Chapter 63

“The stone in my quarters? Are you sure you didn’t get it wrong?” Cheng Qian asks in a slightly doubtful tone.

After the group returned from Vermilion Bird Tower, they remain at that tavern in the small town bordering Nanjiang. Yan Zhengming carefully selects the details of what he saw in the sect leader seal, leaves out the part that shouldn’t be mentioned, and tells the story to the others.

“Back then I used it as a table to copy the scripture whenever the weather got hot. I found nothing strange about it,” Cheng Qian shakes his head. “Isn’t it just a stone with a rather flat surface? I thought it was at most a jade with decent size.”

Puddle curiously asks, “Does a stone that can grant you your wish really exist in this world? Third Brother, what did you think about when you used as a table to copy the scripture? Did it become reality?”

Cheng Qian: “…”

Back then, he only wondered if that stone was worth some money. In his thought, if Fuyao Sect went bankrupt, they could bring it down the mountain, found someone to carve it to something that could be sold.

… Looks like that idea couldn’t become reality.

With some difficulty, Cheng Qian keeps his face casual like there were nothing, and said calmly, “Of course I had to get rid of all irrelevant thoughts when copying the scripture. What could I even think about?”

Hearing that, Puddle is full of admiration. She herself can never keep her mind clear and free from all distractions.

Li Yun cuts in. “Back then your Third Brother was a little more than ten years old. What could he think about? At most it was to have good handwriting, to make progress in his swordplay, to be able to reach qi absorption soon, that the incense burner that was our most senior brother stayed well away from him… Ow, sect leader and senior brother, I don’t mean it.”

Under the knife-sharp gaze of Yan Zhengming, Li Yun forces out a smile and changes the topic. “There can be only one such miraculous stone that exists in this world from the primordial times. It certainly won’t respond to such trivial things. I think, the so-called ‘wish’ to be ‘granted’ must be something extraordinary that is beyond human capability.”

“Stop showing off,” Yan Zhengming interrupts him. “If you truly know so much, then tell me what is the ‘Three Lives mystic site’?”

“Sneer at me a bit less, won’t you. I really have heard about that,” Leaning a little into this chair, Li Yun raises his chin a little and says smugly, “In this world, there are three thousand greater mystic sites, six thousand lesser mystics sites. Unless they are found out by accident, most people don’t know about them. The earliest record of the ‘Three Lives mystic site’ is in ‘Diabolism’....”

“‘Diabolism’?” Cheng Qian is surprised. “The chronicle that was carved all over the walls in the first floor of the library tower? I’ve read it already when I was young. It didn’t mention any mystic site.”

“Let me finish first. Most of ‘Diabolism’ records the heterodox techniques, which aren’t that interesting. But its final volume is called ‘Unusual Affairs’. You definitely haven’t read it,” Li Yun sways his head a little as he speaks. “The ‘Unusual Affairs’ volume is really fascinating. It records many stories about great demonic cultivators, revenge, hatred born from love, deception… that kind of things. Some of them have really good writing.”

Cheng Qian doesn’t get what he is so smug about.

Li Yun says, “In that volume, there is an account of the ‘Three Lives mystic site’. This mystic site appears every three thousand years. The path that leads to it isn’t easy to find, because it’s only opened to the fated person. The issue is, other mystic sites harbour great dangers to the one who finds them, but also grant that person great boons. The ‘Three Lives mystic site’ is special in that it causes all of the ‘fated’ people to go mad. It is said that inside this mystic site is a mirror that tells you about the end of the person or the matter you care the most about.”

Puddle asks, “The end?”

These words sound rather ominous, like the person in question won’t get to live to old age.

Li Yun nods. “Yeah. For example, the person who tries everything to achieve immortality will see themself old and about to die. You will have to see with your own eyes the opposite result of what you wish for the most. Anyone can guess what that feels like. It sounds like nothing, but once you yourself are inside, you can’t avoid being moved by the vision.”

Yan Zhengming frowns. “It seems that the ‘fated one’ that this mystic site chooses has a problem themselves, doesn’t it?”

His own speculation on what happened is quite similar to this scenario. For some unknown reason, their disciple grandfather Tong Ru got lost in the Three Lives mystic site. According to the conversation, what he saw was definitely the end of Fuyao Sect’s lineage. He then paid a visit to the lord of the Vermilion Bird Tower Xu Yingzhi, who apparently divined a bad future.

