Chapter 94: The Dao-Transmission Jade Slip

On the fifteenth day of the second month, the Flower Festival Grand Gathering was in full bloom.

Beneath the night sky, lanterns had already been hung along the bluestone avenue of Beiya Mountain City.

Ordinary folk climbed bamboo ladders onto vine bridges to decorate the lanterns with flowers and leaves, while cultivators gathered fireflies and let them vanish into the candle cores.

A soft azure glow shrouded the entire long street.

The Flower Festival Grand Gathering unfolded as scheduled, calm and undisturbed.

Song Yan and Yan Xun were seated at a roadside tavern, chatting.

"So lively..." Song Yan said with a sigh. "There is merit in peace, and there is wonder in bustle."

"This trip to your Beiya Mountain has truly broadened my horizons."

He looked out at the street scene beyond the window.

Fine flower petals drifted on the wind and scattered into the crowd, provoking peals of laughter from the young village girls carrying baskets as they chased after them.

Yan Xun took a sip of the spirit wine on the table and smiled with visible pride. "If Brother Yan ever feels inclined in the future, you're welcome to come anytime..."

By now the two had grown quite familiar with each other, and their speech no longer carried such formality.

The flask of green-plum spirit brew on the table had been brought from Yan Xun's own home.

Yesterday's matter had already been settled for the most part.

To avoid affecting today's grand gathering, Liang Feng had been temporarily detained, and Song Yan had returned the Moonbearing Lotus Seed to its rightful owner, handing it over to Senior Cong Yuzhen for disposal.

The others only assumed that the senior had foreseen everything all along, and none of them asked further questions.

When facing Cong Yuzhen, Song Yan only said that at the time he had not wished to see the situation remain deadlocked and let the demonic cultivator escape. So, like a dead horse treated as though it might yet live, he had produced a precious spirit seed he had once obtained by chance, then used a few illusion techniques to disguise it as the Moonbearing Lotus Seed.

And because the other party was not familiar with the lotus seed's properties, the crisis had been broken by sheer luck.

He had not expected Cong Yuzhen to ask so little about it.

She seemed to have no interest whatsoever in pursuing the details of the lie he had woven, or the so-called precious spirit seed within it.

Could it be that even such a rare Moonbearing Lotus Seed was not worthy of her notice?

That should not have been the case...

It left Song Yan with a strange, absurd feeling, as though he had been making too much of a fuss over nothing.

Cong Yuzhen's attitude toward the Moonbearing Lotus Seed had dulled much of the exhilaration he had first felt at having obtained a treasure.

Haa...

He drew back from his jumbled thoughts and lifted a porcelain cup for a sip of flower tea.

He did not drink alcohol.

Xiao He said that whenever he drank, he became terribly "stinky," and then she would refuse to stay on him.

From the long street outside the window came a sudden burst of reed pipes and flutes.

Three or five mortal musicians passed by, followed by children bouncing along behind them.

In the square, several cultivators from Linghua Valley were teaching Li Qingfeng and the others how to fold flower boats from talisman paper.

By the stream beneath the bridge, countless paper boats bearing candlelight drifted along the watercourse toward the deep valley.

Song Yan asked, "By the way, there is a Sun Family Market on this side of Beiya Mountain, isn't there? Where exactly is that?"

He had suddenly remembered that during the New Year, Old Shao had once mentioned that his hometown was also in Beiya Mountain. What a coincidence.

Yan Xun frowned and thought about it, though his expression was a little strange.

"Sun Family Market? Who told you that?"

"Oh, a senior brother from the sect."

"......"

He seemed to think so hard it hurt. At last he answered, as though only then certain: "There isn't one."

"You're talking nonsense. There is no such place in Beiya Mountain."

Song Yan raised a brow. "There isn't?"

"Absolutely not. Where would this Sun Family Market even come from?"

Yan Xun did not seem to have a very high tolerance for alcohol. He had drunk the spirit wine without using spiritual power to dispel the effects, and by now he was a little tipsy.

"Brother Yan, I'm not bragging to you."

"I've lived in Beiya Mountain for how many years? I grew up here from childhood..."

"Not to mention Beiya Mountain City. Even farther out, within all of Beiya Mountain's territory, there is no Sun Family Market."

