"If demons ravage the world, leaving the people to suffer and the land desolate, with sorrow and lamentation everywhere, what should we do?"
"We should enter the world, ward off calamities, slay demons and monsters, and save people from suffering."
"Wrong."
"We should watch from the opposite shore and keep our own fortunes and losses in check. This is the way of immortals, and also the way of Heaven and humanity."
That year, my master said my Daoist heart was not firm and my worldly ties were hard to sever, so he drove me down from Cloud Mountain. From then on, I traveled the four corners of the world, witnessing injustice in every direction, trapped in the surging sea of mortal life.
I gained immortality through the Dao, watched the white-haired pass away, and welcomed newcomers into life.
The ancestral teachings of my sect told me that the mortal world was but a corner of eternity.
Yet I could not see through the immortal path. Beneath the immortal mountain, my heart was like a lone boat on a sea of sorrow. Years passed, and each morning I fell away with the dew.
At dusk, I pitied withered trees that never saw spring.
*Blurb dated April 6, 2024
*Third-person narration, no romance, one male protagonist
Theme: Be concerned about the world before anyone else.
