How to Bring Common Sense to Xianxia World - Chapter 229: The Next Destination

Bob slowly sat back down, but he still stared at Wei Chen in disbelief. He didn’t think he would hear that name once again. George Washington, the father of the country and the great general who won the war against the British.

Wei Chen continued his questioning. “So, how long ago did the war end?”

Bob thought for a moment, trying to recall it. “It was about fifty years after the war ended, if I remember correctly. By the time I was born, George Washington was already dead, but people still talked about him.”

“I see…” Wei Chen nodded, then counted on his fingers as he tried to calculate the year.

“So… it was around 1831 to 1833, during the slavery era, that you came from, huh?” he asked, trying to confirm his conjecture.

Bob shook his head. “I don’t know the exact year, young master Wei. I only know what I told you. Back then, the plantation was very cruel, and I ran away.”

“Uh huh.” Wei Chen nodded, then asked, “How did you end up here then? Did someone from this world kidnap you or something?”

“No, no one kidnapped me, young master Wei.” Bob shook his head. “I arrived here by accident.”

“Accident?” he repeated. “Don’t tell me you accidentally fell into some kind of body of water, like a river, well, or lake? Then the next thing you knew, you appeared in this world?”

“How do you know?” Bob asked, startled. What Wei Chen described was exactly what he had experienced.

“Wait… you’re serious?” This time it was Wei Chen who was stunned. He had just been spouting some joking nonsense, but that was what really happened?

“Yes.” Bob nodded. “I’m serious. Back then, I was running away from the pursuers from the plantation. Then I thought I’d rather die than go back, so I jumped from a bridge into the torrential river below.”

“Then… when I opened my eyes, I was in this world. I was lying in the abode of an old Daoist. He rescued me from a river near his home and taught me many things about this world,” Bob said.

Hearing what Bob said, Wei Chen’s nonsensical mind wandered in a completely different direction. He had only made that joke because he had read some shoujo manga about a girl who fell into a river, appeared in ancient times, then became the bride of a calm, warm, and charming dude from the past.

His mind wandered to Bob getting rescued from the river, and the man who rescued him becoming smitten with Bob’s features and making him his bri…

Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!

A series of loud slaps rang out as Wei Chen smacked his own forehead repeatedly, as if trying to expel some accursed thoughts from his gray matter.

Bob was completely flabbergasted by the weird young master in front of him. Was this guy alright in the head? Well… maybe not so much…

(Author Note: What Wei Chen was thinking about was the super classic shoujo manga, The Crest of the Royal Family (王家の紋章, Ōke no Monshō) by Chieko Hosokawa.

The girl he mentioned was Carol Reed, a modern American girl studying Egyptology in Cairo. She gets sent back in time to ancient Egypt through a curse while exploring a tomb and becomes deeply involved in royal and political affairs.

She is often called the “Daughter of the Nile.” She meets the male lead, Memphis. In the story, Memphis becomes smitten with Carol’s blonde hair, and he also likes her modern knowledge.)

After he finally slapped the accursed thoughts out of his mind, he finally calmed down.

“Sorry, man… sometimes you just can’t help wanting to slap yourself.” Wei Chen said with a sigh.

Yeah… this guy definitely has some screws loose up there, Bob thought to himself. But outwardly, he only laughed dryly and glossed it over as if he hadn’t seen anything.

Wei Chen gathered his wits and returned to the topic at hand.

“Where were you when you first appeared in this world?” he asked.

This time, Bob did not need long to think. “Azure Dragon… no, it’s Vermilion Bird Province now, isn’t it? Yes, I appeared in Vermilion Bird Province, deep in the mountains where my master first found me.”

“Hmmm…” Wei Chen thought to himself.

He wanted to go there and check the place out personally. No, he was not trying to go back there. He had already died in his previous world, dead as dead could be.

He also had a mission he needed to finish. Abandoning his job and trying to return to his previous world, where he was already dead, was far from ideal.

It was just that… he wanted to check the place out. Call it curiosity, melancholy, or whatever else. He simply wanted to see it for himself.

