Chapter 193: Nalan Xingde I Want to Reason With the World, The Bored White Marsh
Chapter 193 – Nalan Xingde I Want to Reason With the World, The Bored White Marsh
Southern Plains, Nameless Academy.
“Bookworm!”
“Can’t you get up and stretch your legs? Don’t you find it suffocating to sit there rotting all day?”
A massive white “wolf” prowled in restless circles around an elegant young man.
Yet, in the face of the giant beast’s incessant harassment, the young man merely turned the pages of his ancient text in tranquil silence.
After an unmeasured span of time, the young man finally snapped the book shut with a faint smile.
“White Marsh, you have sheltered with me for nearly twenty years. Why does your temperament remain so utterly volatile?”
At these words, the giant wolf rolled his eyes with exaggerated disdain.
“So you do realize it has been twenty years!”
“Your Lord White Marsh used to live a life of unrestrained freedom, yet you stubbornly shackled me to this godforsaken courtyard.”
“Two decades have passed. You owe it to me to let me out to stretch my limbs.”
Meeting White Marsh’s grievance, the young man chuckled. “It is not that I wish to imprison you, but rather I fear your abrasive nature will invite calamity.”
“The undercurrents of this world are surging dangerously, and Mister is no longer by your side to shield you.”
“Should you stumble across a truly supreme entity, you will be easily crushed.”
Hearing this, White Marsh scoffed. “You underestimate me. I may not dare claim absolute invincibility beneath the heavens, but my escape arts are unparalleled. Is there anyone in this world capable of trapping me?”
“Heh heh heh!”
“I know you have inherited Mister’s true legacy in Formations.”
“But there is always a higher heaven, and always a stronger cultivator. Even Mister would never boast with such brazen arrogance, let alone you.”
“Have you wiped the memory of your last encounter from your mind? The one where the cultivators of the Huayang Grotto-Heaven hunted you like a dog?”
“If you had not fled to the Southern Plains, your miserable little life would have been snuffed out.”
A flicker of guilt crossed White Marsh’s lupine features, yet he stubbornly dug his heels in.
“That was merely because Your Lord was toying with them! If I had unleashed my true lethality, could those pathetic ants possibly match me?”
“I am a divine beast who has witnessed the true peak of the Dao!”
Staring at White Marsh’s obstinate facade, the young man said mildly, “You have indeed witnessed the peak, but that was solely because Mister carried you there. You did not climb that mountain yourself.”
“To be painfully blunt, your actual combat strength is severely lacking.”
The moment those words fell, White Marsh’s fur bristled like a barrage of steel needles.
“Nalan Xingde!”
“There are rules to striking a man, and rules to cursing a beast! Exposing my flaws so openly—you cross a line!”
“Your Lord has barely recovered from his ancient wounds for three hundred years. To attain my current cultivation base in a mere three centuries is already a heaven-defying feat!”
Noticing the genuine spark of anger in White Marsh’s aura, the young man smiled appeasingly and dropped the subject.
“Very well, I concede the point.”
“So, will you allow me to read in peace for just a moment?”
“Absolutely not!”
White Marsh slammed his massive paw down atop Nalan Xingde’s hand, physically barring him from opening the tome.
“Chen Changsheng has reappeared in this world. You must accompany me to find him.”
“Back then, he explicitly stated that the moment he revealed himself, I was free to seek him out.”
Hearing White Marsh’s claim, Nalan Xingde shot the beast a knowing, amused glance.
“I do not doubt that Mister would never abandon you. However, knowing Mister’s temperament, I highly doubt those were his exact words.”
“If my deductions are correct, Mister likely told you to go amuse yourself.”
“And that when the time was ripe, he would seek you out—not the other way around.”
With his bluff instantly dismantled, White Marsh deflated like a pierced bladder, collapsing heavily onto the courtyard stones.
“Why are you scholars so insufferably pedantic? What difference does it make who finds who?”
“The difference is vast as the abyss. In short, until Mister summons you, you are strictly forbidden from leaving.”
