Nine thousand and nine hundred steps. To an ordinary person, they seemed endless, but to a cultivator, they only made up a slightly long path.
The further they walked into the air, the more excited Yan Qing felt, though he didn’t know why.
As they walked up the Immortalization Stairs, he seemed to be walking with Xie Shiyi when he was a young man, across a great distance of time. What was this called, sharing in his glory?
Trouble awoke. He squirmed out of his sleeve, and when he looked down and found he was situated thousands of meters in the air, he was so frightened his soul flew off past the farthest clouds. He instantly drilled back into his sleeve, pretending he knew nothing at all.
He yawned and went back to sleep.
The area before Desireless Sect was planted full of plum trees. This place had a high elevation and a cold temperature, so even in this season, plum blossoms bloomed all over the mountains. Beside the cloud stairs, dozens of outer peaks towered in the air, plum blossoms blooming on their cliffs. Scarlet in color, they burned like clouds at sunset.
Their petals floated through the atmosphere in the clear breeze, falling on the cloud stairs and creating a scarlet path.
Yan Qing looked at the ground and said doubtfully, “Why did your sect plant so many plum trees?”
Xie Shiyi walked over the path, and the plum petals scattered beneath his feet. He said coolly, “You really are full of questions.”
Before him, Yan Qing threw off his hand and walked forward alone. When he heard Xie Shiyi’s words, he wasn’t angry. Looking around like a bumpkin in the big city, he was filled with curiosity for everything here. “Do these plum trees bloom all year round? When you first came here, were there plum blossoms on the ground? Did they make a scarlet path just like this?”
Xie Shiyi was silent for a moment, then said lightly, “I don’t remember.”
Yan Qing scoffed at him. “Wow, you sure are good at forgetting things. There’s nothing you can’t forget.”
Xie Shiyi said, “Watch your path.”
Yan Qing rolled his eyes, but as they climbed higher and higher, he really did grow careful. The higher they went, the more plum petals there were. When he stepped on the petals, he could distinctly feel himself sinking down, soft and light, as if he were walking on a carpet.
Xie Shiyi said, “We’re almost there.”
Yan Qing: “We’re there? Where’s the door?”
Yan Qing looked up, but he didn’t see a door. He met the shocked, peculiar gazes of a crowd of people. There was a training ground not far from the gates of Desireless Sect, and many disciples would spar and cultivate here.
Now that they had arrived, they had broken the peace.
There were a lot of people.
They wore jade crowns and white robes with a layer of blue gauze, and they were holding swords. They scattered at the end of the cloud stairs, watching them with gaping mouths.
Yan Qing: “......Why are there so many people?”
Xie Shiyi had his spiritual awareness, so he had long since detected their presence. But he was used to being under attention, so he didn’t think much of it. His robes were purer than snow as he walked upward, step by step.
Xie Shiyi had been in closed cultivation for a century. Now that he was walking with his eyes blindfolded, it was natural that these menial disciples from the outer peaks wouldn’t recognize him.
All they saw was two men walking slowly up the long flight of nine thousand and nine hundred steps. The man in the front had green robes, his inky hair spilling down like a waterfall, his features like a painting, and showing a dashing smile. A red thread was tied around his wrist, drifting through the clouds. Behind him was a tall man with a white blindfold and an austere, unreachable air. Silver light seemed to be flowing in his wake.
The crowd of people whispered amongst themselves, their words filled with doubt, but their eyes lit with awe.
“Who are those two men? How come I’ve never seen them before?”
“The one in front seems like he doesn’t have a high cultivation. He’s only Qi Refining level. As for the one in the back…him, I can’t tell.”
“They wouldn’t be disciples from the inner peaks, would they?”
Once they reached the heights, the plum petals formed a thick carpet, engulfing the original outline of the stairs.
Xie Shiyi stopped walking.
