Free Web NovelChapter 123: Chapter 90: The Returning Immortal
Everyone present was stunned once again.
The entire village was left in shock.
Only Xu Lei’s father and mother suddenly jolted, exchanging a glance.
"Could it be?"
His father, whose hair had already turned white, said, "Is it... our second son?"
"It must be him. Who else could it be but our second son, who vanished mysteriously, vowing to seek eternal life?"
His mother, just as aged, immediately felt her eyes well up with tears. "In our family, who else could make such an influential official bow his head and try so hard to get on our good side?"
"So, our second son... he’s come back?"
"But why won’t he come see us?"
"Have you forgotten?"
The old father said, "Back then, both our second son and that Zen Master said it."
"As men of the cloth, they make a point of not getting involved in worldly affairs or tangled in karma."
"But he still helped this time!"
The old mother said, "Making such an influential official bow and suck up to us—isn’t that getting deeply involved!"
"He shouldn’t have, but he did it anyway."
The old father’s eyes also grew moist. "But he’ll go no further. Perhaps that’s his message."
「Just then.」
The third and fourth sisters also walked over.
"Father, Mother, what are you talking about?"
They asked, "Who are you talking about?"
But the couple didn’t say much.
"Is it Second Brother?"
Just then, Eldest Brother also walked over. "Where on earth did Second Brother go back then? Did he become a Monk? So it’s him who’s back?"
"Second Brother?"
Third Brother was also stunned. "This time, he’s the one who helped? But where is he?"
"Eldest Brother, Third Brother, what Second Brother?"
Fourth Sister asked in surprise, "Do we really have a Second Brother?"
"How come we’ve barely heard of him? We thought Second Brother died young!"
Third Sister also said in amazement, "Is our Second Brother that amazing? Able to get the Chief Clerk ruined and make even the County Magistrate come visit us to get close?"
"I do remember we have a Second Brother."
Third Brother said, "But I’ve mostly forgotten by now. I can’t even remember what he looked like."
But the old parents still refused to say more, and Eldest Brother didn’t say much either.
But the third and fourth sisters’ curiosity was insatiable.
They couldn’t help but run off and ask all the old folks in the village about it.
"So our Second Brother!"
Fourth Sister said, "Left home to become a Monk when he was just nine!"
"How can someone be so powerful just by becoming a Monk?"
Third Sister said, "I heard some people who become monks just hole up in the temple doing chores all day, and they don’t have any special skills."
"What do you girls know!"
An old man in the village, whose teeth were almost all gone, said, "There’s a difference between real monks and fake monks."
"Some monks just do chores."
"But some monks are true transcendent beings who possess Divine Power!"
"Thinking back, when your grandpa here was just a kid, I met one."
"Back then, in the river outside our village, there was a Demon!"
"I saw with my own eyes a high-ranking monk use his Divine Power, enter the river, and subdue the Demon."
"You two little girls, I reckon your Second Brother must be that kind of person!"
"So, there are really Demons?"
Third Sister was shocked. "And our Second Brother is a transcendent being?"
"There are really great masters from the Daoist Family and Buddhist Sect?"
Fourth Sister was also stunned. "And our Second Brother is one of them?"
"You are all fortunate."
The old man just said, "Although the great master is unwilling to enter the secular world and return home,
for a transcendent being like him to be willing to look after you a little...
...is enough to ensure your family’s safety and prosperity."
"No wonder, no wonder... no wonder your family has had such smooth sailing for the past ten-plus years."
"Rising from a small farming household to sudden prominence."
"You bought a house in the city, and now you’re surrounded by children and grandchildren, living in happiness and harmony."
"It makes sense. This way, it all makes sense."
The old man’s words quickly spread throughout the village.
The villagers were all shocked and filled with a mix of envy and resentment.
Some people even wanted to marry their beautiful daughters to the family, even as concubines.
However, the eldest and third brothers were already married, so they refused these offers.
Many scholarly and prestigious families also came to ask for the third and fourth sisters’ hands in marriage, even though the two weren’t of marriageable age yet.
Of course, because they weren’t old enough, their father and mother naturally refused them all.
"If only we could meet Second Brother just once!"
The third and fourth sisters had no interest in their suitors.
They just rested their chins in their hands, gazed at the horizon, and chatted, "I wonder where Second Brother is now!
What does he look like!
Is he fat or thin?!"
Xu Lei wasn’t surprised that his family would guess he was the one who had acted.
But he truly had no intention of going home to see them.
「That day.」
Xu Lei was preparing to leave the city with Mu Yao.
But what Xu Lei didn’t expect was that, all of a sudden, he heard news of a suspected Demon Spirit sighting!
And it was in the area near his own home village!
’In that case,’ Xu Lei thought, ’perhaps a meeting with my family is unavoidable after all.’
