Chapter 391: The Ancient and Modern Recorder (2)

In the blink of an eye, several months passed.

Su Chen came to understand that he was now in a small sect called the Heavenly Origin Sect.

The sect master was a martial artist of the fifth realm, the Spirit Soul Realm.

Though the sect was small, it had everything it needed.

According to all the disciples, the Heavenly Origin Sect had once been even smaller, reduced to a single mountain peak.

Yet with the rise of the current sect master, that humble peak had grown into one of the few notable forces in the surrounding region.

From then on, the Heavenly Origin Sect's name spread far and wide, becoming a power that everyone respected.

In the disciples' voices, there was nothing but admiration for the sect master.

He truly was a legendary figure.

Su Chen made this mental note.

Although he could not compare to those peerless prodigies whose fame echoed across the heavens, in the eyes of everyone in the Heavenly Origin Sect, their sect master was that legend, their idol.

During these months, Su Chen lived a very leisurely life. He even found himself enjoying this rare peace.

The sect was large, with over a thousand disciples. His work was to record the life stories of disciples and elders who had died.

Disciples and elders could not die every single day, after all. So Su Chen did not have work every day.

From the time he entered the Heavenly Origin Sect, through the cold winter snows to the revival of all living things, and now into the height of summer when the cicadas sang, he had never received a single true assignment.

Just as he was thinking this, Su Chen noticed movement outside the door.

Someone had come!

Su Chen rose from his rocking chair and watched a figure slowly walk in, face filled with grief.

The dead could not be pursued. Their life stories naturally had to be told by the living.

Su Chen looked at the newcomer's genuine sorrow and knew the deceased must have been someone closest to him.

As it turned out, Su Chen's guess was correct.

The visitor's name was Yue Anping.

The deceased was his Dao companion, named Hua Caidie.

Both Yue Anping and Hua Caidie were ordinary martial artists of the Heavenly Origin Sect. They possessed no outstanding talent and could not compare to the gifted inner disciples. Even though both were past thirty, they remained ordinary outer disciples.

Yue Anping's aptitude was slightly better than Hua Caidie's. Not long ago he had broken through to the Spirit Vein Realm, a cause for celebration. An outer disciple who reached the Spirit Vein Realm could at least become a minor steward.

But Hua Caidie's cultivation had been stuck at the peak of the Spirit Gathering Realm.

Su Chen took up his brush and recorded Hua Caidie's life.

In her youth, she had joined the Heavenly Origin Sect in ignorance. Later, she became Dao companions with the outer disciple Yue Anping, and the two remained inseparable.

Finally, he wrote: Died after failing to break through to the Spirit Vein Realm.

An ordinary disciple's entire life was reduced to a few brief lines.

"Thank you."

Yue Anping expressed his gratitude.

Su Chen watched the man with slightly graying temples leave, then let out a soft sigh.

The path of martial arts has always been this way.

Without sufficient talent, failing a breakthrough and perishing with one's dao extinguished was the most common outcome.

But when it happened to someone closest to you, it was a different matter entirely.

After Yue Anping left, no one came to Su Chen for a long time.

The Heavenly Origin Sect was, after all, a major power in the surrounding area. Disciples rarely died at the hands of others in disputes.

Su Chen was more than happy to enjoy the quiet.

...

Time passed through midsummer, autumn, and winter. In the blink of an eye, another season of revival arrived.

Su Chen met a familiar young man.

"It's you?"

This was the same young man who had carefully cared for Su Chen in the beginning and who had recommended the position of Recorder to him.

Yet the youth before him now lacked some of his earlier high spirits and had grown a little more steady. Clearly, the events that had occurred had tempered him.

"Nameless old man, I want you to help me record someone."

Su Chen nodded.

Nameless old man. That was because he had no name, or rather, he did not wish to recall his former name. Now he was only a recorder. He recorded others but could never record himself. Whether he had a name or not no longer mattered.

"Whom do you wish to record?"

The young man said, "My master."

The young man's name was Li Li. He was a disciple under Elder Wang of the inner sect.

To Li Li, Elder Wang had been both teacher and father.

Unfortunately, when his three-hundred-year lifespan reached its end, he remained stuck in the Spirit Sea Realm.

The Spirit Sea Realm granted a lifespan of three hundred years. When that lifespan was exhausted, dust returned to dust and earth to earth.

Su Chen slowly lifted his brush and recorded the life of a sect elder.

In his youth, Wang Heshou had joined the Heavenly Origin Sect, full of ambition. He befriended Ruan Jingtian, and together they resolved to rebuild the Heavenly Origin Sect. He defeated many geniuses and ranked thirty-fifth among the prodigies of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty. Later, he refused the recruitment of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty's royal family and chose to remain with the then-destitute Heavenly Origin Sect to build it up. His disciples were many and widespread. He lived to three hundred years of age and died a natural death.

Wang Heshou's life achievements far outnumbered those of Hua Caidie. Yet in the end, they too were reduced to a single brief page.

Li Li said, "Thank you."

Su Chen replied, "This is simply this old man's duty."

Li Li watched Su Chen arrange the bamboo slips and place them high up. "This work truly suits you."

Li Li left.

Su Chen smiled faintly.

Perhaps it did.

Su Chen heard the mournful tolling of bells outside the door.

The death of a highly respected elder was a tremendous loss for the entire sect.

All of the Heavenly Origin Sect sank into grief. Even former rivals set aside old grudges upon Wang Heshou's passing.

Su Chen did not feel sorrow.

Life and death, partings and farewells, were only ordinary occurrences.

Yet this made Su Chen think of his current life. He was already past sixty.

By chance, he had consumed a fourth-grade pill, so living to eighty or ninety would not be a problem.

But in the end, he would still die like the elders of the Heavenly Origin Sect.

Twenty or thirty years were but a snap of the fingers.

This was his only variable.

"Perhaps this life cannot end so uneventfully," Su Chen thought to himself.

As the commotion over Elder Wang Heshou's death gradually quieted, the people of the Heavenly Origin Sect recovered from their grief. Life had to go on. The living could not remain lost in sorrow forever.

Yes, Su Chen became idle once more. He had considered training the disciples of the Heavenly Origin Sect. But in the end, he abandoned the idea.

He was uncertain whether doing so might attract the attention of those behind the scenes. He could not expose himself. He could no longer wait for a second variable.

Over the following five months, another disciple came to his door. He recorded the life of a friend.

Zhou Hua, an outer disciple, had gone out seeking opportunities and died in the jaws of a demonic beast.

Su Chen raised his eyes slightly.

At least... There was still a friend willing to remember him and willing to let the sect remember him.

After the young man offered his thanks, Su Chen smiled and placed Zhou Hua's record together with Hua Caidie's.

This time less than a month passed before someone else arrived, causing Su Chen to mutter to himself.

"The Heavenly Origin Sect... the frequency of disciples dying seems to have increased recently."

In the past, one died every half year. Now one had been lost in less than a month.

"I am a friend of Yue Anping, sent here at his request."

The visitor's face showed no sorrow, as if he had only come to complete a task he had been asked to handle.