Chapter 1: The Seven-Colored Dragon Boat, Azure Pearl...

  The new moon is like a hook, several old crows have picked up the cold branches and refused to settle down, wailing mournfully in the night.

  A pair of emaciated figures moved among the simple, earth-piled graves, a disheveled young man carrying on his back a girl about the same age. The girl's face was sallow and gaunt from hunger and cold, but her eyes still shone with a hint of vitality. The young man's face was etched with worry as he tried not to touch the girl's wounded leg, which had been bitten by wild dogs. They were both beggars from dozens of miles away, begging along the road during the day and scavenging for food at night among the graves. In this region of Shu, it was customary to leave offerings on the grave on the day of burial - steamed buns and sweet pastries - either to sustain the soul on its journey to the underworld or to appease any malevolent spirits that might trouble the deceased's soul.

  "Prosperity, the people suffer, all turned to dust. Ruin, the people suffer, all turned to dust." Amidst the desolate tombs, the girl could only muster her courage with her voice, though her face was pale, her tone was extremely soft and gentle, this was something she occasionally heard from storytellers' mouths, and with a flicker of inspiration, she sang out in her unique, tender voice. At such a young age, trapped in a chaotic world, she didn't understand grand principles like "it's better to be a peaceful dog than a person in troubled times", but instead randomly mixed together the "Rui Mountain Nostalgia" and Zhang Yanxu's "Mountain Slope Goat" that she had heard from rumors, singing them out from her childish mouth, if someone with a willing ear were to hear it, they would surely have a different kind of bitter flavor.

  The boy who had been carrying the girl for a long time was already dazed by sweat and his vision was blurry, and the eerie atmosphere of the wild graves also made him shudder. However, he didn't even dare to take a deep breath, trying his best to hide his fear and fatigue. But this girl lived with him day and night, and being clever and intelligent herself, how could she not know what he was thinking? After gently wiping away his sweat, looking at the chaotic graveyard in front of her, the girl couldn't help but ask again in a low voice: "Will we die too?"

  "It's okay." The boy squeezed out a smile to comfort the girl.

  "It's said that everyone can't escape death, and Wu Grandfather is dead too." The girl said gloomily. She was a very clever child, although she couldn't be like the children of rich families who had contact with music, chess, books, and paintings. Even if she only heard a poem once, she could recite it fluently. The Wu Grandfather she mentioned was a fortune teller who had spent some time with them. Whenever he had free time, the old man would talk about gods and ghosts or teach the girl some songs and poems after Zhang Crown Li's defeat. Finally, he froze to death on a snowy night, which made the girl have a deep-seated fear of death.

  "The immortals won't die." The young man opened his mouth, his lips cracked and oozed fresh blood, which he quietly licked away, revealing a set of snow-white teeth that formed a stark contrast with his dark face. He hugged the girl tightly and gazed at the distant black mountains, "Grandpa Wu said there are immortals in those mountains, when you recover from your illness, I'll take you to those mountains, who knows, we might meet an immortal and won't die."

  Encountering immortals to seek eternal life, these few words seem simple, but are more difficult than the Shu Road by thousands of times. Perhaps the old man just casually mentioned it to satisfy the curiosity of the two children. For a poor family, seeking immortality and practicing Taoism is already an unattainable height, let alone the elusive and ethereal immortal gods.

  "Found it!" Suddenly, the boy's eyes lit up in front of him. After searching for offerings for half a night, the boy finally saw a bowl of rice cakes on top of a new grave. The bowl was broken and the rice cakes were cold and hard, but to him they were more precious than anything else, because he wasn't sure if she could hold on any longer with an empty stomach.

  He carefully laid her down in a distant place away from the new tomb, found a stone and put some dry grass on it, letting her sit on it. He walked unsteadily, because the old saying says that snatching food for the living soul is a very unlucky thing, which will shorten one's life. Although the young man had been lonely and poor since childhood, he had already developed a strong personality through his hard days, but he would also be afraid of ghosts and gods. So he knocked nine loud heads on the tomb, seemingly feeling that it was not enough, and then knocked another nine. Only then did he take out the steamed buns from the bowl, turn his head to look at the girl, secretly nibble a small mouthful on four or five steamed buns, and mutter to himself: "These steamed buns are mine, if ghosts and monsters want to find someone, they can find me alone. I've also bitten into them, so they're mine. If it shortens my life, it will shorten only my own."

  He ran back to the girl's side and squatted down, handing all the buns over to her.

  "There are four." The girl said with a skip.

  She handed three back to the young man, kept one for herself, and smiled brightly like a summer flower, saying: "I have a small appetite, I'm full after eating one, you eat two, and we'll save one for the road."

  Watching the girl stuff the cold and hard steamed bun into her own hands, the young man felt as if he had grasped the most precious delicacy in the world.

