Mortal Ties

Li Chengxuan rose to his feet and surveyed the scenery around him, his heart shaken.

"This... really is Earth!"

Li Chengxuan immediately circulated his cultivation method and activated his Divine Sense.

There was no Spiritual Qi on Earth.

His cultivation method circulated sluggishly.

His Divine Sense, however, did not depend on Spiritual Qi, so he could use it without hindrance.

What truly put Li Chengxuan at ease was that the gray sphere was still bobbing up and down in his sea of consciousness.

The two holes on it were clearly visible.

"This pearl can actually cross between two worlds!"

"How truly mysterious."

"I wonder if it's a treasure passed down through Supreme Mystery Mountain's lineage, or my golden finger as a transmigrator."

Li Chengxuan had lived two lives, and though his emotions surged like a tide, none of it showed on his face. In no hurry to return to the cultivation world, he smiled and said, "Thank you for saving my life, brother!"

"Ah, no need, no need."

Liu Zhijian waved a hand casually. He really hadn't taken it to heart.

Though he'd caught nothing today, he had saved someone.

He could really brag about it in the fishing group later.

A broad expanse of water stretched around them.

Strangely, there were many houses partially submerged in the water.

Some had nothing left but their gates. The tiles on them had peeled away, but the words "Harmony at home brings prosperity to all" were still faintly visible above the entrances.

It all felt both familiar and strange to Li Chengxuan. "Brother, where is this?" he asked.

"Huh?"

Liu Zhijian gave Li Chengxuan a strange look, but answered, "This is the Lijiawa Subsidence Area. I saw lots of people online saying there were plenty of big fish here, but I've been here two days and haven't even caught a little bleak..."

"Li Household Hollow!"

Li Chengxuan's heart trembled. "This is Li Household Hollow..." he murmured.

Seeing Li Chengxuan lost in thought, Liu Zhijian asked cautiously, "Little brother, are you cosplaying, or are you really a monk? Have you run into some kind of trouble? You're so young-don't do anything rash."

Li Chengxuan had drifted over the water in Supreme Mystery Mountain's ceremonial robes, giving Liu Zhijian quite a fright.

Now Li Chengxuan was awake, clearheaded and speaking normally.

Liu Zhiqiang couldn't help asking a few more questions.

"I'm a Daoist cultivator."

Li Chengxuan answered seriously, then added, "I grew up in Li Household Hollow."

"Oh, oh, oh."

"So that's how it is."

Liu Zhijian nodded repeatedly and joked, "Have you returned to your hometown to sever your mortal ties, young Daoist priest?"

Li Chengxuan paused at that, then slowly nodded. "That's right."

For a moment, Liu Zhijian didn't know what to say. He could only change the subject. "Young Daoist priest, you were unconscious for quite a while. You'd better go to the hospital in the county seat and get checked out. I'll get back to fishing!"

"I refuse to believe it! With a spot this good, there's no way I'll get skunked three days in a row!"

Li Chengxuan smiled and got up to take his leave.

Though he could not activate his cultivation method and use his Qi Refining cultivation,

his body, tempered at the Embryonic Breathing realm, was still at the level of a Xiantian Grandmaster in the mortal world.

With a light touch of his toes, he covered a full zhang in a single step.

In the blink of an eye, he vanished into the distance.

Liu Zhijian baited his hook and turned around, only to find Li Chengxuan gone. He muttered a few words without paying it any mind, then focused on fishing.

The whole world faded away, leaving only the float trembling on the shimmering surface of the water.

Li Chengxuan arrived in town, and after asking around a little, he understood what had happened.

His hometown was known for its coal mines, and the ground beneath it had long since been hollowed out.

Li Household Hollow was at the heart of the subsidence area.

It had become uninhabitable more than ten years ago.

Several surrounding villages had been relocated in their entirety.

Li Household Hollow had been moved to the edge of the county seat.

"I should still go and have a look."

He walked for a while along the familiar national highway. The sky was gradually darkening, and the streetlights along the road came on one by one.

"Peony Residential Complex..."

"This is the place."

A measure of trepidation rose in Li Chengxuan's heart as he approached home.

He had spent nearly twenty years in the cultivation world and had been through trials of life and death.

His memories of Earth were like a mirror rubbed dull, long since blurred.

