IS Chapter 18
by Volare“Feeling better?” Li Yuan released his hand and asked.
The mortal old man tried to bend and stretch his legs and arms, delighted, “I can move!”
Not only could he move, but even the pain had diminished by more than half.
Li Yuan: “That’s good. Old man, let me help you up.”
Old Man Qiu exclaimed “Ouch” as he was pulled up from the weeds and tried to walk a few steps.
“I can walk, I can walk! Thank you so much…” Old Man Qiu said, about to bow his thanks.
Today, while he was chopping firewood in the mountains, he had accidentally fallen and dislocated his limbs. He was truly helpless. Once night fell, he would become food for the wild beasts in the mountains.
Unexpectedly, this young man descended from the sky in this remote mountain and rescued him.
“No need to thank me,” Li Yuan said. “Let me support you.”
“Okay, I won’t delay you, will I? Thank you so much…” Old Man Qiu said earnestly, while cautiously sizing up the young man who had saved him, unsure how to address him.
Judging by his clothes and bearing, he must be rich and noble, yet he also possessed immortal abilities, especially that handsome face, like a celestial being, making people feel like they were dreaming.
“The path down the mountain is ahead, right?” Li Yuan said. “Do you need me to take you home?”
Old Man Qiu repeatedly declined, saying that the mountain road was long, and he was already able to walk as usual, so how could he delay his benefactor’s journey?
“I don’t know what brought you to these mountains? I have no way to repay your life-saving grace. I’ve lived in these mountains for decades, so if there’s anything I can help you with, please let me know.”
The young man pondered for a moment and said, “There is indeed one thing.”
Old Man Qiu was overjoyed. He was poor, but if he could help his benefactor in some way, he would feel much better.
“Thirty *li* southwest of here, there should be a cliff called ‘Illusory Cloud Cliff,’ do you know of it?”
“Thirty *li*, Illusory Cloud Cliff?” Old Man Qiu pondered, but eventually shook his head. “I’ve never heard of that name.”
“Then, what is southwest thirty *li* from here?”
Old Man Qiu thought for a moment.
“Just some wild mountains and desolate hills, said to be frequented by wild beasts, with no produce. No one goes there.”
“Thank you for telling me,” Li Yuan said.
He wasn’t surprised by this result. He had inquired all along the way, but no one had heard of “Illusory Cloud Cliff.”
But the map he got from the Swordsmith clearly marked this place.
Even the map had its secrets. If he concentrated and focused on finding the location of “Illusory Cloud Cliff,” the location would become vague and invisible. But if his mind was free of thought, the location would appear clearly.
There must be something strange about it.
Old Man Qiu peered at his expression: “Are you going there?”
“Indeed,” Li Yuan said. “Old man, farewell.”
Old Man Qiu watched the tall figure in black lightly leap up and disappear into the distant mountains in the twilight, filled with admiration.
He had long heard that there were cultivators in the world, but seeing one today, he truly seemed otherworldly and carefree, with the heart of a Bodhisattva. Immediately, he bowed several times in the direction he had disappeared before leaving.
Back home, he couldn’t help but tell his old mother about it.
His mother was over seventy years old, and in recent years, her mind had become increasingly muddled and she no longer understood things.
But he would still chatter in her ear every day, partly in the hope that it might clear her mind a little, and partly because as long as his mother was alive, he felt that he still had something to rely on.
So, while pushing his mother into the courtyard, he kept saying:
“Mother, that young master descended from the sky when he saved me, truly like a celestial being…”
The old mother looked at the things in the courtyard with cloudy eyes, muttering some incoherent words that no one could understand. Old Man Qiu didn’t mind, but just said it with great interest.
“The benefactor also said that he was going to the southwest, to find a place called something…”
“Look at my memory, I can’t even remember it clearly. Anyway, it’s a place in the southwest. Mother, do you think there might be something rare there?”
“Don’t worry, Mother, I’m just saying. How easy is it to go to a place for immortals? Those young people in our village who want to seek immortality, which one hasn’t disappeared without a trace after leaving, leaving their parents worried day and night, crying their eyes out?”
“Southwest…” Suddenly, the old mother uttered two clear syllables, and Old Man Qiu was greatly surprised, then overjoyed.
“Mother? Mother? Do you understand?”
The old mother still muttered those two words: “Southwest…”
After speaking, she tremblingly raised her withered fingers and pointed to a patch of bright red sunset in the southwest: “Southwest has…”
Old Man Qiu stared, seeing a foolish smile appear on his mother’s wrinkled face.
“Southwest has… immortals.”
After speaking, she closed her eyes and became still.
Old Man Qiu almost had a heart attack, and he trembled as he reached out to check his mother’s breath—it turned out she had just fallen asleep.
