Wu Kingdom, Capital City.
Outside the Duke You De's Mansion, the moss on the high walls had grown thicker.
The branches of the peach trees extending from within the estate also spoke of desolation and decay.
Du Youqian arrived at the main gate and saw the official seals pasted on the doors, now so battered by wind and rain that only faint traces remained.
He stared, lost in thought.
In his ears, he could almost hear the joyous laughter of his children and grandchildren, hear the veiled insults traded between his beautiful wife and maids.
Passing through the decaying gates, he could almost see children playing hide-and-seek among the rockeries, their faces greasy from a freshly stolen chicken leg, smiling with innocent mischief.
He saw a girl in a white dress on a swing against the blue sky, her long skirt fanning out as if it were turning into white wings.
He shook his head and looked again.
Before him remained the decaying gates, the yellowed seals on the verge of peeling off completely.
The once-great Duke You De's Mansion had become a paradise for local ruffians and vagrants.
Its precious flowers and trees had long since been trampled and destroyed.
The people of the mansion, too, had been scattered to the winds.
Over twenty years ago, the current Duke You De was embroiled in a political struggle, arrested, and imprisoned.
In the end, he was found guilty of slandering the monarch, consorting with prostitutes, corruption, taking a concubine during a mourning period, and allowing his slaves to commit violence. He was stripped of all official posts and his title, and his entire family was exiled a thousand miles away.
A great family, vanished just like that.
Du Youqian shook his head and slowly turned to leave.
The current Duke You De, he calculated, was his sixth-generation grandson.
Aside from a lingering attachment to the title "Duke You De," he no longer felt any affection for these descendants.
'How can I feel anything for people I've never even met?'
Even when he heard of the tragic state of his family—their home confiscated, their members exiled—Du Youqian's heart remained unstirred.
Besides, most of them had gotten what they deserved.
Over a hundred years had passed. The rules he had established back then were followed by almost no one.
The family's good customs had long since been lost.
And now, the symbol of "Duke You De" had also vanished.
A few people might remember it now, but in a few decades, or a century, the title would only be found in the history books.
The glory of those years had been swept away by the wind.
The merits and demerits of a thousand autumns could only be left for posterity to judge.
'Those who understand me and those who condemn me will do so through the annals of history!'
Therefore, Du Youqian decided that in his next life, or perhaps the one after that, when he had the time, he would find the Immortal Master who served as a Tributor for the Wu Kingdom—the representative from the Shengxuan Sect.
He would refine a few decent Elixirs and use them to build a rapport with the man.
Then he'd have that fellow take him to the Wu Kingdom's Hanlin Academy to amend the history books.
He would make his own image in the annals a bit more glorious, and then use the Spring and Autumn Brush Technique to subtly omit the transgressions of his unworthy descendants.
'Yes, that's the plan.'
After leaving the Wu Kingdom Capital City, Du Youqian's mood improved.
He leisurely made his way back to the Jin Kingdom, enjoying the mountains and rivers along the way.
Along the way, this old man even indulged in a bit of youthful folly, dishing out some justice here and there.
He wondered if the Jianghu would one day tell legends of a white-bearded hero.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I left home young and returned an old man,My accent is unchanged, but my temples are gray.
The children I meet do not know me,They smile and ask, "Stranger, where are you from?"
As Du Youqian stepped into the small county town where the Fang Family lived, this poem surfaced in his mind.
He was far from the soft, melodious speech of the Wu region now.
The somewhat harsh, somewhat coarse local accent once again filled his ears...
He felt the anxiety that comes with nearing one's home after a long absence.
'It was a feeling I never thought I would experience, but it welled up in my heart all the same.'
'If I had to name a true hometown, it would be Earth, wouldn't it?'
But Earth was so distant now, like a dream whose details were long forgotten.
His experiences in his previous life as Du Youqian, the powerful Duke You De of the Wu Kingdom, had also faded with his reincarnation.
But the memories of his youth in this lifetime sharpened, as if a lens had been brought into perfect focus.
He walked toward the location of the Fang Family's main residence from memory.
