Chapter 2664: Ideal Letter

Ye Qingyu had indeed never been to Maple Forest City, but her letter had.

It spoke of a young boy's youthful confusion, a little girl's innocent curiosity, and the fiery red maples outside the small city that seemed to burn forever.

These emotions had once flown through words.

She regretted never having visited the hometown of the one she cared about. It felt as though she couldn't participate in his childhood, that she was absent from his past.

Especially because… that was a past the young boy himself could no longer feel. In the years of grass growing and orioles singing, all the beauty of memory was now buried in a grave mound. The almighty Jiang Zhenjun, who could traverse heaven and earth, could only reminisce, unable to make amends.

But going back in time to that year, the young master of Lingxiao Pavilion had not thought of visiting Maple Forest City.

At that time, her impression of the name “Jiang Wang” was based solely on gratitude and appreciation.

She appreciated a clean and neat young boy, and thanked him for the “life-saving grace”—

Of course, he hadn’t actually saved her life.

But she wasn't the type of person to belittle others' efforts.

She wouldn't think, "No need for you to save me, I have plenty of ways to protect my life."

She remembered the panic and danger of that moment, and afterwards felt foolishly laughable. At that time, the most heroic person of all ages had not yet begun to cultivate her fighting ability.

She cherished that feeling of meeting by chance and yet extending a helping hand to save.

Some people exist like that.

They are clearly saved after falling into water, yet they feel, "With so many people on the shore, if you don't save me, others will."

They feel they wouldn’t have died anyway, and think others' efforts are insignificant.

Those kinds of people, how to put it… they make you want to hold them down and drown them again.

The God of Wealth, of course, wouldn't do such a thing, but would secretly make a mark, ensuring they never had money.

People who don’t know gratitude have no affinity with wealth.

At this time, the God of Wealth, having just established Lingxiao Pavilion's brand new Dao technique system and completed the related preparations, was beginning full implementation. This action would significantly enhance Lingxiao Pavilion's overall strength.

After a whole day of busyness, she returned to the small building where old Ye often resided, leaned on the lounge chair where old Ye often sat, her fingertips spinning a treasure coin.

She could now probably understand the mood of the great hero Ye lying here reading idle books, understand her old dad's satisfied sigh—pursuing the true Dao, participating in the life-and-death tasks of the Equality Country, lightly bringing back a handful of flowers, saying, "Daughter, Dad went on a rendezvous, be good and don't ask more. Here, the flowers you like." Then hiding in the small building, lazily passing through autumn and winter.

These idle fragments were the tranquility that the great hero Ye cherished for his entire life.

But she had no leisure.

She hadn’t understood it before, but now it was very profound—

There was no paradise outside the world, just someone blocking the wind and rain.

Her long boots crossed, she leaned back lazily, the young master's white clothes she wore emitting treasure light.

Above her head rose strands of cloud qi, ethereal smoke-colored, finally weaving into a swirling cloud mass, like a large umbrella blocking wind and rain.

But if someone opened their spiritual eye and carefully examined the inside, they could see immortal light flying, divine boats shuttling, and a surging cloud sea.

This was an immortal technique, learned from… Mister Jiang. But with her own original ideas, it had already become a new chapter.

In identity, they were the human race's first heavenly talent and the contemporary God of Wealth.

In status, they were a Taixu Pavilion member and the Lingxiao Pavilion Master.

In letters, they were Little Jiang Under the Maple and Qingyu Above the Clouds.

In cultivation, they were Mister Jiang and Classmate Ye…

One couldn't deny that many fighting skills and cultivation methods were learned from Mister Jiang. After all, the early letters mostly discussed cultivation, and at the beginning, she was still Master Ye.

Later, seeing that she couldn't keep up… only then did they reverse the identity.

Excellent students always have their own original ideas. Although Ye Qingyu knew she wasn't some era-defining, world-shaking heavenly talent, in her studies, she was always a top student.

Just like this immortal technique she used now.

Jiang Zhenjun had an immortal technique called Immortal Thought Star River.

It didn’t actually possess overly complex techniques, but rather used vast immortal thought to conduct devastatingly exhaustive deduction. Jiang Zhenjun often used this immortal technique to process the insights he captured.

