Unseen Immortal of Three Hundred Years - Chap 34
The ones with an even stronger reaction than Wu Xingxue were Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu.
At the time, they were lifting the felt curtains, just about to dismount the carriage. Upon hearing Xiao Fuxuan say “calamity period,” however, their heads erupted in question marks, and they tripped over their feet—
A pair of tumbling sounds issued out; the two little demons nearly fell down and face-planted on their homeland.
Ning Huaishan clutched the carriage door with one hand to halt his stumbling. After a beat, he pushed the curtain aside and poked his head in: “…How did you know?!”
His eyes were big to begin with, and now they were so bugged they looked about ready to fall out, staring unblinkingly with incredulity at Xiao Fuxuan.
Before long, Fang Chu’s head also poked in, frowning in bewilderment: “How would Tianxiu know the term ‘calamity period’?!”
Nearby, Yi Wusheng queried: “Calamity period? What does ‘calamity period’ mean? This is the first time I’m hearing about it.”
Ning Huaishan snapped back: “Well no shit! D’ya think we’d just easily let you cultivators hear about it?”
Yi Wusheng: “?”
When on their calamity periods, devils could be easily taken advantage of and infiltrated if they weren’t careful. So, Zhaoye City’s devils and evildoers maintained a tacit understanding to conceal it by any means possible when leaving the city. No devil would let outsiders, especially people from cultivation sects, to know about this detail, as it would put their own weak spot on display.
Not to mention, the phrase “calamity period” was also an intra-community term for devils; they thought that resentful souls backlashing was a calamity, so they used this name. Were a cultivator to learn of it, they’d probably pat themselves on the back and call it “retribution.”
As they babbled out their questions for a while, if nothing else, Wu Xingxue could at least get the point—this phrase “calamity period” should not have under any circumstances come out of Xiao Fuxuan’s mouth.
As for why he would have known…
Now that was the real question.
Grasping the woolen blanket, Wu Xingxue thought back to those vague fragments in his dream, especially the ambiguous tone Sang Yu used when mentioning the “Tianxiu Immortal”…
In short, there was perhaps no more place in this carriage for him to hide.
Yet those two idiots kept braying on: “No wayyy, Tianxiu… how the hell do you know? Who leaked it out?”
Xiao Fuxuan didn’t immediately respond to their words, but used his sword to prop open the felt door curtain and turned his head to Wu Xingxue to say: “Let’s dismount.”
Wu Xingxue glanced at him, lifted the thick blanket, and went toward the carriage door.
He lowered his head to pass through the door curtain Xiao Fuxuan’s sword propped up, and was just about to dismount.
From the corner of his eyes, Xiao Fuxuan shot him a glance, then abruptly addressed the question Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu had been waiting on an answer for.
Ever so close, his deep voice said: “I just happen to know.”
Wu Xingxue’s heart jumped.
Immediately after, that voice emanated again: “Put on an overcoat.”
Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu: “?”
He just blurted such a statement out of the blue without any context, startling everyone who heard. After a beat, the pair realized that this statement was directed toward their city lord.
Umm…………..
Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu had originally been planning to say a little more, but were now rendered speechless.
They just watched as their City Lord froze and shot an unfathomable look at Xiao Fuxuan before at last turning back into the carriage.
Yi Wusheng pulled out a carriage-furnished overcoat and handed it over, saying: “I don’t understand what this calamity period thing is about, but if it’s an unbearable bodily chill, then wearing a bit more should do well. Perhaps… young master, if you don’t mind, you could describe the calamity period’s symptoms and what means are able to suppress it. If nothing else, I’m carrying all sorts of pills, perhaps they could be of use.”
“……”
After he spoke, the horse carriage went momentarily silent, enough to hear a pin drop.
Yi Wusheng was at a loss, showing puzzlement on his face: “What’s wrong?”
Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu’s faces silently contorted, not daring to interrupt rashly this time. They withdrew in tacit understanding for a while before suddenly realizing a problem—
Tianxiu Immortal Xiao Fuxuan had suddenly gone just as silent.
