After I Bound Myself in the Forbidden Land for Five Hundred Years, You Cried When I Became a Rogue Cultivator - Chapter 1:

Chapter 1: One Glance Spanned Ten Thousand Years, and He Suddenly Understood

Azure Mystic Holy Land, inside the sect’s main hall.

The atmosphere had sunk into a suffocating silence.

“Sect Master! Today, every Immortal Spirit Crane on Zhuo Peak died because Gu Xiu deliberately mixed Bone-Melting Powder into their feed. I saw it with my own eyes and can testify!”

“Master, I have also investigated. Those Immortal Spirit Cranes did indeed die from Bone-Melting Powder. I also found this bottle of Bone-Melting Powder inside Gu Xiu’s residence.”

The accusations beside his ears finally pulled Gu Xiu back from his daze.

A breathtakingly beautiful woman dressed in phoenix robes sat on the sect master’s seat. Her bearing was graceful and dignified, and her expression was stern as she looked at him. “Gu Xiu, tell me. Are their words true?”

“Just now, did I… enter an illusion? A dream that lasted ten thousand years?” Gu Xiu murmured.

He looked at everything around him, familiar yet strangely distant, and his eyes filled with horror.

Just moments ago, he had been in the sect’s main hall, arguing with reason over whether he had poisoned the Immortal Spirit Cranes. Then, without warning, he had been dragged into an illusion.

Inside that illusion, he became a bystander. He watched his entire life unfold before his eyes…

“Gu Xiu, now both the witness and the evidence are here. What else do you have to argue?” His little senior sister, Lu Qingyao, began scolding him harshly. “You must have felt that the sect humiliated you by making you raise spirit beasts, so you deliberately used this method to vent your anger, didn’t you? Master, I said long ago that Gu Xiu is not qualified to stay on Zhuo Peak, much less feed the spirit beasts!”

Beside her, his third senior sister, Xu Wanqing, shook her head. “Gu Xiu, more than five hundred years ago, you could still be considered upright and honorable. I never thought you would become like this. If you did not want to stay on Zhuo Peak and feed spirit beasts, you could have simply said so. Why use such an extreme method?”

Xu Wanqing’s gaze grew colder as she continued, “I thought that after five hundred years, all you had lost was your cultivation and innate foundation. I never expected that even the Dao heart you once had would be gone.”

Both of them were Gu Xiu’s senior sisters.

His little senior sister, Lu Qingyao, was a beast tamer famous throughout the land. His third senior sister, Xu Wanqing, was the chief alchemist of Azure Mystic Holy Land.

As for the woman seated on the sect master’s throne, she was Gu Xiu’s master, a Great Ascension Realm Supreme, the sect master of Azure Mystic Holy Land, Sect Master Guan Xuelan. Her temperament was cold and distant, and she rarely smiled.

At this moment, the looks in the three women’s eyes were shockingly identical.

Disgust.

The way they looked at Gu Xiu made it seem as though they were not looking at the sect hero who had bound himself inside a forbidden land for five hundred years, ruined his cultivation, and destroyed his innate foundation for the sake of the sect.

Instead, they seemed to be looking at a piece of trash that ought to die immediately, lest he taint the sect’s immortal air.

Those gazes were something Gu Xiu had already grown used to over the past three years. Even so, he could not help thinking again of everything he had just seen in that illusion.

In the outside world, only an instant had passed.

But inside the illusion, ten thousand years had gone by.

In that illusion, Gu Xiu became a bystander, or perhaps a listener to a story. He watched everything that would happen in this world over the next ten thousand years.

What was happening right now was only a tiny, insignificant fragment of that story.

The Immortal Spirit Cranes had actually been poisoned to death by the third senior sister standing before him, with his little senior sister assisting her.

And their purpose was to drive him out of his residence on Zhuo Peak, because they wanted to use that place to build a beast pen for his little junior brother, Jiang Xun, so Jiang Xun could cultivate the Dao of Beast Taming.

As direct disciples of the mighty Azure Mystic Holy Land, they naturally could not openly seize another direct disciple’s residence.

At the very least, they needed a reason that sounded proper and righteous.

As for whether that reason was full of holes, or whether the victim accepted it, none of that mattered.

After all, Gu Xiu’s cultivation had already been completely crippled. He was a useless man with no strength to resist.