  "Hurry up and eat." The girl nibbled at her steamed bun, looking at the silly-looking boy who wasn't moving, and giggled.

  The boy was also extremely hungry, and looking at the girl's smiling face, he deliberately took a big bite of the steamed bun. The mouthful of food was still in his mouth, although it hadn't been swallowed yet, but his empty stomach seemed to have felt a lot better already. Just as he was about to smile back at the girl, the boy's eyes suddenly widened.

  He suddenly saw a seven-colored light flying from the distant horizon, looking like a meteor at first glance. However, in an instant, it drew closer to the position of the boy and girl. Moreover, as it approached, the seven-colored light became even brighter. Even the girl who had her back turned to the light discovered it. "What is that?" The girl's eyes widened in shock as she pointed, and then covered her mouth in astonishment. Both she and the boy saw that the seven-colored light was actually a seven-colored dragon boat flying through the air!

  The dragon boat was like a purple jade carving, emitting a soft purple glow all over its body. It was several feet long, and the dragon's head at the front of the bow held a red gemstone the size of a fist in its mouth, while the hull was also inlaid with various precious stones, and those colorful lights were emitted by these gems.

  Magnificent seven-color dragon boat soaring through the sky!

  The boy and girl had never seen such a scene before, and for a moment they couldn't help but hold their breath.

  But what shocked the two people even more was that on the colorful dragon boat, there were also women standing. On the left, one person wore a purple palace dress, with a bright green hairpin inserted in her hair, and her skin was as white as snow. On the right, another person wore a light yellow palace dress, with a small yellow flower stuck between her eyebrows, both of them had bright eyes and white teeth, and were stunningly beautiful.

  The boy and the girl stared at the dragon boat that appeared before their eyes, both of them were shocked into stupidity for a moment. "It's just two mountain children." The beautifully dressed woman on the left seemed to have not seen them at all, she furrowed her brow as if no one was around, "Sister, let's go, he shouldn't be hiding in this kind of place."

  The woman in yellow clothes nodded, "I also think he won't run to the vicinity of Shu Mountain, but Master wants us to check here."

  "Sister Shī, you said that thing is really that important? It's causing us to make such a big fuss and mobilize so many people to search for it?" the woman in the palace attire on the left asked.

  "When have you ever seen Master so serious?" The woman in the palace attire on the right said, "Let's go, lest we be seen by the people of Shu Shan Men and get entangled."

  "Ahh!" she cried out in surprise, wondering if she was dreaming of the dragon boat fairy. She unconsciously rubbed her eyes, but accidentally pulled on the wound on her leg and couldn't help but cry out in pain.

  "Huh?" The two palace-dressed women on the two seven-colored dragon boats, who were about to leave, suddenly and simultaneously let out a soft "huh". Although the girl was pale and thin, her bones were extremely delicate, just like the Nine Yin Xuan Nü in the physiognomy chart. After exchanging a glance, the two palace-dressed women's seven-colored dragon boats suddenly descended, "Little sister, are you willing to come with us?"

  "Are you following us?" The little girl's natural personality was quirky, and she exclaimed with great surprise. Then, looking at the two palace-dressed women, she asked: "You two sisters are really beautiful, your clothes are also beautiful, are you fairy maidens?"

  The two palace-dressed women both smiled slightly, "We'll take you to a great place, and in the future, you'll become as beautiful as us, wearing clothes as beautiful as ours."

  "Really?!" The girl almost jumped up, but she suddenly remembered something and nodded to the boy beside her, "Then is he coming with us too?"

  "Who is he?" The two palace maids looked at the young man and simultaneously shook their heads. "His qualifications are too poor, we can't take him with us."

  "I'm not going either." The girl was stunned for a moment, then suddenly became anxious. She turned her head to look at the boy beside her, and tears were already welling up in her eyes. "Idiot, just agree with them!" When the two maids said they couldn't bring him along, the boy's mind went blank, but when he heard the girl say she wasn't going, he became even more anxious than her, and for the first time in his life, he scolded the girl.

  The girl wanted to say no more, but the woman in purple robes on the left had already lost her patience. With a flick of her long sleeve, she said, "Let's go!" The girl felt herself lifted off the ground and flying through the air like a cloud. By the time she came to her senses, she found herself standing on a dragon boat high up in the sky. The boy below was now only as big as an ant, barely visible. "Put me down!" the girl cried out in alarm, bursting into tears. The woman in purple robes ignored her, but the woman in yellow robes felt some sympathy and comforted her, saying, "Little sister, don't be sad. When you're a bit older, you can come back for him yourself."

  ……。

  In the young man's line of sight, the colorful dragon boat's radiance flew farther and farther away, finally disappearing from view.

