Young master, why not become a corpse immortal?

Chapter 191 It's my fate, but I refuse to accept it.

After Gong Xuan finished saying his name, his face flushed slightly.

"It was originally my mother's nickname. She said that when I got older, she would ask a fortune teller to give me a formal name. But that never happened. So my formal name is still Chen San Gou to this day."

He looked at the two people in front of him again, feeling that they might laugh at him because of his name.

However, neither of them said anything.

Lin Jiang was unusually quiet at this moment, staring at the rim of the wine cup in deep thought for a long time, before suddenly speaking seriously:

"Actually, I've always had a question that I'm curious about."

"what?"

"I've heard many families name their children 'Er Gou,' especially Chen Er Gou. Where does this Er Gou come from?"

"What kind of question is that?" Jiang Jinyue sighed, rubbing her forehead. "When I first met you, I felt that your thoughts were different from ordinary people. Now that I think about it carefully, only you could ask such a question."

Upon hearing this, Lin Jiang remained unconcerned: "This is called having a pure and extraordinary Daoist mind and clear and unobstructed thoughts, which ordinary people cannot fathom."

Jiang Jinyue thought for a long time, and finally bowed to Lin Jiang:

"A true genius! A truly great talent!"

Gong Xuan was taken aback by the question, and perhaps due to the effects of the alcohol, he began to seriously argue his point:
"Chen is a common surname, and there are quite a few people with the surname Chen in Daxing. As for Er Gou, Er usually refers to the second child in the family, and dogs are the most common animals in the village, so the name Er Gou is probably quite common?"

Gong Xuan's analysis made perfect sense, and Lin Jiang nodded in agreement.
"Then, Taoist priest, you must be the third child in your family?"

Upon hearing this, Gong Xuan shook his head:
“I am actually the eldest in my family. The reason I am called San Gou is because my family had three dogs at the time. My mother was illiterate and could not read, so she simply counted three on her fingers and called me San Gou.”

"That sounds like a good name."

Gong Xuan was taken aback, then nodded solemnly:

"Indeed, it's a good name."

"Since we've come to this point, why don't you tell me about your past, Daoist Master?"

"My past?"

Gong Xuan hadn't expected the topic to veer directly to this. He thought for a moment, then said:

"I am from Taiping, Xichuan. When I was six years old, my family was attacked by bandits, and the whole village was burned to the ground. When I was displaced, I sneaked into a nearby county town. I was starving, so I found a place full of the fragrance of cosmetics and stole a roast chicken. I was caught and almost beaten to death. Unexpectedly, I met an old Taoist priest. He took pity on me and took me out."

"Later I found out that I had sneaked into the brothel area."

His very first words made Lin Jiang and Jiang Jinyue stop drinking.

When I heard that Gongxuan's mother hadn't given him a formal name, I had a vague feeling that something might be going on.

Now that I hear it, it's definitely true.

Gong Xuan didn't seem to care at all, and continued, swirling his wine bowl:

"The old Taoist priest took me back to my town, where he killed all the bandits. Afterward, he shared the roast chicken with me and we drank some turbid wine together. From then on, I traveled with him and learned the ways of food and sex from the esoteric arts. This is what I told you before about eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling."

“When I was young, I always respected my master. He treated me very well, provided me with food and clothing, and taught me all his skills.” Gong Xuan continued to recall the things he had experienced: “At that time, I only sought to be warm and fed. Because of the special nature of my cultivation method, my master took me to taste all kinds of delicacies, and life was quite satisfactory.”

"Then one day, my master brought a beautiful little girl, who said she was my junior sister. When she was young, she always clung to my back, calling me 'senior brother' over and over again. My master taught her everything he knew, and we both studied diligently."

When Gong Xuan said this, the expression on his face was somewhat complicated.

Lin Jiang couldn't discern how much joy and gloom were hidden in that expression.

Clearly, the past years occupied a large part of Gongxuan's mind, yet they were also deeply hidden in his memory.

If it weren't for this drinking session today, Gongxuan probably wouldn't have told everyone about his experiences.

At this point, Gong Xuan also let out a soft sigh:
“I was studying with my junior sister at the time, and I thought we would live peacefully like this until we grew up. But when I was twelve years old, my master suddenly called my junior sister and me to his side.”

"My master had me and my junior sister each draw one from three broken bowls. Only after that were we officially considered to have become disciples of the patriarch."

"And these three bowls are the ones I mentioned to you before, young master, about poverty, premature death, and orphanage."

"We were both young then, how could we understand these things? We just thought it was fun, so we randomly pulled out the bowl that could change our lives."

"I was poor, and my junior sister was an orphan. At the time, we had no idea how much impact those two words would have on us later."

"After we officially started the training, my master told us very directly that only one of us would survive."

"Like cockfighting, the two of us need to fight each other, and only the one who remains can receive the full Dao inheritance."

"When I heard about this, I was shocked. I was a boy then, and I had spent a lot of time with my junior sister. How could I bear to face her with swords?"
"But my junior sister is different. She seems to regard Master's words as the ultimate truth, her mind solely focused on them, her thoughts unwavering, all the way to this point. "I remember it's been thirty-nine years and two months since I met her. At first, I couldn't bring myself to kill her, but the more time passed, the more irreconcilable we became. Now, it's reached the point where we must kill each other the moment we meet."

Lin Jiang remained silent.

Up to now, he has never even met Gong Xuan's junior sister, nor does he know what she looks like. He only knows that she is a swindler and cheater in her cultivation.

