Seeking the Dao in the Seemingly Mundane Mortal World - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: No to Cultivation

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

What kind of a name was “Sooner or Later”? And no antidote could neutralize all poisons! This man had to be a fraud!

Li Qingjun wasn’t convinced, but before “he” could say anything, Li Qinglin silenced “him” with a wave of his hand and paid for the pills. He then said, “My brother and I are heading on the mountain to look for immortals, but we don’t have a lot of time to wander around. Since you’re a resident here, I’m sure you know this place very well. I wonder if you would like to work as our guide. You’ll receive a generous reward for your efforts.”

“Nope.” Qin Yi casually rose to his feet and headed back to his room. “Why bother looking for immortals? I sleep well, I have bread on my table, and I live a carefree, comfortable life. If you ask me, that’s as good as life can get, immortal or mortal.”

Li Qingjun yelled angrily, “Hey, watch your attitude!”

By then, Qin Yi had already gone back inside.

Enraged, Li Qingjun wanted to jump off the horse, but “his” brother stopped “him”. “Knock it off.”

“Why are you so polite to him? He’s obviously a fraud! The medicine he described doesn’t exist!”

Li Qinglin started riding away as he spoke. “According to Li Liu’s report, quite a few people have suffered from the toxins from the mountain recently, but they’ve all been cured by the same medicine made by a teenager with the surname Qin. I think he knows the miasma in the woods better than us and his medicine should be more efficient than ours. Moreover, after talking to him, don’t you think there’s something special about this teenager?”

“He’s just some pretentious guy and the villagers have been playing along so that he can swindle outsiders.”

Li Qinglin chuckled.

Catching up with her brother, Li Qingjun asked, “If you think he’s so capable, why didn’t you insist on having him as our guide?”

Li Qinglin smiled. “Why the rush? He could guide us on the mountain, but could he show us where to find the immortals?”

Li Qingjun was baffled by the question.

The answer was obviously no.

They weren’t here to climb the mountain to watch the sunrise; they had come here to look for the immortals. It wasn’t a big mountain, and the rumors of immortal sightings had been going around for years. No stone on the mountain had been left unturned. Therefore, there was no “right place”, which meant there was no right path that would lead them there. They were only here to try their luck, so there was no need for any guide.

Li Qingjun was frustrated and slouched a little. “Brother, you’re just like everyone else. You haven’t taken this trip seriously.”

Li Qinglin looked over his shoulder and said, “What that Qin Yi said last was quite interesting…”

“He’s just an ignorant peasant who’s full of self-importance. I’d like to see how carefree he will be when I stick my spear into his chest.”

“Hahaha…”

As their voices trailed off into the distance, Qin Yi rested his head on his arms and lay down in bed in his room. He had placed the spiked club by the bed and he could still faintly make out the siblings’ conversation. He chuckled as though he was amused by Li Qingjun’s words.

A voice suddenly ran out in his head. “Why are you laughing? Those two brothers seemed to be very capable cultivators, and they might actually be able to poke a hole in your chest.”

The voice seemed to pierce directly into his mind, but he couldn’t pinpoint where it came from. It wasn’t exactly a voice nor could he tell its gender. The words seemed to have formed automatically on their own, which was a very weird experience. Qin Yi, on the other hand, seemed to have gotten used to it. He asked lazily, “I’m laughing because there really are girls who think they can fool other people by dressing up like men.”

It went quiet for a moment before speaking again. “How do you know that was a girl? Male teenagers don’t have protruding Adam’s apples in the first place, and it’s only natural that they speak in a higher pitch.”

“That’s because you don’t have a nose. You didn’t smell her fragrance.”

“…”

“Plus, no teenage boy could be that pretty. Her cheeks were bouncy and with her rosy lips and shiny teeth, she was as nice-looking as a picture. She might try to look all heroic, but I could tell she had a girly side even with my eyes closed. It’s not like she has instagram filters…”

“What’s ‘bounce’? And what does ‘instagram filters’ mean?”

“None of your business.”

The voice sighed. “I don’t care if that was a man or a woman. You’ve seen it yourself—people in this world can be so devoted to their search for the immortals. They can walk three days and three nights in a row if they know that the journey will lead them to what they want. Why won’t you become a cultivator?”

“Aren’t I already? Guess what? I’m going to pull an all-nighter tonight…”

“That’s not cultivation! You won’t fool me like you did with the others.”

Qin Yi said coldly, “Don’t try to fool me like you fooled the others either!”

As he spoke, he tossed the spiked club into the basin he had washed his feet in.

The voice in this head became grumpy. “I can live with you treating me like a pestle, but you’ve washed your feet with this water! Go to hell!”

The spiked club jumped out of the water and struck down at Qin Yi. Leaning back on the headboard, Qin Yi kicked the spiked club right on its shaft. It spun around in the air a few times before smashing into the wall. It then slid down, bounced around a few times, and lay motionlessly on the floor.

The resentment coming out of it had almost formed a physical shape.

“Hey, clubbie…”

“I’ve told you a thousand times already—my name is Liusu, as in ‘tassels’.”

