I Returned to the Immortal’s Youth — Chapter 14: Green Maple V

Zixiao’s memory was set at a cultivator banquet.

Countless flowers bloomed on the lush mountains, as if a flowing wind was erasing the snow.

Xie Shiyi walked down from a high platform, his raven-black hair falling down like silk, and his sleeves like clouds.

His cultivation was at the peak of Soul Formation. He could easily control even the secret realm, so it was simple for him to make the time inside freeze.

The cultivator banquet was a merry scene. The Jing sisters had hair like clouds and mist, their beauty incomparable. The cultivator guests around them raised their glasses, drinking and chatting cheerfully.

But Xie Shiyi’s snow-white robes were undyed by dust. Where he walked, the vision dissolved like smoke, inch by inch.

Yan Qing: “......”

He had just remembered the matter of Blackwater Lake and Godfall Field from his last life.

Now that he saw Xie Shiyi again, he couldn’t  help but sigh. The man really had changed a great deal.

In his childhood, Xie Shiyi was colder and more taciturn than now, but back then, he was more like an awkward yet proud wolf cub. He purposefully covered himself with cold spikes, and though he stiffened his face, you knew that his heart was filled with joy and sorrow. 

Once he grew up, this feeling of alienation broke apart on the surface, instead seeping into the depths of his soul.

He could no longer understand his thoughts.

Yan Qing’s gaze landed on the sword Regretless in his hand. Regretless was an ancient divine weapon, filled with light as cold as frost.

Xie Shiyi said calmly, “It’s you?”

Yan Qing froze for a moment, then thought of a good line in a flash. He stood there dumbly for a second, then the light of hope burst forth from his eyes. Hot tears filled his eyes, and he said, crying from happiness, “That’s right, that’s right, it’s me, Venerable Immortal! Venerable Duwei, it’s great that I was able to see you here. I thought I was going to die here.” 

Xie Shiyi was completely indifferent to his idiotic performance. He asked, “How did you get in here?”

Yan Qing squeezed out false tears, bringing Trouble out of his sleeve. He said bitterly, “Venerable Immortal, I’m fed up with this. This beast dragged me in here. I got lost, so I was walking here blindly, and then I found I couldn’t get out! I’m furious!”

Trouble: “......”

Trouble was angry, but didn’t dare to speak!!!

As soon as he knew that the man in front of him was called Xie Ying, he wished he was a rock.

Xie Shiyi sheathed his sword and looked down, his cold gaze sweeping past master and servant. He said nothing, continuing to walk forward.

Yan Qing kept his character setting in mind, following closely behind with Trouble in his arms. “Venerable Immortal, wait for me, don’t leave me here behind. Venerable Immortal, how do I get out of here?”

Xie Shiyi must have entered the Void Comprehension secret realm in order to find something as well. 

When a powerful person like him traveled through the Void Comprehension secret realm, it was completely different from when Yan Qing did.

As of now, Yan Qing’s cultivation was low, so he could only look through Zixiao’s memories one scene at a time. He relied completely on luck to find the right place.

But Xie Shiyi was different.

He was cold and forceful. If it wasn’t the memory he wanted, he simply shattered it.

Yan Qing: “......”

How ruthless.

Was this the difference between them?

Yan Qing knew the answer, but he still asked, “Venerable Immortal, is this the path to the exit?”

Xie Shiyi ignored him.

Yan Qing obediently went quiet. Holding Trouble, he looked left and right.

The following memories were of Zixiao ridding the earth of yao and demons. Zixiao’s temper was easy to spark. Skyrage slaughtered endlessly throughout the land, yet was still unsatisfied. He killed disloyal, unrighteous, malicious and ignorant people. His manner of action was thunderous. He hated evil with a passion, and lived like fire and wind.

A iron-blooded, imposing man like this only silently gave way to that girl in the aquamarine dress. 

Later on, Yan Qing learned who she was.

The woman in blue was called Jing Ruyu, the young daughter of the Driftflower Sect leader. She had a twin older sister named Jing Ruchen.

The two memories of Zixiao that Xie Shiyi watched from beginning to end both had to do with Jing Ruyu.

There was no bone-deep love, only two days of rain.

On the first rainy day, Jing Ruyu stood in front of Zixiao’s cave dwelling, holding an oil-paper umbrella. Her robes were embroidered at the hem with pure white. In the swelling mist, her sleeves looked like clouds floating through the waves. Jing Ruyu’s pale, slender fingers wrapped around the umbrella handle, her figure trembling slightly, like a leaf drifting in the wind.

She said, mostly to herself, her teeth chattering, “Senior, my mother yelled at me again today.” 

