Unexpectedly, Zhao Layue withdrew the sword wills all of a sudden. The light rays suddenly broke into pieces, and the map and the light speck disappeared.
Zhuo Rusui complained, "I haven't even seen it clearly."
Zhao Layue shot him a glance. He coughed twice, thinking that he shouldn't meddle too much today since he had been troubled so badly by that book a few days ago.
Everybody had guessed that this black board had something to do with Jing Jiu; but what did that light speck mean? If it was a location, what was hidden there?
"Please tell us, Sect Master Lu," Liu Shisui said to Lu Jin.
Lu Jin said, "My Master and I have been to Scenery Garden. You guys should still remember it."
Zhao Layue and the others nodded in response.
Lu Jin continued, "It was the time when the Immortal Jingyang gave this black board to us, master and disciple. He told us to bring this black board back to him if something happened to him in the future."
Jing Jiu and Zhou Yunmu were pursued by many deviant practitioners after they left Scenery Garden, and it was the Aoyama Sect that saved them.
It wasn't until today that Zhao Layue learned that Jing Jiu had indeed given them something important.
"This black board has been kept at the Mysterious Heaven Sect for more than one hundred years, and nothing has changed."
Lu Jin knew what they wanted to ask, explaining, "I didn't know it was a map until today. As for the location of that light speck, I have no idea."
Zhuo Rusui wondered if the Grandmaster of the Sect Master had predicted his death in Scenery Garden more than one hundred years ago, and had prepared for it in advance, and his inheritance was hidden in that location. Would it be time to divide the family property? He could let his thoughts wander, but he was not an idiot, so he wouldn't say it out loud.
Nan Wang said, "There is no point in guessing. Let's just go and see it."
Yet, Zhao Layue didn't think so, asking, "Why didn't you send him off when he was asleep in Zhaoge City?"
In Zhaoge City, Jing Jiu had slept for one hundred years. This time he had only slept for a few days at the Three-Thousand Nunnery.
"Zhenren said that whenever we feel it's time, we'll send it …" Lu Jin looked at Jing Jiu, who was sitting on the bamboo chair, and said, "I think it should be now."
…
…
The Aoyama Sword Formation was destroyed, but the Mountain Gate Formation that separated the immortals from the mortals was still there. Even if the Grand Formation was gone, the Aoyama Sword Formation was still there.
The peaks were shrouded in clouds all year round. Occasionally, when the wind blew, the clouds would flow out like water and gather in a lively town. Cloudy Town was still as lively as it had been in the past. The hotpot restaurant was full of people, and the tourists were looking at the mountains in the distance. Scenery Garden outside the town was still hidden among the flowering trees and streams, so no one could see it.
It was still the deep mountain a few miles away, but it was the deep mountain in the human world. There was a village there, with many abandoned fields and a pond in the village. The banyan tree by the pond was illuminated by the sword lights. Nan Wang, Zhao Layue, and Liu Shisui appeared one after the other. They were the people who had the closest relationship with Jingyang, and the cat.
It was deathly quiet in the village. No sound could be heard, not even the crowing of a rooster or the barking of a dog. It was like a graveyard.
In fact, this place was indeed a huge graveyard. Looking at the gloomy buildings, Liu Shisui thought of his family members who had been killed by Taiping Zhenren, and closed his eyes in silence for a while. When he opened his eyes again, he found that Zhao Layue's mood was also a bit different.
Holding Ada in her arms, Zhao Layue looked at the green duckweed on the surface of the pond. No one knew what she was thinking.
Many years ago, Liu Shisui was listening to the Scriptures in the vegetable garden outside the Guocheng Temple. Jing Jiu had stayed behind closed doors on the top of the Shenmo Peak for twelve years. After he came out, he was ready to go to the Guocheng Temple. On the way, he brought Zhao Layue and Ada here once. At that time, she was standing by the pond with Ada in her arms, waiting for Jing Jiu.
She didn't know where Jing Jiu had been and what he had been doing during that time, but she had felt a strong sense of uneasiness, just like today.
Nan Wang took out the Black Card and looked at the position of the light point, saying, "Over there."
The sword string appeared out of nowhere, making a slight buzzing sound. It left hundreds of straight lines on the green duckweed on the surface of the pond, looking like a chessboard.
