Falling off a Cliff

[CP-Free] Pretending to Be Blind in the Cultivation Realm Author: Xiao Hu Xi Li [Completed + Extra]

Synopsis:

Wen Xu was born with severe prosopagnosia; no matter how handsome or beautiful cultivators in the Cultivation Realm were, in his eyes they were all mere wooden stakes.

Of course, facial blindness did not hinder his cultivation and ascension; on the contrary, it served as his ultimate motivation to practice diligently, because he truly could not remember a single person's face!

He had it far too rough, so the moment he stepped through the mountain gates of Yonglu Mountain, he decided to become a blind man.

Well, at least until he cultivated his Divine Sense and learned to recognize everyone's aura, he simply had to be blind.

It was just that being blind wasn't all that easy either [sigh].

Tips:

1. My personal style of cultivation novel, male lead has no cp, but handsome men and beauties are in plentiful supply.

2. Male lead is face-blind, no one will ever be a special existence to him—he couldn't even remember his own face.

3. Three thousand updates daily, occasional double updates. Welcome to save to your favorites.

Content Tags: Proud Son of Heaven, Xianxia Cultivation, Face-Slapping Upgrade Stream, Lighthearted

Search Keywords: Protagonist: Wen Xu ┃ Supporting Characters: Bian Chunchou, Chen Zui ┃ Others: Many people, many things

One-Sentence Summary: Being half-blind is no easy feat.

Theme: Accept your own shortcomings and make peace with your imperfect self.

VIP Highly Recommended Medal

Wen Xu had suffered from facial blindness since childhood, and because of it, he was abandoned as a child, tasting all the bitterness of the human world. Just as he finally settled down and prepared to head to the capital for the imperial examinations, he encountered a nameless assassination hunt. Heaven was always toying with him relentlessly, until Wen Xu was forced off a cliff; just as his life seemed utterly hopeless, a turning point finally arrived.

With a witty and lighthearted tone, this novel depicts the cultivation lives of protagonist Wen Xu alongside his close friends Bian Chunchou and Chen Zui, unfolding a magnificent, grand, and true-to-life scroll of the Cultivation Realm. The author does not focus the narrative entirely on the protagonist alone; instead, through the protagonist's journey of growth, it tells a story of an entire cultivation ensemble centered around struggle, friendship, and family affection.

(Works that make the VIP highly recommended list will receive this medal)

Mid-Year / Year-End Review Medal

2024

Masterpiece of the Year

(Works selected during the mid-year / year-end review activities will receive this medal)

Falling off a Cliff

Wen Xu was certainly not blind. On the contrary, his eyes not only saw very clearly, but he also lacked the "shortsightedness" caused by excessive reading among scholars. Yet most of the time, his eyes were still worse than a blind person's.

At least a blind person could openly fail to recognize anyone, but he could not. Because he was a person with normal vision, yet for the life of him, he simply could not remember anyone's facial features.

If he were a prince or a general, he naturally wouldn't need to read anyone's expression or cater to their moods, but alas, he came from humble origins. If not for the good fortune of being adopted by Old Scholar Wen, he might still have been an abandoned child on the streets, ready to freeze to death in the cold wind at any moment.

That's right, Wen Xu used to be a nameless beggar.

To be honest, the life of a beggar, especially a little beggar, was extremely destitute. Beggars didn't change their clothes, nor did they wash their faces much, and little Wen Xu had easily been able to recognize every single one of his companions.

If he had been content with such a life, not being able to distinguish facial features would have been harmless to him.

Yet he was not willing to remain merely a little beggar. Therefore, upon hearing that Old Scholar Wen intended to adopt an intelligent foster son, he tried every possible method to engineer "chance" encounters and put on performances. Fortunately, he seemed truly talented; it wasn't long before the old scholar adopted him, naming him Wen Xu. He transformed overnight from a mere beggar into a scholar's son.

At the same time, however, he also learned the reason why Old Scholar Wen adopted him: first, because the old scholar was without wife or son and needed a male heir to smash the mourning basin at his funeral and send him off; and second, because of the old scholar's obsession with the imperial examinations.

In other words, Old Scholar Wen felt he himself had no hope of passing the imperial exams, so he pinned all his hopes on his foster son.

Yet Wen Xu did not find studying bitter. On the contrary, he actually rather liked reading, because no matter how many books he read, they all stuck in his mind—no matter how much time passed, he remembered them all. Interpersonal interaction, however, was a different story; he still couldn't recall anyone's face.

Wen Xu was a smart man, and he worked extremely hard to conceal this fact, succeeding brilliantly. Even his pageboy merely thought that his master studied too hard and occasionally had a poor memory for faces.

As for Old Scholar Wen, he only cared about Wen Xu's academics. Moreover, an affliction like failing to recognize human faces was simply unheard of, so naturally he never suspected a thing.

Wen Xu's life settled down. Step by step, following Old Scholar Wen's expectations, he advanced from a village school student to a regular scholar, and by the age of eighteen, he earned the rank of a Provincial Graduate, becoming the youngest master Provincial Graduate in Jade Isle Commandery.

The shabby threshold of the Wen Household was nearly worn flat by the gifts of wealthy merchants and magnates. Old Scholar Wen was so overjoyed that he rambled incoherently, alternately declaring that the heavens had eyes and vowing to offer prayers to his ancestors. Wen Xu himself, by contrast, remained exceptionally calm.

Yet when others saw him so poised and unruffled, they praised him all the more for his extraordinary temperament and predicted he would surely achieve greatness in the future. This made Old Scholar Wen even happier; the severe illness that had previously plagued him suddenly improved enough for him to get out of bed and walk around.

Yet once this wave of public attention passed, Old Scholar Wen's health took a turn for the worse once again, and he was soon on his deathbed.

Wen Xu still remembered what his foster father looked like in his final moments. To be honest, elderly people never looked very good when dying, but fortunately he couldn't recognize faces, so he only remembered that his foster father had shrunk into a bundle of withered firewood bones, his brown skin tightly wrapped around a frail soul that was already fading away.

He had originally thought there wouldn't be much warmth between the two of them as father and son, but what Wen Xu hadn't expected was that before drawing his last breath, his foster father told him to stop pursuing the imperial examinations if he no longer wished to do so. It was only because he had been too obsessed in the past that he had been so harsh. After his death, Wen Xu could freely choose his own life's aspirations without needing to consider anyone else's thoughts.

They say that the words of a dying person are wise; Wen Xu had certainly heard this saying before, but looking at his deceased foster father, apart from feeling a vast, hollow void in his chest, he didn't feel anything else at all.

Actually, he desperately wanted to tell his foster father that he didn't loathe reading, nor did he loathe the strictness. He simply... perhaps he was just some kind of freak, which was why his biological parents had abandoned him the moment he was born.

According to his foster father's wishes, Wen Xu laid him to rest in the earth, and he built a thatched hut by the grave to observe three years of mourning.

During those three years, he saw no one, and even sent his pageboy away.