CH 138

Even though they had decided that they would head for the Qianlin Assembly, they could not leave immediately.

First of all, Jiang Li wanted to find a safe place for Chi Bijiang’s body so that her spiritual soul could reside there once again when they saved her. Hongluo was in an uproar, and there were few people they could rely on. Jiang Li thought of the owner of the medicine hall who had given him shelter and decided to locate him. On his way there, he also bought things like cinnabar and Solomon’s seal to create an amulet and set up a protective formation.

Solomon’s seal: a kind of plant that’s used in traditional Chinese medicine

He was in a hurry, and one could not see the usual smile on his face. He was holding Chi Bijiang in his arms, so his figure seemed burdened by the additional weight, and his steps were heavier.

After looking for the truth about his enemy for so many years, Yao Wangnian was finally just a step away from a decisive battle. He should have been enjoying this moment, but he could not relax at all. On the contrary, as he was watching Jiang Li’s figure disappear into the distance, he felt more and more agitated and troubled, and his anger was intensifying. He only wanted to destroy everything around him.

Every single creature in this world was selfish. Back then, he had seen an innocent peasant die and had wanted to help them. That was obviously done out of good intentions, but did not end well for him. The Heavenly Dao was heartless, and his kindness was never returned.

A part of Yao Wangnian resented Luomei and his fellow disciple for cutting off all relations with him so easily and letting him suffer so much, while another part of him felt that Luomei was truly formidable, and if he himself was not as cold and ruthless as Luomei, he would never become as powerful.

These obvious contradictions tortured his mind even more intensely. Yao Wangnian suddenly felt dry and hot all over. However, in a flash, a gust of murderous qi had risen up, and his body was enveloped with ghost qi that spread swiftly around him like outgoing waves. Wherever it went, it scorched the ground and turned it black, the snow was vaporized, the trees and grass withered and disappeared, while the birds fell to the ground dead.

As soon as Yun Weisi saw this, he waved his sleeves and folded his fingers to form a seal. A golden rune appeared in the air, stopping these destructive waves.

But the resentment in Yao Wangnian was not dispelled. On the contrary, he looked even crazier. His eyes had turned bright red, and he was close to deviating. At this moment, a Buddhist seal struck him in the middle of his back.

“Everything in our karmic world is as transient as dreams, as bubbles as shadows, or as a flash of lightning, and one ought to embrace this knowledge!”

As if he had heard a morning bell or an evening drum and finally woke up from a dream, Yao Wangnian’s spiritual consciousness and his physical body shook slightly, and he finally seemed to be calming down as his madness cleared away.

A morning bell and an evening drum: encouragement to virtue and purity

“…I didn’t expect you to use Buddhist teachings too.”

After a while, he finally spoke in a hoarse voice. The lower part of his jaw that showed from under his hood looked even grayer now.

“In the past, I have entered sects from each school of thought in the world, and learnt all kinds of skills there. I’ve mastered thousands of teachings, and now Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism all look the same to me. Cultivation practices are but small tricks, and eventually everyone comes to the same truth by taking different roads,” Jiufang Changming looked at him, “Your heart is plagued with demons. If nothing changes, I’m afraid you won’t even be able to cultivate as a ghost.”

If one couldn’t even be a ghost cultivator, they would just disappear like the morning mist.

“Heart demons, hah…” Yao Wangnian sneered, “After I became a ghost cultivator, I’ve lost track of time. All I could only do was persist through this torturous pain that I could hardly endure at all. You’ve been drifting through your lives smoothly like the winds and the rivers and have never experienced anything like this!”

“What do you even know?” Yun Weisi answered coldly. “Have you ever been unable to obtain what you desired? Have you looked out at an unreachable distance, not knowing whether the person you desire is alive?  Have you, despite that, willingly trapped yourself in a place that never sees the light save for the sun and the moon because of a single promise? Have you locked yourself in an abyss full of demons and gotten sick of yearning to the point that your resentment turns you into a demon?”

The worst kind of despair is not that of a person who had not a ray of hope, but from those who were still holding on to the last chance, endlessly waiting for hope in the darkness without any certainty of ever seeing light again. After a long period of time, the body of a person like this would be paralyzed by pain, but their spiritual consciousness would be filled with resentment until their mind split into parts.

