I Only Want to Lie Flat But Am Forced to Cultivate Immortality-Chapter 48 - 38: Untying the Belt, A Dream

Life is like fog and dreams, feelings like morning dew that fleets.

To master the Dream Creation Skill, one must first perform the method upon oneself, personally experiencing a great dream of life and death, only then can the true essence be comprehended.

In the morgue, Xu Qing felt his head heavy and his feet light, the flickering candlelight before him seemed shrouded in a layer of mist, making it indistinct.

He stumbled to an empty mortuary bed, unable to resist his drowsiness any longer, he lay down and slept.

...

Recently, a new actor joined the opera troupe, excelling in both stage presence and vocalization.

"The young lord resides in the heart, while the maiden in her sorrowful time, the moon knows the grievance..."

"Oh, my lord, you peek at my long ailment, yet not enough to care for your every grief."

"Is that Sai Yuxian? That Chief Zhao’s family must be truly wealthy, even in death, they invited the best opera singer for a ghostly performance..." From the audience, Xu Qing listened to Sai Yuxian’s mournful tones, feeling an inexplicable familiarity, yet unable to recall where he had heard it before.

But none of this mattered, as today was the good day for his enemy’s funeral, nothing else was more important! frёewebηovel.cѳm

After listening to a tower-meeting play, Xu Qing went backstage to discuss with the seemingly delicate Sai Yuxian about the ghostly performance.

Two days later, after Chief Zhao’s burial, with no trace of the Zhao family in Linhe District, Xu Qing’s luck seemed to have significantly improved.

Even Sai Yuxian, whom he met at the funeral, began visiting the Funeral Shop every few days to sing for him, claiming she was completely smitten, losing her soul at first sight.

Xu Qing initially paid it no mind, as an ageless zombie, could he really marry a woman who would wither in two or three decades?

Time flew by, and the situation changed drastically.

One day, the Celestial Heart Sect, long lurking and watching, suddenly raised an insurrection, and the usually singing and dressing Sai Yuxian turned into a princess of the former dynasty, the Saintess of the sect!

From that day on, noticing Xu Qing’s inclination towards ’Necrophilia,’ Sai Yuxian began brazenly sending various corpses to the Funeral Shop.

At this moment, the Celestial Heart Sect was leading the rebellion against the Imperial Court, as the sect’s Saintess, how could she fear obtaining corpses for her loved one?

Did they not know Sai Yuxian was a loyal and righteous individual!

One must say, the Saintess’s approach to confession, though radical, was indeed straightforward and effective!

When the Celestial Heart Sect breached Luojing and stormed the Imperial City, after beheading Emperor Longping, the newly-crowned Empress Sai Yuxian ordered the Ministry of Rites to summon Xu Qing to the capital for marriage, in accordance with the wedding standards of past emperors.

Xu Qing, holding back, refused, so Sai Yuxian offered the corpses from various execution grounds, including the Imperial Prison and the Celestial Prison, even taking Emperor Longping’s corpse as a betrothal gift, all for a smile.

Xu Qing, a mere Corpse Driver of the Funeral Shop, had never seen so many corpses in one day, showered with such wealth, how could he resist!

Greedy for the reward, Xu Qing completely lost himself, closing the Funeral Shop overnight and arriving at the Imperial City, from then on indulging in power and corpses day and night.

Sai Yuxian, broad-minded as she was, fearing Xu Qing would be neglected due to her busy affairs, ordered the former dynasty’s rebel women allocated to the Music Bureau be granted poisoned wine and white silk, allowing Xu Qing to refine them into Corpse Consorts to accompany him.

With such an understanding wife, how could the path to becoming a Corpse Immortal not succeed?

The previous profession of Xu Qing, who once collected unclaimed corpses in a humble shop, seemed laughable, as the bodies he once gathered in a year could now be surpassed in a single day!

Thereon, Xu Qing, increasingly obsessed with cultivation, began altering the Feng Shui of the Imperial City, persuading the Empress to build the Moon Viewing Platform to channel lunar energy and earth qi, assisting his ascent to immortality.

