This chapter was written after midnight, so technically, if I don't manage to post a chapter on Saturday, I will have technically fulfilled the promise already. 6/6
Let me know what you thought of this Ren Zu legend I wrote.
And thanks for read.
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A passage from The Legends of Ren Zu surfaced in Weed's mind.
One of the few stories in which Perseverance Gu appeared.
After Ren Zu had endured so much pain...
After losing so much...
He sought answers.
"Why are my family and I destined to suffer?"
"Why does Fate bind both me and my freedom?"
"Why do I live?"
"Merely to survive?"
"Merely to suffer?"
At that moment, Self Gu spoke.
"If you seek every answer, Ren Zu, then you must search for Truth Gu. If you wish to understand the meaning of everything, only it can show you."
"Truth Gu?" Ren Zu asked.
Wisdom Gu replied:
"Yes. But even I have never been able to look directly at Truth Gu, nor do I know what it truly looks like."
"It lies beyond the Sea of Misty Uncertainty."
Ren Zu asked where that sea could be found.
"Everywhere, Ren Zu."
"Simply keep walking."
"Always forward."
"Eventually, you will find Truth."
So Ren Zu took one hundred steps.
Then one thousand.
Then one hundred thousand.
Always walking straight ahead.
Just as he was about to give up, a Gu came to his aid.
"My name is Perseverance Gu."
"I will accompany you on your journey."
Ren Zu's heart filled with Perseverance Gu.
"As long as your heart holds perseverance, you can continue moving forward."
After countless steps, Ren Zu finally arrived at the Sea of Misty Uncertainty.
There he saw two Gu imprisoned inside a cage.
One was beautiful.
The other hideous.
Before he could approach, three Gu suddenly appeared.
"We are the ones who stand guard here."
"Do not approach the Truth."
"I am Pain Gu."
"I am Doubt Gu."
"I am Fear Gu."
"Look, it is Perseverance Gu... our child."
Perseverance Gu shone with brilliant light, forcing the three Gu to retreat.
Ren Zu stepped closer and looked at the beautiful Gu.
"Wisdom lied to me."
"You are incredibly beautiful."
"Thank you very much, Ren Zu..."
"LIE!"
Perseverance Gu, Wisdom Gu, and Self Gu shouted simultaneously.
"That is Lie Gu, Ren Zu," Wisdom Gu explained.
"The one beside it..."
"Is Truth Gu."
Ren Zu slowly turned his head.
He looked toward the other Gu.
The moment his eyes met the ugly Gu...
He could bear it no longer.
Truth Gu was impossible to gaze upon.
A single instant...
Was enough.
His heart nearly stopped.
His soul felt as though it had been torn apart.
Every sorrow of his life.
Every failure.
Every regret.
Everything returned within a single glance.
Ren Zu collapsed to his knees.
He could no longer keep his eyes open.
Merely looking at Truth Gu had almost killed him.
Then three voices spoke from behind him.
"We were never protecting the Truth from you."
"We were protecting you from the Truth."
Hearing this, Ren Zu whispered,
"I don't want to look at Truth Gu anymore..."
"I can't..."
Perseverance Gu remained silent.
Then it asked,
"Ren Zu."
"Have you abandoned the Truth?"
Ren Zu answered,
"No."
"I only gave up looking at it."
Perseverance Gu slowly shook its head.
"Then..."
"You have lost your perseverance."
It flew away without looking back.
Ren Zu remained alone before the cage.
Lie Gu slowly smiled.
Truth Gu remained silent.
"Perseverance..."
Weed stared at the worn pages for a long time.
Then he smiled.
A faint smile.
Almost imperceptible.
"No..."
"Perseverance does not defeat pain."
"It merely allows us to keep walking despite it."
His gaze slowly returned to the century-old log resting on the table.
The wood seemed to be waiting for him.
At that moment...
Weed finally understood.
He should not sculpt perseverance.
Perseverance was not something that could be carved into a statue.
It was born...
When one faced one's own pain.
Without fleeing.
Without looking away.
Accepting it.
And continuing to walk.
Just like Ren Zu.
Just like himself.
...
The sculpting knife slowly touched the wood.
The first cut removed only a thin shaving.
Then another.
Then another.
Not a single movement was wasted.
Each stroke removed only what had never belonged to the work in the first place.
Little by little...
A table emerged.
Then...
Three chairs.
An elderly woman gradually took shape.
Her face was lined with countless wrinkles.
Yet her smile seemed warm enough to embrace the entire little house.
Beside her...
A thin young boy.
Wearing plain clothes.
Even while sitting at the dinner table...
His eyes still seemed worried about tomorrow.
Across from him...
A little girl.
Her cheeks puffed out.
Holding an oversized piece of food with both hands.
Laughing as though it were the greatest feast in the world.
...
Weed was not carving faces.
He was carving the aroma of soup.
The warmth of that little home.
His grandmother's tired voice calling the children to dinner.
His little sister complaining because he had taken the last piece of meat.
Moments so ordinary...
That, back then...
He had never imagined he would one day miss them so dearly.
...
The knife continued its dance.
The grain of the wood seemed to guide every cut naturally.
As though that memory had always existed within the log, waiting to be revealed.
When he finally lowered the chisel...
The sun had not yet risen.
The workshop fell silent once again.
Before him...
Rested the finest work he had ever created.
No luxury.
No grandeur.
No heroes.