When Yun Hai, contaminated by demonic qi, saw Jiufang Changming sitting near a fire on that shore in the Nine Layers of the Abyss, he only thought of killing him and had not known that he had finally met the light that he had been waiting so many years for.

Perhaps, Yao Wangnian understood him, or maybe he just thought of something else, but either way, he did not retort and remained silent for a while.

“After you died, your existence was solely supported by your unwillingness to accept your unjust death. If you go to the assembly and defeat Luomei now, will that cast off the chains that keep you bound?” Jiufang Changming asked.

He put his hand on Yun Weisi’s shoulder, and even though his hand was light, for Yun Weisi, it meant a lot.

This small movement made him calm down quickly.

Perhaps, the wound in his heart needed much more time to finally heal, but no matter what happened, Jiufang Changming was nearby, and that fact alone was his remedy.

Cast off the chains?

At the same time, Yao Wangnian shook his head.

There was too much unresolved resentment in his heart. Even if Luomei’s bones were crushed to powder and his remains scattered, Yao Wangnian’s inner discord would not be resolved.

Surely, ascension was something many people strived to achieve for their entire lives, but was it really worth it to take your disciples’ lives, to sacrifice your clan and even the whole world just to chase that dream without any guarantee of success?

Yao Wangnian did not even notice that he had asked this question out loud until he heard Jiufang Changming’s voice.

“All people of our world pursue different Daos, and by simply being an open-minded person who is ready to accept all kinds of views, one would not immediately come to understand the hidden truth of the world. Some people enter orthodox schools and act surreptitiously, perhaps colluding with demons or becoming one of them, ready to destroy the world for personal gain, but this might still allow them to break through the boundaries and reach ascension.”

If it was not for Jiufang Changming and Yun Weisi, Immortal Luomei would not necessarily fail in the end. By associating himself with demons and turning the world into a realm of demons, he would forcibly change the laws of the heavens and the earth. Would that not make him akin to someone who composed the laws for the Heavenly Dao itself?

Luomei had trampled on countless bodies to reach the peak. When his disciple, Yao Wangnian, noticed a clue that hinted at him working together with demons, Luomei killed the witness immediately, tarnishing his reputation in the process. 

Jiang Li’s identity suited Luomei, so he did not hesitate to take over the body of his innocent disciple. Chi Bijiang was passionately devoted to Jiang Li, so he was going to use her too. 

Jiufang Changming’s and Ren Haishan’s cultivation bases were solid, so Luomei used them as pillars for supporting the Liuhe Zhutian Formation, turning them into a part of a giant trap. Luomei noticed that Yun Weisi cared a lot for his shizun, so Luomei made him willingly enter another trap, getting him sealed in the Nine Layers of the Abyss for a long period of time.

Luomei had the entire world wrapped around his finger. Some died, some were injured, some lost half of their lives, while others were violently killed—only Luomei, from the beginning to the end, had never suffered a single loss.

“I entered the Wanjian Immortal Clan when I was little. An elder pointed to the sword-like sharp steep mountain peaks and told us that the Dao of the Sword is like the heart of the sword, and nature is like a bright mirror: only the bright and the clean, those untainted by even a speck of dust can reach the Great Dao. I took this as a guiding principle. I was virtuous and determined as I slaughtered all demons on my path. I took upon myself to support and assist the orthodox Dao.”

That was why when he met those wounded innocent peasants, Yao Wangnian could only pull all his effort into finding out the truth and did not walk away from the matter that seemed to have no relation to him.

Had he not decided to bring justice to those people, why would his shizun deem him a thorn in his side?

But it had been a long time since he died. In the eyes of his sect, and even in the eyes of the entire world, he was but a rebellious disciple who was abandoned by his shizun. His grievances had never been resolved, and justice had never existed for him.

“If divine retribution actually exists in this world and virtue has its reward while evil is eventually punished, why can’t the wronged and those who were driven to death be avenged? Why do those who treat people like insects act as they want, unhindered by anyone? Could it be… that you can only reach the Heavenly Dao if you are like Luomei?”

Yao Wangnian laughed so hard at his words that he bent over and trembled.

The sun was slowly setting down on the horizon as the day was coming to an end. Yao Wangnian’s silhouette was vanishing along with the light. It was getting fainter and fainter, and even the ghost qi around his body had gotten weaker.

