Chapter 195

Hearing Xiao Yu's request, the Dog Meat Daoist merely grinned, his face showing no trace of pride, and asked with casual indifference, "What? Did something strange happen at Zhai the Blacksmith's house?"

Xiao Yu quickly recounted how Zhai the Blacksmith had received a dream from Big Dog the previous night, and that early this morning, he had indeed found a treasure from the Dragon Palace beside his bed.

"You must hurry to Zhai the Blacksmith's house—other gold, silver, and jewels are one thing, but that jade vat is no ordinary object."

The Dog Meat Daoist shook his head. "What good would it do me to go? I have no interest in Zhai's gold, silver, or Dragon Palace treasures."

"If I go there, all I'll get are a few kowtows, some grateful words, and an invitation to pick whatever gold or jewels I like. Better to go to Qin the Wealthy's house, where he slaughtered a fat dog last night—I can eat roasted meat right away."

Xiao Yu said, "Precisely because you don't care about the Dragon Palace treasures, that's why you should go."

"As the saying goes: see a Buddhist all the way to the West; help a person all the way to the end."

"And it's said: 'merit is complete.'"

"Since you helped Big Dog take the Long Wang as his sworn father, you must see the aftermath through properly—that's what true completion means!"

"If you leave it half-cooked, don't talk about merit—you might even accrue unnecessary karmic debts."

The Dog Meat Daoist laughed. "I see—you don't care about the Dragon Palace treasures either, and you're a kind-hearted soul. Why don't you be the one to 'complete the merit'?"

Xiao Yu shook her head. "Of course I care about the Dragon Palace treasures. If Brother Zhai, seeing I like it, politely offers to give it to me, I'd likely refuse nothing."

"But the jade vat is Big Dog's final thought and filial offering to Brother Zhai—no one else should take it."

"Rather than torment myself with indecision, it's better to keep my distance from the start: don't approach, don't get involved, don't face the test of temptation."

The Dog Meat Daoist burst into laughter, then shook his head. "Jade must be carved to become an object—you can treat this as a trial!"

"When one day you see a treasure and feel no greed at all, you'll be close to the Dao."

Xiao Yu looked unconvinced. "Without greed, I'll only grow farther and farther from the Great Dao."

"Oh? How so?" the Dog Meat Daoist asked, surprised.

Xiao Yu said, "An immortal is the most greedy person in the world. Hu the Shopkeeper of Xianghe Pawnshop merely loves wealth—everyone calls him insatiable, beyond redemption."

"But immortals crave transcendence of the cycle of rebirth, eternal life, eternal youth, boundless freedom, and the enjoyment of all earthly pleasures."

"That's far more terrifying than greed for gold."

Precisely because immortals are utterly greedy, they can endure countless trials of cultivation.

Just as Hu the Shopkeeper's utter greed for money allows him to endure mockery from mortals and punishment from the Underworld.

The Dog Meat Daoist pondered, then murmured, "What you say has merit, but it's one-sided."

"First, craving the Dao of immortality isn't greed—just as a scholar who steals books isn't a thief."

Xiao Yu replied coolly, "Those who define worldly morality are scholars—and scholars never speak ill of themselves."

"By the same logic, those who define the Dao and principles of heaven and earth are immortals and Buddhas—they certainly won't call craving immortality 'greed.'"

The Dog Meat Daoist glanced at her but said nothing—he, too, was among those seeking immortality, and he, too, longed for it.

He continued: "Second, becoming an immortal is only the beginning. In the cultivation after immortality, one must sever the Three Corpses—that is, eliminate human 'evil desires.'"

"Only when the Three Corpses are cut and the 'evil desires' are torn out does a Golden Immortal become a true immortal—not a human anymore."

Xiao Yu exclaimed, "You said you only know how to summon immortals, divine divination, and use tally sticks—how do you know so much about Golden Immortal secrets?"

