Unyielding Bone of Dust

The dog, upon hearing this, didn't wait for Lin Suqing to ask; it started to stammer guiltily: "Um, I... that was... that was just youthful ignorance... um..."

"Oh?" The second prince raised his eyebrows, this questioning tone made Lin Suqing feel there must be some incredible story behind it, and he immediately perked up his ears slyly.

But before the second prince could say anything, the dog, feeling guilty, confessed on its own, "Um... compared to the emperor, my thirty or forty thousand years is just a drop in the bucket, naturally, I was still young... right, right..."

Thirty or forty thousand years... The dog was actually that old?

Lin Suqing couldn't keep secrets; his every thought was written on his face, and the dog saw right through him, barking immediately: "Don't underestimate me, I was once a war god, and upon meeting me, you should respectfully address me as Divine Monarch!"

Lin Suqing, confused, scratched his head and asked, "Then... what exactly requires the emperor to descend to the mortal realm?" And more importantly, did he have to go too? With the second prince and the dog leaving, wouldn't he have no one to look out for him? Wouldn't he starve to death in the mansion?

The dog turned its face away and stubbornly sat silent, unwilling to speak.

Just then, Mi Gu, that old man, came to the door carrying a basket of wild fruits and asked, "Your Highness, the crane messenger who delivered the note has picked some wild fruit as a token of thanks for the young master's rescue earlier."

"For me?" Lin Suqing was overjoyed, not expecting the crane to be so appreciative.

He was so hungry he was dizzy and lightheaded; it was exactly what he needed.

He quickly went to take it, not forgetting his manners, "Thank you for your trouble, bringing this especially for me."

He picked out the best fruit to offer to the second prince, "Would the emperor care to try?" The second prince, holding a folding fan, pushed the fruit away, his focus entirely on his book, declining the offer.

Lin Suqing then retracted his hand and offered the fruit to Mi Gu: "If the emperor won't eat, you have a taste."

Mi Gu accepted it with both hands, trembling with gratitude: "This old man thanks Your Highness, and thanks the young master."

Lin Suqing gave him a smile, picked one for himself, biting into it with a crunch and teasing the dog, "If you don't talk, I won't invite you to eat."

Mi Gu immediately bristled with indignation, "Impudence, how dare you be so unrestrained in the presence of His Highness, that is the esteemed Wind-chasing Divine Lord."

The dog gave Lin Suqing a disdainful glance, "I will not stoop to concern myself with such a wild boy from another world."

Lin Suqing, not realizing he had been rude until Mi Gu pointed it out, meant to apologize, but the second prince didn't mind.

Everyone he had met had always revered the second prince, who was also very aloof and indifferent, intimidating people from offending him, as if a single wrong word could result in immediate beheading. Unexpectedly, the second prince was so magnanimous; maybe it was all Lin Suqing's misunderstanding and misinterpretation? His heart suddenly felt a bit guilty and uneasy...

Before he could calm down, he heard the second prince instruct Mi Gu, "Mi Gu, why don't you tell him about that great spectacle Wind-chasing once caused?"

Lin Suqing immediately felt nervous, why was the second prince suddenly so agreeable? Something felt fishy...

"A great spectacle?" Mi Gu first blinked in surprise, then realized what he meant, "Yes, Your Highness."

Then, with utmost care, Mi Gu stepped through the door of the study but still stood at the entrance, not daring to venture farther in. Yet, once he started recounting the dog's past, he spoke fluently, moving closer with excitement when he got to the thrilling parts.

"If we speak of the once unbeatable Wind-chasing Divine Lord, that's quite a long story. Let this old man focus on the most crucial parts. The Wind-chasing Divine Lord used to command the wind and clouds, and nobody could oppose him! Across the three mountains, the Four Seas and Five Lakes, the Six Harmonies, the Eight Desolates, and all the provinces! Whoever brought him up would be full of endless praise and admiration! Even fairies from the Nine Heavens competed for his favor..."

Mi Gu's face beamed with admiration as he recalled these times, pleasing the dog immensely as it arrogantly lifted its little chin.

