Invasion Myth: Starting with the Schoolteacher

Chapter 938 The Beauty Makes a Move
Xu Xuan's claim that he had business in the north was true.

When he challenged the white-haired monkey to a fight, he said he would make the monkeys line up, citing several seemingly highly probable reasons:
Sword duels on Mount Shu, Buddhist sects sever ties, the White Snake inquires about love, and war rages across the land.

Just from the name, you can tell how ruthless it is.

The content, which could have been divided into four novels, has all been put together, but now it's all piled up together.

The conflict between the old and new Shushan is related to the rise and fall of the righteous path; the difficulty of the Buddhist sect's severance of its laws involves the fundamental future lineage of the Dharma; the White Snake's pursuit of immortality and love seems to be about romantic love but is actually related to the cause and effect of the three realms of demons, humans, and the Dao; and the war that swept across the nine provinces was a calamity for all living beings, causing immense suffering to the common people.

Any one of these items alone would be enough to cause the world's top cultivators to exhaust themselves as if facing a great calamity.

Now that four calamities have struck at once, the pressure is like the waters of the four seas pouring down on one person; even a man made of steel couldn't withstand it.

But Xu Xuan withstood it; not only did he withstood it, he even seemed eager to try.

He couldn't suppress the excitement that he had for stirring up trouble, and he even added a super scenario of ganging up on the white-haired monkey a year later.

It is clear that this guy is not a peaceful and kind person at heart, and his self-perception as an "extraterrestrial demon" is by no means a joke.

The alignment with the doctrine of the "True Scripture of the Descent of the White Lotus," which advocates that "the mortal world is like a prison, all beings suffer, destruction leads to creation, and the white lotus descends to earth," directly surpasses the critical point.

That's how he ended up with such a thrilling yet wonderful life. He has no one to blame but himself.

And they enjoyed it.

After the challenge took place, Yu the Great, who witnessed the entire event, had a different feeling.

Although he is now merely a manifestation of incense and the power of prayers, his sense of responsibility and pride as a former Holy Emperor of the Human Race, protecting the people of the Nine Provinces, has never faded.

Seeing that the ancient evil god Wuzhiqi had reappeared in the world and was using the Huai River to command the people, while he himself was powerless due to the decline of his incense offerings, he ultimately needed a contemporary human descendant to step forward and take the risky step of a one-year agreement to temporarily stabilize the situation.

I felt ashamed and embarrassed, and even more so, I felt I had failed my people.

Especially Xu Xuan, this little brother, although he acts wildly and unrestrained, he is genuinely working hard and taking on responsibilities for humanity.

At this moment, he is protecting the people of the North, facing the wind and rain alone. How can I, as his older brother, sit idly by and watch him face this raging storm alone?

We must do everything in our power to help, no matter what.

He's too weak to fight directly anymore; the remaining power is needed to maintain his avatar's existence, in case it might prove surprisingly effective at a crucial moment.

However, of the four calamities Xu Xuan mentioned, there is one that might actually be of some help—that is, "The White Snake Asks About Love".

Of course, it's absolutely impossible to expect a super-straight-talking, iron-willed emperor who once passed by his home three times without entering, whose IQ was all focused on flood control and whose EQ was mostly focused on convening alliances with feudal lords, to come up with any romantic or romantic "good ideas."

He couldn't even understand why matters of love could become a "calamity" that required serious attention.

In those ancient times, people were very unrestrained in order to increase the human population.

If they find each other attractive and have no grudges, they can immediately find a place to reproduce.

Strong and imposing men are in high demand, while slightly thin men like Xu Xuan, though not as popular, can still marry several women.

King Yu, who is now in a state of "you love me, I love you, you can't love me, I can't love you," truly feels insane.

But that's okay. Just because he lacks experience doesn't mean others don't.

To be precise, it is the wife who comes from the Qingqiu lineage and is of the Tushan clan; she must have a way.

The "Lüshi Chunqiu: Yin Chu Pian" records: "When Yu was performing his duties, he met the daughter of the Tushan clan. Before meeting her, Yu toured the southern lands. The daughter of the Tushan clan then ordered her concubine to wait for Yu on the sunny side of Tushan. The woman then composed a song, which went: 'Waiting for my man!' This was the beginning of the southern music."

This short phrase, "Waiting for my beloved," expresses the deep longing and tender feelings of the Tushan maiden.

It is recognized by later generations as the first recorded love poem in Chinese history, pioneering the graceful love songs of China.

The one waiting for her was Nüjiao, and the one being waited for was none other than Yu the Great, who cared deeply for the world and passed by his home three times without entering.

This legend has long been integrated into the bloodline of mythology and history, making the three characters "Tushan Clan" inextricably linked with the word "love" from the very beginning.

It became a source of inspiration and a symbol for countless stories, legends, and tales of the strange and immortal, depicting love between immortals and mortals, and affection between humans and demons.

To leave behind such a poignant and magnificent reputation in the mythological era, its authority must have been forcibly imbued with power related to "marriage," "affection," "waiting," and "bonds" by the thoughts of all living beings in heaven and earth. This is faith, and also law.

So, feeling a great sense of responsibility, King Yu rushed back to the Tushan Secret Realm and found his wife, Nüjiao.

