The Forbidden Path to Immortality

Chapter 281

Qing Yin kept her face blank, just trying to tilt her head back to dodge this way-too-intimate touch. But the second she moved, Li Xun gently pressed his palm against the back of her head and stopped her.

The dark-gold chain gave a few low clinks. Qing Yin struggled to break free from his grip, but hemmed in on all sides, it was no use. Their foreheads stayed pressed together, and with every tremble of her body, they kept rubbing against each other again and again.

Throughout all this, Li Xun stayed silent. But his body was like it was cast from iron: he didn't budge even a fraction.

Little by little, Qingyin stopped struggling. Maybe it had been decades since she'd moved like this; she was breathing in soft, shallow gasps now. That warm breath brushed across Li Xun's face, seeping right into his bloodstream.

His blood boiled in an instant. Deep in his gut, the vicious cravings that the Jade Bixie had kept tightly suppressed roared. Under this sudden surge of power, even the jade groaned like it was on the verge of shattering.

Li Xun reached out with his free hand, settling it on Qing Yin’s waist. Together with the hand cradling the back of her head, he gently pulled her close. A shudder unlike anything before swept through her, and a moan slipped from her lips.

It sounded like pain, like despair, like surrender, and also like… temptation.

Her chest tightened to the breaking point. A harsh breath rushed up her throat, caught against her teeth, and came out as a ragged, choked sound. Li Xun yanked that body he'd been craving into his arms and crushed it tight against him.

“Immortal Master Qing Yin… I'm into you.”

It was a hazy murmur, hollow and dreamlike, as if it had crossed time and melted into a distant past, all the way back to that faraway place of misty peaks, flowing streams, and bamboo groves.

And in the next moment, amid the howl of the freezing wind, he added, “So now…”

Li Xun finally turned his face, letting their chins rest against each other's shoulder. His eyelids drooped as he gazed at the slight rise and fall of Qing Yin’s thin back. He let out a low, throaty chuckle.

“I’m never letting you go.

“Never!”

Qing Yin shuddered again. Li Xun smiled and closed his eyes. “Don’t be afraid.” His voice was soft and coaxing, like he was soothing a child. “You still have a chance. Call someone. Call for help. Who are you going to call?

“Zhong Yin, maybe. He’s all-powerful, capable of anything. Oh, right. Sorry about that. He’s ascended, free of all worldly ties. How about the Jade Wanderer? A real expert too, with influence everywhere. Huh. Almost forgot. His mind’s completely empty now. He’s nothing but a lifeless doll on display.

“So who will you call? Tell me. Who will you call!”

A sudden, gut-wrenching scream tore from him, cutting through the icy stillness of the room. As it faded, it almost sounded like the whine of a lone beast, low and aching, until it finally slipped into silence.

A sudden creak-creak sound broke the silence. The eerie blue light that had been drifting around the room seemed startled. And it quickly pulled back behind the icy walls. The cold that had been building up for so long came surging out through the opening gap, howling as it went.

Light shone in from behind Li Xun. His body blocked it, casting a long, dark shadow that stretched over Qing Yin.

“Master Li,” a woman said from outside the door, “in a half of an hour the water in the ice prison will rise. It isn’t safe to stay. Please come out.”

The woman wasn't Gu Yin. If Li Xun remembered correctly, it should be the eldest among the Five Attendants of Miaohua, the one they called Palace Attendant.

Li Xun ignored her, listening to Qing Yin’s faint, uneven breathing. Only when the Palace Attendant repeated herself did he turn his head and ask quietly, “The water?”

“The ice prison sits above the water source of the North Sea. When the tide rises and falls, some water always seeps in here. Of course, after being filtered through the lower levels of the prison, the water here is very clean. Clean enough to wash anything away.”

The palace attendant stepped aside and made a polite, inviting gesture with her hand.

If Li Xun’s instincts were right, the way she spoke was meant for Qing Yin. The nuance was subtle.

Qing Yin only lowered her head, her hair falling like a curtain that hid her face. She gave no response at all.

Li Xun brushed his fingers through her hair, lifting a few strands. Then he turned away and strode out of the ice chamber without saying another word.

Behind him, the iron door slammed shut with a thunderous crash. Li Xun had no desire to look back. He just kept walking.

The Palace Attendant shifted slightly to the side, one hand still extended in a guiding gesture. That in itself was pure servant behavior. The Five Attendants of Miaohua might carry the word “attendant” in their title, but in all these decades, when had Li Xun ever seen them behave like this?

In that moment, he understood. His standing in the Heart Garden had risen, quietly and without anyone saying a word.

As soon as he stepped out of the underwater corridor, Li Xun drew in a deep breath of the night air of the Heart Garden. The mist and the scent of flowers and trees blended together, quietly settling in his heart.

