The young man in white trembled.
His expression shifted for a long while. Finally, he tightened his grip on the Exquisite Pagoda, his eyes extremely wary, though his smile remained ordinary.
"We're on the same path. You shouldn't stand in my way."
"The same path?" Chen Xia repeated, then smiled. His blue-green eyes flickered, and the lightning circling overhead stopped, hanging oppressively above them. He asked curiously,
"How did you reach that conclusion?"
Holding the Exquisite Pagoda, the young man in white radiated brilliant light. He glanced at the martial heroes around him, then stared straight at Chen Xia and said gravely,
"We're both immortals, both walking the immortal path, a head above these martial brutes. That makes us people on the same path!"
"Haha." Chen Xia tilted his head and laughed. Folding his arms, he asked a question that made the young man tremble.
"Who gave you the courage to call a lion and an ant fellow travelers?"
The young man's hand shook, and the corner of his eye twitched. He hurriedly cried out in his defense, "But we both cultivate Divine Abilities and Immortal Methods!"
"No." Chen Xia straightened his tilted head and very seriously corrected him.
"What you have aren't Immortal Methods. They're parlor tricks."
Blue-green Spirit Dragon Qi shone in his eyes, filling his pupils.
The lightning overhead twisted together and sank into the dark clouds. A moment later, an enormous dragon's head formed of lightning slowly emerged from them.
Before everyone's horrified eyes, the dragon's head bowed in submission beside Chen Xia, remaining at his side.
"Now this is an Immortal Method," Chen Xia said with a smile.
The young man was utterly horrified. The Exquisite Pagoda shook uncontrollably in his hand. He hurriedly grabbed it with his other hand, only for both hands to start shaking together.
Chen Xia rested a hand on the dragon's head and said casually,
"Overseas Qi Refiners would be fine if they stayed overseas. After all, those are places where even birds won't shit. I can't be bothered to go there."
"But you actually dared set foot in Great Song territory, paying no heed to what I said a few years ago. Since you don't care about your own life, I'll just have to take it."
He gently patted the dragon's head.
The enormous dragon's head abruptly rose. Lightning blazed and thunder cracked. Two pairs of eyes, where the lightning was most concentrated, stared straight at the young man, brimming with killing intent!
The young man was already unsteady on his feet, as though what stood before him were a genuine dragon!
"I came to Great Song to seek out the State Preceptor, to apologize on behalf of the many overseas Qi Refiners. I even brought a gift."
The young man hurriedly begged for mercy, offering up his Exquisite Pagoda as he spoke.
"This is a secret treasure of us overseas Qi Refiners. I offer it to you, State Preceptor."
Chen Xia's expression was indifferent. "If you want to apologize, you can start right away in your next life. Though I doubt you'll learn your lesson then, either."
The young man gritted his teeth and stamped hard on the ground. The Exquisite Pagoda began spinning wildly as he shouted furiously,
"I've already humbled myself this far, yet you still insist on tearing away all pretense. Then don't blame me for staking my life on one last gamble! Even if I can't kill you, I'll damage your foundation and destroy your Great Dao!"
Chen Xia laughed. "I've heard plenty of jokes, but you're the first to make me laugh this naturally."
The young man gritted his teeth. With all pretense already torn away, he stopped holding back and cursed,
"Even if I'm a joke, do you think you're any better? There probably isn't a single person in this world who's sincere toward you!"
"Look around you! These martial brutes, the court, the imperial family-which of them doesn't want you dead? Which doesn't want to see you fall?"
The surrounding martial heroes said nothing, but all of them had entertained such thoughts to some extent. After all, a martial world that practiced martial arts truly did not want an immortal cultivator standing over their heads.
Standing on the raised platform, Song Wei hurriedly protested, "You treacherous villain! How dare you sow discord between my foster father and me!"
"Heh." The young man sneered, pointing around him. "Every one of these people fears your strength. Great Song's imperial family only wants to use you. But who truly cares about you?"
"You're right." Chen Xia nodded and replied calmly, "But I'm still going to kill you."
"Kill me!" the young man roared. "Even if you can kill me, I'll take a vicious bite out of you and leave you wounded! When the old immortal emerges a hundred years from now, he'll certainly slay you for competing with him for fortune!"
"Correct." Chen Xia nodded in agreement, his expression indifferent. "But I'm still going to kill you."
"You think you stand at the highest point, but you don't realize you're already on the edge of a cliff! One careless move and you'll fall!"
"Indeed." Chen Xia nodded a third time, casually reaching out to pat the dragon's head. "That still doesn't change the fact that I'm going to kill you."
"You've gone too far!" the young man roared. The Exquisite Pagoda spun wildly in his hand, brilliant light bursting forth. Every bluestone slab across the arena shattered, about to blast toward Chen Xia and kill him!
