novelraw Chapter 49 : The Story of a Young Girl
Chapter 49 : The Story of a Young Girl
Chapter 49: The Story of a Young Girl
Great Wei, Huangqi Town.
This mortal town was unusually lively today. It was said that an immortal from an Immortal
Mountain had arrived, intending to take in a gifted disciple.
And it was the daughter of the Xia family who had received this immortal fate.
In a small courtyard, beneath a verdant Luohan Pine, a white-robed immortal looked at the young girl before him and sighed: “Mortals suffer the cycle of life and death, while immortals endure through the ages. With your natural endowment, stepping onto the immortal path is what you were meant for.”
The girl was eighteen this year, just at the age of marriage.
Some days earlier, she had already been betrothed, and preparations for the wedding were underway.
Never did she expect that an immortal master passing through would notice her superior aptitude and wish to take her into the palace for cultivation.
This immortal was from the Feather Moon Immortal Palace, an immortal among immortals.
If an ordinary person had been granted such a fate, they would have been overjoyed. Yet the girl did not wish to cultivate.
To her, eternal life paled in comparison to being with the one she loved.
But the Palace Mistress had already issued a strict command: this precious girl must be brought back and carefully nurtured.
This girl had great karmic ties with the Immortal Palace.
The immortal was fretting over how to persuade her when unexpectedly, the girl changed her mind that very day.
The immortal was overjoyed.
Though she was somewhat older, her talent was too exceptional—so long as she was carefully trained, she still had the chance to reach the pinnacle one day.
The girl stepped before the immortal: “Immortal Master, if I succeed in cultivation, can I bring my family along with me to cultivate as well?”
The immortal readily agreed: “Of course you may.”
“And if I cultivate, may I still marry?”
“Certainly. With your talent, even if you married several people, it would not matter.”
The girl shook her head. “I already have a betrothed, and I will only marry him. He wants me to follow you to cultivate, and I listen to him. So I will go.”
She added: “But may I not bring him to cultivate as well?”
The immortal smiled bitterly: “Our Feather Moon Immortal Palace accepts only women. If you bring a man...”
Then she suddenly thought of another persuasion: “Now you have not yet entered the Immortal Dao. If your fiancé were to be charmed by another disciple, what would you do then?”
If a lone man suddenly appeared in a nation of women, what would become of him?
The girl thought it through. She did not mind her fiancé taking concubines—she had even considered it before—as compensation for him. But those concubines must be under her control, must be the ones to serve her tea.
So she decided: once her cultivation succeeded, she would bring him into the sect.
That way, even if he strayed, he would never be able to cast her aside.
The immortal did not take her words seriously.
Too many had severed mortal ties; once they glimpsed the glory of the immortal path, they forgot the affairs of the mortal world.
Between immortals and mortals lay an insurmountable gulf.
Once the girl entered the Immortal Palace, the immortal would find seven or eight beautiful mortal women and secretly send them into her fiancé’s room at night.
If they ensured his wealth and glory, it would not be long before he succumbed to indulgence and corruption, and naturally, he would forget the girl.
Feather Moon Immortal Palace had done this many times.
It was always that simple.
But this time, both were stubborn as donkeys.
Stubborn to an astonishing degree!
The women secretly sent to the fiancé’s room were of all shapes and beauties, but the young man punched each one and threw them out the door.
That night, the group of women, faces bruised, wept as they knelt before the immortal to complain.
The immortal was left troubled.
She was baffled.
She began to suspect the young man did not like women.
But even if he would not marry, could he not at least taste once? She had never seen such a one before.
Especially when that youth looked at her—his gaze calm as the moon upon a lake—it seemed he possessed more immortal aura than she did herself.
The girl was even more unbelievable.
After she entered the Immortal Palace, a grand initiation ceremony was held.
She became the Palace Mistress’s final disciple.
The final disciple of Jade Radiance of the Seventh Realm! How many people envied such an immortal fate.
