Chapter 219: Conquering the Great Calamity

The Dream Moon plan was a colossal failure.

Looking down at the Wenjian Sect below, where not a single person had chosen to join Penglai, the Penglai Sect Leader fell into self-doubt for the very first time.

All mortals had regrets, and where there were regrets, there were cracks to exploit. Yet, this did not seem to apply to the Wenjian Sect at all.

Could it be that the path of resolving regrets was truly outdated in the outside world?

Or had the Dao hearts of the cultivators in the current cultivation world reached such a state that they were completely free of regrets?

Or was it simply because of the Wenjian Sect itself?

The more the Penglai Sect Leader thought about it, the more off it felt. Her thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the era when she was still alive.

She remembered that back then, there was a fellow Daoist named “Life-Defying Calamity-Slaying True Monarch.” He had behaved outrageously, loved swords as much as life itself, and single-handedly blocked the path to the Seventh Realm for more than half of the cultivation world. He had offended every single True Monarch under heaven yet remained alive and kicking, and he too had hailed from the Wenjian Sect.

Thousands of years ago, there was Life-Defying Calamity-Slaying, and thousands of years later, there was Gu Chengming, not to mention this entire nest of stubborn eccentrics who refused to listen to reason.

Suffice it to say, was there really something genuinely cursed about this place called the Wenjian Sect?

Resting her chin on her hand, the Penglai Sect Leader gazed down at the ordinarily lit sect below. For the first time, she felt a deep sense of worry about the future of her Great Calamity.

...

Meanwhile, inside the Wenjian Sect.

Gu Chengming was also worrying about how to bring this Great Calamity to an end.

He had won the bet, but winning the bet did not mean the Great Calamity was resolved.

That Dream Moon still hung high and safe in the sky. It had kept its promise not to make a move against the Wenjian Sect today, but what about tomorrow?

If it left the Wenjian Sect and turned to plague other sects and cities, how long could those places with less steadfast Dao hearts hold out?

A brute-force attack was out of the question.

True Monarch Liuyun Suyu had already made it perfectly clear that the Dream Moon was formed from half of the authority of the Heavenly Moon Dao Throne. It was a genuine Dao Throne-class artifact. Even if a Sixth Realm True Monarch exerted all their strength, they might not be able to do anything to it. Instead, it might push the artifact to make a desperate move and harvest its victims prematurely.

Trying to talk her down was also impossible.

The Penglai Sect Leader's obsession was as firm as a monolith, and she possessed a crystal-clear understanding of the outside world. Expecting to make her repent and disperse on her own with just a few words was nothing short of a pipe dream.

Gu Chengming, who had been pacing the courtyard for half the night, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Wait.

It seems I've been looking at this the wrong way all along.

He had subconsciously treated the Dream Moon as an enemy, spending all his mental energy figuring out how to destroy it.

But what was the true nature of this Dream Moon?

It was an obsession.

And what lay at the core of this obsession? It was that Penglai Sect Leader, who had erased both her true name and her Dao title.

When dealing with a flesh-and-blood “person” bound by obsession—

Wouldn't it be enough to just use his instincts as a galgame expert to conquer her heart?

The next day, when Gu Chengming shared his thoughts with everyone, the entire courtyard fell silent.

“You want to... clear that Great Calamity?”

Ren Wencai doubted if there was something wrong with his ears.

“To be precise, it's about clearing the Penglai Sect Leader's obsession,” Gu Chengming corrected. “Think about it, Master. Since we can't beat it by force, the only remaining path is to follow her obsession inward. Her obsession is to rebuild Penglai, but rebuilding Penglai is merely the surface. The real knot in her heart hidden beneath the surface is the weak point of this Great Calamity. Once that knot is untied, the calamity will naturally disperse.”

“This...” Shen Qianqiu stroked his beard, hesitating. “The logic is sound, but an obsession is not something that can be resolved so easily, is it?”

“Ordinary people naturally can't resolve it.” But I am a galgame expert!

Naturally, he only said those words in his mind. Outwardly, he phrased it differently:

“I happen to have quite a bit of experience in untying all sorts of heart knots. You senior elders only need to do one thing for me...”

