What did he see?
After Master Chen Wu decided to have it his way, he brought only a few loyal guards and chose to take his sword, embarking on the journey back.
He walked the same road he came by and saw the same scenery, but the people he met were no longer the same. Because of the imperial court's inaction, coupled with rampant natural and man-made disasters, and the fact that most of the fields had fallen into the hands of landlords and tyrants, while the few able-bodied youths became servants or tenant farmers, the common people had no way to survive. The remaining sick, disabled, old, and weak could only wait to die, or even trade their children to eat. It was a picture of sheer misery, with wailing sufferers everywhere.
"Are the common people... really living this miserably..."
Looking along the way, for some reason, Master Chen Wu's heart trembled. That heart, already consumed by greed, trembled.
Hearing this, the guards beside him couldn't help but look at each other in dismay.
'Shouldn't it be like this? Besides, Master, aren't you also one of the landlords and tyrants responsible for the people's misery?'
But these were words they only dared to say in their hearts. They didn't dare to speak them aloud in front of Master Chen Wu.
Perhaps it was because Master Chen Wu had a ruddy complexion and looked slightly plump, or perhaps because he had stopped in his tracks, a young child at this moment timidly and tentatively tried to edge step by step toward Master Chen Wu.
Seeing this, the guards beside Master Chen Wu immediately moved to stop him. However, they had only taken half a step forward when they were suddenly halted.
"Master?" The lead guard was puzzled.
"Let that child come over."
"That's just a lowly commoner."
"He is still a person, a human being."
While the guards were baffled by his sudden anger, Master Chen Wu stepped past them, walked up to the child who had recoiled from the guards' fierce looks, and actually half-crouched down.
Then, ignoring the child's terror and continuous retreat, he somewhat abruptly reached into his robes and took out a flatbread. He offered it forward, his tone carrying a trace of gentleness.
"You want this, right? Take it."
With this simple sentence, the child stopped backing away. Because compared to his fear of Master Chen Wu, he was more afraid of starving.
So, without the slightest hesitation, the child snatched the flatbread. With a hasty word of thanks, he ran behind a rock in the distance, shouting, "Daddy, there's food..."
Watching him, Master Chen Wu slowly stood up. At this moment, a glint of clarity seemed to flash through his eyes.
But the next second, the jade stone hidden in his robes flashed with a dark golden light once again, concealing that trace of clarity.
"Master?" Seeing Master Chen Wu standing motionless for a long time, the guards hurriedly stepped forward. It seemed their calls brought him back to his senses.
"Let's keep walking." Master Chen Wu spoke, his face returning to its cold indifference once more.
But to these guards, it felt like their master was acting a bit strange. He seemed to have changed, yet at the same time, he hadn't. It was baffling.
Next, Master Chen Wu led the guards along the way and encountered many fleeing commoners. But what he saw more of wasn't the government providing disaster relief, but rather a religious organization called the "Taiping Sect" distributing talisman water to save the people.
However, when Master Chen Wu took the so-called talisman water and looked at it, how was this talisman water? It was clearly rice soup. Although the grains of rice could be clearly counted, at least the soup was hot, and there was rice in it.
"Heh—" Suddenly, Master Chen Wu laughed out loud. This laugh was a mockery, but it was unknown what he was mocking.
Perhaps it was the emperor busy enjoying his pleasures and selling official positions, the hundred officials busy fighting for power and profit, deceiving their superiors and amassing wealth, and the local landlords, tyrants, and noble families busy annexing lands without caring whether the commoners lived or died.
Or perhaps...
"Master."
Master Chen Wu stared at the "talisman water," falling silent for a long time after that laugh. The lead guard had followed him the longest, so upon seeing this, he spoke up to remind him. But right at this moment, Master Chen Wu suddenly asked,
"Ah Da, how many years have you been with me?"
The lead guard, "Ah Da," heard this and paused slightly before replying, "Ever since before you entered the village, Master, my life was saved by you."
"Yes." It sounded like a sigh, but Master Chen Wu suddenly turned his head. His tone was stern, like an interrogation—or rather, it was an interrogation. "Then tell me, compared to the past, have you changed? Have I changed?"
The sudden questioning left Ah Da stunned, and what followed was panic. Just as he was about to open his mouth, Master Chen Wu added another sentence, "Tell me the truth, don't lie!"
At this sharp interrogation, Ah Da fell silent. And his silence clearly represented the answer.
Master Chen Wu looked back at him, then swept his gaze over the other guards. Every guard lowered their head when Master Chen Wu's gaze swept over them.
