By the time Cen Yuchi made his way back to the peak’s summit, shaking out his aching, swollen hands, the great sects had already finished assembling. Disciples in various robes stood in neat rows, sorted by sect, while the First Venerables of each great family stood upon the high platform as someone read out the proceedings of the Immortal Feather Gathering.
Cen Yuchi hid behind a tree not far away and peeked up at the platform. There stood a man in white robes and a plain crown, a faint golden radiance shimmering around him, his features elegant and handsome standing among the crowd like a snow lotus. It was Mu Lian. At this moment, however, his brows were tightly furrowed as he looked down at the Immortal Feather Peak’s formation, his already cold face now frosted over with ice.
Standing at Mu Lian’s side were three others: the three First Venerables of Immortal Feather Peak Ding, Sheng, and Yan. The First Venerable of the Ding-character Formula, Wei Kong, tall and jade-like, full of heroic bearing, stood at Mu Lian’s right. At Mu Lian’s left stood two people. One was a woman in azure robes, beautiful and graceful, with a gentle smile, her belly visibly rounded clearly with child. This was Qin Yiyou, First Venerable of the Sheng-character Formula. The other was a man in red robes who looked exactly like Mu Lian, except his features lacked the sharpness and carried more warmth instead. His hands lightly supported the woman beside him, his eyes brimming with tender smiles as he gazed at her. This was the First Venerable of the Yan-character Formula, and Mu Lian’s twin brother, Mu He. And this loving couple were none other than Mu Linchuan’s parents.
The opening ceremony was drawing to a close, and immediately afterward there would be a Ling-character Formula sword performance to signal the official start of the Immortal Feather Gathering. During rehearsals, Cen Yuchi had begged Mu Linchuan to arrange for him a particularly conspicuous position, so that the instant the ceremony ended, he would leap up from the middle of the formation and be the first to unleash a Lingyun Strike. The Ling-character Formula’s formation was at the center of the grounds, right at the front, so if he wanted to return to his place, he would have to push through the formations of several other sects’ disciples.
Cen Yuchi weighed his options. If he didn’t hurry back to the formation now, the trouble he was about to cause would only be worse. He quickly let down his rolled-up sleeves and quietly squeezed into the crowd.
“Sorry, excuse me,” Cen Yuchi murmured as he pushed through the crowd, but he still drew plenty of displeased reactions.
“Hey, who is that guy? Why is he only showing up now?”
“Why is he coming through here? So rude!”
“Excuse me, whose disciple is this? Can I report him?”
A few sharp-eyed ones said, “Judging by the robes, he should be a Ling-character Formula disciple from Immortal Feather Peak.”
“Even Immortal Feather Peak disciples being late is a bit hard to justify.”
“Right, we all traveled far and weary, barely rested a few hours before having to get up early and look at him.” The crowd muttered among themselves.
“Look, everyone! No need to report him, Immortal Feather Peak’s Immortal Master Mu is watching from up there, and his face has changed!” Someone suddenly pointed at the platform. At these words, the crowd’s displeasure melted away, replaced by gleeful laughter: “Indeed, a real disgrace to Immortal Feather Peak!”
“They say Immortal Master Mu disciplines his disciples very strictly. Let’s see how he punishes him this time!”
“Hey, look at the other Immortal Feather Peak disciples, then look at him. Why hasn’t he even tied up his hair?”
“Don’t tell me he overslept and didn’t have time!”
“Hahahahahaha.”
Mocking laughter erupted all around but the target of the ridicule suddenly stopped in his tracks, turned around, and glared fiercely at the crowd.
The motion of turning his head stirred his unbound hair, revealing several thin but no less ferocious scars on both sides of his cheeks, making the young man’s already somewhat pale face look even more gloomy, even more terrifying.
The laughter stopped abruptly.
His loose hair floated up and fell back down, covering those ferocious scars. Cen Yuchi turned and continued walking toward the Ling-character Mantra formation. The disciples from other sects who had just been joking stood stunned for a long while before someone finally said, “It’s Cen Yuchi…”
It’s Cen Yuchi…
Cen Yuchi…
“Brother Chen, Brother Chen.”
