Wen Jingzhi escaped Shu Xin’s watch five times.
After discovering that the protective talisman was the Chun clan’s secret treasure—and after awakening a spiritual root—Wen Jingzhi decided to leave Shu Xin and seek revenge on his own.
As he put it, “I can’t keep watching you die in front of me, Sis.”
Before he had a spiritual root, his idea of an Earth Immortal had been merely superficial. Only after gaining a spiritual root and sensing spiritual energy did he truly understand what kind of monstrous existence an Earth Immortal was.
If an Earth Immortal discovered that the Chun clan’s secret treasure was on him, Shu Xin might be implicated as well. Now that he had a spiritual root, he had no reason to keep dragging her down.
So Wen Jingzhi imitated what Shu Xin had done in the past. He simply left a note saying, “Something came up. I’ll be away for a while. Don’t worry about me,” and ran away from home.
But how could a little white dove like Wen Jingzhi possibly outdo an old sparrow like Shu Xin?
Wen Jingzhi escaped five times in all, yet Shu Xin caught him and dragged him back every time within three days.
“You see? I can even predict your escape routes perfectly. If you try to claw your way forward on your own, how long will it take you to reach the enemy you’re talking about?”
Shu Xin glared at the little brat in exasperation. “Relax. The number of Earth Immortals your sister here has offended is no fewer than yours. We’re practically kindred spirits in misery. From now on, you’d better follow me. At the very least, we need to find out which sect Fu Ge and Wen Jingshu joined before we can determine where your enemy is, right?”
“But, Sis, I don’t want my misfortune to drag you into this.” Wen Jingzhi lowered his head, his face filled with confusion. “Everyone who’s ever been kind to me has met a bad end.”
What kind of wretched world forced even a child to worry about things like this? Was this something a child should have to think about?
Shu Xin secretly raised her middle finger at the heavens.
“Bullshit. Do you really think I’m going to be superstitious about that as a cultivator?” Shu Xin rolled her eyes in annoyance.
She reached out and poked Wen Jingzhi on the head. “Listen to me. If all you do is raise your cultivation and wait to take revenge, who knows how many years it’ll be before you get your chance? How long have Earth Immortals been cultivating? At the very least, a thousand years—perhaps even ten thousand. Do you plan to wait until then to take your revenge? By that time, the Earth Immortal might have already died of old age.”
“I’m telling you, revenge depends on our brains.” Shu Xin pointed to her head. “Whether they’re cultivators or immortals, they all have weaknesses, and they all have enemies. Even if we can’t stand against them in the short term, the enemy of our enemy is our friend. We can borrow a knife to kill, or make them turn on one another. There’s a lot more to this than meets the eye. And I’ll teach you everything I know without holding anything back.”
“What? You know how to do all that?” the sword spirit asked, stunned. “Isn’t this the sort of thing demonic cultivators are supposed to learn?”
In an era when even cultivation resources were monopolized, no useful knowledge or strategy was ever shared freely.
The cultivation world also possessed unique methods of preventing information from spreading, making the transmission of knowledge exceedingly difficult.
What Shu Xin had just described was something that even within the demonic sects was taught personally only to core disciples.
“That’s exactly why I said there’s a reason your world hasn’t changed at all in all these years,” Shu Xin replied. “Everything good is kept hidden away. When faced with an outstanding rogue cultivator, they either threaten and bribe them, or simply kill them. This world is like a stagnant pool. It can’t stir up the slightest ripple.”
It would be one thing if they merely refused to distribute cultivation resources. They had even cut off the path for ordinary people to stand on their own feet and grow stronger.
To cultivators, the only things ordinary people needed to learn were how to cultivate spiritual fields, how to serve as sacrifices, and how to become generation after generation of tireless slaves in their hands.
How could such a world ever change?
Wen Jingzhi thought for a long while before firmly nodding. “All right. I’ll learn.”
“That’s more like it.” Shu Xin smiled and ruffled his hair. “First, let’s find out where your enemies have gone. There are many Earth Immortals, but wherever your aunt and uncle made their last stop must be where the person behind everything is hiding.”
Wen Jingshu and Fu Ge had no real reputation in the cultivation world, so they were surprisingly difficult to track down.
But Shu Xin didn’t investigate them directly. Instead, she looked into Murong Yan.