Student Little Ye's immortal thought was truly much weaker, both in quantity and quality, nowhere near Mister Jiang’s level during his Cave Reality stage.

But as the contemporary God of Wealth, the demand to process complex information still surpassed Mister Jiang, who heard nothing outside his window.

Divine Dao naturally had ways to handle the flood of faith, usually divided into two kinds—

One kind was "ignore." No matter what you sought, the main approach was indifference. Faith was accepted laughingly, requests were treated as jokes. Occasionally, a few believers would be randomly granted divine miracles, which were also processed. One couldn't say the effect wasn't good, after all, gods were high above and inspired reverence.

The other kind was widespread irrigation, universal divine glory. Regions and domains were divided, and divine power was spread in large blocks. This block cured small illnesses, that block ensured a good night's sleep… no matter what you sought, the god loved the world. Most of the time, this was good, after all, drinking talisman water wouldn't kill people.

Frankly speaking, both methods were a bit rough.

But it was also understandable; general divine spirits really couldn't cope with so much faith.

The Eternal Heavenly Country of that year also had a special faith department that could ensure every bit of faith was handled.

Qingqiong God Venerable made more perfect adjustments to this and wasn't stingy with teaching, but she didn't plan to establish a divine court, so she couldn't copy it directly.

Of course, the God of Wealth also moved into Qingqiong Heavenly Country, ranked as a main god. The God of Wealth faith obtained on the grassland was all handled by Qingqiong Heavenly Country's faith department. She only needed to regularly pay faith power equivalent to the consumption cost and could then enjoy extremely pure faith harvest.

To maintain the autonomy of her divinity, the faith power outside the grassland still needed to be handled by her herself.

From the Netherworld’s Mister Mu Fuyao, there was also His unique skill. In His Eternal Night Divine Country, everything was faith spirits! A kind of spirit born for faith, they could only cultivate in soul form. The faith offered by one faith spirit far exceeded that of a thousand people, and it was extremely pure, requiring no additional processing.

But the formation of faith spirits required long periods of cultivation and accumulation. It was even more impossible for Ye Qingyu to kill people to urge spirits, so she also couldn't use this method.

The great hero Ye's method back then was to borrow the Cloud Upper Trade Route, disperse it throughout the world's trade paths, and use the trade paths to carry out divine matters. This was also his consideration at the time for remaining obscure.

This choice was too mixed with incense fire and entangled with the mortal world. For the great hero Ye himself, there was no influence, but for her, it would affect her immortal Dao cultivation.

Although she had a solid foundation left by her father in the divine Dao, she still had more talent in the immortal Dao. After all, her mother was the immortal seed representing the Immortal Palace era's last plan; she was born for immortals.

After comprehensive consideration, Ye Qingyu decided to still primarily use Ruyi Immortal Thought.

The faith messages received by the God of Wealth were first screened at various temples' God of Wealth golden bodies in different locations, classified by categories, and sorted according to criteria such as age, occupation, region, degree of faith, etc.

Only then were they input into the God of Wealth's divine country for pollution filtration.

Different faithful brought different moods: hatred, loathing, cursing others to poverty, hoping to plunder others… these were "pollution."

From ancient times to now, countless divine Dao cultivators had fallen due to this kind of pollution, sinking into the mire ever since.

The contemporary God of Wealth had a foundation in the human world, did not reside in her divine country, and did not construct other structures. She only used the divine country as the ultimate station on the path of faith.

Only the purified faith then rose to the clouds and entered the illusionary cloud sea she wove with cloud seals.

Different faith manifestations appeared as different cloud qi, manifesting their forms in perfect order.

Ruyi Immortal Light interwoven among them, serving as the source of inspiration, enhancing the thinking process for complex faith problems.

The power of the God of Wealth, carved as divine boats, continuously crashed open the congestion in the cloud sea, salvaging oversights in the thinking process.

At this moment, any shared faith power transmitted over could immediately capture the believer's entire life, including response methods for similar past cases. Bestowing wealth, penalizing gold, then observing… everything had traces to follow.

This immortal technique was named somewhat lazily, or perhaps not lazily, but deliberately matched… called "Immortal Thought Cloud Sea."

