What I See Is Heaven and Earth

After bidding farewell to Brother Xie and Cao Jianjia, who had come to help him,

Yu Tunzhou went on ahead, returned to the Heavenly Peng Daoist Temple to retrieve his fish basket, and set out for the mountain.

The bluestone road wound ahead, stretching toward the green mountains beyond the town.

Yu Tunzhou quietly frowned.

For some reason, it seemed that a savage impulse had begun to grow the moment he had forcibly stomped and broken the first person's legs. It spread through his chest like weeds, growing without end and refusing to go away.

He tried to trace it back, only to find that its source seemed to lie within his Primordial Spirit's inner world.

He took a deep breath and immersed most of his mind in that inner world.

Little Black, usually so carefree, was now restless, slapping his tail fin against the water and sending circles of agitated ripples across the surface.

That towering savagery was indeed coming from Little Black, tangled together with Yu Tunzhou's own state of mind.

Yu Tunzhou watched in silence, neither blocking nor restraining it, simply observing it with his true heart.

After a while, the surging savagery slowly ebbed like a receding tide, returning to silence.

Little Black seemed oblivious. As soon as Yu Tunzhou's mind returned, he swam to his feet and rubbed against them gently, blowing a string of tiny bubbles, innocent and guileless.

Yu Tunzhou bent down and stroked Little Black, wondering what the source of that savage impulse had been.

Lost in thought, Yu Tunzhou was about to leave town when someone stopped him at a crossroads.

The man blocking his path was the bald Daoist priest who had run a fortune-telling stall last time. He wore a blue Daoist robe, and his expression was serene.

He looked up at Yu Tunzhou as though he had been waiting a long time. His voice was not loud, but every word reached Yu Tunzhou's ears clearly:

"Young friend, how about a divination?"

Yu Tunzhou shook his head gently.

Come to think of it...

It had been a long time since he had told his own fortune, especially since he had come into contact with the martial path and begun practicing martial arts.

After all, he had never really believed in that stuff-or rather, he did not believe in his own fortune-telling skills.

Back then, he had only learned the basics from his teacher. He might not even have acquired one percent of his teacher's skill, let alone ten.

In the past, he had sought peace of mind through divination.

But after learning martial arts, whether or not his mind was at peace lay in his fists, not in those copper coins.

The bald Daoist priest's expression turned solemn, and he said in a deep voice, "I am one of the Star Palace's current representatives, and my Purple Star Astrology has reached the seventh level. I speak no falsehood and would never harm you. You can trust me this once!"

Yu Tunzhou paused, then replied earnestly:

"I don't understand."

The bald Daoist priest also paused, then slapped his forehead. He had forgotten that this kid had no background at all. How would he know anything about the Star Palace or Purple Star Astrology?!

The gesture struck Yu Tunzhou as familiar, and he could not help thinking of Dingguang.

He glanced at the sky. It was time to go back and cook for Dingguang.

The bald Daoist priest sighed. He, Mo Shougui, had traveled the world, and who knew how many sects, clans, and great families had treated him as an honored guest and vied for his divinations upon hearing his name? Yet today, he had come away with a nose full of dust before this young man.

"Young Friend Yu, how about a divination? Just one!"

"Must I beg you?"

Yu Tunzhou: "..."

His gaze swept over Mo Shougui. At a loss for words, he prepared to go around him.

With no other choice, Mo Shougui had to turn to another subject. "Young Friend Yu, do you know how things stand in the world beyond this town?"

Yu Tunzhou stopped. "What would you teach me, Daoist priest?"

"Someone is willing to pay a great price to hire you to protect his disciples. Once you leave town, whether you want cultivation resources or a position as a guest elder, everything is negotiable. I will serve as guarantor and witness. And here in town, he can also teach you superior martial arts to help you fight your enemies."

"So you came to speak for him, Daoist priest." Yu Tunzhou could not help asking, puzzled, "A guarantor? Are you famous, Daoist priest?"

Mo Shougui's eyes widened. He held his breath for quite a while before saying:

"If you ever make it out, kid, I will allow you to use my name once. Then you'll find out just how great my name is!"

"Remember it: I am Mo Shougui!"

Yu Tunzhou shook his head. "Daoist priest, I have no wish to be drawn into the town's disputes. I only want to cultivate quietly on the mountain and wait for the day I can leave it."

Mo Shougui sneered. "Are you deceiving yourself or me? Young Friend Yu, you're a clever man. A clever man should know that sometimes, whether you contend or not, merely standing there puts you in someone's way."

Yu Tunzhou sighed. "That's why I broke twelve legs today. I hope everyone else can be clever too."

Mo Shougui took a long look at the young man before him.

