Li Xuan looked up when he heard the sound. A middle-aged man in his thirties, dressed in coarse cloth, happily walked out carrying a baby.
Behind him, an elderly woman followed, also looking at the middle-aged man with joy and praising him.
"Who are you?"
Soon, the two of them saw Li Xuan standing at the door. They both froze and exchanged glances. The middle-aged man then looked at Li Xuan and asked.
"I am just a passerby. I heard the cry of a baby and came to share in the joy," Li Xuan said with a slight smile. He then shifted his gaze to the infant in the middle-aged man's arms.
Upon seeing this, Li Xuan frowned again. The baby's body was covered in handprints. A piece of coarse cloth was simply wrapped around the infant, making him look extremely pitiful.
"Since we met at this time, it means we are fated with my son. Why don't we ask this young gentleman to give our son a name?" The middle-aged man, as if he hadn't noticed Li Xuan's frown, then said with a smile.
"Yes, yes. Looking at your attire, you are definitely no ordinary person. Since we've met, please give him a name." The elderly woman behind the middle-aged man nodded and echoed with a smile.
"May I ask, what is your family surname?" Li Xuan did not refuse and then asked the middle-aged man.
"My surname is Liu. Please feel free, young sir," the middle-aged man said with a smile.
"Surname Liu... If you don't mind, let's call him Liu Kusheng." Li Xuan pondered for a moment and said.
"Liu Kusheng, Liu Kusheng. A good name. Thank you, young sir, thank you." The middle-aged man seemed very pleased with the name Li Xuan had chosen. He bowed repeatedly to Li Xuan while holding the baby.
"I hope your child will have a promising future. Farewell." Li Xuan bowed slightly to the two of them and turned around.
As Li Xuan turned, the thatched cottage behind him, along with the middle-aged man and the elderly woman, instantly vanished into the void. Then, the scene before Li Xuan's eyes changed again.
"Lord Liu Kusheng, why do you put yourself through this? It's one thing to return Mr. Li's money, but why did you have to report it to Lord He? Now, look. If you don't take it, others will. I fear both our official careers are at stake now."
Li Xuan heard this and focused his gaze. He saw a young man in his twenties, with a furrowed brow, sitting at a table, drinking bitter wine from a cup. Li Xuan noticed that the man's face bore a faint resemblance to the middle-aged man he had seen earlier.
Is it to witness the child's entire life? Li Xuan thought to himself.
As expected, Li Xuan then felt his vision darken again, and he witnessed Liu Kusheng's middle age, old age, and eventual death.
"The suffering of birth, many people do not recall. In fact, the suffering of ten months in the womb is not even worth mentioning. The pain of a six or eight-pound baby passing through the narrow birth canal at the time of birth is beyond words."
"After leaving the mother's body, stimulated by the scorching or freezing air of the outside world, and being grasped and pulled by the huge hands of the midwife, this pain is even worse than being whipped on the skin for an infant's tender skin. The baby's cry after birth is indeed caused by physical pain."
"His entire life is the suffering of birth."
After witnessing Liu Kusheng's life, Li Xuan couldn't help but sigh with emotion. At this moment, Li Xuan also had a realization: a person's life is filled with hardship. Even if they achieve great success, or live a life of poverty, they cannot escape the control of fate.
When people come into this world, they simply endure a lifetime of suffering, and finally, they die.
To escape all of this, one must possess irreversible power and control their own destiny and life.
The meaning of cultivation lies in this.
"Congratulations, you have passed this trial."
As soon as Li Xuan finished speaking, that familiar voice sounded again in his mind. Immediately, Li Xuan felt his vision darken, and the scene he saw changed again.
Upon opening his eyes, Li Xuan found himself back in the stone cave with the eight paintings. The painting depicting the suffering of birth was now radiating with brilliance.
"Huh? Someone actually succeeded in the challenge so quickly?"
On the high platform of the Endless Square, Liancheng Xue suddenly saw a spiritual light flash on a screen and looked over in surprise. The other four also focused their attention and looked up.
