Jian Chou’s voice in the night, blown by the night wind, seemed like leaves hanging on late autumn treetops – drifting and trembling.

Having witnessed countless human joys and sorrows, having seen too much scheming among cultivators, seeing Jian Chou like this, Fudao Shanren suddenly felt some reluctance to be harsh.

He naturally wasn’t one of those barefoot doctors who needed to check pulses to judge a person’s condition.

With these eyes, just one look was enough to know everything.

“Shanren?”

Jian Chou asked again, full of hope.

Perhaps fearing she wasn’t a qualified mother, only because she had just learned of her pregnancy and had no awareness of it. Only now, moved by the scene, did she remember she was about to become a mother!

Counting on her fingers, it had only been a few hours.

Fudao Shanren slowly lowered his hands, awkwardly laughing it off with a completely indifferent expression: “Check pulses? How could this mountain man know such things that only mortals do? I say, girl, you’re asking the wrong person.”

“…”

Jian Chou suddenly became dejected, and the hand supporting herself against the door frame slid down.

Her clear, bright gaze fell on Fudao Shanren, as if weighing the truth of his words.

“Shanren has vast supernatural powers. Even if you can’t diagnose pulses, surely other methods…”

“How would I know any?”

Fudao Shanren quickly shook his head, his eyes rolling around – now looking at the blue tiles under the eaves, at the night outside the courtyard, then up at the stars in the sky.

“Oh my, this mountain man observes the heavens at night – stars and moon appearing together signal that a person of great fortune will emerge in this world! Girl, perhaps it’s you!”

“…Shanren, is the child in my womb gone?”

Jian Chou suddenly asked this question, and Fudao Shanren immediately stiffened.

He slowly turned his head back to look at Jian Chou.

There was considerable distress in Jian Chou’s expression. After seeing Fudao Shanren’s reaction, what could she still not understand?

When she emerged from the coffin, that pool of blood suddenly surfaced in Jian Chou’s mind.

Fudao Shanren possessed miraculous arts, but it seemed even he couldn’t save her child?

A baby not even two months old had left her like this?

Indeed, it had only been a few hours.

She hadn’t even had the awareness of being about to become a mother…

Short as a dream.

Jian Chou suddenly felt powerless all over, her throat as if thousands of sharp blade fragments were stuck in it.

She stiffly turned around, murmuring: “I understand…”

Step by step, she walked back to the table and sat down again.

The scissors in the sewing basket seemed sharp enough to pierce her eyes, not to mention the gleaming silver lock beneath.

She sat there dazedly, as if she would sit until the end of time.

Seeing this, Fudao Shanren in the courtyard sighed deeply, turned around, and refocused his attention on the big white goose.

Just as he turned around, from the house behind him, suddenly came suppressed, restrained sobbing.

The owner of those tears seemed to be desperately trying to control her inner grief, but ultimately couldn’t control it.

The floodwaters thus burst their banks in an instant, sweeping away everything.

The originally hidden sobbing suddenly became heartbroken wailing. She seemed to want to vent all her grievances and helplessness.

What she experienced was her husband’s betrayal, the pain of losing a child – in such a short time, there was no recovering from it…

Fudao Shanren ultimately didn’t turn back to look. He just climbed over the fence, gathered the frantically running big white goose into his arms, and despite the goose’s desperate struggles, said quietly: “Goose, oh goose, this mountain man is in a bad mood right now, so you’d better not struggle… Otherwise, this mountain man will have to eat you raw.”

The big white goose shuddered all over, its long neck immediately drooping down as if it understood Fudao Shanren’s words, no longer daring to move.

Only then was Fudao Shanren satisfied as he stroked the goose’s feathers.

“Good goose, good goose. How wonderful to be born as livestock – you don’t have to understand these human joys and sorrows…”

Every time he stroked, the big white goose trembled once, nearly driven mad by the torment.

No one knew how much time passed – the stars and moon in the sky slowly shifted positions.

The crying in the house gradually stopped.

Fudao Shanren looked up toward the house entrance.

Jian Chou slowly emerged from inside, stood under the eaves, and gazed up at the night sky. After a long time, she finally asked: “Shanren, when you said earlier about taking me as a disciple, were those words true?”