Cen Yuchi slowly came to, his whole body feeling floaty. He rubbed his eyes, trying to wake himself up a little, before realizing it was Su Yuan calling him.
“I fell asleep?” Cen Yuchi asked.
“Fell asleep! Nothing of the sort! The long flight was bumpy and exhausting, and with your insufficient qi and blood, you fainted,” Gong Zhizhi said, rolling her eyes.
“……” Am I really that weak? A man who had traveled by flying carriage for years began to doubt himself.
Just then, the carriage gave a barely perceptible jolt before quickly steadying. The floaty feeling left Cen Yuchi’s body, it seemed they had arrived at their destination. Sure enough, Mu Linyuan, who had been sitting inside the whole time, rose and walked past everyone to the front of the carriage, pushing open the door with one hand.
A beam of light streamed into the carriage accompanied by celestial music. Cen Yuchi turned to look outside. Not far ahead, two jade trees rose from the ground, their tops gradually converging to form an archway. Several white cranes perched in the trees were startled by the flying carriage’s descent and beat their wings toward the azure sky. Faintly, a few figures drifted gracefully through the clouds, as if riding the wind on cranes dreamlike, ethereal, free and unfettered. In the distance, twelve peaks towered, lush and verdant, solemn and dignified.
This place had once been Cen Yuchi’s home.
“Get out,” Mu Linyuan said.
Cen Yuchi disembarked with the others. Several Plain-robed Disciples immediately came forward to stow the flying carriage to one side, and then a Yan-character Formula disciple came to greet them. He first bowed with cupped hands to Yin Xiaoyang and Cen Yuchi, then turned to the others and said, “Senior Brother Su, Junior Brother Linyuan, Junior Sister Gong, the Peak Master is currently receiving guests and has ordered me to wait here. He requests that the three of you come with me at once to Morning Sun Peak, to await his return and discuss tomorrow’s grand ceremony together.”
Tomorrow’s grand ceremony? What timing I have, Cen Yuchi thought.
Su Yuan nodded and turned back to Cen Yuchi. “Brother Chen, our sincerest apologies. We were meant to return to the mountain three days ago, but we were delayed on the road. Now that the grand ceremony is imminent, the three of us must go on ahead. Please forgive our poor hospitality.”
Cen Yuchi felt secretly relieved. For him right now, the less conspicuous he was, the better, traveling with these people was far too flashy. He quickly said, “Senior Brother Su, what are you saying? This whole journey, I’ve been in everyone’s care. The grand ceremony is important business; I can look after myself, so don’t worry about me.” At that, Cen Yuchi tilted his head and smiled at Gong Zhizhi. “And Sister Zhizhi too.”
Gong Zhizhi raised her fist in a “I’ll hit you” gesture and said reproachfully, “Once I’m done with everything, I’m dragging you off to recover from your injuries. Don’t even think about running!”
Cen Yuchi said, “Yes, yes, yes, as you command.” As he finished speaking, he felt another gaze land on him. He turned to look, it was Mu Linyuan. That face remained cold as frost, revealing no expression. When Mu Linyuan saw Cen Yuchi looking back at him, he did not avert his gaze.
Cen Yuchi had always felt guilty toward Mu Linyuan, this child. After all, back then he had destroyed Immortal Feather Peak, indirectly causing Qin Yiyou, the pregnant First Venerable of the Sheng-character Formula, to die in childbirth, leaving him motherless from the moment he was born. Thinking of this, Cen Yuchi felt a pang of guilt and bowed slightly toward Mu Linyuan.
Mu Linyuan, apparently not expecting Cen Yuchi to do such a thing, froze for a moment, then frowned and turned away.
As soon as the others had left, Cen Yuchi asked Yin Xiaoyang, “They’ve all gone. Yin the Great Immortal, why aren’t you leaving?”