“My mother said I harbored evil in my heart, and never put my mind to cultivation. She slapped me and insulted me in front of a crowd of elders, humiliating me in front of countless people.” 

“But I don’t know what I did wrong. How did I harbor evil in my heart?!” 

“I cultivate day and night, and never dare to slack off for a second. My aptitude is low, and my talent can’t compare to my sister. Does that mean all my hard work is a joke?”

As Jing Ruyu spoke, the rims of her eyes reddened.

“Why? Why?”

“Why is it that just because I was born a moment later, there’s such a great gap between us?!”

“Jing Ruyu is the future leader of Driftflower Sect, a proud daughter of heaven held in high regard. Everyone says she’s gentle, generous and graceful. And I’m just a clown in Driftflower Sect. No matter whether it’s my mother or the elders, no one thinks I can compare to my sister. Jing Ruchen, Jing Ruchen, why is Jing Ruchen so wonderful?! Why do I have to suffer this kind of torment—why?!”

Zixiao’s cave had a grove of green maples growing before it. The green maples were lush and tender, crystal-clear drops of rainwater dripping from the corners of their leaves and onto her hair. Jing Ruyu’s eyes were scarlet. With a crash, she threw away the umbrella in her hand and knelt in the grove of maples. Her frail figure was like a butterfly in the rain.

“Senior…”

Jing Ruyu sobbed softly.

“Senior, help me, help me. I really have nowhere to go. I don’t know what I’m going to do. There’s no one I can trust in Driftflower Sect. My mother and the elders don’t like me. Senior…Senior…please help me.”

This was Zixiao’s memory, so it played out from Zixiao’s point of view. He stood in the cave dwelling, looking silently at the girl crying in the rain. She covered her face, her black hair scattering, fragile and pitiful.

He saw that at the moment she raised her head, the rain rolled past the tiny mole on her nose. It was the same as the familiar figure in his memory.

Even the girl’s pitiful, trembling voice overlapped with his sister’s clear smile in his memory.

She was a girl with her hair in twin braids, who had clear eyes. She would run toward him barefoot in the mountain village filled with green maples. Her eyes were filled with admiration, and her laughter was soft as silver bells as she called out, “Gege.” 

He held a machete year-round, so his hands were filled with callouses. Afraid of hurting the young child’s delicate skin, he would clumsily wrap his sleeves around his hands before stroking her face.

“Gege.” 

“Senior…”

“Gege, you’re finally back.”

“Senior, help me!”

Zixiao suddenly opened his eyes, and they surged with wild pain. He was fierce, quiet and taciturn in appearance, and the scar on his face was as stubborn as the rebellious bone in his body. Ever since he was small, he was like a vicious ghost. Everyone feared him as soon as they saw him. Only his family wouldn’t reveal fear and disgust toward him, instead showing him warm smiles. 

But he had personally buried this warmth.

On the night that he killed his father, mother and the rest of his family, it seemed he had cut his own soul to a thousand pieces as well. Afterwards, every rainy night, the chill seeped through his pores into his bones.

For the rest of his life, he walked onward with a tombstone on his back.

For the rest of his life, he could never escape that bloody nightmare.

The green maple leaves on the trees rustled, drifting down onto the ground.

Jing Ruyu was still crying with her face in her hands. Suddenly, through a crack in her fingers, she saw a pair of black boots embroidered with violet thunderclouds. Startled, her sobs gradually ceased. She slowly opened her hands, looking up among the the dense maple trees and the slanted wind and rain. Her features were full of surprised joy. “Senior…”

Zixiao didn’t speak. When his face was expressionless, it was violent as a death god. Without anger, his eyes were still imposing. His gaze on Jing Ruyu was cold, without a trace of love or hatred, nor did it see someone else in her place.

But he had still walked outside, like a member of the living dead. 

Jing Ruyu stood up from the mud in joy, reaching out and tightly seizing Zixiao’s sleeve. The grievance in her eyes had not yet dissipated, but intense hatred was already flowing from them.

She was like a little girl acting spoiled with her big brother. “Senior, help me.” 

“She looks down on me, belittles me and wishes I would go to hell. If she doesn’t die, then the one who dies will be me. Senior, help me, save me.” 

“Senior, help me.” 

“Senior?”

“Gege!!!”

The green maples shattered into fragments in the air.

This rainy scene had no conclusion. The scene froze on Jing Ruyu leaning forward, tugging at his sleeve. 

The grove of green maples was quiet. Zixiao held Skyrage, his back like a rusty blade, dull and silent. 

***

Yan Qing whistled at heart.

