The Path Toward Heaven

The ringing bell was very pleasing to the ears, and its sound was as good as the zither music that was played at the Plum Meeting that day. Moreover, the ringing bell had its special benefit, offering the listeners a peace of mind. The air around the plum forest had turned tranquil, like the ripples on a lake being smoothed by an invisible hand. In addition to giving out peace of mind, the ringing bell had also expelled the residual energy of the formations, vanishing without a trace.

It was apparent that these formations had been forcefully disabled by the highly achieved practitioners of the Hanging-bell Sect; it meant that someone had already forced their way into the garden.

Since the Hanging-bell Sect and the Green Mountain Sect had a friendly relationship for generations, Zhao Layue was worried about the safety of that person. She reached out and grabbed Jing Jiu’s hands, and they rose up on the sword.

A flash of red sword light illuminated the old garden, trailing the ringing bell. A gust of gentle wind arose suddenly, and then disappeared instantly.

In the far end of the old plum garden there was a common-looking small lake, surrounded by unsightly plum trees; and an unattractive small nunnery was vaguely visible in the plum forest.

The path leading to the small nunnery outside the plum forest was blocked by two groups of people. The two sides were in the middle of a confrontation.

“Why aren’t we allowed to get inside?”

A middle-aged woman demanded, with a face full of chilling determination. Her seemingly thin and weak body exuded an extremely strong and dominating energy.

This woman was the representative of the Water-Moon Nunnery who came to the Green Mountain to observe the Inherited Sword Competition years ago.

Standing by her side was a young girl with an impatient expression on her distinctive and attractive face. She was the girl who had promised to give bells to Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue.

Blocking the path was an old eunuch. He was probably not the one who created those formations, but he was obviously keen on preventing the two practitioners of the Hanging-bell Sect from moving forward.

Emotionless, the old eunuch said with drooping eyes, “A royal family member is viewing the plum flowers in the forest, so please wait for awhile.”

The middle-aged woman sneered, “You shouldn’t think you can scare us by mentioning the presence of a royal family member. When has the old plum garden become a place exclusively reserved for the royal family?”

The young girl grew even more impatient, saying, “Aunty Cui, there is no need to talk to them. Let’s just go inside.”

Lifting his head high, the old eunuch bellowed with an intimidating expression in his eyes, “Who dares!”

Upon these two words, the atmosphere of the forest became intricate, and a dozen figures moved forward. The energy given out by these men hinted that they were the royal guards.

At this critical moment, a gust of fresh wind blew over suddenly, triggering the ripples to emerge on the lake again, and tearing the abruptly appearing sword light into countless maple-leaf-like pieces.

Two figures appeared by the lake soon after the sword light disappeared.

Zhao Layue said, “Who dares!”

The same two words were more powerful coming out of the mouth of the old eunuch; in comparison, Zhao Layue’s utterance was weak and unimpressive, lacking intimidation.

Yet for some reason, both the old eunuch and the royal guards in the forest felt the two words uttered by Zhao Layue actually hard to deal with.

In other words, nobody dared to respond to her declaration.

Having said that, Zhao Layue realized that she was still holding Jing Jiu’s hands, and let them go immediately.

The old eunuch’s gaze fell on Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu, and thinking of the flash of the red sword light, he figured out the identities of these two. His expression changed abruptly, gesturing for the guards in the forest to restrain themselves.

Having seen Zhao Layue, the young girl let out a happy grin, and hopping to the side of Zhao Layue, she held up Layue’s hands, asking, “Are you supposed to be at the Plum Meeting?”

“I came to have a look,” Zhao Layue answered.

“You have also acquired the information?”

The young girl said with an embarrassing tone, “Our sect has spent a great deal of money for this information. We promised not to leak the info, so I didn’t inform you.”

Zhao Layue smiled and rubbed her head, indicating she didn’t mind.

After having done that, Zhao Layue realized, to her surprise, that she had somehow adopted this affectionate behavior from somebody else, so she instinctively glanced at Jing Jiu.