Palace Mistress Feng Xianlong personally guided the girl onto the immortal path, then confined her within a cave dwelling, declaring she could not leave unless she reached the Fifth Realm within three years.
And indeed, she truly reached the Fifth Realm in three years.
What kind of monster was this?
Days before she broke through the barrier into the Fifth Realm, Palace Mistress Feng Xianlong summoned the immortal who had first brought her into the sect to the grand hall.
In the white jade hall, Feng Xianlong sat high above the Nine Heavens and said: “Tang’er must never be allowed to see her fiancé.”
The immortal was puzzled and asked why.
Though the palace severed mortal ties, it was not absolute.
Would disciples nurtured this way have any loyalty to the sect?
So, if a disciple who had severed ties still insisted on returning to them, the palace would not stop her.
Most, upon seeing their mortal husbands with new wives, would lose their attachments.
In fact, True Person Han Yi had come to resent True Person Hanshui precisely because her husband had taken a new wife.
Only the rarest of few—like this girl—either did not mind their husbands’ concubines, or had fiancés as steadfast as that youth, rejecting new wives.
Only then could such ties resume.
Two such stubborn ones appearing at once—it was the first time the immortal had encountered it.
All the immortals thought the girl would soon bring her fiancé into the palace.
None expected it would be the Palace Mistress herself who stopped it.
“Tang’er bears the Red Luan Calamity Body. She must not come into contact with men. Moreover, that youth... is far too unusual.”
It was the first time the immortal had seen such an expression on the Palace Mistress’s face, as if gazing into a far-off future.
She heard her say: “That youth is far too heartless.”
“Palace Mistress, then what should be done?”
“Han Lian’s illusion techniques are well cultivated. Have her weave a future for Tang’er. And summon her father as well—he will agree.”
“But if we do this, will she not resent us?”
The immortal meant the girl.
The voice echoed through the great hall: “If she must resent, let her resent me alone. She bears the Dao of Ancestor Red Luan, and that is her fate.”
When the girl finally emerged from seclusion,what she heard was: “You mean him? He died of illness a few months ago. His grave? Couldn’t be found.”
“The little doctor said he would wait three years for the little girl, and marry her after three years.”
The immortal fairy buried herself in Lu Changyuan’s arms: “But during the three years before entering the palace, the little girl was confined to her cave dwelling. Unless she broke through to the Fifth Realm, she could not come out. To fulfill her promise to the little doctor, she cultivated day and night, and finally succeeded. But when she returned to her hometown, she found only a handful of yellow earth. Someone told her the little doctor had died of illness.”
Three years, five realms.
How much suffering must that have taken?
Yet when the suffering ended, she found that the goal she had worked so hard for was already gone.
What kind of grief must that be?
Lu Changyuan silently gazed at Xia Lianxue.
After a long pause, Lu Changyuan said: “The Immortal Palace deceived her.”
Xia Lianxue sorrowfully said: “Yes, the Immortal Palace rebuilt an identical town, just to deceive the little girl. Her little doctor was dead.”
When Palace Mistress Jade returned to her hometown from the Fifth Realm, the small pharmacy was already gone. Her father himself told her that the little doctor had died of illness.
Lu Changyuan softly asked: “And then?”
“Thirty years later, the Immortal Palace told her that her father had passed away. Only then did the little girl finally learn the truth. She returned to her true hometown, but by then, the little doctor had truly died.”
Yet the story did not end there.
The little girl had wanted to save her fiancé.
Thus, with the Red Luan Calamity Body, she forcefully comprehended the Dao of Time.
For thirty years, she endured the torment of breaking through the Dao each day until she finally stepped into the Dao of Time.
But the day she succeeded, she realized her enlightenment had all been a lie.
She had been deceived.
She hurried back to her hometown to see her fiancé, only to find all had changed.
Her father had died. Her fiancé had also died.
Daoist Chang’an had waited thirty years.
At last, he erected an empty grave for himself and left his homeland.
When she returned after thirty-three years, she had missed him—by just that much.