Afterwards, Tong Ru acquired the Wish-Granting Stone by some means. Although the great yao in the Valley of the Yao and Lord Gu tried to stop him, he insisted on his plan to the point of going into qi deviation, which had many consequences. Finally, just as Xu Yingzhi predicted, against his wish, Tong Ru caused the end of Fuyao Sect’s lineage himself.

“Second Brother, you really know everything,” Puddle comments. She immediately changes the topic. “But when will you turn me back to a human?”

Li Yun says, “About this…”

Yan Zhengming too annoyedly asks, “And what about the weeds you’ve gathered? It’s enough to keep goats. Have you made the anti-poison pills yet?”

Li Yun says, “I…”

“Then get to it, quickly!” Having yelled that, Yan Zhengming pushes the chair to one side and goes away, leaving behind these words. “I’m taking a nap. Don’t disturb me.”

The temper of their sect leader is palpable in every word, making the other three look at each other in confusion.

Puddle hears the sound of the door closing as she shakes the dust off her feathers. Not understanding what’s going on, she jumps on the table and asks, “Who pissed him off?”

Her two senior brothers both try to push the blame on each other with the ‘was it you?’ stare.

Finally, Cheng Qian is the one that is swayed by his conscience first. Rubbing his nose, he says with some embarrassment. “It’s probably me.”

Puddle and Li Yun ask at the same time, “What did you do again?”

To tell the truth, Cheng Qian is even more at a loss than the two of them. Suddenly, their most senior brother stops acknowledging his presence. He doesn’t look at him or continue his line of thinking. When they talk, Yan Zhengming looks in a different direction or pretends to be deep in thought. In short, he acts like Cheng Qian didn’t exist at all.

When entering the room, Cheng Qian intentionally sits next to him. As it turns out, his strange-acting sect leader and senior brother sits primly with a face so tense his skin can be used to make a belt. The posture has ‘stay away’ written all over it. All that is lacking is him hiding his face behind his fan and saying, “I sell my wares but not myself”.

The other three look at each other. As what they can see on each other’s face is only ‘something is wrong with our sect leader again’ or ‘our sect leader is always acting up’, they have to give up.

Li Yun goes into seclusion for two days and creates several jars of anti-poison pills. It’s unclear what they can be used for, but it’s better to have them than not. In these two days, Puddle senses that the hidden force that has been obstructing her from transforming back to human is gradually falling apart, so she tries her best to cultivate in her bird body, working much harder than when she is human.

Sect Leader Yan spends his days not leaving his room. No one even sees him. All communication is through the door.

It’s nothing new that his most senior brother throws a tantrum for no apparent reason. He has had this bad habit since he was young. Cheng Qian’s usual solution is to quietly concentrate on his own cultivation and not pay attention to him, because he will be normal again by himself after a couple of days.

However, this time, Cheng Qian can’t ignore it. He turns over again and again what Li Yun told him under the True Dragon Flag.

In the end, Cheng Qian quietly stands up and scans the spotless room and the cold water on the table, feeling that he himself is pathetic. He turns to open the door and lands outside Yan Zhengming’s room. His movement is so light that not a single leaf or a grain of dust is disturbed, as he sits on the slightly curved roof.

That year, the moon isn’t completely full on Mid-Autumn. In the clear night sky of Nanjiang, the moon is so bright that it hurts the eyes a little to look at it for too long. Whether it’s the mountains in the distance or the trees nearby, everything is a vague shadow.

When they were living on Fuyao Mountain in their childhood, when Mid-Autumn came, their Master would take them to pay respects to the ancestors and bow to the moon like it had been a children’s game. Then he would take them to the Hall of Ignorance, where the fruits and sweets would be divided. Their most senior brother thought of himself as being grown-up, so he regularly asked their Master to be allowed to drink the newly made wine. However, their Master tricked him like a child and lined the cup with a little wine before filling it with cassia tea, then gave it to him and told him that it was really cassia wine.

Afterwards, this childish habit was kept by their most senior brother on Azure Dragon Island. Whenever he drank wine, he would always line the cup with cassia tea first. Otherwise, it wouldn’t taste right to him.

In the endless path of cultivation, the holidays every year are like benchmarks, after which the affairs before seem to turn to the next page.

