Jade Affinity Pavilion truly lives up to its name. Upon entering, the courtyard is spacious, adorned with jade stones of every colour.
Or rather, they are saint jade and divine jade.
These jade stones have not been carved by master craftsmen, yet precisely because of that, they possess an even greater natural beauty and ornamental value.
Great skill appears unpolished; nothing surpasses this.
Walking through this courtyard, Zhang Ruochen could not help but sigh. No wonder the two Saint King guards had said that this manor only receives gods.
It truly has the confidence to host gods.
Merely this Jade Affinity Pavilion is covered with divine patterns and dao locks. Should one not know the correct path, a saint-realm cultivator who came here would undoubtedly enter a deadly killing ground.
The water in the man-made lake ripples like green jade, shrouded in misty vapour.
Strange flowers and rare grasses float upon the surface.
At the centre of the lake stands a fairy mountain spirit island a hundred metres tall.
Along the lakeside grows a forest of purple bamboo radiating saintly light, swaying in the wind and scattering purple rays of light like rain.
Zhang Ruochen stepped onto the stone bridge spanning the man-made lake. The bridge arched upwards, its highest point a full twenty metres above the water. Just as he reached the top, a voice rang out from the opposite shore. “You may stop there!”
Zhang Ruochen halted and looked towards an ancient pavilion on the distant lakeside.
Inside the pavilion, gauze curtains fluttered. A broad-shouldered figure in cyan robes could be faintly seen, drinking alone.
“How did you find this place?” the man in the pavilion asked.
Zhang Ruochen replied, “At that time, five gods were present in that star region: Lord Quartzite, Spirit God Qingxuan, Ai Lianjun, Liu Qingcheng, and Wu Ma Jiuxing. To kill Meng Sheng and seize the skull ring while evading all of them could only have been accomplished by a great god of the Stone Clan. And it had to be a truly formidable great god.”
“Among the few great gods of the Stone Clan who possess such power, apart from Your Excellency, I truly cannot think of anyone else who would appear in the starry expanse where the Twelve Temples of the Goddess are located.”
“Is that not so, Great God Huangtian?”
Swish!
Wind rose across the lake, blowing the pavilion curtains fully open.
The cyan figure continued drinking alone and said, “You still have not answered my question. You must understand that in this world, very few cultivators can track my exact location using only a trace of stone qi. And you are clearly not one of them.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Why are you so certain?”
The cyan figure finally could not resist turning his head to look at him.
He could see Zhang Ruochen clearly.
Unfortunately, Zhang Ruochen could not discern his features, only a blurred outline.
He seemed to have drunk quite a lot. His words carried a hint of intoxication as he shook his head. “No wonder you dared to come here. It turns out your lifespan is nearly exhausted; you are a man on the verge of death.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Even if I were still young with many years of life remaining, I would still have come. The words ‘Huangtian’ would not frighten me.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
The cyan figure finally showed a trace of interest in him and set down the wine cauldron.
Zhang Ruochen continued, “Because I am simply too curious. The renowned Great God Huangtian dared to admit severing the Heaven-Reaching Divine Wood of the Kunlun Realm and dared to admit killing his own master, Ancient Buddha Yuanxu. Yet why, after killing Meng Sheng and taking a mere ring, does he not dare let anyone know?”
The cyan figure in the pavilion had become completely still.
But that stillness seemed to contain thunderous might, causing Fisherman Yao, the manor lord who had hurried over upon hearing the news, to stop at the entrance, not daring to intrude at this moment.
Fisherman Yao’s beautiful eyes fixed upon the aged figure standing at the pinnacle of the stone bridge. She truly could not understand why anyone in the world would dare speak to Huangtian in such a tone.
Zhang Ruochen was genuinely unafraid.
In any case, only a single spark of life remained within him; it might extinguish at any moment, like a candle in the wind.
After a long silence, the cyan figure finally spoke. “You do not seem like a decrepit old man on the brink of death.”
“Are there truly old people in this world? Is a hundred years old considered old? A thousand years? Ten thousand years? In truth, I never wished to become an old man, yet people inevitably age. There will come a day when one can no longer fight, when the blood no longer burns, when strength fails.” By the end, Zhang Ruochen’s aura had weakened, tinged with several shades of twilight gloom.
The cyan figure said, “So you came here merely to ask me that question?”
“Although I am dying of curiosity about that question, I am even more curious about you as a person. Therefore, I had to come and meet you!” Zhang Ruochen said.
The cyan figure asked, “Now that you have met me, what do you think?”
“I still cannot see clearly enough,” Zhang Ruochen replied.
The cyan figure said, “Then would you like to enter this pavilion, come closer, and see more clearly?”
“In your heart you utterly refuse to let me enter the pavilion; you do not wish me to see you as you are now. So why ask such a superfluous question?” Zhang Ruochen said.
The cyan figure replied, “It is not superfluous. I am sincerely extending an invitation to you. Because you were able to guess my identity and find your way here, you already possess the qualifications to sit across from me. However… after seeing my current appearance, I will kill you. That is all!”
“For you, would that not also be a kind of release? Living in this half-dead state is actually far more painful, is it not?”
