Above the Great Dao

Chen Shi hesitated for a moment and then told the truth, "A barren mountain suddenly appeared near our village, with a temple on it. I cultivated very quickly inside that temple. However, the temple was smashed by a meteorite from beyond the heavens, so I plan to find another one."

"In an ancient temple?"

Granny Sha looked at him with surprise and a deep gaze, reminding him, "Little Ten, you no longer have the Divine Embryo. Do you know what it means to be without the Divine Embryo?"

Chen Shi's face was full of smiles as he replied, "I know. Granny, I want to find such a place where I can cultivate faster, so I can participate in the county examination again and cultivate a new Divine Embryo. I'll go and become a Scholar..."

Granny Sha interrupted him, "Without the Divine Embryo, it means you will never be able to cultivate True Qi, which means you have become useless!"

The smile on Chen Shi's face became somewhat stiff, and his speech was also somewhat stammered, "If I, if I become a Scholar, I can get a good official position, and Grandpa won't have to work at his old age. I..."

"You will never be able to cultivate the Divine Embryo again!"

Granny Sha's expression was serious as she interrupted him again, "The Divine Embryo is a gift from the Outer Heaven True God, not something you can cultivate. True God blesses a person only once in their lifetime, and there can never be a second time! Little Ten, stop daydreaming!"

Chen Shi's face turned pale, his body slightly swaying as if unsteady, he argued, "Granny, I can cultivate the Divine Embryo again! If I cultivate the Divine Embryo, the True God from beyond the heavens, seeing how hard I work and how diligent I am, might bestow his blessing upon me again..."

Granny Sha shook her head and said coldly, "It's impossible. Banish this foolish thought from your mind. Little Ten, it's pretty good to live as an ordinary person for the rest of your life. Go home."

Chen Shi walked away, filled with disappointment, his head hanging low.

Granny Sha shook her head, "Silly child, still thinks he can cultivate the Divine Embryo back..."

She sighed deeply. Once, Chen Shi had dazzled the world, but that Chen Shi had his Divine Embryo taken from him.

The Chen Shi of today was nothing more than a cultivation-disabled cripple.

After a long while, Granny Sha walked out into the courtyard and involuntarily stopped short.

She saw Chen Shi sitting on the stone steps outside her door, not having gone home.

"Little Ten, why haven't you gone back yet?" asked Granny Sha.

"Granny, I want to grow up quickly, so I don't worry Grandpa."

Chen Shi hung his head, looking at the ground, "I don't want Grandpa to have to work everywhere at his age, and I don't want him to end up this way because of me. I just want to be capable enough to take good care of Grandpa. I don't want him to still be so tired at such an old age, I want him to enjoy his life..."

Hearing this, Granny Sha couldn't bear it and said, "You want to know the location of that place, and I can tell you, but you need to do something for me."

Chen Shi's spirits lifted; he quickly wiped away his tears and said with a smile, "Granny, please just say it!"

Granny Sha smiled and said, "In my early years, I lost something in the River of Oblivion. That treasure is very dear to me, and I've been longing for it for years, unable to enjoy tea or food. If you help me retrieve it from the River of Oblivion, I will tell you where the temple is."

Chen Shi was somewhat hesitant.

Granny Sha sneered and said, "Are you afraid? If you're afraid, then go back and just be an ordinary person!"

Chen Shi clenched his teeth fiercely and looked up, saying, "I'll do it!"

He stiffened his neck to expose its most vulnerable part and said, "Granny, you kill me, and I'll retrieve the thing for you from the River of Oblivion! Please be quick about it; I'm a bit afraid of pain."

Granny Sha was both amused and a little moved.

"I thought he was afraid, but it turns out he was hesitating because he believed he had to die to go to the River of Oblivion. The great terror between life and death, and his willingness to face death for the sake of repairing the Divine Embryo, show a determination rarely seen in this world. It wouldn't be surprising if he truly achieves something remarkable in the future."

With this thought, Granny Sha laughed and said, "Why should you die to go to the River of Oblivion? If one could only reach the River of Oblivion after death, wouldn't it taint my reputation? Don't worry, you don't need to die."

