Chapter 478: An Unspoken Goodbye

　　The servant who was deaf and dumb was a profound animal trainer. He only touched the Black Tiger softly for a few times, it made this animal feel as though it was high in the clouds, feeling very comfortable.

　　The imperial guard said, “now we go to the side hall.”

　　Shen Lina nodded his head. Then, he walked a long journey. Along the journey, he saw a skylark which its body was burning with fire and a dwarf that suddenly dug into the sand and became invisible.

　　The skylark was the Fire Bird. When it turned dark at night, it would be put into the cage to serve as the source of light. The dwarf was Tu XingSun. He could comb the lands and thus he was the spiritual vigor of Lei’s Residence. He could move around under the land just like how the fishes swam freely in the water. It was born with the ability to move under the land.

　　After the imperial guard led Shen Lian to the side hall, he left after talking a few sentences to a maidservant.

　　If the Prefect Grand Usher could recall to meet Shen Lian, he would naturally call him in. However, if he could not recall, Shen Lian would sit there waiting, and he would not disturb any other visitors.

　　Since the imperial guard was filled with biases, he would not be happy with Shen Lian. In fact, Shen Lian’s physical appearance could make 99% of the girls in this world fall for him. The maidservant noticed that he sat there like a blossoming lotus, what a serene sight. She unknowingly felt embarrassed, then she walked to the backyard to make a cup of tea and delivered to Shen Lian.

　　Shen Lian took the tea over and drank it. The maidservant was thinking how a person could actually have such elegance even when drinking tea. It looked way more elegant and better than the postures of the foreign female dancers.

　　Shen Lian still did not utter a word. This made the maidservant a little angry, thinking that why he would not even say thank you when she had made him tea.

　　The first sentence she asked was, “where are you from?”

　　“Xi Liang Kingdom, ” Shen Lian replied.

　　“Where is that place? Is it very big?” the maidservant asked again.

　　“From Da Xia, you walk towards the direction of west, you can reach there in around two years or more if you walk a thousand miles a day,” Shen Lian said softly.

　　“That’s really far! It’d take few months even riding Young Lady’s pegasus,” the maidservant propped her chin in her palm while speaking. She was even closer to Shen Lian now. Shen Lian smelled really good, it was natural and refreshing that she was somewhat attracted.

　　Shen Lian smiled dimly and said, “how about you? You look like a normal person, how did you get here?”

　　The maidservant startled and said, “I don’t know who my parents are. We grow up here in this residence. We’re born to serve our Young Lady and Madam. But as soon as we reach 20 years old, we would be assigned to elsewhere accordingly. The only thing is that we don’t know where we will end up at because those who have gone out never came back before.”

　　Shen Lian asked again, “could it be that all the servants are brought here since young? Is there no girl of around seven or eight years old from outside that came into the residence?”

　　The maidservant startled and recalled something, then she said, “no, why are you so concerned about what happens in the residence? It’s dangerous.”

　　Shen Lian stared right at her and spoke softly, “please don’t lie to me.”

　　“I’m not lying, ” she wanted to respond like this but when the words came to her mouth, she secretly went close to Shen Lian’s ears and spoke softly, “throughout these years, there’s only one girl came into the residence from outside. I heard this from those who mentioned last time. I didn’t meet her before, the rest too.”

　　Shen Lian’s abstruse eyes had seen the deepest part of her heart and he knew that she did not lie. That girl she mentioned should be his youngest aunt, Chen Yun. However, he was unable to sense Chen Yun’s existence from their linked bloodline. At least she was not in Lei’s Residence now. So where did she go to? Or was she not around anymore?

　　Shen Lian felt that there was a big possibility that Chen Yun was still alive because his premonition indicated that she should be alive.

　　At this point, his premonition could almost be considered as a fact, it was way closer to the truth than any logical judgment.

　　They continued their conversation but it was just mainly chatting. Shen Lian did not expect to get any information from a maidservant. In fact, he did not have to do such thing.

　　Most of the time, she was the one that was talking and Shen Lian was listening. This maidservant was only average-looking, but Shen Lian found something here that he did not ever get from anywhere else in his life, that was respect.

　　The social class in Da Xia was very strict. The royal family had no respect for human lives and the blood and tears of the lowest class civilians. Moreover, the civilians did not have any capability to revolt all these.

　　This was because the royal family could make countless of civilians disappear from this world. Hence, despite Da Xia’s prosperity, it made the lowest class feel hopeless.

　　Even if Xuan Du Temple’s objective is to enlighten the mortals so that the common living creatures could obtain the power to chase after immortality. However, this enlightenment was still under the control of Da Xia.

　　Shen Lian sympathised with them. Compared to the social classes which were ruled, not being able to see the hope of changing one’s life was more hopeless, just like a pool of stagnant water.

　　He used to be one of the common people. He was fortunate enough to get out of it. Shen Lian felt that he could do something for them, such as passing on doctrine which actually allowed the numerous living creatures to break free from the misery.

　　When he had such thought, there was countless of wisdom appearing in his spirit sea like the lightning. He thought of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva’s vow, which was ‘before the hell is empty, I will not become Buddha’.

　　Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva was at least Mahasattva Bodhisattva’s level, which was Daoism’s Taiyi, or maybe an even higher level.

　　He made this vow was definitely not to restrict himself but for his sympathy for the people.

　　Rescuing the other living creatures was also rescuing himself.

　　After resolving the root cause, he could enjoy the success, that was an unbelievable situation.

　　If he could open up a road that could lead these living creatures who saw no hope at the end of the tunnel to get out of this misery, he would definitely have big gain.

　　These common living creatures were not just the Da Xia’s living creatures, it also included the rest of the world’s living creatures.

　　Buddha left the classics, Daoist masters were meant to cultivate, whereas Shen Lian could also open up a cultivation path for this world.

　　Shen Lian’s heart was instantly full of wisdom, there was a burst of his divine aura but it could not be seen from the outside.

　　The maidservant asked, “what are you thinking about?”

　　Shen Lian looked outside of the door, he smiled and said, “somebody’s here.”

　　The maidservant could not help but to feel upset because the person who came was to invite Shen Lian to meet Prefect Grand Usher. She could not even bid him goodbye because she was afraid that she would not be able to see this young lad for the rest of her life anymore.

　　It could not be considered that she liked him, it was just that she could not help but to feel like talking to this person more. There was no way that she would not cling on to the feeling of being treated fairly.

　　Shen Lian told her, “My name is Shen Lian.”

　　The maidservant nodded her head. She would remember it forever.

　　However, to the very end, she did not tell Shen Lian about her name. She was also not aware that the person who was willing to listen to her talking for so long was actually a mighty existence like the Emperor Xia.

　　The Prefect Grand Usher, Lei Nuo met Shen Lian in his study room. His books were all carved on the wood chip made from the jade tribute offered by Kun Wu.

　　He had heard from Guan Longzi that knowledge was a priceless treasure. Thus, it was more than appropriate to use precious jade to carry the knowledge.

　　The first sentence that Lei Nuo said was, “you’re a Daoist?”

　　Now he could recall that the qualities within Shen Lian was not really similar to those of Daoists. Actually, he had also associated it with one more person, that was Tianyi who was being banned from the entire Diqiu.