Ji Bugui hurriedly stood up and followed him.
Ji Yuenian's eyes were a little obscure and gloomy when he slowly said, "Ji Bugui, there is one thing I need you to do for me."
"Eldest son, please instruct me." Ji Bugui's voice was a little hoarse because of his swollen cheeks.
"Zhao Yinyue passed away after the lantern festival sixteen years ago," Ji Yuenian said softly. "Now, Father greets me with the lantern festival at this time. Do you know why?"
They had reached the banks of Linghui, outside of Anyang City, only a hundred zhang away from the wide open gates of Anyang city.
[TN: 1 zhang = 10.94 ft (3.33 m); 100 zhang = 1093.61 ft (333.33 m)]
The lights above the city gate were brightly lit, and dozens of Ji family guards were patrolling back and forth. One could faintly see the prosperity and bustle of Anyang city from the city gate.
Ji Bugui thought for a moment, shook his head and smiled bitterly. "Eldest Son, don't embarrass me, the patriarch is aloof and majestic, and I'm just an insignificant son of a concubine of the fourth branch. How can I know what the lord is thinking?"
Ji Yuenian glanced at the Ji Bugui's swollen cheeks and waved his sleeves and swept a dark luminance—as black as ink—at him, and said, "You are not the fourth branch's concubine's son tonight, but the eldest son of Ji family's main line, Ji Yuenian."
The black light touched Ji Bugui's head, and then spread towards his whole body. After a few short breaths, Ji Bugui's entire body slowly twisted and changed under the black light, until it finally turned into a handsome man dressed in a black satin robe.
His appearance and clothes changed and became a facsimile of Ji Yuenian before he was thrown into the Qingluan Mountains.
The Sentient Ghost-devouring Armor made from the origin ghost energy doped with "Soul Ashes" had a miraculous effect of illusion. However, due to the limitation of his Xuan Realm Cultivation, the armor could at most deceive a True Dao Realm Powerhouse.
"This … This …"
Ji Bugui touched his cheek, looked at his whole body, and his eyes were full of disbelief.
Boom!
Suddenly, a dull and incomparable roar spread throughout the world, and countless beings in the eight cities of Taichu all looked up, but did not notice anything of worth.
A black and yellow figure was standing on the place Ji Yuenian were standing, seemingly appeared to have just come out of nowhere.
This figure was extremely illusory and vague, with a mighty and magnificent aura surging around him, and incomparably complicated seal runes entwined on his robes. His indifferent eyes looked directly at Ji Bugui.
Ji Bugui stood where he was, and stammered, "Tai ... Taichu Land Venerable... God. I am honored!"
He never thought that the Taichu Land Venerable God, worshiped by hundreds of thousands of souls in the ancient city of Taichu, would appear in front of him in this way. Although it was just an incarnation, it was shocking enough.
The Venerable God of Taichu was revered as a god, and was ranked ninth in heaven and earth. He enjoyed worship from incense and protected the territory of Taichu which was thousands of miles long.
Ji Yuenian's eyes were serene, and he stepped forward and said, "I pay respect to the Venerable God of Taichu Land."
The figure glanced at Ji Yuenian lightly, and then turned his eyes back to Ji Bugui.
Under the god's scrutiny, his whole body began to sweat coldly. He closed his eyes slightly and turned into countless mysterious yellow lights. The motes dissipated between heaven and earth.
After the mighty aura of divine power completely disappeared, Ji Bugui was able to regain his senses, his legs softened, and he fell to the ground.
The miraculous thing was that the aura of the Venerable God of Taichu was potent and vast, but no one noticed it at the gate of Anyang city, which was only a hundred zhang away. Those Ji family guards were still chatting and laughing in groups, and they all talked in dull and loud noise, and never cared to look here at all.
"It's unbelievable that I actually saw the Venerable God," Ji Bugui was shocked so much today that he felt a little numb. "Eldest son, why is this? And the spell you cast on me just now, what exactly is it?"
Ji Yuenian looked at the place where the incarnation of The Cultivation Manual Of The Secret Supernatural Power—Indestructible Body of the Taichu Lands dissipated, and said, "That is a skill refined by ghost energy. Except they lack spiritual wisdom, the rest everything is very similar to ghosts. There was a hint of hesitation in the eyes of the Venerable God, if he was more cold-blooded, I am afraid that you would have died immediately."
Ji Bugui could not help but be sit still, frightened. After a while he muttered, "In the small ancestral hall of the branch family, in addition to Emperor Zhen Wu, I also enshrine and worship the true form of the Venerable God of Taichu. So, no calamity befell on me today."
Although he clearly knew that the black light condensed by Ji Yuenian led to the encounter with the incarnation of the Venerable God, he did not mention it at all.
"You did not ignite your Heart fire. This can well confirm the rumor of how Ji Yuenian has lost his cultivation. It can temporarily help me lower the guards and vigilance of some people." Ji Yuenian looked at Ji Bugui, and his eyes shone with golden sheen. "Ji Bugui, are you willing to help me breakthrough this plot?"
The Ji family did not have an existence at the upper stage of the True Dao Realm. They only had two people who were in the initial stage of the True Dao Realm: Patriarch Ji Hong and the Great Elder Ji Luoyan.
Whether he was truly willing or not, Ji Bugui went to his knees and said, "I am willing to die for the Eldest Son."
Ji Bugui was gambling.
Moreover, he essentially had no choice at all.
Ji Yuenian nodded and said, "You only have half of the Sentient Ghost-devouring Armor on your body, and the other half is with me. You don't need to say much after you return to Anyang City, just pretend to have amnesia and wait for my instructions."
Ji Bugui hesitated for a while, and then said, "The Eldest Son's aura is worth ten million gold taels. I'm afraid I won't be able to be a replicate your majesty. Additionally, Zhao Yanran and Zhao Sixing have already seen your current appearance, this matter …"