pjbooks Chapter 8 The Rest of My Life
Chapter 8 The Rest of My Life
A tiny breath enters the sea.
Lin Yu opened her eyes.
"Golden nature... [fetal breathing]... indeed, indeed."
With a look of realization and exhaustion in his eyes, and sensing the lively true energy in his lower dantian, Lin Yu sighed deeply, and the most genuine smile he had ever shown since his rebirth appeared on his face.
Reaching the first level of the Qi Realm, or the first level of the Fetal Breathing Realm, did not bring about any earth-shattering changes to the essence of his life.
Because of the excessive exertion of his mental energy from activating the metal element, his mental strength was now extremely weak, and he was about to fall into a deep sleep and lose consciousness at any moment.
However, by harnessing the metal element of the [Sinking Wood], externalizing its spiritual energy, and internally transforming its spiritual essence, Lin Yu successfully stepped into the first level of the embryonic breathing stage, which at least allowed him to gain two conclusions.
"Two crucial conclusions!"
"Firstly, although this world is a world devoid of spiritual energy, making it impossible to cultivate from low to high, it is possible to cultivate from high to low. By using the supreme metal element to catalyze spiritual energy and essence, one can transform nothingness into something and lay the foundation for one's path."
"Secondly, I have successfully verified that this is a real world, not the illusion of the heart demon of the gold, nor the work of the upper cultivator... at least it is not the work of the True Lord, or even the Dao Embryo Immortal."
"...Of course, if this is the work of a Celestial Lord or a Golden Immortal, then so be it. A Golden Immortal's divine power is beyond the capacity of even a high-ranking official; they are almost equal to the entire universe. Their nature is indestructible through countless eons, and the Heavenly Dao cannot harm them."
"Because their status is equal to that of Heaven and Earth, Heaven and Earth cannot contain them, so the legendary immortals of the past have all left this world and become detached from worldly affairs."
"If someone like that were to make a move, it wouldn't be impossible for them to conceal the connection between the Fruit Rank and the Metal Element, and to keep me completely in the dark. But..."
"Then what difference is there between this and a real time travel or rebirth for me?"
"The methods of the Unfallen Golden Immortal and the mysteries that transcend two lifetimes are things I cannot fully comprehend. They are as lofty and unattainable as the will of heaven and earth."
Various thoughts surfaced in Lin Yu's mind, but she buried them deep inside.
All the thoughts I had about it ultimately vanished without a trace.
Exhaustion gripped Lin Yu's entire body, even the golden essence deep within his sea of consciousness had lost its dark light, and his divine radiance had naturally subsided.
By circulating the "Su Fu Ling Ji Jing" on his own to maintain the true breath in his dantian, Lin Yu finally could not hold on any longer and fell into a deep sleep on the bed in the room of the Baiyang Temple, sleeping fully clothed.
The window next to him was open, and the clear moonlight shone in, illuminating him.
Formless and intangible, as thin as shallow water.
But centered on Lin Yu, the radiance began to distort.
An invisible and intangible aura seemed to emanate from Lin Yu throughout the entire world.
……
Jiang Songjing did not sleep well tonight.
Since Lin Yu entered the temple at dusk, he has been experiencing wave after wave of shocks.
Although things seemed to have calmed down in the end, once I got back to my room and settled down to rest, all the events of the past few hours came flooding back to me.
"Lin Yu... Lin Yu..."
Jiang Songjing lay half-reclined on the bed, murmuring the name, and gently turned her head to look out the window of her room.
This side is the main bedroom of the Baiyang Temple, opposite the guest rooms for people to stay overnight.
Looking to the side, you can see that the window over there is open.
However, even with the moonlight so bright tonight, the distance was still too great for anyone to see what was happening in the room, and it couldn't resolve Jiang Songjing's doubts.
"Who... exactly is he?"
The scenes she had witnessed during the day flashed before her eyes one after another, turning into hesitation in Jiang Songjing's heart.
"He is so familiar with the orthodox Taoist theories and lineages of Xuanzhen and Tianyi. He even knows our Baiyang Temple's generational genealogy in great detail, yet he is neither a registered Taoist brother nor a layperson... Is there really such a strange thing in the world?"
"And my [Baiyang Temple]'s orthodox lineage... was actually passed down to Tianyi, who could marry and have children and enter the mortal world, instead of Xuanzhen, who was pure and devoted to alchemy and renunciation of worldly life... If my master knew this in the afterlife, I really don't know what he would think."
A heavy weight of doubts weighed on Jiang Songjing's mind, weaving into a series of gloomy thoughts that kept him tossing and turning in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.
