Chapter 70 Go, let everything settle down
Pei Wenjing suddenly woke up, and the bamboo slip slipped from his hand, falling to the ground with a thud.
He looked around at the scenery, and his consciousness gradually returned.
He stayed up all night searching for materials on the third basement floor of the library, but unexpectedly fell asleep. Thankfully, it was all just a dream.
He picked through the books beside him, hugged the ones he wanted to take with him, and went upstairs.
The library was deserted. Normally, though there were few people there, you could always see one or two, unlike now. Pei Wenjing walked for a long time, placing the book on the front desk, but still hadn't seen a second disciple come to read.
The disciple at the front desk kept flipping through the information on the name tag in his hand. He only put the name tag away when he saw Pei Wenjing put the book on the table, and then greeted him with a pleasantry: "Wenjing, you spent another night in the Scripture Pavilion last night?"
Pei Wenjing nodded and stuffed the labeled books one by one into his sleeves.
"That's a pity," the disciple at the front desk of the library remarked for no apparent reason.
"What's wrong?" Pei Wenjing asked.
"It was so lively last night, it's a pity you didn't see it."
“Last night…” An ominous premonition rose from the bottom of Pei Wenjing’s heart.
“Last night, Wuliangsheng attacked Xingxiang Hall, the statue of Tianxiang Niangniang fell, and Xingxiang Hall was destroyed. This time, it seems that the ability to glimpse the secrets of heaven is truly gone,” a disciple of the Sutra Repository lamented.
As he spoke, the disciple of the Scripture Pavilion slapped the table and whispered to Pei Wenjing, "I heard that besides Wuliangsheng, a new Five Evil appeared last night. We speculate that it might be 'doubt' among anger, ignorance, doubt, pride, and greed. Speaking of which, you've been studying the Five Evil for so long, and the demonic cultivators you've fought have all been either greedy or angry. You haven't even seen the other three yet. I didn't expect that Wuliangsheng, this great demonic cultivator, would make his move so soon after his death."
"Hmm...who is it? What are its characteristics? Who discovered it?" Pei Wenjing pressed.
"It's quite amazing," the disciple of the Scripture Pavilion exclaimed. "That demonic cultivator could control paper effigies and transform them into other people's appearances. It is said that when they saw it, they really took the demonic cultivator as an enemy. If it weren't for Shen Cangyu's boldness, meticulousness, and decisiveness, they might have really let the demonic cultivator deceive them and steal the Spirit Pearl."
"At the time, no one noticed anything unusual about the demonic cultivator. It was Shen Cangyu who suddenly drew his sword and cut off its head." The disciple of the Scripture Pavilion ran his hand across his neck.
The color drained from Pei Wenjing's face instantly, turning him as pale as paper.
For a moment, he suddenly couldn't tell whether this was reality or a dream.
He looked dazed and walked toward the door.
"Hey, Wenjing, you forgot a book!" a disciple of the Sutra Pavilion called out to his back, but Pei Wenjing walked out in a daze, not hearing his voice and not turning around.
The disciple of the Scripture Pavilion scratched his head and had no choice but to pick up the books that had fallen on the table. Before doing so, he casually flipped through one of the books.
Unexpectedly, this look made him sit up straight.
The book's cover proclaimed alchemy, but the contents described methods of stealing the heavens and changing the earth, and bringing the dead back to life—this must be evil magic! He flipped through the book in disbelief, growing more and more horrified with each reading. He suddenly turned to the title page, hoping to find the author's name, only to discover that the title page had been torn off by someone.
He looked at the book in front of him with a serious expression, and immediately took out his name tag to send a message to the elder.
This kind of heretical book must never remain in Kunlun.
He looked towards the door. Pei Wenjing had been gone for quite some time. There was only the dazzling sun outside, and no one was there.
Did Pei Wenjing know that he was going to borrow such a book?
The sunlight outside the library was scorching, piercing Pei Wenjing's eyes through his eyelids, making the image appear crimson, like thick, indelible blood.
