Yu Mo extra
Have you ever seen a theatrical performance? After a while, even though you know it's not a real story, you still get drawn into it. And those who watch the performance, even though they know it's not their own story, slowly find that the story becomes their own after watching it for a long time.
Yu Mo originally looked down on that lotus spirit who lazily freeloaded in the Heavenly Court.
That clumsy idiot named Yan Dan, who barged into his territory and disturbed his peace, is an absolute disgrace to their ancient clan.
He carries the blood of the ancient Nine-Finned race. Long ago, the Nine-Finned race was the most prosperous aquatic tribe, and at that time, they were half-dragon and half-fish, even flying higher and diving deeper than dragons. However, by the time it reached Yu Mo, they had become no different from ordinary fish, and in fact, he was the only Nine-Finned person left in the world.
The Old Man of the South Pole finally managed to get this unique nine-finned fish from the Jade Emperor after much pleading, and kept it in the lotus pond in his courtyard. There were naturally other fish in the lotus pond, but they were all carefully selected, ranging from petite and plump to flat and full-figured, and without exception, they were all female.
Yu Mo's coming-of-age day was approaching. If he had not transformed into human form by then, he would remain a little red-eyed fish for the rest of his life. He diligently cultivated until one day he suddenly felt pain and thrashed about in the water in agony.
This is a sign that spiritual practice has reached its peak.
Just as he was in unbearable pain, the voice of the Antarctic Immortal suddenly came from the pond. He said, "I was thinking of finding some companions for this lonely Nine-Finned Fish so that it could have more baby Nine-Finned Fish, but who knew that it hasn't even laid an egg yet." He sighed deeply and said, "Could it be that this Nine-Finned Fish has contracted some kind of disease, and is actually homosexual? Well then, let's put in a strong male fish, maybe that will force it to transform into human form..." After saying that, a tiger-whiskered catfish was thrown into the pond.
Yu Mo was already struggling at the most critical moment, and upon hearing these earnest expectations, he immediately lost his breath.
He sank to the bottom of the water, burying himself among the water plants, and was severely injured.
But the newcomer, the tiger catfish, was quite oblivious and kept coming towards him. Yu Mo couldn't stand it any longer and splashed it to the edge of the pool.
The Old Man of the South Pole was overjoyed: "It seems that releasing the tiger's whiskers was the right thing to do. With this lively atmosphere, success is not far off."
For the first time, Yu Mo understood what anger was: Success? Success in what way? Who succeeded with whom?
Does this Heavenly Court not have a decent celestial ruler?
The nine-finned creature in the Immortal Elder's pond is actually a homosexual, a topic frequently discussed by the immortal children on Suspended Heart Cliff lately. Originally just a guess, it somehow became a rumor, growing more and more believable, and even Yu Mo himself almost got caught up in it.
Thus, all the rumors were dispelled when Donghua Qingjun and Bailian Lingjun came to visit Xuanxin Cliff.
Bai Lian Ling Jun's true form is a nine-tailed spirit fox, with snow-white fur that is incredibly eye-catching. However, his human form is even more striking, dressed in a flowing white robe, holding a gold-painted folding fan, and accompanied by a large retinue of eight celestial attendants in front and sixteen behind, scattering flower petals along the way—a grander spectacle than that of the Queen Mother of the West. Dong Hua Qing Jun, on the other hand, is the reincarnation of a thousand-year-old Crimson Spirit Grass, possessing a refined and elegant demeanor, making him far less conspicuous in comparison.
Donghua Qingjun rested his chin on his hand, gazed at the lotus pond, and said calmly, "The Nine-Fin Clan is most skilled at setting up formations and spells. The most important thing to set up a flawless formation is to have a calm mind and shallow desires. That's why they have few offspring and have fallen to their current state."
The Antarctic Immortal sighed deeply: "I knew that Nine-Fin was shallow in desire, which is why I released so many females to keep him company."
Bai Lianlingjun snapped open his folding fan and shook it twice: "I wonder what Nine-Fin looks like in human form. If it is beautiful, I will take it in."
Yu Mo, who had been swimming leisurely in the water, froze in place upon hearing these words.
The celestial children of Suspended Heart Cliff are the most idle, often gathering in groups to chat about trivial matters. For example, which celestial lord has taken in another celestial child, so-and-so has been promoted to a higher celestial rank, or so-and-so has been banished to the cycle of seven reincarnations.
There was a trivial matter involved, which concerned Bai Lianlingjun.
This White-Robed Spirit Lord was originally from the fox clan, which fostered in him a personality that couldn't distinguish between men and women, and he was indiscriminate in his affections. As long as someone had a good appearance, it didn't matter whether they were male or female, or neither.
Yu Mo suddenly felt a strong reluctance to transform into human form.
