The young man didn’t care. By the time he walked out of the tavern, it was already dark, and the wind was even colder. He looked around at the lantern light flickering in the windows of the houses, and his heart grew even darker.
As the darkness in his heart spread to encompass his eyes, he stumbled off in the direction of a temple where he usually slept. Upon arriving, he slumped down against the wall and continued to drink….
The only sound he could hear was the whimpering of the wind, and the rustle of the leaves that occasionally landed on him.
At one point, a leaf landed on his hand… highlighting a scar there that looked like a spark.
“Hao’er….” he murmured, the pain in his voice clear. Right now, the only thing he could think of to do was drink, to use Drunken Immortal to descend into a muddle-headed daze. Only by being drunk… could he forget about all of the pain and confusion.
This young man was Bai Xiaochun.
Once upon a time, he had been happy and full of laughter. But in the same way that summer will change into autumn… those things were gone, and he had changed.
Also gone was his home. Just before passing out, he had heard the deafening boom, and watched as the Heavenspan Realm was destroyed.
Later, he woke up in a strange, unfamiliar land to find that everyone from his past was gone….
His home was no more.
The River-Defying Sect. Li Qinghou…. Mistress Red-Dust. Song Junwan…. They were all gone.
Thankfully, Daoist Heavenspan was also gone. However, that fact brought him no joy, only sadness. An ocean of sadness with him at the bottom of it.
He wanted to cheer up. And in fact, after being teleported to this immortal domain, he had spent months searching. He had used everything in his power, including all of the power of his cultivation base, and all of his divine sense.
But the only things he had found… were corpses. One after another, he tracked down people from the lands of Heavenspan who had been teleported to this unfamiliar world. None of them had been able to survive the process, and reached their destinations as corpses. It was like a nightmare for him, and led to a moment of weeping in which he simply couldn’t hold on any longer.
During his months of searching, he had found corpses that included Nascent Soul cultivators and even devas. Eventually, he didn't dare to search anymore. He feared that one day he would find Li Qinghou, Mistress Red-Dust, Song Junwan or some other familiar faces… as corpses.
Bai Hao’s death. The gravekeeper’s plan. Du Lingfei’s tears. The destruction of the world. One corpse after another. Eventually… Bai Xiaochun couldn’t take it.
Exhausted in all senses of the word, he reached this town, where he ended up in a drunken stupor….
He was not the ruthlessly ambitious type like Daoist Heavenspan. He was Bai Xiaochun… a simple person who wanted to be happy and live forever.
“If all of you are still alive, then where are you…?” he said, his voice slurring a bit as he slowly closed his eyes and passed out.
1. Remember that the character Bai means white. In this case, it could also be translated as Scholar White or White Scholar. They're technically calling him this because of his clothing, not because they know his surname. Because of how it’s used like a name, though, I chose to go with Scholar Bai
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Chapter
1030: A Story, An Eavesdropper
Dawn.
The distant sky was misty white, with dark clouds overhead. Gradually, the sun climbed up, turning the clouds violet, and then bright red.
Eventually, sunlight pierced through the clouds, illuminating the world in a riot of colors. At around that time, an old man and a youngster appeared, walking through the forested mountain.
The old man wore a Daoist robe, and although he kept his cultivation base mostly concealed, from the way his eyes sparkled like lightning, it was obvious that he was in the Core Formation stage. The child who walked with him was a mere Qi Condensation cultivator.
Eventually they entered the town and reached the temple. Outside the entrance, the youngster caught sight of Bai Xiaochun slumped up against the wall. He frowned.
“The world is a bitter place,” the old man said. “Those who fail to understand the great Dao live their lives like insects. Pay him no heed.” Shaking his head, he led the child inside. Some time ago, the temple had caught fire and nearly burned to the ground. It was in terrible shape.
“Master, is this the place?”
The old man nodded. “Yes. Years ago, fire fell from the heavens and landed right here. Immerse yourself in this place, and your Fire Kindling Incantation will rise to the next level.” Looking around at the ruins of the temple, he sighed. “This was once a temple to the Eternal Mother. Before you begin meditating, make sure to pay your respects.”
“The Eternal Mother?” the child said, clearly surprised. He quickly clasped hands and bowed respectfully. Then he looked up at his Master and asked, “Master, the story about the Eternal Sons and the Enemy from Beyond is true, isn’t it? And we can see the Enemy from Beyond when we look up into the sky, right?”
The truth was that the boy already knew the answers to his questions, but he still wanted to hear his omnipotent, omniscient Master explain the answer.
By this point, the conversation between the Master and apprentice had reached Bai Xiaochun’s ears, and he slowly opened his bleary eyes. He was hungover, and his head was pounding. At the moment, he couldn't even see clearly. But that didn’t stop his memories from rising up and filling his heart with pain and confusion.
He thought about how he had been forced to fuse with Du Lingfei, and about how his apprentice had died right in front of him. He thought about all the plots and schemes that had played out, and how the entire world had been destroyed in front of his very eyes.
The things he had experienced were things that most people of his generation could never even imagine happening.
Because of all of that, he now felt confused, bitter, and in pain. He was lost.
Only in his drunken dreams could he once again feel happy and blessed…. But after sobering up, and looking into a sky that was not the sky of the Heavenspan Realm, depression would grip him tight once again.
After his months of wandering in this strange world, he had heard enough from the local inhabitants to know that he was in… the Eternal Lands.
Even the mortals here knew the beautiful legends about this place…. The truth was that they actually resided on a gargantuan flower.
The Eternal Flower was vast beyond imagination, with its five petals forming enormous districts, which were called immortal domains.
People usually referred to the flower as the Eternal Mother, whom they worshipped with pious devotion. Even small, remote towns like this one had temples erected in her honor.
According to the legends, people had lived on the petals of the Eternal Flower for too many years to even count. In fact, it had been this way from the moment life began in this world….
In between the five immortal domains was something called the Eternal Sea…. It was a sea of mists that mortals couldn’t even approach safely. According to the stories… within the depths of the Eternal Sea, there had once existed three enormous statues!
People called the statues the Eternal Sons. In the legends, those three Eternal Sons had once fought a spectacular war with the Enemy from Beyond. In the final battle, the Enemy from Beyond fell into slumber, and the three Eternal Sons became statues.
It was a story that had been told in the Eternal Lands for many years. Oftentimes, stories that get passed down through the ages are eventually forgotten or changed. More commonly… people stop believing them.