My Master’s Daoist Heart is Unstable - Chapter 8

Dian Chao’s eyes snapped open. Large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and into his eyes. He raised a hand and rubbed them vigorously before he could finally see his surroundings clearly, he was still trapped in the ancestral hall.

He only vaguely remembered a faint voice guiding him forward. He had followed the voice, taking several steps before finally realizing he was caught in an illusion.

“Are you awake?”

Li Shangyuan’s heart finally settled. He quickly explained the current situation, then frowned as he looked at the formation—the silver-white barrier was covered in spiderweb-like cracks and was trembling violently.

“The restriction outside is connected to the earth veins here, causing the ground to crack and mountains to collapse. Are you sure you can get everyone out?”

Dian Chao surveyed the cracked ground around them, his expression solemn. “It should be possible, but to evacuate everyone, one trip won’t be enough. I’ll need to make at least five round trips.”

Li Shangyuan’s heart sank. The formation wouldn’t hold for that long.

Bai Yu leaned silently against the wall, his gaze sweeping over every beam, pillar, and tile of the ancestral hall. He said softly, “Immortal Master, please save the townspeople first.”

Seeing Dian Chao look over, Li Shangyuan nodded. “I’ll stay here.” With his cultivation level, going along would only be a hindrance.

Li Shangyuan drew the last few array flags from his sleeve and handed them to Dian Chao. “These can temporarily stabilize the array eye. Once you’re inside, jam this into the eye to buy us a few more hours.”

He then turned to Bai Yu. “Miss, let my junior brother take you out first.”

Bai Yu, as if she hadn’t heard him, murmured, “The restriction seals all spiritual power. Once it senses a living being, the ground will crack open… You must be extremely careful.”

Li Shangyuan hadn’t expected the restriction to be so cunningly designed. Fortunately, Dian Chao’s Earth Escape Technique could be performed without spiritual power.

“Don’t worry,” Li Shangyuan reassured her gently. “My junior brother should be fine. You should leave with him for now. After all, Huanshu’s long-held wish…”

“To hell with his damn wish!” Bai Yu snapped, her eyes glistening with tears and fierce resolve. “Did he ever ask if I wanted to bear this burden? If we delay any longer, we might as well all be buried here together!”

Dian Chao, seeing the situation, didn’t bother arguing. He glanced at Li Shangyuan and threw out a final word, “Wait for me. Don’t you dare die!”

With that, he sank into the earth.

Only one man and one demon remained in the ancestral hall. The cracks in the barrier spread like creeping vines, and the sound of shattering grew louder.

“Immortal Master, this town isn’t actually called Zuxian Town,” Bai Yu said, her gaze drifting past the empty altar as if seeing a distant past. “Its original name was Wangyou Town.”

Li Shangyuan turned his head to listen quietly.

“The stone statue on the altar is Caizhi’s mother, and my master. She was the one who built Wangyou Town,” Bai Yu’s voice was as soft as a dream. “At first, we were just a group of demons being hunted by cultivators. Master took us in, and she also welcomed displaced mortals.”

Li Shangyuan didn’t ask where the statue was, because the stone tablet outside the town had already provided the answer.

Before entering the town, he had noticed that the stone tablet was made of the same material as the altar’s edge.

Li Shangyuan understood instantly. No wonder the wooden houses in town were impervious to wind and rain, for they were homes built from the tree demon’s own disassembled branches. Every tile, every beam, was an extension of her flesh and blood.

Bai Yu recounted the story word by word, her voice abruptly cutting off. Her expression shifted from the initial nostalgia to deep regret.

“That day, I encountered two severely injured cultivators outside the town. Seeing their life force fading, I couldn’t bear to leave them… so I brought them back.” Bai Yu paused, a low laugh escaping her, though it was laced with tears. “Why did I suddenly have to be so damnably kind? If only I hadn’t acted on that single, impulsive thought…”

Her voice trailed off, dissolving into a sob.

Li Shangyuan remained silent for a moment before speaking softly. “Miss Bai Yu, when you reached out to help, you were following the utmost goodness in human nature. These two cultivators, however, were following its deepest evil. Good and evil merely met at a crossroads of fate through your choice, but their trajectories were never determined by that initial act of kindness. Evil has its own roots, long dormant, and it simply happened to encounter your goodness along the way.”

His gaze shifted, his expression softening as if recalling a certain figure. “If we negate the original intent of kindness because of an evil outcome, who in this world would ever dare to be the first to light a candle?”