Of course, Tianxiu was originally a quiet fellow to begin with, who cherished his words like gold. But at that moment, they got the subtle feeling that the Tianxiu Immortal’s reaction wasn’t his normal silence, but like theirs, with a bit of an ineffable meaning to it.
It seemed like he not only knew what the calamity period was, but even knew the symptoms of the calamity period, as well as how to suppress it.
Umm????
Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu exchanged a glance.
But, before they could ponder, they heard their City Lord saying: “To tell the truth, I don’t remember anything at all about the calamity period. No need for medicine, I don’t like taking it. But I appreciate your kindness mister.”
After he finished speaking, Wu Xingxue got off the carriage wearing the overcoat, almost hurrying a bit.
Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu rapidly caught up and whispered to him: “City Lord, it’s so weird, that Tianxiu Immortal seems to know everything, even how to suppress a calamity perio—”
Before they could finish, they heard City Lord speaking in an incredibly faint voice: “Please shut up guys.”
The two of them were most fearful of this sort of tone. Scalps numb, they shut their mouths.
Wu Xingxue finally got a moment’s peace.
Within the night’s chill, a wind laden with freezing rain whipped straight over, so strong it whistled past his ears. It was only now that Wu Xingxue realized that in the horse carriage, a bit of heat had just risen to the base of his ears and neck.
Behind him was the light sound of a sword as Xiao Fuxuan also dismounted.
As Wu Xingxue swept a glimpse over his surroundings, he saw that, after landing, Xiao Fuxuan stood a few paces away from the horse carriage. He met his gaze, but didn’t appear to want to come over.
“Sss… How come there are so many people by the relay station?” Ning Huaishan abruptly asked in vexation.
“Hm?” Wu Xingxue turned to look.
The place their carriage had stopped was an expanse of hitching posts with a canopy overhead. A place not far behind ought to have been Zhaoye City’s entrance.
There, he saw a lofty, imperious wall, flanked on either side by minarets, the borders of which appeared to suspend bells and chimes that swayed in the freezing wind, their sound emanating through the misty fog.
In the center of the high wall was a large gate of black iron, the left and right of which were festooned with dozens of greenish lights.
At first, Wu Xingxue thought they were lanterns hanging from the wall. But, after focusing his eyes for a moment, he realized they were ghost fires suspended in the rainy mist.
And between the ghost fires, human silhouettes flickered about.
Wu Xingxue asked: “Who are they? Guards?”
He thought to himself, wasn’t Zhaoye City the devil’s lair, what would the devil’s lair need guards for?
On cue, he heard Ning Huaishan reply: “Before, our Zhaoye City didn’t have guards. Those otherworld lights were all put there by City Lord, along with the black bells hanging from the towers—in case someone from Immortal Capital tried to enter Zhaoye City, the black bells would ring, and the otherworld lights would form a wall of fire that go on for thousands of miles.
“But later, some guards were placed here.” Ning Huaishan added.
“Why?” Wu Xingxue asked.
Ning Huaishan beat around the bush: “Uhh, because City Lord was locked up in that awful Northern Frontiers place, and nobody knew when you could come back. A lot of people were worried the otherworld lights and black bells wouldn’t hold up after a few years, so…”
This was already euphemistic wording.
Wu Xingxue tacitly understood. Presumably, those devils in Zhaoye City thought he’d met certain death, and no longer trusted these things.
Moreover, arranging guards meant that there was someone calling the shots in Zhaoye City.
Wu Xingxue waved a hand at Ning Huaishan, asking: “Come, tell me, who is the current City Lord of Zhaoye City?”
Curling his lip unreconciled, Ning Huaishan subconsciously said: “Xueli.”
After saying this, he was pushed heavily by Fang Chu.
Ning Huaishan came back to himself immediately, “City Lord…”
Wu Xingxue wasn’t surprised in the least. Since he’d entered the Northern Frontiers, all the world thought him dead. It would have been impossible that the position of City Lord of devils’ lair Zhaoye City had remained empty. With so many devils and demons, there’d always be someone striving for the top seat. That there was a new City Lord was a matter of course.
