Peach Blossom led Zhang Ruochen across hundreds of thousands of li, traversing towering mountains and steep ridges, until they arrived at an ancient secret forest seldom trodden by human feet.
Within the forest stood only heaven-reaching giant trees, their roots like dragons, their vines like pythons.
The soil beneath had transformed into divine earth, silvery white, emitting a faint glow.
“This place is one of the forbidden grounds of Xinghuan Heaven. A Heaven Venerable once built a medicinal garden here, planting saint herbs gathered from every corner of the universe. Legend says that, at its peak, more than one divine herb grew within.”
“Regrettably, after millions of years, the garden lies in ruins. Not only are the saint herbs long gone, but ferocious plants now infest the area. It is extremely dangerous.”
While leading the way, Peach Blossom continued, “After all, this was once the domain of a Heaven Venerable, filled with all manner of mysteries. Even divinities dare not trespass lightly. Yue and I chose to hide here precisely to borrow the lingering power of the Heaven Venerable to conceal our auras.”
“We have arrived!”
After passing through a thousand li of desolate forest, the two reached a bamboo hut.
The hut backed onto the ancient woods and faced a clear stream. The setting was refined, tranquil, and pleasing to the heart.
Peach Blossom deactivated the protective array around the hut and invited Zhang Ruochen inside. “Yue has been gone among the stars for three months. I do not know when he will return.”
Zhang Ruochen sat on a bluestone in front of the hut, released the old yellow ox, and tethered it beneath a tree as thick as a bowl’s rim.
The tree was laden with white spirit fruits that gave off an enticing fragrance.
Zhang Ruochen reached out, plucked one, and rinsed it simply in the stream.
One bite filled his mouth with sweet aroma and delicious flavour.
Peach Blossom observed him closely. Though he was aged and frail, his lifespan nearly spent, there was not a trace of resentment or fear of impending death on him. On the contrary, he seemed to cherish deeply the little life he had left.
She asked herself: if she suddenly became old and ugly, with only a flicker of life-flame remaining, she could never be as optimistic and calm as Zhang Ruochen.
Only one who has seen through life and death, who no longer cares for fame or gain, could manage it.
Peach Blossom said, “Yue told me to stay hidden here and wait for his return. But after three months, how could I not worry? So I left the ancient forest to gather news, and unexpectedly encountered Chi Kunlun.”
“I thought that if you were still alive and in this star region, you might refuse to see anyone else, but you would surely see Chi Kunlun. Thus I followed him quietly all the way to the First Divine Maiden City. What happened after, you already know.”
Zhang Ruochen asked, “How did you know I went missing in this star region?”
“It was news spread by True Lord Xue Hong and True Lord Luan Ying of the Demon God Realm,” Peach Blossom replied.
In Zhang Ruochen’s mind appeared two mighty divine silhouettes.
They were the very two demon divinities who had found the planet where he and Chi Yao hid just before he transmitted his cultivation to her: one with an eagle’s head, the other with a human face and hou body.
Zhang Ruochen suddenly understood. Now it made sense why Divine Sons Xue Hong and Luan Ying had provoked Chi Kunlun. Their true aim was not the provocation itself, but to draw out Chi Yao who stood behind him.
Peach Blossom continued, “Moreover, Chi Yao has lingered in this star region the entire time. Many cultivators speculate that although she devoured your cultivation, she failed to kill you. They say she is searching for you to finish the job.”
“People always prefer to interpret events with the greatest malice. Goodness must stop at a point, but malice can be endless. If a man does not look out for himself, heaven and earth will destroy him,” Zhang Ruochen sighed.
He himself had once been the same.
Peach Blossom was startled. “Then it truly was you who willingly transmitted your cultivation to Chi Yao?”
Zhang Ruochen said nothing. He plucked another spirit fruit and ate it without even washing it this time.
Peach Blossom smiled. “The world calls you the Romantic Sword God. I think the price of that romance has been far too high! You gave up everything. For what, exactly?”
“And you gave up everything. For what?” Zhang Ruochen countered.
Peach Blossom waved her hand. “I am not like you. Though I gave up everything, I also gained everything. You gave up everything, yet what have you gained?”
“I too have gained everything.”
Zhang Ruochen stood, hands clasped behind his back, gazing through the branches at a distant ancient mountain range bathed in divine light and rosy clouds. “Ancestor Qing believed that by crippling my cultivation he had eliminated a threat, undone all the arrangements the Saint Monk of Xumi made back then, and could now rest easy.”
“Those who wished to kill me or cripple my divine realm were far more than just Ancestor Qing. They all feared I would grow to become a second Great Venerable Immovable Bright King, alter the rules of heaven and earth, and prevent war between the Heavenly Court and the Hell Realm.”
“After Ancestor Qing crippled me, they must all have breathed a sigh of relief and rejoiced in secret.”
“But though Zhang Ruochen is crippled, he will not let them have peace. Chi Yao will carry my will, the hopes of the Saint Monk of Xumi, and the aspirations of countless beings who long for the end of war. She will fight for a future for this era. That is the everything I sought!”
Peach Blossom was deeply moved. “You trust her that much?”
“She will surely do better than I could! She embraces all rivers and encompasses all things. That is not the heart of a hegemon. But she does possess the heart of a hegemon.”
Zhang Ruochen pointed toward the distant sacred mountain. “What place is that?”
“That is the medicinal garden of the Xinghuan Heaven Venerable, called Mount Mi. The Heaven Venerable left behind many mechanisms there. With our cultivation, we had best not trespass, or we will die without a burial place,” Peach Blossom explained.