The higher one climbs on the path of cultivation, the heavier the burden becomes.
Pei Wenjing didn't know why they said that before, but now he vaguely understands.
From the time he could remember, his dreams were filled with inescapable fire and darkness. He tried many ways to dispel the flames, and finally discovered that only by constantly cultivating the Tai Chi Daoist method could the flames recede in all directions. He also finally gained the ability to control his own sea of consciousness.
Pei Wenjing realized that there was someone locked in his mind.
But a sea of fire separated him from that person; he couldn't cross it, nor could he see the person's face clearly. Yet, he vaguely realized that when he truly saw that person, all his past doubts would be resolved.
But as his Tai Chi skills improved, he began to have recurring dreams, experiencing endless suffering. In his dreams, he saw countless scenes and witnessed the deaths of countless people. Perhaps his mind was overwhelmed by the pain, always forcing him to forget everything he saw in his dreams before he woke up.
He couldn't see or remember many of the scenes, until last night when he clearly saw Qiu Sheng's death in his dream.
The longsword pierced her neck, and blood splattered.
When Pei Wenjing woke up, he secretly rejoiced that it was just a dream. But while talking to the disciples of the Scripture Pavilion, that scene suddenly popped into his mind.
Pei Wenjing looked down and saw thick snow beneath his feet and the scorching sun overhead. Sunlight fell on his hands, and he found himself trembling.
Had Shen Cangyu considered the possibility that her guess might be wrong? What if that person wasn't Bai Mujing, but really Qiu Sheng? She was so confident in her judgment, but what if she was wrong? Even if the possibility of error was only one percent, the outcome still existed.
Pei Wenjing recalled the disciples of the Sutra Pavilion's sighs about Shen Cangyu and realized that Shen Cangyu was different from before. She had lost the caution she had when she first entered Kunlun; her fame had soared, and she had made everyone remember her name, even if it was a mixed bag of praise and criticism. She was letting out the string like a madwoman, crashing headlong into the sky like a kite.
Pei Wenjing was afraid that he would never be able to hold onto the string that had fallen to the ground again. If the string broke, she would be gone forever, just like before.
Just like before.
These words had appeared in his mind many times; whenever he saw Shen Cangyu, these words would suddenly come to mind.
He wasn't sure what his relationship with her was, whether he had seen her in a dream or saw his own reflection in her.
Ever since they left Sword Pavilion, Shen Cangyu had a fight with him and told him not to appear before her again. Shen Cangyu felt annoyed just seeing him, so he wisely left, avoiding provoking her. But at the same time, he was genuinely afraid that Shen Cangyu might, if she wasn't careful, suffer an irreparable fate.
He could only keep flipping through ancient texts and materials to find information about Tai Chi Daoist techniques. He needed to cultivate the techniques to their peak in order to gain power. Once that happened, he would have a way to deal with whatever was going to happen.
*
"The statue of the Heavenly Fragrance Goddess has fallen. What do you plan to do? Will you repair it or rebuild a new one?" Shen Cangyu asked Shui Linglong, standing on the first hall and looking at the fallen statue before him.
“The statue has fallen. Perhaps the goddess used up all her divine power to deal with Amitabha and is now in a deep sleep. This time, even if we burn the correct incense, we will not be able to contact her,” Shui Linglong said, her hands clasped behind her back as she looked at the blood-red sunset. “Most of the disciples who were supposed to be scouting the heavens have left. Some have left Kunlun, and some have gone on a carefree journey.”
Shen Cangyu continued, "Many people say that the Free and Unfettered Journey is the ultimate destination of Taoist magic, and I didn't expect it to be true."
Perhaps those who have experienced various storms and pursued all sorts of fame and fortune ultimately want to sever their seven emotions and six desires, and return to the most primitive and pure state of an infant.
Learning increases daily, while the pursuit of the Way diminishes daily.
Only by gradually stripping away all subjective emotions inherent in human beings can one treat things fairly and impartially, and see the true nature and underlying principles of all things when unaffected by emotions. Forgetting the distinction between oneself and all things, being selfless, without merit, and without fame, one can reach the state of carefree wandering.
