CHAPTER 565: CHAPTER 547: THE PROPOSAL

Fengyu didn’t know if Master Miao Yun could hear her voice. She rambled on, talking about her days in the Capital and in West State over the past few years while Master Miao Yun was away.

"Life is a long and arduous journey of cultivation," Master Miao Yun had once said.

Master Miao Yun was the only female cultivator in Xiangguo Temple. She was an abandoned infant found in the mountains by the former abbot of Xiangguo Temple. The mountains were populated by monks, and it was inconvenient for them to raise a child. The old abbot sent Master Miao Yun to live with a hunter’s family at the foot of the mountain. The hunter’s wife, unable to bear children, treated her as her own. But fortune was fleeting—the couple was killed by wolves in the mountains three months later, leaving Master Miao Yun orphaned once again.

The old abbot, with no other options, sought another family to take her in. But just three months later, that farming household of six was wiped out in a stormy night’s massacre, leaving Master Miao Yun, who was not even a year old, as the sole survivor.

The monks in the temple began to believe that Master Miao Yun brought misfortune, as calamity had befallen two families in succession. Even the old abbot held some reservations. But Master Miao Yun was still a child, innocent and blameless. The abbot had no choice but to raise her in Xiangguo Temple. Strangely enough, while Master Miao Yun seemed to bring disaster to her loved ones, she brought prosperity to Xiangguo Temple.

During those years, the Yuwen Royal Family was plagued by turmoil, and the Imperial Family lost much of its influence. Xiangguo Temple, being a royal temple, saw dwindling incense offerings. The common people in the Capital preferred visiting city temples on the first and fifteenth days of the month and rarely came to Xiangguo Temple.

Outside of major royal ceremonies, Xiangguo Temple was typically desolate.

However, ever since Master Miao Yun began residing at Xiangguo Temple, the temple’s incense offerings flourished unexpectedly. Wishes for children and marriage became remarkably efficacious, drawing women from noble families in the Capital to often visit the temple to offer incense and pray for blessings. Slowly, the once-declining Xiangguo Temple regained its former prosperity. Master Miao Yun became something of a talisman for the temple, cherished like a daughter by the old abbot and the monks.

At the age of ten, Master Miao Yun became a secular disciple of Xiangguo Temple and began her cultivation while keeping her hair. Originally, the old abbot planned to send her down the mountain when she turned fifteen. However, with the temple’s growing prosperity, the incense offerings of the Yuwen Royal Family similarly thrived. The Imperial Family began to recover some of its former prestige. The Empress Dowager, having somehow heard claims of Master Miao Yun’s Buddhist affinity and her role in revitalizing the Imperial Family, decreed that Master Miao Yun would become the next abbot of Xiangguo Temple, responsible for overseeing royal sacrificial ceremonies and rituals.

Thus, Master Miao Yun became the first female abbot of Xiangguo Temple in centuries, as well as its longest-serving abbot. From the age of fifteen to fifty-six, she spent forty years confined within Xiangguo Temple, with only a handful of journeys down the mountain, each requiring royal approval. After stepping down, Master Miao Yun eagerly departed from the Capital to wander the world freely.

Rumor had it that Master Miao Yun was clairvoyant, capable of conversing with the dead and guiding their spirits. Her reputation grew ever more exaggerated, with some even claiming she was a Bodhisattva incarnate, undergoing trials in the mortal world.

It was widely believed that Master Miao Yun’s predictions were particularly accurate. For instance, she had prophesied the phoenix destiny of two Yuwen Crown Princess Consorts when they were merely ten years old at Xiangguo Temple. Both of them indeed became Crown Princess Consorts later on.

The legend of her ability to predict phoenix destinies spread like wildfire.

As a result, during royal betrothals, families would specifically seek out Master Miao Yun to foretell destinies and perform divinations. This, however, led to numerous unintended tragedies. Eventually, Master Miao Yun adopted a reserved demeanor, rarely performing such predictions. If she made any, they were often grim, like when she predicted Fengyu wouldn’t live past eighteen.

Fengyu had always dismissed such predictions as nonsense and had even once confronted Master Miao Yun because of them. To her, the Crown Princess Consorts weren’t chosen because of a predicted phoenix destiny—it was their inherent fate to hold those titles.

"If you hadn’t declared them phoenix destinies," Fengyu had argued, "they might not even have become Crown Princess Consorts."

When Fengyu was younger, Master Miao Yun’s prediction about her dying before she turned eighteen incensed her. She even accused Master Miao Yun of accepting bribes to fabricate divine destinies and profit from incense money.

No matter how harshly she spoke, Master Miao Yun never seemed to hold it against her.

Fengyu had once vowed to Master Miao Yun that she would live past eighteen and "slap her in the face" to prove her wrong. Yet now, looking at her situation, she had to admit that the prediction had been startlingly accurate.

Perhaps she really wouldn’t survive past eighteen.

"Master, I said many arrogant and foolish things in my youth. Please forgive me," Fengyu said with a faint smile. "A monk does not lie. I now understand my mistake."

Ah, how amusing. When Master Miao Yun left the Capital, Fengyu had still been indignant, believing her to be a fraud.

But the soul exchange had utterly shaken her. She couldn’t help feeling both skeptical and convinced, torn between trusting Master Miao Yun’s spiritual abilities and dismissing them as mere superstition. After all, if souls could truly be exchanged, then perhaps Master Miao Yun really could see ghosts.

When her grandfather passed away, Fengyu had knelt at the mourning hall, speaking blankly to the air, convinced his soul was lingering before her. Her behavior had terrified everyone in Feng Mansion, who thought her delirious.

Now, after all she had been through—after her sister’s death—Fengyu finally realized that perhaps Master Miao Yun had been right all along.

She wished Master Miao Yun would wake up and speak to her, even if only to deliver the news of her impending death, so they could bid each other farewell. A proper farewell, unlike the one she and her sister never had time for.

When they had left the Capital that year, it had been the last time they saw each other.

In the dead of night, Xie Xun came to find Fengyu, inviting her for a lakeside excursion to the North Palace. The North Palace held a grand lake, and during their childhood in the palace, he and Fengyu had once snuck there to play. Now, it was the peak of lotus blossom season. The edges of the lake brimmed with radiant lotus flowers, a breathtaking sight. Though Fengyu had smelled the fragrance of these flowers during her time in the palace, she had never taken the time to truly admire them.

"How beautiful!" Fengyu exclaimed in awe at the view. Xie Xun took her onto a small boat, and together, they rowed out across the lake. The stillness of the lake’s center reflected the sixteenth moon perfectly. Stars, moonlight, and the lotuses on the water’s surface created a rare and stunning scene. Fengyu let go of her worries, her mood inexplicably lifting. What a blessing!

Seeing her smile, Xie Xun felt joy swell in his heart.

After daily dealings with state affairs, his favorite moments were those that brought a smile to Fengyu’s face.

Xie Xun could scarcely wait to marry her.

"Ayu, six days from now is the enthronement ceremony. The Astronomical Observatory has determined it to be an auspicious day. Let’s have our wedding then," Xie Xun proposed gently and passionately, under the moonlight in the middle of the lake.

His initial plan had been to wait until the Jiangnan Civil War subsided, until his second brother returned to the Capital, and all matters were resolved. Only then would he have ample time to give Fengyu a grand wedding.

But now, he couldn’t wait any longer!