Roi céleste

Chapitre 11

“You are still too young,” Yin Liuchuan said, affectionately patting my head. “Remember, the true name of man is desire. This is nothing other than our sin and our blessing.”

Sin and blessing... I slowly raised my head and saw the wind rise and fall, the clouds appear and disappear, and slowly I began to understand.

"...I understand now. Flowers bloom and fade as they come, and the moon waxes and wanes as it waxes and wanes. Beauty is enhanced by impermanence, and everything appears real and undisturbed because it is all uncertain. People strive for higher places because of their desires, so that they can see a more distant view."

At this moment, Yin Liuchuan was stunned, his narrow eyes gleaming. Then he put his hand on my shoulder, leaned in and blew a breath into my ear, "...Little Copper Coin, your comprehension is too amazing."

Although I wanted to hum with pride, I genuinely wanted to express my gratitude, but before I could speak, I heard Yin Liuchuan's lazy voice again, "Isn't that right, Palace Master Qing?"

Turning around, we found Qingjiu standing behind us, tall and elegant, with a graceful bearing. His wide sleeves fluttered in the moonlight, and a faint smile played on his lips. "Miss Copper Coin has always been remarkably talented."

Come on, you two monsters who grew up eating peaches of immortality, stop praising me like that, and I'll stop grinning smugly... By the way, how come this carriage canopy is so resilient, it hasn't collapsed yet...

Turning back, they continued to admire the moonlight. No one spoke again, lest they disturb the tranquil night and the sleeping earth.

I have a feeling that this is one of the few times the three of us are not scheming against each other and are just quietly staying together. After we all return to our own sects in the future, the struggle for power and profit in the martial world will inevitably lead to fighting among each other. I'm afraid it will be difficult to have a time like this again, where we can quietly observe the world together.

I stopped overthinking and resolved to enjoy the present moment; tomorrow's worries will come tomorrow.

Birds flew across the sky, like a white line drawn on the night, and the crescent moon peeked out from behind the distant mountains.

The wild geese carry away my sorrow, while the mountains bring the beautiful moon.

Thirteen Cups of Sound-Receiving Wine

The Sound of Wine: Why did the stars of literature and wine both reside in Mr. Li's heart? He sang loudly and drank to his heart's content, leaving behind a legacy to accompany the moon in the mortal world. In what year did he drink the Sound of Wine, and even now, he remains intoxicated?

...

The next day when I got up, I was told that Yin Liuchuan had left because of something at the Youlong Heavenly Palace. Before I could even feel happy, Bai Ya handed me something with a lewd smile.

It was a thin and beautiful piece of stationery...

I shuddered, took the book, and opened it—"To my shameless, lying daughter: I must depart now, but I have kept my childhood promise. Though you are now uglier than you were then, a man's word is his bond. We have not seen each other for nine years. When we meet again, I will take you as my ninth concubine. Do not worry. Sincerely, the handsome and dashing Mr. Yin."

...

The ninth concubine... handsome and dashing... elegant and charming... Yin Liuchuan, could you be any more childish!

There must have been some special powder sprinkled on the stationery; my fingerprints slowly appeared on the paper, and they were only mine. Yin Liuchuan was clever too; I crumpled the stationery in my hand into a ball, used my internal force to pulverize it into powder, and slapped it onto Bai Ya's face, who was curiously leaning closer.

After arguing with the clown-faced Bai Ya for a while, he heard a crackling sound from the carriage canopy. He lifted the bamboo curtain and exclaimed, "It's raining..."

The rain grew heavier and heavier, and soon the woods outside the window were hidden in the lingering rain and mist, all shrouded in a hazy fog.

Yes, today is April 15th, and there are only two days left until Grain in Ear. Summer Solstice has been over for quite some time now, and the rainy season is approaching in the north. We are heading east towards the sea, so it looks like the rain will last for quite a while.

Everyone outside got into the carriage. Baiya took out a bamboo hat and a raincoat and went out to drive the carriage. I also wanted to go out, but after considering my physical condition, I decided against it.

A few days later, the sunflower finally bid me a reluctant farewell, and the rain that had been falling for several days also temporarily stopped. Feeling refreshed and relaxed, I squatted on the car awning, taking a deep breath and inhaling the fresh scent after the rain. I was in an incredibly good mood.

Having traversed a desolate plain, we are now entering the mountains again. The horse-drawn carriage slowly made its way up the muddy road into the east-west mountain range.

There must be a lot of minerals in these mountains. There are many figures on the foothills and slopes. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that many men are digging with hoes. There are many felled trees piled up beside them, and a lot of soil and rocks are exposed. There are mine shafts everywhere.

Some of the miners on the nearby foothills would curiously look at our carriage, and most of them would pay special attention to the strange girl sitting on the canopy, which was me, of course.

I looked up at the still-cloudy sky and said to Baiya, "Looks like it's going to rain again tomorrow."

Bai Ya snorted, "We're on the south side of the mountain, the windward slope. When it rains, it will be much heavier than in the wilderness."

I nodded, without giving it much thought.

...