“Why would the spirit of a spiked club be called tassels? The two things just don’t match. Who was your original owner? What were they thinking?”

Liusu only snorted.

Qin Yi then asked, “Clubbie, do you think those two people can handle that mountain?”

Ever since Qin Yi transmigrated into this world, things had changed on the mountain. For one, the air was filled with miasma, making the people entering the mountain fall ill easily. For another, a winged tiger appeared out of nowhere among those rocks. The miasma wasn’t poisonous but a type of resentful energy Liusu had brought out from that strange space. As for the winged tiger, Liusu had nothing to do with its creation. The animal had been created by the “demon-transforming miasma” set up by those two men.

Both problems were related to Qin Yi.

Liusu said lazily, “If you had agreed to cultivate with me, you would’ve been able to take care of that tiger which has only been a demon for a few days.”

“That’s because the tiger won’t get me killed, but you will.”

It had been a while since Qin Yi transmigrated to this world, and he had been able to figure out what happened on that day.

Liusu was trying to occupy a human body when Qin Yi transmigrated and Liusu tried to devour his soul as well. However, the cultural difference between the two worlds was simply too huge that Liusu had to spit everything back out. Qin Yi ended up becoming the new host of the body while Liusu, who had been accumulating its power for god knew how many years, suffered from a severe setback and had to hide back inside the spiked club to recuperate.

It then tried to teach Qin Yi how to cultivate so that Qin Yi could help it rebuild its body in the future.

But Qin Yi didn’t dare to learn.

The original soul of this body had already been devoured by Liusu, which meant it couldn’t be that kind of creature. Who could guarantee that the cultivation technique it wanted to teach Qin Yi didn’t have some trap which would allow it to occupy his body more easily next time? Qin Yi wasn’t the daredevil type, and he didn’t want to take the risk.

He had wanted to throw away this spiked club at first, but he was simply too curious in this world to do so. In the end, he kept it by his side, since it was still so weak and all.

What a wonderful decision.

Liusu snorted. “What I can tell you is that with time, the resentful energy will dissipate on its own, but that tiger has already become a demon. Without any cultivation ability, the demon-constraining formation you’ve set up won’t hold that creature forever. Sooner or later, it will start hurting people. If you want to solve the problem once and for all, you’ll have to start learning cultivation techniques.”

Pursing his lips, Qin Yi hesitated for a moment before saying, “I’ll figure something out.”

Liusu snorted. “Your method of getting rid of that tiger was to spread rumors about seeing immortals here so that immortal-seekers would visit this god-forsaken village. Was that it?”

“They’re still stronger than the villagers. Those Li siblings seemed promising to me.”

Liusu chuckled. “If you want to go down that road, I have a better idea.”

“Which is?”

“The two siblings are most definitely from some influential family, and I can promise you that if the tiger ends up killing them, someone will make sure it’s annihilated. But you’ve just reminded them that they should run away when things go south, because that tiger won’t chase them…”

“Bah!” Qin Yi jumped out of bed, picked up the spiked club from the corner of the room, and stuffed it into the foot-washing basin again.

Liusu let loose a torrent of verbal abuse from the basin. “You idiot! What a wuss! If they’re injured by the tiger, you’re the first one they’ll blame after they get out!”

Qin Yi ignored it completely. He went to the other corner of the room where a pot was giving off a faint medicinal fragrance as it simmered over a small stove.

He had been learning how to make pills and concoctions as well as a few simple formations. Not only did it fulfill Qin Yi’s curiosity in the cultivation aspect of this world, but it also made it possible for Liusu to prove that it could teach Qin Yi. Both were happy with this arrangement, and both teacher and student had been very studious without any disagreement.

Qin Yi studied the fire for a moment before checking the time. He then fetched a pot of liquor, walked over to the window, and sipped at it.

Night had set in, and the moon and stars were shining in the sky.

At this rarely-visited corner of the world, Qin Yi listened to the chirping bugs outside and felt a little giddy after a few sips of the liquor. He found this place as immortal-like as any place could get. There was no noise of traffic or scheming against one another, and the moonlight had painted the field silver. However, most people had overlooked all those things. They talked about looking for immortals, but in the end, they were only deceiving themselves.

If Qin Yi could resolve the problem on this mountain, he didn’t think it would be bad to live here for the rest of his life. He died from falling off a cliff in his previous life and the transmigration had given him another chance. So why shouldn’t he enjoy it?

He had taught the others that song not because he tried to create some immortal-like atmosphere but because he actually felt that way after meeting various immortal-seekers.

“Look at that beautiful sky…” he murmured, as though he was talking in his sleep.

Liusu snorted and still sounded pissed.

But in fact, this quality of Qin Yi was exactly why it thought Qin Yi was suitable for cultivation. He was very easy going about everything. He wasn’t obsessed nor did he want to become famous. It was as if he could live here in a woodshed for the rest of his life, which made him a much more suitable cultivator than people who were very devoted.

The problem was, he wouldn’t do it.

What Liusu didn’t know was that such a quality had another name in the world Qin Yi came from, and that was “otaku”.