As the night deepened and sleepiness slowly crept into his body, his eyelids finally grew heavy.
"call……"
Jiang Songjing closed her eyes.
My vision was blurry, my body half-asleep and half-awake.
But at that moment, through the squinting of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a long, thin figure standing in the doorway.
—A figure dressed in a Taoist robe.
"...!"
Jiang Songjing immediately opened her eyes, all sleepiness gone.
He stared at the aged figure standing in the doorway, sat bolt upright in bed, and exclaimed in horror:
"Master...Master!?"
That figure was none other than the old Taoist Yunfu!
Although the person in the Taoist robe was hunched over at the door, making it impossible to see their face.
But the worn but clean Taoist robe and the familiar figure were exactly the same as the old Taoist priest in Jiang Songjing's memory.
—The old Taoist priest Yunfu, whom he witnessed passing away, and whose ashes and memorial tablet were kept in a small courtyard in Baiyang Temple after cremation, where he often offered incense and paid his respects!
"Master...you, you're back..."
In that instant, for some reason, Jiang Songjing subconsciously forgot the fact that the old Taoist priest had already passed away.
He scrambled out of bed, stumbled into his shoes, and tears welled in his eyes.
The aged figure paused in place and nodded slightly, seemingly in response to Jiang Songjing's words.
This action brought Jiang Songjing's eyes to tears even more. As she put on her shoes and hurried toward the old Taoist priest Yunfu, she choked back sobs.
"Master... I stayed at Baiyang Temple for over two years... I remember your teachings: though the cap and robe may be a formality, the precepts must be genuine. So I have been cultivating in seclusion at the temple. Now you can speak to the Ancestral Master from beyond the grave, and you will not be ashamed..."
Jiang Songjing half-ran towards the old figure, but the figure didn't seem to move, instead backing out the door. The distance between them not only didn't shorten, but actually widened considerably.
This made Jiang Songjing panic.
"Master... Master! You... you still resent me?! But I did it, I did it! I have always kept the precepts of the cap and turban, and I have not violated the teachings of Xuanzhen—"
These words were like a sudden flash of inspiration, igniting a spark in Jiang Songjing's heart. He seemed to understand something and eagerly followed the aged figure.
"I...I understand! Master, you already know the true lineage of our Baiyang Temple, right? We come from the Tianyi School, not the Xuanzhen School, so we shouldn't be given the cap and precepts, but rather ordained and registered..."
These words seemed to elicit a response from the aged figure. Although he remained hunched over and head bowed, his head swayed up and down as if in approval.
Jiang Songjing was greatly encouraged and hurried after the old man.
But he didn't realize that despite one retreating and the other chasing, one old and the other young, the distance between them could never be shortened.
"I understand what Master means!"
"After I get back, I'll go to the Taoist Association and the Celestial Master of the Tianyi School... to get our Baiyang Temple back into the register."
"I'm giving up on internal alchemy. I'm going to receive ordination, change my sect, and then promote and glorify the [Baiyang Temple]..."
"Master, please stop... Master..."
Jiang Songjing kept chasing the old figure, and before he knew it, he had left Baiyang Temple and entered the dense forest outside, but he still did not stop.
The figure was exactly the same as the old Taoist priest in her memory, and although he was walking backwards, his steps were faster than a normal person walking forwards. No matter how hard Jiang Songjing tried, she couldn't catch up.
In his anger, his vision became increasingly blurred, his mind became increasingly confused, and he even lost his sense of time and direction. He was unaware of what was in the world or where he was. He only knew that he was closely following the old figure, and kept muttering "Master... Master..."
Finally, when the sound finally stopped, he had completely forgotten his original purpose. He simply walked blankly, step by step, to the figure's side, only to see the figure still with his head down, pointing to a dark, deep pit that had been dug out sometime during the night—
"Go...in..."
Go in...?
Jiang Songjing seemed to be under a spell. She looked at the deep pit, then back at the aged figure beside her, and asked blankly:
"Master, do we go into this pit?"
The hunched back of that figure finally straightened up a little.
But at the same time, long, messy black hair hung down, covering most of his face.
Only the area below the lips is exposed.
And slowly, it curved into a strange arc.
"Go down..."
Jiang Songjing's gaze was fixed blankly on the lips of the aged figure.
As the figure's lips opened and closed, drops of foul-smelling, black liquid slowly dripped down from their lips.
Seeing this scene, Jiang Songjing felt a vague sense of nausea and vomiting.
But the next moment, it was as if a gust of wind blew through my mind, dispersing all these feelings into nothingness.
"If you go down... you'll see me..."
Jiang Songjing's eyes lit up.
"I've met... my master..."
"I...I understand..."