Yin Xiaoyang shot Cen Yuchi a glance and said, “Only the chief disciples of each character formula need to appear at the grand ceremony. I’m not one of them.” With that, he walked straight through the gate.
Cen Yuchi jogged a couple of steps to catch up. At that moment, a Plain-robed Disciple guarding the gate stepped forward and said to Cen Yuchi, “Fellow cultivator, do you have an invitation?”
An invitation, of course Cen Yuchi didn’t have one, but he had Yin Xiaoyang. Just as Cen Yuchi was about to give Yin Xiaoyang a meaningful look, hoping he’d make up some identity for him, he heard Yin Xiaoyang say, “Yes.” Then he pulled an invitation from his sleeve and handed it to the Plain-robed Disciple.
When Cen Yuchi saw it, he was stunned, the invitation was gold.
There were three types of invitations to the Immortal Feather Gathering: gold, white, and black. The black invitations were not issued by Immortal Feather Peak itself, but were won through trials by cultivators who had received no invitation yet wished to attend the Immortal Feather Gathering. These were limited in number each time, and only the holder himself could attend. The white invitations were issued by Immortal Feather Peak to the leaders of each sect. Before the Immortal Feather Gathering, each sect would receive a certain number of white invitations and could select disciples of their own choosing to fill those slots. As for this gold invitation, Cen Yuchi knew it all too well.
It was personally issued by Mu Linchuan. Whoever held it could treat the invitation as if meeting Mu Linchuan in person, would receive the highest courtesy at Immortal Feather Peak, and could freely bring disciples, relatives, and attendants to the banquet.
After examining it, the Plain-robed Disciple returned it with both hands, handed Cen Yuchi a white pass that permitted entry with the gold invitation, and made a gesture of invitation.
That Yin Xiaoyang possessed a gold invitation Cen Yuchi was certainly not foolish enough to believe it was his own. This gold invitation must have been meant for Yin Yunluo. And Yin Xiaoyang had said before that he had been delayed because of “handling business at home.” Could the business he needed to attend to be delivering this gold invitation to Yin Yunluo? By all rights, Yin Yunluo should not have refused it, so why had the invitation ended up in Yin Xiaoyang’s hands?
As Cen Yuchi walked along with Yin Xiaoyang, he said casually, “What a grand display from the Yin Family holding a gold invitation yet bringing only me, a petty thief. Where’s the rest of the Yin Family?”
At these words, Yin Xiaoyang merely frowned tightly at Cen Yuchi as if offended, looking like he wanted to say something but held back, and in the end only said: “Someone like you, who speaks and acts without thinking and has such low cultivation, wouldn’t last three days hopping around alive on Immortal Feather Peak.” Saying this, he glanced at Cen Yuchi’s wounds, which had mostly recovered under the Sheng-character Formula’s treatment, and continued: “Let alone with a hole in your chest.”
Cen Yuchi thought disdainfully: Someone like me, who speaks and acts without thinking and has weak Dharma power, has been on Immortal Feather Peak for thirteen years!
But he said aloud: “Then I’ll have to rely on Immortal Yin to look after this humble junior.”
Yin Xiaoyang snorted and said irritably: “Bringing you in was already a violation of the rules. I can only escort you as far as Yike Peak. After that, the disciples in charge of receiving guests will settle you in. Good luck to you.”
The moment the two arrived at the side peak, two cultivators of the Ding-character Formula came walking toward them. Yike Peak had Plain-robed Disciples to handle reception and other miscellaneous duties, so there was naturally no need for disciples already assigned to a character formula to do such things. Moreover, one of these two was at the early sixth rank, about the same as Yin Xiaoyang, and the other had reached the fifth rank they looked like disciples from prestigious sects who had come to meet up with their own sect’s banquet attendees.
Upon seeing Yin Xiaoyang, the two exchanged a glance, and the one with the higher cultivation said: “Oh, I was wondering who it was. So it’s Junior Brother Yin.”
