She chewed her fuling cake deliberately. "Are you planning on playing thief? Let’s get one thing straight beforehand: I don't know you. Whatever you've said or done, I have no clue!"
"Are you really so heartless?" She was still chewing pastries he had paid for.
"Breaking the law in Panlong City takes tremendous courage."
"Would I go that far just for a few books?" He Lingchuan admitted honestly. "I've been lingering around Wenxuan Pavilion for the past few days, and the collection really isn't as rich as I imagined. Even travelogues and local gazetteers are few and far between."
Sun Fuling kicked away a pebble on the ground. "Though the Chipa Plateau is richly endowed with resources and well-suited for living, Panlong City was once just one of many settlements across the Panlong Wasteland. Merchants and travelers passed through in great numbers, but few stayed behind. Not to mention the people here are fierce and hold martial prowess above all. How many do you think would read of their own accord?" With so few literate readers, how could the collection ever be rich?
He Lingchuan thought about it; that did make sense.
Had his expectations been too high?
"It's only been fifteen years since Commander Zhong took over Panlong City. Even with him commissioning the compilation of books and establishing public academies, Wenxuan Pavilion's holdings couldn't swell overnight. As for travelogues and local gazetteers, I've heard that merchants and travelers once brought them to Panlong City to sell. They sold very well—often snapped up the moment they hit the shelves." She continued leisurely, "Later on, Panlong City banned the circulation of such books."
He Lingchuan was surprised. "Why?"
"Once you learn from those books that the outside world is so vast and fascinating, wouldn't you want to go see it?"
He Lingchuan hesitated, then nodded. He knew what she was getting at.
"Yet you cannot go." Sun Fuling gave what sounded like a wry smile. "When people yearn too deeply for things far beyond their reach, it turns into an obsession."
"Panlong City doesn't want too many people like that." She sighed softly, as if speaking to herself. "Sometimes, ignorance is a blessing."
The Panlong Wasteland was an enclave of the Xiluo Kingdom, stranded beyond its borders and surrounded on all sides by hostile states.
Such geography doomed the people of Panlong City to confinement, unable to go anywhere. The more enticed they were by the dazzling world outside, the deeper they sank into the quagmire of longing for what they could never have.
He Lingchuan had heard an old saying: "The more you know, the more you suffer." He remained silent for a moment before asking, "Having read those travelogues, what do you think?"
"I only want to see the sea. I've heard it's thousands, tens of thousands of times larger than any lake, with tides that never cease." Sun Fuling's voice brimmed with yearning. "And then I'd like to taste the seawater, to see if it's really as salty and bitter as legends say."
The word "Yes" hovered on the tip of He Lingchuan's tongue for a long time, but never escaped his lips. What right did he have to confirm it? His identity here was that of an inhabitant of the Panlong Wasteland; it was equally impossible for him to ever see the sea.
"There will be a chance," he said, though his voice lacked conviction. Even if everyone else remained blissfully ignorant, he knew full well the ultimate fate awaiting Panlong City.
No one here would live past twenty years!
Including the bright-eyed girl before him.
Not only in life, but even in death, they would be imprisoned in this wasteland by the Dafang Pot for all eternity.
Sun Fuling's almond eyes curved into crescent moons again. "May your words come true."
"Also..." He Lingchuan seized the opening. "Did you ever come across any works on divination in Wenxuan Pavilion?"
Sun Fuling pondered for a moment. "Divination of what sort?"
"Divining fortune and calamity, predicting the future."
"There won't be any."
He Lingchuan was startled. Her choice of "won't be" was telling. "Why?"
Sun Fuling answered calmly, "Knowing too much only brings distress. Going with the flow suits most people best."
He Lingchuan was utterly speechless.
There was another saying: the clearer your mind, the greater your torment.
Sun Fuling glanced at him. "Why are you curious about this?"
He Lingchuan scratched his head. "Someone told me disaster dogs my steps, and that I'll soon meet a violent end."
"And you believed it?"
"His divinations have a fairly high success rate," He Lingchuan said with a wry smile. "He even got my past right."
"Sounds like the pitch of an itinerant quack." Sun Fuling clearly didn't buy it.
Yet she immediately added, "Though Wenxuan Pavilion lacks such books, there is a strategist at Commander Zhong's side named Wen Daolun who seems deeply versed in the craft. He gave lectures at Shumin Academy twice and casually mentioned a principle or two of calculation. I hear Commander Zhong relies heavily on him."
He Lingchuan perked up at once. "Will he come a third time?"
"That I wouldn't know," Sun Fuling chuckled. "Such busy figures are far removed from people like us. Rather than hoping he visits Shumin Academy again, you'd be better off seeking counsel at the government office."
He Lingchuan's eyes shifted. "Where does he live?" How about lying in wait right at his doorstep?
"I wouldn't know that either; you'll have to ask around yourself." Sun Fuling steered the topic elsewhere. "Right, there are quite a few transcriptions in the immortal language in Wenxuan Pavilion. Have you looked for them?"
Last time, she had shown He Lingchuan how to navigate Wenxuan Pavilion, which held a fair number of books written in the immortal language.
"Uh, not yet." He Lingchuan scratched his head. "I'm still a beginner; it's too strenuous to read."
