Chapter 92 Reminiscence: I had my doubts, was you the one who manipulated things...?
A person may not know who their father is, but they will never forget who their mother is.
Unless he was separated from his mother at birth due to external factors, or she abandoned him, how could he possibly not find his mother?
Like the original owner of this body, he didn't know who his father was from a young age. He grew up with his mother, which shaped his current personality. His mother's role was that of Kun, the Earth Mother, giving the original owner a solid support and confidence.
Shen Qingyan wondered if things had been different from the beginning, would he have become the way he is today?
In Shen Qingyan's eyes, the original owner of this body was just like the person he had imagined himself to be. He had often fantasized about whether he could have become like the original owner if he had taken his mother's place instead of his father's. In another world, he met a completely different version of himself.
The original owner sensed his thoughts and said warily, "Don't mess with my mother. She's my mother, not yours."
Shen Qingyan remained silent. Through the original owner's memories, he saw the mother from those memories, but this was different from the mother Shen Qingyan had imagined. He couldn't explain why, even though he had never met his own mother, she felt "different."
He didn't come to Kunlun for any inheritance, plot, or to become the protagonist. The moment the system disappeared, he began to realize that he came to Kunlun to seek an answer and to find someone.
Looking at the black beads scattered all over the ground, Shen Qingyan suddenly raised his head and asked, "The leader of Kunlun is dead. Who will be the next leader?"
Huang Guangming looked at him and frowned.
Huang Guangming keenly sensed that Shen Qingyan now seemed different from the man he was a stick ago. When he looked up, Huang Guangming seemed to see the shadow of Shen Yingda in Shen Qingyan. It seemed that Shen Yingda had not disappeared after his death, but had merged with Shen Qingyan, appearing in him in another form.
Shen Qingyan wants to become the sect leader.
Shen Yingda is dead, and Kunlun is without a leader. Although the leader is only a figurehead to those inside Kunlun, those outside Kunlun are unaware of these inside stories.
With Shen Yingda dead, the Five Evils will become even more arrogant. Kunlun needs a new target.
If there's no one else, then let him become the new target and the object of the Five Evils' attacks.
Demons and monsters pass by, but fate is not on his side. He is refined by fire and gold, and through this, he sees the true nature of things.
*
"Where to?" Shen Cangyu asked.
“Enter the world,” Pei Wenjing said.
In her first life, Shen Cangyu spent the first half of her life in Kunlun, where she perfected the art of detachment from the world, surpassing even the disciples of Xiaoyao You. Since Pei Wenjing left Kunlun, he had never seen her again, but he had heard many rumors about her.
She is credited with exorcising the five evil spirits from Kunlun with her keen eyesight, saving Kunlun from fire and water, and rebuilding a new Kunlun from the ruins. She established her own organization and schools, spreading her ideas for future generations to learn. She enjoyed the faith and love of the people, and was blessed with countless achievements.
People distinguished her from ordinary immortals and called her a "saint." She was gradually elevated to a divine status and became increasingly distant from ordinary people.
At that time, Shen Cangyu was a saint revered by everyone, while Pei Wenjing was a cultivator who could not resist the temptations of the five evils and eventually fell into depravity.
They fought to the death until Shen Cangyu's Kunlun sword fell beside Pei Wenjing's neck, at which point he knew it was finally over.
But Shen Cangyu did not kill him. Shen Cangyu said, "According to the development of the plot, when the favorability value is 100, I should indeed kill you and let the favorability value stay at this moment forever, but I do not want to kill you yet."
Pei Wenjing never imagined that after he left Kunlun, they would one day be able to stand together so calmly.
Shen Cangyu said to him, "According to the plot, villains can only realize their greatest value when they die, but in my opinion, there seems to be no one in this world who can be called a villain. All Taoist methods have their own meaning, and the Five Evils also have their own meaning. I asked you to leave Kunlun only because you are not suitable for Kunlun, nothing more."
She could understand and empathize with everyone; probably apart from her, a saint, no other righteous cultivator would have such thoughts.
The sage seemed to want to take one last look at the world before she truly became a god, so she said to Pei Wenjing, "I've been on missions in Kunlun for so long, but I haven't had a proper look at this world yet. What have you seen in the human world? Tell me about it."
Pei Wenjing thought for a moment and said, "You'll know once you go into the world and take a look."
“Isn’t this Nanke Mountain?” Shen Cangyu said, looking at the wooden stumps outside the village that had been split in half.
Shen Cangyu's words interrupted Pei Wenjing's recollection. He looked at the lonely wooden stump: "Yes, this is Nanke Mountain, a place where copper coin eyes were prevalent in the past."
Shen Cangyu stopped beside the wooden stump. A villager herding cattle in the distance saw their movements and called out to them from afar, "That tree is an ancient demon that has existed for thousands of years. A few years ago, a passing immortal saw it and killed it on a whim."
