On the small stone in the Immortal Lord's house

"Bang!" "Clang!"

A series of crashing sounds and the thud of things being knocked over echoed as the door was pushed open.

Xie Zhuo stopped in his tracks and stood at the doorway, looking inside.

The antique display shelf, which held books and porcelain, had overturned and was lying on the ground. The books were scattered all over the floor, and shards of a celadon vase landed next to the overturned table.

The person they were looking for sat slumped amidst the chaos, his hair ornament askew, his hair disheveled, his robes torn by the fierce wind, the edges charred. Turning to look at the sudden burst of light, his expression changed drastically when he saw the broken-open door, and he shouted:

"Zhuoyu, stop that thing!"

Before the words were even finished, the culprit that caused everything—a ball of light that was darting around the room like a headless fly—suddenly found its target and, leaving afterimages, headed straight for the only exit.

Although Xie Zhuo did not understand what had happened, a barrier rippled out from his body and covered the original formation in the room.

The dazzling ball of light couldn't stop and crashed violently into the barrier, causing ripples to spread across it from the impact.

The light from the struck orb dimmed slightly, spun around in place, its colors began to flow again, and then it crashed straight into the young man blocking its way at the door.

The blast of air ruffled the young man's hair at his temples, only to be caught by a hand just before it hit him.

The figure lying amidst the chaos had appeared before Xie Zhuo without him noticing. His clothes were neat, and the ball of light in his hand shone even brighter, yet he casually tucked it into his sleeve without a second thought.

Thanks.

"Li Dai, what is this?" Xie Zhuo turned his gaze to the side, watching the ball of light disappear from sight.

The young man whose name he had called wore a mysterious smile: "Nothing." He then walked into the house: "You came to see me about that matter, right?" As he walked into the house, the things that had been scattered by the ball of light beside him returned to their original places. The fragments of the celadon vase were reassembled and placed on the antique shelf.

Li Dai sat down on the prayer mat, and the overturned table floated back to him and was straightened, restoring everything in the room to its original state.

"Consider the help you gave me earlier as payment for the divination."

Xie Zhuo didn't concern himself with other people's business, and his face didn't show any joy when he heard the news. He walked to sit down opposite Li Dai, and three copper coins fell to the ground.

The young man sitting cross-legged behind the table had a fluctuating expression before finally exclaiming in surprise, "The divination results have changed."

"You've already calculated it?" Even though he was the one who answered the divination, Xie Zhuo's tone remained calm.

Li Dai became somewhat interested but did not answer Xie Zhuo's question: "The image of withered branches sprouting new buds does not indicate a hopeless situation. It seems that it will not follow the same path as your master."

Xie Zhuo's calm expression finally showed a change. Unlike others, he lost all his memories after ascending to immortality. He didn't even know who he was. The only thing he had was the character "Zhuo" embroidered on the sleeve of his robe.

Unlike other immortals who possess their own small worlds, he also lacks the extraordinary abilities of immortals. Fortunately, a passing immortal took pity on him, took him as a disciple, and temporarily provided him with a place to stay until he finally had his own small world.

But just as the celestial realm is a self-sustaining microcosm within the body, so too are immortals not immortal. After ascending, they not only have to be at the beck and call of the Heavenly Dao, but they also still face various tribulations...

"Ding-ling".

The crisp clinking of the copper coins pulled him back from his wandering thoughts.

"Would you like me to cast another divination for you, to divine that only chance of survival?" The young man across the table tossed down the copper coins in his hand, the clinking sound echoing once more in the empty, silent hall. He turned a question into a statement, and then placed the three copper coins into the tortoise shell.

The tortoise shell jingled in his hand, but the tinkling sound was drowned out by another voice as clear as a spring:

"No need." No matter what lies ahead, he will keep moving forward.

Xie Zhuo stood up. He had come to see Li Dai only because his friends had persuaded him repeatedly, and he was so annoyed that he finally did so.

Li Dai gazed at the empty seat opposite him. A cold cup of tea on the table indicated that someone had indeed been there not long ago. He put away the tortoise shell in his hand and parted his lips slightly:

"If you've made up your mind later, you can come back to me, but of course you'll have to pay the divination fee."

