830 Father and Son (2/2)
Finally Chen Mou heard him talking, he smiled and said, ”What did I insist on?”
Chen Pipi knocked the bowl with his chopsticks and said, ”You're a man of great wisdom. You know that mortals will be against Haotian someday. Mortals will have to face the Apocalypse, in the way of an Everlasting Night or another plight. Then why did you insist to choose Haotian's side? I won't take faith as the explanation.”
No more than eight cultivators had reached the same realm Chen Mou had in history. It was hard for Chen Pipi to figure out the answer because he believed that for cultivators in that realm, faith barely mattered.
Chen Mou continued, ”That was not a choice about faith, it was about being reasonable. In the Headmaster's and Ke Haoran's opinion, humans and Haotian go against each other. However, Haotian Taoism believed the two reinforce each other.”
Chen Pipi asked, ”Wouldn't it be boring if the world is enclosed?”
Chen Mou said, ”Haotian Taoism believes that solemnity and balance are the eternal beauty. The Buddhism Sect calls the cycle and transmigration 'karma'. Everything starts with an end, and that is the full process. The Headmaster wanted to break the process, so he was getting further and further away from eternity.”
Chen Pipi said, ”Is there the kind of eternity that has no self-consciousness?”
Chen Mou said, ”Quietus is eternity. We will end where we started, and in that world, we're our own Haotian. The world was created without us in the first place, so it has to end up the same way.”
”That was my reason, and my faith. It's not about being right or wrong. The Headmaster might be right, but he was wrong in my opinion, and that was why we chose different ways.”
Slow hoofbeats came out of the forest.
Chen Pipi looked back holding the porridge bowl, only to see the withered woods behind. The storm and snow had ceased but it was not yet sunny. A young woman was going out of the woods and leaves with a Big Black Horse following.
He knew the Big Black Horse, but not the woman. He looked at the Big Black Horse, but it avoided making eye contact and lowered its head, with his hoof kicking slightly.
He looked at the woman. The woman might look ordinary, but she was radiating an indescribable aura. Her face reminded him of somebody else.
He was shocked. Looking at her chubby shape, he asked, ”Why are you so fat?”
Sangsang did not answer.
Then he remembered that Sangsang was no longer who she used to be. So he jeered, ”I'm in no position to judge you, because no matter who you've become, I'll always be the fattest one.”
He used to be one of the most devout believers of Haotian. However, after years' study in the back of the Academy's mountain with the Headmaster, and with all the Haotian Taoism outsiders like Ning Que and Tang Xiaotang coming into his life, his faith, or his attitude towards Haotian had changed a lot.
He would kneel before her if it had been five years ago, but now he stood before her casually, with the porridge in his hand.
Haotian weighed less than a bowl of porridge to him now.
With sadness, he said, ”Now I know what a huge mistake Second Brother and I made.”
Back in the old days at the back of the Academy's mountain, Eldest Brother had kept a distance from Sangsang, but Jun Mo and Chen Pipi had become her most firm supporters after seeing how she held the ashes outside Chang'an.
Then the Headmaster left the mortal world by the side of Sishui river because of her presence.
So it was natural for him and Jun Mo to feel regretful.
”Mistakes are always too late to be corrected, or too huge to be remedied, but one should at least try so that he could live without regrets.”
Chen Pipi looked at her and said, with a touching smile on his round face.
He put the chopsticks on the porridge bowl, and pointed out with his fingers.
He was running the Natural Stream Magical Finger with the no-boundary spirit. The trees shook off leaves, and snow piled up a snow line. The line came out of nowhere and rushed off, right into Sangsang's face.