Peach Blossom Immortal

The man who had shouted that the carriage had been stolen was so terrified that he collapsed to the ground, trembling all over, his face full of horror like a lamb awaiting slaughter.

The defending general swallowed dryly and glanced at his subordinates, who had already retreated behind him. He wanted to retreat too, but he knew someone on the battlements was watching. If he was frightened into retreating, he feared he would suffer for it later.

"Burn it!" Shang Chaozong barked as he jumped down from the carriage, making a hand signal at the same time. Someone immediately threw over a Zhanmadao.

Catching the blade, Shang Chaozong twisted around and swung. A spray of blood burst out, splattering his face and body.

The defending general's eyes widened. He had never dreamed that Shang Chaozong would dare kill him beneath the Son of Heaven's feet. Before he could react, his fine head had already shot into the sky before falling to the ground, while his body spasmed and collapsed.

"Ah..." The soldiers outside the city once again retreated several steps in terror.

After getting out of the carriage, Lan Ruoting watched this scene, utterly speechless. They had actually killed the Capital City's defending general in broad daylight beneath the Son of Heaven's feet!

Tao Xin slashed through the carriage's harness, leaped onto a horse, and charged straight toward the city gate. The defending soldiers scattered, and not a single one dared block him. Tao Xin reached the gate, snatched a torch, and rode back. He lit the torch and threw it through the carriage window.

The flames quickly rose, and billowing smoke poured out of the carriage.

Shang Chaozong, mounted on a warhorse, abruptly turned around. His face was covered in blood as he looked toward the two open windows in the gate tower. He saw Gaa Miaoshui and Song Jiuming, then turned back and shouted, "Go!"

He rode at the head of the group, and the other riders turned around and thundered after him!

"Like father, like son!" Gaa Miaoshui said coolly, gloom darkening his eyes.

Song Jiuming watched the riders gradually disappear into the distance and sighed. "I'm only afraid Prince Ning still has his power to rally people. I hope this won't be a case of letting the tiger return to the mountains!"

Before long, the deputy defending general hurried into the loft, clasped his hands, and said mournfully, "Eunuch, Shang Chaozong killed General Li. Please seek justice for General Li!"

"He is, after all, a member of the imperial clan. The Imperial Family's bloodline is not something just anyone can insult. Let him die, then!" Gaa Miaoshui said indifferently. With a sweep of his black robe, he turned away from the window. As he passed the deputy general, an invisible force surged out, shaking the man stumbling backward to clear the way before sending him tumbling to the floor. Along with his departing footsteps came a cold snort. "Several thousand men were actually frightened by five hundred riders. A bunch of useless trash!"

Song Jiuming glanced at the dazed deputy general who had fallen hard, said nothing, and left at an unhurried pace as well, unwilling to say more.

He understood that once the situation at the East City Gate reached the palace, the person inside would inevitably fly into a rage. All excuses and explanations were false. The men guarding the eastern gate of the Capital City for the Son of Heaven had actually been frightened into such a state by several hundred riders. What would happen if an enemy army truly attacked? Could anyone still trust these people to protect the Capital City? The deputy general's head was probably doomed as well, and a large number of the defending soldiers would likely be implicated...

A faint fragrance of peach blossoms drifted through the air beneath bright spring sunshine, while a gentle breeze stirred.

Lying in a reclining chair beneath a tree and flipping through an illustrated register of medicinal herbs, Niu Youdao was thoroughly engrossed. Every so often, a few mischievous petals drifted down to bother him.

Faint hoofbeats suddenly came from below the mountain. Niu Youdao closed the register against his chest and turned to look. He could vaguely see several riders stopped beneath the cliff opposite. They did not look like people from the Shangqing Sect, and someone was leading the riders up the winding stone steps.

He only took a look before deciding it was enough. Over the years, he had learned that no matter how many people came, none of it had anything to do with him. He continued reading. Reading in such surroundings was a pleasure; in his previous life, he had never enjoyed such a fine place to read.

