Chapter 62: Tianliang
writer:
无罪 update:2022-07-21 15:26
Near sunrise, Hu Jingjing woke up. She first sensed that Li Xixing was still travelling, she could taste the chewed bitter grass in her mouth. Then she habitually glanced in the direction of the Yin Mountains, and felt that she was further away.
The direction of Yin Mountain meant home. The further away from Yin Mountain, the lesser the hope of returning to Changling.
She grew silent.
Li Xixing did not turn to look at her and said slowly, “Do not spit out the herbs …… They are terrible tasting, but they are very effective for your wounds and hard to find. If you have the energy, try to swallow them.”
Hu Jingjing nodded weakly and struggled to swallow the bitter herbs in her mouth. Then she slowly looked up towards Li Xixing and said, “Honestly, what you said before about wanting to wear down the other by your resolve and endurance was a lie?”
Li Xixing still did not look back and said, “Why think this?”
“Because you should have known long ago you cannot escape the other. You carry me to flee on the steppes because you want to find herbs so I will not die. You just did not want me to despair and wanted to see if there is a chance I could survive,” Hu Jingjing said.
Li Xixing said after a moment of silence, “You have no basis for this thinking.”
Hu Jingjing laughed weakly and said, “I have intuition.”
Li Xixing seemed to think her reply was ridiculous and did not respond.
“Do not attempt to leave me behind.” Hu Jingjing lifted her head higher and said, “As long as you will not find a way to leave me behind alone, then it means my words have no basis.”
“Do not do something like having me live and you go die.” Hu Jingjing looked at Li Xixing’s side profile after a pause and said softly, “Otherwise, even if you try to leave me behind at a place, I will go find you, and not try to return to Yin Mountain.”
Li Xixing sneered. “We are going to die together?”
Hu Jingjing did not answer. However, her hands gripped Li Xixing’s robe tighter and then she buried her face deeply into Li Xixing’s bloodied robe.
Li Xixing’s body froze slightly.
Hu Jingjing laughed again and whispered: “I heard you have no friends in Changling, I will be your first friend.”
“Who said I have no friends in Changling?” Li Xixing responded coldly. “I had many friends after the Min Mountain Sword Trials.”
“Oh.” Hu Jingjing knew that she was mistaken. She did not argue and just smiled, saying, “Then I will be your friend like they are.”
Li Xixing did not speak. He continued to pass through the yellowed plains, but his body was no longer close to the ground. His endurance had been overdrawn and he could not maintain his previous speed. Even more importantly, he felt the primal energies of the universe of the steppes had changed in a strange manner. He stood up and he could see much further.
“What are you thinking about?”
A young woman would have more words than someone like him who was used to being alone on the border, especially when this young woman had positive feelings. Soon, Hu Jingjing looked at Li Xixing and started talking.
“I’m wondering what they are using us for, or rather, how we can be used.” Belatedly, she realized the weight of her own words. She said after a pause, “We do need to understand this first.”
“My father does not care about me. To him, I am just a symbol of his loyalty to the empress.” Li Xixing glanced at the gradually rising dawn and said, “Even if blood is thicker than water, if he had even a bit of concern …… If someone were to capture and place me at the front of the battlefield, he would not change his decision at all. He may try to kill me first. So using me to change the actions of some armies is impossible.”
Hu Jingjing struggled to swallow. She had already swallowed the herbs, but she felt bitterness in her mouth again. She looked at Li Xixing’s side profile and felt more sympathy for this miserable young man. She thought, being born in a noble family may not be good fortune.
“And now, we are getting further away from the main battlefield. We are not powerful in cultivation, what can we be used for? Even if we are to be fed to wolves, they have driven us too far.” Li Xixing slowly said and then could not help but shake his head. “I cannot understand what they want.”
Hu Jingjing thought for a moment and said, “Maybe they are just deliberately ……”
Before she finished, Li Xixing interrupted her. “Those that can control the black king eagles have higher status in the Wuzhi than princes. If he were here, perhaps he would understand what the other wants,” he suddenly said as they passed through a meadow.”
Hu Jingjing instinctively said, “That wineshop youth?”
Li Xixing smiled. His smile was cold but also proud.
The wine shop youth seemed to be a derogatory term for Ding Ning in Changling. But now, in the dynasties of the world, it seemed to have become a prominent title.
“He should have also come to the battlefield,” Hu Jingjing unconsciously said when she saw the smile on his lips and confirmed that he was speaking of Ding Ning.
Yet at her words, Li Xixing suddenly froze and even stopped in his steps.