Three years lying low, a resolute will, and a Dao heart full of promise.

Talent... he did not seem to lack that either?

Now he also had all the ruthlessness needed when the time called for it.

With a rising talent like this, one without any shortcomings, it was no wonder certain powers could not resist extending an olive branch even at this late hour.

Mo Shougui shook his head inwardly.

Where had they been earlier?

Recruiting Yu Tunzhou on those powers' behalf was only one of his reasons for coming. Seeing that it was hopeless, he did not insist and slowly said:

"About three years ago, someone asked me to tell a young man's fortune. My reading was, 'His fate is like fire struck from stone.' Young Friend Yu, do you know who that young man was?"

Yu Tunzhou was silent for a moment, then said, "Fire struck from stone-if it meets dry grass, it becomes a blaze that engulfs the plains. Your reading was truly accurate, Daoist priest."

The corner of Mo Shougui's mouth twitched.

With that quick wit and eloquence alone, if the boy were fortunate enough to study fortune-telling under him, why would he ever have to worry about someone smashing up his stall?

"Though I don't know how you changed your fate, I must warn you, Young Friend Yu: this grotto-heaven is not a place where you can do as you please!"

"Would you rather believe I changed my fate than accept that your reading was wrong, Daoist priest?"

Mo Shougui clicked his tongue.

This kid was truly insufferable, hated by gods and ghosts just like that bastard. The latter taking a liking to him was no different from taking a liking to another version of himself.

His tone grew colder. "Do you know that, ever since certain 'incidents of lost control' in history, if two-thirds of the powers join hands and agree to expel you, they can cast you out of the grotto-heaven?"

"I experienced that three years ago," Yu Tunzhou said with a nod. "Fortunately, the two seniors and Old Mo helped me."

Mo Shougui sneered. "Then do you know that the two resident sages are about to step down and leave this grotto-heaven? When that happens, how can the town guardian alone, a single tree unable to support the whole structure, protect you?"

Yu Tunzhou frowned.

Junior Brother Li was the Daoist School's next resident guardian. He did not know whether Li would be willing to stand against the various powers for his sake.

As for the Buddhist School, he did not know who its next resident guardian would be either...

At that thought, the savagery he had just suppressed surged up in his chest once more, even more vast and violent than before!

Why...

Why press me so relentlessly?!

Seeing the young man fall silent, Mo Shougui did not stop. Instead, he pressed his advantage.

"Yu Tunzhou, do you know how vast the world outside this town is? Even if you manage to leave, how will you make your way in the world beyond it?"

He deliberately showed a look of pity, as though gazing at a mayfly in a pond, born at dawn and dead by dusk. How could it dare dream of glimpsing the heavens?

Hearing this, Yu Tunzhou raised his head. However vast the distant sky might be, he could still take it all in with a single glance.

So he turned back, his gaze serene, as though an entire blue sky were reflected in it:

"Heaven and earth are no greater than my eyes."

What I see is heaven and earth.

At that moment,

The savagery in his chest vanished without a trace.

The black fish in Yu Tunzhou's inner world, which had grown somewhat listless for some unknown reason and sunk into the deep sea, suddenly rose to the surface.

He raised his head and looked toward the vast azure sky destined to belong to him.

Something unprecedented had appeared in his already lively eyes.

It was-

The divine intent of a Kunpeng!

Inside the Heavenly Peng Daoist Temple.

Zhou Tianchen looked into the courtyard in puzzlement.

For some reason, the founding patriarch's spirit had been extremely restless since a little while ago. It had changed from a gentle breeze into a gale, howling and racing through the ancestral residence without abating.

Why had it suddenly become so agitated?

In the deepest part of the town.

The man slowly raised his head.

Just now, a piercing cry had sounded beside his ear. It had truly been savage to the utmost limit of the world, vast and mighty, splitting heaven and earth apart, as though it stood above all things.

"Is this... a Kunpeng?"

The man murmured to himself.

And hearing the young man's words, he could not help recalling an old memory.

Many years ago, a woman had asked him how he saw heaven and earth. His answer had been-

Nothing under heaven is greater than the tip of an autumn hair.

The woman had not understood, but he had already disdained to explain.

In the eyes of someone who had truly seen where the Dao lay, there would no longer be any difference in the essence of all things, nor any distinction in size between the world and an autumn hair, just as the Buddhist School often said: a mustard seed could contain Mount Sumeru.

A single thought could open the heavens; a single thought could destroy the world.

At that point, did the world still matter?

He lowered his head and looked at the faintly swaying remnant of martial fortune on his body.

He shook his head.

Old friend, has this little display of spirit already shaken you?

This is still...

Far from enough.