Then I remembered that back in Baishan County, my junior sister sent out a strange jar to capture a village woman. It seems that she might indeed be different from Gongxuandao.

He can remember all the days clearly, so how could he so easily forget everything?

Gong Xuan took another large gulp of wine; perhaps the alcohol was too strong, for his face turned slightly red.
"At that time, I always hoped that there was still room for maneuver. We could explore the mysteries of heaven and earth together and drink from mountain springs and pine dew. Why did we have to risk our lives?"

"I refuse to accept this. I feel that this path should not be limited to this. I can accept the barrenness and the loneliness, but why must we be forced to fight among our fellow disciples? What kind of lineage is this? It's like kicking a hundred or so people into a mine and letting them fight to the death, and then picking the one with the hottest blood to be the leader? It's utterly absurd!"

At this point, Gong Xuan was clearly getting angry. He slammed his hand on the table, making the dishes and drinks on it tilt and shake. But because he was a sorcerer, he was a bit fragile. After hitting the table twice, he felt a sharp pain in his arm and gasped for breath, rubbing his elbow repeatedly.

Lin Jiang thought about what Gong Xuan had just said and nodded quite seriously.

"That's really stupid."

"Idiot? That's a good word. I never felt that insulting someone before was thorough or straightforward enough." Upon hearing this word, Gong Xuan's eyes even lit up. "Idiot, idiot, hehe, who came up with that? It's quite interesting."

At this point, he raised his glass, stood up, and, upon being invited, began to dance and sing to the moon:
"Idiot~ Idiot~"

The people of Daxing have a long-standing tradition of reciting and singing, and many literati wrote poems and lyrics with the intention of having them set to music and sung. Because of this, many courtesans volunteered to serve famous scholars, just to obtain the finest melodies.

But when Lin Jiang heard this song, how could he possibly keep his composure?

He choked on the half-cup of wine he had just drunk, coughing and panting as he leaned against the wooden table.

Lin Jiang's body shouldn't be in any discomfort from choking on water; it just shows how incredibly powerful Gong Xuan's song is.

"Alright, stop singing this," Lin Jiang waved his hands repeatedly. "If you really want to sing, I'll teach you some other songs later."

"Young master, you are just a rough and uncouth warrior. What good tunes could you possibly sing?"

Lin Jiang flew into a rage: "If it weren't for the fact that you're not feeling well, I would definitely have given you a beating!"

Gong Xuan chuckled, sat back down, and continued recounting his story:
“Young master, as I told you before, after I entered the sect, one day I heard the patriarch appear in my dream and say that I was on the wrong path and that the skills I should be cultivating were not these.”

Lin Jiang nodded.

He certainly remembered.

At the time, Gongxuan said that their path should have originally been "eating, drinking, having fun, and speculating," but it inexplicably turned into "eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, swindling, and cheating."

"Actually, it wasn't the patriarch who appeared to me in a dream. I thought my master's behavior was too stupid, so I secretly went to my master's room and stole our lineage's heritage!"
"Our path, including my junior sister and me, has been passed down for six generations. I only learned this later when I was looking through my master's notes."

"According to my master's notes, our profession did not initially involve any cultivation methods such as eating, drinking, gambling, or whoring. Instead, we extracted fates and suffered greatly within them until finally, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, we broke free and became butterflies."

"Loneliness, premature death, and poverty are written in the center of the bowl, but fortune, longevity, and prosperity should be written at the bottom. Only through hardship can one's destiny be transformed and become a star."

"However, later practitioners of this path found it too difficult to endure the previous hardships, so they eventually developed vices such as drinking, gambling, whoring, cheating, and deceiving, trying to obtain the destiny of others to make their cultivation path smoother."

Gong Xuan gently swirled his wine bowl, his expression indescribable.

"Where can you see people fighting amongst themselves?"
"I don't understand, so I went to find my master and asked him what was going on."

"And then... guess what my master said?"

Before anyone else present could answer, Gong Xuan burst into laughter, slapping his thigh.

"My master said that this is a rule passed down from our ancestors!"
"But Master! Our ancestors never had such a rule!"
"My master told me that this is how my advisor taught him! My advisor told him that he could only live by one of the two things, so that he could learn to eat, drink, gamble, whore, cheat, and swindle. Only by learning both of these things could he manipulate the world and have his heart's desire, and ignore the suffering in his life!"

"Only in this way can we add stars!"

"So he killed his junior sister too! He told me it was a tradition, something we had to do!"
"Fuck you, you idiot!"
“I got into a fight with my master, and I ran away with his booklet.”

"Does this mean we have to practice this evil method?! I refuse to accept it! I don't agree with it! My master says it's good, but I don't think it's good!"

Gong Xuan stood up, raised his wine cup high, reflecting the bright moon in the sky:
"I changed my eating, drinking, gambling and whoring to eating, drinking and having fun, but I really don't know how to cultivate my junior sister's profession, so I can only temporarily engage in speculation and profiteering."

"I have been cultivating for so long, but I have found that this path is not smooth. I can't even finish my own path! I saw all this at the age of sixteen, reached the sixth heaven at the age of twenty-five, and now it has been twenty-one years and six months. It is hard to see the future! It is hard to see!"

He looked up to the sky and sighed, his cries filled with sorrow.

Even with exceptional talent, it's still difficult to break through to the next level.

This is the point of the stars.

(End of this chapter)