The golden-nosed beetle was swallowed by the messenger bird, which was now paying a heavy price for its sneaky snack.
It was tied up tightly, bound to a small twig, its belly feathers in disarray, eyes filled with despair.
Opposite it, an Immortal with black hair and blue robes was flipping through ancient texts, muttering to himself.
"Let me check if there's any way to save the golden-nosed beetle once it's inside the bird's stomach."
On Peach Blossom Mountain, there was a house dedicated to storing ancient texts, preserved since the time of the First Disciple, Gu Yuan.
Gu Yuan loved reading, with a vast knowledge of both ancient and modern times. When he was young, Tao Mian saw his obsession and went to great lengths to gather many rare and fragmented books to read with him. Later, when Gu Yuan became the master of the Cyan Vast Sect, he continued to send a large batch of books to the mountain every year.
He knew that Tao Mian would get sleepy as soon as he started reading. These ancient texts were kept as a family treasure, to be sold for a fortune in times of need.
The Second Disciple, Lu Yuandi, continued the senior brother's good habit of reading. She liked reading about history and the strategies of emperors. When Lu Yuandi joined Peach Blossom Mountain, Tao Mian had already left the ranks of impoverished Immortals.
He spent his days waiting for money to come.
Whatever Lu Yuandi wanted to read, even if it was a rare book, Tao Mian would find a way to get it.
Chu Liuxue and Chu Suiyan also loved reading, especially Liuxue. She would casually flip through various medical texts and pharmacopoeias in her spare time. Suiyan's reading was more eclectic, including secret manuals on swordsmanship and knife techniques, as well as worldly novels for leisure, with a particular fondness for tales of the supernatural.
When it came to the Fifth Disciple, Rong Zheng, she was like her Shi Fu, falling asleep after reading just one line.
The library expanded with the arrival of each disciple, and now the collection was quite substantial.
With the sudden incident, Tao Mian was simultaneously writing to Xue Han to ask what to do about the bird eating the golden-nosed beetle and searching through ancient texts.
He could have simply cut open the bird's stomach, but this messenger bird had been his companion for hundreds of years, and he had grown attached to it, so he couldn't dispose of it lightly.
He didn't hold out much hope in his search, after all, who would be foolish enough to let such a precious beetle be eaten by a bird?
But unexpectedly, the Immortal's finger pointed in the air within the library, and an ancient, yellowed book floated before him.
...
History is vast and long, and indeed there are instances where two fools fall into the same pit.
When the Immortal opened the book, he found that there were more than just two fools.
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This book was specifically about rare insects, and it included information on the golden-nosed beetle. It detailed its characteristics, habits, and uses, and at the end, there was a section about the beetle and birds.
This section was in a question-and-answer format, with the questions posed by the inquirer and the answers provided by the author.
The questions were so varied that even the Immortal was left speechless.
"What to do if a bird eats the golden-nosed beetle?"
"What if the golden-nosed beetle eats the bird?"
"What if a human eats the golden-nosed beetle instead of the bird?"
"What if a human eats the bird, what happens to the golden-nosed beetle?"
...
He flipped through the book with a black line across his forehead and finally found the solution.
It turned out that the golden-nosed beetle was not like ordinary insects. It seemed to know its own value and was often eaten by greedy birds, so it had developed the ability to survive in a bird's stomach for half a day. In other words, as long as the bird expelled it within half a day, it would be fine.
Tao Mian found the method to save the beetle, closed the book, and began feeding the bird a laxative.
Shen Bozhou descended from the meditation platform, his mind filled with countless thoughts.
He wasn't as calm and composed as he appeared on the surface.
The downfall of the Illusionary Truth Pavilion was inevitable. The old pavilion master had grown old and, in recent years, had become nepotistic, listening to slander. His relationship with his eldest son, Shen Qinglin, had become increasingly strained, constantly suspecting him of wanting to usurp his position.
