novelraw Chapter 84 : Has Anyone Ever Told You That You’re Really Pretentious?
Chapter 84 : Has Anyone Ever Told You That You’re Really Pretentious?
Chapter 84: Has Anyone Ever Told You That You’re Really Pretentious?
“Earlier, Benefactor Fang, you should have helped them personally.”
At some point, Zhang Su had emerged from the Black Tortoise Square Cauldron. She sat upright inside the carriage, looking at Fang Chang driving ahead.
Martial Aunt’s figure was overbearing.
Simply sitting there caused her overflowing hips and broad bosom to stretch the fabric of her monk robes taut, yet her waist remained slender. Even with the cloth pulled so tightly, there was somehow still extra fabric around her waist.
Fang Chang looked at the sky and the road, bored out of his mind.
“Didn’t I help? I gave them talismans and even found them a helper. I’m practically moved by my own kindness.”
“...That Benefactor Liang Qian, dressing so sloppily... is she truly a disciple of the Spirit Taming Sect?”
“Don’t underestimate her. She’s an expert of the Fourth Realm.”
Those Pokémon-playing people were honestly quite similar to the Corpse Refinement Path.
The only difference was that they crawled through mountains and rivers searching for spirit beasts and exotic creatures nurtured by heaven and earth,
while they dug graves and excavated tombs.
They stole life from the living.
He stole death from corpses.
In the end, both paths relied on restraint and control.
The difference was merely that corpses still retained a trace of human rights after death,
while spirit beasts possessed none whether alive or dead.
“Hm?”
Fang Chang suddenly turned to look toward the roadside.
He saw a flash of white rapidly dart behind a tree.
Within the shadows, there seemed to be a gaze fixed tightly upon him.
Hehehe...
Other people searched all over for you.
Yet instead of hiding, you came chasing after me.
The carriage wheels rolled onward, circling the mountain path over and over as they descended.
This side of Jinzhou was filled with great mountains and massive rivers. The terrain was nowhere near as flat as Tai Prefecture’s. One was either winding around mountains or crossing rivers.
Zhang Su spoke again:
“What I meant was helping them personally.”
“Karmic threads are subtle. It is best to act with one’s own hands.”
“Good deeds personally carried out, with concentrated intent and blazing sincerity, naturally result in profound karmic reward. But if entrusted to others, then another’s thoughts, diligence, or laziness become mixed within. Even if the matter succeeds, the karmic origin is no longer pure.”
“Benefactor Fang... your conduct is vile and your sins are grave. You should do more good deeds for the sake of your next life.”
Fang Chang curled his lips.
How exactly am I vile?
“Then tell me, Martial Aunt Zhang. How are my sins so grave?”
Zhang Su pressed her lips together.
The Buddhist prayer beads in her hands turned before her chest, giving her an air of solemn compassion and lofty benevolence.
Yet beneath the jolting carriage and the turning beads,
her heavy fullness swayed and trembled, like two overflowing pools of water colliding and pressing against one another, nearly spilling from the overlapping folds of her robes.
“......”
Fang Chang glanced once.
Just once.
“You forced that Benefactor Cui into murdering her mother and slaughtering her kin... Even if you claim it was to save her, such actions are truly... disgraceful.”
“If saving one person destroys another, then in Buddhism, it cannot be called compassion.”
“Benefactor’s methods are ruthless. The evil karma you create far outweighs the good you accumulate... Good deeds are not done in such a manner.”
The lingering sunlight spread into the carriage.
It illuminated her pale bluish-white skin—utterly devoid of blood color—until it resembled the finest mutton-fat jade submerged beneath thin frost, coldly gleaming with a faint radiance.
Her eyes too were crimson like those of a Yin Corpse.
Around her pupils, faint scarlet veins subtly intertwined into a thin web, carrying an inhumanly eerie beauty.
Yet deep within her gaze remained the same gentleness and compassion she had possessed while alive.
She did not truly mean to blame Fang Chang.
After all, she was a martial aunt of the Guanyin Path.
Zhang Su had always practiced her own cultivation—
the cultivation of persuading Fang Chang toward goodness and redemption.
Though admittedly, it was somewhat powerless.
Fang Chang laughed twice.
