Chapter 11: Different Paths Cannot Coexist - Section 22: Immortal Dream

Section 22: Immortal Dreams

"Yes, yes, indeed I was too hasty." The man laughed and spoke, unable to conceal the excitement in his heart as he paced back and forth inside the cave. Whenever he heard that Wufei had finished translating another section, he would cheer with delight, busily fetching water and food to urge Wufei to eat and drink.

It was not until the depth of night that all the inscriptions on the cave walls were completely translated and transcribed.

Someone took up blades and swords, preparing to destroy the writings on the wall, but Wufei stopped them, saying, "These are ancient relics, how can you destroy them!"

"If we don't destroy them, what if someone else discovers them? How will our secret manuals still be worth anything?"

"You need not worry. Tomorrow my adoptive mother will arrive, and the writings on the walls will be peeled off and taken away by her for safekeeping. They will never be discovered by others."

The group exchanged glances, hesitating for a moment, but eventually agreed with Wufei and put away their blades and swords.

"Since that is the case, so be it. We certainly will not forget you when these secret manuals are exchanged for wealth."

"If I doubted you all, why would I have come? Please rest assured, my adoptive mother will never interfere with everyone's money-making, nor does she care for such wealth."

One of them cupped his fists and said, "What are you saying, Little Wu? How could we possibly doubt Lady Li's reputation? The money from selling these secret manuals is a large sum to us, but Lady Li would never even deign to look at it, nor would she care. We shall take our leave first. Little Wu, you must take good care of yourself staying here alone to wait for Lady Li. The mountains are terribly cold in the middle of the night."

Wufei cupped her fists in farewell, and the group departed with the transcribed ancient secret manuals.

After they left, Wufei let out a long sigh inside the cave.

The night grew deeper, and Wufei stood outside the cave, gazing into the night sky for a long time.

The night sky was cloudless, with a full moon hanging high and stars densely scattered.

In the center of the moon, a speck gradually grew larger and descended lower. Just when one might have mistaken it for a falling star, it slowly became clear that it was a person—a flying person with white wings of light spread across their back.

A strong wind swept past, sending the snow all over the ground flying into the air. The white wings of light slowly folded and finally merged into Lady Li's back.

"Adoptive mother," Wufei greeted respectfully, cupping her fists.

"There were truly discoveries?" Lady Li hurried into the cave, grasping several enormous luminous night pearls in her hand, which instantly illuminated a section of the cave's rock wall.

"Look, adoptive mother. These inscriptions seem quite aged, yet they are truly unbelievable!"

Lady Li scanned the writings on the stone wall, her expression growing increasingly solemn.

Wufei stood beside her, her face filled with incredulous doubt.

"Three years ago, I accompanied my adoptive mother here. At that time, we took away all the ancient texts in the cave, and there were definitely no such secret manual writings on the walls. Not long ago, Chen Yi encountered an immortal in a dream who pointed him to this place. I never expected that upon arriving today, these would actually be on the cave walls! Adoptive mother, could there truly be immortals in this world?"

Lady Li was likewise unable to explain the situation before her. The traces of the inscriptions looked as though they had certainly not been carved by anyone recently, yet the two of them had come here three years ago, and at that time, these writings simply did not exist. "The matter is rather strange. Yesterday, I received a confidential letter sent by someone entrusted by the King of Zheng, stating that Princess Luo had encountered an immortal who entrusted her in a dream with the location of a secret manual treasury, and the Flying Immortal Sect rushed over tonight. However, the treasure location Princess Luo learned of in her dream is situated beneath the abyssal cliff west of Pi County, a place I had also searched long ago, and there are definitely no secret manuals."

"This..." For a moment, Wufei could not help but doubt the existence of immortals in the world.

"Whether immortals are at work is hardly worth pondering over. With so many ancient divine arts appearing in the world, a bloody storm is bound to be stirred up. Among all the martial practitioners in the world who obtain these secret manuals, who wouldn't want to show off their skills? Call them immortals if you will, but I rather think this is the work of malevolent ghosts. One can only imagine how many people will die because of this in the future!"

