The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

Sunshine flooded into the room through gaps of curtains and shone into a brilliant mess.

Nangong Chong mumbled in his sleep. He pulled the quilt over his head and turned his back to the sunshine, determined to spend another period of cozy time in bed.

Ding! A sharp sound suddenly rang out. Nangong Chong sat up impatiently. The alarm manager was hopping at the other side of the room as if afraid to be forced to shut down.

Nangong Chong shook his head with sleepy eyes. He sat for a few minutes dully before finally getting up to walk to the bathroom.

After washing his face with cold water, he felt he was fully awake. At the same time, different kinds of emotions — sadness, grieving, together with rejoicing and liberation filled his heart.

What made him sad was the death of his dear uncle Wu Youming. He could not tell other relatives about this yet and must wait for the arrangements of the government. He grieved that he lived in fear, amazement, and shock, for the past two days. The helplessness had made him gradually become numb. On the other hand, he felt relieved that last night was just a bad dream and the Guru of the Sect of the Ether did not send others traveling through time.

This case should have been closed, right? A new day, a new start!

Nangong Chong looked at himself in the mirror. His eyelids were slightly swelling. He clenched his fists to encourage himself and keep up his spirits. Today is the day to make his thesis defense of one subject so he must go to school. What's more, he can see her there.

At this moment, he saw himself raising the corner of his mouth to form a meaningful smile.

He knew that smile so well that he blurted out,

"Sir!"

Every time he saw that smile, nothing good would happen. Today was especially peculiar — the smile appeared on his own face!

Meng Qi's voice resounded in his head, "Friend Nangong, I am back again."

Welcome back… Nangong Chong' s expression was sluggish. He felt he was too young and too naïve to believe that this case had been closed. He asked numbly, "What is it this time, sir?"

"You do as you like. I will tell you what to do when I'm finished thinking," Meng Qi said carelessly and started to do complicated yet fundamental deductions.

The corner of Nangong Chong's mouth twitched and his teeth clenched. But he did not dare to offend Meng Qi so he bitterly brushed and changed.

Actually, after what he had been through last night, he was now quite insensitive to all of these with no more anger and shame.

A few moments later, Nangong Chong was out of his home and drove his sky car to campus. As soon as he parked his car, a close acquaintance in the same class, Xu Fang, came up to him.

Xu Fang looked around and quickly approached Nangong Chong, dragging him to a corner with a mysterious expression.

He lowered his voice as if afraid to be heard by others, "Nangong, do you believe the video of the Guru of the Sect of Ether is true?"

"Yeah…" Nangong Chong was in a daze for a while and answered in an implicitly painful tone — the man's spirit is in my body right now!

Xu Fang immediately beamed, "Good brother! You are truly my good brother! I knew you would believe it! We are both clever and keen, unlike those foolish people that are easy to be cheated."

His voice was even lower, "To tell you the truth, I was right behind that building yesterday and saw the Guru of the Sect of Ether striking it down using a single punch with my own eyes! I recorded a video. It is a pity that so many mindless people believe it's a vicious advertisement."

He sighed deeply as if he was among the few that had grasped the truth.

Nangong Chong was not in the mood to discuss this with others at all. He made up an excuse and left to go to the nearby teaching building.

Just as he walked to a secluded corner, several men suddenly appeared and surrounded him. It was obvious they had planned to do so.

The man at the lead was a tall and handsome young man about the same age as Nangong Chong, but he was way more outstanding than Nangong Chong on the outside.

"Zou Rong!" Nangong Chong blurted out. His voice was tensed up. His body and eyes gave off a feeling of fear.

He had once offended this rich and powerful guy due to some incidents but he had been careful not to give him chances for revenge. Yet today he was too careless and now he got caught!

Zou Rong smirked, "Nangong, you choose to go down on your knees now or we hit you to your knees."

He spoke in a triumphant tone.

Nangong Chong looked them up and down. All of them were slender, strong, and well-featured. Each of them was much tougher and more handsome than a homebody like himself.