It was actually no longer a pure immortal technique, but a mixture of immortal technique, divine ability, spell, and divine technique.

The complete system of immortal and divine co-cultivation, continuously expanding the Immortal Thought Cloud Sea…

Allowed her to lie here, occasionally plucking a few faith flowers to observe carefully… it seemed leisurely!

At a certain moment, she suddenly sat up straight.

In the room, the seals were about to burst forth.

The immortal array of the Lingxiao secret place was on the verge of activation.

The Qingyang Heaven Contract hanging on her waist also lightly lifted—

The crooked paper sheep, hanging on the waist of the worldly good young master, unexpectedly had a kind of ugly but good-looking quality.

A ray of sunlight slanted in from the window, swaying lightly twice, like the etiquette of knocking on a door.

This most novel work was first published on the liulingjiu Book Bar!

After a calm three breaths, from the light, a red-haired, draped man folded out.

He wore a childish and cute tiger head mask, a Confucian shirt, his five fingers pinching a beautiful Dao seal, like a lamp in his heart platform, bowing slightly in salute.

The ancient noble etiquette, coming from the Central Empire's tradition.

"Pavilion Master Ye, this is our first meeting. I am Sun Yin." His voice was not too sharp, quite weathered by the world.

Ye Qingyu calmly looked at him: "Your Excellency comes uninvited, which alarms me."

Sun Yin's laughter echoed under the mask; he seemed to appreciate Pavilion Master Ye's humor very much: "Honestly speaking, I am also very alarmed coming here. After all, the one who often resides in Cloud City has a fearsome reputation; both humans and demons detour around this place."

As a fellow Yellow River leader, and similarly a heavenly talent, he had also boasted of being a "son of pride who will conquer the world in a hundred years" back then. But he had lost his most beautiful youth and was self-aware of his inferiority. Although they were both absolute peaks now, he clearly recognized the gap.

After all, they had both participated in the war. He had faced the one true Dao leader who hid his head and showed his tail, while Jiang Wang had faced the desperate Zong Dezhen who went all out. He had been suppressed within a few rounds, yet Jiang Wang had achieved decent battlefield contributions.

Of course, he also had the confidence of being an absolute peak and being able to escape, so he would make this trip.

Ye Qingyu had no interest in idle chat. She lightly pressed the tea table beside her, and a cloud qi sand hourglass gathered, then began to flow time: "I don't know what benefits I have here that would make a true monarch take such a risk."

Threats were meaningless. Anyone who controlled power, as long as they weren't utterly stupid, wouldn't put down their knife and sword in the face of a threat. And this world's cruel order dictated that people who were too stupid couldn't become too strong.

Venting anger was possible. But it would inevitably incur the most thorough revenge. Consider that no matter who, even if they were determined to be an enemy of Jiang Zhenjun, probably wouldn't be willing to stir up that kind of major chaos in the capital.

So Ye Qingyu determined that the other party was here to discuss an exchange of interests.

But for her, in this world now, there were truly no interests that could move her.

What she wanted was by her side; the regrets could not be retrieved. She was as rich as the world, without desires.

"Sun Yin comes today not to take away your interests, but to bring interests to you." Sun Yin always maintained respect; this respect was for Qian Chou: "Jiang Zhenjun will provide you with unlimited protection, but I think you have your free will."

Town River True Monarch did not descend on the spot because Ye Qingyu had her private space.

They were two people of equal personality, respecting each other; neither belonged to the other.

Ye Qingyu could casually send letters to chat, but she wouldn't call on him for everything. Before a truly dangerous alert force was displayed, he wouldn't appear for every little rustle.

The current Lingxiao Pavilion Master didn't speak, just looked at the sand hourglass once.

The time sand fell very quickly; she had only set aside half a quarter of an hour. When the time arrived, the immortal array inherited from the near-ancient Ruyi Immortal Palace would activate.

"I am here to invite you to join the Equality Country." Sun Yin no longer beat around the bush: "Your father once worked here and fought for it. You have inherited all of him, and should also inherit his ideal."

"Regarding father's ideal, our understanding may not be the same." Ye Qingyu's voice was like a solitary moon, clear and distant: "If father were still here, and knew that Equality Country came to my door and contacted me… I think he certainly would not be happy."