The Dog Meat Daoist gave her another look. "Even mortals know to cultivate both life and destiny, to harmonize Dragon and Tiger, and form a Golden Core to become an immortal—but how many truly become immortals?"

"All top Gaokao candidates know that ranking in the top two hundred might get them into Tsinghua or Peking University—but knowing that is useless. The real key—and the hardest part—is how to raise your score to the top two hundred."

Xiao Yu said, "Stop talking nonsense. Go help Zhai the Blacksmith with the aftermath, then prepare the ceremony for me to take a sworn father."

The Dog Meat Daoist said, "You have no affinity with the Long Wang."

"I can swim better than Big Dog," Xiao Yu said.

The Dog Meat Daoist sighed. "If only being good at diving made you eligible to be the Long Wang's sworn son, the Dragon Palace would be full of 'sworn-son princes.'"

"Why was Big Dog chosen?" Xiao Yu asked.

"I don't know." Seeing her skeptical expression, he sighed. "When Brother Zhai brought Big Dog to me, I mocked them."

"I said—have you lost your mind? The Long Wang is a great deity—why would he personally become your dog's sworn father just to keep him from drowning? If such a thing were possible, bring me along—I'd even call him Grandfather Long Wang."

"If you don't believe me, ask Brother Zhai yourself."

"I helped Brother Zhai conduct the ceremony because the people of Tianmen Town always come to me with similar absurd requests."

"In fact, taking the Long Wang as a sworn father to protect a son from drowning is considered normal."

He looked up at her. "Since you mentioned Hu the Shopkeeper, do you know what he came to me for last year?"

"After I gave him the divination—'If you don't spend wealth to avert disaster, calamity will come next year'—he begged me to perform a ritual, burn paper money for the Underworld judges and Yama, to bribe them into erasing his karmic debts."

"Thank goodness I only sit and chant sutras—I haven't cultivated martial immortality, or I'd have kicked him right in the gut."

Xiao Yu asked, "Then why were you so certain the other day that Big Dog wouldn't die, and that his father would thank you?"

"If a request doesn't harm heaven or violate morality, I not only do it—I do it seriously. Do you know why?"

Before Xiao Yu could answer, he continued: "Because 'heaven and earth have spirit; ghosts and gods are unfathomable!' What I think exists may not exist; what I think cannot happen may be perfectly natural to immortals, Buddhas, and deities."

"So I treat every ritual of prayer and invocation with seriousness."

"The final outcome? That depends on heaven, on the myriad gods above."

"I treated Brother Zhai this way—and I treat you the same."

"When you first came to me saying 'even God can't save him,' didn't I quietly light three 'Summon Immortal Incense' sticks?"

"I had no guarantee the heavenly gods would notice—but I still did it seriously."

"And the result? Excellent—the Star Lord of White Majesty truly responded."

Of course, the Dog Meat Daoist didn't know that besides the Star Lord of White Majesty, every god and the Heavenly Emperor in the Lingxiao Palace had, following the incense smoke, cast their attention toward him and Xiao Yu.

This is also a defining trait—or fatal flaw—of the 'Summon Immortal, Divine Divination' path: even if you work your hardest and do your best, success still depends on whether the heavenly gods are willing to acknowledge you.

"Before Big Dog drowned, I sensed not the slightest sign of the Long Wang recognizing him. Only when I heard of his death did I suddenly grasp a flicker of spiritual insight—I felt his situation had a turning point, but I didn't know where."

"After waiting several days, as Big Dog was about to be buried, his soul had likely already been reborn as the Black-Headed Dragon in the West Sea Dragon Palace—and had already left the palace with the treasure, preparing to return to visit Brother Zhai."

"At that moment, fate was sealed, unchangeable—so revealing the heavenly secret was no longer a sin. Only then did I faintly realize the West Sea Long Wang had accepted Big Dog as his sworn son."

