Unconventional [Rebirth] - Chapter 78

Jiang Rui carried the plump, round, and incredibly soft child all the way to the main hall. The moment he stepped inside, he felt an unprecedented wave of killing intent surging toward him. He quickly raised a hand to block the force, only to see the infant spirit—which had previously been clinging stubbornly to Rong Jingtang’s neck—fly directly onto the baby in his arms.

From the moment they entered the hall, the baby had been crying incessantly. No matter how Jiang Rui tried to coax him, nothing worked. However, once the infant spirit attached itself to the baby, the crying ceased. The baby gradually began to smile, his tiny hands clasping the hands of the spirit.

When Rong Jingtang stepped out from the inner chamber, he felt an immediate sense of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted from his body. Seeing the child in Jiang Rui’s arms, he frowned slightly. “Is this… my brother?”

“Presumably,” Jiang Rui replied, cradling the child with one hand while awkwardly rubbing his nose with the other.

Rong Jingtang was twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. To suddenly have an infant brother was, admittedly, a bit strange.

Rong Jingtang arched an eyebrow and reached out to take the baby. He held the child with unpracticed movements, yet the baby smiled brightly at him, and even the infant spirit hovering above became noticeably more docile.

“I need to find Jia Shi again,” Jiang Rui said, taking the child back.

Rong Jingtang showed no reaction to the name; he simply nodded in agreement.

Jiang Rui had two reasons for seeking Jia Shi. First, the child could not recover using his own strength alone. Second… he felt that things between Jia Shi and Rong Anchen shouldn’t end this way.

It wasn’t that he wanted to meddle in their private affairs, but rather that the sliver of evil energy within the Gamosuo (the Buddhist relic) was now so powerful that he could no longer eliminate it on his own.

Though the Gamosuo was a sacred Buddhist treasure, without a residence filled with deep spiritual merit, its divine nature would fade day by day. If the malevolent energy trapped inside—fueled by intense obsession—ever broke its seal, the consequences would be unpredictable even for him.

When he returned to the backyard, Rong Anchen was gone. Jiang Rui couldn’t quite understand why these two had to suffer through such agonizing complications. Although he had never personally experienced a “Love Tribulation,” he now felt a newfound sense of dread toward them.

Recalling what the Peach Blossom Tree had told him earlier, Jiang Rui found it somewhat ironic. After wandering in circles, it turned out his destined partner was Rong Jingtang himself. Knowing this now, it would be unacceptable to let Rong Jingtang walk away.

He pushed open the modest wooden door. Inside, he saw Jia Shi sitting upright at the table, a string of prayer beads in his hand. Placed directly in front of him was the Gamosuo.

“Master Yuan Jue,” Jiang Rui greeted him with a respectful Buddhist salute at the door. Only after Jia Shi returned the gesture did he step inside.

“I have come this time because…” Jiang Rui began, trying to find the right words to explain his intent. To his surprise, Jia Shi simply nodded, motioning for him to place the child on the table.

“I tied the knot of this cause with my own hands; it is only right that my hands bring it to fruition,” Jia Shi said. He swept his hand over the child. The infant spirit, which had begun to grow agitated in the presence of the Buddhist aura, suddenly became dazed. The black mist surrounding it was swallowed by a fierce, golden-red light. Its form became translucent, merging with the pale green soul fragments emerging from the baby’s body.

At that moment, Jia Shi began chanting Buddhist mantras in a low voice. The Sanskrit characters manifested into physical form, striking the child’s body one by one. Jiang Rui watched as the child went from struggling in discomfort to eventually falling into a peaceful, deep sleep.

Only after the soul had fully integrated into the physical body did Jiang Rui exhale a sigh of thanks. Nothing in the world was holier than the true words of the Buddha. Jia Shi had severed his seven emotions and six desires; though he seemed cold, the Buddhist power within him had only grown more formidable.

Jiang Rui moved the child to the bed and then turned back to Jia Shi. “The second matter is the Gamosuo…”

“The Gamosuo is exactly what I need your help with,” Jia Shi said, picking up the relic. “I know you came for the evil energy within it. That energy… originated from me.”

Jia Shi opened the Gamosuo, and a shimmering, projected map appeared in the air.

Jiang Rui’s ears twitched. He caught the sound of footsteps on the grass outside. With a flicker of his divine sense, he saw that Rong Anchen had returned. He smiled slightly and cast a barrier around the room. It would keep Rong Anchen out, but allow him to see and hear everything inside.

“These things… are they your obsessions?” Jiang Rui asked, looking at the flickering images appearing above the Gamosuo. Though the scenes were fragmented, he could piece together the story. These were likely the most indelible memories in Jia Shi’s mind.

The most frequent scene, however, was… that night of passionate intimacy.

