The Virtue City Funeral House was holding a farewell ceremony—basically a simple memorial. Everyone from the Scorching Sun Department really liked that kind-hearted young girl.

Especially after finding out that she'd changed the entire water ghost landscape and paved a new road, they'd started feeling a certain respect for her.

It looked like there were only a few dozen people here today, but in reality, there were a lot more who wanted to come—except everyone was busy to death and just couldn't get away.

The farewell and transcendence ritual were happening together. Wen Yan was hanging around watching the scene—honestly, he wasn't involved in today's officiating or staff at all.

He watched for a while, then suddenly spotted the director was here too, just sitting at the very back.

Wen Yan was a bit surprised. The director rarely showed up to things like this, unless he was actually close to someone—otherwise, even for higher-ups, he'd just show his face out of politeness and leave right after.

The director noticed Wen Yan watching him, and gave him a slight nod.

Wen Yan thought about it, then decided to go over. He couldn't let the boss feel like nobody cared—after all, the director had always treated him pretty well.

Normally underlings are the ones who give gifts to their bosses, but the director was the one who'd given Wen Yan something. That Blood Warm Jade stone—he still kept it as his trump card in the bottom of his chest, only using inferior warm jade when practicing martial arts.

The director saw Wen Yan come over and grumbled.

"What are you coming over for? I didn't call you."

"I just saw you sitting here alone and thought I'd come keep you company."

"Always with the cheeky grins—look where you are."

"Wang Xueqi would probably rather we sent her off with a smile. If someone cried, she'd probably feel even worse."

The director looked up at the brightly smiling color photo, and couldn't find a word to refute Wen Yan.

Before, if you acted like this, people might say you didn't respect the dead. But now, if the dead person made it clear that's what they wanted, and you kept harping on about it, then you're the one being disrespectful.

After a while, the director looked at Wen Yan.

"If anything else happens, remember the employee code."

With that, the director left.

Wen Yan frowned. What did that mean?

The director wouldn't just say something like that for no reason.

He pulled out his phone immediately and called Feng Yao.

"Feng Yao, where are you?"

"Busy dealing with that turtle demon corpse for you. If we don't go the luxury furnace route, it's gotta go through lots of verification procedures. But if you're sending it to Fuyu Mountain, you can skip some steps. Still, the standard sealing procedures have to be done. Even if there are any issues, once it reaches Fuyu Mountain, nothing's getting out."

"That turtle demon is definitely dead and gone. Never mind that—today we're sending Wang Xueqi off. Why didn't you come? Don't tell me handling the turtle demon is more important. Are you guys hiding something from me?"

"You're overthinking it."

"Then I'll just get in touch with Minister Cai directly."

"Fine, fine, don't say it was me who told you."

"Spit it out, quick."

"It's complicated. I can't explain it in just a few words."

"Then take your time."

"You know how chaotic the West River water system is, right? But honestly, there are still a few dragon gods here.

One of them—he's probably just awakened recently, stirring up trouble, maybe planning something big.

A few days ago, in Luoyue County, there was a giant snake that hurt someone. That snake is a descendant of a dragon god."

Hearing this, Wen Yan suddenly asked,

"Isn't that the neighboring commandery, just two or three hundred kilometers away from me?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

Wen Yan thought of the hand cream Big Sister Ye had given him. Suddenly, it all made sense—why he hadn't heard a peep about it here, and why there was nothing stirring in the local Scorching Sun Department either.

He then realized that, although Virtue City technically wasn't in the far west of Nanwu County, a hop of just two or three hundred kilometers northwest would get you out of Nanwu County altogether.

The giant snake incident happened over in Luoyue County, and he was busy with something even bigger on this side. Naturally, no one in Nanwu County was paying attention to that.

"Go on."

"It's pretty complicated—beyond alerting someone from Dragon Tiger Mountain ahead of time, there's even a purple robed boss here in person, using the power of river gods, plus you guys at the Funeral Home. Most important of all, Wang Xueqi has to be willing to cooperate."

"So, that's why I didn't know about this?"

"Ahem, don't take this the wrong way, but you and I didn't have the clearance to know, originally.

I just found out a moment ago myself, and even now I don't know the whole story.

If Wang Xueqi didn't tell you herself, it's definitely because she didn't want to worry you.

Because no matter how this goes, she's going to dissipate in the end. But how she goes—well, that's the uncertain part.

If she's transcended, breaks free of her water ghost identity, she'll still dissipate.

But if she helps out the department and pulls off something big, she actually has a shot at ascension.

Don't ask me about the rest—I'm just as much in the dark as you.

This whole operation, those old Taoists call it ascension.

But it's also going to make some water gods really upset.

That's it—I gotta go, someone's calling."

Feng Yao hung up. Wen Yan suddenly thought of what the director had said earlier. Dissipate—all will dissipate, but does it really matter how?

He looked around and couldn't see the director anymore—no clue where he'd gone.

In the condolence hall, the ritual was still going, but Wen Yan knew all too well that these rites were just for the living to see. No wonder the ritual staff were all switched out today.

He wanted to drive to Duanzhou and ask Wang Xueqi what she actually wanted. But as soon as he turned to go, he realized—even if he managed to see Wang Xueqi at this point, nothing would change, and he wouldn't be able to talk her out of it either.

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