Chapter 383

Yu Ke's heart raced, his thoughts shaken.

The several options from the original simulation flooded in like a tide; Master Dong, who had always provided hints, was actually the mastermind behind all of this.

As the enlightenment teacher of "Xie Guan" in this life, Master Dong had gifted him many Confucian classics before Xie Guan reached adulthood, many of which had a profound influence on Xie Guan.

Because of this, Xie Guan held Master Dong in high esteem.

And regarding the calligraphy rubbings of the Second Gentleman, had it not been for Master Dong's gift, Xie Guan would not have had the subsequent opportunity to "fish for characters in the lake" at the Hongjing Courtyard, nor the good fortune involving Lu Hua and the Sanzhen Sect.

However, the final news that arrived was that Master Dong had died at home due to alcoholism.

Xie Guan had triggered options regarding this several times, all pointing toward Master Dong.

Unexpectedly, today, behind the scenes of the Fragrant Banquet, the one observing all of this in secret had been this Master Dong all along.

Xie Guan had long been secretly noticed by this person.

Regarding this person's identity, Yu Ke had a vague guess in his heart!

The old man in the carriage spoke slowly, his voice carrying a slight sigh.

He was just like an ordinary old man.

"This can be considered our first real meeting."

Yu Ke nodded; facing such a figure, he did not panic.

After all!

This world was like "flowers in a mirror and the moon in the water" in his eyes, illusory and elusive.

Even if this old man was the person he guessed him to be.

In his perception, he was like an unfathomable black hole, his cultivation so high that it was impossible to guess.

As soon as Yu Ke's spiritual sense touched the old man, it was like a clay ox entering the sea, swallowed without a trace.

Yu Ke felt no fear in his heart; in fact, he even had a strange feeling.

The person opposite seemed to have a kind of "fear" toward him?

This fear was hidden very deeply; if Yu Ke were not currently in a mysterious state similar to "observing the Dao," he likely would not have been able to detect it at all.

However, Yu Ke was not in a hurry, and he could not leave at this moment.

Although Master Dong opposite him did not reveal any aura and had not shown any malice, that invisible pressure was like a ladle of clear water taken from a large vat, still and motionless.

The surrounding air was silent.

Yu Ke simply stood with his hands behind his back, his heart like an ancient well, calm and unruffled, standing quietly.

The two did not speak for a long time.

The old man slowly stepped down from the carriage.

His figure was hunched, his hair gray, yet groomed meticulously.

A short, stiff handlebar mustache hung by his mouth.

The two stood facing each other, and an indescribable silence permeated the air.

The jujube-red carriage behind remained parked there quietly, without the slightest movement.

The horses were also motionless.

The mist by the river blew slowly, winding between the two.

The old man finally raised his eyes, his gaze as deep and dark as a pool.

He spoke again, his voice low and slow.

"I..." He seemed to feel this self-address was somewhat inappropriate, paused slightly, and then changed his form of address.

"My name is Dong Cheng, a Master of the Great Qi Academy."

Although Yu Ke had long guessed it, hearing the other party confirm it himself, he could not help but feel a surge of shock.

The old man before him was the world's number one—the Master!

The legendary figure who had spent two hundred years seeking immortals in the East Sea and founded the Great Qi Academy.

Despite the turbulent waves in his heart, Yu Ke remained calm on the surface.

The old man seemed to notice Yu Ke's composure and continued.

"I am not the first to invite..."

Dong Cheng seemed to be weighing his words, finally spitting out a simple "you."

Yu Ke pondered slightly; if counting personal participation, there had already been three times before this.

He responded calmly: "Not counted."

Dong Cheng's voice sounded exceptionally distant in the river breeze, as if carrying the sediment of time.

"Have you heard of me?"

Although Yu Ke did not understand why the Master would ask this, he answered frankly:

"Naturally, I have."

"Even, many times."

The old man heard this and seemed to have a hint of a smile:

"It seems I have not lived in vain."

Dong Cheng's gaze gradually became deep, as if he had fallen into memories.

"When I was young, my younger brother A-Xiu and I established the Tang Dynasty together, determined to unify the world, and we suffered a lot."

"Later, the world was unified, and A-Xiu said he was the master of the world and no one should be above him. So, I thought about it for a whole night and decided to kill him."

His tone was calm.

"I always wanted to be like Lu Chen and Lu Yu back then, two brothers living in harmony, and finally ascending to this realm together."

"Unfortunately, I am not Lu Chen, and he is not Lu Yu."

Dong Cheng's voice carried a hint of regret, "I thought that after the world was unified, there would be an opportunity for ascension."

"I waited for three hundred years, but not a single Heavenly Gate was willing to open for me."