...

—

That night, the moon was cool and clear.

Xie Zhuo sat in his own little world, gazing at the full moon half-hidden by the eaves above. All around was silent until he moved, at which point the sound of the wind rustling through the grass gradually began to emerge.

Everything in the small world moves according to the master's will. After becoming an immortal, one does not need to sleep. In some people's small worlds, there is no day or night; it is always bright daylight. But in Xie Zhuo's small world, everything is just like the world he originally lived in. The sun, moon, and seasons flow as usual. The only difference is that there is no life other than him.

The full moon in the sky, the grass and trees at your feet, and the moonlight falling on you are all made of spiritual energy.

He failed to control the spiritual power emanating from his body due to the impending calamity, allowing himself to sink into nothingness.

It was as if I had entered the gap between time and space, where the traces of the world vanished, and everything around me was neither black nor white, but a void that could not be perceived or captured.

The indistinct murmurs seemed to pollute his ears before returning to silence.

Time seemed to cease to exist, and even the existence of his body became imperceptible; he was about to merge with that nothingness...

A hard object suddenly squeezed into his right hand, and his sense of body gradually returned. First, he felt the presence of his right hand, then his forearm, and gradually, he regained full control of his body. His eyes caught sight of the scenery again, and the full moon still hung high in the night sky.

A loud shout clearly reached his ears:

"Senior brother!"

The moment Xie Zhuo withdrew his gaze from the full moon, two figures appeared before him simultaneously.

He met two pairs of eyes, different yet conveying the same emotion:

"Why are you here?"

“I originally wanted to come find you, but as soon as I got close, I felt that the aura of Jade Cry Palace was unstable. After entering, I couldn’t find you, Senior Brother, so…” Xin Xuan’s narrow eyes swept over the figure beside him, and he stopped talking.

"They came looking for me." The young man standing next to Xin Xuan added, staring intently at Xie Zhuo: "Your condition is getting worse and worse, you really shouldn't go..."

"I've already gone to see him," Xie Zhuo interrupted his friend's impending admonition.

"What did he say?" Xin Xuan asked hastily when Xie Zhuo showed no intention of continuing.

Xie Zhuo did not answer. Giving people a hope that is hard to find and slim is a cruel thing. He only said, "It's still early before the time for the tribulation."

"You're quite open-minded." Xin Yi raised her hand and pressed on Xin Xuan's shoulder, changing the subject: "I noticed you were clenching your right hand the whole time, did you get some kind of treasure?"

Xie Zhuo stood there, his body stiffening slightly. He found Xin Yi's words hard to understand. He didn't remember holding anything, but the sensation in his right palm was undeniably real, the smooth, cool touch impossible to fake.

He raised his right arm, opened his clenched fingers, and an irregularly shaped stone lay in his palm. The stone was only half the size of his palm, with a smooth surface, but its texture was not as lustrous as jade, and it had no spiritual power.

"Senior brother, what are you doing with that stone?"

Xie Zhuo blinked slowly, his gaze fixed on the stone in his palm. A moment ago, a memory that had vanished into nothingness resurfaced: "I... I don't know, it crawled into my hand on its own."

Xin Xuan's face was filled with obvious suspicion: "But isn't this just an ordinary stone? Senior brother, did you go to the mortal realm?" His tone became much more cheerful when he said the last sentence.

"No." Xie Zhuo told the two about falling into nothingness: "...it came into my hands at that time."

The two had clearly never encountered the same situation before, and fell silent for a moment. Finally, Xin, the longest-lived of the three, guessed, "Perhaps you've fallen into the legendary Void Realm."

"Where is that place?"

“Nobody knows what that is.” Xin Yi himself only had a vague idea: “Only some legends have been passed down. Some say it’s the dwelling place of the Heavenly Dao, others say it’s an aggregate of souls that cannot be reincarnated, and still others say it’s the burial place of immortals…”

Xin paused for a moment, her gaze falling on Xie Zhuo, her voice serious: "Zhuoyu, you should prepare as soon as possible."

