The Path Toward Heaven

The Green Sky Mirror had stopped rotating. Bai Qianjung landed on it, covered in blood. He had no way to get up.

Bai Zao knew Jing Jiu’s temperament very well; so she didn’t expect him to halt his attack.

As expected, Jing Jiu was about to rush to the Green Sky Mirror.

Yet, before Bai Zao could remind him, Jing Jiu halted his steps.

The sunlight streaming down from the top of the cave suddenly grew dimmer, and a huge hand formed by a great number of green light specks descended from the sky.

Bai Zao stood in front of Jing Jiu unnoticeably.

Tong Yan bowed and said, “Greetings, Master.”

By now the participants of the Dao Competition realized it was the Immortal Bai who had arrived. They bowed to her hastily while holding their breath, not daring to make a single sound.

The huge hand landed in the middle of the Green Sky Mirror; it picked up the Heavenly Trivial Orb as well as Bai Qianjun.

A while later, when the participants of the Dao Competition were certain that the Immortal Bai had left, they straightened up in tandem, the expression on their faces more relaxed.

It was then that a voice blurted out by the Green Sky Mirror.

“Why were you so anxious to leave?”

The speaker was He Zhan. He had already woken up. No bewilderment and sentiment could be seen in his eyes, except for a hint of reminiscence and resentment.

It was now that the group realized that he was the last participant to leave the Green Sky Mirror; but what did his statement mean?

He Zhan stood up and said to Jing Jiu, “I had a good time on the ocean. You should have let me stay there for a few more years.”

“We also have the blue sea and sky in this world,” said Jing Jiu while looking at He Zhan quietly.

He Zhan said, “But we don’t have those people here.”

“But we still have people here,” said Jing Jiu.

After a moment of silence, He Zhan said, “What you said makes sense.”

Having said this, he shot a glance at Tong Yan.

Then, he turned to the stopped Green Sky Mirror that looked like a clay painting, saying, “I think I will go back there one day; what about you?”

“Maybe,” Jing Jiu replied.

…

…

The Dao Competition was over. The Green Girl hadn’t shown up since. The young Cultivation practitioners participating in the Dao Competition left the manor cave by themselves. They walked out of the small building and came to the outside of the Huiyin Valley.

The practitioners of various sects had been waiting there for a long time. As they saw the participants coming out, they approached them and asked all sorts of questions and expressed their concerns.

Liu Shisui went to the observing platform for the disciples of the No-Mercy Sect, trying not to draw any attention to himself.

Yao Songshan, Lei Yijing and other Green Mountain disciples were overjoyed. They walked to the front of Jing Jiu and said in unison, “Well done, Young Senior Master.”

Jing Jiu nodded to them equally, then turned to Sese, who was walking toward him from the underneath of a big tree, and said, “Your bell is working wonderfully.”

Sese reached out her hand to retrieve the small glass bell in her sleeve. “Well, of course it is,” she said proudly. “But don’t forget your promise to me.”

“Five more then,” Jing Jiu said.

Hearing this, Sese’s eyes beamed, thinking he was to kill five more people for her, and that nobody would dare make trouble anymore.

The young woman of the Water-Moon Nunnery, standing by the side, didn’t understand what the two were talking about, feeling bewildered.

Jing Jiu turned to her and asked, “What is your name?”

The young woman of the Water-Moon Nunnery didn’t expect Jing Jiu to talk to her, so she didn’t know how to respond at the moment. She was speechless while staring at Jing Jiu’s face.

“You snatched her spot for the Dao Competition and won the Fairy Book; buy you don’t even know her name. Just preposterous!”

Sese pretended to be angry and continued, “You’d better remember it. This Big Sister’s name is Zhen Tao, meaning ‘true pear’; she is by no means a fake.”

Jing Jiu didn’t know Sese intended to find a way to get him out of the embarrassing situation. Yet, he thought what he did to this young woman might be truly preposterous, so he should find a way to compensate her.

He stared at the eyes of the young woman of the Water-Moon Nunnery, and said seriously, “You have a pretty name.”

Zhen Tao felt a hot blush on her face, not knowing what to say.

Jing Jiu didn’t intend to converse with her, so he continued, “I participated in the Dao Competition as a disciple of the Water-Moon Nunnery, so the Fairy Book I won naturally belongs to the Water-Moon Nunnery; but I can’t give it to you yet. I’ll do it a while later.”

Hearing this, Zhen Tao was flabbergasted, wondering if he was really going to give the Fairy Book to the nunnery.

She was not the only one who felt flabbergasted; everyone present was as well.

Nobody thought that Jing Jiu would try to find an excuse to delay the delivery of the Fairy Book to the nunnery, and that was because it was not the style of the Green Mountain Sect, and no one could blame him, even if Jing Jiu was not giving it to the nunnery.

However…it was the Fairy Book he had spent decades in the Illusionary Realm to obtain; how could he give it away? It was none other than the Fairy Book, the true magic treasure of a fairy immortal. For the Cultivation practitioners, it had symbolic significance beyond comprehension. All in all, it was not an ordinary object!

The Green Mountain disciples were all shocked. In their view, the Fairy Book had been won by the young senior master after he relied on his exceptional talent and persistence in the Illusionary Realm for several decades, and he could do whatever he wanted to with it. However, the Fairy Book was simply too significant, and it could even affect the general strength of their sect; would other masters of the sect agree to it?

…

…

The Heavenly Retrieval Orb had been taken by the Immortal Bai; the world of the Green Sky Mirror had lost its sun.

The eternal night fell there.

The temperature dropped abruptly. The rivers, mountains, trees and birds and animals were all frozen there. It was much colder than the snowland in the real world. It was deathly quiet in heaven and earth there.

