Chapter 71 - 70: A different version

Chapter 71: Chapter 70: A different version

After Yuexin handed over the spiritual stones, the old man quickly swept them into his sleeve.

He then leaned back against the wall, looking rather pleased with himself.

"Now, listen carefully. The place you’re looking for has an old legend attached to it."

"Long ago, an immortal woman fell in love with a mortal man. In those days, she was known as an Ancient Lord—the Lord of Eternal Spring."

The old man spoke slowly, as though he had told the tale many times before.

He leaned back against the weathered stone wall, his fingers resting on his knee, and glanced at the four young cultivators to see whether he had their attention.

Yichen, who had been crouching in front of him, tilted his head. "An... Ancient Lord?"

"That’s right, it’s a title" The old man nodded. "The Lord of Eternal Spring. Some say she held dominion over the vitality of all things, while others claim the title came from her mastery of a cultivation path that allowed her to preserve life beyond its natural limits. Whatever the truth, she was no ordinary immortal."

"There were few places she could not go, and fewer still who could stand in her way. Yet the man she fell in love with was nothing more than a mortal."

He paused briefly, letting the contrast settle before continuing.

"To her, the years they spent together must have seemed like the blink of an eye. But to him, they were his entire life. He grew older, while she remained unchanged. Eventually, the day came when his body could no longer keep up with the passage of time."

Yichen’s expression became more attentive. He rested his arms on his knees, no longer looking quite as eager to interrupt.

"She couldn’t accept it," the old man continued. "She had seen countless people die throughout her long life, and perhaps she had never thought much of it before. But when it came to the man she loved, the matter was different. She refused to watch him grow old and disappear before her eyes."

The old man lowered his gaze for a moment, rubbing his thumb against the rough surface of his knee.

"Fortunately, she was not only a powerful cultivator. The Lord of Eternal Spring was also a third-grade alchemist, someone whose knowledge of pills and medicinal ingredients was said to be extraordinary. She believed that if she could gather the right materials, she might be able to concoct a pill capable of extending her beloved’s life."

He paused, as though considering how much of the old tale he could still remember.

"So she began searching. Not for ordinary herbs or common spiritual plants, but for priceless heaven-and-earth materials, treasures that even powerful sects would struggle to obtain. Some were said to grow in forbidden lands, others were hidden deep within ancient ruins or guarded by powerful spirit beasts. She travelled from one distant place to another, gathering whatever ingredients she believed might be useful for the pill."

Yuexin’s expression changed slightly. She glanced at Minghao, who had also grown more attentive. Xiaoyu, meanwhile, remained quiet, her gaze resting on the old man’s face.

"Did she manage to gather everything?" Yichen asked.

The old man gave a faint nod. "According to one version of the story, she eventually found the final ingredient she needed. With her knowledge as a third-grade alchemist, she began refining the pill herself. It was no ordinary concoction, either. The materials were so precious that even a single mistake could have wasted treasures that might never appear again."

He paused again, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"But by the time she finished refining it and returned, the man was already dead."

The words were delivered without much emphasis, yet the old man’s voice had grown quieter.

He looked down at the ground between his feet, where dust had gathered along the edges of the stone path.

"Imagine that," he continued after a moment. "She had crossed mountains, entered places where countless cultivators had perished, and gathered materials that others could only dream of possessing. She had spent years searching and refining a pill that might save the man she loved, only to return and find that she had arrived too late."

Yichen’s lips parted, but he did not immediately speak.

"What do you think she did after that?" the old man asked.

Yichen looked at him. "She used the pill?"

The old man let out a dry laugh. "If only it were that simple. The man was already dead. Whether the pill could have saved him before his final breath, or whether it could truly bring someone back from death, no one knew. By then, there was nothing left for her to try."

He shifted against the wall, his ragged clothes brushing against the stone.

"She was an Ancient Lord, a being who might have lived for a thousand years. Yet all that time meant nothing to her when the one person she wished to spend it with was gone. She could have returned to her cultivation, continued wandering the world, or sought another path toward immortality. But the legend says she did none of those things."

The old man lowered his voice.

"Instead, she took his body and buried herself deep within the earth alongside him. She placed him beside her in a tomb, then sealed the entrance. Some say she intended to remain there until the end of her life. Others say she simply could not bear to leave him behind."