During this period, the new dynasty’s Prime Minister, formerly the White Robe Guardian of the Celestial Heart Sect, Righteous and Loyal, fiercely criticized Xu Qing in court with over a hundred accusations, declaring his heart of one righteousness, while Xu Qing’s kind harbored chaos, deceived the emperor above, and deluded the people below, a calamity to the nation, deserving of death!

Sai Yuxian, enraged upon hearing this, immediately rebuked, "You claim to have a righteous heart, then slice open your chest and show me, is it truly a heart of loyalty?"

The Prime Minister, unwavering, said, "The ruler distressed, the subject humiliated, I serve the nation with utmost loyalty, how could I let a demon flaunt their power? If one death can clarify the emperor’s mind, what harm in a hundred deaths?"

After speaking, he cut out his loyal heart in front of Sai Yuxian, leaving all officials in grieved fury.

Thereafter, the department ministers of the three judiciaries, and the six ministries, jointly impeached Xu Qing, with even the uninformed populace attributing the chaos to a certain Xu consort in the harem.

In a wave of public fury, Xu Qing was marked as the demon husband who brought calamity to the nation.

A tree that stands out in the forest will be felled by the wind.

Xu Qing, who acted flamboyantly and unrestrainedly, became the target of all.

The Empress, unable to withstand the public outcry, confined Xu Qing to a cold palace, though not reducing his treatment in food or clothing.

Xu Qing believed the matter would end there, waiting for the day of his true ascension, when none could restrain him anymore.

But man proposes, and heaven disposes.

One day, a few rays of light descended outside the palace, accompanied by a grand voice.

One claimed to be Ge Hongwen, a wandering cultivator from Henglu Mountain, Songyun Temple.

Another identified as Zhuang Tongsheng, a cultivator from Lianhua County, Jade Pool Mountain.

Following them, several others responded, all with an intention to exterminate the emperor’s consort who brought disaster to the nation.

Xu Qing, with his unfinished cultivation, was unable to resist their onslaught, ending his great path in the Divine Palace Imperial Residence.

In his dying moments, he suddenly realized, how could he have forgotten there were countless true cultivators with otherworldly abilities, and wasn’t Zhuang Tongsheng the Immortal Master he saw when exorcising Landlord Liu’s spirit long ago?

As for Ge Hongwen of Henglu Mountain, his name sounded familiar, wasn’t he the cheap father of Li Si, taught by the old physician Yang Chunfu!

Xu Qing’s head throbbed with regret, lamenting his forgotten principles, greed for corpses leading to his demise. Yet, it all felt like a dream, disjointed and fantastical.

How did the love-struck opera singer Sai Yuxian turn into a former dynasty’s princess, Celestial Heart Sect Saintess, and current Empress?

And how did Chief Zhao, seemingly well alive, suddenly become a corpse?

In the silent morgue, the person lying on the board suddenly opened his eyes, followed by a crisp slap sound.

After harshly slapping himself awake, Xu Qing was fully sober.

Seeing the surroundings and the corpse of Sai Yuxian on the table, he fell silent.

He didn’t expect the Dream Creation Skill to conjure a world of desires within his dream.

Looking at the flickering candle on the table, it seemed that the life experienced in the dream was merely a moment.

Xu Qing, somewhat enlightened, understood that the Dream Creation Skill was an Illusion Technique, where the people and scenes in the dream had real-life references, not truly conjured from nothing.

As recorded in the ancient text, Pillow Record, a fellow named Lü Weng had once used an Immortal Technique to give a young man named Lu Sheng a long dream.

In the dream, Lu Sheng experienced a lifetime, and upon waking, the millet porridge before him had yet to be cooked.

Xu Qing, lacking the porridge reference, did not know how much time had passed, but he had other ways to verify.

At this moment, Wang Lingyuan, having just relieved himself, returned from outside the morgue door.

Seeing this, Xu Qing realized the white clouds amidst the blue dogs, changing day to night, was all just a dream during a moment of relief.