Qiu Ling bent over the child and held the small hand of Jing He's mortal reincarnation. A bright smile adorned his lips, which the boy seemed to reciprocate, even though he couldn't see him. Qiu Ling felt deeply satisfied. Normally, Madam Zhong wouldn't leave her son's side for even a second, as long as he didn't sleep. But now, she had prepared her husband's meal and accompanied him outside. For a while, Qiu Ling would have Jing Yi all for himself.
"Jing He." He sighed, thinking of how only a few weeks had passed in the human realm. In the nine heavens, that hardly even equated to one shichen. He already missed him. "How can I wait a whole mortal life for you?" He wished, Jing Yi could've answered him but the boy couldn't hear him just like all those other humans. But if Qiu Ling was honest, that might be better: He had wanted to help him through saving his mother, but now such rumors had abounded.
His face fell thinking of that. Jing He's reputation in the nine heavens was stellar, but now he had just been reincarnated in this mortal realm, and he was treated like a leper. Humans were such inferior creatures!
Hardly had he thought so, that voices spoke up outside.
"Qiguan Cheng Da!" Of course, this was Mister Pi, who was the first one to hurry toward Madam Qiguans son. "How nice of you to swing by!", he claimed, so as to not be too direct. His gaze flitted to Madam Qiguan, who waddled up behind him.
"Da'er!" She took her son by the arm and looked him up. "You're looking really well!"
"Indeed, indeed!", agreed Mister Pi. "Being a daoist does you good!"
Qiu Ling pricked up his ears inside the Zhong's house. Daoist? What was a daoist doing in such a remote village? "They wouldn't have called him because of you, would they?" He patted Jing He's black shock of hair. The boy gurgled happily and extended his small hands. Qiu Ling surrendered one of his fingers to him and watched, what happened outside.
Qiguan Cheng Da lifted his chin up and smiled, to give the impression of a charitable gentleman. In Qiu Ling's eyes, he seemed more like a cock, trying to become a peacock.
"Don't, don't, Mister Pi. I only felt, that it was my fate, to commit myself to the righteous cause and help the common people."
The corner of Mister Pi's mouth twitched, when Qiguan Cheng Da spoke of 'common people'. He had watched this boy grow up! Did he really have to listen to him trying to sound like someone better? But how could he say his thoughts out loud, after he himself had written the letter to call him because of the heretic practitioner? Mister Pi could only pretend to smile and cast a meaningful glance at the Zhong's house. "Cheng Da, good, that you came! Actually, there is someone in our village, who could use your help!"
"Oh?" Qiguan Cheng Da knew, of course, that Mister Pi was talking about the Zhongs. But he didn't want to give the other villagers the impression, that he could be called upon that easily. He was an important man now! Those villagers couldn't even compare to his little finger!
"Indeed, indeed", Madam Pan filled in an explanation. "It's like this …"
She told him her favorite version of the story concerning Jing Yi, in which the heretic practitioner noticed Madam Zhong at the riverbank. Crying miserably — and as a matter of course unaware, that he was a heretic practitioner, since the Zhongs were good people — she was said to bewail, that even after five years of marriage, she still hadn't conceived a child and would hardly dare to look her husband in the eye anymore.
The heretic practitioner then revealed, that he was able to help her. She just had to make a promise in return: His own daughter would be born in eight months and he was already in search of a suitable husband for her. — Madame Pan hastily inserted the reason for that: As the daughter of a heretic practitioner she, of course, couldn't find a decent husband. So now her father could only search for someone being in great need of help, who had no other choice but to acquiesce. — If Madam Zhong promised, that her son would marry his daughter, when both of them were grown up, then of course he could help her.
Madam Zhong, who — as everyone knew — was a decent woman, went back to her husband first, to debate what they should do. Mister Zhong, too, suffered because of their lack of children, so the two of them agreed finally.
Madam Zhong met the heretic practitioner the following day again. He gave her an enchanted ginseng, she should soak in her and her husband's blood. If she ate it after that, she'll conceive a son.
"And like that, Jing Yi was born", Madam Pan finished her story. "The gods shall be praised, that Miss Lian was there and saw the heretic practitioner. Otherwise, nobody might have ever learned of this and the poor child couldn't be saved anymore."
Qiguan Cheng Da pressed his lips together. His mother hadn't explained much about the story in her letter. Hence, he hadn't known, what he was going to encounter. After listening to the entire story, he wasn't sure, if he could do something. He hadn't left his home too long ago and contrary to what his mother and the other villagers thought, his status and his talent were nothing out of the ordinary. If anything, they were even below average.
Since that was the case, of course he wasn't part of the inner sect and he didn't have a master to teach him anything. If Zhong Jing Yi's birth really had anything to do with the spell of a heretic practitioner, he most certainly wouldn't have been able to realize it, much less countering it.
But of course Qiguan Cheng Da couldn't admit that. He nodded deliberately — something, he had copied from Mister Pi of all people to look like a cultured man before he went to the deity sect — and turned to the Zhong's house. "That is indeed an alarming story. I should have a look at the child. Those demonic powers aren't to be trifled with. The whole village could be in danger!"
The villagers all nodded understandingly and followed Qiguan Cheng Da to the Zhong's door. Feeling righteousness to be on his side, the young daoist knocked on the door.