"This place really isn't easy to find."
Andy was making his way through a valley in the southern reaches of the Liuyun Mountains. Green hills and lush trees surrounded him on all sides, with a faint floral scent drifting by now and again. Oddly out of place amid this scenery was the sound of rushing water pouring into a pool—loud enough to drown out the birdsong and the chirping of insects. Yet in every direction, there was nothing to see but green hills and green trees. Not a drop of water anywhere.
After several days of climbing ridge after ridge, Andy had finally reached the spot the old farmer had described—the mysterious waterfall. He opened up his spiritual sense, letting his awareness spread through the surrounding environment, and immediately detected something out of place. He channeled spiritual power into his eyes and examined the area with the Spiritual Eye Art.
An illusion, as I thought. Fortunately, it looks like the simplest kind. Andy was relieved. The illusion here was clearly designed for mortals only; any cultivator with the Spiritual Eye Art and a bit of patience could find its flaw.
The flaw lay in a large tree about three chi in diameter, not far to his right. The tree gave off the faintest shimmer of spiritual light. Beyond that, if one looked carefully, the leaves appeared to be swaying gently in the breeze—yet the amplitude and frequency of each sway were exactly the same, with no relation to the wind's actual direction or strength.
Andy cast Diamond Shield on himself. A layer of faint golden light immediately wrapped around his body. He walked straight toward the tree without slowing. The moment his golden barrier touched the trunk, the tree's spiritual light flickered several times and vanished. Once Andy had passed through, it reappeared behind him—a dense, leafy tree once more.
The scene before him was utterly transformed.
What lay ahead was no longer a landscape of green hills and ordinary trees, but a grove of peach blossoms in brilliant pink. In the distance rose a slender peak soaring into the clouds, and from its midpoint a waterfall poured down like a silver chain. The rushing sound had been coming from here all along.
Andy walked slowly through the grove in the direction of the waterfall. It was early summer—the flowers below the mountains had long since faded, but up here, where the air was cooler, the peach blossoms were in full bloom. The fragrance washed over him, and he couldn't help murmuring softly: "When April's blossoms fall across the world below, the mountain temple's peach trees are only now in bloom." Except there was no temple here—just mountains and peach blossoms. Otherwise it would have been a perfect match.
But when he emerged from the far side of the grove, the sight before him was more fitting still.
In the emerald pool below the waterfall, a good several dozen zhang across, a young woman with long black hair past her waist and a lithe, graceful figure was swimming and playing in the water—completely unclothed.
He was still two or three hundred zhang away. Andy stopped in his tracks at once. He noted that the young woman's body shimmered faintly with spiritual light—she too was a cultivator. The first cultivator he had seen since leaving the Jian clan. He had not expected it to be an alluring female cultivator, much less that he would encounter her under such circumstances—amidst blooming peach blossoms and scenic springtime splendor.
The young woman had evidently not noticed him yet. Andy's mind raced, and he quickly slipped back into the peach blossom grove.
The young woman, still enjoying her bath in the pool, suddenly heard a male voice call out from the nearby grove: "When April's blossoms fall across the world below, the immortal mountain's peach trees are only now in bloom."
"Who's there? Don't come any closer!" Startled, she plunged beneath the surface of the green pool until only her head remained above water, her eyes fixed warily on the peach trees.
A slender young man in fine secular clothing emerged from the grove. At the sight before him, he hastily turned his back to her and called out: "Please forgive me, my lady. I was on my way to Liuyun Market and stumbled upon this place by accident. I mean no offense."
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The young woman could see that the newcomer did carry the faint shimmer of spiritual power—though from the strength of his fluctuations, his cultivation didn't seem like much. And judging by his voice, he was nothing more than a youth barely out of childhood. Her alarm subsided considerably. She called out: "Don't come any closer. Go back into the peach grove."
Seeing the youth obediently disappear among the blossoms, she quickly dried herself off and dressed. Once her composure had returned, she called out again: "You may come out now, fellow cultivator."