He spent two days in a slump. Ever since he'd thrown the tiger to the edge of the pond, it had become unusually afraid of him, only daring to peek from two feet away. As for the females in the pond, Yu Mo wasn't truly too lazy to deal with them, but rather didn't know how. One of them, slender and delicate, was particularly pleasing to the eye. However, lately, they hadn't spoken to him much.
It was amidst these internal and external troubles that he met Yan Dan for the first time.
Yu Mo preferred tranquility and would hide among the water plants when cultivating. At first, he heard a splash, as if something had been thrown into the lotus pond, but he didn't pay attention. A moment later, there was another splash, much louder than before, but he still didn't pay attention. It wasn't until he was pulled out of the water that he couldn't help but pay attention.
Yan Dan held Yu Mo for a moment, then quickly put him back in the water, clasped her hands together, and apologized repeatedly: "I actually came to find a small white water snake. Have you seen it?"
Yu Mo spat out a string of bubbles with disdain.
Yan Dan was startled again, and suddenly thrashed around in the water a few times before being pushed underwater by the tiger's whiskers.
Yu Mo was too lazy to even despise him anymore.
After the tiger-whiskered creature pounced on Yan Dan, it became even more excited, rubbing against her incessantly, and shyly saying in a fish language that Yan Dan couldn't understand, "Fairy, fairy, you are so beautiful..."
Yu Mo scoffed: Look at her short arms and legs, flat body, not even a fin, where is her beauty? But she and Tiger Whiskers are a perfect match, both are complete idiots.
Yan Dan struggled in the water for a while, finally managing to shoo away the tiger's whiskers. She raised her hand and tossed a silvery-white object to the fairy boy by the pool. Her eyes darted around, and she suddenly spotted Yu Mo. Then, slowly, even cautiously, she reached out to touch his back.
Yu Mo quickly swam away. He was extremely unwilling to be touched by Yan Dan. Fortunately, Yan Dan only tried to touch him twice, and when she failed, she climbed on him, dripping wet.
Whether it was a karmic entanglement as mortals call it, not long afterward, various immortal lords gathered at Suspended Heart Cliff to discuss the Dao.
Yan Dan sat down by the lotus pond, holding a bright red peach. She used a small knife to slice off a few thin slices and tossed them into the pond. Tiger Whisker happily wagged its tail and tried to snatch them.
Yu Mo leaned against the edge of the pond to rest when Yan Dan reached out her hand, holding a slice of peach in her palm, thicker than the one she had thrown in earlier. She smiled and said, "Here, let me feed you..."
Yu Mo was frustrated, but unfortunately Yan Dan couldn't understand a fish's expression. She stretched her hand out a little more and continued to smile, "Don't be shy, I'll treat you to a peach."
Yu Mo looked at her hand as she put it in the water. Her fingers were slender and white, with pale pink nails. He couldn't tell if her hand was pretty or not; he just felt that anything without scales couldn't be considered pretty. Yan Dan saw that he hadn't moved for a while, but she wasn't angry and patiently waited.
Yu Mo suddenly thought, why not just eat that piece of peach? Otherwise, she'd always be reaching out so far, and if she fell into the lotus pond again, it would be a real mess. Just as he was thinking this, he heard a splash, and ripples spread across the water. Yan Dan had indeed fallen into the water.
Yu Mo was pushed back by the surging waves before he stopped. He saw Yan Dan take a long breath and squat down at the bottom of the lotus pond without moving.
He was somewhat puzzled and surfaced to take a look. He saw two immortal lords walking by. One of them, dressed in ink-wash robes, spoke in a low voice to the immortal lord beside him, who wore a purple robe: "In your opinion, Brother Li Shu, a battle between the Demon Realm and the Heavenly Court is inevitable?" The immortal lord in the purple robe replied calmly: "Although I do not agree, if war breaks out, I will naturally not refuse. I wonder what Lord Ying Yuan thinks?"
The two of them continued talking as they walked away.
As soon as Yu Mo dived into the water, he saw Hu Xu happily biting Yan Dan's arm. When he saw Yu Mo, he was startled and quickly let go, retreating two feet away warily.
Yan Dan blinked, stood up, and held Yu Mo in her hands with great surprise: "I was worried that you would be bullied because you looked so small and soft, but I didn't know you were so strong!"
Tiger Beard wept, whimpering and wailing, "You actually used such despicable means to steal my fairy sister away, waaaaah..."
Yu Mo was speechless. He actually wanted to correct Hu Xu, this fairy sister didn't even have a tail, fins, or scales, she was very ugly, and he would never look at someone so ugly.
When Yan Dan left, she vowed that she would definitely come often in the future.
