Immortality Path: From the Blind Man at the Pharmacy

The story goes like this.

At that moment, Song Cheng's divine soul drifted out of his body, leisurely wandering and witnessing the sights of the night. In reality, the out-of-body night wandering only lasted half an incense stick's time.

On the bed, the lady of the house twisted her delicate body in her dreams, as if searching for her husband. She instinctively reached out on both sides.

When her little foot touched Song Cheng's calf, she rolled over subconsciously, snuggling up to him from behind.

Even though there was nearly half a bed's distance from her back, she stubbornly, instinctively moved closer to Song Cheng's side.

As a result, when she touched him, she only felt like she was against a block of ice. She opened her eyes in a daze from her dream and reached out to touch Song Cheng again, fully awakened by the cold.

She opened her eyes wide, fully realizing her husband's body had turned cold.

Tong Jia was startled, quickly checking his pulse and breathing.

"Alive," Song Cheng remarked.

The lady of the house anxiously asked, "What's going on? Lying here perfectly fine... did you go out or what? No, if you were going out, I would have known."

Song Cheng replied, "What if I say I can leave my body with my soul; would you believe it, my lady?"

The lady of the house, petite in stature yet like a warm furnace, completely turned over onto the young man and crawled into his embrace, saying, "Hold me to warm up."

Song Cheng held her tightly, as if embracing a ray of sunshine.

Though she bared her teeth from the cold, she didn't complain about it, but clung to the young man, pressing her hands to his cold spots to warm him while muttering, "Stop dreaming. We know each other well. A few days ago you said you could see strange things, and I believed you. Now you say you can leave your body with your soul. When will it end? Did you encounter evil or get hysterical?"

Song Cheng contemplated, deciding not to hide anything from Tong Jia.

Crossing over, the panel, immortality and such, he wasn't ready to disclose. Firstly because it's his biggest secret, and secondly, Tong Jia wouldn't be able to accept it. But ghost sightings during night wandering, there was nothing to conceal.

In this chaotic world, he and the lady of the house relied on each other for survival.

The young lady held feelings and loyalty towards him.

"Getting stronger while treating the person next to you as a fool, not letting her know the slightest bit about yourself, and silently watching her act like a clown"—such a thing he couldn't do.

Thus, Song Cheng said, "Once I've warmed up, let's give it a try."

Tong Jia chuckled, "Try what?"

Song Cheng said, "You take a piece of paper, write some words, and then put it quietly outside. I will exit my body with my soul to see what you wrote, then come back and tell you."

A few seconds of divine soul departure were still manageable for Song Cheng as long as the weather wasn't extremely harsh.

Tong Jia said, "Alright! If you guess wrong, then from now on, no more wild imaginations, no more saying you can see strange things or leave your body with your soul. Just live a good life!"

Song Cheng said, "Agreed."

Tong Jia sighed speechlessly.

Her body was warm, spreading a good deal of that heat to Song Cheng. Moreover, Song Cheng maintained an accurate control over his night wandering time. After a while, Song Cheng's body started to warm up.

The lady of the house felt it too; thus, without caring about the darkness, she rolled off Song Cheng, rustling out of the bed. At the edge, she lightly kicked Song Cheng's thigh, gruffly declared, "Sleeping well, being woken by you—now I can't sleep! If we're trying, let's do it now!"

Song Cheng said, "Alright."

The lady of the house quickly wrapped herself in a coat, grabbed paper and pen, and ran outside to scribble a couple of strokes, drawing a big turtle, then wrote two words, "Song Cheng," on the turtle's shell.

After she finished these, she picked up a small stone, pressed the drawing into the muddy ground, and then hastily returned, sitting at the bedside and gently patting Song Cheng, "Hey, it's ready. I'll give you a hint; I wrote a line from a poem you know. But the poem has eight stanzas; guess which one I wrote."

Song Cheng searched his memories.

In the memories of his previous life, after being taken in by the Rejuvenation Hall, he had learned some basic characters and could understand simple counting.

He couldn't write, merely learning alongside Tong Jia from the old physician, so that he wouldn't make mistakes while preparing prescriptions.

The only exception was once when the old physician treated a scholar who gifted a poem as thanks.

He and Tong Jia learned it along the way.

Song Cheng felt his body's state.

It was warm, suitable for an out-of-body experience.