In the world nowadays, highly developed technology allowed gene adjustment of germ cells to be extensively used. Any rich family can let their offspring to have pretty good appearance and body. However, Nangong Chong's uncle joined the Canopy Game Company when he was already several years old and his parents were both ordinary workers. Thus he did not have the chance to experience gene adjustment. When he faced people like Zou Rong, he could not help feeling self-abasement and afraid.

"Fighting on campus would get you expelled!" Nangong Chong forgot about anything else and tried to scare them off.

Zou Rong laughed, "Unfortunately, the monitoring device here is broken. How could you blame us for tripping yourself over?"

He blinked in a vicious and playful manner.

Then he immediately changed face and cried,

"Hit him! Give him a good beat!"

Seeing Zou Rong's fist punching straight towards his face, Nangong Chong just wanted to crouch, protect his head, and let them beat him. After all, he was no match for any of them. It would be better to give up revolting to avoid stimulating their ferociousness.

At that moment, he felt he lost control of his body. Instead of crouching down, he made a sidelong punch with his right hand in a clever angle and perfect timing that smartly shoved aside Zou Rong's violent punch.

However, other people started their attack aimed at the back and two sides of Nangong Chong at the same time.

Nangong Chong was afraid, but he saw himself rushing into Zou Rong with a bounce of two legs and narrowly avoided the attack from other people.

At the same time, he stretched out his hands and locked the forearm of Zou Rong tactfully. After jumping and rotating, Nangong managed to get Zou Rong in front of him like a shield.

Bang! The second round of attack from the other people all hit Zou Rong and made him shriek in pain.

Nangong Chong raised his right foot and quickly kicked three times, each hit a different enemy's shin and sent them crouching down in pain.

After that, Nangong Chong saw himself move like floating cloud and flowing water, beating down his five enemies with power that was no match for Zou Rong's. His enemies whined and rolled on the ground, unable to get up. Yet there were no visible injuries on them.

"You are welcomed to get your revenge at any time," Nangong Chong curled his right index finger and left through the building with a swift turn.

The real Nangong Chong was dumbstruck. He could only feel that the fighting had an amazing sense of rhythm. Though it was violent, it was more beautiful than a dance and it had the amazing power to fight five people single-handedly. Under the enormous gap between body size and strength, enemies were defeated in a few breaths.

Was this kung fu?

Was this the power of martial arts?

Nangong Chong breathed heavily. He remembered the arts the Guru of the Sect of Ether taught him yesterday. Excitement started to boil in his heart and a strong urge to practice martial arts grew out.

Before, this kind of urge was never as strong as it was now.

Whether seeing the Guru of the Sect of Ether's magnificent power to reverse through and condense current or seeing him fight the Female Monarch fiercely and punch down a building with a single blow, all these things were just too far away from him that made him felt unrealistic. Though he longed and yearned for that power, he was not motivated enough. Just like the charm and might of science that let him dream of becoming a scientist in his childhood. He gradually forgot this dream because scientists were too far away from ordinary people.

But now, those who often bullied him like Zou Rong were no match under this martial art. It was something he had just seen and did. It was so close to life that he could not help yearning to learn the martial arts.

Under the restriction of a heavy weapon, those who knew martial arts were just valiant!

"Sir, it was you who had helped me just now?" he asked respectfully in a low voice.

"If you help me do things well, I will surely point you in the right way," Meng Qi said smilingly.

How could an insensitive mount that bears grudge be better than an initiative and enthusiastic assistant?

So, when he found out that Zou Rong planned to teach Nangong Chong a lesson, he led Nangong Chong into their trap on purpose in order to motivate him in learning martial arts.

As a qualified old man, he would create a chance even if there was no chance!

Nangong Chong was delighted. All his numbness and impatience disappeared at once, "I will do as you told, sir!"

"You just mind your own business for now," Meng Qi was still deducting.

As he reached the classroom door, Nangong Chong stopped in midway before he entered and looked at a graceful girl with long hair from a distance. She had a beautiful face with delicate features and she was like a pure and fresh water lily in her long light muslin dress.