Yu Mo thought to himself, if she keeps coming to cause trouble, wouldn't his day of perfecting his cultivation be a long way off? But then he thought again that Yan Dan was probably just joking, and he didn't need to worry about it.
However, it turned out that Yu Mo was wrong. Yan Dan really did come often after that. Sometimes she brought a fairy fruit, sometimes she brought a book to read to the pond, and once she even brought something called a sandalwood incense burner, which filled the courtyard with the light fragrance of lotus flowers.
Yu Mo still didn't pay much attention to her, just like he didn't pay much attention to the other fish in the pond. He often submerged in the dark water, looking at the light above. Sometimes Yan Dan would sit closer, and her long robes would fall into the water. He would just watch like that, and once he would pop his head up and see Yan Dan smiling at him.
From that time on, he surfaced more and more often.
He's just a fish; he can't laugh. So when he sees someone smile at him, it's as if he's unconsciously learned that expression and emotion.
He even thought that although Yan Dan had no tail, no scales, no fins, and looked so different from them, she wasn't so ugly once he got used to her.
But then, for a period of time, Yan Dan stopped coming to see them.
Yu Mo unexpectedly found that each day had become very long, and it seemed like it would take a very long time for night to fall after dawn. His cultivation was also approaching completion again, and he felt a burning pain all over his body.
Just as he reached the most crucial moment, Yan Dan arrived. He struggled to surface, wanting to see her smiling face.
Beside her stood a strange man, dressed in a plain robe. His left cheek and chin looked as if he had been burned, with scabs already formed. Even though his appearance was disfigured, one could still tell how handsome he had originally been. Yan Dan looked up at him and smiled slightly.
Yu Mo only felt pain.
He finally understood: having a tail, scales, and fins wasn't beautiful; it was ugly. The man, like Yan Dan, had flesh and blood, and smooth skin. But Yan Dan only had bluish-black, cold scales.
He was just a fish; even the ancient Nine-Finned Clan was nothing more than a fish.
He slowly sank to the dark bottom of the water, which was all he had; but Yan Dan was different, she could run and jump, and was not confined to a lotus pond.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but when he woke up again, the crescent moon was high in the sky. He was lying on the stone steps by the lotus pond. His fins and scales were gone, replaced by hands, feet, and skin. He was wearing a black outer robe.
Yu Mo lay still, wanting only to return to being an oblivious fish.
Although Yu Mo was in human form, he still took his true form during the day and went out for walks in human form at night. At first, he found it difficult to walk on two legs, but he gradually got used to it.
It wasn't that he hadn't considered seeing Yan Dan; besides, even if he did, she wouldn't recognize him, and he had nothing to say to her. He could only stand outside the Heavenly Palace at the edge of the world, take one last look, then another, and then give up. He had heard Yan Dan mention before that her master had sent her to the Heavenly Palace to oversee the books there. At the time, he hadn't paid much attention, but now, recalling it, he remembered every single word.
Yu Mo unconsciously thought that he should stay with his own kind. They were the same.
One night, Yan Dan was seen staggering back to the Heavenly Palace, her clothes soaked with blood, which had already dried. She walked for a while, but finally couldn't hold on any longer and fell to the ground.
Yu Mo stepped forward, looked down at her, and after a long while, he bent down and picked her up.
Although Yan Dan was unconscious, she didn't forget to lash out, hitting him several times. Yu Mo could only hold her still, and they stayed like that all night.
He returned to the lotus pond and saw his reflection in the water. He felt that his ivory-white skin was too feminine, making him look completely like a boy, even two years younger than Yan Dan. He no longer transformed into human form to go out at night, but instead listlessly sank to the bottom of the water.
The Antarctic Immortal stood by the lotus pond and sighed deeply: "I think that nine-finned creature can no longer transform into a human. It's a pity that the nine-finned race is about to be wiped out..."
Yu Mo heard someone walk a few steps closer to the lotus pond, the hem of their lake-blue robes soaking into the water. Then a strange, authoritative voice said, "Yan Dan, I thought she would be more sensible, but she's still like this... Sigh!"
Upon hearing this name, Yu Mo couldn't help but swim a little further. Through the water's surface, he could vaguely see the immortal lord dressed in lake-colored robes with a stern face. He continued, "I put her in charge of books in the Heavenly Palace because I saw that she had great potential. I wanted her to learn more immortal techniques while she was cultivating. I also planned to give her the Extra Eyes so that she could become a high immortal. But she skipped seven reincarnations."
The Seven Reincarnations?
Yu Mo remembered that the celestial child had mentioned this before. Seven reincarnations were the most severe punishment for violating the Heavenly Laws. Any celestial being or fairy cast into the Seven Reincarnation Path would have to reincarnate in the mortal realm for seven lifetimes, enduring countless hardships before they could return to the Heavenly Court. The trials and tribulations in this process were immense, and many celestial beings or fairies who went down there never returned.