Shoving White Marsh’s heavy paw aside, Nalan Xingde returned his focus to his ancient text.
Seeing this infuriating “bookworm” about to sink back into his ocean of literature, White Marsh’s eyes darted slyly. He rose to his feet.
“Bookworm, after so many grinding years, do you truly possess no desire to gaze upon Chen Changsheng once more?”
“He made a vow back then. He said that if you ever forged your own Dao, he would submit himself as your student.”
“Chen Changsheng—as your student! Just the thought sends a jolt of adrenaline through my veins. Are you genuinely unwilling to test him?”
At this bait, Nalan Xingde’s hand froze mid-page. A second later, he replied with forced calm.
“Mister’s unfathomable talents eclipse my own completely. How could I dare harbor such arrogant delusions?”
“Perhaps the current you cannot compare. But what of the future you?”
“As the ancient proverb goes: reading ten thousand scrolls is inferior to traveling ten thousand miles. If you do not achieve the absolute unity of knowledge and action, how will you ever force Chen Changsheng to bow as your disciple?”
Struck by White Marsh’s sudden profundity, a piercing, terrifying light erupted in the depths of the normally tranquil Nalan Xingde’s eyes.
“‘The unity of knowledge and action’… What an exquisite Dao principle. Did you truly formulate that yourself?”
Watching the perpetually stoic “bookworm” tremble with sudden zeal, White Marsh suddenly felt a deep well of guilt.
“I did not invent those words. One day, while I was idling with Chen Changsheng, he muttered them casually.”
“I recognized their overwhelming prestige. I knew they would be perfect for bluffing scholars, so I memorized them.”
Digesting White Marsh’s admission, Nalan Xingde pursed his lips tightly, turning his gaze toward the boundless sky beyond the window.
“No wonder I have spent decades locked at a bottleneck. So this was the missing piece of my Dao heart.”
“Mister is, as always, an entity worthy of absolute reverence.”
With undeniable finality, Nalan Xingde stood up. “Let us depart.”
“Depart?” White Marsh stared at him, bewildered. “Depart to where?”
“To seek out Mister.”
“Have you not been throwing a tantrum about finding Mister? Now, we ride.”
Whoosh!
White Marsh violently vaulted from the ground, his aura sparking with excitement. “Bookworm, you’ve finally severed your mental chains!”
“I genuinely believed you were going to rot in this courtyard for eternity.”
“By the way, where exactly are we going to hunt down Chen Changsheng?”
“Some time ago, his aura spiked from the direction of the Western Continent. Do we march west?”
Nalan Xingde shook his head decisively. “We do not tread toward the Western Continent. We head to the Northern Desert.”
“Why?”
“When the Desolate Heavenly Emperor achieved Ascension, he violently uprooted and took the vast majority of the karmic foundation from the Middle Heavens and the Eastern Wasteland.”
“Without seven or eight millennia of restorative accumulation, those two domains will not replenish their source energy.”
“Furthermore, the leylines of the Western Continent are deteriorating by the day.”
“Scanning the Five Continents, the only domains with enough residual primordial Qi to nurture peerless heaven-defying talents are the Northern Desert and the Southern Plains.”
Absorbing Nalan Xingde’s predatory calculation of the world’s Qi reserves, White Marsh tilted his head.
“Then why can’t he be in the Southern Plains?”
But the instant the words left his maw, White Marsh bitterly regretted his stupidity.
Simultaneously, Nalan Xingde’s gaze swept over, dripping with sheer, unadulterated contempt.
“I forbid you from voicing such profound idiocy again. It makes me seriously question the purity of your divine beast bloodline.”
Choosing to completely ignore the lethal insult, White Marsh hastily pivoted the conversation.
“By the way, bookworm, what exactly snapped in your mind just now?”
“Because I intend to go reason with the rest of the world.”
“Reason?”
“Yes. I have extracted the supreme truths of heaven and earth from these scrolls.”
“But principles exist to be imparted to the masses. If I hoard them in my heart and let them rot in silence, what use is my accumulated Dao?”
“Do you comprehend?”