As expected, it rained the next day, and the rain was indeed astonishing. The sky was filled with stubborn clouds, thunder rumbled, and the rain poured down. The sound of the rain was so urgent that it was like a gong being beaten by a thousand drumsticks, full of clanging sounds.

Such heavy rain is unbearable for humans. I retreated back into the carriage and looked out the window at the magnificent scene of the torrential rain over the mountains, feeling deeply moved.

"The clouds hang low in the sky, and the waters of the four seas stand tall." Qingjiu looked out the window and said softly. He then said to Baiya, who was driving the carriage outside, "The rain is too heavy. Stop the carriage by the roadside and wait for the rain to stop before we continue."

The carriage stopped after a while, and Baiya took off his straw hat and raincoat and crawled in, sighing repeatedly, "This rain is so heavy, the rain is hitting the horse so hard it hurts and it doesn't want to run. It's so foggy I can barely see the road."

The group chatted idly in the car, and Bai Ya sighed again, "Listen to the rumbling or thunder outside, it's getting louder and louder."

Qing Jiu suddenly frowned. "The ground... seems to be shaking."

Everyone was startled and quickly opened the car door to look outside.

Our carriage stopped right at the edge of a ravine, laden with firewood and timber carried downstream by the rainwater. The depths of the ravine had become dark, and rumbling sounds echoed, vaguely suggesting that some enormous creature was approaching.

Qianlou's eyes widened, his voice filled with horror: "It's...it's gone..."

We then realized it was a mudslide.

Yes, the mining here is so intense that the soil is broken and shattered. This place is also a windward slope, and the torrential rain triggered a mudslide. We are currently downstream of the most dangerous gully... This is truly a perfect storm of good fortune for my second aunt!

My heart felt like it was being gripped by an invisible hand, convulsing and contracting. I stood on the slightly trembling mountain ground, my hands and feet cold, my mind a complete mess.

"Don't panic," came Qingjiu's still relatively calm voice. "We can't go upstream or downstream along the ditch. We need to go up the hillsides on both sides. There's still time, let's go!"

Led by Qingjiu, the group abandoned their carriage and rushed up the hillside in the pouring rain. However, it was still dangerous, as small torrents carrying large amounts of mud, sand, and rocks kept coming from the mountain, snapping countless trees and leaving the landscape devastated.

We dared not put our feet down, often leaping up as soon as we touched the ground. The large raindrops hit our bodies, making us feel numb and tingling. Occasionally, they would fall into our eyes, blurring our vision. Before long, we felt our strength waning. I gritted my teeth and continued to run up the hillside, but when I landed, I found that the ground was shaking even more violently. The whole mountain seemed to be trembling, and a large number of boulders kept rolling down.

Suddenly, as if all the light in the world had been swallowed up in an instant, a huge shadow fell over us, and we looked up in fear—

Rain, mist, and dust rose and fell, obscuring everything in the darkness. Fallen trees and massive boulders tumbled past us, and we could vaguely sense a mountain peak drawing ever closer.

"It's a landslide... that mountain has slid down!" Hua Mei's voice, filled with extreme fear, came through the loud rain and roaring sounds.

"Get to the side!" Qingjiu growled.

The group of five immediately dispersed and fled to a distance to get away from the collapsed mountain.

The entire surface of the mountain was almost entirely covered by mudflows. Once you stepped in, you couldn't get your legs out. I opened my eyes, which were stinging from the rain, and carefully searched for a protruding hard rock to step on. Just as I stepped on a rock, it loosened and began to roll down.

In an instant, I lost my balance and fell forward. A huge rock rolled down my head. In the chaos, a piece of broken wood flowed past me with the mud. I immediately changed direction in mid-air, climbed onto it, and rolled down the slope while grabbing the log.

My heart was pounding in my chest when I turned my head and saw that the boulder that had grazed my scalp was stuck in a crevice. It didn't look like it would move anytime soon, so I immediately used my remaining internal energy to jump up. Only then did I discover that a person was trapped under the boulder, their entire lower body pinned under the rock, motionless, and seemingly unconscious.

The boulder fell with terrifying speed; I only managed to dodge it by sheer luck. It seemed the boulder grazed me before crushing the man; its speed was so great that even a god couldn't have avoided it. I lay prone on the boulder, looking down. Who was this poor soul? One of the three guardians, or…?

His jet-black hair almost completely obscured his pale face, and his mud-stained robes were faintly visible as being purple.

My first reaction was not to save him, but to run for my life immediately. Time was already of the essence, and I was on the verge of death myself. Let alone whether I could save him or not, saving him would only add to my burden.

I commanded myself to immediately observe my surroundings and see which direction to escape from, but my body seemed to be out of control, and I remained lying on the spot, staring intently at the person trapped under the rock, whose fate was unknown.

I thought of my father, who killed innocent people out of necessity to make a living, and died in melancholy; I thought of myself in the teahouses and inns of Buxian Town, only caring about escaping while countless innocent lives were lost.

Is self-preservation the sole purpose of martial arts training for those in the martial arts world...?

