My Husband’s Ascension Ch 17 (Part 1)
Chapter 17.1 Never Again
Just having escaped Dao Lord Tianshu’s grasp with her life, Zhao Zhao had not yet caught her breath before being dragged along by Shi Lanyan to flee once more. Her whole body felt as though it were about to fall apart.
“...Why...would she send all these people after us... merely because we overheard that Mount Ling is fated for annihilation?”
Shi Lanyan, the daughter of the Polaris Confucian Sect’s sect master, had never been so disheveled in her life; vexation tinged her tone. “How would I know?! Just remember this—Mount Ling is full of nothing but vile scheming!”
Zhao Zhao thought on it and found herself in agreement.
It was natural enough to fear exposure and being taken advantage of. Yet to strike so ruthlessly without even clarifying their identities—that was no conduct befitting a righteous path.
There was surely some unspeakable secret behind Mount Ling’s prophesied annihilation.
While Zhao Zhao was still pondering, Shi Lanyan had already summoned forth her divine artifact, Dianshan-Tui.
Her spiritual power became ink, brushstrokes flowing across the air. With each stroke of the verse “Soaring birds, dark kites in flight, cleaving the empyrean, their cries resound*”, the bold cursive script leapt into being, transforming into flocks of shadowy kites that ascended into the heavens.
(TLN: This is from the poem, “Song of the Birds”, and voices the sorrow of exile and a fallen state during the Western Zhou Dynasty. The first half of the poem uses predatory birds as a metaphor for Wu State's tyranny; the second laments the humiliation of wife as maid and husband as slave.)
“Wow...” Zhao Zhao could not help but marvel aloud.
Practitioners of the Confucian Dao were structured into four ascending realms: Literacy (识文境), Nobleman (君子境), Virtue (贤德境), and Sage’s Resolve (圣心境).
Judging from the swiftness with which Shi Lanyan brought words to life, Zhao Zhao guessed she had already reached at least the late stage of the Realm of the Nobleman.
“Enough gawking,” Shi Lanyan snapped. “I’ve sent word to Tianshu, but the situation’s changing by the moment, he won’t arrive that quickly. Hurry and find us a secure place to hide—”
The sentence had barely left her lips when several arrows hissed through the air; several of the messenger shadow-kites overhead that had just taken flight were struck down from the sky.
Seeing her shadow-kites felled by the archers, Shi Lanyan’s temper flared, and she spun on her heel, ready to cut them down.
“Who shot my messenger!? I swear I’ll skin you alive—”
Zhao Zhao held back Shi Lanyan and quickly produced a jade slip* for communication, trying to contact the outside world. Yet the slip remained inert.
(TLN: Jade Slip (玉简 yùjiǎn) is a long, narrow strip of jade used as a magical item. A cultivator can magically store information inside it, and other cultivators can then use that Jade Slip to directly transmit the stored information into their minds.)
“It’s useless,” Shi Lanyan said with a trace of despair. “Mount Ling may be inept in combat, but when it comes to spirit gu, barriers, and the like, they are quite skilled. The communication jades are already blocked by their protective wards. Our only hope is that a few of those shadow-kites managed to fly out and carry a message.”
Her gaze fell to the vast expanse of the Blessed Land of Langhuan below her feet. Cultivators wandered in scattered groups, training in isolation. Even encountering one or two teams without being dealt a fatal blow would be considered fortunate, let alone stepping in to assist.
The rogue cultivators controlled by Mount Ling were closing in steadily.
Shi Lanyan tightened her grip on Dianshan-Tui, a sheen of sweat forming on her palm. Though the world of cultivation was ruthless, these people were merely being controlled and not acting on their own intent to kill. Was it truly necessary to carve a bloody path just to preserve their own lives?
And if she were to do so, even if they escaped, how could she ever establish a place for herself in the cultivation world again?
"Miss Immortal Lanyan—"
“Don’t disturb me, I’m thinking!”
Torn and flustered, Shi Lanyan’s urgency seeped into her tone.
The girl behind her, by contrast, merely pulled at her sleeve, her sweet voice entirely free of worry. “I’m not trying to disturb you—I just wanted to ask, do you think the Soul Summoning Forest (招魂林) would be a suitable place for us to hide?”
Shi Lanyan looked back and saw the girl holding open a ‘The Langhuan Compendium’.
In the compendium, it was recorded that to the southeast of the Blessed Land of Langhuan lay a grove of willows known as the Soul Summoning Forest where the trees were called Soul-Binding Willows (钉魂柳).
It was said that when these willows formed the grove, they had stolen the corpses of four mighty beings buried within the Blessed Land of Langhuan. These four formed a formation; their lingering yin energy never dispersed. Henceforth, any who entered the forest would be drawn into the willows.
The book also recorded a method of escape. Before devouring a person’s soul, the willows would sift through every memory of their life, seeking the weakest point to trap the cultivator and sap their will to resist. Yet if a cultivator’s mind remained steadfast, undistracted, not only would they avoid being consumed, but they could even draw spiritual energy from the willows themselves.
Shi Lanyan’s eyes swept over everything in a single glance before she declared, “This will do!”