Shen Cangyu envied the disciples of the Free and Unfettered Wanderer, who could care about nothing and think about nothing; they were unrestrained and carefree.
But she couldn't. She wanted too much. She couldn't let go, and she was unwilling to let go.
“Yes, Xiaoyao You is indeed a good place,” Shui Linglong said.
"Why aren't you going? Are you going to stay and continue guarding Xingxiang Hall?" Shen Cangyu asked Shui Linglong.
Shui Linglong is twice the age of Shen Cangyu, but the two are talking calmly, as if they were the same age.
“It’s not the Xingxiang Hall,” Shui Linglong said. “I plan to build something else. I still think that rather than placing our hopes on the Empress, we should take control of our own destiny.”
Shui Linglong looked at Shen Cangyu: "I want to establish the Mind Arts Hall and learn the strengths of all schools of thought in the world. Isn't this also a kind of Taoist practice?"
Looking at her spirited appearance, Shen Cangyu suddenly thought of Pei Wenjing. Pei Wenjing had also said, "Learn from a hundred schools of thought, and then understand the world." If he hadn't inherited the Tai Chi Daoist arts, he might have made the same choice as Shui Linglong.
“I have an elder I greatly admire,” Shui Linglong said. “She always said that people must be down-to-earth and grounded. Taoist magic can’t make people eat an extra bite of food. She wanted to create Taoist magic that everyone could use, so that everyone could grasp the power to change their destiny. So she created the art of mind. She led many Kunlun disciples, gathered at various schools, and created one useful art of mind after another. Although she eventually left Kunlun, I always think that perhaps people need power more than faith.”
As expected, she was once a disciple of Kunlun. She created the Mind Technique, but was eventually forced to leave Kunlun.
"Do you know why she left Kunlun?" Shen Cangyu pressed.
Shui Linglong paused for a moment: "I don't know much about this. I was very young when she left Kunlun. I only gradually learned about her through the books she left behind. Later, I asked my family, but they all refused to talk about it, so I had to give up."
Shen Cangyu frowned.
Why did Wan Qianzhong leave Kunlun back then? Why did he create the Copper Coin Eye? Why did he join the Five Evils? The people of Kunlun said that Pei Wenjing had demonic blood flowing through his veins and that he came to Kunlun to seek revenge. Could it be that this "revenge" is related to Wan Qianzhong?
*
It's rare to have a cloudless night; the sky is dotted with stars, and a crescent moon hangs in the sky.
Shen Qingyan took out a bamboo basket and pulled out several paper boats. He attached a shortened candle to the paper boat, lit the candle with a match, and put the paper boat into the water, watching it sway and drift forward along the dark river.
The forest is unaffected by the weather; it is spring-like all year round, and even in winter, the river never freezes.
Shen Qingyan searched for a long time before finally finding this deserted place.
He lit up the paper boats one by one and pushed them into the water.
"I thought I had done so much, but in the end I still couldn't keep you."
Shen Qingyan hugged his knees and looked at the boat lanterns in the water: "Boundless life and death, the Hundred-Eye Mirror has arrived. You see, the villains in this story are like leeks, they grow back after being cut. You are just consumables for this story."
The river reflects the Milky Way in the sky, and the boat lights float on the water, as if they are also flowing into the Milky Way.
"Dongtang, don't become a villain. Villains never have a good ending." Shen Qingyan looked at the river lanterns, and suddenly tears welled up in her eyes again.
He thought, "Just this once, the last time." The system was no longer by his side; he had to walk the road ahead alone. He had to pull himself together.
Perhaps the river had stopped flowing, for the boat lantern in front of him lingered there for a long time, quietly resting before him.
Shen Qingyan could only raise his hand to push it away, sending it off on its final journey to his first friend in this world.
"If there is a next life, if you can be reincarnated, don't stay here. Go to the world I originally came from."
He murmured, "After all, in our place, no matter what your background is, those who work hard will always have more choices."
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