“Wine doesn’t intoxicate people. People intoxicate themselves. Beauty doesn’t mislead people. People mislead themselves…” he muttered to himself.

A deeper understanding rose in his heart. And because of that, once the words left his lips, it felt as if all the strength in his body flowed out with them.

His large frame seemed to be nothing more than an empty shell. He sank limply down against the railing, then tilted his head back to stare at the stars glittering overhead.

His huge body seemed to have become nothing more than an empty shell. He sank down limply against the railing. Slowly, he tilted his head back, gazing up at the stars twinkling scattered across the sky.

The Palace Attendant said nothing. She stood quietly behind him.

In the hush of the night, Li Xun could clearly hear the thumping of his heart. It carried the dizzy exhilaration of downing fine wine. More like that drained, shaky bliss right after crashing down from an intense orgasm.

But it was only “like” that.

He could not sort out anything more precise. His mind was spilling over with surging pleasure, flowing freely into boundless emptiness. It was as if it could dance among the stars. What did that feel like? He thought about it for a long while before landing on the perfect way to describe it...

The river thundered downstream, slamming into the dikes that had held it in place for a hundred years. It smashed them to pieces, then spilled out across the land. How many houses were swept away, how many fields ruined, how many cities destroyed, how many lives left in misery...

None of that registered with the river. All it knew was that everything holding it back was gone... the dam, the banks, whatever. They meant nothing anymore.

It just charged ahead without a care, crushing anything in its path, spreading without limit, turning everywhere it touched into a vast swamp until it finally tired out, thinned, seeped into the ground, evaporated into the sky. And that was it.

Li Xun's awareness was that river, raging and dancing through endless emptiness. When it stretched far enough, it too would grow weary, grow diffuse, and finally disperse completely.

But just as a breached river doesn't run dry, a mind scattered into the void would mysteriously gather again, like underground streams converging or vapor rising into clouds to rain down, completing a perfect cycle between heaven and earth.

Yet just as a river does not dry up because its banks collapse, the awareness that scattered into the void would, in some subtle and mysterious way, gather again. Like hidden underground streams converging, like clouds rising and falling as rain, it formed a perfect cycle between heaven and earth.

In this state, Li Xun needed to care about only one thing. How far his awareness could reach, and to explore, to the utmost, the nameless mysteries of this vast emptiness that belonged to him alone.

Everything else was no longer his concern.

Li Xun didn't dare claim this was true "freedom," but his heart was pounding like never before, smashing through one shackle after another. It felt like a wild beast finally loose on the open plains, roaring at the top of its lungs, flooding the whole damn world with raw, unstoppable energy.

This was a real breakthrough. Li Xun understood it with absolute clarity. The bottleneck that had loomed over him for nearly ten years had just been smashed apart.

From this moment on, Li Xun had become one of the elite cultivators of this world. He finally wielded power worthy of his status.

For now, at least, he feared nothing.

He closed his eyes, and the awareness he’d recklessly scattered into the void slowly began to return, bit by bit. A light breeze brushed across the lake, cool and soothing. Before long, the soft, winding notes of a flute drifted in on the wind, making Li Xun open his eyes again and look toward something far off in the distance.

“Is that Jade Wanderer?”

“Yes, it's Master Jade.”

Li Xun glanced over his shoulder in mild surprise. The Palace Attendant still used the honorific when speaking of Jade Wanderer.

This beauty, the leader of the Five Attendants of Miaohua, was gorgeous. Dressed in a bright yellow gown embroidered with phoenix patterns, she radiated elegance and nobility. There wasn't the slightest hint of a concubine’s or maid’s submissiveness about her, which made anyone think twice before trying to underestimate her.

Li Xun could tell that she had noticed his recent breakthrough. But when their eyes met, she showed no sign of surprise, as if everything that had just happened were perfectly natural. The feeling left Li Xun a little disappointed, but also oddly at ease. All at once, he found himself wanting to talk with her.

“Madam Palace...” Using this somewhat awkward and unofficial title, Li Xun gently opened the conversation. “There’s something I’ve never quite understood. I wonder if you might be willing to clear it up for me?”

A flicker passed through her eyes before she lowered her gaze again. “What is it, Daoist Li?” she said calmly.

Li Xun did not let her politeness go to his head. He kept his tone mild and his manner humble.

“I suppose you could say I’ve at least set one foot in the Heart Garden. I imagine the Sect Master has certain expectations.. But I’m still pretty confused about the changes happening here, which could make things difficult down the line. I’d like to ask you, Madam, to help me understand what’s really going on in Heart Garden, so I can plan for the future.”