Rejecting Immortality

What the hell was "take jujube pills and you'll be fine"? What medicine could cure all poisons? Had they run into a swindler?

Li Qingjun looked indignant and was about to say something, but Li Qinglin raised a hand to stop her. He handed over some silver. "My sibling and I have entered the mountains in search of immortals, but we do not have much time to waste. Little brother, you have lived here for a long time and know the area well. Would you be willing to guide us up the mountain? You will be richly rewarded."

"No." Qin Yi lazily rose to his feet and turned toward the house. "Why seek immortals? Eat well, sleep well, and live free of worry—wouldn't that make one an immortal?"

The youthful Li Qingjun snapped, "Hey! What kind of attitude is that?"

But Qin Yi had already entered the house.

Li Qingjun puffed up with anger and was about to dismount, only for her brother to seize her. "Stop making trouble."

"Why are you being so polite to him? He is obviously a fraud. What medicine cures a hundred poisons?"

Li Qinglin reined in his horse and rode away. "Li Liu's report said that quite a few people entering the mountain recently had been poisoned, yet a young man surnamed Qin in the village cured them with a single medicine. Perhaps he knows the mountain's peculiar poisonous miasma and has medicine tailored to it. It should be more suitable than what we brought ourselves. Besides, after what we saw and heard here, do you truly not find that young man somewhat unusual?"

"He is most likely putting on airs. The villagers are helping him create an atmosphere so he can deceive people more easily."

Li Qinglin laughed despite himself.

Li Qingjun galloped after her brother and asked again, "Since you think he would be useful, why did you not insist on hiring him as a guide?"

Li Qinglin smiled faintly. "There is no rush... A guide leads the way, but can he lead you to an immortal?"

Li Qingjun froze again.

Obviously, he could not.

They had not come to climb the mountain and watch the sunrise. They had come in hopes of finding immortals in the mountains. The mountain was not particularly large, and rumors of Immortal Opportunity had circulated for who knew how many years. What inch of it had not already been searched? There was no so-called destination at all, and naturally no correct route. Going in was merely trying one's luck with fate. Why would they need a guide?

Li Qingjun suddenly felt somewhat discouraged, and even her straight shoulders sagged slightly. "So Brother is like everyone else after all. You never truly took this journey to seek immortals seriously..."

Li Qinglin turned back to look toward where they had come from. "That Qin Yi's final remark was rather interesting..."

"A crude country fellow, full of himself and spouting nonsense. I will stab a hole through him with my spear and see how he remains free of worry then."

"Ha..."

Their voices faded into the distance. Qin Yi lay inside the house with one arm beneath his head, the Wolf Tooth Club resting at his bedside. He could vaguely still hear the siblings talking. At the end, he chuckled, seeming to find Li Qingjun's words quite amusing.

A voice abruptly rose within his Sea of Consciousness. "What are you laughing at? These two seem quite accomplished in martial cultivation. They may truly have the strength to stab a hole through you."

The voice reached straight into his soul, and there was no knowing where it came from. In truth, it could scarcely even be called a voice. Its gender could not be distinguished either. It was as though a sentence had simply formed directly inside one's heart—eerily strange. Yet Qin Yi seemed entirely accustomed to it and drawled, "I am laughing because there really are little girls disguised as boys in this world. Why do they think no one can tell?"

The voice paused for a while before replying, "How do you know she is a little girl? Young men naturally do not have prominent Adam's apples, and a somewhat shrill voice is perfectly normal."

"Because you do not have a nose, so you cannot smell her fragrance."

"..."

"Besides, where would you find such a pretty boy? That little face is brimming with collagen, her brows and eyes are like a painting, her lips red and teeth white. She puts on a heroic expression, but that girlish air is so obvious you could feel it with your eyes closed, all right? Do you think there is some beauty filter?"

"What is collagen? And what the hell is a beauty filter?"

"...None of your business."

The voice sighed. "Who cares whether she is male or female? You saw it yourself. So many people seek immortality and ask after the Dao with utmost sincerity. If they were truly given Immortal Opportunity, they would gladly kneel for three days and three nights. Why will you not cultivate immortality when you are being offered the chance?"

"Am I not already cultivating immortality? Look, I am planning to stay up all night again tonight..."

"This counts as cultivating immortality? Do not use the same nonsense you use to fool them on me."

Qin Yi said coldly, "And do not use the same tricks you use to fool idiots on me!"

As he spoke, he casually tossed the Wolf Tooth Club into the foot-washing water beside the bed.

The voice in his Sea of Consciousness became furious. "I said nothing when you used me to pound medicine and hammer nails. But if you stuff me into foot-washing water again, I will never let this go!"

The Wolf Tooth Club sprang from the water with a whoosh, swinging down at Qin Yi. Leaning against the bedhead, Qin Yi kicked out, striking the handle squarely. The Wolf Tooth Club spun several times in the air, then smacked against the wall with a slap, slid down it, bounced twice on the ground, and lay still.

Thick resentment overflowed from the club's body.

"Hey, Clubby..."

"I have told you ten thousand times. My name is Liusu."

"A Wolf Tooth Club's artifact spirit called Liusu... Do those two things even belong in the same style? Who was your former master? Could they not have had a little self-awareness?"

Liusu sneered without speaking.

