The Forbidden Path to Immortality-Chapter 255

Unfortunately for him, that cup happened to be Yan Shuiyue’s.

The girl glared so hard she almost crack a tooth. But since this was their turf, she forced herself to hold it in. With an annoyed little huff, she plopped down and clamped her lips shut, refusing to say a word out of pure spite.

Li Xun didn’t stop at finishing Yan Shuoyue’s cup of flower tea; he downed the entire pot. Only then did he exhale a long breath of warmth and meet Yan Shuoyue’s widening eyes. He grinned. “First question. I’m looking for a material called Ink-Silk Clam Pearl. Tell me, how am I supposed to find it?”

Yan Shuoyue hadn’t expected him to jump straight into it, much less with something so specific. This didn’t feel like “fortune-telling” at all.

For a moment she was completely flustered. She tossed aside the folding fan that was getting in her way and started counting on her fingers, doing mental calculations, using every technique she knew. It took her a good while before she finally came up with an answer.

“You can find it!”

Li Xun laughed crazily, then turned his head away, unwilling to watch the poor girl squirm in embarrassment.

Yan Shuoyue’s face went red, then pale, then red again. It changed colors several times before she finally stammered, “I mean, you’ll definitely be able to find this Mosi Hanbao, but it’s not exactly something you... you… What are you laughing at?! Stop laughing!”

Utterly mortified, she finally snapped. Her whole face flushed bright red as she slapped the table and shot to her feet. “Have you laughed enough?! It was just a slip of the tongue! Do you even want to hear the answer or not?”

Seeing her like that only made it harder for Li Xun to stop. Expecting him to quit laughing now would’ve been a miracle. He didn’t care one bit what Yan Shuoyue thought; he just kept laughing and laughing until he nearly ran out of breath. Only then did he shake his head, wave a hand, and say between chuckles, “Alright, alright, I’m listening. Go on.”

Yan Shuoyue wished she could swallow this demon whole. Skin, bones, and all. But she was clearly no match for him, and the thought of whatever sneaky tricks he might pull kept her in check. She gritted her teeth for a long moment before finally forcing her anger down.

“Based on my calculations, this thing is something you want, but not something you’re in a rush to get. You’re not even planning to put real effort into finding it. Under those conditions, you actually finding it would be a real miracle.”

Now that was interesting.

Li Xun raised his brows a little. “Then why did you say I could find it?” 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“I told you, that was a slip of the tongue!” Yan Shuoyue shot him a glare. “It’s not that you can find it; it’s that you can get it. Anyway, here’s a suggestion: go to the place where this Ink-Silk Clam Pearl comes from. Walk around like you’re taking a casual stroll. Who knows... someone might just toss it to you!”

That was it? Li Xun felt like he’d been tricked, though he couldn’t bring himself to care much. Just as Yan Shuiyue had said, he’d never been all that interested in this Ink-Silk Clam Pearl. Still, thinking back on it now, watching a proud old master drop to her knees and beg... there was something a bit heartbreaking about it.

“Alright then, we’ll call that one settled. On to the second question.”

Li Xun watched the girl’s face harden with seriousness. He was about to speak, but at the last second, he felt like casually asking something might come off as a bit disrespectful. Thinking better of it, he ended up saying something completely different.

“You read my fortune and said I’m marked by danger, that I won’t live long. I’ve been thinking about it these past few days, and… fine, maybe that part doesn’t bother me anymore. But there are still some things I can’t let go of. So I just want to know: the thing I want most... can I actually pull it off?”

The last question had been too narrow, and this one was way too broad. Yan Shuiyue wanted to cry. Still, when it came to fate and destiny, she was dead serious; there was no half-measuring it. So she forced herself to focus, widened her eyes, and studied the man’s face carefully, hoping to spot some kind of clue.

But the real problem was this. The moment she looked at Hundred-Ghosts’s features, her attention kept drifting irresistibly toward those eyes... those fierce, blood-red pupils.

And then another face kept popping into her mind. Two faces, completely different, flashing over each other so fast it made her head spin. She felt like she was losing it!

“Hey. Hey? Yan Shuiyue?”

Hundred Ghosts’ voice drifted toward her from far away. Muffled at first, then suddenly booming like thunder, shaking her to the core.

Yan Shuiyue jolted, snapping upright. “What’s going on?”

Li Xun gave her a strange look, then finally smiled. “You were spacing out just now.”

“Uh… really? Guess I got a little too caught up.”

Yan Shuiyue still felt keyed up and wanted a cup of tea to calm herself. But then she remembered that Li Xun had already finished all the tea on the table… Oh, right, there was Yan Ru’s cup. No one had touched it since it was poured.

Shaking her head to clear it, she decided to drink that cup of tea. She reached out, grabbed the handle, and just as she was about to lift it, a sudden flash of clarity hit her mind. Her fingers twitched, and half the tea sloshed out.

“What’s wrong, did you zone out again? Forget it, then let’s just—”

“Snow drifts over a thousand mountains, tipping into the eastern sea... and the rising sun brings the tides back again.”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what?” Yan Shuiyue answered in a daze. The two of them just stared at each other, completely confused, when Yan Shuiyue suddenly jumped up with a yelp.