Chen Shi was both shocked and overjoyed.

Just now, he had wrestled greatly with his conscience, deciding to face death to go to the River of Oblivion, and to his surprise, he could enter it alive!

Granny Sha went inside and brought out an iron chain weighing over thirty pounds, which she bound onto Chen Shi.

Chen Shi had grown stronger over time, and the weight hardly bothered him.

"It's not easy to reach the River of Oblivion. This river is the river of lost souls in the underworld. After a person dies, the underworld messengers come to the world of the living to capture the lingering spirits and ferry them across the River of Oblivion into the underworld."

Granny Sha then took out a bundle of hemp rope, tens of feet long and incredibly tough. At the other end of the rope was a large hook, sharp and massive, like a fishhook, but it must have weighed over a dozen pounds.

Chen Shi had fished before and seen hooks of various sizes but never one as large as this. He wondered, "With such a big hook, what size of fish is Granny aiming to catch? And with such a massive hook, the bait must be substantial, right?"

Granny Sha carried the hook and hemp rope on her back, walking out of the village, with Chen Shi hurriedly following her.

Though the diminutive old woman was quite aged, her steps were light, and Chen Shi had to exert his full effort to keep up.

After traveling over ten miles, they reached the mouth of the Jade Belt River, where it joined the De River. The waters of the De River surged tumultuously, its currents rapid. Following this great river downstream for no more than two hundred miles would lead to the sea.

"All the flowing rivers of the world connect to the River of Oblivion, so it's possible to enter the River of Oblivion through these waterways."

Granny Sha chose a large tree by the riverbank and tied the rope to it, saying, "It's simple to let a soul into the River of Oblivion, but for a living person to enter, a bit of trickery is required."

She grabbed the fishhook, her aged eyes gleaming with cunning, and laughed, "In this river swims a large fish that can traverse the realms of yin and yang, known as the Gun. The Gun likes to eat people, and when it swallows a person along with the fishhook, the pain drives it to flee into the underworld, entering the River of Oblivion."

Chen Shi's heart lurched, "Granny, is this fishhook going through my mouth and out under my jaw?"

He knew he was the bait.

Granny Sha shook her head.

Chen Shi turned pale, "Is it coming out through my stomach?"

Granny Sha went behind him and threaded the absurdly large hook through the iron chain, chuckling, "Do you think I am threading you like a worm? If I did that, wouldn't your grandfather come after me with a vengeance?"

Chen Shi felt a little relieved and asked, "What exactly did you lose in the River of Oblivion, Granny?"

Granny Sha's eyes flickered, "A bronze lamp with a handle. The light isn't very bright, but you can see it from far away."

Chen Shi asked in confusion, "Granny, when did you lose it?"

"It's been nine years."

"A copper lamp lost nine years ago? Why didn't you look for it before?"

Chen Shi became even more puzzled and asked, "Where was it lost? Can you really find the lamp by diving in here?"

Granny Sha's gaze shifted evasively, and she snapped, "What's all this fuss about? Are you going or not?"

"Going! Of course I'm going!"

Chen Shi hesitated for a moment and then asked, "After I'm eaten by the big fish, how am I supposed to get out of its mouth?"

"How should I know? I've never been eaten."

Granny Sha grew increasingly uneasy and said, "You'll know once you go down. Don't worry, if you find the lamp, just tug hard on the hemp rope. I'll be holding onto the rope on the shore and will feel any movement. Just pull the rope back and you'll be able to return to the world of the living. Nothing will happen to you!"

Chen Shi asked another question, "Granny, have you tried this treasure-hunting method before?"

"Of course I have!"

Granny Sha smiled broadly, urging repeatedly, "Hurry there and back so your grandfather doesn't worry!"

Chen Shi cautiously entered the water. It wasn't that he was cowardly, but he always felt that using himself as bait to fish for a mythical Gun Fish capable of traveling to the underworld's River of Oblivion, and then searching for treasure in the river, seemed a bit unreliable.

The current of the river was swift, the rushing water hitting him like more than a dozen people pushing against him, making it difficult for him to stand steady.