Du Youqian's steps were light, as if he were afraid of disturbing the dreams of the ancestors who lingered here.
He walked past the crisscrossing paths between fields, past the green wheat seedlings, past the children chasing and roughhousing.
A lazy dog saw the stranger, warily lowering its body, preparing to bark.
But Du Youqian released his Magical Power, and the dog's body went limp, becoming lazy and drowsy once more.
"Old sir, you're not from around here, are you? Who are you looking for?" asked a young man standing on a ridge between fields. He wore a short tunic suitable for farming and carried a hoe on his shoulder.
Du Youqian studied him. In the young man's handsome yet sun-darkened face, he could vaguely see a resemblance to his own elder brother from this life.
"You're from the Fang Family? What's your name?" Du Youqian asked.
"Yes, I'm from the Fang Family," the young man said casually. "Old sir, whose relative are you?"
Du Youqian smiled. "I'm a relative of the Fang Family."
The young man looked him up and down appraisingly. "How come I've never seen you before? My name is Fang Yuantang."
Du Youqian thought for a moment and asked, "Who is your great-grandfather? Fang Haiping or Fang Haisheng?"
He remembered that when he left home, his elder brother already had two sons.
"Neither. My great-grandfather was the third-born of his generation, Fang Haiwang," the young man said, a look of surprise on his face. "Are you really a relative of the Fang Family?"
Du Youqian didn't answer, asking with a smile instead, "Why are you farming the land yourself? Has the Fang Family fallen on hard times?"
"Not exactly. My branch of the family split off back in my great-grandfather's generation, and we didn't get much land. To this day, we get by as tenant farmers for the main family branch," Fang Yuantang said with a nonchalant expression. "They don't even consider distant relatives like us as their own anymore."
"Distant relatives? You're not that distant. You're still within the five degrees of kinship."
"In their eyes, we're distant relatives." Fang Yuantang showed no trace of resentment. He was as calm as the cool water in a well, having clearly accepted his reality long ago.
Du Youqian looked at him.
'This young man actually has a Spirit Root.'
Although he didn't have a Magical Artifact for testing, so he couldn't determine the child's Spirit Root Attribute or quality.
But he could be almost certain that the boy had a Spirit Root.
That was a rare thing indeed.
Among Mortals, it was rare to find even one person with a Spirit Root out of thousands.
'The entire Fang Family's fortune must be concentrated in this child.'
"Child, have you ever heard of someone from your great-great-grandfather's generation named Fang Ying... Fang Zhongying?"
Du Youqian had been using the alias "Fang Ying" in the Wu Kingdom for the past century and had almost forgotten his real name from this life.
"Fang Zhongying..." Fang Yuantang frowned in deep thought for a long while before slapping his forehead. "I remember! He was my great-grandfather's second uncle, right? I heard that old ancestor left home before my great-grandfather was even born and never came back. Back then, Ancestor Lie even removed him from the family registry for a time, then added him back in. The record still has traces of the alteration. I saw it when I was memorizing the registry as a child, so it left a deep impression."
As he spoke, he looked at Du Youqian with suspicion, likely noticing the resemblance between the old man's features and those of his own elders. "Old sir, could you be from that branch of the family?"
Du Youqian laughed. "Good child. Since you remember my name, it means there's a thread of fate between us. Before I leave, I will come find you and give you a great fortune."
Fang Yuantang just smiled, unconvinced.
Then, in the next second, his eyes went wide, nearly popping out of their sockets.
'Where did he go?'
'Where's that white-bearded old man?'
'How did he just disappear?'
'Did I just see a ghost in broad daylight?'
Suddenly, he recalled what Du Youqian had said.
"Good child. Since you remember my name..."
Oh my god! Fang Yuantang was so scared his legs went soft.
'Could it be? Was that the ghost of the old ancestor, Fang Zhongying, who had wandered for so many years and finally returned home?'
'Wait... did that old ancestor just say he was going to come find me? And give me a great fortune?'
'Please... please, sir, don't come back!'
'Just give that great fortune to someone else!'