He was a poor little Qi Refining cultivator, so he was really taking advantage of Xie Shiyi’s presence to personally see the passions and vengeances of the influential figures of the nine great sects. If you threw him into the Southluster continent alone, he’d have to start out as an outer disciple. He wouldn’t be able to so much as see Jing Ruyu, let alone know these secrets of the past.

Trouble poked his head out and said curiously, “No, didn’t this girl have a good relationship with her sister? They boarded the flying ship hand in hand before.” 

Yan Qing said at heart, “Stupid bird, you don’t know a thing. There’s plenty of complicated relationships in the world.” 

Yan Qing held onto the bat and looked to the side, taking a stealthy glance at Xie Shiyi.

Xie Shiyi stood beside him, holding Regretless, looking at the scene in profile. His eyelashes were like raven feathers, and his nose seemed carved from jade. His gaze passed through the green maple grove and landed on Jing Ruyu with his habitual arrogant, cold, indifferent yet dangerous expression. 

Yan Qing was surprised to discover that Xie Shiyi’s eyelashes were slightly longer than they were in his childhood. 

Before he could think on it longer, he suddenly met Xie Shiyi’s eyes.

Xie Shiyi said, “Have you finished looking at me?”

Yan Qing: “???”

“I-I’m finished looking.” Yan Qing swallowed his saliva. Remembering his character setting, he said belatedly, “Venerable Immortal, where is this place? Who are these people?”

Xie Shiyi clasped his sword and asked him mildly, “What did you come in here to find?”

Yan Qing had learned his lesson. Now that he was conversing with Xie Shiyi, no matter how light the atmosphere, he didn’t dare to be careless. He said foolishly, “Ah? You’re asking me, Venerable Immortal? I came here to find the way out, of course. I was really worried to death over not being able to find the right path.” 

Xie Shiyi’s steps paused, and he glanced at Yan Qing behind him. In fact, no matter who Xie Shiyi looked at, his gaze would always carry a trace of interrogation. It was probably a habit that came from staying at Azurejade Palace for so long. His clear, dark eyes held a layer of ice, hidden beneath bottomless danger. 

Yan Qing’s nerves were stretched taut. For a moment, he didn’t pay attention to the amount of force he was clutching Trouble’s wings with. Trouble was in so much pain his eyes almost popped out.

Xie Shiyi stood silently among the green maples and thin rain, and seemed to smile for a moment. His smile shattered in the snow. His tone was cold. 

“Do you think I won’t kill you?”

Yan Qing’s face was utterly white. He stammered, “What? Venerable Immortal, y-y-you want to kill me?”

Xie Shiyi looked at him expressionlessly, then left with a flick of his sleeves. Only the collapsing memory was left behind.

The entire grove of green maples before Zixiao’s cave dwelling turned to smoke and clouds with a rumble once he passed. The maple leaves fell from their branches with a rustle. Yan Qing didn’t want to be buried under green rain, so he could only quickly follow Xie Shiyi, holding onto Trouble.

Yan Qing cursed a long stream in his heart. 

He didn’t even dare to speak loudly here, while Xie Shiyi simply destroyed the place wherever he went. Was this the willfulness of the powerful? He was so jealous he ground his teeth.

The second rainy scene in Zixiao’s memory also had to do with Jing Ruyu. After his parents died, Zixiao became a silent killing machine. He wasn’t close to his sect, and lived in his own world, holding his machete and carrying the tombstone, walking to every corner of the world. 

The only reason Jing Ruyu was able to appear in his world was the mole on the tip of her nose. 

This time, when Jing Ruyu arrived, it seemed like she was in a great mood. She was still wearing an aquamarine dress, but she no longer carried an umbrella and acted pitiful.

The rain dripped down from the green eaves like broken threads.

Jing Ruyu walked as softly as if she were stepping on lotus leaves, winding through the corridor with a chain around her. Today she had no makeup on, but that only made her appearance more bewitching.

Jing Ruyu stood before Zixiao’s door, but didn’t knock. She just stood outside and called out for him with a smile. 

“Senior.” 

Zixiao had never liked to interact with her. Sitting in his room, the candlelight flickered through the window paper, illuminating his cross-legged figure. He didn’t move an iota. 

Jing Ruyuu expected that he would refuse to let her in. She wasn’t surprised at all.

“Senior, I came to say goodbye.” 

She stretched out a pale, slender hand, tracing something on the door.

Her fingernails were painted with red polish. With her every movement, it was as if the bloody light of a sword rose and fell. 

Jing Ruyu smiled slightly and said, “Thank you, Senior, for taking care of me and helping me for so many years.” 

“Three days later, I’ll become the next head of Driftflower Sect. I won’t bother you anymore after that.” 