Afterward, Mi Gu continued, "What a pity, alas, even a War God can make mistakes in a moment of impulsive foolishness..." Mi Gu shook his head with a sigh, while the doggie turned its face away in a huff, refusing to look any further.

Lin Suqing felt he had finally understood; putting together what the doggie had said before, he figured that the doggie had been demoted. He asked, "What mistake did it make?"

Mi Gu spoke at length, "It all starts with Lord Zhui Feng's mother." He gave a bow towards the doggie before continuing.

"Lord Zhui Feng's mother was an ordinary mortal, so when the Divine Monarch was born, he was taken back to Danxue Mountain by his father, subsequently raised by..." Mi Gu suddenly fell silent mid-sentence, his expression tense as he made a move as if to kneel towards where the Crown Prince was.

At that moment, the Crown Prince was engrossed in a book, and said indifferently, "It's fine." The emotion in his voice was indiscernible.

Reassured by the Crown Prince's permission, Mi Gu continued his story, but when he came to the name he had stopped himself from mentioning before, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

"He was taken care of by... by the Spirit Crown Prince, who also served as his trusted aide."

When he mentioned the Spirit Crown Prince, his voice trembled until he finally moved on, relaxing a bit.

This made Lin Suqing wonder even more.

In his original world, "Spirit" was an ancient posthumous title which in the rules of conferment meant not earning renown through diligence—it referred to someone incompetent who only held the position of Crown Prince because they were the eldest legitimate son...

If in this world, Danxue Mountain also adhered to such customs...

Then... did it mean that a Crown Prince had been deposed before the current one? Further thinking... did that Crown Prince...die?

Lin Suqing was startled by his own speculation, hurriedly denying it to himself, no, no, no, it shouldn't be. Their customs should be different from the world he had known.

For instance, in his original world, a title like "second Crown Prince" would never be allowed. Clearly, it wouldn't happen, there must be another reason.

Or could it be that his name was "Spirit"? Speaking of which, since coming to the Crown Prince's residence, he had not yet seen any other Crown Princes, but neither had he encountered the Emperor mentioned by the Elders. Perhaps the Grand Crown Prince, or the Spirit Crown Prince, was with the Emperor in the same place?

Lin Suqing was preoccupied with these thoughts when Mi Gu's next part of the story pulled him back from his wild speculations.

"The lifespan of mortals is always limited, and thus Lord Zhui Feng's mother was in the cycle of reincarnation. About a hundred years ago, during her lifetime in that incarnation, she had committed many evils. After death, she couldn't reincarnate smoothly but was instead sentenced to suffer in the path of hungry ghosts. When Lord Zhui Feng found out, he went to visit her, and unable to bear seeing his mother suffer day in, day out, in a fit of impulse, he wreaked havoc in the Underworld, even destroying the prison doors of the eighteen levels of hell, releasing millions of evil ghosts and demons..."

Lin Suqing, who had been leisurely nibbling on wild fruits while listening to the story, felt a chill down his spine—millions... no wonder the Divine Lord of War God had been too busy to cope...

"What happened after that?"

Before Mi Gu could continue, the doggie itself lifted its hind leg to scratch an itch, nonchalantly saying, "After that, I was demoted from my divine rank, punished to take on this dog beast form."

Lin Suqing choked on a piece of fruit, struggling to swallow it down, and curiously asked, "Can it be restored?"

"Why not?" the doggie stood up, shook its fur, went to lie down in front of the Crown Prince, and said to him, "Just capture all those evil ghosts, and I can immediately return to my original form. Hmph, then I'll let you witness my grandeur."

"Millions... how many years and months that would take," Lin Suqing rolled his eyes as he tried to tally in his mind, his brain turning to mush with the arithmetic.

The doggie didn't seem to care, "Aren't there still the Divine Lord of War God and those messengers from the Underworld? Plus, we have the Black and White Impermanence—the two are quick at it, catching a basketful in a day. Also, in the Mortal Realm, there are countless cultivators who can exorcise demons and subdue monsters. Capturing some evil ghosts is just a trifle for them."

The Crown Prince glanced at it and said coolly, "That makes sense, after all, being three or four tens of thousands of years old is still considered youthful, a hundred years or so is nothing to be concerned about."