...

Three days later, inside the Dream Moon.

The Penglai Sect Leader was looking down at the mortal world out of sheer boredom when she suddenly felt a ripple in the world within the moon. Looking up, she saw that young friend Gu had once again entered of his own accord, followed by a grand entourage.

True Monarch Liuyun Suyu, Ano, Yu Wenqiu, and Mo Wu, along with Ren Wencai and Shen Qianqiu—they had actually come out in full force.

The Penglai Sect Leader's eyebrows shot up as alarm bells rang in her heart.

Had they become angry from embarrassment and come to forcefully demolish her Penglai?

While she was secretly on guard, she saw Gu Chengming take a step forward and bow with clasped hands.

“Senior, I have come today because I wish to stay in Penglai for a few days.” The Penglai Sect Leader stared at him. “?”

“Have you finally seen the light, young friend?” She sized Gu Chengming up suspiciously, sensing that there was some trickery afoot.

Gu Chengming shook his head, completely open and honest. “I still have no intention of joining Penglai. However, you mentioned before that Penglai only accepts people voluntarily and never forces anyone. Surely, Penglai allows its guests to come and go as they please as well? My elders and I would like to stay in your Penglai for a few days as ‘guests’ and take a tour of the place.”

“A tour?” “Exactly.”

Gu Chengming smiled in a completely harmless manner. “You always say we have a prejudice against Penglai, and that it is a land of unfettered ultimate bliss. But we have never even seen it in its entirety, so there is no way for this prejudice to dissolve. Why don't you generously let us stay? If it is truly as wonderful as you say, we will naturally be thoroughly convinced. If it falls short of its reputation, you will also be able to identify where the problems lie, making it easier to improve in the future, wouldn't you agree?”

The Penglai Sect Leader stared at him for a long while, but she simply could not spot any flaws in his reasoning.

“Very well,” the Penglai Sect Leader said after weighing her options, slowly nodding. “But let me make this clear beforehand: once you enter Penglai, you must abide by Penglai's rules.”

“That goes without saying.”

Gu Chengming agreed, but in his heart, he thought: The conquest has begun!

...

Over the next few days, the thousand-year-unchanged Penglai within the Dream Moon welcomed its liveliest period in history.

As a galgame expert, Gu Chengming knew very well that if one wanted to conquer a character, they had to start by conquering her “daily routine.”

What was the Penglai Sect Leader's daily routine? It was maintaining this immortal sect between illusion and reality day after day, watching the “sect disciples” who had entered Penglai live out their days in peace within the ultimate bliss she had woven. A thousand years passed like a single day, as flat and stagnant as a pool of dead water.

Yet, the group Gu Chengming brought with him turned this pool of dead water completely upside down on their very first day.

First was Ano.

This senior felt right at home the moment she entered Penglai. She dragged those “Penglai disciples” to spar with her one by one, and when she was finished, she would shout to the spectating disciples with unspent excitement, “Who's next?” Those disciples, who had long grown accustomed to the ease and comfort of ultimate bliss, were initially terrified out of their wits by her. Yet, somehow, as the days went by, the crowd cheering outside the training ground grew larger and larger. A few whose hands were itching to fight even began lining up in earnest.

Hearing the waves of long-lost clamor from inside the Sect Leader Hall, the Penglai Sect Leader's expression grew complex.

In a land of ultimate bliss, there were no desires and no conflicts, so naturally, there was no one striving to win.

Previously, she had only thought of this as great perfection, but now, contrasted with this scene, she actually felt an indescribable sense of dead silence from it.

Next were Ren Wencai and Shen Qianqiu.

These two old fogies toured all of Penglai's mountains, waters, pavilions, and towers one by one. When they got excited, they would seek out the “disciples” of Penglai to chat. They would ask about their lives before entering Penglai and what cherished wishes they had fulfilled. As they chatted, they would inevitably start talking about their own sect.

“Our Wenjian Sect is nowhere near as grand as your place,” Ren Wencai said in a relaxed tone as he leaned against a peach tree. “But the disciples over at our place will cry when they fail at practicing their swords, hold grudges when they get beaten up by their senior brothers, and get punished to sweep the sect gates if they sneak a drink of wine from the Cangjian Pavilion.”

