Steadily becoming a saint, the immortal officials hired me to tend the horses

Amid the scorching summer days, within the Daoist Field of the Beginningless, beside a lake, Gu An was preaching the Great Dao to his disciples, who were listening as if intoxicated.

Seeing that everyone had sunk into the enlightenment of the Dao, Gu An took out a jade flute from his bosom and admired it closely.

"Gu An, the Great Dao you speak of is truly profound and vast, conjuring in me numerous visions. However, I am very curious, have you actually seen those embodiments of the Great Dao?"

Shen Zhen opened her eyes, looked at Gu An, and asked curiously.

She was the closest to Gu An, and her voice was so soft that it did not disturb the others.

Gu An glanced at Shen Zhen and said, "The Great Dao is everywhere. What have you seen? Where do you wish to go?"

With a troubled look, Shen Zhen said, "I saw the universe and the stars, and a white staircase leading to a door."

"What kind of door?"

"Indescribable, all I can remember now is vague, but I'm sure it was a door."

Shen Zhen recounted while speaking; after a pause, she continued to ask, "Gu An, do you think those visions I see could be some form of calculation?"

Gu An smiled at her and said, "That's something you'll have to feel and judge for yourself. It's good that you're thinking about this. Never lose your reverence for the unknown, always be vigilant, for it is often more beneficial than not."

Shen Zhen nodded and said, "I'll be careful. If the Great Dao guides me somewhere, I'm certain I won't go."

She had heard from Gu An about the experiences of An Hao and Zhu Xi, which made her even more vigilant about inexplicable opportunities.

The visions she saw while seeking the Dao seemed like a lure, and she didn't want to be deceived.

"If you encounter things that are hard to judge, you can also talk to me about them," Gu An said, then stood and turned to walk toward the nearby woods.

Shen Zhen had no further questions to ask, and she didn't follow Gu An's steps. After so many years, she had grown less curious about where Gu An went.

Now, she just wanted to comprehend the Great Dao. In its vastness, she could experience all the things she desired. She aspired to become a Great Cultivator like Gu An.

Elsewhere.

Gu An stepped into the woods and in one step went to another place in the Human World.

This was a mortal city, bustling streets, with no Cultivators seen among the throngs of people—just two or three Transformed Demons. However, they did not do any harm but instead were performing their talents in a pavilion known as the Apricot Flower Tower.

Gu An appeared on the street without drawing the attention of the passersby, for no one could see him—even a boy passed through his body, feeling no physical collision.

Gu An's gaze fell on the side of the street, where a group of beggars squatted in front of a courtyard wall. Among them, a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old boy sat with his head down. On closer examination, he had no legs, and only two fingers on his right hand, a sight that made it difficult to imagine what kind of torment he had endured.

This boy was a Reincarnation of the Celestial Spirit God; this was his thirty-ninth time being reincarnated.

He was born in a village and before he was one year old, his family was raided by bandits, who killed everyone and sold him off. After a life of constant upheaval and numerous struggles, he ended up in such a tragic state.
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Despite the suffering of the Celestial Spirit God, Gu An had no intention of intervening. Nevertheless, in every life of the Celestial Spirit God, he would observe.

It wasn't to ridicule the Celestial Spirit God but rather to help him recall some of his previous life's memories at the time of his death, to let him feel the disparity between Immortal Gods and mortals.

Oddly enough.

Gu An had not deliberately made the Celestial Spirit God experience a life of suffering, but most of his lives in the cycle of Reincarnation were miserable, and even if born in happiness, he tended to die young, living to a maximum of seventy years in the best-case scenario.

On second thought, it was normal, as most mortals have difficulty living past seventy.

In the scorching summer, this life of the Celestial Spirit God would end on the flourishing streets, with no one caring about his death. Not until a house servant from a wealthy nearby household dragged his body away, ultimately dumped in the wilderness, and devoured by scavenging wolves.

And so, Gu An merely stood on the street watching the Celestial Spirit God, with people coming and going as if in a dream.

This life's Celestial Spirit, named Little Five, had been adopted by an old beggar. He was the fifth child taken in by the old man, hence the name Little Five. At the beginning of the year, the old beggar passed away, and Little Five now followed the eldest child for survival, presently in the throes of illness.