Andy emerged slowly from the grove and stopped about ten-odd zhang in front of her. At their earlier distance and with only a fleeting glance, he hadn't been able to make out her features clearly. Now he saw her plainly: arched brows, almond-shaped eyes, a straight nose and delicate mouth, skin fair and smooth—a genuine beauty. She looked perhaps a year or two older than himself. He also noticed that her cultivation was slightly higher than his—roughly the fifth layer of Qi Refinement.
Andy clasped his hands in greeting. "I inadvertently disturbed my lady's leisure, and I offer my sincere apologies. Might I trouble you to point me toward the entrance to Liuyun Market?"
"The Liuyun Market you're looking for is indeed not far from here. The entrance is sixty li to the southwest, set into the face of a cliff at roughly mid-height—it's easy to find. Specifically, it's at…" The young woman wore a cold, distant expression, though the faint blush on her cheeks hadn't entirely faded. She was privately wondering whether the youth had actually seen anything, yet her voice remained perfectly even, betraying not a trace of anger.
Having gotten his answer, Andy didn't dare linger. He thanked her briefly and set off to the southwest.
……
Moving at a brisk pace, two or three shichen later Andy found the place the young woman had described. Before him stood a sheer cliff face, nearly vertical, its upper reaches—from about a hundred zhang up—completely swallowed by dense clouds. There was no way to see how high the cliff actually extended.
The entrance was somewhere within that cloud cover, then. But it was so far above the ground—how was he supposed to get up there? The cliff was nothing but bare, smooth rock, with not a single handhold in sight. Only a Foundation Establishment cultivator proficient in the Levitation Art, or someone with a flight-capable magical artifact, could fly directly up into the clouds. Yet Liuyun Market was primarily a trading ground for early- and mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators, and even the cheapest flight-capable artifact was far from affordable. It was impossible that every cultivator coming here could own one.
Andy pushed the Spiritual Eye Art to its limit. Apart from a faint shimmer of spiritual light within the clouds, he found nothing at all. The cliff was clearly real—not an illusion like the tree he had walked through earlier.
After circling the area several times without success, he had no choice but to turn back and find that "lady" again to ask for more details—if she was still there.
Worried that the female cultivator might already have left, Andy quickened his pace. He had been walking back for less than two hours when the sound of shouting suddenly reached him from up ahead—a woman and a man. A moment later, two figures burst from the tree line nearby, one chasing the other, barely a few dozen zhang apart and closing. The one in front was about to be overtaken at any moment.
Andy froze. His first instinct was to turn and run, but the two were moving so fast that before he had taken more than a few steps, they had already spotted him.
"Fellow cultivator, wait! Please, help me!" the running woman cried out, latching onto his presence like a lifeline. Then recognition dawned. "It's you—the cultivator from this morning!"
Andy heard the voice behind him and realized it was indeed the young woman from the waterfall. He paused in surprise, then slowly turned and stopped.
There was no point in running. At his speed, he would be overtaken in moments and dragged into it regardless. He might as well try to look composed about it. He knew full well there was danger—why else would a young woman whose cultivation was a full layer above his own be screaming for help? Golden light flashed as he cast Diamond Shield on himself.
The young woman bore no resemblance to the icy, composed figure of that morning. Her cheeks were flushed, her face glistening with perspiration—which, if anything, only made her more striking. She shot Andy a grateful look and took up a position several zhang to his side, standing shoulder to shoulder with him.
The man who had been chasing her came to a halt about seven or eight zhang in front of them both. He was a refined-looking young man with a pair of slightly off-putting little mustaches—almost handsome, in fact—and was regarding the two of them with an amused smile.
When Andy read the spiritual energy fluctuations coming off the man, his heart sank.
The eighth layer of Qi Refinement. Far above either of them.
"I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding. I'm just a passerby, that's all—we're all cultivators here, no need for conflict!" Andy spouted whatever came to mind while his brain worked furiously, calculating options. At the same time, he quietly readied the Immortal-Slaying Blade and a dozen-odd talismans inside his sleeves.