"So this is the girl you like?" Meng Qi's voice suddenly came out as Nangong Chong was hesitating to approach with an uncertain expression.

"No…" Nangong Chong unconsciously denied, but he then remembered how powerful the guru was and answered in a small voice, "I like her quite much and confessed to her once, but I was turned down. Afterwards I got into trouble with Zou Rong and was afraid to get near her even more."

Meng Qi smiled, "Confess? Were you two good friends?"

"No, we were just ordinary classmates who seldom spoke with each other," Nangong Chong was not sure about the reason why he asked him this question.

"Now imagine, a person who was almost a stranger to you and had nothing charming in his looks and grace suddenly comes up to pick your nose. How would you feel?" Meng Qi asked with a smile.

"This guy must be insane!" Nangong Chong answered without hesitation.

Meng Qi said, "That is right. Emotions are even more private and important than picking noses. You have not even talked much with her. Your confession would only scare her off. The best way is to create opportunities to get to know her more and spend more time with her."

Nangong Chong was stunned to hear this, "Sir, I have never thought that you were so experienced that you could even advise me in dating…"

That was a sad story… the theoretical expert Meng Qi answered without hesitation, "Sure."

When you have memorized three hundred poems from the Tang Dynasty, you could recite poems even if you could not write poems. I am a versatile old man!

Just as Nangong Chong wanted to ask more on this matter, Meng Qi suddenly said, "There is no need to give you advice. Du Qingqing is cultivating with all her might and she may have the chance to enter our world in the future."

Ah… Nangong Chong opened his mouth wide and thoughts like a ghost and a human in love and an evil ghost kills her husband popped out from his head, circulating and arguing with each other.

Three hours later, Nangong Chong finished his thesis defense. Before he could make up his mind, he heard the old man saying,

"Go to the place where the monitoring device was broken and make a call."

The place where the monitoring device was broken? Nangong Chong was confused for a few seconds, but he quickly figured it out and hurried towards the secluded corner where he had given Zou Rong and his fellow students a good beating and found a public telephone.

"Call Dong Yuan of the Mystic News Corporation," Meng Qi had finished his deduction of the first part and needed more information.

….

Dong Yuan was sitting on the couch with a glass of wine in his hand, enjoying his scarce quality time.

At this moment, the video telephone rang and disturbed his good mood.

"Hello? Who is it?" Dong Yuan picked up the phone and saw a blurred picture as if someone blocked the camera from the other side.

"I am the Guru of the Sect of Ether," a cool and familiar voice came into Dong Yuan's ears. His pupils immediately shrank and became tense. This monster was still here and showed up again?

Dong Yuan took a deep breath and said, "Well, what can I do for you, sir?"

"I need information about the government's investigation. I will exchange it for other clues," the calm voice said.

Dong Yuan looked around him and made sure his office was under protection of military force. With the various types of monitoring devices and shields against spirit-control, he was not afraid to be attacked by the Guru of the Sect of Ether. He finally relaxed a little bit and answered more firmly, "I am afraid it is impossible. This is top secret in this nation."

But we could make a deal, based on what clues you can offer.

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a stream of electric current flash across the screen of his video telephone and a hand stretched out from it, forming a figure in green robes. It was the Guru of the Sect of Ether!

"S…sir…" Dong Yuan stuttered with his eyes wide open.

All the defenses seemed to be meaningless…

Meng Qi smiled, "Since you want to make a deal, let us have a good talk."

….

In the ghost village, the guru of the Taoist Master's mansion checked the crack and found no problem so he decided to take Qin Shuanglian and the others back.

In the back room of the palace, the Taoist Master was asking about the details of their trip.

The guru recalled, "The ghost village was still as gloomy as ever…"

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly fell down with clenched teeth. All signs of life quickly drained from him and even the Taoist Master was unable to save him.

Qin Shuanglian and the other watched in despair as the Taoist Master took off the clothes on this guru's back and saw a bloody character of "Kill"!