Chapter 166: The Past (Part 1)

The master looked at me, his eyes full of amusement and memories, then patted me on the back and said, “You’re still the same as when you were a child, anxious to know everything that happens. I guess it’s useless to tell you that curiosity killed the cat.”

I said to the master, “Why do you have that look? It turns out that you are thinking of my curious childhood. If not, how could I have brought Ruyue and Su Rou to the Hungry Ghost Tomb?

In fact, there are many mysteries in life, just like the ghost ship that I crossed when I was a child… It suddenly disappeared mysteriously on the water, and I still can’t figure out where it went. The explanation my master gave me was simple. He only knew how to do many things, but why he did it, he didn’t know.

This matter still haunts me today. I think I am actually the kind of person who wants to know everything.

The reason is that the sense of security I lost after each departure made me feel that I would only have the confidence to know everything.

The master didn’t think as much as I did, and just said, “Because Penglai is, to be exact, … is … I don’t know what to call it. In short, it is mobile. You can understand it when you get close to it. It is a bridge to Kunlun. To put it more plainly, in modern terms, Penglai is a means of transportation to Kunlun.”

The master frowned at this point, showing that he was not very sure about this matter.

I let out a long sigh. In Chinese legend, Penglai is an island of immortals, floating on the sea… But in Master’s words, it is actually moving on the sea? And it is also a means of transportation to Kunlun? This is completely different from the Penglai I imagined.

“Master, what is on Penglai?” This is actually my most curious question. Master said he was not qualified to go to Penglai, so what kind of existence can be on Penglai?

“It was shrouded in a mist, so I couldn’t see clearly… but you knew that we were following a dragon that had turned into a dragon… and it climbed up to Penglai! I think there really are immortals on Penglai, or various legendary creatures, right? At the very least, it’s a being like your master… I don’t know, but you can feel that it’s completely different from this world, that you can feel its immortal aura, that you can feel what it is.” My master’s eyes were filled with even deeper confusion and a look of recollection… but there was no sense of longing.

This made me curious. After all, how could you not yearn for it when you were so close to the legendary paradise? I asked, “Master, are you really sure that it was Penglai? Why don’t you seem to yearn for it at all?”

“I’m sure it’s Penglai. Don’t ask me why… Anyway, when you see it, you’ll know it’s Penglai. As for longing, why should I long for it? I’m an old man with no aspirations, and I don’t have the so-called heart to pursue metaphysics. I just hope that every move I make is in line with the way of heaven, that I have a bit of a bottom line, and that I can live up to my conscience… No matter how good the place where the immortals live is, it can’t compare to the people in this world who I care about… This is what is called not being able to see through the mortal world.” At this point, the master lit his pipe, and the wind at the top of the mountain quickly dispersed the smoke.

But what could not be blown away was the familiar smell of tobacco, although it had been slightly altered by the addition of something from the snowy mountains.

My eyes were a little bit hot. My master said it lightly, but I understood what he was talking about… When he went to Kunlun, he was surrounded by people close to him. If there was anything in the world that he cared about the most, and that made him not even want to go to the fairyland, it could only be me.

In addition, I also knew that all the experiences he had should have been full of danger, but Master was very brief about it… probably because he didn’t want me to worry.

In Penglai, Master met the remnant soul of the Grandmaster, so everything is very easy to explain. Why did Master have the remnant soul of the Grandmaster? Why did Master know so much… including the so-called opening of the great era, including the younger generation coming out of the mountains one after another, and even including me as a key figure.

But when I think of the clue that Jiang Yi gave me at that time, I can’t help but ask.

At this moment of silence, I organized my questions one by one.

It was probably the hint that Master gave in the DVD. What did it mean?

Master was injured in one of the DVDs, and at the time we observed ripples on the water…

How did Master end up in the mysterious space at Guidaowan? Why did he tell me that I only had one year left to live?

And what did he mean when he said he was guarding against Jiang Yi? If he wasn’t guarding against Jiang Yi, how could he have made the gesture in the video that hinted at me?