Thus, closing his eyes, he visualized the nine-story pagoda, his divine soul flying swiftly out of the body, like a gust of wind heading for the door.

Squeezing out through the door crack, he saw the outside drawing paper weighted by a small stone.

He didn't linger, returning swiftly.

But for a few seconds.

Tong Jia initially gasped seeing Song Cheng stop breathing, staring in shock, but his breath quickly returned, leaving her doubting and uncertain.

Song Cheng laughed, "Instead of a poem, you drew a turtle, with the words 'Tong Jia' on its shell."

He didn't know many characters, but he recognized his name.

Tong Jia instinctively spat, but after that, she looked at him with shock, her single-lidded eyes round, unable to believe or accept it as reality.

An out-of-body divine soul? Seeing ghosts?

In her shock, her first response was to grab a stick and then swiftly turn back, saying, "So you did encounter evil!"

Song Cheng sighed, recalling the poem, reciting:

"The village under the cold watch, The sad winds heard all around. The stream too deep to bear snow, The mountain frozen with no clouds to flow. The gulls and herons hard to spot, The sandy shore hard to discern. Few plum trees by the wild bridge Stand all in white turmoil."

Next, he started narrating events only he and Tong Jia knew.

After speaking, he said, "On that day when I was unconscious, perhaps I suddenly grasped this skill."

Tong Jia questioned for quite some time before finally laying down the stick, returning to the bed, and saying, "Then... can you see what I look like?"

Song Cheng replied, "A beauty better than a fairy."

Tong Jia giggled, then kept mumbling, "I never thought my husband had this ability."

Song Cheng leaned over, disclosing the incident involving "Ding Siyu's eldest brother among the three brothers threatening Yune with a knife," and his suspicions about the "second brother among the Ding Family brothers coming to investigate" from that day.

Tong Jia was stunned for a moment, "No way. Those three brothers are still kids, the youngest only fourteen, the two older just fifteen."

Song Cheng responded, "I can tell, Ding Siyu has practiced martial arts, and he has a good knife too."

Tong Jia fell into deep silence, suddenly feeling a wave of fear.

If Song Cheng had been permanently bedridden that day, would Ding Siyu have broken into her room at midnight, humiliating her with a knife to her throat?

"We should go, gather everyone and have a look!" Tong Jia was enraged.

Song Cheng pulled her back, gently sighing.

In such a village mainly comprised of the old, weak, sick, and disabled averaging at "0~0," if someone like Ding Siyu, skilled at killing, was ruthless enough, he might scare everyone into staying out of his way.

Moreover, Ding Siyu was the Village Chief's nephew, a "red-rooted and well-bred" local of Tang River Village,—unlike outsiders like Yune and him, Ding Siyu was considered one of their own.

Though furious, Song Cheng was clueless on how to handle the current situation.

The lady of the house pondered for a long while, heavily sighing, and asked, "Then, what do you suggest we do?"

Song Cheng suggested, "Isn't there a blacksmith shop in the village? Although the blacksmith was drafted away, the tools are still there. Tomorrow, let's go buy them."

The lady of the house said, "They're just junk metal, many are rusty."

Song Cheng replied, "I know how to choose."

The lady of the house lay on his chest, propping her chin, looking at him with sparkling eyes as if meeting him for the first time. After a while, she said, "Song Cheng really didn't have this ability."

Song Cheng was dumbfounded as if his cover had been blown.

The lady of the house continued, "I've heard of some lost souls possessing others. You didn't possess Song Cheng after he died, right?"

Song Cheng said, "Nonsense!"

The lady of the house said, "There you go again; Song Cheng wouldn't say such things, okay?"

After that, she sighed lightly again, saying, "But you know all the things between me and Song Cheng... plus, if you really possessed him when Song Cheng was unconscious... then it was you who slept with me."

Song Cheng smiled bitterly, "Lady, is it possible that instead of possessing me, the lost soul got absorbed by me, and by absorbing its memories, I gained these changes?"

Tong Jia blinked, her heart in turmoil.

Song Cheng began whispering sweet, earthy words.

Slowly, under the blanket, the young couple became harmonious once more.

Secrets could not be hidden at the bedside, for how could someone you spend every moment with be easily deceived?

However, no matter what, the two of them were already in the same boat, relying on each other for survival.

After another twist of the sheets, Tong Jia had finally accepted it.

Moreover, her husband was clearly an enhanced Song Cheng, which was also quite good.