Legend of the Great Sage

hed out of the crowd and returned with a bundle with the silver pieces very soon, handing it over to him.

He gazed at the pieces of silver that glistened under the moonlight.
He placed the rock in his hand in there before suddenly standing up.
The crowd fell silent, and all of them just looked at him.

He looked around and decided on a direction, making his way out of the village.

The crowd was stunned by his deranged demeanour, afraid to stop him.
They parted to the two sides and watched as he vanished under the moonlight.

Big brother Li and the sister-in-law wanted to stop him, but they suddenly stopped, and a strange expression filled their faces.

In the beginning, his footsteps were very heavy.
He was at a loss as for where he was trying to go, but gradually, his footsteps became lighter and faster.
He used the brilliant moonlight to follow the small path that had almost been swallowed by the wild grass, striding away into the night.

He walked for an entire night and reached the town.
The sky had already lit up.
He stood in front of a butcher’s shop, and the huge head of an ox with a horn missing hung on the meat rack.
The eyes of the ox bulged, having lost their usual lustre already, just shining with a murky light.
Flies buzzed around it as if they were trying to add a few boring obituaries to the death of this ordinary beast.

However, he could clearly sense the murky eyes were looking at him with that familiar, moist gaze.
Suddenly, he felt his face moisten.
Before he had even realised it, his cheeks were already covered with tears.

“Little brother, would you like to buy some meat? We just butchered a great, strong ox yesterday.
There’s still a lot of meat left!” the owner of the butcher shop asked in a rather uncertain manner.

He pointed at the ox’s head.

A while later, he left under the butcher shop owner’s confused gaze.
He welcomed the glow of dawn.
The sun scattered a layer of light on his tall figure.
He carried the large head of an ox on his back.

The ox head was very heavy, weighing down on his body together with the rock in the bundle.
The dream no longer seemed to drift anymore.
It began to bear weight.
It began to clear up!

Time slipped by.
The stars shifted.

The young man became an adult, and the adult became an old man.
He wandered through the world, but what he saw in his dream never happened.
However, he refused to give up, continuing to search and search!

Finally, he arrived at the top of a mountain and stopped one day.
His figure that had once stood tall was now hunched over, while his clothes had been reduced to tatters.
The ox head on his back was just a skull, and the white stone had been polished smooth, except they weighed even heavier than in the past.

He looked back, gazing at the path he had taken to reach here.
In the past, he had numerous opportunities to stop and enjoy a peaceful, happy life, but he did not.
He braved the hardships of life with absolutely nothing in the end.

He could not help but think that perhaps he should not have come out.
Perhaps he had already lost his mind several decades ago.
As a result, he saw Crouching Ox village again.
He saw himself who was also up in years, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, enjoying his final years in peace.

Did he regret it?

He removed the yellowing ox skull from his back with his old hands and slowly wore it over his head.
He touched it with one hand as he fished out the white rock that had been warmed up by his body with the other.
He stared at it for a very long while before suddenly laughing.
He laughed more and more loudly, with violent coughing mixed in.
He coughed up blood that dyed his snow-white beard red.

With a thump, the laughter halted.
He fell backwards and gazed at the sky.
He said, “Regret my ass!”

Death surged through him, making him sink into endless darkness.
Suddenly, a butterfly flew through the endless darkness with an indescribable blend of colours, shedding pigments that were just as indescribable that dyed this black curtain.