He dropped into a magnificent river. The wound was hurting like fire burning on his back. There was not much spiritual power left in his body. Still, he turned himself toward the cave calling his partner, “Mo Qiu! Mo Qiu!”
A voice uttered inside the cave. Mo Qiu said, “No worries. The Astral wind isn’t a big deal for me. I have a Heaven Level instrument which can deliver me to……home. Luo Jianqing, my home is far away from here. There will be a long time until we see each other again.”
The pain was almost unbearable, but Luo Jianqing still shouted, “Don’t you lie to me, Mo Qiu. You kicked me out of the cave. Is it because you can’t make it……”
“Fxxk off! Why can’t you believe me, huh? Never mind, I’m not gonna waste my time on you. Leaving now.”
A beam of scarlet light glimmered from the dark cave entrance. A mysterious vibe was dispersing in the air, with the unique threatening sense of feeling from the Heaven Level instrument. The light dimmed. Luo Jianqing felt……Mo Qiu had left indeed.
Luo Jianqing, “……”
His mouth twitched speechlessly, and then he burst into a laugh.
Luo Jianqing laughed for quite some time and finally passed out because of tiredness. Tired and beaten, he drifted with the edgeless river, moving along with waves and tides. A vivid cinnabar mole surrounded by a four-petaled lotus was right between his eyebrows. Every time when arrogant Earth Level beasts tried to get near him, the cinnabar mole would glitter and repel them.
The wound on his back stopped bleeding, but Luo Jianqing still remained unconscious.
He had no idea how long he had been floating in this river. Neither did he know that he already followed the river from the ninth layer of Liu Yan Valley to the first layer. He passed a gigantic waterfall and suddenly broke a light red ward. Then he kept drifting on.
The scenery around him was constantly changing. Eyes shut tight and face pale, the handsome cultivator in cyan was floating in the trickling river from stark forest to bustling village. An old woman who was doing laundry saw the young man lying in the middle of the river. She was shocked and screamed, “Help… a dead body!”
When Luo Jianqing woke up, a humble rooftop was what fulfilled his sight.
Smelled the light aroma of fully cooked rice, Luo Jianqing tried moving his fingers and arms. He saw an old woman walked in while he was getting out of the bed.
The tableware in her hands dropped on the ground when she saw him. After a while of complete silence, the women asked carefully, “You…you awake?”
It was until then Luo Jianqing knew what was going on.
The village was called ‘Gu Village’ which was built along one of the branches of the Luo River. There were only forty-six households in the entire village. All of the villagers lived on the Luo River. That day, Grandma Gu was doing laundry by the river, and that was when she saw Luo Jianqing in the middle of the water.
Grandma Gu thought Luo Jianqing was surely dead, but after the villagers got him out of the river, they found him still alive. Warm-hearted grandma Gu brought Luo Jianqing home and took care of him for forty days.
Pouring congee into the bowls, grandma Gu said, “in the morning, my husband went out for farming. He won’t come back until the night falls. Jianqing, if you don’t mind, you can stay here and have a rest.”
With all the gratitude in his heart, Luo Jianqing took over the congee from grandma Gu and said gently, “thank you”.
Grandma Gu waved her hand, “there’s no need for ‘thanks’, really. A gorgeous child like you must have been through something terrible to lose a chunk of flesh on the back. Although I am only a vulgar woman from the countryside, I know you are not a mortal. You remain alive even if after lying in the middle of the river! Speaking of this, Jianqing, how old are you?”
Thought it over, Luo Jianqing told her his real age, “I’m forty years old.”
Eyes wide open, grandma Gu couldn’t believe what she heard, “you look like a twenty-year-old! There’s no way you are already forty!”
Luo Jianqing smiled but said nothing.
“Forty…my son would be forty-year-old if he were still alive”, grandma Gu put some food in Luo Jianqing’s bowl, “but Jianqing, you are immortal, right? I heard that these beings can be forever young and are all beautiful like you.”
Paused for a moment, Luo Jianqing lifted his head and looked at the woman, “I am no immortal, but grandma……you’ve seen one before?”
Grandma Gu nodded, “yeah, about three years ago, he befell at our yard and gave us some herbs. He was gorgeous. He said that we didn’t have much time left to live, but the herbs can prolong our lives.”
The words touched a secret part in Luo Jianqing’s heart. He asked, “Why… did he prolong your lives?”
Grandma Gu responded, “he told us that one day in the future there will be someone – maybe his disciple – coming here to break the bond or something. Well, I don’t quite know what he was saying, but the herbs were working pretty well. My husband is seventy years old this year. He’s still very strong and healthy. You know, he even goes out to do the planting.”
“Bang——”
Luo Jianqing dropped the chopsticks on the table.
He turned his head slowly, staring the wrinkled visage of the grandma with a complicated gaze. He looked at her eyes which containing gentleness and kindness; he looked at her wrinkles with all the years and ages hidden within; he finally put his eyes on her visage. Mouth puckered, he went into silence for a long time.
This time, Luo Jianqing stayed.
Although his spiritual power only recovered for thirty percent, although the wound on his back still needed time to heal, if Luo Jianqing was keen to leave, he could leave anytime.
He stayed, no matter what.
That night, grandpa Gu went home. Grandma Gu cooked a hearty meal which triggered a laugh from the grandpa, “Jianqing just regained consciousness today. He can’t eat all this feast! You should prepare something easy to digest!”
Grandma Gu tapped her own forehead, “Oh my. I almost forget.”
Silently, Luo Jianqing looked at the meals that occupied the whole table, couldn’t calm down his mind.
While eating, grandma Gu said, “husband, do you know that Jianqing reaches his forty this year?”
Grandpa Gu’s eyes widened, staring at Luo Jianqing, “forty……forty? The same age as our son?”
Grandma Gu smiled and nodded.
Somber yellow light was slowly wobbling in the narrow shabby house. Cultivating, Luo Jianqing sat cross-legged on the bed. He had just broken the Nascent Soul Period. If not that he needed to get out of the valley as soon as possible, he should have been consolidating the Period a long time ago. Now, however, he couldn’t calm down and cultivate.
He heard the snoring of grandpa Gu; he heard the breathing of grandma Gu; he heard the mating call of the frog outside; he heard the jingling sound of water from the running Luo River.
Finally, Luo Jianqing got out of the bed, walked into the yard, and looked up to the sky.
There happened to be a full moon. Slowly touching the earth, the moonlight was as limpid as water.
Confusion emerged on the comely face of the cultivator. The starry eyes were filled with haze. He was standing in the Gu Village. However, he felt like he was standing in the middle of the lively capital city, or at the desolate top of the Yu Xiao Peak.
Enjoying the precious tranquil night, Luo Jianqing closed his eyes.