Jiang Rui looked at the “Spring Palace” scenes above with an embarrassed expression. Though the lighting in the memory was dim and blurred, the ambiguity only made it feel more intimate.

From the young monk Jia Shi first descending the mountain to the eighteen-year-old Yuan Jue returning to Putuo Temple, the twists of fate between those years were enough to make anyone sigh with grief.

Seeing the helplessness in those memories, Jiang Rui sighed. “So, the other end of his broken marriage thread… was you.”

Jia Shi nodded. Expressionless, he looked up at the image of himself using the Gamosuo to cut into his own heart to extract heart-blood. Even though it was his own memory, he watched it with the detachment of a spectator watching a silent film.

Rong Anchen appeared most frequently in the images, yet Jia Shi’s heart remained unnervingly still.

“Since this is the case, what is it you want me to help you with?” Jiang Rui asked. Before he could finish, a ripple of spiritual energy appeared beside him. It was Miao Xuan.

Jiang Rui was surprised, but the young monk across from him remained calm, as if he had expected this.

Miao Xuan, sporting his usual baby face but carrying an ancient air, gave Jia Shi a formal bow. “What was owed to you that day shall be repaid in full today.”

Jia Shi lowered his eyes and remained silent.

Miao Xuan joined his hands in mid-air to form a seal. The Gamosuo began to vibrate violently, breaking free from control and emitting a piercing sound that made Jiang Rui’s ears ring. Through the haze, strange mists poured out of the relic, forming vivid clusters that swarmed toward Jia Shi.

Jia Shi appeared to be in immense pain. Yet, he remained sitting cross-legged with his hands pressed together. Even when blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth, he did not utter a single cry.

Miao Xuan, seemingly exhausted, grew faint and eventually vanished into the air.

Jiang Rui saw Jia Shi’s agony but was powerless to help. However, as the mist merged with Jia Shi, certain threads that were incompatible with the memories began to surface. Jiang Rui frowned, intercepting those mysterious threads and tightening the barrier, forcing Rong Anchen to retreat from the backyard.

This was all he could do for the two of them. The rest would depend on their own fate.

“It is a Peach Blossom Tribulation,” a soft voice whispered in his ear. Jiang Rui blinked and looked at the pink mist beside him. “Is that you?”

“Yes,” the Peach Blossom Tree spirit replied, its form shimmering as it brushed a hand over Jia Shi’s forehead. “This matter is, ultimately, an inextricable mess.”

“The main line of the Rong family has produced twins since ancient times. Usually, the one with ‘Yang’ energy lives, while the one with ‘Yin’ energy is used as a sacrificial vessel to absorb all disasters for the other. It is a most sinister method, yet the Rong family has survived for generations because of it.”

“But in this generation, a sudden change occurred because of you. The Yin and Yang balance of the Rong family was thrown into chaos, and the curse was broken. Jia Shi, who was never supposed to appear, was drawn here by you. And Rong Anchen, who was fated to die in the fire at the Rong mansion when he was twelve, met him instead, forming this tribulation.”

“…It all started because of me?” Jiang Rui asked, dazed. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

“Yes,” the Peach Blossom Tree continued. “To save you back then, Miao Xuan forcibly twisted time and space. The price was Jia Shi’s entire cultivation of Buddhist merit, forcing him to sever his ties with the Buddha forever. He was born with sixteen sacred scars on his crown—a sign of one destined for Buddhahood—but because of a moment of soft-heartedness, he lost that path.”

Jiang Rui was speechless.

“But this is also his way of repaying you,” the mist of the Peach Blossom Tree thinned. “In your previous life, you died a miserable death. Miao Xuan saw it all. Among those who harmed you—besides the mortals—was Jia Shi himself.”

The clouds grew thicker. In the capital, where the Emperor’s dragon aura should have been strongest, it was now so dark that people couldn’t see the path ahead without lamps. The sky felt as though it were collapsing, but Jiang Rui had no heart to worry about the weather.

“The Rong bloodline has accumulated much sin. In the generation of Rong Anchen and Rong Jingtang, the line should have ended to restore balance to the world. But in the previous life, the fire caused by Jia Shi’s appearance led the fated-to-die Rong Jingtang to meet you. Because of this, a variable was added to your destiny. Thus, it can be said that Jia Shi is simply settling the debt today.”

The voice of the Peach Blossom Tree faded, leaving Jiang Rui unable to untangle the knotted mess of fate.

The door was suddenly burst open. The barrier, weakened by the lightning, could no longer stop a frantic Rong Anchen. Tears streaming down his face, Rong Anchen gathered the unconscious Jia Shi into his arms, murmuring incoherently.

On the bed, the infant’s sudden crying added to the cacophony. Jiang Rui turned his head in a daze, only to see Rong Jingtang standing silently by the door.

Amidst the flashes of lightning, Rong Jingtang’s calm expression looked as though it hadn’t changed in ten thousand years.