They headed south into the mountains. For the first two days, they could still see mountain trails, hunters, and mountain folk, but after that, there was no further sign of human presence.
Travel through the mountains was difficult. Quite apart from the absence of paths, tigers, leopards, snakes, and insects appeared constantly, miasma filled the air every day, and the weather was fickle, with rain falling without warning.
In some places, the dead leaves lay so thick that a misstep could bury a person. Other places were utterly impassable, forcing them to scale mountains and climb cliffs.
Meng Yuan carefully noted their direction and route, thinking that when his army entered the mountains in the future, this would help them clear roads and build bridges.
But within a few days, Meng Yuan realized that an army could never get in. First, there were no passable roads; second, provisions would be difficult to supply; third, the miasma would harm the men.
Thus, at most, only small bands of elite troops could enter the mountains, and even they would have to possess profound internal strength.
After ten days in the mountains, Meng Yuan had also worked something out: the Chen, Pei, and Bai households probably had another route into the mountains, because the three of them often got lost too.
They were called reclusive masters beyond the mundane world, but in truth, they were merely martial artists versed in internal cultivation. At most, they knew a few secrets that outsiders did not, and were constrained by rules hundreds or even thousands of years old. They were both insular and naive.
But they were not utterly heinous villains. Of course, they considered themselves descendants of immortals, and deep in their bones, they still believed themselves a cut above others.
What was rare, however, was that, perhaps because they spent most of their lives in the mountains with little human contact, the other two spoke fairly frankly and without much beating around the bush. Their minds were not as deep as Chen Yuyin's.
After traveling south for another month or so, they came upon a great river.
The great river wound southward, cleaving the two banks apart, its waters surging and roaring. It was over a hundred zhang across at its widest, and even its narrow stretches spanned a dozen or so zhang.
They crossed the river and traveled south for another month or so before coming upon a gorge.
The gorge was deep, long, and winding. Jagged rocks, mostly black, jutted from the cliffs on either side, and the mournful cries of apes often rang out.
They followed the gorge for several li as it grew ever narrower. At its end, they found a waterfall a hundred zhang high.
A deep pool lay beneath the waterfall. The four crossed the pool and passed through the falling water, revealing a cave.
They entered the cave. At first, it was extremely narrow, barely wide enough for a person to pass. After several dozen more steps, it grew narrower still. Another hundred-odd steps brought them suddenly into the open.
Looking out, they saw high mountains on every side, with countless splashes of green and red below-who knew how many peach trees had been planted there.
The first month of the year had not yet ended, yet the peach blossoms here were already in full bloom.
The mountain hollow was vast, with white deer and cranes roaming freely through it.
"To think the Immortal Mausoleum was hidden here!" Meng Yuan was greatly astonished. "Even if outsiders entered Mysterious Valley, they would probably never imagine another world lay behind the waterfall."
"Over all these years, only eleven people have ever stumbled in here. And none were ordinary mountain folk; all were practitioners of martial arts," Bai Xingshuang said.
On the journey here, Meng Yuan had already asked enough to understand that the Lineages of these three households did not actually live here permanently. Chen's branch, for instance, lived around Spring Radiance Prefecture in Pear Blossom Province, together with the other members of the Chen clan.
The members of the Pei Clan and Bai Clan also lived elsewhere, but like the Chen clansmen, most knew their ancestors had been royalty without knowing anything about the immortal.
According to the rules handed down by the three households, each had to provide two or three tomb guardians. They did not all have to remain here, so long as someone stood watch over the Immortal Mausoleum. Thus, each household's tomb guardians could take turns leaving to spend time with their families.
Moreover, for fear of revealing the secret, the Three Surnames generally selected their tomb guardians first, only telling them the secret and bringing them here to serve once they were in their forties or fifties, or even older. In the end, they would die of old age here.
It was only because changes had occurred over the past two or three centuries, and too many people from the three households had died, that the tomb guardians had gradually become younger.
Of course, since the rules were not particularly strict, secrets had leaked before, but those incidents had been promptly quelled, and neither the martial world nor the imperial court had paid much attention.
"When outsiders stumbled in, how did you deal with them?" Meng Yuan asked curiously.
Bai Xingshuang did not answer, looking instead at Chen Yuyin.
"My lady?" Meng Yuan asked.
Chen Yuyin said, "The immortal once left instructions: anyone who could find this place was a person blessed with great fortune, and the Three Surnames guarding the tomb were to treat them courteously."
