Nie Yao was reborn.
He was reborn three months before he stormed the Qiongchi Banquet with his Heaven-Slaying Sword, slaughtered seven thousand cultivators, and fought the demon king Yan Sha for ten days and nine nights, turning heaven and sea upside down. It was three years before his eyes were gouged out, his fingers chopped off, and his golden core cut out.
The good news: his teachers were still alive, and his sworn brothers hadn't died.
The bad news: he was still a weakling.
And so the story had to turn back a page and start again: the weakling went down the mountain, the weakling got beaten up, the weakling got back on his feet, the weakling made good friends, and the weakling... er, Nie Yao, found a little zongzi.
Nie Yao: "Heh, you remind me of an old friend. I really miss him. In my past life, I stole his dog, smashed up his immortal estate, and fed all the Heavenly Treasure Spiritual Roots he had hidden away to other people. He hated me ever since. To make it up to him, I even spent two years cultivating a Buddhist heart, but no matter how red the mark between my brows or how sincere my heart, I just wasn't cut out for it. Sigh, I wonder if he ever missed me afterward. We had our days of fine clothes and wild rides, too, didn't we?"
Little Zongzi: "...I only regret not tearing your tendons out."
Nie Yao: "?"
Little Zongzi: "Chi Sheng means he only regrets not teaching that ungrateful fool a lesson on behalf of Third Brother."
A story of a demon drawing his blade, and an immortal lord longing for the mortal world.
"I ask for nothing else. I only wish that you can always find a way through every difficulty, and be forgiven for every mistake. If you reach a mountain, may a blade clear your path. If you find yourself at the end of a river, may its current carry your boat onward. And if not, then I will find a way through. I will forgive you. I will clear the path. I will send your boat on its way."
Theme: What is the meaning of life?