Yan Qing glanced at him. Where the plum blossoms piled up, they were lower in some places and higher in others. His eyes were fine, but the path was still hard to walk for him, let alone Xie Shiyi. No matter how familiar Xie Shiyi was with this road, he might still be unable to deal with these uneven plum blossoms.
Yan Qing bravely faced the mistakes he had made. “Xie Shiyi, this last stretch of road is hard to walk. I’ll take you along.”
Xie Shiyi was silent.
Choked, Yan Qing urged him to listen. “What are you hesitating for? Give me your hand. What, is it that embarrassing to be led along? Is it like being a bride stepping onto a palanquin?”
Xie Shiyi laughed softly and said slowly, “This last stretch of road might be hard to walk for you.”
Yan Qing: “Ah?”
Xie Shiyi said mildly, “There’s a formation on the steps.”
Yan Qing: “Oh?”
He looked down and saw a clear breeze sweeping by, blowing away the plum blossoms piled thickly on the edges. They revealed not solid steps, but hollow air. Anyone who stepped onto it would fall.
Yan Qing: “......”
Yan Qing laughed from anger. He gritted his teeth and said, “I only knew that your sect didn’t know how to be hospitable to guests. I hadn’t thought you wanted your guests to die.”
Xie Shiyi said, “Desireless Sect never takes in guests.”
Yan Qing: “Oh!”
Xie Shiyi said, “Give me your hand.”
Yan Qing wasn’t really willing.
There was a crowd of people watching from above. If a blind man led him along, how embarrassing would that be?
Xie Shiyi frowned and asked him calmly, “What are you hesitating for? Are you a bride stepping onto a palanquin?”
Yan Qing: “......”
This must be on purpose this must be on purpose this must be on purpose.
Yan Qing expressionlessly gave him his hand. “Venerable Immortal, I hope you won’t lead me to my death.”
Xie Shiyi’s tone was like falling snow. “I won’t. My teachers are all watching from above.”
Yan Qing: “......”
Yan Qing almost fell. He glared at him in disbelief, saying word by word, “What? Your teachers?”
Someone Xie Shiyi would call teacher must at least be of Soul Formation level, right?!
So a crowd of Soul Formation big shots were all watching from above?!
Yan Qing wasn’t embarrassed, but worried and nervous.
He was afraid that if his identity was revealed, the nine great sects would hunt him down and kill him.
Even though if he didn’t use his soul thread, no one would notice a difference—he might be able to hide from a single Soul Formation cultivator, but a crowd of them?
Yan Qing felt like the wind around him held layer after layer of danger, blowing over him until his skin rippled with shivers.
He might have noticed what Yan Qing was worrying about. Xie Shiyi calmly said, “Don’t be afraid.”
Xie Shiyi extended a hand to him. His snowy sleeve exposed his wrist. His fingers were slender and pale, refined as bamboo.
“Hold on to me.”
Yan Qing’s mind was in chaos. When he reached over, he was still depressed and uncertain—
These people from the upper realm had lived for god knew how long. Was there really no need to be afraid of their eagle eyes? The soul thread tied around his wrist locked up a little of his aura. But the soul thread was a demonic artifact to begin with. Could it really escape discovery?
But all the thoughts that flashed through his heart vanished like smoke when Xie Shiyi brought him along for the first step.
When he stepped on the thick layer of plum blossoms, it was like he was stepping over the layered years.
The clear cries of the red-crowned cranes drifted through the distance.
They broke through the clouds and the light and shadows.
Yan Qing looked up ahead and froze for a moment.
Light from heaven streamed past the miles of mountains and rivers, sparkling with radiance.
The plum blossoms were like blood, forming a long red carpet.
At this moment, he felt like he was walking down a red carpet, meeting the expectant gazes of countless people, walking toward the partner who would accompany him for the rest of his life. All the hesitation, nervousness, fear and worry of before seemed strangely fitting.
As if…he had been bewitched.
Above thousands of meters of empty air, over nine thousand and nine hundred steps, the plum blossoms floated through the heavens, vast and rippling.