Contrary to the external image of "a loving father and filial son," Pavilion Master Shen became more obsessed with power as he aged, growing muddled and narrow-minded, unable to tolerate Shen Qinglin under his watch, sending him to a remote branch pavilion under the guise of training.
Shen Qinglin was a dutiful son, always remembering his father's kindness from childhood. Even though he felt wronged and unwilling, he complied and went to the branch pavilion.
With his elder brother gone and his father aging, it was a great opportunity for Shen Bozhou, who remained in the pavilion. Unfortunately, due to a twist of fate, he fell into a lake and was possessed by a wandering soul.
Shen Bozhou was no longer the Shen Bozhou of the past.
He didn't know his original name, didn't remember where he came from, and didn't know where he was going. When he opened his eyes, he saw a room full of servants and maids, and an anxious-looking stranger.
The man claimed to be his brother, and he was the second young master of the Illusionary Truth Pavilion.
The body he was inhabiting seemed to have committed many misdeeds, and the disciples and servants in the pavilion avoided him like the plague. Even his elder brother, who treated him relatively kindly, would watch his expression carefully when speaking to him.
He didn't like everyone being so cautious around him, and he wanted to change this situation.
So he gradually became friendly to others and spoke kindly. Every time the people of the Illusionary Truth Pavilion saw him speak calmly, they looked as if they had seen a ghost, and he could only smile bitterly in his heart.
Yes, he was just a rootless wandering soul.
Having been given a second chance at life, Shen Bozhou wasn't greedy. He didn't care who would sit on the pavilion master's seat, nor did he care.
There is no greater disaster than not knowing contentment, no greater fault than wanting more.
Those who know contentment are always content, and he just wanted to live this life peacefully.
But fortune and misfortune are intertwined. After gaining rebirth and enjoying a brief period of peace, he was faced with the tragedy of his family being destroyed.
The Illusionary Truth Pavilion was besieged by three factions, and the old pavilion master was killed. His brother, Shen Qinglin, rushed back overnight upon hearing the calamity, but was vastly outnumbered, defeated, and took his own life in the wilderness.
Shen Bozhou had his spiritual roots removed by his enemies and fled desperately with injuries. Perhaps the urgency of life and death awakened his instincts, allowing him to wield a sword to protect himself without a teacher.
The enemies pursued relentlessly, and he was wounded. He hadn't fled far when he was about to be caught. At the critical moment, a passing cultivator intervened to deal with the pursuers.
The righteous cultivator didn't understand their enmity and thought it was a case of Demonic Realm followers ganging up on an Honest Person. When he discovered that Shen Bozhou was also a demonic cultivator, he sighed deeply, blaming himself for misjudging, realizing it was just a case of dog-eat-dog, villain harming villain.
Shen Bozhou didn't have the strength to defend himself and simply said, "Do as you will, Daoist." He didn't know if the other had a sudden pang of compassion or a momentary whim, but he let Shen Bozhou go.
"I mistakenly saved you, and that's where our fate ends. But you and I are ultimately on different paths; the rest of the journey is yours to walk, leaving it to fate."
Shen Bozhou thanked the cultivator and staggered away, fleeing under the moonlit night.
The hardships and twists along the way are too numerous to recount. In short, he stumbled upon Peach Blossom Mountain. By then, he had lost most of his consciousness, sometimes lucid, sometimes confused, surviving on instinct alone.
He thought he would die here, thinking that being buried in this idyllic place would be poetic.
Everything seemed to be over.
Just as he completely lost the will to live, a pair of hands caught him.
"...Shen Bozhou?"
The person actually recognized him.
Being recognized didn't necessarily mean good news. The past Shen Bozhou had committed many wrongs, and there was no guarantee that this person wasn't also an enemy.
Then he heard the person say—
"Oh dear, just a few days without seeing you, and you're in such a state?"
...
Well, although it was a bit mocking, it seemed, probably, that he was...
Saved.
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