Yan Ling walked around the City God Temple with Xi Jue with a sour face.
A moment later, he was also gnawing on a meat skewer. Looking up with glowing eyes, he mumbled to Sheng Jiao: “This, mmph, tastes good!”
Sheng Jiao: “…”
As long as you’re happy.
Xi Jue’s face was full of smugness as he glanced at Sheng Jiao, deliberately asking Yan Ling: “Does Osmanthus Mountain Stream have roasted meat?”
Yan Ling’s hand holding the meat skewer paused. Remembering he’d promised Sheng Jiao to go to Osmanthus Mountain Stream, he immediately fell into a dilemma and started wrinkling his baozi face again.
Sheng Jiao didn’t argue with Xi Jue, smiling: “It’s fine. We can go to Osmanthus Mountain Stream in a few days. By then, the osmanthus will bloom even more abundantly.”
Yan Ling hurriedly nodded happily.
Xi Jue crossed his arms, smiling without warmth as he watched Yan Ling and Sheng Jiao, thinking—you two better not think about going to that ghost place.
For a period after that, every time Sheng Jiao wanted to take Yan Ling to Osmanthus Mountain Stream, Xi Jue would always appear out of nowhere to interfere. Sometimes the two had already walked to the foot of Osmanthus Mountain Stream and would still be forcibly abducted.
After going back and forth like this several times, all the osmanthus at Osmanthus Mountain Stream had withered.
Yan Ling, wrapped in a fluffy little cloak, held Sheng Jiao’s hand walking on the street, saying sullenly: “We really can’t go anymore?”
Sheng Jiao held an umbrella to shield them from the heavy snow, patiently saying: “Osmanthus Mountain Stream is suitable for viewing osmanthus. The sweet osmanthus has already withered, and today it’s snowing. Let’s find another place to play.”
“Oh.” Yan Ling nodded. “Then let’s go next year.”
Sheng Jiao said okay.
The sound of falling snow was soft and slow—to Yan Ling’s ears, extremely pleasant.
As the two were strolling on the street, a slight tremor suddenly came from the ground, as if some giant creature had swum past underground. The movement was subtle—very few people noticed.
But Yan Ling seemed to sense something. He abruptly stopped, brows tightly furrowed.
Sheng Jiao turned back: “What’s wrong?”
Yan Ling’s small face turned deathly pale. In such cold weather, sweat seeped from his forehead. He looked extremely uncomfortable.
“There’s… something.” Yan Ling covered his ears, murmuring quietly: “Something is crying.”
Sheng Jiao, seeing him swaying as if about to fall, hurriedly supported him and walked to sit on the steps under a nearby eave, extending his hand to gradually channel gentle spiritual power into Yan Ling’s meridians.
But this was completely useless.
Though Yan Ling wore the ear cuff Madam Wan gave him, it couldn’t block that sound like ten thousand ghosts wailing in grief. Wave after wave drilling into his ears, shocking his xiangwen meridians until they trembled slightly, almost flowing backward into his inner organs.
Seeing his complexion getting worse, Sheng Jiao decisively withdrew his spiritual power. Scooping up Yan Ling’s small body into his arms, he quickly rushed toward the Yan residence.
Yan Ling curled up in Sheng Jiao’s embrace, struggling to cover his ears. Tears streaming down, seemingly affected by that grieving sound, he murmured: “Don’t disappear…”
Sheng Jiao: “What?”
Halfway there, Yan Ling suddenly opened his tear-filled eyes.
Those eyes full of childish innocence had now transformed as if possessed—turning icy gold, expressionlessly watching the snowy sky. His tender voice carried a trace of coldness.
“Tianyan.”
Sheng Jiao’s footsteps halted. Shocked by those two cold words, he looked in surprise.
When their eyes met, he suddenly had the illusion of holding a block of ice.
“Yan Ling?”
Yan Ling looked at Sheng Jiao coldly. After a long while, he suddenly seemed to wake from a dream. The gold in his eyes receded like tide. He listlessly closed his eyes, his whole body going limp as he leaned against Sheng Jiao’s chest, mumbling: “…Broken.”
Sheng Jiao belatedly felt Yan Ling’s body temperature, imperceptibly breathing a sigh of relief. He said in a low voice: “What’s broken?”
Yan Ling mumbled a few vague words.
Sheng Jiao didn’t hear clearly. Just as he was about to listen again, he heard a sudden scream from the crowd on the long street.
“…Shen Tianshe, it’s broken!”