Old Man Qiu breathed a long sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“It’s good to be asleep, good to be asleep. Mother, today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, when you wake up tonight, I’ll take you to see the moon.”
The sun set and the moon rose.
A round moon hung quietly in the high sky, the mountains as silent as could be.
Li Yuan finally stood on the edge of Illusory Cloud Cliff.
What a strange place. Luckily, he set off early. He had to pass through three layers of maze formations, three layers of trapping formations, and three layers of killing formations before he could set foot here.
Looking out, it was a deep forest.
The Swordsmith’s young apprentice said that every Mid-Autumn Festival, his master would bring a pot of strong wine here and sit quietly all night.
The Swordsmith wouldn’t drink the wine, but would sprinkle it on Illusory Cloud Cliff when he left.
It was said to be to honor a deceased friend.
Now that the Swordsmith had passed away, the young apprentice was busy mourning his master and had no time to honor his master’s deceased friend.
Having no other choice, he had to entrust this matter to his “Brother Li Yuan.”
Li Yuan naturally agreed.
Today was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Li Yuan slowly walked forward, carrying a pot of Osmanthus wine. He had tasted the wine and it was pretty good.
After walking through a forest of obliquely branching trees, the front suddenly opened up.
A quiet and spacious scene suddenly unfolded.
Under the pale white moon, there was actually a scattered immortal manor.
However, it was all broken walls and ruins.
Li Yuan walked forward quietly. On his right, an ancient bluestone stood quietly, covered with moss and dust.
There were some faint traces of writing.
Li Yuan reached out and brushed away the dust on the stone.
When the first stroke of carving was fully revealed, Li Yuan’s heart suddenly stirred.
This is a sword mark, he thought.
Continuing down, the writing on the bluestone was fully revealed.
It was four large characters: Illusory Sword Manor.
The strokes were clear, sharp, and upright. Below were smaller characters: Dao Heart is One.
Illusory Sword Manor? He had never heard of this sect in the human world.
Li Yuan remembered this name and walked straight into the gate past the stone. Passing through the half-collapsed mountain gate, he was greeted by an open space overgrown with weeds, with a few autumn fireflies scattering among them. Looking ahead, elegant white immortal palaces were scattered one after another, all covered with a faint layer of dust, and some had black marks from being burned.
Looking at it, he felt a sense of emptiness and coldness.
Li Yuan suddenly sensed something and took out a sword box from his storage ring. Opening it, he saw the three-foot sword inside emitting a faint light, sending out a long sword hum.
The sword body was beautiful, like a glass-like blue flower, and the hilt was crimson, like a lotus robe. It was “Cherished Sleeve,” the sword that Ye Zhuo had used in the East Sea.
Before he left the Sword Casting Valley, the young apprentice said that he had no way to repay his recent kindness, and asked him to choose a sword from the Sword Casting Shed to take away.
So he chose Cherished Sleeve.
That Ye Zhuo’s temperament was unpredictable and fickle. If one day this person denied the grievances of the past, he would take it out and reason with him properly.
However, at this moment, the Cherished Sleeve sword suddenly hummed, its sound sad, as if holding infinite grief.
“What do you want to say?” Li Yuan said softly to Cherished Sleeve.
The round moon shone down, and the sword hum didn’t stop, echoing with the entire immortal palace as it seemed to transcend the mountains, its aura becoming increasingly chilling to the bone.
Even Li Yuan felt the sorrow in it.
“Stop crying,” he said.
The cold autumn wind blew, and the humming sound spiraled into the high, wide sky with the autumn wind. After a long time, it finally gradually stopped.
The faint light on the sword also dissipated.
Li Yuan didn’t put it back, but instead continued forward in the manor with the sword.
Those white immortal palaces, whether collapsed or burned, were like silent tombs, silent in the moonlit night. Li Yuan walked and looked.
Disciples’ residences, immortal palace halls, sword training grounds, sword testing stone forests… as well as spiritual fields, medicine huts, and sword forging pavilions.
The surrounding mountains stretched, and the terrain was dynamic, as if there were immortal cave dwellings and secret realms.
–This was a complete immortal sect, and it must be a sword cultivator sect.
Li Yuan passed through the sword testing stone forest. Those sword testing stones still exuded a clear, cold sword intent, but it was only an echo.
Finally, Li Yuan stopped in front of a stone wall on the back mountain. Carved on the stone wall was a shapeless sword. Staring at it, it seemed that thousands of sword shadows were transformed from it, circulating and running endlessly.
In the lower right corner was still engraved that sentence “Dao Heart is One.”
In front of the stone wall was an open space. It was not difficult to imagine the scene of sword cultivator disciples comprehending sword intent and tempering their Dao hearts here.
It had all returned to dust.
This immortal palace had been abandoned for at least twenty years, if not fifty.
