Estranged

The edge of the abyss was not the end of it, but the beginning.

Yun Weisi saw light.

Dazzling light fell upon his eyelids, which made his eyes sting.

He opened his eyes to see a tree casting ragged shadows above his head. Sunlight shone through its leaves, forcing him to blink.

It was so warm that anyone would have felt too lazy to move or think, and it did not feel real. There was something soft beneath him that creaked as he moved.

“What’s wrong, Silang? Can’t you get up after falling down?”

Si-lang: it might be YWS’s real name…

“Didn’t expect him to be such a wimp!”

“What’s there to be surprised about? After all, he’s the only son of the Yun family, so he’s usually pampered and adored by everyone. But isn’t it time for him to get up?”

“Stop talking, he isn’t moving at all. Call the teacher over before anyone gets into trouble!”

“I can’t call the teacher over! He’ll tell on us as soon as he gets up!”

They all kept talking noisily at the same time right next to his ear, and he could not even rest for a bit because of this clamor. It finally irritated him to the point that he jumped up suddenly and shouted—

“Knock it off!”

The youngsters shut up immediately and stared at him in bewilderment.

One of them took two steps forward and asked him with difficulty: “You… you’re still alive?”

He answered impatiently: “Who would die from falling off a tree? Let’s throw you down one and see how it goes!”

As he was saying this, he grabbed the front of the young man’s jacket. Frightened by his fierce behavior, the young man shook his head, and the others dispersed noisily.

Someone was reading out loud in the distance. An angry shout could be discerned: “Where are Yun Silang and Zhou Shiqi? Are they skipping classes again?!”

Yun Weisi was a bit perplexed.

He knew that he was thirteen at this moment, the young master of the illustrious Yun family. He enjoyed his life to the fullest, and spent his days playing on streets. When it came to rich young men squandering their money as if it were dirt, everyone would think of Yun Weisi. Everyone in the city said that young master Yun had a terrible reputation. The young master of the Cong family had an eidetic memory and was talented, so he was bound to succeed in the future. Meanwhile, the spiritual root of the young master of the Zhang family was so good that he had been taken away by a master of cultivation when he was little, and everyone believed that he would be able to ascend to immortality. It was only this Yun Weisi, this Yun Silang, who was obviously just a rich youngster who behaved unscrupulously.

Yun Weisi was fully aware of the rumors about him that circulated throughout the capital. He also knew that as long as the Yun family was there, Yun Silang could live as he wished. No one could force him to do anything, and no one dared to mess with him.

At the same time, he was clear that this was just a memory from his past. This was a minor detail, something he could not even recall on purpose. This did not exist anymore.

He felt as if he had split into two parts: one half of him was reliving this scene which was familiar and alien at the same time, while the other was watching all this from the sidelines. He seemed to know what would happen next, but at the same time he felt as if he could not predict it.

This was different from the illusions he had experienced in the Nine Layers of the Abyss, and his spiritual senses were not warning him of danger. He was sure that whatever that had caused these memories to resurface was not malicious.

If Luomei or some demons were not responsible, why would anyone do this?

“The teacher’s angry! Let me go right now!”

Zhou Shiqi freed himself from Yun Weisi’s grip and ran away as fast as he could, before quickly disappearing from Yun Weisi’s line of sight.

He should also return lest he be scolded by their teacher. That was what Yun Weisi thought as he followed Zhou Shiqi. However, it was obvious that his pace was much slower as he walked back leisurely. Their teacher caught him when he was halfway to class, and both he and Zhou Shiqi were sent outside the building to stand still there as punishment.

Zhou Shiqi kept grumbling: “This is all your fault! If you weren’t that slow, our teacher wouldn’t have caught us! I’m sure he’ll send someone to my home to tell them about this again!”

Their teacher complaining about their behavior was a common thing for both Zhou Shiqi and Yun Weisi. The difference was that the Zhou family was strict, but Zhou Shiqi was a slacker, which was a shame for them. His father used to scold him often for being disobedient. However, he had long since started regarding Zhou Shiqi as a worthless child that could not learn anything, so he left things as they were at some point.

