Volume Twenty-One: "How Much Dust Along the Mortal Immortal Road" - Immortal dust within his sleeves, his feet once more amid mountain clouds

In late spring, in the fourth month, peach blossoms held the dew, and spring streams flowed green. As droplets leaping from the channel dampened Xing Yan's writing paper, the girl beneath the peach blossoms burst into tears. Yet the peach grove in the afternoon sun remained bright and still, its sunlight warm as ever while crystalline tears streamed unchecked. The scent of grass, the stream, and those tears, warmed by the radiant sunlight, rose together into vapor, brewing a pervasive spring wine that misted among the branches and wound about them, tender and lingering, unwilling to disperse. It was as though, in that instant, the whole flowering grove had grown drunk and still. Birds ceased their singing, pale butterflies folded their wings, and fallen blossoms settled soundlessly upon the water. Throughout the vast peach grove, nothing remained but that irrepressible, heartbroken sobbing.

Why had Ju Ying suddenly begun to cry? The Four Seas Hall Master, standing close beside her, naturally knew the answer. Though she was a princess of exalted rank, she had always been carefree before him, happy and tender. If she suddenly wept now, it must be that spring had stirred her sorrow, the scene awakening feelings within her.

Both he and Ju Ying were extraordinarily perceptive; many things needed no explanation for them to understand each other's hearts. They had long since made their feelings clear and promised to retire together into the mountain forests one day. Alas, beautiful though that vow was, circumstances had changed, and such a lovely wish would likely be difficult to fulfill for some time. Ju Ying had suffered upheaval, her family and country struck by calamity, and the grief, humiliation, and hardship she had endured were difficult for others to comprehend. Though things had improved somewhat of late, the sovereign was