The Path Toward Heaven

The young woman was Guo Dong of the Water-Moon Nunnery.

It was said that she was the personal disciple of Lian Sanyue.

Yet, it was unknown why she hadn’t participated in this year’s Cultivation tournament, instead coming to White Town to visit the Buddha statue.

It was also unknown why that voice made such a statement.

“Oh, it’s just you.” What did this statement mean? Had she been somebody else before?

Guo Dong said with a flat tone, “I didn’t expect you to recognize me.”

That person said, “Maybe it’s because I have watched you from the background for many years.”

Watching from the background meant that he didn’t have the courage and qualification to stand in front of her.

But even then, she had already imprinted deeply in his heart and soul, as such, no matter how she would change her appearance, he could still recognize her.

…

…

Standing in front of the Buddha statue, Guo Dong remained silent for a long time.

After a long moment, that voice sounded again, full of sentiment and grief.

“I didn’t expect that you would choose this path in order to catch up with him; yet, is it worth all this sacrifice?”

“What about you? You have waited here for hundreds of years, is it worth it?”

“I just want to do something I’d like to, so it’s not a matter of worthy or unworthy.”

“So do I. The slight difference is that you can’t prove you have succeeded till the day you die, but I have already proven I have failed.”

“Therefore, you come to the human world to have a look?”

“He had often said back then that one should have a good look at the sun after arrival in the human world. I don’t have much time left, so I’d like to take a good look.”

“That is why you have participated in the Plum Meeting even though you don’t know how to play zither as I remembered. I guess that the Young Zen Master didn’t dare say that your zither playing wasn’t good.”

“No, I hadn’t participated in the Plum Meeting before.”

“Yes, you had. At the Plum Meeting that year, if you hadn’t helped me, I wouldn’t have had the chance of killing that snow worm of the King State based on my Cultivation state then.”

Guo Dong wasn’t used to the way he talked about the past in such an appreciative manner, so she turned around and left the Buddha statue. She walked outside the front door, gazing at the snowland in the distance.

“Since you had failed to predict that worm back then, are you sure that you could predict it right this time?”

“Why would you worry about these trivial matters?”

The Cultivation tournament was the stage for the swordsmen of the young generation to display their talents, and it was a significant matter for the Cultivation world.

Yet, that person knew full well that this was a trivial matter as far as Guo Dong was concerned.

“The disciple of Jing Yang is in the tournament. Though I don’t like him, I don’t want him to die either.”

“Why don’t you like him?”

“He’s too handsome.”

Guo Dong walked back to the Buddha statue, took out a futon from the table and sat on it; she started resting with her eyes closed.

It seemed that she was quite familiar with this temple, and she must have come here many times before.

She didn’t speak again.

It was quiet in the temple.

The night fell.

A sigh occurred.

Full of contentment.

Yet it still had a hint of grief.

The dawn arrived.

Guo Dong opened her eyes and walked to the front door again, looking at the deep part of the snowland. Her expression had changed a bit. It seemed that she sensed something might happen soon.

That deep but slightly hoarse voice rang out behind her.

“She has never behaved this way.”

The Heaven-Mind Connection of the Water-Moon Nunnery and the Two-Minds Connection of the Fruit Formation Temple were the most powerful methods of predicting heavenly destinies in the world.

But Guo Dong was fully aware that nobody in the world understood the person in the deep part of the snowland better than this man behind her.

“What on earth has happened?”

“I don’t know. I have sensed the irritation, anger, and pain in her awareness…and also slight nervousness. I don’t understand why such a great being would be so nervous.”

…

…

The morning arrived and another night was over.

After opening his eyes, Jing Jiu rode his iron sword to the highest spot on the peak and looked out over the distance.

On the other side of the mountain range was the Snowy Kingdom.

Suddenly, his Dao Heart quivered a little.

Looking at the distance and beyond, a trace of nervousness somehow touched his heart, and he didn’t even know its origin.

As far as Jing Jiu was concerned, the nervousness was a rarity.

With the sound broken air, Bai Zao materialized by his side, and the faint energy emitted by the South-Screen Bell blocked the invasion of the cold air.

“What’s wrong?”

In her eyes, the cold mountain range was exactly the same as the day before.

“Something has happened,” Jing Jiu answered succinctly.

A strong gust of wind suddenly rose as soon as Jing Jiu finished saying those three words.

The cold air travelled at an unimaginable speed amid the valley and mountains, making countless ear-piercing whistling sounds.

The ice and snow that had accumulated for tens of thousands of years on the peak were blown off by the strong wind, exposing the dark rocks. The temperature had abruptly dropped.

In such a cold temperature, a common person would freeze instantly and then die; and a Cultivation practitioner couldn’t hold up for too long even though he had the zhenyuan to rely on.

Bai Zao felt that the cold air had already entered the South-Screen Bell, so she didn’t dare take the risk; she took out a coat made of the feathers of Golden-fire Birds and put it on. She sensed the warmth generated by the coat, and she looked a lot better on her face now.

Jing Jiu had a look at her and was sure that she was alright, and then he didn’t pay more attention to her.

Looking at the thin white clothing on Jing Jiu, Bai Zao was puzzled, wondering if the Green Mountain Sect had some kind of special magic method.

The ice and snow atop the peak were still falling down, and suddenly a quake occurred in the deep part of the mountain.

Bai Zao looked down and saw something she would never forget.

A snow worm was sticking its head out from a crack in the cliff.

The snow worm’s skin was semi-transparent. It would stay this way till adulthood, but the skin was immensely tough so that the Cultivation practitioners’ flying swords could hardly cut it open.

This snow worm had a big and robust body, large enough to fit in a small cabin. As it climbed out of the cliff and the sunlight shone on its semi-transparent skin, one could vaguely see the objects inside—rocks, tree branches, limbs of the snow foot monsters, and some white bones belonging to unknown animals.

As the most famous monster of the Snowy Kingdom, this snow worm could make a cave by eroding it very quickly, but it moved fairly slowly anywhere else. It was a very dangerous monster though, especially the way it ate its foods, which could make any human being feel nauseous.

By then, Bai Zao was already feeling nauseous, but she didn’t dare make any noise.

That snow worm had crawled out from the cliff, but it didn’t find adequate support, so it wobbled violently in the cold wind, looking like a worm in rotten meat, only many times bigger.

Bai Zao furrowed her eyebrows slightly.

Suddenly, the snow worm stopped short in the cold wind.

Bai Zao could sense that she was fixated by an awareness, and she also knew that this snow worm had discovered her; so she secretly energized her zhenyuan, ready to use the South-Screen Bell to counterattack the enemy.

For some unknown reason, the snow worm didn’t pay attention to her, and it extended its body to the outside of the cliff.

The worm entered the cliff and reached the other side

Bai Zao felt relieved when she saw the snow worm’s tail had disappeared on the opposite cliff.

This was a snow worm of a high state, and even her South-Screen Bell wasn’t a match for it.

Except for the monster invasion, the humans seldom saw the snow worms of such a high state, but why would it appear here?

Soon, many rattling sounds could be heard in the mountains. Even the strong whistling cold wind couldn’t muffle the noises.

Bai Zao used the Clear-Water Discernment to check all directions and found many dark shadows in the wind and snow were running to the north at a high speed, as if they were called by a super force.

She could vaguely identify that those dark shadows were the snow foot monsters, snow beetle bugs, and even two kinds of monsters she had read about only in the books.