Rejuvenated

"Master, are there really immortals in this world?"

In the Pure Heart Hall of Purple Heaven Temple, eight-year-old Li Ji'an tilted his head back. His clear eyes held a touch of childish innocence as he gazed at Hall Master Liu Deshan with eager anticipation.

A long moment passed.

"Look! He looks so much like my junior brother..." Li Ji'an got no answer. Instead, Liu Deshan murmured in a daze.

A nostalgic smile unconsciously tugged at Li Ji'an's lips. He bowed slightly, careful not to disturb the man who had once been his senior brother and was now his master.

"Infinite Blessings Heavenly Venerate!" A short while later, Liu Deshan came back to himself and picked up the register again. His eyes, which had seemed a little cloudy, suddenly grew clearer.

"Your common name is Li Ji'an?"

Liu Deshan didn't need Li Ji'an to answer. As he stared at the information in the register, his heart pounded.

Three days earlier, while he was fasting and cultivating in seclusion, he'd heard that a child carrying a token from his junior brother, Chang'an Zhenren, wanted to join his tutelage. Though still in seclusion and unable to meet the child, he'd ordered the boy admitted to the Pure Heart Hall as an exception without the slightest hesitation.

Today, the moment he'd emerged from seclusion, he'd summoned the child.

One look had left him stunned...

And now, he was almost certain—this was surely my junior brother's kid!

"Hmph. You fed me all that crooked reasoning, telling me not to marry and have children. You went on about 'red powder and white bones,' 'flowers in a water-moon mirror,' and living alone, carefree all your life. And yet... good thing I never fell for it." A wave of inexplicable exhilaration swept over Houde Zhenren Liu Deshan. Whether he was happy to learn his junior brother had an heir, or simply delighted to finally get one over on him, he seemed thirty years younger.

"Qingyun, come in." In high spirits, Houde Zhenren called toward the hall entrance.

"This disciple pays his respects, Master." A chubby young Daoist, about the same age as Li Ji'an and round as a ball, waddled into the hall, jiggling with every step. He sat cross-legged on a cushion beside Li Ji'an.

"From now on, this is your junior brother. Look after him well. Never bully him. Treat him as your own flesh and blood, your dearest friend." Liu Deshan gave him a grave warning.

"Huh?" The little chubby Daoist had clearly never seen Liu Deshan act like this.

"Oh, right. I haven't given you a Daoist Name yet. You... might as well be called Chang'an." Liu Deshan pondered briefly, then smiled. Though renowned for his composure and in charge of the temple's moral instruction, he wore a hint of slyness on his face.

"Chang'an?" His senior brother really had a wicked sense of humor...

"Thank you, Master, for granting me a name." Li Ji'an bowed deeply.

"Chang'an, this is your senior brother, Qingyun. No matter how you get along with the other senior and junior brothers in the temple, you and your senior brother Qingyun must be as close as brothers, sharing both hardship and joy." Liu Deshan gave another reminder.

Li Ji'an lowered his head and tilted it slightly. He happened to see the young Daoist Qingyun watching him in the same way.

He'd glimpsed the chubby boy from a distance three days ago and already had his suspicions. Now he had no doubts.

The ancestral rules of Purple Heaven Temple forbade marriage, but over the past century that rule had become little more than a formality. Purple Heaven Temple was a hereditary temple, with masters passing their positions to their disciples, generation after generation. It accepted no outside Daoists seeking lodging, and after a hundred years, nearly everyone there was part of the same lineage.

From the Abbot down to the clerics and disciples, most had a household in the county town ten li away.

Their former Pure Heart Hall Master—in other words, their master, Shangshan Zhenren—was an exception. He'd been celibate and self-reliant, and had taken only the two of them as disciples.

"Looking at the boy's age, could my senior brother have married before I returned to lay life? Heh."

"All right, Qingyun, take your junior brother and show him around the temple. Explain some of the rules, too." Liu Deshan seemed to have something pressing to attend to. He hadn't even answered the first question new disciples were required to ask. After hurriedly sending the two boys away, he left the Pure Heart Hall, beaming.

The chubby little Qingyun looked slow, but he moved quickly. He grabbed Li Ji'an and took him just a few steps away, to the corner of a side room outside the hall.

"Tell me the truth. Are you Master's son too?" Little Qingyun's face had gone red. He looked wronged, as if he might burst into tears at any moment.

