novelraw Chapter 58 : Ancestor Red Luan
Chapter 58 : Ancestor Red Luan
Chapter 58: Ancestor Red Luan
“Young Master, Ancestor Red Luan left an oral decree back then: if one encountered a disciple with the Red Luan Calamity Body, they must be brought back to the sect, and they must not have mortal entanglements.”
Xia Lianxue reluctantly rose from Lu Changyuan’s chest.
She helped him put on his clothes, carefully smoothing out the folds as if she were a newlywed wife.
Lu Changyuan asked in confusion: “Were there any other decrees?”
Xia Lianxue shook her head: “No, there weren’t. It was only that Palace Mistress Jade passed this down through the generations—that disciples with the Red Luan Calamity Body must be brought back. The Ancestor also said that the Immortal Palace would face a great calamity in the future, and only the Red Luan Calamity Body could help overcome it.”
That prediction turned out to be true.
Jade Palace had nearly been destroyed in the century of turmoil, and it was Xia Lianxue who shouldered the burden of the entire palace.
All of this was because after Xia Lianxue fought with Feng Xianlong, Feng Xianlong had told her so.
“But the Palace Mistress also wasn’t too sure of the reason. Perhaps after too many generations, the Ancestor’s true meaning became unclear.”
Lu Changyuan narrowed his eyes slightly.
Ancestor Red Luan of Feather Moon Immortal Palace had lived a very, very long time ago, likely in the same era as Sword Solitary Sun.
If Lu Changyuan remembered correctly, Sword Solitary Sun once wrote that this Ancestor Red Luan had sealed away a great demon, was gravely wounded in the process, and finally passed away in seated meditation.
Beyond that, there were no other records. Too much time had passed, and it was unlikely Jade Palace retained much related information.
Xia Lianxue carefully folded her Wedding Garment, gave it one last longing look, and then placed it into a chest.
The little Immortal Fairy hugging the oversized chest, coupled with her hanging sideburn hairstyle, appeared rather adorable.
“Where does Young Master plan to go next?”
“I must go to the Nether Kingdom.”
Lu Changyuan rubbed the little Immortal Fairy’s head and said: “I plan to go to the Nether Kingdom to examine my own memories.”
Before he could break through the Fifth Realm, he still had to comprehend the Dao once more.
Going to the Nether Kingdom would save him much effort.
Xia Lianxue carried the chest outside the thatched hut.
The sky had already brightened, and in the pale yellow of morning, that small grave mound stood out starkly.
The Immortal Fairy stretched out her hand, and another small pit appeared.
Xia Lianxue buried her chest within it, covered it with soil, clapped her hands, and thus another small grave mound appeared.
She never told anyone what she had felt when she erected a grave for Lu Changyuan, and she had no intention of telling anyone what she felt when she built one for herself.
Lu Changyuan asked: “What are you doing?”
The Immortal Fairy pursed her lips, pointed at Lu Changyuan’s little grave mound, and said: “Your grave mound looked so lonely all by itself, so I made one for myself too. Now they’re a pair.”
What a kindhearted person.
Lu Changyuan chuckled.
“Let’s go, it’s time we head out.”
Xia Lianxue nodded.
She gave her own grave mound one final look before leaving with Lu Changyuan, departing from the little home she had known.
When the two of them came out—
A torrential downpour had begun.
A storm unlike autumn rains swept over the entire mountain of Jade Palace.
Suddenly Xia Lianxue asked: “If one day I am no longer by Young Master’s side, would Young Master still remember me?”
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
Lu Changyuan sensed that something was amiss, but before he could ask further, Xia Lianxue was cut off.
That ink-black rain made Lu Changyuan feel extremely uncomfortable, as though it contained demonic qi—yet something was different.
A figure of water and ink appeared before them.
Thunder boomed overhead, and a sword split apart the curtain of rain—though only for an instant, before the rain continued to pour down relentlessly.
That sword strike, Lu Changyuan recognized.
