Chapter 21 - 2nd Arc: Rebirth Of Shen Long Mu

Five years have passed since I won my first Imperial Spring Competition and was awarded the title of Duke of the Yan province, and Honorary Fourth Prince.

Life was a little more complicated than when I was a kid. At 17 I must oversee my father’s work since I now out-rank him; I also have my own rooms within the Imperial Palace (which I avoid using as much as I can because a meddlesome Princess always finds a way to intrude in my study time). I must also dedicate time to my own cultivation, but moving to the next level is getting harder and harder with every new Tribulation. However, I silently persevered, now that Master Fa is officially retired. This also made me the de-facto leader of the Fa school of martial arts, despite him having a descendant.

In other news, ever since I underwent my fifth Heavenly Tribulation, I have been able to peer into the souls of people.

Creepy, believe me.

At first, I would get glimpses of events related to people close to me.

Master Fa was most surprised when I began talking about a ‘dream’ I saw during one of my meditations. In it, I witnessed the marriage of a girl whose name was Fa Su Lan.

I regretted asking if he knew her.

Of course, he knew her! It had been his only daughter who died in a tragic accident 5 years prior alongside her husband, leaving Min’s mei-mei an orphan until the old man took her home with him.

That was the beginning of my harrowing experience of ‘remembering’. I tried meditating the next day and, instead of Fa Su Lan, I witnessed Master Fa’s harsh infancy.

I avoided meditating in his presence after that.

He, of course, understood my reticence once I came clean about the cause.

This then led us to another complication: Meditating in solitude isn’t hard when you’re Buddha, but for me who is constantly surrounded by people in whatever household I reside at, is nearly impossible.

But like with everything, with practice I was able to ‘mostly’ (can you hear the quotation marks?) block the visions. It wasn’t until I survived my sixth Heavenly Tribulation that I gained the ability to forgo these visions of past occurrences to, instead watch my consciousness leave my body.

I had thought myself free of the problematic visions until I noticed something curious about the people surrounding me. I would sometimes catch a glimpse of some form of light or color coming from them, but it would be gone after I blinked. The more I meditated, the more often it happened, and the longer it lasted.

Master Fa had, of course, explained the different manifestations of Chi. The force and energy of the universe. For those individuals who are sensible enough, Chi can be perceived either as a bright-colored halo (or aura) or as sound.

Therefore, it came to me that I was watching the manifestation of their Chi. If there was a disease, I saw it reflected on their aura with a darker color; if they were angry, it would be red; blue if they were sad, depressed or melancholic.

I was understandably impressed by this development and thus dedicated myself to learn about channeling and Chi medicine.

It took me two years to figure out that the more I knew, the more I could focus and understand what I was seeing.

It was also at this time that Fa Min and I crossed paths again.

His grandfather had retired -the excuse he had used to not live with me at the Palace, not that I blamed him, with the amount of drama I witness every day!- a few months prior, and had tasked his grandson to invite me for his 107th birthday.

Being the honorable student that I was (and not because I wanted to escape the Imperial Palace, mind you), I immediately rode to the Yan province with Min to inform my parents of the event.

They were pleased that I was going and asked that I congratulate him in their stead, for my mother had just recently given birth to my newest sister Shen Dongmei. Ever since Zhi Rou had become engaged with Heng Li, Mother had expressed the desire to have another daughter that would help her when she was older and, apparently, the heavens had listened to her pleas.

Zhi, like me, spent at least one season a year in the Imperial Palace, usually living in the same wing that the emperor had designated for me and my “eventual family” (I knew he wanted me to marry Meiling, but I was loath to chain myself to any more of his whims… or hers, for that matter).

My father’s estate wasn’t directly on our way to Liang Province, but I wanted to take the chance to see the family, and Min humored me after witnessing how stressed I was from living in the Palace.

The day after we arrived at my parent’s home, my father commissioned a ship to take us through the Ji River to make up for lost time… and so that we could stay a bit longer.

Two days later, we parted. Ling accompanied us because, over the years, Master Fa had grown quite fond of her. And to be perfectly truthful… so had I.

“We’re on schedule” Min said smiling once we were on board the ship. “At this speed, we will make it to Jin port by night.”

“Um.”

“So…” Fa Min said after a moment of silence, watching Ling and me. “You really didn’t like being in… that place, did you?”

I had asked to not name the imperial palace when outside if possible. To prevent bad mouthing the hand that fed us.

“Yeah. I’m staying for the books, but I can’t stand the people.”

He laughed, “Since when did you become a hermit?”

“The moment I got dragged into their drama. Don’t get me wrong, I see Li-di as my brother, and Hui-ge and I have a tense yet cordial relationship, but Mei-” I grimaced “I sincerely don’t know why she keeps pursuing me.”

“I think Master is a great man, worth pursuing.” Ling added her two cents with a tender smile.

I sighed and patted her head. “Even if you only say that to make me feel better, I appreciate it, Ling.”

I heard Min snort and turned to him with a raised eyebrow, but all he did was laugh harder.