Deep are the ties of fate; gaze into the abyss and watch the waves. The myriad forms of all living things, every form is me.
The year Mo Lingyuan first awakened to sentience was the year Emperor Listening Waves fell.
When he was still only a sentient illusionary realm,
he could faintly hear a voice echoing beside his ear, again and again.
“You must go to the mortal world and find someone.”
That voice, whose origin was unknown, echoed beside his ear for years,
never once stopping.
So after he took human form, the first thing he did was go to the mortal world.
But he wandered aimlessly there for more than ten thousand years,
without knowing who the person he was supposed to find might be.
Then, one day thirty thousand years later,
he was idly listening to Buddhist chants from a tree outside Kongjue Temple
when someone emerged from the temple.
“This humble monk’s name is Guanlan.”
The man pressed his palms together and bowed courteously to the pilgrims who had come to pay their respects.
In that instant, a flash of spiritual light burst before Mo Lingyuan’s eyes, and countless scattered fragments of memory came flooding in.
Then he tumbled out of the tree, fruit and all.
“I found you.”
A moment later, he got up from the ground,
brushed the dust from his clothes as if nothing had happened, and smiled like a fox that had spotted its prey.
All things have their causes; entanglements span a hundred lifetimes.
Another thirty thousand years passed. Guanlan was driven to the point of having his soul scattered in the mortal world by the so-called Heavenly Dao.
The Demon Lord Lingyuan, sword in hand and face stern, fought his way up to the Ninth Heaven with Guanlan’s sword.
There he saw that man, his expression cool and detached, standing before Xihua Gate beside a half-finished game of chess.
“169,700 years,” he said with the faintest smile. “It’s been a long time, High God... Linyuan.”
A flamboyant, wicked illusionary realm (Demon Lord) gong x a cold, ascetic monk (Emperor) shou
Side couple: Two abandoned ancient divine artifacts