He fell silent for a moment, allowing the words to linger.

"Whatever her reason, no one saw her again."

For a while, none of the four spoke.

The sounds of the nearby market continued around them.

Merchants called out their prices, footsteps passed along the street, and somewhere behind them, a cart rattled over the uneven stone road.

Yet the four had become quiet, their attention still fixed on the old man.

He seemed accustomed to such reactions. After giving them a little time, he continued.

"Of course, the story didn’t end with her disappearance. As the years passed, people began searching for the tomb."

"Some were drawn by curiosity, while others believed that an Ancient Lord who had lived for so long must have accumulated treasures beyond ordinary imagination."

He raised one hand and began counting on his fingers.

"Spiritual stones, pills, ancient techniques, rare treasures gathered from distant lands. And if the stories about her alchemy are true, there might even be remnants of her research, or recipes for pills that have long since been lost. If even a portion of those stories were true, the tomb would be worth more than an entire city’s treasury."

Yichen’s eyes brightened slightly. "So there really might be a tomb there?"

The old man gave him a sideways look. "I said there was a legend. I never said I had seen the tomb myself."

Yichen’s excitement faded a little. "Then how do you know it’s there?"

"Because people have searched for it." The old man shrugged. "Some returned claiming they had found traces of an ancient ruin. Others never came back. And there are those who insist the entire tale is nothing more than a story made up to lure greedy cultivators into the mountains."

He leaned back again, seemingly unconcerned by the uncertainty.

"Who knows? Legends are legends. After enough generations, people forget where the truth ends and the imagination begins."

Minghao remained thoughtful, while Yuexin’s eyes narrowed slightly as she considered the old man’s words.

Xiaoyu had not interrupted once, though her attention seemed to linger on the details of the woman’s search rather than the treasures supposedly hidden in the tomb.

The old man noticed their silence and smiled faintly.

"But there’s another saying about that tomb."

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His voice dropped, and the casual tone he had used throughout the story gradually disappeared.

The four instinctively focused on him.

"When the earth remembers the name of the forgotten, and the dead are called by the living, the woman who sleeps beside her beloved may open her eyes once more."

He slowly straightened his back, watching their faces.

"That’s what the old saying claims."

For a moment, the four exchanged glances.

The story sounded familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. And it did not take them long to recall the old woman they had met in the abandoned village, along with the poem she had recited that night.

"Isn’t this the same story the old woman told us back at the village?" Yichen asked, looking between the others.

Minghao nodded slightly. "It sounds like it. Though her version was a bit different than this one."

Yuexin’s brows drew together as she recalled the vision that had followed the recitation. "The story is almost the same, but the details aren’t entirely identical. Is the immortal a he or a she?"

Xiaoyu remained quiet, listening as the others recalled their encounter.

Yichen noticed her silence and glanced at her. "What do you think, Xiaoyu? Does it sound familiar?"

She looked up at him. "No. I was just thinking about the village."

"The village?" Yichen tilted his head.

"The old woman told us a similar story," Xiaoyu replied. "About someone who searched for a way to bring back the person they loved."

Her words made Minghao and Yuexin exchange a glance.

Neither had forgotten the poem they had heard in the abandoned village, nor the vision that had followed it.

The old man’s smile remained unchanged. "Ah, so you’ve heard another version."

Yuexin turned toward him. "You know that story?"

"I know a few things." He leaned back against the wall, looking at them with those narrow, aged eyes. "But stories change as they pass from one mouth to another. Sometimes, the same person becomes an immortal in one telling and a mortal in another. Sometimes, a tomb becomes a palace, and sometimes, a tragedy becomes a treasure hunt."

Yichen scratched his cheek. "That doesn’t exactly help us."

"Then perhaps you should find the place yourselves."

The old man closed his eyes, apparently finished with the conversation.

Yuexin frowned. "That’s all?"

"You paid ten stones for information. I gave you information."

Yichen stared at him for a moment, then looked toward the others. "I think we got cheated."

"Only ten stones," Minghao replied.

"That’s still ten stones."

Xiaoyu quietly turned away from the old man, her gaze drifting toward the northern end of the city.

Beyond the buildings and the crater walls, distant mountains rose beneath the open sky.