What Ye Lingxiao sought was vengeance for his wife and safety for his daughter.

Beyond that, ideals, immortals, and gods were all irrelevant.

It was fine for him to fight to the death in the Equality Country. If he knew someone dared to drag his daughter into this muddy water, not only would he not be happy… he would certainly go on a killing spree.

"I have great respect for Qian Chou. The Equality Country will not force anyone to join; we gather with ideals, absolutely not by force. But the legacy he left, I think it's still necessary to tell you—"

Sun Yin's tone was quite serious: "Qian Chou made outstanding contributions to the organization and thus won some… properties that were not convenient to place in Cloud Country. We call it Ideal Gold. But only if you join the organization can you receive this part of the property."

"Ideal is not a castle in the air, but built with bricks and tiles; this is the origin of the name Ideal Gold. It is the Equality Country's internal hard currency and can theoretically exchange for anything. Techniques, Dao techniques, secret texts, Origin Stones, honor and status in real life…"

"Some protectors unfortunately died. Their Ideal Gold will be left to the person who helps them realize their ideal."

"Qian Chou's unfinished ideal left in Ideal Township is 'exterminate the one true Dao'… we certainly cannot give his Ideal Gold to Ji Fengzhou."

"The organization does not want to intersect with Town River True Monarch at the moment, so it also has no plans to accept you. But I think, perhaps I should still ask you. After all, this is Qian Chou's legacy; besides you, no one has the qualification to decide it."

He paused: "This is the gift your father left for you."

The Equality Country organization, one could say it was a mixed bag of people, one could say it was fishing for fame, one could question the purity of its ideals, but one absolutely could not deny its secrecy as a secret organization.

Up to now, many core members of the Equality Country had been killed or captured. Even high-level figures like Qian Chou and Li Mao, who possessed absolute power, fell like fireworks.

But the outside world's understanding of the Equality Country was still like looking at flowers in a fog.

For example, this Ideal Gold, Ideal Township, was something Ye Qingyu was hearing about for the first time.

She could vaguely understand some of the determination of Equality Country members to face death as if returning home.

Because even if they died, there would be people to fulfill their last wishes—as long as they had earned enough Ideal Gold for their own ideals.

"The Equality Country is very good at respecting personal property." Ye Qingyu neither affirmed nor denied: "Father's gifts to me were always personally handed over; he would not entrust them to others."

In Sun Yin's eyes, there was a hint of dimness: "Life will always have some regrets, some moments that arrive too late. We are unwilling, yet we must face them."

In fact, Ye Qingyu still had something she didn’t say—

Ye Lingxiao did not trust the Equality Country. Even if he truly wanted to hand over gifts to his daughter, he would not entrust them to the Equality Country organization.

Even if he had indeed fought side by side with Sun Yin under the name of Qian Chou, depending on life and death.

In fact, until the very last moment, the only people Ye Lingxiao truly trusted were two: Bai Ge Xiao and Jiang Wang. His last gifts were also transferred through these two people.

"I don't know how much of what in Equality Country father's remaining Ideal Gold is enough to exchange for?" Ye Qingyu asked.

Sun Yin said: "For example, how did he cultivate into the God of Wealth back then, Pavilion Master Ye may know? Join the Equality Country, and presumably you can more completely understand your father. The complete inheritance of Jin Qiu Ming's trade path is in the Equality Country."

"Furthermore, Qian Chou's remaining Ideal Gold is enough to pay for my full efforts."

This Equality Country protector's attitude was very gentle: "Because of your relationship with Qian Chou, you can know these things. As for the others, I cannot fully disclose."

"Good, thank you for informing me." Ye Qingyu casually picked up the stacked account books beside her: "I still have matters to attend to, so please excuse me for not seeing you out."

"Pavilion Master Ye." Sun Yin suspected whether he hadn't explained himself clearly: "Aren't you interested in Qian Chou's experiences in the Equality Country?"

"That is the side of father that he did not want me to know. I think it is better for me not to know." Ye Qingyu opened the account book in her hand, the sunlight outside the window brushing over her hair, giving her an elegant appearance.

She said: "I want to listen to his words."