Is it still possible to go against the heavens now?!

Yu Xian's estimate was accurate; his primordial spirit took exactly a week to grow neither too long nor too short.

During this week, Bai Ke and Lin Jie had a tough time. In addition to their basic daily cultivation, they were constantly chased around the secret realm by Peanut, who ran circles around them.

At first, they chased Peanut, but because it moved too quickly and took unpredictable routes—flying up and down, darting into mountains and forests—their agility was in stark contrast to its seemingly clumsy large body. Lin Jie and Bai Ke were so frustrated that they wanted to bash its head with blood.

Moreover, Lin Jie and Bai Ke had quite different levels of cultivation. Even though Bai Ke had exceptional innate talent, it was impossible for him to quickly surpass Lin Jie in a short period, especially in skills like movement that required consistent practice. Using the same training method to measure their progress was unreliable.

As a result, the method of "chasing" was halted after just one day by Huo Junxiao and Yu Xian. They discussed for less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before deciding to change the method from "chasing" to "driving."

Bai Ke found this utterly absurd. He thought these two ancient Chinese tortoise spirits, who had lived for thousands of years, clearly didn’t understand the concept of human rights. Otherwise, how could they make him—a person—spend his days either being toyed with by a beast like a kite or being chased around like a chick by this beast?

Initially, Lin Jie thought it wasn’t too bad. After all, when they were chasing Peanut, the dumb beast ran too fast and too far, creating a gap that led to negative emotions from the lack of progress. It was better to let Peanut chase them, as the beast wasn’t truly dumb.

That seemingly stupid beast actually controlled its speed perfectly. If it went slower, Bai Ke and Lin Jie would have a chance to relax; if it went faster, they would overreact, which could be counterproductive and lead to injury.

"But damn it, can you stop treating us like toys while chasing us around?!" Lin Jie always wanted to roar when he was driven around the secret realm.

Yet, before he could roar, he would often find himself lifted by Peanut' paw, tossed into the air, and then Peanut would grab his collar with its mouth and start wildly playing around the secret realm. After thoroughly having its fun, Peanuts would gently release him, skillfully loosening its mouth, and Lin Jie would suddenly fall in freefall, feeling dizzy and disoriented.

The sensation was indescribable—it was just short of making him cry.

Imagine being strapped to a rocket and flying around like a headless fly at high speed—

Just as his nose was about to hit a tree trunk, Peanut made an emergency turn, narrowly missing the trunk; just as i was about to be thrown into the water, the next moment he felt a tingling in his rear, and Peanut had used its fluffy tail to lightly flick him back into the sky…

This was not only a test of skills but also a test of the heart!

He originally thought Bai Ke’s treatment might be better, since he had heard from Yu Xian that Peanut was originally Bai Ke’s pet. The ancestor and Junxiao had been vague about the details, and aside from occasional disjointed remarks, they hadn’t provided more information about Bai Ke and their relationship. Thus, Lin Jie had yet to understand the intricacies and had not pursued further inquiries. However, seeing Peanut stick to Bai Ke like a dog skin plaster (NT: traditional medicated plaster or patch used to treat pain. To note that it does not contain any animal part) and not being able to peel it off, it was clear that Yu Xian’s statement wasn’t a mere saying.

Given that it was a suspected pet-owner relationship, Peanut should be gentler and more considerate toward Bai Ke, rather than treating him so recklessly and boldly.

In fact, it wasn’t just Lin Jie who thought this; Bai Ke himself had similar thoughts.

However, when actually being "driven," Bai Ke realized how foolish their assumptions were. How could they be so naive as to use common sense to interpret the behavior of a beast with a serpent-like temperament?!

Clearly, Peanut believed that the more wildly it played, the more the person being played with could experience the fun, and the more intimate the interaction would be.

So Bai Ke ended up being toyed with even more.

Normally, Bai Ke was so composed in the face of challenges that he almost seemed like an old soul, mature and self-assured. Despite being barely an adult, he had an air of composure that could be likened to a mountain that remains unmoved even when faced with collapse. He rarely lost his composure. According to Lin Jie, aside from his natural indifference, he probably had a kind of "rather die than put on airs" attitude ingrained in him.

After being chased and toyed with by Peanut for an hour, Bai Ke would return to Junxiao's small room in a disheveled state, leaning against the stone table, his legs too weak to move for a while, recovering only after a cup of tea. As for Lin Jie, he would collapse on the ground, hugging the table leg in a state of paralysis.

However, apart from being toyed with by Peanut, there was another more troubling task for Bai Ke.

Every day, Junxiao would pull out one or two ancient books from his seemingly bottomless book box and toss them to them, instructing them to study and understand the content.

