Chapter 16 Pool of Rebirth

Chu Jianshan closed his eyes tightly, trying to clear the images from his mind, but they became clearer and clearer, and his heartbeat grew louder and louder.

"Chu Jianshan." Cheng Yuan called him softly, the hot, humid air hitting Chu Jianshan's earlobe, almost making him collapse.

"...What?" Chu Jianshan finally managed to utter two words after a long pause.

You are shaking.

"..."

Chu Jianshan knew, of course, that he was trembling, and if Cheng Yuan didn't let go soon, he might lose his temper.

No, this can't go on any longer. Chu Jianshan mustered his courage and shoved Cheng Yuan aside, trying to run out of this cramped corner.

But as soon as they peeked out, they saw someone walking towards them, so they immediately turned back and bumped into Cheng Yuan's arms.

Cheng Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly, as if he couldn't figure out what he was trying to do, so he could only pull him closer to his chest to prevent people outside from seeing.

Chu Jianshan's face was pressed against Cheng Yuan's chest, and he could clearly hear his heartbeat, which seemed a little fast. He stammered, "I...you...someone's here."

Sure enough, not long after, the sound of two people talking slowly and deliberately could be heard from outside, getting closer and closer.

"Hey bro, is this the right place? It doesn't look like our house to me."

"You're holding your head upside down."

"Oh... I knew it."

As the sound of their footsteps faded into the distance, Chu Jianshan finally breathed a sigh of relief, released Cheng Yuan, and a few beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"What are you doing here?" the two asked at the same time, followed by an awkward silence.

"You go first," Chu Jianshan said, taking the initiative to back down.

"The person who brought us here today seems like a tough guy, so I was thinking of investigating him under the cover of night. What about you?"

"Me...me too!"

Chu Jianshan certainly couldn't say that he was startled awake by a wet dream, and besides, he did indeed want to investigate that person.

"Let's go then." Cheng Yuan turned around, seemingly having already decided on a direction.

"Do you know how to investigate him?" Chu Jianshan currently has no way to accurately locate that person's room.

Cheng Yuan raised the corners of his mouth slightly, pulled out something resembling a talisman from his waist, and waved it in front of Chu Jianshan.

Chu Jianshan squinted. He recognized it as a tracking talisman, which he used to frequently use on Cheng Yuan to prevent him from running away. He never expected it would come in handy again.

Seeing that Chu Jianshan remained silent, Cheng Yuan roughly guessed what was going on; he recognized the talisman.

However, this talisman was originally developed by his master. Although it spread beyond Changjin Mountain, not many people knew how to use it. In addition, given the dark environment and the way he was waving the talisman around so vigorously, the fact that Chu Jianshan could recognize it at a glance meant that he was very familiar with the talisman.

So Cheng Yuan asked, "Do you recognize this talisman?"

Chu Jianshan nodded: "I can barely recognize it."

"You could see it even in this darkness," Cheng Yuan said casually.

Chu Jianshan tilted his head and looked at Cheng Yuan, understanding the meaning behind his words. This was a test.

I haven't seen this apprentice for seven years, and he has indeed grown a lot, realizing that even those closest to him cannot be easily trusted.

So Chu Jianshan said, "Not many people use this thing, but that doesn't mean I haven't used it. This talisman is easy to recognize, so there's no need to test me like this."

Cheng Yuan nodded slightly and said nothing more. The two of them followed the talisman and continued on their way.

Then Chu Jianshan asked, "When did you put the talisman on him?"

"When you faked a fall and bumped into him."

"At that time, I don't think I had even found out his identity as a Guangyan person yet, and you were already thinking this far ahead?"

Chu Jianshan couldn't help but admire his disciple even more. He truly deserved to be the disciple of the number one immortal in the world, the Southern Immortal Venerable!

“No,” Cheng Yuan retorted. “I was helping him up when the talisman accidentally got on him.”

"..."

Well, it was all a twist of fate, but luckily the kid is quite honest.

After an unknown amount of time, the talisman led them to a door. Chu Jianshan gently pushed open the door, glanced inside, and then walked in confidently.

"Is no one inside?" Cheng Yuan immediately understood Chu Jianshan's meaning and followed him inside.

"That's not right. The talisman clearly brought us in, so how come there's no one here?"

Chu Jianshan was somewhat puzzled, as his talismans should never have any problems.

"Could it be that I drew it wrong?" Cheng Yuan picked up the talisman floating in the air and looked at it twice. It was not drawn wrong.

"etc"

Chu Jianshan suddenly spoke up: "Let go of it first."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Yuan released the talisman, only to see that after entering the room, it did not stop but instead flew to the window.

Chu Jianshan followed, slowly opened the window a crack, looked down through the crack, and then chuckled, "No wonder, put the talisman away."

Cheng Yuan slightly raised his hand, and the talisman burned to ashes in the air. Then he walked to Chu Jianshan's side and looked down.

