A Will Eternal · Chat

Inside a pavilion on Violet Cauldron Mountain, Xu Meixiang placed a stone onto the Go board and asked casually, "Peak Lord Li, has that mortal karmic tie of yours still not been settled?" Li Qinghou did not answer right away. Years ago, he had received a kindness from a mortal family and left behind a stick of messaging incense, promising that if any of their descendants ever lit it, he would accept them into the sect. Yet that incense had burned and gone out, gone out and burned again; how many fruitless trips had he made, without ever catching a glimpse of the person lighting it? Before the game of Go was even finished, the incense on the table lit up once more, a thin wisp of green smoke curling upward—the thirteenth time. Li Qinghou's fingers paused over the game piece; he rose and departed at once. Over in the mortal realm atop a mountain peak, bolts of lightning crashed down one after another. A scrawny youth scurried between the crevices of the rocks with his head clutched in his hands, yet he kept that stick of incense in a death grip. The harder the lightning struck, the faster he ran, muttering nonsensical curses like, "Strike me again and see if I ever light it!" A beam of sacred light descended, and Li Qinghou materialized before him. Instantly, the youth lunged forward and clamped onto his leg, his face smeared with snot and tears as he wailed even louder than the thunder, terrified that this immortal would find him a nuisance and turn right back around. Down in the village at the foot of the mountain, when the villagers heard that Bai Xiaochun was really leaving, they scrambled to throw a banquet that very night; their laughter could be heard from miles away. Yet before the feast could even begin, someone came running back from the village entrance with a bizarre look on their face—Bai Xiaochun had left word saying he would be back. In an instant, a torrent of curses erupted, echoing from one end of the village to the other.