Chapter 26.1: Being your wife really is fortunate.
Chapter 26 Part 1
When everyone from the Xuanxue world came to Chang’an, they went to a military airport, and they sat in a military airplane. When they left, the country also arranged for a specialized flight to send this group of masters away.
According to Pei Yu, his master, Tianci-daoren, and Zi Wei Xing Hall’s Cengxiu-zhenjun specifically went to central authorities to inform them of this incident so the higher-ups didn’t have to be so nervous and possibly press the button to release the nukes.
When Xi Jia heard about this, he was shocked: 【 Nukes? Has it reached this point?! 】
Pei Yu was bold and confident: 【 That Qin Shi Huang even wants to reestablish the Qin Dynasty, okay?! 】
Xi Jia, “……” You make it sound so reasonable.
Many Celestial Masters left Chang’an by plane, leaving only ten Celestial Masters who stayed behind at the Mausoleum to strengthen the barrier. The filming for Xuanwu hadn’t concluded yet, and Xi Jia stayed to continue shooting. Ye Jingzhi stayed to accompany him.
In the past few days during the incident at the Mausoleum, the juniors on the Modou Rankings had long purged Chang’an, leaving none left. Walking in the streets of Chang’an in the middle of the night, even a wandering ghost could not be found, not to mention a malicious ghost. In order to gain points, these Celestial Masters absolutely wouldn’t let any ghost slip past, even handling the ceremony for reincarnation themselves.
Ye Jingzhi had stayed in Chang’an to accompany Xi Jia. Inevitably, he couldn’t hunt many ghosts or earn many points. So for the first time, Xi Jia could truly see his name clearly on the Modou Rankings.
Ye Jingzhi.
This name still remained in first place.
These days, Xi Jia always stayed together with Ye Jingzhi, and he simply never found Ye Jingzhi heading out to ghost hunt. However, Master Ye still obtained several tens of points. Nan Yi in second place possessed 15 points currently and still fell short by more than half compared to Ye Jingzhi. However, Ye Jingzhi finally wasn’t a star in the middle of the sky. Just by raising his head and looking up, his name steadily dropped in front of Xi Jia.
Before Pei Yu officially left Chang’an, he deliberately went to find Xi Jia at the movie city to play. Before he left, he had opened up the Modou Rankings, saw that he was in twelfth place, and he became unhappy.
Xi Jia asked in response, “You’re already in twelfth place?”
Pei Yu felt very wronged, “Brother Jia, the first five days of every month for the Modou Rankings doesn’t have any importance at all! You don’t look at how I’m ranked twelve right now. This is because we have fewer ghosts and the gap is too small. I’m only one ghost away from eleventh place. Just wait for a few more days, I will leave behind these few people by a big chunk. They’ll be too far away from me!”
Xi Jia pointed at Ye Jingzhi’s name and said indifferently, “Then what about Master Ye? It has only been one day and Master Ye has gotten dozens of ghosts.”
Pei Yu felt aggrieved as he said, “Who said those points are all from him hunting ghosts? Those are points that he got from selling things!”
“Ah?”
Pei Yu explained, “Didn’t I buy Hell King Ye’s Blood Drop from the Tian Gong Pavilion’s online shop? Those points will also count for the Modou Rankings. Hell King Ye is different from us. At most, we juniors would sell some Blood Drops or sell some talismans that we drew ourselves, but he can sell a huge pile of things! He can use a Spirit Rock to draw out a formation and put it up for sale on Tian Gong Pavilion.”
Saying this, Pei Yu opened Tian Gong Pavilion’s online shop and directly searched “Ye Jingzhi” inside the shop. Forty-six results appeared on the phone’s screen.
Pei Yu pointed at the phone, his eyes were all red in envy, “Look at this, the sales volume is the highest, and they’re House Warding paper talismans that Hell King Ye drew. It only takes three seconds for him to paint the Pacifying Earth Deities Mantra.1 How much do yellow paper talismans cost? One point can buy a pile! Cinnabar is even cheaper, one point for a bucket! Then, what about Hell King Ye’s Pacifying Earth Deities Mantra? A single point can buy ten! What is this called? He practically earns a huge profit by putting in a little. Brother Jia, I’m so envious beyond recognition. Hell King Ye has money ah, he’s so rich!!!”