Behind the Paradise Pavilion was a small pool that looked ordinary, but the water was a crystal-clear blue. Beside the pool, a person was jumping into it repeatedly—it was the man in the long sleeves.

"The Pool of Rebirth," Chu Jianshan said calmly, watching the man's continuous movements.

This person's obsession was too deep; he couldn't possibly jump in. But he didn't give up and kept trying to jump in. Just as he jumped in, the pool water instantly glowed with a blue fluorescence, pulling him up to the surface.

Once he reached the shore, the water droplets clinging to his body glowed like fireflies and slowly flew back to the Pool of Rebirth, leaving him without a trace.

"Is he really that eager for reincarnation?" Cheng Yuan asked from the side. "I think this Bliss Pavilion is quite nice, isn't it?"

"I'm more curious about what kind of obsession has kept him from jumping into the Pool of Rebirth for so many years."

The two were watching intently and unconsciously leaned closer together again. Chu Jianshan, feeling guilty, thought the situation was a bit too ambiguous and unconsciously moved to the side.

After looking for a long time, the person still hadn't come up. Chu Jianshan and Cheng Yuan searched the room for a long time, but they couldn't find any useful clues. So the two of them just sat on the bed and waited for the person to come back.

The two sat upright on either side of the bed, with enough space between them for five more people to sit. They remained silent, like a shy newlywed couple.

In fact, Cheng Yuan did not intend to distance himself from Chu Jianshan, but he just did not understand why Chu Jianshan was acting strangely today, speaking and behaving oddly.

After waiting for a while, the man downstairs finally returned. As soon as he entered, he saw two people sitting upright on his bed. He even doubted that this was his room, so he went back to look at the doorway.

Chu Jianshan smiled at him and raised his hand in a greeting gesture.

"What...are you doing in my house?" the man asked.

"Nothing, I'm just so bored and wanted to chat with someone," Chu Jianshan replied.

The man in the long sleeves naturally didn't believe it, but he still slowly walked in, sat down on the stool, and asked gently, "What do you want to talk about?"

For the past five hundred years, he has been confined to this Bliss Pavilion, watching wave after wave of people come and go. Indeed, it has been a long time since anyone has had a proper conversation with him.

“Let’s talk…” Chu Jianshan raised his eyes to look at him, his gaze filled with a hint of exploration.

"Let's talk about how you got here."

Chu Jianshan phrased it tactfully, but the man understood. He wanted to know how he died, or rather, who killed him.

The man reached out and poured himself a cup of tea. His wide sleeves did not slow him down. He tilted his head back and drank the tea, saying expressionlessly, "Before asking others questions, you should always tell them where you come from."

"You're not from the spirit world, are you?"

When Chu Jianshan realized that he knew, he stopped hiding it and asked, "How did you figure it out?"

The man twisted his neck and turned to look at them, saying, "People who have just arrived in the spirit world, especially young people, are rarely as calm as you. Most of them are crying and shouting about how they died, and some are even in a hurry to jump into the pool of rebirth. You are too much like an anomaly."

"In a hurry to jump into the Rebirth Pool?" Cheng Yuan spoke up, asking directly, "Like you?"

The man stiffened, clearly stunned for a moment, then lowered his voice and said hoarsely, "What exactly do you want to know?"

Chu Jianshan said, "I told you, I want to know how you got here. As a big shot in Linyi Sect, to be killed in such a cruel way, I don't believe you wouldn't hate it."

The man gripped his teacup tightly, guessing that they had probably seen the illusion of Ghost Mountain Village, and slowly said, "Whether I hate it or not, it's been five hundred years, I've forgotten everything."

"Is that so?" Chu Jianshan stood up and walked towards him. "Then why haven't you been able to jump into the Pool of Rebirth after five hundred years? What exactly is your obsession?"

The man looked up at him: "What good will it do you to know what my obsession is?"

Chu Jianshan countered, "You should guess what benefit it would bring you. Perhaps we can help you."

"Help me?" The man's eyes lit up for a moment, then slowly dimmed again. He asked, "You might not even be able to get out of here right now, so how can you help me?"

"Getting out is easy. You've been here for five hundred years, so we're definitely not the only ones who have stumbled in. You must know some way to get out."

The man chuckled softly and asked, "Is this considered a transaction?"

"If that's what you say, then it is."

“There is indeed a way.” The man stood up and replied to Chu Jianshan, “No one has gone up to the eleventh floor of this pavilion. Legend has it that only people with deep obsessions are willing to go up. Once you pass through the nine floors, you can be reincarnated directly and no longer be bound by the Pool of Rebirth. Since you are people from the Yang Realm, you might be able to go back by going through here.”

Cheng Yuan, who was standing to the side, spoke up again, saying, "Since it's so good, why don't you go?"

"Because very few people can actually make it through, most of them die along the way and vanish into thin air, with no possibility of reincarnation, so most people would rather wait for their obsession to dissipate than take this risk."