Volume One: Kongtong Mountain

Chapter 0001: The Dao Selection Assembly

　　In the second year of Guiyuan of the Tang Dynasty, springtime, the Reception Hall at the foot of Kongtong Mountain was especially lively.

　　The annual Dao Selection Assembly was about to begin, making the children waiting to become Daoist priests at the Reception Hall both nervous and full of anticipation.

　　Since the reign of Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji, the Tang Dynasty had suppressed Buddhism and promoted Daoism, honoring Laozi as the ancestor of the Li family, posthumously conferring upon him the title of Emperor Xuanyuan, thus ushering in the flourishing of Daoism.

　　In the third month of the first year of Tianbao, the Son of Heaven, Li Longji, visited Kongtong Mountain’s Tan Zheng Gorge, offered sacrifices to Emperor Xuanyuan Laozi at the Zixiao Heavenly Palace, and decreed that Zixiao Heavenly Palace and five other palaces be recognized as the orthodox Three Pure Ones of Kongtong Mountain, to be supported by the imperial court.

　　From then on, Zixiao Heavenly Palace and its two subordinate palaces and three temples on Kongtong Mountain received imperial stipends, had ample food and clothing, no longer worried about survival, and no longer needed to associate with other wild Daoist temples, standing proud and aloof.

　　This year was different from previous years. The An-Shi Rebellion, which had raged for many years, was about to end, and with peace in sight, Zixiao Heavenly Palace announced it would expand the number of Daoist candidates, making the children at the Reception Hall even more eager.

　　The more than three hundred children at the Reception Hall mainly came from Longyou, Hexi, and Guanzhong. Most were seven or eight years old, some from poor families hoping to join the Daoist order for a full meal, others from noble families seeking to serve under the Three Pure Ones to bring blessings and avert disasters for their clans.

　　There are dozens of Daoist temples on Kongtong Mountain, and it’s not hard to become a Daoist, but everyone wants to enter Zixiao Heavenly Palace or its two subordinate palaces and three temples, just as people in later generations would do anything to get into government jobs.

　　Every spring, the two palaces and three temples under Zixiao Heavenly Palace come to the Reception Hall to select Daoist candidates—this is a major event on Kongtong Mountain.

　　As night deepened, over a hundred children in the second dormitory were still too excited to sleep, whispering about tomorrow’s Dao Selection Assembly.

　　“I heard they’ll pick sixty people to go up the mountain tomorrow, twelve for each of the two palaces and three temples.”

　　“So what are the selection criteria?”

　　“Idiot, of course it’s based on martial aptitude—the stronger your body, the better. Isn’t it like this every year?”

　　“Then ‘Grass Cutter’ is doomed again this year, isn’t he?”

　　“He deserves it. He’s so tall but weak as a reed, faints at the slightest thing. Even the wild Daoist temples wouldn’t want him. He should have gone back to Lingzhou long ago, but he’s been hanging around here for three years—he’s got some nerve.”

　　“I heard his family won’t let him go back. If he doesn’t get picked again today, he’ll have to beg for food.”

　　“Last time, William Bolton broke his nose with a punch and he was out cold for three days. I heard he turned into an idiot after he woke up.”

　　“Ha! Now he can’t even be a beggar.” The children all laughed gloatingly.

　　At that moment, an angry shout came from the doorway, “Shut up, all of you! If you don’t sleep, let’s see how you get picked tomorrow!”

　　The dormitory instantly fell silent.

　　In the farthest corner, a child curled up. He was taller than the others, covered only by a thin, tattered blanket, sleeping fully clothed on the wooden floor. It was early spring, still cold at night, and he shivered from the chill.

　　This child was the one the others called “Grass Cutter.” His surname was Bennett, and because he was as thin as a blade of grass, everyone called him Grace Bennett, which sounds like “Grass Cutter.”

　　His full name was Samuel Bennett, eight years old this year, sent by the The Bennett Family of Lingzhou to Kongtong Mountain as a blessing child to become a Daoist. Orphaned, with no one to rely on, the The Bennett Family naturally chose him.

　　He had been at the Reception Hall for three years. The hall provided only one meal a day, and he had no money, living in constant hunger and cold. Of course he was frail. Not only did Zixiao Heavenly Palace not want him, even the wild Daoist temples wouldn’t take him—those temples struggled to survive themselves, who would want another burden?

　　According to the rules, if you weren’t chosen in three years, you had to leave. But the The Bennett Family wouldn’t let him return. If he failed again this year, he really would have to beg on the streets.

　　Samuel Bennett had always been the target of bullying and ridicule at the Reception Hall. Ten days ago, the strongest boy, William Bolton, dragged him off to be a sparring partner and broke his nose with a punch. He fainted on the spot and lay unconscious for three days.

　　But after he woke up, he seemed like a different person—unusually silent, often staring at the sky in a daze for an entire day. Everyone said he’d been beaten into an idiot.

　　But no one could have guessed that when this bullied child woke up, his body had been taken over by a soul that had crossed a thousand years.

　　……

　　It had been seven days, and Samuel Bennett still hadn’t recovered from the endless sorrow of traveling across a millennium.

　　In his previous life, at thirty-five, he was an ordinary bank clerk. A month of intense overtime had left him utterly exhausted. After coming home and lying on the sofa for a short while, he fell into endless darkness.

　　At the moment his soul left his body, he could still hear his wife and daughter’s anxious cries in his ears: “Honey, don’t scare me, wake up!”

　　“Dad, please wake up!”