Chapter 1814 — Tidings from an Old Friend
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Bai Yuqiong stopped him and smiled. "Daoist friend, I heard you teach, and your insight is deep. Your gifts and understanding are extraordinary. Why do you stay teaching in this primary school? If you went to a great city, you would surely have a far better future."
Seeing how noble and uncommon she was, the young lecturer knew her for someone of importance, and saluted her without servility. "I was born here, and I have feeling for my home. After I had learned what I could in the city, naturally I had to come back. I mean to teach more people and help them leave the villages."
"But you may be held back. You could have a better future."
Bai Yuqiong ventured, "If you are willing, I can take you to Shangjing. That is the place where your talents could truly unfold."
The young lecturer shook his head and refused her.
"Meng Zhiyun, time to go!" A lecturer in the distance waved to the youth.
The young lecturer excused himself and hurried away.
"Meng Zhiyun..."
Bai Yuqiong watched him go; a long while passed before she came to herself. She boarded the Heavenly Master's Treasure Carriage, looked through the window once more at that Meng Zhiyun, and murmured, "Is it you? Senior Brother Meng... Cui'er, pinch up a handful of earth."
One of her guards hastily pinched up a handful of earth from the ground and brought it into the carriage.
Bai Yuqiong shaped the earth into incense and lit it. The smoke curled upward and took the form of the Earth Lord Shen Fengqing, three-headed and six-armed, master of the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
Bai Yuqiong made her salute and said, "I would ask the Earth Lord to look into the origins of a certain person for me."
The Shen Fengqing formed of smoke opened his eyes, indifferent. "This great war has set the Six Paths turning, and the origins of many new lives are bound up in it. Such things cannot be looked into lightly. I cannot bend the rules for Your Majesty the Southern Emperor."
Bai Yuqiong said hastily, "For the sake of my daughter and the Lord of the Beast Realm..."
Shen Fengqing said helplessly, "Not again after this."
Bai Yuqiong let out a breath of relief and asked him to look into Meng Zhiyun.
After a moment Shen Fengqing said, "Meng Yungui of the Heavenly Court suffered in Youdu for thirty-one years, and the karma fire was burned from his body. He was reborn into the Meng family, and is now eighteen years old."
Bai Yuqiong's heart quivered. She murmured, "It really is him... Why does he not know me?"
"To preserve fairness, all who reincarnate have every memory erased. His memories of his former life were burned utterly away in the karma fire."
Shen Fengqing dissolved into smoke, his voice coming from Youdu: "Your Majesty the Southern Emperor, you must not interfere with him, nor wake his memories. Otherwise you will have broken the laws of Youdu! I am a cruel one, and I never show mercy..."
Bai Yuqiong stood dazed for a long time, then suddenly pushed open the carriage and rushed out, flying to where Meng Zhiyun stood.
Meng Zhiyun looked at her in astonishment, suspicion on his face. Bai Yuqiong handed him her name card and smiled. "I am Bai Yuqiong of the Southern Heaven. If in the future you should go to the Southern Heaven or to Shangjing, you may come and find me."
Meng Zhiyun accepted the card, and Bai Yuqiong turned and left, her heart very glad.
More than a month later she came at last to Shangjing, the capital of Jingping.
Yan Yunxi, by Emperor Yanfeng's order, came out to welcome her and invited her into the capital. "His Majesty learned of your coming, and guessed your purpose. He has already ordered thirty thousand divine-ability practitioners to the Southern Heaven. Thirty thousand of them can found a hundred schools and colleges."
"A hundred? What is a hundred?"