***
Before Lezhan and Xi Zhaoyun arrived, they thought they would see Duwei looking the same as before. Clasping his sword, he would walk up the steps alone. They hadn’t thought that this time, there would be two people, and that Duwei was even leading the other man upwards, step by step.
Xi Zhaoyun was a little startled. “Who is this?”
Lezhan gave an awkward laugh. Tianshu had already explained Yan Qing’s matters in a letter. He said, “Zhaoyun, there’s something you don’t know. Before you came out of closed cultivation, something neither large or small happened.”
Xi Zhaoyun creased her brows. “Oh?”
Lezhan was hard-pressed to speak of this. He could only say vaguely, “Zixiao failed his tribulation and gave the token the ancestors gave him to the child who saved him. That boy had feelings for Duwei and said he wanted to be his cultivation partner.”
Once he heard this, Xi Zhaoyun’s expression stiffened and her eyes filled with shock. They were Soul Formation cultivators who had lived for who knew how long, and they had seen all the realm. There weren’t many things that could surprise them. This was one of them.
But as the sect leader and the supreme elder of the number one sect in the realm, the two cultivators weren’t narrow-minded. They were incredulous, but they weren’t furious or prejudiced.
Xi Zhaoyun creased her brows and said, “Then how does Duwei feel about this?”
Lezhan gave a bitter smile. “I don’t know.”
Xi Zhaoyun looked downward and asked lightly, “He’s that young boy?” She was looking at Yan Qing.
Lezhan said, “That should be him.”
Xi Zhaoyun’s brows furrowed further. She said softly, “This young boy…his aptitude is quite bad and his cultivation is low. At this critical juncture it may be quite dangerous for him to stay by Duwei’s side.” The “quite bad” and “low” that she spoke of were already quite flattering descriptions. To Xi Zhaoyun’s eyes, Yan Qing’s current aptitude was absolutely terrible.
Lezhan thought of the things that had happened in the last few years and gradually grew serious. “I’ll speak to Duwei thoroughly about this.”
Yan Qing reached the end of the stairs and immediately withdrew his hand.
Just then, two people walked down from the clouds. Many disciples watching from before the sect gate grew pale with shock, kneeling and then scattering in unison.
“Greetings, Sect Leader.”
“Greetings, Supreme Elder.”
Sect Leader.
Supreme Elder.
Yan Qing saw a man and a woman descend from the clouds.
The man wore a wide-sleeved robe and a rich crown, and had a graceful manner. The woman wore bangles and a white robe, and had a gentle face.
Xie Shiyi said calmly, “Shifu, Shishu.”
Xi Zhaoyun’s eyes were filled with irrepressible joy. She smiled and said, “Duwei, it’s been a long time.”
Lezhan sighed and said, “You’ve been in closed cultivation for a century. It has been a while.”
Xie Shiyi smiled indifferently without making a reply.
Xi Zhaoyun’s gaze landed on Yan Qing.
Yan Qing instantly stiffened, hiding his hand in his sleeve.
Xi Zhaoyun’s gaze wouldn’t make someone feel they had been offended or inspected. She was gentle, her eyes like water, carrying a light smile. This gentleness and smile might be specifically for the sake of taking care of Yan Qing and making sure he wasn’t nervous.
Xi Zhaoyun looked at Yan Qing and softly asked Xie Shiyi, “Duwei, who is this young man to you?”
Yan Qing froze for a moment, then spoke before Xie Shiyi could. “I’m an old friend.” It was only after arriving at Desireless Sect that he discovered he wasn’t as uncaring as he thought. Especially when he walked up the endless jade steps dyed red by plum blossoms. Unconsciously, he wanted to escape from his curse.
Xie Shiyi pursed his lips and said nothing.
Xi Zhaoyun was startled. “An old friend?” She looked at Xie Shiyi.
Xie Shiyi said, “Yes, an old friend.”
***
cela's notes:
1:09 hours
Comments
Post a Comment