You May Become Human!

At dawn, roosters crowed and dogs barked.

The sky had only just begun to brighten when servants rising early in the Chen Family of Qu Kou estate in Qingshui had already started bustling about with the household's daily chores.

Yet compared to the vibrant liveliness of the front courtyard, the ancestral hall in the rear courtyard was deathly quiet.

So quiet that when faint voices drifted out from within, no one noticed at all.

Otherwise, there would likely have been another rumor of hauntings.

Inside the ancestral hall, Huang Buyu knelt beneath the shrine, respectfully lighting incense and inviting the deity.

In an inadvertent moment of distraction, the wisps of blue smoke above the incense and candles suddenly unfurled and spread, like clouds rolling and unfurling.

Then a figure in azure stepped forth in a flash, ghostlike and uncanny.

Looking closely, it was none other than the Immortal of the Nine Netherworlds:

Mister Mo.

Unlike the previous unexpected encounter, Huang Buyu had come prepared this time and saw everything clearly.

In that fleeting glimpse, it distinctly saw bustling streets within the faint incense smoke and heard the dense clamor of human life.

There was an old farmer selling eggs;

There was a wonton vendor crying out his wares;

There were market women picking through fat and lean cuts of meat...

This seemingly ordinary flash of passing light stirred towering waves within Huang Buyu's heart.

It still remembered the first time it had met Immortal Mo: that fleeting Jie Netherworld Realm, and the supremely yin foul aura that shot into the heavens.

The contrast between the two could not help but inspire deep emotion.

It seemed that, having remolded his fleshly body, Immortal Mo had become like an exiled immortal, wandering and playing among mortals.

"Disciple Huang Buyu pays respects to Mister Mo."

As its thoughts surged, Huang Buyu respectfully performed a disciple's salute and spoke absurd words that fit neither category nor convention.

"Seeking me out so early in the morning—could it be that you have uncovered Chong Shizi's origins?"

Mo Chuan asked.

The reason he had been in such a hurry to leave Jinghe County was precisely because he had heard Huang Buyu's incense prayer.

As he spoke, he gave a light leap, his figure drifting from the shrine to the ground as lightly as a feather.

The effortless display made Huang Buyu burn with envy.

"Immortal, your eyes are like blazing torches. This disciple called upon the immortals of the nine roads and has already uncovered Chong Shizi's background. The matter is of great importance, and I dared not delay."

"Oh? Tell me in detail."

"To this disciple's knowledge, Chong Shizi was a disciple of Qingwei Palace in Yunzhou. He was murdered several days ago, his corpse left exposed in the courtyard. By the time he was discovered, the body had already begun to stink and swell into a grotesque giant corpse."

"A disciple of Qingwei Palace?"

Mo Chuan was slightly startled and finally understood why Huang Buyu had reported this so early in the morning.

Qingwei Palace was one of the branches descended from the Three Sects of Talismans. It specialized in Lightning Arts and enjoyed considerable renown in Yunzhou.

Qingshui County was not part of Yunzhou, yet in truth, it was better than Yunzhou.

The matter involved struggles between imperial authority and local powers, too complicated to explain in a few words.

That was not the key point.

The key was that Qingwei Palace was extremely hostile toward spirit descent and possession.

The Five Great Immortals, the Four Great Gates, Guardian Household Immortals, and Great Spirit Invocation were all, in its eyes, lowly heretical paths.

No wonder Huang Buyu was so terrified.

A Qingwei disciple, Chong Shizi, had died in Qingshui County. Qingwei Palace would certainly send people to investigate thoroughly, and then there would surely be another scene of chickens flying and dogs leaping!

If they failed to find the culprit, they might, in their shame and rage, even slaughter every demon and specter in the entire county.

They might even pay a visit to Fuluanshan Mountain.

"Have you found the killer?"

"No."

Huang Buyu answered in a low voice, its heart growing increasingly uneasy.

It did not know what Immortal Mo truly meant by having it investigate Chong Shizi's origins.

Was he warning it to guard against Qingwei Palace?

Or was it that... Chong Shizi had been killed by the immortal himself?

"Following Mister's guidance, this disciple discovered one Nabo beneath that fruit tree offering. This disciple searched all around Yellow Maple Slope but found no second piece. I beg Mister Mo's forgiveness."

As it spoke, Huang Buyu took a Nabo from the pouch at its side and raised it high with both paws in offering.

Mo Chuan was utterly bewildered upon hearing this.

Guidance?

When had this Daoist ever guided it?

"Oh, tell me exactly what happened."

Though completely baffled, Mo Chuan still reached out and accepted the Nabo, examining it carefully as he questioned Huang Buyu.