Hu Jingjing looked in amazement at him. A breath later, she reacted. “You feel …… it is because of him?”
Li Xixing’s breathing became laboured. He continued to walk after a moment of silence and said in a cold voice, “I hope it was not him, but now, it seems to be the greatest possibility.”
Why would this almost irrelevant person and matter be the greatest possibility?
Hu Jingjing seemed to want to speak more, but she made no sound when she opened her mouth. Even she sensed an unusual presence in the surrounding primal energies of the universe.
There was a faint but especially clear and high presence, like the best weather of autumn, floating in the sky.
Li Xixing did not make a sound. He could sense more clearly that this presence came from one direction like a monsoon. He felt great curiosity and also a strong hunch. His steps started to speed up again.
Sunrise ……
The warm sunlight fell, and the frost on the grasses evaporated, causing moisture to rise up. Chasing that increasingly clear presence, Li Xixing moved further away from Yin Mountain. The grasses grew taller and thicker, and were like sturdy little trees that popped crisply when broken. The surroundings were more deserted. There were no marks of Wuzhi, and no sound of animals and insects. The world was especially quiet.
Suddenly, Li Xixing stopped. His pause was so abrupt and blunt that Hu Jingjing’s body collided with his.
“What is it?” Hu Jingjing looked ahead in confusion. She did not find anything different. Even the sky was the same.
Li Xixing did not answer. She discovered Li Xixing was looking right in front of his feet. She followed his line of sight, and in the next moment, she exclaimed in disbelief!
Then it startled a herd of tired migratory birds that seemed to have flown over from a distanc. These birds, which looked like white geese, tried to fly up, but were still flying below her line of sight. They did not reach her height.
Because where she and Li Xixing stood now was not the flat plains, but a sunken and deep mountain valley. The valley was very large and the slopes steep. But because they were grown over with tall grasses, and there was a strange mist mirage on top of the valley, the plants underneath the surface were reflected on the top, and made people feel that what was head was flat.
“This ―?”
Hu Jingjing looked closely and was even more shocked. She saw the bottom of this valley was a new world. There were many different colors, rivers, and fields full of blooming flowers.
Li Xixing’s gaze was locked onto a short stone mountain at the center of the valley.
“Tianliang Mountain of Ancestors ―” he took a deep breath and said, “The stuff of legend actually exists.”
Volume 3 62 - One’s Heart Is Most Difficult to Understand
As the emperor of Qi pushed his coronet at the top of the grave like a gravestone, a gust of extremely black yin wind blew across this black mountain. The black wind then swirled to the peak of the mountain, transforming into heavy black clouds.
This mountain was not tall, but with the heavy black clouds at the peak, the entire sky seemed to be lowered, and the mountain appeared exceptionally large.
Many black blades of grass suddenly thrust out of the originally desolate black mountain, covering the entire mountain.
The black grass grew until it reached the emperor of Qi’s waist. All along he remained silent, his long black hair danced in the wind.
All of the pearls fell off the black jade coronet in front of him. Even the golden inlays turned into rotten dust and scattered in the black wind. In the end, all that remained was only a dull jade tablet inserted into the black soil.
The black clouds moved with the wind, but did not dissipate.
The emperor of Qi descended down the mountain along the path. The mountain paths were also overgrown with waist-height black grass. The emperor of Qi seemed to be moving through a long black river.
This scene was peaceful, yet, in the eyes of all the people of Qi at the base of the mountain, it was stunning.
“Prospect Teacher liked quiet. Seal this mountain. No one is allowed to come close,” glancing back up at the mountain, the emperor of Qi said softly to his waiting subjects.
In the outskirts of Changling, numerous farmers who were weeding in the wheat fields suddenly straightened in confusion and looked in the direction of the Wei military port.
The military port seemed to be extremely loud. Flocks of birds continued to fly away from the fields. Moments later, a bright yellow color appeared on the road. Dozens of riders dressed in bright yellow robes galloped over.
These farmers realized that their most respected emperor had finally returned. They knelt with great excitement in the fields.
Along the meandering and straight paths, the news of the imperial cavalcade’s return spread into all of Changling. Along the way, numerous officials and common people knelt. Seeing the authoritative bright yellow figure on top of the imperial carriage from afar, with immense fervor, they chanted, “Long Live the Emperor”.
Among the earth-shaking cheers, Emperor Yuanwu’s lips curved slightly with a hint of joy. His gaze slowly moved around, across his subjects that were worshipping him, until his gaze finally landed on the distant Changling horizon.
