Yefutidaolu

Chapter 246 A Small Slaughter, Where Heaven and Man Reside

In Tomb Three, in an unnamed temple, Dansha was leading the rat through the middle of the temple. In front of them was a monk leading the way.

Uncle Huang stood outside waiting and did not come in with them.

Gao Jian disappeared suddenly without asking him to come along, so he didn't come with them. Dan Sha completely ignored him. To Dan Sha, Uncle Huang was not important at all; she didn't even remember his face.

She was just a minor character, not worth remembering. She only came with Gao Jian and entered this temple to find him.

Walking inside the temple, Dansha frowned and said, "Monk, where did Gaojian go? How did he suddenly disappear? Why are you keeping everything so tightly sealed off here?"

“It’s normal for a place of monastic seclusion to be more strictly controlled.”

"Oh, I see. By the way, someone outside just said that the kids here fart—" Dansha was halfway through her sentence when Shujian, who was sleeping on her shoulder, suddenly sat up and slapped her mouth with his tail, silencing her.

Then, she glared angrily at Shu Jian.

Shu Jian made a 'shh' gesture.

Dansha's anger turned into confusion.

The mouse shouldn't do those things, so what's wrong with it?

But at that moment, the mouse suddenly sniffed.

Seeing this, Dansha also took a sniff.

This was a completely subconscious behavior; after all, even the hamster did it.

Then she smelled a foul odor.

"There's a foul smell." The moment this thought popped into Dansha's mind, it was as if she had been struck by lightning, and she suddenly understood the meaning of those words.

A man sent his young son to a monastery because his son was destined to be alone. The monks prepared wine to entertain him, and the son accidentally farted very loudly, causing the father to grieve deeply.

The monk said, "Farting is a normal thing, why are you so sad?"

The father said, "I think my son will never be able to fart loudly again."

Then, she stared at the monk in disbelief.

The monk seemed to understand what the rat and cinnabar meant, and he quickly waved his hand, "No, benefactor, you've misunderstood—"

Before he could finish speaking, he saw a flash of light from a knife in the distance.

With a swish, the monk was split in two.

Dansha and the mouse immediately looked to the side.

Over there, by the door of that tall pagoda, Gao Jian kicked the door open, covered in blood, carrying a human head in his hand, the knife still sharp; the blade energy from just now had flown out from there.

"Brilliant insight! What did you do there!" Dansha rushed over upon seeing this. "Why are you in such a sorry state? And who is this?"

"It's nothing." Gao Jian flicked his blade. "I initially just wanted to come in and ask about the orphanage, but once I got inside, I couldn't resist and started slaughtering people."

“Oh, I see…” Dansha nodded.

She didn't ask how filth could be hidden away.

There was no need; she had already heard enough.

For a true dragon who is very old but inexperienced, this is already astonishing enough...

Ugh, that's disgusting.

“There are still some children in that pagoda. I’m thinking that instead of looking for a place, we might as well just find a place to live. We could renovate the place on the spot, raise these children here, and then find an opportunity to send them out of the capital.” Gao Jian said, flicking his sword.

Cinnabar naturally produced moisture, which gathered into a stream and began to wash away the bloodstains on Gao Jian's rusty knife. Then she took out her handkerchief and wiped the blood off his hair. After wiping, she wrung out the handkerchief beside him and said, "I'm not saying this to be mean, but since I came to the Divine Dynasty, I haven't seen many good things. The only one I've encountered is you, Gao Jian. Tell me, how does the Divine Dynasty continue to function in this state? Even our East Sea hasn't become like this."

“That means order is more important than good and evil.” Gao Jian lowered his head and let Dan Sha wipe his hair. “Whether a place can function or not depends not on good and evil, but on whether the order is stable. If there is no stable order, no matter how benevolent an organization is, it will eventually collapse.”

“That makes sense!” Dansha’s eyes lit up and he nodded immediately.

That's quite insightful. So it seems... perhaps order is more important than good and evil?
"By the way, you've slaughtered everyone here. What are you planning to do after that? You need manpower to take care of the people here, and there's also the subsequent reconstruction, dismantling the Buddha statues, etc. We'll need people for all of that, right? Do we have that much time? What about that Taotie tribe... Helun? What are you going to do with him? Aren't we going to the Imperial Academy?" Dansha immediately bombarded her with questions.

