Mo Ran listened hollowly and numbly.

     He stopped shouting and only stood where he was, staring straight ahead.

     “Everything was going smoothly at first, but during that time, the lower cultivation world was in chaos. Refugees were overflowing, and there were many people dying of starvation in the world.”

     The scene lit up again. It was early winter, and a light snow was falling from the gloomy sky. A mountain road slowly appeared in front of Mo Ran. The road was covered with a layer of white frost and fresh snow. There were also the criss-crossing tracks of carriages and horses.

     “I didn’t expect that one day, on our way back from the foot of the mountain to collect spirit stones, we would meet a child who was about to starve to death.”

     Mo Ran continued to look on numbly.

     Chu Wanning and Huaizui appeared on the mountain road. Chu Wanning had a basket on his back filled with spiritual stones. He wore a cotton cloak to protect him from the cold as he walked beside Huaizui.

     “Shizun.” Suddenly, Chu Wanning stopped and turned his head to look at the grassy slope. “There seems to be someone there?”

     “Let’s go take a look.”

     The two of them walked over together. Chu Wanning’s slender, pale fingers parted the grass. He was shocked, his phoenix eyes widening slightly.

     “It’s a child…”

     He immediately turned his head and said to Huaizui, “Shizun, come quickly. Look at him. What’s wrong with him?”

     What’s wrong?

     Whether it was Huaizui or Mo Ran, they could understand why at a glance.

     The child was dirty and smelly. His clothes were ragged and thin, and if he took them off, he definitely wouldn't be able to put them back on again since they were full of holes. To put it bluntly, the dogs in the temple who ate scraps lived a better life than this child.

     If it weren’t for the fact that the child was still groaning and breathing, he would be no different from a pile of rotten flesh.

     What’s wrong? What else could it be?

     Every time there was a major disaster, human strength was so meager. Let alone the death of a child, it wasn’t uncommon to use children for food.

     Only Chu Wanning, who grew up in a temple, could ask such a stupid question.

     Huaizui frowned and said, “Don’t worry about it. Go back first, I’ll take a look at him.”

     Chu Wanning trusted his Shizun, so he immediately stood up obediently. But before he could leave, the hem of his cloak was tugged by a small, dirty hand.

     The hand was so weak that the force of the tug was like a puppy scratching gently.

     Chu Wanning lowered his head and stared at the small, dirty face with indistinguishable features.

     The child’s voice was as soft as a mosquito’s hum, as if another snowflake falling from the sky would crush him to death.

     “Rice…”

     Chu Wanning was stunned for a moment, and he didn’t react. “What?”

     “...Rice…” The child whimpered. His face was completely black except for two spots of white in his eyes. He trembled and made a gesture of grabbing rice before saying sorrowfully, “Eat…”

     Outside of the memory scroll, Mo Ran blinked and regained half of his senses.

     However, his mind was still numb. He couldn’t react quickly, but he vaguely felt that this scene was very familiar, as if he’d seen it somewhere before.

     He stared straight at it.

     Inside the scroll, Chu Wanning was stunned.

     His eyes widened in shock. He finally understood what was going on. At first, he was at a loss and couldn’t believe it. Then he became rattled and anxious.

     He only knew that the world was beautiful. He had never seen a child so thin that only his skin was left, like a kitten or puppy that was about to starve to death, huddled in the grass on a snowy day, with the only thing on his body to withstand the cold being a rag that seemed too thin to wear. Tugging at him, there were only two words that left his mouth.

     Rice, and eat.

     Huaizui said sternly, “You go back first.”

     But this time, Chu Wanning didn’t listen. He looked at the small, dirty, dog-like child, and his heart ached. He hurriedly took off his cloak and wrapped it around the child’s body.

     He was burning with anxiety, as if the one suffering was not the child but himself. He said, “Are you hungry? Wait, I have rice porridge here. I have rice porridge.”

     He went to get it from Huaizui, but Master Huaizui frowned.

     “I told you to go back. This is not something you should care about.”

     “Why shouldn’t I care?” Chu Wanning was at a loss. “He… He is so pitiful. Shizun, did you see? He just wants to ask for something to eat. If he goes on like this, he will starve or freeze to death.”

     When he said this, he was somewhat baffled. He muttered, “What’s going on? Didn’t they say the world is peaceful? Why is it…”

     “Go back.”

     Chu Wanning was stunned. He didn’t know why Huaizui would suddenly act like this. Finally, he bit his lip and said, “I want to feed him some rice porridge…”

     “I couldn’t persuade him, so I agreed.” Huaizui’s empty voice carried a bit of a sigh. Along with the wind and snow, it floated and drifted into Mo Ran’s ears. “I gave him a pot of rice porridge and allowed him to personally treat the child who appeared unexpectedly. At that time, I didn’t know how this would make Chu Wanning feel or what kind of decision it would cause him to make. At that time, I didn’t know anything.”