When I asked him questions, he was very quiet. After listening to my questions, he began to answer one by one: “Chengyi, when I decided to go to Kunlun, it was not an impulsive move… but rather, I had certain clues and your uncle Li’s prediction before I set out. After all, your grandmaster was someone who grew up with us, and there were many details and memories that could not be left without a clue. For so many years, I have been collecting clues to solve them… When I have time, I have walked through many places that your grandmaster has walked through… Many things are becoming clearer.

“What about Uncle Li…?” My face suddenly became heavy. Now we are all in the Snow Mountain clan, but Uncle Li’s lonely grave is still in the Bamboo Grove. Does he feel lonely? He shouldn’t, because it was his chosen burial place, and he was accompanied by a little nun I’ve never met, so it should be very peaceful.

It’s just that… when important people gather, the only one missing is Uncle Li. My heart feels inexplicably sad when I think of it… that tall, serious man whose handsome face cannot be concealed by the years, who silently watches over me, even knowing that I have skipped a few classes at school… what would the scene be like if he were here now?

In fact, I know that he has long since tacitly recognized my and Master’s position as the core of everyone’s following in the old Li’s lineage… And what happened that made him dissatisfied with Master back then, I guess he has long since forgiven him.

If not, why would he be so concerned about my virtue and everything about me?

When I think of Uncle Li, I feel very heavy… But there is someone who is heavier than me, and that is my master… He has always been very calm, but when he mentioned Uncle Li, even his hand holding the pipe trembled, as if the light pipe had a thousand times the weight and he could hardly lift it.

Unlike me, my master rarely cried… At his level of mind, there is a kind of transcendence that does not need to be sad about life and death, but under the starlight, I still saw his eyes clearly red, and he gasped for a long time before calming down.

“Your Uncle Li was also going to look for your Grandmaster… He was an orphan and was adopted by your Grandmaster when he was young. He once said that if it came to feelings… his feelings for your Grandmaster were deeper than anyone else’s. He was both a master and a parent, so how could he give him up? However, he also said that we were all going to look for your Grandmaster, and the outcome was uncertain… leaving little sister alone would be lonely… so he would stay with her and wait for us to return. Chengyi, at that time, your uncle Li knew that his life was not long, and with my amulet to protect him, he would only have less than 10 years left… After all, he had been immersed in the two streams of fortune-telling for a long time, and he had a natural sense of the way of heaven…” At this point, Master could not continue, and a faint sigh accompanied a somewhat choked “gurgle” from his throat, making Master unable to continue.

I couldn’t say what I felt inside. I didn’t dare to ask about the past of Uncle Li and Little Sister. It would be disrespectful to ask, but the deep affection in it could be felt by anyone who wasn’t a fool.

Once, I felt that life was a cycle, a cycle of fate that passed from generation to generation… The master followed in the footsteps of the master, and we followed in the footsteps of the masters behind us… At that time, the relationship between Uncle Li and his junior sister, after decades of reincarnation, was repeated in the same way in the bodies of Chengqing and Chengyuan…

Just like the fate between Master and Grandma Ling Qing, it also brought about a fate between me and Ru Xue… I was thinking, if I were Uncle Li, would I make the same choice? Maybe it would be the same… But when I thought about it, I couldn’t help but ask Master, “Master, you just said that Uncle Li had less than 10 years to live, but… even if it’s eight years, how could he be so early…”

“It’s simple. He used his life to make a calculation without telling us… He said that if he couldn’t go with us to find Master, then he would let Master know of his thoughts with this heart… Because his original fate was like this, and using the amulet was also a forced thing… It’s better to follow your fate, and God will make all the arrangements.” At this point, Master finally shed two tears on his face.

He didn’t say much… but I could feel the grief in his heart when he learned that Uncle Li had secretly calculated a way out for them.

I also vaguely returned to that day, after the masters had disappeared… the scene of a lost soul holding Uncle Li’s ashes and coming to the Bamboo Grove.

It was raining heavily… Life has always been about parting… So parting, which has been impossible to see through for thousands of years, is only the result of the powerful emotional force in people’s hearts… But what’s the point of understanding? Rainy days will always be rainy days, and parting will always be sad.

Heaven asks us to understand, but I think it is not asking us to understand, but to love more… to love our own old and young, and the old and young of others.

This is the most precious thing in the world.