There was no sound and no life in this frozen world.

Everything there was frozen in the same spot, maintaining the same posture, including the humans, all waiting for the Illusionary Realm to open once again.

The green bird flew at a high speed in the dark world, passing through space like lightning. She flew over the blue sea that looked like frozen gumbo for a moment, and landed by the lake outside Cangzhou a moment later.

Seeing the barren and dark world around her, she felt extremely sad.

Though this was her world, she couldn’t change anything of this world. She could only do the openings and closings of the world helplessly in the last tens of thousands of years. Since the Green Sky Mirror was the magic treasure of the Cloud-Dream Mountain, she had no choice but to obey the wishes of its masters.

Besides feeling sad, she also felt cautious and uneasy; it was because the Immortal Bai took the sun, but didn’t call her out to ask her questions.

Jing Jiu couldn’t have obtained the Fairy Book without her help; the Immortal should be able to find out something.

Thinking that Jing Jiu left hastily without even saying anything to her after obtaining the Fairy Book, the green bird got quite upset and thought he was a truly relentless person.

Tong Yan was much better in this respect.

As she thought of this, she found she had already arrived in the Royal Palace of Chu State and landed on an eave.

She had seen many interesting scenes here, like the little princess of Qin State throwing herself into the chest of the little prince of Chu State, and like the thin and dark bodyguard dozing off constantly while holding a sword. On the other hand, she had witnessed many uninteresting scenes, like Master Mo failing to draw his sword in the end, like the battles and killings, and she also regretted that Jing Jiu was only focused on cultivating, and unwilling to teach her how to get the true freedom.

All of a sudden, she found something was different in this world.

A gust of gentle breeze blew over the red walls and yellow roof tiles of the Royal Palace, and her feathers.

Thought the breeze had no temperature, it had a smell to it, with a faint salty and fish scent.

The breeze came from the ocean.

Why?

The green bird flapped her wings and flew up. She flew into the dark sky as fast as lightning; in a short time, she had travelled the whole world three times.

She landed on the eave of the palace building of Chu State, and turned her head to look at a spot, her eyes beaming.

Was this the scent of freedom?

She understood it now.

Though Jing Jiu hadn’t left any words for her and this world, he had left a far more precious gift.

He had breached the rules of this world.

This world was not dead, and it would revive someday.

The people in this world were not dead, and they would live again someday.

More importantly, this world had no need for the Fairy Book, or the fairy energy, or the magic method of the true immortals; all they needed was the people who lived in this world.

The green bird flew up again, as fast as the lightning, illuminating every spot of the dark sky and every corner of the world. She was in a pleasant mood.

The lightning illuminated a chestnut tree on a slope and the figures under it.

…

…

Jing Jiu didn’t say anything more. He came to the observing platform of the Green Mountain Sect.

Bai Zao felt it a bit odd. It was not because Jing Jiu didn’t talk to her; it was because she found Jing Jiu was actually quite worried, even though he looked unbothered.

Jing Jiu hadn’t been as nervous as he was now when they were in the snowland. Was it because of the Fairy Book?

She had come back to her senses only when Tong Yan approached her and signaled her with his eyes. She turned to other participants before her and greeted them calmly.

The participants of the Dao Competition present had all lived in the world of the Green Sky Mirror for a long time; the shortest period of time was over ten years. They didn’t hold grudges against each other in the real world; on the other hand, they felt a sort of affection for each other when they met in the real world. These practitioners who were qualified for the Dao Competition were the talented disciples of various sect, and in the future, at least half of them would become the sect masters or elders, if nothing unexpected happened. The fondness between them and the shared experiences in the Illusionary Realm would definitely affect the future of the Cultivation circle.

As the future leader of the orthodox Cultivation world, Bai Zao didn’t want to miss the opportunity to establish connections with them. She said to the group with a small smile, “I believe all of you must have many thoughts and conceptions from the experiences in the Illusionary Realm, and need some time to digest them. How about we gather here again in three years?”

There was absolutely no reason for these participants to refuse the invitation; they all agreed.

Xi Yiyun said, “I read some books that I hadn’t read before and wrote some books in there. I plan to compile those writings into books after I return to the One-Cottage House. I will definitely come if I can complete the task in three years.”

The group praised his effort and plan. Then, they turned their attention to another outstanding figure in the Illusionary Realm. Someone who knew He Zhan said with a smiling face, “You are the number two in the outside world, and you were also the number two in the illusionary world. What are you going to do next? Traveling around the world to seek the magic treasures and methods and to move up one more level?”

He Zhan glanced at Tong Yan once, and said, “One of my friends told me, ‘Jing Jiu is ahead of me’. So I’m not going to contend for the number one anymore. I plan to go to White Town.”

“White Town? Why do you want to go to White Town?”

Sese thought that there was no reason for him to go there even if he wanted to pretend to be a monk of the Fruit Formation Temple. Maybe…she couldn’t help but shoot a glance at He Zhan’s crotch, wondering if he had been mentally impaired. As she was about to ask him whether he was still not used to the extra thing on his body, Zhen Tao suddenly shouted in a hushed voice, “What is happening there?”

The group looked in the direction and found it was the observing platform of the Green Mountain Sect. They couldn’t help but feel startled, wondering who was brave enough to bother those people.

There seemed to be a problem there; the atmosphere was indeed stressful.

Jing Jiu was standing before Nan Wang; and the expression on Nan Wang’s face was cold.

Sese instantly forgot about He Zhan’s issue, and said to Zhen Tao, “Like I said, it’s impossible for the Green Mountain Sect to give the Fairy Book to your nunnery; they are not stupid.”

…