“Now I ask once more: do you wish to enter the pavilion?”
This was a death sentence!
Whether Zhang Ruochen went or not, he would die.
If he did not go, it would mean he feared death.
The more he feared death, the more Huangtian would want to kill him.
For the question Zhang Ruochen had asked earlier had clearly struck the secret in Huangtian’s heart that he least wished to speak of to anyone.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Do you believe a person’s appearance matters so much? Of course, if it were Empress Bai seated in the pavilion, even with my lifespan exhausted, I would still be unable to resist taking one last look before death, to see just how beautiful she truly is. But as for the appearance of the Great God Huangtian, I am genuinely uninterested.”
“What I cannot see clearly is not your face, but you as a person.”
“In my imagination, Huangtian should be a decisive killer, yet what I see now is merely a solitary drinker lost in wine. You say I do not seem like an old man. But to me, you seem like an old man.”
Zhang Ruochen was fully prepared to be struck down by Huangtian at any moment, so he spoke without any restraint.
He said whatever was in his heart.
Yet the cyan figure remained astonishingly calm. “Do you drink?”
“I do!” Zhang Ruochen answered.
The cyan figure said, “Drinking can kill a man.”
“That depends on the wine,” Zhang Ruochen replied.
Boom!
The cyan figure swung his arm. A bronze wine cauldron that had been sitting in the pavilion flew towards Zhang Ruochen on the stone bridge.
Zhang Ruochen caught the cauldron and sensed no eruption of great-god divine power from it.
The cauldron was about a foot tall yet immensely heavy.
It did not feel as though it contained wine; it felt as though it held an entire mountain.
In recent years, Zhang Ruochen had drunk countless mundane wines with the Drunkard, but after taking a single sniff from the bronze cauldron, he knew this was true divine spirit liquor. His aged and numb body seemed to ignite from that single trace of alcohol vapour.
“What fierce wine,” Zhang Ruochen said.
The cyan figure said, “Fierce wine is like poison! This wine is called Between Life and Death. Do you think it can kill you?”
“Perhaps it can!”
Zhang Ruochen lay back on the stone bridge, embraced the wine cauldron, and poured it straight into his mouth, heedless of whether it would kill him.
He did not know how much he drank, only that fierce fire seemed to burn within his body. There was no pleasure, only extreme pain that pierced to the marrow.
Yet this very sensation made him feel exhilarated; it let him truly feel that he was a cultivator, a god, and not the old Zhang who lingered at the Inn of Imminent Departure.
Embracing the wine cauldron, Zhang Ruochen gazed up at the sky. He was already somewhat drunk. The heavens seemed to hold Chi Yao’s figure; with one raised hand he could almost touch her.
In this lifetime, there had been countless moments when choices and decisions were excruciatingly difficult.
Passing on his cultivation to Chi Yao and giving up everything had been the hardest decision Zhang Ruochen ever made, yet he did not regret it in the slightest. Because he knew Chi Yao would carry his hopes and accomplish what he wished to achieve. And that was enough!
The cyan figure said, “You are crying!”
“It is the wine that is too fierce,” Zhang Ruochen replied.
The cyan figure continued, “Since you have drunk this wine, I shall answer your question. Were you not curious why I sit here drinking alone like an old man?”
“Because I am not stone. I have blood and I have life. When I decided no longer to be stone, I already knew that henceforth I would possess the seven emotions and six desires; I would feel melancholy, sorrow, and confusion.”
“Drinking alone is not to numb myself. Only when one is alone can one calm down and think, can one walk out of confusion. Wine can intoxicate, wine can kill, but to me it constantly reminds me that I am not stone; I have life.”
“You should understand that people are always swayed by emotions and fall into confusion and suffering, then rely on reason to emerge from that confusion and suddenly see the light. Every bout of confusion is a period of sedimentation. Every emergence from confusion makes you stronger. I hope you still have the chance to become stronger!”
Fisherman Yao entered Jade Affinity Pavilion. Clad in white like a painting, ethereal as the moon, she walked step by step onto the stone bridge. “I have never heard you speak so many words, nor seen you bare your heart to anyone. Today, you are truly drunk! You say drinking alone is not to numb yourself, yet is that very statement not numbing yourself?”
From the distant pavilion, the cyan figure rose. “If it were anyone else, I would indeed have no need to say so much.”
Fisherman Yao lowered her gaze to the white-haired elder who had already passed out drunk. “Do you know him? Who is he?”
“He was able to guess who I am, and after a few sentences, I also guessed who he is, even though I have never met him.”
The cyan figure walked onto the stone bridge, passed by Fisherman Yao’s side without the slightest pause, and soon only his back remained facing her. “For the coming period, he will surely remain in Xinghuan Heaven. Let him stay here in Jade Affinity Pavilion!”
“But did you not once say that no cultivator is allowed to reside here?” Fisherman Yao asked.
“He may. At least for now.”
The cyan figure had already walked out of Jade Affinity Pavilion. A final voice drifted back from an unknown distance away. “If he wants the skull ring, have him think it through clearly and then come find me at Mount Mi Heavenly Venerable Lake. You must not tell anyone else about that place, including her.”
