Chapter 53 Part 1: Three Versions of ‘I’

“It is to help you understand yourself.

“The ancients said, ‘With bronze as a mirror, one can straighten one’s attire. With people as a mirror, one can discern right from wrong. With history as a mirror, one can see the rise and fall of nations.’ Gui Ruoxue, do you know what you lack most right now?”

Ning Mingmei coaxed patiently, “What you lack is an exploration of your true desires.”

He tore off the white cloth covering Gui Ruoxue’s eyes.

Gui Ruoxue squinted, unaccustomed to the harsh light streaming in from outside.

Gui Ruoxue finally realized where he was. He was tied up in the corner of a room, bound by Ning Mingmei, with a large mirror covered by a cloth placed right in front of him.

Then, he watched as Ning Mingmei casually lifted the cloth off the mirror.

Gui Ruoxue: …

…

“Ning! Ming! Mei!”

The elegant young master Gui Ruoxue finally understood what it felt like to be so enraged that he almost lost his mind. He knew he was tied up, but he had no idea he was tied up like this.

What kind of bizarre way of binding was this?!

And with the mirror reflecting everything, it was utterly indecent!

Ning Mingmei: “No need to thank me. I’ll leave now. Take a full day to get to know yourself and be sure to ponder the deeper meaning behind this.”

Damn it!

Where did this person even come from? How could every single thing he said sound so infuriatingly inhuman?

“Fine, if your goal was to humiliate me, you’ve succeeded,” Gui Ruoxue said, panting in anger. “Tell me, how are you planning to torture me next?”

Then, he saw Ning Mingmei look at him and sigh in regret.

“We, as righteous cultivators, would never do such things. Oh well, the path of education is full of thorns,” Ning Mingmei said. “Before I leave, let me share a proverb with you. ‘Smile at the world and the world will smile back at you.’ Soon, you’ll come to understand this here.”

Gui Ruoxue: …

You’re not talking about my own reflection in the mirror, are you?

He didn’t look convinced. He looked like he was about to pass out from sheer frustration and couldn’t even utter a single word.

Ning Mingmei: “Think it over, Gui Ruoxue. One day, you will find your true self in the mirror.”

With that, Ning Mingmei drifted away and left Gui Ruoxue in the room, his head practically about to explode.

Before leaving, Ning Mingmei even pushed the mirror closer to Gui Ruoxue, effectively trapping him in a tight triangular space between the walls and the mirror.

Now, besides looking at the walls, all he could see was the mirror.

Gui Ruoxue, annoyed, decided to close his eyes and ignore it. But then, voices from outside reached him.

“Peak Lord Ning told us to bring some candles and lamps inside.”

“Yes, we must make sure that even at night, the room stays brightly lit!”

Gui Ruoxue: …?

“Oh, I almost forgot.”

The mirror was pulled away again, revealing Ning Mingmei, dressed in green.

Just as Gui Ruoxue opened his mouth to curse, the other party sealed his mute acupoint. Then, Ning Mingmei pressed another acupoint.

Suddenly, Gui Ruoxue found that he couldn’t even close his eyes anymore and he was forced to keep staring at his own reflection.

Ning Mingmei: “Don’t be so hasty to speak. Take the time to think. You’ll gain more from it.”

After saying that, he repositioned the mirror again and left.

Gui Ruoxue: …

“Master is being so gentle with that prisoner…” echoed the voices outside.

“Our Supreme Clarity Sect cultivators are always like this, upright and magnanimous.”

The Supreme Clarity Sect? Upright and magnanimous? Is this what all of you people from the Supreme Clarity Sect are like?!

Gui Ruoxue couldn’t close his eyes, couldn’t turn his head, and the lights outside wouldn’t go out.

For the next 24 hours, the only thing he could move was his facial expressions, so he could do nothing but stare at himself.

***

Meanwhile, Ning Mingmei returned to his own room, shut the door, and immediately slumped down.

Pushing up his glasses, he muttered, [I followed your instructions. I didn’t do anything that would break my character.]

Like torture, mockery, making physical contact… things like that.

The one he was speaking to, of course, was the system.

The system: …

Ning Mingmei: [Do you have any insightful opinions?]

The system: [I don’t know how to define it exactly, but your actions… they seem pretty perverse.]

Ning Mingmei: [How so? I’ve followed the rules, like a gentle spring rain nourishing the earth. Sooner or later, Gui Ruoxue will be moved by my well-intentioned efforts.]

The system: …

The disciples needed time to recover, Gui Ruoxue needed time for self-reflection and to reignite his academic passion, and Lian Chengyue wasn’t in any immediate danger. With peace of mind, Ning Mingmei went about his own business.

For example, he decided to check on the abandoned temple again.

Today, the temple was far less lively than it had been the day before. The townsfolk, seeing that the Florence flask was gone, had given up in despair and dispersed. Now, aside from him, there were only a few scattered individuals inside and outside the temple.

An old woman murmured, “The statue performed a divine miracle, shedding its dust, and has now ascended to where it belongs.”

Ning Mingmei glanced at an elderly scavenger outside the temple. She showed no joy or sorrow, simply going about her business, as if possessing her own wisdom for survival.

