Qingqiu Mountain, summit.
A small courtyard by the cliff.
Lu Feng sat on a stone bench in the courtyard paved with bluestone slabs, leafing through the handwritten journal Hu Xianxian had given him.
A patch of old bamboo planted against the wall rustled beneath the mountain wind. Bamboo leaves fell upon the moss-covered ground, making the courtyard seem incomparably verdant and tranquil.
After reading for a long while, Lu Feng finally gained some understanding of his parents and learned of many of the things they had experienced along their journey.
Gazing at the occasional elegant handwriting on the journal pages, blurred by stains, he murmured, "Xuan Kui, the one who recorded all this... was she a woman?"
"How did you know?" Hu Xianxian paused in surprise, then sighed softly. "Was it because of the love that seeped through every line?"
Lu Feng nodded.
"Even you could see it," Hu Xianxian said with a trace of resentment. "No wonder they all said Father had been somewhat cold and faithless in those days. His eyes held only Mother, and he let down quite a few beauties who adored him. He should have been able to sense Xuan Kui's feelings, yet from beginning to end, he never exposed them or faced them."
"It is truly hard to imagine how envious and bitter Xuan Kui must have felt back then, recording Father and Mother's lives as she watched them love each other so sweetly."
As the two chatted idly, a piercing cry suddenly came from the cliff beyond the courtyard.
Immediately afterward, a grayish-white beastly silhouette emerged through the clouds and landed elegantly atop a pine tree by the cliff.
Hu Xianxian froze in surprise, then said suspiciously, "I heard Mother once saved a little immortal crane and carefully raised it for a time.