On the pale rice paper.

From nothingness to existence, towering peaks rise, emerging above the clouds, rooted at the ends of the earth, with time flowing into streams and causation forming into mist.

The vast forests of mountains seem to symbolize the endless desolate years, life and death cycling, prosperity and decay following one another, stretching endlessly into infinity.

A path extends into the distance, where there is a mountain village, with eight or nine fertile plots of land, intersecting paths, the sounds of chickens and dogs, and curling smoke from the hearths, as if transcending grand epochs to become its own rustic corner of the mortal world.

At this moment, the painting is nine-tenths complete.

Eight parts depict the colors of the mountain, one part is the small village.

These eight parts of mountain hues, though vast and mesmerizing, though their beauty is infinite, all now seem to serve as a backdrop to the small village.

The small village is neither on the highest peak nor in the center of the painting, but it is like a red plum blossom on a green bough, or a bright moon above the vast ocean.

The lifeless green trees come alive because of the red plum blossom; the lonely ocean gains vitality because of the bright crescent moon.

“The highest point here draws the Ordinary Diagram.”

Seeing the picture completed under Li Fan’s brush, The Quiet One suddenly sighed, saying:

“It truly is a masterpiece.”

“Is the painting finished?”

Li Fan smiled faintly and replied:

“There is still one part untouched.”

With a calm stroke of his brush, his stylus shifted from the small village and suddenly returned, landing upon the peak they stood on.

At the summit, he painted an ancient tree, long withered for countless ages.

In that instant, the entire painting gained another layer of meaning.

Amid the layered, distant mountains, this aged tree resembled an elder marked by the passage of time, gazing longingly at the small mountain village in the distance, like a homesick wanderer!

“A house of ten mu, a cottage of eight or nine rooms. Elms and willows shade the back eaves, peach and plum trees adorn the front yard. In the fading distance, a village; faintly visible, homestead smoke. Dogs bark deep within the alleys, roosters crow atop mulberry trees. No worldly dust invades the courtyard, idle serenity prevails in vacant halls.”

Li Fan softly recited, concluding with:

“Long trapped in the cage, one finally returns to nature.”

He lifted his gaze to The Quiet One, smiling as he said:

“You have dwelled here long, seeing the grandest sights, witnessing the rise and fall of the sea of clouds. This, too, is your cage.”

The Quiet One pondered aloud:

“You live within the village, experiencing the smoke and fire of mortal life, feeling the changes of the mortal world. This is your cage as well.”

Li Fan smiled and said, “You are not a fish, how can you know the joy of a fish? Neither you nor I can persuade each other, for neither of us has walked the other’s path.”

“Why not come back to the village with me, live for three to five years, what do you say?”

“In the village, you’ll find houses to shield against mountain winds, food to fill your belly, wine to chase away sorrow, and a friend or two to ward off loneliness.”

The Quiet One replied:

“I am older than you, and my journey longer than yours. These things… I have already had.”

His eyes, lost in reminiscence, betrayed a fleeting thought. “But I admit, your proposal still moves me.”

“I shall follow you to the village, to experience the warmth of the world. Yet you must follow me to observe the ebb and flow of life and death, to witness absolute despair of heart and intent… by all accounts, I profit.”

He laughed.

Li Fan also laughed, extending his hand, saying, “Please.”

The Quiet One mirrored him, saying, “After you!”

As their words fell.

Suddenly, they vanished from where they stood.

Atop the mountain peak, all that remained was a withered ancient pine tree, its ageless presence swept by the cold cosmic breeze, chilling to the bone.

“Master?”

Su Baiqian asked, looking around, a trace of panic in her eyes.

“They… have gone into the painting.”

But Zi Ling murmured, stepping forward as she stared at the painting Li Fan had just completed.

Their gaze locked upon it, and they clearly saw that in Li Fan’s painting, atop the mountain peak, there were now two figures visible.

Those two figures were none other than Li Fan and The Quiet One!

In the painting, The Quiet One headed for the small mountain village.

And Li Fan, however, sat cross-legged under the ancient pine tree!

“Is this… a virtual world?”

Su Baiqian questioned.

“No… Master’s painting has blended with reality; what he inhabits is reality too.”

“In our reality, every change will reflect in the painting’s world…”

Zi Ling murmured, “Furthermore, Master’s painting has already encompassed the causality and years of the heavens. This… this is truly the eternal scroll of the ages!”

Time is ink, causality is the brush.

“He and The Quiet One… are walking each other’s paths.”

“The Quiet One will experience Master’s path, and Master… will take The Quiet One’s path.”

Zi Ling murmured on.

“If Master fails, will he… will he become another Quiet One?” Searᴄh the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Su Baiqian whispered.