Sheng Jiao suddenly looked up.
In the flurrying heavy snow, the pitch-black sky curtain at the southernmost edge seemed to rise with smoke shooting straight into the clouds. Countless vengeful ghosts and wandering souls followed the “smoke,” escaping from Xiezhi Sect, shrieking madly and scattering in all directions, spreading throughout Central State City.
That was Xiezhi Sect’s direction.
Tianyan depleted—without massive spiritual power to support it, Shen Tianshe finally completely collapsed and shattered on this day of first snow.
Sheng Jiao looked down in a daze, seeing the restless power in Yan Ling’s body had already settled into his inner organs. His small face had also regained its rosy color, no longer looking as frighteningly awful as before.
The xiangwen Yan Ling awakened, ‘Idle Listening to Sounds,’ was judged by Tianyan Academy’s elders to be Spirit-grade xiangwen. But it could only understand various random sounds—truly a chicken rib. Quite a few people from Central State clans openly and secretly mocked it endlessly.
Sheng Jiao’s arms holding Yan Ling tightened.
‘Idle Listening to Sounds’ perhaps wasn’t a chicken rib. He could even hear…
The dying sound of Tianyan.
***
Yan Ling slept soundly. When he woke again, he’d already returned to the Yan residence.
The sky had already darkened. He sat up confused, looking at the candlelight outside, asking bewildered: “Father? Mother?”
Soon, Yan Hanque lifted the bed curtain and came in. Seeing Yan Ling’s hair had exploded from sleep, he sat down and casually smoothed it a couple times, saying flatly: “Feeling better?”
Yan Ling nodded. Belatedly remembering what happened before sleeping, he hurriedly asked: “Where’s Sheng Jiao gege?”
“After he brought you back, he returned home.”
Yan Ling nodded, then yawned again, looking still very tired.
During the day, that instant when he seemed possessed had drained the weak spiritual power in his frail body. Now his meridians were depleted and sore, making his whole body uncomfortable. Single-mindedly, he only wanted to sleep.
Yan Hanque took a pillow to prop behind him, using a very casual tone: “Ling’er, what can your xiangwen hear?”
“Just—just people’s voices.” Yan Ling leaned on the pillow, saying vaguely: “Good ones, bad ones—can hear them all.”
Because Yan Ling was a rare Spirit-grade xiangwen and also Medicine Sect Madam Wan’s godson, these past months quite a few people had come to the Yan residence to pay respects.
Though those old foxes smiled warmly with extreme enthusiasm, in ‘Idle Listening to Sounds” view, they laid bare their fondness and disgust nakedly in the open.
Yan Hanque said again: “Besides that?”
Yan Ling thought about it: “Oh, also the sounds of flowers, grass, and birds. I can also hear what that cat Ayue and I are raising wants to say.”
Yan Hanque fell silent.
He hadn’t noticed this.
“And today.” Yan Ling’s brows furrowed again thinking about it. “Today I heard a voice crying. And… something collapsed with a boom. Oh! Shen Tianshe—that bad illusion realm finally broke.”
Yan Hanque frowned, vaguely sensing something wrong.
He’d originally thought ‘Idle Listening to Sounds’ was just a chicken rib xiangwen. But now it seemed he could also hear the sounds of Tianyan spirit veins and illusion realms?
Yan Hanque, seeing him so sleepy his eyelids were fighting, could only pull the blanket to Yan Ling’s shoulders, saying softly: “Sleep.”
Yan Ling was terribly tired. Hearing this, he hurriedly shrank downward, obediently going to sleep.
After that, though Yan Ling constantly ate, drank, and played every day, only cultivating once every half month, he surprisingly established his foundation silently during New Year’s—as if something in the unseen was assisting him.
But the Yan residence couldn’t find even a trace of Tianyan spiritual power. No one knew how he was actually cultivating.
Yan Ling himself knew nothing. Every day he either followed Xi Jue or followed Sheng Jiao out to eat eat eat. He only knew he’d gained quite a bit of weight—could pinch a circle of soft flesh on his little belly.
Because of Shen Tianshe’s destruction, all the Central State clans gathered together, discussing who knows what. After New Year’s, they surprisingly moved Tianyan Academy’s enrollment forward to the spring equinox.
The Yan residence was very close to Tianyan Academy. On enrollment day, Yan Ling slept all the way until Chen hour before yawning and getting up to wash.