Li Yuan quietly observed the stone wall until he gradually heard regular footsteps coming from behind him, and they were getting closer and closer.
He turned around and saw a figure coming in the moonlight.
It was a young man in white clothes and a blue belt, with a sword at his waist. His face was clean and elegant, without revealing any sharp edges.
Without looking too much, Li Yuan knew that this was a sword cultivator.
He could already spot sword cultivators in a crowd at a glance.
The young sword cultivator also saw him.
“Are you here to pay tribute to them as well?” the newcomer said.
“Them?” Li Yuan said. “Who are you?”
The newcomer seemed hesitant, unsure whether to reveal his name.
Li Yuan’s gaze fell on his sword.
This sword was crystal clear, its aura flowing, mysterious and subtle.
“Your sword is Great Yao Meteor Crystal.”
Heaven knows how many times he had heard the words “Great Yao Meteor Crystal” and its characteristics from the young apprentice.
The man was slightly stunned, then bowed to him.
“The sword’s name is ‘Great Mystery.’ I am Su Yizhen, from the Upper Purity Sword Sect,” he said. “Are you an old friend of the Swordsmith?”
“The Swordsmith has passed away.”
“I know. I just came from Sword Casting Valley.”
The young sword cultivator named Su Yizhen lowered his eyes sadly: “The Swordsmith gave me the Meteor Crystal. After the sword was completed, I came to thank him, but unexpectedly, he had already passed away.”
Li Yuan: “So you came here to pay tribute, also entrusted by the people of Sword Casting Valley?”
“Entrusted by someone?” Su Yizhen said, “No, I just always wanted to come here and see.”
As he said this, he held his long sword, as if with thousands of thoughts, but in the end, he didn’t say a word.
The moon was in the middle of the sky, and the clear, cold air of the mountains permeated the area. There was no sound around. It seemed that only the two of them had come here tonight.
Li Yuan: “What happened here?”
Su Yizhen was silent for a long time.
Until the thousands of sword shadows seemed to have evolved completely.
“There were some people who never did anything wrong. But the world is unlucky, and everyone says that they are the root of disaster, violating the mandate of heaven.”
“People of high moral standing say so, and those who deduce heavenly secrets also say so.” Su Yizhen’s voice was very hoarse, echoing back and forth in front of the stone wall. “Do you say that they should be destroyed, should they pay for their lives?”
Li Yuan: “If they owe nothing, why should they pay? They shouldn’t.”
“I’ve said too much,” Su Yizhen smiled lightly. “Forget these nonsense words after you hear them.”
Li Yuan didn’t speak, but just watched Su Yizhen silently light incense in front of the stone wall, then bow deeply.
So he also poured the Osmanthus wine on this place, as a tribute to the deceased on behalf of the Swordsmith.
The fragrance of wine and the fragrance of Osmanthus spread out, first rich, then faint.
Su Yizhen: “By the way, I haven’t asked your sect name yet. I’m new to the world, and I don’t know much about the immortal path. If I have offended you, please forgive me.”
Li Yuan thought for a little while and answered: “Micro-Snow Palace, Li Yuan.”
This was what their Second Palace Master Ye said himself, so it didn’t count as him impersonating.
“Micro-Snow Palace?” Su Yizhen said, “Judging by your aura, you are also a sword cultivator.”
Li Yuan: “You could say that.”
“I heard that the Second Palace Master Ye of your palace has the best swordsmanship in the human world and is invincible. Is that true?”
If you say Ye Zhuo’s swordsmanship is the best in the world, Li Yuan can’t agree, but if it’s the best in the “human world,” that’s true.
Li Yuan: “That’s right.”
Hearing this, Su Yizhen gave him a formal salute: “In theory, Li Yuan, you and I are both sword cultivators, and we should fight when we meet. However, this place is quiet, and it may not be appropriate to compare swords.”
Li Yuan agreed. The place of tribute was not a good place to compare swords.
Su Yizhen: “But I’m planning to go to Green Mountain to ask Second Palace Master Ye for guidance. When the time comes, I will fight with you and ask for advice on swordsmanship, is that okay?”
Li Yuan gladly agreed.
He didn’t have a good impression of the Upper Purity Sect. However, after some conversation, he felt that this head disciple of the Sword Sect was very good, especially when he spoke politely and restrained, much more pleasant than that Ye named scoundrel.
Li Yuan: “Then I’ll see you again in Green Mountain.”
Su Yizhen said: “Okay, it’s a deal.”
Then he stopped speaking and focused on observing the sword. Before the moon set, the two dispersed, and Su Yizhen left this immortal cliff and traveled towards the Green Mountain direction.
Li Yuan thought for a while about where he should go next and quickly came up with an answer.
So, he transformed into a dragon and soared into the clouds, swaggering towards the Micro-Snow Palace.