Part 6: Entanglement

The Ghost Sovereign gathered the tiny wisp of light into a Soul-Nurturing Pearl, rose to his feet, and handed the pearl to Black Servant. Black Servant took it with both hands; after all, this was his little master. He held the pearl with utmost care and guided it with the spiritual power within him, moving it along the current of that power until it reached the vital point at the center of his body.

Seeing this, the Ghost Sovereign lowered his eyes and said nothing. With a single step through the void, he headed for the Underworld.

Demon Qianqian, lying in wait not far from Shura Hall, lifted the hooded cloak that concealed her aura and let out a few cold snorts. Her time spent stealing this cloak from her third brother had not been wasted after all. This time, let her see how that wretch planned to dodge her.

She pulled the hood back over her head and followed the Ghost Sovereign into the Underworld. There, she watched him enter the Rebirth Pool without the slightest hesitation and vanish in an instant. Clenching her teeth, she hurried after him.

In the mortal world.

Within the imperial capital of the Goose Kingdom, a nation long known for valuing harmony above all, a great scandal had erupted recently. People in every street and alley were talking about it.

“Hey, have you heard? The richest man in our Goose Kingdom, Shen Qiu, that great benefactor of a man, had his whole family wiped out a few days ago...”

“What? The Shen family was exterminated? Are you joking? I was planning to visit them someday and thank Benefactor Shen for all his kindness...”

“Cough, as if that were not enough to make one sigh. Such a good man, too! The court had initially suppressed the matter, but Benefactor Shen had built up so much goodwill that visitors came to his door every day. Among them were naturally many powerful people. Even when the court wanted to bury the story, it simply could not hold it down.”

“Breaking news! Breaking news!” A third passerby, hearing the two of them discuss the matter, suddenly leaned in. “I have the latest news.”

The first two spoke at once. “What news? Tell us! Quickly!”

The third passerby coughed before saying slowly, “Strictly speaking, the Shen family was not entirely exterminated. On the night of the massacre, one of the servants at the Shen residence hid Shen Qiu’s child, who had not yet reached one month of age. That was how the child barely escaped the calamity.”

At that, the three of them could not help but sigh. Alas. Good people never seem to live long.

The bustling scene that had once filled the gates of the Shen residence was now long gone. These days, the front of the manor was deserted, with very few visitors. People feared bringing disaster upon themselves, or worse, becoming tainted by something unclean.

Rumors spread a hundred ways once they left the source, and by the time they had traveled far enough, they were barely recognizable. Some pitied the Shen family and thought them wronged. Naturally, others believed the Shen household had brought the disaster upon themselves. If the family had truly been innocent, how could it have provoked such a brutal slaughter?

Whatever the outside world said, the scene inside the Shen residence was not nearly as miserable as outsiders imagined.

From the courtyard came the occasional sharp rebuke.

“Why are you so late?”

There stood a tall, broad-shouldered man with a handsome face, holding the infant in his arms with rigid care and utmost caution. Strange though it was, the one doing the scolding was the month-old baby in his embrace.

Yes, the man and the baby in his arms were none other than Black Servant and the reincarnated Ghost Sovereign.

Black Servant silently endured the reprimand without a word. In truth, not long after his master departed, he had brought the little master to wait in the mortal world. He had not expected that the family into which his master had been reborn would suffer such a calamity. To be born only just into the world and then lose both parents almost at once... if it had happened to him, he would likely have been even angrier.

By that reasoning, the master was right to scold him.

“Utterly foolish!” he snapped.

At that very moment, the baby in his arms lowered his voice somewhat and soon let out a yawn, falling asleep.

Only then did Black Servant finally breathe easier. His master had been reincarnated, but after all, he now possessed only a mortal body. Even with memories intact at birth, his power would have diminished greatly. A human body had its limits, after all, and could never unleash the master’s full strength.

While his master rested, Black Servant intended to set about properly organizing this estate, in which he and his master would remain for some time.

By then, only Black Servant and the Ghost Sovereign remained in the Shen residence. A few days later, the palace issued a decree to explain the so-called truth to the public.

It claimed that the Shen family had, through business dealings, inadvertently offended a vicious foreign power, and that was why they had suffered such a fatal disaster. The royal house, moved by pity for the Shen child, declared the orphaned heir of the Shen family to be the first prince of a foreign surname in the history of the Goose Kingdom.

The royal house would send people to manage the Shen family’s business affairs temporarily and dispatch attendants to care for the orphan, providing him with treatment befitting royalty.

It was called a boundless royal kindness, but in truth it was merely an attempt to transfer the Shen family’s fortune into the royal treasury. The Shen family had fallen on hard times, while the silver in the royal pockets had increased considerably. After all, the Shen family’s title as the richest house was no empty boast.

After some time, the royal household arranged the coffins for the people of the Shen residence. Four or five coffins were carried out one after another from the Shen estate. Black Servant, dressed in white mourning clothes, stood at the very front, holding the deeply sleeping master in his arms as the rites were completed.

His master had instructed him that once they entered the mortal world and took human form, everything must be done according to human custom.

The funeral procession wound through streets and alleys until it seemed the entire imperial capital had fallen into silence with it. As they passed each road, more people joined from behind, until at last a vast procession stretched out endlessly, its tail out of sight. In silence, everyone followed the coffins out of the city and watched as the members of the Shen family were laid to rest and buried.

Black Servant stood aside while the people who had come with the procession stepped forward one after another to bow before Shen Qiu’s grave and burn several sticks of incense. Most of them had likely received kindness from the Shen family at one time or another. Men and women, old and young alike came and went for a very long time before it was finally over.

Five years later.

Hardly anyone spoke of the Shen residence anymore, and no one had ever come to visit the Shen family’s orphan. But if no one came, so be it. The Ghost Sovereign, no, Shen Xunqing, was quite happy to enjoy the peace.

Life went on as always. The name Shen Xunqing had been chosen by himself. Coming to this world, he had in truth only been here to find that person. Taking the surname Shen was merely his way of thanking the Shen family for giving him this body.

Five years had passed, and for the first time Shen Xunqing felt time to be so long. The two times he had met that person before had both been accidental coincidences. To search for the previous life of that little King of Hell among the countless people of the world was truly no easy matter.

After reincarnation, the little King of Hell’s aura had been completely concealed, and even the Soul-Chasing Tassel could do nothing. Black Servant had been able to find him with the tassel only because he himself was connected to it; the little King of Hell, however, was not.

Shen Xunqing floated about in the courtyard, drifting aimlessly. Lost in thought, he did not notice that he had risen nearly a foot off the ground, when originally he had been only three inches above it. When Black Servant returned and saw this, he hurriedly called out in a low voice, “Master, come down quickly!”

A child’s body could not do much, and at times it could even lose control. Just like now. Shen Xunqing came back to himself and sat properly in midair, then tried to move with a thought, only to find that he could not descend no matter what he did. The corner of his mouth twitched. With a dark expression, Shen Xunqing replied in a frigid voice, “Carry me down.”