     Mo Ran stared blankly as Chu Wanning opened the pot and brought it to the child’s mouth.

     The child leaned over eagerly, but he couldn’t drink.

     He was already on the verge of starving to death and didn’t have any more strength left.

     Mo Ran’s adam’s apple bobbed.

     He suddenly felt as if a seed had sprouted in his skull, bursting out from the layer of mud.

     He suddenly felt that everything before him was so familiar…

     He watched.

     He was coming back to his senses.

     Then, at a certain point, the flood dragon broke through the waves, and the clouds and water churned.

     He suddenly stood up, his fingers balled into fists—

     He remembered!

     “It’s you?” He hurriedly ran towards Chu Wanning in the scroll, his pupils contracting rapidly. “You’re him? It’s him? You actually… You actually…”

     He couldn’t continue and suddenly covered his eyes with his arm.

     His throat was full of bitterness.

     It never occurred to him.

     It was actually Chu Wanning.

     —The child who was about to freeze to death in the grass was himself, who had climbed down from the mass grave after burying his mother. He had nowhere to go and was begging everywhere for his life!

     The illusion overlapped with his memories. Mo Ran had never forgotten about the boy who had taken off his cloak and wrapped it around him on that snowy day.

     Chu Wanning asked worriedly, “What’s wrong? Can’t drink it?”

     Little Mo Ran couldn’t say anything more. He only let out a weak whimper and narrowed his dark eyes to look at him dispiritedly.

     “Then I’ll pour it out for you. Don’t mind it.”

     He opened the pot and placed the rice porridge in the palm of his hand. He held it out carefully, his expression showing a little hesitation, probably because he felt that it was a bit dirty, and maybe the child wouldn’t be willing to drink it.

     But he was thinking too much.

     Dirty? From Linyi to Wubei Temple, Mo Ran drank river water, rain water, and the turbid liquid in ponds. After eating wild fruits and scraps, when he was at his most helpless, he even swallowed earthworms, ants, and soil.

     He crawled on the ground and leaned over to drink the rice porridge. At that time, he only felt that what flowed through his throat was the nectar of willow branches, and the person who gave him the porridge was an immortal from the nine heavens.

     “Slow down, slow down. If it’s not enough, there’s more.” Chu Wanning was both shocked and saddened. He looked at the dirty little head buried in his palm, miserable and grimy. He licked the rice porridge greedily and pitifully, his tongue curling up and down like a small animal drinking water.

     “Where did you come from…?” Chu Wanning couldn’t help but ask.

     But Mo Ran whimpered and did not answer. After drinking the rice porridge, only a little bit remained in the seam of his palm. He refused to let it go, and kept licking his savior-gege’s palm, causing him to feel itchy and painful.

     It was his hand that itched and his heart that hurt.

     “It’s okay. There’s still more. I’ll pour you some more.”

     Chu Wanning filled another handful of porridge while Mo Ran watched eagerly. When his hand reached over, he leaned over again and continued licking and drinking impatiently.

     Chu Wanning cupped a full pot of rice porridge and crouched down feed it to him.

     Mo Ran never forgot.

     In fact, in the subsequent ups and downs of his life, he had thought about this person countless times—if he hadn’t met this person at the time, what would have happened to him?

     He had deduced many possibilities and come up with many ideas, but in the end, he couldn’t escape the single word.

     Death.

     He would have starved, frozen to death, or been picked up by wild wolves and dogs, having his heart, liver, spleen, and stomach eaten.

     If he hadn’t met this savior-gege, he would have gone to meet his mother in the underworld.

     So later, when Mo Ran became Emperor Taxian-Jun, he had specifically gone back to Wubei Temple to look for his past benefactor. But because too much time had passed, he couldn’t remember his benefactor’s face clearly. Facing the courtyard of shiny bald heads, he only felt indescribably annoyed. He finally waved his hand and left.

     At that time, the Abbot was scared witless. He didn’t know how Wubei Temple had offended Emperor Taxian-Jun and had been anxiously waiting for news. However, on the second day, the emperor ordered people to bring hundreds of boxes over. When they opened them, the shining light revealed that the boxes were actually filled to the brim with gold.

     “His Majesty doesn’t know who his old friend was, so he’ll treat everyone equally. He rewards the monks of Wubei Temple with ten thousand gold each to repay the kindness of saving his life.”

     So it turned out that his benefactor, whom he still couldn’t find after wandering around, was trapped at Sisheng Peak, imprisoned and bullied by him all day long?

     In the past, when they were strangers, his savior-gege had taken off his warm cloak and wrapped it around his thin body.

     Fate had played tricks on him, but every night he had roughly and aggressively torn apart his savior-gege’s clothes and pressed him down between the sheets of the bed.

