The Taoist Master Who Reluctantly Became a Taoist Master

In the ancient town of Sanqing, the continuous drizzle wove into a grayish net, shrouding the entire town.

The stone-paved streets were washed bright and slick by the rain. Under the eaves on both sides hung strings of red lanterns, emitting a hazy glow through the misty rain.

Lin Mo sat by the window, chewing on fragrant and sticky chestnut roasted chicken while looking outside.

Raindrops beat against the window lattice, making a pattering sound that formed a sharp contrast with the steaming, lively atmosphere inside the restaurant.

Language teacher: Highlight this! It's going to be on the test!

He sat opposite Zhang Gonglian, the table between them filled with seven or eight dishes.

The air was filled with the aroma of food, allowing Lin Mo's mood to relax along with it.

Not far away, Han Lu occupied a table all to himself. Strikingly, a whole case of beer sat in front of him. He was pouring it down his throat as if nobody else was around, and the smell of alcohol could be caught even from several tables away.

It seemed he really was a drunkard.

"With our current cultivation levels, we shouldn't need to eat anymore, right?" Zhang Gonglian looked at Lin Mo, a trace of confusion between his brows.

Although the spiritual energy within his body couldn't be mobilized, his divine sense was still functioning normally.

The young man before him clearly had unfathomable strength, yet he displayed an extraordinary enjoyment of mundane mortal appetites.

Lin Mo picked up a small, golden, and crispy fried fish with his chopsticks, popped it into his mouth, and savored it carefully.

The umami of the fish meat and the fragrant aroma of the oil blossomed on the tip of his tongue, making him narrow his eyes in satisfaction.

"True," he swallowed the fish, his tone calm. "But eating is something that brings joy. If I weren't allowed to eat, life would lose a lot of its fun."

He glanced at Zhang Gonglian and, seeing that the other party still maintained that serious look, couldn't help but shake his head inwardly.

"There are three thousand Great Daos, all leading to the same destination. But are the myriad flavors of this world not a form of cultivation in themselves?"

Zhang Gonglian said no more. He just silently circulated the only bit of spiritual energy in his body that could still move.

That faint sliver of power flowed with great difficulty through his meridians, like a candle in the wind, liable to go out at any moment.

He needed to use this bit of spiritual energy to figure out a pathway and chip away at the spiritual energy that had been locked in place.

"Actually, when I first met you, I thought you were a middle-aged man wearing the skin of a youth—greasy and with a wicked sense of humor."

Zhang Gonglian suddenly blurted this out, his tone carrying a hint of sarcasm.

As a dignified Celestial Master, being toyed with like this by a youth naturally left him feeling indignant.

Lin Mo remained unmoved. He just unhurriedly picked up a piece of tofu, dipped it in some sauce, and put it into his mouth.

After all, Zhang Gonglian wasn't wrong. His soul really was that of a greasy, pretentious man in his thirties.

"You don't understand," he said indifferently. "What makes a person mature is never time, but experience." His voice wasn't loud, but it possessed an unquestionable confidence.

Hearing this, Zhang Gonglian's body trembled imperceptibly.

He looked at the young man before him, who was only eighteen yet already more powerful than himself, and a trace of bitterness welled up in his heart.

He didn't know what Lin Mo had been through to possess such a state of mind and strength at such an age.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the distracting thoughts in his mind, and looked up straight at Lin Mo. "So, what is my tribulation? Have you figured it out?"

His tone carried a hint of urgency, a hint of longing.

Lin Mo put down his chopsticks, picked up his teacup, and took a light sip before slowly spitting out a few words: "I have."

Zhang Gonglian's heart skipped a beat, almost jumping out of his throat.

He stared nervously at Lin Mo, waiting for him to continue.

"But I'm not going to tell you." A playful smile hung on Lin Mo's face.

"You!" Zhang Gonglian stood up abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor with an ear-piercing screech.

As a dignified Celestial Master, when had he ever been mocked like this? Anger flared in his heart, but hindered by the other party's unfathomable strength, he didn't dare to lash out.

To put it bluntly, he couldn't win in a fight, so he chickened out.

Most importantly, he wasn't surprised that he had been defeated; what surprised him was that Lin Mo was actually able to seal his spiritual energy.

He was a dignified Celestial Master! He was supposed to be extremely imposing!

Lin Mo lightly tapped the table, making two thump thump sounds, signaling for him to sit down.

"Relax. A patriarch of our Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect once formed a karmic bond with a past generation's Celestial Master Zhang, so I will help you." Lin Mo's tone was relaxed, as if he were telling a story that had nothing to do with him.

A classic line to trick kids.

Zhang Gonglian sat back down, his expression complex, and finally just looked up at Lin Mo in confusion.

"Then why did you just ask Senior Brother Gongyue for benefits?"

Lin Mo shoveled a few more bites of rice into his mouth, speaking somewhat indistinctly: "What's wrong with asking for benefits? You have to remember, what comes free is always the most expensive."

He reminded him earnestly, like an elder teaching a junior.

"There is no free lunch in this world. The more something seems easily obtainable, the greater the price usually is."

Just now, he had already calculated what kind of tribulation Zhang Gonglian was going to face. It wasn't just his tribulation; it was also the tribulation of the Dragon and Tiger Daoist Grounds.

Presumably, the Old Heavenly Master had also calculated it, only there was nothing he could do about it.

Moreover, Zhang Gonglian's tribulation was absolutely not something Lin Mo could casually resolve with a few pointers. What he would need to pay went far beyond mere worldly possessions.

Zhang Gonglian fell silent. As he chewed over Lin Mo's words, he felt a mix of complex emotions in his heart.

The rain outside the window was still falling, pattering down as if it would never stop. The halos of the lanterns became even softer in the curtain of rain.

"Actually, I don't want to inherit the position of Celestial Master at all."

Lin Mo finished the chestnut roasted chicken and turned his chopsticks toward the locally produced Sanqing tofu. The tofu was the color of congealed fat, smooth and tender in the mouth, with a rich soybean aroma. He savored it at a leisurely pace.

"At your age, being so playful, it's normal that you don't want to take on responsibility," he said calmly. Not much emotion could be heard in his tone; it sounded more like he was stating an indisputable fact.

Hearing this, Zhang Gonglian's eyes lit up slightly, as if he had found a kindred spirit.

He leaned forward and lowered his voice, like a child who had found an accomplice. "You say so too, right? I'm still young."

Lin Mo picked up a piece of tofu, put it into his mouth, and only asked after a moment, "If you were allowed to step down as Celestial Master, what would you do?"

"Step down as Celestial Master..." Zhang Gonglian closed his eyes longingly, a kind of innocence that didn't belong to his age appearing on his face.

"Then I would definitely go back and continue college! Before, when I came down the mountain, I went to college. Even though I only studied for less than three years, those days were what you call living.

"Going to class, spending time in the library, playing ball with classmates, eating the food in the school cafeteria. Never having to listen to those scriptures again, never having to study talismans and formations. How wonderful that would be." He described it with dancing eyebrows and a radiant face, as if those beautiful memories were just yesterday.

Zhang Gonglian was like a child who hadn't experienced much of the world, possessing a very strong sense of novelty toward many things.

Lin Mo put down his chopsticks, picked up his teacup, and took a gentle sip of tea, his gaze falling on Zhang Gonglian's excited face.

"Then why didn't you finish?"