Shang Lu was gone too, returning to his Western Xiao.
He arrived quickly and left just as swiftly. This ti back, he ca for his master, and also to seek an answer. Once he had it, he didn’t linger. Before leaving, he cast one last look at the Taoist Temple behind him.
He was thinking…
when he might return.
“Hyah!”
The fast horse carried this conflicted ruler of Western Xiao back ho.
From then on, there was no more “Young Master Lu.”
And the Flowing Cloud Temple remained as it ever was. Mundane past events, once gone, seed as if they’d never happened at all.
Moyuan leaned against the gate, dozing off.
The Chenghuang perched on the Drooping Ridge of the main hall seed to scan the mountain with sharp eyes.
The Red Fish in the well swam about, occasionally peeking toward the Side Room storing wine, drool pooling on the ground.
The Statue of True Martiality in the temple glared fiercely, but having lost its sword, its authority lacked power.
And deep within the backyard…
a soft folk song hum filled the air.
“People seek immortality and the Way, nobles stay safe in palace walls. I ask where the Immortals are. Only mountains tall and roads long, teeming with monsters and ghosts~”
Chen Changsheng sipped so tea, eyes closed as he humd softly: “But where are the monsters? I only see… only see…”
He chuckled, humming: “Only see thought’s endless drift.”
Chen Changsheng laughed out loud. He took a big swig of wine next, as if drinking the breeze from the woods along with it.
Worldly matters were funny, each one rare.
As sunset painted twilight gold, Chen Changsheng closed his eyes and rested a while in the Long Pavilion.
When the final sunbeam faded…
Chen Changsheng’s form dissolved into grains of sand, drifting away with the soft breeze.
This dream, once again, had lasted three years.
How many things in this world are not all but a fleeting dream?
…
Elsewhere, within the layered world known as ‘Spirit Cage’.
A pair of eyes opened.
‘Chen Changsheng’, clad in a Blue Robe, raised his head and gazed at the sky.
He sat cross-legged atop a mountain peak, watching a young lad practicing with a Wooden Sword.
“It is ti for to leave.”
‘Chen Changsheng’ stood up, looking at the boy before him.
The boy was stunned. “Master…”
‘Chen Changsheng’ said simply: “I am not your Master. In the future, no matter who you et, never say I am your Master. Rember this?”
“Why?”
The boy panicked suddenly. “Why can I not? Master… Master…”
‘Chen Changsheng’ didn’t answer. He closed his eyes. In an instant, he dissolved into grains of sand and faded away.
The boy rushed forward, grasping nothing but air.
He fell onto the ground, cutting his wrist on a sharp edge.
“Master!!”
The boy shouted. His eyes followed the drifting grains of sand far into the distance. He collapsed on the cliff edge, dazed for a long ti.
When he finally looked down, he saw a sword lying silently beside him.
He froze. His gaze focused on the hilt, where two characters were engraved.
“Taiqing…”
The boy’s mouth fell open. Determination flickered anew in his eyes.
.
.
In that void, a blurred slice of nothingness.
A wisp of Divine Sense hurried back.
“You returned?”
“Mn. Just as you thought.”
“The Mortal Body?”
“Perished. Couldn’t escape that Heaven and Earth. I left the Taiqing Sword with a youth.”
“A youth?”
A sigh echoed in the reply. “See it yourself.”
In that mont, fragnted mories washed over Chen Changsheng’s mind.
The visions seen within the Spirit Cage.
His consciousness sank gradually into that stream of mory.
That place… was called Nanhuang.
…
Heaven and Earth were flawed, the Path of Immortality filled with strife.
This world was barren from its birth. Over countless millions of years, living beings had continually appeared within its bounds.
At the very beginning, a wisp of Buddha’s Light journeyed across the Desolate Sea to heed a call. It entered the Spirit Cage.
After Chen Changsheng stepped into this Heaven and Earth, he found it lacking in Spiritual Energy, its Laws of Heaven and Earth incomplete. A scene of desolation spread beneath his feet, signs of human life hard to spot.
“The flow of ti here is so much faster than the outside world!”
A single day out there… might be months or even a year here.
The River of Ti is woven tightly with the Laws of Heaven and Earth. Vast Heaven and Earth ant a broad River of Ti, its flow slow and deep. Shallow Laws of Heaven and Earth ant a narrow River, flowing fast.
“How vast is the gap in these Laws, truly…”
Chen Changsheng sighed softly. With Heaven and Earth broken, perhaps living beings in this world truly had no chance.
He rode his Sword Flight into this place. He flew onward, not long before spotting a settlent.
The sight before him was bleak.
Plagues, celestial disasters, floods — myriad calamities plagued the Mortal World. In this one spot alone, thousands might perish in just one day.
Wherever he looked were ragged people, thin like walking corpses, moving slowly forward. Yellowed skin, gaunt fras, eyes empty of hope.
It was… a hell on earth.
“CRACK!”
A whip lashed cruelly across tender skin.
A man wailed as the blow struck. The skinny figure crumpled to the ground.
A man in fine clothes, whip raised, snarled: “Walking slow? Playing dead?”
He snorted. “If dying’s what you want, so be it!”
He snapped the whip, the leather thong wrapping around the frail man’s throat. A savage yank — the man’s face flushed purple.
“N-No, s-sir! I-I won’t…”
The thin man choked and struggled, useless against the grip.
After a few labored breaths, the man’s face paled into deathly white. Life was gone.
Others being herded forward shut their eyes tightly at the sight.
“CRACK!”
Another whip strike exploded, a threat trembling every heart.
“Anyone drags their feet, this is your end! MOVE!”
The threat worked swiftly. The procession of about a thousand people quickened their march. Under the shadow of the whip, tension stretched every nerve.
Once the crowd passed by… a single withered corpse lay curled beside the road like forgotten trash.
Chen Changsheng looked down at the lifeless body.
A Wandering Spirit drifted out from it.
“Hm?”
“This spirit… soars toward the sky?”
Frown deepening, he watched as the spirit drifted upward, its eyes vacant.
Chen Changsheng rose by Sword Flight, tracing the spirit’s climb. As he neared the fragile boundary of this world, above wasn’t sun and moon… but shimring blue like water.
What greeted him then made Chen Changsheng’s eyes widen sharply.
Spirits!
Wandering spirits by the thousands drifted toward that impossible blue do.
His sight filled with a sea of countless, countless souls.
Utterly motionless, all bore vacant stares — as if untouched by the rules of life and death!
A vision so grotesque, even Chen Changsheng felt an eerie chill.
“What is… this…”
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