Speaking of this, the old man seemed somewhat emotional. He looked at Yu Ke, his tone carrying a hint of apology:

"Forgive me, one lives too long, and there are too many words bottled up in the heart."

Yu Ke did not show much expression at this time.

He was full of interest in this Master, whom he could not avoid in this life's simulation.

Dong Cheng's words seemed to uncover a corner of history.

The Master was a figure from the Tang Dynasty, even the founder of the Tang Dynasty.

Yu Ke had accepted Xie Guan's memories, and in his heart, he also knew the later identity of the "A-Xiu" Dong Cheng spoke of.

It was none other than the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Gao Zu Ran Xiu.

And Dong Cheng, perhaps, was not surnamed Dong, but Ran.

If not for this, he would not have addressed him as "brother."

Dong Cheng's voice was low and slow, as if narrating a distant history.

"In the following hundred years, the Tang Dynasty fell into chaos again. Every dynasty is the same; people eating people is human nature. Warlords fought everywhere, and the people lived in misery."

"At that time, I couldn't manage so much anymore; I was about to die. But I couldn't die, so I performed my first corpse-dissection. I buried myself at the bottom of a cold lake, and three hundred years later, I was resurrected."

Speaking of this, the old man's gaze seemed to have a hint of light, and his tone became a bit gentler.

"I met a woman, the daughter of a fisherman. We married and had children, and I had my first child. I named him 'Qi,' and those four or five years were among the happiest of my life."

"The woman died, and I raised Qi to adulthood. I rekindled the idea of unifying the world, so I helped him establish the Great Qi and founded the Academy."

After hearing this, Yu Ke was slightly surprised.

He had not expected that the ancestor of the Great Qi was actually the Master before him—Dong Cheng.

This legendary figure who had lived for nearly two thousand years had personally created two dynasties and witnessed the rise and fall of countless histories.

The river breeze continued to blow, and the mist swirled.

The old man's voice was low and calm, yet carried an indescribable vicissitude.

"Qi died, and his son, and his son's son ascended the throne; they finally began to fear me."

Dong Cheng's gaze lowered slightly, "At that time, I was about to die again. I pretended to let them kill me, and they modified the genealogy and changed their surname."

"So, I began my second corpse-dissection. I went to the Eternal Heaven in the north and took on another identity—the son of Eternal Heaven, the Demon Master of the Demon Sect. I established the Xu family to oppose the Great Qi."

Yu Ke was shocked, remembering the grassland Golden Family mentioned by the Demon Master Xu Xu Jiangxian.

Could it be that it was also built by the Master? The Xu family was also his bloodline.

He was puzzled but did not interrupt the old man's narration.

"The grassland also had no opportunity for ascension, and I was about to die again. So I performed corpse-dissection again and went to the south."

"There, spring flowers bloomed, and there were temples everywhere. I became a monk and also the 'Living Buddha' in their mouths. I established the Eastern Saint Sect and slowly developed it into a Buddhist nation."

"No matter how much I was praised, I still couldn't survive that winter; I knew I was going to die. I took in many disciples, all of whom were high monks of noble character. That night, they knew my flesh would not decay... they scrambled to eat me."

The old man's words stopped abruptly, and an indescribable heaviness seemed to permeate the air.

Yu Ke thought of the Eastern Saint Sect where Master Master Lianchi was; it was also founded by the Master!

The old man's voice remained calm.

"I performed corpse-dissection again and came to Mount Zhongnan, this great sect that has been passed down for three thousand years."

"I became a Daoist priest, thinking that with the experience of so many corpse-dissections, I could become a Heavenly Master of the Sanzhen lineage... but I didn't expect to see the past patriarchs of the Sanzhen Sect in the Tomb of the Living Dead. Their flesh did not decay, their spiritual sense remained, and they discovered me. I was injured by them; I had never suffered such a heavy injury."

Hearing this, Yu Ke was surprised.

He had a deeper understanding of the Sanzhen Sect where Lu Hua was in this realm.

A great sect of the current age!

No wonder the Great Sui was the only country capable of contending with the Great Qi; it turned out that the Great Sui was supported by the Sanzhen Sect.

And like the Eternal Heaven in the north, the Buddhist nation in the south, and even the Great Qi itself, with this Master's cunning, how could he not have left behind countermeasures?

"Of course, they didn't have it easy either. I destroyed the flesh of more than a dozen generations of patriarchs, but in the end, I was forced to perform corpse-dissection again."

"I returned to the Great Qi and became the Master. I worried they would fear me, so I walked the world again in the name of the second Master."

Speaking of this, Dong Cheng's gaze became deep, as if piercing through the torrent of time.

"For so many years, I have been searching for an opportunity for ascension. Unfortunately, I have traveled the world, but I have never found it."