Expressionless, Chen Xia casually beckoned.
The enormous dragon's head abruptly rose, lightning churning as it charged toward the brilliant light.
The sky was pitch-black, thick with dark clouds.
The lightning dragon, the size of a small hill, writhed between heaven and earth, throwing the entire Water of the Heavenly Altar into turmoil and pressing the young man down so hard he could not raise his head.
Chen Xia idly picked at his fingernails and said flatly,
"You said you'd take a vicious bite out of me and leave me wounded. I think you might be a little..."
He paused, stopped fiddling with his nails, then looked up with a smile and continued,
"Unclear on the difference between a lion and an ant?"
The young man gritted his teeth, desperately resisting the lightning dragon's attacks, with no attention to spare for answering Chen Xia.
The blue-green light in Chen Xia's eyes flickered, and he beckoned.
The lightning dragon abruptly dispersed between heaven and earth. The dark clouds overhead vanished too, restoring the clear sky.
The surrounding martial heroes watched, their minds shaken, unable to contain their horror. With every movement, the State Preceptor could already control the grand manifestations of heaven and earth at will!
This was the mighty power of an immortal!
Chen Xia recalled the lightning dragon, interlaced his hands, and stretched them forward to loosen up. He smiled.
"Although you keep calling me an immortal, my Immortal Methods really aren't that powerful."
That was the truth, because the strength Chen Xia gained from allocating points had always far exceeded his cultivation realm.
The young man had suffered numerous injuries. He stood panting, gritting his teeth as he stared at Chen Xia.
His Immortal Methods weren't powerful?!
Then what was that lightning dragon?
A warm-up?
The young man truly did not know what to say. After catching his breath for a moment, he tried to negotiate.
"If you spare my life, I can give you the Exquisite Pagoda. Afterward, I can even have all the overseas Qi Refiners assist you, obtain great fortune, and slay the old immortal within Great Song!"
Chen Xia raised a finger before him and gently wagged it, replying calmly,
"I don't need you."
A confident smile appeared on his face. His finger stopped moving and curled, aimed at the young man. In a tone so calm it sounded as though this was simply how things ought to be, he said,
"I can kill him alone."
Bang!
He flicked his finger.
The already ruined arena instantly turned to dust. The air was violently driven away, creating a vacuum within a hundred meters!
The young man hurriedly thrust the Exquisite Pagoda forward, trying to block that flick. Yet the pagoda shattered instantly, crushed by a single flick without offering even the slightest resistance.
At the final moment, he lifted his horrified face and looked at the indifferent Chen Xia.
There truly was not the slightest change in Chen Xia's expression, as though killing him really was no different from crushing a little bug.
Was this an immortal?
Only despair remained on the young man's face. He finally understood what it meant to be...
As far apart as heaven and earth.
Boom!
The killing force of that flick ran its course.
The entire arena was completely pulverized. The devastation was even worse in the direction of the flick, where a cylindrical trench a hundred meters long had appeared. The young man lay at its far end, vomiting blood, half-dead.
But ultimately, he had not died.
And the reason was simple.
Chen Xia had held back.
Not because he had gone soft, but because he wanted to keep the young man alive to ask about the overseas Qi Refiners.
Chen Xia casually clapped his hands, then turned toward the crowd. His gaze lingered a little longer on Song Wei and Nine Thousand Years before he asked with a smile,
"How have you all been?"
Song Wei hurriedly cupped his fists and nodded. "Thanks to your blessings, Foster Father, Great Song has flourished in recent years, enjoying peace and stability."
"Mm." Chen Xia answered casually, then turned toward the martial heroes and waved a hand.
"Keep fighting. Don't mind me. I'm just here to watch the fun."
Despite his words, no one actually dared continue fighting.
After witnessing the bright moon before them, how could grains of mud and sand like them dare show off?
Besides, Chen Xia had completely destroyed the fighting grounds.
Chen Xia realized this too. Blue-green light flashed in his eyes, and the ground within a hundred meters of his feet abruptly churned, becoming an arena within a few breaths.
"I threw together a simple arena. It might be a little crude, so don't mind it," Chen Xia said with a smile.
Nine Thousand Years's eyes widened in horror. Compared with eight years ago, Chen Xia's abilities had improved again. He could already use great Divine Abilities like this, utterly beyond mortal comprehension.
Chen Xia slowly walked down from the arena and toward the crowd. The packed crowd hurriedly opened an extremely wide path, not daring to obstruct him in the slightest.
Chen Xia walked to the very end, faced the crowd, and called to Song Wei,
"Take this Qi Refiner back with you and question him for useful information. I'll come ask about it later."
Song Wei hurriedly nodded. "Yes!"