"There aren't many people surnamed Sun here to begin with, and the few that do exist all came from Linzhou."

"Your senior brother must have remembered wrong."

Song Yan nodded without speaking, as though he had no intention of digging any deeper.

"Brother Yan, come take a stroll through the clan grounds tomorrow. I'll show you our Swordforge Manor."

Earlier that day, Song Yan had casually mentioned the idea of paying a visit.

He had not expected Yan Xun to take it so seriously, bringing wine from home and even informing his elders in advance.

What Song Yan had not expected was that, despite his appearance, Yan Xun was in fact the fifth son of the Yan clan of some renown in this generation.

"All right, then I shall trouble you."

"No trouble at all."

Soon, the auspicious hour arrived.

Inside the mountain city, all the mortals and cultivators began to flow slowly toward Linghua Valley.

The rest of the festival's activities could be skipped, but the ancient-tree prayer was one they truly had to join in.

Within Linghua Valley, by the edge of Lakeview.

Beneath the Spirit Peach Ancient Tree, layers upon layers of peach petals rustled in the night breeze.

The area beneath the tree was already packed with a bustling crowd.

Cultivators' dao robes mingled with the coarse linen garments of common folk.

A number of tables had been set up beneath the tree, each with flower note cards laid out for people to write upon.

As one drew near, the fragrance of ink blended with the distinctive cool floral scent of the mountain city.

As soon as Yan Xun entered the valley, he went off to look for his Sister Duo'er.

"Senior Brother Song!"

Gu Qingqing held a spirit-recording pearl in her hands and waved to Song Yan from afar. Li Qingfeng and Sheng Yun stood beside her.

That detestable Cheng Yu was nowhere to be seen.

One was to write one's wish upon a flower note card, place it inside a small jade token, and hang it upon the ancient tree.

"What did you write?" Song Yan and Xiao He craned their necks, trying to peek at everyone else's wishes.

"Hey, hey, hey..." Li Qingfeng raised a hand to stop him. "If other people know about that sort of thing, how could it still come true?"

"Exactly."

"Fine, fine..."

They made it sound so serious.

Song Yan picked up a flower note card and asked casually, "Xiao He, are you writing one?"

Xiao He stared at him with wide eyes. "How would I know how to write?"

"Oh..."

Strange as it was, Xiao He could recognize characters but could not write them.

Song Yan picked up the brush and did not hesitate for long.

He wrote swiftly, then folded it away at once, not letting the others get a peek.

Several wandering cultivators under the tree were helping the mortals hang their jade tokens.

A small child with a red ribbon in his hair stood on tiptoe and handed the flower note card covered in crooked writing to the young cultivator beside him.

"Mister immortal, please tie it up higher for my mother!"

"All right!"

The cultivator patted the child's little head, and a wisp of azure wind condensed at his fingertip. The note card floated gently toward the treetop.

It was hung beside his own jade token.

Song Yan stood at the very back of the crowd with his arms folded, quietly admiring the strange and beautiful scene beneath the night.

His own had already been hung.

"......"

Suddenly, without his noticing, a pair of hands came to rest on his shoulders.

He turned sharply.

It was Sheng Nian, wearing a bamboo hat and putting on a mysterious air.

"You startled me."

"Shh..."

Song Yan simply sent him a telepathic message. "You demonic cultivator, what are you doing here? Aren't you afraid Senior Cong will cut you down with a single sword strike?"

"How ungrateful..." Sheng Nian gazed at Sheng Yun's back in the crowd, his eyes full of tenderness. "I did come specifically to see A-Yun, but I also brought something for you."

"?"

A jade slip was tossed casually over. Song Yan caught it steadily.

"What is it?"

"A technique I happened to get by chance. Just by the name, you can tell it was cultivated by you righteous-path cultivators who care so much for appearances. I'm not interested."

Song Yan muttered under his breath, "Since when did I become a righteous-path cultivator..."

At the same time, he opened the jade slip.

"Great Radiant Dharma Form of the Pure Serenity Heaven?"

That technique sounded...

indeed a little too righteous for comfort.

Originally, these two chapters were meant to be posted together as well, but for some reason the scheduled upload did not take effect...

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