In the village, which one of them didn't throw their weight around riding on the Master's coattails? Even Ah Da, who had once been a refugee, after becoming a guard, also threw his weight around in the village, living quite happily.
"Seems like you're all the same, you've all forgotten your roots." Master Chen Wu's words applied to them, but also to himself.
This time, Master Chen Wu's gaze became clear once again. Even though the jade in his robes flashed with a dark golden light once more, it couldn't conceal it.
On the contrary, this time the dark golden light actually caught Master Chen Wu's attention, making him glance sideways at it.
"Let's go."
"Master, let's keep moving forward."
"No!" Master Chen Wu shook his head, his gaze firm.
"This time, I will walk alone!"
"What!?"
"Master, you can't!"
"Yes, Master, how could we let you go alone!"
"..."
But this time, no matter how the guards tried to persuade him, Master Chen Wu's mind would not be changed. After ordering the guards to return the way they came, he embarked on the road back to his hometown all by himself.
And his decision was precisely so that he wouldn't be disturbed. At this moment, his silhouette appeared somewhat relaxed.
...
"I'm back."
After many months, he returned to this homeland.
But at this moment, this homeland no longer had any signs of human habitation. Perhaps it had suffered a war, or perhaps a disaster...
After a sigh of lament, Master Chen Wu didn't linger. He journeyed forward, passed his own thatched hut, merely glancing at it before continuing on. Following the path in his memory, he crossed the mountain forest, arrived beneath that rock face, and came to that thicket of bushes.
A faint, small earthen mound was still there.
Master Chen Wu stared at it. "Old man, who exactly are you?"
A question asked, with no one to answer. Yet at this moment, Master Chen Wu's eyes were incomparably clear!
The atmosphere remained heavy for a long time, without any response. It was probably only later, when a gentle breeze blew through the forest, that it caused a rustling sound.
After a long while, Master Chen Wu took out that piece of jade. Then he took out his carving knife and made another cut.
One cut, two cuts, three cuts... with every cut falling, stones turned to gold, barren fields grew grain, dead wood turned to meat, dirt turned to silver...
But as the wolf on the jade took more and more shape, the dark golden radiance grew richer and richer, even enveloping Master Chen Wu's entire body, seemingly trying to wash away his continuously fading clarity!
At this moment, a bright red light flourished in Master Chen Wu's eyes, and the veins on the back of his hand holding the carving knife bulged like twisted earthworms.
An icy impulse, filled with greedy desire, seemed to constantly drive him to move the carving knife and deliver the final stroke to the jade.
Right at this moment, from the depths of the rolling mountains and forests, an extremely mournful wolf howl rang out without warning! That howl pierced the clouds and cracked the stones, filled with unprecedented violence and pain, as if something was about to tear Master Chen Wu's internal organs apart!
Immediately after came the second howl, the third... rising and falling, as if the entire mountain forest was boiling! Tiger roars, bear growls, the frantic shrieks of wild boars... the roars of various fierce beasts mixed together, forming a horrifying symphony of madness! The roars were full of bloodthirsty frenzy and an unprecedented greedy desire!
It was as if the greed of all living creatures had been detonated!
In the bushes, Master Chen Wu's movements suddenly stalled. The beastly roars that pierced through the forest, filled with violent pain and bloodthirsty madness, were like a basin of icy snow water fiercely poured onto his brain, which had been eroded to a scalding heat by the red mist! The hand holding the carving knife didn't tremble, but his ears twitched slightly.
This was because he could hear the sounds, which meant: they were closing in, those beasts were getting closer and closer to him.
He lowered his head and looked at the nearly completed jade in his hand. The wolf's head was lowered, and one of the carved eyes was deep and hollow, like an abyss waiting to be filled. The position of the other eye, still covered by jade skin, seemed to be waiting for the very last touch.
He extended the index finger of his left hand, his cold fingertips gently brushing over that thin, untouched jade skin at this moment.
At this moment, an indescribable craving, like countless tiny poisonous insects, instantly burrowed into his bloodstream from his fingertips, madly gnawing at his rationality—Carve it! Carve it open! Let this Greedy Wolf open its eyes! Let that boundless wealth descend!
An unprecedented greed was constantly driving Master Chen Wu. If it were in the past, Master Chen Wu would have continued to bring the knife down. But now, it was different.
At this moment, his gaze swept across the surroundings. Looking at the gold and silver covering the ground, the mountains of grain and meat around him, Master Chen Wu's eyes unexpectedly held unprecedented clarity; the waves of greed from just now could clearly no longer affect his mind.
