Master, Can You Top Just Once?

Ying Wuchou is a powerful cultivator who spent his final days in a deep slumber within the Hidden Valley, using the turtle breathing technique to preserve his life while his seven disciples managed the sect. Upon waking, he discovers that fifty years have passed and his body, though healed by the accumulated points from a mysterious system that followed him back from transmigration worlds, is significantly weaker than its peak. The system, now bound to a jade slip, provides scanning and narrative functions but often reveals Ying Wuchou’s hidden desires, which he promptly suppresses. His first priority is locating a young Teng Jiao, a mythical snake beast, whose egg he had hidden before sleeping. He finds only fossilized eggshells and a single transparent scale, indicating the creature has already hatched and left the valley. Determined to raise the beast and satisfy his peculiar fascination with scales, Ying Wuchou leaves the valley to search for it.

During his search, Ying Wuchou encounters a man impersonating his youngest disciple, Ning Chengying. This imposter, who calls himself Cen Shuangluo, is actually a human child found frozen under a maple tree outside a local temple eighteen years prior. Cen Shuangluo was adopted by the Cen family but treated poorly after they had a biological child. He was later driven to the abandoned temple, where he cared for a statue that gradually took the form of Ying Wuchou due to the divine scale embedded within it. Cen Shuangluo possesses prophetic dreams that reveal future events, including Ying Wuchou’s awakening. He disguised himself as Ning Chengying to approach Ying Wuchou, intending to manipulate events so that Ying Wuchou would kill the real Ning Chengying, thereby causing him emotional distress. However, Ying Wuchou, though blind and relying on external objects for sensation, is perceptive and detects the deception. He chooses to play along, feigning blindness and weakness to gather information and observe Cen Shuangluo’s true intentions.

Ying Wuchou learns that the temple statue, which resembles him, has become a source of local superstition and is in ruins. He retrieves the missing half of the statue, which contains the scale granting him vision, restoring his sight partially. He also discovers that Cen Shuangluo’s dreams are not merely predictions but fragments of a past life or alternate reality where he was the Teng Jiao. In these dreams, he experienced life as a snake in the Hidden Valley, cherished by Ying Wuchou, before being driven away by the real Ning Chengying, who viewed him as a demon. This revelation complicates Cen Shuangluo’s motives, as he harbors a deep, conflicted attachment to Ying Wuchou, oscillating between resentment and a desire for affection.

The core conflict revolves around Ying Wuchou’s desire to return to a peaceful life with his disciples and the Teng Jiao, while Cen Shuangluo seeks to alter fate to secure Ying Wuchou’s attention and protect himself from the disasters foretold in his dreams. Ying Wuchou, unaware of the full depth of Cen Shuangluo’s past-life memories, begins to take him under his wing, treating him with a mix of masterly authority and unexpected kindness. This confuses Cen Shuangluo, who expected punishment or indifference. Meanwhile, the real Ning Chengying, unaware of the impersonation, continues his cultivation, and the other disciples remain scattered. Ying Wuchou decides to travel with Cen Shuangluo, seeking to understand the changes in the world and find the young Teng Jiao. The story moves toward a complex dynamic where Ying Wuchou’s laid-back teaching style clashes with Cen Shuangluo’s scheming nature, while the looming presence of the other disciples and the true identity of the Teng Jiao create potential for future conflict and resolution.