“What did I just say?!”

“...Two really crooked lines of poetry. That’s what!”

Li Xun stood up too, deciding he was not going to ask any more questions.

The moment Yan Shuiyue muttered those words, he had clearly felt a chill rise from the deepest part of his heart, freezing his entire spine.

It wasn’t an omen of anything bad... just the instinctive reaction you has when faced with something utterly beyond understanding.

Seeing the lingering, almost dazed look on Yan Shuiyue’s face, he forced himself to stay composed and smiled. “Alright. Two questions asked and answered. You can go now.”

“Leave?” Yan Shuiyue suddenly wasn’t in a hurry anymore. She picked up her folding fan, snapped it open with a pa, and fanned herself twice... never mind it was the dead of winter. Only then did she sneer. “If I walk out now, I’m basically delivering myself as a ready-made dish. Do I look stupid?”

“If we keep you here, give it a few days, and everyone in this valley will end up as someone’s snack. Do we look stupid?”

The barbed retort hit Yan Shuiyue like a punch to the gut. Her fan flicked open and shut twice in quick, agitated snaps. Then she shot to her feet, lips pressed tight, and turned to leave without saying another word.

Li Xun reached out an arm to stop her. “Hey, what’s with the drama? I’d say I’ve done more than my share for you... Alright, fine, I’ll admit it. I might have some feelings for you, maybe there’s a bit of fate in it too. I’ve protected you for a whole month; there’s no way I’m just throwing you back out there now.”

Yan Shuiyue glanced back at him, her eyes a swirl of emotions. Li Xun didn’t bother guessing what was going on in her head. With a snap of his sleeve, he swept the teacups off the stone table. They crashed to the ground in a clattering mess, but to him, the noise was downright satisfying.

“Look here.”

He ran a finger across the stone tabletop, carving out a rough outline with a casual stroke.

“This is my sect’s territory. Here’s Tenghua Valley, off to the east. The closest border is with the Three Sovereigns Sword Sect. Before you Water Mirror Sect folks get there, just find someone you know and you won’t have anything to worry about. Oh... speaking of which, do you actually know anyone over there?”

Yan Shuiyue answered without hesitation. “Yeah. I’ve got a close friend there.”

Li Xun slapped the table and laughed. “Perfect. I’ll escort you that far. How about it?”

“You? Escort me?” Her eyes flew wide, pure disbelief written all over her face. She stared at him for a long moment before finally asking, “What are you trying to do?”

“Just being a good friend!” Li Xun said, talking out of thin air but acting as if he meant every word. “If you’re going to do a good deed, you do it all the way. if you’re taking a Buddha, you send him all the way to the West. Sure, this is a journey to the East this time, but it still counts as good karma... And didn’t you say it yourself? If I want this lousy life of mine to last a bit longer, I’d better start piling up some good karma, right?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“No ‘but’ or ‘however.’ Isn’t this the perfect solution? Oh... there’s one thing you’ll need to keep in mind. I sneaked out during my ‘closed-door cultivation’ to help you, so I can’t exactly walk around in the open with you. Here’s the plan: you go ahead, and I’ll follow from the shadows. How’s that?”

Yan Shuiyue let out a few soft “ha” sounds, not sure if it was laughter or a sigh. She wanted to speak, but under Li Xun’s gaze, she inexplicably lost the courage to open her mouth.

Li Xun smiled with satisfaction. He stood up and patted her cheek like he always did. “Alright,” he said. “Rest up a bit. When night falls… try to make your escape before it’s too late.”

With that, he laughed heartily and strode off. Even the mist filling Tenghua Valley seemed to ripple and shiver with the sound of it.

Yan Shuiyue stared blankly at his retreating back. A strange, unnameable feeling catching in her throat, rustling and stirring inside her.

He’s… getting stranger and stranger!

...

The saying “In the mountains, there is no sun or moon” had never felt more fitting. After being in Tenghua Valley for a while, she stepped back out and immediately noticed the chill in the air.

The seasons in the southwest of this realm didn’t usually change much, but the plants told a different story: their colors had deepened, their leaves turned tougher and drier than before.

No one sensed this more keenly than Yan Shuiyue.

She was gasping for breath as she tore through the forest, running as fast as she could. Branches and leaves slapped past her, snapping with sharp crack-crack sounds. To her, though, those noises sounded more like the wicked laughter of a villain, chasing her wherever she went.

Her heart was already trembling when another shrill scream rose from somewhere deep in the distance. Driven by fear and despair, the cries kept climbing higher, only to be torn apart by the endless, suffocating forest. Yan Shuiyue stumbled, her small, exhaustion-flushed face turning cold.

That coldness came from her tears.

Damn it… damn it… will you just stop already?!

She covered her mouth to keep herself from sobbing aloud, but her feet never slowed. She ran on, tripping and crashing through the undergrowth.

This was the fourth day since she’d been “driven out” of Tenghua Valley.

By now she was far too drained to fly on her sword. All she could manage was a clumsy light-foot technique as she fled east as fast as she could.