All Beings Will Save Me [Mythology Crossover] - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Nezha!”

“Nezha!”

“Soul, return to me!”

Starting from half an hour ago, such voices had been repeatedly ringing in his ears, with a persistent posture as if they could keep shouting until the end of time.

Jiang Ganqing let out a sigh.

“Are you not going to answer?” he asked toward the side. “They have been calling you from outside for a long time.”

This was a dark, boundless void of space. A tiny source of light struck from an unknown direction, barely casting a small spot of light on the ground.

Jiang Ganqing sat right in the center of that light spot, while the person he spoke to was merely a young child of six or seven years old. He wore a red belly-apron embroidered with lotuses, and his hair was tied into two small buns with red string on top of his head. Currently, he sat at the very edge of the light spot with his hands encircling his knees, most of his body hidden in the darkness, making him difficult to see clearly.

But just by the little bit of light striking the child, one could vaguely see that upon his slender neck, there was clearly a very deep, very long scar that almost traversed his entire neck—long enough to have cut the head off.

Just looking at it this way was enough for one to imagine what a treacherous scene it must have been when this penetrating wound was created.

“…Do I need to answer?”

A long, long time passed—long enough that Jiang Ganqing began to wonder if the child was a mute—before he heard the child’s tiny, uncertain voice drift over.

It didn’t sound like he was conversing with Jiang Ganqing, but more like the child was talking to himself.

“Why not answer?” Jiang Ganqing asked. “Someone is calling your soul. If you answer, you can leave this narrow gap between life and death and regain your life.”

Unexpectedly, upon hearing Jiang Ganqing’s words, the child let out a laugh.

“Do you see this wound?” he said. “I cut it myself.”

“I died by my own hand.”

The child said to himself: “My name is Nezha, and I committed a great error. To avoid implicating the common people, I slit my own throat to apologize, settling all hatred and grudges with my own life so there was no need to involve others.”

Jiang Ganqing processed the amount of information in Nezha’s words: “But since the grudges are cleared and you have the chance to be born anew, why not return your soul?”

Nezha gave a ‘Ha’: “So what if I answer? I imagine there is no one left who wishes for me to live!”

He said these words with ruthless finality, carrying a sense of malevolence within them.

“I originally had a chance to return to life, but my father regarded me as a singular humiliation and a great disgrace, and he forcibly cut off my last spark of life. My physical body is already dead. Even if I go back now, I would be nothing more than a non-human dead thing, nor would I receive anyone’s expectations or welcome—”

Nezha said viciously: “Then why should I have the thick skin to take that second life! One way or another, since the moment I was born, I was not an existence that was looked forward to. Now, I can satisfy his wishes perfectly!”

Jiang Ganqing thought that he must be referring to his own father.

If this were in the past, Jiang Ganqing would never have meddled in such matters; but perhaps because he had stayed in this gap between life and death for too, too long, or perhaps because Nezha was truly young yet had encountered such a tragic fate that invited sighs of sorrow, Jiang Ganqing still advised him a bit.

“Then after you return to life, just never have any contact with your father again and live only for yourself. Wouldn’t that be fine?”

“No matter what the world outside is like, it must be better than this narrow gap of life and death where there is nothing.”

“I can’t do it! I can’t do it!” Nezha clutched his head and screamed, “Master said I am the Spirit Pearl, born to walk through this world and undergo a tribulation…”

He clenched his fists deathly tight, his fingernails piercing his palms, as fresh blood flowed down along his fingers.

“This body is destined to be connected to the Li family of Chentang Pass. Unless the day comes when I attain a position and am conferred as a God, completely severing all past ties, I cannot break it, I cannot cut it!”

“I cannot die, but I no longer want to be the son of that Li Jing, and I cannot endure until that day of Investiture!”

“So I will not answer! I do not want to answer, I am unwilling to answer, yet I cannot not answer!”

Nezha roared like this as if venting, but as if suddenly thinking of something, he abruptly raised his head and looked toward Jiang Ganqing.

“You said this is the narrow gap between life and death.” Nezha asked. “Then are you willing to answer this soul-calling for me, and live a life in the name of Nezha?”

This was truly something Jiang Ganqing had not considered.

“For me, there is naturally nothing impossible about it. It could even be considered a massive bargain for me.”

Jiang Ganqing had wandered in this gap for far, far too long—so long that he thought he would likely be corroded and worn away in this void of space until he finally dissipated completely between heaven and earth, fulfilling the wishes of those few people. Nezha’s appearance was an accident, and for him to propose such a suggestion was, to Jiang Ganqing, like a meat pie falling from the sky.

“It is good that you are willing!”

Nezha began to laugh. At this moment, he looked like he had a bit of the childishness a child of this age should have on his face.

He stood up, stretched out both hands, and pushed Jiang Ganqing with great force—clearly such a small child, yet this push felt as if it possessed the weight of a thousand jun, to the point that Jiang Ganqing could not struggle or resist at all.

“Then please—please live this life in place of Nezha! Be carefree, be uninhibited, and do the things you want to do according to your own will, so as not to betray the name of Nezha!”

“I am originally a Spirit Pearl from outside the world, why should I bow to the people of the world!”

His entire being began to burn, transforming within a ball of red fire into a fist-sized, radiantly colorful precious pearl that smashed into Jiang Ganqing’s body.

Jiang Ganqing only felt his body become heavy, and the narrow gap of life and death rose higher and higher before his eyes. He felt as if he had fallen into ten thousand feet of deep water, constantly sinking, until finally, at a certain moment, he abruptly surfaced—

In front of his eyes was a patch of light that was too piercing, jagged mountain rocks, and a green pond. Upon the surface of the pond, lotus leaves that seemed to touch the sky and lotuses reflecting the sun swayed with the wind. One side of the mountain cave was not sealed but was open to the top; through the cave opening, he could see the blue sky overhead.

This was scenery that Jiang Ganqing had not seen for several thousands of years.

He was almost greedily breathing the air. The palm of one hand felt a bit bumpy. Looking down, he discovered it was actually that Spirit Pearl that Nezha had finally transformed into.

But before Jiang Ganqing could look closely, he keenly heard a movement from the side. Jiang Ganqing quickly put the Spirit Pearl away and followed the sound with his gaze, seeing a Taoist dressed in a Taoist robe with a horsetail whisk resting in the crook of his arm.

“Why did I have to call so many times before you were willing to return? Are you still angry because I didn’t let you go find trouble with Li Jing?”

He used his finger to tap heavily on Nezha’s brow.

“Your physical body was destroyed, and restoration was completely hopeless, so I used lotus roots and lotuses to reshape your body for you. You, child, have a heavy killing nature. I hope the lotuses can suppress it slightly.”

Jiang Ganqing revealed a smile.

He heard himself answer: “I understand, Master.”

—He was Jiang Ganqing.

—In this life, he was also Nezha.

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