Mahayana 108
Chapter 108: Before the Three-Life Stone, Three Lifetimes Rise and Fall—A Rock With Way Too Much Gossip
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
Part 1
The group slogged on for what felt like half a lifetime, until at long last a gigantic stone loomed ahead—standing there dramatically, as if making a grand entrance just to remind them they weren’t walking in circles after all.
When they got closer, it became obvious, this rock was not like the others. Nope. This was a massive teal boulder with six huge words slapped across it: “Ascend Early to the Other Shore.”
The characters were bright red. Not just ‘red paint’ red, more like ‘someone just cut their finger and got dramatic about it’ red. Honestly, it looked ready to drip. Very atmospheric. Very horror-movie chic.
“So this is the Three-Lives Stone?” Luo Yun murmured.
“But it literally says ‘Ascend Early to the Other Shore.’ How can this be the Three-Lives Stone?” Su Miaoqing asked, puzzled.
Luo Yun exhaled slowly, his eyes fixed on the blood-red carving. “Fairy Su, the stone never bears the name "Three-Lives Stone." These four characters have always been its mark. They say it can reveal a person’s past life… Their present life… And the life yet to come.”
Su Miaoqing narrowed her eyes, and sure enough, there in the lower right corner was another line of characters:
This life bears its fruit; destiny turns; karma rises and falls.
“The Three-Lives Stone is right here. That means the Naihe Bridge must be close,” Lin Xiao said, snapping his fan shut with a satisfied grin.
Xiao Yifeng was just about to take a step forward when Elder Lingyun suddenly spotted him. In a flash, the old Daoist sprang forward.
The old man moved with stunning speed, sprinting ahead while laughing loudly: “Daoist Wu Chen! Don’t even think about claiming this stone before me!”
“Stop! Come back now!” Xiao Yifeng’s face darkened as he lunged to pull him back.
But Elder Lingyun completely misread the gesture. Thinking Xiao Yifeng was trying to snatch the treasure, he bolted forward in a flurry of robes, slapped his palm onto the stone, and cackled:
“Fellow daoist Wu Chen, don’t even think about stealing this from m—!” His laughter died instantly. Panic twisted his features.
“What… what is this!? My vital-blood—something is draining it! My spirit, my mind—everything is being sucked out! Help me! HELP!”
In the horrified eyes of the group, Elder Lingyun’s body shrank and dried like withering bark. The Three-Lives Stone drank his blood with frightening speed, leaving him frozen in place, an empty shell.
“Fellow daoist Wu Chen… What exactly is happening?” Liu Yue asked, voice tight with unease.
“The Three-Lives Stone mirrors all three of one’s incarnations,” Xiao Yifeng explained coolly. “Right now, he is trapped within his past, present, and future lives all at once. If he endures the trial, everything the Stone drained from him will return threefold, and his three lifetimes of consciousness will unite as one.”
Lin Xiao blinked in surprise. “There's actually such wonderful reward? There must be a severe risk behind it.”
Xiao Yifeng exhaled slowly. “If he fails to detach from the Stone, he will lose all sense of self. He won’t know which life he is living, or who he is meant to be. Most likely, his Dao heart will shatter. Anyone whose will isn’t unshakable will only die faster for touching the Stone.”
Moments later, the Three-Lives Stone blazed with light, flinging scenes across its surface, fragments of Lingyun’s past and present lives flashing at dizzying speed. The group caught only glimpses before they vanished.
One glance was enough to see that old daoist Lingyun’s so-called past life had been pitiful beyond words: a useless scholar, bitter to the end, crushed under a lifetime of failure. His current life flashed by next, quick, sharp, unforgiving.
It showed a man whose early years had been nothing but hardship, his family torn apart, everything taken from him, and only then did he crawl his way into the Star Sect. It was like having all his darkest secrets displayed for the whole world to watch.
His future flashed past in a single blink, but the final image lingered: his body sinking slowly, helplessly, into the depths of the River of Forgetfulness.
And his next life? He was to be reborn as a woman, plain, unwanted, bullied relentlessly by her husband’s family. Just when she finally managed to bear a child, fate snatched it away early. Her entire life, beginning to end, was misery.
Even Xiao Yifeng was like, “Mate… this stone has it out for you.” Seriously, these three lives weren’t benefits, they were a triple combo of tragedy.
When the visions of his three lifetimes finally ended, a faint trickle of life force began to seep back into Old Daoist Lingyun. But it was pitiful, barely a third of what he had poured in. He choked violently and spat out a mouthful of bright, crimson blood.
The seven bloody words-written on the Three-Lives Stone melted like candle wax, slowly reshaping into eight chilling words: “Ants struggle for life — a lifetime wasted.”