After some thought, he asked, “Yesterday, when the statue manifested its miracle, why weren’t you here?”

The old woman replied, “Sudden blessings in this world often seem like good fortune at first, but later turn out to be burdens. If one receives a favor, one will eventually be asked to repay it. Otherwise, one will be resented. And when the time comes, the price to be paid will far exceed what was received by a hundredfold.”

Ning Mingmei said, “Indeed. When has such a thing not happened? When has a history not repeat itself?”

The old woman shook her head and sighed, “But if a deity truly has good intentions, isn’t it pitiful to be accused about in this way?”

She picked up her sack and hobbled down the mountain path. Seeing that Ning Mingmei was interested, an old man smoking a pipe tried to ingratiate himself. “People say that old woman was once the wife or concubine of some noble family. Later, she was abandoned by her husband’s household and ended up wandering here.”

Ning Mingmei asked, “Where is her husband from?”

The old men exchanged glances. One of them said, “I think his surname was Quan. A minor official in Ye Province.”

Ye Province.

Wasn’t that the land of six million?

Ning Mingmei circled around the statue, examining it.

He noticed an inscription at the base. [[In the sixth year of Tianlang, this statue was made for Lady Wen.]]

The sixth year of Tianlang was an extremely distant era, not within the past few centuries.

Aside from that, the statue bore no other information, except for a dark stain of dried blood on its back.

It seemed that someone, in their final moments, had wandered there by chance, gazed upon the once-revered divine statue, their mind filled with turbulent thoughts, and, in a daze, reached out to touch it.

And left behind the inscription.

Ending his investigation, Ning Mingmei returned to the Gao’s family residence, just in time to see the Gao family’s adopted daughter fetching water. Her thin arms trembled as she struggled with the task.

He stood under the eaves, watching as she fetched water, did chores, and prepared dinner. Only when everything was ready did he step forward and ask, “What are you doing?”

The girl was startled. She lowered her head and said, “Thank you, Immortal Master, for slaying the demons and fiends, saving me and A’Yue. I don’t know how else to repay you, so I can only do what little work I can for you.”

She seemed quite honest.

Ning Mingmei asked, “You’ve been the one taking care of that boy these past few days. Do you two share a deep bond?”

The girl replied, “Not really. He showed me kindness, so I have to repay him.”

Ning Mingmei asked, “Do you believe in gods? In karmic cycles?”

If it had been before, the girl would have said, ‘Of course.’ She had once feared divine judgment and retribution and had lost sleep over the murder of Young Master Gao.

But not anymore.

She knew that Ning Mingmei had pacified the vengeful ghost, had not pursued the matter of Young Master Gao’s death, and had even captured Gui Ruoxue who had been masquerading as Granny Lao.

It was a kindness far greater than what A’Yue had done for her. But what Ning Mingmei didn’t realize was that, when all those acts were put together, they still paled in comparison to the sheer awe and overwhelming gratitude she had felt that day when she witnessed him testing the boundaries of the divine statue in the ruined temple.

For a homeless orphan with nowhere to go, she didn’t know the reason behind his actions. But she vaguely felt that the shock of that moment was enough to illuminate the rest of her life.

At that moment, she shook her head and said, “No… I just want to repay the favor.”

Ning Mingmei said, “Oh… so from now on, you plan to spend your life with him?”

The girl said, “Once he recovers, my debt will be repaid.”

And after that, where would she go? She didn’t know where A’Yue was headed, nor did she really know where she herself was going. But in a life no longer controlled by gods, she had to decide her own fate.

After that, she would have to find something for herself to do.

Ning Mingmei nodded, turned around, and walked into the house. Behind him, the girl whispered, “Immortal Master, thank you.”

Thank you. For many things. I just don’t know how to repay you.

Ning Mingmei closed the door and sat down, thinking for a while.

The system asked, [Are you thinking about detoxifying Lian Chengyue? Or about your own condition?]

Ning Mingmei said, [Someone who knows their limit, understands when to advance and retreat, honest and capable, admires and appreciates me deeply, meticulous, an orphan with no background, can only rely on me for food, and easy to control. Since they are an orphan, just one meal is enough to sustain their body. Plus, that person doesn’t even know they should be paid for their work.]

The system: [The first part sounded like praise, but the last few sentences… don’t really sound like something a person should say. Are you talking about Lian Chengyue? Have you finally realized his value as a disciple?]

Ning Mingmei: [Kind by nature and still forming their worldview, so they’re more suitable to be a disciple.]

The system: [Kind??]

Even the system was at a loss for words.

Ning Mingmei: [She’s an ideal candidate for a female disciple. She can help clean my teaching materials and organize my mail.]

What the hell!!

He had already gone and inflicted severe psychological and physical damage on the protagonist, ignored his main mission, and now he wanted to take in a different disciple?!

The system was furious at first, but then it suddenly felt overjoyed.

Since Ning Mingmei was willing to take in that little girl, wouldn’t taking Lian Chengyue as well be the natural next step?

Surely, by the end of the journey, he would take both of them back with him, right? After all, only children make choices, while adults take everything.

The system was still happily fantasizing but failed to notice the gleam in Ning Mingmei’s glasses.

Would Ning Mingmei really do as it wished and take Lian Chengyue as well?