CBGC - ch121.1
Added 2023-07-20 01:58:29 +0000 UTC1/2
Chapter 121: Coming Home
Big Bai carries Su Tingyun, Li Xinmei, and the golden carp— towards the road on the right.
It is a path made of bluestones, with little flowers on both sides that they can’t recognize. Looking further out, it's pitch black as if the entire Immortal Palace has been swallowed by darkness, and only this road is illuminated.
After walking for a while, Su Tingyun sees a crooked-necked tree ahead, with a large red lantern hanging from it.
Under normal circumstances, it would be somewhat eerie to come across a red lantern in such a scene. However, Su Tingyun feels a strange sentiment at this moment, like a traveler returning home late at night and her family has lit a guiding lantern for her.
It is also like the anticipation of a lover, waiting for a beloved to return late.
The warm orange light inside the lantern makes Su Tingyun's eyes slightly moist, and Li Xinmei and Big Bai also seemed excited.
Big Bai's entire body turns pink, and it even lets out two consecutive chirps.
Su Tingyun softly scolds, bringing Xiao Mei back to her senses. She asked Xiao Mei, "Are there any formations nearby?"
Xiao Mei shakes her head. "I don’t see any. It's just that at the end of the road, it feels like someone is waiting for me. Looking at that lantern, it feels warm and familiar."
Everyone has the same feeling.
As they move forward, they feel a sense of danger. But when Su Tingyun turns back, she realizes that everything behind them is pitch black, and the path they had come from has completely disappeared.
She becomes nervous upon realizing this and informs Big Bai. Big Bai also panics and tries to roll back, but it feels as if it’s colliding against a wall. Despite its cultivation reaching the Tribulation Transcendent stage, it can’t move the barrier even a bit.
In other words, they have no way back. They can only continue moving forward.
If even Big Bai at the Tribulation Transcendent stage can’t break the barrier, Su Tingyun feels that she can’t rely on Big Bai's protection anymore. She steps out from Big Bai's body and uses her spiritual energy to create a protective barrier around herself and Big Bai. With the Springwater Sword in her hand, she slowly moves forward one step at a time.
Before long, Su Tingyun arrives under the lantern. She can’t make out the material of the lantern, but the core burning inside is made of Kunlun Divine Tree. The flame, is it the Heavenly Fire?
The Heavenly Fire within her body dances, causing the flame inside the lantern to sway along. In other words, the fire inside the lantern is the same flame from the Heavenly Fire she has tamed before. Because it’s burning the branches of the Divine Tree, it’s never gone out while sealed within the lantern.
Her Heavenly Fire originated from the Immortal Palace.
The Kunlun Divine Tree supports the Immortal Palace. Seeing this lantern and feeling the warm light that feels like returning home, Su Tingyun is suddenly less nervous.
Perhaps, things aren’t as bad as she had imagined?
And could it be that her ring suddenly burned and caused her pain because it wants to return home? Or rather, is the ring’s true master within this Immortal Palace?
Su Tingyun has never communicated with the ring before. In theory, considering its formidable power, it is highly likely to possess intelligence. However, the ring has never responded to Su Tingyun, even now that it has attached itself to her spiritual body. At this moment, Su Tingyun gently touches the ring, "Do you want to go home?"
There’s still no response, but Su Tingyun isn’t disappointed. She looks ahead at the pitch-black path that her divine sense can’t penetrate, not even a bit. She glances up at the lantern hanging from the bamboo pole, which is fixed into the tree trunk. Su Tingyun takes the lantern down and holds it in her hand, illuminating the way ahead.
To her surprise, as she looks, she finds herself standing just one meter away from a cliff.
How could there be a cliff in the Immortal Palace? Su Tingyun doesn’t want to dwell on such perplexing matters. She notices a narrow walkway on the left side of the mountain, only about a zhang wide. It is the only path available.
The path winds around the mountain, with an abyss thousands of meters deep below. The chilling wind blows, making eerie sounds like the cries of ghosts and howls of wolves, sending shivers down her spine. The path is so narrow that Su Tingyun doesn’t dare let Big Bai jump on its own. She is afraid that it might accidentally leap off the cliff. She doesn’t know what dangers lay beneath the cliff, but if it’s anything like the Sealed Heaven Border, falling down would be disastrous.
For safety's sake, Su Tingyun casually plucks a leaf from a tree and throws it outward, over the cliff. At the same time, she uses her spiritual energy to support the green leaf, testing if the spiritual energy could traverse the air. But to her surprise, the leaf quickly falls, and the spiritual energy she had exerted abruptly vanishes at the edge of the cliff, as if it had been sucked away in an instant.
Indeed, she can’t use spiritual energy. Su Tingyun has to slowly make her way across.
And so, Su Tingyun makes Big Bai shrink even smaller, and keep hanging around her neck. But at this moment, Big Bai, with its mischievous nature, decides to reveal the colors of the golden carp. As a result, the pearl on Su Tingyun's neck acquires a beautiful and dazzling golden hue. She doesn’t have much jewelry on her, but this small adornment makes her collarbones appear even fairer, emitting a jade-like brilliance, and it’s like the whole person turns more radiant.
Su Tingyun holds the lantern carefully and moves forward one step at a time, clinging to the mountain wall. With a slight slip, a stone falls into the abyss, and not even a sound could be heard. She inches forward, closely pressed against the mountain wall.
After walking for a while longer, Su Tingyun comes across an open space. She carefully steps over, and when she reaches the flat ground, she breathes a sigh of relief.
But once she’s there, she sees a sea of flowers.
She doesn’t recognize these flowers. The leaves are slender and pointed at the tips, resembling swords. At first glance, they look remarkably similar to her Springwater Sword.
If she were to throw the Springwater Sword in there, she would have a hard time finding it without using her divine sense.
The flowers are in clusters, resembling bells, and they come in various colors.
With a gust of wind, there’s indeed the clear, crisp sound of bells. The sound is like a folk song that someone had purposely composed, and listening to it is especially soothing. Su Tingyun can’t help but hum along.
That voice, that beckoning voice, grows louder.