Passing through the lifeless village, a few mountains and a wild forest, they arrived at the bank of a small river.
Many years ago, Jing Jiu walked out of the river and lit a fire for the first time, drying the white cloth.
The place where Nan Wang, Zhao Layue and Liu Shisui were going was in the big mountain at the end of the river.
It was as difficult as climbing up to heaven for ordinary people to enter the deep part of the mountain, but it was nothing for Nan Wang, who was in the Reaching Heaven State.
The silver bell rang slightly. She raised her right hand and pointed at the precipitous and smooth cliff wall, preparing to open a passage by force.
"I used to play in this river when I was little," said Liu Shisui. "You can walk in there."
There was a cave on the cliff wall, from which a silver waterfall poured down. It was the source of the river.
The three of them passed through the waterfall and entered the cliff wall. There was an extremely dark passage in the cliff wall, from which the river kept gushing out. The sound of the water crashing against the hard cliff wall rang out incessantly. Neither the darkness nor the impact of the water had any effect on them. It was just that the length of the passage was beyond their imagination, as if it would lead to the deepest part of the mountain.
After walking for a long time, a ray of light suddenly shone in front of the passage. It was a bright pearl embedded in the cliff wall.
Looking at the bright pearl on the cliff wall, Nan Wang seemed to have thought of something, his face looking a bit awful.
Walking in the front, Liu Shisui said, "There is a sword formation."
Zhao Layue and Nan Wang walked over, feeling the chilly sword wills coming from the cliff wall, feeling it a bit odd.
The chilly sword wills and the sword formation hidden in the mountain obviously had the air of Aoyama, but it was obviously not the Inherited Heaven Sword Formation.
"It's the kind in the Sword Jail …" Liu Shisui became nervous when he thought of the passage at the bottom of the Shangde Peak, the cell and the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom in the cell.
Zhao Layue had also seen that cell and felt the messy sword wills in the passage, so she immediately remembered.
"The Thousand-mile Ice … it was he who set up the sword formation."
Nan Wang's voice was even colder than the sword wills, "It looks like we are in the right place."
…
…
The sword formation named Thousand-mile Ice could trap Taiping Zhenren for hundreds of years. Naturally, they couldn't break it.
It was then that they realized why Jing Jiu had left the black card to them.
As if sensing the energy in the sword formation, a few wisps of sword wills drifted out from the complicated patterns on the surface of the black card.
The few wisps of sword wills melted into the sword formation like the first ray of morning light outside the window.
The Thousand-mile Ice Sword Formation was activated soundlessly, allowing the pearl-like light on the stone wall to fall into the darkness and illuminate the manor cave.
It was a plain and clean manor cave, with only a few simple furnishings. It was as boring as its former owner.
There was a stone bed against the cliff wall, with two cattail hassocks in front of it. The hassocks had been worn out for a long time, and could be blown away by a gust of wind.
Ada stared at the two hassocks in Zhao Layue's arms, and suddenly sniffed them. He seemed to have recalled the smell of the past, a puzzled expression showing in his eyes.
A man was lying on the stone bed. The silk robe he wore had been worn out, and his body was covered with wounds, but there was no trace of blood. The belt made of the Hell Dragon Robe had been broken into many pieces, scattered around. The man's face was indistinguishable. His face was covered with a layer of fog, as if it wouldn't dissipate even after ten thousand years, but it seemed to hide the starlight of a hundred million years.
Zhao Layue and Liu Shisui looked at the corpse on the stone bed. Even though they had expected it, they were still shocked speechless.
It was quiet in the manor cave. Suddenly, there was the sound of water dripping.
Zhao Layue thought that the man was very picky. How could the cliff wall of the manor cave leak water?
She turned around and saw an unforgettable scene.
Nan Wang was crying.
It was the kind of silent crying.
There was no sorrow on her face. She was calm and even indifferent. She didn't make any sound, but her tears kept falling down.
"So … you are really dead."
Nan Wang walked to the stone bed and sat down slowly. She reached out her hand and touched his face through the fog. Her tears gradually stopped, but her voice was full of sorrow.
Zhao Layue and Liu Shisui looked at each other, walked to the stone bed, knelt down, and kowtowed three times to the corpse.