Zhao Zhao cautioned carefully, “There’s still risk here. What if our will isn’t as firm as we imagine—”
“Resolving and steadying one’s mind is a cultivator’s essential lesson. Every advancement in a realm demands one undergo it. I’ve grown used to it—it’s merely childhood shadows, lingering resentments, nothing more,” Shi Lanyan replied calmly.
Having found a place where they need not kill anyone and could hide safely, Shi Lanyan’s mood lightened considerably. She could not resist glancing back at Zhao Zhao.
A mere mortal girl, whether through the fearless ignorance of the unknowing or a remarkable calm in the face of danger, proved steadier than even she expected.
“If we failed to find a hiding spot, we’ll either be killed by these rogue cultivators, or we’ll kill them and gain a notorious reputation. What are you hesitating for?” Shi Lanyan tapped Zhao Zhao lightly on the head, as if plucking away her lingering thoughts. “I can already guess what’s on your mind… are you worried that it’s your recollections with Tianshu that will ensnare you?”
Zhao Zhao, her inner feelings laid bare, seemed even more distressed.
Shi Lanyan thought, if the girl had puppy ears, they would surely be drooping by now.
Amused by her own thoughts, Shi Lanyan flew toward the Soul Summoning Forest guiding her artifact as she went, and remarked, “Since you are already aware, isn’t this just an open-book exam? Wouldn’t that make it easier?”
Zhao Zhao understood the source of her own unease.
Perhaps she sensed it in some quiet corner of her mind.
Hatred never walks alone; without love, there is no hatred. The resentment she bore toward him stemmed only from his refusal to love her.
She dreaded the thought of her hidden, lingering feelings being dragged out, laid open, and subjected to her own scrutiny.
Zhao Zhao turned her gaze to the throng of rogue cultivators, bewitched and swarming toward them.
Yet, in the face of life and death, there was no room for melodrama or hesitation.
“Xie Tanzhao,” Shi Lanyan suddenly spoke from ahead. “What is it that you like about Tianshu?”
The question came without warning, and Zhao Zhao could only emit a small, startled sound.
“You’ve never seen him single-handedly cut down the geniuses of the cultivation world, nor lead disciples against the evil yaos’ tribes, pushing them back two thousand kilometers and keeping the Yao and Ghost Realms at bay for five centuries. You’ve never seen him, at three hundred years, break through the twelfth stage of the Grand Primordium Dao (太初道) and ascend as master of the Immortal Realm of Kunwu, with a hundred sects submitting and calling him Dao Lord.”
Shi Lanyan counted off his accomplishments in a single breath, then tilted her head slightly to look at Zhao Zhao, her eyes tinged with curiosity, “And yet, even after marrying him for only two years—years when all his memories were lost, his most wretched two years—did it still cut so deeply?”
Zhao Zhao paused for a moment, then smiled softly. “The things you just listed… I’ve never seen them, but even if I had, that wouldn’t be the reason I fell for him.”
Shi Lanyan’s expression shifted to one of even greater shock.
“Then… what is it that you like about him?”
What did she like about him?
Zhao Zhao thought for a moment. Perhaps it was the first time he appeared before her, his face showed amid the blood; the way he traced her name stroke by stroke by the window; the warmth he gave when he held her cold feet on those winters’ night…
“Maybe I just have a soft spot for men in distress,” Zhao Zhao answered simply.
Shi Lanyan could only shake her head at the girl’s folly. After all, only the strongest, the most handsome, and the highest-ranking man could ever be worthy of her!
As they spoke casually, the Soul Summoning Forest loomed ahead.
“Your Highness, they’ve taken refuge in the Soul Summoning Forest!”
The veiled Wu-Shaman’s fine brows knitted tightly upon hearing the report from the Wu shamans.
Earlier, someone had returned news that Kunwu’s eldest senior disciples were searching for someone, reportedly spies sent by Polaris Confucian Sect to investigate the Blessed Land of Langhuan, led by Shi Lanyan, the sect leader’s daughter.
Combined with the shamans’ observations and her brush-based Confucian Dao techniques, the person overhearing their conversation could only be Shi Lanyan.
Now, with Shi Lanyan and another female cultivator hiding in the Soul Summoning Forest if they managed to delay them long enough, failing to kill their target and unable to retract the spirit gu in time would bring an end to both her and Mount Ling.
The veiled Wu-Shaman’s gaze swept toward the sky, fixing on the approaching Tianshu Star, a chill running through her heart.
The matter of her clan’s annihilation must never reach Dao Lord Tianshu’s ears. Before departing Mount Ling, Wu-Shaman Xian had given no other instructions—save for this one matter, which she had impressed upon with grave solemnity, going over it time and again.
“…At my command?.”
Ten wu-shamans, each controlling spirit gu, stepped forward and waited silently for her command.
The veiled Wu-Shaman lifted her head, eyes locked on the direction of Tianshu Star, and spoke with icy resolve, “Discard the lives of these rogue cultivators and burn the Soul Summoning Forest entirely with Pure Gold Fire (赤金灵火).”
Even if he were to arrive, all he would see were two lifeless corpses.