Huang Buyu hurriedly explained how it had inferred Mo Chuan's intentions.

By the end, it earnestly emphasized again and again that it had found only one Nabo and had absolutely not hidden the other.

Mo Chuan gave Huang Buyu an odd look.

Then he tried channeling primordial qi into the Nabo. He could faintly sense that the metallic baleful qi inside had grown threefold denser, yet it could not be activated.

He then flicked the Nabo with a bent finger. Unexpectedly, the seemingly thin bronze piece would not even tremble.

Clearly, without another Nabo to strike against it, its power could not be unleashed.

"This Daoist merely found the offering fruit's flavor rather unusual. Who would have thought... it was a small stroke of fortune."

Mo Chuan casually remarked, then looked toward Huang Buyu.

"This Daoist has long heard of yellow weasels seeking a proclamation, but never examined it closely. Tell me about it."

Huang Buyu's heart trembled.

An immortal's thoughts were unfathomable, and his intentions ran deep.

He would never ask about its method of seeking a proclamation for no reason. Since he was asking now, could it be...

Huang Buyu's heart thudded wildly. It vaguely sensed something, yet dared not believe it, deeply afraid that it was only rejoicing in empty joy.

"Reporting to Mister Mo, the path of seeking a proclamation lies in enlightenment at the sixty-year mark..."

Huang Buyu began explaining in detail.

As it turned out, the method of seeking a proclamation was a kind of enlightenment born from the perfection of the Great Dao.

When its cultivation reached the great completion of sixty years and it was about to transform into a human, an inexplicable impulse and yearning surfaced in its heart.

It yearned to borrow a human's prophetic words to transform into a human.

Like a lamb kneeling to suckle.

After hearing this, Mo Chuan vaguely formed a few guesses.

Humans accumulated much of their wisdom after birth;

Birds and beasts, whose lifespans were mostly limited, inherited much of their wisdom from birth.

The method of seeking a proclamation described by Huang Buyu most likely originated from bloodline inheritance. Only when one's cultivation reached the necessary point could it possibly be triggered.

Though this is called seeking a proclamation, it is really stealing humanity's fortune. It truly is an evil art!

Mo Chuan thought to himself, somewhat displeased.

Yet as the scene stirred his emotions, a passage of scripture from Yunji Temple suddenly surged into his mind.

"The Dao is the mystery of all things, the treasure of good men, and the refuge of those who are not good!"

He recited it unconsciously, and in a daze, he suddenly gained a measure of understanding.

Compared to the Buddhist teachings of karmic retribution for good and evil, Daoist thought was far broader. Put simply, the Great Dao did not abandon those who were not good.

In other words, even evil people were not rejected by the Great Dao.

As the saying went: Heaven covered without favoritism, and earth bore without favoritism.

It was truly impartial, treating all equally.

By the same reasoning, even if Huang Buyu sought a proclamation in pursuit of harming others for its own benefit, the Great Dao still permitted it and even allowed methods for it to arise.

To some extent, in the eyes of the Great Dao, humans, beasts, insects... held no essential difference.

Humans merely thought too highly of themselves, privately believing themselves favored by the Great Dao.

At that thought, Mo Chuan's mind swayed. He felt both the pleasure of enlightenment and, more or less, conflict and displeasure.

He shook his head, glanced at Huang Buyu, and suddenly felt a trace of delight rise in his chest.

"You may become human!"

As the words fell, a faint prophetic utterance leapt forth. It had barely emerged before suddenly dropping away.

Yet at the very instant it was about to fall, the path of transcription supported the prophecy, sweeping up a trace of Mo Chuan's human aura and pouring it into Huang Buyu's body.

Huang Buyu had been staring blankly at the immortal's words when the prophecy flooding into its body abruptly made its eyes widen.

Its body swelled like a balloon, its bones rapidly lengthening and its beast fur receding. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a handsome young man.

The young man stared dumbfoundedly at his hands, then tried to take a step. Unfamiliar with the gait of a human body, he fell to the ground with a thud in miserable embarrassment.

Not knowing how to brace himself and release the force, he landed face-first like a dog eating dirt, blood covering his face.

Yet he wiped it away with one hand. Looking at the blood on his palm, his expression trembled before he burst into laughter, tears filling his eyes.

A newcomer's path to proving the Dao is not easy. At eighty thousand characters, I've finally made it onto the trial recommendation. Whether I can keep going, whether I can write this long-term, still depends on all you Daoist masters lending your full support!

I implore all you Daoist masters: please do not stockpile chapters. Recommendation resources depend on follow-up reading, and even more on effective follow-up reading—that is, VIP accounts. Even topping up one cent counts as a VIP account.

So, Daoist masters, I'm begging you!

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