According to the later events in the illusion, Gu Xiu naturally refused to admit to this frame-up. He tried every possible way to search for evidence and prove his innocence.

But he never expected that after going through countless hardships and finally finding evidence, he would bring it to his master, Guan Xuelan, hoping to prove his innocence, only to discover something even more chilling.

His master, Guan Xuelan, had actually known the truth all along.

Even Xu Wanqing poisoning the Immortal Spirit Cranes had been done under Guan Xuelan’s instruction.

She was the true mastermind behind everything.

All of that happened later. Although Gu Xiu had only seen it in that illusion where one glance spanned ten thousand years, Guan Xuelan’s indifferent gaze at this moment still made him understand.

That was probably not an illusion.

It was real.

So real that it filled him with sorrow.

“Master, Gu Xiu has always been responsible for raising the spirit beasts. Now that something happened to them, according to sect rules, it is already his responsibility,” Lu Qingyao declared with righteous conviction. “Not to mention that he deliberately poisoned and harmed the spirit beasts. He must be severely punished!”

Guan Xuelan frowned. “Gu Xiu, you once rendered great service to the sect. If you confess honestly, I will not punish you too harshly.”

This time, Gu Xiu fell silent.

“Gu Xiu…” Guan Xuelan was about to continue when Gu Xiu suddenly raised his head.

“This disciple was at fault.”

“Oh?” Guan Xuelan froze for a moment. She clearly had not expected Gu Xiu to admit it so readily, but she still nodded. “Then tell me. Why exactly did you poison the Immortal Spirit Cranes to death?”

“This disciple did not poison the Immortal Spirit Cranes.”

“You are changing your words again?”

“I am not changing my words.” Gu Xiu shook his head and spoke calmly. “This disciple has always been responsible for feeding the immortal birds. This time, the Immortal Spirit Cranes were poisoned. This disciple has indeed committed the crime of neglecting his duty.”

The moment those words fell, Guan Xuelan seemed to feel as though she had been toyed with. Her anger erupted at once. “You dare mock me? Since you are so stubborn and refuse to repent, then go to the water prison and receive your punishment!”

Guan Xuelan’s voice turned cold. “I sentence you to seven days of punishment in the water prison!”

She continued, “At the same time, move out of Zhuo Peak immediately. From now on, you are not allowed to live on Zhuo Peak, nor are you allowed to approach the spirit beasts in the slightest!”

At those words, Xu Wanqing and Lu Qingyao both showed relieved smiles.

Gu Xiu glanced at them.

In the end, he said nothing. He merely withdrew his gaze, turned around, and walked out of the sect’s main hall.

In his heart, there was no grievance from being wronged.

There was not even anger from being slandered.

He only found it somewhat laughable.

He found these past few years laughable, and he found himself laughable too, the self who had carefully protected the sect and treated his master and senior sisters with cautious sincerity.

He was an orphan picked up by the previous old sect master of Azure Mystic Sect. After he arrived at Azure Mystic Sect, the old sect master handed the young Gu Xiu over to Guan Xuelan to care for.

That had been the happiest period of his life.

He became the little disciple of Guan Xuelan, the heir to the sect master’s position. His master cherished him and loved him, while his seven senior sisters always doted on him.

At that time, Gu Xiu was a proud son of heaven. He was the hope of the sect.

But five hundred years ago, the Blessed Forbidden Land appeared. Azure Mystic Sect was facing destruction, and someone had to enter it on behalf of the sect, endure five hundred years of torment inside the forbidden land, and fight for that heaven-shaking blessing.

As the holy son of the sect, Gu Xiu stepped forward.

He offered himself as a sacrifice and entered the forbidden land alone, binding himself within it.

For five hundred years, Gu Xiu endured inhuman torment. To seize blessings for the sect, he gritted his teeth and held on through it all.

In the end, he succeeded.

All the karmic fortune and blessings were seized by Gu Xiu. In just five hundred years, Azure Mystic Sect rose from an unranked third-rate sect to a first-rate holy land.

But Gu Xiu paid an enormous price.

Five hundred years of war and slaughter left him covered in countless Dao injuries. His divine soul had nearly shattered completely. Although he barely managed to preserve his life, all his cultivation scattered, and his innate foundation and talent were destroyed.

Worse still, because those Dao injuries remained inside him, he often suffered pain so unbearable that it was hard to endure.

