"Was the mortal world beautiful?"
Lü Bufan grinned. "Of course it was..."
"Was it even more beautiful with that girl in it?"
The boy's face reddened a little, and he scratched the back of his head.
Old Skeleton sat in front of the Land God Temple, stroking the half of the Wordless Stele beside him... "What was there to be embarrassed about when a boy yearned for a girl? Grass grew, orioles flew, spring came to the mortal world, cats yowled at night, spring..."
Hearing this, Lü Bufan hastily raised a flask of wine...
Old Skeleton laughed and took the flask. Just as he was about to spout more nonsense... he lifted his head and looked toward the village entrance.
A gaunt black Big Black dog trudged back, step by heavy step.
"Big Black!"
Lü Bufan sprang up, ran over to Big Black, and crouched to inspect him carefully... "Big Black, are you all right? Did you slaughter that immortal?"
Big Black raised his eyes to glance at Lü Bufan, then walked silently to the Land God Temple, lay down, and closed his eyes.
Old Skeleton closed his eyes for a moment, then sighed... "Go home first. Big Black isn't in any serious danger... but he'll need a long time to recover."
Knowing he could do nothing to help, Lü Bufan nodded, took another careful look at the sleeping Big Black, and slowly walked home.
Old Skeleton reached out and pressed his hand against the back of Big Black's neck, sighing... "Why put yourself through this? Those people stood by and watched us die back then, but they really were powerless to help... I hated them for countless years too. Now... pah! I still despise them!"
Gentle, pure spiritual energy rose around the entire Land God Temple, balanced and harmonious, encompassing the five elements and yin and yang... little by little, it nourished Big Black's withered body and divine soul.
"That damned immortal's talisman was aimed at you... you must have noticed something was wrong too, right? Stop being angry. Those people in the Wild Spirit Land chose their road long ago... there's no turning back!"
An icy voice rang out in Old Skeleton's mind... "Death..."
Old Skeleton frowned. "You shouldn't have torn at the restraining formation... that existence poured heart and soul into it..."
"And it's my cage..."
Old Skeleton lowered his head without a word, his lone hand still resting gently against the back of Big Black's neck.
"Stop squandering your pitiful little supply of Origin Spirits. Save it to cling to life a few days longer! You're even more wretched than I am..."
Old Skeleton gave a bitter smile. "A ruined body, a true old fossil who refuses to die... what's there to fear?"
Big Black continued speaking in his mind. "The glazed body is useful to you... do as you see fit!"
Big Black opened his mouth and spat out an exceptionally pure fragment of an immortal's glazed body... it was actually Immortal Yunxia's immortal crystal!
Old Skeleton nudged the immortal crystal with the sole of his shoe... "I knew all along that bastard was an embroidered pillow stuffed with straw. He barely managed to raise himself to tenth realm great perfection by relying on the immortals grand formation. He's filthy. I don't want it!"
"Are you planning to give this to the child?"
Old Skeleton asked in puzzlement, "Why? Can't I give it to him? You've never explained exactly why you regard him so differently..."
The exhausted Big Black suddenly opened his eyes... "Don't sully that glimmer of light in this boy's heart! Among the three realms, the Immortal Realm towers above the rest, while the mortal world and the Netherworld have always held fast to their origins together... an endless cycle of life. Only true spirits with pure origins are truly living beings of this earth! Now... there are very few children as rare as this one!"
Old Skeleton nodded. "Why can't I see it... could this child be... like me?"
"Heh, I can see it, but you can't! Isn't the answer staring you in the face..."
Old Skeleton exclaimed in surprise, "Origin Spirits? Is he a pure descendant of the Human Ancestor?"
Big Black shook his head. "You, honestly... you deserved to end up like this. In the Mortal Realm... which being passing through reincarnation isn't a descendant of the Human Ancestor? Which hasn't passed through reincarnation and walked through the Netherworld? Which isn't also a descendant of the Netherworld's laws?"
Old Skeleton gaped. "But... after the Netherworld fell, great threefold reincarnation was severed... and the lesser threefold path became that bloodsucking millstone. How did this child escape?"
Big Black sighed. "I don't know. Perhaps this is another scheme! A scheme laid by someone hidden behind the scenes within the three realms..."
Old Skeleton looked toward Lü Bufan's little courtyard. "Then what should we do?"
Big Black closed his eyes and transmitted his voice. "Who cares what scheme it is? All these years... whether in Two Realms Village or the Wild Spirit Land, inside the schemes or outside them, all those seemingly endless variations have really been nothing but dancing with the wind... rather than watching them struggle bitterly, we might as well let things take their course and turn the scheme to our advantage!"
Old Skeleton nodded. "Origin Spirits are the purest, most refined essence of the Great Dao between heaven and earth! Rather than spiritual energy, it would be more accurate to call them a manifestation of the origin... then we'll simply watch over this child all the way and see what fruit forms when the flowers fade!"
"There's no need to deliberately protect him or arrange things for him... that would very likely land us in someone else's calculations again. Two Realms Village no longer has any meaning. For the time we have left... let's just be spectators. All we need to do is keep the troubles of the Wild Spirit Land, Two Realms Village, and the Guardian Cities from dragging this child in!"
After a long silence, Old Skeleton picked up the Glazed Body immortal crystal... "I understand. That's why you helped open the gates of cultivation for him, only to shatter his meridians and dantian! You wanted to make his road a little rougher... let heaven and earth temper his heart, so he could illuminate his mind and see his true nature!"
"I haven't seen a child like this in many years... those four boys back then actually had it much worse than he does."
"Dancing with the wind upon the Immortal Realm's millstone of heaven and earth... it's only a matter of time before they fall between the stones and are ground to dust."
"So... once Mingxin and those other useless fools return, send the child away! Seal off Two Realms Village... I want to see what great figure this child will eventually draw out!"