"I know." Facing their intense gazes, Xie Zhuo had no choice but to bite the bullet and give them a reply.

—

In the Jade Cry Hall, Xin Xuan, as usual, checked whether his senior brother was still alive. He took the token given to him by Xie Zhuo and easily entered this realm.

He went straight to the study inside the hall. Although the door to the study was half open, Xin Xuan gradually slowed down his pace and finally stopped properly at the door and knocked.

Only when a voice from inside the house said, "Come in," did he step over the threshold and enter the house.

Walking around the sandalwood screen embroidered with carved begonias, the person at the table, without looking up, said:

"What is it?"

"Can't you come to see your senior brother if there's nothing wrong?" Xin Xuan took out a brocade box and placed it on the table: "The old man asked me to bring this to my senior brother."

"Um."

Xie Zhuo put down his pen, not even glancing at the brocade box on the table. "Is there anything else?"

"It's alright." Xin Xuan understood Xie Zhuo's implication that he should leave, but he still found a comfortable spot to sit down. He was just doing his routine of caring for the elderly living alone.

As soon as he sat down, Xin Xuan noticed a familiar stone on Xie Zhuo's unchanging desk. His eyes widened slightly. "Senior brother, which stone is this?"

The stone, about half the size of a palm, had no sharp edges and quietly occupied a corner of the desk, standing out from the magical objects that filled the room.

Xie Zhuo then looked at him, and glanced at the stone on the table, which he had casually used as a paperweight after bringing it back to the palace that day. He nodded slightly: "It's that one."

“It looks no different from the other stones.” Xin Xuan moved closer, but even after looking at it from left to right, he couldn’t see anything special about it.

Xie Zhuo assumed he was going to ask why he left the stone, so he casually replied, "It just caught my eye."

However, Xin Xuan, who was observing the stone, caught a fleeting smile in the young man's peripheral vision and immediately believed Xie Zhuo's perfunctory words.

...

—

One day, a hundred years later.

Xie Zhuo pushed open the door, and the once tidy room was now in a mess. Walking into the room, the wolf-hair brush, paper and inkstone on the table were scattered everywhere, the brush washer was overturned, and the remaining water inside had blurred the unfinished painting on the table into a mess.

Xie Zhuo remained calm. He did not sense any signs that the small world had been forcibly entered. His gaze swept over the almost empty, unrecognizable table before he walked toward the inner room.

There was a small couch in the inner room, and the outer garment he had left on the couch earlier had bulged out.

He stepped forward and lifted a corner of his coat, revealing a three-headed baby doll underneath.

The child wasn't flustered at being discovered; instead, he grinned at the homeowner.

Xie Zhuo wrapped the naked child in the outer garment on the couch and pulled the child into his arms.

The child's smile widened as he was picked up, and he wrapped his arms around Xie Zhuo's neck, exclaiming happily, "Zhuoyu!"

Xie Zhuo didn't make a fuss when a child who had just taken human form called him that. Only the softness on his neck made his body stiffen for a moment. He held the child in his arms with one hand and pulled the child's slender arm with the other.

Seeing that she received no response and instead had one of her arms pulled away, the little demon's round face scrunched up for a moment, and she pouted as she uttered another name:

"Senior brother... Jade carving."

Xie Zhu's lips curled into a smile. He had just released the child's chubby arm when the child tried to wrap his arms around his neck again. His smile turned into helplessness. He took the child's chubby hand and squeezed it, then corrected him in a gentle tone:

"You shouldn't call me Senior Brother; you should call me Immortal Lord from now on."

The child, with his round, innocent, dark eyes, didn't throw a tantrum when his chubby hands were pinched. Instead, he took the opportunity to tighten his grip on the young man's slender fingers. However, his small hands could only barely cover two of Xie Zhuo's fingers, and he couldn't cover any more. His cheeks puffed out greedily, and he called out again:

"Zhuoyu."

Xie Zhuo didn't pull his hand away from the sulking child. He sighed helplessly, used his spiritual power to create a puppet, and tidied up the side hall.

-----------------------

Author's Note: I was planning to take another day off, but I'm not used to not writing all of a sudden, so I'll post a bonus chapter first.