Tao Mian arrived.
The Peach Blossom Immortal had been on edge all along. With Gu Yuan’s fate as a warning, he hadn’t known a moment’s peace in the temple since Lu Yuandi left.
That young girl Wang from back then had become an old woman with bad legs. She clutched her walking stick against her chest and sat beside Tao Mian on the wide doorstep, smacking her withered lips.
“Young Priest Tao.” Wang the girl had become Granny Wang, while Priest Tao had only grown younger with the years, becoming Young Priest Tao. Whenever the old woman thought of this, her eyes crinkled into two curved slits. “You’ve got something on your mind.”
“I don’t.”
Tao Mian denied it without thinking-which was rather childish. Not at all befitting his image as a mature, steady, thousand-year-old immortal.
So he coughed twice to save face.
“I’m just… not used to it yet.”
Which made it sound exactly like he was missing Lu Yuandi. Tao Mian grew even more awkward.
“Look at the disciples other people raise, and then look at mine. One after another, all they think about is running off the mountain. What’s so wonderful out there? Strife, hatred, scheming and backstabbing… The people outside are born liars, every last one of them.”
Granny Wang narrowed her eyes. Peach Blossom Mountain was blessed with another bright, sunny day. She basked in the warmth, her whole body cozy and content.
Peach Blossom Mountain-a land so beautiful it hardly seemed part of the mortal world. No one who set foot here could bear to leave. When she was young and full of fire, she and her husband had set up a tea stall by the road to welcome travelers passing through.
They praised the grandeur of Peach Blossom Mountain, the crystal clarity of Peach Blossom Creek. They would pick up flower branches snapped carelessly by children along the path and turn them over in their hands, admiring them. They composed poems, matched couplets, and drank together in high spirits.
Some melancholy guests, after too much wine, would quietly shed tears.
The mountains, the waters, the people here-all too clean, too pure. Travelers from the outside world couldn’t bear to bring their worldly entanglements along, couldn’t bear to stain this untouched land. They always said, wait-just a little longer. Once everything was settled, they would come back here and never trouble themselves with the mortal world again.
But Granny Wang had never seen a single one return.
“Your eldest disciple and your second disciple,” Granny Wang spoke slowly. Even in her youth, she had always been soft-spoken like this. “They are both people from outside the mountain. Young Priest Tao, those karmic ties from the outside world-they’re not easily untangled.”
Tao Mian fell silent and let out a long, slow breath. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“My youngest grandson left Peach Blossom Mountain this year, went off to the town,” Granny Wang said, not pressing him further, turning instead to her own family. “The child’s heart was restless. He followed a craftsman to learn a trade-insisted on making something of himself. Sigh, it’s not as if our family couldn’t afford one more pair of chopsticks at the table.
“Life out there is hard. The master is strict. Make a mistake, and he raps the boy’s palms. But the child is stubborn-won’t come home until he’s learned his craft. As for me, my legs have gone bad, but my heart aches for him. I lie awake night after night.
“Later, I had his father borrow a cart from the neighbor and pull me all the way to town. The moment my grandson laid eyes on me, he cried. How could anyone far from home not miss their family? He couldn’t come back, so I went to him.
“At my age, how many days do I have left? Every meeting is one fewer we’ll ever have.”
Thinking of her loved ones far away, Granny Wang’s eyes brimmed with tears. She wiped them with her sleeve, and her walking stick slipped, tapping the ground with a sharp sound.
“So you see, Young Priest Tao-she isn’t greedy for the scenery outside the mountain. She simply cannot come home.”
Tao Mian left the mountain at dawn the next day. Before going, he filled the chicken coop with enough feed to last several dozen days. The chickens he raised had reasonably good self-discipline-they ate fixed amounts at fixed times and wouldn’t gorge themselves to death.
If they did gorge themselves to death, well, he’d just have to stew them through his tears.
Just like many years ago, Tao Mian departed Peach Blossom Mountain with nothing but the clothes on his back.
He was searching for Lu Yuandi, but she had gone to considerable lengths to cover her tracks. Even her own master had to expend great effort before he finally traced her whereabouts.
Tao Mian arrived at the military encampment and tied up a soldier to serve as his guide. Once he’d gotten a rough sense of the layout, he heard the faint sounds of fighting in the distance.
The sounds were barely audible-most people would never have noticed-but Tao Mian’s senses caught them at once.
Forgetting entirely about the unfortunate soldier trussed up behind him, Tao Mian vanished in a flash, reappearing at the source of the sound.
And there he saw his disciple, about to drag her enemy into death alongside her.
Little Immortal Tao was badly shaken.
His eldest disciple, Gu Yuan, had merely wanted to kill everyone else.
He never expected his second disciple to outdo the first-wanting to kill herself along with them.
Tao Mian began to seriously reflect on exactly which step of his teaching had gone wrong.
He appeared without a sound. Lu Yuandi was the first to react, and she immediately burst into tears.
Lu Yuandi had never once cried in front of him.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry. Aiya, what’s the big deal? Didn’t I tell you? Your master will always be here.”
Lu Yuandi was sobbing so hard she could barely get the words out.
“I-I thought that was just you-you not wanting me anymore. That you’d never leave the mountain.”
“How did you get that so twisted? I meant you’d always have someone to fall back on. If something happens, come find your master! Why try to shoulder everything yourself?”
Tao Mian was busy coaxing his disciple and paid absolutely no attention to the other living person standing right there.
Li Li shifted from shock to cold scrutiny. He hadn’t expected Lu Yuandi’s master to actually show up.
“Who are you?” Li Li barked. “Anyone connected to the remnants of the Lu clan shares their guilt!”
“Oh, right, right-I forgot. You’re still here.”
Tao Mian smacked his own forehead, as though he’d only just realized he’d been ignoring Li Li this entire time.
“You-“
“Now, now, relax. I’m not going to do anything to you.” Young Priest Tao’s face was the picture of pure, harmless innocence.
Li Li felt he had been looked down upon for absolutely no reason.
“Then don’t think you’ll leave here ali-“
Before the words left his mouth, a blur of shadow flickered across his vision.
Then his entire being plunged into a state of utter sensory void. He was conscious, but he could feel nothing at all.
Li Li was seized by panic.
What had that man done to him?!