"Don't worry, I have my reasons for doing this. I also have ideas on how to deal with the people here. We'll go find Shui Cangcang later. I'm thinking, if we could take over this whole street, we could cut off the practice of 'harvesting and mutilating' in the capital." Gao Jian smiled, "But those are all things for later. Right now, we still have to thank—"

Just as Gao Jian was saying this, a voice suddenly came from the main hall next door: "Thanks to benefactor Gao Jian, you have cleaned up another filthy place for our Buddhist sect."

Gao Jian looked surprised and turned to look in that direction.

But then they saw a blue-skinned, bald man walk out and nod slightly to Gao Jian.

Dansha and the mouse both looked puzzled.

When did you go in?

Gao Jian also seemed quite surprised.

This is the 'successor' he has designated.

The celestial beings are not of this world.

----------

As the sun set, Shui Cangcang had just emerged from the Imperial Academy's Sutra Repository.

This time, he and his teacher, the celestial being whom the ancestor had hired at great expense, insisted on coming to the Imperial Academy together.

However, Fei Xiang is not a follower. Shui Cangcang's follower slot was sold to two true disciples of the Legend Tower. It was a complete sale, and the other party does not need to be responsible for him. They can just use his slot to enter and exit in the future, and they may not see each other a second time.

But it doesn't matter, the price was very good, Shui Cangcang was very satisfied, and he didn't need any followers.

These past few days, he has been going to the library every morning to study the knowledge inside, then leaving after sunset to quietly go home to review, and then going back in the evening.

He continued this cycle, feeling that he had made tremendous progress. He thought this schedule was excellent; he just needed to wait six months for the task to be assigned, complete it, and then return to the same routine.

For the next ten years, he probably lived his life like this.

However, just a few days later, an accident occurred.

Today, while he was at the Imperial Academy's Sutra Repository, he discovered that Gao Jian was outside, having gotten into a conflict with someone.

It seems that... Gao Jian offended someone, so someone used their connections to trip him up.

To be honest, Shui Cangcang actually had a feeling that it was 'expected'.

A person like Gao Jian is bound to get into conflicts with others. Back in Cangzhou, he had a major conflict with the Zuo family, which eventually escalated to a point of no return, even though it was the Zuo family who died.

Arriving in the capital, it's not surprising that he offended others. Logically, Shui Cangcang should have gone to support Gao Jian, but after thinking about it, he ultimately chose to give up.

Because, in the capital city, it's best not to stand out.

All the scions of noble families and officials would be warned by their elders not to "stand out" in the capital.

The waters of the capital city run too deep.

Having only been here a few days, Shui Cangcang had already sensed this.

For example... he discovered at the Imperial Academy that he was very ordinary.

He was truly ordinary, because he had already 'sparred' with others at the Imperial Academy several times.

Without a doubt, Shui Cangcang is a genius. From a young age, she swept aside all the powerful families in Cangzhou and even the younger generation in the entire city. She even won second place in Cangzhou.

The first is a brilliant insight that suddenly appeared.

However, if one is not a genius, it is impossible to come to the Imperial Academy.

Conversely, he has to compete among a group of geniuses, and among this group... he is clearly not a particularly outstanding genius.

Even so, Shui Cangcang was actually quite well-regarded among the students of the Imperial Academy, but he had already discovered...

When it comes to spiritual practice, how big can the difference in talent between people be?

Shui Cangcang always felt that he was an exceptionally powerful person. When he first started learning cultivation as a child, he actually had an older brother who was the undisputed number one among the aristocratic families in Cangzhou.

That was the older brother that Shui Cangcang particularly admired. Although he was not her biological brother, but only her cousin, he was generous, had the demeanor of a leader, and was also very talented in cultivation. He was the first place winner in the martial arts competition for the younger generation of many families in Cangzhou at the end of the year. He entered the second realm after three years of cultivation. He was ten years old at the time and had been cultivating for seven years. In the second realm, he was almost invincible.

Shui Cangcang was finally four years old at that time, and entered the second realm. She was cultivating under the same master as her older brother.

At that time, Shui Cangcang had only been cultivating for a year.

From the time he began his cultivation to the time he defeated his older brother, Shui Cangcang only took a year and a half. In their usual competitions and training sessions, he fought him a total of five times, losing two and winning three.