The immortal in the lake-colored robe took out a jet-black, translucent bead from his sleeve and handed it to the Antarctic Immortal. He raised his hand to his forehead and sighed, "I'm sorry to trouble you, Brother Antarctic, to give this extraordinary eye to the Eastern Flower Lord. This is all the Jade Emperor's will, to have him select a virtuous and talented person."
The Antarctic Immortal took the bead and carefully placed it into the pouch at his waist. He didn't notice that as he turned around, the pouch was pulled to the ground by a streak of green light, and the strange-eyed creature rolled out.
Yu Mo transformed into human form and slowly lowered his body.
One day in heaven is equivalent to one year on earth.
The mortal realm is an interesting place, much more interesting than the Heavenly Court.
From the day Yu Mo passed through the South Heavenly Gate, he became a demon. He was guilty of fleeing to the mortal realm, but when the Jade Emperor investigated, he found no one missing from the Heavenly Court and had to let the matter drop.
For a long time afterward, he stayed in Yelan Mountain.
I still go out for walks from time to time. Once, I went to see a play, but it was less about watching the play and more about watching the people. Why can a story conceived by ordinary people bring tears to one's eyes? Why does the person watching the play feel sorrow when the story has nothing to do with them?
Actually, he was the same way; when he read Yan Dan's story, he also got caught up in it.
He gradually forgot what she looked like; even when he tried hard to recall, all he could remember was a hazy, indistinct image. After all, too much time had passed, and he couldn't possibly dwell on such a person forever. Later, he lost his extraordinary eye, which he had originally intended to personally hand over to Yan Dan.
He thought that even if he could really hand over the strange eye to her, she might not be happy.
Yan Dan is a woman who makes you both angry and amused.
After a long time, the patriarch of the Flower Spirit Clan arrived at Yelan Mountain and brought many beautiful Flower Spirits from his clan.
Yu Mo stared blankly at the beautiful woman kneeling below, when suddenly he caught sight of a face that had faded from his memory to the point of being unrecognizable. She was wearing a light green dress, which made her skin appear even whiter and more delicate, like fine porcelain. She even slightly raised her head, smiling at the bald, shiny head of her clan leader kneeling before her.
Yu Mo held the teacup, his fingers trembling slightly.
After going around in circles, feeling lost and hopeless, suddenly a light appeared before my eyes.
Yan Dan raised her head, her smile clear, just like when she smiled at him when he was still a little red-eyed fish: "Well, although my appearance isn't the best, my cultivation is very deep... cough, no, many people say I'm gentle, considerate, and understanding."
Morning and evening can wear away all worries, or they can bring all thoughts together.
Yu Mo realized that he really enjoyed seeing Yan Danxiao's smiling face. As long as she was happy, even his deepest gloom would vanish. He remained the same as before; if Yan Danxiao spoke to him, he would respond with indifference. He didn't know what the right thing to say or do was.
The demons in Yelan Mountain are all very noisy, and Yan Dan is also very fond of making a ruckus.
Yu Mo preferred peace and quiet, and couldn't stand her being mischievous with him, let alone that she was only mischievous with others. He could only endure it. They lived on a mountaintop day after day, as if it were an eternity.
But that wasn't exactly spending every day together. It was just a temporary stay in the same place.
Yu Mo thought he could wait; his stubborn nature was entirely inherited from Jiuqi's bloodline. Yan Dan was currently suffering greatly in places he couldn't see, like a sturdy egg, tightly wrapped up. He had plenty of patience; he could slowly warm her, and who knew, one day he might be able to warm the inside of the shell. He also wondered if one day he would lose patience and stop warming her. If that day came, he would simply let go.
He didn't know if Yan Dan had ever suspected that the Celestial Master Tang Zhou was actually the Emperor Ying Yuan from back then. He had already guessed it from the moment Liu Weiyang became unusually polite to Tang Zhou, but Yan Dan, who should have realized it the most, had been slow to do so.
An old anecdote reads: "On the day we first met, it was around the full moon of winter. The sparse plum blossoms outside the window cast shadows through the moonlight, faintly visible. Afterwards, we walked hand in hand, laughing and chatting. What was there that we didn't talk about? Now, thinking back, it all seems so empty."
Looking back now, it's nothing more than a void.
Between him and Yan Dan lay an obsession that had bound them for eight hundred years, a delusion that could not be crossed by the River of Oblivion. Day after day, they grew weary and old, these days and nights now immeasurable.
How could I not be envious? At that moment, I was so envious that I felt jealous.
For twenty years, they have been together.
They traveled together across the country, picking flowers and cherishing each other; they shared joys and sorrows for twenty years, yet how many were separated by grief and separation? At least they were always together.
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