Sunlight streamed straight through the window, stamping a square-shaped golden pattern onto the floor. The injuries on Li Jingsheng’s back had healed considerably, and his fever had finally broken. Sitting up lazily, he stared blankly at the flower-and-bird patterned folding screen before him.
The more he pondered it, the less he understood, so he woke Xiao Yu up to analyze the dream’s plot together.
Yet Xiao Yu seemed unusually sleepy today, listless no matter how many times he called out.
Most importantly, it actually refrained from chewing him out for waking it up!
Recalling Mo Yu’s attitude toward him, he couldn’t help wondering if he possessed some sort of hyper-receptive constitution.
How was it that everyone’s tolerance for him was so surprisingly good?
Of course, that was just a passing thought before he got down to business, recounting his dream to Xiao Yu. Only then did Xiao Yu display a shred of interest.
“I dreamed at the very beginning that I was a child. Someone was holding my hand, and he said I came from Penglai Mountain.”
Hearing this, Xiao Yu looked as though it had thoroughly woken up. It flickered its feathered tail, sidled up right in front of Li Jingsheng’s face, and asked, “And then?”
Seeing Xiao Yu acting so impatient, Li Jingsheng assumed it knew something and continued sharing: “That person said, ‘Once you leave Penglai Mountain, you must call me Master, so he must definitely be my Master.'”
“Penglai Mountain, the name alone sounds like a place where immortals thrive.”
He said with narcissism: “Could there be some hidden plotline?”
“For instance, am I some peerless immortal from Penglai Mountain whose origins were lost to the world?”
Before he could finish daydreaming, Xiao Yu cut him off: “Impossible. Penglai Mountain disappeared ages ago.”
“Huh?”
Hearing this, Li Jingsheng looked rather disappointed: “And here I thought I was some sort of worldly expert?”
His curiosity piqued, he tilted his head and asked Xiao Yu: “What kind of place is Penglai Mountain? When did it disappear? How did it vanish?”
Hearing his rapid-fire questions, Xiao Yu completely abandoned its usual habit of claiming ignorance and began recounting the tale in detail: “Legend has it that Penglai Mountain was where immortals lived. Cut off from the mortal realm and surrounded by the sea on all sides, it was perpetually shrouded in mist, with spring-like weather all year round. It was a true paradise on earth. But during the great refining calamity, the entire divine clan was wiped out to save all living souls.”
At this point, Xiao Yu seemed rather depressed, its voice involuntarily dropping a notch: “After the divine clan perished, Penglai Mountain vanished according to the legends, but no one has ever discovered the reason why it disappeared.”
Whether due to Li Jingsheng’s overly strong empathy, hearing Xiao Yu’s explanation made his chest feel inexplicably tight.
It felt as though those stories were somehow connected to him.
He gave his face a couple of light pats to snap himself awake.
How could those events possibly have anything to do with him?
Setting aside the fact that he was a transmigrator, even if he were a native local, with his amateur-hour skill level, there was simply no way he could ever be tied to the divine clan!
After a brief internal pep talk, he continued questioning Xiao Yu: “I also dreamed of a child whom I seemed to call Xiao Man. The kid seemed very close to me and even called me Senior Brother.”
As he spoke, he felt a creeping sense of dread.
Calling him Senior Brother, that would mean either Mo Yu or Chu Wen. But the crucial point was that neither of them was close to him at all!
They were practically at the stage where enemies meeting would ignite mutual hatred on sight.
Xiao Yu pulled his racing thoughts back in time: “Stop thinking about it. Neither of them is named Xiao Man.”
Recovering his wits, he scratched his head awkwardly: “Oh right, that makes sense.”
Prompted by this, Li Jingsheng suddenly noticed that Xiao Yu’s intelligence seemed to have been firing on all cylinders today.
He stroked Xiao Yu’s feathered tail and praised it: “Who would have thought you would be so smart today?”
Xiao Yu continued rubbing against his finger as if trying to draw something from it, snapping back: “I have always been smart, okay?”
Hearing that, Li Jingsheng curled his lips, unusually choosing not to argue.
“Hey, then what about those memories? They could not possibly belong to someone else, right?”
Hearing him speak thus, Xiao Yu adopted an inscrutable tone: “Not necessarily. Since you transmigrated over, perhaps you simply pilfered someone else’s memories.”
Li Jingsheng remained somewhat skeptical: “Still, I even dreamed of the final tragic state of the immortal realm. Could this person be from the immortal realm as well?”
Xiao Yu continued hedging its bets: “Maybe so.”
It brushed against Li Jingsheng’s face, making his skin itch: “Forget it, stop thinking about it. Anyway, those memories have nothing to do with us; we just need to follow the plot.”
“Besides, given our brainpower, we will not figure anything out anyway, and it will just give us a headache.”
Li Jingsheng never expected his intelligence would one day be roasted by a single feather.
What was even more infuriating was that the creature made a valid point, leaving him utterly speechless.
He struggled to stammer out an “I, I, I,” but failing to form a coherent thought, he simply conceded defeat.
Fine, his brainpower genuinely could not crack this.
Having sat for too long, Li Jingsheng collapsed facedown onto the bed again, while Xiao Yu settled onto his pillow. Having learned his lesson from the bursting talisman incident, he deeply realized that the original novel he had read was definitely an abridged version! He asked: “So what do we do next?”
Hearing this question, Xiao Yu floated back up, circled around him, and said: “There is a martial arts tournament coming up soon, and you need to secretly sign Mo Yu up for it.”
Li Jingsheng thought about it. Such a plot point definitely existed in the original book, serving as an important turning point for the protagonist.