  His qualifications are too poor, can't take him away.... His qualifications are too poor, can't take him away.... The voice of the palace-dressed woman echoed repeatedly in the young man's mind. Although his personality had been tempered to be extremely resilient, he was only a 12 or 13-year-old mountain child. The dragon boat and the palace-dressed woman were more real than the fairy-like figure he had imagined. With a heart full of hope, he was discarded with disdain, not even given the opportunity to say a few more words. He thought about his daily life depending on the girl, thinking that he might never see her again. Looking at the cold and hard buns in his hand, the young man was overcome with grief and couldn't help but wail loudly.

  "Hmph, who would have thought that the so-called leading sect of the righteous path would also be involved in such banditry?" Suddenly, a sinister voice sounded in the young man's ear. "However, rest assured, the little girl has been taken notice of by them, this kind of good fortune, others can't even ask for it."

  The sound came from a nearby abandoned grave, and the wailing boy suddenly shivered with a chill.

  The tomb had collapsed and was in disrepair, revealing half of the coffin. With a "creak", a grayish-white hand suddenly stretched out from the old coffin.

  With a loud noise, the coffin lid opened and a person sat up with it. He had an eagle nose, thin eyes, and his face was deathly pale without any hint of blood color; even his pupils seemed to have no blackness, all were grayish white. A crimson red robe stained with fresh blood enveloped his entire body.

  "Huh?" The young man, whose crying had stopped, still had tear stains on his face, but he didn't run away as I had imagined. Instead, the grayish-white eyeballs of the person in the scarlet red coffin turned towards him and asked, "What's wrong, aren't you afraid of me?"

  "Don't worry." The young man shook his head.

  "Why aren't you afraid? Don't you fear ghosts?" The person in the coffin looked at the shabbily dressed young man with surprise.

  "You have a shadow, ghosts don't have shadows."

  "Huh?" He looked down at his own faint shadow in the night, then carefully examined the tattered clothes of the little beggar. The person in the coffin hummed a sound, "I didn't expect your innate talent to be so poor, but you're quite bold."

  When he heard the person in the coffin say that his qualifications were poor, the young man was shocked again and couldn't help but look towards the direction where the colorful dragon boat had disappeared.

  "Little doll." Seeing the young man's painful and sorrowful appearance, the person in the coffin suddenly smiled, "Looking at you, I suppose you haven't eaten your fill for many days?"

  The young man nodded, if he hadn't been starving for many days and didn't even have the energy to run, plus the girl suddenly disappeared from his side, sadness was born in his heart. Even if he found that the person sitting up in the coffin was a human and not a ghost, just the scene of the person in the coffin wearing all red clothes and having a pale face would probably make him turn around and run away without staying here.

  "Don't you want to never have to suffer from hunger and thirst again? Don't need to come to this desolate hill to eat such things, or be as free as they are? See that little girl again?" The grayish-white pupils of the person in the coffin rotated, and with a flick of their finger, a thread-like red light suddenly shot into the boy's hand, where the cold and hard bun was. The boy only felt his palm burn, and after a moment of stunnedness, the bun had turned into fine black ash, fluttering down from his hand.

  For a beggar who may not be able to eat his fill even after several days, there is nothing more tempting than eating one's fill. Moreover, in this world, there is something that can intimidate people's hearts, called power. The palace-dressed woman who can ride the seven-colored dragon boat against the wind is precisely showing off the power of the imaginary fairy in his mind. The abandoned boy saw this person in the coffin show such power. Now this person in the coffin says he can help him be as free to come and go as they are, and see the girl again. The boy was both afraid and surprised, staring at this strange red-robed man for a while, his thin body trembling slightly, but unable to speak.

  The person in the coffin saw the boy's reaction without any surprise, and a small arc was drawn at the corner of his mouth. "The Buddha said that if you didn't cultivate good karma in your past life, you would suffer from hunger and cold in this life as retribution. But whether you believe it or not, I can help you escape this sea of suffering."

  The young man looked at the person in the coffin, and from the appearance of the seven-color dragon boat to now, it was inexplicable and strange for him. He, who was not particularly clever, stared blankly for a while before asking: "You... what kind of person are you? How did you end up inside the coffin?"

  "What kind of person am I, why am I in a coffin, and what's the connection?" The man in the coffin looked at the young man with an unchanging expression, still sitting motionless in the worn-out coffin, but stretched out his right hand, palm up. The young man involuntarily followed his gaze, and within a few feet of distance, suddenly brightened up, only to see a thumb-sized pearl radiating light, emitting waves of azure light from the man's hand. Upon closer inspection, inside the round pearl seemed to be ripples swirling non-stop, while the surface as smooth as jade occasionally produced a faint layer of reddish light.

  Looking at the youth with a faint and gloomy figure, whose eyes were fixed on the pearl in his hand, the person in the coffin said calmly: "As long as you eat this pearl, you will never suffer from hunger or cold again. All things under heaven are not beyond the two words 'cause and effect'. I am here, you are here, this is fate. As long as you agree to one thing for me, I will give you this pearl."