Li Chengxuan stood up and looked at the surrounding scenery, a wave of shock surging through his heart.
“This... really is Earth!”
Li Chengxuan immediately circulated his cultivation technique and channeled his divine sense.
There was no spiritual energy whatsoever on Earth.
The circulation of his technique was extremely sluggish.
However, divine sense did not rely on spiritual energy, so he could use it without hindrance.
What truly put Li Chengxuan at ease was that the grey sphere was still floating up and down within his sea of consciousness.
The two holes upon it were clearly visible.
“This bead can actually travel between two worlds!”
“Truly miraculous.”
“I wonder if it’s a treasure handed down through Mount Taixuan’s Dao heritage, or my cheat as a transmigrator.”
Having lived two lives, Li Chengxuan showed none of his inner turmoil on his face. Not in a rush to return to the cultivation world, he smiled and expressed his gratitude: “Thank you for saving my life, Big Brother!”
“Ah, no need, no need.”
Liu Zhijian waved his hand casually, not taking it to heart at all.
Though he had caught no fish today, he had saved a life.
He could brag endlessly about it in his fishing group chat later.
All around them was a vast expanse of water.
Peculiarly, there were many partially submerged houses in the water.
Some had only their front gates remaining, the tiles peeling off, with the faint characters reading Harmony in the family brings prosperity still visible above the doorway.
Feeling a mixture of familiarity and strangeness, Li Chengxuan asked, “Big Brother, what place is this?”
“Huh?”
Liu Zhijian gave Li Chengxuan an odd look, but still answered, “This is the Lijiawa Subsidence Area. I saw a lot of posts online saying there were plenty of big fish here, but I’ve been here for two days and haven’t even caught a single silver carp...”
“Lijiawa!”
Li Chengxuan’s mind shuddered as he muttered, “This is Lijiawa...”
Seeing Li Chengxuan looking lost in thought, Liu Zhijian asked cautiously, “Little brother, are you doing cosplay or are you a real monk? Did you run into some trouble? You’re so young—don’t go doing anything foolish.”
Li Chengxuan was wearing the Daoist robe of Mount Taixuan, and floating over the water like that had given Liu Zhijian quite a fright.
He saw that Li Chengxuan was awake, clear-headed, and speaking normally.
Liu Zhijian couldn’t help but ask a few more questions.
“I am a cultivator of the Dao.”
Li Chengxuan answered earnestly, then added, “I grew up in Lijiawa when I was a child.”
“Oh, oh, oh.”
“So that’s how it is.”
Liu Zhijian nodded repeatedly and joked, “Is Little Daoist returning to your hometown to sever your worldly ties?”
Li Chengxuan froze slightly at those words, then slowly nodded. “Indeed, I am.”
Liu Zhijian didn’t know what to say for a moment, so he could only change the subject: “Little Daoist, you were unconscious for a while, so you’d better go to the county hospital for a checkup. I’m going back to fishing!”
“I refuse to believe it! With such great fishing spots, could I really go home empty-handed three days in a row?!”
Li Chengxuan smiled at his words, stood up, and took his leave.
He could not circulate his cultivation technique to unleash his Qi Refining cultivation.
However, his physical body, tempered at the Embryonic Breathing stage, was still at the level of an Innate Grandmaster in the mortal world.
With a light tap of his toes, he covered a zhang with every step.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished into the distance.
Liu Zhijian attached his bait, turned around to see that Li Chengxuan was already gone, muttered a few words to himself without giving it another thought, and began focusing on his fishing.
The entire world seemed to fade away, leaving only the bobber trembling incessantly on the shimmering surface of the water.
...
Li Chengxuan arrived at the small town, and after making a few inquiries, he understood the situation.
His hometown was famous for its coal mines, and the ground beneath had long been hollowed out.
Lijiawa was at the core of the subsidence area.
Over ten years ago, it had become uninhabitable.
Several surrounding villages were relocated as a whole.
Lijiawa had been relocated to the edge of the county town.
“I should still go take a look.”
After walking along the familiar national highway for a while, dusk gradually fell, and the streetlights along the road lit up one by one.
“Mudan Community...”
“This is it.”
A hint of hesitation born of returning home swept over Li Chengxuan’s heart.
He had spent nearly twenty years in the cultivation world, having gone through many life-and-death trials.
His memories of Earth were like frosted glass, long since blurred and unclear.
For a moment, Li Chengxuan didn’t even know how he would react if he truly met his family in this world.
