System Granted Me Immortality; I Outlived Everyone

Chapter 12: The Lightning-Struck Wood Coffin and the Beloved Chen Changsheng

Faced with this absurd level of “patience,” Qingfeng rolled his eyes hard enough to strain them.

“This has nothing to do with taking things slow. You have absolutely no intention of reaching Foundation Establishment, do you?”

“Other disciples linger in the Qi Condensation realm to temper a solid foundation. Nobody drags it out for a full decade like you.”

“And despite sitting at the ninth layer of Qi Condensation, you couldn’t even win a fistfight against an outer sect disciple at the seventh layer!”

“What exactly are you trying to achieve?!”

Confronted with Senior Brother Qingfeng’s sheer exasperation, Chen Changsheng merely offered a faint smile.

“Cultivating the Dao is just cultivating the Dao. Why attach so many exhausting goals to it?”

“Besides, if a fight breaks out, having you around is more than enough, Senior Brother. I am statistically irrelevant to our combat power.”

“So please, let me off the hook.”

He turned, fully prepared to burrow back into his fortress of ancient texts.

But Qingfeng wasn’t having it. He reached out, grabbed Chen Changsheng by the collar, and hauled him upright.

“Don’t try to play the fool with me. Master personally handed down the order for your Foundation Establishment.”

“You are breaking through, whether you want to or not.”

“The Boundless Secret Realm opens soon, and Master personally secured a quota for you. There is nowhere to hide this time.”

Without another word, Qingfeng dragged the deeply aggrieved Chen Changsheng out of the Scripture Depository.

……

The Main Hall of the Shangqing Temple.

An old man radiating an ethereal, transcendent aura stood at the center of the grand room.

The ten inner sect disciples of the temple stood respectfully in two perfect rows, with Chen Changsheng tucked quietly at the very end.

After a heavy silence, the old man spoke. “Changsheng, how long has it been since you joined our Shangqing Temple?”

Being called out directly, Chen Changsheng promptly cupped his hands.

“Reporting to Master, this disciple has resided here for exactly ten years.”

The old man nodded slowly.

“A decade ago, you happened to wander past the gates right as the Grandmaster emerged from his Secluded Cultivation.”

“From a sea of mortals, the Grandmaster picked you out with a single glance.”

“He dragged you straight into the Shangqing Temple, declared you possessed a supreme affinity with the Dao, and immediately bestowed upon you the status of an inner sect disciple.”

The old man slowly paced toward the back of the line, coming to a halt before gently resting his right hand on Chen Changsheng’s shoulder.

“Ouch!”

“Master, my collarbone is snapping! Lighter, lighter!”

Chen Changsheng squirmed helplessly under the crushing weight.

Yet, with his pitiful physical stats, there was zero chance of escaping the grip of the temple’s Abbot, Master Yuanshen.

The serene, immortal facade on Master Yuanshen’s face suddenly warped.

Forcing a terrifyingly rigid smile, he snarled softly, “Whether you truly have an affinity with the Dao, this master dares not say.”

“But could you perhaps explain why the slab of Lightning-Struck Jujube Wood—which had been sitting safely on the back mountain for three hundred years—has suddenly turned into a coffin?!”

The other nine senior brothers simultaneously developed severe facial twitches.

It was an open secret that Master Yuanshen blatantly favored their youngest Junior Brother.

While the rest of them faced strict curfews and forbidden zones within the temple grounds, Chen Changsheng enjoyed VIP access.

No such restrictions applied to him.

He could wander the Shangqing Temple exactly as he pleased.

He treated even the Grandmaster’s personal chambers like a public park.

But absolutely no one anticipated that he would actually dare to touch the Master’s most treasured possession.

That slab of Lightning-Struck Jujube Wood was a supreme treasure Master Yuanshen had violently wrested from a Golden Core Perfection stage great demon three centuries ago.

Securing that prize had cost the Master thirty straight years of Secluded Cultivation just to heal his injuries.