Yin Xiaoyang’s brow furrowed slightly, but he still stepped forward.
“It’s me. Is there a problem?” Yin Xiaoyang said, his tone unfriendly.
Though the man was smiling, his face was full of mockery as he said: “No problem at all. I was just wondering what Junior Brother Yin is doing here on Yike Peak?”
Yin Xiaoyang said: “Whatever you’re here for, that’s what I’m here for.”
The two acted as if they’d heard something hilarious and laughed: “Really? I did indeed hear that Junior Brother Yin seemed to have gone home some days ago. But I’ve been on Yike Peak for half a day now, how is it that I haven’t seen a single member of the Yin Family? Ah, Junior Brother Yin, how many invitations did your Yin Family receive?”
The mockery in these words couldn’t have been more obvious. Back in the day, Cen Yuchi had heard that some small sects would privately compete over the number of invitations they received to assert their status and today he’d caught it happening firsthand. But the Yin Family’s standing on the Shangyang Continent was on par with Immortal Feather Peak, and the two families were on good terms. Such a tasteless thing should never have fallen to the Yin Family’s lot. What exactly had happened to the Yin Family in these past ten years?
Cen Yuchi had no time to ponder this now. Out of both sentiment and reason, he had to help Yin Xiaoyang teach these two little punks a lesson, and he raised his voice: “May I ask, are you two the duty disciples of Yike Peak? Does the number of people the Yin Family sends require reporting to you?”
The two seemed to have only just noticed Cen Yuchi, who had been standing behind Yin Xiaoyang all along. Before they could even finish a “Who do you think you are,” both their faces changed, and then the one with the slightly lower cultivation pointed at Cen Yuchi in disbelief and shouted: “How is it you?”
Cen Yuchi froze.
Who?
The other man spoke as if facing a mortal enemy: “How dare you come back?”
What?
The man then pointed at Yin Xiaoyang and asked: “Junior Brother Yin, why are you with this person?”
Now Yin Xiaoyang was dumbfounded too, and asked: “What?”
“This is outrageous! You traitor of Immortal Feather Peak! Scum of the Shangyang Continent! Shameless, sneaking, thieving wretch and you still have the gall to show your face here!”
Cen Yuchi knew this string of curses all too well.
No way, Cen Yuchi thought to himself: How could these two dim-witted brats have the ability to see through my identity at a glance? Should I kill them to silence them!
Cen Yuchi looked at Yin Xiaoyang, and Yin Xiaoyang looked back at Cen Yuchi, his brow furrowed tightly.
Cen Yuchi thought: This is bad, he’s unreliable. Time to run. He immediately gathered his qi and lifted his leg, ready to bolt, but Yin Xiaoyang grabbed him back by the arm.
It’s over. Things aren’t what they used to be.
Over there, the two had already begun cursing loudly, while over here, Cen Yuchi was pinned by Yin Xiaoyang’s hand on his shoulder, unable to move.
Cen Yuchi listened as the two passionately denounced his crimes one by one, and just then they were saying: “…He used this incident to escape from Immortal Feather Peak. Out of regard for old ties, the Peak Master did not pursue the matter, but he went on acting recklessly, committing one shameful deed after another, ruining the reputation of our Immortal Feather Peak! Although his appearance has changed quite a bit over these ten years, I recognized him at a glance! Junior Brother Yin, you were still young back then, so perhaps you’ve never seen this person. Let me tell you, he is…”
Yin Xiaoyang’s eyes stared straight at Cen Yuchi, his expression growing ever graver.
“It’s…”
Cen Yuchi struggled with all his might, trying to break free from the restraint.
“It’s!”
“Chen Chen,” Yin Xiaoyang uttered a name.
Cen Yuchi suddenly stopped struggling, his whole mind going blank for a few seconds.
“Chen Chen! Yes! That’s him!” The Ding-character Formula disciple confirmed Yin Xiaoyang’s guess.
Cen Yuchi stood stunned for a moment, then, as if waking from a dream, said: “Yes! It’s me!”