I Too Had Stumbled Through This World

Chen Xu paid no attention to Cui Yunqi behind him.

After racking his brains to solve the topology puzzle of the Yin-Yang Twin Pendants, he was brimming with delight. Following the Moonlight Sprite's instructions, he stepped forward onto the mirror-like water.

The moment he stepped out, the scene before him changed abruptly.

He saw the boundless Moon Lake beneath his feet suddenly gather into raging waves and surge skyward.

What?

Caught off guard, Chen Xu staggered. He instinctively wanted to dodge, but where could he possibly flee?

When the waves rose, they came from all directions—from heaven and earth alike.

Chen Xu felt as though he had become a lone skiff amid the billows, or perhaps a mayfly grain lost between heaven and earth.

Unable to move, he vaguely heard a crisp voice by his ear, skipping and laughing like jade beads rolling across a plate. "Don't panic. I'll take you on the Moon Boat to see Mr. Zhou."

Swaying unsteadily, Chen Xu discovered that he truly seemed to be sitting aboard a Moon Boat.

Between heaven and earth, torrential waves hung upside down. As they rushed upward, they resembled a waterfall flowing in reverse.

The Moon Boat followed the waterfall to its summit. Before he could make out the scenery atop the peak, the backward-flowing waterfall crashed down with a roar, scattering into golden radiance that filled the skies.

It was as though the waterfall had fallen into moonlight, the moonlight melted into golden drizzle, and the drizzle flowed into grains of time.

Rustle, rustle, rustle—the rain murmured endlessly.

The next instant, the Moon Boat plunged down with the golden radiance that filled the sky.

At last, Chen Xu saw a mountain and a man.

That man raised a Glazed Cup and gathered the golden radiance born of moonlight into it.

Never in all ages had there been a sight as shocking as this.

At some point, Chen Xu had landed on the mountain. The Moon Boat was gone, and so was the Moonlight Sprite.

Only he remained, leaning on his cane and standing opposite the man who held moonlight in his cup. His heart pounded like a drum, his ears rang, and for a time, he completely lost command of language.

The man's white hair hung loose, his face withered. A broad Daoist robe draped over him, loose and empty, fluttering in the wind.

He was too thin—thin as a skeleton.

Yet his presence was calm and unfathomably deep, like a vast emerald lake.

Boundless and endless, right before his eyes, yet seemingly at the edge of the heavens.

"My Moon Slave was mischievous. Did she frighten you, young friend?"

He spoke with a smile. Contrary to his withered appearance, his voice was bright and gentle, like a pool of still water beneath moonlight, quietly soothing one's emotions before one even realized it.

Chen Xu hurriedly cupped his hands in salute. "This junior Chen Xu of Jichuan pays his respects to Mr. Zhou. I wasn't exactly frightened. It was simply an eye-opening experience."

The distinguished man opposite him laughed heartily and swept his sleeve.

At once, a stone table, two stone stools, a pot of tea, and two teacups appeared before him.

"To meet is fate. Please sit, young friend, and share this cup with me." He personally poured the tea. Though it appeared to flow from an icy jade pot, it was unexpectedly warm, trailing wisps of steam that suited the mountain scenery perfectly.

He then lifted his teacup. "My surname is Zhou. May I ask, young friend, what sort of horizons did this open for you?"

Overwhelmed by the favor, Chen Xu quickly raised his own teacup before him and returned the salute.

Only then did he sit down. "In answer to Mr. Zhou, only today, after seeing your Star Array, did this junior learn how wondrous and mysterious the world can be. I feel that my former self was perhaps like a frog at the bottom of a well looking at the sky, or like a single leaf blocking my sight."

He sighed softly. "Though my horizons have broadened, I have become even more confused. What is this world truly like? In the past, when I saw a mountain, it was a mountain; when I saw water, it was water. Though I was inevitably somewhat ignorant, I saw all things clearly and distinctly.

"But now, when I see a mountain, it is no longer a mountain; when I see water, it is no longer water. It feels as though I no longer recognize this world."