Shen Cangyu knew, of course, because the "immortal" who slew the locust tree spirit was right here. When she killed the locust tree spirit, she was a novice, and all she felt was a surge of excitement; it was her first time slaying one of the Five Evils.
When Wan Qianzhong gave the Taoist magic of the copper coin eye to the locust tree spirit, he probably wanted it to gain the ability to fight back and no longer be at the mercy of others. Was that wrong?
"This is clearly just karma, a consequence of cause and effect."
Pei Wenjing's words suddenly echoed what Shen Cangyu was thinking. Shen Cangyu looked up at him and saw him say, "You said the same thing back then, so you spread the word about the copper coin eye."
Shen Cangyu was startled, thinking that Pei Wenjing knew about her copper coin eyes. But then she realized that he was referring to her first life.
"I'll spread the 'coin eye'? Aren't there countless people spreading the 'coin eye'?"
Pei Wenjing raised an eyebrow and said, "That's right. Before you fell, you were the one who did these things. You said universal love is a beautiful virtue, but when a universal lover encounters a selfish person, if they don't have the ability to see through human nature, they can only become someone else's bloodsucker. So you spread the magic of the copper coin eye to the virtuous, saying that the knife and chopping board can only be held by the virtuous. I'm very curious, why did the person who did these things become Wan Qianzhong after you fell?"
Seeing that Shen Cangyu did not speak, Pei Wenjing continued, "With your fall, everything changed. Many of the things you did have fallen on others, making me doubt countless times whether you are still alive, and whether you are the one manipulating things behind the scenes."
Upon hearing Pei Wenjing's words, Shen Cangyu felt a chill seep down her back.
Nanke Mountain was an important anchor point for them.
In her previous life, Shen Cangyu unexpectedly encountered Kunlun cultivators in Nanke Mountain. By gathering immortal herbs for them, she gained the opportunity to enter Kunlun, a main map that plays a crucial role in the storyline, and thus had the chance to interact with others. It is precisely because of this that she decided to go to Nanke Mountain as soon as she was reborn in this life.
For Pei Wenjing, Nanke Mountain was also a significant turning point in his life.
He was reborn without any memories, and he did not know what the future would bring. But each time, he awakened the Tai Chi Daoist method because of the Nanke Mountain massacre, and thus began his own cycle.
If Xu Qiubai had not died at Nanke Mountain, and had not inherited the Taiji Daoist arts, he would not have been able to obtain the memories of his previous hundreds of lives, nor would he have been able to gain the ability to be reborn, and nothing would have been able to continue.
It was because of Nanke Mountain that they were able to meet in this life and reminisce about the past together here.
However, in Pei Wenjing's description, Shen Cangyu's transmission of Tai Chi Daoist techniques to the locust tree spirit should have occurred ten years later. At that time, seeing that the weak only dared to wield their swords against the even weaker, profiting from the locust tree spirit's charred wood, she decided for the first time to intervene in human affairs, passing on the copper coin eye, which she had originally deemed "evil," to the locust tree spirit. The locust tree spirit was just the beginning; she passed the copper coin eye on to even more weak people.
This doesn't seem like something a saint would do, but Shen Cangyu said at that time, "Evil people will be punished by other evil people. Let them torment each other. That's the proper balance."
"But why would Wan Qianzhong happen to pass on the copper coin eye to the locust tree spirit, thus advancing the plot?" Shen Cangyu pondered.
She couldn't deny that Wan Qianzhong's action was indeed crucial, forming an important part of the story's background. But it was too much of a coincidence. Shen Cangyu was skeptical of all coincidences; she didn't believe that such coincidences could exist in this world.
Shen Cangyu found many books for Wan Qianzhong, but she didn't have that many questions to ask her. So she and Wan Qianzhong agreed to leave those questions aside and wait until she had new questions before asking Wan Qianzhong for answers.
She reached for the wisteria-patterned copper coin tucked into her belt, only to find it had vanished without a trace. That swindler, Wan Qianzhong, had deliberately cut off any possibility of Shen Cangyu contacting her. Just yesterday, the wisteria-patterned copper coin was still on Shen Cangyu's person.
Sometime later, the copper coin disappeared.
Could it be that Wan Qianzhong knew Shen Cangyu was looking for her, so she eliminated that copper coin early on?
What are you looking for?
Shen Cangyu said with a stern face, "Wan Qianzhong's copper coins. I don't know why Wan Qianzhong would give the copper coin eye to the locust tree spirit. The questions you asked can only be answered when we find Wan Qianzhong."
Shen Cangyu looked at Pei Wenjing: "You have been reborn so many times, you must know this world very well. Presumably, you should also know where Wanqianzhong's true body is."
②The brave, in their anger, draw their swords against the stronger; the cowardly, in their anger, draw their swords against the weaker. —Lu Xun, *Hua Gai Ji: Miscellaneous Thoughts*
The plot is starting to wrap up, I'll sort it out slowly. Starting this week, it's six days a week with one day off. I'm taking a Saturday off to enjoy the weekend!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
