Eternal Life: I Can Sell Everything

「Huailing City, South City Sanhu Lane.」

A sigh echoed across time and space. "Back then, was I not saving you, but harming you instead?"

...

A bitter night wind whistled through the broken window lattice. Yan Hanzhang, sitting before the window, shivered violently. An indescribable, intense emotion surged up from the soles of his feet, rushing straight to the crown of his head in an instant.

Suppressing his agitation, Yan Hanzhang said, "No! Divine Venerable, if not for you saving me back then, this disciple would have been reduced to a pile of bones long ago. I have clung to life until now, and though I have accomplished nothing, I... I..."

He stammered, as if on the verge of blurting out: 'But in the end, I do want to live—'

Words to that effect.

But as the words reached his lips, he recalled his experiences over the years, and a boundless sorrow suddenly washed over him.

He had attempted suicide once. After being saved, he never again entertained the thought.

'But is being alive really so wonderful?' A sudden fear gripped his heart, and he could no longer bring himself to say the words: 'I want to live!'

And yet, while he didn't particularly want to live, he certainly did not want to die.

Life was painful, but death held too many regrets.

'Why is life in this world so difficult?'

Yan Hanzhang couldn't help but set down his book, pull back his stool, and drop to his knees, facing the empty air.

He prostrated himself, his upper body pressed to the floor, his forehead resting on the backs of his hands.

"Divine Venerable," Yan Hanzhang said, his voice full of confusion. "You bestowed upon me a wondrous recipe back then, and this disciple enjoyed a period of prosperity because of it. But later, I couldn't bear my sister's tearful pleas and revealed the MSG formula to her. After that, I was placed under surveillance by the Xu Family."

He seemed to be reminiscing, or perhaps confessing. "Although I earned some money, I am neither a scholar nor a warrior. I lack even the strength to truss a chicken. When they put me under surveillance, I was completely powerless to resist. That money wasn't a blessing—it was a curse!

"I was put under house arrest. My sister came to visit several times, weeping and wailing, but she was just as helpless.

"Before, whenever I saw my sister cry, my heart would ache and I would soften. But during that time, no matter how pitifully she cried, I could no longer feel that same pain and sorrow for her as I once did.

"Divine Venerable, tell me, is there anything in this world that lasts? I was frail as a child, and I only survived to adulthood thanks to my sister's meticulous care. She suffered so much for my sake. For me, with her delicate frame, she fought with hooligans and argued with nasty neighbors.

"Once, in the dead of winter, she knelt in the snow for three days and three nights just to beg for a cup of protective tea for me from the City God Temple. Her later difficulties in conceiving were because she endured too much cold and suffered too much back then.

"She sewed clothes for me until her fingers were raw. She supported my studies, waking before dawn to light the fire, trim the lamp, and cook my meals. I studied hard, but she suffered even more than I did...

"I swore an oath back then that I would give my all to treat my sister well, no matter what!"

At this, Yan Hanzhang paused for a moment, as if trying to calm his wildly fluctuating emotions.

At the same time, an unknown distance away across space and time, Song Ciwan received another mass of emotional energy from Yan Hanzhang.

[Human desires. The pain, confusion, and sorrow of a mortal. Three catties and nine taels. Exchangeable.]

This time, what Song Ciwan received was not Wish Power, but human desires.

Although Yan Hanzhang was undoubtedly a follower of Song Ciwan, he didn't provide Wish Power every time.

Yan Hanzhang remained prostrate on the ground, breathing quietly for a moment before continuing, "I once believed that my sister's feelings for me, and my feelings for her, would be eternal and unchanging.

"I believed without a doubt that if my life were in danger, my sister would willingly give her own for me!

"And I would have done the same. If my sister were in trouble, I would have gladly traded my life for hers.

"But why? Why did everything suddenly change one day?

"My sister and I were willing to die for each other, yet we both changed. Her life no longer revolves around me; I don't even know where I rank in her priorities anymore. And I... I've grown tired of seeing her cry. I can't even stand to look at her when she's in front of me!

"Divine Venerable, the affairs of this world are so fickle. Not even blood ties or shared hardships are immune! In this world, who or what can truly be eternal?"

The question came from the depths of his soul.

Across an unknowable expanse, Song Ciwan's voice traveled through the void. Employing the Dharma Transmission Skill, she slowly spoke: "Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy complete each other. Long and short shape each other. High and low fulfill each other. Voice and sound harmonize with each other. Before and after follow one another... This is constancy.

"This is what is called finding eternity in impermanence. There is no such thing as the unchangingly eternal in this world; only ceaseless transformation is the everlasting truth."

Simply put, her words meant: there is no eternity in this world! Or rather, change itself is the only thing that is eternal!

You are a person in a state of flux, yet you are fixated on unchanging permanence. How could you possibly succeed?

A cold wind blew through the crack in the window. The oil lamp on the table flickered and, at that very moment, was extinguished with a PUFF.

Yan Hanzhang knelt on the floor in a daze, listening to the ethereal voice from the void. For a moment, it was as if great bells were tolling in his ears.

Countless emotions churned in his chest, as if desperately seeking an outlet. But that outlet was sealed tight, and he could only pace outside the door, unable to find the way in.

He clutched his chest, feeling the tempest of his own emotions, his nose stinging with unshed tears. "Divine Venerable," he asked, "must I simply accept change?"

The voice from the void replied, "It is like the cold wind that just extinguished the lamp before your window, or the autumn night that covers the ground with white frost as seasons turn. It is like the fall of a city—how could the Su Yang City of ten years ago be the same as the Su Yang City of today? The Yun Country of old was long ago washed away by the wind and rain.

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