One person: Senior brother Zhang Zhiwei, the Celestial Master begged me to descend the mountain.

After the rain, the night on Longhu Mountain was so dark it seemed impossible to see through.

The daytime hustle and bustle receded with the downpour, leaving only the raindrops under the eaves, still dripping and tapping on the bluestone slabs.

In a dilapidated courtyard on the back hill.

"Click."

"Click."

The sound of metal scraping against the soil was exceptionally clear in the quiet night.

Chen Duo squatted in the corner of the yard.

She was still wearing the Taoist robe that Zhang Taichu had given her during the day, which was a bit long and trailing on the ground. The sleeves were haphazardly rolled up to her elbows, revealing two slender but fair forearms.

Holding a rusty iron shovel he'd somehow found, he was digging furiously in the muddy pit, which had become soft from the rain.

The soil was damp, with a fishy smell mixed with the fresh scent of crushed grass.

That's the taste of life.

It was a smell she could never detect in the sterile room of the bunker.

"Planting flowers..."

Chen Duo muttered those two words to herself, but her hands moved with unwavering precision.

This was the task she set for herself.

It was also the first mark she wanted to leave in this place called home.

Although we don't have any flower seeds or seedlings yet.

But Uncle Liao taught me... no, Master taught me.

We should plan ahead when doing things.

First, dig the hole and loosen the soil so that when the flowers bloom, they can move into a comfortable home.

Just as she was about to stick the shovel back into the ground.

puff.

A soft, muffled sound, like some kind of succulent plant being crushed.

Chen Duo's hand stopped.

She looked down at the soil beneath the shovel, using the moon that had just emerged from the clouds overhead as a guide.

There is something there.

It was reddish-brown, sticky, and covered with a layer of shiny mucus.

It was cut off by the edge of the shovel.

It broke in two.

He did not die.

The two severed limbs were twisting and rolling violently in the black mud, as if they were writhing in some kind of painful and silent struggle.

You can even see the turbid bodily fluid flowing out of the cross-section.

Chen Duo's brows furrowed instantly.

A strong, physiological sense of disgust shot up my spine and straight to the top of my head.

Nausea.

That's disgusting.

This is a boneless, mud-covered, filthy creature that rolls around in the mud.

This ugly posture of blindly twisting even after being severed.

This is... uncleanliness.

It's a stain on this clean soil that has just been washed by the rain.

This is an error that must be corrected.

hum!

The purple light that had subsided deep within Chen Duo's pupils shone brightly once more.

That was the killing instinct of the Gu-body Saint Child.

Her fingertips trembled slightly as a wisp of extremely fine yet highly poisonous purple Qi flowed through her meridians to her fingertips.

Just as her fingers were about to touch the two still wriggling earthworms.

A large hand reached out without warning.

Snapped.

That hand firmly grasped her wrist.

Without using force, he forcefully suppressed the poisonous energy that was about to gush out from her fingertips.

"what?"

Zhang Taichu's voice rang out from above.

He emerged at some point, carrying a half-finished jug of wine, wearing only a thin cloak, his eyes appearing somewhat cold in the moonlight.

Chen Duo's hand froze in mid-air.

She looked up, her eyes still lingering with the disgust and murderous intent from before.

"It...is dirty."

She pointed to the struggling earthworm on the ground:

"It's broken, but it's still moving."

"It's ugly."

"I want to... clean it up."

Zhang Taichu did not let go.

He looked down at the two red lines on the ground that were still writhing in pain, and then at Chen Duo's self-righteous little face.

"Clean up?"

Zhang Taichu pondered the word, a half-smile playing on his lips:

"Because it's dirty? Because it's ugly? Because it's disgusting to you?"

"Um."

Chen Duo nodded vigorously:

"It shouldn't be here."

"It will dirty the place where I want to plant flowers."

The air suddenly became quiet.

Even the sound of dripping water under the eaves seemed to pause for a moment.

Zhang Taichu slowly squatted down.

His line of sight was level with Chen Duo's.

"Chen Duo".

He rarely called her by her full name.

"Do you know what you are in the eyes of those high-ranking officials at All-Telecom, and in the eyes of millions of ordinary people outside?"

Chen Duo was stunned for a moment.

She instinctively tried to avoid that gaze, but her wrist was being held and she couldn't move.

"In their view..."

Zhang Taichu's voice was soft, but every word struck her heart like a heavy hammer:

"Your body is covered in purple poisonous blood; the slightest touch could turn someone into bones."

"You are a walking biological weapon, an anomaly that should not exist in human society."

"You're dirtier than this earthworm."

"Even more dangerous."

"It's even more disgusting."

Chen Duo's face turned deathly pale in an instant.