The Dog Meat Daoist sighed, smiling bitterly. "My cultivation is still too shallow. I told you both you'd come to thank me the next day—but the West Sea Dragon Palace is too far from Tianmen Town. Even to send a dream and deliver a treasure, it takes days and nights."

"Big Dog's return was truly hard-won!"

Xiao Yu's eyes flashed. "How did Big Dog return?"

"He came in a dream—how else?" the Dog Meat Daoist asked, puzzled.

"Did he return as the Black-Headed Dragon General, swimming through water all the way to Xiao Liang River, then appearing in his father's dream?"

"Or did he appear as a ghost-spirit, traveling the ghost path to Tianmen Town to deliver the dream?"

"Or, as a Black-Headed Dragon, did he ride clouds and summon rain to fly here?"

"Or did he transform into divine light, following the path of heavenly messengers, arriving directly in Tianmen Town?"

Xiao Yu mused. "Hmm—if he traveled for days, he likely didn't take the divine messenger route."

From her observations these past days, among the many chaotic inspection deities, the Divine Messengers were fastest, while the Dayi Gongcao Gods were most mysterious and powerful.

The Day and Night Wanderers were most secretive—she still hadn't definitively seen either.

The Underworld spirits seemed the weakest.

The Dog Meat Daoist's head spun. "All these chaotic routes—I'm dizzy just listening, and they're utterly irrelevant."

"Big Dog returned, delivered a treasure to Zhai the Blacksmith, and fulfilled his final filial duty—that's what matters!"

—Your priority is irrelevant to me.

Xiao Yu felt a pang of regret.

She should have persisted—on the first night, when she found nothing, she should have kept watch the next night.

She believed that if she opened her 'spiritual eyes' and watched Zhai the Blacksmith's house, she'd have found some trace.

"A month ago, you couldn't even be sure Big Dog would become a sworn son."

"A month later, you still can't say I have no affinity with the Long Wang," Xiao Yu said.

The Dog Meat Daoist asked, "Do you want to drown like Big Dog—die in the river, then be granted true dragon blood and reborn as a Black-Headed Dragon?"

"Ugh, must I drown to satisfy my greed for mortal life? I just want to take a sworn father and get some benefits," Xiao Yu said. She didn't want to die—and couldn't die.

"Not every sworn son must drown. Big Dog was destined for this calamity—and this calamity forged his bond with the Long Wang."

"Only with this bond could the Long Wang's spiritual insight be stirred, allowing him to accept Big Dog as his sworn son."

"If you're not destined to drown, it means you have no even basic affinity with the Long Wang."

He paused, then hesitated. "I suspect Big Dog's past life might have been a dragon prince or a former servant of the Dragon Palace."

In truth, he wanted to say: I think Big Dog was the West Sea Long Wang's illegitimate son left outside the palace—and this calamity was precisely the path that allowed him to return to the Dragon Palace openly, without the Dragon Queen noticing.

But he would never say such a thing aloud.

Unless one day, like Xiao Yu before, he was blinded by demonic energy and lost his mind.

The Long Wang may not rival the Heavenly Emperor—but in the mortal realm, the West Sea Long Wang is unquestionably a colossal deity.

The Dog Meat Daoist looked at Xiao Yu. "I heard you were born with innate wisdom—your soul is original, with no past life."

—No past life means no karmic debts or blessings from before—so don't entertain foolish thoughts.

Xiao Yu asked, "Must I take the Long Wang as my sworn father? Can't I take another immortal, Buddha, or deity?"

To the Dog Meat Daoist, the West Sea Long Wang was a "supreme deity."

To Xiao Yu, he was a "minor player" even the lowly Horse Tamer could bully.

The Dog Meat Daoist hesitated. "Taking the Long Wang as sworn father is customary in coastal kingdoms—but if you insist on another immortal, Buddha, or deity… technically, it's not impossible—but the results—"

Xiao Yu burst into laughter. "If one won't work, I'll take dozens—or hundreds! As long as one accepts me, my life will be blessed forever!"