The old man's voice was low.

"Although I have not seen the legacy left by Lu Chen in the Tomb of the Living Dead of the Sanzhen Sect with my own eyes, I have learned quite a few secrets of the Sanzhen Sect."

"Peng Chuan cast the cauldron, the dragon ascended, so I also cast a great cauldron, placed it in the Academy, and raised a dragon in Lake Deze."

"Unfortunately, the cauldron is not a cauldron, and the dragon is not a dragon; it was just painting a tiger based on a cat, and everything eventually flowed to the east."

Speaking of this, Dong Cheng's tone carried a hint of faint regret, but he quickly returned to calm.

"Although I was disappointed, I took in a disciple in the Great Qi, and gradually, I had four disciples."

"I discovered two things: first, in these five hundred years, the world has begun to recover again."

"Second, my four disciples are more excellent than anyone I have ever seen. In a short time, their cultivation has not lost to what I had during my second corpse-dissection."

The old man's gaze flickered slightly, as if remembering something.

"Especially the second one; when his innate ability appeared, I felt fear for the first time."

Hearing this, Yu Ke's heart stirred, remembering what Lu Hua had once said.

The Second Gentleman has a sword and a backbone; nine swords combined can behead the Master.

It seems this was not an empty boast.

"However, I was also happy, because I finally pursued that trace of an opportunity for ascension."

"I built the Spirit-Startling Array, deliberately leaked my identity, and waited for my four disciples to join forces to behead me, completing my fifth corpse-dissection."

Speaking of this, the old man's tone became solemn.

"Although corpse-dissection is seizing the creation of heaven and earth, it is difficult to escape the limits of heaven and earth."

"There are only six cycles, which means six corpse-dissections."

"I have already performed corpse-dissection five times, with only the last one remaining."

When the old man said this, he finally straightened his back for the first time; telling it this way, it was as if this long past experience, five corpse-dissections, was an incredible and bizarre life for an ordinary person.

Finally, in front of this person, he had the confidence.

His gaze was as deep as a pool, looking straight at Yu Ke, asking slowly:

"What does a life of nineteen hundred years look like in your eyes?"

Hearing this, Yu Ke's heartstrings trembled, his thoughts drifting.

He remembered Lu Chen's life, which was just a five-day simulation within the Shenxiao Sect.

And the second simulation was only after one day, totaling no more than six days.

However!

Within the Kunxu Realm, it had already been vicissitudes of life, three thousand years passing quietly.

One day in the mortal world, the years in the cauldron had already exceeded three thousand years.

The nineteen hundred years of the Master in the mortal world, in the eyes of Yu Ke, were but a day's time within the Shenxiao Sect.

At this moment!

The ancient cauldron in Yu Ke's heart roared quietly; the sound was ancient and deep, traversing the past and present, resounding through the universe.

Great music is soundless!

Carrying endless vicissitudes and heaviness, resonating with heaven and earth.

Yu Ke nodded slightly, pondered for a moment, and finally spoke.

"Like a mayfly, like the morning dew!"

After hearing this, the Master whispered, repeating those two words:

"Mayfly..."

"Like a mayfly born in the morning and dying in the evening; like morning dew disappearing without a trace, coming without a mark."

"At this moment, it is... a mayfly seeing the blue sky!"

His voice was mixed with a trace of imperceptible emotion, as if he were savoring the deep meaning behind these two words.

The river breeze continued, carrying a hint of coolness, the mist swirling, and it seemed as if only the conversation between the two remained between heaven and earth, clear and long.

The old man smiled sadly, yet felt it was within reason.

Dong Cheng asked again, "Have you seen that Lu Chen?"

Yu Ke nodded.

Lu Chen had been gone from this world for a full three thousand years.

The old man asked, "Lu Chen, what did he ask?"

Yu Ke shook his head, "I have seen him, but he has never seen me."

A look of doubt appeared on the Master's face, but he did not ask again.

The old man finally asked the question he cared about most, "How do I compare to Lu Chen?"

Yu Ke looked at the Master before him; in fact, it could not be denied that his life, whether in terms of length or the achievements he established.

The Academy he built, the Confucian teachings he left behind.

He was a figure that could not be bypassed in later generations.

If one were to compare Lu Chen with him, both were the most brilliant figures of these three thousand years.

Excluding the ethereal ages of upper and lower mythology, since the Warring States period, the first page of history has been the "Annals of Lu Chen."

But!

For Yu Ke, his first life of heavenly human reincarnation was "Lu Chen," and the second life was "Xie Guan."

No matter how strong the Master is, for himself, it is of no help.

Yu Ke pondered for a moment and then spoke slowly.

"I have never cared about your life."

A short sentence.

The Master's expression finally changed.

(End of Chapter)