Chapter 2: Record

There weren’t many photos, only about ten, but in almost every one of them, my master was visible, some clearly, some indistinctly. But almost as long as there was a photo where I could see my master’s face, I saw my master’s expression as anxious and heavy.

The locations in the photos were very complicated and seemed to span a wide area. And with these backgrounds, it was impossible for me to guess where they were. There were deserts and Gobi deserts that looked deserted, calm river surfaces, turbulent river surfaces, mountains and forests, and finally the sea!

In addition to my master, there were also some other people in the photos. At least I saw people I knew well鈥攎y uncles, Grandma Ling Qing, and even Wu Liyu… Of course, there were also strangers I didn’t know.

I tried to control myself, telling myself over and over again, Chen Chengyi, you’re not a child anymore, you’re even in charge of your own life, you can’t cry, you’re not allowed to cry! Especially not in front of others!

Yes, I didn’t end up crying. I just looked at the expression on my master’s face in the photo, and I couldn’t help but feel a little red in my eyes. But that’s not the point. The point is that in two of the photos, I saw that my master was injured. One was especially obvious. There was blood at the corner of my master’s mouth, and half of his body was covered in blood.

A Taoist priest is a person who fights with magic. What kind of situation would cause a Taoist priest to be injured to this extent? I took out the photo and handed it to Jiangyi, asking as calmly as I could, “You must know what happened. Maybe this is the information you have been hiding. I want to know why my master fought like this.”

Jiang Yi looked at me and said, “Yes, there are still some things that I have collected, because the things that fought with your master must never be circulated.”

“What is it?” I asked Jiang Yi, staring at him. Although it was rude, I couldn’t care less.

“It’s a legendary existence, but it’s pointless to ask what it is. If one day you inevitably embark on this journey to find Kunlun, what you and your master encountered may not be the same.” Jiangyi told me.

Yes, what it is is not the point, the point is what happened to my master! After all, Jiang Yi opened up information to me, but not everything can be opened up.

I took a deep breath, calmed down a bit, and just asked, “Is my master okay?”

“I can confirm that your master and his party were fine until they disappeared. Of course, they had some injuries, but they weren’t too serious,” Jiang Yi said to me with deliberation.

I didn’t say anything. I decided to wait until I had read the documents before asking my questions.

With this in mind, I picked up the stack of documents again and began to read them carefully.

These documents are similar to work records, or diaries. The tone of the writing seems to be that of a third person following my master, not my master and his party.

XX year X month X day

Finally, I arrived at the center of XX. As a worker in the department, I never thought I would encounter so many things that surprised me. They exist in my land of China. I thought I had already explored them, but I didn’t expect it to be like this.

XX year X month X day

I am just a follower of the record, knowing what to ask and what not to ask. Eventually, I will leave this group and take these precious records back with me. But I admire them, and I am also thinking, is the so-called “Kunlun” so important? With the skills of this group, they can live another kind of life, not to pursue a certain kind of nothingness. This day is another disappointment.

XX/X/X

I didn’t expect to find a clue here, but I did. XX found a clue that confirmed something, and I was even able to continue to pursue it with this clue. This clue is amazing. No, I can’t record it here. I have to report it orally.

I flipped through the work records one by one, and the more I flipped, the deeper my frown became. The biggest clue that this work record gave me was that the master had been to some place, even the furthest place, outside the borders of the Chinese nation, but there was no record of what he had encountered or what the clue was.

I endured these problems and never asked any questions until I had finished reading the last entry.

XX year X month X day

Is it finally time to say goodbye? At that moment, I even had the idea of following this group of amazing people, but I couldn’t, because I have a lover and a child. This is my attachment in the mortal world. How can I follow them? I also admit that I was afraid, but that moment was so terrible that I wasn’t sure if they were still alive. Chef Jiang was so determined that he was the first to take such a great risk and follow them. I thought that others would not be so decisive, but after Chef Jiang jumped into the sea first, they all followed. It was time to say goodbye. Why was my heart so sad? As a recorder who followed them, I was thinking about whether this matter had any significance for me in China. People are valuable because they know themselves.

It was a very upsetting diary, a very messy diary, and I couldn’t even understand some of the meaning. For example, at the end, what does it mean that people are valuable in knowing themselves?

I put down the text, and I had a thousand words in my heart, but I didn’t know where to start. I couldn’t even calm down. I wasn’t sure if they were still alive, like a very strong light that stung my eyes.

I couldn’t control myself. I stood up, paced back and forth in the room repeatedly, then opened the curtains of the hotel room, lit a cigarette, and inhaled deeply. When the cigarette was almost finished, I could barely stop my hands from shaking and my emotions from getting out of control.

I should have believed in my own skills. Every year, I would not always have to do it to make sure that the master was still alive? Unfortunately, the master did not have the same skills as the master, and could not communicate with me so magically, or even pass on the law to me.

But I should always believe in it.

Thinking this way, my mood improved a little, and I was able to clear my thoughts. I sat down in front of Jiang Yi, and instead of rushing to speak, Jiang Yi said softly, “Smoking like this is not a good habit for a cultivator.”

“No choice. People always have to have a hobby, and you can’t force yourself to live a certain way.” I replied, and I found that I was actually calmer than I thought.

“I know what you want to ask. I can tell you one thing. That photo I sent you before was the last photo in the record. It was the last image of your master and his friends before they disappeared.” Jiang Yi was very direct, of course still broadcasting the news.

“I want to know, what does that sentence mean, that they are not sure if my master and the others are still alive? Can you answer me, boss Jiang?” I looked at Jiang Yi. The point was not Kunlun, nor where my master and the others had gone. The most important point in my heart, and the most important point that seemed the smallest, the foundation of the whole thing, was that no matter what, I just hoped that my master was still alive.

To be alive, to wait for me to go to him and ask him, “Master, how could you just leave like that?”

Jiang Yi was silent for a moment, then looked at me and said, “To be responsible, I don’t know. What I can tell you is that at that time, not far from your master, it was…”

Jiang Yi paused here, and his hand holding the teacup was not as steady as it had always been. I saw the tea in the cup tremble slightly. After a long time, Jiang Yi said, “I am glad that you have grown up, and you didn’t ask me about it right away, but waited. The ridiculous thing is, what do I have to hesitate about? That place is the legendary Penglai.”

Penglai! My heart was shaken, but my expression was not so excited. I said to Jiangyi, “Actually, I know that if you want to find Kunlun, you must first find Penglai! It turns out that the master has also taken this path.”

Jiang Yi looked at me, and for the first time, there was a hint of surprise in his eyes. He didn’t ask me how I knew, but said, “You know more than I thought you would! Yes, there are many different theories about the path to Kunlun, and many cultivators have tried different methods, but so far, this is the most reliable one. To find Kunlun, you must first find Penglai. Unfortunately, very few people know about it. You surprised me.”

“But I still want to know what happened at the time? Why was my master almost successful, but you were unsure of his life or death.” This is what I care about.