Living Up to You Chapter 8

CHAPTER 08 - OMEN

Translation Notes: A bunch of new romanized terms/names in this chapter! Lets start out with the six realms: 神(shen) the gods, 仙(xian)the immortals, 人(ren) the mortals, 妖(yao) the demons, 魔(muo) the heretics, and 冥(ming) the dead. The boundaries of these realms are not rigid and can blur sometimes. Also, they can refer to the entire 'race' but can at the same time refer to a physical place. Apparently in Living Up To You, the Shen realm is in the heavens somewhere. The realm of the Ren, Xian, Yao, Muo exists on earth. The realm of the Ming, is in the underworld and hell. Beings that belong to the Yao race, which are actually spirits like Xiao Hei gone heretic, can simultaneously be Yao and Muo at the same time. But if you remember from previous chapters, a good spirit or 'yao' following the xian path does not have a realm of their own and are just considered a part of the Xian realm. That is because good spirits are much much rarer in comparison that the sheer number of evil spirits/demons alone can be called a realm. A mortal human can also be a Muo or Xian too, they just need to sign up. Xian and Muo are more considered paths than 'race' and in order to be one or the other, one has to make the decision. So realms that one can be born into are Shen, Ren, and Yao. Shen does not ever enter the Ming realm but the Ren and Yao do. In order to avoid becoming a part of the Ming realm eventually, one would have to choose one of the two paths. Both the Xian and the Muo have the potential to become gods, but many die and enter the Ming realm before they ever succeed in ascending into the Shen realm. This is my own understanding on how the six-realm structure works in this story. Hope that helps! 天帝(tian di) is the emperor of the gods. The 魂(hun)and 魄(po) are the two halves of a person's soul. Lastly I bring you the word 呸(pei) because it's a cuss word. Just kidding, it's just a sound someone makes when they are faking a spit or spitting for real, usually when they are really irritated and really angry. PS. I realized I've been writing 风夙's name wrong the whole time. It's supposed to be Feng Su, but I'm not going to correct it lol.

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On Su Yun Peak, a dark gray daoist robe was stirred up by the mountain breeze. The bells hanging from the Qing Xu staff chimed melodically. Cang Yu's eyes narrowed slightly, his gaze fixed in the far distance ahead, overlooking the boundless world.

Feng Shu stood not far away from Cang Yu. His white robe swirled around him, appearing to fuse with the clouds in the sky. He remained silent.

Cang Yu wanted to wait for his explanation. However this disciple of his, has never been someone he could control. Ever since he took him in as his disciple, he has never called him 'shifu' in decency, unless it was in front of the entire sect's disciples. He still had to uphold Cang Yu's face as 'zhangmen', therefore those were the few times he would give him that acknowledgment.

“These three years, what have you been doing?” Cang Yu's temperament is rather mild, rarely getting angry. But due to suppressing his rage for this long, when this question came out it still carried a very obvious tinge of bitterness.

Feng Shu's facial expression did not change, “Doing whatever I want.”

“You... That girl...” When Cang Yu heard what he replied, he was actually slightly taken aback, stuttering before continuing, “How much cultivation exactly did you squander on that girl?”

Feng Shu closed his eyes in thought, “This is my own concern.”

Hearing this, the rage inside Cang Yu was so immense that he took the Qing Xu staff and struck it harshly into the ground. The entire Su Yun Peak seemed to have trembled from the force. “When that girl first arrived on the mountain, her soul was missing one of the three pieces of her Hun and four of the seven pieces of her Po, her consciousness had not even been opened! Today I saw her, clearly her three Hun and seven Po are all complete. If it wasn't you using your own blood as a catalyst, expending your own cultivated energy to gather and force the freeflowing natural energies to congeal so that you can use it to patch her missing soul, how can she possibly be as lively as she was today? How would she have the power to bloom ten thousand snow lotuses?”

Feng Shu remained silent. Cang Yu was so angry that his face had paled, “Even if you expended every drop of your cultivated energy and helped patch her to the point where outwardly she is no different from an ordinary person, what then? A soul that is comprised of pure spiritual energy, if one day the wrong person learns this, takes away her false soul, drains her spiritual energy, she will still go back to being that hazy-minded fool!”

“That is mines to worry about.” Feng Shu turned around, about to leave.

“Since she has caused the snow lotuses to turn to ash, Cang Jia Shan cannot keep her!”

Feng Shu stopped in his tracks, “She has also caused the blooming of ten thousand snow lotuses.”