For the moment, Li Chengxuan didn't know how he would react if he actually met his family from this life.

At the entrance to the complex, many elderly people were enjoying the cool air and chatting.

There were also many children playing.

Li Chengxuan looked around, but didn't recognize a single person. Both his worry and his hope of seeing someone familiar came to nothing.

"Who are you?!"

A child riding a scooter stopped and looked the unfamiliar, strangely dressed Li Chengxuan up and down. "Where did you come from?" the child asked.

Li Chengxuan smiled and couldn't help recalling a poem he had read as a child.

The children met him but knew him not; laughing, they asked the stranger where he came from.

"Oh my, he's a Daoist priest!"

An old woman enjoying the cool air was quite surprised. She stood and pressed her palms together in greeting. "Amitabha. Are you here on business, Daoist priest, or looking for someone?"

Li Chengxuan didn't correct her. He simply replied, "Hello, I'm looking for... Li Jiabao. Does he live here?"

Li Jiabao was Li Chengxuan's older brother. He had been rebellious since childhood, skilled at everything from skipping school to fighting.

Li Chengxuan had been more obedient and loved studying.

The two brothers had never been particularly close.

The group enjoying the cool air began talking over one another.

"Li Jiabao... who's that?"

"I don't know him."

"Oh, it's Dabao, Shouhe's eldest!"

"Oh, oh, oh, so that's his proper name. First I've heard of it."

Li Chengxuan listened patiently for a while and got the information he wanted.

The old woman who had said "Amitabha" spoke again. "Dabao runs a supermarket by the mine entrance and minds the shop at night, so he might not come back. But his wife and children are home. Shall I take you there?"

"No need."

"I'll come back another day."

Li Chengxuan shook his head and declined, finding it rather curious.

Li Jiabao had been very rebellious in his early years, calling a few local punks his brothers. His claim to fame had been picking a lock and stealing from a supermarket.

Now he actually ran a supermarket.

Fate truly was wondrous.

Li Chengxuan thought for a moment, then asked, "Who else... is there in Li Jiabao's family?!"

The old woman with the "Amitabha" waved her palm-leaf fan as she answered, "Just his wife and children, two sons and a daughter. No one else."

"His father, Shouhe, died ten years ago, and his mother's been gone eight years too."

Li Chengxuan froze, a wave of sadness welling up in his heart.

Another old man cut in, adding, "Dabao has a younger brother too. He went missing more than ten years ago. I think he was tricked into going to Northern Myanmar. I've forgotten his name..."

"Oh, right, I think his name was Li Chengxuan..."

The old man remembered that crucial detail and looked up excitedly, only to find that the young Daoist priest in black had suddenly vanished.

"A ghost!"

The old men and women scattered in a rush.

Supreme Mystery Mountain, Founding Ancestor Hall.

Li Chengxuan opened his eyes.

Night had fallen outside, and a bright moon shone among sparse stars.

"I really did come back!"

Li Chengxuan's spirits lifted.

"Could the founding ancestor really have manifested and given me a way to break free of this cage?!"

Though Earth had no Spiritual Qi and seemed to offer no benefit to cultivation,

according to the shallow understanding of Dao that Li Chengxuan had gleaned from reading the sect's records, a world capable of nurturing ten billion mortals must surely be of no low order.

Crucially, he was the only cultivator in that world.

Having a grotto-heaven all to himself was a great fortuitous opportunity that even the Daoist heirs of Central Continent's immortal sects could never hope to have.

Li Chengxuan rose, left the Founding Ancestor Hall, and headed down toward the General Affairs Hall.

Though the sect's protective grand formation had been deactivated, the basic alert formations were still operating.

Through the Two Worlds Pearl, Li Chengxuan had sensed outsiders visiting Supreme Mystery Mountain and hurried back.

An old man with white hair and a white beard stood at the entrance to the General Affairs Hall, with a graceful young woman beside him.

When he saw Li Chengxuan appear,

the old man hurriedly fell to his knees and said in a trembling voice, "Hua Mingcheng of Rejuvenation Valley pays his respects to the immortal master!"

The young woman also bowed gracefully to the ground and said respectfully, "Hua Chunning of Rejuvenation Valley pays her respects to the immortal master."

Li Chengxuan swept them with his spiritual perception and understood. He couldn't help laughing. "You two certainly have some nerve!"