Cultivation of immortality begins with an eighty-year-old eunuch.

Chapter 465 Life and death are but a vast gulf!

"Our family doesn't actually have a close relationship with this Princess Yuanping," Chen Fan suddenly said, his voice calm, as if he were recounting something from a very distant past.

"She merely... showed some insignificant favors and bestowed some gifts upon us when we were just an ordinary, dying old eunuch. One of those gifts, however, proved quite helpful to us later."

"Later, she went to the Changchun Sect, while we stayed in the Great Abyss. We were separated by the mortal and immortal realms, and never saw each other again. I only occasionally heard news that she seemed to be having a hard time in the sect." Chen Fan paused.

"I was passing by today and remembered this person, so I thought I'd take a look. I never imagined... even the sect is in such a state, and my old friend is long gone."

Tian Xiangzi listened quietly, and she could hear a faint, almost non-existent trace of melancholy in Chen Fan's tone.

This is not grief, but rather an affirmation and acceptance of the ruthlessness of time and the vicissitudes of life.

She said softly, "At least... you still remember her, and you even came to see her."

Chen Fan smiled, a smile tinged with complexity: "What good is remembering? It only adds to the melancholy. In this world, people come and go, relationships begin and end—that's just the way things are. For an old eunuch like me to have come this far is already a stroke of luck; how can I possibly control so many things?"

Even so, his very act of standing here, looking back at the lingering shadow of the Changchun Sect under the setting sun, is itself a silent tribute.

We pay tribute to that princess who died young, to the warmth of those humble times, and to the relentless march of time that never stops for anyone.

"Let's go." Chen Fan withdrew his gaze, no longer lingering. "It's getting late, let's find a place to rest. Your injuries need to be recuperated."

"Mm," Tianxiangzi replied.

The two figures gradually disappeared into the vast twilight.

……

After leaving the Changchun Sect territory, Chen Fan and Tian Xiangzi arrived at a remote mountain valley.

A few crows cawed in the distance, echoing through the desolate valley, adding to the sense of solitude.

At the bend in the mountain road ahead, the outline of a temple can be vaguely seen.

The temple was in a state of disrepair, with most of the walls collapsed and tiles scattered. The plaque above the door was hanging askew, and the characters were blurred and difficult to decipher, with only the character "mountain" barely visible.

The stone steps in front of the temple are covered with moss, and wild grass grows out of the cracks, reaching half a person's height.

The two intended to take a detour, but Tianxiangzi suddenly stopped and listened intently.

"There's crying," she whispered.

Chen Fan had already scanned the area with his divine sense, and now he nodded slightly: "It's a child."

The two exchanged a glance and slowly walked towards the dilapidated temple.

Before even getting close, one could hear suppressed sobs coming from inside the temple. The voices were childish, yet filled with heart-wrenching grief, as if the person was crying with all their might, but was desperately suppressing it for fear of disturbing something.

Chen Fan pushed open the half-closed temple door.

squeak...

The decaying wooden door rattled loudly, revealing the interior of the temple.

This was a small mountain god temple. The central statue had long since collapsed, leaving only half of its clay body, covered in cobwebs. There was a large hole in the roof, through which moonlight leaked down, illuminating the scattered straw and broken tiles on the ground.

In the corner, a boy of about seven or eight years old was huddled up.

The boy was dressed in tattered clothes, patched upon patched, and barefoot, his feet covered in frostbite and grime. He held tightly the body of a woman in his arms; her face was pale, her eyes were closed, her lips were cracked, and she was covered with a similarly tattered burlap sheet. She was already lifeless.

The boy buried his face in the woman's cold neck, his thin shoulders trembling violently, his cries hoarse and intermittent, his tears long since dried up, leaving only dry howls.

Hearing the door open, the boy abruptly looked up, revealing a dirty little face, his eyes red and swollen like peaches, filled with terror and despair. He instinctively hugged the woman's body tighter, like a frightened little animal, staring intently at the uninvited guest at the door.

Tian Xiangzi felt a pang of sadness, took a half-step forward, and said softly, "Child, don't be afraid..."

Before he could finish speaking, the boy suddenly screamed, "Don't come any closer! Don't take my mother away! She's not dead! She's just asleep!"

As he shouted, he used his thin, bony arms to protect the woman, as if he were trying to shield the whole world with his frail body.

Chen Fan stood still, not moving forward, but simply watching quietly.

Moonlight streamed through the hole, illuminating the boy and woman, making the scene all the more desolate.

The mountain wind howled outside the temple, seeping through the cracks in the wall and making a sobbing sound, which mingled with the boy's cries, making it impossible to tell which was more sorrowful.

Tian Xiangzi's eyes were slightly red as she said softly, "Chen Fan, this child..."

Chen Fan raised his hand, indicating that she didn't need to say anything more.

He slowly stepped forward, stopped three feet away from the boy, squatted down, and looked directly into the boy's terrified eyes.

"Your mother," Chen Fan began, his voice calm and utterly devoid of emotion, "when did she leave?"

The boy trembled, his lips quivering, and after a long pause, he managed to squeeze out a few words: "Yesterday...yesterday at noon...she said she wasn't feeling well, lay down and...and never got up again..."

As he spoke, tears welled up again, but he stubbornly refused to cry out loud, instead biting his lower lip so hard that it bled.

Chen Fan's gaze swept over the woman's corpse.

The woman was about thirty years old, with a withered face, rough hands, and large knuckles, the result of years of hard labor. Although her clothes were tattered, they were clean and her hair was neatly combed, clearly because the boy had carefully tidied her up after she "fell asleep."

The cause of death was starvation.

Chen Fan scanned the woman with his divine sense and knew that her stomach was empty and her stomach wall was stuck together, indicating that she had been fasting for at least three days. She had no serious injuries or diseases, only organ failure caused by prolonged starvation.

"Where are you from?" Chen Fan asked.

The boy sobbed, speaking haltingly, "The village on the other side of the mountain... there was a famine two years ago, my father died... my mother took me to escape the famine, we walked for a long time... the day before yesterday we passed by here, and my mother said she couldn't walk anymore, so... so we came in to rest..."

He couldn't continue, so he buried his face in the woman's neck, his thin body trembling like a leaf in the wind.

Tian Xiangzi walked to Chen Fan's side and whispered, "This child... I'm afraid he won't last much longer."

She could see clearly that the boy's face was sallow and his eyes were sunken, indicating that he had not eaten for many days and was only holding on by sheer willpower.

Chen Fan remained silent.

The temple fell silent for a moment, with only the mournful sound of the wind.

He watched the boy tightly hugging his mother's body, watched his dirty little hands gripping the woman's clothes, and watched his thin, bony shoulders trembling uncontrollably.

Many years ago, on a similarly cold night...

Back then, he wasn't Chen Fan yet; he was just a lowly eunuch feeding horses at the Imperial Stables, without a name, only a number. That winter was particularly cold, and the old eunuch Li Gonggong of the Imperial Stables fell ill, coughing so hard it was heart-wrenching, but no one cared for him.

He secretly saved half a cornbread and sneaked into the side room where Eunuch Li lived at night, hoping to feed him something.

When the door was opened, Eunuch Li was already dead.