Ten Thousand Years of Solitude, the Mad Immortal Grass Lin Qing

"If it were me, I'd probably go insane before three months were up."

Lin Qing muttered under his breath, yet he steeled himself and kept watching.

As a mere spectator watching a condensed version of the experiences of the Immortal Herb Lin Qing, he could barely stand it, let alone the one who had actually lived through it.

But what if?

What if there was some earth-shattering change later on?

After all, he had become an Immortal Herb.

Sure enough—

[Year 1924.]

The scene finally showed something different.

Blurry human figures appeared in the distance around the flower, seemingly walking about.

[Oh.]

The narrator's voice carried a trace of the slightest fluctuation, like a small pebble dropped into a calm lake.

[Someone has come.]

"!!!"

Lin Qing's spirits surged, and he leaned forward.

After waiting for so many years, finally...

[Year 1924, Day 1.]

The scene shifted, and heavy, goose-feather snow began to fall from the sky.

[It is snowing, absorb the essence of heaven and earth!]

Lin Qing: "???"

He was dumbfounded, nearly jumping out of his chair.

"No, didn't you just say someone came? Where are they? Where did they go?!"

"Explain yourself!"

But the Immortal Herb Lin Qing in the light screen offered no explanation, returning to his day-to-day routine.

[Year 1925, absorb the essence of heaven and earth.]

[Year 1926, absorb the essence of heaven and earth.]

[Year 1927...]

Lin Qing: "..."

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to suppress the urge to shut off the testament immediately.

He tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair, ultimately deciding to keep watching.

I refuse to believe it!

How could there be absolutely no change after all these years?

Time on the light screen continued to fly by.

[Year 3000, absorb the essence of heaven and earth.]

[Year 5000, absorb the essence of heaven and earth.]

[Year 8000...]

"..."

Lin Qing's gaze had become vacant, his entire being feeling somewhat numb.

This testament was nothing short of psychological torture.

The key was that this Immortal Herb brother was tireless, recording it every single day, and he had been listening to it day by day!

The narrator's voice was like chanting, flat and monotonous, without a ripple of emotion.

Lin Qing even began to suspect that the system was messing with him on purpose.

[Year 10,000, Day 1.]

Just as Lin Qing was about to give up, the scene changed once again.

Suddenly, a few other plants appeared around the flower, and... they seemed to be "talking."

[Oh, ho.]

The narrator's voice suddenly became a bit more lively.

Although it was still quite flat, there was finally a hint of emotional fluctuation.

[I can finally speak!]

[It was only then that I discovered there were actually a few other plants nearby that I could communicate with!]

"!!!"

Lin Qing sat bolt upright, his eyes wide.

"Finally, something big is happening!"

He felt like he was about to cry.

His brain had been buzzing from the ten-thousand-year-long stream of trivial accounts he had been forced to listen to.

If something exciting didn't happen soon, he was genuinely afraid he would pass out from boredom.

Inside the light screen.

That pale purple flower swayed gently.

The narrator's voice carried a trace of irrepressible excitement.

[After communicating with the other plants, I finally know what kind of thing I am.]

In the scene, the flower's "gaze"—or rather, the orientation of the eye pattern at the center of its petals—slowly swept across the surrounding environment.

[Turns out, I am not just an ordinary flower.]

[My name is Truth-Seeing Profound Pupil Lotus, and I am a celestial herb!]

[The same kind of celestial herb that Tang San and his companions once consumed!]

"It really is a celestial herb!"

Lin Qing's pupils constricted sharply.

Truth-Seeing Profound Pupil Lotus?

This name... was this celestial herb in the original work?

He recalled carefully, and it didn't seem to be.

But he knew exactly how much weight the words "celestial herb" carried.

The narrator in the light screen continued, the excitement in its voice gradually shifting into a complex emotion.

[And the location where I reside...]

Being able to "move" finally meant using its spiritual perception to look around at the surrounding flowers.

The scene displayed a landscape that was strange to the extreme.

One half was ice-blue like a polar glacier.

The other half was fiery red like a molten hell.

In the middle was a pool of spring water, where the colors of ice and fire intertwined and coiled, coexisting in a bizarre manner without ever merging.

[It is called the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well!]

Lin Qing gasped.

Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well!

Tang San's private herb garden!

That place known as a treasure basin, but in reality, a hellish trap where countless celestial herbs were imprisoned, waiting for the Tang family to harvest them!

Especially during the era of the Peerless Tang Sect.

The celestial herbs inside had all attained ten-thousand-year or even hundred-thousand-year cultivation, becoming sentient celestial herb soul beasts.

Yet they could not leave; they would never be able to leave.

The light screen swept across the surrounding plants.

A grass that was entirely ice-blue with eight-angled leaves.

A flower that was fiery red with delicate, vibrant petals.

A large, pale pink flower emitting a hazy halo...

[Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, Infernal Delicate Apricot, Aromatic Silk Beauty...]

The narrator's voice recited these names.

[These are exactly the celestial herbs like Octagonal and Youyou who were imprisoned by Tang San in the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well in the Peerless Tang Sect!]

"Hiss!"

Lin Qing was truly shocked this time.

He had originally assumed it was just an ordinary immortal herb, never expecting its timing to be so bizarre.

[Damn it!]

The narrator's voice suddenly turned furious.

It was as if emotions suppressed for ten thousand years had finally found a vent.

[So, the moment my cultivation reached the level where I could speak, I discovered I was imprisoned in this hellhole, never to leave again!]

The Truth-Seeing Profound Pupil Lotus in the image began to tremble violently.

The eye patterns on its black and white petals seemed to be stained with a layer of blood.

[I tried to sense the poisonous barrier outside the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well; it is a cage set personally by Sea God Tang San after he attained godhood. Without extreme elemental power, it is impossible to pass through!]

[And where would we immortal herbs get extreme elemental power? Even if we had it, would our cultivation be enough?]

The anger in the voice of Lin Qing the immortal herb gradually turned into despair.

[I'm so tired...]

[I really don't want to live anymore!!!]

"..."

Lin Qing gazed at the trembling flower in the light screen, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

Lin Qing the immortal herb had been reincarnated as a flower—an immortal herb, at that.

It had spent ten thousand years all alone in the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.

It had just gained sentience and the ability to speak, only to discover it was imprisoned.

Worse, this imprisonment was permanent, a cage set personally by Sea God Tang San.

"Isn't this experience a bit too miserable?"

It was so miserable that he didn't even know what to say.

Putting himself in those shoes:

If he were trapped in one place for ten thousand years with his own intellect and thoughts, forced to bask in the sun and absorb essence every day, only to find out he could never leave the moment he could finally speak...

He reckoned he would go insane too.

Lin Qing's eyes flickered a few times.

"However, this guy should count as a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast now."

Although it was an immortal herb soul beast with practically non-existent attack power, it still possessed ten thousand years of genuine cultivation.

Moreover, the name Truth-Seeing Profound Pupil Lotus didn't sound simple at all.

"Truth-Seeing... Profound Pupil..."

Lin Qing pondered these two terms, and a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Could it be related to abilities involving the mind or the eyes?

He stared at the urn on the table, beginning to feel a sense of anticipation.

What would the relic of an immortal herb be? The power of the immortal herb itself? A soul ring or soul bone? Or perhaps some kind of special ability?