“Hahaha…” The moment Lingyun saw them, he stumbled backwards and fell, slumping onto the cold ground. His entire figure seemed to wither as if decades had passed in a breath. From his mouth came a heart-wrenching, broken laugh.
“Daoist Lingyun, are you all right!?” Liu Yue rushed forward, grabbing his arm in alarm before he toppled over completely.
“No one else can be blamed. It was my own greed,” Old Daoist Lingyun said, shaking his head with a self-mocking smile.
Watching him, Xiao Yifeng understood that his mental state had already shattered. In this lifetime, the Great Dao was likely forever out of reach. He could only sigh quietly.
“Is what’s written on the Three Lives Stone actually real?” Su Miaoqing asked.
“If you believe it’s real, then it becomes real. If you don’t, then it’s nothing more than a fabricated set of three lives made just for you. Accept them, endure them, and you’ll receive three times the return in essence, vitality, and spirit. In the end, it’s just a gamble,” Xiao Yifeng said in a low, steady voice.
This world works that way. Cultivation or not, everything was an equal exchange. To gain something, one must pay a price. There is no such thing as winning big for nothing.
The remaining people fell into a heavy silence. The reward offered by the Three Lives Stone was undeniably alluring, yet the cost of failure was frighteningly high, and whether the reward was real or not was still an open question. After all, it was nothing more than Xiao Yifeng’s word.
For a time, no one dared to step forward. Everyone remained where they stood, lost in their own thoughts.
“This Three Lives Stone is quite intriguing. I’m rather curious to try it.” To everyone’s surprise, the first to step out was Mo Shuiyao.
She glided forward with graceful steps, slowly approaching the stone. A hand as smooth as jade extended, resting gently upon the surface of the Three Lives Stone.
All eyes were fixed on her, breaths unconsciously held. Xiao Yifeng watched as well, eager to see whether the past and present lives of Mo Shuiyao’s Perfect Golden Body matched what he had witnessed in his previous life.
Pain spread across Mo Shuiyao’s lovely face as the Three Lives Stone drained her of her essence, energy, and spirit. Her strength vanished, and she had no choice but to lean weakly against the stone.
Scenes from her previous life flickered past in rapid succession. With great effort, a few fragments were caught and pieced together into a complete picture.
In her previous life, Mo Shuiyao had been the legitimate daughter of a noble family. Forced into a political marriage, she entered the imperial court and, through sheer calculation and resolve, climbed step by step to the very pinnacle, ultimately becoming a reigning empress.
She possessed everything the world could offer, yet paid for it by giving up everything she truly was.
Her early life in this world was far more straightforward. She survived in the Tender Blossom Pavilion, locked in constant intrigue and power struggles. At first, she was endlessly bullied, but after the death of the senior sister who had once protected her, her nature changed completely. From that moment on, she turned into the merciless Mo Shuiyao of today.
Her present life continued onward. Xiao Yifeng and the others only managed to glimpse her advancing to the Fusion realm; everything beyond that rushed past too quickly to grasp. Amid those fleeting scenes, they even caught a moment of her sharing drinks with Xiao Yifeng atop a towering building.
Naturally, everyone immediately started giving Xiao Yifeng weird looks. Su Miaoqing included.
Xiao Yifeng kept a straight face, though he knew full well that the Three Lives Stone was only leaking spoilers from the future. Last time around, he hadn’t bothered joining this whole Three Lives Stone craze. Still, the things shown here had actually happened in his previous life.
Then the vision shifted again, revealing her next life. That life was bleak beyond measure. Fragile and pitiful, she was reduced to a plaything for others, her beauty turning into a curse. Unlike her rise to power in her past life, this time she suffered from beginning to end, her entire existence was a tragedy.
A struggle flickered across Mo Shuiyao’s face, then slowly vanished, replaced by calm. Xiao Yifeng knew at once: she had endured it. She had passed the trial.
Sure enough, moments later, severalfold the returned essence, energy, and spirit surged back into Mo Shuiyao’s body. The four blood-red characters on the Three Lives Stone dissolved, reforming into four bold characters: “Unshakable mind, peerless talent.”
When Mo Shuiyao opened her eyes once more, the radiance within them could not be hidden. In a single leap, she advanced from the second level of the Golden Core realm to the fifth, firmly stepping into the middle stage.
A genuine smile bloomed on her face. For an instant, it was as though a hundred flowers blossomed together, leaving everyone around her dazed.
She cast Xiao Yifeng a strange, lingering glance before returning to the crowd. That glance did not go unnoticed. Su Miaoqing found herself looking at Mo Shuiyao again and again, her eyes flicking back and forth between her and Xiao Yifeng, her expression growing increasingly peculiar as she quietly wondered just what, exactly, was going on between the two.