Madam Zhao had already packed his things into a storage ring, stringing it on a cord to hang around his neck, patiently instructing: “At the academy, don’t conflict with others. Don’t fight either.”
Yan Ling didn’t want to leave his parents. He’d been listless since early morning. Hearing this, he mumbled quietly: “I don’t fight.”
“Still dare to lie?” Madam Zhao smiled faintly. “How did that Qu family child get injured at the acknowledgment ceremony? Don’t think I don’t know.”
Yan Ling immediately felt guilty.
“Central State hasn’t been very peaceful lately. At the academy with the headmaster and elders protecting you, your father and I will feel more at ease.” Madam Zhao said.
Yan Ling, just waking with soft hands and feet, could only spread his arms letting Madam Zhao tie his cumbersome waist sash, asking confused: “Not peaceful? Why?”
Madam Zhao said: “Xiezhi Sect’s Shen Tianshe illusion realm broke. The Thirteen States’ Supreme Lord investigated the source of this matter and traced it to the Qu family.”
Yan Ling didn’t quite understand but felt it was impressive: “That’s a good thing, right?”
Based on those few Qu family people who’d bullied him before, the Qu family definitely weren’t anything good.
“Perhaps.” Madam Zhao said. “Last year the Sheng family sent… right, your Sheng Jiao gege into Shen Tianshe. Several other children went in together too. But except for Sheng Jiao, everyone else had their spirit roots and xiangwen completely destroyed by the Shen Tianshe illusion realm.”
Yan Ling was shocked: “Why?”
“Tianyan is constantly declining.” Madam Zhao sighed. “Shen Tianshe also consumed massive amounts of Tianyan spiritual power. Before Qiqiao last year, the Central State Supreme Lord already had plans to seal Shen Tianshe. But Xiezhi Sect’s master pretended to comply while acting otherwise, still using Shen Tianshe.”
The illusion realm finally couldn’t hold up. On the day Sheng Jiao entered, it destroyed their spirit root meridians, turning them into Shen Tianshe’s Tianyan replenishment to barely sustain until now.
The Sheng family also didn’t dare put Sheng Jiao back in because of those few people whose spirit roots were destroyed.
Now Shen Tianshe had finally been destroyed. The massive Xiezhi Sect was almost razed to the ground with countless casualties—naturally drawing the Thirteen States Supreme Lord’s investigation.
Yan Ling listened half-understanding.
Madam Zhao didn’t say more. After draping him in a fur-trimmed cloak, she and Yan Hanque together sent him to Tianyan Academy.
Outside the academy, people came and went—each more ostentatious than the last. Though Yan Ling had heard of Tianyan Academy, this was his first time seeing it. Holding Madam Zhao’s hand, he looked around longingly everywhere.
Tianyan Academy didn’t permit family and friends to enter—they could only be sent to the gate, led inside by senior students.
Madam Zhao bent down slightly, stroking Yan Ling’s head once, smiling: “At the end of this month, we’ll come pick you up again.”
Though Yan Ling was very curious about Tianyan Academy, he still feared leaving his parents’ side. He hurriedly extended his hands to hug Madam Zhao’s waist, saying quietly: “I… I don’t want to go.”
Madam Zhao: “What?”
“I won’t practice swords anymore.” Yan Ling mumbled quietly. “I want to be a medical cultivator. Just following Mother is fine—don’t need to go to school. Who knows if Tianyan Academy’s medical cultivation elders are even as good as Mother.”
Madam Zhao smiled helplessly: “What foolish talk is this?”
Yan Ling was about to throw a tantrum when Yan Hanque spoke coldly: “Say that again.”
Yan Ling… Yan Ling immediately straightened up, saying dryly: “I’ll go to school. The academy is too amazing. I want to attend for ten years.”
Madam Zhao burst out laughing with a “pfft.”
Yan Yue, who’d been looking aggrieved the whole time, suddenly rushed over, hugging Yan Ling tightly. Holding back tears, he sobbed: “Shixiong…”
Yan Ling threw tantrums in front of his parents, but toward Yan Yue who was smaller than him, he acted like a little adult, patting his back: “Alright, I’ll be home at the end of the month. I’ll bring you something fun then.”
Yan Yue nodded sullenly.
Yan Ling patted his head again. As if sensing something, his brows furrowed: “Ayue, did you grow taller?”
Yan Yue wiped his tears, confused: “Huh? I guess?”
Yan Ling glared at him with a sour face.
When they’d just come to Central State, Yan Yue only reached Yan Ling’s shoulder. Now he’d already reached his chin.
