CHAPTER 763: CHAPTER 329: DUN JIA AND QINGTIAN DAO

"At this moment, the six clusters of Mistaken Dreams have dispersed. Please, Zen Master, extinguish the fire."

The dialogue between Zhou Xuan and Zhao Wuya was like a minstrel performance, seamless and perfectly coordinated, truly a conspiratorial exchange that made the Mo Ya Monk so furious that smoke rose from his seven orifices once more.

"You’re playing tricks outside the rules again."

"Still within the rules."

Zhou Xuan said with a smile.

"It seems my Wu Ya Stone has to join the game now." Zhao Wuya threw the "Wu Ya Stone" in his hand into the sky above Mingjiang Prefecture.

The small Wu Ya Stone, covered with green moss, a lush patch of green, hung in the sky, and even on a clear sunny day without mist, it would be extremely difficult for ordinary people on the ground to spot it with the naked eye.

The Wu Ya Stone gently shook the moss from its body

The moss scattered down to the human world, wherever it landed, vibrant green life spread, the lushness of life instantly obscured the red of death,

and the Xianhuo burning Mingjiang receded completely.

...

"The fire is out... the fire is out, alas."

"The great fire of Mingjiang Prefecture has finally subsided, heaven bless us, heaven bless us."

The scorching feeling retreated as if a gentle spring breeze softly brushed over the faces of the people of Mingjiang Prefecture,

They celebrated and congratulated each other, drawing water from wells in the ruins, taking chlorinated water from unbroken pipes, splashing it over themselves, celebrating their survival from the disaster,

Despite knowing, as Zhou Xuan did, that a long way still lay ahead after surviving the calamity.

...

On East Market Street, the rain, protected by the Dragon God, finally stopped,

"The rain has stopped?"

Someone among the neighbors said nervously.

Yun Ziliang calculated internally with a hand gesture before saying to them, "I’ve figured it out, the flames along the entire street have ceased, everyone, you can go home."

"Go home... go home... but where is home?"

The neighbors first felt the excitement of surviving the calamity, but after the excitement, a sudden wave of grief struck them—the fire had burned down their houses and killed their family members, there was no home left.

At this moment, Sister Cui stood up and said, "We’re lucky to be alive. Now that we’ve survived, we can’t just do nothing, can we? Are we going to collect the bodies of our family members? Are we going to salvage what’s left of the burned-down house? If we have no vision to rebuild our home and continue living, we might as well be dead..."

Her words, like a wake-up call, made everyone disperse,

The dead are gone, the living will always grieve, but no matter the grief, the road for departed family members hasn’t completely ended—only when the bodies are found, placed into coffins, and buried in the ground is one’s life’s journey truly complete.

Yun Ziliang also returned to the ruins of the Big Four Happiness Mahjong Hall to dig out the bodies of his card-playing friends, arrange them neatly, clean them through Jingyi, and send them off.

Sister Cui then took Little Fuzi and Mu Hua back to the shop.

The small food stall and Jingyi Shop were probably burned down to their frames, but Sister Cui and Little Fuzi both wanted to go back and have a look.

...

The trio got closer and closer to Jingyi Shop, the Star Covering mist over Mingjiang Prefecture had its Mistaken Dreams destroyed by the God of Suffering, but the mist itself had not dissipated.

Through the mist, they heard a burst of flute music.

The melancholy flute tones became clear when they passed through the mist and saw Fifth Senior Brother Lv Mingkun playing the flute on a slanted roof beam, disregarding the soot, his eyes red as if he had been crying heavily.

"Fifth Senior Brother."

Little Fuzi called out.

"Little Fu, you didn’t die?"

Lv Mingkun was overjoyed. He had been doing dissections at Hui Feng Medical College when the Xianhuo descended from the sky. Worried about the safety of the people at the shop, he rushed to call Jingyi Shop, but no one answered. He hurried, anxious, all the way to the shop,

When he arrived, he saw the blaze raging in front of the shop. He shouted "Little Fuzi", "Lao Yun", "Little Junior Brother" desperately but got no response, thinking they had perished in the fire,

Just then, the Wu Ya Stone scattered its moss, extinguishing the Xianhuo, he rummaged through the shop ruins and found nothing but a bamboo flute, a painting scroll, and half-burned wardrobe,

"Not dead, not dead, Fifth Brother, our shop is gone."

Little Fuzi burst into tears, finally unable to hold back after seeing so many dead bodies and the ruin of the shop.

"You silly boy, the shop may be gone, but we can rebuild another one in the future. Being alive is better than anything."

Lv Mingkun asked again, "Where’s Lao Yun?"

"In the ruins of the Mahjong Hall digging out his card friends’ corpses."

"Alas."

Lv Mingkun sighed with sadness,

And Little Fuzi, upon opening the half-burned wardrobe, found it contained Zhou Xuan’s custom Daoist robes. Originally there were eight, but four were burned beyond wear, though four had been buried in sand and weren’t damaged. He found the intact robes, removed his shirt, wrapped them up, planning to wash the robes clean when they settled in a new place,

"Fuzi, move aside."

As Little Fuzi wrapped the robes, Lv Mingkun suddenly called out loudly, and two Bamboo Leaf Blades struck with thunderous speed toward an approaching turtle shell.

"Ah, it’s actually a little forensic doctor."

Five tall, thin figures emerged from the mist—five Taoists in Daoist robes,

At the same time, those forced out of the mist included the transformed fox-like Sister Cui and Mu Hua.

"Where do these Taoists come from, hurting people in secret."

Lv Mingkun’s hand reached toward the two Bamboo Leaf Blades, and with a wave, the blade light returned to his hand.