Bai Yu turned her head sharply.

Moonlight streamed through the window, falling upon his green robes. It didn’t diminish his composure but instead bathed his sharp features in a soft glow, lending him a divine, compassionate aura.

She chewed over his words, a wave of grief washing over her. She sobbed, “They… he wasn’t like this at first. He was a good person. But after the day he returned from gathering the spiritual herb for Caizhi, who had suffered a cultivation deviation, both of them changed completely. I don’t understand why. Are you cultivators always so fickle?”

Li Shangyuan’s gaze pierced through the crumbling barrier, fixed on another silver light that had suddenly flared in the distance.

His voice was as deep and still as water. “Perhaps it’s not that they’ve changed, but that the ’cause’—the choice they’ve held in their hearts all along, has finally met the ‘effect’ of countless small decisions. A single thought, a single difference, is enough to change everything.”

Bai Yu’s expression froze, as if he half-understood but couldn’t quite grasp the words.

In the world of demons, there was only following one’s heart and the single-mindedness that followed.

The barrier was on the verge of shattering. Li Shangyuan’s palms grew damp with sweat.

“Immortal Master, do you know? When I first saw you, I felt your eyes were just like my master’s,” Bai Yu said, suddenly meeting his gaze with a gentle smile. “So clear, so full of soft light.”

“I’m sorry… We only meant to capture you to take your talismans and magical artifacts to deal with them. We never intended to kill you.” If they hadn’t bound the Immortal Master first, he would never have been dragged into this disaster.

Boom—!

The barrier shattered.

Bai Yu abruptly unfurled his wings, wrapping them tightly around Li Shangyuan to shield him.

A familiar sense of helplessness washed over Li Shangyuan.

It was like before, like throwing stones into a deep, deep well countless times, waiting a long, long time for the dull thud of them hitting the bottom.

The drop was so great that the echo had faded away before it ever reached his ears.

His cultivation was as minuscule as dust, making even this feeling of helplessness seem light, so light he could hear every sigh in his master’s heart.

Suddenly, the thin wisp of spiritual energy deep within his Dantian trembled.

On a hill outside the town, two figures looked down impassively at the collapsed walls and ruined houses, waiting for the place to be utterly leveled.

“Huh? Is that… a formation?” the Tall and Thin Cultivator asked, pointing at two silver-white circles of light in the town center, his expression complicated.

“Hah, just a desperate struggle,” the Fat Cultivator sneered. “It won’t hold for long. Just you wait and see.”

Seeing his hesitation, the Fat Cultivator glanced sideways, catching the trace of pity the other man couldn’t quite hide.

“Soft-hearted, are we? You’re getting soft now? Did you suddenly remember how those ignorant commoners and those two demons saved our lives?”

The Fat Cultivator’s voice dripped with mockery. “What’s the matter? Weren’t you the first one to agree to his terms back then? Now you want to play the hero? Go ahead! Go repay their kindness!”

The accusations hit like a hammer to the chest, making the Tall and Thin Cultivator stumble backward.

Suddenly, he squeezed his eyes shut, steadied his footing, and gritted his teeth. “Big Brother, stop… The die is cast. I will not turn back.”

Only then did the Fat Cultivator look away, his face darkening as he turned back to stare at the town.

“Excuse me, is that Zuxian Town down there?”

A clear, gentle voice rang out. The two cultivators spun around in horror, stunned that they hadn’t sensed him approach at all.

The newcomer wore a simple silver robe and carried himself with an effortless grace. His eyes held a soft, shimmering light, and a faint smile played on his lips.

Suppressing his alarm, the Fat Cultivator clasped his hands in greeting. “May I ask who you are?”

“Oh, just passing through,” Chen Miao replied.

The two cultivators exchanged a silent look. Passing through again?

Chen Miao’s gaze swept over the scene below—the ground splitting, buildings collapsing, and the two silver-white formations. “What’s happening? What’s going on down there?”

The two cultivators shook their heads in unison, completely clueless.

“I see,” Chen Miao said, nodding slightly, his gentle smile still in place. “Then I won’t stay.”

Before they could react, a sudden, explosive pain tore through their Dantians. In an instant, they vanished into nothingness.

Chen Miao’s eyes flickered toward the storage bags floating in the air. “Oh?” he murmured. With a flick of his sleeve, he swept one of the cultivation manuals into his robe.

Just then, one of the formations in the town shattered with a thunderous crash.

Chen Miao raised a finger and tapped the air.