As he read, he grew sleepy again. He did not know how long he had slept before waking in a daze. Lazily turning over, he casually gave voice to the sloth in his bones: "In Peach Blossom Haven stands Peach Blossom Hermitage; beneath Peach Blossom Hermitage dwells the Peach Blossom Immortal. The Peach Blossom Immortal plants peach trees, then plucks peach blossoms to exchange for wine money. Sober, I sit only before the flowers; drunk, I sleep beneath the flowers. Half-awake, half-drunk, day after day; flowers fall, flowers bloom, year after year. I only wish to die of old age among flowers and wine, not bow before carriages and horses. The dust of carriages and the hooves of horses reveal the power of the high and mighty; cups of wine and branches of flowers conceal the affinity of recluses. If the high and mighty are compared with recluses, one stands on level ground while the other stands in heaven. If flowers and wine are compared with carriages and horses, how harried are they, and how leisurely am I? Others laugh that I am too mad; I laugh that they cannot see through it. Have they not seen the Tomb of the Wuling Heroes? No flowers, no wine—only fields plowed into the ground..."

His voice was languid and unhurried. After finishing the poem, he stretched comfortably and opened his hazy eyes. His head tilted, one eye widened—and he was instantly dumbfounded.

Three people stood beside him. The person at the front was both unfamiliar and familiar, and very beautiful at that. It was none other than his wife, Tang Yi.

It was not merely because she was his wife that he found her beautiful. He had a clear understanding of the situation between them, and she truly was stunning: dignified and coldly elegant, with fair, tender skin like fine porcelain, a full bosom, and a graceful figure. Dressed in a long black gauze-covered gown, her slender hands crossed over her abdomen, she possessed an otherworldly, immortal-like air. Standing vividly before him, she was pleasing to the eye even if one regarded her simply as a scene.

Behind her stood the one-eyed Tu Han, leaning on a cane. Beside him was a woman with a lithe figure, dressed in a blue-green short robe and the garb of a warrior. He truly did not know this woman. Niu Youdao knew few people in the Shangqing Sect to begin with, and besides, she was wearing a Gauze Hat that kept her face hidden.

Tang Yi usually came only once a year, around the end of the year. Why had she come now?

Thinking he had not yet woken up, he rubbed his eyes. After confirming that he had not mistaken them, he quickly climbed up, casually brushing the long ponytail that had fallen crookedly over his shoulder into place. With a smile, he said, "What brings you here?" He could not bring himself to call her "wife." Apart from a polite utterance on the day of their wedding, she had never called him her husband again. He could only blame his own lack of authority as a husband and accept his bad luck.

A little nervousness rose in his heart as well. These past few years had indeed been too peaceful and comfortable. He had even lost the most basic vigilance. Three perfectly living people had come right up to him, yet he had not noticed them at all. He truly had slept like a dead pig. If someone in the martial world had meant him harm, he feared he would not even have known how he died.

Yet the three of them did not react for quite some time. Tu Han looked at him strangely, as if he were looking at a monster, and kept glancing at the peach tree.

Tang Yi's gaze was somewhat complicated. Her thoughts remained immersed in the meaning of the poem Niu Youdao had just recited so lazily and naturally. A poem he had improvised? The poems that Song Yanqing had produced one after another?

She could not help taking another look at the thousand-year-old peach tree, its branches spreading as broad as a flower canopy.

She had long suspected that Song Yanqing's poems were connected to this man, but she could not believe that someone of his age could write so many love poems. Yet how did that poem just now feel so perfectly suited to the scene? Why did it seem as if it had been written for his current circumstances?

She truly found it difficult to believe that a poor boy from a remote mountain village could compose poetry of such caliber!

She knew Niu Youdao's background well.

Although Dongguo Haoran had provided conclusive evidence, from the circumstances, Dongguo Haoran had clearly taken him as a disciple in haste. The Shangqing Sect could not blindly allow someone to join. After asking about Niu Youdao's origins, they had immediately sent people to that mountain village to verify everything, and the details had been confirmed without error.