He again recalled how back when he’d just gotten out of the Northern Frontiers, Ning Huaishan had borne an expression of hurriedly getting him back to Zhaoye City, likely because of this.
“Xueli?” Yi Wusheng blurted out, “Xueli…”
Possessed by a devil, he’d been muddleheaded for over twenty years. Before he awoke, he had no idea who the new City Lord of Zhaoye City had become. Now hearing the name, he repeated it a few times, saying: “This name is the same as that of a former acquaintance of mine.”
Fang Chu: “Was your former acquaintance from the Feng family?”
Yi Wusheng nodded: “Yes, the Feng family had a good relationship with my Hua family for generations. The previous family head had two sons and a daughter. Eldest son Feng Feishi, precious daughter Feng Juyan, and youngest son Feng Xueli.”
Fang Chu: “That’s right, it’s him.”
Yi Wusheng went pale with shock: “What’s the meaning of this?!”
Fang Chu: “It’s that Feng Xueli. I don’t know how he fell out with his family or how he began cultivating the devil’s path. When he came to Zhaoye City, he abandoned his family name and only kept Xueli. The past few years our Zhaoye City hadn’t produced any great devils, just let him take it over for cheap, and he became the new City Lord.”
“Not only that!” Ning Huaishan’s temper flared up, his face pulled longer than a horse’s: “When he came to Zhaoye City, he didn’t make a manor for himself. He had his heart set on occupying City Lord’s No Sparrow’s Landing. If it weren’t for No Sparrow’s Landing sealing itself off after City Lord left, he might’ve already moved all his family property in there!”
Because of this, he looked upon Xueli with extreme disdain.
Before, he and Fang Chu were eager for Wu Xingxue to return to the city as soon as possible and kill off that dog’s mighty air. Just based on his City Lord’s skill, as soon as he came back, what would become of Xueli’s domineering behavior then?
But now he’d changed his mind. Their City Lord didn’t remember anything, and was just getting on his calamity period. Best to wait for his memory to be reinstated and his calamity period to be crossed, and then take on Xueli before he knew what hit him.
So, right now was not a good time for identity reveals.
As Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu were thinking as much, they called Wu Xingxue, wanting to change his appearance a little before crossing the relay station.
But before they opened their mouths, they heard a gust of wind from behind.
It was a dark, corpse-qi-laden wind. Upon smelling it, Wu Xingxue suddenly recalled Sang Yu’s manor in the dream—people on the corpse refining path would always have this odor about them.
Wu Xingxue pinched his nose. As he was about to lift his gaze again, he saw that the flickering figures beside the city wall were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the dozens of black-robed people had flashed right before them.
Their skin was pale white, and across their necks was an extremely noticeable black line. At first glance, it was evident that they’d been decapitated and then sewn back together by force.
Upon looking closer, he discovered that those lines weren’t an even stitchwork of black thread, but a circle of coffin nails driven into the neck.
“These are the new City Lord’s guards?” Wu Xingxue studied them. Cocking his head to the side, he murmured, “They’re so ugly.”
As he finished talking, he encountered a rare moment when he didn’t hear an echo. He thought to himself, so there are times when Ning Huaishan has some sense of reservation.
But soon, he heard Ning Huaishan’s voice elsewhere: “We’ve only been gone from the city for a few days, how come there are so many extra people at the relay station?”
Wu Xingxue: “……”
Before, Ning Huaishan had still been close by his side, but at some point, he’d gone a few steps away. So who was the person standing at his side and listening to his mouthing off now?
Wu Xingxue turned his head, seeing Xiao Fuxuan carrying his sword.
Wu Xingxue was startled: “…Weren’t you just standing over by the carriage, how’d you end up here?”
Xiao Fuxuan: “If you hadn’t turned your head to look, how would you know I was standing by the carriage?”