“That is your spiritual power!”

“You clearly know it is not.” Feng Shu chuckled, “Don't forget, I have also touched the lingshu grass before.”

“You still hold it against me...”

“I don't.” Feng Shu's refute came quickly.

“Then your partiality and protectiveness towards her, it is simply because like you, she is also...”

Just as Cang Yu was hesitant of how to continue, Feng Shu turned around. At the corner of his lips was a faint smile, he said with straightforwardness, “A freak, one that only possesses a present life, with no previous life and likewise, will not have a next life?”

Cang Yu's heart quivered. A thousand years have passed, no matter how unburdened and carefree Feng Shu appeared on the outside, inside he was still affected.

Mortals have three lives: the causes of the past life, the effects in the present life, the debts of the present life, to be paid in the next life. That year in the Cloud Pavilion, he met the twenty year old Feng Shu, young but already possessing a deep spiritual cultivation. He had come up the mountain alone. He was astounded by the the youth's seemingly heaven-gifted potential, even more astounded when his divination revealed that he only had one lifetime.

His previous life was a blank, his future a vast endlessness. All other cultivating sects had regarded him as a freak of the cultivating world, pursuing him for almost ten years with the intent of killing him. All this finally ended when he reached the edge of the Eastern Sea.

He asked him to take him as his disciple.

At that time, Cang Yu had only been zhangmen of the Cang Jia sect for a hundred years. Those hundred years he has been searching for the divine gates without result. Coming face to face with the rumored Feng Shu who had appeared on Cang Jia Shan, at that time he just took it as a divine opportunity given by the heavens. Without hesitation he took him in, making him his first arch-disciple under the zhangmen door.

These happenings had been buried over a thousand years in the past already. By Feng Shu's current reputation and standing in the Xian realm, Cang Yu had assumed that he had long casted away his past sentiments towards the Xian realm for their merciless pursuit and coldbloodedness. When Ling Xi appeared before him inside the Cloud Pavilion, he could see with one glance that like Feng Shu, she also had only one lifetime. He assumed that the reason he was so insistent of keeping her was simply a fleeting moment of nostalgia... to his contempt, he had underestimated this disciple's rigidness. Feng Shu was so bent on repairing Ling Xi's soul that he was willing to go as far as to carve it out of his own blood and cultivation.

Cang Yu never answered, Feng Shu's smile dissipated “The one who caused the lingshu grass to bloom into ten thousand snow lotuses is undoubtedly Ling Xi. The one who caused them to turn to ash however, might not be Ling Xi. I suppose you know how to make your decision.”

Without even a last glance, Feng Shu disappeared from from Su Yun Peak.

Cang Yu watched his retreating back, for a long time was not able to come out of his thoughts.

Ten thousand snow lotuses.

The last time the six realms heard of the bloom of ten thousand snow lotuses, afraid it is already more than ten thousand years ago...

That year, Cang Jia Shan witnessed the rise of a shang-xian, the youngest it had ever seen to achieve that degree of cultivation. It was also that very same year that Cang Jia Shan witnessed the first time a shang-xian successfully opened up the gates to the Shen realm, the first time a shang-xian ascended from the Xian realm to become a god. It was a pity though, not even a hundred years after that, calamity fell on the god's realm, the gate to the Shen realm forever sealed and disappeared from existence.

Although it is told in the five realms that the god race has already perished, but since they are all gods, they do not go through birth nor demise, will not age nor die. How is it possible that such a race can perish so easily?

Ever since shifu handed Cang Jia Shan into his hands, it had been his duty to once again open up the sealed entrance of the Shen realm, to find the gates of ascension into heaven.

All these years since, even Feng Shu who possessed such unparalleled potential could not bloom forth ten thousand snow lotuses. To his surprise, that young girl managed to actually do it. However, those snow lotuses clearly being pure white and untainted, why would they instantly disintegrate into ash?

Cang Yu's brows were tightly locked together in perplexity. He raised his gaze to look at the blue sky and the white clouds that covered it's endless expanse. He could only see the evening sun gradually sinking, the glowing rays seemed to go on for thousands of miles. Unexpectedly, a cloud so dark in color it resembled a smear of ink covered half of the setting sun. It's glowing rays abruptly weakened. After a blink of an eye, the setting sun had completely disappeared from sight. The black vapors swept over the mountains and rivers, as if with the intent to swallow them up.

Qing Kui tightly held onto Ling Xi's hand, “Ah-chou, that's a lot of... demons from the Muo realm!”

Chapter end