Let's debut, fairy!

Chapter 113: Calm down
Outside the back gate of the Meng residence.

Su Xintang and Meng Bai sat on the edge of the field, watching Ali, who was still busy planting rice seedlings.

As he looked at you, Meng Bai suddenly said, "I still remember how embarrassed you looked when you first came to Earth, whenever money was mentioned. Because you were poor, even your protective helmet was a bargain find, and it was really ugly."

“Hey~~ We were really poor back then.” Su Xintang lowered her head, plucked a blade of grass, and twirled it between her fingers.

"You said your ancestors were all priests. Coincidentally, if nothing unexpected happens, that girl's ancestors were probably all serfs. Do you even know what serfs are?"

"You can guess from the name."

"There used to be serfs on Earth, but these serfs were different from tenant farmers. Legally speaking, tenant farmers were free people, and their relationship with landlords was based on an economic contract."

The serfs, on the other hand, belonged to the lord; they were his private property, subservient slaves—a rather backward form of production. Ali told me that her mother had starved to death.

My father couldn't repay the lord's debt, was punished with forty lashes, and then left to bake in the sun for two days; he died too. How could life be like this in a world with gods?

Upon hearing this, Su Xintang paused in the action of twirling grass with her fingertips, and then said, "It is because of the existence of gods and an extremely asymmetrical power system that ordinary people end up like this, never able to turn their lives around."

After saying that, she added, "If we're lucky, we might be able to turn things around. Just like how the Celestial Lord of the Heavenly Realm decreed that no one could serve for more than three generations, it gave us, the descendants of the gods, a chance to change our fate."

In reality, everyone knows that the Daoist Master doesn't care about the lives of the divine servants. He issued the order to weaken the power of local aristocratic families, but in any case, he did change the fate of some divine servants..."

Speaking of it.

Su Xintang looked up at the azure sky and sighed, "This is God. With a single thought, He can decide the fate of all living beings."

In fact, Meng Bai understood all these principles.

But the Shinto path belongs to Su Xintang herself, and the topic of writing the True Scripture is also her own.

Therefore, Meng Bai had to guide Su Xintang to think for herself by asking questions.

Meng Bai laughed and said, "Do you remember what you said when you first arrived on Earth and saw the night view of Shenzhen for the first time?"

Su Xintang was startled, and the image of her first glimpse of Earth's bustling night scene began to appear in her mind.

At that time, I was shocked by this city built by mortals, shocked by everything before my eyes.

She nodded and said, "I remember, I said that if I attain godhood, I will learn the methods of Earth and spread the teachings to the beings under my protection, so as to relieve the suffering of hunger and cold."

“There is a True Man named Du’e in the myths of Earth, who is one of the Great Golden Immortals,” Meng Bai said with a smile.

"The title of 'Salvator from Calamity' also exists in the Heavenly Realm, but I have never heard of any god in the River Drum Heaven receiving this title. 'Salvator from Suffering,' 'Salvator from Calamity,' and 'Great Compassion' are all top-level titles for gods."

"There's such a saying?" Meng Bai was taken aback.

“Hmm.” Su Xintang nodded. “Perhaps. The task of saving all living beings from suffering is too great, which is why the title is so rare.”

After saying that, she added, "In reality, who hasn't had moments of compassion? Perhaps many gods descended to earth with the great vow to save people from suffering."

"and then?"

"Then I realized something was wrong." Su Xintang said with a wry smile, "I heard that many gods found that after saving people from suffering, they did not receive gratitude from the beings, and their incense offerings were full of hatred."

Upon hearing this, Meng Bai was stunned, then nodded and smiled, "It's normal. Such things happen all the time on Earth. Human desires are insatiable. The more you help them, the more they may demand."

In the end, they might even hate you, finding it very annoying to have a high and mighty god around. Your good deeds may not receive the reward they deserve.

If you abandon divine authority and treat all living beings as equals, you'll most likely be met with their contempt. Everything you do will seem to become meaningless.

At this point, Meng Bai paused.

He then patted the mud off his trousers and continued, "Perhaps the god of the River Drum is right. Gods only have meaning for sentient beings if they suffer. What would be the point of gods if sentient beings had no suffering?"

"..." Su Xintang was speechless, her reason and emotion intertwined at this moment.

Meng Bai, however, said, "However, I still think that the title of Du'e is very suitable for you."

"This road is too difficult to walk; it's easy to fall into the mystery of all living beings. I want to see everyone's smiling faces after they've eaten and clothed themselves; that would make me feel that my work as a god is very meaningful."

But my experience on Earth tells me that the smiles of being well-fed and clothed only last a short time, which is nothing compared to the long life of a god.

Perhaps in a few decades, I'll no longer see the smiling faces I long to see, and everything I've done will receive no positive feedback. What will I do then?

Is the so-called "mystery of all living beings" merely a collection of distracting thoughts?

If that were all, it would be simple.

The most terrifying thing is to one day discover that everything you've done over the past few centuries has suddenly become meaningless.