Wu Xingxue moved his lips, but didn’t issue any sound. That subtle, ineffable feeling from before came floating back up.
He faintly sensed that the Tianxiu Immortal seemed a bit unhappy. Clearly, he hadn’t been like this when Wu Xingxue had just woken up. Thinking back, it seemed that he’d been like this ever since he’d told Yi Wusheng “I don’t remember the calamity period” and then hurried out of the carriage.
Wu Xingxue: “……”
Um….
He was but a devil, presumably he’d never cared whether others were happy or unhappy. Besides, he truly didn’t know whether, under these circumstances, if he were to say something, what should he say.
Better to just act as if he hadn’t noticed.
As the Devil Lord thought, he pursed his lips.
After a second, he again moved them again, “Why did you come over?”
Xiao Fuxuan lifted his eyelids: “Came to help someone change faces.”
Wu Xingxue: “?”
He gaped for a moment, hearing Xiao Fuxuan’s low voice saying: “Stand still.”
The next moment, he understood Xiao Fuxuan’s meaning—just to hear the leader of Zhaoye City’s guards advancing a few paces while explaining to Ning Huaishan: “Falling Flower Terrace is exhibiting strange phenomena. To keep from drawing people over, City Lord ordered an increase in the city’s defense. Of course you guys can enter the city with no problem. As for these three…”
That pack of guards ignited a fire on their palms to illuminate their way. Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu were Wu Xingxue’s trusted aides; practically no one in Zhaoye City wouldn’t recognize them. But the other three, they still had to examine.
They’d gotten very close. Under these circumstances, if Xiao Fuxuan lifted his hand to change anyone’s face it’d be too conspicuous.
Wu Xingxue thought to himself, too late, it’s over.
They’d originally planned to sneak into Falling Flower Terrace to get a little jade essence to restore the dream bell. Everything else could wait until he unraveled the dream and restored his memory.
But now with this, they’d likely make a scene—
With this face of his, Zhaoye City’s people were sure to recognize him.
And Xiao Fuxuan was even worse, being, after all, the Tianxiu Immortal. Based on those fragments he’d dreamed, he reckoned most of Zhaoye City’s people knew what Xiao Fuxuan looked like.
Even Yi Wusheng was dangerous. As an elder of an influential cultivation sect with an outside reputation, there was no way to prevent people from recognizing him at a glance.
All things considered, they truly didn’t appear to be attempting a low profile—more like they’d come to incite all of Zhaoye City.
As a guard approached with a palm flame, Wu Xingxue heard a pair of syllables shooting out from the crack in Xiao Fuxuan’s lips: “It’s done.”
It’s done?
Wu Xingxue saw that he hadn’t had a chance to lift his hand; he was utterly bamboozled. If he hadn’t moved, how could it be done?
Before he could turn his head, he saw that nearby, Yi Wusheng’s style of dress hadn’t changed, a thick scarf still covering his mouth and nose, but his exposed eyes and brows had already changed appearance.
At first glance, he looked like a frail scholar being manipulated by a devil.
As the guard’s palm flame swept over, Wu Xingxue squinted his eyes in the dazzling light.
That moment, the guard let out a hiss, muttering to another guard to the side: “These eyes… Why do I feel like I’ve seen them somewhere before.”
From the corner of his eyes, Wu Xingxue saw Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu’s hands already pressing against their sword handles, as though ready to attack at any moment. Then, the other guard said: “It’s been two days, and every day you keep feeling like you’d seen someone somewhere before.”
They examined them again, this time turning palm flames to Xiao Fuxuan.
From this Wu Xingxue could be assured, his own face, much like Yi Wusheng’s, had already been turned unrecognizable.
“Are you done checking yet? You’re really dragging your feet. I already said, we were just hungry along the way and snatched a few people in passing,” Ning Huaishan spoke with evident impatience, “What else could we be bringing in?”
It appeared that he and Fang Chu had some standing in Zhaoye City. Seeing his impatience, the guards wasted no more time, and promptly opened a path through.