Ada had already jumped out of her arms. He stared at the two hassocks in front of the stone bed with great concentration.
— I can recognize you even if you turn into ashes.
This was not Ada's thought, but Nan Wang's.
She walked into the manor cave and recognized the man on the stone bed at first glance.
More than one hundred years ago, the Immortal Jingyang cut the sky with his sword and ascended.
But there was something wrong with the Formation of Smoke and Cloud. Then he was sneak-attacked by the Fairy Lady Bai Ren and was severely wounded. Then he returned to the human world and hid in this manor cave.
Before his death, he used the Thunder-Soul Wood he had prepared and guided his spiritual soul into the All in One Sword. Then he was reborn as a sword.
The corpse, or the slough, of the Immortal Jingyang was on the stone bed.
…
…
"Young Master … you suffered a lot."
Liu Shisui said in a trembling voice while looking at the wounds on the corpse.
Now that the Fairy Lady Bai Ren and Taiping Zhenren were dead, the hatred related to this matter had gone with the wind. But he still felt very sad.
After Zhao Layue calmed down, the first thing that came to her mind was another question.
When Liu Ci and the other figures in the Heavenly Arrival State left, heaven and earth would show signs, and they would scatter into light spots and turn into the spring breeze or the morning sunlight. Why could the slough of the Immortal Jingyang be preserved for such a long time? Was it because his spiritual soul still existed, so he wasn't really dead? Or was it because he had reached the State of Hiding the World when he ascended?
"What are we going to do next?" Liu Shisui asked Zhao Layue while looking at her.
More than one hundred years ago, Jing Jiu had asked the two regular Cultivation practitioners to take the black card away. It was obvious that he had a backup plan.
They had followed the black card to this place and found the body of his previous life. What should they do next?
Zhao Layue said, "Do you still remember what Zen Master said in the Three-Thousand Nunnery? Jingyang and Jing Jiu are like the upstream and downstream of the same river … "
Liu Shisui said, "And I don't know if I'm a guest in a dream … I really don't understand."
Nan Wang suddenly said, "He wants to come back."
Neither Zhao Layue nor Liu Shisui understood what she meant.
Nan Wang said softly, "He wants to come back to this body. Though he has never shown this intention in the past one hundred years, he … wants to come back. He was so badly injured this time that his spiritual soul fell into a deep sleep and couldn't be restrained by his willpower anymore. That's why something went wrong."
Zhao Layue frowned slightly and said, "You mean his spiritual soul doesn't like the current body, so he doesn't want to wake up?"
Nan Wang said, "Maybe he doesn't like the current body, or maybe he just doesn't want to give it up. Who knows?"
Zhao Layue asked in confusion, "Even if he was the strongest in the world in his previous life, his Taoist body was definitely not as good as the current sword body. Why doesn't he like it?"
"Because this body can feel, itch, pain, and get drunk. But now … he can't feel anything."
Nan Wang gently touched Jingyang's face on the stone bed, his eyes full of pity and heartache.
Zhao Layue and Liu Shisui both understood. When they thought of the person sleeping in the Three-Thousand Nunnery, they felt a lot of pity and heartache just like Nan Wang did.
Cultivators lived for a long time and had seen too many deaths, so they were naturally indifferent to many things.
But cultivators like Jing Jiu were still very rare.
He didn't eat hotpot, play mahjong, or drink wine.
The most delicious food in the world and the most emotional things … were not attractive to him.
Even those heartless demons of the evil path would not be as extreme as him.
Even the Immortal Jingyang in his previous life wasn't as cold as he was in this life.
Why was it like this?
No one had ever thought about this, not even Zhao Layue or Liu Shisui. They only thought he was such a person.
It wasn't until this moment that they realized that Jing Jiu didn't like those things because … he couldn't feel the beauty of those things.
No matter how strong the wine was or how hot the tea was, it was no different from water to him.
He could only walk in the streets by the White Horse Lake in the spring rain.
He could only lean against the Taoist hall in the winter snow and feel the frost falling on his face.
He could only live a poetic life without being aware of it.
Because the poetic life wasn't in words or objects.
Being unconscious was the highest state pursued by the Zen Sect.
But how painful would it be if he was forced to do so?
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