Chapter 93 Master, Long Time No See
Peach Blossom Village.
The village chief looked at the three who had returned, his expression filled with surprise.
Chu Xingchen was draped in a pure white kasaya, tossing a sarira in his left hand, while twirling a willow jade in his right.
Li Yingling held back her smile, watching her master's strange attire.
Only Yuan Kong followed behind them with a gloomy expression.
At this moment, the village chief felt somewhat dazed.
Had he truly mistaken the Buddha's son?
But as the three returned, the village chief sighed. He didn't dwell on it and rose to welcome them.
The village chief cupped his hands and said, "Congratulations."
Chu Xingchen nodded lightly, saying little, only tapping Yuan Kong's small head with the willow jade before leisurely departing with Li Yingling.
With this, the matter here was essentially complete, leaving only Yuan Kong to retrieve the Buddha's heart from the village chief's chest.
Whether Yuan Kong took it or not was his business, as was the decision to save the abbot.
At this point, Chu Xingchen had done all he could.
Yuan Kong understood Chu Xingchen's hint. He stopped, sighed, and looked at the Peach Blossom Village chief.
At this moment, the burial clothes on the village chief had transformed into ordinary coarse linen.
Yuan Kong clasped his hands together, his expression hesitant.
This entire world existed within the Buddha's heart on the village chief. Once the Buddha's heart was taken, this world would collapse.
Yuan Kong had known this from the beginning, but now that the time had come, he still hesitated.
Yuan Kong couldn't see the evil in Chu Xingchen and Li Yingling's eyes.
What he saw were pitiful common people, forced by Chu Xingchen to work nine hours a day, and occasionally thrown into a large oil pot despite their pleas.
Fried until golden and crispy on both sides...
Yuan Kong also couldn't see that the walking corpses were gradually improving. Throughout the journey, he felt as though he had only done bad things.
Therefore, he had no definite feeling about Chu Xingchen's achievements.
He only knew things were moving in a better direction, but didn't know what had improved or where.
Without this tangible feeling, there naturally wasn't any sense of deserving reward.
"No need to worry, this world was originally false anyway," the village chief said with a smile. "Like an illusion or a dream, nothing is eternal. But I have come to understand many truths and have no more regrets."
"Besides, I see that the Buddha's son seeks this Buddha's heart to save someone, right?"
Yuan Kong nodded lightly in acknowledgment.
The village chief said freely, "Then what is there to hesitate about? Using the false to save the real, that's all."
At these words, Yuan Kong looked up at the village chief, clasping his hands together in a slight bow.
Streams of light rose from Peach Blossom Village, from the earth, from the horizon, from the trees, from everything.
The villagers who were diligently building mud houses stopped their work. At this moment, most of them had already taken human form, no longer walking corpses.
The eagerness in their eyes faded along with the dissipation of Peach Blossom Village.
They looked sorrowfully at the mud houses they had worked so hard to build, which now slowly dissipated again.
They understood this time, they could never rebuild them.
The once pure river water also gradually transformed into streams of light.
On the tree where heads had once hung, the heads had long been taken down, and a real swing had been hung instead, with villagers having actually sat on it and swung.
But what did it matter?
Everything in the world seemed to be this way, and always had been.
Just as no one had asked if they were willing to come here.
No one cared if they truly wanted to leave now.
From beginning to end, the choice was never in their hands.
Perhaps they were used to submitting to fate.
The villagers simply silently accepted everything.
Until this world became empty, leaving only them.
Until they too were about to transform into streams of light and dissipate.
Only at the very end, they seemed to truly laugh for themselves.
The laughter was very small, so small that only they could hear it.
Even Yuan Kong, who was closest, did not hear it.
Yuzhou City.
Chu Xingchen had already placed all those items into his spatial ring.
Li Yingling followed behind her master, her mind slowly summarizing the gains from this operation.
It had to be said, this time truly broadened her horizons.
Li Yingling felt a real sense of stepping onto the path of cultivation. Experiencing such magnificent and strange events firsthand was far more wonderful and immersive than what storybooks described.
Whether it was the Peach Blossom Village with its dual aspects of good and evil, or the Myriad Mountains Illusory Shadow.
It was all an extremely marvelous feeling.
Moreover, during this operation, Chu Xchen's position in Li Yingling's heart was rapidly adjusted.
Her master was someone who became very reliable when encountering problems.
Li Yingling made up her mind! She would cultivate diligently upon returning!
The next time she encountered such a situation, she could also display her divine might!
She would definitely perform better than her master!
Yuan Kong's expression remained listless, his palm tightly clutching a small, grayish-white stone.
Chu Xingchen glanced sideways at Yuan Kong's expression and asked:
"Are you still thinking about Peach Blossom Village? Do you feel that you harmed them?"
Yuan Kong replied with his head lowered, "I just haven't figured it out yet."
"Alright, alright, Master Yuan Kong. You can return to your Chanlin Temple to save your senior brother, and I'll return to my courtyard to teach my disciple. Let's meet again if fate allows."
Chu Xingchen shrugged indifferently. Since they were already in Yuzhou City, which wasn't too far from Chanlin Temple, he decided to let Yuan Kong walk back on his own.
At a fork in the road, Yuan Kong walked alone toward Chanlin Temple.
This journey had been relatively smooth.
He just didn't know how much time had passed in the outside world during his trip.
He had heard that in some secret realms of powerful beings, even the flow of time was different.
But this time, there probably shouldn't be any major issues. After all, the old master selling sugar paintings on the street looked unchanged.
And a Spirit Transformation cultivator shouldn't be considered a powerful being, right?
Chu Xingchen took out money to buy another sugar painting for Chen Baiqing, giving it to him as a return gift.
Leading his senior disciple, Chu Xingchen walked back to the courtyard and pushed open the door.
The first thing to meet his eyes was Chen Baiqing, sitting on a stone chair and reading a book. She still habitually kept a small pack of preserved fruits to her right.
Hearing the door push open, Chen Baiqing looked up.
A flash of joy instantly appeared in her originally calm eyes as she hurriedly rose and ran to embrace her master.
Chen Baiqing hugged her master's waist and said, "Master! Long time no see!"
"Long time? How long was I gone?"
Chen Baiqing raised her little head and said, "Master was gone for a full thirteen days!"
Li Xingtian also pushed open the door from the side room. Seeing that his master's clothes weren't even dirty, he couldn't help but feel relieved.
A faint, natural smile also appeared on his face. In the past, three years of cultivation felt like a fleeting moment.
But now, Li Xingtian also cupped his hands and said, "Long time no see, Master."
Chu Xingchen stuffed the sugar painting in his hand into Chen Baiqing's mouth, gently rubbed her little head, and then walked toward this second disciple, who had always been reassuring.
"How is the construction of our sect coming along?" Chu Xingchen asked with a smile.
Li Xingtian's expression froze. After a long moment, he uttered a single sound:
"Uh..."
Chu Xingchen tilted his head slightly, looking at this rebellious disciple.
Hey readers! If you're eager to dive into advanced chapters, consider joining our Patreon. By joining, you'll get access to 20 chapters ahead and enjoy 14 new chapters per week. Plus, we have 3 more exciting fics with the same chapter release rate, giving you a total of 42 chapters per week! Join now and keep the adventure going!
Patreon: https://patreon.com/Alex_Cruise