This is just the beginning of self-collapse.

“I think your idea is wrong from the beginning. If you anchor yourself on the feedback that all living beings give you, then you have already fallen into the mystery of all living beings.”

Upon hearing this, Su Xintang fell silent once again.

After pondering for a long time, she seemed to have found an anchor point for herself. She said, "Hey, Meng Bai, do you think we are chosen by God? Otherwise, why can we travel back and forth..." "No," Meng Bai interrupted her directly.

At that moment, he sensed an even greater danger in Su Xintang.

To place one's "anchor point of the Tao" on such an ethereal thing is the beginning of ruin.

The Dao heart is something you cultivate within yourself. While cultivation can rely on external things to increase, how can the Dao heart also rely on external things?
Won't we become "external objects" then?

He stared at Su Xintang and said, word by word, "Perhaps we were never chosen, and no one has ever given us any lofty mission."

"How is that possible?" Su Xintang couldn't accept it.

She had always believed that time travel meant she had been chosen, and this had always been her biggest anchor. Even just now, she was wondering why the Medicine King on Earth was also called the Miraculous Response Immortal.

Meng Bai, however, saw things much more clearly.

He said softly, "You know what air conditioning is, right?"

"know."

“There’s an air conditioner on the first floor of my house. When the air conditioner is turned on, the water pipe of the outdoor unit drips condensate. The condensate drips into the gap between the cement and the wall.”

Moss and a blade of grass sprouted from the crack. That was the only place with grass on the entire cement ground of the yard, and it thrived, especially in the hotter the weather.

"Because the hotter the weather and the drier the surroundings, the more people need to turn on the air conditioning, and the more condensation drips onto the grass." As he said this, Meng Bai casually pulled up a blade of grass.

He held up the blade of grass and said, "So, this blade of grass was thinking, 'Am I chosen by God? Otherwise, why are all the other grasses dying of drought, while I get watered every day, and the hotter it gets, the more water I get?'"

Upon hearing this, Su Xintang felt as if she had been struck by lightning.

Her pupils dilated as she stared at the blade of grass in Meng Bai's hand, as if she were looking at herself.

But Meng Bai continued, staring at Su Xintang and saying, "Tell me, do people turn on the air conditioner to water this plant?"

"..." Su Xintang didn't speak, but her eyes grew increasingly complicated.

"Nobody cares whether this plant lives or dies, nobody wants to care for it. People turn on the air conditioning just to stay cool. This plant is indeed being protected."

"But you can't assume that the condensation gives the grass a mission. What if the condensation stops dripping one day? Does that mean the grass's mission is over?"

Meng Bai's words were like a hammer, relentlessly striking Su Xintang.

She was so pounded that she saw stars.

The beating made her dizzy and disoriented.

But Meng Bai seemed to have figured it out.

Looking at Ali, who was still planting rice seedlings, she said, "Look at her, we all know she can't see the rice ripen because the rice won't grow big in 28 days. So we think what she's doing is meaningless."

Even so, I still rented a plot of land for her, told her about a type of rice that could yield over a thousand catties per mu, and carefully arranged for her to plant it.

"Because I know that for God, there is no difference between twenty-eight days, twenty-eight years, or even eighty-two years."

"We think it's meaningless for Ali to cultivate twenty-eight fields, but what about the True Lords who can live for nearly ten thousand years and the Spirit Gods? Is a Spirit God's life of a few hundred or a thousand years meaningful?"

"I don't know." Su Xintang shook her head.

“As I have said, we are also part of all sentient beings. Therefore, we ourselves are among those who help sentient beings alleviate their suffering.”

"You want to see the smiling faces of all beings, and you feel that smiles give you meaning as a god. Then I ask you, isn't your own smile a smile of all beings?"

"..." Su Xintang's chaotic thoughts seemed to have found a way out.

“Look how happy she is. Is there any difference between you and her?” Meng Bai gestured with his chin towards Ali in the field.

"There's no difference. Her lifespan is only twenty-eight days. Even if you have 280,000 years, it's just a blink of an eye in the universe."

"The key to overcoming difficulties lies in taking it step by step, being down-to-earth."

"Just like this field, you have to plant each rice seedling one by one."

"You can't expect every seedling to be laden with fruit before you've even planted it; and you certainly can't stare at a wilted seedling and say, 'I've failed at farming.'"

"Now let me ask you, assuming you only have twenty-eight days left to live, would you still be willing to work tirelessly, like Ali, dragging your frail body, to cultivate this field that will never yield a harvest?"

Su Xintang murmured, "She didn't know that this field was unharvestable."

"This is the price you have to pay as a god, and you know there may be no result. You even know that when society develops to a certain point, there is no need for gods to exist."

Your incense offerings might be extinguished, so would you still be willing to do that? Would you still be willing to spread Earth's technology and knowledge to the mortal realm of He Gu?

“I…” Su Xintang had no answer.

(End of this chapter)