109 Chapter 109
Qiao Shuda lives all year round in a cave in the back mountain of Tianyan Sect, which is specially designed for high-level disciples. The environment here is quiet and surrounded by vegetation. In the distance, there are gurgling streams and cascading waterfalls. The caves are far apart from each other, and it is indeed a quiet place suitable for retreat and breakthrough.
"You're here? Please take a seat." Qiao Shuda's appearance is outstanding in the world of cultivation where everyone is beautiful. He has a poetic and romantic temperament. The small courtyard is kept clean and tidy, and there are flowers and plants that are specially tended around it. He looks like a hermit.
"Your courtyard is decorated very nicely! It looks beautiful and full of life. Would you let us take some more pictures?" The Spirit Shadow Stone in Ning Shu's hand was ready to move.
"Please do as you please." Qiao Shuda made a casual gesture, then a wry smile appeared on his face. "Anyway, I don't have much to do now except grow flowers and plants."
Most of the caves here are used as a transition place for disciples to advance from the late Nascent Soul stage to the Spirit Transformation stage. The cultivators who successfully advance to the Spirit Transformation stage will either be assigned an independent mountain peak and promoted to elders, or they will be assigned a palace after taking up other important positions in various parts of the sect.
In short, the disciples living here are as focused on their cultivation as students preparing for exams, and few of them have the time to decorate a temporary "dormitory".
Since the other party brought up the topic, Ning Shu followed suit: "Is every time you fail to overcome your inner demonic tribulation because of that relationship? Have you never noticed that you encounter the same illusion over and over again?"
Even a high-difficulty dungeon would be memorized after playing it over and over again, right? How come Qiao Shuda has been stuck for hundreds of years without being able to clear it?
"How can it be that easy? Are you playing house?" Xu Hengzi, unable to bear it any longer, interrupted, "The illusion of the Heart Demon Tribulation is ever-changing. Being in it is like a dream. Sometimes you can't even remember who you are. How can it be so easy to break free?"
"Then, would you please tell us what your inner demon tribulations are like?" Ning Shu continued to ask. Zi Qiu and Ji Chuanbai held up the Spirit Shadow Stone and silently recorded this scene. In an instant, it seemed that even the wind in the forest was quiet.
Qiao Shuda was not offended by Ning Shu's question. He smiled and lowered his head to look at the steam rising from the teacup in his hand. After a while, he spoke in a low voice:
"I have many inner demons. Each illusion is different. Sometimes, Pingping and I are carefree and traveling around without being discovered by our master. Sometimes, we return to the day when we confessed our love. Sometimes, we are an ordinary couple living an ordinary life... but more often, it is the day when we were separated..."
At this point, Qiao Shuda's calm expression finally showed a crack. His eyes were slightly red, and he stared at the teacup in his hand for a long time without saying a word.
Ning Shu lowered his head and glanced at the information in his hand. That day, the master of the sect brought disciples from the Law Enforcement Hall to capture him. The female cultivator named Pingping was a strong-willed person who would rather die than give in. In order to prevent her from dying here, Qiao Shuda hardened his heart and said many very heartless words.
"I didn't push her away, nor did I say those words. I held her hand and ran and ran, running to the remote Far North, running into the bottomless abyss, running into the murderous demonic realm. Everywhere were people trying to capture us. We held each other tightly until the world ended and a huge black shadow swallowed us both..."
Ji Chuanbai and Zi Qiu, who were filming with the Spirit Shadow Stone, had tears in their eyes, perhaps because they felt the same way. Even Xu Hengzi, who had always been against relationships, sighed. Ning Shu was silent for a long time, and only asked the next question after Qiao Shuda had calmed down.
"Have you never heard from Pingping since then?"
"For the next hundred years, my master kept a close eye on me, and I didn't have the chance to meet her. But almost three hundred years later, my fellow apprentice ran into her once." Qiao Shuda silently put down the cold tea in his hand and unconsciously licked his dry lips.
