Keyboard Immortal

“Why are you running?” Zu An stopped him in annoyance.

“I'm way too ashamed to face you!” Pei You didn’t lower his hands from his face.

Zu An sighed. “Is it because of Gao Ying?”

“That’s right, I killed brother Gao.” Pei You couldn't hold himself back and began to bawl.

Real men didn’t cry easily unless they were truly broken-hearted. Thus, Zu An didn’t say anything. He let Pei You release all of the emotions that were pent up within.

After a long time passed, Zu An said seriously, “I thought that you might try to explain yourself first.”

“There’s not much to explain. Brother Gao was fooled by me, and then died because of me.” Pei You raised his head. “I was the only one to blame for this, and it has nothing to do with anyone else. If you want to kill me, I'll gladly accept my fate.”

Zu An chuckled. “If you carry so much remorse, why didn’t you end your own life?”

“I…” Pei You’s face turned entirely red, as if he couldn't find the words at all.

Pei You’s eyes turned red, but then he nodded slowly. He was too embarrassed to talk about it. After all, the person had already died, so it would seem a bit superficial no matter what he said.

“Why don't you take me to his remains for now?” Zu An sighed inwardly in relief. He hadn’t misjudged Pei You after all.

Pei You voiced his agreement with a look of extreme grief on his face. He took Zu An away from the Pei clan and arrived at a secluded courtyard. “After the sudden events that took place, I seized brother Gao’s corpse. But he is someone from the Liu clan and those people were aggressively wiping out everyone from the Liu clan, so I could only secretly hide his corpse.”

Zu An nodded and asked, “Just what has happened while I was away?”

Pei You replied, “There was suddenly a rumor that the army sent north to assist the sealed land was completely wiped out in the Fiend races' territory, and that they were most likely ambushed by the Fiend races' army. Some of the officials in the court got worked up and blamed that on the Liu clan.

“But they were all groundless accusations, and there was no concrete proof. At the time, the empress dowager governed from the imperial throne and the Liu clan planted their people in all of the important positions, so they dealt with the situation easily.

“And yet, no one expected the sudden developments that happened after…”

He then gave Zu An a rough summary of what had happened. He mentioned that he had inadvertently become an accomplice to Gao Ying’s murder and broke down once more.

“All of these things were hidden from you too. It’s not your fault,” Zu An said to comfort him. After listening to everything that happened, he knew that Pei You hadn’t joined in on this conspiracy. Of course, a large part of it was because they had already known each other for many years and he trusted Pei You’s character.

Pei You said with a bitter smile, “Even if I didn’t join in on it, I participated in my family’s plans. Brother Gao was only harmed because he trusted me so much, so how could I try to hide my responsibility in this?”

Zu An knew that Pei You was still feeling conflicted. On one side was his friend, while the other was his clan. Regardless of which side he chose to side with, there would be no good ending. If this continued, Pei You likely wouldn't be able to make much progress in his cultivation for the rest of his life, and he could even regress.

But Zu An didn’t say anything and continued to ask about the capital’s events instead.

Pei You explained, “I only know that King Wu suddenly launched an attack, and then there was an imperial edict that came from the palace. I don’t really know the exact details.”

After he found a way to seize Gao Ying’s corpse, he had completely lost himself. He had drunk his sorrows away, not paying much attention to the changes that had taken place. Even so, Zu An received quite a bit of information from this conversation. Even though Pei You didn’t supply him with that much information, he could infer some of the missing pieces.

The Liu clan was completely finished, and the empress seemed to have gone missing. Still, that was the best news he could have received, because that meant there was no confirmation of her death. The one who had presided over this matter seemed to be King Wu, but the Bi clan’s people had filled in a lot of the empty official position vacancies. Judging from that, Bi Qi had definitely played a big part here. Furthermore, Pei You had mentioned that King Wu was acting on an imperial edict, so Zu An wondered if Bi Linglong had participated in it or not. After all, the seal to pass an imperial edict was in her hands…

They arrived at a secluded courtyard. Zu An's expression grew grave, because he saw that there was paper money and candles scattered everywhere. The whole place was arranged like a mourning hall. He could see a coffin arranged right at the center.

Pei You explained, “I wanted to bury brother Gao and let him rest as soon as possible, but the court is strictly monitoring the Liu clan’s remains, so I could only arrange him here for now.”

At first, Zu An had still been a bit worried, but he was now completely relieved. He could sense that the mourning hall was full of ki. There seemed to be a formation underneath the coffin that protected Gao Ying’s body from decaying. “You really are considerate. Thank goodness you did all of this.”

This type of formation used up quite a few ki stones, and it had already been running for such a long time. Everything Pei You had done was kept a secret from his clan too, so he'd probably already used up everything he had saved up.

“This is all I could do.” Pei You’s expression was full of bitterness. “I can't immediately lay brother Gao to rest, so I can’t just let something happen to his remains.”

“This has been a huge help.” Under Pei You's shocked and confused gaze, Zu An opened up the coffin.