"I wonder if this is enough?"
"It's a pity... there can't be any more."
Right at this moment, a muffled thunderclap suddenly came from the distant horizon, like a giant beast roaring in the depths of the clouds. It seemed that a long-brewing rain was about to arrive.
Master Chen Wu ignored it, merely looking down at the jade.
It's time to destroy you!
This thought was like a bolt of lightning striking through the darkness, instantly illuminating everything! His gaze was dark and deep, staring fixedly at this piece of jade. Clearly, he had planned all of this long ago.
Before completely finishing this piece of jade, he would squeeze out all its value. And these things created by the jade... he would leave them to the so-called karma.
He didn't know why, but there was always a thought in his heart telling him that this "Taiping Sect" was going to lead all the commoners who could no longer survive in a rebellion—a rebellion against this world that shouldn't continue as it was.
Once this thought arose, Master Chen Wu wondered if they could succeed? Perhaps they could, or perhaps not. But no matter what, he always felt he should give them some help. He figured that if a force leading all the desperate commoners in rebellion could overthrow this world, it would probably make things a bit better.
Thus, the current situation came to be. As for when this thought first appeared... perhaps it was during these few months of traveling, or perhaps it was today.
But why destroy the jade... he certainly didn't think a piece of jade that bewitched people's hearts with greed was a good thing. In the past, he couldn't see clearly, but now he could.
Anyway, if he carved the final stroke, the wolf would come out. As for whether there would be boundless wealth after that... he didn't know, but he absolutely could not let it out.
However, the very moment this thought became completely clear in his mind, the instant his hand tightly gripped that cold jade... a sudden mutation occurred!
On the jade, within the already carved, deep and hollow eye sockets, the two clusters of blood-colored flames that had originally only been weakly beating suddenly burned fiercely! The red light instantly surged, like a blood-colored sun exploding in this thicket! The blinding red light illuminated the entire space down to the finest detail, casting a pale crimson glow over Master Chen Wu's face, and all the beastly sounds completely vanished.
A powerful, irresistible icy will, like an invisible iceberg, violently crashed into Master Chen Wu's mind! That will filled with greed swept over!
"How dare you defy me like this?"
The voice of the Ink Wolf, or rather the Greedy Wolf, was no longer the strange echo from his dreams, but directly exploded in the depths of his soul, bone-chillingly cold, carrying a trace of offended anger.
Master Chen Wu's hand seemed pinned by an invisible force, unable to move a single inch. He felt like a flying insect nailed in amber, unable to even blink.
That icy will firmly controlled him, driving him, like manipulating a marionette. He watched helplessly as his "own" hand brought the carving knife down, and this cut was incomparably precise, aiming the tip of the knife directly at the last piece of jade skin covering the tightly closed wolf eye.
Clearly, it was about to carve the final stroke!
"Don't even think about it——!" Master Chen Wu let out a furious roar. At this moment, he was incomparably awake, incomparably clear. He didn't know where the power came from, but he directly broke free from the control!
"You... you actually..." The Greedy Wolf's voice carried a trace of shock, anger, and surprise.
No longer under control, Master Chen Wu directly adjusted his position. He raised the carving knife in his right hand, aimed it at the final carving mark on this piece of jade—the very last stroke that was supposed to be the finishing touch—and fiercely, crookedly slashed down!
"No—" An inhuman, mournful shriek erupted from the jade! But that destructive cut thoroughly severed its lifeline.
In an instant, the red light on the jade completely collapsed, turning into wisps of black smoke that dissipated in the air. The dark golden radiance enveloping the jade carving also rapidly dispersed like a punctured balloon.
After letting out a harsh cracking sound, the jade shattered inch by inch, turning into a handful of dull, lifeless dust that rustled as it slipped from Master Chen Wu's hands, and at the same time, caused his vision to go black.
Then, he felt his brain being sucked into a vortex, and many memories also became clear at this moment. But right then, a voice came from nowhere:
"The jade is inherently blameless; the human heart imprisons itself."
Everything was merely a matter of the human heart.
...
"He succeeded."
The God of Greed looked at the black screen and couldn't help but click his tongue.
Clearly, in this illusion formed by Chen Junting's own mind—his state of mind—he had successfully broken through the greed aroused by the God of Greed and successfully swept away all the obscurations.
It was just that what he hadn't expected was that the method Chen Junting used to successfully pass the trial was actually the compassion in his heart born from witnessing the consequences of greed, using this as the key to clear away that layer of obscuration.
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