To seek medicinal herbs, the eldest was at that moment being beaten by the servants of a medicine shop on another street.

This city bustled with such vibrancy: people were drinking and making merry, spilling wine and meat on their tables, some were reciting poetry and discussing romance under the trees, while others were barely breathing, lying on their beds as their family fought over money for medicine. There were people who went about their routines like zombies, thinking not of the future, but of ending the day's tasks sooner.

The countless conditions of sentient beings unfolded before Gu An's eyes, his expression unchanging, just quietly watching Little Five.

Little Five seemed to feel something and slowly lifted his head. The streets were noisy and busy before his eyes; the close proximity of prosperity felt unattainably distant.

In a daze, he saw an additional figure on the street, with people passing right through it, which was very eerie.

His hands trembling, he raised them and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things; indeed, there was a figure that no one else but he could see.

"Could that be an Immortal God..."

Xiao Wu spoke weakly, while the two beggars beside him were asleep and didn't hear his murmur, and the other beggars didn't pay attention to him either, because everyone knew he was dying.

Gu An was surprised that Xiao Wu could see him.

He hadn't intended for Xiao Wu to be able to see him.

With that thought, Gu An willed his presence to deepen, and he disappeared from Xiao Wu's sight in an instant.

Seeing that he had disappeared, Xiao Wu instinctively looked in other directions, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see Gu An again.

"It was just an illusion after all, I knew someone like me couldn't possibly encounter an Immortal God..."

Xiao Wu hung his head low again, continuing to endure the suffering from his illness.

Until dusk, a beggar walked over, quivering—it was Xiao Wu's older brother, known as Lao Da.

He squatted in front of Xiao Wu, placed the medicinal herb bag stained with blood on the ground, shook Xiao Wu, but there was no response from him.

Lao Da's eyes widened with bloodshot eyes, and his right hand trembled as it moved toward Xiao Wu's nose. Soon, he got a fright. He didn't push Xiao Wu away; instead, he lifted Xiao Wu onto his back and, taking the medicinal herb bag, walked away.

Following that, Lao Da carried Xiao Wu on his back and went to all the large and small pharmacies in the city, but no one was willing to treat Xiao Wu.

Out of desperation, Lao Da gritted his teeth and carried Xiao Wu out of the city.

As night fell, Lao Da didn't look back amidst the fading hustle and bustle behind him and pressed forward with unwavering determination.

Lao Da carried Xiao Wu aimlessly forward, not knowing where he should go, but he was unwilling to give up.

It was only when he heard a wolf's howl that he finally snapped out of it, by which time he had already lost his way.

"Don't be afraid, Xiao Wu, Big Brother will definitely save you, definitely..."

Lao Da murmured to himself softly; he was trying to bolster his own courage.

There were always legends in the countryside of Immortals living deep in the mountains. The physicians in the Human World were not willing to save his brother, so he had to seek out an Immortal.

"Hee hee, he's already dead. Where do you think you're going to take him?"

"Such deep brotherly love."

"Well, we could save him, but you'll have to give something in return."

Three feminine voices rang out, coquettish and seductive, making one's imagination run wild, except in the darkness of the night, they seemed sinister and frightening.

Fear gripped Lao Da internally, his filthy face unable to hide the terror as he swallowed and asked, "What do I have to give to save my brother?"

Could it be a Demon?

Their voices didn't sound like those of Immortals.

Lao Da thought so, and without any other options available, he braced himself and inquired further.

Suddenly, a cold wind blew from the depths of the forest, forcing Lao Da to instinctively step back. On the trunk of the tree before him appeared three white foxes, smirking cunningly, their eyes glowing green in the dark night, which was quite terrifying.

Lao Da's legs trembled with fear.

The sight of a Demon directly drowned his heart in terror, yet he did not throw Xiao Wu down and flee.

One of the white foxes chuckled, "Become our servant, and we will save him."

Lao Da mustered his courage and asked, "Just as a servant?"

"As a servant for life, until you die of old age. Oh, by the way, if your brother wants to live, he must borrow someone else's life. Before dawn, you must kill a person and bring them before us. Otherwise, once daylight comes, even if the Celestial Spirit God Himself appeared, there would be no reversing fate."

The white fox in the middle sneered coldly, her words sending a chill through Lao Da.

Kill... kill someone?