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Chapter 105 Resentment? I blew up the Earth!
Cheng Mai kept looking at Shang Xingjian, seemingly discerning a glimpse of his conscience.

Shang Xingjian finally put down his cup, stood up and walked to Cheng Mai's side. "You don't have much magic power right now, so it's normal that you don't make a sound."

Cheng Mai breathed a huge sigh of relief, then quickly glared at Shang Xingjian, "You did it on purpose! You made me nervous on purpose!"

How can this person have such a strong sense of morbid humor?

"Here's your broken bell back." Cheng Mai grew angrier the more he thought about it, and slammed the cursed bell directly onto Shang Xingjian.

But as soon as she turned to leave, the bell returned to her hand on its own.

Cheng Mai: "..."

"It has nothing to do with me, I didn't do anything." Shang Xingjian raised his hand to swear, walked to Cheng Mai's side, and looked down at the bell in her hand. "Take it for now, it will be useful."

After finishing his brief explanation, the merchant turned to the abbot and said, "Thank you, Abbot. This settles all your grievances."

"Amitabha." The abbot put his palms together and saw the person off, then continued to meditate and chant sutras.

After Cheng Mai and Shang Xingjian left, Cheng Mai looked back at the closed door and asked, "Who is this abbot? No, you said he's lived for a thousand years?"

“He’s just a human being, how could he live for a thousand years? He just has some grudges in the mortal world.” Shang Xingjian led Cheng Mai to continue walking. “A thousand years ago, Hanshan Temple was a dilapidated temple without incense. If the golden dragon hadn’t met its demise here, I wouldn’t have known there was a temple here.”

As Shang Xingjian walked, he explained to Cheng Mai, "I foresaw the True Dragon's calamity. When I arrived, its dragon bones had already been extracted, so I could only keep it with me for now. However, encountering the Bound Bell was an accident."

Cheng Mai listened attentively; this was the first time Shang Xingjian had taken the initiative to tell her about the past.

"Back then, during the battle of the Void Mirror Crack, the gods perished. Besides some of their divine consciousness, their spiritual artifacts were also scattered among the mortals. With the true gods gone, the spiritual artifacts were nothing more than decorations and had no real use. Just then, I happened to pass by an old monk traveling on a shoestring budget, so I took it upon myself to give him Hanshan Temple. The price was that he guarded the Bane of the Demon-Binding Bell until I returned to retrieve it."

"So the monk agreed? He's not going to continue his budget travels?"

"Not really. That monk had an unfinished business. He was originally the ruler of a country, a wise and benevolent ruler who brought decades of peace and prosperity to the land. He had an advisor known as Young Master Xiyue, a man of almost supernatural wisdom. He and the monk shared similar interests and ideals."

Cheng Mai felt increasingly uneasy as he listened; this relationship...

"That monk never married, which was not a bad thing in itself. But he was the king of a country, and suddenly Young Master Xiyue became the target of everyone's criticism. In the end, he could not escape the verbal battles of the crowd and committed suicide in the court."

Cheng Mai remained silent, unsure of what to say for a moment.

"That monk was ruthless; he shaved his head on the spot and became a monk, no longer concerning himself with court affairs."

Cheng Mai: "..." She didn't know how much pressure these two people had been under at the time, so she had no way of judging whether what they did was right or wrong.

"The peaceful and prosperous world collapsed overnight. A nephew who was still an infant was put on the throne, and soon the people began to suffer. This debt was placed on Young Master Xiyue's shoulders."

"Why?" Cheng Mai was shocked. Wasn't Young Master Xi Yue forced to his death?

"The old monk chose to give up the position of a king because of his death, which led to the people's suffering. That's the reason." Shang Xingjian stopped and looked at Cheng Mai. "During these decades of suffering, a general massacred the city."

Cheng Mai suddenly looked at Shang Xingjian. "The people are suffering, the country is collapsing, and barbarians are invading on a large scale, massacring and bullying the people of the Central Plains. All the invaded cities will become hell on earth, and the imperial court has long lost the power to resist. There was a general who defended the city gate for dozens of days. When the city gate was about to fall, he ordered the massacre of the entire city. He stood on the city wall and was killed by ten thousand arrows."

“If Young Master Xiyue hadn’t died, none of this would have happened.” Shang Xingjian told her why. “If Young Master Xiyue hadn’t died, tens of millions of people in the Central Plains wouldn’t have died, and those soldiers who risked their lives to defend the territory wouldn’t have died either. That’s why.”

"It was worldly customs, public opinion, and those courtiers who engaged in heated debates that drove him to his death. But Heaven will not condemn worldly customs or public opinion. The way of Heaven is never based on reason. The principle is to fulfill one's duties in one's position. No matter when or where, you must remember to fulfill your duties in your position."

Cheng Mai was slightly stunned, and even felt a little cold. She just stared straight at Shang Xingjian, listening to Shang Xingjian speak to her so seriously for the first time.

It's not a flippant mockery, nor a careless perfunctory response, nor a casual disregard for everything.

"Shang Xingjian, are you... really hiding something important from her?"
Shang Xingjian suddenly laughed and placed his hand on Cheng Mai's head. "It was just a story, why are you so scared?"

Cheng Mai: "..." Thank you, but I can't laugh at all right now.

After offering some words of comfort, Shang Xingjian continued walking forward. "So the old monk couldn't wait for Young Master Xiyue's reincarnation, because Young Master Xiyue had long since lost the possibility of reincarnation. As punishment, the old monk could only bear the burden of the merits of this prosperous era and live on, forever separated from Young Master Xiyue by life and death."

Cheng Mai followed slowly, but he was preoccupied.

"You helped him later?" Cheng Mai asked.

"I suppose so. I took away his immortality to give Young Master Xiyue a chance to live. The price was that he would guard Hanshan Temple for generations until I returned."

Cheng Mai was shocked by Shang Xingjian's abilities; it seemed there was nothing in this world he couldn't do.

"Aren't you afraid of going against the will of Heaven?" The novel says that the will of Heaven is the most powerful force.

"My bug is unmatched in the world," Shang Xingjian said smugly.

Cheng Mai was used to his shamelessness. "So, where is Young Master Xiyue now?"

"Let me ask you a question. If you were Young Master Xiyue, would you feel resentful? He did so many things that benefited the country and its people, but in the end, he only suffered a terrible death and had to bear so many sins imposed on him by the world."

"Resentment?" Cheng Mai scoffed. "I'll blow up this planet."

If it's her, then none of us should live.

Shang Xingjian burst out laughing; it was indeed something she was capable of doing.

“Yes, so who can expect him to be a good person?” Shang Xingjian sighed regretfully. “It’s always been the world that owes him something, but he never really owes the world anything.”

Cheng Mai found these words somewhat strange, but upon closer listening, they seemed reasonable.

"That person, I've seen him before?" It seemed like a question, but Cheng Mai was very certain of her thoughts; she had definitely seen that person before.

A man connected to Hanshan Temple.

Cheng Mai could vaguely grasp a shadow, but he couldn't be sure who it was.