"..." Just like his senior brother as a child—he didn't seem very bright.

Li Ji'an promptly shook his head.

"Really? Phew, you scared me! That's good. Looks like my mother was lying to me. Why would my father have another woman?"

Li Ji'an raised an eyebrow slightly. His senior brother had turned into a rascal, too.

"Then from now on, stick with your senior brother. I'll make sure nobody bullies you. I'll tell you a secret, but don't tell anyone else: my dad is the best!" The chubby boy grinned and proudly gave a thumbs-up, clearly very proud to have Liu Deshan for a father.

That's right.

Seeing the little chubby boy so proud of his father, Li Ji'an felt genuinely happy for Liu Deshan.

To be his son's pride—surely his senior brother could ask for no more as a father.

"Junior brother, this is the Jade Emperor Hall. It's the Abbot's territory. He's fierce and stingy, so don't come here unless you have to.

"This is the Dharma Propagation Hall. Whenever they go down the mountain to perform rituals, they get lots of tasty food..."

Purple Heaven Temple wasn't large. It had none of the rigid hierarchy of those grand temples, with their "three capitals, five masters, and eighteen heads." It had only one Abbot, five Hall Masters, and fewer than a hundred disciples and young Daoists across all the halls.

Returning to the old place felt as if it had all happened yesterday.

"Fifty-four years... just like that!"

Fifty-four years ago, Li Ji'an had awakened the memories of his past life. By then, he'd already spent eight years in this world, born from his mother's womb and now eight years old!

The Immortal Bestowed Dynasty—a feudal imperial world he'd never heard of before.

There was no need to spell out how hard life was for the common folk in a feudal society.

But when he'd awakened his past-life memories, Li Ji'an hadn't wallowed in self-pity. He'd been brimming with confidence. He hadn't even panicked at having no system. With twenty years' worth of experience as a legitimate webnovel reader, he knew this sort of ancient imperial setting inside out.

At first, he'd decided to speedrun it.

Then they force-fed him mouthfuls of incense ash and talisman water, along with weasel blood...

Only after learning that Martial Artists existed did he suddenly understand: this was a low-martial-arts progression story.

Suffering at the start, enduring hardship and even humiliation—that was all part of the deal.

He'd endured until both his parents were dead and his fiancée had broken off their engagement. He knew his buffs were stacked to the limit. It was time for him to make his move.

He hadn't felt bad about selling off land inherited from his ancestors. Li Ji'an sold the few acres his family had painstakingly saved for generations, then set off for the martial arts school in town, full of confidence.

But... after a whole year, he still hadn't even entered the door.

A peasant boy from the hills, he'd grown up barely scraping by. His body was weak, he couldn't afford high-quality medicinal baths or supplements, and the martial arts school in town was simply too limited.

His money was nearly gone, and he still hadn't made any progress. In desperation, he trained even harder, injuring his lungs until he coughed and wheezed nonstop. He was practically a sickly ghost.

Unable to survive in town, he had no choice but to slink back to the village.

Fortunately, nobody wanted the mud house, so he still had a place to shelter.

In the end, he became a tenant farmer, never knowing whether he'd have enough to eat from one meal to the next. With every passing day, hope turned to despair.

He'd drifted through life, miserable and despondent, waiting for a hope he didn't even know would ever come... until he turned thirty. Just as he'd almost lost the will to live, he woke one morning to find that his sickness had vanished. Every negative condition afflicting his overburdened, chronically ill body had disappeared. His body had returned to the age he'd been when he first awakened his past-life memories: eight years old!

Yet the timeline itself hadn't changed.

Afraid he might be treated as a demon and executed, he hadn't even had time to celebrate the belated arrival of his Golden Finger before fleeing the village in a hurry.

Travel was difficult in ancient times, and population movement was tightly restricted by checkpoint after checkpoint. In the end, the only place he could run to for an opportunity was the town.

But... before he could figure out how his Golden Finger worked, he'd been caught by human traffickers and subjected to Life Harvesting and Dismemberment!

At the memory, Li Ji'an's heart gave a sudden, painful thump, and his face turned deathly pale.

Even though twenty-seven years had passed and he'd been rejuvenated once, clearing away all the physical damage, those five years still haunted his sleep with nightmares.

Fortunately, when he was thirteen, in Shangyi County, ten li from Purple Heaven Temple, Li Ji'an had encountered Shangshan Zhenren, the former master of the Pure Heart Hall. One of Li Ji'an's arms had already been mangled, and a wound down his back had never healed; it kept festering with pus.

