Why would a person feel sad?
Sadness was sadness.
The spring breeze couldn't pass through White Town, and the hero couldn't pass through a beautiful woman.
It was difficult to pass through love, and it was even more difficult to pass through life and death.
Jing Jiu's sadness was not because of his cowardice, nor was it because he had seen that person. He had recalled many things in the past, at least not all of them.
That person was indeed special to him, but he was still that person. If he could kill him with a swing of his sword, he would do it.
"We will eventually lose all connection with the world, and we will only have loneliness left."
Jing Jiu said this to Zhao Layue while looking at the stars in the night sky and sensing the coldness of the Sword of the Universe while stroking the cat in his bosom.
Zhao Layue didn't say anything. It was because she was very sad at the moment. Just like at the Plum Meeting, she felt that Jing Jiu was slowly leaving this world.
Living in this world, one would encounter all kinds of unforeseen events, change of heart, and eventually death that one couldn't escape from.
Even if the Cultivation practitioners could live a long or eternal life, it wouldn't change anything. On the contrary, it would make them see all the departures more clearly.
The Dao must be merciless; otherwise, everyone would go crazy in the end.
Even though Jing Jiu had overcome this obstacle, he would still experience loneliness from time to time in the process of pursuing the Dao.
All the sadness, sadness, weakness, and anger originated from loneliness.
It was not a bad thing.
Like the wax that leaked out from the cut bark would become the most precious gemstone, loneliness could help the Cultivation practitioners find peace again, and their Dao Heart would be at peace again.
Many Cultivation practitioners would seek this kind of experience intentionally in order to comprehend it. The successor of experiencing the mortal world in the Guocheng Temple had such an intention.
Of course, it depended on one's ability to overcome it and absorb it, which usually required a lot of pain and a long time.
"That's it."
Jing Jiu said.
The stars were still everywhere in the sky.
Heaven and earth were still everywhere.
And he was still everywhere.
It was the first time that he showed some ordinary emotion after coming back for dozens of years. But it was the end.
Zhao Layue looked at him, her eyes full of admiration.
Ada looked at him, his eyes full of awe.
He could let go of the loneliness in such a short time because he had a higher goal.
He was well aware that loneliness was the price he had to pay.
…
…
I don't care if it's a thought or a piece of luggage. I don't care if you weigh anything. If Jing Jiu says he'll put it down, he'll really put it down.
He no longer thought about the word loneliness, no longer sad, no longer angry, and calmly began to calculate.
Just as Ah Da said, he wasn't this kind of person in the past. Then why did he become so stubborn all these years, going to so many places and thinking of so many ways to find peace? This might be due to the influence of the wisp of divine awareness left by Tian Jingren, but in fact, there was a simpler reason — he needed an answer.
He had read many books on Shiyue Peak and the Mirror Sect at the end of spring and the beginning of summer last year, and the conclusion he had reached was that the Formation of Dispersed Smoke and Cloud was problematic from the very beginning, which meant that the person didn't want him to ascend from the very beginning.
Therefore, he needed the answer even more.
More than three hundred years ago, the Guocheng Temple was in turmoil. The former Emperor was severely wounded by Taiping Zhenren and died after only a few years. The old monk with the highest seniority in the temple died on the spot and was forced to reincarnate as the son of a mountain demon.
Then, he led Liu Ci and Yuan Qijing in a rebellion.
If it had happened after the rebellion, the person would have had a good reason to harm him; but why did he do it before?
And if that person intended to rule Chaotian again and carry out his crazy and evil idea, wouldn't it be better for him to ascend and leave the world?
It was true that the question Jing Jiu wished to ask was as simple as that.
Why did he do it?
This question sounded like a common question in the third-rate novels, like another classic question: Why don't you love me anymore?
It's not because you have become uglier; it's because I'm tired of you, so you look uglier in my eyes.
Yet, everything in the world has its own rules, which are not as unreasonable as the love between a man and a woman. There must be a cause for every result, and there must be a reason for everything.
This question was also suitable for the ancestors of the Zhongzhou School, Bai Ren. Regardless of the ambition of the Zhongzhou School, they would like to see Jingyang ascend and leave the world; but why did Bai Ren sneak-attack him and bring about so many unforeseen events?
This question had been bothering Jing Jiu for a long time. It wasn't until he heard the three last words of the Monk Huiyuan at the Pinggu Temple that he vaguely understood the reason.
That person had already transformed, died, or turned into another being. It would be hard for Jing Jiu to get the answer from him; as such, he had no choice but to find the answer himself.
How could he find the answer? What he needed was a rock from another mountain or a mirror to reflect his own reflection.