     On one hand, he searched for his benefactor all over the world.

     On the other hand, he unknowingly forced his benefactor to kneel between his legs, humiliating him in every way and making him bow his head.

     Mo Ran looked at the scene in front of him, his eyes bloodshot.

     “How… How could it be you?”

     This life, these two lives. It's fate to meet you deeply and miss you shallowly.

     It was all fate.

     Everything in front of him became dark again. Only the sound of the wind and snow could be heard. Huaizui’s voice echoed in the distance.

     “At that time, I asked the child if he wanted to stay in Wubei Temple for a while. But the child said that he wanted to repay a favor to his mother, so no matter what, he had to return to Xiangtan first. I couldn’t keep him, so I gave him some dry food and silver,” Huaizui said. “When the child staggered down the snowy slope, Wanning stood watching until his figure was completely swallowed up by the wind and snow, and he disappeared into the wilderness. Only then did he turn around and return to the temple. When I went to hold his hand, I remember his hand was as cold as ice.”

     He was quiet for a while, but the pain in his voice was still apparent.

     “After that day, Wanning mentioned to me several times that he wanted to go down the mountain to support the way, but I did not allow it. I even scolded him for having an unstable heart, saying that a stubborn stone had fallen into the water and affected his meditative heart. Therefore, I punished him to go to Longxue Mountain to reflect on his mistakes and trapped him there for a total of one hundred and sixty-four days.

      “At first, he asked me to let him out. But later on, he was probably so disappointed that he didn’t say anything more. One hundred and sixty-four days. Every single day, I would ask him what he had decided. Every single day, I hoped to change his attitude, but the answer he gave me was always the same.” Huaizui let out a long sigh, as silent as the snow in the sky.

     “Join the mortal world.”

     Everyone knew how to live outside in the cultivation world, but he was willing to fall into trouble just because he had seen the suffering of a child once.

     “Later, he burned the scriptures I gave him and rebelled. I was worried that this couldn’t go on, so I ended his house arrest. I planned to find another way to teach him, and after another year, when his spiritual core was stable, I could take him to the ghost realm, and all of this would be over.

     “...What I didn’t expect was that on the night I finished thinking about this, Chu Wanning left without saying goodbye. I only found a letter in his meditation room. The letter said that even though a long time had passed, he still felt very sorrowful every time he thought about the child he had met, so he wanted to go down the mountain and travel for ten days. He was afraid I’d lock him up again, so he left in the night. Back then, when I held the letter, I was angry and anxious, but there was nothing I could do about it.”

     Huaizui sighed. “I have no idea where he went.”

     A new scene lit up again.

     This time, it was in the courtyard of Wubei Temple.

     Chu Wanning had returned. He was covered in dirt and blood, but his eyes were particularly bright and piercing under the moonlight, full of vigor.

     At that moment, he was like a holy weapon that had finally been unsheathed after many years of forging. No one could stop his sharp edge.

     Master Huaizui stood in front of him, and neither of them spoke.

     However, Huaizui’s voice was still slowly narrating in Mo Ran’s ears, “Ten days later, he really did come back on time. I felt relieved, secretly glad that nothing had happened. I planned to reprimand him a few times, then let him go back to his room to rest, but I didn’t expect that what I was waiting for was a sharp blade without a sheath.”

     In the memory scroll, Chu Wanning knelt down and kowtowed on the ground.

     Huaizui frowned slightly. “What are you doing?”

     “Perhaps Shizun has been in seclusion for a long time. Now, the outside world is very different from what Shizun said. This disciple sincerely requests not to stay on the mountain anymore but go down and take a look. This world is a boundless sea of suffering, and it’s no longer the paradise Shizun said it was.”

     Huaizui suddenly became angry. “Absurd! Do you know what you’re saying?”

     Chu Wanning originally thought that by telling the truth about what he saw with his own eyes, he would definitely be able to change his Shizun’s attitude of closing his ears. He didn’t expect Huaizui to have this kind of reaction. He was startled for a moment.

     “Shizun has always told this disciple to worry about others’ worries and difficulties… In these ten days, this disciple has gone to a total of twenty-three villages in the upper and lower cultivation worlds. The scenes I saw were shocking. If Shizun were to go down the mountain and see it, he would also…”

     Before he could finish his words, Huaizui interrupted him. “Who allowed you to leave this mountain on your own?!

     “There is no sun or moon on this mountain, so you should cultivate to enlightenment and ascend quickly. Why did you leave the mountain so rashly to care about the affairs of the mortal world before you had even seen through the mysteries of the heavens?!

     “The mortal world has never stopped suffering, from generation to generation. How can a little cultivator like you manage it? Why do you think so highly of yourself?!”

     The more Huaizui spoke, the angrier he became, and Chu Wanning’s eyes grew wider and wider.