When Wen Jingzhi’s soul had left his body, he had seen Murong Yan speaking with a statue of an Earth Immortal. That made it clear she was the one assigned to carry out the actual operations.
Among the most famous cultivation clans, the only one with the compound surname Murong was the Changsheng Dao Sect.
Before long, they heard that the daughter of the Murong clan’s patriarch had taken an unknown cultivator as her live-in husband. Rumor had it that he had quite an impressive background.
With only a little comparison, it was obvious that the man was Fu Ge.
And so, the identity of Wen Jingzhi’s enemy became perfectly clear.
Wuweizi of the Changsheng Dao Sect.
He was the most reputable, longest-lived, and most powerful Earth Immortal in the cultivation world today.
The Changsheng Dao Sect was practically the uncrowned king of the Daoist sects. In name, it was not the number one sect, but in reality, it was.
It was difficult enough merely to approach such a sect, let alone get close to its inner circle.
Shu Xin and Wen Jingzhi came up with several plans to join the Changsheng Dao Sect, but they soon realized that throwing themselves at the sect would get them nowhere. Rather than wracking their brains to join the Changsheng Dao Sect and then undergoing layer upon layer of identity checks, it was better to wait for the sect to approach them and grant them identities of its own accord.
That was how Shu Xin came to be forcibly recruited after “reselling spiritual artifacts and pills.”
It was also how Wen Jingzhi changed his name and identity, pretending to be naïve and inexperienced while displaying astonishing talent, until the Changsheng Dao Sect accepted him as a disciple.
There was only one thing Wen Jingzhi needed to overcome.
No matter how much he cared about Shu Xin, he had to pretend that the two of them were strangers.
Even as the years passed and he became unwilling to call Shu Xin “Sis” anymore, he still had to force himself to become taciturn and aloof, keeping his distance from everyone else.
Only then could he earn the trust of the Changsheng Dao Sect.
Fortunately, none of his years of effort and sacrifice had been in vain.
He had gathered a large number of ordinary people like himself, as well as cultivators from humble backgrounds who harbored an ingrained hatred for the Changsheng Dao Sect. Together, they worked toward the same goal.
Many people hated the Changsheng Dao Sect, but their hatred was like water without a source or a tree without roots. They had never been able to direct it toward anything tangible.
That changed when Wen Jingzhi appeared. Using his status as a core disciple, he planted them throughout the Changsheng Dao Sect. In silence and secrecy, they wove a vast web, ultimately carrying out a precise assassination.
Aside from Song Ping, the subordinate who stayed behind as a “witness,” the others withdrew in groups after killing Murong Yan.
Back to the present.
After Wen Jingzhi managed to evade the pursuit of the Earth Immortals by every means available, he changed identities several times along the way and hid in various cave abodes he had prepared long ago.
Every time he arrived somewhere new, he disguised himself and changed all his clothes. He refused to allow even the slightest trace that could be used to track him.
Along the way, he could hear countless cultivators discussing news about him. He could even join in and help them figure out the best way to capture him.
It was not until half a month later, when the demonic energy within him could no longer be suppressed, that Wen Jingzhi chose one of his escape routes and returned to enter secluded cultivation.
Suppressing demonic energy was an extremely difficult task.
If he had entered seclusion earlier to suppress and digest it, he would inevitably have attracted the attention of others—especially at a time like that.
Now, however, more than a month had passed. He had not gone very far, instead choosing to remain in a gathering place for demonic cultivators. By relying on the heaven-reaching demonic energy there to conceal himself, he could finally be considered safe.
Even if this residence were discovered, at least no innocent people would be implicated.
Wen Jingzhi stumbled into the cave abode he had prepared. Only after activating every restriction and completely sealing the dwelling did he dare to release the suppression.
The backlash from the Heaven-Stealing Sun-Swapping Art came swiftly and violently.
Although he had endured the pain countless times, some kinds of suffering could shatter one’s accustomed tolerance every single time.
This time, he had absorbed the spiritual roots and cultivation of two Immaculate Realm cultivators, Wen Jingshu and Fu Ge, in addition to the cultivation of the Lin family ancestor—three people in total.
In order to escape the pursuit, he had forcibly piled all their cultivation onto himself in one go, allowing him to erupt with a speed comparable to that of an Immaculate Realm peak cultivator for a short period.
