Back when he was a young scholar, he had yet again failed in the Imperial examinations, then stood atop Mount Daqing, where he wrote something on a slip of paper, stuck it in a bottle gourd, and threw it into the river at the bottom of the mountain. 2
That river had been said to flow all the way to the Eastern Lands, but Meng Hao had long since learned that it connected not to the Eastern Lands, but to the Milky Way Sea.
It was as if, over the years, there were some power that had guided the bottle gourd across the Milky Way Sea and all the way to the Eastern Lands, where it got stuck in this river.
Meng Hao stared at the bottle gourd with its familiar aura. He had never imagined that one day he would once again see this bottle gourd. He had assumed that it had long since sunk to the bottom of the river or the sea, or had been picked up by someone.
“I threw this bottle into the river before I began to practice cultivation. Now, just when I’m about to leave, I’ve run into it again….” He walked quietly over to the bottle-gourd, then bent down to pick it up.
It was rotting, and as he held it in his hand, he felt as if he didn’t even need to expend any effort to break it open.
“But how… could it possibly still be around after hundreds of years…? It’s just an ordinary bottle gourd. It should have vanished long ago.” After looking at it for a long moment, he uncorked the gourd. Inside, it was slightly damp, but there was no water. Meng Hao turned it upside down, and a rolled up strip of paper fell out.
When he saw the paper, an emotional expression of reminiscence appeared on his face. He thought back to the youthful version of himself, standing there on Mount Daqing, and the bellowing rage he had flown into after each time he failed the Imperial examinations.
He also thought about his life in Yunjie County, and all the things that had happened there.
He gingerly uncurled the strip of paper. Although the words were somewhat blurry, he was able to vaguely make out the grand aspiration that he had written down that year….
He looked at the piece of paper, and as he smiled, it seemed as if the bottle gourd no longer bore the weight of his desire, and it transformed into ash. The strip of paper also gradually disintegrated into tiny pieces that drifted through his fingers and vanished with the wind.
Meng Hao then felt that familiar aura fade away.
He stood there quietly for a moment, saying nothing. Finally, he closed his eyes. Time passed. One day after another went by, until an entire week passed. The river water flowed, the sun and moon rose and set. Birds and beasts scampered to and fro along the river bank.
Seven days later, Meng Hao opened his eyes, and they shone with enlightenment.
“There is a mysterious power in the world….” he murmured.
“And that power is desire.
“That ordinary bottle gourd was able to survive down to this day because it was sustained from within by my desire. As a cultivator, the desire that I had back then has grown stronger even as I have grown stronger, however far away the realization of it was.
“It was my own familiar aura which helped that bottle gourd… to survive all these years.
“After picking it up, the desire that had coalesced in the bottle gourd and the piece of paper vanished and returned into my hand. That is why it disappeared into Heaven and Earth.
“It’s similar to what Xie Yixian from the Burning Incense Stick Society said during our arena match. Burning Incense… coalesces the desires of all living things, and the cultivation of that desire is burning incense. 3
“I never imagined that I would be enlightened here regarding the power of burning incense.” After a moment he looked down at his hand, which he then waved.
Time seemed to move in reverse, as the drifting pieces of ash from seven days before suddenly reappeared. They transformed into a piece of paper, as well as the bottle gourd which had vanished.
Meng Hao’s expression was calm as he once again placed the strip of paper into the bottle gourd and tossed it into the river. As the water flowed, the bottle gourd bobbed up and down, drifting off into the distance.
“I still haven’t achieved what I desire, so how could I let that bottle gourd disappear…? Perhaps years from now, someone will find my bottle gourd and open it up to reveal my desire… and my aura….” As he watched the bottle gourd disappear into the distance, a faint smile broke out on his face.
“It’s time to leave,” he said. Taking a deep breath, he turned and, his expression one of determination, strode off into the distance. Eventually, he appeared up in the sky, where he became a beam of light that disappeared off into the distance.
One day later.
In the Fang Clan of the Eastern Lands, a huge teleportation portal had been set up in a rear courtyard. Glittering light rose up from the portal, next to which stood Meng Hao, his parents, and another middle-aged man.