Chapter 47: Du Xian Sect 5 Part 1

Three hundred years ago, Qingming was born in Luo Water.

Countless ordinary little snakes like her lived in Luo Water, but only she gained spiritual intelligence. Perhaps she was born lucky, Qingming thought happily. Once she cultivated a human form, she would seek the immortal path at a sect and become the most powerful little snake under heaven.

Which sect should she go to?

Du Xian Sect? Not bad, the number one sect in the Cultivation World, top choice. Biluo Sect? Decent, it was said to be full of beautiful Fairies—worth a look. Heguang Sect? Passable, they seemed extremely wealthy, so worth considering. Baochan Temple? No way, no way. Though their Cultivation Methods were impressive, they were all monks! She didn’t like monks at all.

But before she could cultivate a human form, her innate good fortune seemed to run out. Luo Water flooded, backflowing into a disaster. The once gentle waters turned merciless, destroying everything like a savage beast that devoured thousands of li around it.

The little snakes were fragile as blades of grass before the world-ending flood and perished in an instant. Qingming exerted all her strength, using every spell she had learned, scavenging east and west in Luo Water. Sometimes she fished up a little snake or a small carp; other times, a broken branch, a wilted flower, or even a person.

Qingming had no time to look closely and placed everything she salvaged in a desolate village called Ku Xian Village before hurriedly swimming back into the water.

But she forgot that she was just a little snake who had recently awakened spiritual intelligence; she couldn’t even transform yet. Finally, one day, she grew exhausted from salvaging. Utterly spent, she sank slowly to the bottom with the surging current, no longer able to swim upward.

She was about to die.

Perhaps her bad luck had lasted too long, and her good fortune returned. With her last breath, someone saved her.

It was a monk.

Not only did that monk save her, but he also unleashed Heaven-Reaching Magic Power to shift mountains and level seas, diverting Luo Water and resolving the disaster. From then on, Luo Water became Luo River.

Barely alive, she coiled weakly around the monk’s wrist and heard him say, “Your spiritual power is exhausted; no medicine can heal you. There is only one way to sustain your life.”

She flicked her tail, signaling the monk not to beat around the bush.

“The people of Ku Xian Village whom you saved have built a temple for you, grateful for your grace. You may reside in the temple and feed on the faith of humans.” The monk’s eyes held sorrowful compassion. “But from then on, your life force will be linked to the temple. If one day those who worship you abandon you, the day the temple is destroyed will be the day you perish.”

The monk said much more, teaching her to cultivate vast merits and cross suffering with her own body. Qingming grew impatient listening. As long as she could live, any method would do.

The monk left. Qingming was confined to Ku Xian Village, staring blankly at flowers, birds, insects, and fish day after day. In her boredom, she thought of that monk again.

He was quite handsome, just a bit rigid and long-winded. She hadn’t understood a word of his principles, but when truly bored, she would casually help the villagers who came to kneel and pray. Their wishes were nothing major—just daily meals, the seasons’ cycles, the fires of mortal life.

She wondered when that monk would come to see her again.

A century passed in the blink of an eye. Qingming sat idly on the temple roof, swinging her legs as she listened to a woman kneeling in the temple pray for a marriage match. Her posture was utterly indolent, but it didn’t matter—the villagers could never see her; they only spoke to her stone statue.

The bamboo grove outside rustled; someone had come again.

She didn’t know if this one sought a good match or fine weather. Qingming glanced down casually, but her gaze suddenly froze.

“Miss, how did you end up so high?” The newcomer spoke in surprise, stepping forward and reaching out to her. “Can’t you come down? Don’t be afraid; I’ll catch you.”

A clear breeze brushed past, and the brook babbled. The devotee kowtowed deeply to the Snake Girl Lady statue, praying devoutly, “May I find a good match, never to part until death.”

Qingming looked at that face, identical to the monk’s, and suddenly smiled.

*

【Host, wake up!】 The System asked with concern. 【Is the Host alright?】

Xun Ji touched his face—no cracks. He touched his body—no cracks either. He let out a long sigh of relief, but it caught halfway.

“Why did I enter the plot just now? Did I exit the illusion?”

【The Host is still in the illusion. The Host’s consciousness is fusing deeper with Qingming’s, so you saw her memory.】

Xun Ji understood and asked again, “What about Lu Yun Ting?”

Lu Yun Ting only felt blinding golden light and deafening Buddhist chants. Vast, pure spiritual energy enveloped him, pressing him immobile.

“Fan Tian! Do you know that stealing the Reincarnation Cauldron privately is a grave sin!” An angry roar shook heaven and earth.

“I know.” A calm voice came from Lu Yun Ting’s mouth, but it wasn’t him speaking.

He was in Fan Tian’s body.

“Fan Tian, do you still remember why you entered the mortal world?” That voice asked.

“I remember.” Fan Tian replied. “To cultivate Crossing Suffering, to ascend the immortal path.”

That voice sighed lowly. “The path of Buddhist cultivation is already arduous, yet you chose the most perilous Du’e Path among them, enduring the world’s suffering to temper your heart. Yet you still fell one step short of ascending to immortality. You sought guidance from the Chan Sect, and they said that you had tasted all hundred sufferings except the suffering of emotion.”

“Baochan Temple, pitying your arduous cultivation, permitted you to shed your Buddhist body, disperse your Buddhist arts, enter the secular world as a mortal, and experience emotional suffering. Fan Tian, do you understand?”