The Xinghuan Heaven Venerable was said to be a Heaven Venerable from before the Great Venerable Immovable Bright King, a supreme existence from at least three million years ago.
Yet even after three million years, the Heaven Venerable’s residual power remained omnipresent. Xinghuan Heaven possessed countless forbidden zones. Though its stability could not compare to the Heavenly Court or the Divine Domain of Fate, it still far surpassed many powerful realms.
A single Heaven Venerable could bless a great world for millions of years, or even longer.
Zhang Ruochen waited here for two days. Finally, on a blazing midday, Yue returned from the starry void.
Yue’s face was weathered, his expression weary. He still wore the same coarse cloth washed countless times. Without even glancing at Zhang Ruochen, he walked straight into the bamboo hut and took Peach Blossom into his arms.
The two spoke softly to each other.
Moments later, Yue strode out and scrutinised the white-haired old man feeding the ox, his eyes filled with disbelief.
Zhang Ruochen turned and smiled at him. “You did not recognise me? If even you cannot, then no one under heaven will be able to.”
Yue said, “Indeed, your art of transformation has grown even more profound! Hurry and change back!”
“I like your way of comforting me. Very well, let us say I deliberately changed into this appearance. Now I shall change back to how I was.”
As Zhang Ruochen laughed, his white hair turned black, his aged face grew young, his stooped body straightened, the wrinkles vanished, and even his turbid eyes became bright and radiant once more.
Once again he was the elegant and handsome Zhang Ruochen, the peerless Romantic Sword God.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen restored to youth and wearing an optimistic smile, Yue’s eyes filled with tears instead.
Even the old yellow ox beside them stared wide-eyed, as if it no longer recognised him.
“You have changed. You are no longer the Yue of old!”
Zhang Ruochen seemed brimming with vitality and energy. He laughed. “But it is a good change. A husband, a father, cannot be as cold as an assassin. He must be a person, a living person full of feeling.”
Peach Blossom brought out wine she had taken from the Tower of the World’s Divine Maidens.
She knew that these two men, though laughing and talking cheerfully, were merely refusing to voice the bitterness and worry in their hearts so as not to burden the other.
Let it all dissolve into the wine.
“I truly envy you two, able to live together in love and harmony. Peach Blossom is wonderful. You must treat her well,” Zhang Ruochen said, sitting among the tree’s leaves, leaning against an ancient trunk, lifting the wine jar and drinking deeply.
Yue’s gaze was resolute. “Yes! She has killed too much and carries deep heart-demons. She knows her chances of surviving the divine tribulation are slim. When she saw I would not cross the tribulation either, wishing only to grow old with her and die together beneath godhood, she refined her divine source in a fit of anger and became a false god.”
“She said a false god can live one aeon, so I must cross the tribulation, become a divinity, and continue to accompany her.”
“There is only one divine source. How could another be found so easily? My hope of becoming a false god was dashed. In the end, under her insistence, I had no choice but to break through and become a god.”
Both Peach Blossom and Yue were geniuses of the highest order. Had they risked everything, both might have survived the divine tribulation and achieved limitless futures.
Yet Peach Blossom had not taken the risk, for her chances of success were too low. If she died, she did not know whether Yue would continue living alone.
More laughably, cultivation is supposed to be a solemn matter.
Becoming a god is the most important event for any cultivator.
But for them, it had become almost child’s play.
They only wished to grow old together, and for that they were willing to forgo divine realm, to forgo long life and world-shattering power.
Yue said, “I have decided to stop cultivating from now on! That way, when the aeon tribulation comes, I certainly will not survive it. Our lifespans will be the same, and we can grow old together. One hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred years is already a thousand times more than mortals receive.”
“Do you not wish to stay together even longer?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
Yue replied, “One must not be too greedy!”
“Though Peach Blossom became a false god, she can still cultivate spiritual power. If she raises her spiritual power to the seventy-fifth order, surviving the first aeon tribulation should not be too difficult. At the eightieth order, surviving three or even four aeon tribulations becomes possible,” Zhang Ruochen said.
Yue answered, “Cultivating spiritual power is far from easy. Countless false gods exist in the universe. Even after spending over a hundred thousand years, how many manage to reach the seventy-fifth order?”
Spiritual cultivation truly is as difficult as ascending to heaven. Take the six great masters of the southern heavens: with Ancestor Qing as their teacher, abundant resources, and top-tier talent, it still took them hundreds of thousands of years to reach the seventy-ninth order.
For other spiritual cultivators without such advantages, reaching the seventy-fifth order within a single aeon is exceedingly unlikely.
Not every spiritual cultivator is a Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen smiled faintly. “I happen to have a great opportunity here. With it, not just the seventy-fifth order, even the eightieth is within reach.”
“Is that true?”
Yue sat up straight and stared at Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen said, “To obtain this great opportunity of mine, you must exchange it for your child.”
“My child is your child. You may do whatever you wish with him. You are not planning to possess him, are you?” Yue replied.
Zhang Ruochen gazed at him steadily.
The air grew still.
Yue held his breath, realising that with Zhang Ruochen’s lifespan nearly exhausted, he might truly possess some secret art allowing him to seize a body and be reborn.
Peach Blossom had been eavesdropping. Hearing this, she bit her lip, growing tense.
After a long silence, Yue closed his eyes. “Would possession endanger Peach Blossom?”
Zhang Ruochen burst into laughter and punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Even if you were willing to let me possess him, I would not wish to become your son. I was only joking. I truly do have a great opportunity to give to the child and to Peach Blossom. Have you heard of the reincarnation of a Buddhist Child?”