Qin Yi asked again, "Clubby, do you think those two can handle the trouble in the mountains?"

Ever since Qin Yi had transmigrated here, the mountain had begun to change. First, poisonous miasma had appeared in the mountains, and people often fell ill after entering them. Second, a strange winged tiger had inexplicably emerged from a pile of boulders. The poisonous miasma was not poison, but spatial resentment brought out by Liusu. The winged tiger, however, had nothing to do with Liusu; it was the result of the Demon Transformation Poisonous Mist buried there by those two earlier.

Both problems had something to do with Qin Yi.

Liusu said lazily, "I told you to cultivate immortality with me, but you refused to learn. Otherwise, how could you be unable to deal with a tiger that had only begun transforming into a demon a few days ago?"

"Because it cannot kill me, but you can."

Some time had passed since his transmigration. Recalling the scene from back then, Qin Yi could now completely sort out what had happened.

Liusu had been attempting Body Seizing. Just as Qin Yi transmigrated over, it had tried to swallow his soul outright. Yet the cultural differences from an entirely incompatible world had made Liusu vomit him back out, and Qin Yi had instead occupied the body. Liusu's soul power, accumulated over who knew how many years, suffered a devastating blow and became incomparably weak. It retreated into the club, barely clinging to life.

Thus, Liusu claimed it would teach him to cultivate immortality, and that he would help it reforge its body someday.

But Qin Yi did not dare learn.

The original owner's soul had already been swallowed by Liusu. It was absolutely no good thing. Who knew whether the cultivation techniques it taught contained some hidden backdoor, making it convenient for it to seize his body again? Qin Yi did not think his head was made of iron. He did not dare try.

At first, Qin Yi had even wanted to throw away the Wolf Tooth Club. But he was far too curious about this world of cultivation, and in the end, he still kept it by his side. It was weak now anyway, was it not?

How delightful.

Liusu sneered. "In any case, I can tell you that this resentment will disperse on its own soon enough. No one needs to resolve it. But that tiger has already begun demonizing. With only the little Demon Binding Array I taught you—and especially since you have not cultivated at all—you cannot restrain it for long. Sooner or later, it will begin harming people. If you want to solve this problem completely, you must cultivate with me."

Qin Yi pursed his lips and held back for a long while before saying, "I will solve it somehow."

Liusu snorted in ridicule. "Your method is to spread word of this immortal trace, which no one cares about anymore, and lure immortal-seekers here to kill the tiger?"

"It is still more reliable than relying on the villagers. Those Li siblings look like they have some ability."

Liusu laughed. "If you want to take that route, I have an even surer idea."

"What?"

"The Li Family Siblings are clearly either wealthy or noble. As long as you get them killed beneath that tiger's fangs, someone will surely skin the tiger and pull out its tendons. It will absolutely have no chance of survival. Yet you even reminded them to run if they could not defeat it, saying the tiger would not pursue them..."

"Pah!" Qin Yi sprang up, ran to the corner, grabbed the Wolf Tooth Club, and stuffed it back into the foot-washing water.

Liusu cursed furiously from the water. "You fool, softhearted as a woman! If they escape after being injured by the tiger, you will be the first person they take their anger out on!"

Qin Yi ignored it completely and walked to the corner. A small stove there was keeping watch over the fire, and a clay jar atop it was slightly warm, faintly giving off the fragrance of medicinal pills.

The arts of making medicine and refining pills, along with the arrangement of several simple arrays, were both Qin Yi's way of skirting the edge of his curiosity about cultivation in this world and Liusu's proof that I truly can teach you to cultivate immortality. On this point, the two hit it off at once. One learned earnestly, the other taught attentively, without their usual noisy arguments.

Qin Yi watched the stove fire for a while, silently calculated the time, then casually took a flask of wine and walked to the window, drinking it in small sips.

The sky had gone completely dark, stars and moon shining brilliantly across the heavens.

Where the night watch did not reach, insects stirred and cicadas sang. Slightly drunk on a little wine, Qin Yi had always felt that such an environment itself was already close to immortality. Far from the clamor of carriages and horses, distant from scheming hearts and mutual deception, how many worldly people ever noticed the moonlight's pure radiance or the fragrance of the fields? Seeking immortals, seeking immortals—yet in the end, what they found was merely deception with ulterior motives like his own.

Qin Yi had always felt that if the problems in the mountain could be resolved, there would be nothing bad about spending a lifetime tucked away here. He had died falling from a cliff in his previous life. Transmigrating here was no different from receiving another life. Was it not good simply to enjoy life?

When he sang "Song of Better Things," he was not pretending this was an immortal realm. He had merely seen too many immortal-seekers and spoken from genuine feeling.

"You tell me, is not this night beautiful..." he murmured, as though speaking in a dream.

Liusu, still sulking, gave a disdainful snort.

In truth, it was precisely for this reason that Liusu had always believed Qin Yi was exceptionally suited to cultivating immortality. He possessed a serene air. He was neither stubborn nor deluded, held no ambition of entering the world to be enfeoffed as a marquis, and seemed as though a humble thatched cottage would suffice for an entire lifetime. Such a person was more suited to cultivation than those who devoutly kowtowed and stubbornly begged for it.

Unfortunately, he refused to cultivate.

But heaven knew that what was called serene detachment from worldly affairs had another name in Qin Yi's world: homebody.