Yan Yuhu silently used spiritual force to tear away the vines that had overgrown like mountains, desperately trying to restore Yanwen Mountain to its original state.
Yan Jianglan stepped forward toward the cave dwelling where Yan Hanque once entered seclusion.
The stone door he once couldn’t reach even stretching his arm now required him to bow his head slightly as an adult. The prohibition he once couldn’t break now took only a few breaths to dissolve.
Yan Jianglan entered the pitch-black cave. A casual glance made him realize that the cave dwelling he’d once thought so vast was actually so cramped.
The mystical ice jade bed lay covered in thick dust. Yan Jianglan raised his hand and swept it. Spiritual force flowed like water, and the cave dwelling that hadn’t been inhabited for over a decade became pristine in an instant.
Outside, Yan Yuhu called: “Senior brother.”
Yan Jianglan looked at the familiar-yet-strange cave dwelling, his heart a jumble of emotions. He pressed his hand to his aching chest, turned to leave, when his gaze suddenly fell on a dark red blood handprint on the half-closed stone door.
He froze.
It was the grim blood mark left long ago when young Yan Ling desperately tried to get out upon hearing thunder—now darkened with age, seeming to sink into darkness alongside memories covered in dust.
Yan Jianglan stood dazed as he walked over and knelt on one knee, slowly extending his slender fingers to touch that small handprint.
Before his fingertips could make contact, a sound echoed in his ears—the painful, helpless weeping of his young self, making Yan Jianglan’s fingers tremble. Instinctively, he tried to pull his hand back.
Suddenly, Yan Yuhu appeared and, kneeling beside him, pressed his hand down with his own, forcibly spreading those retreating fingers open. He covered that grim blood handprint with his palm.
Yan Jianglan looked up, startled.
Yan Yuhu’s palm was ice-cold. He said: “Senior brother’s hand doesn’t seem to have grown much larger.”
Yan Jianglan: “…”
Yan Jianglan said quietly: “You might as well just say I haven’t grown taller these years. I won’t scold you.”
Yan Yuhu couldn’t help but laugh.
Yan Jianglan pressed his five fingers gently on the cold stone door. His broad adult palm wrapped around the young, helpless hand as if bridging more than a decade of time, soothing the self who once collapsed weeping alone.
Having endured too much suffering, Yan Jianglan didn’t linger long on past pain. His hand curled slightly, gently stroking.
The stone door that had been covered in grim blood marks became spotless in an instant.
As if erasing all the helplessness, regret, and pain from back then.
Yan Jianglan rose and looked out at the misty rain beyond.
Yan Yuhu said: “…In the medicinal garden.”
These disconnected words, yet Yan Jianglan understood. He nodded slightly and walked into the rain, heading familiarly toward Lady Chao’s medicinal garden.
The weeds in the medicinal garden had been cleaned by Yan Yuhu. Not a single spiritual herb that Lady Chao had planted back then had survived. Looking around, it was barren and empty.
—Only two gravestones.
Yan Jianglan walked slowly across the muddy earth.
Six years after escaping the Xi family, Yan Jianglan had considered returning to Yanwen Mountain countless times, but each time he’d fled in panic upon reaching the mountain’s base.
Over more than a decade, things had changed and people moved on. Yan Jianglan was no longer the young Yan Ling who would act spoiled and obedient.
Now that everything had finally settled, he could finally shed the identity of “Xi Jue” and return to Yanwen Mountain openly and righteously.
Those final steps to the gravestone felt like years.
Finally, the names on the stone came into view.
Yan Hanque. Mu Chao.
Yan Jianglan’s eyes seemed pierced by those two names. He gathered his robes and knelt before the gravestone. His beautiful eyes, like glass, gradually shed their coldness and numbness, misting over with a fragility that could shatter at a touch.
On the way here, Yan Jianglan had prepared countless words to say. He wanted to speak like a child, telling his parents of his grievances and pain, pouring out more than a decade of longing and regret.
Yet when he arrived, he couldn’t utter a single word.
Yan Jianglan simply knelt there silently, letting the rain drench his robes.
Water marks on the gravestone slowly trickled down. Yan Jianglan reached out to touch them. His fingertip barely grazed the cold stone when that chill suddenly struck like thunder, shattering him.
Yan Jianglan’s straightened back bent gradually. He lowered his body, pressing his forehead to the ground, his entire frame trembling slightly.
After a long time, he finally released a sob compressed to its very limit.
Yan Jianglan knelt before the gravestone for an entire day without speaking a single word.
The next morning, the rain that had fallen gently for so long finally stopped.
Clouds dispersed and rain cleared. The water and wood gleamed brilliantly.
Yan Jianglan slightly tilted his head to look at the morning sun on the horizon. Finally, he spoke.
“Father, Mother, the rain has stopped.”
He bowed his head in reverence, a faint smile emerging on his face. Rising and stepping back half a pace, he spoke softly:
“I’m leaving.”
The rain that had fallen for more than a decade finally ceased.
From then on, clear skies and bright moonlight followed.
Yan Jianglan whispered again softly: “I’m leaving.”
The gravestone seemed to silently watch him, water marks dripping slowly down the smooth stone surface.
Yan Yuhu stood waiting not far away.
Yan Jianglan turned and walked away step by step. He smiled at Yan Yuhu: “Let’s go.”
Yan Yuhu nodded.