Her lips trembled, and her body involuntarily shrank back, wanting to escape the voice and the cruel reality.

"so."

Zhang Taichu did not let her go, but continued to stab her deeper with the knife:

"According to your logic."

"Since you're dirty, dangerous, and a mistake, you're a mistake."

"So, is it right for Zhao Fangxu to want to kill you and get rid of you?"

"Isn't that just a matter of course?"

boom!

It was as if a thunderclap had exploded in my mind.

Chen Duo froze completely.

She looked at the earthworm still struggling in the mud on the ground.

That sticky body.

That desperate attempt to burrow back into the ground to survive.

That is……

I?

That version of myself, trapped in the isolation ward of the bunker, my body covered in tubes, struggling painfully in a solution of medicine.

That self who was seen as a monster by everyone, and sentenced to death simply for wanting to live.

original……

Me and it are the same.

It's all dirty stuff.

These are all pieces of trash that need to be cleaned up.

An unprecedented stinging sensation spread from the heart, ten thousand times more painful than the onset of the Gu poison.

The murderous intent in Chen Duo's eyes vanished instantly.

Instead, there was a great sense of confusion and panic.

"I……"

Chen Duo opened her mouth, her voice terribly hoarse:

"I...don't want to die."

"It doesn't want to either."

Zhang Taichu loosened his grip on her wrist.

He stretched out his hand, which wasn't protected by any Qi, and plunged it directly into the filthy mud pit.

He gently pinched the still-wriggling earthworm between two fingers.

Sticky mucus clung to his fingertips, and dirt seeped into his nails.

But there was no hint of disgust on his face; instead, he looked more serious than ever before.

"Look carefully."

Zhang Taichu held the earthworm up to Chen Duo:

"This thing is really ugly, and it's really brainless."

"But it helps loosen the soil."

"It eats rotten leaves from the soil and its excrement is fertilizer that can nourish flowers."

"As long as it's alive, it's desperately trying to burrow and move. Even if you cut it down, it's still trying to survive."

That's life.

Zhang Taichu gently placed the earthworm back into the soil, then grabbed a handful of moist soil and carefully covered it with it.

"Your life is your life."

"Its fate is also..."

"If you want to be a human being, don't think of yourself as a god who is high above you, nor as a sword that judges life and death."

"Learn to look at this thing without vomiting, learn to leave it a way out."

"This is more difficult than practicing any Golden Light Mantra."

Zhang Taichu patted the mud off his hands, stood up, and looked down at Chen Duo, who was still squatting on the ground:

"Do you understand?"

Chen Duo did not speak.

She stared blankly at the small mound of earth that her master had just filled in.

The soil below was undulating slightly.

That was that ugly little life, struggling to crawl back into its dark world to heal its wounds.

It didn't die.

It can still live.

As long as someone... is willing to cover it with a handful of soil.

Chen Duo slowly reached out and gently placed her hand on the small mound of earth.

The sensation from my palm was cool and moist.

But she could almost feel a faint pulse below.

That is the pulse of life.

Two lines of clear tears slid down her cheeks, dripping onto the small mound of earth, where they quickly seeped in.

She lowered her head, her forehead almost touching the soil.

Facing the invisible earthworm, and also facing the self that was once considered an outsider.

He said softly:

"sorry."

The apology was very soft.

It was quickly blown away by the night wind.

But Zhang Taichu heard it.

He looked at the thin figure kneeling on the ground, the sharpness in his eyes slowly fading, replaced by a lazy gentleness.

he knows.

From this moment on...

Chen Duo, the Gu-body Saint Child who only knew how to kill, is dead.

Chen Duo is a truly flesh-and-blood person who understands reverence and compassion.

Alive.

"Alright."

Zhang Taichu picked up the wine jug from the ground, tilted his head back and took a swig, then turned and walked into the house, his voice echoing in the night:

"Stop kneeling there and kowtowing to the bugs."

"Fill the hole quickly."

"I'll have Zhang Chulan go down the mountain tomorrow to buy you flower seeds."

"If I can't raise them, I'll hold you responsible."

Chen Duo raised her head.

Tears still clung to her face, but the corners of her mouth slowly turned up in a smile.

She hastily wiped her face with her sleeve, mixing her tears with the mud, making her face a mess.

"Um!"

She nodded vigorously.

Pick up the shovel again.

This time, her movements became exceptionally gentle.

With each shovel stroke, he was careful, afraid of disturbing the neighbors struggling to live beneath the soil.

Moonlight is like water.

It was sprinkled in this little courtyard filled with the fragrance of earth.

It also sprinkled on the little Taoist nun who was diligently digging a hole.

Even an earthworm.

Tonight, I also have the right to live.