"I'll come back for her!"
Though the gentle spring breeze bathing the mountain road seemed to leave his whole body pleasantly languid, Xing Yan spoke those words with ringing conviction. Echoing off the distant rocks, their lingering notes refused to fade.
"Ah... since you feel that way, Brother, there's no harm in returning to Luoyang to visit her someday."
The resolute Highest Clarity Disciple beside the boy, Chen Ziping, was no wooden man. Seeing the determination on Xing Yan's face, he knew further words would accomplish nothing. He merely offered a gentle reassurance, without mentioning again that humans and demons could never coexist.
And so the two men and their two donkeys proceeded at an unhurried pace along the comparatively gentle mountain road through Luoyang's countryside.
Groves of green bamboo grew everywhere in the hills through which Xing Yan and his companion now traveled. When the wind swept through them, their leaves rustled with a sound like rolling waves.
Looking far into the distance, they could see the undulating hills covered entirely in lush green trees and bamboo. April had brought them into the depths of spring. The grasses, trees, and bamboo grew at their own speeds, each answering the season in turn with a fresh surge of vitality. Some trees already spread thick canopies of deep green leaves, while others had only just unfurled their tender new foliage, revealing a lively lightness-
Thus, as Xing Yan gazed from his donkey's back toward the distant mountains, the luxuriant spring hills seemed draped in green silk gauze dyed in varying shades. Here and there, small patches of delicate white dotted that emerald fabric, inlaid across the green wilderness-those must have been the mountain azaleas in bloom.
The Highest Clarity Disciple riding beside him also found his heart opening and his spirits