A Hundred Years After My Master Died

[Opening in September]

Lou Tingxue was not originally surnamed Lou. He somehow tumbled from the modern world into another, landing in Lihen Heaven, above the Thirty-Third Heaven.

He had also become a child who could not even wring a chicken's neck.

Here, every path was deserted, and not a soul could be seen. He ate grass when hungry and drank rain and dew when thirsty. At last, someone discovered him before he had trampled all the spirit flowers and herbs in this land of immortals.

Like an untamed little snowman, he stumbled into a white robe.

"The fact that you have come here counts as a stroke of good fortune."

"But your spiritual roots are mediocre. You cannot enter the Dao."

"Would you rather live as a mortal and enjoy yourself while you can, or endure a century of bitter cultivation and wager that you can defy fate and change your destiny?"

Lou Tingxue looked up, dizzy for a moment. "A mortal."

The immortal, whose bearing was so sublime it seemed beyond reach, gazed at him and said, "Then Lihen Heaven will shelter you for a hundred years."

Lou Tingxue could not bear hardship. After settling in, he did not forget his benefactor, either. Every day, he went to see the immortal and stayed for the whole day.

Day after day, for reasons unknown, the immortal changed his mind and decided to take him as a disciple.

The immortal gave him a surname and a name.

At the grand ceremony where he became a disciple, all the races came to pay their respects. Lou Tingxue saw a statue of an immortal sculpted in his master's likeness.

Its expression was compassionate, as though it would save all living beings.

He trembled beneath it, hiding behind Lou Chijing. The child was so small and beautiful he looked as if he had been sculpted from snow.

Half-hidden behind the immortal's robes, he was even more endearing than white jade.

Only belatedly did Lou Tingxue realize how powerful a patron he had secured. The immortal stroked my head; we tied our hair together and received eternal life. For more than twenty years after that, until Lou Chijing died, they maintained a deeply affectionate master-disciple relationship.

After he died, however, Lou Tingxue let out a long sigh of relief.

Even though Lou Chijing's death meant that Lou Tingxue, who had no cultivation at all, was immediately driven out of Lihen Heaven.

·

The night was as cool as water. He awoke from his dream.

Lou Tingxue dreamed again of Lou Chijing, whose every word and deed before the world carried the authority of Heaven, drawing him into his arms and gently patting his back. Lou Chijing's fingertips rested on the lifeline at the back of his neck, stroking it ever so lightly.

Their hair mingled on the bed, and soothing whispers lulled him to sleep by his ear.

"My sweet, cherished slave, my little jade slave."

They were intimate as if their relationship defied all moral boundaries.

Neither quite master and disciple, nor quite anything else.

Of all the worlds, he alone knew that Lou Chijing was nothing like the aloof, virtuous gentleman everyone thought him to be. He opened his eyes.

But what met his gaze was a figure in white leaning against the window.

A hundred years had passed, yet the immortal's radiance remained undimmed.

Lou Tingxue wished he could vanish on the spot.

Of the Thirty-Three Heavens, Lihen Heaven stands highest;

Of the four hundred and four afflictions, lovesickness is the bitterest.

Lou Chijing gazed at him for a long while, then smiled gently. "How is it that, with your master gone, Lianyu Nu has been bullied so terribly?"

"You can't go home, and you can't return to Lihen Heaven."

"How pitiful. Lianyu Nu, why don't you think of a way to beg me? I'll see that justice is done for you, all right?"

[Reading Guide]

Older top, powerful cultivator of the cultivation world x a beautiful bottom with ordinary spiritual roots and extraordinary looks

[Note]

The immortal stroked my head; we tied our hair together and received eternal life.

Quoted from "After the Rebellion, I Was Granted Passage to Yelang; Remembering Old Travels, I Write My Thoughts to Prefect Wei Liangzai of Jiangxia" by Li Bai

Of the Thirty-Three Heavens, Lihen Heaven stands highest;

Of the four hundred and four afflictions, lovesickness is the bitterest.

Quoted from "The Enchanting Shadow" by Zheng Guangzu, original line: "Of the Thirty-Three Heavens, Lihen Heaven stands highest; of the four hundred and four afflictions, how can one endure lovesickness?"

And from "Empress Fuyao" by Tianxia Guiyuan, original line: "Of the Thirty-Three Heavenly Palaces, Lihen Heaven stands highest; of the four hundred and forty afflictions, lovesickness is the bitterest."

The word "slave" had a broad range of meanings in the Tang dynasty. It was an affectionate term or nickname used by elders for younger people. Examples include Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of Tang, whose childhood name was Zhinu; Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of Song, whose childhood name was Jinu; and Chen Shubao, the Last Ruler of Chen, whose childhood name was Huangnu.

For details, see Notes on the History of the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties by Zhou Yiliang.

Theme: The Dao has myriad methods, the Great Dao has three thousand paths, yet they all unite as one