Jiang Songjing looked at the face with the eerie smile on it, black water dripping from its lips, nodded without thinking, smiled foolishly, and walked into the dark pit.
Inside the pit, something seemed to be wriggling, waiting for him to fall in.
Jiang Songjing walked to the edge of the cave, but kept staring at the face of that figure.
Suddenly, its lips opened wider and wider, until they were almost splitting open.
It has no teeth or even a tongue between its lips, only a dark hole.
Accompanied by a strong, fishy stench, the dark, gaping mouth filled Jiang Songjing's vision, even giving him a strange feeling.
That means that he wasn't actually standing at the edge of the hole on the ground, but right next to that miserable and terrifying mouth.
Its gaping maw was about to turn into a pit and swallow it whole!
"What...what am I doing?!"
A sudden moment of clarity washed over Jiang Songjing, making her finally understand her current state.
"This is……"
"—Smack!!!"
Just as Jiang Songjing had this realization, and just as he was about to be swallowed by that gaping maw, a thunderous roar came and shattered everything in front of him.
Jiang Songjing then opened her eyes again.
Before him lay the interior of his bedroom at Baiyang Temple, a place he knew all too well.
"So I've never actually gone out... Was everything just a dream?"
Jiang Songjing was covered in sweat and struggled to get out of bed.
The sunlight streamed through the room from the ceiling. Before I knew it, it was already morning.
Recalling the dream he had just had, he couldn't help but let out a bitter smile.
"Logically, what you think about during the day, you dream about at night. I've missed my master ever since he passed away, so it's normal to see him in my dreams... But why did I have such a nightmare?"
"And... why does this dream feel so vivid to me, as if something unpredictable would have happened if I had actually been swallowed by that gaping maw?"
Jiang Songjing clutched her chest, feeling the rapid beating within, as if the dream she had just experienced was still echoing in her heart.
Just then, a familiar voice rang out beside me.
"Master, were you having a nightmare? I saw you lying in bed looking distressed and troubled, so I clapped my hands to help you wake up."
Jiang Songjing was taken aback, then turned around and saw the middle-aged man named Lin Yu standing to the side, looking at her with amusement.
"It's him again, still as elusive as when he first arrived..."
"...So the sound of thunder was him clapping."
A series of fleeting thoughts crossed Jiang Songjing's mind.
Although Jiang Songjing had such a terrifying dream as soon as Lin Yu arrived, which seemed quite bizarre, she was, after all, a legitimate college student with a materialistic streak and didn't truly believe in ghosts and spirits.
Therefore, Jiang Songjing felt mostly grateful for Lin Yu's timely intervention, which prevented him from being tormented by the nightmare. After a moment of contemplation, he forced a smile and said:
"It really was a nightmare. Thank you so much, Lin Qian... Brother Lin."
As he spoke, he thought of Lin Yu's familiarity with Taoist theories and profound principles, and a thought stirred in his heart.
"Although it was a nightmare, it was a rather strange dream. I wonder if you, Brother Lin, can interpret dreams?"
Lin Yu didn't speak, but made a "please speak" gesture, and Jiang Songjing then recounted the entire dream she had just experienced.
Although the dream was short, it was quite bizarre. Even recounting it, Jiang Songjing still felt lingering fear, and her mouth became dry.
But when he tried to get out of bed to get some water, the first words Lin Yu uttered froze him in place, as if controlled by a remote.
"This... should be 'surplus'."
"The rest of my life?"
This was a term Jiang Songjing had never heard before, which made his eyes widen in surprise.
Lin Yu explained softly:
"The souls of this world are divided into living souls and dead souls."
"The living soul is the soul that remains in the body; the dead soul is the soul that has died."
"The lingering spirit is not between these two, yet it encompasses the meaning of both. It is the residual image and lingering thought brought about by the living soul's remembrance of the deceased soul, but it is not the object of the remembrance."
"For this reason, they are not accepted by either the Yin or Yang realms, nor are they seen in the netherworld or the human world. They are born deformed and thus are called 'surviving'..."
"The 'Shengyu' is born from the longing of the living soul, but it naturally hates the living soul for creating such a monster. Therefore, it will sneak into dreams and secretly hurt the soul."
"But you don't need to worry about being bothered afterward."
"This kind of 'surplus' doesn't have much power, and it's often at its strongest the first time it enters a dream. Since you were able to wake up before it was swallowed up, it lost the opportunity to reside in your body and consume your mental energy, and it will return to normal in a few days at most."
Lin Yu explained calmly.
Jiang Songjing slowly opened her mouth wide.
After my life ended, I entered a dream... What kind of myth is this?!
Is this still Earth?