Although Zhou Shiqi’s name was “seventeen”, it was not that his father had fourteen sons. He was seventeenth in the order of succession in the Zhou family. He had two older brothers, both of whom were talented, and it was only the youngest one who had ended up with this carefree temperament because he had been spoiled too much. His father decided that he could as well smash the cracked pot and place no hopes on his youngest son. As long as Zhou Shiqi committed no crimes, his father did not care.

Zhou Shiqi’s name was “seventeen”: shiqi is literally 14. Also a fun fact: this is Zhou Keyi’s “Zhou” (the surname is very popular)

Smash the cracked pot: stop trying to correct your mistakes

The friendship between the Yun family and the Zhou family had spanned generations. Ancestors of the two families were united by marriage, so they had a blood connection, albeit a distant one. Despite this, it could be said that while Zhou Shiqi and Yun Weisi did not exactly hate each other, they had also disliked each other since they were children. The Yun family spoiled Yun Weisi more than the Zhou family cherished their son. Yun Weisi’s parents only had one child, and they never set strict demands for him, so Yun Weisi grew up as a profligate son of a rich family who acted as he wished. Fortunately, his parents were there to support him, so he was just a spoiled child who threw money around and did as he pleased to his heart’s content. Although he had an unflattering reputation in the capital, there were still girls who secretly admired his youthful confidence.

What happened to Zhou Shiqi afterwards?

Yun Weisi was lost in thoughts as he was listening to the young man’s complaints and looking at the students who were passing through the gates of their school on occasion.

The tragedy of the Yun family had affected the Zhou family as well. The head of the family and his sons were all demoted and transferred to a remote place. As a result, the entire family was forced to leave the capital and follow them there. Yun Weisi fled far away from his home and had struggled to survive alone, all while being surrounded by enemies. He was always covered in bruises and was never sure whether he would live to see tomorrow. However, in the end, he was accepted by the Yuhuang Temple and embarked on the unending pursuit of immortality.

From that day on, the two childhood companions had parted ways. Yun Weisi never looked for Zhou Shiqi, but his old friends from the capital constantly supplied him with rumors.

They told him that the world was in chaos because of uprisings, and the quiet and peaceful days of the Zhou family had come to an end. The head of the Zhou family was captured and executed by rebels. In a fit of rage, Zhou Shiqi joined the state military to avenge his father with imperial forces, but was killed in the war just a few days after he enlisted. The collateral branch of the Zhou family in the capital did not meet a good end either. The ruling dynasty was living out its days, while different factions in the government were fighting to death. One could rise to power after treading on the bodies of others one day, and be overthrown and die, nameless and forgotten, the next. The Zhou family was among such people.

The teacher who was reprimanding them now became a court official later, but a treacherous court official occupied the post above him. The teacher displeased his superiors with his outspokenness and was beaten to death with a cane as punishment. Although his reputation was clear, he was no longer mentioned by anyone after these troubled times had passed. After his death, his wife was sold into the musical institution of the court, while his daughter was abducted by human traffickers. His family, which was once stable and quiet, had now disintegrated.

As for the Yun family…

Cicadas were constantly screaming in his ears, creating an unexpectedly harmonious noise alongside Zhou Shiqi’s chatter. Strangely, Yun Weisi thought that the scene before his eyes was beautiful in its serenity. Was it too late to stop everything from happening?

This thought suddenly appeared in his mind.

In a moment, the question was actually answered—

“There’s still time.”

Yun Weisi trembled, as if he had finally come to his senses.

This was his shizun’s voice!

There was no one around him except for Zhou Shiqi, and the voice seemed to come from the depth of the sea of his consciousness, as if their spiritual souls were coexisting.

“Where are you?”

“I’m with you, but at the same time I’m not here,” his shizun said.

His voice showed that he was no longer confused like before, so as soon as Yun Weisi heard it, he knew that Jiufang Changming’s memories had returned to him.

Even though the amnesiac Jiufang Changming was cute, Yun Weisi liked the original better. No matter whether he was strong or weak, he was always firm and resolute. But the current situation was not appropriate for celebrating their reunion. Yun Weisi desperately wanted to know what was going on and what had happened after he brought Jiufang Changming back to the guest house.