The Penglai disciple who had been dragged into the chat listened blankly before suddenly asking in a low voice, “What does it feel like... to be punished to sweep the sect gates?”

Ren Wencai was taken aback, then burst into hearty laughter.

“What does it feel like? Your back aches, your body hurts, and you grumble the whole time. But once you're done, you lie down at the sect gates to watch the sunset, thinking to yourself that you'll still have to keep practicing tomorrow. That is what life is all about.”

...

Gu Chengming, on the other hand, was the most leisurely one during these past few days. He neither tried to show off nor deliberately approached the Penglai Sect Leader, instead spending his time accompanying True Monarch Liuyun Suyu.

“This used to be the alchemy room,” True Monarch Liuyun Suyu recalled, standing before a vacant hall.

“In my third year after joining the sect, I snuck in here with my senior sister to refine a batch of Qi Gathering Pills, but the cauldron exploded. Our master punished both of us to copy alchemy scriptures for three months.”

The Penglai inside this Dream Moon was replicated by that Sect Leader using her obsession. Every blade of grass and tree was modeled after the old days.

Yet, no matter how realistic the imitation was, it was still just an empty shell. Inside this shell, there was no senior sister who would blow up the alchemy room, no master to punish her to copy books, and none of those living, breathing people.

“Senior,” Gu Chengming suddenly spoke up, “tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival.” True Monarch Liuyun Suyu paused in her tracks.

“I remember you once said...”

Gu Chengming looked at her. “During Mid-Autumn in Penglai, the mountains are covered in sweet osmanthus flowers, looking from afar like the moon has fallen onto the peaks.”

“The year you were trapped in the Land of Nowhere, you had originally planned to return to the sect just to catch a glimpse of the sweet osmanthus.” He paused, looking at True Monarch Liuyun Suyu with a smile. “Since that's the case, let's make up for it tomorrow.”

...

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Gu Chengming sought out the Penglai Sect Leader and got straight to the point. “Senior, I would like to borrow Penglai to host a Mid-Autumn banquet.” “A Mid-Autumn banquet?” The Penglai Sect Leader raised an eyebrow.

“Indeed,” Gu Chengming said. “Our group has disturbed you for several days, so it is only right that we return the favor... This banquet will be held right over there.” He raised his hand and pointed toward the mountain peak deep within Penglai, which was covered in blooming sweet osmanthus.

The Penglai Sect Leader looked in the direction he pointed, falling into a brief daze.

“Why that mountain?”

“Because appreciating osmanthus during Mid-Autumn is only natural.”

The Penglai Sect Leader seemed a bit helpless, but as if recalling something, she softly said, “Very well.”

...

That night, on Osmanthus Mountain.

For the first time, lanterns were lit along the mountain path that had been devoid of people for a thousand years.

Ren Wencai and Shen Qianqiu busied themselves with bringing over wine. Ano, with her immense strength, carried seven or eight tables up the mountain all by herself. Yu Wenqiu directed a crowd of curious Penglai disciples to hang up lanterns. They were hung up crookedly, so she stood with her hands on her hips, making them redo them one by one. Mo Wu, rarely shedding her cold demeanor, sat beneath an osmanthus tree, tuning an ancient zither she had found from somewhere.

The sweet osmanthus across the entire mountain was in full bloom. Brushed by the night wind, the golden petals fell in rustling showers. Mingled with the warm glow of the lanterns, it truly looked as if the moon had shattered all over the mountain.

True Monarch Liuyun Suyu walked up the mountain step by step. She walked past the path she used to take as a shortcut in her childhood, past the blue stone she used to lie on when slacking off, and past the sweet osmanthus tree she had personally planted, which had now grown into a towering canopy.

When she reached the summit, she stopped beneath the oldest osmanthus tree and looked up.

Moonlight filtered through the dense branches of sweet osmanthus, bathing her entire body in its glow.