"He participated alone and managed to pass the trial of the suffering of birth so quickly. This shows that his understanding is very deep," said one person behind Liancheng Xue.
"Keep a close eye on this person. It would be best if we could recruit him into our Martial Domain," Liancheng Xue nodded slightly and said.
In the stone cave, Li Xuan stood up after regulating his breathing for a moment. After taking a deep breath, Li Xuan walked directly to the mural of the trial of old age and placed his palm on it.
Buzz.
As Li Xuan's palm touched it, the mural of the trial of death lit up. A white light shot out, and Li Xuan's figure disappeared from the stone cave once more.
The white light flashed, and Li Xuan opened his eyes. All he saw was emptiness. Li Xuan looked around and found no one else.
"It seems that the assessment is conducted individually and in teams." Li Xuan retracted his thoughts and tried to circulate the spiritual energy within his body, finding that he could not.
It appeared he would have to face everything from the perspective of an ordinary person.
Buzz.
At this moment, Li Xuan suddenly heard a buzzing sound. As soon as the sound began, Li Xuan looked towards its source. The surrounding emptiness, with the buzzing sound, began to change like a picture.
In a deep mountain forest, a simple thatched cottage slowly appeared before Li Xuan's eyes. Li Xuan realized that he was like watching a projection stone, looking down at the thatched cottage.
As time passed, Li Xuan learned that a young couple lived in the thatched cottage. They got along very well, and for a time, Li Xuan could not see anything amiss.
Until the young and beautiful woman became pregnant.
The scene quickly accelerated. The woman gave birth to a child, but died during childbirth. Leaving the man to raise the child by himself.
As the child grew up, the young man was no longer young. His body gradually began to gain weight and change shape, eventually growing old. Conversely, the child grew into an adult, appearing even stronger than the aging man in his youth.
Seeing this, Li Xuan's heart stirred with enlightenment. However, he was not yet certain, so he patiently continued to watch.
The scene changed again. After the child grew up, the aging man let his grown son leave the deep mountains to pursue his own life.
After his son left, the aging man often sat alone in front of the thatched cottage, basking in the sun, and sometimes sat by his wife's grave for an entire day.
Time flew by, and the cups clinked. The man grew older and older, the wrinkles on his face becoming more and more dense. Li Xuan seemed to be able to see that the man's physical structure had begun to age.
Buzz.
With a buzzing sound, the scene suddenly froze, and then changed again. The scene that appeared before Li Xuan's eyes was that of the grown-up child.
In the picture, the child was dressed in fine silk robes and seemed to be living quite well. He was constantly socializing, entertaining friends, and frequenting various lavish wine houses and tea rooms.
Moreover, he had a lot of free time. However, it seemed he had never considered going back to visit his aging father.
Li Xuan frowned slightly and saw the scene before his eyes change again, returning to the now familiar thatched cottage. The man was now extremely old, giving a sense of extreme loneliness.
Time passed again. The child had already started a family and had children of his own. However, since leaving, he had never returned to the deep mountains to see his father.
Finally, the scene froze in front of the thatched cottage. The old man often stood at the entrance, gazing in the direction his son had left, from morning to evening, from sunrise to sunset.
Time flew by, but he never waited for his son's return.
Until the day he died, his son had not returned to see him even once.
When the man died, the scene froze. A voice slowly echoed in Li Xuan's mind.
"Life is all suffering. Raising a child is for old age. What is your opinion of that child?"
"Perhaps that child has his own life. Or perhaps that child has been corrupted by the mortal world. Everyone has regrets. Perhaps the old man's death will bring a lifetime of guilt and unease to that child." Li Xuan said after a moment of silence.
"Congratulations, you have passed this trial."
As the voice faded, Li Xuan felt a wave of dizziness. When he came to his senses, he was back in the stone cave.
Li Xuan looked at the illuminated paintings on the mural, and his thoughts drifted back to the Cangmang Continent.
It seemed he hadn't been back to visit for a long time.
The next moment, a sharp glint flashed in Li Xuan's eyes. After this competition ended, he would definitely make time to go back and see.
There, he had not only his parents, but also his wife and his children.