My Enemy Became My Cultivation Companion
Chapter 180 - 159 He Became a Mother

Chapter 180: Chapter 159 He Became a Mother

"...Mom, don’t go. I feel so awful..."

He pressed Yin Tingxue’s burning forehead and touched her soft, thin lips, involuntarily recalling her final words before she fell asleep.

Whenever she made requests to him, she’d always follow with a "Is that okay?" But with her mother... she never needed so many words.

Chen Yi silently gazed at her sleeping face, unsure of what to say.

The clay pot shattered, the maple tree was cut down, and even the stone Bodhisattva had been moved away...

So it turned out that with every step forward, the girl lost a step of her world.

She was the daughter of Yintai Temple, but Yintai Temple seemed to have become nothing more than an empty shell.

In a trance, Chen Yi realized that the girl’s world seemed to have shrunk until only he remained at its center.

When the flowers scattered that instant, she clung to him, crying once more for her mother. It had been like that before, and now it was the same—as if in her moments of helplessness, she mistook him for her mother.

A sudden, fleeting sorrow painted Chen Yi’s heart. What? Have I become her mother?

"...Someone like me, her mother?"

Chen Yi’s thoughts grew complicated, an indescribable feeling welling within him.

Letting out a deep sigh, he suddenly sensed a gaze on his back. Turning around, he discovered Zhou Yitang standing there.

"Master, I..."

Chen Yi paused, shook his head, and said helplessly:

"I don’t even know what to say."

"You’ve become a mother?"

Her tone was calm, almost indifferent.

Chen Yi was momentarily dumbfounded by her bluntness but then slumped his shoulders and laughed:

"Does this count as being a mother? She’s merely in a moment of vulnerability, treating me as the closest person she could find..."

"No."

"No?"

Zhou Yitang’s complicated gaze flickered toward Yin Tingxue, as though catching onto something, the wheels in her mind turning.

Chen Yi, aware of the depth of her Taoist skill, knew she would never speak aimlessly. So he asked:

"Could it be that I really have become her mother? Or... Yin Tingxue’s? I was meant to be her husband, yet she considers me her mother?"

"If you weren’t recklessly toying with her fate, it wouldn’t have turned out this way."

Zhou Yitang’s voice remained steady.

Chen Yi couldn’t tell if her words were praise or reprimand.

"But then again, this is just like you."

She rarely smiled, but here, she did, faintly.

Chen Yi said nothing but began gently tracing Yin Tingxue’s slender brows. Never had he imagined her so fragile, fragile enough to mistake the one she feared and hated most for her mother.

He glanced at their surroundings. The lotus pedestal was empty, the maple tree reduced to a stump. As for "Sister Bodhisattva" or "Aunt Maple," perhaps they had never existed at all—just mirages conjured by a girl too afraid of being alone.

Chen Yi heaved a long sigh, scratching the back of his head.

Zhou Yitang entered the temple, crouched momentarily, then stood, forming a hand seal as she circled Yin Tingxue.

After one full circuit, her brows furrowed, and she immediately began walking in reverse.

"What’s wrong?"

Chen Yi broke the silence.

"Just now, she seemed to be comprehending something."

"Comprehending what?"

"Zen."

"What Zen?"

"The Zen of all things being empty."

Master Tongxuan cast a sidelong glance at the sleeping princess and remarked:

"You disturbed her karmic path."

...............

"He disrupted my daughter’s karmic path."

Three hundred li outside the Capital City of Great Yu, inside a small, hazy apothecary, wisps of medicinal steam rose into the early winter air. A middle-aged woman with her hair bound in a white cloth paused mid-stir as she fanned the flames.

The Tongbei Divine Ape, hearing the seemingly inexplicable comment, scratched his head like the monkey he was.

"Sister, what do you mean by that?" Zhang Xuqu asked.

The woman merely smiled faintly, replying, "Little brother, have you ever heard of the Demon Lord Mara tempting the Buddha?"

"I know you’re a believer in Buddhism, and so am I, but as a rough man, I don’t know much about its stories," Zhang Xuqu said with a sheepish grin.