Though Lin Jie was known for "only being fit to read trivial stories and vomiting at serious books," after years of being exposed to various ancient texts, he could manage Junxiao's ancient books despite their difficulty.

Bai Ke, however, was different.

From a young age, Bai Ke had learned Braille from his aunt and read by touch. Later, after his eyes could see shadows and outlines, his aunt would give him additional instruction to recognize normal characters.

(NT: adapted Braille – ie. writing for blind people - exists for Standard Chinese. Each syllable is written with up to three Braille cells, representing the initial, final, and tone, respectively)

Although Bai Ke started learning to read later than most children and found characters a bit blurry, making reading very strenuous, he was not deterred. Once he read himself, he was almost obsessed, and his progress in learning these texts was even faster and more thorough than most children. His already thin physique became even more emaciated from the strain of prolonged reading, causing him headaches at night, much to his aunt's concern.

At least the effort was not wasted; after a few years, he managed to get through most of the books in his aunt’s study.

However, this was in comparison to ordinary children. Compared to Lin Jie, Bai Ke was still far behind, as no ordinary child had been immersed in various cultivation texts from a young age.

The first time Bai Ke opened the ancient, tattered book that Junxiao had given him, he was met with a page full of incomprehensible scribbles, and he was left in despair.

He stubbornly traced each character with his finger from the top of the page to the bottom, leaving no character unchecked, but still found that he couldn’t recognize a single one!

An entire page!

Not a single word was recognizable!

Bai Ke felt as if his self-awareness had been struck a severe blow; he felt like a complete illiterate for the first time.

But Lin Jie wasn't entirely wrong when he said that Bai Ke, apart from his natural indifference, had a deep-rooted "rather die than put on airs" attitude.

Sitting upright and expressionless, Bai Ke faced the open book on the table for a whole incense stick's worth of time, and then stood up silently. With an air of someone who might lack the cultivation but had plenty of presence, he carried the book, dusted off nonexistent dust from his sleeves, and walked slowly to Junxiao.

At that moment, Junxiao was leaning against an ancient tree with his arms crossed, watching Bai Ke the entire afternoon without moving.

As Bai Ke's tall, slender figure approached at a leisurely pace, Junxiao, momentarily caught in the backlight, felt as if he were seeing Bai Lingchen, who had already achieved great cultivation and was the sect leader of Yusheng Sect. But the next moment, as the sunlight shifted, Bai Ke’s face became clear, and the blood-red birthmarks around his eyes came into view again, making Junxiao’s expression darken.

He wasn’t so much troubled by the trivial matters as he was simply pained.

Though when he first met Bai Ke, he indeed saw through this slender young man’s figure to the sect leader of Yusheng, who had always stood atop the clouds and was as clear and unblemished as jade over five thousand years ago.

However, several days of interaction had allowed him to re-acquaint himself with Bai Ke. Bai Ke and Bai Lingchen were not the same in many ways. Bai Ke was Bai Ke, and the Yusheng sect leader was the Yusheng sect leader. From their appearance to their personalities and even their habits and preferences in life, there were differences, big and small.

But there was no doubt that they shared a common soul. Beneath their different outer shells was the same core. Whether he was called Bai Lingchen or Bai Ke, or something else, whether he was the sect leader, a great figure traveling freely through the heavens and earth, or just an ordinary person struggling in a corner of the world, to Junxiao, he was still the person he had admired and loved for centuries.

This was merely the same person displaying different states under different ages and circumstances, but in essence, he remained the same.

Junxiao recalled many years ago, because of his fate, what Bai Lingchen had said…

He had said that the reason those people ended up the way they did was due to their own choices, and they could not blame others, nor could they blame anyone else, nor was it due to any absurd prophecies about their close ones.

He had said that even if those people changed their identities, statuses, or many other things, when faced with certain situations, they would likely make the same choices because some things deep down in them would not change…

And those unchanging things were the true fate.

As Junxiao looked at Bai Ke, who had walked up to him, he thought of those words again.

No matter how this person was born into the world, there would always be some things deep down that would not change, even if thousands of years of transformation and countless changes occurred.

This was also his fate.

Just as he was about to speak with his deep, unfathomable gaze fixed on Bai Ke, the slender, tall youth expressionlessly lifted the book he was holding, held it up to Junxiao’s face, and with a cold, somewhat stiff voice said, “Sorry, I can’t read.”

Junxiao: “……” The boundless changes of time and fate, and that damned fate, had turned his once aloof and noble sect leader into this. Was there still time to reverse it now?!

Translator : DarNan