Xi Jia was in a daze listening to Pei Yu talk. Charlatan Pei was clearly green with envy for a long time. Speaking of this, he gabbled nonstop. Xi Jia thought for a moment to sort out the twists and turns, and asked, “How much can someone earn in a month if they’re like him?”
Pei Yu said, “In a month, I usually can only hunt 60-70 evil ghosts, 80-90 if I’m good. But, I would have about 100 points every month. It’s because my charms are cheap and some people will buy them. If it’s Nan Yi, he is the eldest disciple for Zi Wei Xing Hall, and he also doesn’t have much time to hunt ghosts every month. However, his points are also high, and he is ranked second on the Modou Rankings because he sells more things.”
Xi Jia thought of something, “Then according to this statement, wouldn’t Tian Gong Pavilion’s disciples earn even more points since they are good at refining treasures?”
Pei Yu shook his head, “That doesn’t count for the Modou Rankings.” Speaking of Tian Gong Pavilion, Pei Yu also gnashed his teeth in envy, “That group of bastards at Tian Gong Pavilion also have a ton a money. Filthy rich!”
Xi Jia glanced at him, “Envy really makes you unrecognizable.”
Pei Yu thickened his face, “Okay okay. Let’s go back to the topic of Hell King Ye. Brother Jia, Hell King Ye has a least a few thousand points every month. Taking last month for example, the first 100 on the Modou Rankings had to all gather in Chang’an. Chang’an is so dangerous ah, the things in the Mausoleum are so frightening ah. What if we run into them? It’ll be difficult to preserve our little lives. That’s why before coming to Chang’an, cough cough……I also bought many things to protect my life. I contributed to Hell King Ye……well, about 70-80 points.”
Xi Jia just thought of a question, “Then, since Ziying didn’t kill anyone this time and also quickly returned to the Mausoleum, then wouldn’t the things you have bought be a deficit?”
“……Brother Jia, didn’t you see that my right hand is tied up in bandages?”
Xi Jia lowered his head to look. Sure enough, Charlatan Pei’s right hand was bandaged and slung from his neck for some reason.
“What happened to you?”
Pei Yu was filled with tears, “Yesterday, I found out that I had bought so many magic treasures in vain, I’m so angry that I chopped my hand!!!”
Xi Jia, “……”
He talked nonsense with Charlatan Pei for a while, and Xi Jia continued with the filming. By the time he finished the afternoon scenes, Pei Yu had already left Chang’an.
There weren’t many Celestial Masters left in Chang’an. The seniors of the Xuanxue world didn’t have to stay here. They had long wanted to go home to eat, drink, and have fun. The younger generation of Celestial Masters have even less of a reason to stay because the malicious ghosts around Chang’an were all hunted clean. If they wanted points, they need to quickly go to other places to find ghosts.
Xi Jia stayed with the crew for another five days. The last day was his final scene, the scenario in which he got killed by an arrow.
Xuanwu narrated a large incident during the Zhenguan era.2 In this kind of suspenseful movie, the plot behind this would often be related to the schemes of seizing the throne. Xuanwu was no exception.
In the movie, the remnants of the former crown prince’s faction conspired to revolt and started a serial murder case in Chang’an. At each crime scene, they would leave some small evidence to point it towards the former crown prince, Li Jiancheng.
Rumors started to spread in the city of Chang’an, saying that Li Jiancheng’s ghost came back to demand life, Li Jiancheng had died unjustly, and it was his own younger brother who caused his death.
The male and female leads naturally came to investigate. They finally found out the truth and knew that the murderers were the remnants of the former crown prince’s faction. When the murderers infiltrated the palace, they had stopped the murderers before they killed Tang Taizong. In the end, it was a HE final conclusion.
Xi Jia’s role was a guard next to the male lead. The male lead investigated the truth and understood that the murderers’ real objective was to kill the current Emperor. He immediately dispatched guards to the imperial palace in order to report the situation to Tang Taizong as fast as possible. Xi Jia charged into Xuanwu Gate on a galloping horse. Who would’ve expected that the murderers had long arranged archers on top of the Xuanwu Gate. In the pouring rain, he was shot to death by an arrow.