However, when Cheng Qian recalls these details, he feels that these old memories always seem to be behind a curtain, as if he were gazing at flowers through a thick fog.

He realises that his blood has gone cold.

Cheng Qian suddenly jumps down from the roof.

At that moment, the owner, who is advanced in age, has gone to bed. There is only his daughter, who is doing the books. She is startled when Cheng Qian suddenly appears in front of her. His annoying habit to ignore other people has made a strong impression on her, so she is a little afraid to talk to him. She timidly approaches him and asks, “Young Master, what do you need me for?”

“Oh…” As the words reach his lips, Cheng Qian feels a little silly. He hesitates on the spot for a few seconds, then smiles with some self-mockery and takes out a few coins. “Miss, please buy me these things.”

A short while later, Cheng Qian takes two jars of wine and an oil paper package, then knocks on Yan Zhengming’s door.

An impatient voice flies out. “I’m in seclusion. What are you kicking a fuss up for?”

This is the first time Cheng Qian sees someone who goes into seclusion so haphazardly.

He stands quietly outside for a while, thinking, “Why do I have to stand on ceremony with him like this?”

Looking back, when has he knocked on the door of Yan Zhengming’s room so politely? When has he soothed Yan Zhengming so carefully?

“Can I too be afraid?” Cheng Qian thinks.

Then, he draws a line with his finger and easily opens the mortal door of this tavern. Cheng Qian leisurely lifts the hem of his robe and enters the room in full view without any hesitation. While Yan Zhengming is gaping, he casually puts the wine and the package on the table as if it were his own place, then says, “Haven’t you had enough yet?”

Yan Zhengming: “…”

Still sitting crossed-legs, Sect Leader Yan blinks a few times like he were dreaming. He stares at the wine jar and the oil paper package and asks with some confusion, “What are those?”

Cheng Qian glances at him and opens the oil paper package, revealing some crudely-made cakes. Then, he opens one of the wine jars, causing the alcohol scent to waft out. The other jar is full of sugary water. Worrying that the sugar hasn’t fully dissolved yet, Cheng Qian shakes the jar carefully. He mixes the two liquids together, then tells Yan Zhengming. “Come and eat.”

Yan Zhengming says, “I don’t want your charity.”

Cheng Qian replies, “You really don’t want it?”

Yan Zhengming falls silent for a while, then walks to him without any spirits.

Cheng Qian stands up, saying, “Let me call the others.”

“Hey,” Yan Zhengming pulls him back. “No need to call them. They’ve been busy these days. Besides… after you died, we didn’t have the habit of celebrating holidays. Sit down and drink a cup with me.”

Cheng Qian hesitates a little, then sits down at the table. He watches Yan Zhengming fill two cups with the wine then put one cup in front of him. “Can you drink it?”

“Yes,” Cheng Qian nods, “It’s just that I haven’t drunk alcohol for a long time.”

From the other side of the table, Yan Zhengming fixes his gaze on Cheng Qian’s face. Under the bright full moon, Cheng Qian has the insistent feeling that his most senior brother’s gaze is unusually deep.

Yan Zhengming says, “From what I can see, you only drink clear water, so I think you can’t drink or eat anything else because of your cultivation.”

Cheng Qian pauses a little, then says casually, “I formed my primordial spirit in the Spirit Collection Jade, so I was created without the need for food. Good food and wine easily cause the desire to eat, so they disturb the mind, which can be fatal when encountering a heavenly tribulation. Therefore, I have to give up all those unnecessary things.”

In the end, cultivators all have mortal origin. Desires of the flesh follow them all their lives, especially eating, which is a lifelong habit. Even if they can practice inedia, most cultivators still maintain the habit from their mortal lives, if they don’t have to purify their bodies when their cultivation reaches an important junctures, or when they are working to acquire a technique that requires such abstinence.

Yan Zhengming nods. There are so many things he wants to say to Cheng Qian, but he doesn’t know where to start, so he can only focus on drinking.

Cheng Qian takes a small sip of the wine in the cup. It’s wine in name, but the truth is that the alcoholic taste has been completely overcome by the taste of the sugar water. As the sharp sweetness flies up to his forehead, Cheng Qian is overwhelmed for a moment. He presses his lips together and puts the cup down. It takes a while for the sweetness in his mouth to fade, which seems to wake up his rusty senses.

