Karmic Fruit

This novel is already complete, with the final chapter saved. It was completed on May 16, 2024, and there won't be any major revisions. Read it if you like, and feel free to bookmark it or not.

After completion, it will be moved behind the paywall. The plan is to make it paid from Chapter 49 through the ending.

The entertainment-industry storyline is basically finished in Volume One. Everything after that is about cultivation, and the romance only starts to develop near the end of Volume Two.

Readers who find this after it goes behind the paywall can decide whether to read it based on their preferences.

If it doesn't resonate with you, I don't recommend buying it.

This is more of a story I wrote for myself. Of course I'm happy that people are willing to read it, but as far as I'm concerned, just managing to finish it is enough to satisfy me.

This story could also be called The Main Character Has Gone Offline Again (x), or The Domineering CEO (Who Actually Isn't One) Finds His Dual Cultivation Partner Among the Amateur Contestants on an Entertainment Show, as Seen by the Onlookers (nope).

Or, The Author Really Wants to Write a Romance but Nothing Is Happening (Haha, that's enough).

All right, really, this is a modern danmei cultivation story that looks like historical romance at first glance, fantasy romance at second, an entertainment-industry novel at third, and at fourth glance, features two male leads who, in the eyes of all the onlookers, have already made it to home base, yet somehow haven't even met...

The CP is Mu Yuanshan x Xu Shenshi.

As for the danmei, their relationship goes something like this:

“This place actually used to belong to my grandmother's ancestors.” Xu Shenshi brushed aside the fallen leaves and sat on the stone steps leading from the Dragon King Temple to the river. “But for various reasons, when Lingxu wanted to build a Dragon King Temple to calm the waters, they asked my ancestors to donate the land. Now it's just as you see it.”

Mu Yuanshan sat down beside him and slipped an arm around Xu Shenshi's waist. “And?”

“This was one of my favorite places to visit as a kid. There wasn't much light pollution back then. Once I stayed here too long and forgot to go home, and my dad gave me a beating with a whip.”

“I never got whipped as a child, but cultivation and body training meant standing in horse stance and on plum-blossom stakes all the time. We even had to recite scriptures while holding the stance.”

“Sounds like I had it easier, then.” Xu Shenshi smiled. “But I never learned my lesson. I still came here all the time. Back then, I thought that when I got a girlfriend, I'd bring her here to propose.”

This was one of the few romantic notions about love that Xu Shenshi had in his youth. It could hardly even be called romantic. This was just a dilapidated, abandoned Dragon King Temple. Even the statue of the god had long since disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a temple with bare walls.

When it rained, even the roof leaked.

“Are you asking me to be your cultivation partner? I'm not your girlfriend, but I'm willing.”

The light pollution obscured the sky full of stars that Xu Shenshi had thought gave this place its charm as a boy, but Mu Yuanshan didn't mind.

Xu Shenshi was using immortal arts to smelt and shape the silver meteorite.

Meteorites can't be smelted and shaped using ordinary metallurgical techniques. They can only be cut and polished.

Even a highly accomplished cultivator from the mystic sects wouldn't dare claim they could refine a meteorite into a magical artifact in a single breath. But meteorites were scattered all around this area. If you sensed carefully, you could feel their energy being drawn over and resonating with Xu Shenshi's immortal arts.

Such an extravagantly powerful technique was being used solely to refine the silver meteorite in Xu Shenshi's hands.

Two rings fell into Xu Shenshi's palm.

He picked up one and held it out to Mu Yuanshan.

“When it comes to emotions, I always feel as if I'm looking at flowers through a fog. Even now, I've only seen other people do this and thought that, in a situation like this, bringing out a ring would be appropriate.

“But in my heart, you're definitely different from everyone else.

“In Japan, when I decided to be reborn, I thought that if I survived, I should make you a promise: I would help you fulfill your wish to free the Mu family from the constraints of their oath. When I returned to China, I thought that after what happened, it would be difficult for me to sort out my feelings. But when we met again, I realized that things weren't the way I'd imagined.

“But I don't have the kind of intense emotions a normal person would have to respond to someone's affection or love. Even so, do you still want to choose me as your cultivation partner?”

About the story:

Although this story takes place in a fictional world, a novelist's tales always come from reality.

I often think about how customs change as the world changes. If the Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio stories were written by a modern scholar, what would they imagine in cities where fox spirits had nowhere left to live?

The monsters in traditional stories can no longer cultivate into spirits. The immortals and gods of old seem to have vanished from the real world. As people's ideas have changed, the supernatural and the uncanny have changed with them.

In the old days, people burned paper money in the shape of gold ingots. Today, they burn US dollars, cars, phones, and villas.

Every era creates its own idols. The word originally had nothing to do with the entertainment industry.

When people repost koi fish online, are they worshipping gods? It's a fast-food version of god worship.

What I hope to present is a story about the supernatural phenomena unique to the era we live in.

And the thread that runs through the whole story is “karmic consequences.”

What are karmic consequences? The Dao has no name, so we give it the name “Dao.” Likewise, I don't know how to describe this, so I call it “karmic consequences.”

The prologue is a fairly complete short story. I hope you'll finish it before deciding whether to bookmark the novel. There are some long-term foreshadowing threads that pay off later, but they don't detract from the story's self-contained feel.

A special note: Aside from the two main characters, almost none of the relationships in this story are between men. The romance between the leads is subtle and slow-burning, so it takes some patience.

The protagonists are merely “observers” caught up in the human world. This story is about the act of “observing.”

As they observe, the protagonists don't go out of their way to help people, but they follow the Dao and respect the laws of the world. If they do help someone, it's either because another force has interfered in a way that disrespects the laws of the world, or because they have no choice but to get involved in the karma.

At first, they don't discuss their same-sex orientation because gender doesn't matter to them. Since most people in society choose the opposite sex, they naturally assume the same.

What matters to them is simply the identity of the person they want.

Once they know, gender isn't something they consider or let stand in their way.

Cultivation is about transcending the world, so worldly ideas don't matter to them and aren't worth worrying about.

Dreams are a door, one of the many wondrous gateways through which we can understand ourselves or glimpse wisdom.

I hadn't logged into Jinjiang much in the past ten years, so I wasn't familiar with how the site worked. I thought the blurb had a strict 500-character limit, and only later found out that editing it again let me change the character count.

So there's an extra chapter of notes for readers before they start. -w- Sorry for making you read more rambling.

One more thing:

Recently, I wanted to make a setting guide for an American-style tabletop game, so I dug through some old materials of mine. By chance, I found an old story with a really interesting world, and its races, continents, history, and local customs were all fascinating.

I've done a major revision and continued the story, and it's officially out now. It's called The Realm of Dust and Sand. There's no CP. If that sounds good to you, feel free to check it out!

Link: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=8569242

Theme: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.