His heart was full of doubt, yet Mr. Zhou suddenly exclaimed in admiration, "What a saying—when one sees a mountain, it is a mountain; when one sees water, it is water! Better still is this: when one sees a mountain, it is no longer a mountain; when one sees water, it is no longer water!"

After speaking, he half-closed his eyes and savored those words for a moment.

A moment later, he opened his eyes. In those eyes that had seemed withered and clouded, divine light suddenly blossomed.

Though that divine light vanished in an instant, Chen Xu still felt in that moment that he was facing not a pair of eyes, but a vast and resplendent blazing sun!

Pain stabbed through Chen Xu's eyes. Just as he was about to close them, a voice sounded beside his ear. "Drink the tea, quickly."

Tea!

Chen Xu raised the cup in his hand. A line of text appeared before his eyes:

[Moonlight Nectar Spirit Immortal Tea, high-grade. Drinking it can enhance spiritual wisdom, nourish the body, and raise one's aptitude to a certain extent.]

He hurriedly drank from the cup. The tea entered his stomach, and at once, he felt a clear current spread from his dantian, flowing directly into his limbs and bones.

The wondrous sensation made his entire body feel light and airy, as though in an instant all worldly dust had been washed away and his whole being had ascended.

As for the pain in his eyes, it had long since vanished.

Chen Xu was about to savor the feeling further, but that airy sense of ascension lasted only a brief moment before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Before he could feel regret, he heard Mr. Zhou say from across the table, "Young friend, after your 'when one sees a mountain, it is no longer a mountain; when one sees water, it is no longer water,' there should be another line, should there not?"

Just as Chen Xu was about to reply, Mr. Zhou continued, "Let me guess. It should be, 'when one sees a mountain, it is still a mountain; when one sees water, it is still water.' Is that so?"

This time, Chen Xu answered with surprise in his voice. "In answer to Mr. Zhou, that is exactly right."

Mr. Zhou asked, "Did you come up with that yourself?"

Of course not. Chen Xu had heard those words in his previous life.

They were a famous saying by Wang Guowei, a scholar from the late Qing dynasty.

He said, "This junior heard them from an elder who has already passed away."

Mr. Zhou could not help but sigh. "So there are hidden masters among the common folk after all."

He could tell from Chen Xu's clothes alone that he came from humble origins. Yet among Chen Xu's elders was someone capable of uttering such penetrating words. It truly made one sigh in admiration.

Mr. Zhou said, "Young friend Chen, your words have helped me greatly. I must repay you."

Without waiting for Chen Xu to decline, he waved a hand and continued, "I too have stumbled through this world. Looking back now, I have merely reached the realm of seeing mountains as no longer mountains and water as no longer water. I have always found it difficult to comprehend the final barrier.

"You ask what this world is truly like. I can only tell you that this world is countless times more splendid than you could ever imagine.

"In the past, when the Great Ancestor founded the kingdom, a jade ruler five zhang long descended from heaven during the rites offered to Heaven, foretelling that the Great Li Kingdom would endure for five hundred years.

"Now, four hundred and eighty-nine of those five hundred years have passed. In recent years, the demons and ghosts in the mountains, as well as the devilish fiends and sinister evils among men, have occasionally begun to stir up trouble.

"The disturbances have grown from small to large. No one knows when they may suddenly spiral out of control.

"Beyond the Li Kingdom lie the ethereal Four Seas, the wolfish Five Barbarians, and the Kingdom of Redwater beyond the Heavenly Mountains. But even these are not the entirety of this world."

Chen Xu studied at the County Academy and had only heard his teachers speak of the grudges between the Li Kingdom and the Five Barbarian tribes. He knew nothing whatsoever of the rest.

But those were not truly what concerned him. There was only one question he cared about most. "May I ask, Mr. Zhou, since there are demons and devils in this world, is there cultivation to immortality? Is there a path to eternal life?"

Mr. Zhou paused. Rather than answering Chen Xu's question directly, he smiled. "Young people yearning for immortals and gods, concerned with eternal life—there is nothing strange about that. Yet whether eternal life exists, I do not know. But there is something I must tell you."

"Please enlighten me, Mr. Zhou."

"A fresh trace of evil aura still clings to your body."