It belonged to the natural-born Sword Body, the one who had almost become his disciple.
Lu Changyuan withdrew his gaze, frowning at the ink figure: “Xian Qingqiu?”
He had long known that Xian Qingqiu was close to falling into demonic ways, but he hadn’t expected the outbreak to come now.
Xian Qingqiu screamed, raising her spear to stab at them, muttering under her breath: “Why… why is your fortune so good?”
Since Xia Lianxue’s Dao realm was unstable, Lu Changyuan raised Severed
Thought.
With one flash, Xian Qingqiu was cleaved in half at the waist.
But as the ink dispersed and splattered onto the ground, more and more ink-formed versions of Xian Qingqiu arose around them.
Among them, only the heads were Xian Qingqiu’s.
The rest of their bodies were made of water and ink, appearing disturbingly eerie.
“Young Master, something’s wrong.”
Lu Changyuan of course knew it was wrong. He circulated the Supreme Pure-Spirit Forget-Immortal Technique to break through illusions.
Only then did he see it: every raindrop in the sky, and every ink-formed Xian Qingqiu, had faint threads connecting them all, converging in a single place.
“Where is that?”
Following where Lu Changyuan pointed, Xia Lianxue said: “That’s the Scripture Repository, Young Master.”
Lu Changyuan frowned: “Among Jade Palace disciples, who has cultivated the Illusory Moon Dao to the Seventh Realm?”
The little Immortal Fairy thought for a moment: “Young Master, as far as I know, only one person—the Ancestor Red Luan cultivated the Illusory Moon Dao to attain Jade Radiance.”
If Han Ze’s True Moon Dao sought to turn oneself into the moon—eternal and everlasting—then the Illusory Moon Dao was to conjure an illusory moon, which in time would turn falsehood into reality, and forcibly birth a real moon.
What Lu Changyuan sensed with the Supreme Pure-Spirit Forget-Immortal Technique was precisely the aura of the Illusory Moon Dao.
But how could that be?
Did the Illusory Moon Dao still exist in this world?
The rain poured heavier, veiling everything until nothing could be seen clearly.
Yet in Lu Changyuan’s eyes, those scarlet words grew ever clearer.
【Ancestor Red Luan of Feather Moon Immortal Palace had schemed for thousands of years. She had finally waited for the second Red Luan Calamity Body. Before the Heavenly Tribulation descended, she intended to seize and be reborn. This was her second, and final chance.】
The immortal mountain that Xia Lianxue had recently restored with the power of time now seemed to fade.
No.
Everything was fading.
In this torrential rain, all colors were being washed away, leaving behind only pure white.
Green-yellow leaves turned to void-white. Stones and earth gradually vanished.
Xia Lianxue’s pupils contracted sharply. She had experienced this scene before.
What lay before her was exactly like the ink painting she remembered from before regaining her memories—the ink dispersing, everything restarting anew.
“Young Master!”
Lu Changyuan reacted instantly.
He pulled Xia Lianxue into his embrace, holding Severed Thought in reverse before him.
The sky was no longer black or white. From Jade Palace’s Scripture Repository, a landscape painting suddenly grew enormous, blotting out the heavens.
With the dripping ink soaking through, a celestial palace slowly emerged within the painting.
That was Jade Palace.
As Jade Palace was gradually depicted within, countless figures appeared as well.
Before long, even the images of Lu Changyuan and Xia Lianxue slowly manifested.
“Young Master!”
Lu Changyuan said softly: “Don’t be afraid. It’s alright.”
The little Immortal Fairy still had no idea what was happening.
That was only natural.
Who could have imagined that the generations of Palace Mistresses passing down the decree to bring back the Red Luan Calamity Body—was all so that this Ancestor could steal fate and be reborn?
Lu Changyuan wiped away the scarlet words in his eyes.
He embraced the Immortal Fairy’s soft figure, letting her head rest against his chest.
Black and white inverted.
Illusion and reality reversed.
The painting devoured everything.