Immortal Pot in the Pool
The night was still as an abyss. The layers of clouds overhead had just parted, letting moonlight fall upon Yun Jun Pool.
"It's appeared! It's appeared!"
"It really worked!"
Su Xiaoer leaped up in excitement, looking left and right as he followed Yun Jun Pool upstream. With his head tipped back and his eyes off the path, he nearly fell into the pool.
"Immortal! Immortal!"
"Cloud Lord Great Immortal, I'm here! I'm here!"
Su Xiaoer shouted at the top of his lungs, afraid the immortal was too high up to see him.
At that moment, the immortal seemed to have noticed the person by Yun Jun Pool beneath the thousand-zhang cliff.
The figure leaning amid the moonlit clouds lowered his head and looked down.
His eyes held the calm indifference of one who watched worldly affairs drift past like floating clouds, while the upturned curve of his lips carried the free-spirited ease of one embracing mountains, rivers, sun, and moon.
Then the Daoist robe embroidered with cloud patterns swept down with a flick of his sleeve.
Layer upon layer of rosy clouds slowly poured from his sleeve, stretching beneath the heavens and gathering into a cloud ladder leading from the pool to the cliff top.
It reached Su Xiaoer's feet exactly.
Thrilled and delighted, Su Xiaoer felt as if he were dreaming. Even his steps swayed, as though he were walking on cotton.
That made him even more cautious when he stepped onto the cloud ladder, afraid that one careless move would send him tumbling from the clouds.
With his arms spread wide, Su Xiaoer stepped upon the cloud tops, bathed in the moonlight falling from above, and slowly climbed along the sheer cliff toward its summit.
White clouds drifted leisurely, and the wind brushed