When she mentioned this, she pressed her forehead against the door, smiling to herself. Light flowed through her eyes, as if she were sighing yet rejoicing. 

“Not long ago, in Driftflower Sect, Alioth Palace caught fire.” 

“My sister was trapped in the palace, and the scarlet spiritual fire burned out her eyes and burned off her legs. Her dantian was destroyed, so she could never cultivate again.” 

“My sister thought she was already ruined, and was no longer worthy of the position of sect leader. So she gave way to me, and let me inherit it.” 

“Senior, tell me, is this part of the constant change of the world? I was jealous of my sister, but I never thought of letting her fall to such a degree. Everyone in the sect compared me to her, but my sister was very good to me.” 

“When I saw how she looked sitting on the wheelchair, I didn’t feel well at heart.” 

As she spoke, her voice suddenly stopped. The ambition that had been growing wildly in her eyes was like a wildfire in the plains, blown out suddenly by the wind, leaving only heavy ashes. She looked down at her fingernails, and in the constantly-changing light of the candles, her expression was dark and unreadable.

Rain fell endlessly from the green eaves and black tiles onto the steps with a crisp, pleasing sound. 

Plitter.

Platter.

It seemed the rain would drip drop by drop until dawn. 

Jing Ruyu was silent for a long time, then murmured to herself, “That night, the fire in Alioth Palace burned so high…”

“It’s fortunate that it’s all over now.” 

Jing Ruyu’s voice scattered in the wind, and her fingers left the window. She straightened her hair and sorted out her emotions that had unconsciously been revealed. She stood gracefully in her blue dress, and when she looked up, she was that bright and pretty girl once again. She stood with her hands behind her and smiled. “Senior, once we part today, when we meet again, it might be as different people. I hope you’ll treasure this moment, Senior.” 

Jing Ruyu turned and left. Just when she touched the first step, within the house, Zixiao spoke.

“Jing Ruyu.” He called her name His voice rough and stiff, dry as a rusty blade, but he still spoke.

Zixiao said, “You harbor evil in your heart. There will be a day when you regret this.” 

Jing Ruyu fell silent. Without turning back, she laughed softly. “I harbor evil in my heart? Senior, what does it mean to harbor good? Is it to be like you?”

“I heart that at eighteen years old, you killed your father and mother by mistake.”

“You cut off the heads of evil men, and provoked other people’s hatred toward you. They took revenge on you, misleading you with spells and bewitching you with words—they made you believe that your family had already been killed, and that the family members in your house were demons taking on their form.” 

“So you took Skyrage home, your fury burning to the heavens. You killed your father, murdered your mother, and cut off your own sister’s head.” 

The blade of her words turned, and she said calmly, “Do you regret it?”

Zixiao abruptly roared, “Jing Ruyu!!”

Jing Ruyu smiled scornfully, reached out and caught the rain falling from the eaves in her palm. She looked up at the ashy sky. “I heard your sister had a mole on her nose?”

“Senior, how laughable. In order to make up for the sin of killing your family by accident, in order to repent, just because of a mole, you were willing to become a blade in the hand of someone like me, obeying my every movement? Between the two of us, who’s more lamentable?”

“With a life like yours, what qualifications do you have to persuade me to turn around?”

“Jing Ruyu!” Zixiao’s eyes were scarlet. He suddenly reached out, his voice shaking the ground like thunder. “Get the hell out!”

A fierce gust of wind whistled from the window, sweeping the violent rain with it, bursting with anger as it landed on Jing Ruyu. She staggered backward by two steps, her face white. A thread of blood leaked from the corner of her mouth. Zixiao was at the peak of Void Comprehension cultivation, and in the current age, he was a powerful, influential man. One blow from him make Jing Ruyu, who was only at Nascent Soul level at the time, feel like her organs were about to be torn apart. 

Holding her chest, Jing Ruyu groaned heavily. She stood before the steps, shaking her head slowly, and said solemnly to that tightly-closed door, “Zixiao, I’m thankful for your help these last few years, so I said this to you. If you continue to be obstinate in your ways, then I think you won’t understand where you went wrong until the day you die.” 

She wiped away the blood at her mouth and said, “That’s all I’ll say to you. Afterwards, I won’t look for you again.” 

Jing Ruyu’s robes entered the rain, but when she had taken another two steps, she stopped again.

She looked down at the green maple leaves on the ground, her raven-black eyelashes gathering pearls of light in the rain. She was silent.

The maple leaves had been struck by the rain to the ground, forming a long path. In the wind, they drifted upwards, floating toward the irredeemable past and the village of old. 

