Xu Qing understood the meaning of the Demon Exorcism True Monarch's words; the other party had clearly determined he wouldn't survive the ghost laws battle, otherwise, he wouldn't have said such words.
"True Monarch, take care. If that day comes, I will prepare a modest feast to welcome and honor you, True Monarch."
Watching Xu Qing leave, the man in the red robe let out a long sigh.
Unexpectedly, after a millennium of slaying ghosts and demons, the only person to see him off was this young man he had befriended not long ago.
...
At the boundary of the yin and yang realms, Xu Qing communicated with the earth's veins. The surrounding scene changed, and when his vision stabilized, his figure appeared by the Baisha River.
Nowadays, Xu Qing no longer needed the Twin Coffin to freely travel between the mortal realm and the Yin River.
Feeling the thick moisture around him and the sound of the waves reaching his ears, Xu Qing showed a long-lost smile.
Compared to the desolate Yin River, he indeed preferred staying in the mundane world.
At the harbor, there were fishermen, boat passengers, pedestrians, and even the Corpse Recovery Team that had just retrieved a corpse.
Xu Qing felt as if everything had returned!
At this moment, Xu Qing's aura was more restrained, but before interacting with others, he still used his makeup skills to carefully arrange his appearance as a corpse.
When he appeared in the crowd once again, he had become a middle-aged man around forty.
However, one could still see from his eyebrows and demeanor the appearance of the legendary undertaker from Underground Street from over a decade ago.
Apart from changing his appearance to adapt to the passage of time, Xu Qing also diverted most of his magical power to activate the Heaven Concealing Skill.
His cultivation now far exceeded a thousand years. If he did not restrain his aura upon leaving the Yin River, the Celestial Fire tribulation would descend in no time!
The Celestial Fire tribulation held significant strategic importance for Xu Qing. He would rather delay entering the Flying Corpse stage than waste his incense offerings resisting this hard-won tribulation.
In Xu Qing's eyes, what others feared as a monstrous tribulation was akin to a sweet spring and a delicacy!
At the riverside harbor, the officer responsible for recording the entry and exit of the Corpse Recovery Team was no longer Steward Cai from before.
Upon inquiry, Xu Qing learned that the over-fifty-year-old Steward Cai had passed away five years ago.
This was the downside of long-term contact with corpses; it shortened one's lifespan.
On his way back to Underground Street, Xu Qing suddenly paused and turned towards East Gate Alley.
Before leaving the mortal realm, his senior brother Wang Lingyuan had settled and retired in East Gate Alley. Based on the time, Xu Qing feared his senior brother might already be over seventy.
"Who are you? Uncle Xu?"
Xu Qing had just knocked on the courtyard door of his senior brother's house when a middle-aged man in his thirties emerged.
"Dou Yun, it's been a while."
Xu Qing smiled. The person before him was none other than Dou Yun, one of the two disciples Wang Lingyuan took in during his old age.
The two lived on either side of Wang Lingyuan and took care of him daily. Nominally teacher and disciple, they were more like father and sons.
"It's been more than just a while; it's nearly twenty years! Over the years, Master often talked about Uncle Xu, but every time we went to Underground Street, we couldn't find a trace of you."
"Speaking of which, Uncle Xu, where have you been all these years..."
Xu Qing chuckled and shook his head, then asked, "Where's your master? I want to see him!"
"..."
Dou Yun's smile faded, and he sighed as he led Xu Qing inside, saying:
"Master never married or had children. In his early years, no one took care of him, and his health wasn't as good as others. Now he is already..."
Xu Qing furrowed his brows. When he entered the inner room and saw Wang Lingyuan, with his full head of white hair, frail and old on the bed, he finally realized the power of time, this blunt knife.
"Master, look who's come back."
The increasingly sleepy Wang Lingyuan was propped up by his disciple. He raised his eyes to the glaring sunlight at the door and saw only a tall silhouette.
"Who could it be, surely not your Uncle Xu..."
"It's me, senior brother, I've returned from my travels."
When the silhouette under the sunlight approached, and that familiar voice was heard, Wang Lingyuan's eyelids trembled. Before he could speak, tears already welled up.
"Ah! Junior brother!"
Wang Lingyuan wanted to stand up, but ultimately, he couldn't fight against time dragging him down.
"Senior brother, don't move; let's just catch up here as brothers."
"Alright, alright, you must tell me where you've been all these years and why you wouldn't return even once..."
Outside, the sunset slanted westward.
Xu Qing chatted with the senior brother he had known for a long time until nightfall.
When Wang Lingyuan couldn't resist his body's fatigue, Xu Qing suddenly asked, "I gave you so many pills, senior brother, did you perhaps forget to take them on time?"
Wang Lingyuan's eyes were heavy as he leaned against the bedhead, speaking slowly: "I'm just an old man, a solitary figure. What's the point of living so long? In the forensic doctor's line of work, we don't live long, so it's better to give those good medicines to Dou Yun and the others."
"These two kids followed me into the forensic doctor's trade, so I must care for them..."
Under the night sky, Xu Qing walked alone on the street.
The words of his senior brother Wang Lingyuan seemed to still echo in his ears.