At the entrance of the residential community, many elderly people were enjoying the cool air and chatting.
Many children were also playing around.
Li Chengxuan looked across the crowd, but did not recognize a single face; his apprehension and expectation of seeing familiar acquaintances fell through at the same time.
“Who are you?!”
A child riding a scooter stopped, looking up and down at the unfamiliar and strangely dressed Li Chengxuan, and asked, “Where did you come from?”
Li Chengxuan smiled at the question, unable to help remembering a poem he had read in his childhood.
Children meet but do not know me; smilingly they ask, "From where does the guest come?"
“Oh my, he's actually a Daoist!”
An elderly lady enjoying the cool air was deeply surprised, standing up and pressing her hands together in greeting: “Amitabha! Daoist, are you here on business, or looking for someone?”
Li Chengxuan did not bother to correct her gesture, replying simply, “Hello, I’m looking for... Li Jiabao. Does he live here?”
Li Jiabao was Li Chengxuan’s elder brother. He had been rebellious from a young age, skilled at skipping school and picking fights.
Li Chengxuan had been obedient and fond of studying.
The relationship between the two brothers had been average.
The group of people enjoying the cool air began discussing animatedly all at once.
“Li Jiabao... who’s that?”
“I don’t know him.”
“Ah, it’s Dabao! Shouhe’s eldest son!”
“Oh, oh, oh! So that’s his full name! First time hearing it.”
...
Li Chengxuan listened patiently for a while, and sure enough, obtained the news he wanted.
It was the same Amitabha old lady who spoke up: “Dabao runs a supermarket at the mine entrance and guards the store at night, so he might not come back. But his wife and kids are home. How about I lead you there?”
“No need.”
“I’ll come back another day.”
Li Chengxuan shook his head in refusal, finding it rather surprising.
In his early years, Li Jiabao had been extremely rebellious, calling several delinquents his brothers, and his claims to fame were picking locks and robbing supermarkets.
Now he was actually running a supermarket.
Fate truly was mysterious.
Li Chengxuan thought for a moment and asked again, “Does Li Jiabao... have anyone else in his family?!”
Waving her cattail leaf fan, the Amitabha old lady replied, “Just his wife and kids—two sons and a daughter, no one else.”
“His father, Shouhe, passed away ten years ago, and his mother passed away eight years ago as well.”
Li Chengxuan froze upon hearing this, a wave of sorrow welling up in his heart.
Another old man chimed in, “Dabao has a younger brother too, who went missing over ten years ago. Sounds like he got tricked into going to northern Myanmar, but I forgot what he was called...”
“Oh right, I think he was called Li Chengxuan...”
Remembering the crucial detail, the old man looked up excitedly, only to discover that the young Daoist in black robes had vanished without a trace.
“It’s a ghost!”
The old men and women scattered in panic.
...
Mount Taixuan, Ancestral Hall.
Li Chengxuan opened his eyes.
Outside, night had fallen, the moon bright and the stars sparse.
“I really came back!”
Excitement filled Li Chengxuan’s heart.
“Could it truly be the patriarch manifesting his divine presence, granting me a way to break free from this cage?!”
Although Earth possessed no spiritual energy at all and seemed to offer no benefit to cultivation,
according to the shallow Dao theories Li Chengxuan had summarized from browsing the sect’s ancient texts, a world capable of nurturing tens of billions of mortals must surely possess a high rank.
Most importantly, he was the sole cultivator in that world.
Monopolizing an entire cave-heaven was a monumental opportunity that not even the Dao Seed disciples of the immortal sects in the Central Continent could ever dream of having.
Li Chengxuan rose and left the Ancestral Hall, walking down toward the General Affairs Hall.
Although the main protective grand formation of the sect had been dispelled, the basic alert formation was still operating.
It was because Li Chengxuan had sensed through the Two-World Bead that outsiders were visiting Mount Taixuan that he had rushed back.
Standing at the entrance of the General Affairs Hall was an old man with white hair and beard, and beside him stood a graceful young woman.
They saw Li Chengxuan appear.
The old man hastily fell to his knees, trembling as he said, “Hua Mingcheng of Spring Return Valley pays respects to the Immortal Master!”
The young woman also bowed gracefully, saying respectfully, “Hua Chunning of Spring Return Valley pays respects to the Immortal Master.”
Li Chengxuan swept his divine sense over them, understanding the situation immediately, and couldn’t help but chuckle. “You two certainly have quite some nerve!”
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