Jing Ruyu stood in the rain, her voice as soft as the mist and rain. “Zixiao. If thinking of me as your sister makes your sins feel a little lighter, then let it be so.” 

She smiled mockingly, then turned in the grove of green maples, her gaze landing on the tightly-closed door. Her blue dress fell softly down, her features were divine and the mole on the tip of her nose was the last finishing touch. 

Jing Ruyu was silent for another moment, then said, “Gege, thank you.” 

The green maples blew away the threads of the souls of people in the past. The next Driftflower Sect leader’s voice was very soft, as if she came from another world.

She spoke.

“Gege, I forgive you.” 

Gege, I forgive you.

Inside the house, sitting cross-legged in meditation, Zixiao suddenly spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. 

The spiritual energy in his body went into chaos, and his internal strength backlashed. 

Blood sprayed over the room.

He held himself up on hands, his palms meeting the floor mat. His black hair scattered down, hiding his ferocious face. For a long time, in the quiet room, there was only the wild, rough sound of his heavy breathing, accompanying his bitter, despairing laughter. He was in a trance, as if he had gone mad. 

The window he had shaken open slammed up and down in the wind. 

Green maple leaves blew in, and one landed on the back of his hand.

The dancing, drifting leaves carried the dampness of the rain. 

Zixiao’s teeth trembled. He looked at the leaf. The maple leaf’s edges were razor-sharp and uneven, like a paper-thin blade. It left a scar on his soul that would never disappear, no matter how many lives he lived.

“My mother and father gave me the root of a green maple, 

and I no longer remember how many leaves have fallen. 

Back then, I embroidered flowers on my clothes by hand;

now no one can wear them, for they have turned to dust.”

***

Only after seeing the course of Zixiao’s life did Yan Qing know that he used a machete, not a sword. 

Before, in the Serene Prison, every one of Zixiao’s sentences had carried anger and pressure, shaking their ears until they went numb. Yan Qing just thought he was an irritable old man. Facts had proved that Zixiao was in fact an irritable old man—he was as terrible as the wind, furious and violent. But if not for the fragments of the past in the Void Comprehension secret realm, no one would know the burden that hid behind his anger. 

A man like this…how did he feel before he died, when he gave his token and his martial power to Bai Xiaoxiao?

While Yan Qing’s thoughts were running wild, Xie Shiyi was walking forward, his back upright. 

Yan Qing hastily ran forward, holding Trouble. “Ah, Venerable Immortal, walk slower, wait for me!”

Xie Shiyi didn’t have the slightest interest in the passion and torment of Zixiao’s life. 

It was to the point that Yan Qing felt that even in the standoff in the rain just now, Xie Shiyi’s gaze had only been coldly measuring Jing Ruyu. When he heard that Driftflower Sect’s Alioth Palace had caught fire, Xie Shiyi seemed to have smiled for a moment, softly and lightly, with an unclear meaning. But that distant smile soon vanished. 

The emotions Xie Shiyi betrayed to the two of them may not have been much more than the emotions he showed when Yan Qing was asking him questions. 

“Venerable Immortal, where are we going?!”

Xie Shiyi said they were going to “investigate this matter,” and they were really just investigating it. 

After shattering countless memories of Zixiao’s, they finally stopped on a scene set at Clearmirror Palace. 

He was the master of the Cultivation Alliance, and directed trials and executions. He wasn’t a righteous knight who wandered over the four seas, nor was he a warm and passionate cultivator who would whistle for a moment when he saw a dead person’s past life, and pause for a moment.

When Xie Shiyi spoke of searching for the truth, he might not have been speaking of the truth of Zixiao’s death, but the truth he himself wanted. 

Yan Qing kept up the role he was playing, following right behind him. He found that they seemed to have come to the end of Zixiao’s memories.

This was before Zixiao died. 

Perhaps hundreds of years had passed, but in the blink of an eye, the Nascent Soul girl from back then had already become the Soul Formation leader of Driftflower Sect.

Jing Ruyu was as beautiful as before. She stood in the same grove of green maples, smiled and said, “Zixiao, it’s been a long time.” 

***

The author has something to say:

“My mother and father gave me the root of a green maple” — this from the “Poem on a Pillar.”  

Please give me comments!!! I’ll send out three hundred red envelopes in this chapter’s comment section. I want to climb the ranks, please help me out, everyone QAQ

***

cela’s notes:

The poem is 柱上诗 “Poem on a Pillar” by 巴陵馆鬼, the ghost of Baling Pavilion. 

https://www.gushiju.net/shici/45453

2 hours and 34 minutes.

If you appreciate this translation, please consider encouraging me on Ko-fi! 💛

Previous   |   ToC   |   Next