must report them harshly to the Underworld King. How could they abandon me and neglect their responsibilities?” Zhuoxue pretended to be angry.

“No matter. Wait with me for seven days. After that, the Impermanence will definitely come to fetch me. Then we can go together,” the old lady kindly offered.

That suited Zhuoxue just fine. She nodded. “I’ve wandered for days, and you, ma’am, are the only one kind enough to help.”

But these seven days… She couldn’t stay in the human world for seven whole days. In less than five days, Lanhui would surely realize she’d snuck down the mountain again.

Zhuoxue grew anxious and looked at the old lady again. “But… must we really wait the full seven days? Can’t the Impermanence come a bit earlier?”

“I don’t know either,” the old lady replied.

“Ma’am, do you know anyone who knows the way?” Zhuoxue pressed.

The old lady turned back with a strange expression. “This is my first time dying too. I only knew the living. Who would know?”

“Seven days is too long,” Zhuoxue muttered.

But the old lady was quite cheerful. “That’s great! I can stay in my home for a few more days.”

Forget it, Zhuoxue thought. Seven days it is. By then, she’d come up with some excuse to fool Aunt Lan. At worst, she’d get a few strikes with the discipline ruler.

Ouch, it already hurts just thinking about it.

“Then I’ll wait the full seven days,” she resolved. That Yellow Springs Palace—she had to go.

(T/N: Yellow Springs Palace is another name for the Nine Springs Palace mentioned before.)

She was truly curious whether the streets and alleys that often surfaced in her mind were actually the royal capital of the human world. Was that place still like in her dreams, with endless lights from ten thousand homes and dazzling streets stretching for miles? She remembered it so clearly. If it wasn’t a past life, what else could it be? She could even recall the stone sculptures on the eaves, the peach branches by the window, and vines climbing the walls.

Surely she’d lived happily in her past life. She wondered which family she had been born into, what her name was, and whether she had a white tiger companion.

She really hoped she wasn’t that white tiger. Being a beast for two lifetimes—that would be too pitiful.

The old lady, as a ghost, was lonely too. Having another ghost for company wasn’t bad. She waved and said, “Good then. No one else can see me, but you can. It must be fate. Now I’ll appoint you a guide for the road to the Yellow Springs.”

“Isn’t the Black and White Impermanence supposed to guide the way?” Zhuoxue asked suspiciously.

The old lady smacked her lips. “Still, we must be involved too, no?”

Zhuoxue couldn’t very well say no. She had wandered all over, practically turned the town upside down.

There weren’t many people in town to begin with. Among those who had died recently, only the old lady qualified. And in the wilderness beyond town, not a single soul was to be found. She was too lazy to go any farther. By the time she found another spirit, the old lady would probably have reincarnated.

Forget it—better to wait the seven days.

“You’re so young. Why are you sighing so often?” the old lady empathized. “Life has its charms, and so does death. See, if I hadn’t died, I wouldn’t have known how many people cared so deeply about this tiny patch of land in and around the house. If I were still alive, I wouldn’t give up an inch of it.”

Zhuoxue hadn’t expected that despite her poor hearing, the old lady still heard her sigh. But what she sighed about was that once she went back, she might not just get a beating. Lanhui might really throw her onto Lingkong Mountain. Then she’d be truly doomed.

“What happened? Feel free to tell me,” the old lady offered warmly.

“I’m in a rush to reincarnate, but clearly it can’t be hurried this time.” Zhuoxue’s eyes shifted, clearly not wanting to talk about that anymore. She glanced at the portrait and asked, “Granny, which deity are you worshipping here? She looks rather beautiful.”

The old lady perked up when she heard the question and replied cheerfully, “I don’t actually know. When I was young, I was chased by bandits and accidentally wandered into Lingkong Mountain, which was full of illusions. I wandered for days without finding a way out—only then did I realize I’d been caught in a ghost maze.”

Lingkong Mountain, huh? That was serious. For an ordinary person to enter and survive at all was already a miracle.

“She saved you, didn’t she?” Zhuoxue immediately sensed the connection.

The old lady’s face took on a nostalgic expression as she smiled. “I nearly starved to death in there. That immortal descended from the heavens and gave me a full meal, even pointed out a clear path for me.”

Zhuoxue thought to herself, There are no immortals on Lingkong Mountain. That beauty is most likely a demon.

She hadn’t expected that such a kind-hearted demon existed—offering food and directions to a mortal. Remarkable. This must be the good fortune the old lady cultivated over three lifetimes.

“No wonder you’re worshipping her,” Zhuoxue said in amazement.

The old lady looked a bit embarrassed. “Actually, that day I didn’t dare look directly at her—just caught a glimpse in my panic. I’m not even sure if her features really looked like this.”

Demons could also accept offerings. The more they received, the more their blessings and cultivation would grow. No wonder so many demons pretended to be gods and tricked people.

“No matter. She gained some benefit—why would she hold it against you?” Zhuoxue examined the portrait more closely, growing increasingly intrigued. A demon like this—how could she be so unknown?

And yet, the only famous figure from Lingkong Mountain was the demon lord of Cangqiong Realm, Longming.

“Exactly. With a kind heart like hers, she’ll surely understand!” the old lady said with a smile.

“So how exactly did this demon save you?” Zhuoxue asked, intrigued.

“She was an immortal!” the old lady corrected, lips pursed.

“Oh, right. Immortal,” Zhuoxue said, though her heart didn’t agree.

The old lady scolded, “You’re so young—how can you be both hard of hearing and a sloppy talker?”

“I lack experience and I’m still young. Naturally, I can’t compare to someone as wise as you,” Zhuoxue hurried to smooth things over.

The old lady enjoyed the flattery and grinned. “That goddess walked slowly out of the thick fog, and by her side was a leopard. At the time, I thought she must be the mountain god of Lingkong Mountain.”

“So now she didn’t descend from the heavens?” Zhuoxue wondered if she’d misheard earlier.

“She had to descend from the heavens first, in order to walk out of the fog, right?” the old lady shot her a glare.

That did sound like a celestial being. Given the description, the old lady’s mistake was understandable. Zhuoxue figured, if she really did get thrown onto Lingkong Mountain, maybe she could seek out this very figure. If she was able to save a person once, surely she wouldn’t hesitate to help someone of her own kind?

“And then what happened?” Zhuoxue asked.

“And then…” The old lady, recalling the past, had a distant look in her eyes—like melting snow, soft and gentle. “She asked me, ‘Mortal, why have you come here? Don’t tell me you’re here to die?’”

Zhuoxue hesitated, then said, “That doesn’t sound very polite.”

“I told her I wasn’t looking to die. I was trying to survive,” the old lady replied.

“So she rewarded you with a meal?” Zhuoxue was wide-eyed.

Even the demons of Qiufeng Ridge rarely helped humans—most just ignored them.

“She conjured up a whole table of food from thin air. Truly the heart of a goddess!” The old lady licked her lips, as if she could still taste it.

“Did she ever tell you her name?” Zhuoxue asked—not to seek refuge now, but purely out of curiosity.