Chapter 68: Is it him?

“Lao Dao?” I thought to myself. Almost everyone here is a Taoist, and calling someone Lao Dao is too general.

Seeing me stop, Gu Xinda was puzzled. After all, I was talking to the old Taoist, so he naturally couldn’t hear me. However, seeing the old Taoist who had stopped there, he understood the situation and couldn’t help but say excitedly to me, “Chengyi, you kid are really lucky. Others come to the ghost market eight or ten times, but they don’t necessarily get a chance to meet. It’s rare for someone to get a chance to meet on the first time. I didn’t expect you to get one.”

I was also excited, couldn’t help but smile happily, and didn’t want to pretend to hide it. I said to the old Taoist, “Old Taoist, wait a moment. I want to talk to my friend.”

The old Taoist was very calm. He nodded and waited with his hands behind his back.

I said to Gu Xindao, “Brother Xindao, I’m sorry to trouble you to wait for me for a moment.”

Gu Xindao was a man of integrity and admired my fate, but he was not jealous. He said to me, “I’m afraid it won’t work for you to wait. I don’t know how the ghost market calculates time. Let me put it this way: if I don’t bump into fate and find the door to the market, but still stay here, when the time is up, I will still be kicked out of the ghost market! My stay here is a waste of time. After all, there are many good things in the market. I want to go to the market, so you don’t need my advice. Besides, you’ve already met your fate, so staying here won’t reduce the time you can spend in the market. I’ll go first.”

I nodded and said, “That’s fine. I won’t waste your time. I’ll see you when we leave the ghost market.”

That’s it. I said goodbye to Gu Xindao and then walked towards the old Taoist priest, saying, “I don’t know what the old Taoist priest wants to talk to me about.”

It’s not my fault that I’m a bit slow-witted. I really didn’t know how to communicate with the person I had met by chance, so I just asked him directly.

The old Taoist walked a completely different path from my master. He wasn’t a wretched Taoist, and he wasn’t walking the path of Gu Chaowen either.

He was tall and had a commanding look about him. He had a very imposing presence. If I had to compare him to someone, I would be sad to think of my late Uncle Li, who had that kind of presence.

Facing my question, the old Taoist pondered for a moment and said, “Follow me.”

He turned and walked away, and I followed him.

In this way, we walked in silence for about two alleys. In front of a quiet courtyard, the old Taoist pushed open the door and led me inside.

This courtyard is probably the old Taoist’s residence. The environment inside is very quiet. He sat me down on a stone bench under a flower trellis, and then he walked around me several times.

Then he frowned slightly and said to me, “Yes, you have the familiar smell on your body. Just tell me, what is your name and who is your master? Maybe you are someone I know.”

This made me think of something. It was something Master Liu, who had sent me to the ghost market, had once said to me, and that was about my master’s connections.

In fact, apart from the people in the department, I have never had any contact with my master’s so-called connections. Could this old man also be one? Judging from his clothes, I had previously judged that he and my master should be people of the same era.

So, I dared not be rude and quickly said, “Kid Chen Chengyi, a disciple of Jiang Lichun.”

“Who is your master? Jiang Lichun? Little Jiang?” The old Taoist was suddenly excited, and his voice even got a little louder.

I didn’t know what was wrong, but I simply thought it was so funny that my master was called Xiao Jiang. But I still said to the old Taoist, “Yes, my master is Jiang Lixun, and I am a disciple of the Lao Li Yimai Mountain Branch.”

“Heh… heh…” After receiving my affirmative answer, the old Taoist was obviously excited. The sound of “heh heh” was not a laugh, but a sound that came naturally from his throat because he was excited. He paced back and forth in the courtyard, making me nervous.

After a long time, he finally stopped and said, “I have a good relationship with Xiao Jiang. I heard that Xiao Jiang came here a few years ago, but unfortunately I didn’t meet him. But you are his apprentice, so I met you. Just for this, you and I should have a connection. But no, no…”

I was already as excited as he was when he mentioned that he knew my master. Perhaps this was my good fortune, and it was fate that allowed me to find my master, so that I could have so many opportunities during the three days in the ghost market.