All of this, to the Gu Xiu of the past, had been worth it.

Because this was his sect.

Because the people he cared about were here.

However…

Five hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.

Five hundred years was also enough for seas to turn into mulberry fields.

Azure Mystic Sect became Azure Mystic Holy Land. Guan Xuelan became Supreme Xuelan. Even his senior sisters gained great prestige in alchemy, talismans, artifact refining, and other paths.

Everything had changed.

When Gu Xiu returned, the flowers and applause he had imagined never came. What greeted him was only a few cold words.

“Gu Xiu, your dantian and Qi sea have both been completely destroyed. Your talent and innate foundation have already been fully ruined. You no longer have any possibility of cultivating. We have given the position of holy son to someone else.”

“He is your little junior brother, Jiang Xun. His cultivation is not very high yet, but his talent is no weaker than yours once was. He has extraordinary potential in all six paths. He can become a second you and lead Azure Mystic Holy Land to even greater heights.”

“In the future, just live peacefully in the sect. Do not worry. The sect will support you until the end of your life.”

Those words had hurt Gu Xiu deeply at the time.

Not because of his master and senior sisters’ attitude, but because he was upset that he could no longer give his strength to the sect.

Only, back then, he never imagined that he himself would become the most unnecessary burden in the sect.

Aside from the politeness everyone showed him when he had first returned, not long afterward, he became an idle person no one paid attention to, someone everyone loathed and found irritating.

That was already sad enough.

Yet from the future he had glimpsed in the illusion, it seemed he would become even more pitiful…

Even after falling into such a state, in the end, he would still die for the sect.

The laughable thing was that after he gave his life for the sect, not a single person in the entire sect mourned him. Instead, they turned around and cheered for Jiang Xun, that little junior brother, because he had broken through.

No one shed even a single tear for him.

Only when that little junior brother revealed his fangs, turned ruthless, caused Azure Mystic Holy Land to be completely destroyed, and left no one to save them, did they finally regret it.

But what use was regret then?

“If that illusion was the future, then thinking about it carefully, my life truly was pitiful.”

Gu Xiu shook his head and gathered his thoughts.

“If not for this dream, perhaps I really would have followed the same path toward death step by step, just like in the illusion.”

“But since I have already glimpsed the secrets of heaven, I cannot continue repeating the same mistakes.”

“As for this sect…”

“There is no need to stay.”

Gu Xiu had once been foolishly loyal, but now, after this sudden awakening, he wanted to change everything.

If that one glance across ten thousand years was his previous life, then in this life, he no longer needed to live for Azure Mystic Holy Land.

He wanted to live once for himself.

With that thought, Gu Xiu quickly headed toward his residence.

If he wanted to live for himself, the first thing he had to do was leave Azure Mystic Holy Land.

Before leaving Azure Mystic Holy Land, however, there were still two things he needed to retrieve.

Two opportunities.

Opportunities that belonged to him.

He sprinted all the way back. Along the road, Gu Xiu ran into many disciples of Azure Mystic Holy Land, but when they saw him, they all chose to ignore him as if they had not seen him at all.

This was normal.

According to seniority, he could be considered their Martial Uncle. However, these inner sect disciples, who were at least in the Foundation Establishment Realm, clearly had no desire to call a mortal with crippled cultivation, one whom even his master and senior sisters no longer cared for, Martial Uncle.

Gu Xiu did not mind.

At this moment, all he cared about were his two treasures.

Especially one of them.

Because according to the timeline in the illusion, that treasure of his would be taken away by someone else today.

He had to protect his opportunity.

After rushing back as fast as he could, Gu Xiu finally reached his residence on Zhuo Peak. However, as soon as he arrived at the door, his brows furrowed.

Although he had hurried back with all his strength, that opportunity of his was already in someone else’s hand.

The person holding his opportunity also noticed Gu Xiu’s hurried return. A worried, concerned expression immediately appeared on his face. “Senior Brother, are you all right?”

He added gently, “I heard Master punished you. I was very worried, so I specially came to see you.”

This person wore a green robe and had a face as handsome as polished jade. Although his cultivation was not particularly high for the time being, as he stood there, a natural Dao rhythm seemed to linger around him.

He was none other than Gu Xiu’s little junior brother, the one who hid himself extremely well and whose thoughts ran unfathomably deep.

Jiang Xun!