However, not all the innocent people who died in the teahouse were those whose fates were currently unknown. If I were in his place, he would have left without hesitation.

My father's words echoed in my ears again: "Every life living in this world has the dignity and right to live." If killing someone means you deserve to die, then I have no right to live anymore.

In the face of life and death, there is no right or wrong.

Until last night, he was a proud son of heaven, standing high above, calmly appreciating the beauty of nature; now, he lies beneath a boulder, his fate unknown. The fragility of life is far more poignant than the coldness of human nature.

Just then, a boulder slightly smaller than the one I was standing on rolled toward me.

Driven by a noble spirit of selflessness and perhaps mixed with some inexplicable emotions, I gritted my teeth and jumped down, my feet landing on the edge of a crevice in the rock. I gripped the gap in the boulder with one hand and grabbed one of the swaying arms with the other.

The smaller boulder crashed hard against the larger boulder, but failed to knock it off and roll it. In the split second that the large rock loosened, I used all my strength to pull the swaying boulder's body out, and dragged the unconscious man back onto the boulder.

His legs were a bloody mess; I didn't know how badly he was injured. I checked his breathing; he was still alive. All that work wasn't for nothing. I wiggled my hands, which had several pieces of flesh scraped off, and decided not to bandage them yet, lest I get hurt again later.

It felt like an instant, yet also like millennia; an entire mountainside slid down from a distance. Everything in the world seemed to tremble, the sky appearing to collapse, the earth to crumble.

I silently watched the spectacular sight of the collapsing mountain, and once again felt the unpredictability and inviolability of nature.

The rain lessened, and the mudslides gradually decreased. Looking at the heavy dark clouds overhead, I knew that another downpour was likely to begin soon, so I had to hurry and find a way to survive.

The exposed rock after the landslide was extremely hard, and there hadn't been much mudflow. I carried the unconscious Qing Jiu on my back, jumped off the rocks, and continued running up the hillside.

Before I could even drink a cup of tea, the rain came down even more fiercely, and the mudslide started again. I, who was only a few pounds weak, relied entirely on my willpower to keep going and move my legs, which were scraped and covered with wounds and felt as heavy as lead.

On the newly exposed mountainside, there seemed to be a large crevice not far away. I used up my last bit of strength to rush over and squeeze in.

I had just put the shovel down when, with another rumbling sound, a large amount of mud and rocks rolled over, and the exit was instantly blocked. In an instant, I was swallowed up by darkness.

Fourteen Cups of Pine Flower Wine

Pine Flower Wine - Leisurely exploring the elixir of immortality, I brewed pine flower wine myself. Pine needles are perfect for making wine; how much will I brew this spring?

...

Completely exhausted, I leaned against the rock wall, gasping for breath, the apocalyptic scene replaying in my mind. Rain and cold sweat clung to my body. I sneezed, realizing this was no time to relax, and forced myself to sit up.

The air I just inhaled had a stale smell, but I didn't feel any chest tightness; there should be enough air for the two of us to breathe for a while. There was no fishy or foul odor, meaning it wasn't an animal den. I had no way to get out of this sealed-off cave entrance in the short term, so my current thought was whether there was another exit in the cave, and if so, whether there were any side passages.

I tried to stand up, but before I could even get a firm stance, I collapsed back to the ground. Was I completely exhausted...?

I ripped open a wound on my shoulder, the pain sending a jolt through me to keep myself awake. I wasn't sure if it was a sealed-off cave, and I didn't want to suffocate in my dreams.

There wasn't a ray of light; it was pitch black. I kicked the person next to me, "Don't... cough cough, don't faint. If you're still alive, make a sound." Only then did I realize my voice was already hoarse.

They didn't respond to me.

I wonder how Hua Mei, Bai Ya, and Qian Lou are doing.

I tried my best to ignore the loneliness and fear in my heart. I was talking to Qingjiu, but it was more like talking to myself: "You stay here for now, I'll go inside and check it out."

Unable to walk any further, I started groping my way in the dark. After going straight for about half a mile, I hit a wall. I felt my way to the side and found that the cave had turned a corner. I continued climbing along the turn, and then, without thinking, I looked up and saw something ahead...

—It was light. A faint speck of light, only the size of a red bean, shone like a brilliant star in the endless darkness.

I can go out now... I finally relaxed and collapsed on the ground, falling asleep.

...

When I woke up again, I didn't know how much time had passed. The light at the end of the passageway was still there, so it wasn't night yet.

Although I had regained some strength, my whole body was still sore and numb. I gritted my teeth, stood up, and started walking back. I don't know how much time had passed when I heard a noise ahead. I stopped and asked, "...Qingjiu? You're awake?"

A voice came from the other end after a while: "...Hmm." The voice was hoarse and weak.

The weight lifted from my heart, and I continued walking towards him, my voice sounding much more resilient: "We're in a cave now. This side is blocked, and we don't know if the mudslide outside has stopped. Even if we get out, it's dangerous. There's light at the end of this mountain. If we go this way, we can get out. It might lead to the other side of the mountain. The chances of a landslide or collapse are much lower on the leeward side. Once we get out, we should be safe."