After all, he had only been studying it for a few days. He could recognize individual ancient characters, but when strung together in dense clusters, they left him dizzy and breathless.
"Never mind, then." Sun Fuling shook her head. "I've read quite a bit, so you can ask me first."
"Where did those transcripts come from?" He Lingchuan did not hold back. "Were they really written by immortals?"
"More accurately, they were written by immortals and their sect disciples," Sun Fuling said. "These volumes were transcribed from ancient tomes. And ancient tomes... were either preserved and handed down by Daoist orders, or unearthed from immortal abodes and ruins. Didn't you obtain rubbings from an immortal abode yourself?"
"Handed down by Daoist orders?" He Lingchuan recalled something. "I heard that immortal sects were the predecessors of Daoist orders."
"Indeed," Sun Fuling nodded. "That's an acknowledged fact. After immortals vanished from the world, the immortal sects couldn't uphold the word 'immortal' anymore. In the end, their status was downgraded, and they were forced to rename themselves Daoist orders."
"While reading in Wenxuan Pavilion these past few days, I found that some books extol the elevated character and noble integrity of the exalted immortals—how after the great cataclysm of heaven and earth, they devoted themselves to educating the surviving mortals, helping them fend off demon beast incursions, and preserving the spark of civilization so future generations wouldn't fall back into ignorance."
"Yet many other books are vehemently critical, bitterly condemning immortals for enslaving mortals, denouncing them for treating commoners like insects to be killed or spared at whim." He Lingchuan shrugged. "Both types of books offer ample evidence. For instance, immortals testing medicinal poisons on their own bodies to save commoners and vanquishing demons, or immortal sect disciples slaughtering tens of thousands just to harvest souls for refining soul banners."
"If you could read the ancient scrolls left by the immortals and their disciples, you would know that neither claim is wrong, yet both are one-sided." The two left the broad street and walked toward the wood-grade houses, the pedestrian traffic thinning around them. "After the cataclysm that changed everything back then, the world's spiritual energy rapidly waned, yet the immortals' powers did not vanish immediately. You understand why, right?"
He Lingchuan thought for a moment. "They still possessed their own cultivation, and profound crystals still existed in the world?"
"Exactly. Just like walking in a desert: though the surroundings are hot and dry with no water source to be found, if your waterskin is mostly full, you can hold out for a while longer." Sun Fuling said slowly, "Synthesizing the immortals' memoirs I have read, for at least two to three hundred years after the cataclysm, immortals still retained the power to ascend the heavens and delve the earth."
"Yet it was water without a source, unsustainable over time." He Lingchuan thought back to Zhu Erniang's original form that he had seen in the burrow spider lair. "The spider matriarch in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest is also an ancient monster. She kept shedding her heavy old carapaces, replacing them with smaller, frailer shells just to survive until today."
Maintaining the physique of an immortal or immortal demon consumed too much spiritual energy. After the cataclysm, it was like a great whale stranded on a sandbank; without the rising tide to aid it, death was inevitable.
"Immortals and other demon immortals couldn't trim the foot to fit the shoe the way the spider demon did. Once their stored spiritual energy was exhausted, their only fate was demise," Sun Fuling said. "Immortals were also born of mortals, and humankind has always valued inheritance. Knowing their days were numbered, wasn't it completely natural for them to enlighten commoners and pass down the spark of knowledge? Look at Shumin Academy, look at me—aren't we doing the exact same thing now?"
"As for what you read about immortal sects enslaving mortals and committing every evil imaginable—" She sighed. "That certainly happened, and it was recorded. But think about it: when the world's spiritual energy decayed to the point where immortals could barely survive, what would immortal sects do to secure the final scraps of limited resources?"
He Lingchuan did not hesitate. "If it were me, I'd resort to any means necessary."
"Indeed." Sun Fuling offered a faint smile. "Immortals originally appeared ethereal and transcendent only because they had no desires or unmet needs. Once they too had to struggle with all their might just to prolong their dying breaths, how were they any different from us mortals?"
He Lingchuan also sighed.
When exalted immortals tumbled from the clouds, the darkness of human nature could no longer be concealed.
In the end, all living beings suffered.
"There is still one thing I don't understand."
"Go ahead." Sun Fuling showed not a trace of impatience.
"Where did origin power actually come from?" He Lingchuan had browsed through many books without finding a clear answer. "I've seen some claim that immortals taught it to humans to ward off demon beasts. Yet other records say it was a method taught to humanity by the gods to resist the oppression of the immortals—and demon beasts, of course."
"The earliest records of origin power seem to date back some two thousand years. Unless earlier evidence is unearthed, it was most likely a power discovered after the cataclysm." Sun Fuling shrugged. "As for the true origin of origin power, there is still no consensus today. The old men at Shumin Academy, Panlong City, and Wenxian Terrace argue back and forth every day without ever agreeing."
"Setting others aside, what do you think, Miss Sun?"
"Me?" Sun Fuling tilted her head in thought. "I lean toward it being a method imparted to humanity by the gods."
He Lingchuan felt a stir in his heart; her thought aligned completely with his own. "Why?"
"Origin power can only coalesce when tens of thousands of mortals unite their hearts and strength. If the immortals had taught it to humankind, it would have been dropping a stone on their own feet—devising a way for mortals to resist them."
Chapter 246