The gap narrowed visibly in each game, until after he won the first match against her, the older brother whom Shui Cangcang particularly admired never won against her again.

Later, the older brother suffered a mental breakdown and voluntarily left the Shui family to cultivate in a cultivation sect in another region. This also meant that he gave up his inheritance rights and struggles within the Shui family.

Shui Cangcang was very sad at that time.

He actually really admired that older brother.

Then, everyone in Cangzhou began to praise Shui Cangcang.

For more than a decade, he consistently ranked first in martial arts competitions every year.

More than a decade later, he completely forgot about that brother.

He practices meditation at home every day, and everyone praises him, saying that he will surely become a great person in the future.

Shui Cangcang felt that she was really amazing and might actually achieve great things.

Then, in his twenties, he met Gao Jian.

Well... I've never lost so badly before.

Although she had never actually fought Gao Jian, Shui Cangcang had already noticed the subtle gap in their abilities during the Nara Faqu. When Gao Jian broke through to the fifth realm in the great battle inside the arena, Shui Cangcang knew she had lost miserably.

Don't talk about sworn enemies; you don't deserve to be their sworn enemy.

During his time at the Imperial Academy these past few days, the gentle-natured Shui Cangcang naturally made many friends. He and several newly acquainted classmates sparred together after class, which was probably the first time he had left Cangzhou to compete with other geniuses.

Although she managed to win two or three games in the past few days, Shui Cangcang has completely behaved herself.

He understood the meaning of an old saying: "When the tiger is away, the monkeys reign supreme."

You were born amidst extraordinary celestial phenomena, and your exceptional talent was detected in your youth. Your cultivation journey has been remarkably smooth, surpassing the enlightenment achieved by countless others who toil for centuries. Your cultivation speed is among the fastest in the entire state, among billions of people. You are hailed as a genius. Benefiting from the legacy of your ancestors, you have already reached the third realm at a young age, and this was achieved by suppressing your own cultivation. Breaking through to the fourth realm will be a mere blink of an eye. You are revered by thousands, and your future is limitless.

You arrived at the Imperial Academy full of confidence, only to become one of the few stepping stones for those monsters who casually knocked you to the ground with a single punch. Everyone praised your senior brother, but when you were knocked down, no one even glanced at you. You didn't even see how your senior brother made his move.

Genius? Genius is just the threshold of taking these two punches!

If you're not a genius, you don't deserve to be beaten!

The water in the capital city is indeed this deep.

In this situation, Gao Jian's personality will definitely cause him great trouble in the capital, and I... can't help him.

With this in mind, Shui Cangcang did not show herself at the time, but watched as Gao Jian suffered a loss and was expelled from the Imperial Academy's Sutra Repository.

But Shui Cangcang didn't do nothing; he simply returned to his residence and told his teacher, Tianren Feixiang.

At that moment, Fei Xiang said to Shui Cangcang, "You mean, he was kicked out? And the person who did it was the young master of the Taotie tribe, that He Lun?"

“Yes, everyone calls him Helunsabao,” Shui Cangcang said.

"I see... Then I can guess why you came here to ask me for help?"

"Yes, after all, it seems that Teacher Feixiang values ​​him a lot. I'm asking you for help, so Teacher Feixiang shouldn't charge me, right?"

"Haha, as long as it doesn't involve karma, this humble monk would actually very much like to take action." Fei Xiang said this, looking at his palm.

If a celestial being gets involved in too many karmic causes, they will suffer from the "five signs of decay of a celestial being".

In the cycle of reincarnation, if you have done many good deeds in your previous life, you will be reborn in the heavenly realm as a 'celestial being', enjoying abundant blessings and naturally possessing endless good fortune.

However, when the blessings of the celestial beings are exhausted, they will fall into the five signs of decay, and their lives will come to an end.

Unless... one can 'come to enlightenment'.

Enlightenment leads to reaching that 'transcendental state,' escaping the cycle of reincarnation, and attaining true immortality.

According to the Divine Dynasty, that means cultivating to the level of an 'Earth Immortal'.

He was still far from being able to comprehend the true nature of things, so as a celestial being, he dared not get too involved in cause and effect.

If Shui Cangcang comes to plead in person, his 'cause' can be reduced.

So Fei Xiang nodded: "I really like what you and Gao Jian are doing."

"In that case, I should know where Gao Jian is now. Please allow me to go there."

(End of this chapter)