Normally, disciples weren’t even allowed to look in its general direction, much less lay a finger on it.

And now, their youngest Junior Brother had chopped it up to build a coffin. The sheer audacity was astronomical!

“Master, Little Junior Brother acted purely without intent! Please, forgive him this once!”

Qingfeng immediately stepped out to run interference, quickly followed by a chorus of pleas from the remaining senior brothers.

“Without intent?”

“I only provided him the safe paths through the peripheral arrays. I never taught him how to bypass the core Formation.”

“Three years ago, that wood was sitting exactly where I left it. When I checked yesterday, it had been converted into a premium casket.”

“I am profoundly curious to know what kind of ‘unintentional act’ allows someone to silently dismantle my grand Formation and woodwork a divine material into a burial box.”

Master Yuanshen’s icy glare pinned Chen Changsheng in place.

Under that immense pressure, even the thick-skinned Chen Changsheng felt a slight twinge of guilt.

“Master, that block of wood had been gathering dust for a very long time.”

“While the material is admittedly rare, at your current cultivation realm, Master, its actual utility is frankly negligible.”

Listening to his disciple’s brazen sophistry, Master Yuanshen let go of the shoulder—only to tightly pinch Chen Changsheng’s ear instead.

The Master barked fiercely, but fundamentally, he cherished this particular disciple entirely too much.

After all, Changsheng was the weakest among the inner sect, boasting the lowest cultivation realm.

If he actually lost his temper, he would shatter the boy’s collarbone.

“Do I need you to lecture me on what materials are useful to my cultivation?”

“I was saving that Lightning-Struck Wood to carve an idol of the Three Pure Ones.”

“Any outsider crossing our threshold and laying eyes upon such a majestic idol would immediately feel utter reverence for our Daoist sect.”

“Now the wood is a casket. Tell me, exactly how do you plan to resolve this?”

Chen Changsheng instantly tucked his neck like a turtle, smoothly slipping his ear out from the Master’s clutches.

He then gestured grandly toward the existing clay statues of the Three Pure Ones resting in the hall.

“The Dao resides within the heart. Clay statues are more than sufficient. If our goal is to illuminate the world to the Dao, why rely on flashy external trinkets?”

Having delivered his excuse, Chen Changsheng produced a calligraphy brush and marched confidently out the main doors.

Master Yuanshen stared after him, thoroughly derailed.

Traditionally, the script required the kid to grovel a bit, the older brothers to beg a little louder, and then he could graciously let the boy off the hook.

Going off-script like this left the old man genuinely bewildered!

Swallowing his ire, Master Yuanshen led the nine senior brothers outside to see what the brat was doing.

They arrived to find Chen Changsheng casually utilizing his spiritual power to sand the existing couplet off the pillars of the main hall. Then, his brush danced like a striking serpent, leaving twenty-two sharp, iron-hewn characters in its wake.

“Harbor wickedness in your heart, and no amount of burning incense shall bring you grace.”

“Walk righteously upon the earth, and what does it matter if you refuse to bow before me?”

“Brilliant!”

Staring at the drying ink, Qingfeng couldn’t hold back his admiration.

“Little Junior Brother truly possesses a profound affinity with the Dao. These twenty-two words perfectly encapsulate the philosophy of our sect.”

Chen Changsheng simply smiled at the praise, maintaining an air of profound silence.

Master Yuanshen scoffed, his face frosty. “His comprehension is passable. His strength is dogshit.”

“I will put the matter of the coffin on hold. But if you fail to reach Foundation Establishment inside the Boundless Secret Realm, you had best prepare to have your legs broken.”

“Now get out of my sight. Looking at you gives me a migraine.”

Seeing that the Master was still hovering on the edge of violence, the senior brothers swiftly dragged Chen Changsheng away.

Once the courtyard was quiet, Master Yuanshen finally allowed himself to stand still, silently admiring the profound couplet etched into his temple.

Once Chen Changsheng had left, Master Yuanshen finally began to carefully contemplate the couplet before him.