"I have a little brother who's messed up with a really powerful white snake. It seems like he's facing a love tribulation and might get beaten to death. He also has to fight a water monkey a year from now. What do you think we should do?"

He recounted the ordeal of "The White Snake Asks About Love" that Xu Xuan was facing, and his words inevitably carried a hint of worry for his younger brother's situation.

As expected of Nüjiao, after listening to King Yu's dry "retelling" which consisted almost entirely of time, place, and people, she accurately grasped the core of the matter.

For Xu Xuan, this young human, the core of the "White Snake's Question of Love" wasn't some divinely ordained match or a destined encounter, nor was it some poignant or torturous romance. The most crucial question was: how to survive this inevitable and tumultuous love tribulation!

If Xu Xuan heard this conclusion, he would surely slap his thigh and shout that his sister-in-law was wise.

"The White Snake, who lived for seventeen hundred years, possessed unparalleled spiritual cultivation, wisdom, and willpower."

"Once such a strong person has made up their mind, how can external forces easily change it?"

"The horror of love tribulations lies in this. It is not a fight with swords, but it can be a thunderclap in silence and a demon in the heart during the most intimate moments."

"Twisting the will, confusing reality with illusion, blending extreme sweetness with extreme pain, blurring the distance between the bottomless abyss and the heavens, one wrong step and eternal damnation."

"When you are in the midst of it, the weaker party will inevitably be swept up and washed away by the vast ocean of emotions and power of the other party, like a small boat in a raging sea. If you are not careful, the boat will be destroyed and you will die."

"When love reaches its peak, it turns into infatuation; when love reaches its extreme, it gives rise to delusion."

"A single thought can lead to a situation that is not just about being affectionate, but rather about 'If you betray me, we will die together' or 'If we cannot share a bed in life, we will share a grave in death.'"

"To live and die together with beings of this level is perhaps the least of their worries."

Upon hearing this, King Yu deeply agreed, and his face showed concern: "What you say is absolutely right, madam. Then, in your opinion, what should we do?"

After a moment's thought, the girl passed down two items.

It is not some dazzling divine artifact, but it carries a weight far heavier than ordinary magical treasures.

It should be noted that as early as the Three Sovereigns period, the Tushan clan was one of the most powerful clans in the Eastern Yi region, with numerous branches and unfathomable depths.

Back then, the young Yu, who had not yet achieved the great achievements of a sage emperor, arranged a marriage in order to truly control the vast land of the Eastern Yi and the talented people there. This marriage was almost like "half a son-in-law's marriage" in a way, which allowed him to leverage the prestige and power of the Tushan clan.

This gives us an idea of ​​just how powerful these clans, passed down from ancient times, were, and how vast and astonishing the ancient knowledge they possessed was.

This time, what Nüjiao presented was a stack of life-saving plans carried on ancient animal hides or spirit wood slips, as well as a Qingqiu certificate that looked simple but contained a special aura and authority.

The plans recorded in those stacks were neither the Taoist magic or Buddhist supernatural powers that are popular in the world today, nor the profound theories that distinguish between humans, gods, ghosts, and demons.

It is witchcraft.

In the era in which Nüjiao lived, shamanistic culture was still the mainstream voice on this land.

Our ancestors revered heaven and earth, communicated with spirits and gods, and sought nothing more than survival and reproduction.

The shaman was the most primitive and direct manifestation of power in that era.

Summoning natural spirits, communicating with ancestral spirits, transforming into a bear to split mountains and rocks, turning into solid rock after prayer to resist floods...

Many phenomena that seem bizarre and almost supernatural today were not uncommon in that era.

Witchcraft naturally carries the characteristics of that primitive era: primitive, simple, and crude.

These often come at a considerable cost, such as precious offerings, the practitioner's lifeblood and lifespan, or even some unpredictable side effects.

Its rituals are complex yet easily disrupted; some spells may even become ineffective or broken due to unintentional actions by mortals.

In many ways, they do seem "out of place".

but--

The healing power of witchcraft is incredible!
Because it originates directly from the original understanding and borrowing of nature, gods and the most fundamental rules, it can often bypass the cumbersome formalities of many later cultivation systems, directly address the core of the problem, and produce an effect that is almost "rule-level".

Furthermore, because of its antiquity, it resonates more closely with the rhythm of the ancient celestial order.

Even though they may be suppressed by the imperial fortune after the prosperity of humanity, the suppression of witchcraft is often the least compared to the rigorous system of immortals, Buddhas, and Taoist magic.

They are more like remnants of "ancient customs" or "primitive beliefs" than a direct challenge to the existing order, and thus they have survived in certain gaps.

The underlying reason why the "Witchcraft Persecution," which was repeatedly banned but never eradicated in later history, was able to arise and repeatedly cause turmoil lies in this.

Even though the girl had carefully selected and removed the taboo content that was too bloody, terrifying, might provoke a backlash from the Heavenly Dao, or would simply be "censored".

The stack of plans in King Yu's hand at this moment, which recorded many seemingly "wonderful" or "practical" methods, still had very "powerful" effects behind them.

For example, the sorcery artifact introduced at the beginning—the Heart-to-Heart Calamity.

"Two silk belts around the waist, a dream of a love knot." It sounds extremely tender and affectionate, but its essence is not a blessing, but an ancient curse that uses love as a lock and life as a medium.

(End of this chapter)