“Oh, when entering the city, don’t use the Falling Flower Terrace path, City Lord opened another path to its right,” a guard exhorted from behind.
“What strange phenomena has there been around Falling Flower Terrace?” Ning Huaishan asked.
“Well it’s nothing other than a blaze appearing on the mountain again.”
“A blaze?”
“Mm.”
Wu Xingxue thought back to what Yi Wusheng had said in the carriage before, how back then, after the Falling Flower Mountain Market burned down, each year on the third day of the third month, the entire Falling Flower Terrace would still be ablaze. It’d lured a bunch of immortal sect disciples over, but all they’d discovered was a desolate expanse of scorched earth, nothing else.
It wasn’t until Falling Flower Terrace was drawn into Zhaoye City’s territory and became Zhaoye City’s entrance, that the blaze on the third day of the third month slowly disappeared.
Did these guards mean that, centuries after the fire, it was happening again?
Ning Huaishan said: “When we’d left the city a few days ago, it was still just fine.”
The guard replied, “It’s just started the past couple days.”
The past couple days?
Wu Xingxue worked it out in his head.
Wasn’t that when they’d just left Dabei Valley?
Coincidence? What further implications were there between them?
He pondered for a while. By the time he recovered his senses, they were already standing before the black iron gates. Supposedly, the otherworld lights he’d set up would float faintly on either side, and when a group of people approached, they’d sway up and down a few times, appearing to get restless.
Taking advantage of the guards not being nearby, Ning Huaishan said quietly: “City Lord, do you still remember how to work these otherworld lights?”
Wu Xingxue spoke calmly: “I forgot. What’s the matter?”
Ning Huaishan’s entire face gave off a petrified look: “These otherworld lights recognize immortal energy, they’re very sensitive. It’s said that in their hundreds of years of being gatekeepers, they’d never made a mistake. They’ll immediately catch anyone from the Immortal Capital, just changing appearances won’t be enough to fool them.”
Xing Huaishan peeped at the Tianxiu Immortal, and his voice got even quieter: “If You remember how they work, it’d be easy to just let Tianxiu in on his own. But You don’t remember, so what should we do?”
Wu Xingxue: “……”
Unsure whether to laugh or cry. Ning Huaishan said: “They say when these otherworld lights burn up it’s really scary, I don’t wanna die here, I—”
Halfway to crying, his eyes abruptly widened into perfect circles, and the tail end of his words went awry, nearly cut off.
Wu Xingxue turned his head to follow his gaze, and saw that Xiao Fuxuan merely paused a moment before the otherworld lights, and then strode right on forward.
His longsword’s clinking let out a very faint sound, and his robe fluttered out, revealing his long, sturdy black boots.
The otherworld lights on either side just lightly swayed a few times, as though hesitating a moment. Soon after, they calmed down, totally unconcerned with how they’d just let in an ascended immortal.
Xing Huaishan: “?????????”
At that moment, he and Fang Chu were truly flabbergasted.
“City Lord, how come he could enter…?”
“How come he could enter even without you doing anything…?”
“It looks like this isn’t even his first time entering.”
“City Lord?”
They turned to look at their City Lord, only to see City Lord’s narrow neck and chin burying themselves into the silver-white fox fur. After a beat, words escaped from between his lips: “Don’t know, are you two going or not?”
“……”
“Going.”
Until crossing the heavy black iron gates, Wu Xingxue kept on thinking over those phrases “how come he could enter,” and “this isn’t even his first time entering.”
In fact, he could guess how come.
Because in that dream, Sang Yu said when those two little imps had been spying on No Sparrow’s Landing, they saw the Tianxiu Immortal. If the dream was true, then it meant the Tianxiu Immortal had once come to Zhaoye City without ever stirring the otherworld lights, without tasting the otherworld ghost fires’ conflagration.
But from Ning Huaishan’s words, the otherworld lights had been set up by him. If they were to be meddled with, perhaps they could only be changed by him.
