Chapter Ninety-Two: A Long Journey

Miu Shihai and his wife Shen Baiyu remained only half a day before bidding them farewell and departing to unknown destinations.

Shen Baiyu said that for hundreds of years, she and her senior brother had cherished a single wish: to behold the great rivers and mountains of the mortal world.

Back then, they had scarcely reached the first stop on their journey before it was forced to end.

That disappointment had become a knot in their hearts.

If it were never fulfilled, that knot would only sink deeper and deeper, until it became an irremediable flaw within them forever.

Miu Shihai said, who could know what the future might bring? One must walk while one still can, and treasure the moment; do not wait until one can no longer move, only then to regret it too late.

Thus Shen Baiyu and Miu Shihai looked at each other, and in an instant understood one another’s thoughts. Truly they were of one heart and mind, and so they began a journey on a whim, setting out without hesitation.

They had no destination, no direction, and asked not when they would return. Wherever they went would be their road; they would savor the scenery along the way and bear witness to the majesty of heaven and earth. So it is, after all, with an immortal couple.

As for the metropolitan examination, Miu Shihai said that was once his wish, but with the change in his state of mind, he no longer had any heart for the civil examinations.

...

As September drew near, Yi An set out on a long journey.

After a simple packing of his belongings, he found that his luggage was very light; perhaps a single bundle was enough to hold everything.

Inside were a few changes of clothes, writing implements, and some silver for unforeseen needs.

When traveling through the human world, such worldly things were still indispensable.

"If only I knew the art of a sleeve holding all creation," Yi An could not help sighing. He had long coveted that skill.

As the name implies, it refers to a sleeve so small that it can contain within it the yin and yang and all things under heaven, wondrous beyond compare.

Among those who wielded this art most famously was the Great Immortal Zhenyuan, the ancient ancestor of earth immortals. He had brought the technique to its utmost perfection, able to gather within his palm all things traceable in the world.

Aside from the sleeve that holds all creation, only various spatial treasures could achieve such a function.

Alas, whether it was that sleeve-bound heaven and earth technique or a spatial treasure, both were treasures one might encounter only by chance and never seek at will. Even when looking across antiquity, they were exceedingly rare.

After everything had been arranged, Wei Liang gave him a few final reminders about the examination and its precautions before at last allowing him to depart with peace of mind.

Xuan Yangzi came to see him off, escorting Yi An and Yan Chixia all the way beyond the city gates. Only when they had vanished from sight did he turn and escape toward the direction of the Jade Void Monastery.

His purpose in remaining in Hangzhou had been Yi An; now that the man was gone, there was naturally no reason for him to linger any longer.

He would return to keep company with the lamp-lit Way-ancestor, and resume the life he had known before.

As for Li Zihe, because he had to protect Wei Liang, he naturally could not accompany them to Chang'an.

Yi An and Yan Chixia headed north toward Chang'an.

As Xuan Yangzi's sole inheritor, Yan Chixia had naturally received his full legacy. The Five Elements Dao arts were likewise the very first techniques he had learned, and he had cultivated them for more than a decade.

"Brother Yi, your earth-escape technique is simply marvelous. Such skill would surely require decades of hard practice to attain," Yan Chixia exclaimed.

Yi An's mastery of earth escape was so profound that Yan Chixia could only look on in admiration from afar.

Yet when he looked at the other man's age, Yan Chixia was left speechless. Could it be that the man had begun cultivating in his mother's womb?

That was what Yan Chixia could not help thinking.

Yi An smiled. "As for this earth-escape technique, your master was the one who passed it on to me."

Yan Chixia looked at him in slight surprise.

"Brother Yi, to be frank, I have cultivated this art for more than ten years, yet my progress remains limited. I only grasp a fragment of it. I hope you will instruct me."

From what he knew, his master had only gone down the mountain a little over half a year ago. Did that not mean Yi An had cultivated this technique for only half a year at most?

At the thought of this, Yan Chixia was struck by such a blow that he nearly lost all composure. After toiling in cultivation for more than a decade, he had not even matched another man’s half year of effort.

Could it be that he had taken the wrong path in cultivation?

Was that the reason for such a vast gulf?

Yan Chixia seriously suspected that he and Yi An were not practicing the same manual at all.

Otherwise, how could the difference be so enormous?

As Yi An spoke, he laid bare all his insights into the earth-escape art.

In truth, there was nothing especially remarkable about it; it was almost identical to what Yan Chixia already knew. Though there were a few unique personal understandings, they still did not depart from the original method of cultivation.

Upon hearing this, Yan Chixia could not help falling into a kind of self-imposed silence, though he still thanked him.

Perhaps this was why his master valued the other so highly.

Such astonishing talent was simply unheard of.

Yan Chixia then recalled how he had once been so pleased with himself over the slightest achievement, and his face flushed red with shame.

It was fortunate no one knew of it, or what face would he have left to show the world?

Yi An said, "Brother Yan, you are too kind."

In order to keep his mind from shattering, Yan Chixia hurriedly changed the subject.

"Brother Yi, ahead lies Jinhua. We still have several thousand li to go before Chang'an. Why not find a place to rest first, recover our true essence, and continue tomorrow? There is no need to hurry."

"Very well!"

Yi An answered with a nod. After smiling at Yan Chixia, he followed his lead toward Jinhua.

In truth, the true essence within his body could still last for some time.

Especially after breaking through to the Soul-Departure Realm, he could clearly feel that the true essence within him had risen to an entirely new level.

Jinhua, Guobei County.

They did not enter the city, but instead came to a barren mountain, where bamboo forests spread lush and green across the hills in every direction, their end nowhere in sight.

"Brother Yi, if I remember correctly, there is an abandoned ancient temple ahead," Yan Chixia said after first surveying the surroundings and confirming that they matched his memory exactly.

By then, night had already deepened. They did not wish to spend the night in the wilderness, and so their pace quickened at once.

Night fell.

Outside a long-abandoned ancient temple, the figures of Yi An and Yan Chixia had already appeared.

Although the temple had been deserted for who knew how many years, its exterior showed no sign of ruin and remained intact.

Yan Chixia said, "Brother Yi, this is the temple."

As he said this, his expression dimmed noticeably, perhaps because the scene stirred old memories.

In his childhood, he and his parents had drifted to Jinhua, and this temple had been their first shelter. Later, his parents died there in the famine, and he left Jinguang afterward. He was then rescued by Xuan Yangzi, who took him in as a disciple and taught him the Way.

Though more than ten years had passed, Yan Chixia still found it hard to forget.

A trace of sorrow flickered deep in his eyes. The kindness of one’s parents in giving birth and raising him was harder than bone to repay, yet before he had even had the chance to fulfill his filial duty, they had already left him behind.

He would never forget the pair of hands stretched out to him in his darkest hour of desperation.