A thousand years of time seemed to violently reverse at this moment. She felt as if she had turned back into that little disciple who would blow up the alchemy room, slack off, and look forward to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Her master's scoldings, her fellow disciples' laughter, and the fragrance of sweet osmanthus across the mountain rushed back like a tide, only to recede just as quickly.

Once it receded, nothing remained but the night wind and a single, very real sweet osmanthus petal that had landed on her shoulder.

She reached out her hand and caught the petal.

It is fake... She knew.

This mountain of sweet osmanthus and this entire Penglai were nothing but illusions woven from obsession.

But this single look—the look she had owed for ten thousand years—was finally fulfilled.

“The sweet osmanthus is still as beautiful as ever.”

Then, she turned around and walked back down toward the lively lights at the foot of the mountain.

The Penglai Sect Leader took all of this in. Standing alone on a pavilion opposite Osmanthus Mountain, she gazed from afar at the mountain of lights she dared not set foot upon. She watched the receding figure of her sect senior whose long-cherished wish had finally been fulfilled, and stared at the group of “guests” drinking boisterously, remaining silent for a long, long time.

It had been a thousand years.

For the very first time, her Penglai was this lively, and for the first time, it looked so unlike her Penglai.

Her Penglai was supposed to be a place of ultimate bliss, perfection, and zero regrets.

Yet, every single person at this banquet before her carried their own regrets.

True Monarch Liuyun Suyu had the regret of her lost home; Ren Wencai had the regret of failing to matchmake his disciples; Yu Wenqiu had the regret of being unable to keep up with her Dao companion. Yet, carrying their respective regrets, they drank, laughed, and lived their lives with such vibrant warmth.

Meanwhile, those disciples in her Penglai who had “fulfilled their cherished wishes” were currently mingling in the banquet. Listening to stories and watching spars, their faces—which had been silent for a thousand years—actually revealed a radiance she had never seen before.

“Senior.”

Hearing footsteps behind her, the Penglai Sect Leader did not need to turn around to know who it was.

“You put on quite a performance, young friend.”

No joy or anger could be heard in her tone. “The tour was a lie, the temporary stay was a lie, and even this Mid-Autumn banquet was aimed at me, wasn't it?”

“The banquet is real, the sweet osmanthus is real, and the fulfilled wish of Senior True Monarch Liuyun Suyu is also real.”

Gu Chengming walked up to her side, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her as they gazed at the mountain of lights. “But you are right about one thing: I indeed came here for you, Senior.”

“Oh?”

“I would like to invite you to come down and have a drink as well.”

The Penglai Sect Leader was taken aback, then laughed in spite of herself. “I am the master of this calamity. You expect me to share a table with all of you?”

Gu Chengming turned his head to look at her, suddenly asking a completely unrelated question: “Senior, you rebuilt Penglai, welcomed the people of the world, and made up for their regrets. But have you... never once included yourself in this ‘Penglai’?”

“Rebuilding Penglai was never your cherished wish. Atonement was.” The night wind swept through the pavilion, rustling the sweet osmanthus across the mountain.

“Since you have seen through it,” she finally spoke, “then you should understand that Penglai perished by my hands. The entire sect of people, the mountain of sweet osmanthus—they all vanished right before my eyes.”

“My own name does not deserve to be remembered. I only deserve to exist as this calamity, fulfilling dreams for the sake of Penglai.”

“Senior,” Gu Chengming interrupted her, asking the question he had prepared for a long time.

“If your fellow disciples of Penglai were standing right here tonight, do you think they would want to see you carry the title of a ‘Great Calamity’ and swallow the lives of mortals for thousands of years to atone for your sins? Or would they want to see you declare your own name and live properly on behalf of Penglai for once?”

He brought up how True Monarch Liuyun Suyu looked as though her heart was finally at peace, and then said with a smile, “Because of this, what you owe Penglai has never been a fake immortal sect. It has always been a proper farewell.”

“And a farewell—”

He extended his hand, making a gesture of invitation toward the lights down the mountain, toward that bustling, living Mid-Autumn banquet.

“—must begin with declaring your name to count.”

The mountain of lights flickered in the eyes of the Penglai Sect Leader.