     He watched his Shizun pace back and forth under the moonlight. He flicked his sleeves, tapped the tip of his nose, and scolded sternly. The haitang tree cast a heavy shadow, cutting Huaizui’s figure into pieces. Mo Ran looked at Chu Wanning’s face. At first, he was confused, then he was at a loss; then it turned to shock, then disappointment, and finally settled into pain.

     Chu Wanning closed his eyes.

     Huaizui said angrily, “Do you know your wrongs?!”

     “...”

     “Say something!”

     “This disciple,” Chu Wanning paused, his voice hard as iron, “...doesn’t know.”

     Huaizui slapped him. “You are impudent!”

     A red mark immediately appeared on Chu Wanning’s cheeks, but he quickly turned his face back, his eyes flashing with confusion and resentment. “Shizun, all these years you have taught me to behave properly and worry about others in the world. Why is it that when we really encounter a great disaster, you want me to stand by and do nothing?”

     “...It’s not the same thing at all.” Huaizui gritted his teeth. “You… What can you do if you leave the mountain now? You are indeed gifted with extraordinary talent, but the dangers in this world are beyond your imagination. Why did you leave? To betray your Shizun’s fourteen years of kindness in raising you, so you can sacrifice your life for the sake of your ambition?”

     He paused for a moment, then each word rang out loud and clear, like metal falling to the ground:

     “Chu Wanning, if you can’t even save yourself, how can you save others?!”

     Chu Wanning looked at his Shizun with anger and sorrow.

     He slightly raised his chin, his phoenix eyes gradually becoming misty.

     Master Huaizui had probably never seen Chu Wanning cry before, but the water in his eyes had somewhat extinguished the anger in his heart. He was startled for a moment, then said hesitantly, “You… ah, forget it. Did I hurt you just now?”

     But Mo Ran, who was still watching from the side, clearly knew that wasn’t the case.

     Chu Wanning didn’t feel pain from the slap just now. He felt pain for the fact that the Shizun he had respected since he was a child would say something that completely contradicted the lofty image in his heart.

     Chu Wanning slowly closed his eyes. After a while, Mo Ran heard those all-too-familiar words:

     He said, “If you don’t know how to save others, how can you save yourself?”

     Huaizui froze. His body was like a motionless clay statue in a Buddhist shrine.

     Chu Wanning’s voice was slightly hoarse as he said, “The suffering of the mortal world is right in front of me. Please forgive this disciple for being slow-witted. I don’t know why Shizun sits high up all day long, closing his eyes to ascend to the heavens.”

     After he finished speaking, he slowly stood up.

     Under the moonlight, his clothes were no longer pure white as they had been when he left; now, they were stained with mud and blood.

     But he stood tall and proud.

     “This immortality, it’s better if I don’t cultivate it.”

     Huaizui was shocked and furious, his mind in a daze. He said sternly, “Traitor. Do you know what you’re saying?!”

     “I only want to do what you taught me since I was young.” Chu Wanning was also on edge, but his eyes were filled with sorrow, and he trembled slightly. “You taught me. Is your morality only on paper?! Could it be that millions of disaster victims are homeless and orphans are dying every day and night? And what I should do is not go down and follow my morals but accompany the ancient Buddha with his green oil lamp and cultivate?!”

     Huaizui shouted, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets, “After you achieve enlightenment and ascend, you can do many good deeds!”

     Chu Wanning stared at him as if he had never seen this person before.

     His chest heaved up and down, his palms clenched into fists. Ripples surged in his eyes, and Mo Ran thought that in the next moment, he would sweep across the ground like a dragon breaking through the water, setting off a violent storm, and choke Huaizui’s throat to make him realize his mistake.

     But Chu Wanning trembled for a while and, in the end, did nothing.

     Finally, his eyes reddened slightly, and he said hoarsely, “Shizun, I am not cultivating to be free and unfettered, to be free of the mortal world. Is cultivation only used to achieve immortal ascension? If so, I would rather not. I’d rather achieve nothing; I’d rather do nothing; I’d rather stay in this world.”

     “Give everything I have, then die of exhaustion.”

     “...”

     “Shizun, please ascend. Once I have saved all the people I can, I will follow you.”

     “Chu Wanning!!”

     Even though it was an illusion, Mo Ran could feel Huaizui’s monstrous anger at that time. He could feel the secret fear in his heart, as well as the deep-seated disappointment.

     It was just a wooden statue. How could it dare to look coldly at the person who gave it its life? What did “it" count for?!

     Huaizui’s eyes were bloodshot.

     He was resentful and unwilling, angry with shame. Who could he tell about the bitterness and secrets in his heart?

     He had nowhere to vent his anger.

     Finally, he called out to Chu Wanning, who was about to step out of the courtyard. His voice was ice-cold as he said, “You unfilial disciple, stop right there.”