It was a rare experience in the history of the Cultivation world to succeed in ascending and then be beaten down to the ground.
There were many disgraced immortals in the legends of Chaotian, but most of them were merely rumors. Only one of them could be true.
After Nan Qü was expelled from Aoyama, it was said that he found the manor cave of the previous fairy swordsman on an island in the ocean and obtained the inheritance, becoming the famous Great Grandmaster of the Foggy Island.
The patch of ocean was the West Ocean. Interestingly enough, that island was called the Fallen Immortal Island.
…
…
Five years ago, Liu Ci wounded the Godly Swordsman of West Ocean and killed Nan Qü with a swing of his sword.
Wherever the sword lights reached, the disciples of the Western Sea Sword School suffered great casualties, and the divine guardian animal of the sect, the Flying Whale, had turned into countless huge chunks of flesh, sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
The Flying Whale was too big. Even after such a long time, it hadn't been eaten up by the small fish at the bottom of the ocean. The rotten flesh exuded an unpleasant odor, rising to the surface of the ocean along with the tiny bubbles, filling the air.
The odor was so pungent that the formation couldn't dispel it completely. The disciples of Bihu Peak stationed on the West Ocean Islands had a hard time describing it.
The peak master of Bihu, Chen Youtian, had participated in the Sect Master Meeting and the battle of the Cold Mountain last year; and now he had returned to the West Ocean. He was well aware of the feelings of the elders and disciples. Though the patch of ocean in front of him was vast, the odor here was far inferior to that of the lake on Bihu Peak. Though the spiritual source here was not bad, it was not as good as that in Aoyama.
He sighed, wondering when the young Immortal Sect Master would summon them back.
As he was thinking of this, a bright red sword light suddenly appeared on the horizon. He was taken aback a bit, and then led the disciples out to greet it.
What he didn't expect was that the young Immortal Sect Master had come as well.
"Let Shiyue Peak come and replace you in four years."
Jing Jiu said this before Chen Youtian could say anything.
Four years was not a long time for the Cultivation practitioners, so Chen Youtian couldn't ask for more.
… …
… …
Chen Youtian left according to Jing Jiu's request.
Zhao Layue shot him a glance and asked, "Why four years?"
It was impossible for Jing Jiu to say the number of years casually; there must be a deeper meaning behind it.
Jing Jiu didn't explain it, but said to Ada, "Search for it."
It was said that the manor cave of the previous fairy swordsman whom Nan Qü met after he was expelled from Aoyama was on this island.
After the Aoyama Sect obtained the West Ocean, they had searched the island many times, but they didn't find anything.
The rumored secret manual of the fairy swordsman should have been taken away by the Godly Swordsman of West Ocean; but why was there no other trace here?
What Jing Jiu was looking for was not the secret manual, but something else.
It didn't take long before a flash of white light returned to the stone window that looked like a huge painting.
Ada shook his head; he didn't find anything.
Even a guard in the Heavenly Arrival State couldn't find any trace. Was it possible that the legend was merely a legend, and the story about the fairy swordsman of the previous generation was fake?
Zhao Layue said, "If you want to find some ordinary traces, they might be in an ordinary place." … …
They went to Shaoming Island.
The upper part of this island had been cut off by the Godly Swordsman of West Ocean. The tunnels and the centers of the formations were as dense as spider webs, like the irregular combination of dots and lines, exposed to the public.
Seeing the scene in front of him, Jing Jiu thought of the heavenly punishment triggered by the fairy book and Liu Ci. After a moment of silence, he thought of Tong Yan.
Tong Yan hadn't come back from the Underworld yet, so it was unclear what had happened.
A gust of strong wind rose in the library building. All the books hovered in midair, making rustling sounds as if they were being flipped by countless invisible hands.
Standing in the midst of the ocean of books, Jing Jiu reached out his hand and picked up a book after reading it for a while.
It was an ordinary record of the fairy swordsmen, describing the mortals' imagination and yearning for the Cultivation circle. Most of the content was absurd, not worth mentioning.
Yet, someone had left a sentence on one of the pages of the book.
"Both fairy and crazy, and so am I."
Judging from the sword-like strokes and energy, Jing Jiu determined that it should be the handwriting of Nan Qü.
Zhao Layue shot him a glance and asked, "Do you want to find the books?"
Jing Jiu said, "Find all the old books in Haizhou City."
Haizhou City had been built more than ten thousand years ago. There were many books in the provincial schools, the houses of the aristocratic clans and the wealthy merchants, and it was unclear how many books there were in the provincial records.
No matter how one looked at it, it was impossible to collect all these books in a short period of time.