Chen Xia straightened, a smile on his lips. Facing everyone, he said lightly,
"I really shouldn't appear in the martial world. How could immortal cultivation and martial arts ever strike the same tune?"
The martial heroes lowered their heads, not daring to answer, though that was exactly what they thought.
"So from now on..." Chen Xia smiled again. "May we never meet in the martial world, nor cross paths among mountains and rivers."
He stamped lightly, and his figure disappeared, as though he had never appeared at all.
And none of them could have imagined that this was Chen Xia's third-to-last appearance before them.
The thirtieth year of Great Song's Wei calendar.
The court had recruited nearly eighty percent of the martial heroes, giving them posts in the Constabulary.
From then on, martial heroes who wanted legitimate status had to register with the Constabulary. Otherwise, they were martial bandits.
The martial world was now inseparable from the court.
If the martial world of the past had held both chivalrous hearts and mutual deceit, the martial world now revolved around social maneuvering, promotions, and titles.
It was less carefree than before, but it was still the martial world.
The fortieth year of the Wei calendar.
A rare heavy snow fell across the entire realm.
Deep snow piled up everywhere. Even the roof tiles bore thick layers, which sometimes dragged the tiles down with them.
The snow in the imperial city was especially thick. Many eunuchs shoveled ceaselessly, but in the end, it was only a cup of water against a blazing cartload of firewood.
A figure dressed in a blue-green cotton robe stood outside, quietly watching the eunuchs shovel snow.
One sharp-eyed eunuch spotted her and hurriedly greeted her.
"This servant pays his respects to the Moon Consort!"
Huang Qingyue nodded lightly and waved a hand. "Carry on with your work. Don't mind me."
"Yes." The eunuch picked up his shovel again and began shoveling vigorously.
Huang Qingyue had been personally named Moon Consort by Song Wei, and her status was even higher than that of a first-rank civil official.
The reason was simple: she was Chen Xia's maid.
Even if she had only served him for a year, she was still the person alive who had spent the most time with Chen Xia.
Thus, Song Wei had specially named her Moon Consort and even treated Huang Qingyue with great respect in everyday life.
Huang Qingyue knew why, too.
She basked in Chen Xia's reflected glory.
Even though Chen Xia had not appeared for fifteen years.
Still, the entire Great Song Dynasty dared not slight her in the least.
And Song Wei had noticed the first signs of something.
Huang Qingyue had not aged. Her appearance remained the same as in her youth; in fact, it had not changed at all.
What did that mean?
Song Wei understood after only a little thought.
Huang Qingyue had very likely received Chen Xia's teachings and inheritance, setting foot on the immortal path herself.
That meant Huang Qingyue might become Great Song's third immortal, after the old immortal and Chen Xia!
With such a possibility, Song Wei absolutely dared not slight her, and treated Huang Qingyue as a second Chen Xia.
As for Chen Xia's inheritance, Song Wei had indeed harbored some crooked intentions, but he quickly extinguished those thoughts himself.
He did not fear Huang Qingyue, but he was extremely afraid of Chen Xia behind her.
Especially after the heaven-destroying, earth-annihilating power Chen Xia had displayed during the martial tournament, every thought in Song Wei's heart had turned to ash.
That was power far beyond his reach, which he could only gaze up at.
Even though Chen Xia had not emerged for fifteen years, Song Wei was still afraid.
Chen Xia had already cast a shadow over his heart.
There was no need to calculate the area of that shadow. In any case, it was enormous and could not be erased.
Huang Qingyue stood beneath the eaves, gazing blankly at the snowflakes.
She remembered vividly that on the day Chen Xia left, it had snowed heavily like this too, thick enough to bury an entire shoe.
The wind had been strong that day, too.
Truly fitting weather for flying far away.
Huang Qingyue cupped her hands before her, rubbing them together and breathing warmth into them.
As she watched the heavy snow before her, her eyes gradually grew hazy. Her gaze stretched into the distance, as though she could see the past.
There seemed to be a snowman before her, with broomstick arms stuck into its sides, slowly waving to her.
Her eyes gradually grew wet, and she could not help thinking.
If only the snowman's wave back then hadn't meant goodbye.
How Huang Qingyue wished the snowman's wave had been beckoning her to come along.
She had dreamed of such a scene before.
And whenever she woke, she would be overjoyed.
But dreams always came to an end.
She didn't know why, after only a short year together, Chen Xia had left such a profound mark on her.
Huang Qingyue couldn't understand it.
She just missed Chen Xia, her longing as vast as this snowfall.
And just as impossible to stop.
Snowy, windswept days really did make it easy to feel sad.
Huang Qingyue sniffled and kicked at the snow.
If you left after the heavy snow, could you come back before the flowers bloomed?