Fudao Shanren guessed she should be much better now, but regarding the matter of taking disciples, he couldn’t be so hasty.

He said: “Earlier I asked you, and you didn’t answer even half a sentence, showing you had no intention of taking me as master. But now you’ve changed your mind, so this mountain man asks you: What do you want to do by taking me as master?”

“Seek immortals and ask about the Dao.”

Jian Chou answered with certainty.

Fudao Shanren smiled, not believing it in the slightest: “Is it to seek immortals and ask about the Dao, or to seek revenge?”

Jian Chou fell silent.

Having cried her fill, her eyes were red-rimmed. The moon’s light, frost-white, shone into her rippling eyes, creating an indescribable beauty for a moment.

“It’s not that I don’t want to take you as a disciple. But if you enter my sect and cultivate my Dao only for revenge, not to mention making no progress on the cultivation path, even if you achieve something, in the future, you’ll develop insurmountable mental barriers because of today’s experiences. Once mental barriers arise, seeking immortals and asking about the Dao becomes nothing but a joke.”

These words from Fudao Shanren were rarely solemn.

The cultivator’s path is often filled with hardships and obstacles.

Among the thousands and millions of people in the world, most are ordinary mortals. Those who can achieve great wisdom and accomplishments number no more than two or three. Among ten thousand Qi Refining Stage cultivators, perhaps ten might reach Foundation Establishment. Among ten Foundation Establishment cultivators, there might not even be one who cultivates to the Golden Core stage.

Cultivation is inherently a one-in-a-thousand affair, allowing not the slightest error. The requirements for talent and heart-nature are ridiculously high.

With Jian Chou’s current heart-nature, she truly wasn’t suitable for this path.

Previously, Fudao Shanren had offered to ask Jian Chou only because he was moved by her sincerity and felt some karmic connection with her, so he wanted to take a disciple.

Heart-nature can determine a person’s success or failure.

After experiencing great upheaval, Jian Chou could still occasionally show joy, even saying things like “I’ll be the second one.” Fudao Shanren wasn’t someone who had completely comprehended heaven’s will and lost all human feeling – naturally, he could sense what kind of heart Jian Chou had.

As for the phrase “If that’s the case, I’ll kill him,” it happened to have the unique hardness and coldness of cultivators, approaching the heavenly Dao.

Without mental barriers, if he took her as a disciple, she might not be incapable of great achievements.

What a pity…

Fudao Shanren was about to completely abandon the notion of taking Jian Chou as his disciple.

However, the next moment…

“The big white goose goes with you, and you take me as your disciple.”

Jian Chou walked out from under the eaves, stood before Fudao Shanren, her voice steady and calm.

If it weren’t because they were currently in this small village in a mountain valley, if it weren’t because everything around them was too dilapidated, if it weren’t because the Jian Chou standing before him wore only a simple cloth dress with a plain hairpin!

Fudao Shanren almost thought she had said, “The Eternal Immortal Emperor’s sword tomb is yours, you take me as your disciple!”

What kind of joke was this?

Just one big white goose!

Fudao Shanren looked down at the big white goose still in his arms, his face full of indignation.

“Am I so vulgar and unbearable in your eyes? Do I look like someone who’s so greedy for small advantages? Cultivation is a serious matter! Back in the day, this mountain man traveled through the Six Paths and Jiushijiu Zhou with just one bamboo stick – everyone who saw me had to kowtow and call me grandfather. I’m such a formidable person, and you want to take me as a master by offering just one big white goose?! This is truly going too far!”

His nostrils seemed ready to breathe fire, and Fudao Shanren’s eyes, glaring at Jian Chou, were turning red.

“Do you think I’d be so easily bought off by one big white goose?!”

After speaking, his anger seemed to reach its peak as he threw the goose in his arms to the ground.

“At least make it two!”

“…”

Jian Chou looked steadily at Fudao Shanren, her gaze full of indescribable disdain.

This person was…

Made one want to roll their eyes.