Someone blessed with great fortune? The mountain forests were perilous; anyone who reached this place had survived nine chances of death for one chance of life. Did that not make them blessed with great fortune?
Or had the immortal still entertained the thought of taking disciples back then?
"I see." Meng Yuan nodded.
"But to prevent the secret from leaking, those who came here had no need to leave again," Pei Huasheng added.
Meng Yuan nodded, thinking, Then I should stumble in here in my next life. I'm handsome and young, and blessed with great fortune too. That way, I wouldn't have to play mind games with Chen Yuyin!
"So your rules aren't that strict after all. Outsiders can come here." Meng Yuan looked at Chen Yuyin. "My lady, before this, every other word out of your mouth was about secrets and ancestral instructions. You looked so desperately torn that I thought helping me this once meant betraying your ancestors!"
A rare trace of a smile appeared at the corners of Chen Yuyin's mouth. "If I hadn't, how could I have made you willingly do my bidding?"
For a moment, Meng Yuan was speechless.
"The immortal called herself the Peach Blossom Immortal." Pei Huasheng gazed into the distance with her lone eye, filled with countless reflections. "After enfeoffing the Eighty-One Kingdoms, the immortal took three disciples. They were the ancestors of our three households."
Pei Huasheng pointed down the mountain and continued, "Later, the immortal found this place and said its clear waters and beautiful mountains gathered the finest beauty of the land, and that it possessed Qi of immortal grace. So she established a cave abode here to cultivate in seclusion. She also bestowed seeds upon our three ancestors and ordered them to plant peach trees here. Nearly two thousand years have passed since then. Many peach trees withered and died, but we replanted them generation after generation, creating the splendid sight you see today."
"The Peach Blossom Immortal planted peach trees; blossoms fell and bloomed, year after year. A lifetime of toil without a moment's leisure; may I die of old age among the peach blossoms."
At the sight of the peach blossoms in full bloom, Meng Yuan felt his heart open wide. After nearly twenty years of toil, he had finally seen the flowers bloom. Now, he needed only wait for them to bear fruit.
They passed through the peach grove and reached the foot of the mountain opposite. The mountainside resembled a jade disc, with a massive stone door at its base.
The stone door towered above them, immensely thick and heavy. Despite its exposure to sun and wind, peach-blossom patterns could still be discerned upon it.
Yet a small portion of the jade-disc mountainside behind the stone door had collapsed. Amid jagged rubble, moss, and weeds, a deep, dark passage had been exposed.
"How did you confirm that the immortal had already fallen?" Meng Yuan asked curiously.
"The immortal said so herself." Leaning on her cane, Pei Huasheng looked at the passage with her lone eye. "At first, the immortal emerged once every sixty years to travel the mortal world, sometimes as a wealthy family's child, sometimes as a beggar in a bustling market. But after more than six hundred years, she never left the cave abode again. She did, however, leave word that she had little lifespan remaining, and that our three households should continue guarding this place as before. One day, a new immortal would walk out of the cave abode, and a favorable connection would surely follow."
"A new immortal would walk out of the cave abode? Returning from the dead? Borrowing a corpse to restore her soul? Or borrowing a womb to bear a child?" Meng Yuan was utterly astonished. "Was the immortal from the same household as my wife? Was her surname Chen too?"
Chen Yuyin clenched her fists and gritted her teeth.
"The immortal was a female Daoist, and her surname probably wasn't Chen," Pei Huasheng sighed. "But for immortals, borrowing a corpse to restore the soul presumably amounts to little. Go inside and have a look, and you'll know how insignificant and ignorant you are."
Meng Yuan did not charge rashly inside. Instead, he asked, "You entered the cave abode without permission, before the next immortal arrived?"
"That's right. After the immortal sealed her cave abode, another thousand-odd years passed. Then, nearly three hundred years ago, an earthquake struck this place. The stone door ceased to function, exposing a path into the cave. Our three households discussed it together, and only then did we enter to investigate," Pei Huasheng said.
"What did you find?" Meng Yuan asked.
"The means of immortals," Pei Huasheng said, enunciating each word.
"Please explain in detail." Meng Yuan asked in earnest.
"You'll know once you go inside and look." Chen Yuyin took over. "Husband, please."
Meng Yuan asked with a smile, "Why shouldn't my lady go first?"
"My husband ought to go first."
"Why?"
"Because this is the road to the gates of death."
"I don't believe in fate, because I can change it. Even if these are the gates of death, I will tread them into a smooth road."
With that, Meng Yuan stepped forward at once, stooping to enter the dark passage.
Before you continue