The two descended the hundreds and thousands of stone stairs, just as they had in youth, leaving all pain, longing, and regret behind.
Never looking back again.
***
In the Northern Territory, the city called “Wuyin” was bustling with activity.
Ever since the Evil Qi Road moved from the bottom of the Long River into the city, people had been constantly coming and going throughout the Northern Territory border, all wanting to know what that legendary Evil Qi Road actually looked like.
Yu Tuishan was barely a normal person in front of Yan Jianglan, but otherwise was absolutely mad, acting without any consideration for consequences.
He was determined solely to make Yan Jianglan happy. He spread news of the young master’s birthday on the twenty-eighth of August throughout the entire thirteen states. Invitation cards were distributed freely like they cost nothing. Nearly every cultivator of note received a warm invitation.
Even Heng Qinglian and Feng Chongyang received one, immediately suspecting this person was truly insane.
Yu Tuishan was still delighted, cheerfully asking his attendants: “Go check if Ling-er has come back yet?”
The attendant replied: “Master Yu, I’ve gone to check eight times already. He still hasn’t returned.”
“Oh.” Yu Tuishan continued urging while nibbling on pastries. “Well, has the Xiezhi Sect’s Sect Master Sheng given any response? Will he come?”
The attendant hesitated: “No response yet.”
“Then hurry up and press him!” Yu Tuishan frowned. “Tomorrow is the twenty-eighth of August. How can it work if he doesn’t come? Once the child hour arrives tomorrow, the birthday celebrations must begin. Tsk, I should make a trip to the Xiezhi Sect.”
The attendant had followed him for years and naturally knew his foul temper. He knew that going to the Xiezhi Sect wouldn’t be simple—Yu Tuishan would likely plan to kill someone. He hastily stopped him: “Master Yu, please calm down and control your anger. Wait a bit longer.”
Yu Tuishan said impatiently: “Yan Ling has gotten quite temperamental these days. He’ll probably come back angry… Say, is that why he never grows taller—because he’s always getting angry?”
The attendant: “…”
The attendant’s face turned green. He hastily said: “Master Yu, you absolutely cannot say this in front of Master Yan!”
He’d get beaten.
Since Yu Tuishan couldn’t force Sheng Jiao to come with a blade, he simply continued causing trouble. He casually wiped pastry crumbs from his lip corner and said carelessly: “Starting tomorrow, the Evil Qi Road will stop selling ‘Abandoned Immortal Bone.’ If anyone makes a fuss, let them fuss. Ideally, it will draw the Xiezhi Sect out.”
The attendant nodded in agreement.
“Abandoned Immortal Bone” was a spiritual object Yu Tuishan had accidentally created. Once consumed, only Tianyan spiritual force could cure it.
“Let them make a scene.” Yu Tuishan thought lazily. “The show is about to begin.”
The bigger the fuss, the better.
Let those Central State families possessing Tianyan spiritual force also experience what it meant to be guilty of possessing treasure.
***
Yan Jianglan’s birthday banquet was held on a grand scale, even more lively than Xi Jue’s Qiaoqi birthday when he was twelve.
The entire city of “Wuyin” blazed with light. Yu Tuishan even hired Nuo opera performers. Countless people wearing Nuo masks danced and played, gongs and drums thundering, creating an endless din once night fell.
The students newly entered into Tianyan Academy had been to the “Dream of Yellow Millet” illusory realm, but merely exchanged one place to sleep for another. After autumn arrived, Heng Yudu simply led several heavenly-grade xiangwen students out on further training expeditions to broaden their horizons.
Three months ago, when Yan Jianglan “died” in the Tianyan divine punishment, Heng Yudu was chatting and drinking tea with a puppet bearing the face of “Xi Jianglan” at Zhuxing Zhai.
Before he had even finished half his tea, the puppet suddenly lost all life force, as if struck by lightning, and a blue-patterned flame silently burned from the inside out.
In just an instant, half of the puppet’s body was burned away.
Heng Yudu: “…”
Heng Yudu nearly choked to death on his tea, struggling to rush forward and extinguish the flame. Only then did he realize that Xi Jianglan had used a puppet to fool him, and he was both amused and exasperated.
At the time, he didn’t think much of it until Feng Yu transmitted a message to him using the rhinoceros horn lamp.
“Xi Jue died in the divine punishment, and Sheng Jiao has gone mad!”
Heng Yudu was stunned, thinking Feng Yu was exaggerating and making fun of him.
But this was completely unlike Feng Yu’s usual behavior. Heng Yudu rushed into the secret realm and saw Liu Changxing and Lezheng Jiu tightly restraining Sheng Jiao, shouting something.
Feng Yu roared, “Are you insane?!”
Sheng Jiao sat there expressionless, ignoring Liu Changxing and Lezheng Jiu who were restraining him, and coldly said, “I’m not insane.”
“Your Tianyan Pearl summoned the divine punishment!” Feng Yu roared, “How could that sickly Xi Jue have the ability to evade the Tianyan tribulation! Wake up, he’s already dead!”
Heng Yudu was stunned.
He initially thought Feng Yu was resentful that Sheng Jiao’s Tianyan Pearl had slaughtered Xi Jue, but upon closer listening, something felt off.
“He’s not dead,” Sheng Jiao said indifferently. “He plotted against me and has already escaped the divine punishment. Let go, I’m going to find him.”
wannaberecluse On SRTT Chapter 50.1
Thank you for the new chapters🖤