Chapter 115: Chapter 114: A Nationwide Celebration, the Purple Brilliance Festival! Gentle Breeze, Fine Rain, Carriages and Pedestrians

「The next day.」

At dawn, the sky had just begun to lighten.

Above the Imperial City, a golden-purple qi suddenly began to swirl, covering the sky like a curtain!

Countless commoners!

Farming, hunting, butchering, weaving... all came to a halt!

Seeing this scene, they broke into a clamor of conversation!

Within the Imperial Palace, figures bustled about as candles were lit in succession!

Emperor Xia walked out of the Celestial Dragon Hall, followed by a eunuch.

"Stay calm!"

He told the panicked crowd not to worry, then led the eunuch out of the hall’s entrance.

He looked up at the sky!

He saw a thousand-mile expanse of Purple Qi stretching across the heavens, blanketing the entire Imperial City!

Then, countless Golden Dragons soared and danced within the Purple Qi, roaring softly in celebration!

In an instant, the brilliant light was dazzling, and the Purple Qi swirled like a dense mist!

Amidst the clouds...

Vague images appeared: a white tiger roaring at the sun, an azure dragon soaring, a black tortoise blanketing the waters, a vermilion bird crying out, a qilin stepping through the air...

It was a scene of ultimate auspiciousness!

Seeing this, Emperor Xia laughed heartily and personally announced the establishment of a new festival!

He declared the third day of the fourth month to be the Purple Brilliance Festival!

The festival would be held once a year, with a three-day holiday!

The entire nation erupted in celebration!

...

After breaking through to the next Realm, Su Bai had returned to the Imperial City prison and been on duty for three days.

Even though three days had passed, Su Bai could still hear people in the prison talking about that day, the third of the fourth month.

The scene of the Purple Qi hanging high in the sky and Golden Dragons dancing through the air!

It wasn’t just inside the prison; the grand avenues and narrow alleys of the Imperial City were all abuzz with discussion of the event.

And it wasn’t just high officials, noble dignitaries, and Martial Arts Strongmen—many common folk too.

Their faces were alight with excitement, just like during the new year, and a joyous atmosphere was everywhere!

In their hearts, they all believed.

This was a manifestation of the Great Xia Country’s national fortune!

A sign of eternal prosperity and enduring destiny!

As a result, Su Bai, who should have had a three-day holiday, had to work overtime for three days instead.

This was because many followers of demonic and heretical paths had been scared out of their wits by the sight of the thousand-mile Purple Qi and dancing Golden Dragons in the sky!

Deeply feeling the immense weight of their sins, they flocked to turn themselves in and voluntarily enter prison!

For a time, the prison was filled to overflowing!

Therefore, even though Emperor Xia had established the Purple Brilliance Festival with a three-day holiday...

...the prison’s workload was so heavy during those three days that if the Prison Guard Martial Artists were to leave, it would surely cause considerable chaos!

Among the demonic figures who turned themselves in, the most absurd case was that of a Mountain Sparrow Spirit!

This Demon Sparrow was originally an ordinary wild sparrow from a barren mountain near the Imperial City.

By a stroke of luck, it had mistakenly eaten a Spirit Fruit, which awakened its intelligence and set it on the path of cultivation!

Being rather timid, this mountain sparrow only dared to devour discarded corpses and prey on vagrant drunkards, gamblers, and local ruffians.

In this way, relying on its cautious and timid nature, it had managed to survive in secret for nearly a hundred years without being discovered.

Normally, if this demon had continued to lie low like this, becoming an Innate Realm Transformed Demon Beast would have been well within its reach, even if it couldn’t become a Spirit Transformation Great Demon.

But, as fate would have it, the demon had just snuck into the Great Xia Imperial City.

It had spent an hour.

It had covertly found the corpse of a homeless man discarded in a trash heap.

It had only just devoured half the body when it saw the boundless Purple Qi spreading toward it!

Terrified, the demon scrambled back, burrowed into the ground, and remained in a daze for three days before finally running over to turn itself in.

When a Martial Artist from the Prison Suppression Bureau asked why it had voluntarily surrendered...

...the demon replied that it had seen a kindly old Immortal within the boundless Purple Qi!

The old Immortal had told it that it had eaten many people in its life, was entangled in Karmic Force, and its sins were not light, making it difficult to achieve true enlightenment!

And so, after three days of deep contemplation, it decided to turn itself in at the prison to atone for some of its sins!

It hoped that in its next life, it would be reincarnated into a good life and become a good demon!

...

When Su Bai saw the Mountain Sparrow Spirit, the demon had already been bound in golden chains by Martial Artists from the Prison Suppression Bureau and was being prepared for escort to the execution ground!

Its expression, pious and utterly fearless, made Su Bai take a second look.

