"True constancy responds to all things; true constancy attains one's nature..."
Huang Banxian and Huang Fengjiao could no longer continue reciting the Scripture of Purity and Tranquility. He was no longer the man who could find peace of mind merely by chanting scriptures.
The ancients said, "At fifty, one understands Heaven's mandate." He was already fifty-five this year.
Neither old nor young, neither dead nor alive—this predicament had ruined all cultivation for this old Taoist who had followed the Way for half his life.
Everyone said Li Guanqi of Branch No. 5 was frantic over this mission, that the pressure of reality had thrown him into disarray. But only Huang Banxian himself knew that he was the most desperate person in this mission.
Half a lifetime spent muddling through a beautiful dream—when he woke, he realized he was just like the Taoist robe draped over him: awkward and contradictory.
He had studied the Dao, yet failed to attain it.
Forcing a Taoist robe onto himself only made him look like a clown, a laughingstock.
He sought survival, yet fate would not allow it.
Gu Xingjian's shadow loomed over him, and the Tortoise Shell Sin Item controlled his fate chart, leaving him no way to escape.
Branch No. 9, this branch steeped in evil energy—whether landing here was fortune or misfortune, no one could say.
Gu Xingjian was unimaginably powerful. In some ways, his influence over people even surpassed Heavenly Sea.
Under his shadow, Clyde and Huang Banxian were like two different choices for one person's life.
Ji Li had given both of them at least two chances.
Clyde chose to accept it and resist Gu Xingjian.
Huang Banxian chose to flee. He chose neither side and sought only to preserve himself.
Clyde, who had resisted, now seemed to have become