The old eunuch was at the moment looking at Jing Jiu.

When his extremely beautiful face, as it was rumored to be, finally appeared in front of him in flesh and blood, the old eunuch recognized that the rumors of his beauty weren’t an exaggeration.

To put it more accurately, he understood that the true extremity couldn’t be described properly after having seen Jing Jiu’s face.

Even in his old age and as a eunuch, it took him some time and effort to pull himself together as he said with a bow, “Please wait a minute, you two. Let this old servant inform…”

Having identified Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu, his attitude had changed, becoming much more respectful, and the old eunuch was about to ask the guards in the forest to inform the royal member. But before he could say the two words “royal member”…

Jing Jiu couldn’t wait any longer.

Time was both the most insignificant and significant thing as far as Jing Jiu was concerned.

There were many things worth waiting for, like the first snowfall in the winter, the initial formation of the Dao Tree, the buildup of sand grains, and Shisui’s returning; but he definitely couldn’t wait for the informing of a certain royal family member.

Zhao Layue was exactly the same sort of person.

They were walking along the stone path toward the forest.

The old eunuch hesitated at first, but he didn’t dare to block them, and he let them pass him.

The young girl of the Hanging-bell Sect walked into the plum forest while holding Zhao Layue’s hand, and she snorted at the old eunuch mischievously when passing him.

The stone path extended into the deep end of the plum forest, but soon they couldn’t see the objects further away in the forest even though the trees were sparse.

There was a wall formed by the bamboo trees in the deep forest that blocked their view. The stone path went through the bamboo wall and led to the nunnery.

It was quiet and desolate on the other side of the bamboo wall. It looked like the old eunuch and those guards were not allowed to enter.

The middle-aged woman commented with an embarrassing tone, “The words of the Green Mountain Sect certainly carry more weight.”

Zhao Layue said, “Big Sister Cui has exaggerated our importance. It’s because our two sects act differently.”

The middle-aged woman understood what she meant, and thought Zhao Layue was indeed right in this point; but the woman didn’t know how to respond.

The young girl, however, was unconcerned about the discretion, responding, “That’s right. My mom keeps telling me, the mantra of your sect is too terrifying. You people always ask others if they have a death wish, and prefer violence when dealing with conflicts; and it’s upsetting that you guys always condemn others to death. So she warns me over and over again that I don’t follow your suit.”

The middle-aged woman smiled wryly, about to explain a bit to Zhao Layue, but unexpectedly, Zhao Layue thought seriously about what the young girl had just said. “It makes sense,” she claimed.

“Big Sister, are you going to change then?” asked the young girl, somewhat surprised.

After some more thoughts, Zhao Layue shook her head, “Though what you said makes sense, I can’t change.”

With widened eyes, the young girl pressed with a curious stone, “But why?”

Zhao Layue said, “Because there are too many people in the world who want to die and deserve to die.”

The young girl noticed Zhao Layue’s distinct black and white eyes, looking attractive and powerful. She generated the feeling of admiration, or some kind of aspiration.

…

…

There was a tree with blooming flowers in front of the nunnery; the tree and the fallen flower petals under it looked colorful and amazing.

Yet the scene didn’t look as good as the beauty under the tree.

This beauty turned around and looked at them. Her eyes and brows were very pretty, merely inferior slightly to Jing Jiu’s; but more importantly, her expression was quite innocent, giving out a naïve and charming air.

Such a beauty was the type favored by men.

Therefore, neither the young girl of the Hanging-bell Sect nor Zhao Layue liked her.

The middle-aged woman approached and greeted with a bow, “Greetings, your Highness.”

The young girl whispered to Zhao Layue, “She is the Royal Concubine Hu, favored by the Emperor.”

Zhao Layue was startled after hearing this, and couldn’t help but look at that beautiful lady again.

It was then that the beautiful lady was looking at Zhao Layue as well.

The two gazes met each other through the falling flower petals blown off by the wind.

The air seemed frozen in front of the nunnery.