Li Shangyuan braced for the sensation of falling, but it never came. The deafening sound of the ground shattering abruptly ceased, and the night returned to its silent stillness.

“Just in time, it seems.”

The newcomer stood against the backdrop of the moon, a pale green jade flute at his waist shimmering in the moonlight.

“Eh? A demon?”

Hearing the words, Bai Yu flinched and hurriedly hid behind Li Shangyuan. His unretracted wings remained spread, making it look as if Li Shangyuan himself had suddenly sprouted wings.

Li Shangyuan immediately understood that the man before him had extended a helping hand. He bowed formally and said gratefully, “Thank you for your assistance, Fellow Daoist.”

“It was just a coincidence. I was merely testing the power of a newly acquired magical artifact.” Chen Miao opened his palm, revealing a dim copper tripod resting within. “Unfortunately, it’s a single-use item, and I’ve spent its entire power saving you.”

Li Shangyuan’s expression turned solemn. “I am Fu Wei. How can I ever repay you for saving my life? As long as it doesn’t violate righteousness or defy the laws of heaven, I will do my utmost to assist you.”

As Chen Miao watched the outline of the wings behind the man twitch unconsciously as he spoke, he found it strangely endearing.

He smiled warmly. “Your name has a lovely poetic quality. I am Chen Miao. Let’s leave this place first, and we can discuss the rest in detail.” With the surrounding land so devastated, he really didn’t want to linger.

Li Shangyuan had no objections and looked at Bai Yu.

Bai Yu immediately nodded. Now that she had survived, she was determined to get her revenge.

But as he looked at the cracked ground, which left him with no place to set foot, Li Shangyuan momentarily didn’t know how to land.

Chen Miao stood on his Natal Sword, his eyes filled with confusion. “Daoist, what is this?”

Li Shangyuan rubbed his nose sheepishly. “I… am not yet skilled at sword riding.”

“M-my wings can’t fly high, and I can’t carry anyone…” Bai Yu weakly added.

Chen Miao seemed not to have expected it, and his expression gradually became surprised. With a light laugh, he turned his gaze to the Thousand-layered Array that was on the verge of collapse but still held firm, and praised, “Cultivation level is mostly determined by natural talent, but talent is not like this. Daoist is indeed extremely talented in formations.”

The most ordinary Trapping Array, yet it withstood the ancient restriction for several hours, which is indeed beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Li Shangyuan’s ears grew slightly hot. Few people had praised him so bluntly. Even in the formation class, True Person Xumi only vaguely expressed his approval; as for his Master… it was mostly encouragement and comfort.

“Come up.” Chen Miao reached out his hand, his well-defined fingers like a piece of moist white jade under the moonlight, “I’ll take you with me.”

Li Shangyuan froze for a moment, his gaze lingering on that hand for a second. He had never shared a sword with anyone. Even his Master had never taken him to ride the wind.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally grasped that hand, borrowed its strength to step onto the sword body, the touch was warm and moist, yet as steady as a rock.

Once Li Shangyuan found his footing, Chen Miao naturally withdrew his hand and turned to Bai Yu. “And this…”

“Her name is Bai Yu,” Li Shangyuan answered softly, stepping aside to give Chen Miao a better view.

Before Chen Miao could speak again, Bai Yu fluttered her wings and said, “Immortal Masters, please don’t worry. I can keep up.”

Chen Miao nodded, his gaze sweeping over the devastated town. “Is there a convenient place to regroup outside town?”

“The broken temple,” Li Shangyuan and Bai Yu said in unison.

A faint smile touched Chen Miao’s lips. “Good.”

Li Shangyuan then produced a sound transmission talisman. He tapped the paper with his fingertip, whispered a few words, and let it dissolve into a stream of light.

“I’m informing my junior brother, lest he return and find no one,” he explained.

“Mhm,” Chen Miao replied softly, his sword already beginning to rise slowly.

The night wind ruffled the loose strands of hair at his temples. The pale blue ribbon at the end of his ponytail fluttered, nearly brushing Li Shangyuan’s chin.

“Hold on tight,” he said, turning his head, his voice softer than the breeze.

Li Shangyuan immediately reached out, instinctively wanting to wrap his arm around the other’s waist. But as his gaze fell on the slender waist cinched tight by the belt, he suddenly hesitated for some reason. His fingers curled, and he gripped Chen Miao’s shoulder instead.

Sure enough, it was just as lean and bony as he’d expected.

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