"By then, she had already formed a Dao partner with someone else. My junior brother said that he was a man as gentle as jade. She also asked my junior brother to give me a handwritten letter. In the letter, she said that she had loved me with all her heart and did not regret meeting me."
Having said that, Qiao Shuda's emotions finally calmed down completely. He put on his initial mask of calmness again, and the bitter smile on his face also faded:
"Perhaps only those who give their all can embark on the next journey without regrets. People like me who hesitate will be stuck in the same place for the rest of their lives. Perhaps my current stagnation in cultivation is retribution for this."
Xu Hengzi felt uncomfortable after hearing this and couldn't help but persuade him: "You all had your own difficulties back then. Now it has been hundreds of years. Why do you still want to make mistakes like this? It's uncomfortable to stay here. Why don't you go out for a walk more..."
"I once traveled with her across the five continents and four realms. There's no point in me going through it all again on my own." Qiao Shuda smiled and shook his head. He sat in his own courtyard, but he didn't seem to feel at ease or at home. He felt more like a passerby than a host.
"It doesn't make any difference to me where I stay. There's nothing wrong with just practicing in seclusion here."
Ning Shu stared at him for a long moment, then suddenly asked, "Is it because of regret that you can't overcome your inner demonic tribulation?"
The contents of Qiao Shuda's inner demon fantasy are all the various situations after the two of them were together. He would be happy to be hunted by the whole world. The most common scene is him running away with Pingping. This conclusion is not difficult to guess.
The expected breakdown didn't happen. Qiao Shuda actually lowered his head and thought for a moment before answering, "Maybe. There are too many things to regret. I was too young back then, so I have many regrets."
The intense love and hatred of those days have faded into the vastness of time, leaving no trace. Now, all that remains is his gentle sigh: "Even if we can't be together, I should have said goodbye to her properly. In the end, I left her with such hurtful words. I may never be able to let go of them for the rest of my life."
The tone of the entire interview was calm, without any crying, grief or tears. Qiao Shuda remained very calm and composed from beginning to end. Perhaps hundreds of years have really healed too many scars and emotions, and now when talking about it again, there is only some regret and sigh.
But everyone felt empty and uncomfortable. No one spoke on the way back to the flying boat. The atmosphere was as depressing as the gloomy weather before rain.
It wasn't until the flying boat slowly lifted off and began its flight to its next destination that Xu Hengzi couldn't help but look at Ning Shu and Zi Qiu, who were looking down at the side, wondering what they were doing. "Ahem, well... is there any solution to his situation?"
In fact, he didn't want to ask the little girls from the Hehuan Sect for advice, but this complicated emotional issue really touched upon his blind spot of knowledge, so he had no choice but to ask these experienced professionals.
Alas, it was fun to break up the couple back then, but now there is such a mess and I don’t know how to clean it up. Xu Hengzi couldn’t help but feel scared when he saw it. Fortunately, Chuan Bai didn’t become like that, otherwise he would probably regret it so much that he would develop a demon in his heart.
"Hmm... I don't know..." Zi Qiu had only been in a relationship with Ji Chuanbai so far, so she didn't have any good ideas for the monk's situation. She just suggested uncertainly, "Doesn't he regret not saying goodbye properly? How about we find Pingping and let them say goodbye properly?"
"Yes! This is a good idea!" Xu Hengzi slapped his thigh and stood up to find someone: "Then I'll go to Tianji Pavilion to calculate it..."
"Don't waste your energy. Do you think I haven't thought of this trick?" Ning Shu sighed and shook the information in his hand. "That Miss Pingping's cultivation has not stagnated. In the past thousand years, she has already reached the late stage of the Spiritual Transformation Realm. Now she is in seclusion with her Taoist partner to practice. God knows when she will come out."
For a cultivator in the Spirit Transformation Stage, hundreds of years would pass by in seclusion. If Qiao Shuda continued to wait like this, there would be no end in sight.
"This..." Xu Hengzi paused as he was about to leave, then sat back down awkwardly. "Then what do you say we should do?"