Su Bai was inwardly amazed. He released a wisp of True Qi to absorb it into the Purification Tripod, then personally went to the execution ground to watch the proceedings.

Unlike many other criminals,

this Mountain Sparrow Spirit never once roared or cursed!

Nor did it let out any wretched screams!

In the end, it died with extreme tranquility.

Su Bai was astonished. He immediately initiated the extraction.

In the end, through the Purification Tripod, he randomly obtained a Fifth-Grade Divine Technique!

[Observing Buddha]!

As the saying goes...

All worldly things! All are tainted!

With a Buddha’s heart and a Buddha’s eye, one can see the truth of all things!

This Fifth-Grade Divine Technique, [Observing Buddha], was less an awakened Divine Technique of the Mountain Sparrow Spirit and more an awakened Buddha Heart.

It had developed a Buddha Heart, which was what gave birth to its deep sense of sin!

The old Immortal it saw that day was nothing more than the personification of the Buddha Heart within it!

’Unbelievable!’

’To think this Mountain Sparrow Spirit basically enlightened itself to death!’

Su Bai found it hard to keep a straight face.

’With a Buddha Heart like that!’

’If that Mountain Sparrow Spirit was born into the Buddhist Sect in its next life, it would at least become a Dharma Demon General!’

...

After his Realm broke through to the Spirit Transformation Realm, Su Bai’s life didn’t change much.

He possessed a Flawless Spirit Sea, a rarity in the world, but in the prison, he was still the same busy Prison Suppression Bureau Martial Artist, rushing here and there.

However, his usual habit of heading to the prison’s depths in the evening had changed.

After Jiang Guanshui’s crisis was resolved, those Elder Emperors voluntarily relinquished their esteemed statuses and went to the Elder Imperial Tutor to beg for forgiveness.

As for Jiang Guanshui, not only was his status as a Prince restored, but he also regained the treatment befitting a Prince!

He had now left the prison and, under Emperor Xia’s careful tutelage, was studying the way of emperors, understanding the hearts of the people, and cultivating diligently!

It was said that he had recently broken through to the Divine Power Realm!

With Jiang Guanshui gone, the depths of the prison naturally felt much more desolate.

Only that old codger, Longbo Hai, remained, cultivating silently in the great hall.

He hoped to break through his Realm’s bottleneck in the time he had left and cultivate a Divine Platform!

Though the chances were minuscule, it was his only way out.

For the time being, Su Bai naturally had no plans to visit the prison’s depths either.

Meanwhile, the huge commotion from his breakthrough to the Spirit Transformation Realm had certainly kept the Martial Artists of the Prison Suppression Bureau and the Demon-slaying Bureau busy for a while!

They had all but turned the entire Purgatory Demon Cave upside down!

Fortunately, when Su Bai had seen the Purple Qi stretching for a thousand miles that day, he’d had a bad feeling!

He had quickly taken the Demon Dragon and the dog and moved their base of operations!

Otherwise, even if he hadn’t been discovered by them, he would have been found by those old monsters spying from the shadows, and his cover would have been blown!

The matter only began to die down after half a month.

Everything returned to normal.

...

"Brother Su Bai! Come on! You’re eating at my place today!"

One morning, just as Su Bai finished escorting a convict, Zhang Wei invited him over.

"Huh? What are you doing back from the Celestial Fragrance Pavilion?"

Su Bai looked surprised.

"Brother Su Bai! You can be so clueless!"

Zhang Wei teased, "Today is the Qingyuan Festival! It’s a day off, so all the gambling dens, theaters, and other entertainment venues are closed for the day!"

Su Bai paused for a moment, stunned.

Only then did he realize. ’Oh, it’s the Qingyuan Festival.’

The Qingyuan Festival was a holiday established by the previous emperor!

It was said to have been created in memory of a friend.

...

After leaving Zhang Wei’s home, Su Bai opened an oil-paper umbrella.

A light rain drifted down from the sky, and a gentle breeze blew from all directions!

Su Bai stepped on the green flagstones, splashing up water with a PATTER PATTER sound.

There were few pedestrians on the street, and they walked with hurried steps. A beauty holding an umbrella frowned delicately, while a lightly dressed young man held a book over his head to ward off the rain, cursing his bad luck!

Holding the umbrella with one hand, Su Bai reached out with the other to feel the fine rain, looking all around him.

He saw wisps of green smoke rising from every household!

He watched the mountains and waters, lightly shrouded in a thin mist!

Contented, comfortable!

...

"Giddy-up! Giddy-up!"

A moment later, the frantic thundering of hooves and a young man’s clear shout reached Su Bai’s ears, "Make way! Make way!"

Su Bai retreated to the side of the street and watched with curiosity.

A troop of elite, armored horsemen surrounded a golden carriage!

It sped past in a flash!