Chapter 94: Jade Slip of Dao Transmission
The fifteenth of the second month, the Flower Festival. Under the night sky, lanterns hung along the bluestone streets of North Watch Mountain City.
Mortals climbed bamboo ladders onto vine bridges, decorating the lanterns with flowers and grass, while cultivators condensed firefly light that sank into the wicks.
The entire long street was bathed in a layer of soft green radiance.
The Flower Festival proceeded calmly, as scheduled.
Song Yan and Yan Xun were sitting in a roadside tavern, chatting idly.
“It really is lively…”
Song Yan sighed with emotion. “Solitude has its advantages, and liveliness has its charms.”
“Coming to your North Watch Mountain this time has truly broadened my horizons.”
He gazed out the window at the street scene.
Fine flower petals drifted with the wind, scattering into the crowds, making the mortal girls carrying baskets laugh and chase after them.
Yan Xun took a sip of the spirit wine on the table and smiled with some pride. “Brother Yan, if you ever have the leisure and inclination in the future, you’re welcome to visit anytime…”
These past few days, the two had grown quite familiar with each other, and their conversation was no longer so formal.
The green plum spirit wine on the table was something Yan Xun had brought from his own home.
Yesterday’s matters had been mostly resolved.
To avoid affecting today’s festival, Liang Feng had been temporarily detained. That Moon-Sustaining Lotus Seed had been returned to its original owner by Song Yan, handed over to Senior Cong Yuzhen to handle.
The others simply said the senior had anticipated everything beforehand and didn’t ask any further questions.
When facing Cong Yuzhen, Song Yan had only said he was unwilling to see the situation stalemate and allow the demonic cultivator to escape.
As a desperate measure, he had produced a precious spirit seed he had obtained by chance and used some illusion techniques to disguise it as the Moon-Sustaining Lotus Seed.
Plus, the other party wasn’t familiar with the lotus seed’s properties, so he had barely managed to break through the situation.
Unexpectedly, Cong Yuzhen hadn’t asked for details at all.
She seemed to have no interest whatsoever in digging deeper into his fabricated story, or even the so-called precious spirit seed within it.
Could it be that even this precious Moon-Sustaining Lotus Seed didn’t catch her eye?
That shouldn’t be possible…
This gave Song Yan a somewhat absurd feeling of being sentimental and making a fuss over nothing.
Cong Yuzhen’s attitude toward the Moon-Sustaining Lotus Seed had even dimmed the excitement he originally felt upon obtaining such a treasure.
“Phew…”
His scattered thoughts were drawn back. He raised his porcelain cup and took a sip of flower tea.
He didn’t drink alcohol.
Xiao He had said she smelled very “stinky” when she drank, and she wouldn’t want to stay on her.
Outside the window on the long street, the sounds of flutes and reeds suddenly arose.
Three or five mortal musicians passed by, followed by skipping children.
In the square, several cultivators from Spirit Flower Valley were teaching Li Qingfeng and the others how to fold flower boats from talisman paper.
Under the bridge by the stream, countless paper boats carrying candle flames drifted along the current toward the deep valley.
Song Yan spoke up. “Oh, right. There’s a Sun Family Settlement near North Watch Mountain. Where exactly is that?”
He suddenly remembered that during the New Year, Old Shao had mentioned that his hometown was also in North Watch Mountain. What a coincidence.
Yan Xun furrowed his brow in thought, though his expression was somewhat strange.
“Sun Family Settlement? Who told you that?”
“Oh, a senior brother in the sect.”
“…”
He thought until his head ached before finally speaking with certainty. “No…”
“That’s nonsense. There’s no such place in our North Watch Mountain.”
Song Yan raised an eyebrow. “None?”
“Absolutely none. Where would a Sun Family Settlement come from?”
Yan Xun didn’t seem to have much tolerance for alcohol. Drinking this spirit wine without using spiritual energy to disperse the alcohol, he was getting somewhat tipsy now.
“Brother Yan, I’m not bragging to you.”
“How many years have I lived in North Watch Mountain? I grew up here since I was a child…”
“Never mind North Watch Mountain City. Even further out, in the entire North Watch Mountain region, there’s no Sun Family Settlement.”