"In a bygone age, when the World-Honored One sat in meditation under the Bodhi Tree, comprehending enlightenment, the Demon Lord Mara beheld him and sought to disrupt him. Yet the World-Honored One remained unmoved."

The woman spoke slowly, recounting the ancient tale.

"It wasn’t until Mara spoke of the Dharma Decline, promising to claim the Buddha’s monasteries, don his monk’s robes, and corrupt his true teachings, that the World-Honored One shed tears."

As she spoke, the woman lifted the lid of the medicine pot, ladling a bowl of soup and handing it to Zhang Xuqu.

The Tongbei Divine Ape accepted it without hesitation. Having been entrusted by the Broken Swordsman with a mission to enter Great Yu, he had unexpectedly encountered an ambush from old enemies, leaving him injured and forced to stop at this small town apothecary for rest.

After Zhang Xuqu finished the bitter soup, a figure slowly approached from behind him.

Turning sharply, he saw a man wearing a bamboo hat and carrying a sword at his waist, who had drawn close enough to slit a child’s throat in a single, noiseless step.

Zhang Xuqu exhaled and remarked:

"It seems no matter how improved my Qinggong is, it’s still not fast enough."

"You were merely detained."

"True. I crossed paths with that deranged Buddhist scripture master. Besides... he too seems to be heading to the Joyful Sect."

On hearing this, the Broken Swordsman didn’t even furrow his brow, responding coolly:

"No matter. He cannot block the way."

"But what of Yin Sword Mountain’s Sword Armor?"

Zhang Xuqu suddenly queried.

The Broken Swordsman’s rarely seen frown deepened, his brows knitting together.

"She won’t stand against me."

"I heard rumors that Yin Sword Mountain is mixed up in this."

"That Tang fellow has already been expelled from Yin Sword Mountain," the Broken Swordsman said, pausing before sneering coldly:

"The Sword Armor has nothing to do with this. You don’t need to dissuade me."

Zhang Xuqu drank the last of the bitter medicine and exhaled, muttering:

"I’m only worried about being caught in the crossfire and getting killed."

The woman, observing these two extraordinary men, exhibited no trace of surprise.

The Douli Swordsman seemed to sense she had more to say.

"Madam, do you wish to speak?"

"I’ve heard rumors of someone in the Capital who’s gained considerable fame," she said.

"Who?"

"Surname Chen, given name Yi, courtesy name Zunming," the woman replied softly.

Zhang Xuqu said, "So this must be the one Sister mentioned, the man who disrupted your daughter’s karmic path. In that case, I’ll take responsibility."

The woman added, "They say his blade is impossibly fast—fast enough to cleave wind and slice rain."

Zhang Xuqu laughed as he set down the bowl. "I believe in his speed, but not that it’s faster than I am."

"And why not?"

"Because it’s no match for my Qinggong," the Tongbei Divine Ape stated, his tone calm, as if what he said were self-evident.

All of Jianghu knew the Tongbei Divine Ape’s Qinggong was unmatched, faster than the western winds, earning him the title "Two Steps atop Swallows without Disturbing Their Flight." They even whispered that his footwork surpassed the swordplay of Broken Swordsman, the sixth-ranked swordsman under heaven.

The Douli Swordsman believed in Zhang Xuqu’s speed, but even so, he knew it could not outpace his sword—for he was the Broken Swordsman.

The woman smiled faintly, taking the empty bowl and gently wiping it clean with a cloth.

Soon after, the two men resumed their journey, vanishing beyond the apothecary’s doors.

The woman continued wiping the bowl, murmuring to herself:

"Originally, Tingxue was to attain the Earth Bodhisattva stage. But alas, he first disrupted Daozi’s chessboard and now has meddled with my karmic threads."

He donned my monk’s robe, corrupted my Dharma, and became a shadow of me...

Crack.

At some point, a fine crack had appeared across the bowl.

Noticing it, the woman let out a laugh, then sighed and said:

"Ah, seems my cultivation is still insufficient."