Chapter 747: Cultivate

Chapter 747: Cultivation

When the little girl picked up her chopsticks and squinted, peering closely at the pot’s edge for quite some time, she suddenly clamped them forcefully into the pot.

Upon lifting them, she found that her chopsticks held a duck’s head—its neck half-bitten off—drenched in sauce.

Without heeding the heat, the little girl joyfully cradled the duck head and ran toward her two younger sisters who were waiting nearby.

The three of them devoured the duck head like rare delicacies, their eyes sparkling with delight. The youngest one even tilted her head back and giggled with pure happiness.

Bai Lingmiao walked silently forward, as if she could feel the other’s joy. A faint smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

She once had a younger brother. When she had something delicious, she would always share it with him.

Looking at her, Bai Lingmiao saw herself from long ago.

As she walked further, she reached an alley where the noise was lively. A newlyweds were performing their wedding rituals before the god of joy, everyone laughing and cheering, as though the hardships they had just endured were nothing but illusions.

There was no candy to distribute, so they took out two pieces of their cherished persimmon cakes, sliced them into small bits, and passed them around as substitutes.

No one complained about this makeshift sweet. On the contrary, they savored every bite, reluctant to chew, savoring the sweetness that had come so hard-won.

Some people didn’t eat them. Instead, they carefully tucked the slices into their chests, planning to take them home.

“They’re all dead, have they gone to the Void Homeland of Mother Wusheng?”

The thought crossed Bai Lingmiao’s mind, and instantly, she felt her vision go black. Her heart-sense, granted by the relic, gave no response. Darkness engulfed her.

“No, they... they don’t need to go to the Void Homeland. As long as they live, that’s enough. Only someone like me... someone who needs to escape, would require such a place.”

Suddenly, Bai Lingmiao felt her heart-sense expand, reaching farther than ever before. She could sense movements from miles away.

In the next moment, she sensed Li Huowang, standing on the street, speaking to a young man in green.

“Senior Brother Li?” Bai Lingmiao raised her foot, only to stop, feeling the emotions of those around her within her range.

Her past self had placed too much weight on emotion. But in truth, such feelings were not everything in life.

Compared to the lives of all the followers of the White Lotus Sect, this emotion was utterly insignificant.

Bai Lingmiao turned and walked toward the entrance of the White Lotus Temple. “Second God. Let’s go.”

“Where?”

Bai Lingmiao, while sensing the emotions of nearly half the city, slowly replied, “Too many people. Too many lives depend on us. We cannot... we cannot think only of ourselves.”

“We must find a way to prevent more families from losing their loved ones. The pain of losing family... it’s unbearable. I don’t want my own past to repeat itself in others.”

“Heh, fine then. At least we’re not torn apart anymore. If that scholar Lu can do it, how can we not be able to match his worthless self?”

———

Gurgle, gurgle. In a kitchen, boiling water continuously cooked stones in a pot. A man wearing a white cloth over his head carefully fed wood into the stove.

When Hu Biao, following routine, poked the stones with chopsticks, his expression instantly lit up with excitement—the stones were truly softening!

Grandpa Shidu had said, if you soften the stones and eat them, they cure all diseases and lead to immortality!

“Father! Father!” Hu Biao rushed out with a ceramic jar full of the soft stones, excited.

But just as he stepped outside, he saw his senior brother approaching with a pot in hand.

Hu Biao quickly composed himself, carrying the softened stones back home.

But as they passed each other, Hu Biao caught sight of his senior brother, who suddenly raised his pot and smashed it against Hu Biao’s jar.

With the sound of shattered ceramic, the stone rolled onto the ground, soft and bouncy. This scene left his senior brother staring in disbelief.

“You! You actually did it! It’s really true!”

At these words, heads emerged from eaves, windows, and behind wooden doors—all filled with shock and longing, staring at the stone on the ground.

Hu Biao immediately grabbed the soft stone and reached for his mouth.

But a stone flew through the air, striking his head and sending blood splattering. The stone slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.

“Grab it!!” A voice echoed, turning all the cult believers’ eyes red with frenzy. They lunged at Hu Biao.

Faced with the chance to become immortal, former brothers turned enemies and slaughtered each other. The narrow alley soon turned into a sea of blood and death.

The soft stone changed hands repeatedly. Even after being eaten, others would tear open bellies and force it back into their mouths.

After two incense sticks burned, the alley was completely soaked in blood and littered with corpses. The two remaining survivors, both wounded, stared at each other. Hu Biao was among them.

He swayed unsteadily, muttering, “This is mine... this was clearly mine…”

Meanwhile, Li Huowang stood atop the eaves, watching the tragedy unfold below. The stones couldn’t actually be softened—this was merely Li Huowang’s plan.

When he saw the last person swallow the fake stone without gaining immortality, and watched the despair and collapse in his face, a smile appeared on Li Huowang’s lips.

It truly felt good to deceive others—especially one's enemies.

Feeling the non-gang energy flooding into his body, Li Huowang nodded in satisfaction and leaped down, kicking the man’s head apart.

Only now did Li Huowang understand why the Seat-Forget Sect could fool so many. Even if the non-gang energy they tricked away was minimal, when accumulated, it still counted.

Moreover, some experts of the Seat-Forget Sect even enjoyed setting traps. As long as they maintained the illusion, the flow of non-gang energy could be steady and continuous, like a spring.

Traps could be complex or simple. Sometimes, just a single rumor was enough. The “shrinkage” scam he had encountered years ago was one such trap from the Seat-Forget Sect.

Compared to the growing non-gang energy inside him, Li Huowang realized that his inner transformation mattered more.

In the past, he couldn’t distinguish truth from falsehood. But with more and more deceptions, he finally began to perceive the real from the false.

The Seat-Forget Sect often lost its sincerity in the process of deception, believing everything was fake.

Honor, righteousness, integrity, and shame were all lies. Family, friends—even oneself—could be illusions.

If everything was fake, then there were no boundaries to what one could do.

Cultivating the false instead of the true could easily lead to madness. But cultivating the true instead of the false could also lead to the same fate.

(End of Chapter)