Xi Jia had shot many scenes before, but they were all guest appearances and minor characters. He had never acted before in such a big movie.
The director requested for him to use his real body to go into battle. The camera lenses were directly shooting his face. It must show a suspenseful and thrilling result.
This scene was repeatedly for more than ten times in a row, and Xi Jia fell over in the muddy water each time. Until finally, the director was satisfied as he shouted to cut.
After he, this kind of small actor, was killed, there wasn’t much to celebrate at all. The vice director sent him a bouquet of flowers and took a few photos together. The other actors came to congratulate for a bit. This could be counted as officially over.
Xi Jia removed the stage makeup, costume, and changed into his own clothes. Holding the small bouquet, he headed out of the movie city by himself. He needed to the take the last evening bus at 9:00 to return to Chang’an City. Fortunately, he didn’t miss the last bus. Otherwise, he would need to pay over 100 yuan to take a taxi to the city.
When Xi Jia arrived at the bus stop, he stood underneath the street light and quietly waited for the bus. He stood next to the light box advertisement on the platform. A movie poster of a currently popular film emperor hung in this light box. It was said that next month, this new movie would be released.
Xi Jia glanced at it and changed his line of sight. His gaze stayed half a meter in front of the poster for a while as he continued to wait for the bus.
Today’s bus was a bit late. Xi Jia waited for five minutes and didn’t see the shadow of the bus.
Not long after, three dressed up young girls chatted and laughed as they came over. The moment they saw poster at the bus stop, they were all pleasantly surprised as they exclaimed in succession, “Ah! Fang Moting! His movie will come out next month. Ahhhhh, I need to go to the movies to see!!!”
The girls excitedly talked about their own favorite celebrities. Xi Jia stood to the side, quietly waiting for the bus.
Until one of the girls mentioned, “I really want to marry Fang Moting,” Xi Jia creased his brows. He suddenly walked in front of the three girls, raised his head, and smiled, “Sorry, please excuse me.”
The three girls saw Xi Jia. They each blanked out for a short moment before they nodded and stepped out of the way, blushing.
Xi Jia walked to the side of the bus stop, took out a clean tissue from his pocket, and threw it in the trash. He turned his head, and those three girls didn’t talk about their big celebrity, Fang Moting, anymore. Instead, they gathered together and whispered while looking in his direction, “So handsome, is that person also a celebrity?”
Xi Jia’s gaze swept past them and landed half a meter in front of the poster.
Not long after, the bus arrived, and the four of them got on the bus. Xi Jia walked at the end. When he passed the poster, his footsteps slightly paused. Facing the air, he said in a low voice, “You think you are only angry and jealous. You want to prank and push that girl. But, behind her is the road. If she fell backwards and accidentally got hit by a car……you would have killed someone and become a malicious ghost. You wouldn’t be able to reincarnate.”
Leaving these words, Xi Jia got onto the bus.
The old bus wobbly left the movie city. Xi Jia silently glanced behind him. At the bus stop, the girl wearing a yellow skirt blankly stared at him. The girl’s feet floated in the air. She foolishly watched Xi Jia leave as if not understanding what had just happened.
After a moment, the female ghost floated back to the poster, rubbing against the handsome and charming face on the poster in infatuation.
Translator’s Addition:
God Stick Pei: I’m going to a scary place ah, I need to protect myself ah, what should I do ah, I need to buy countermeasures ah…………What a waste of my points, AHHHH! *proceeds to “chop” his hand*
Translator’s Notes:
1 安土地神咒 Pacifying Earth Dieties Mantra/Incantation – One of the 8 Great Taoist Spiritual Mantras/Incantations. An English translation that I had found online is a bit weird. It was “Settling of surround Earth Dieties.” Just to clarify, the Earth Dieties do the pacifying/guarding/etc. ↵
2 貞觀 Zhenguan Era – Emperor Tang Taizong’s period of reign during the Tang Dynasty from 626–649 AD. ↵