Little Qingyun suddenly turned around and happened to see the terror on Li Ji'an's face.

"Don't be afraid, junior brother. Your senior brother is here." Awkwardly, he shielded Li Ji'an with his body, then pointed urgently at the statues in the hall. "They're fake. They're all made of clay."

Coming back to himself, Li Ji'an looked at little Qingyun standing in front of him, and a loving smile spread across his face.

After that, little Qingyun stopped showing Li Ji'an around and headed straight back to the Pure Heart Hall.

But as soon as they reached the side quarters outside the Pure Heart Hall, little Qingyun abruptly stopped. A group of senior brothers from the temple was waiting at the entrance, including a senior brother from the Discipline Hall.

"Oh no! Did they find out I spat in the Internal Affairs Hall Master's food?" Little Qingyun shuddered and instinctively hid behind Li Ji'an.

Clatter—

The moment they saw the two of them, the group surged forward. Every face was tense with urgency; not one looked as calm and detached as a Daoist ought to be.

"I was wrong, I was wrong! I won't do it again!" Little Qingyun nearly cried. He stumbled backward, fell on his butt, and covered his head as he begged for mercy.

"You..."

But after waiting a moment, no one scolded him or came to grab him. Trembling, little Qingyun peeked through the gap between his fingers.

He saw that the entire group had gathered around Li Ji'an.

"They weren't here for me?" He instantly relaxed.

"They're trying to bully my junior brother!" The next moment, anger blazed inside him.

"I'll go get my dad." But he didn't dare charge at the fearsome men from the Discipline Hall himself.

"Hmm?" Before he could tiptoe away, he saw the whole group crouch down beside Li Ji'an.

Their faces were no longer tense. Instead, they were full of affection and tenderness.

He even clearly saw that the senior brother from the Discipline Hall, the one with the repulsive face, was crouched in front of Li Ji'an, gently stroking his head, with tears glimmering in his eyes...

"Like him... he really looks so much like him..."

"Junior brother... are you Li Ji'an?"

"Li Jichang—no, no, I mean, are you the son of Uncle Chang'an..."

"Don't ask what you shouldn't!"

"Uncle Chang'an... is he doing well?"

Li Ji'an looked at these children who had all grown up, and smiled in satisfaction.

Because he'd been left out in the rain, then had a master give him an umbrella, he was all the more willing to hold one over those still standing in the rain.

Twenty-seven years ago, after five years of living through hell, he'd been brought here by Shangshan Zhenren. He'd been thirteen that year.

Those five years had made this place feel like true paradise to him. He'd settled in, and eagerly helped Purple Heaven Temple grow, offering advice and devising plans. The determination of the transmigrator he'd once been had gradually softened in the warmth of his master's love.

Using knowledge from his previous life, he'd improved the phosphorus-fire and smoke effects for the Dharma Propagation Hall. He'd added tricks like reaching into a pot of boiling oil to fish out a ghost, fetching objects from thin air, and holding true fire in one's mouth. Through methods such as "a brocade letter hidden in a fish's belly," "auspicious omens appearing at Purple Heaven," and "the white jade turtle," he'd turned Purple Heaven Temple, once obscure and unknown, into a favorite among the wealthy and powerful of Shangyi County, greatly increasing its income.

On that foundation, the Abbot had agreed to let him establish a Charity Hall within the temple, sheltering children born into misery who had no power to fight back.

By the time Li Ji'an turned thirty, all eighteen children in the Charity Hall had been saved by his own hand.

Ten years apart...

The oldest of them was now over twenty and had become the Discipline Manager of the Discipline Hall.

A moment later, the group of Daoists faced the direction Li Ji'an pointed and respectfully kowtowed three times.

"Junior brother, if you ever have a problem, you can always come to us."

"No one in the temple can bully you."

"From now on, we're all brothers..."

"Junior brother... he's really that amazing? Why?"

Little Qingyun stared dumbfounded at the scene. He hadn't even noticed Houde Zhenren standing beside him at some point.

"Because his dad is the best!" Houde Zhenren raised a thumb.

"Huh? Dad... I mean, Master, you mean... his dad is even more... the best than you?" Little Qingyun looked at Li Ji'an with newfound respect and undisguised envy.

The flowing stream does not strive to be first; it strives to flow on, endless and unbroken!