Old Skeleton sighed. "Ah... a fishing rod planted on the bank, a man fishing for fish, and fish fishing for a man..."
Big Black closed his eyes and sank into a deep sleep.
In southern Great Jin, the Guardian City armies and the Frontier Garrison that had rushed in as reinforcements launched a massive offensive... the Immortal Armor Soldiers of the Immortal Sects, along with the cultivators and martial warriors on the mountains, also began sweeping through the Mountain-Foot Sects that had seized the chance to cause trouble!
To everyone's surprise, the seemingly ferocious, towering upheaval triggered by the killing of Great Jin's descended immortal was swiftly suppressed by the joint efforts of the Great Jin Dynasty court and the Immortal Sects.
Heads rolled throughout the countryside... smoke signals rose across the mountains, yet town after town and market after market, along with the spirit-medicine mountains, mines, and Pill Refineries of the subordinate mountain sects, were swiftly taken into the Immortal Sects' possession!
Once things had calmed somewhat, the Great Jin Dynasty court took stock and discovered... apart from the heavy losses suffered by the Liu Clan of Mount Zhlin and the Taihua Sect of Mozi Mountain, only the lord of the Twelfth Guardian City had been killed, slain by an expert who had mysteriously appeared in a valley on the outskirts of Two-World Mountain!
Everyone assumed a fiend from the Wild Spirit Land beyond Two-World Mountain had struck...
The Eleventh Guardian City had also suffered grievous losses, with nearly half the Guardian Office's attendants and guards killed!
Yet under the Great Jin Dynasty court's urging and watchful gaze... and amid protests from the Liu Clan of Mount Zhlin and the Taihua Sect, the court's armies and attendants, together with the cultivator armies of the two great northern Immortal Sects, slowly set off back north.
All the bustling world came for profit. As for the interests of southern Great Jin... no one could possibly stand by and watch outsiders come seize them!
With the wholehearted support of the Taihua Sect of Mozi Mountain and the Liu Clan of Mount Zhlin, the Eleventh Guardian City swiftly took over the Twelfth Guardian City's scattered holdings from the Great Jin Dynasty court... for a time, the Guardian City and the two great Immortal Sects worked in perfect harmony, branches sharing the same breath!
In Two Realms Village, Master Ming and the others had still not returned.
Big Black remained asleep, while Old Skeleton muttered mysteriously to himself every day, no one knowing what he was saying.
Lü Bufan sat cross-legged before the Land God Temple, cultivating quietly.
Old Skeleton suddenly opened his eyes and asked Lü Bufan, "You little brat... how's your cultivation of the Daoist Scripture coming along?"
Lü Bufan's face reddened. "Passably..."
"Oh, get lost! How far are you from breaking through the first realm?"
Lü Bufan thought for a moment. "What's a cultivator's realm breakthrough?"
Old Skeleton nodded. "Excellent... nine out of ten apertures open... and the last one's blocked, so you don't understand a damned thing! Good, good, good... wonderful..."
"..."
Lü Bufan thought for a moment. "The Daoist Scripture... is it really a secret manual for cultivators?"
"Yes!"
"What's a Daoist Wayfarer? Does it mean a cultivator?"
"Heaven and earth have a Great Dao. Those who follow its course are called Daoist Wayfarers! As for cultivators... the three realms have reincarnation. Those who cultivate the Great Dao, go against its course, and transcend it are called cultivators!"
Lü Bufan gaped. "So after all that... cultivators go against the Great Dao, break through realms, transcend, and become immortals free of all fetters, while the Daoist Scripture I cultivate follows the Dao downstream and leaves me unable to get through even the first realm?"
Old Skeleton nodded, reached out, and smacked Lü Bufan hard on the top of his head... "What insight! I truly admire you. Does stepping forward against the current conflict with going downstream?"
"Yes!"
Old Skeleton sighed. "Now I know why Huang Jiu and Du Yuan beat you so often..."
Lü Bufan thought for a moment. "Master Du Yuan went into seclusion..."
"I know. Otherwise, he'd beat you half to death out of jealousy... back then, he knelt before the Land God Temple for three days and three nights, and I couldn't even be bothered to give him a single word of guidance!"
Lü Bufan lowered his head. "I know I have neither insight nor talent... but I won't give up. I'll cultivate with all my heart!"
Old Skeleton nodded. "Some things can't be understood while you're in the mountains. The Daoist Scripture is a fine thing... it's been passed down for millions of years, yet the world has discarded it like a worn-out shoe! Can you recite it from memory?"
Lü Bufan nodded. "Yes, but there are many passages I don't understand..."
Old Skeleton smiled. "Seek the true meaning between following and opposing the current, rather than blindly seeking liberation... you surely don't understand yet, but you have a heart! An original heart that can readily illuminate the mind and perceive its true nature! That alone is very rare... the Daoist Scripture is an opportunity destined for you. Don't give it up... it will bring you a surprise in the future!"
"Yes, Master Peach!"
Old Skeleton beckoned with his lone hand, and an object flew out of the Mustard-Seed Object brocade pouch at Lü Bufan's waist.
Old Skeleton raised his hand and examined the human-skin mask Village Head Shameless had left behind... "The scrap paper stuffed inside is actually the Wei Family's Martial Scripture... the only true Martial Dao scripture in the world that cultivators can practice!"
Lü Bufan nodded. "Then should I be a martial warrior or a cultivator?"
Old Skeleton said softly, "You're human! A true spirit among all things between heaven and earth... just let everything follow your heart! As for which road can take you to the summit of the Great Dao... to hell with it, try them all first!"
Lü Bufan gaped. "No holds barred? Me?"
"Exactly, because you're useless enough! No matter how you try, you won't be ruining anything..."