Tang Xiaoqi deeply understood that to truly understand and respond to the "demonic heart" affliction, relying solely on desk documents and reports from various quarters was far from sufficient. He needed to personally walk into the churning red dust of mortal life, to listen, to observe, to experience the ripples and shadows germinating in the finest threads of human hearts.
Thus, after handling necessary sect affairs, he would quietly leave Qingxu Temple, seal most of his cultivation, retaining only a trace of protective spiritual awareness, and transform into an ordinary wandering doctor or a down-and-out scholar in the mundane world.
On this day, he took the form of a middle-aged doctor carrying an old medicine box, his features lean and weathered, and arrived at a remote small town at the junction of the Central Plains and the Southern Frontier. The town was called "Wang Gui"—literally "Waiting for Return"—apparently because most of the town's men had gone elsewhere to make a living, leaving women, children, and the elderly behind to wait and hope for their return, hence the name.
The town was small, with low houses and cobblestone streets, not entirely level, the air carrying a faint herbal scent mixed with the smell of damp earth. He had barely set up his stall beneath an old locust tree at the town's entrance, unfurling a banner reading "Hanging the Gourd to Save the World," when an elderly woman with flowery white hair and murky eyes, leaning on a cane, tottered over.
"Doctor… sir, are you a doctor?" The old woman's voice was hoarse, heavy with a strong accent.
"Indeed, elder. What brings you discomfort?" Xiao Qi responded gently, gesturing for the old woman to sit on the low stool before him.
But the old woman didn't speak of her illness; instead, she began rambling on endlessly: "My husband… passed away early… I only have one son, and a few years back he went south with a merchant caravan to run goods… we agreed he'd be back in three years… this is already the fifth year, with no news at all… Old Wang the diviner says he probably… probably won't be coming back…" As she spoke, tears flowed from her murky eyes, "My heart feels so blocked, I can't eat, can't sleep, I keep seeing his shadow before my eyes… Doctor, do you think he can still come back?"
Xiao Qi listened quietly without interrupting. He could clearly sense the old woman's grief, worry, and that nearly desperate obsession—almost tangible negative emotions that had already corroded her mind and affected her health. If left unchecked, she might develop heart illness, or even attract some unclean entities to cling to her.
He didn't feel her pulse; instead, he reached out and gently placed his hand on the old woman's withered hand. A trace of Green Lotus energy, imperceptible yet imbued with calming and serene meaning, like a warm current, quietly flowed into her.
"Elder," his voice was peaceful, carrying a convincing power, "your son is blessed by heaven. The Southern Frontier, though far, is not a land of no return. Perhaps he was delayed by something, perhaps he's even now on his way back. You must take care of your health. If he returns someday and sees you so haggard, wouldn't that break his heart?"
As that wisp of energy infused and his gentle words washed over her, the old woman felt a warmth spread from the back of her hand through her limbs, as if a boulder blocking her heart had loosened slightly, and her dizzy head felt a bit clearer. She stared at Xiao Qi blankly, her tears flowing even more copiously, but no longer pure despair—they carried a trace of relief and hope.
"Re-really? You're telling the truth, doctor?"
"Certainly." Xiao Qi nodded, taking some ordinary herbs for calming the spirit and purifying the heart from his medicine box, wrapping them carefully and handing them to her, "Take them as decocted on time, relax your heart, eat and sleep well. Perhaps the surprise awaits just around the corner."
The old woman thanked him profusely. When she took the herb package and left, leaning on her cane, her steps seemed a little lighter. Xiao Qi watched her receding figure, sighing inwardly. This was merely the most ordinary example—obsession and grief arising from "loss" and "waiting"—the earliest breeding ground for demonic hearts.
Over the following days, he practiced medicine throughout the town, witnessing all manner of people and hearts.
There was a wealthy household in the town, worried that family wealth would be coveted by relatives, living in constant suspicion and anxiety, unable to sleep or eat peacefully, their brow shrouded in lingering gloom (greed and suspicion).
There was a young craftsman, unable to win the love of a neighboring girl, whose unrequited love turned to hatred, even harboring evil thoughts of destroying her. He spent his days drowning his sorrows in alcohol, his eyes sometimes infatuated, sometimes malevolent (lust and resentment).
There was a martial arts hall master in the town, whose student had lost to a rival hall in a contest. Feeling his face had been lost, with anger attacking his heart, he forcefully cultivated a more brutal technique despite old injuries, damaging his meridians and causing qi and blood disorder (arrogance and anger).
And there were those ordinary folks who quarreled endlessly over trivial matters in the streets and alleys, even coming to blows—their faces written with the hardships of life and the resentment that accumulated from them (ignorance and restlessness).
These emotions, individually perhaps insignificant, but gathered together, formed a suffocating and oppressive atmosphere pervading the entire town.
Xiao Qi, in his identity as a doctor, while using ordinary medical skills to cure people's ailments, also used that wisp of Green Lotus energy to subtly calm and guide these people's overly intense negative emotions. He could dissolve the old woman's pent-up grief, slightly quell the rich man's baseless suspicion, guide the young craftsman to release his extreme obsession, advise the martial hall master to face gains and losses correctly… but he knew this was merely treating symptoms.
As long as the roots causing these emotions—displacement after war, scarcity of resources, uncertainty about the future, lack of education—remained, seeds of demonic hearts would continue sprouting.
He also saw, in the barren fields outside the town, farmers kneeling and praying, their eyes desperate, as drought left no rain; in the dilapidated earth deity temple, a woman whose child was critically ill and had no money for treatment, kowtowing frantically, placing her hopes in some intangible deity…
All this gave him a deeper recognition of the difficulty in "purifying the human heart." This was not merely about soothing individual negative emotions; it required changing the soil in which these emotions grew—a massive and complex social system involving resources, institutions, education, faith, and all other aspects.
Several days later, when he was preparing to leave Wang Gui Town, that same old woman was actually waiting at the town entrance with a basket of eggs, her face wearing a rare, genuine smile that had been absent for a long time: "Doctor! Sir! By your blessing, I dreamed of my son last night—he said he was coming back soon! Really coming back soon!"
Xiao Qi looked at the light rekindled in her eyes, his heart warming slightly. He knew it was perhaps merely a dream, but this hope itself was the best medicine against despair. He accepted the eggs, gifted the old woman an ordinary wooden talisman he had carved himself, imbued with a trace of tranquility, and instructed her to keep it on her person.
Leaving the small town, rising once more on his sword, looking down upon that vast land struggling between hardship and hope, Tang Xiaoqi's state of mind grew increasingly solemn.
This journey into the mortal world allowed him to witness personally how demonic hearts germinated and spread from the finest origins. It also made him more certain that the compilation of the "Scripture of World Purification" must not be a castle in the air; it must be grounded in profound understanding of the ten thousand aspects of this red dust.
The future road of enlightenment remained long. But his dao heart was firm, and he had no intention of retreating. Having chosen this path, he would walk it step by step, beginning with purifying one person's heart, until he illuminated an entire world.
This practice of entering the mortal world to investigate demonic hearts was merely a beginning.