Yet, the West Ocean was the territory of Aoyama, so they couldn't say it was impossible to the Sect Master of Aoyama.
It took Chen Youtian and the elders and disciples of Bihu Peak three days later to return to Shaoming Island with a sword boat full of books. They stopped on the cross-section of the island, which was as smooth as a cake.
Regardless of how well those old books were kept, they still didn't smell good. Ada sneezed a few times when he smelled the rotten meat coming out from the bottom of the ocean.
Jing Jiu didn't care about this. He reached out his hand to turn the pages of the books along with the gentle wind, and started reading tens of thousands of books at the same time.
It didn't take long for him to find the person he was looking for in the county records of a county under the jurisdiction of Haizhou and a miscellaneous book.
A middle-aged madman suddenly appeared in that county more than three thousand years ago.
That madman would run to the seashore every day after he woke up, claiming that his clothes didn't fit him and that he needed to be thinner, and that he needed to be stronger so that he wouldn't be at a disadvantage when arguing with others.
When he was breathless and sweaty, he would go to a small tavern on the edge of the county to have a drink.
The madman's favorite food was tuna and the rice wine of Penglai Island. Unfortunately, he couldn't hold his liquor well, and a few cups were too much for him.
Then, he would repeat one sentence over and over again in a drunken stupor.
"Don't go out."
"Don't go out!"
…
…
If that were all, this madman wouldn't have been qualified to be recorded in the county records.
The problem was that one day, he drank a little too much and spoke a few more words than he should have.
That day, he grabbed the shopkeeper's hand with red eyes and nagged, "There's a fire outside. Don't go out!"
The shopkeeper was familiar with him, so he said with a smile, "If that's the case, why don't you go out and put out the fire?"
The madman said seriously, "How can we put out the fire? We can survive if we stay here. "
The shopkeeper asked, "What if the fire also burns down the house?"
The madman looked at the sky, feeling lucky, and said, "Fortunately, the walls of our house are made of iron. They are thick enough, so the fire can't get in."
The shopkeeper said with a smile, "Is there another iron wall in the sky?"
The madman said seriously, "The sky is an iron cover."
Hearing this, the customers in the tavern all laughed, and the air was filled with the smell of joy.
The madman was silent for a long time, then suddenly said, "Since the heavenly secret has been revealed, let's do something."
After saying this, he walked to the end of the long street and jumped into the sky. From then on, he never appeared in this small county again.
The people in the tavern saw this scene with their own eyes and were shocked speechless.
On that night, the largest cultivation sect in Haizhou City was destroyed.
Not a single person died, but the cultivation of all the disciples of that sect was crippled, and their cultivation methods were burned to nothingness.
A few days later, a small sect in the West Sea suffered the same fate.
A few days later, the State Advisor of the Dragon-Man Kingdom, who was most likely to see through the Path of Sky Demons, was suddenly found dead on a shallow beach.
The customers in the tavern still remembered the scene of the madman walking to the end of the long street and jumping into the sky, as well as the absurd words he said, so they naturally linked these events to him.
The problem was, who would believe these people's words? It was just some gossip that left a small mark in the county annals.
…
…
"I have an impression of these events."
Ada slowly walked to Jing Jiu's side and jumped onto his shoulder. He looked at the annals in silence for a while and said, "At that time, there were many tragedies in the West Sea. The Sect Master was going to see which evil demon was so arrogant, but that person suddenly disappeared. The Sect Master thought that it was the excuse of the northern sects to massacre the small sects, so he didn't investigate further."
Now it seemed that the madman should be the legendary former Sword Immortal, and for some reason, he was playing in the mortal world. He suddenly thought of wiping out all the sects, but he gave up the idea somehow. Later, he lived on the Fallen Immortal Island as a hermit, and never showed up again. All he left behind was a secret script of the sword work, which contributed to the rise of Nan Qü and the Foggy Island.
Jing Jiu opened the Record of the Sword Immortals again. This time, those seemingly absurd words had a different meaning.
There were two sentences on the page where Nan Qü left his handwriting, which should be the self-evaluation of the madman.
"I'm lonely in the sky; I'm alone."
"I'm lonely in the human world; I'm alone."
…
…
It occurred to Jing Jiu that the story of the spy had appeared in this world ten years ago when he saw Xiao Xiao's post. He thought that it hadn't been a long time, but it turned out that it had been ten years. Though he didn't understand it before, he understood it now. Recalling his arrogance and youthful vigor ten years ago, and thinking of the chapter he had stayed up all night to write last night, he had mixed feelings. As a human being, there's no need to feel sorry; but he felt sorry for many people, including himself. Everybody will have a better life in the future.
(End of this chapter)
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