Because the protagonist’s Heavenly Spiritual Root awakened during the martial arts tournament. In the preliminary rounds, Mo Yu narrowly scraped through to a victory using talismans, but he also sustained heavy injuries.
By the time the secondary rounds arrived, everyone spectated with the mindset of watching a joke, only for the protagonist to experience his fifteenth birthday right after the prelims, shattering his spiritual seals and awakening his Heavenly Spiritual Root. He directly seized first place in the tournament and achieved overnight fame.
This also kicked off the protagonist’s journey of immortal cultivation, growing progressively stronger all the way, slapping the faces of those who mocked him and exacting revenge on those who had bullied him.
Recalling that he was among the ranks of those who bullied Mo Yu, Li Jingsheng’s mood dipped slightly.
Without dwelling on it further, he turned to ask Xiao Yu: “Do I need to sign up for this martial arts tournament myself?”
After pondering for a moment, Xiao Yu replied: “Sign up. After all, given the original host’s personality, he certainly would not pass up such an opportunity to show off.”
Resting his chin in his hand, Li Jingsheng thought it over and nodded in agreement: “True.”
Thanks to Mo Yu’s meticulous care, Li Jingsheng’s injuries healed within a week, and he bounced right back to his energetic self.
Yet, while marveling at his speedy recovery, he also reflected deeply on Mo Yu’s attitude toward him.
Despite how badly he had bullied the boy previously, the other person bore no grudge, did not kick him while he was down when injured, and instead took meticulous care of him.
Li Jingsheng couldn’t help marveling once more that the protagonist truly lived up to his name; that breadth of mind was something else, and his patience was incredible.
He asked himself honestly: if someone who bullied him every single day fell sick and collapsed right in front of him, not kicking them while they were down would already be charitable, as there was zero chance he would meticulously care for them.
With that thought, he mentally gave Mo Yu a silent thumbs-up.
The sign-up period for the martial arts tournament arrived as scheduled. Those wishing to participate needed to travel to Ziyang Mountain of the Qingyu Sect to collect a registration talisman.
One had to write their name on the registration talisman and burn it using spiritual power for the registration to succeed, and each person was restricted to claiming only a single registration talisman.
Naturally, someone with a discarded spiritual root like Mo Yu had no business signing up, but villains loved to make things deliberately difficult.
Li Jingsheng thought to himself: Good thing this is the protagonist; if it were any ordinary supporting character bullied this way, they probably wouldn’t survive three chapters.
Lost in wild imagination, Li Jingsheng arrived unawares at Ziyang Mountain of the Qingyu Sect. Xiao Yu had long since morphed into a red-and-white bracelet clamped around his wrist.
Glancing at the plaque of the Qingyu Sect, Li Jingsheng rubbed Xiao Yu with a guilty conscience, let out a soft sigh, and stepped inside.
A massive crowd had gathered to register for the tournament, and the main hall was packed with disciples from various sects. Inevitably, the moment Li Jingsheng raised his eyes, he locked gazes with Xifeng.
He raised a hand and offered the other a smile, upon which Xifeng’s expression darkened as he stalked off in the opposite direction.
Finding Xifeng’s thwarted expression immensely amusing, Li Jingsheng had barely finished savoring it when he spotted Jin Yunhao walking over from the side.
He hurriedly raised his hands in a greeting: “Eldest Senior Brother.”
Jin Yunhao approached, patted him on the shoulder, and offered initial greetings: “Junior Brother, how is your back?”
With a smile, Li Jingsheng responded: “Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother. The injuries on my back are already fully healed.”
A warm smile graced Jin Yunhao’s face as he spoke in exceedingly gentle tones: “That is good to hear. Did you come here today to sign up for the martial arts tournament as well?”
Li Jingsheng answered: “Indeed. I did not claim the top spot last year, so I want to give it another try this year.”
The words contained a hint of lingering regret combined with fighting spirit.
They struck all the right chords with Jin Yunhao, who pulled a registration talisman from his sleeve and handed it to Li Jingsheng: “Junior Brother, having fighting spirit is a good thing. I look forward to hearing good news from you this year.”
Accepting the registration talisman, Li Jingsheng maintained an obliging front: “Certainly.”
Though internally he was thinking: Good news is out of the question; the protagonist is waiting to shine and flex this year.
After taking the talisman, Li Jingsheng didn’t leave immediately; he lingered until he had chatted Jin Yunhao away before turning around to head back to the registration desk to claim a second one.
Gazing at the two talismans in his hand, he figured he hadn’t completely let down Jin Yunhao’s expectations, since the talisman the senior brother handed him was indeed meant for registering a top contender.
By the time Li Jingsheng returned to Qize Mountain, it was the hour of the dog. While not exceptionally late, the sky had grown mostly dark. He assumed Mo Yu and the others must have gone to sleep long ago.
To his surprise, when he reached the front of his quarters, lights were glowing brightly inside.
For reasons unknown, a soft warmth seemed to melt across his heart.
In his original world, having grown up in an orphanage without any particularly close friends, he had lived alone as an adult. Returning home meant walking into pitch-black rooms where nobody ever left a light on for him.
The illumination spilling out from the room bathed his front, warming him down to his bones.
Walking toward his room and reaching the wooden steps outside, the person inside seemed to sense his approach and opened the door. Raising his head, he collided straight with Mo Yu’s deep, fathomless eyes.
Bathing in the indoor light, Li Jingsheng smiled on an impulse, uttering a line he had long wished to say to an empty room but never had: “I am back.”
Good thing I finally said it out loud.