Gao Ying’s remains had clearly been carefully taken care of. He had experienced a bloody battle before he died, and yet there wasn’t a single drop of blood on his body right now. His severed head had also been sewn back on so that it looked complete and intact.

Zu An tapped his finger against Gao Ying’s neck injury. His primordial ki began to reconnect the broken meridians and blood vessels. The Primordial Origin Sutra had powerful healing capabilities to begin with, but because it was mixed with the Gold Phoenix skill, it easily triggered the innate desires of the individual it was used on. Normally, Zu An would never use this skill on a man, but he naturally didn’t need to have such misgivings right now. After all,Gao Ying was already dead. Those annoying traits naturally wouldn’t trigger.

When he saw what Zu An was doing, Pei You felt even more miserable. “Brother Zu, it’s useless. Brother Gao has already been dead for quite some time.”

He saw this as Zu An being unable to accept reality, and thought that he was still trying to treat Gao Ying. When he realized this, he immediately felt like utter scum again. The intense surge of emotions caused his internal energies to stir chaotically. He immediately coughed out a mouthful of blood.

“Collect yourself. I don’t want to have to save you too after just having saved him,” Zu An said impatiently.

Pei You’s face turned deathly pale. He couldn't process what Zu An was saying at all and just stared blankly.

Zu An couldn't be bothered with him, and focused on repairing Gao Ying’s body. Under the treatment of the Primordial Origin Sutra, Gao Ying’s damaged wounds began to heal. The shriveled meridians also gradually reconnected. If it had been Zu An's past self, not even the Primordial Origin Stura would’ve been able to achieve all of this. But now that he had seized the World Law Beacon's authority, his will was the will of the world. He could transfer a sea of natural energy to nourish and repair Gao Ying’s damaged body.

Of course, even with all of that, Gao Ying wouldn’t be revived. It was like gluing a broken hand together. This kind of reconnection was still extremely weak. Still, Zu An only intended to temporarily reconnect his body.

Then, he took out a jade bottle and poured the drop of Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine into Gao Ying's lips. The golden immortal medicine liquid spread throughout Gao Ying's mouth, and his head even released glimmers of golden light.

The change drew Pei You’s attention. He couldn't help but stand back up.

Just then, the golden light slowly descended. It moved through Gao Ying's throat, his neck, his neck, his neck…

Zu An frowned. When he saw that the golden liquid was stuck in Gao Ying's neck, he quickly used his ki to help spread the golden light.

Finally, as the golden light nourished him, Gao Ying’s neck began to grow new flesh, continuously healing until the head was completely joined with the body again. With that, even without Zu An’s ki to maintain its condition, his head wouldn’t fall off again.

Then, the golden light continued to move down, flowing through his chest and stomach before finally gathering in his core. It turned into countless fine strands of golden light and dispersed toward his limbs. The pale-faced Gao Ying gradually became a bit rosier in complexion. He didn’t look completely dead like before.

“What… What kind of medicine is this? Is there actually a divine medicine that can bring the dead back to life?” Pei You was shocked and excited.

Zu An explained, “This is the juice of the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine. There's only a single drop left. Normally, as long as someone still has a single breath of life left, it can bring them back. Unfortunately, brother Gao has already been dead for some time, so his soul needs to be summoned back as well.”

If not for the fact that he happened to be the underworld emperor and had brought back Gao Ying’s soul, not even the incredible Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine would be able to bring him back. He would only become a living corpse.

With a shake of Zu An's sleeve, a wisp of smoke appeared in this hall. Then, Gao Ying’s silhouette appeared.

Pei You immediately widened his eyes. “Brother… Brother Gao!”

This world had legends surrounding ghosts, and even stories of many cultivators who practiced necromancy and could control departed spirits. Many of those souls would inadvertently become ferocious spirits, which were similar to puppets. Not many had seen souls that weren’t much different from the living like this.

Gao Ying looked at Pei You with a complicated expression. In reality, how could he not know that Pei You had done all of that without knowing the truth? But it was because he'd trusted Pei You that he left the palace gate unattended, which led to the entire Liu clan being eradicated. That had driven him mad with frustration, so he couldn't help but carry a bit of unwillingness and resentment.

That was why, even though Pei You had burned so much paper money for him, he hadn’t accepted it and had decided to avoid reincarnation in Tragedy City. But ever since he met Zu An, his grievances had finally eased, and he felt much calmer than before.

He had actually been released by Zu An as soon as they arrived at the Pei clan. When he first came out, he'd felt as if this world didn’t tolerate his existence. Whether it was the blazing sun or the surrounding natural energy, they wanted to erase him. But suddenly, all of that pressure had disappeared. He knew that was because of Zu An’s power. He couldn't help but once again sigh at this living legend.

Then, he had been taken into Zu An’s sleeves, so he saw and heard everything Pei You did. When he saw how much pain Pei You was in, and how the latter had even taken on such a huge risk to do all of this for him, and that even his revival was thanks to the excellent maintenance of his corpse, most of his resentment disappeared.