But that was all.
The spiritual roots of Fu Ge and Wen Jingshu truly lived up to Wuweizi’s high opinion of them. They were far more powerful than those of ordinary demonic cultivators.
To completely digest this cultivation and these spiritual roots, he first had to prepare himself to endure tribulations several times more difficult than those faced by ordinary cultivators breaking through to the Immaculate Realm.
The Three Winds and Four Fires were something he could no longer evade.
Wen Jingzhi knew very well that his chances of surviving these trials were extremely slim.
But at least, he had killed Fu Ge and Wen Jingshu.
This time, he hoped Shu Xin would not come looking for him again.
The instant Wen Jingzhi collapsed to the ground, wind began to howl through the previously empty cave abode, one gust after another.
The wind was so fierce that it seemed a single breath could strip the flesh from a cultivator’s bones.
This was one of the Three Winds: the Heavenly Astral Wind, which tested the strength of a cultivator’s physical body.
Immediately afterward, where Wen Jingzhi’s feet stood, it seemed as though a current of wind burrowed in through the soles of his feet and went straight into his soul. For a moment, it felt as if his very spirit were about to leave his body.
The Earthly Fiend Wind tested a cultivator’s soul.
Wen Jingzhi’s body trembled faintly. He clenched both hands into fists and allowed the two winds to tear at his flesh and soul.
Compared with the backlash of the demonic art, this pain was nothing.
Then, above his Dao Heart, two winds—one bright and one dim—began to spiral upward. Every time they swept past, it felt as though they were shaking the convictions he had clung to throughout all his years of cultivation.
All the memories in his mind played out like scenes from a revolving lantern, forcing him to recall every last one without reservation.
The numb suffering of his childhood.
The overwhelming joys and sorrows of his youth.
The restraint and repression of his early adulthood.
Each one seemed to question him: After so many years of cultivation, did he truly have no regrets? No remorse?
These were the Yin-Yang Winds, testing his Dao Heart.
I have no regrets!
Wen Jingzhi gritted his teeth.
The only thing he regretted was that he had acted too soon. His enemies had not suffered enough. He had not been able to burn them for three days and three nights to vent the hatred in his heart!
The Three Winds had yet to cease.
Another flame suddenly surged from his chest, blazing fiercely in the blink of an eye.
The Fire of Karma.
The Fire of Fame and Gain.
The Fire of Lifespan.
The Fire of Love.
One flame after another, each was like a perilous pass that had to be overcome.
Yet when they descended upon Wen Jingzhi, all the trials arrived one after another without giving him even the slightest moment to catch his breath.
His consciousness gradually blurred. But the pain created by the backlash of the demonic art prevented him from completely losing consciousness, forcing him to endure these trials helplessly.
“Jingzhi, Jingzhi, you’ve done enough.”
“Your father and I never asked you to avenge us. We only wanted you to live a happy life.”
“Just be an ordinary person. You don’t need to become a lofty cultivator.”
…
In his daze, Wen Jingzhi seemed to feel someone stroking his forehead.
When he came to himself, he discovered that he had become the short, slender boy he had been in his youth.
His mother gently rubbed her slightly protruding belly while slowly fanning him from the side.
“You little rascal, you’re finally awake.” Wen Fan reached out and gave him a hard flick on the forehead.
The pain jolted Wen Jingzhi out of his daze.
“You’ve slept for so long. Aren’t you going to give your mother a massage?” Wen Fan said sourly. “She was afraid you wouldn’t sleep well, so she’s been fanning you this whole time.”
“Father, Mother.” Wen Jingzhi stared at them blankly.
“I had such a long, long dream. I dreamed that both of you had died.” Wen Jingzhi rushed forward and hugged his mother’s leg. “If only it had really been a dream.”
“Silly child, of course it was just a dream.” Fu Lan smiled. “You still need to study and practice martial arts properly. In the future, you’ll have to set a good example for your younger brothers and sisters.”
“Exactly.” Wen Fan looked pleased with himself. “When the time comes, we’ll have several more children. You’ll have to take good care of your younger brothers and sisters.”
“What nonsense are you saying in front of the child?” Fu Lan struck Wen Fan twice. “Go pour some tea.”
“All right.” Wen Fan did not dare dodge.