“There exist thousands of Daos. People, immortals, ghosts, deities, yaos, demons—everyone has their origins. That is how it has been for the millenia, and this shall stay the same.”

“Good or evil, killer or savior—those are but labels pinned by humans. The Heavenly Dao had never set such rules.”

“I’ve searched through all kinds of clans pursuing the profound principles of the Heavenly Dao, and your question puzzled me years ago. Even after joining Daoist and Buddhist sects, I could not solve it.”

“But eventually I came to understand that following the so-called Heavenly Dao means following your heart. Luomei is an unscrupulous person, this is his Dao. I’m not Luomei, so I have my own Dao. If I defeat Luomei with my resolute ideals, I will convince other people that my Dao is right. The Heavenly Dao had never differentiated between vice and virtue—it was people who decided what is good and what is evil. Do you understand me when I explain it this way?”

Yao Wangnian did not answer but stopped trembling.

“Since you’ve turned into a ghost cultivator, you also have your own Dao. If you don’t want to see Luomei’s Dao dictating the rules of the world, you should become a part of the Dao to be able to change the rules and influence other people,” Jiufang Changming said slowly, “The one who can save you is not the Heavenly Dao and not the definition of good and evil, as defined by other people—it has always been only you yourself.”

Yao Wangnian mumbled: “Me, a part of the Dao?”

Jiufang Changming nodded: “That’s right. Everything in the world has its purpose. Ancient books say that ghost cultivators are different from the common people. They can’t appear near the light or fire, their strong resentments prevent them from freeing themselves from their obsessions, and they can only walk in the world of the living when it’s sinking into chaos. But I’ve met two ghost cultivators, you and the one called Linghu You, who were not afraid of the sunlight and possessed physical bodies. That means that you two have exceeded what the ancient texts had assumed you to be capable of. You’ve even started your own path of cultivation. If you go on like this, you might achieve great success.”

“I don’t know…”

What Jiufang Changming had said was more than what Yao Wangnian could comprehend. It had taken apart the concepts he had grown with and opened up a new path for him, showing him a new way he had never thought of. Yao Wangnian’s mind was in turmoil, and for a while, he could not find an answer. The ghost qi wrapped around him in a vortex until he disappeared from their view.

“Shizun, you should rest first,” Yun Weisi said. 

He saw Jiufang Changming frown from exhaustion and reached out to him subconsciously.

“Why don’t you call me shidi anymore?”

He seemed to smile, and Yun Weisi’s half-stretched hand stopped in the air.

“Shizun wants to get even with me now?” Yun Weisi answered unhurriedly.

“What if I say yes?”

“Then I can only accept whatever punishment is imposed,” Yun Weisi lowered his hand, “From head to toe, from life to soul, I have long since given myself to shizun. If that is what shizun wants, I will not say a word against it.”

At this moment, he even resembled Yun Hai with his teasing intonation, but he was only like this in front of Jiufang Changming.

When other people were nearby, Yun Weisi was still that taciturn person.

The two of them entered the room. It was in utter chaos, so no one could live here. The princess had been killed by the nightmare demon, and her once pretty face was now only part of a formless skin that looked terrifying.

People died the way lanterns went out, and in the end, it did not matter whether they ended in imperial tombs or common graves. Jiufang Changming waved his hand lightly, and the body turned into glowing dust that was blown away by the wind, leaving no trace behind.

The room was unsuitable for living, but if there was one thing that was not lacking in Hongluo at this moment, it was empty houses. They asked the shopkeeper for another large clean room and decided to settle down there for the night. By tomorrow, Jiang Li would have put Chi Bijiang’s body in a safe place, and they would go to the Zhengrong Mountain Villa together.

After finding the room for the night, Jiufang Changming went to wash up, and Yun Weisi stood near the window, looking at the room. The furnishing was that of a normal guest house, but he suddenly felt as if they had been cut off from the outside world in this moment of calm silence.

This calm was something they had obtained by nearly paying for it with their lives, so it was very precious.

When he was young, he led a luxurious life, idling away his time. He always did only what he wanted and wished that every day of his life would be full of excitement. Only now did he understand that even a short moment of pleasant quietness could only be obtained through many sacrifices.

Fortunately, the person he cared about was nearby.

Tn:

Sorry for the long break, I had my finals… But at least it’s a double update!

Happy New Yea
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