Jian Chou didn’t know how to describe her inner feelings. She was silent for a long time before escaping from that strange emotion and saying: “Right now, all the geese at my home have run away – there’s no second one. But finding geese is a simple matter. In the future, Jian Chou is willing to find another one for you.”

“That’s more like it.”

Fudao Shanren snorted, somewhat satisfied.

He looked at the goose that had been thrown to the ground earlier. The goose was now completely dazed, as if it couldn’t understand how it had been so “favored” before but was now cast into the “cold palace.”

Quickly bending down, Fudao Shanren picked up the big white goose from the ground again.

Earlier, for the sake of dramatic effect, he had thrown the goose but secretly used some technique to protect it – it definitely wouldn’t be hurt, but he mustn’t let it be frightened.

Without lifting his head, he only said to Jian Chou: “Then we have a deal. Perform the discipline ceremony.”

“Disciple ceremony?”

Jian Chou had only witnessed some of his miraculous methods on the road and knew this person was extraordinary. But exactly how to perform a disciple ceremony and whether there were any special protocols – she was completely ignorant of all this.

She humbly asked for guidance: “Please instruct me, Shanren.”

The big white goose in Fudao Shanren’s arms was simply terrified and had become a dull-headed goose with no reaction.

Fudao Shanren was extremely worried and sighed as he said to Jian Chou, “Your family’s big white goose has more spiritual awareness than you. What’s there to instruct about a disciple ceremony? Just kowtow three times.”

As he spoke, his expression suddenly became solemn.

His other free hand gripped the bamboo stick and struck it once on the ground.

With a crisp “crack,” a deep blue light circle spread outward from the bamboo stick as its center, like water ripples, finally reaching one zhang, three chi, and six cun before stopping.

After the light circle stabilized, it maintained itself for three breaths before gradually fading away, as if hiding in the earth.

Jian Chou and Fudao Shanren, er… and one big white goose, were all within this circle.

This was Jian Chou’s first time truly witnessing such miraculous methods.

In that instant, Fudao Shanren’s face also seemed shrouded in a halo as he said: “Bow.”

Heaven, earth, ruler, parents, teacher – once a teacher, forever a father.

Jian Chou understood the principle of respecting teachers and valuing the Dao better than anyone.

But this feeling was also quite strange – she was going to have a master too, and was also going to embark on the immortal path?

Lifting the hem of her coarse cloth skirt, Jian Chou knelt on the ground, raised both hands high above her head with palms facing down, pressed them to her forehead, then bent forward in prostration.

The moon slanted, and the wind was clear.

Tree shadows swayed.

As Jian Chou bowed, her downward-facing palms naturally pressed against the moist earth of the courtyard.

The cold earth was like her currently calm heart.

If the extinction of all relatives meant severing all worldly ties, then her current self could probably also be considered as having severed all worldly bonds.

She had no father or mother, didn’t know where she came from, and even less where she would go in the future. Her husband had already left her behind, and the unborn child in her womb would never have the chance to call her mother.

Though heaven and earth were vast, there was no longer a single person, thing, or matter that could make her worry.

This feeling was empty and desolate.

One bow and one kowtow, second bow and second kowtow, third bow and third kowtow.

The moment the discipleship ceremony was completed, a hazy, dim light suddenly brightened, spreading outward from where Jian Chou was located.

The light was very faint, with a grayish, chaotic quality – dark and not very distinct.

But on such a night, it was clear enough to see distinctly.

It was a square zhang Octagonal Diagram with four directional intersecting lines that divided the entire octagon into countless small squares, looking like an octagonal chessboard.

As Jian Chou stood up, this octagonal chessboard pattern gradually faded away, as if it had never appeared.

“What was that just now…”

Jian Chou had never seen such a strange sight in her life. It seemed this pattern appeared because the discipleship ceremony was completed.

She looked toward Fudao Shanren but saw him with a completely dazed expression.

At this moment, Fudao Shanren felt like he was dreaming.

The slow-to-react big white goose finally came to its senses and jumped out of his arms, but he didn’t even turn to look: “One zhang… a one zhang Wanxiang Battle Disc…”

Wanxiang Battle Disc?

“What is that?” Jian Chou became curious.