Banished Immortal Descends to the Mortal World
Duke of Wei's Estate.
Many of the local servants had been left behind in Gongzhou City to look after the old residence, but there were still a great number of maids and household servants who had to follow the family to the Capital City. These days, they had been busy beyond measure, packing countless belongings into boxes and stacking them in the side hall.
By all rights, they should have departed long ago, heading to the Capital City as soon as possible for Li Guoyuan to assume his post as Minister of the Imperial Treasury. Yet for some reason, Li Guoyuan had delayed and delayed, unable to set out.
In a small building in the rear courtyard, Li Rong'er wore a violet silk dress and looked somewhat furtive.
The door was tightly shut. After making sure no one was around, the young woman took out a book from behind the screen and hid beside the brazier behind it to read.
The title on the book read: "Romance of the Sword Immortal."
Li Rong'er had naturally heard some rumors from the streets. Most of them had originated from this Romance of the Sword Immortal, a storybook written by someone named Hongyuan.
When she had first heard of it, Li Rong'er had been furious. Yet she could not suppress her curiosity—what sort of book was it, exactly?
The charcoal in the brazier crackled, making faint popping sounds.
The room was utterly still, save for slightly heavy breathing.
"This Hongyuan truly has no sense at all. This storybook is full of slander conjured out of thin air. Is he not afraid the immortals will punish him?" Li Rong'er read until her face flushed crimson. She did not know whether the brazier was burning too fiercely and making her hot, or whether the contents of the storybook were simply too fiery.
Yet for some reason, Li Rong'er could not put it down.
The more she read, the more wild thoughts filled her mind, as though the scenes in the storybook had truly appeared in her dreams.
Just then, a disturbance suddenly arose outside. Startled, Li Rong'er sprang to her feet and hid the book behind her back, her face burning red.
But she immediately realized that the commotion was unusually immense.
"I was once a Heavenly Being, a banished immortal descending to the mortal world."
"When the wind rose, I sang a song, my clear whistle reaching the cloud-capped peaks."
"..."
"After turning several pages of history, worldly affairs were truly but floating clouds."
"..."
A soft chant swept over the earth like the wind, passing across all of Gongzhou City.
From top to bottom, everyone in Gongzhou City could hear those verses.
Li Rong'er cautiously pushed open the window of the small building and looked outside.
The voice had not come from beyond the window, nor from within the city. It had come from beyond the nine heavens.
Li Rong'er raised her head to look at the clouds. Suddenly, she thought of a figure—the figure most often spoken of in Gongzhou City lately.
"It is that immortal."
Then came earthshaking cries of alarm from outside, followed by the thunderous, ocean-roaring sound of people kowtowing in worship. It seemed that something extraordinary had happened in Gongzhou City again.
Throwing on a fur cloak, Li Rong'er hurried downstairs.
"Miss! Miss! Where are you going?" A maid immediately spotted Li Rong'er in the garden corridor.
"Did you not hear that voice? Let us go to the entrance and take a look."
Outside the gates of Duke of Wei's Estate, on the main street.
Carriages flowed like water, horses like dragons; people packed together like mountains and seas.
This was the eastern part of the city, yet at this moment, countless people were squeezing toward the north, all just to glimpse the immortal's face and bask in some Immortal Qi.
Watching the entire city compete to kowtow and cry out to the immortal like mountains calling and seas roaring, Li Rong'er's cherry lips parted slightly, and her beautiful eyes were utterly filled with shock.
The servants and maids in the estate also gathered together one after another. At that moment, quite a few people burst in through the Back Door. The moment they rushed inside, they cried out.
"It was an immortal! The immortal flew away!" One servant danced and gesticulated, his speech utterly disordered.
"I heard people say that the Divine Donkey walked upon fire and carried the immortal into the sky."
Another maid said proudly, "I was there. I saw everything. It was that man from the Martial Rites Division who has been coming to our estate lately. He wanted to invite the immortal to the Capital City to serve as Imperial Preceptor."
"But the immortal did not even spare him a glance. The Divine Donkey carried the immortal and flew out of Gongzhou City."