But he said it was wrong. What was wrong? I was a little confused, but I didn’t know where to start.

At this time, the old Taoist said to himself, “I’m afraid you won’t understand what I’m saying! It’s better to let you find a clue from my identity and answer me why your soul has the scent that I’m familiar with. First of all, if a person has a deep contact with another person, they will always be infected with the soul scent of the other person. Just as a husband and wife sometimes grow more and more alike, friends will also have more and more similar habits. This is the manifestation of the soul influencing each other and being infected with the soul scent. So, after I tell you my identity, you have to give me a good memory.”

In fact, it’s not just him, I’m curious too, so I quickly replied, “Old Master, then you tell me, I think my memory is still good.”

“That’s good. First, tell me your name. If you can’t remember anything from that, I’ll tell you more about me.” The old Taoist seemed to be very concerned about the familiar smell on my body, and he also told me so.

I think he didn’t ask me directly because he was being a little crafty. After all, I was still a stranger to him, and he couldn’t verify the truth of my words. What if I made up a story for my own benefit… If he told me his identity first and then asked me to answer the questions, the chances of that would be much smaller.

So I said, “Okay,” without hesitation.

The old man seemed to be proud of his name. When he was about to say his name, he straightened his back, coughed, and then said, “My name is Yuan Zhenyong. Do you recognize me, kid?”

“What?” I suddenly stood up and stared at the old man blankly. I was in a state of soul, and my body was illusory. There could be no physical reaction, otherwise I would have been trembling all over!

I didn’t expect to meet him. I had heard the name Yuan Zhenyong many times before, because two people always talked about him to me!

My thoughts almost flew to the deserted village, to that afternoon under the rain curtain, where in the falling rain, a man, pale with a face, asked me, “Chen Chengyi, is my Yuan family powerful? How is it compared to your master?” Then he fell in the rain.

This man’s obsession in life was almost entirely to protect the human dignity of the old Taoist in front of him. Who was he? He was Yuan Yi’s grandfather. His name was naturally very familiar to me. Yuan Yi would always mention him after recovering, and Yuan Xi, now Cheng Yuan, would also mention him.

It was Yuan Zhenyong!

Faced with my behavior, the old Taoist was obviously nervous. He said, “Do you remember something?

I was in a spiritual state and unable to take a deep breath. I could only try to calm my thoughts, as if I was deciding whether to tell Yuan Yi that his grandfather was here. After a while, I said, “I don’t need to think of anything, because I know you too well. My master also spoke highly of you! But this familiarity has nothing to do with my master. It’s because your grandson Yuan Yi is now my big brother, and your great-granddaughter Yuan Xi, who has now changed her name to Yuan Chengyuan, is my youngest junior sister.”

“You…” Grandpa Yuan was suddenly unsettled. He was in a state of soul, but when he heard the news, his soul’s momentum became even more fierce. Generally, a soul with powerful soul power, without the restrictions of a physical body, can already control its momentum freely. How excited he was, that he couldn’t control himself like this.

I didn’t say anything. I was equally excited, and I knew that this kind of excitement needed time to subside.

Sure enough, after a while, the old master Yuan regained his composure and said to me, “Yi’er, I’ve been saying goodbye to him for more than 30 years. When I died, he was only 10 years old, or maybe 10-something. Tell me about Yi’er, and my great-granddaughter. I’ve never met him.”

Faced with Yuan’s words, I was full of doubts. According to the normal soul, it would enter the cycle of reincarnation, not to mention the Taoist! Why is there so many Taoist in this place who are not reincarnated?

Since Grandpa Yuan is not reincarnated, he should be like the other “old ghosts” and protect his family. Could it be that he has reached the pinnacle of Taoism and has let go of all earthly attachments, seeing through everything? No, otherwise why was he so excited, sensing the familiar scent on my body, and quickly calling out to me?

What was it that made him so excited that he hadn’t even seen Chengyuan?

I suppressed these questions and held back from asking, instead I began to tell him everything about Yuan Yi and Cheng Yuan. I couldn’t bear to disappoint an old man who valued the news about the younger generation so much.