Besides… from his understanding of his boss, the Lord of Death, the guy was a massive nerd for the pop culture of Wei Chen’s previous world. That meant he at least had some way to observe that world. Wei Chen never bothered asking him about it because it was not really his place to do so.

But now…

Wei Chen looked at Bob.

Now that there was a living, breathing man who seemed to have crossed worlds with his physical body intact, it told him that somewhere in this world, aside from his boss, there was a place connected to his previous world.

“Haaaaaa~” Wei Chen let out a sigh.

What did he want to achieve by going there? Maybe… maybe he wanted to catch a glimpse of his previous world. Or maybe… maybe he just wanted closure.

“Young master Wei,” Bob called out, snapping Wei Chen out of his thoughts.

“Yes, Bobby?” Wei Chen blurted out.

“Bobby?” Bob raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry, I just blurted out your nickname. Sorry if you mind it,” Wei Chen said.

“No… I don’t mind, young master Wei. More importantly, may I ask you something in return?” Bob asked.

“Go ahead! Shoot.” Wei Chen nodded.

“You know where I came from. You can determine the year, and you called it the slavery era. Does this mean you come from the same place as me?” Bob asked.

“Yeah… something like that. It’s just that I’m from around two hundred years after your era,” Wei Chen answered without hiding much.

“Two hundred years?” Bob repeated, then fell silent as he slowly digested the information he had just heard.

“What was it like, two hundred years later?”

Wei Chen thought back on his previous life, then chuckled.

“If you mean whether there’s still slavery, then no, there aren’t slaves anymore. At least, not openly and legally. But as you know, people still deal with the same old shit humanity has dealt with since ancient times, along with new problems that came with changes in the era. But for your people, things got a lot better,” Wei Chen answered without going into too much detail.

“I see… that’s good then.” Bob smiled and nodded, not asking further.

“You don’t want to know more?” Wei Chen asked.

“Why should I? I can’t go back anymore, and even if I did, I’d just end up in a strange era where I wouldn’t understand anything. I already know things got better for my people, and that’s enough for me,” Bob said without much melancholy or nostalgia. It was as if he had finally been given closure.

“You sound like a sage, you know that?” Wei Chen teased.

“People tell me that a lot, but no, I’m not a sage. I’m already more than two hundred years old, young master Wei. I’ve seen a lot of things. From the perspective of someone who never expected himself to become a cultivator, I only cultivated because my master didn’t have anyone who could inherit his Body Cultivation technique, so I did.”

“For me, things just flow like a river. If I obtain resources through luck, then good. If not, I don’t bother searching for them. From what I understand through my experiences, resources are mostly needed by people who want to increase their cultivation speed. It’s a kind of competition. But for me… I cultivate simply because I want to repay my master,” Bob said.

“You’re quite a chill guy, huh? That’s good then. So….” Wei Chen paused as he looked at Bob.

“Do you want to go back and visit your master? I want to see the place where you popped into this world.”

— Sometimes Later – Underworld —

Within the vast and awe inspiring office, the place where Wei Chen first woke up in this world, the Lord of Death’s office, the Lord of Death was reading the report that Wei Chen had compiled.

Beside him stood Youqi, whose face was solemn as she waited for her husband to finish reading.

After some time, the Lord of Death finally let out a sigh and placed the report down after finishing it.

“It’s a good thing that Wei Chen stumbled upon this problem first. Otherwise… things might have escalated,” said the Lord of Death.

Youqi nodded. “Yes, discovering those people using our name for their own agenda is a good thing. Otherwise, our reputation might…” Youqi wanted to continue but was interrupted.

“No, I don’t mean those ants pretending to be us, Qi’er.” The Lord of Death shook his head.

“Then you mean….”

“I mean…” The eerie green flames in the Lord of Death’s eye sockets burned brighter as he thought about the report he had just read.

“The link between this world and Wei Chen’s previous world that can physically transport someone here. This is serious… a hundred times more serious than those ants pretending to be us.”

A cold and solemn atmosphere settled around the Lord of Death.