But Zi Ling’s voice was resolute, saying, “No…”

“Master will not become the Quiet One. He will not forget us…”

Su Baiqian nodded firmly as well.

“Sometimes, forgetting can be a blessing.”

At that very moment, The Quiet One’s voice suddenly echoed again.

Zi Ling and Su Baiqian gasped in shock, for they saw The Quiet One had somehow reappeared beneath the withered ancient pine tree!

“You… weren’t you already inside the painting?”

Zi Ling asked in surprise.

This painting was crafted by their master himself, transcending everything. Even The Quiet One… should not have been able to leave so easily…

Moreover, once entering the painting, according to his own words, The Quiet One should walk their Master’s path…

Yet now, in the painting, only Li Fan remained.

“You… tricked my Master into this!”

Su Baiqian’s eyes flared with anger.

With hands clasped behind his back, The Quiet One chuckled softly, saying:

“I did not deceive him. He and I agreed to walk each other’s paths. I went to experience his ‘ordinary life,’ and he will bear my ‘eternal silence.'”

“It is true I walked his path, but not in this life. It was… a very long, long time ago.”

His calm eyes rippled faintly, emotions barely discernible. “I also once journeyed with dear friends, guided disciples, stood hand in hand with a beloved, and faced calamities.”

“What he wanted me to feel was nothing more than a tiny fragment of warmth in this world, a strand of true sentiment… things he believes can establish the Mortal Path and unseat my Quiet Path.”

“These things I once had.”

The Quiet One spoke softly, “But I severed them long ago.”

“Thus, the barriers he created cannot imprison me.”

“But he… still hasn’t truly tasted silence, so he remains inside the painting.”

“This is the path he chose.”

“The Myriad Dao returning to the Mortal is a false path. I will correct this for him. Silence is the final destination of all beings.”

But Zi Ling stared rigidly at The Quiet One and said:

“No… you are afraid of him.”

“You fear my Master, fear his path… Otherwise, why not simply make my Master embrace silence?”

The Quiet One glanced at Zi Ling, smiling as he said:

“Very simple. Because I cannot kill him.”

In a soft voice, he spoke:

“In the past, in the present, I am omnipresent. I see all, hear all, know all, wield all.”

“I observe the rise and fall of every life, heed the sorrows and joys of this mortal realm, the Immortal Path, Saint Path, Divine Path, Chaos… even the forbidden, all are but dust to me.”

“Yet in the river of causality, past and present, I find no trace of him, see no roots of his being. For so many years, I have not even glimpsed his heart.”

“He is an anomaly.”

He lowered his gaze, looking at the painting, saying:

“For an indestructible anomaly, the only solution is to make him become me.”

“After all, one of the same path poses no threat.”

He spoke with utter serenity, saying:

“The forbidden civilizations should have faded to oblivion long ago. So too should you. The Dark Firmament, Forbidden World, Chaos World, so-called Pure Land of the Yang Realm, and the Yin Realm… and you, you all persist only because of him.”

“After all, only you can make him become me.”

The Quiet One gazed at Zi Ling and the others, but in his eyes suddenly surfaced an imperceptible sorrow. Yet the sorrow vanished like a fleeting shadow as his figure grew faint and disappeared entirely.

But in the tides of time, it seemed as if someone was softly murmuring and chanting:

“Eternal life and death, endlessly far apart; without thought, yet hard to forget… A lonely grave spreading a thousand li, nowhere to speak of desolation.”

…

At the same moment.

In a hidden part of the Kongshou Mountain Forest, beneath an ancient tree.

Hei Bai Di and a white-robed figure continued their chess game.

“I’ve lost.”

Hei Bai Di sighed deeply, putting down his piece.

“Thirty-one moves.”

The white-robed figure’s eyes showed a trace of appreciation as he said:

“What he taught you, ‘Without Beginning or End,’ is indeed powerful.”

The white-robed figure also placed down his piece, saying:

“In these three thousand millennia, Samsara remains indestructible.”

“You, too, may attain the Supreme Path.”

Having said that, the white-robed figure turned and left, his steps seemingly treading upon the stairways of time, each step beyond reach.

“Senior, are you going to meet Senior Li?”

Hei Bai Di raised his eyes and asked.

“During our chess match, we already met.”

As his voice fell, The Quiet One’s figure vanished entirely.

At that instant.

Hei Bai Di, deep in thought, murmured, “Omnipresent… eternally present… So this is the greatest source of strength for the Dark Firmament?”

Boom!

The aura around Hei Bai Di suddenly shifted into a curious transformation.

On the chessboard, the white and black pieces seemed to evolve into endless Daos, from life to death, from beginning to end, from the Samsara of origin to the Samsara of conclusion…

Hei Bai… had attained Supreme.

Without Beginning or End.

…

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