Yet from the very first moment they saw Niu Youdao, many people—including Tang Yi herself—had realized that this mountain village boy was extraordinary. His clothes were tattered, and his shoes were so worn that even his toes showed through, but the wisdom in his eyes was impossible to conceal. His manner of speech was also unlike that of a mountain village boy.

That could perhaps be explained by the saying that children from poor families matured early. But as for whether he could truly compose poetry of such quality, she still remained half-convinced and half-doubtful.

It was true that they had discovered some impoverished scholar had taught Niu Youdao a few things in Xiaomiao Village. But no one could say how far that scholar had taught him. Few people in the village could even read enough characters to comment on poetry, and all they had done was praise one of their own. They knew only to say that it was good; if asked what made it good, the villagers could not explain.

"Sober, I sit only before the flowers; drunk, I sleep beneath the flowers. A fine poem, and what a Peach Blossom Immortal!"

Tang Yi did not respond. But the woman wearing the Gauze Hat could not help praising him sincerely. Her voice was refined, gentle, and pleasing to the ear. From the cadence of her speech alone, one could tell that she had received excellent family upbringing since childhood. Judging by the way she raised her head beneath the Gauze Hat, she seemed to be examining the peach blossoms blooming brilliantly like rosy clouds.

"Uh..." Niu Youdao scratched his head. He himself had not realized what he had casually mumbled while half-asleep. Only after hearing her recite it did he react. With a dry laugh, he concealed his embarrassment. "It was just something I made up on a whim. Not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning!" He had made it perfectly clear that he was claiming authorship.

Tang Yi tentatively asked, "Did you write this poem yourself?"

"..." Niu Youdao froze for a moment. Had he said something wrong? Could this poem already exist in this world? If so, he had truly made a fool of himself. He gave another dry laugh. "I was just spouting nonsense because I was bored. Is there a problem?"

Tang Yi stared at him. Niu Youdao hurriedly changed the subject and looked toward the woman wearing the Gauze Hat. "May I ask who this distinguished guest is?"

The woman lowered her head and bowed. "Shang Shuqing greets the Peach Blossom Immortal!"

"Peach Blossom Immortal? Heh..." Niu Youdao laughed and waved his hand, looking as though he could not possibly deserve the title.

Tang Yi shifted aside slightly and reached out with her slender hand as she formally introduced her. "The County Princess is the daughter of Prince Ning, Shang Jianbo. Prince Ning and Martial Uncle Dongguo are old friends."

Niu Youdao was somewhat surprised. This woman wearing a Gauze Hat was actually a member of Yan Kingdom's imperial clan!

Although he was not clear about the situation outside, he had heard Chen Guishuo and Tu Han, when drunk, mention something about the general state of the world. The Wu Dynasty had collapsed, and the feudal lords had fought for supremacy in endless slaughter. Of the several hundred feudal states, only seven remained as hegemons: Jin, Han Kingdom, Zhao Kingdom, Song Kingdom, Wei Kingdom, Yan Kingdom, and Qi. The whole thing vaguely resembled the Warring States period's Seven Heroes that Niu Youdao knew of. The meaning was more or less the same, but the territories of the seven kingdoms were far larger than those of the Warring States' Seven Heroes he remembered. They had truly divided the entire planet among themselves, rather than competing for supremacy on a single continent. The imperial surname of Yan Kingdom was Shang. It was said to be descended from Shang Song, the emperor of the Wu Dynasty. This Prince Ning, Shang Jianbo, seemed to be the current Emperor's younger brother and one of the Three Excellencies, the Grand Marshal. The position was equivalent to what Niu Youdao's world called the commander-in-chief of the military, holding supreme command over Yan Kingdom's armies and wielding genuine power.

With such a background, how could Niu Youdao not be astonished to suddenly see the daughter of this Grand Marshal appear before him?