"How should I know?" Ning Shu spread his hands, looking at the man who didn't care about anything. "I've never been in a relationship before. You should ask someone with more experience about this!"
"Alas..." Xu Hengzi wanted to stop arguing, but he couldn't bear to see a disciple of the sect wasting his life. After struggling for a while, he finally asked, "Young Master, who has the most experience?"
"I know!" Zi Qiu waved her hand happily. "Master Xu Hengzi, go ask my master! She's had many lovers. Some broke up peacefully, some broke up after she scolded them, and some even broke up after she beat them up... She never gets upset about a relationship. You can always go no further by listening to her on this matter!"
Xu Hengzi:......
Is that the unreasonable woman with all that heavy makeup? I still feel the sting from that cheek where I got slapped during filming!
If I go and beg her, I wonder how that woman will torture me! Do I really have to make such a huge sacrifice for that disciple?
Ning Shu ignored Xu Hengzi's hesitation and struggle, picked up another document and began to introduce the next interviewee:
"The next person we're going to interview is Gu Mao, the warrior who's been in a relationship for four hundred years and has advanced his cultivation from Foundation Establishment to Nascent Soul. Luckily, we were able to contact both him and his ex-girlfriend, Miss Hua Jingqiu. Everyone, get ready. We'll be at the agreed location in about an hour."
Ji Chuanbai reached out and opened Ziqiu's notes as well. While sorting out the questions he would ask later, he couldn't help but wonder: "They had overcome difficulties and been together for so long, why did they break up? Did they have some misunderstanding or encountered some difficulties?"
Zi Qiu was very optimistic about the following interview: "Then let's help them reconcile. Maybe they can get back together!"
Ning Shu, who had anticipated the upcoming interview, suppressed a smile and said, "Okay then, I'll leave the interview to you guys. I'll just be filming from the side!"
An hour later, the flying boat arrived as scheduled. Zi Qiu and Ji Chuanbai came out holding the microphone and finally met the pair of seniors who had been "forced" to separate.
"May I ask why the two of you separated at that time?" Ji Chuanbai smiled and threw out the trump card.
Then the situation got out of control.
"He never washes his feet before going to bed! The stench is unbearable!"
"Ah? It's obviously because you're being too fussy! You get so mad over something as trivial as whether the teacup is placed upright or upside down!"
"I told you to put it upside down because it will collect dust if you put it right side up! Besides, are you really that considerate? You're a wimp who only listens to your master!"
"I betrayed the sect for you, so I feel guilty towards my master, don't I? Besides, he helped me extend my lifespan and helped you overcome tribulations and protect you. Even if he doesn't have any merits, he has worked hard, right? Can't you show him a little respect?"
"Everything is for me? Was it me who forced you to betray the sect with a knife? You are unworthy of your master, not me. Why should I obey him?"
"You! You have absolutely no conscience when you say that! I completely destroyed my cultivation for you back then, and you just said it was all my fault? Yes, I deserved it! I was just blind!"
"You... you admitted it! You regret it, don't you? You feel you've been wronged, don't you? Now it's perfect, you've returned to the sect and finally got what you wanted!"
"Don't talk as if I feel guilty towards you! I have a clear conscience over the years! If it weren't for your junior sister's inaction..."
"Watch your mouth! How long are you going to keep complaining after I lent you five thousand spirit stones?"
"How can I say she did something dirty? We were so poor we barely had enough to eat! Did you ask me before you borrowed the money?!"
…
The two of them started arguing while sitting and then stood up, and in the end both of them had red faces and tears in their eyes. Their voices became harsher and their words more unpleasant than the last. It seemed as if there was no end to the endless resentment and grievances. In their tit-for-tat relationship, there was no sign of affection at all.
Ziqiu:......
Kikawa Kashiwa: ...
This scolding is no better than what Senior Brother Qiao Shuda said back then. I wonder if he would feel relieved if he saw this scene.
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