The next day, Silver City.
Yu Xian and Zhang Shou met up at a small tavern.
"You've really decided to get a divorce?" Yu Xian asked, looking at Zhang Shou with some disbelief.
With bloodshot eyes, Zhang Shou nodded. "Yeah. Chen Ling was very adamant. She said she doesn't love me anymore, so there's no reason to keep torturing each other. And... she can't accept that I still look like this while she's aged so much."
"What the hell do you mean she's aged? She's only thirty!" Yu Xian couldn't help but retort.
Zhang Shou sighed. "Actually, I noticed it earlier. She's mature and beautiful now, while walking beside her makes me look like a foolish kid whose mom got married way too young..."
"How about I go talk to her?" Yu Xian suggested after some thought.
Zhang Shou shook his head. "Forget it. She wants a child, and I can't give her one. Let her go."
Although the cultivation technique he practiced was tied to vitality, it was precisely because his vitality was too potent that he could not conceive offspring with a normal human.
For Transcendents, aside from a few special races, this was the general reality: the stronger one became, the harder it was to reproduce.
Yu Xian and Nora had been married for so long and still had no children for this very reason. The probability of the two of them conceiving was countless times lower than the chances of a meteor striking Earth.
Of course, neither Yu Xian nor Nora harbored a strong desire for children in the first place, treating the matter with complete indifference. If she got pregnant, they would have the baby; if not, so be it.
"All right. Let's drink. I'll stay with you until we're both wasted today," Yu Xian said, raising his cup. Seeing that Zhang Shou wasn't even going to fight for it, he naturally had nothing more to say.
Afterward, cups clinked back and forth as the two gradually began reminiscing about the past.
Having been best friends since their school days, they had endless topics to talk about. For instance, how a certain classmate who used to be insufferably arrogant at school had now become a bowing and scraping corporate drone, or how another who had once been utterly unremarkable had surprisingly turned into a big boss.
"Back then, I wanted to become a sword immortal. Who knew fate would play such tricks on me? I ended up as a healer. Fine, a healer it is—I'm not someone who refuses to accept my lot in life. But why did it end with my wife leaving and my family scattered?" Zhang Shou muttered glumly, completely drunk.
Equally drunk, Yu Xian replied, "Only your wife left. No children were scattered, because you... don't have a son!"
"Fuck, Salty Fish, that knife went right into my chest!" Zhang Shou clutched his heart, looking thoroughly wounded.
Curious, Yu Xian asked, "With modern technology, can't you do test-tube babies?"
"Heh, I'll just stick to jerking off from now on, so what? I jerk off because I like it! I jerk off and I'm proud of it..." Thoroughly wasted, Zhang Shou hadn't heard Yu Xian clearly and shouted at the top of his lungs.
The other patrons in the tavern turned to look at Zhang Shou, and many men wore looks of deep admiration. Now that was a real man.
In the end, Zhang Shou and Chen Ling still divorced.
This was simply the normal course of life. No matter how close a relationship had once been or how deeply two people had loved, there would eventually come a day when that love ran dry.
After their divorce, Yu Xian came away with a realization about life.
Desire, in truth, was finite. Emotions, too, were finite. One had to cherish the desires and feelings one still possessed, for his life was far too long. If he exhausted all his desires and emotions, life would lose much of its joy.
Yu Xian felt he ought to cultivate a few more hobbies and burn through them slowly.
***
God Vault Space.
Little Nora munched on food while watching Yu Xian play the guqin.
Lately, Yu Xian had decided to learn a few more crafts, intending to master everything from music, chess, calligraphy, and painting to the mundane necessities of firewood, rice, oil, and salt.
Why lump daily chores together with the refined arts?
Because Yu Xian was learning how to press vegetable oil, refine salt, and farm using ancient methods...
Of course, he remained as inconsistent as ever, fishing for three days and drying the nets for two. He studied whenever he felt like it and dropped it when he didn't. Life was long anyway, so he could take his time.
Today, feeling that his skills were finally presentable, he had scurried over to Little Nora's side, intending to treat it to his superb musicianship.
"Big Brother, why isn't your playing making any sound?" Little Nora swallowed a piece of meat and asked curiously.
With eyes closed, Yu Xian plucked back and forth above the strings without actually touching them. "I'm running through it in my head first," he replied, "before I play it for you."
"Oh, I see," Little Nora said with a nod.
In its livestream room, many viewers were waiting for Yu Xian's performance.
[I Want to Open a Convenience Store: The freeloader actually has this kind of talent?]
[I Want to Live Every Day Happily: I feel like this might be auditory torture. Everyone, prepare to mute.]
[Sima Duck: Benefactor, I actually know a fair bit about musical theory. If Benefactor needs it, I can teach you.]
[Shining Youth: No need. Figuring it out on my own is what makes it fun.]
[Grand General Rice: Freeloader, don't tell me you didn't even read a single book on music theory and jumped right into it?]
[Plummeting into Cloud Abyss: It's over. I'm muting.]
Amid the flurry of comments, Yu Xian began to play. In an instant, a savage, chaotic cacophony erupted across the livestream, prompting countless viewers to wail and frantically mute the stream.
Little Nora was not so fortunate; it had no way to mute the sound.
"Big Brother, spare me!"
"I'm going deaf! I'm going deaf!"
Clutching its ears, Little Nora rolled back and forth across the ground.
Yu Xian, however, kept his eyes closed, utterly lost in his own musical world. He felt as though he were performing "High Mountains and Flowing Water," completely immersed and oblivious to everything else.
When he finished the piece and opened his eyes, he saw Little Nora lying there with eyes rolled back, foaming at the mouth.
"Holy crap!"
"Is it really that exaggerated?"
Yu Xian rushed over to check on it. Fortunately, Little Nora had merely fainted.
Wait.
Why hadn't he been affected?
Yu Xian suddenly snapped out of it, realizing something was wrong. Even if his playing was atrocious, the effect shouldn't have been this dramatic.
He looked down at the instrument he had used to perform, and an answer seemed to dawn on him.
[Buff Guqin: Determines the buff effect based on the player's skill.]
Clearly, the guqin's buff wasn't necessarily positive; it could also grant debuffs. For instance, if the player's skill was utterly dreadful, anyone who heard the music would be slapped with negative effects.
"This guqin sabotaged me!"
After confirming that Little Nora was in no real danger, Yu Xian promptly stowed the guqin away, resolving to find an ordinary instrument to practice with first.
Of course, that was a matter for another day. For now, he had already lost most of his enthusiasm for playing music.
Zhang Buyao's passion for anything lasted only three minutes.
In truth, Yu Xian wasn't much better—they were two peas in a pod.
However, when an ordinary person abandoned something after three minutes, it was called a shortcoming. But when Zhang Buyao and Yu Xian did it, it was called the leisure of the powerful.
"Things have already come to this; let's eat first."
Yu Xian glanced at the livestream, where countless viewers were cursing him every second. Shrugging, he simply sat down in Little Nora's place and began an eating stream.
Beside him, the unconscious Little Nora still had tiny paws twitching periodically.
Chapter 414