Chen Shi looked out over the river and saw whirlpools of varying sizes moving downstream, a clear sign that the water was even more violent in the depths!

"Probe a little deeper into the water!" Granny Sha urged from the shore.

Chen Shi shouted, "Granny, if I can't find it, you must tell me where that temple is!"

Granny Sha agreed without hesitation.

Chen Shi continued walking into deeper water, the weight of the iron chain and fishhook, which weighed dozens of pounds, making him worry he wouldn't be able to swim. If he were to drown in the river...

"Granny would summon my spirit, anyway. I can't really die!"

Chen Shi steeled his courage and walked deeper.

Seeing him enter the water, Granny Sha also began to feel anxious, murmuring to herself, "The ancient texts described just such a method, using a person to fish for the Gun Fish that can shuttle between the realms of life and death, but the texts never mentioned how a person could get out of the fish's mouth."

She felt uneasy since it was her first time trying to fish for the Gun Fish with a person as bait.

Whether it would succeed or not, she had no assurance.

Suddenly, Chen Shi stepped into a void and sank into the water, causing Granny Sha's heart to tighten!

But the next moment, Chen Shi's head emerged from the water again.

After some time spent cultivating, his body had become much stronger than before. If in the past his body was weighed down by several dozen pounds, he would have been dragged to the bottom and unable to move. But now, he was actually able to swim to the surface and do so with ease.

Granny Sha let out a sigh of relief when a loud "plop" noise came from the river, and a wave as tall as two or three Zhang surged, revealing a vast tail that flashed through the water, its bluish-black scales reflecting the sunlight, almost with the sheen of metallic gold!

That tail seemed much larger than the fishing boats in the river!

"So big?" Granny Sha was stunned.

Chen Shi also heard the noise and quickly looked up, only to see the vast expanse of the water's surface and unable to see what was turning over in the river.

He began to panic and heard Granny Sha's voice from the riverbank, "I see a big Gun! Swim a bit deeper to lure it to eat you!"

Chen Shi shouted, "Granny, where is the Gun? I can't see it!"

Granny Sha peered into the river and saw the turbulent surface suddenly rise in waves as if a massive creature was speeding below. She glimpsed an enormous head, larger than a house, its gaping mouth lined with rows of sharp, steel teeth.

Granny Sha felt a surge of fear; the Gun was much larger than she had anticipated!

Moreover, from the look of the fish's teeth, Chen Shi might be chewed to bits before even getting eaten by it!

"The hemp rope in my hands might not stand a chance against this big fish. A light tug from the Gun would be enough to snap it! And if it doesn't break from the tug, the teeth could easily cut through it!"

With these thoughts, she immediately grabbed the rope tightly, alternating hands as she pulled, trying to drag Chen Shi back to the bank.

Chen Shi also sensed a gigantic creature rapidly approaching underneath the water and, in a surge of panic, started swimming back to the bank, pulling hard on the rope.

"Crack!"

A thunderous boom echoed over the river, and as Chen Shi glanced back, he couldn't help but widen his eyes. A giant Gun, as large as a small hill and dark green-black, leaped out of the water, its shadow obscuring both suns as it opened its abyssal mouth and aimed for him!

"Bang!"

The Gun crashed into the water, and Granny Sha felt a powerful jerk on the rope, yanking her towards the river!

In the next moment, the large tree to which the rope was tied also began to shake from the immense force, tilting toward the river's edge!

Using all her strength to pull the rope, Granny Sha had not yet stabilized herself when suddenly, with a snap, the broken rope flew out of the water and landed on the bank.

Granny Sha stood there, stunned as she watched a large fish rapidly swim away, then suddenly, a burst of blue light flashed underwater, and the fish disappeared.

"It's over, it's over..."

Cold sweat streamed down Granny Sha's forehead; she trembled and shakily reeled in the remaining rope, seeing the end was cleanly cut, no doubt by the teeth of the Gun.

"The poor kid is probably minced by the Gun by now. Even if I know how to summon his spirit, I can't bring him back to life... How am I going to explain this to Old Chen?"