Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 133 Love Parting

The young man was not discouraged and said, "So, being neither here nor there means it's alright? Senior, please take me as your disciple. I want to cultivate."

As he spoke, he was about to perform the grand ceremony of bowing three times and kowtowing nine times. But as soon as he made the movement, he was frozen in place by an invisible force and could not move.

The avatar of the Underworld Lord said, "No need. I haven't even figured it out myself, how can I teach disciples? That would be misleading them."

The boy did not give up, but continued, "The master leads you through the door, but the cultivation is up to you. Senior, you only need to guide me through the basics."

The avatar of the Underworld Lord chuckled and said, "Does merely guiding you into the gate count as being a master?"

The boy said earnestly, "A teacher can be someone who imparts knowledge, teaches skills, and resolves doubts. I already have four teachers: one who taught me to read, one who taught me to ride a horse, one who taught me to shoot arrows, and one who answered my questions about hunting many times."

"They may not acknowledge me as their disciple, but I acknowledge them as my master."

The avatar of the Underworld Lord shook his head and said, "So, if I teach you cultivation, then I'll be on equal footing with other ordinary mortals?"

The boy said, "Perhaps I will change my mind later, but for now I will only answer, yes."

The avatar of the Underworld Lord looked at him and suddenly laughed heartily: "You brat, if you say you value your master, the threshold for acknowledging him is so low; if you say you don't value him, you didn't utter a single disrespectful word when you were in dire straits yourself. Don't you know that many cultivators will be displeased when you compare them to mortals? If that happens, your chance to defy fate will be gone."

The boy said, "So, senior, you agree?"

The avatar of the Underworld Lord said, "If I don't agree, what do you plan to do?"

The boy looked on with longing: "I've heard people say that if you go straight down the Qingshui River for more than a month, you can reach Liuyun Mountain, which is thousands of miles away. There is a swordsman there who once cut a river in half with a single sword and killed eight great demons in a month, protecting the peace of the region. I want to go there and become his disciple."

The avatar of the Underworld Lord said, "Are you so confident that they will accept you?"

The young man said, "Thinking about it doesn't guarantee success, but not thinking about it guarantees failure. Even if he doesn't take me, someone else will. If no one takes me, I'll find another way out myself. A good man makes his home wherever he goes. Is there really no place for me in this vast world?"

The avatar of the Underworld Lord shook his head and said, "You don't even know if you can cultivate, yet you dare to be so resolute. I'm actually starting to like you."

The boy was overjoyed and asked, "Master, how do I become a cultivator?"

The avatar of the Underworld Lord said, "Don't call me master. I didn't agree to take you as my disciple. However, I can take you away from here."

"Furthermore, since you have decided to embark on the path of cultivation, I must remind you that this path is not as good as you think. Blood and bone, tears and wounds, war and chaos are the themes of this path."

After much deliberation, the Lord of the Underworld decided to give him some pointers.

The purpose of this avatar of the Underworld Lord was to visit the famous mountains and rivers of the ancient star, study the secrets of corpse cultivation on the ancient star, and incidentally find a suitable tomb for himself to facilitate his next birth.

In this process, he needed to travel around the ancient planets. The boy's talent and temperament gave him a strange sense of affinity, so the Underworld Lord's avatar decided to take him under his wing for a few years and help him embark on the path of cultivation.

Perhaps he will be the one who attains enlightenment in this lifetime.

The boy asked, "Master, do you have any title or anything like that?"

The avatar of the Underworld Lord hesitated for a long time before saying, "My name is Duan De, and my Buddhist name is Dade Zhenren."

The Great Virtue Master? And his name is Duan De? This doesn't sound like a good person at all.
Duan De said, "I still don't know your name."

The boy thought for a moment and said, "Wuji, just call me Wuji. I burned down my old house when I ran away. Let bygones be bygones, I want to start anew."

Wuji, what a fine name. Speaking of which, Wuji is also in seclusion on the ancient star of the primordial world; we can have this kid go find him then.

Although he himself possessed profound cultivation, he had ultimately attained enlightenment through a corpse in this life, and the methods he cultivated were generally unsuitable for Wuji to learn. But Wuji was different; he walked the path of all methods leading to the heavens, and he was certainly more suitable to teach others than he was himself.

Duan De thought to himself.

Wuji said, "Master, shall we leave now? Isn't it inappropriate to travel so late at night?"

Duan De said, "I see that you still have worldly ties to sever. You should think it through carefully. I don't want you to have regrets that you can never make up for in your life."

Wuji lowered his head slightly and said, "But there are a bunch of people waiting to catch me now, I'm afraid I can't go back." Duan De laughed and said, "You just take care of your own personal matters. As for those who are chasing you, they won't be able to detect your presence. Until we set off tomorrow, only the people you want to see will see you."

Wuji said, "Alright then, I'll go say goodbye."

Duan De said, "Then that's settled. Tomorrow at noon, we'll take a boat and go down the Qingshui River."

Wuji asked, "Where are we going?"

"I'll go wherever I end up. My goal is to travel all over this ancient star."

The next day, the sun rose.

On the banks of the Qingshui River, Wuji changed into a white robe, looking every bit the elegant young gentleman.

Meanwhile, a woman in pink had been waiting for him by the river for quite some time.

Wuji plucked a peach blossom and said, "Young lady, are you waiting for someone?"

The girl rolled her eyes at him and said, "Anyway, I'm not waiting for you."

The boy looked regretful and said, "So you weren't waiting for me? Then it seems this peach blossom can only drift away with the flowing water."

The girl snatched the peach branch away and said, "Isn't it too wasteful to throw it away after picking it?"

The young man watched her gently inhale the peach blossoms; her beauty and the blossoms complemented each other, making her seem like a fairy from heaven, and his heart stirred.

He turned around, facing the surging Qingshui River, and said, "I'm leaving."

The girl froze, her voice involuntarily lowering slightly: "Where to?"

The boy pointed to the lower reaches of the river and said, "Let's go to a place farther than the horizon."

"What to do?"

The young man declared loudly, "I will traverse this ancient star and become the strongest cultivator."

"and then?"

"Drink the finest liquor, live on the grandest sacred mountain, ride the most spirited steed, and see the most beautiful woman."

"Then will you come back?"

Looking at the surging river, Wuji dared not turn to look at the people beside him, but said in a deep voice, "If I don't come back, how can I see the most beautiful woman?"

"Then when will you come back?"

Wuji laughed and said, "Once I can fly to the heavens and go to the earth, I will ride on a nine-colored auspicious cloud and sit in a chariot pulled by nine dragons to come back to see you."

The girl said, "The nine-colored auspicious clouds are already beautiful enough. Isn't the nine-dragon chariot too extravagant?"

Wuji extended his hand: "Perhaps you can come with me, and we can see all the great things together in the future."

The girl grabbed his hand, then flung it away. She laughed, "Don't talk nonsense. If I leave, my family will think I'm a human trafficker."

"You'd better come back soon, or I'm afraid I won't be able to wait for you if it gets too late."

"Also, you're not allowed to forget me."

Wuji didn't turn back. He was afraid that if he did, and saw the girl crying, he would never be able to leave her again. Only after he boarded the ship sailing into the future did he turn back and wave vigorously at the girl, whose face was now too far away to see clearly.

In the original timeline, it wasn't until many years later, when the Emperor saw the similar flower that the Celestial Venerable of Immortality had found, that he realized that some things could not be forgotten even if one gave up their past life.

(End of this chapter)