“There are very few people with the surname Sun here. Those who are came from Linzhou.”
“Your senior brother must have remembered wrong.”
Song Yan nodded without speaking, seemingly not intending to pursue the matter further.
“Brother Yan, come visit the clan tomorrow. I’ll take you to see our Forging Sword Villa.”
Song Yan had mentioned the visit earlier today.
He hadn’t expected Yan Xun to take it so seriously, bringing family wine and greeting his elders in advance.
What he hadn’t expected was that despite Yan Xun’s appearance, he was actually the fifth young master of the Yan clan’s generation, someone of notable standing.
“Alright then. I’ll impose on you.”
“Not at all.”
Soon, the auspicious hour arrived.
In the mountain city, all mortals and cultivators began slowly making their way into Spirit Flower Valley. The other festival activities could be skipped, but this Ancient Tree Wish-making was something one really had to experience.
In Spirit Flower Valley, by the Wanghu Lake.
Under the Ancient Spirit Peach Tree, layers of peach petals rustled and swayed in the night wind.
The area beneath the tree was already packed with bustling crowds.
The cultivators’ daoist robes and the mortals’ hemp garments were intermingled.
Several tables stood beneath the tree, with flower cards placed on them for people to write on.
Approaching the tree, the scent of ink mingled with the unique, cool floral fragrance of the mountain city.
As soon as Yan Xun entered the valley, he went to find his Duo’er sister.
“Senior Brother Song!”
Gu Qingqing held a recording pearl in her hands and waved at Song Yan from afar. Li Qingfeng and Sheng Yun stood beside her.
That annoying fellow Cheng Yu had not appeared.
The custom was to write one’s wish on a flower card, then place it into a small jade disc and hang it on the ancient tree.
“What did you write?”
Song Yan and Xiao He craned their necks, wanting to see what wishes everyone had written.
“Hey, hey, hey…”
Li Qingfeng extended his hand, signaling him to stop. “If someone else finds out about these things, how could they possibly come true…”
“Exactly.”
“Alright, alright, alright…”
They said it so seriously.
Song Yan took a flower card and casually asked, “Xiao He, are you going to write one?”
Xiao He stared at her with wide eyes. “I can’t write.”
“Oh…”
It was strange. Xiao He recognized characters, but couldn’t write them.
Song Yan picked up the brush. He didn’t think for long.
He wrote quickly, then immediately put it away, not letting anyone see.
Under the tree, several rogue cultivators were helping the mortals hang their jade discs.
A child with red headstrings stood on tiptoe, handing a flower card covered in crooked handwriting to the young cultivator beside them.
“Immortal brother, please tie it higher for my mother!”
“Alright!”
The cultivator patted the child’s small head. A wisp of green wind condensed at his fingertip, and the flower card drifted leisurely up to the treetop.
It hung alongside his own jade disc.
Song Yan stood with his arms crossed at the back of the crowd, quietly admiring this wonder beneath the night sky.
His own disc had already been hung.
“…”
Suddenly.
A pair of hands climbed onto his shoulders without his slightest awareness.
He spun around sharply.
It was Sheng Nian, wearing a bamboo hat and playing mysterious.
“You startled me.”
“Shh…”
Song Yan simply sent a voice transmission. “You demonic cultivator, what are you doing here? Aren’t you afraid Senior Cong will strike you down with a single sword stroke?”
“Truly unappreciative of goodwill…”
Sheng Nian gazed at Sheng Yun’s figure in the crowd, his eyes filled with tenderness. “Though I came specifically to see A-Yun, I also have something to deliver to you.”
“?”
A jade slip was casually tossed over. Song Yan caught it steadily.
“What is this?”
“A cultivation technique I obtained by chance. One look at the name and I knew it was something you uptight orthodox cultivators would practice. I have no interest in it.”
Song Yan muttered, “Since when did I become an orthodox cultivator…”
He opened the jade slip.
“Pure Sky’s Great Radiance Dharma Aspect?”
This technique sounded…
Indeed somewhat excessively orthodox.