"Adoptive mother, are these ancient techniques truly that formidable?"

"Seven or eight out of ten belong to the ranks of the most brilliant supreme arts of the current era, and two or three out of ten are no less than the Ten Directions and Nine-Five Supreme Divine Arts of the Northern Spirit Sect and the Flying Immortal Sect." As Lady Li spoke, her face was filled with unbearable sorrow, as if she could already foresee the countless massacres and tragedies that the emergence of these ancient divine arts would bring.

Wufei did not know what to say and could only accompany her in silence.

After a moment, Lady Li suddenly said, "Your temperament is suited for practicing the mental cultivation methods of the ancient Wuchang Sect. Go and memorize them thoroughly first. Once I peel the writings off the stone wall, I must hurry to the State of Zheng to rendezvous with the Flying Immortal Sect."

"Yes." Having agreed, Wufei silently recited the ancient Wuchang mental cultivation method from the stone wall three times, bid her farewell, and departed on her own.

In July, autumn leaves were seen once more, and remarkably in a place she would never have expected—Pi County, the very place where Bu Jingxian had perished years ago.

Zheng soldiers linked iron chains together, binding them to reliable boulders or large trees at the cliff edge, throwing the other end down, and sending men to climb down along the ropes to report whether the length reached the bottom.

After two hours of busyness, all ten long ropes finally reached the bottom of the abyss.

At this moment, Lady Li also arrived.

Upon seeing Lady Li, July could not help but observe her closely, knowing she was the honored guest invited by her former master, yet she could find nothing extraordinary about Lady Li's appearance. She simply followed Autumn Leaf in paying respects and awaiting orders.

The group successively descended to the bottom of the cliff along the ropes.

Just as July was waiting for Lady Li to come down as well, she suddenly heard shouts coming from the left: "Walk along the edge of the cliff, and be careful not to fall into the magma."

July could not help but feel astonished, wondering how Lady Li had managed to descend and reach a place dozens of yards away.

The group walked slowly along the edge of the cliff, and soon the path widened, with no more magma in sight.

Recalling the tragic scene of Bu Jingxian falling into the magma back then without even a corpse remaining, July felt a wave of grief and sorrow in her heart. However, constrained by the presence of many people, she found it difficult to express her sorrow, choosing instead to remain even more tight-lipped and silent.

After meeting up with Lady Li, the group continued to walk for dozens of yards until they saw a giant boulder and, beside it, a deep underground cave leading into the depths of the earth.

Seeing that the boulder had been smashed and fragments were scattered on the ground, and observing that Lady Li seemed familiar with the terrain, Zheng Linran asked with lingering suspicion, "Has Lady Li been here before?"

"I came here a few years ago. But no secret manuals were found then. If we can find them this time, I believe it is also due to the protection of immortals over the State of Zheng."

Zheng Linran knew nothing of Lady Li's background and harbored suspicions, fearing that the secret manuals in the treasure trove had long since been taken by Lady Li. However, given the King of Zheng's instructions, she dared not utter any rude remarks. Without a word, she lowered her head and entered the underground cave.

"You go down first."

Answering with a promise, July entered the cave first.

Outside the cave, only Lady Li and Autumn Leaf remained.

"Lady Li, may I ask when you were here before?"

"I don't remember clearly. Why ask this? Hurry down." As Lady Li spoke, she lowered her body and walked into the underground cave. Autumn Leaf chased after her, grabbed Lady Li's hand, and whispered, "I know when you came here, and I also know you saved a member of the Northern Spirit Sect here."

Acting as if she heard nothing, Lady Li simply walked further into the depths of the cave.

Inside the cave, aside from some broken rock fragments, there was nothing else worthy of note.

The group illuminated the small cave walls with torches, and someone cried out in alarm, "There are words on the wall!"

Lady Li raised her eyes to look, secretly startled in her heart. She had carefully inspected the cave back then, and there were definitely no ancient martial arts secret manuals on the wall before her eyes. Yet these inscriptions were identical to those in the cave Wufei had found, appearing to be quite aged.

Lady Li faintly caught a strange scent from within them, yet had no way to speak of it to anyone...