From his chest, a flow of warmth joins his veins. Shaking a little, Cheng Qian feels again the sensation of being human, which has disappeared for a long time.

Yan Zhengming asks out of nowhere, “Xiao-Qian, you are so strict with yourself like that, is it because you too are seeking the Path of Heaven to reach immortality?”

Not knowing where this comes from, Cheng Qian is at a loss a little. Then he replies. “I’ve never thought about it.”

Yan Zhengming tilts his head and looks at him.

Cheng Qian says, “Our Master once said, ascension and death aren’t different from each other at all. I didn’t understand it back then, but now, after I’ve thought about it, in both cases, all our relationships in this life have to end, without meeting each other again. The Path of Heaven is narrow like that, so why should we spend all our efforts for it? It’s better to live our best, so that everyone is happy together.”

Yan Zhengming asks in a soft voice, “Be… with us forever?”

“Why not?” After so many years of being away from the hustle bustle of life, Cheng Qian gets warmed up after only a mouthful of the faintest ‘cassia wine’. He suddenly grasps Yan Zhengming’s wrist over the table and says in a low voice. “Senior brother, I know why you’re troubled.”

Yan Zhengming’s hand shakes, nearly spilling the wine on the table, as his body immediately stiffens. After a while, he annoyedly shrugs off Cheng Qian’s hand and complains, “We’re all adults already. Stop touching me so willy-nilly.”

Perhaps thanks to the sweet water, the frowning face of Yan Zhengming finally eases up. He sighs. “As long as you’re all happy, I have nothing to be troubled about. Especially you.”

Cheng Qian rubs his fingertips against the wine cup and smiles. “I know.”

“What do you know, really?” Yan Zhengming laughs out loud and shakes his head. As he picks up one of the cakes Cheng Qian brings to him, the anxiety in his heart suddenly calms down a little. He feels that there is nothing bad about the current situation. Whatever happens, Cheng Qian won’t go anywhere. He will wander with Yan Zhengming to all corners of the world, as they look for a way to return to Fuyao Mountain together. Why should Yan Zhengming demand anything more then?

As Yan Zhengming’s troubles in the past days gradually withdraw to a corner, he rolls the rough outer layer of the cake in his fingers. Not losing his old bad habits, he says, “Hey, you peasant, how much did you spend on the cakes? They’re so tough they can be used as weapons. How can you eat these?”

Cheng Qian says with a grin, “If you don’t like it then don’t eat it. You’re so fussy.”

Having said that, he takes his cup and finishes the sugary water laced with a bit of wine in one gulp.

As soon as the wine reaches his throat, Cheng Qian immediately feels that something is wrong. Unfortunately, he can’t spit it out, no matter how much he regrets it. Before Yan Zhengming can reply, he sees that Cheng Qian suddenly freezes, then reaches out his hand to grab at something, as if he can’t sit firmly. Before he can catch the edge of the table, he collapses without any warning.

As it turns out, this brat made from the Spirit Collection Jade goes down after just one cup!

Unfortunately, under the bright Mid-Autumn moon, not everyone can be so peaceful.

In the past days, the entourage of the spoiled brat has been doing almost everything to search for their young master, who went missing without any apparent reason.

In Mid-Autumn night, the Vermilion Bird Tower is surrounded by excitement, as the crowd impatiently waits for the moon to reach the top of the tower. However, in front of a luxurious flying horse carriage, two cultivators with primordial spirits are worriedly waiting for the result of their subordinates’ investigation.

A middle-aged man hastily approaches the two elders. Shaking his head with a heavy face, he says in a low voice, “Senior, there is still no news. Our young master insisted on getting into Vermilion Bird Tower. Do you think he sneaked in behind those people?”

An elder shakes his head. “Don’t you know what our young master’s cultivation is like? Even if he brings rare artifacts with him, he doesn’t have the ability to sneak in the Vermilion Bird Tower as he wishes. Continue to search for him! Alas, as our young master left home at a whim, our master ordered me to protect him carefully…”

Before he finishes his speech, the crowd makes a startled noise. At the moment Vermilion Bird Tower opens every year, the ferocious heat around the tower immediately cools down. With a loud clang, the door to the tower opens. However, no one goes out from there. There is only a cloud of dark energy swirling inside.

Someone says, “Look, Vermilion Bird Tower seems a bit strange this year…”