Only a family.
A simple meal.
A home.
At that moment, a translucent blue screen slowly appeared before his eyes.
[Name: Dinner at Home]
[Material: Century-old wood marked by the Dao]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Artistic Value: 699]
[Description:
"A family shares a simple meal.
There is no wealth.
No glory.
No power.
Only an ordinary moment.
Its creator realized far too late that the most precious days were never the extraordinary ones.
They were the days that seemed insignificant.
He did not sculpt a family.
He sculpted a Memories of moments from a life that won't return.."
Concepts: [Family],[Home],[Melancholy] ]
Weed remained motionless.
After a long silence...
He slowly extended his hand.
The hungry copy of Sculpting Skill Gu immediately leaped onto the sculpture.
This time...
It did not merely devour its Artistic Value.
It continued eating.
Until the wood itself began to crumble.
Then...
It turned into dust.
And finally...
Even the dust disappeared.
As though that home had never existed.
As though only...
Its meaning remained.
Weed watched in silence.
Then he slowly picked up Blade Gu.
His gaze became resolute.
"Perseverance manifests when we face pain head-on..."
"Then..."
"Let's see whether the Dao follows the same truth."
Blade Gu slowly floated into the air.
Its silver body reflected the lamplight.
For the first time...
Weed no longer saw it as a material.
He saw only a concept.
Separation.
Definition.
The instant one thing ceased to be another.
Beside it...
The copy of Sculpting Skill Gu remained perfectly still.
Its tiny golden body seemed heavier than before.
It had devoured everything.
The wood.
The Artistic Value.
Even the final trace of the sculpture.
Not even a handful of dust remained.
It was as though the sculpture had never existed.
Only its meaning endured.
...
Weed took a slow breath.
"Perseverance is born when we face pain."
"Then..."
"I should not run from it."
His hand moved.
The Sculpting Skill Gu slowly approached Blade Gu.
No hesitation.
No written recipe.
No complicated calculations.
Only understanding.
Primeval essence began to circulate.
Primeval Stones shattered one after another.
Green light completely flooded the refinement vessel.
The little golden Gu slowly opened its mouth.
There was no wood left to devour.
No Artistic Value remained.
Only...
Meaning.
Then...
It spat everything out.
Not wood.
Not light.
But countless translucent particles.
Each carried a fragment of that memory.
His grandmother's smile.
His sister's laughter.
The warmth of their home.
The smell of dinner.
Longing.
Melancholy.
Everything slowly revolved around Blade Gu.
Like countless tiny stars.
Blade Gu began to tremble.
Its silver radiance grew brighter and brighter.
Then...
The particles slowly sank into its body.
There was no explosion.
No rejection.
For the first time...
The concepts accepted one another.
...
Its metallic surface slowly began to deform.
Its edges disappeared.
Then returned.
Then vanished again.
It was as though the Gu itself did not yet know what shape it wished to take.
A perfectly smooth metallic sphere gradually emerged.
Without beginning.
Without end.
As though it were waiting for something.
...
Weed watched without blinking.
It was working.
At last...
It was working.
However...
The sphere suddenly trembled.
A crack appeared.
Then another.
Its radiance became unstable.
The particles of meaning slowly began to leak away.
The refinement was failing.
...
Weed frowned.
"No..."
"Something is still missing."
The sphere continued trembling.
The cracks spread.
At any moment...
Everything would collapse again.
Then his eyes fell upon the final copy of Sculpting Skill Gu.
...
A crazy idea appeared.
If the first Gu had devoured the sculpture...
Then...
Who would devour the concept itself?
If Sculpting revealed essence...
Then perhaps...
Even essence could be sculpted.
Without a second thought...
Weed extended his hand.
The second hungry copy immediately leaped onto the metallic sphere.
Crunch.
The little Gu began to bite.
Not the metal.
But the unfinished fusion itself.
The sphere shook violently.
For a brief instant...
Weed believed he had made an irreversible mistake.
Then...
The light changed.
It did not become brighter.
It became...
Deeper.
Like a bottomless lake.
The sphere no longer resembled an object.
It began to resemble a living creature.
It pulsed.
Like a beating heart.
The next instant...
Without any warning...
It shot forward.
Whoosh!
A streak of silver flashed across the workshop.
Weed did not even have time to react.
The sphere plunged directly into his aperture.
"...!"
For the first time since the refinement had begun...
His expression changed.
Something had completely escaped his control.
Inside his aperture...
The sphere greedily absorbed his primeval essence.
Like a newborn taking its very first breath.
The walls of his aperture trembled.
The transformation was not over.
It had merely...
Chosen a different place to continue.
Beside the aperture...
The original Sculpting Skill Gu slowly opened its eyes.
For the first time since Weed had obtained it...
It moved of its own accord.
Without receiving a single command.
It looked toward the two copies.
Then...
It let out a soft sound.
Almost like an order.
The two copies immediately abandoned all resistance.
Their bodies dissolved into golden light.
Like soldiers returning to their commander.
All that light flowed through Weed's body.
Straight into his aperture.
The Gu in formation absorbed everything.
Every fragment.
Every memory.
Every meaning.
Every trace of authority belonging to the Sculpting Path.
The light finally became completely stable.
Weed remained motionless.
Breathing slowly.
Feeling his primeval essence rapidly draining away.
But...
For the very first time...
He was certain.
There would be no explosion.
The Gu...
Was being born.