Chapter 750
Chapter 750
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 750
>Chapter Title: Cultivate
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Chapter 750: Cultivate
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> After the little girl picked up her chopsticks and squinted at the edge of the pot for a good while, she clamped down hard into the pot.
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> When she lifted them up, she discovered that her chopsticks had actually snagged a braised duck head with half a neck still attached.
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> Without caring about the heat, the little girl joyfully cradled the duck head and ran toward her two waiting younger sisters.
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> The three of them divided the duck head like it was some rare delicacy from the mountains and seas, their eyes brimming with delight and happiness. The youngest one even threw her head back and giggled out loud.
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> Bai Lingmiao walked on silently, as if she could feel their joy, her own lips curving up slightly.
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> She had once had a little brother too. Whenever she had something good to eat, she would share it with him.
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> Looking at her, Bai Lingmiao seemed to see her younger self.
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> As she walked along, she reached an alley entrance buzzing with excitement. Inside, a newlywed couple was bowing to the Joy God in a wedding ceremony, everyone laughing and cheering them on—as if the hardships they had just endured were nothing but an illusion.
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> With no wedding candies to give out, they produced two treasured persimmon cakes, slicing them into tiny pieces to hand around as sweets.
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> No one turned their noses up at these makeshift candies. Instead, they savored them with relish, holding them in their mouths without chewing, focused entirely on tasting that hard-won sweetness.
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> Some people didn’t eat theirs. They carefully tucked the candies into their clothes, saving the precious treats to take home.
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> “Have they all died? Gone to the Vacuous Home of the Limitless Mother?”
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> The thought had barely formed in Bai Lingmiao’s mind when she suddenly felt herself go blind. The mind-reading ability granted by the relic offered no response at all—she was plunged into pitch darkness.
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> “No, they don’t need to go to the Vacuous Home. As long as they’re alive, that’s good enough. Only someone like me... someone who needs to escape... needs the Vacuous Home.”
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> In that instant, Bai Lingmiao felt the range of her relic-granted mind-reading perception expand even further. She could now sense activity two or three li away.
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> The next moment, she sensed Li Huowang. At that very instant, he was out on the street, talking to some street tough.
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> “Senior Brother Li?” Bai Lingmiao’s right foot twitched, about to step forward, but she held back, feeling the joys and sorrows of everyone else within her range.
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> In the past, she had placed too much weight on her own emotions. But in truth, such feelings weren’t everything in life.
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> Compared to the lives of all the White Lotus Sect believers, those emotions were so insignificant.
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> Bai Lingmiao turned around and walked toward the entrance of the White Lotus Church. “Er Shen. Let’s go.”
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> “Go where?”
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> As Bai Lingmiao sensed the moods of half the city, she slowly replied: “Too many people, too many families live because of us. We can’t... can’t just think of ourselves.”
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> “We’ll find a way to keep more people from losing their families. Losing family... it feels awful. I don’t want my past experiences repeated in more people’s lives.”
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> “Heh, good. At least you’re not all twisted up inside anymore. If that rotten Lv Xiucai can do it, no way we can’t outdo him.”
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> ————————
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> Gurgle, gurgle. In a kitchen, boiling water bubbled around the stones in the pot. A man with a white cloth wrapped around his head diligently shoveled more firewood into the stove.
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> When Hu Biao, following routine, prodded the stones in the pot with his chopsticks, his face lit up with uncontainable excitement. The stones had really softened from boiling!
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> Grandpa Stone Vein had said that as long as the stones boiled soft and you ate them, they could cure any illness and even lead to immortality!
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> “Dad! Dad!” Hu Biao grabbed the ceramic jar holding the stones and rushed excitedly outside.
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> But as soon as he burst through the door, he saw his senior brother walking toward him, carrying a pot.
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> Hu Biao quickly composed himself and started heading home with the softened stones.
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> Just as the two passed each other, though, Hu Biao saw his senior brother suddenly swing the pot at his jar.
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> With a crash of shattering ceramic, Hu Biao’s stones tumbled out onto the ground, bouncing softly. The sight left his senior brother staring wide-eyed.
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> “You! You actually did it, you little punk! It’s real!”
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> At those words, heads of Dharma Cult followers popped out from under eaves, through windows, and behind wooden doors. Their eyes burned with shock and greed as they stared at the stones on the ground.
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> Hu Biao snatched up the soft stone right away and shoved it toward his mouth.
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> But a flying stone struck him, splitting his head open in a gush of blood. The stone slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.
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> “Grab it!!” No one knew who shouted, but it turned every Dharma Cult follower’s eyes red. They all lunged at Hu Biao.
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> Faced with a chance at immortality, these former comrades who had lived and trained together turned on each other in brutal betrayal. In an instant, the short alley filled with the stench of blood and slaughter.
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> The softened stone changed hands repeatedly. Even if someone swallowed it, others would rip open their belly to dig it out and cram it into their own mouths.
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> Two incense sticks later, the alley was carpeted in blood and corpses. Only two battered survivors eyed each other warily—Hu Biao was one of them.
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> He stood there swaying, muttering over and over: “It’s mine... This is clearly mine...”
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> Meanwhile, Li Huowang stood on the eaves, watching the tragedy unfold below. The stones couldn’t actually be boiled soft—this was just part of his scheme.
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> When the last survivor eagerly swallowed the thing, only to realize no immortality followed, the look of despair and breakdown on his face brought a smile to Li Huowang’s lips.
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> He had to admit, toying with people felt really good—especially when they were your enemies.
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> Feeling the false astral essence surging into his body nonstop, Li Huowang nodded in satisfaction. He leaped down and stomped the man’s head into pulp with one foot.
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> At last, Li Huowang understood why the Sitting Oblivion Dao loved scamming so many at once. Even the tiny bits of false astral essence from fooling ordinary folk added up to real gains.
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> And some Sitting Oblivion Dao experts even set up elaborate traps. Properly maintained, such a trap could yield false astral essence like a spring—endless and steady.
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> Traps could be complex or simple—even just a rumor. The penis-shrinking scam he’d encountered years ago was one of the Sitting Oblivion Dao’s traps.
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> Compared to the growing false astral essence in his body, Li Huowang felt the shift in his mindset mattered more.
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> In the past, he’d struggled to tell truth from falsehood. But as his deceptions piled up, he finally sensed the difference between true truth and true falsehood.
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> The Sitting Oblivion Dao made it easy to lose your true heart amid the scams, to start seeing everything as fake.
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> Loyalty, righteousness, integrity, and shame—fake. Family and friends—fake. Even yourself—possibly fake.
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> If everything was fake, then naturally there were no taboos in how you acted.
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> Cultivating truth without falsehood could lead to qi deviation, but cultivating falsehood without truth could do the same.
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> (End of chapter)