“What do you mean?”

“The battle with Luomei allowed me to make a breakthrough.”

“This is not an illusion?”

“This is the past.”

“I don’t understand.”

“There was a profound truth hidden in the Liuhe Zhutian Formation. I’m afraid that even Chi Bijiang didn’t comprehend it. Back then, she set the formation up with Luomei and chose six pillars to create the formation above the entire world. Once triggered, the earth and the sky would be turned upside down. But two of the six pillars happened to be close to the places where yin mixes with yang, and the seed of chaos was sown in them, so the pillars switched. When I was in grave danger, my spiritual soul returned to the past, and through the insight I gained, I had a breakthrough.”

How far did he progress with this insightful breakthrough?

Yun Weisi frowned.

Before the battle on the Sacred Mountain Wan, Jiufang Changming was already the strongest in the world. He was beyond the grandmaster level, one step away from ascension, just like Luomei in the past. Decades had passed. Even though his wounds constantly tortured him, his outstanding ability to comprehend everything and his vast knowledge were still with him. If he said that he had a breakthrough, that could only mean—

Ascension?

But Luomei told them with confidence that no one in this world had ever ascended through cultivation, and becoming an immortal was but a tale that was circulated through their society for generations.

Could it be that Luomei was wrong?

Jiufang Changming guessed his thoughts: “What Luomei understood as ascension was leaving for another realm, something like the Western Paradise of Buddhism, a realm that is full of geniuses that never grow old and suffer, a realm that has spiritual plants and panaceas scattered all over. When his cultivation reached a plateau, he was quick to blame other people and said that the world itself was flawed.”

“I used to think the same way,” Yun Weisi said.

Jiufang Changming seemed to laugh, and Yun Weisi could immediately imagine him smiling, which made his mind wander.

“The Great Dao is boundless. His path could not get him anywhere, but how could he be sure that all other paths are closed as well? I kept thinking of what he said about how there are no deities in the heavens. Why deities? In the end, deities would not appear out of thin air. In the eyes of the commoners, cultivators are also like immortals. Deities are creatures that cultivators think to be the superior form of existence.”

“That’s right.”

“Since that’s the case, why would deities necessarily dwell in this other realm of paradise? Can’t the deities be future versions of us?”

Yun Weisi froze.

These words hit him like a hammer, breaking the barrier in front of him and dispersing his delusions like the rising sun dispersing the mist.

“I’ve never thought of something like this.”

Jiufang Changming’s words were no less impactful than a Buddhist sutra as they opened another path for the cultivators of this world.

Yun Weisi’s perceptiveness was inferior to no one else, so he could immediately comprehend the truth behind what was being said.

“So you can go to the past or the future as you wish?”

“Correct,” Jiufang Changming’s voice was full of smiles. He knew that Yun Weisi had understood his words completely.

In his whole life, there was only one person who could immediately understand what he meant—Yun Weisi.

Yun Weisi fell silent.

Now it was obvious why his shizun said that Luomei’s path was wrong. What these two had comprehended through their Dao was completely different, and different roads lead to different outcomes.

After Jiufang Changming had a breakthrough, in the eyes of the public, he had turned into a real immortal.

But he was still a living person of flesh and blood.

Then what about me?

Yun Weisi thought, Jiufang Changming, do you want to leave me?

“Actually, I gained this insight thanks to you. I know that your past gnaws at your mind. Now, you have a real chance to get rid of this knot. Yun Weisi, there is time to change everything. Go.”

As soon as Jiufang Changming stopped talking, a hand patted him on his shoulder!

“Why’re you standing there? Can’t you see that our teacher is trembling with rage!” Zhou Shiqi whispered in his ear.

Yun Weisi suddenly realized that the conversation he had had with his shizun in the sea of his consciousness only lasted for a short moment for Zhou Shiqi and the world around him.

He had really gone back to the past when he was thirteen years old. Nothing bad had happened yet, and there was time to save everything.

So what should he do?