“What about Aunt and Uncle?” Wen Jingzhi asked.
“Silly child, are you still dreaming?” Wen Fan scolded with a laugh. “Where would you have an aunt and uncle?”
Wen Jingzhi slowly rose to his feet.
He looked at this home, identical in every detail to the one in his memories, and greedily took in everything around him. Even the noisy cicadas outside sounded like heavenly music.
The Wen family village that had been buried was never coming back.
Even though he had become a cultivator capable, in the eyes of others, of turning the clouds with one hand and overturning the rain with the other, he still could not recreate the home in his memories.
“If only this were truly just a dream.” Wen Jingzhi spoke softly. “I don’t know how many times I’ve wished that everything could have been nothing more than a nightmare.”
But reality was reality. It would not change according to any one person’s wishes.
“Father, Mother, I have to go.”
With a sweep of his sleeve, Wen Jingzhi’s body unknowingly grew back into that of an adult.
Everything around him began to fade like a painting losing its color, growing dimmer bit by bit.
In reality, the Fire of Karma wrapped around his heart gradually went out.
…
“Situ Jian, you are already one of the Nine Sons of Longevity, and you are about to advance to the Mahayana realm. You want to betray your sect?”
“Mortals die when they die. If you want family and friends, countless cultivators would eagerly recreate everything you desire for you.”
“Every man for himself, and Heaven will strike him down. Why are you so stubborn? Why not cast aside these worldly entanglements and pursue the supreme Dao of the cultivator?”
“Among demonic cultivators, there are plenty who destroy their own families in order to sever all emotions and attachments. Yet you remain so foolish—how can you ever become a great power in the future?”
It was as though countless people had begun condemning him in his ears.
As long as you continued to be Situ Jian, anything you wanted would be within easy reach.
The Longevity Dao Sect—even the Blood Demon Sect—could all become yours.
The world would worship you, fear you, and take your every joy and sorrow as the measure of all things.
You would become the most dazzling pearl in the entire cultivation world.
Immortal and free, at ease for eternity.
A mortal’s emotions would be nothing more than a speck of dust—insignificant and worthless.
Wen Jingzhi saw himself dressed in splendid robes, with countless cultivators kneeling at his feet.
Beside him, Gong Changshou and Ning Weixuan were smiling as they showered him with flattery.
“If there’s someone you want dead, just say the word. You won’t need to lift a finger yourself.”
Wen Jingzhi smiled.
“My name isn’t Situ Jian.”
“I am Wen Jingzhi.”
Wen Jingzhi of Wen Family Town.
Wen Jingzhi, born a mortal.
In reality, the flame of fame and fortune on Wen Jingzhi’s forehead was slowly dying out.
“Senior Brother, Senior Brother, Fellow Daoist Shu Xin asked me out.” A handsome white-robed cultivator gazed at him with eager anticipation. “What kind of clothes do you think I should wear?”
Wen Jingzhi looked at the ugly cultivator before him and frowned. “Luo Huannian, didn’t I tell you to go take care of something?”
“Heh heh, Senior Brother, the task can wait, but I can’t stand Shu Daoist’s friend up.” Luo Huannian grinned foolishly. “You have no idea—Qu Yougu of the Myriad Dao Sect and Xie Xianzhi of the Carefree Dao Sect are clinging to Shu Daoist’s friend every day. They make it so hard for me to even say a few words to her.”
“There, look. She’s right over there.”
Wen Jingzhi raised his eyes.
He saw Qu Yougu holding a bouquet of flowers and presenting it proudly to Shu Xin.
Beside him, Xie Xianzhi wore an innocent expression as he tried to place a flower he had picked in Shu Xin’s hair.
Shu Xin sat there with a smile on her face, making no attempt to stop them from drawing closer.
And behind Qu Yougu and Xie Xianzhi stood countless men and women, each clutching all kinds of gifts as they desperately squeezed toward Shu Xin.
“Fellow Daoist Shu Xin, look at me! Look at me!”
“Fellow Daoist Shu Xin, I can never repay your great kindness. All I ask is that you let me stay by your side and serve you.”
“Big Sister Shu, can I call you that too?”
“Big Sister Shu… I don’t want anything at all. Will you take me with you?”
…
The flames covering Wen Jingzhi’s body began to spread.