A companion beside her was filled with regret. "Today was supposed to be my turn to go into the streets and buy things, but that little brat Xiaoyun snatched it from me. If I had gone, would I not have seen the immortal?"
The people in the courtyard immediately became a chaotic mess. "I heard that immortal was extremely handsome, like someone who had stepped out of a painting."
"That is an immortal. How could he possibly be unattractive?"
"Was that voice drifting down from the clouds truly spoken by the immortal?"
"Of course. Other than an immortal, who would dare recite such verses?"
"Yun'er, tell us—what exactly did that immortal look like? Apart from Miss, you are the only one here who has seen him."
Li Rong'er stood on the other side of the courtyard wall, listening clearly through the flower-patterned window.
"I was once a Heavenly Being, a banished immortal descending to the mortal world."
The young woman murmured to herself, recalling that person's appearance. "Perhaps he truly came down from heaven. Perhaps he is not of this mortal world."
Scolding and furious curses came from the main hall. Duke of Wei Li Guoyuan was clearly in a towering rage, having smashed several precious porcelain pieces.
What should have been a simple matter had been handled like this by Zhongxing Du. Li Guoyuan was disappointed beyond measure.
"You need not accompany us to the Capital City this time." Li Guoyuan sat down, lifted his tea, and dismissed his guest.
Zhongxing Du shuddered all over. This meant that all his painstaking effort to climb to this position had turned to nothing overnight.
Having tasted power, glory, and wealth, he could no longer return to those former days of drifting in the wind and rain.
Unwilling to accept this, Zhongxing Du stepped forward. "Duke Li, you were the one who told me to do it! You were the one who sent me!"
"I served you like a horse before the carriage and a soldier behind it. I risked my life fighting Young Master Silver Flower. If I have no merit, I at least have suffered hardship!"
Duke of Wei flung even the teacup in his trembling hand to the ground. "I told you to pay him a visit, and I repeatedly warned you not to show the slightest discourtesy. Yet you kept resorting to such shameful, underhanded tricks?"
"Do you take me for a fool? Or do you think the immortal cannot see through you?"
"Get out!"
Zhongxing Du left in disgrace.
The next day, Duke of Wei and his entire household set out for the Capital City. The long procession of carriages boarded ships at the docks, traveling by water before continuing by land.
As they passed West Gate Street, they suddenly caught the fragrance of osmanthus filling the entire street.
Li Rong'er lifted the curtain. The layered pearl hairpins atop her head chimed softly, and her makeup was exquisitely beautiful. The flower-shaped adornment between her brows lent her an air of graceful nobility.
She looked at the osmanthus trees blooming on both sides of the road, as well as the newly rebuilt Yinglai Inn.
The innkeeper stood before the main entrance, holding the money pouch left behind by the immortal and shouting happily.
"This place will no longer be called Yinglai Inn."
"It will be called Immortal Welcoming Inn!"
Outside the city, at the Ten-Li Long Pavilion.
Lu Canghai carried a bundle on his back, gripping a bamboo hat in one hand and a sword in the other, bidding farewell over a final feast with Sword Saint Xu Bayuan at the long pavilion.
Xu Bayuan raised a cup of fine wine with his disciple.
"Who would have thought that Great Immortal Kongchen had only just departed, and Brother Canghai was leaving as well?"
Lu Canghai's eyes gleamed like snow, gaining several more threads of sharpness and righteous hatred for evil.
"I once told the immortal that I came to Gongzhou to kill those who deserved killing and set right the injustices that needed setting right."
"Who would have thought that not only did I fail to kill Young Master Silver Flower with my own hand, I was repeatedly saved by Great Immortal Kongchen instead. I was even bestowed the Life-Reviving Immortal Pill and the Flying Immortal Sword Technique. I am truly ashamed."
"Only by wiping out all evil that deserves death beneath heaven and righting every injustice in the world can I avoid betraying the immortal's gifts."
Xu Bayuan nodded. "The bearing of an immortal is not something you and I can fathom."
Draining their cups, the two clasped their hands in farewell.
Along the ancient road by the long pavilion, the figure of a swordsman vanished beneath the setting sun.
Gongzhou City's story began in winter, and ended in winter.
Like splendor fading and returning to calm, yet even more like the curtain rising on a new chapter.