So, there was only one explanation—
A long time ago, when he’d been Zhaoye City’s lord, he’d already allowed Xiao Fuxuan’s passage.
…..
Wu Xingxue stopped in his tracks.
He’d subconsciously been following the silhouette before him. It wasn’t until now, lifting his eyes, that he discovered that at some point he’d already entered a mountain path and was currently standing within an expanse of fog.
He’d barely even taken a step when he saw Xiao Fuxuan’s tall back submerging into the white fog.
This fog was abnormally thick, and exceptionally cold.
When Wu Xingxue passed through in turn, he felt the misty air swiping against his neck, as though a large drop of freezing water had plopped onto his nape and trickled down his back.
The chill was so brisk he shut his eyes. When he opened them again, the scene before him had already completely changed.
The thick fog fell behind him, and beside his feet was a white boundary stone crawling with vines and inscribed with the words “Falling Flower Terrace” in beautiful handwriting.
Before him snaked yellow-orange lights. Commencing at his feet, the mountain path wound straight on up into the sky.
Illuminated by the lights were faintly distinguishable buildings connected by arches, their windows and doors wide open. Shop windows of all shapes and sizes were strewn everywhere, along with human figures milling about.
All sorts of banners fluttered in the mountain’s shadow. The nearest one was a long banner that read four large words.
Falling Flower Mountain Market
Wu Xingxue stood there awhile, lifting his feet to walk over to the long banner.
As he lowered his head past the banner, a swell of lively human voices surged over like the Eternal Sea, washing over him.
Although he’d completely lost his memory, upon hearing that clamorous din, he abruptly felt that this was it; this was the Falling Flower Mountain Market of yesteryear.
But the real Falling Flower Mountain Market had already burned down, and disappeared centuries ago.
So what was this before his eyes?
The guard from when they’d just entered the city gates had said, there had recently been strange movements around Falling Flower Terrace, frequent sightings of lights in the mountain.
Could it be that he’d accidentally set foot in an illusion realm?
Then this illusion realm was really too real.
This mountain market didn’t appear to be set on the mountain path; it looked more like a never-ending lane. The ground was paved with white stones, but not paved very seamlessly. When he stepped on one it’d wobble a little to the side, and when he stepped off it’d fall lightly back into position.
Nearest to him was a three-story teahouse. Its floors were set into the mountain, but weren’t at all askew.
A long string of lanterns hung down from its flying eaves. Many people were sitting in the teahouse, chatting away, while a folk storyteller sat before the hall grasping a block of gavel wood, spittle flying in all directions.
A waiter was hoisting up a white cloth as he set up a stand outside the hall. His hawking pierced through Wu Xingxue’s ears: “Falling Flower Terrace immortal spring fried spiritual tea. One pot cures all diseases. Two pots guarantee a thousand years without worry—”
Wu Xingxue: “……”
He loitered beside the pennant erected by the teahouse for a while until he really couldn’t bear it anymore, and extended a hand to feel along its border…
This illusion realm was somewhat powerful, even the texture of coarse cloth was rendered clearly.
“Ai, Lord Official here! Don’tcha pull at my place’s banner!” The waiter said to him: “Are You drinking tea? My place’s tea and refreshments are a must, no need to taste anything else in this Falling Flower Mountain Market.”
Wu Xingxue shook his head, just about to say: “No thanks.”
He suddenly caught sight of a tall figure approximately three-to-five meters away from him. The person lifted his sword to push aside the fluttering shop pennants, and dodged to the side to let an uncle pushing a shop cart through. Wu Xingxue watched as he was about to disappear into the sea of people.”
Wu Xingxue strode over, about to shout “Xiao Fuxuan.”
Just as the syllable “Xiao” left his mouth, he felt a clap on his shoulder. The next moment, a palm gently covered the space below his nose. Retreating half a step, his back was knocked into an expanse of warmth.
Xiao Fuxuan’s voice sounded beside his ear, kept quite low: “Don’t say that. This is an illusion realm.”
