The Wooden Box Never Delivered

With a creak.

In the distance lay the bustling clamor of Fengling City; beyond the gate was a stretch of gloom.

There was no idol in the ruined temple. A cold wind carrying the stench of mold and death rushed straight at her.

More than half the roof had collapsed, and a shaft of sunlight crashed through the hole onto the muddy ground, illuminating a tattered straw mat in the corner.

Su Yueli walked over. As a Second Realm martial artist, her hearing allowed her to catch the faint sound of fallen leaves striking the ground from a hundred paces away.

Yet at this moment, the only sound in the ruined temple was her own heavy heartbeat.

After steadying herself for a moment, she reached out and lifted the straw mat. A corpse frozen stiff came into view.

There was no silk robe, no potbelly...

The person beneath the mat was so thin he was little more than skin and bones, clad in a flimsy hemp garment covered in rough patches.

The legs that had once run swiftly through the village and bought her hot buns were now grotesquely twisted, like two dead branches forcibly snapped and carelessly pieced back together.

It was Shen Qing'an...

Manager Shen, who had bragged in his letters about eating meat at every meal, living in a three-courtyard mansion, and burning silver-frost charcoal, had died in a ruined temple where even stray dogs would not come to shelter from the wind.

Though frozen into a block of ice, his body remained curled like a shrimp, his arms covered in chilblains and grime clutched tightly against his chest.

In his arms, he guarded a battered black wooden box.

Su Yueli stood where she was, dazed for a long while.

They had not seen each other for twenty years. She had imagined countless scenes of their reunion, but never this one.

Her heart, weathered by twenty years until it had long become as still as an ancient well, now felt as though a rusty blunt knife were sawing it open bit by bit.

She had no tears. Her chest simply felt tight, and her breathing grew a little more hurried.

After a moment, Su Yueli crouched down and grasped Shen Qing'an's arm, which he had held protectively to his chest.

The corpse had long frozen stiff. She could only draw upon the blood and vitality of Second Realm Bone Forging, carefully prying his fingers apart one by one.

The wooden box had no lock. When she opened it, there was no gold or silver inside—only a stone emitting a faint white glow, along with a neatly folded letter.

Su Yueli pulled out the letter. A few lines had been written on the coarse hemp paper.

"Ah Li, by the time you read this letter, I reckon I'll have already died of illness in this ruined temple.

"Don't blame me for lying to you. If I hadn't said I lived in a grand house and had made a fortune, you would have worried, wouldn't you? Though perhaps not...

"My life was actually quite pathetic. I ruined my business, and my legs were broken, but I do not regret it one bit.

"That brat Huai'an was born with the fate of an immortal. I know you never accepted it—why could immortals roam the heavens while people like us could only toil away our lives in a small village? Every time I saw you practice your fists until your hands were covered in blood, I thought how wonderful it would be if you had spiritual bones too, if you could become a lofty immortal too.

"Fortunately, the thing I, Shen Qing'an, was best at in this life was business. I spent ten years and scattered all my family wealth to the winds before finally buying this immortal jade slip from an immortal master of the Azure Cloud Sect—a jade slip that could allow an ordinary person to grow an Acquired Spirit Root.

"Ah Li, I did it.

"I bought back the great road to immortality for you!

"With this, you will not have to suffer like that anymore. You can go to the heavens.

"It is only a pity that these legs of mine cannot walk anymore. The wind and snow outside the city are too fierce. I could not deliver it to Blackwind Ridge with my own hands, nor can I see what you look like in an immortal's robes.

"That year, I said I would buy you immortal pills for you to eat like candy beans. I did not break my word.

"Ah Li, stop practicing that lousy fist art. Take this immortal art and cultivate immortality. Fly high, high into the sky, and never return to this muddy pit of mortal life.

"As for me, it does not matter. My greatest wish was to fulfill yours.

"Shen Qing'an, final words."

The letter slipped from Su Yueli's hand and fell into the filthy snowmelt.

Azure Cloud Sect... Azure Cloud Sect again!

She looked at the immortal jade slip in the wooden box, and a sense of absurdity rose within her.

Having trained in Martial Dao with her master for twenty years, Su Yueli recognized that this was no jade slip at all. It was merely a piece of Fluorite.

A low-grade mineral that even newly initiated menial disciples in the Immortal Realm used as a toy.

This kind of stone naturally emitted light, but in a cultivator's hand, the slightest squeeze would turn it into a pile of powder devoid of all spiritual energy.

But in the eyes of mortals, because it glowed and carried a trace of something resembling immortal aura, they took it for an immortal treasure.

Shen Qing'an was a mortal. He had calculated every penny for half his life, yet because he possessed no spiritual bones, he could not tell whether the thing was real or fake.

The cultivators of the Azure Cloud Sect had not even been willing to give him a genuine Spirit Stone. They had simply chipped a worthless rock off a wall, then traded it for Shen Qing'an's lifespan, all his family wealth, and every shred of his dignity as a mortal.

Yet Shen Qing'an... had believed until his death that it was truly something that could grow spiritual bones.

But spiritual bones were the stuff of immortals. If one was not born with them, one would never have them. Even if there were heaven-reaching means to make them grow, such a gift would never be bestowed upon a mortal.

"How absurd..."

A sharp pain pierced Su Yueli's heart. Thinking of how Shen Qing'an, before he died, had still believed he had finally bought her a road rising into the blue clouds, she felt deeply sorrowful.

He had spent his entire life gazing up at those lofty immortals, given up everything to lift her into the heavens, only to be treated by them like a lame stray dog to toy with at will.

In this world, immortals stood high above all. With a casual stroke of heavenly lightning, they could erase the lives of an entire family of three.

Just like her parents...

An immortal could toss down a worthless stone used for illumination and deceive a mortal out of the humble kindness they had devoted their whole life to giving.

In the eyes of immortals, mortal lives were not lives. Mortal feelings were merely jokes to be used for amassing wealth and amusement.

Su Yueli let out a long breath and rose to her feet.

She bent down and slowly carried Shen Qing'an's body onto her back.

He was very light, like a bundle of rotten wood that had long been drained dry.

The instant she touched the corpse, the thoughts Su Yueli had suppressed in her heart completely spiraled out of control.

"Boom—!"

The blood and vitality of Second Realm Bone Forging erupted. Pure physical destructive force swept outward in every direction with her at its center.

Unlike the dazzling spell-light and spiritual energy ripples of cultivators, blood and vitality was merely the most primal, savage power.

The ground beneath her feet instantly turned to dust, while ravines tore outward like a spiderweb.

The temple walls around her, already on the verge of collapse, crumbled beneath the impact of her blood and vitality, shattering into dust that filled the sky.

The gale howled, and the smoke and dust were blown aside by the heat wave. In the blink of an eye, the entire ruined temple was razed to the ground.

Su Yueli carried Shen Qing'an's corpse on her back and stood atop the ruins.

On that pretty face, only killing intent remained.

Since immortals treated mortals like livestock, then in this muddy pit of mortal life, she would spend endless years and use these fists of flesh to walk step by step to the end of Martial Dao—and punch a hole through that heaven...

"I don't want spiritual bones anymore,"

With the corpse on her back, Su Yueli stepped out of the ruins, her voice echoing hollowly.

"Azure Cloud Sect, is it...? I'll make your immortals come down and join my parents in the grave!"