You said that being beloved and worshipped sincerely by all is the right way. The Lonely One has accomplished this. So everything this Lonely One has done is right.
“I am used to eating the noodles here. If we move to a place like Ink Garden, just like how I have come to eat breakfast noodles this morning …… also you would want to see the scenery of Ink Garden ……”
Ding Ning spoke sincerely to the noodle shop owner of his usual breakfast noodles in Falling Parasol. The noodle shop owner was focused on kneading his dough. After Ding Ning spoke for a while, this noodle shop owner who was usually very polite to Ding Ning exasperatedly looked up.
“I am quite good here. Why should I move to Ink Garden? Also, my shop has just been repaired. Ink Garden is so desolate. Who will eat my noodles there?”
“I will try to have everyone move there,” Ding Ning said seriously, not dispirited at all. “If you agree first, I will go talk to them later.”
The noodle shop owner rolled his eyes and said, “How will you try?”
Ding Ning could hear his underlying meaning- ‘you cannot even convince me, and you dare to boast that everyone will move.’ But he was still not discouraged and said sincerely, “No rent.”
The noodle shop owner snorted. “Moving the furniture will be more than that bit of rent.”
Ding Ning looked at him and said, “For free.”
The noodle shop owner stilled.
Ding Ning took out the land deed and said grandly, “Pick whatever building you want. If you do not find it convenient to open a shop, and want to open a part of the wall, talk to me, and I will find someone tomorrow to take care of it.”
The noodle shop owner thought and said angrily, “Do not con me. You have the deed to the Ink Gardens. But based on the laws of the Qin, are you able to divide the deed? You think you can give it for free if you want to?”
Ding Ning looked helplessly at the noodle shop owner, and said, “We are so familiar. Do you have to restrain yourself to the laws? The deed cannot be divided. You and I will make a contract and have the neighbours witness it. As long as I am the master of Ink Garden, the building you pick will be yours.”
The noodle shop owner’s eyes lit up. “You are serious?”
Ding Ning said irritably, “When do I not hold to my word?”
“You will really let me pick first?”
“You pick.” Ding Ning rolled his eyes and threw the land deed towards him.
“This is the land deed, what do you think it is?” The noodle shop owner glared and cursed. In this short moment, he had managed to wipe his hands on his apron and then caught the land deed. He then yelled, “Come witness this!”
“What are you trying to do?” Zhangsun Qianxue looked at Ding Ning who squeezed out of the crowd, and demanded coldly.
Ding Ning wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “Cave Master is used to living here. Ink Garden is too quiet. I will make it more lively if I can.”
Zhangsun Qianxue said, “No other reason?”
“At least a large number will move there and turn it into something like Falling Parasol. Then it will not feel like the few of us have taken over Ink Garden. While we do not want Ink Garden …… Maybe this way, the old powers will hate us slightly less.” Ding Ning looked at her and said, “Also, while this has no tangible meaning, it counts as a minor rebelling from a minor common person. Maybe she will feel a hint of displeasure.”
Zhangsun Qianxue thought for a moment and said, “Good job.”
Ding Ning stilled. He had never received such praise from her before. But he immediately reacted and said softly, seeing her turn and laugh, “Childish.”
Being able to displease the mistress of the imperial palace was the greatest joy to Zhangsun Qianxue. But at this time, waves of cheers seemed to come from outside the alley.
A wrinkle appeared between Zhangsun Qianxue’s eyebrows. “He has returned.”
Ding Ning nodded.
Zhangsun Qianxue’s expression darkened. “They all love Emperor Yuanwu.”
“But not you and I.”
Ding Ning could understand her thoughts and emotions at this moment. He heard the distant sounds and looked at the neighbours who were busy dividing the buildings and did not need his help, the new Ink Garden owner.
He said softly, “Look at them …… they love Emperor Yuanwu. But at this time, they like me more.”
“A person’s heart ……” Ding Ning paused and looked at Zhangsun Qianxue who had a frosty expression. “.……It is the most difficult thing to understand in the world.”
Zhangsun Qianxue clearly did not want to think more. Her eyebrows raised and she said softly, “Two realm sixes are coming to see you.”
Ding Ning stilled slightly.
Zhangsun Qianxue then became slightly puzzled. “A realm six and a realm seven?”
[E/D’s two cents: I actually laughed when I got to the later part……Why do I feel he’s not convincing ZQ but himself with the rebellion theory?! The people in Falling Parasol sure love our DN more, but our DN loves his noodles most……truly, a person’s heart is the most difficult to understand! LOL]
Translator Ramblings: Ding Ning is doing some mixed-use city planning here.
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