For a thousand years, she had lived as a nameless Penglai Sect Leader who possessed nothing but her duties. She guarded a land of ultimate bliss she had personally replicated, fulfilling dreams for the people of the world until the end of time, believing that this was how she could pay back the debt she owed to her fellow disciples.

She had thought her heart was long dead to the world, and that her old joys and sorrows, along with her name, should have sunk into the deepest recesses of time together with the destruction of Penglai.

Yet, somehow, over the past few days, her long-established resolve had been completely disrupted by this group of uninvited guests.

The clamorous training ground, the heart-wrenching stories, the relaxed chats in the mountains, and the sweet osmanthus lights she dared not set foot upon—not a single one of these belonged to the ultimate bliss she had woven.

Yet, it was precisely these imperfect things filled with the warmth of life that resembled the Penglai in her memories so much more.

She suddenly realized that she was actually a little envious.

She envied her sect senior who, having fulfilled her cherished wish, could walk forward with an open mind. She envied the group of guests who, carrying their respective regrets, still lived their lives with such vibrant warmth. They all had names, they all had origins, and they all dared to face the imperfections in their hearts.

Only she did not.

She had arranged a destination for everyone else, yet she had locked herself outside the door, not even daring to utter a single proper farewell.

And the young friend before her, who had seen through everything, was currently asking her for only one thing.

A name.

The Penglai Sect Leader gazed at the lights for a very long time. The name she had personally buried for a thousand years, and the vivid past she had erased along with it, were currently floating up from the deepest depths of her memory, riding upon the fragrance of sweet osmanthus and the sound of human voices across the mountain.

Standing between a thousand years of obsession and a mortal banquet, the Penglai Sect Leader—who had erased her true name, her Dao title, and her origins—finally spoke.

“Penglai Immortal Sect, thirty-seventh generation, and its final Sect Leader, Ye Qixia.”

“I have failed Penglai.”

The moment those words fell.

The entire Dream Moon violently shuddered.

The chilling calamity aura shrouding Penglai receded like a tide. The bizarre bright moon in the sky shone with immense brilliance, then softened inch by inch, turning into countless firefly-like spots of light that fell in scattering flurries across the mountain.

...

A few days later, at the Wenjian Sect.

The second moon in the sky had completely vanished.

Cultivators across the Jiuzhou Continent, who had been in a state of panic, celebrated with joy, declaring that heaven had blessed the cultivation world and that the Great Calamity had resolved itself—

Only a few mighty figures managed to vaguely deduce that the calamity seemed to have ended within the territory of the Wenjian Sect. As for how it ended, opinions varied widely, and no consensus could be reached.

After all, no one dared to believe the claim that “the Great Calamity was resolved simply by hosting a Mid-Autumn banquet.”

On the Back Mountain of the sect, Gu Chengming sat cross-legged alone, examining the illusory moon wheel in his palm. Inside his Sea of Consciousness, his cultivation techniques had already exploded with chatter.

【Hundred Bones Resonating cheered: Emperor Gu! You even conquered a Great Calamity! I told you, there's nothing in this world Emperor Gu can't conquer—】

【Qingxin Art giggled behind her hand: First it was cultivation techniques, then True Monarchs, and now you didn't even let a Great Calamity off. Could the next thing Chengming conquers be the Heavenly Dao itself?】

【Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art pondered: If that is indeed the case, who will be the main wife then?】

Gu Chengming smiled helplessly at the dialogue boxes before him, then simply stared at the moon wheel in his palm, letting out a long sigh of relief.

The Penglai calamity had finally come to an end.

Yet, he knew very well in his heart that this was merely the first wave of the Great Tribulation of Heaven and Earth.

The changes in the Place of Calamity, the turncoat True Monarchs, and the troubles on the path ahead would only grow increasingly massive.

But... He raised his eyes to look down the mountain.

On the training ground, Ano was currently dragging a few Outer Sect disciples to “instruct them in body tempering.” Under the corridor, Yu Wenqiu had her feet up, reading a web novel. Gu Chengming smiled, slipping the moon wheel back into his sleeve.

Soldiers would be blocked by generals, and water would be covered by earth.

In any case, regrets were not permitted in his script.