“Martial Aunt Zhang makes a good point. Next time, if someone has to be sacrificed in order to perform a good deed, then I shall certainly give up the opportunity to accumulate immense virtue and simply not do it at all.”
Zhang Su heard the mockery in his tone. A faint blush drifted across her cheeks, and several traces of grievance appeared within her warm and gentle eyes, making her unexpectedly alluring.
“Benefactor Fang... that was not what I meant...”
At this moment, the carriage descended from the mountain.
The dense forest spread apart on both sides, and the view suddenly opened wide.
Far ahead, an incomparably vast river appeared before them.
The river surface surged endlessly, its waters pitch-black.
To the left and right, it merged with the horizon itself, while the opposite shore lay so distant it resembled merely a line painted across the sky—vast beyond measure.
Quite a few people stood along the riverbank, and judging from their auras, most were cultivators.
The river wind pressed across the water with such intensity that it seemed to possess physical form.
This river was called Rift Abyss River.
The river was no ordinary river.
The wind was no ordinary wind either.
That wind consisted of countless invisible threads, densely wrapping around people, impossible to tear apart or escape, dragging them toward the murky river waters below.
Those with high cultivation could simply fly higher and cross safely if they moved slowly and cautiously enough.
Those with weaker cultivation, however, would still be doomed even with flying boats of poor quality, easily swept into the river.
Exploring the open world had always been like this.
To fill in the gaps, there would inevitably be all sorts of obstacles and encounter quests.
And this river—
was honestly more like a blockade line set by the game developers around unfinished regions.
Before version 2.0, nobody could cross it.
Games nowadays really were ridiculous. A perfectly good game would be released before it was even finished. Once players entered, only half the content existed, then the developers tossed out an update schedule and only completed the game after a year or more. Even so, those games still somehow ended up receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews.
The slowly approaching carriage attracted many gazes.
Seeing Fang Chang’s gloomy Yin aura, his Third Realm cultivation, and especially his exceptionally handsome appearance, several female cultivators looked at him a few extra times, while more rogue cultivators clasped their hands in greeting.
Fang Chang swept his gaze around and found around twenty to thirty people gathered here.
They were each inviting suitable companions to cross the river together.
Several female cultivators traveling together spotted him, their eyes instantly lighting up.
They craned their necks to look behind the carriage. Yet beneath the violent river wind, the fluttering curtains revealed absolutely nothing inside.
They immediately huddled together excitedly, chattering about something.
Not long afterward,
the sweetest-looking woman among them adjusted the hair by her temples and walked over, smiling charmingly.
“Fellow Daoist, shall we travel together?”
Fang Chang smiled faintly.
“No need. I’ll simply hire a boatman to ferry me across.”
“What boatman could there possibly be here? Come with us. More people means more support. This river wind is vicious. We rogue cultivators should advance and retreat together.”
“No thanks.”
The female cultivator glanced toward her companions behind her. Seeing some of them smirking mockingly, her expression stiffened.
“Are you sure you really won’t come? We have quite a few people.”
“Not coming.”
The corner of the woman’s eye twitched, her smile no longer sustainable.
“Actually, I didn’t really want to invite you anyway. Seriously, that’s hilarious. We already have a companion—a Fourth Realm expert.”
“Oh. Congratulations.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re really pretentious? You don’t seriously think you’re impressive, do you? The Third Realm is only average at best. Plus your whole body reeks of gloomy Yin aura. You look like some evil cultivator.”
Fang Chang’s smile widened further.
Seeing him smile, the woman suppressed her anger.
“So you really aren’t traveling with us?”
“Nope~”
“Fine, fine, fine...”
The woman glared fiercely at him, her chest aching from anger.
Quite a few people nearby had turned to look. She angrily flicked her sleeve.
“What are you all staring at?!”
Cursing under her breath, she stormed back toward her female companions.
The companions softly comforted her, though the schadenfreude within their eyes was obvious to everyone.
“Plastic besties indeed...”
Fang Chang chuckled.
He circled around the riverbank, and before long spotted a small wooden hut not far away.
This entire area was an empty plain, yet only this single hut stood here. Fishing nets and a broken wooden boat split into two halves hung before the entrance, giving the place an abandoned and desolate appearance.
Fang Chang slowly walked toward it.