“You’re not allowed to grow anymore.” Yan Ling bared his teeth at him, even using his thumb and index finger to indicate a knuckle’s height, threatening: “You can only grow this tiny bit more. Any more and I’ll really make a fuss.”
Yan Yue: “…”
Never seen such unreasonable behavior, but Yan Yue dared to be angry but not speak. He could only say dryly: “O-okay, I’ll listen to Shixiong.”
Only then did Yan Ling resolve the crisis, bouncing toward the academy entrance.
But before entering, Yan Ling’s footsteps paused. Inexplicably, he felt as if no one was waiting behind him, and at month’s end, no one would come to pick her up.
This sudden panic occupied his mind. As if possessed, he turned to look back.
Yan Hanque, Madam Zhao, and Yan Yue stood under a peach blossom tree just sprouting flower buds. Seeing him look over, Madam Zhao’s eyes curved. Even Yan Hanque rarely showed a faint smile, his eyes gently watching him.
Yan Yue had already started preparing to wail.
Yan Ling looked for a long while before raising a smile again, bouncing toward Tianyan Academy.
Just after entering, a paw suddenly extended from the side, covering Yan Ling’s mouth and dragging him behind a towering giant tree.
The person behind him had a low, fierce voice, saying coldly: “Hand over your storage ring, or I’ll slaughter you.”
Yan Ling wasn’t wearing his ear ornament. Being held hostage like this, he wasn’t the least bit panicked. He even blinked, hooking the cord around his neck and dangling the storage ring to show the person behind, indicating “it’s here.”
The fierce “bandit” behind him probably hadn’t seen someone so cooperative. Immediately pushing him away, he said irritably: “How did you know it was me? No fun.”
Yan Ling turned to look—sure enough, it was Xi Jue.
“Because I’m amazing.” Yan Ling pulled off the storage ring to give him. “You want it?”
“What would I want that thing for?” Xi Jue said disdainfully. “Just a few spirit grasses and spirit flowers, plus a pile of seeds, and some old clothes and worn dharma robes. Even if you gave me spirit stones on top, I wouldn’t want it.”
Yan Ling snorted and stuffed the storage ring into his clothes. His peripheral vision caught Sheng Jiao coming over. Immediately his eyes brightened, happily bouncing up: “Gege! I’m here!”
Sheng Jiao saw him and couldn’t help smiling too.
Yan Ling grinned foolishly, about to run over. But Xi Jue cheekily grabbed his little braid, deliberately finding fault: “I’m asking you, Yan Ling’er, how did you know it was me? Did you hear it with your ‘Idle Listening to Sounds’?”
Yan Ling nearly had a tuft of hair yanked out. Glaring at him angrily, he slapped away the paw grabbing his hair: “Of course.”
Xi Jue became interested, grinning: “Yan Ling’er, what sound am I?”
Yan Ling snorted: “A very annoying sound.”
Sheng Jiao was already close at hand. Yan Ling was eager to find him to play. Immediately quickening his steps to rush to Sheng Jiao’s side, but after just a few steps, his vision blurred—he was actually back at the starting point.
Xi Jue was using his ‘Wheresoever I Roam’ again.
Yan Ling raged: “Xi Jue, I’m angry!”
Xi Jue was still activating his xiangwen, saying with a half-smile: “What are you calling me?”
Yan Ling knew his dog temperament that wouldn’t give up. Continuing furiously: “Gege! I’m angry!”
Xi Jue laughed heartily, leaning forward to drape over his shoulder, grinning: “So obedient—Ling’er, answer me. What sound am I really?”
Yan Ling glared at him. After a long while, he reluctantly said: “Just—just… mmph mmph mmph.”
Xi Jue pinched his ear, lazily drawing out his tone: “Didn’t hear clearly.”
Yan Ling, his ear pinched red, slapped away his paw and withdrew to the side, retreating as he walked backward.
Xi Jue glared at him.
This was the first time Xi Jue had been so persistent, continuously pursuing only to get an answer. Just now still huffing and puffing, Yan Ling somehow suddenly laughed for no reason, no longer so angry at his unreasonable behavior.
“It’s wind.”
Xi Jue paused: “What?”
Yan Ling’s long hair was lifted by a spring breeze. He casually brushed it aside, a brilliant smile surfacing on his tender face.
“…It’s the sound of a clear breeze.”
Qiqiao didn’t meet spring—gentle as a clear breeze.
**
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152